In-san-i-ty

noun, plural in·san·i·ties.
1.  the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind. Synonyms: dementia, lunacy, madness, craziness, mania, aberration.
2.  Law . such unsoundness of mind as frees one from legal responsibility, as for committing a crime, or as signals one’s lack of legal capacity, as for entering into a contractual agreement.
3.  Psychiatry . (formerly) psychosis.
4.  a.  extreme foolishness; folly; senselessness; foolhardiness: Trying to drive through that traffic would be pure insanity.
b. a foolish or senseless action, policy, statement, etc.: We’ve heard decades of insanities in our political discourse.

So that is the clinical definition.  Thought I’d get back to my roots a little.  I used to do these “define the word and expand on that” posts a lot, but it’s been a while.  I hope you’re as excited as I am.

When this word popped into my head this evening, it was because of the famous quote “The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting different results.”  I have discovered in my quick google search that the quote is attributed to several different people, including Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, so I am just going to give credit to both.  Obviously, that is not really the definition of “insanity,” as I so clearly copy and pasted the definition above.  Scroll back up and take a gander, if you’re zoomed in so close you can’t see the top of the post anymore.

I would like to point out that dictionary.com does a nice job of providing the legal definition of “insanity.”  This is necessary, of course, because the world of the law has its own language and thereby its own definitions for just about everything under the sun.  Is it any wonder that most people think their lawyers are speaking in tongues?  I am constantly frustrated by the disconnect.  I spent three years learning the language of the law, only to graduate and realize the role of the lawyer is really one of translator.

And I digress.

If you haven’t guessed yet, or you don’t know me personally, I am studying for another Bar Exam.  Don’t worry, I haven’t failed one yet.  This is not a re-take.  This will be my third state!  I’ll give you two guesses which state I am venturing into next.  Some clues in case you’re just now tuning in: (1) I am already licensed in Kansas & Colorado, (2) I am not heading West…

If you guessed Nebraska or Oklahoma, you are dead wrong.  If you guessed Missouri, DING DING DING!!  Pat yourself on the back, because that is the best prize there is.

So that brings me back to my errant thought about doing the same thing over and over again.  I’m certainly not expecting a different result though, I intend to pass.  So I guess the whole thing doesn’t really apply.  I think generally that phrase is used when someone keeps failing at something, and some wise-ass has to point out to them that they are failing because they keep approaching the problem in the same way each time.  So shoot, I guess that quote is misapplied to my current dilemma.

Perhaps I should start over.  Nah, I’m in too deep.  For anyone that is wondering what the heck is going on right now, I think the better question is “why am I still reading this post?”  For those of you who know the answer, kudos and I love you for still reading.  My mind is so scattered right now, it is ridiculous.  Between studying for my third bar exam, and stressing over bringing in new clients for the states I am already licensed in, and trying to figure out how to have a social life in between, I am surprised my hair is not falling out in clumps.   I’ve also got my first actual trial on Monday.  That’ll be fun.  Don’t dog on me for it being my first either, that just means I’m very good at settling cases.  So there.

While I should be reading an essay right now on principles of Secured Transactions, I would infinitely prefer to make a pie.  Yesterday, some family friends came to visit my office, and as I was showing them around I pointed out the book case that my father made for me.  As they were admiring it, one said “ok, so what’s your hidden talent?”  Oddly enough, it stumped me for a second.  Then, I’m sure my face lit up as it always does when this gets brought up, I said “I make pie.”  It’s sort of weird to me to think of making pie as my hidden talent, if you’ve ever read this blog before you know how much I love it.  I suppose it is though, for now.  The incident also made me think how different my life would probably be if my father, instead of wood-working in his spare time, had made carpentry his profession.  For all I know, I would probably be a carpenter too.

Colorado Part 2: Plus Bonus

I finally uploaded pics from my camera, to discover that I have not been as consistent in my posting as I meant to be.  So quick update before completing my Colorado saga.  This goes back to my birthday.

These are some of my fave peeps, helping me celebrate #27.  Above, the lovely Claudia.

Above: Brenna & Peter, two more of my fave people!

The lovely couple, Brent & Claudia.

My birthday was really nice, we went to dinner at Beer Kitchen, and then went to this weird concert afterward.  Not sure it’s worth repeating that story, other than reiterating that my birthday was the bomb-diggity.

Anyway, Colorado, part 2:

This was the start of my ominous second hike.  The sign is deceptive by the way, there was no actual town of Hessie.  Perhaps there used to be, as there was one cabin no longer in use that I stumbled upon along the way.  Hessie was a trail outside of Nederland, Colorado.  Nederland is a tiny little town, that looks like this:

It’s a quaint little town nestled into the mountains about 20 miles due west of Boulder.  Simply gorgeous.  It’s little mountain towns like Nederland that make me love Colorado so much.  Little towns the size of Nederland when placed in Kansas are much less attractive, believe me.  Anyway, Hessie should have been a decent hike that would lead me to a “Lost Lake.”  Instead, surprise surprise, I ended up being the one who got lost.  In the process of getting lost, I stumbled upon some beauty, of course:

The gist of this story is that I veered left, “the road less travelled by” where I should have veered right.  In my defense, the signage was lacking.  So first, I came upon this waterfall.  Lovely right?  It was, at first.  Somehow, I followed the waterfall and ended up here:

Another beautiful view, however I was on top of a boulder, with no view of a discernable path in sight.  There was a fire pit close by, but I couldn’t figure out where the trail picked up again.  This picture also shows a little bit of the ominous sky overhead.  As I was standing atop this lovely boulder, it started to rain.  The clouds directly over my head were rumbling.  Once it began to thunder, I am ashamed to admit I momentarily lost my head.  After trying to get back down the way I came a couple different times, I ended up right back on top of that boulder having a panic attack.  Finally, I told myself to shut up and calm down.  It wasn’t pouring, so that was in my favor, and I hadn’t seen any lightning.  I also had plenty of water, and I consider myself a generally intelligent person.  I had a lot going for me, so there was no way I was going to die on top of that stupid boulder.

