Everyday Ephemera

Things I've Been Up To Since I Last Posted

2009-11-08T23:38:00.002-05:00

1. Graduated from law and urban planning schools!

2. Studied for and passed (unofficially at this point--the web site says yes but the letter was mailed on Friday and hasn't arrived yet) the bar exam.

3. Left Michigan (within a month of 2 DC friends moving DOWN THE FREAKING BLOCK from my Ann Arbor apartment) and moved to Southwest Washington DC. I love this neighborhood.

4. Adopted a cat. She's blind. When she was in foster care, her name was CiCi (short for Cecilia) and now it's C.C. (short for Carrie Chapman [Catt, a famous suffragist]. She is currently sleeping next to me on the couch and I adore her. Even my dad, who is allergic to cats and doesn't really like them, thinks she is lovely.

5. Started my dream job. Seriously. I can't believe I get to hang out there every day and they actually give me money to do it.

Why I'm Looking Forward to Spring Break

2009-02-18T15:18:00.001-05:00

1. No school! No homework (well, I should do some studying for the week when I get back, but nothing due for a week!)

2. It will be WARM. In Michigan, highs next week will be in the high 20s and low 30s. In New Orleans, it’ll be in the 60s almost every day, and sometimes in the 70s.

3. Road Trip! Future Stacy from next weekend is shaking her fist at me right now, but I’m actually looking forward to the (16 to 18 hours each way) drive. The 1L my roommate and I are driving with seems nice, we have a doohickey to play our ipods through the car speaker, I’m packing vegetarian snacks for the road (my contribution since I’m not helping drive), and we’re doing it in two days on the way down (only one on the way home). The road trips I took in college (northern Vermont and DC, both sophomore year) were so much fun.

4. Volunteering for a few days at a really cool group that deals with green building and energy use in the city, and possibly one day with a public defender.

5. Sightseeing—we’ll be in town during Mardi Gras so that should be really exciting. I got a guidebook from the library and already know I won’t have enough time to see everything I’d like to. Oh well; I’ll just have to go back some day! New Orleans seems like a great place to visit for a long weekend or something.

We leave Saturday morning—I have a lot to do before then but I can’t wait!

Memorable Valentine's Days Past

2009-02-15T12:34:00.002-05:00

1. 2000: 10th grade, first girlfriend (a senior!), ordered each other carnations from student government to be delivered during homeroom. Unbeknownst to the other, we each quoted Melissa Etheridge in the cards we sent along with them.

2. 2003: First Valentine's Day in love. Cards with every word scrutinized (seriously, I did drafts of my valentine), photo booth pictures, a sushi dinner.

3. 2004: In January I decided that I wasn't going to date anyone until after Valentine's day because how awkward is it to deal with V-day in a new relationship? My sister came to visit. There was a party at my co-op. At about 12:02am on 2/15, after my sister had gone to bed, I end up making out with a party attendee in the living room. We dated on-and-off for the next year and a half.

4. 2005: Things were not going terribly well with the person from #3 (note: now we're friends! probably better friends than we were when we were dating) but we still got it together for hot cocoa and fancy chocolate mice from Burdick's.

5. 2009: My parents sending tulips, a friend driving ~10 hours to visit, drinks and photos, ziti pizza, pretty snow, flannel sheets, religious school, cocoa and conversations, the roommate and I nominating each other for law school awards (hers made me cry), six 3Ls sharing dessert and wine and telling stories of disgusting injuries and accidents, home to bed before midnight.

It might not have been typical, but I felt loved nonetheless.

Rituals

2009-02-11T21:15:00.002-05:00

1. I generally turn my cell phone off at night before I go to sleep, but only if my roommate is home (because what if she needs to call me? Or what if something scares me and I need to call someone?)

2. I am on two email lists that send out daily messages around midnight. One of them I never read before I go to sleep--it stays in my inbox and I read it in the morning.

3. Specific prayers as I'm turning off my light at night and when I wake up in the morning.

4. Calling my grandmother every week on the walk home from religious school.

5. Putting any change I have at the end of the day into a big cup--when it's full I'm going to donate it (did you know if you donate your change the coin-counting machines at the grocery store and stuff don't charge you a fee?).

Lost

2009-02-07T20:34:00.002-05:00

1. Wallet, fall of junior year of college, in the registrar's office at college. They returned it soon after.

2. Keys, winter of my junior year in college, while making a snow angel en route from the co-op I lived in to the co-op the person I was dating at the time lived in. Recovered soon after, with the help of a flashlight.

