I was born in the Midwest, but I was traumatically transplanted to the Deep South when I was six. I escaped as soon as I could and ended up in New York City. People in my hometown have been known to refer to me as "Yankee Girl" due to my treasonous return to The North (also known as "Up They-yer").
As a child, I was obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Annie", horses and unicorns, "Free to Be You and Me", and the collected works of John Denver and the Muppets. Miraculously, I found a best friend, Allison, who shared many of these passions, and I have clung to her like stink on a dead pig in the sunshine ever since.
I went through a prolonged awkward phase during adolescence (I'm not sure it has ended yet). In seventh grade, I went to Space Camp, where I was voted the ugliest girl in attendance.
As a teenager, I was a super-serious ballet dancer, but I somehow ditched that dream in favor of attending a big, super-collegiate college, where I rowed on the crew team and learned about my tolerance for 99-cent Long Island Iced Teas. I then went to an urban law school, where I spent three years hiding under my desk to avoid the horrors of the Socratic method. And now, obviously, I'm an attorney...ish.
I live with my husband, a highly breakable dog and a pissed-off Dumpster cat in Manhattan. We are currently in the process of adopting a baby girl from Vietnam.
Here's the required About Page part where I throw together a bunch of random factoids. Lots of this stuff is covered in more detail on this site, but I have no idea how to link to it here, so you'll have to guess where the stories are hidden based on the category archives -- fun!:
I faint a lot, usually in public and/or at work.
I'm tall, although I never reached six feet, which was my childhood aspiration.
When I was little, I wanted to become a ballerina, an astronaut, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a veterinarian when I grew up. Simultaneously, of course.
I majored in History even though I wanted to be a psychologist for dancers.
I tried to be an actor for a while, but I'm not much of a waitress (har!).
I ran the New York City Marathon twice. I run because I don't have time for dance class anymore (and it makes me feel old and out of shape, anyway) and I am too lazy to walk three blocks to the closest gym.
I love New York (most of the time), especially because it is so perfectly tailored to someone as inherently slothful as I am. I never have to go more than half a block to get a Diet Coke, and that is reason enough never to move.
So far, I have loved being over 30. I am at my core a lame homebody, and it was a relief not to feel required to do the 20s going out thing anymore. Although sometimes I miss those giddy wee-hours moments in diners after a long night of sweaty dancing in gloamy clubs...
I have horrible vision.
You can email me at lawyerish at gmail.
Writing, reading, running, acting, ballet, cooking, philosophical debates, wine, theater, gossip, idiotic reality television, travel, photography, sleep. God, this is dorky. Why I can't I be witty in my About page? I hate About pages. Too much pressure. Some of my favorite things, and then I'll stop, because this is all just too much: Books: Cat's Eye (Atwood), The Edible Woman (Atwood), The Basic Eight (Daniel Handler), Dispatches from the Cold (Leonard Chang), Wasted (Marya Hornbacher), Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates), Atonement (McEwan), Catcher in the Rye, Prep (Curtis Sittenfeld), Lolita, Girl Interrupted (Kaysen) Movies: The Turning Point, To Kill a Mockingbird, Napoleon Dynamite, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Annie, Office Space, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Lolita, Lost in Translation I am obsessed with Felicity.