Obviously, I did not die on top of that stupid boulder.  I finally found my way back.

And I’m not sure I have ever hiked down a mountain so fast.  I did pause to take the above pic.  That more accurately captures the clouds I was dealing with.  So silly.

Anyway, I made it back down, and had a blast with the rest of my time in Colorado.  Saturday night I went to a flip flop ball, which turned out to be the best way to end my impromptu vacation.  That was in Denver, and I gotta say, Denver is always a good time.  I already miss it all, especially considering that KC is as humid as ever.  Today got up to 97 or so, and I have a feeling the heat index made it up past 100.  Yuck.

Where shall my next solo vacation be?  I think I’d like to go up to the Northwest States.  Hang out in Seattle maybe?

Holy Crap, I’m in Colorado

This is my view right now.

Okay, it might be slightly underwhelming to you, my laptop camera cannot quite capture the majesty that is Boulder, Colorado.  Plus, there is a wild fire in northern Colorado right now that is causing this area to be fairly hazy from down-wind smoke.  Sometimes you catch a whiff of the smoke, but it’s not pervasive.  Like I said, it just is making everything hazy.

“Why are you in Colorado?” you may find yourself asking.  Well, I believe I have made it clear in the past that I carry a deep and abiding love for this area of the world.  There is something about the mountains that makes my heart swell (in a metaphorical capacity, don’t worry, I’m fine medically).  It has been over a year (or as one of my friends put it, 18 months) since I have been to this glorious place.  I would really like to live here someday, and I have gotten close in the past, but for now it will suffice that I can make trips out here on an occasional basis.  Back to the “why” of my current locale:  I needed a break, and I wanted to go where my heart sings.  Bingo, end of story.

Well, not quite.

The other facet of my trip out here is that I am completely solo.  I drove out here from KC, a nice leisurely ten hour drive, and plan to spend the next few days doing things that I love…by myself.  Originally, I thought about planning this trip with someone.  Usually, I find that adventures can be more enjoyable in the company of others.  This time though, I realized I needed some “me” time.  I needed to get away from the hum drum of day to day life in KC, and go on an adventure, and in the process hopefully prove to myself that I can have my own adventures and do not need to rely on others to make that possible.  That I can be independent.  My life has taken a turn I didn’t expect, and with that turn I have lost what I originally had viewed as a massive amount of independence.

I don’t think much more explanation is needed if I say that I am 27 years old and am currently living with my father in my childhood home.  That explains that feeling of a lack of independence, right?  Ok, good.  Nuff said.

Anyway, I have made my way out here, and it feels SO good to be back.  I immediately went on a hike this morning, and decided to go to Chitaqua, and then up to the fabled Flatirons that are in the foothills of Boulder.

This was my view after I got started a little ways.  Looking down on the valley.

This is me being very happy that I’ve started my hike in earnest.

This is part of the trail, as it wound its way up.  This hike had a lot of switchbacks, to say the least.

This is a signpost indicating which trails were available.  I chose the trail that dead-ended on the second Flatiron.  Apparently there are three, at least in this neck of the woods.  So I went right.

This was a rocky slide that I enjoyed climbing all over.  Because of the switchbacks, i think I climbed across this about three times.  It yielded beautiful views.

As I said, beautiful views.  Side note:  all during this hike, there was this constant hum of what I think were bugs.  I don’t know what kind, and I guess it wasn’t so much a hum as it was a lot of clicking.  Incessant clicking.  I don’t know what they were, but they were mildly annoying.

This was at the top, looking at another outcropping of rocks.  There was a part of this trail that I neglected to photograph simply because I was laboring to breathe and keep my footing.  The switchbacks became much more frequent towards the top, and much more steep.  There were a couple of places where I felt like a mountain climber…or maybe a mountain goat.

Another one at the top, I think this one is actually the 2nd Flatiron that I was under the impression I had hiked to.  I was alone on the trail, and frankly I’m not exactly sure that I ended up in the right place.  It was beautiful nonetheless.

That is the last pic I took from the hike.  It was also at the top.

On the way back down, somehow I veered off the path.  I had been paying so much attention to the ground, and my footing, that I neglected to look up and make sure I was still on the path.  Suddenly I was standing in just a bunch of pine needles.  I looked down and realized that I could reconnect with the path if I just went straight down about twenty feet.  So that is what I did.  I’m surprised I’m alive, and I’m glad no one saw me be so ridiculous.  I basically just slid down the mountain til I hit the path again, and as soon as I reconnected with the path I acted like nothing had gone wrong at all, except I started laughing at myself (out loud).  Yes, I was that crazy lady on the mountain cackling to herself.

Also, towards the top of the hike, there was a dead crow in the path.  I’m hoping it wasn’t an omen or something.  It was huge though, and gross.  I spared you and did not take a picture of the dead crow.  So you can stop holding your breath.

Now, I have thoroughly enjoyed my lunch, and have taken a nice long break after the hike.  I think total, I was on the mountain for about three hours.  I’m slow, ok?  The whole time I kept telling myself, it’s not how fast you get there, it’s that you get there.  Amen!

Alright, I’m going to go enjoy some more of this arid beautiful Colorado weather, and probably head down to Pearl Street.  More adventures to come!