First Day of Christmas Break

Well I finished my finals. And now the Christmas season can officially begin for me.  Since this is my last Christmas with an official break where I don't have any work responsibilities to worry about, I've decided to make the most of it.  So, I spent my first day of vacation at the jail, and riding in an elevator with a convicted felon.  Gasp.  Okay, I'll stop being so dramatic.  The jail was to get fingerprinted for the Bar Exam, and the felon wasn't even at the jail - he was at the doctor's office - and I only know he's a felon because he's also a celebrity.

I woke up on Friday expecting to clean the entire house.  Did not happen.  Instead I played with Peanut, picked up lunch for BA and me (yummy BLT's with avocado), and wrapped presents.  I did normal Christmas stuff that I'd been dying to do all during finals and could finally enjoy now that finals are over.  Then in the afternoon we went to a doctor's appointment for BA.

As we were walking into the medical building, there was a black Cadillac Escalade idling at the entrance.  I hate when people just park their cars in the middle of the road, as if they are too important to be bothered to use the parking lot.  I'm a lady with a stroller, let's move it, folks!  The passengers had just gotten out of the car and the driver wasn't moving out of the way fast enough for me.  So I glared into the drivers window to make my irritation known and looking back at me was this young guy with a huge handlebar mustache.  That struck me as odd, what kind of chauffer has a handlebar mustache, but I was so focused on making it to the appointment on time that I didn't bother to see who got out of the car.

We followed the passengers into the lobby and waited for the elevator.  At this point BA was already thinking that the man might be someone famous.  I guess I'm desensitized to L.A. celebrities because all I remember seeing was a guy with baggy grey jeans, boots, a huge silver chain and cross around his neck, and tattoos on his arms.  No big deal - millions of regular people look like that out here.  Well, as it turns out, he was the rapper and actor DMX.  The elevator came and since it was such a small elevator and there were 4 people in front of us, including DMX, I was planning on waiting on the next elevator.  DMX turned around, looked at us, and said, "come on in, there's plenty of room."  BA said at that point, when he heard DMX's voice, he had pretty much figured out who he was (never mind the fact that my husband is able to recognize rap stars from the late '90's).  I didn't think anything of it, except that it was nice for that man to insist that we get on the first elevator and that it was indeed a small elevator.  I actually didn't know it was him and it wasn't until we arrived in the doctor's office lobby that BA said to me, "was that DMX?"  I said, "who?"  BA said, "he's a rapper and he sings, 'ya'll gon' make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here..."  I said, "oh yes, of course I know that song.  That was him?"  A quick Google search on our phone confirmed that it was.

Anyway, what I can say is that DMX was very nice and polite, and he looked exactly like he does in pictures online.  Turns out DMX has several convictions for various felonies and is probably on probation right now.  Whoo-hoo!  Needless to say his music or his past are not exactly family friendly, but Leah made friends regardless.  She always does :)

After our little celebrity run-in, we went to the jail.  Where you would expect to see convicted criminals.  But didn't.  And that's it for my jail story. 

So that is how I spent my first day of vacation.  Today we did our final Christmas shopping of the season and mailed a bunch of packages.  Leah had a teething episode this afternoon which quickly turned into being over-tired and she's spent a good deal of the past hour screaming her pretty little head off.  Poor baby.  But I'm not in school, not taking finals, Christmas is a week away, and there is a bottle of wine with my name on it, and an automated baby swing with Leah's tushy in it, so we'll make it through.  

Leah's response upon hearing that she met DMX, "DM who???"