So what's up with Abeyance?

I don't know. I loved Gracefully Yours, my first journal, the way you hold a special place in your heart for your first car. But I felt that Grace had been sputtering along for a while, and I thought it was time to finally let her go.

I found "abeyance" in the dictionary when I was looking up the definition for "asylum," which is what I was originally going to name the new one. (Wouldn't that have been awful? I shudder to think.) I thought "abeyance" was perfect for two reasons: one, it's a legal term, and I'm a soon-to-be-lawyerly person, and two, it means as-yet-undetermined, not settled, in a holding pattern. That's me all over.

Whatever. What was your first car, anyway?

A 1984 red Honda CRX. It was automatic, which I always thought was a little strange. I inherited it from my brother when I was 15 because he got several hundred speeding tickets in only a couple of months. I loved that car.

What are you driving now?

A 1993 black Nissan Sentra. I hate it. I recently knocked out half the taillight by backing into a utility pole, and I don't even care.

Where do you go to law school?

That's privileged information. I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Seriously.

You told people before.

Sort of. Maybe someday I'll tell you. Be satisfied with my name.

What do you look like?

Cindy Crawford.

Really?

No.

What do you do when you're not studying the law?

Goof off on the internet, reading journals and X-Files fanfic.

Is that all?

I read. I love to read. Every summer I make a big reading list, but I usually only get through three or four, because I like to veg in front of the tube as well.

Wow, you're boring.

This I know.

Have you considered therapy?

Ummm... maybe.

Do you have a boyfriend?

No.

Why not?

I wish I knew.

Are you ugly?

I don't think so.

Fat?

Kind of, but not really.

Gay?

Nope.

Then what's wrong with you?

Can we talk about something else?

Okay. What kind of lawyer do you want to be?

It changes daily. I spent the past summer in the Public Defender's office, and it taught me many things, the most important of which is that I don't want to be a public defender. It's hard, stressful, and thankless, and they barely pay you enough to keep you above the poverty line.

While I'm no longer frightened of litigation, I don't think I'm particularly cut out for it. I see myself more in the transactional side of lawyering: real estate development and sales, labor and employment contracting, maybe some random government job.

Where do you want to practice?

Kansas City, definitely. It's home to me.

Do you have a job yet?

No.

What's wrong with you?

Can we talk about something else?

How about your avoidant personality?

Oh, be quiet...

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