duly admonished

Well, it's Tuesday and we are close to done with this week's paper and as soon as I sign off on Outtakes I am going to drive home, drive the speed limit home that is, and collapse in a heap. It turns out that dating someone takes a lot of time and disrupts one's routine and can even, on occasion, make a person stare off into space smiling like an imbecile. In other words, as I said to the guy-I've-been-dating-for-three-weeks last night, "Romantic love is sort of a disease, don't you think?" For the record, he does not. He also appears to have the good sense to find me amusing and not take the endless stream of cynical things that come out of my mouth too seriously. So far so good.
I am completely despondant, however, over the state of my driving record. Yesterday's court appearance was, in a word, abject. First off, that court house is hot and claustrophobic. Secondly, I was pretty much the last person called up which meant sitting through a solid hour of other people's lame excuses for speeding, failing to stop, street racing (seriously) drivig without insurance etc. By the time it was my turn, even though I thought I had a legitimate explanation for my most recent speeding ticket (not to mention the fact that I've been genuinely trying not to speed for months now) I didn't really have the stomach to listen to myself excuse myself. So I plead guilty and requested defensive driving school, was given a reduced fee, not sent to driving school (thank fucking god) and admonished by the fill-in judge Sonya Carasco Trujillo who, it should be noted, did not throw the book at me, but looked as though she would like to throw something at me. She "admonished me to slow down" and looked so generally disgusted with me you'd have thought I was an axe murderer. She truly seemed way more annoyed by me than she did by, for example, the street racers (of course journalists probably are below street racers in the food chain), and the uninsured and the failing to report an accident people, and I didn't even try to get out of anything. Now, granted, she did have a few of my prior offenses (speeding) in her possession, but still.
Anyway.
Halloween is fast approaching and SFR's Halloween party is tomorrow night and I have yet to figure out a costume. Halloween is kind of a big holiday around Santa Fe. I always forget how many Halloween events there are. It's like five costume contests in one week. Well, I am the judge of SFR's costume contest and I can promise you that in MY position as judge I will be fair, courteous and pleasant.