2006-07-11 - 8:25 p.m.

Hello! Welcome to Mope Fest. Please kick off your shoes and stay awhile, won't you? I will mix you a festive absinthe.

Why Mope Fest? Well, I�ve been stretched thin these last few weeks�mostly because I�m driving to Santa Monica three days a week and Beverly Hills two days a week for my summer �jobs.� (This means spending about 15 hours per week sitting in traffic.) Even though our apartment in Long Beach is big and purty�even though the rent will never, ever go up�and even though we�re two blocks from the beach, surrounded by our closest friends and favorite restaurants, we have to move. Erik is working in North Hollywood, for the love of Heaven�s Gate. If we don�t move, the commuting will surely crush our souls.

The other not-so-special thing that�s getting me down is the nature of my �jobs.� I knew it was going to be Pay-Your-Dues-With-A-Smile Summer, but I�ve grown weary of filing. I�ve gotten to do some interesting things�learn how to merge and dissolve corporations (it�s so easy!), sit in on a casting for a not-meager-budget film, draft a load of Option Agreements for writers and actors�but those things are few and far between. Plus, I got yelled at by a self-important 30-year-old administrative assistant. What that happened, something snapped. If I took anything away from my last job it was that no one gets to yell at me. Ever. Yet when this wretched little assistant flew off the handle, I could see that it clearly had nothing to do with me, that she needs counseling, and that it wasn�t worth it to address her very bad behavior. Because then we�d have a real, actual, recognized confrontation before us. So, I took it. Then I felt abused.

No matter how fancy a job I have, I will never yell at people.

On the bright side, I only have 12 more days of driving to Santa Monica and 8 more days of BH. Then I�ve given myself two weeks off before returning to school. And another bright side: the second year of law school is reputedly fun. I�m waiting to find out if I made Law Review�or Moot Court, which I actually want to do. I�ll be teaching Legal Writing, and I�m also doing this thing called the Intellectual Property Clinic where we give free legal advice to artists/writers/inventors/what have you. All of these things count as �classes.� Yay! Even though I�ll be busy, it will be a bearable and hopefully engaging busy-hood.

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Erik and I have pushy new neighbors from New York. Boy, are these New Yorkers pushy. The female New Yorker pushed her way right into our space and requested all assertively that we let her access our wireless network while she waits 10 days for Verizon. We were nice and neighborly, acquiescing to her demands. And then there was no graciousness on her end. Merely entitlement. It was baffling. Who are these people?

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In a while (not long now), I�ll be 30. Maybe that�s adding to the Mope Fest 2006. I am usually #1 Trumpeter of Age Doesn�t Matter, but it seems to matter somewhat. Honestly, Trumpeters.

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It�s awfully incongruous to feel blue in the middle of summer. Summer is for bike rides and BBQs and fireworks. And I�ve been doing these things, but somehow I feel like I�m way down below, and all the noise and action and fireworks are happening miles above me.

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