3. Con law book, spring of 1L year. Since the book is about 1400 pages and about the size of two cinderblocks, not quite sure how I managed to misplace it. Never recovered.

4. Phone, last fall, approximately 72 hours after passing up the opportunity to get a spare one or sign up for loss-protection insurance (switching from an individual plan to a family plan), in an airport shuttle van. Never recovered. Luckily, I still had my old phone, which (despite having a talk time of about 35 minutes between charges, a crappy camera, and an inability to charge while turned off) is built like a brick, a fact I am often grateful for because I drop it probably once a day.

5. Keys, tonight, somewhere between my house and the Kroger checkout line. Not a huge deal--it's easy enough to make a new copy of the house key, I can easily replace my Kroger card, and the only other thing on it was my bike lock key, but yuck. Hopeful it'll be returned.

Words I Usually Misspell

2009-02-04T13:43:00.004-05:00

1. knowledge

2. receive

3. prejudice

4. judgment

5. indigent and indigenous (yes I know these have very different meanings, and I will be using only one of these frequently in my career. thank goodness for spell-check!)

Socratic Coping Methods

2009-01-29T10:15:00.002-05:00

Three of my four classes this semester use the Socratic Method. That's a form of torture particular to law school, where instead of TELLING the class what he or she would like you to know, the professor instead chooses an unlucky student and asks a series of questions intended to elicit the information. This is very inefficient, and--for the day's victim--more than a little intimidating. Yesterday I got called on in one of my classes and this morning I got called on in another (will I make the perfect trifecta and get questioned in tax today? I'll know in about 2 hours.

So here are my survival tips:

1. Do the reading. And do something (highlighting, margin notes, briefs in a separate document, those little post-it flags, whatever) that enables you to quickly go back through it and answer questions about it.

2. If you haven't done the reading for some reason and you think you might be called on, it's ok to (VERY occasionally) email the professor ahead of time and ask not to be called on that day.

3. Treat the questions like exam questions--spend more time explaining how you reached an answer than what the answer is, combine the law + the facts in a given situation, acknowledge both sides of an issue but choose one you think is better, and BE BRIEF.

4. Don't be afraid to guess. Alternately, after you've guessed for a while, don't be afraid to say "I'm not sure."

5. Most law school exams follow blind grading. Your performance in class isn't going to affect your final grade in class, which is usually based 100% on your exam performance. And even if you think everyone in the class is going to laugh at your mistakes, they probably won't even remember them.

M Memories

2009-01-26T22:12:00.004-05:00

Since my friend M (known in my previous blog life as The Eagle) is going to have a bit of a rough day tomorrow, and since she is one of the approximately three people who read this with any regularity, I figured I'd dedicate this post to her with a list of one (or more, because seriously it was hard to choose) awesome memory from each full year we've known each other.

1. 2004: Sharing a 437 sf studio (seriously. I just looked it up) and taking all our classes together and (despite not being old enough to drink at this point) coming out of it better friends than when we started.

2. 2005: A tale of two Dons--one of whom we put in a dunk tank, and one who dubbed us departmental liaisons.

3. 2006: The world's most awkward office-hours experience. Also, a surprise thesis-finishing party and the creation of the famous map.

4. 2007: July 4th, with its crazy parade, H&M visit, patriotic cake-baking, fireworks, and lots of talking sums up a lot of what was great about the non-work aspects of that summer (though it leaves out trivia and 8:55 tequila shots at 1223).

5. 2008: Winter--Operation Crazy [200(0)]8s. Spring--24 in Baltimore and Racin' for Jason. Summer--PieFest 3.0 and Team Roger Federer Gave Me Mono. And the Fall of Full Disclosure.

Bonus 6: 2009 has already featured playdates both with parents and without, and I am looking forward to Tequila O'Clock, grad school acceptances, and goodness only knows what else.

Common elements in my dreams

2009-01-26T21:52:00.002-05:00

I kept a [nearly] daily journal from junior year in high school to the first semester of law school. I'm glad I did, but I'm not terribly sad about stopping. I mean, I was going to stop eventually, I guess, so it might as well have been in July 2006. Plus, that summer and following year was a pretty rough one emotionally and I can't imagine wanting to read about it again. It sounds completely ridiculous, but (despite many good things happening that year, and not fully realizing how bad it was at the time) certain things about that year traumatized me in a way that's real and that I haven't fully gotten over.

