This is my father’s passport picture. He was issued one when he entered the Air Force.

Remember

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we
lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies
grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

So today is father’s day. Like most daughters, my relationship with my father has gone through peaks and valleys. We’re alike and different in ways that lead to much angst and frustration on both sides.

Strangely enough it was my moving thousands of miles away that seemed to smooth over a lot of things. I’m guessing there is something about that sort of distance that puts many of the frustration and arguments in perspective. Or maybe he was just all kinds of jazzed that I was going to be a lawyer.

He taught me how to ride a bike. He still reminds me to check the oil in my car. Every time I stop by, he checks the tires. I got my musical ability from him. He has two guitars, a mandolin, a violin/fiddle (he likes bluegrass so he calls it a fiddle) and a banjo. Wait I think he has a dulcimer, too. I can’t keep up.

He used to make up these wild bedtime stories when I was wee enough for fathers to tell their daughters bedtime stories. He would put himself and me as the hero and heroine of the stories and use our pets and the animals in the woods as our villians. Yeah we got them every time.

He calls me hopalong or molasses. He has the most disgusting feet in the history of feet. That man needed a pedi about twenty years ago. Now I can’t bear the thought of some beauty parlor nail person enduring the havoc that is my father’s feet. I’m sure she would charge him triple. TRIPLE y’all.

He’s incredibly patient except when dealing with his tools. He’ll cuss out the screw driver and the stuck screw like it slept with his wife. He has a sense of humor. When he was in the hospital, the nurse told him that she was giving him half a pill. He asked if it was the right half or the left half. Yeah they got a kick out of him in the cardiac wing.

So today I say thank you for everything Dad. You’re the bestest.

I finished Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within . It brought back that urge to write. It reminded me that when I was younger I liked to write and that I took a creative writing class. Yes, yes indeed. It also reminded me that nothing comes out of the gate all nice. It’s all written in a notebook in a big hurry and then later it gets edited down into something nice and presentable. You have to be able to release the emotions as fast as they can come out of you. That is the most raw and the most real. Those concepts and themes then become the most relatable. So I got another Moleskine and I’m ready to go. I think I’ll start small.

Day 01 – Your favorite song
Day 02 – Your least favorite song
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15 – A song that describes you
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19 – A song from your favorite album
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29 – A song from your childhood
Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year
]]> http://runmelissarun.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/the-friday-five/feed/ 0 merlisser http://runmelissarun.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/this-makes-me-ridiculously-happy/ http://runmelissarun.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/this-makes-me-ridiculously-happy/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 05:30:43 +0000 merlisser http://runmelissarun.wordpress.com/?p=867 ]]>

Fiona Apple released a new song. A NEW SONG!

*sniff*

1001 days from the day I started my list is Wednesday, April 11, 2012. So I got a little less than two years to get going.

My first problem. I can’t think of 101 things to do. So I guess #1 is to figure out 101 things. And yes I still haven’t completed the freaking list. Of course, I am also realizing that some of my goals just might be mutually exclusive which means there is no way I can achieve all of them. Yeah, I’m complicated.

Let’s see.

THINGS DEFINITELY DONE

1. Go to a Little Rock Tweet up
2. Go to Memphis in May
3. Get a Smart phone
4. Go to National Association for Criminal Defense lawyers annual meeting. (Okay to be fair, I went to the Spring Meeting instead of the annual meeting but dammit, I’m going to count it.
5. Get Linked In profile updated
6. Get certified for conflicts list in Arkansas State court
7. Get practice management software/system set up
8. Go to my 15 year college reunion (It was held on April 17, 2010 and I was there)
9. Go see Conan O’Brien (okay I’m aware that this is slightly cheating but if at the time of the inception of this list if there was a chance in hell of Conan touring, I would have put it on here. So yeah. WHEEE)
10. I got a professional massage after the Little Rock half marathon. AWOO HOO

Things that I am definitely on track to complete

1. To complete two half marathons (I completed the Little Rock Marathon half so one down and one to go
2. Get my passport renewed (as of today, I have an application)
3. Go back to Africa (I met this law professor who is going to Africa with grant money to do research and I’ve been picking his brain on ways to get to go back. This one just might happen.)
4. Read 100 books (well I am reading. Strangely, I forgot I had this and wasn’t keeping up with it. So far, the number I have is 4.)
5. Go to Washington DC (the place where I interned is having their 50 year anniversary party around Thanksgiving this year)
6. Clear out 101 items for yardsale, recycling, or trash. (This will be done really really soon. LIke in the next couple of weeks)
7. I’ve picked the dates for the Arkansas Governor’s School reunion and now it’s just a matter of picking venues. (oh lord please let me get some venues down before July 30….)

