Catching Up

So much for my goal of blogging once a week. I'd like to think it's because I've been so busy having so much fun that I haven't had time to write.

While I have been incredibly busy, I would estimate that only about half of that was having fun. So I will highlight the fun half :)

Race for the Cure!

I had the wonderful opportunity this year to not only be a team captain, but a Komen Koach for Knoxville's chapter of the Komen Foundation. This year's race was on Saturday, October 30th downtown. It was quite cold Saturday morning, but I was so proud of our teammates who made it out to participate. This was my third year as the UT Law Women team captain, and I'm so pleased that we were able to partner with ETLAW to show that females in the Knoxville legal community are committed to supporting a cause that has such an impact on women every day.

I also have to brag on what a good sport Nathan was to get up at 6:00 on a Saturday morning and go stand in the cold holding a sign for our team. Then he was sweet enough to run at my slow pace instead of leaving me behind to finish on my own :)

Election Night!

While there are lots of things that I can get pretty passionate about (just ask Nathan, I get on my soapbox pretty frequently), one of the more pertinent issues recently is voting. I believe that the right to vote is not just a privilege but a responsibility. We are so blessed to live in a country where we are not only allowed, but encouraged to vote.

I was particularly excited about this year's gubernatorial race here in Tennessee. While the Haslam's are not close family friends or anything, we have sat next to each other in church for years, and I grew up sandwiched between Will and Annie in school. When Bill Haslam decided to run for mayor of the city of Knoxville 8 years ago, it was an incredibly exciting campaign - especially knowing that our city was blessed to have both a strong leader and a man of integrity. When Mayor Haslam decided to run for governor, it seemed like the entire city got behind him. I know Bo and I both participated in various Team Haslam activities, and it's been exciting to see the progress of the campaign over the past year.

So last night we headed to our first election night rally at the Crowne Plaza downtown. Bo, Erin, Bryce & some of their friends joined us as we waited for the results. It was so much fun, and I think it says a lot that Mayor Haslam received over 84% of the votes in his hometown. It was a landslide victory and lot of fun!

An added bonus of the night was Senator Corker's introduction - Bo got a chance to see his new boss in person, and we spent a good half hour trying to find him!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for this new legislature (although I must, say, I'm quite excited that Pelosi has lost her position as Speaker). I'm very concerned about the direction our country is headed and the rapidly increasing budget deficits. That said, I think the next year will be an indication of whether or not we've been able to make the right changes to turn our country back in the right direction. Regardless, congratulations to Mayor Haslam, Governor-Elect!

A Marvelous Monday

While Mondays are not usually something I look forward to, they're actually one of my favorite week days - mainly, because my Mondays are usually spent at the office, with only one class in the afternoon and small group on Monday nights. So that means I'm only running to 3 places instead of the typical 5-6 for the rest of the week. After a wonderful weekend in Birmingham with Erica, however, I still had to throw some sort of rough draft together for my Law, Science, and Technology paper by this afternoon. Considering the fact that I haven't even finished researching for my paper, this was going to be a rough, rough draft.

So I was not looking forward to this Monday at all. Imagine my joy, however, at getting an email at 8:00 am extending our deadline from today until next Monday. It came completely unsolicited and was actually our professor admitting that he overbooked his schedule and wouldn't have a chance to read the drafts until after next week. After last week's insanity of deadlines and clinic-emergencies, it was a wonderful and unexpected break. So now my rough draft is only going to be marginally bad, rather than a complete train wreck. There are fewer things that interest me less than an obscure loophole in Copyright reversionary interests that causes a potential conflict with estate rights. Once it's finished I'll publish an abstract, just in case anyone who reads my blog suffers from insomnia...

Oh, and a final happy note for my Monday morning was seeing one of Erin and Bo's engagement shots from this weekend. I know it's not my wedding, but I'm so excited that I have to post Erin's profile pic :)

O'Henry's Coffee Shop

Enjoying our Latte and Tea au Lait while creating my blog :)

Getting Started

So Erica and Casey have inspired me. If they can start and maintain a blog with their crazy busy lives, then I have no excuse. I know how much I love seeing that they've posted something new -especially because I know that when I read Casey's, it's like I can hear her speaking what's she's written and I'm able to hear her voice in my head, especially when she's fussing about Steve :) I feel that because so many of us have so much going on and changing in our lives this will be a diary for me to look back on more than anything.

After much debate in a coffee shop in Birmingham (and a lot of inappropriate blog title possibilities), Erica has held my hand and walked me through setting this up and deciding on a name. This was not an easy task. I'm not a cutesie person, I'm not an emo person, I'm not touchy-feely, and I'm definitely not funny. So that effectively narrowed the list of possibilities. As we were discussing what type of person I am, I realized the best way to describe myself was to say, "well, I'm basically turning into my mother." Thus, the title of my blog.

I feel like the act of turning into one's mother is something that every female faces the older she gets. I've also realized that the older you get, the more you finally start to understand where your mom has been coming from all these years. At least this has been my experience. I don't foresee this really changing as I get older, so my blog title should be able to withstand the test of time, assuming that I manage to actually maintain it. If I don't, I'll blame it on my mother, I guess.