I LOVE to dance.  I mean LOVE.  Most of my life pre-law school was devoted to it.  So you'd think I'd look for a boyfriend who loves to dance.  Perry has been resistant though.  I've been trying virtually since we started dating to get him to take lessons of some kind with me (salsa, swing, anything).  I pointed out that his parents were even taking swing lessons, his response being "Yes, and it took my mother 35 years to talk my dad into it."  I decided "trying to talk him into it" wasn't going to work and it was time to use some self-help.  A couple of weekends ago a couple he works with invited us to a salsa club, and I made him go (translation: pouted and whined till he gave in.  I never said it was pretty!)  Neither one of us knew what we were doing, so we just made stuff up. He seemed to have a good time despite himself (I love it when I'm right!). I realized that Perry actually has some rhythm and had, until that point, successfully been hiding it from me.  So I upped the ante.  This past weekend, I made him take a two-step lesson.  (I informed him we were going and didn't give him a choice   That's the method that seems to work best with boys.)  Turns out he really can dance.  His secret's out and now he can't get out of going dancing with me. He was actually a little better than me.  The steps in country dances repeat every 3 or 6 counts, but the music goes in 8-counts, so it doesn't match up and drives me crazy.  Perry is perfectly able to stay on beat with the dance step because he doesn't hear the 8-counts in the music.  But I'm constantly getting off beat because everytime the one-count rolls around in the music, you're in a totally different place in the dance step.  So I admit that everytime he stepped on my foot (even the one resulting in blood) it was entirely my fault, not just because it didn't occur to me to wear closed-toed shoes to a dance lesson.  My friend Dawn didn't fare as well.  Her boyfriend is a foot taller than she it and takes much larger steps.  I think she lost a toenail. 

I sat down to write about my most annoying set of pet peeves, but then I realized that there's one that, if not above, is at least equal.  So let me get that one out of the way and then I'll move on to my actual point:

I do not want to watch you cling to the treadmill for dear life, dripping literally buckets of sweat all over the machine and then leaving without wiping it off!  That's disgusting!  It seriously makes me value you less as a human being because there's obviously an earlier evolutionary model hiding out somewhere that produced you.

Now I'll move on.  Life is a delicate act of balancing the many people in your life.  In between your significant other, who rightly deserves most of your energy/attention and the 4.9999 billion people on earth you don't know, there's a lot of people to deal with.  If there is one thing that just really drives me crazy, it's people who come across as wishy-washy or undependable.  Though it's probably just a slight personality flaw (and lord knows I have plenty of them myself), it often has the practical effect of making someone feel that you don't value their friendship very highly.  Though I realize that we (sadly) no longer live in the era of calling cards, vacuuming in heels, and never leaving the house without hat and gloves, there are some things one just shouldn't do:

1) Don't make plans and cancel at the last minute.  Certainly, unavoidable things come up occasionally, but don't waste the day instead of doing what you were supposed to do, then call an hour before to cancel.

2) If you say you're going to call, do it.  Especially if it's regarding tentative plans that need to be either confirmed or cancelled.  Not calling is not an acceptable way to cancel.

Manners are not about how many forks you should have on the table or when it's acceptable to wear what.  Manners are about treating people with respect and making them feel comfortable.

I would like to damn: Constitutional Law, my Constitutional Law outline, the people who wrote the Constitution, and the Supreme Court.  You might think I would just damn my Con Law professor, but I feel that a much broader solution is called for here.  I have literally had nightmares (that's plural) over this class and the upcoming midterm.  Last night, it involved my two study partners telling me that they understood it just fine and I must be really stupid. 

In the midst of this misery, I just had to spend 20 minutes putting the "H" key back on my computer.  It's a very complicated maneuver involving 3 tiny pieces of plastic, made more difficult by my caffeinated and jittery hands.  You don't realize how important the innocuous "H" is until you don't have it.  I've used it 28 times already in this (29) post--not to mention my very own last name. 

1) Whoever designed that car alarm that has several cycling siren sounds must have been a musician.  Each siren sounds for exactly 8 beats.  No one does things in 8s unless they're a musician.  In true obsessive compulsive fashion, every time a car alarm goes off I find myself unable to continue what I was doing until I mentally count to 8 for each siren until the damn things finally turns off.

2) Come on, do you really need an alarm on your 5-year-old Neon?  I've seen 2 of these recently.  One was in my apartment parking lot.  I was walking to get my mail, and the alarm went off.  I looked over to see some guy sitting in the car.  I kept walking (mentally counting to 8), got my mail, and returned.  It was still going off as I entered my apartment.  I think it says something about the utility of car alarms that instead of being the slightest bit concerned that this car was being stolen, I walked by thinking how silly it was that this old car had an alarm in the first place (and counting to 8).

"On Monday, McClellan faced a combative press corps asking why the delay in disclosure took place and asking why it was announced by a private citizen rather than the White House or Cheney's office."

Combative?? WHY does anyone care how long it took to publicly announce that Cheney accidentally shot someone?  How is that news?  Why is it important? It had nothing to do with his role as a public official.  He was out quail hunting with friends.  What's next?  Newsflash: President and Mrs. Bush have argument over who forgot to put the lid on the toothpaste!

I could give the press corps a few things they should be getting combative over, and Cheney accidentally shooting up someone with bird shot isn't one of them.

Every 35 seconds a child is confirmed as abused or neglected. 18% of American children live in poverty. But what we as a society are really concerned about is Britney Spears driving with her baby in her lap?

I think my thoughts on this subject are best summed up by a statement from Professor John Teeter, God of Torts (who was not actually talking about Britney): "In Artesia, NM in the 60s it made you a great parent to let your toddler sit on your lap and help drive because you were including him in a family activity!"

Lots of new shoe pics up!*  I had a lot of trouble getting these posted, so please let me know if you find any broken links or links to wrong pictures. 

*My usual "I'm not spending too much money" note to my Daddy: I didn't buy all these, they are shoes I already had and just hadn't posted pictures of yet :)

I've been feeling really bad about the political riots that happened on my blog, which is why I haven't posted.  I just haven't been in the mood.

But then I realized, I'm not the one who needs to feel bad.  I do feel awful about making people feel bad, but I won't apologize for my opinions because I didn't say anything wrong.  I think racism and discrimination are intolerable.  But I am NOT a bad person because my opinion on how to fix it is different from yours.  How ironic that the very people preaching tolerance, diversity, and political correctness are the first to easily dismiss someone whose views are different.  If people who've known me for years can dismiss me as a person and as a friend because I have a different political opinion, then I'm not the one causing the problem, especially when I make an attempt to reach out and fix it and am rebuffed.