Well, THAT was a tangent, huh? Anyway, all this to say: I used to keep a diary, then I didn't, and now I've just been using one to write down my dreams. Sometimes I get a total feeling of deja vu, and I thought it would be cool if one day I could say see? I wrote it down a month ago that this would happen! But my dreams, it turns out, are so ridiculous that I don't expect to be living them anytime soon. Here are some things that keep coming up:

1. The co-op I used to live in, and visiting with its inhabitants now that we no longer live together. These dreams are generally very pleasant; there's lots of hugging and just feeling very welcome and included.

2. Going on a Birthright-type trip, often with my relatives and/or with a bunch of people my own age. Not necessarily to Israel though. Sometimes they take place in an airport; other times on a bus or train or just walking around with a group.

3. My thesis adviser. I mean, she's nice, but I didn't realize she (or my thesis!) were having such an impact on my subconscious.

4. People (generally me or my brother) being extremely ill and hospitalized. Since he WAS very ill and hospitalized frequently over the past year, I understand where it's coming from. But geez is it depressing.

5. Being at an airport and either being asked to watch a child but briefly losing him, or helping return a child who'd wandered away from his parents. I say him because it's always been a boy child. The child generally belongs to one of my professors, but is never a child I'd met (or that even exists, usually) in real life. I'm not too panicky in these dreams; somehow I feel confident that the child's not far away, and that I can safely return him to his family. These are the weirdest dreams for me because they feel full of meaning but I'm not sure what. Traveling to new places/experiences in my life? Meeting professors' expectations? Having more options for responsibility (job, perhaps a pet--a child is unlikely for at least the next several years, especially while I am single) and feeling eager yet unprepared?

Probably all of these. Or maybe just that I should keep my eye out for babies running loose next time I'm at the airport.

Bonus #6: Arguing with my mother. Interestingly, I rarely have these dreams when my mother and I are actually spending time together (which is generally when we do argue).

New Baby News

2009-01-21T21:47:00.004-05:00

1. My cousin had triplets on Monday!

2. They join their big brother Jaxon (just turned 3).

3. Their names are Keegan Reese, MacKenna Dylan, and Greir Charly (all girls). Jaxon was pushing for Batman, Robin, and Spiderman but I guess he got outvoted.

4. Two weighed 2lbs 15oz (since two of them are identical twins and one's a singleton, I think the twin were the smaller ones but that's just a guess) and one weighed 3lbs 14oz, and they and their mom are as healthy as can be expected.

5. Since they live in Arizona I doubt I'll see them anytime soon. But I am hoping for pictures!

Bonus 6: A girl I went to school with on Long Island had her baby this week too (thanks, Facebook!). Since none of my close friends are even near to that point yet (few are married, some are engaged or practically so, and a lot are single or in more casual relationships) it was exciting and happy and strange all at once.

Things that are even more random than usual

2009-01-20T21:58:00.002-05:00

1. Today I saw a dead bat lying in the law quad.

2. Last week I was gushing about how nice the new business school was and how I wanted to try their cafeteria because it looked really fancy (not that I don't love the law school snack bar, with its dollar grilled cheese and its $1.55 bagel/egg/cheese breakfast sandwich and the cashier who offers to rinse off the apple you buy....though I do wish they'd bring back the muffins they used to serve, and replace the styrofoam cups with something a little eco-friendlier). And the next day it turns out they had some sort of norovirus outbreak there and 30 people got sick and wow maybe I'll wait a week or two to eat there.

3. It was really stinking cold here for a while (like -13 degrees as a low, finally got around to putting the plastic on my window, slept with all my blankets and a sleeping bag, colder than when I went to northern Finland in January, left my cabinets open so the pipes wouldn't freeze cold) and there is still about a foot and a half of snow on the ground (leading to last night's snowbank situation, involving four public interest law women, three different thai dishes, 2.5 shovels, 2 honda civics, one wonderful tow-truck operator with chains, and innumerable bad-date stories). It's amazing how much warmer 20 degrees is than 3 degrees. And yet, how cold I still am when it's 20 degrees. It MAY get above freezing for a couple of hours later this week. But probably not.

4. I got really into Michigan basketball, and now they're not doing so well. I didn't watch their game tonight, which probably means it was awesome. (Note: just checked. They're down seven points at the half. So maybe not awesome, unless you're Penn State).

5. I cooked this and it was REALLY good (I think you can leave out a tablespoon of oil and the sour cream to make it healthier, I added more carrot and onion since they're cheaper than mushrooms, and subbed in cremini for portabellos...and if you use margarine instead of butter, which is what I did, it's vegan! hooray!). So good I'm going to freeze the leftover red wine (I don't really like red wine) so I can make it again sometime that mushrooms are actually on sale.

