The appendix is a stupid, useless organ. I curse its existence. An organ that serves no purpose in the human body has no business mucking up the finest, most hope-filled seasons the Chiefs have had in years.

I hope Jamaal Charles and Dwayne Bowe have theirs removed during the off-season, just to be on the safe side.


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Ok, I'm ready for spring.  Somehow, once it gets dark outside, I just can't seem to do anything but sit on my couch.  So now that it's dark by the time I get home, I can't do anything productive, like wash dishes, go Christmas shopping, walk my dog, do laundry.  Even reading is difficult.  It's just too easy to huddle on the couch under a pile of blankets.  Because my stupid house is old and not properly insulated, any activity or project that can't be done while wrapped in or sitting under a blanket isn't going to happen.

Plus, when it's dark and cold, it just becomes that much easier to give into the blues.  I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a tendency to be a little blue anyway.  

And so that leads me to sitting on my couch right now at 7 p.m. feeling blue and pondering how long do I have to wait before I can go to bed.  I'd kind of like to stay in bed until we get back to the days when sunset isn't before 7.  But I can't really do that, now can I?  And it's not even winter yet.  Blerg.

On the plus side, there's an adorable pup curled up on my lap (which makes using a laptop a bit tricky).  She seems to think hunkering down on the couch all evening is perfectly acceptable.

Monday evening quarterbacking (and, no, this post is not about the Chiefs)

Here in Kansas, the state supreme court broadcasts its oral arguments over the internet.  I think that's great.  When I have argument, friends and family from far away can spend 15 minutes learning a little about what I do.  When I don't have argument (and it's been a while for me), I can still feel connected to the court, its hot issues, and its trends by listening.  I have definitely used ideas I picked up from oral arguments in my own issues.  Plus, I'm just a bit of a court junkie, so I like listening.

From the safety of my office, in my jeans and holding my latte in my hands, I can just listen without the pressure of actually standing at the podium.  I try to be mindful of that and not express criticism of my fellow appellate advocates' performances.  And usually I don't have much to criticize, anyway.  (Well, unless the advocate is a prosecutor.)  The people in my office are god's gift to appellate practice.  And many of the civil attorneys have been there before.  But there is one thing that I will scream at any attorney presenting oral argument without feeling the slightest twinge of guilt that I'm speaking from my comfy ivory tower where I've had lots of time to think about it.  It's usually aimed at the trial attorneys who are used to a more casual argument with trial courts.

It is this: DON'T INTERRUPT THE JUDGES!  Let them finish their questions.  No matter how much you might disagree with an underlying presumption or want to correct a misunderstanding of a fact.  I don't care if you've anticipated this exact question and have already formulated the perfect, home-run, knock their socks off, dead-bang winner of an answer.  Don't interrupt the judges!  Really.

Jason Mraz just might be the coolest guy on earth

Mr. Mraz, best known for his songs "I'm Yours" and "The Remedy", called KU on Thursday and said, "Hey, I'd like to put on a little show at your student union on Friday evening.  But don't tell anyone, 'kay?"  To which KU replied, "'Kay."

So this famous singer-songwriter with a huge hit on his resume (truly "I'm Yours" is a great song and one of my favorites, it's just so happy) just walks into the KU student union around 6 pm and starts playing.  A 2 hour show.  But only for those lucky few who happened to be there or who got texts from a friend who happened to be there.  Sadly, I don't have any friends who just happened to be there, so I missed it.  (The disadvantage of being a 30-something professional: I don't have friends hanging around the student union.)

Life is messy

Every once in a while, it occurs to me that a particular item of mine is lost in the black-hole-to-me that is his house.  The football pants that I once bought for a Halloween costume I don't really care about (especially now that I've decided "Hot chick in a slinky black dress" will be my go-to costume).  The cheap bottle of lotion couldn't matter less.

But the dress.  I can't believe I forgot about that dress.  I didn't exactly forget, though.  I knew that there had been 3 dresses at his house at one point.  I remember looking in my closet soon after the break-up and being reassured when I saw that one of the dresses was in my closet.  I thought they had all 3 traveled in a pack.  But they didn't.  And a thorough review of my closet this morning confirmed that the Ann Taylor dress, the sweet little floral sheath that is really only useful for summer weddings since my friends aren't the English garden party types, is not there.  Because it's still at his house from the time I wore it to his cousin's wedding.

It would be really nice if I came home from work someday soon and found that dress in a plastic bag on my carport, but I suspect I will never see it again.  Too bad because I think it would look awesome on my new, svelter frame.

Can I tell you how I really feel about John McCain?

Every time I think I couldn't dislike John McCain any more than I already do, he opens his mouth.  And these days, all he seems to open his mouth about is Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT).  From all he has said, it is now clear that the distinguished senator just flat doesn't like those icky, nasty gays and doesn't want them serving in his precious military.  First, he said he would support repeal of DADT when military leaders said it was ok.  Apparently that doesn't include the Defense Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who have both supported repeal.  Then he said he would support repeal if a survey was conducted of service members that would determine what effect repeal would have on morale and readiness.  That survey has been done, shows the vast majority of respondents think repeal would have no detrimental effects and yet the distinguished senator still is not satisfied.  Because it wasn't the right kind of study.  And it's flawed.  And there are typos.  And it should have been printed on ivory paper.  And we didn't get responses from any dogs serving in military police K-9 units.  And who knows what other nonsensical, illogical reasons he'll come up with to keep stonewalling on repeal.

Now he's resting his opposition on a part of the survey that demonstrates that combat forces have the highest level of concern about repeal of those service members responding.  In testimony at the capitol today, Defense Secretary Gates noted that those members tend to be younger and with less military experience, suggesting that their concerns could be mitigated with training.  The distinguished senator responded with this telling comment, "We send these young people into combat, we think they’re mature enough to fight and die. I think they’re mature enough to make a judgment on who they want to serve with and the impact on their battle effectiveness.”

Think about that response for a minute.  John McCain would really allow service members to decide who they want to serve alongside?  So if service members proclaimed they no longer wanted blacks in the military, McCain would go along?  Or Muslims?  Or Jews?  Or Arabic-Americans?  I can't quite believe he would really allow service members to decide to that extent who they want to serve next to.  Isn't the whole idea of the military that you serve next to who your superiors tell you to?  The truth is that McCain would not make that statement in reference to any other demographic group besides gays.  Because gays are different, they aren't born that way, they make a lifestyle choice that he and many others in the military find icky and it's perfectly ok to keep those icky, nasty gays out of the military.

It is time for John McCain to stop pretending that he would ever, under any circumstances, vote to repeal DADT.  It is far likelier that he would vote to reinstate the complete ban on gays serving in the military that preceded DADT.  All of his conditions for repeal have been met and he's still stonewalling, so let's just call it what it is.  Frankly, I might respect him more if he would be honest and admit he just doesn't like gays.

As I said yesterday, I've had a fairly packed social calendar of late.  I have a lot of great friends with whom I have a lot of fun.  And I get more than my fair share of love from them.  In addition, in the past few weeks, I have received many compliments on my new hair cut, my new dress, new boots, my general stylish attire.  I have definitely put some effort into dressing well and having a good time when I am out with friends.

But at the end of every day, I go home alone and there is really no way to escape this bottom line: I am still pretty much hopelessly in love with someone who has so thoroughly moved on, he won't even talk to me.  Sigh.