2013-11-19 - 5:24 p.m.

I broke down and bought minutes for the cell phone today after my plans for the day were thwarted by getting lost while walking all over a suburban VA town. I don't mind so much getting lost in a city, but getting lost in the suburbs where the buses run once per hour and are not readily available creates a different kind of adventure. It creates long hikes in bad shoes.

I enjoy long hikes with proper footwear and tend to enjoy my rambling diversions along my way. Today was no exception as I did enjoy the walking, except that at some point my right knee and then hit started to hurt as I was hauling a big BAR REVIEW book with me along the way. I spent all day studying as I walked and drank coffee at a various places to get my bearings and get warm when it got chilly out.

The morning started off perfect, with four hours of study at my favorite bagel shop where I had a coupon from the owner for a complimentary breakfast sandwich and coffee just because she insisted one morning after I let her know the coffee pot had grounds in the coffee. I told her not to worry about my cup that day as the settled on the bottom and it tasted just fine, but let her know so she could fix it for others. She thanked me for being gracious about it and gave me the hand written coupon.

I used to go there when working at my old job.

So I went there this AM and studied for four hours before intending to go to the library which opens at 10am. I had stayed at my friend's (the attorney's) after he picked me up from the modeling gig last night.

I wanted to stay there and then get out when he leaves bright and early to get an early start studying as that is my most productive time of day. So I hit the books at 6AM which was just perfect.

Then the walk was nice, until I realized I had no idea where I actually was and the intersection was not the one I anticipated that I know leads to the library. If you can think of one of those Family Circle cartoons of the toddler all over the house, that is what it is like when I drive or walk just about anywhere that I haven't been in the previous week. I am just terrible with the visual spacial memory and its like I have never been there before.

I enjoyed studying then while walking - sitting at various lovely spots with benches, or sunny patches of green as there is ALOT of that along these manicured long roads in the burbs. Lots of trees and man man ponds with walkways around these ridiculously long stretches of cookie cutter McMansions then town houses and then stretches of highway (which was the indicator I was definitely in the wrong direction!) When I saw a sign toward WASHINGTON I passed it to discover yet another place to sit and have coffee and study- a Safeway which had a Starbucks I didn't know existed. It was about a mile walk from there after I got bearings to the library I was looking for in my travels.

Got to the library at 4:30 pm and checked the web site for VA Regional Transit to see my bus from here home leaves at 4:45.
Went and waited ; It did not come.

A librarian confirmed that the route has changed and it does not stop here.

So here I sit with Ani DiFranco lyrics running through my head "I'm not a kitten up a tree somewhere"

Right

I did decide to buy a phone card of minutes to add to my TRAC phone. I haven't used it since our Florida travels but figure it is not a bad idea to carry a cell phone.

I hate them, but it does come in handy sometimes.

Ce la vie...

Thank God for the public library.

Sent a message asking my friend to save me tonight. If he is busy Pocohantas may be able to swing by, or another one of my friends as I have another one or two in mind I can hit up.

Just a bummer.
Back to studying in the meantime. Good news is I tackled Property Law today. It was a very productive live study lecture I got to listen to as there just happened to be a will and estate lawyer meeting with a client in McD's so I had the benefit of sitting next to him and reviewing the subject matter he was discussing real time in the real life scenario. MUCH more interesting that reading a hypothetical. It was really kinda lucky for me as I have NO IDEA who it was and no names were said so there was actually total confidentiality but I hear a scenario. It was very HELPFUL in interpreting some of the will and estate law which can be tricky. VERY HELPFUL.

I in fact was still reviewing Criminal Law but as I sat down and this man and woman sitting next to me were discussing that topic I found it too distracting to ignore them, and decided to be inspired by their conversation I was hearing. WHAT A BIG HELP !

So making headway through that section of my review book and will continue while on line hoping I hear from someone.

IF all else fails there is always a cab.

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