Feelings from the Inaugural Weekend

2009-01-20T21:42:00.002-05:00

1. Inspired/Unified: The whole thing was amazing--the talk of love and service, the poetry and marching bands (I especially liked the middle-aged/elderly one), the inclusion of different races and religions (and non-belivers) and ages and LGBT folks and the slow dance at the neighborhood ball to Beyonce singing "At Last" and OMG Malia and Sasha are getting a puppy. Look, right now I think we need a Camelot figure and we've got one and I've bought in hook, line, and sinker. I just hope I look as good in my H&M workplace attire next year as Michelle Obama does. I think we should hang out and she can tell me all her secrets.

2. Grumpy--that my professor wouldn't let us out of class 5 minutes early to watch the swearing in, and in fact started A WHOLE NEW TOPIC with two minutes left in class. Dude, we listen to you for four hours a week. The president was only speaking for 20 minutes. Note: we were all looking at the live feeds on our laptops. This was redeemed by the lovely group of staff and students I watched the final 15 minutes of the speech with in the student lounge.

3. Nervous--When the amazing Gene Robinson prayed on Sunday that G-d keeps Obama safe, when they showed Obama mouthing along with Garth Brooks to the line "this'll be the day that I die," all the talk about MLK and Lincoln, and all the security, it's petrifying.

4. Ready--to move to DC (which, how cool is it that the city was totally the center of the universe this week? I hope people realize how great it is, that there are other places to eat other than Ben's Chili Bowl--not that I don't love Ben's, because I do--and that the Metro is not always as crowded as it was today but you should still use public transit) and to start doing public interest work for a living. I don't want to knock anyone's career decisions; I know it's an incredibly difficult and personal choice and that people in the private sector do a LOT of good with their salaries and their jobs and connections, and that I had a certain situation/privilege/luck that allowed me to be more flexible than most people could've been, especially in this economy, but I will say this: I think I personally would have felt a bit like crap listening to such stirring calls for service and knowing that I was heading to work at a firm next year.

5. Cold--I mean, I know how it feels to be outside when it's freezing out. And I wear a LOT more clothing than some of those folks out on the Mall and I don't stay outside for hours. My toes went numb in sympathy!

Bonus # 6, from watching the concert (streamed) last night: I felt like hugging everyone. I still kind of haven't gotten over that feeling. President Obama. Wow.

Notes on Freezing

2009-01-12T21:52:00.002-05:00

When I lived in a co-op in college, there were a group of housemates who were really into fermentation. Making their own kim chee, lacto-fermented oats, pickled "dilly beans," wine and vinegar, beer, kombucha, mead, sourdough bread, yogurt, etc.

I did not share their passion. While I think dairy preservation is really cool and I'd love to start making my own cheese and yogurt, and I really want to learn to can things, a lot of the rest of it made my stomach turn. Mold is one of my biggest fears and fermenting seemed very close to that.

Freezing, though? THAT I could get behind. Freezing is like the opposite of mold, because it prevents it! And it's so technological! And you can save lots of odds and ends and label them and use up all your spare plastic containers. So I freeze a LOT of things--and I can often make whole meals from various things I'd frozen earlier. For example, tonight I made quiche with frozen pie crust (storebought...I was lazy and it was on sale last month), frozen cheese, and frozen vegetables...I just used fresh eggs. And here's what I've learned over the years.

1. Eggplant doesn't work. Don't bother. And I know everyone says you can store fresh herbs but I haven't been successful, except when blended up into pesto (leave out the cheese).

2. Butter, bread, and chocolate all store much better frozen than refrigerated. You can freeze milk or soymilk (just drink some first so that there's room for it to expand in the container) And cheese freezes really well. Just grate it first so you don't have to use it all at once. This is excellent for me because I try and buy only organic dairy products and when they go on sale I like to stock up.

3. A great way to determine whether something freezes well is to think about whether you can buy it frozen at the supermarket. This is how I reached my Burrito Epiphany, which made packing a lunch much easier.

4. If I ever wanted to try eating only local produce for a whole year while living in a climate like the Upper Midwest, I'd need to freeze a lot more tomato sauce and variations (plain, Minestrone, and Morrocan tomato soup; tomato-vegetable curry; tomato-basil sauce; shakshusa, a spicy middle eastern sauce you can cook eggs in), because I go through them pretty fast, and a TON more fruit. Eating apples all winter long, even with my innovations of apple butter and apple sauce, is BORING. I'm grateful that my grandma in Florida shipped me a box of oranges, am holding back on the peaches I froze in September, and am kicking myself for not freezing berries.

