2002-09-26 - 9:20 a.m.

Dudes, sorry I haven't been around lately. That's how I start every entry nowadays. That second sentence is usually how I follow up the leadoff. But that third sentence is a whole new animal, and that dog don't hunt.

So it comes to the point where I decide that yeah, I want to write more. Maybe try a really short entry every day I go to work, let's say either first thing in the morning or last thing before I grab my bag and close Outlook.

I started studying for the LSAT this past weekend. I think more than anything I couldn't let another September pass me by without cracking the books. A fish needs water. It's a lot of fun. I'm finally ready to return to complete nerd mode. Unfortunately I didn't get this fool idea into my head until after the deadline for the October LSAT, kinda the last one that gets the results off to colleges in time for the early deadlines. But I was never one for early deadlines. Some might argue that that ghost has followed me like some horrible albatross around my neck, or some ghastly mixed metaphor. You see, I'm not totally convinced but I'm pretty damn sure that if I had applied early decision to my first undergrad choice, I'd a slid in under the radar. That was one of the first years the top schools started basically picking their whole incoming freshman classes in October. Didn't get in on the ground floor, but in retrospect it's kinda nice not paying off student loans right now (give me four years and we'll broach this topic again). And at the time I had an unfairly low opinion of the umich, surely influenced by its proximity.

So maybe it'll all work out for the best this go around, too. It's good because now I'm motivated to smoke this test completely. I've put in about eight hours so far in the past five days, and I've got ten solid weeks left.

Check back with me in a few months to see if my self-cheerleading paid off or turned to hubris (is there a less pleasing word in the English tongue?).

Also today I'm dressed like a kindergartener. Or maybe like me as a kindergartener in the early eighties. I've got these khaki cords and a horizontally striped royal blue polo and I'm loving it. It's a Land's End knockoff down to the label. Plus me and the clothes are making lots of noise thanks to the cords and my squeaky shoes.

You see, I picked up the kicks in the burg of Williams a while back at a thrift store, and they didn't come with inserts. The girl who rang me up told me there was this place in Greenpoint where they had every type of insert imaginable, and I promised myself (and her) that I'd take a look there. I shoulda just walked up to Greenpoint immedidately. Woulda, shoulda. Got home and realized I could just use my standard-issue New Balance running shoe inserts for these light brown dress shoes because, hey, I'm never gonna need them in two pairs of shoes at once. So I'm still pulling and stuffing every time I need to alternate between the two pairs, and since the inserts aren't built for dress shoes, they tend to squeak. I'm a squeaker and a woosher today.

I've got more stuff but I'm saving it for TOMORROW. Yes. Talk to you then.