The Health things are slowly but surely. I’ve fallen off the track with those. I hurt my arm at a party and so the push ups are out. I’m letting it heal. I’m getting back to running. i am doing the Couch to 5K to do it right and not hurt myself. It’s good though. The food stuff will come. I’ve actually gained weight but I am out of several of the stressful positions that I was in that were causing me to stress eat.

The piano stuff. oh lord I haven’t even played one note since I wrote this list. Oh and my wrist hurts so this should be interesting.

The entire list so far.

1. To complete a marathon
2. To complete two half marathons (I completed the Little Rock Marathon half so one down and one to go
3. To complete the 100 push up challenge (I haven’t even done the initial fitness test on these. I need to get started)
4. To complete the 200 sit up challenge
5. To complete the 200 squat challenge
6. Try drinking green monsters for a week.
7. Drink 64 ounces of water a day.
8. Run 3 times a week (2/143 (there are 143 weeks in 1001 days) Subgoal is for 3 months. If I can do it straight for then I will cross it off the list.
9. Yoga twice a week X/143 with subgoal of 2 times a week for three months. Hopefully it will be a habit by then.
10. Get a bike
11. Try a triathalon
12. Get my passport renewed (as of today, I have an application)
13. Go back to Africa
14. Go to Washington DC
15. Go to a Little Rock Tweet up
16. Go to the Little Rock Film Festival
18. Go to Memphis in May
19. Go to Voodoo Music festival in New Orleans
20. Build a Habitat for Humanity house
21. See the William Faulkner things in Oxford, Mississippi
22. See the Hemingway things in Piggott, Arkansas
23. Lose 100 pounds (what? one pound every 10 days)
24. Read 100 books
25. Read all Faulkner novels
26. Get a Smart phone (blackberry or iphone) I got a BlackBerry Storm around Christmas time.
27. Get Linked In profile up date
28. Grow linked in Network (working on it)
29. Go to National Association for Criminal Defense lawyers annual meeting (Spring Meeting in Memphis May 2010. Okay I said annual but I’m counting this one).
30. Try a jury trial
31. Win a jury trial
32. Get certified for conflicts list in Arkansas State court
33. Get certified for CJA list in federal court
34. Get practice management software/system set up
35. Get time management system set up (probably something like Randy Pausch’s system)
36. Clean office (big clean)
37. After big clean, pick once a week to clean office X/143
38. See all Harry Potter movies as they come out saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on 7/17/2009)
39. Get professional site up and running (already bought domain)
40. Blog on my legal site once a week (starting from completion of set up)
41. Be living in a different city or town than the one I am in by the end date of this list. (Wednesday, April 11, 2012)
42. Get over fear of dentist and get all my dental work done
43. Get a pair of black Manolo pumps. (I never said they couldn’t be shallow things)
44. Get a Vespa.
45. Keep brows groomed with once a month waxing appointments1/34
46. get a professional massage
47. get a facial
48. Try sushi (no I’ve never tried it)
49. See Nine Inch Nails or the Dandy Warhols in Concert. (I figure one or the other will tour in the next three-ish years) Okay guys Nine INch Nails has already done their last concert EVER and I missed it. EPIC FAIL!
50. Learn ballroom or salsa dancing.
51. Figure out the perfect margarita recipe.
52. Finish learning Hungarian Rhapsody #2. (yeah I dream big. I might be closer to this than you think)
53. Learn Un Sospiro by Liszt
54. give blood
55. put $5000 in savings. (hopefully more)
56. Try acupuncture
57. Send a letter or other type of non business/ non holiday related snail mail once a month 0/34
58. Participate in the 365 day photo challenge
59. Identify 101 things that make me happy
60. Put my attorney profile on Law Link
61. Try the 21 day challenge
62. Clear out 101 items for yardsale, recycling, or trash. (I’m a clutter bug, this is actually a low number)
63. Advertise my business on MonticelloLive
64. mail a secret to Post Secret
65. See my grandmother in person at least once every two months. (seriously it’s been so long since I’ve seen my grandma and she only lives 50 miles away)
66. Go to my 10 year law school reunion
67. Go to my 15 year college reunion April 17, 2010
68. Go to my 20 year high school reunion (yes they all fall within the 1001 days)
69. Organize and attend Arkansas Governor’s School class of 1990 reunion. (apparently no one else is going to organize it so it might as well be me)
70. Try a pomegranite margarita
71. Make the roast chicken from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French cooking
72. Plan a 5K for charity. (I have this for work and am in the process of doing it)
73. Try a mojito.
74. Try the homemade Moon pie from Capital Bar and Grill.
75. Cook a souffle
76. Try one new recipe a month. (Yes I’m really up on the cooking)
77. Run in 6 5ks
78. Have molefest with Tom
79. Get a budget set up either via Quicken or mint or something else.
80. See Fellini’s 8 1/2
81. Eat more ice cream (Thanks LRtweetup)
82. Go see Conan O’Brien (okay I’m aware that this is slightly cheating but if at the time of the inception of this list if there was a chance in hell of Conan touring, I would have put it on here. So yeah. WHEEE) May 15, 2010
83. Get the T-Anthony all purpose tote in black with white trim. Yes it is expensive but I have been lusting over this WASPy stylish bag for over 3 years. It’s so chic, man. I never said I didn’t have a shallow bone in my body.
84. Vote in every election
85. Volunteer or donate to at least one political campaign for each election
99. don’t beat myself up if I don’t meet my goals (stole this one from my friend. bwahahahah. I’m a goal stealer.)
100. Finish the rest of the list (July 15, 2009)
101. Keep monthly blog updates on my progress (bwahahahahahhahahah yeah that has sooo happened)
102. Finish list

