About Me

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.

I live with my husband, a highly breakable dog and a pissed-off Dumpster cat in Manhattan.

My husband and I spent over two and a half years in an adoption process from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2009, in the hope of bringing a baby girl from Vietnam into our family. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.

We waited over a year for a referral of a child and then, several months later and shortly before we were to travel to bring her home, we found out she had a severe medical issue that precluded us from completing her adoption. Our hearts were shattered, but we opened them up to another baby, who was referred to us a few weeks later. However, we were then caught by the suspension of adoptions between the US and Vietnam; although we'd been assured otherwise, we were told many months after the second referral that the Vietnamese government would not allow us to proceed with the adoption of that child. The end.

I have lots of thoughts about international adoption based on our experience that I am happy to share with anyone who's interested; just email me (lawyerish at Gmail) and I will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know.

Our happy ending is that after the adoption(s) fell through, we decided to go the old-fashioned route, and our baby girl is due in March 2010.

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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.

You can email me at lawyerish at gmail.