5. You can freeze dough (cookies, pizza, pie etc.) and cook it later, so that when guests come over you can offer them freshly-baked cookies and not have to get your whole kitchen dirty! You can also apparently make whole pies that way but I've never tried it.

Bonus 6. To save room in your freezer, boil liquidy things (stocks, soup, sauces) down a lot. You can always add water when you thaw them.

Things the Maryland Bar Requires

2009-01-12T21:51:00.001-05:00

I'd heard that bar applications were a pain in the neck. But until I downloaded the FIFTY-SEVEN PAGE application, I had no idea exactly how bad things could be.

1. Certifications from my high school, college, graduate school, and law school.

2. A list of every address I've lived at for the past ten years (I counted 15 places I'd lived at least a month) and all my creditors (luckily this is just a credit card and two student lenders, but still)

3. References from five people who have known me for at least five years but are not my relatives, employers, or fellow law students. No two people on this list can be married to each other.

4. Copies of my driving records from New York and Michigan (never mind that despite having a Michigan license, not once have I operated a motor vehicle in this state).

5. A list of all my employers (both paid and significant volunteer activity) for the past five years. Each one has to be mailed a reference form, or I have to sign an affidavit that the place is out of business. I need to look into whether I need to send one to every babysitting and dog-walking client I've had since January 2004 (there are at least seven, including one that's left the country, oh my gosh) or if I can instead fill in a form for myself as a self-employed child-and-pet-care contractor. Bare minimum, (meaning that babysitting is one job, everything and Smith is a second, and everything at UM is a third) I count nine.

Bonus 6: A brief HAND-WRITTEN essay about why a Maryland rule of professional ethics of my choice is important. I am not making this up.

Not to mention questions about my mental health (which surely was better before I started applying for the bar), financial stability, substance abuse issues, court proceedings, and much more. Once all this is over, I get to do more fun things like an in-person interview, a one-day Professionalism Course, and--oh yeah--the two-day BAR EXAM before I can get admitted.

I'm consoling myself with the thought that every lawyer in the country managed to do this (well, maybe some of them talked their moms or spouses or something into doing it) and so I can too.

Proof That I'm a HUGE Nerd

2009-01-10T14:33:00.002-05:00

1. I like Bluebooking so much that I save it for the end when I write papers. I find it's even more fun when I listen to boy bands while I do it.

2. I tape the best voicemails people leave me. On audio tape.

3. Needlepoint. People, knitting is cool--see: Stitch & Bitch. Quilting is cool: some folks I lived with in college, people who are so much cooler than me I can't even believe they talked to me, are starting a quilting group out in Oakland. There's even a book and website about subversive cross-stitch. But nothing, you'll note, about needlepoint.

4. When I move this summer, there will definitely be significantly more boxes of books than clothes.

5. This morning when I found out at 7am that we had a religious school snow day my first two thoughts were:
a) Hooray! Now I can go sledding!
b) Oh darn--we had a really nice lesson planned about Jewish books and it tied in so well with our library visit!

For the record, thought c) ("I'm in bed! I can stay in bed! ZZZzzzzz.") won out.

Bonus #6: I know extraordinarily few of the songs on Rock Band (although I do love watching people play it, and if I could get a chance to practice in private first I think I'd really like to try the drums). Why? Because the radio I listened to most in high school was WCBS News Radio 88 and the Lavender Wimmin Radio Show on WUSB Stony Brook. Now, if Rock Band had a part where you could do the New York City traffic report, or some Ani songs, I would be a star.

Keywords that Attracted People to this Site

2009-01-08T15:40:00.003-05:00

1. EVERY DAY conversation topics: I don't know. If you want to have the same conversation every day, maybe "how are you?" is a good one?

2. best neighborhood to live in dc: again, it depends. I'm partial to the Eastern Market/Capitol Hill and Kalorama/Adams Morgan/Woodley Park areas, but since I'm working in Shaw I probably won't be living there, even if I could afford it. And if I were a real estate investor, I'd probably go with the area by the NY Ave. metro, or just southwest of RFK stadium.

3. corporations exam: sorry, I'm just as lost as you are. Except now I'm DONE with that class!

4. sneakers hole sole: dude, if you find a way of getting this repaired please come back and let me know.

