I was reading this post that is part of the blog about The Happiness Project. The author suggests that you should make a list of personal commandments to live by. I think for a while I’ve had this idea in my head. So my list is below. I didn’t want to make mine a list of ten commandments per se, but I couldn’t think of anything to add or delete. Here’s the list, in order of importance:

1. Let go of attachment.
2. Love everyone, including yourself.
3. Live passionately, tempered by wisdom.
4. Be responsible for your own happiness.
5. Know that love never fails.
6. Don’t let anxiety be your excuse for procrastination.
7. Almost doesn’t count.
8. Accept the things that you cannot change.
9. Fight injustice.
10. Do no harm.

1. Let go of attachment.
This has been my primary focus for a while. Letting go of attachment is a Buddhist ideal. If everyone was able to let go of attachment, we wouldn’t have nearly as many problems as we have now. Attachment is a sickness of the mind, a delusion. People believe that the causes of their problems are external, but really the causes are internal. The cause of unhappiness is people’s toxic attachments.

2. Love everyone, including yourself.
Loving all beings is another Buddhist ideal. I added “including yourself” because although people usually have a tendency toward self-grasping, or thinking that they are the most important beings, there are also many people who suffer from low self-esteem or otherwise don’t love themselves and take care of themselves.

3. Live passionately, tempered by wisdom.
A friend of mine once described me as passionate, saying that there’s often no middle ground for me. I either love something or hate it. However, it’s important not to let your passion for life run wild. You still want to make wise decisions.

4. Be responsible for your own happiness.
This goes back to the delusions and attachments people have. Once you realize only you can make you happy and that the way to find happiness is to let go of attachment, you’ll realize that no one ever has the power to make you unhappy again.

5. Know that love never fails.
This is from the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:4. It’s hard to remember, but it’s very important, which is why I added this to the list.

6. Don’t let anxiety be your excuse for procrastination.
I sometimes seem to suffer from what seems like paralyzing anxiety. There should be no excuse whatsoever for prostination.

7. Almost doesn’t count.
Half-trying isn’t an excuse not to do something. I think if you have something that you want to do, then you should do it rather than telling yourself you can’t do it, and then justifying failure by saying you tried.

8. Accept the things that you cannot change.
Inspired by the serenity prayer, which my father repeated to me many times as a child.

9. Fight injustice.
I always used to tell my parents that something wasn’t fair. Their response was usually, “Life’s not fair.” I never found that answer acceptable, which is part of the reason I became a criminal defense lawyer. I feel like if you witness injustice and don’t do something about it, then you are allowing injustice, if not contributing to it.

10. Do no harm.
An idea prevalent in medicine, green perspectives, and Buddhism, I believe that every person should try to lessen his or her negative impact on the world.

Ever since I became friends with Momo I’ve been thinking about going to church. He is a very spiritual person, which I find extremely attractive. Momo has encouraged me to go to church, although not in an annoying or preachy way. I’ve also wanted to go as one of my 101 in 1001 goals. As a child, my mother took my brother and I to church all the time, and I think that this was such an important decision. Going to church so much when I was younger has completely made me the person that I am today. However, the church that we went to was non-denominational, which leaves me now trying to figure out what type of church I should attend.

First, let me tell you my criteria for a church that I could enjoy (in order of importance):

1. Beautiful Architecture
2. Tolerant, Non-Preachy, People Who Don’t Seem Like Child Molesters
3. Singing Should Be Completely Optional
4. Pastors Should Not Yell Or Resemble Televangelists
5. Collection Of Money Should Be Non-Obvious and Optional
6. Tolerable Parking Conditions
7. Should Offer A Service In Spanish
8. Services Should Not Be Too Interactive
9. Not Required To Jump Through Hoops To Become A Church Member

(Can you see why I’ve been attending Buddhist services? Lol.)

Here are the options I’m considering (in alphabetical order):

First United Methodist Church of Miami
400 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, FL 33132
Services: Sunday 10:55 a.m.

Plymouth Congregational Church, Universal Church of Christ
3400 Devon Road
Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Services: Sunday 10:00 a.m.

St. Hugh Catholic Church
3460 Royal Road
Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Services: Sunday 9:00 a.m.

I don’t know how well any of these churches meet my above criteria, but I’m willing to find out, and I’m willing to consider other options.