It’s the 11th Annual Testicle Festival in Foreman, Arkansas.

I think that speaks for itself.

• CLE in Memphis (CLE stands for Continuing Legal Education. It’s a fancy way to say I went back to school for two days)
• Memphis in May was also around that time so i saw the B-52s again. Also, other bands until during the Middle of Hall and Oates (don’t judge me), there was a tornado warning and we all had to leave.
• Fortunately, i did not die but it was scary
• I also found out that day that one of my really good friends was in a coma
• Two days later, she died
• Tons of crying and a funeral

See I told you it was a lot going on and in the midst of all that mourning, I didn’t realize that Conan was on Saturday until my friend Tiffany sent me a message about three days before the event. See, she lives in Muskogee and was going to let me crash at her place after the show. Aren’t friends great?

Someone asked me “what was the appeal of Conan O’Brien” and I had to pause because while I know theoretically there are people who don’t like him, I couldn’t conceive of why. I guess I just assumed they had brain damage. For me, I guess I relate to his willingness to be silly and his intelligence. He is that smart, dorky guy in school who grew up to be one of the “cool kids” and yet he still sees himself as that dorky guy in school. Maybe I relate to that a little too well. (shut up, I am awesome!) ahem… Triumph the Insult Comic dog. Crap. That mutt is funny.

I make no claims to be “objective” in my fandom of that show. It’s on the short list with Veronica Mars and Dexter. Sorry love it. Due to being so busy I didn’t read any of the reviews or hype regarding the show. The only thing I had even heard was at some point, Conan uses the word “douchebag.” So I went into it with about as open of a mind as I possibly could.

They had me at LaBamba. See when Conan said he was taking his show on the road, he meant “his show” so as much of it as he could take without violating NBC intellectual property laws. Hence the “not legally allowed to be funny on TV” being the title.

See, its’ the Band. See its’ LaBamba. The band came out and sang a song before Conan ever took the stage. LaBamba and ran through the aisles. Since I had an aisle seat really close to the stage, I got in on that running action.

Unfortunately, my camera was slow and I got his back but it’s LABAMBA!!! LABAMBA!!!

I was a jumping up and down giggly as a school girl fool. And I had a giggly school girl grin throughout the entire show.

There’s a lot of overlap between the TV show and this show. One of the biggest differences is that Conan does a lot of singing and playing his guitar in this show. Many of you might remember he got a whole bunch of musician friends and Will Ferrell to do Freebird as a final song on his show.

Apparently, each spot has a special guest that has some tie to the location. Our special guest was Hanson. Here they are singing “Never Been to Spain”

and at the end, Conan sang a song and ran through the aisles. I touched his arm. *sniff* *silly schoolgirl gush*

I think it’s always a good thing to meet your heroes for the simple reason to remind yourself that they are just as human as you are.