Rachel's Corner

Moving Day

Rachel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:26:47 +0000

Ok. This is the last move. I promise. After spending the better part of my morning working on my new and improved blog, I think I have it up and running. I’m still learning the new site, so please bear with me. So far, I like it though. Here’s the link http://web.mac.com/rachelmarrero/Site/Blog/Blog.html . Update your links, bookmarks, and readers!

One of THOSE moments

Rachel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:39:37 +0000

You know the ones. When your heart momentarily stops beating. When you have a sudden, undeniable feeling that you SCREWED up. Bad. And you have nobody to blame but yourself. I had one of these on Saturday morning. Let me give you some background first, though…So Friday afternoon I had to go to a board meeting for Lizzie’s daycare. Oh yes. As if I don’t have QUITE enough to do already, I volunteered to be on the board of directors for the daycare. Yeah. So, anyway, the board meeting was downtown. I didn’t want to take my purse with me because I hate going through metal detectors with my purse. I took my wallet out and put it in my backpack so that I could leave the whole thing in the back of my car and then go for coffee after the meeting. Good plan, right? It worked out fine on Friday. Went off without a hitch as a matter of fact.Fast forward to Saturday morning. Lizzie had Suzuki music class at 10:45. I was actually running a few minutes ahead of schedule, as opposed to my customary 5 or 10 minutes late. We were on our way when I realized that I was dangerously low on gas. There is a distinct lack of gas stations in the 10 miles or so between our house and the music school. I stopped at one gas station (that is actually full service, by the way. Did you even know they still have those? Well, they do. At least Buffalo does. At least one.) The line was forever long, though, so I hopped back on the 190 and decided to stop at Tops right by the music school. We make it there (with the little orange picture of the gas pump lit up all the while, I might add) and I turn the car off to get out to pump the gas. I reach for my wallet. Do you see where this is going? You guessed it. No wallet. I’m feeling nervous right now just writing about it. I will admit, I was freaking out. I am a freaker outer. All the possible solutions were racing through my head. Do I call Enrique? Do I try to borrow money from one of the other moms at Suzuki? Maybe I have a credit card in my purse…lemme look. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! A Tops gift card!!!!!! Let me just take this opportunity to say thank goodness for Christmas gifts. Enrique’s aunt and uncle gave us a Tops gift card for Christmas as part of a pasta dinner basket-y thing. We don’t shop at Tops, but I grabbed the gift card…umm…I dunno. Probably over a month ago now and tossed it in my purse “just in case”. In case of what I don’t know. In case I needed groceries and felt like going to Tops to buy them I suppose. In any event, that gift card saved my butt on Saturday. It put half a tank of gas in my car.

The object of my affection

Rachel — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:48:46 +0000

Let me just start by saying, for anyone who doesn’t know already, I am a geek. That’s right. I admit it. I actually embrace it at times. So, now that that’s out of the way, let me introduce you to my current crush. I would even go so far as to say that I am OBSESSED right now. Thoughts of it invade my studies, distracting me from whatever I am doing.It’s an iPhone. I am in love. I want one so badly that I can barely think of anything else. Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking…it’s impractical. Nobody really NEEDS an iPhone. Aren’t those really expensive? The practical, frugal mother in me agrees. I don’t NEED an iPhone. Heck, I don’t think anyone really does. But the impulsive techie nerd in me doesn’t see it that way. My geeky side looks at the iPhone and sees the most beautiful piece of technology ever created. And I can sort of begin to justify it. A little bit. My current phone was my birthday present. Lizzie broke my pink Razr phone slamming it on the sidewalk (note to self: sidewalk + cell phone + baby = bad) so Enrique told me I could get a new phone for my birthday. So I went to the AT&T website and looked at all the phones. I was eligible for an upgrade. I wanted another pink phone, so I got the one I have now. It was FREE. My birthday present was a free phone. How sad is that? I mean, really? I had the opportunity to spend money and get a cool new phone and I pick the free one. So that’s my extremely convoluted justification for wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a phone with way more features than I probably actually need. But hey, whatever makes me feel ok about it, right?Oh, and the best part…Enrique said I can actually get one!!!!!!!!!!!! We are getting a decent tax refund this year, so he said that I can finally get my iPhone. We’ll see when it comes down to it, if I actually buy it. The frugal, practical side may win once again.