This weekend I have been thinking about dyeing my hair. Between the sun and the pool and the ocean my hair is turning kind of orange. See Exhibit 1:

I’m thinking of dyeing my hair a dark brown or almost black but not blue-black. I haven’t done it yet because I think hair dyeing is kind of vain, and also I’m concerned about the constant upkeep required. Incidentally, this style below is also similar to the haircut I’m considering. See Exhibit 2 :

That haircut is very similar to a haircut I’ve had before. See Exhibit 3 below for the picture I took to the salon as a guide for my stylist:

However, if I were really adventurous and not a lawyer doing jury trials, I’d get the style and color below. I don’t have the nerve to actually do it, but it’s a style and color I’ve thought about several times. See Exhibit 4:

I’m still debating what to do as far as the dyeing. Whether I dye or not, I am definitely going to get the long, layered haircut seen in two of the above photos.

So I updated my Wordpress theme. The problem is that on the index page the sidebar appears a few pixels displaced in Internet Explorer 6. The problem doesn’t happen in IE 7 or in Firefox. I can’t figure it out. It also doesn’t happen on pages other than the index in IE 6. (Except pages where I have photos that need to be made smaller because they’re wider than the posts.)

Does anyone have any idea what’s causing the problem and how I fix it? I am not that good when it comes to CSS in general, and especially not good when it comes to browser compatibility. Any help would be appreciated!

I should warn you that he’s actually not a vampire kitten, he’s just mid-yawn, which makes him look a lot fiercer than he is.

Momo called me today from work, unfortunately I missed two of his calls. Blah! Thanks MetroPCS! My phone was in my pocket on vibrate, and of course gets no bars in parking garages and in elevators and in certain areas of my office and certain courtrooms and…. Well, you get the picture. It didn’t even ring. I tried to call his cell phone, but it’s still “temporarily” out of service. At least I know he’s alive and he went to work. But I still haven’t talked to him and still don’t know what happened to him. This might sound super girly and needy and slightly crazy, but I really like him and miss him and hope there’s some reasonable explanation for everything.

Ibamos a reunirnos el jueves a las 6:00 de la tarde. El me llamó de su trabajo el jueves a la 1:00 de la tarde para decirme que él me llamará “horita” a las 6:00 para venir a mi casa. Me moría de ganas de verlo. Pero él nunca me llamó este fin de semana. Estoy preocupada porque no sé que le pasó. No puedo llamarlo porque el número de teléfono de él ahora está desconectado. No quería llamar a la policía porque por supuesto él no supiera como dejarme y lo hizo así. No iba a su casa porque no quisieria ser una asechadora. Tambien no quería encontrarlo con otra mujer. No pienso que él estaría con otra mujer, pero ahora me siento loca. Entonces, ahora estoy aquí esperando. Aunque es mi “seudo novio”, lo queiro mucho y espero que el esté bien y que me llame. No quería despedirnos así.

You all probably wondered if I died. Lol. No, Lola is still alive and well and doing better than ever. Manchester and I broke up, which surprisingly improved my social life. When we were together I was just so in love with him that I always wanted to stay home and be with him. Now that we’ve broken up, I find that I’m doing a lot more things with friends and by myself. It’s been tough, but overall I am happy. I’m gonna post some earlier entries and I will try to be better about posting in the future.

First, let me say that I got such a kick out of shopping for my weekend. I went to Wal-Mart late Thursday night, and I realized at some point that everyone in the store could probably tell what kind of weekend I was having, just by looking at the contents of my shopping cart. On Friday afternoon I went to the Mayfair Hotel in Coconut Grove, FL. It was great. The hotel is designed so that all of the rooms are along open hallways facing a central atrium. You take a glass elevator up to your level, and you can look across all the lush tropical vegetation.

The room was beautiful. I had specifically picked this hotel because of the location in Coconut Grove, close to restaurants and shopping, and because each room has a “Japanese soaking tub”. My companion for this adventure said that we were going to spend the weekend talking in Japanese, which we did, but I am not convinced that the hot tub really is a “Japanese soaking tub”. The room had marble floors and flat screen TVs in both the bedroom and bathroom. The balcony of our room faced an apartment building, however a few feet away from the balcony’s edge there was a trellis surrounding the entire hotel where they had planted more tropical plants. I felt as if I were in my own tropical oasis. The hot tub was great, and *gasp* I went in naked.

I didn’t end up leaving the room at all. I ordered an omlette from room service, which was great. The king size bed was super comfy, and the DVD player also played CDs, so I ended up bringing all of my Sade CDs along. This experience was exactly what I needed. I highly recommend this hotel and I’d like to go back again soon.

You’ll notice that I now have Blawgg, Trikiao, and Antranquila, thanks to the new transfer feature of the Neopets pound.

I have made a new friend who speaks predominantly Spanish.  He and I communicate almost entirely in Spanish perhaps because I am braver about speaking Spanish than he is about speaking English.  Over the past few days my Spanish has improved immensely.  I still feel a little nervous because I feel somewhat uncomfortable speaking in Spanish, but I hope that I will get over that nervousness.