Pedicure Posting

Coming in hot (literally, we've already had a "feels like 118" and it's freaking June) while getting a pedicure! James was on the phone with a swim client, Claire has a friend over, Landon is unpacking from swim camp, and Cora is at a movie with a friend, so I decided I could disappear for an hour. Then I'm going home and making this for dinner because it just popped back into my memory yesterday and now I'm craving it. James does 99% of the cooking, so when I volunteer it's always something a little less healthy and a little more carby and cheesy than his (also delicious!) suggestions.

Does anyone take their cat on car rides? Milo really enjoys it.

The last week felt approximately 87 days long. Not in a bad way, just in a I'm very tired way.

On Sunday, Landon left for UT Longhorn swim camp in Austin. He drove over with his two best friends who were also his roomates. They live a ways west of Fort Worth which means we moved significantly further away from them, so he welcomes any extra time he can get with them. He packed everything for 8 days away in a backpack and was off without further ado. Quite the opposite of the intricate toiletries packing chart Claire has already made for Italy.

Three days in and we'd not heard a word from him until he texted to ask if I'd pre-ordered him a pizza for one night. Apparently I had not, so he wanted to door dash one, but I told him he couldn't until I got words and pictures that provided proof of life and some insight into his life away from us. I got this.

So obviously he wasn't getting nearly enough food and really needed that additional pizza (that he did order and I'm sure ate all of).

We missed Landon- I don't want to even talk about the fact he's going to college in 3 years- but Moose missed him most. Moose sleeps with Landon every night and with his human boy missing, he had to slum it with the rest of us. You can tell he was super excited about it.

On Monday night Cora had her first swim meet with a new team she decided to join. She's been talking about getting back into swimming, but since she already had soccer and gymnastics we couldn't fit it in. She recently decided to drop gymnastics for swimming and her dad is THRILLED. The outdoor meets have me slightly less excited, but she is a strong and beautiful swimmer and I'm delighted to get to watch her compete again.

On Tuesday night I hosted a dinner at our house for all our female litigation attorneys in Dallas and any female summer associate rotating through litigation. Even after applying those limiting factors we had 26 women over!

Luckily it turns out I can seat all of those people with tables and chairs we already own in our indoor dining area! It took us a minute to figure out how to work the extension of our dining table (which seats 12!) but we got it moments before our guests were due to arrive.

I had fajitas catered and the girls gave tours of their rooms. James said hello to everyone and escaped to watch a movie in the gameroom with the girls. Maggie partied hard, Milo tried to join the meal, and Moose hid until the house was empty again. Claire bonded with all the summers who I just realized are significantly closer in age to her than me, and wow is that a little painful, but I got lots of emails the next day mentioning how much they enjoyed her.

It was so fun. Our house is so perfect for casual get togethers (we don't have and didn't want a formal dining room- this was the only house we saw that didn't have one) and I enjoyed every minute. Our attorneys and summer associates seemed to too.

(That was during clean up after everyone left!)

On Wednesday I flew to Houston for a white collar meeting and business development dinner. I tapped out at midnight, after consuming only water after 10 pm and was still wiped out the next morning. My colleagues wrapped it up in the very wee hours of the morning and it turns out, when we're talking mid-week at 3 a.m., I do not have any FOMO.

On Thursday I had two presentations in the office in the morning and then flew back to Dallas on the worst short flight ever. The a/c was intermittent and we had delays at the beginning and end of our journey, so the usual 45 minute flight was 3 hours of sweating in a stuffy fully packed plane. But I made it home! And I do love our Houston office. We have the top several floors in a gorgeous new building and the internal staircase in our penthouse lobby knocks me out every time.

Friday was our office Casino Night for the summer recruiting program. I'm in a "buy nothing new" month so I wore my beloved rainbow butterfly dress that my mom bought me for my birthday in February 2020. James wore his only suit and played poker for 3 hours. I broke even at roulette and black jack - turns out even when playing with fake money I'm too risk averse to enjoy better anything more than the minimum. Gambling is just flatly not my thing. But it was fun and we were back home at 11 (turns out some sub groups were out until 3, y'all I just cannot).

Yesterday I went to yoga and pilates, took an accidental nap, and was looking forward to an early bedtime and solid night's sleep when Claire called sobbing from a friend's house. She'd gotten her cast wet in the pool earlier in the day (wetter than I understood at the time, she was supposed to be on the steps and had a bag taped around it) and now her skin was on fire. We ended up in the emergency room where she had hard cast #2 cut off and general cast #4 applied until she can get to the orthopedist tomorrow for hard cast #3. It was not great. Turns out, chlorinated water is the worst possible thing to get wet in a cast because the chemicals get trapped under the fiberglass and basically begin to eat the skin. So now she's not even allowed to look at the pool and it's going to be a long hot summer (one of the actual high temps for next week is 109. What in the actual fuck why do I live here I hate it.)

We got home a little after midnight. Landon got home this afternoon- the cats got first hugs- and then it's family dinner tonight and an early bedtime. At least for me since I'm trying to make 6 am yoga happen. So far I've gone to 45 classes in the last 38 days and I"m super proud of it. (I do doubles on the weekends because I like getting the yoga and pilates and it's too hot to do anything fun anyway.) Sadly my scale and measurements haven't changed a bit, but I do feel a lot stronger and more flexible throughout my body and that matters too.

(That's my post-hot-pilates hairdo that I wore to a recruiting dinner when I squeezed in a class before a late reservation. I'm really trying!)

And that's a wrap! My toes are done, my family is probably hungry, and I got a post in! I will leave you with this surprising picture of our two cats maybe cuddling? Or maybe just unwilling to give up their spot on their favorite cat tree. Don't they look comfortable? I think poor Moose was just desperate for companionship with Landon gone.

Have a great last week in June!