How I got my groove back

Rachel — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:29:34 +0000

Ok, well, maybe not my GROOVE exactly but something that I was worried I had lost. I am a runner. Most people who know me well, know that running is something that defines me. I LOVE to run. Aside from my family, running is the one thing that I can say makes me truly happy almost all of the time. I slipped into a running funk recently though. A rut, if you will. Running funks are the worst. For the past few weeks, the mere idea of running has made me feel like hurling. I have had absolutely zero desire to get dressed in all my cold weather gear, lace my shoes up and head out for a nice brisk 5 mile run. The thing that makes running funks so hard though, is that the mre time you take off, the less enjoyable running is when you do it. So you do it less. See the pattern? Yeah, it just plain stinks.So that’s been the last couple of weeks. Let me just interject here that I love my running friends. We all seem to know exactly when one of us needs something. Tuesday evening, I was feeling particularly funk-ish. I hadn’t run since last Friday and I really didn’t care if I ever ran again. Really. Then an awesome thing happened. My friend Angela texted me. Yes, I’m 30 years old and I communicate via text message. She asked me if I was running in the morning. I had a choice to make. I could tell her no, and go on with my funky self, or I could join her. I texted her back something to the effect of “I wasn’t planning on it, but I guess I could”. Then I waited. I was half hoping she’d latch on to the “wasn’t planning on it” part of the message and let me wallow in my funkiness. No such luck. I got back a “5:30, my house?” text. Ok, I was stuck. I texted her back “ok”. As much as I HATE getting up at 5 am to run, it is great to get it out of the way and not have to worry about it the rest of the day. So, Angela and I ran yesterday morning. Then we ran this morning. I am feeling so much better already.I think I may be coming out of my funk. Finally. Angela, I know I’ve told you this, but thanks for the text. You knew exactly what I needed. If you hadn’t asked me to go, I would still be wallowing and feeling fat and lazy. I owe you one.

Room with a view

Rachel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:08:37 +0000

This is the view out the very porthole-like window in my study carrel in the library. Not very exciting, huh? I think that’s part of the whole “study carrel experience”–very few distractions. At least that’s the idea. I thought I would be much more likely to use my time productively in a carrel, so here I am. The only problem with that theory is that my laptop is in here with me, and thus my trusty companion, the internet. I’m finding that I’m actually more inclined to surf the web in the privacy of a study carrel. Because I’m by myself and no one else can see what I’m doing, I don’t worry about my fellow law students questioning my dedication to my studies. I need to work on my will power, I think. The porthole window reminds me of a boat. Like a cruise ship. Not that I’ve ever been on one, but it reminds me of what I imagine a cruise ship to be like. Except hopefully it wouldn’t be a dreary, snowy Western New York day outside my window on a cruise ship. Maybe I could imagine sparkling blue ocean waters instead of the snow, and bright green palm trees in the distance instead of the bare branches of whatever kind of trees are on campus. It’s probably a good thing that I’m not on a cruise ship, though. I’d never get my studying done if I was.

Have you ever wondered?

Rachel — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:42:34 +0000

Have you ever wondered what makes a law student tick? Or what they carry around in their backpacks? No? I’m not surprised–I never did either. In case you WERE wondering (and I just KNOW there has to be someone out there with a burning desire to learn the contents of my mysterious backpack), I will answer question #2. Stay tuned to find out what makes a law student tick–when I figure it out, I promise you will be the FIRST to know.

So, what is in a law student’s backpack? The first time I asked myself this question was yesterday. I picked up my backpack and thought, “Man. This thing is HEAVY!! What in the world do I have in here?” Let’s find out together, shall we?

1)I’m going to count my Macbook laptop, even though it is obviously NOT technically IN my backpack right at this exact instant.

2)One water bottle

3)One coffee mug

4)One 2″ binder filled to the brim with cases printed off the internet for a paper I am currently writing.

5)One spiral notebook–purple

6)My day planner. I would be lost without my day planner. I bought it at the school bookstore the day I realized I was lost without a day planner.

7)A manilla envelope containing my resume and cover letter that I meant to mail out last week. Oops.

8)A few (3) random pieces of paper that I jammed into my bag in my haste to leave class one day.

9)A bag of Halls cough drops–cherry flavor

10)The power cord for my laptop

11)My iPod Mini. My iPod was really cool for about a year before I got it. I wanted it so bad. It was cool for approximately 1 week after I shelled out the money for it. Ah well.

12)3 Kashi GoLean Crunchy bars.

13)7 highlighters–3 yellow, 1 blue, 1 purple, 1 pink and 1 green.

14)13 pens–mostly black ink. I think one might be blue. I think at least 2 don’t work.

15)1 pencil

16)1 binder clip

17)a bottle of infant tylenol in case Lizzie ever needs it.

There you have it. I’m still not sure exactly what makes my bag so heavy, but at least now I have completely inventoried its contents and I am 100% sure that there is nothing in there that I can’t live without.

Some of my favorite things

Rachel — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:38:51 +0000

This picture contains several of my favorite things.

First off, the adorable little girl is my daughter, Elizabeth. She is my favorite person. In the whole world. And she knows it. I tell her about 5000 times a day that she is my favorite person EVER.

Next are her pigtails. They are the cutest thing I have ever seen. I love them. I meticulously do her hair every morning before she goes to day care. I think they make her look so cute and girly. I love girly things.

I love the vest that she’s wearing. I bought it from Baby Gap.com and (as always happens) as soon as it arrived it was suddenly too cold for my darling daughter to wear a vest instead of a coat. The day this picture was taken was an unseasonably warm January day. So of course, she HAD to wear her vest.

Notice the red shopping cart? Do you know where we are? That’s right–Target!! I love Target. I can go to Target for a glue stick and come home with bags upon bags of things that once I saw them, I knew I couldn’t possibly live without them. My husband, Enrique, does not share my love for Target. More accurately, he doesn’t love that I love Target.