5. recession and domestic violence michigan: sorry I don't have any stats on this, but it's an interesting topic. And, for a DV-related article that really hit home for me, check out this sad piece.

Irrational Fears

2009-01-08T15:34:00.004-05:00

1. Finding a dead mouse in my washing machine (this happened to me once, in 1L year. It was gross but I coped).

2. Mold around the underside of the washing machine lid (also happened. I coped). Between that and #1, it's quite a quandry as to whether I should leave the machine's lid up or down when I'm not using it.

3. Every time someone I care about gets sick or needs surgery, that they have cancer (again, it's happened. Rarely. We coped. Are you sensing a theme?)

4. That really I have no friends and the people I think are my friends are being paid by my parents (or Medicaid. I don't know) as sort of home-health aides for my social life. Yes, I realize this is not exactly likely or supported by evidence. And goodness knows, with the way Medicaid works, I'd probably be getting a lot more paperwork to fill out if this were the case.

5. Getting sued for malpractice next year. At least I hope this one is irrational.

Songs I Had Stuck in My Head Yesterday

2009-01-08T15:19:00.003-05:00

1. Mad Mission: Patty Griffin (woke up with this)

2. Eli, Eli: words by Hannah Senesh (this one was not totally crazy because I finished reading a book about her in the morning)

3. The theme song to The Nanny: WTF???

4. An R&B song the bus driver back from North Campus was singing along to that--oddly enough--had small children singing at the end of the recording. I saw "oddly enough" because most of the rest of the song was about VIPs, heat, and other not exactly child-friendly (unless you mean getting friendly and making children) topics.

5. The Locomotion: This happened while I walked home from the library. Again, WTF?

Sometimes, my mind is a scary, scary place. But it's never wanting for variety!

Tips for Staying Warm

2009-01-07T15:54:00.002-05:00

1. Warm clothing. Lots of layers. Long underwear is your friend. Thick socks, nice gloves (I just got a pair that are wool with a polar fleece lining...I hate the feel of wool so this was necessary), always a hat. Just don't wear so much that you get sweaty.

2. A warm bed: Piles of blankets are your friends. So are flannel sheets. I have a bag of grain that can be microwaved and when it's really cold I'll heat it up, stick it under the covers while I brush my teeth, then hop into bed with it. An electric blanket or hot water bottle (or a pet or other person!) in your bed would probably do the same thing. This is especially important because we turn our heat down a lot at night (hooray for programmable thermostats, which enable us to do this and have the heat click on just before we get up).

3. Seal drafts. Since I rent, I can't do anything permanent, but we've used plastic over windows, duct tape around wall sockets, storm doors, etc. Just don't do anything that will make it impossible for you got get out in a fire.

4. Eat and drink hot (temperature and spice) things. My latest favorite is hot cocoa with cinnamon and a dash of cayenne pepper.

5. Stay inside as much as you can. Or go to someplace warm. Apparently one of my school's gyms has a sauna I kind of want to check out. The law library is also well-heated...convenient, since I'm here a lot.

Classes I'm Taking Next Semester

2009-01-06T22:07:00.002-05:00

1. Transnational Law (not really interesting to me but it's required)

2. Taxation of Individual Income (I am actually really excited about this!)

3. Family Law (also very excited, both because a lot of the subject matter overlaps with my favorite fall class, Children and the Law, and because a lot of my favorite fellow students will be in it too)

4. Evidence (not very excited, especially since it starts at 8:45am, but since it turns out I'm going to be a litigator next year and not the transactional lawyer I always thought I'd be, it seems important)

5. An independent study that will also be my urban planning thesis. It's going to be case studies and analysis about getting community benefits from public and private developers of transportation projects (bridges, roads, airports, etc.) --there are administrative and contract law ways to get these benefits, and the research might help community groups deciding which avenues to pursue. I'm a little daunted about writing 60 pages because I am NOT a very self-directed writer or researcher (see: the fact that my note has been about 5 pages away from finished for the past year. See also: the days where I'd go to the library all day for my Picker paper and write half a page. See ALSO: the fact that I didn't finish my paper for a class I took in the fall semester and am trying to finish it this week--it's due the end of January). But I have to get it done, or else I don't get my MUP and my sister coming up from Houston for my graduation is a little silly. That seems like pretty good motivation.

Thoughts Upon Returning Home

2009-01-04T16:36:00.003-05:00

1. I'm glad I found someone to share a taxi with.

2. There is a lot to do in the next 10 days before school starts.

3. Hooray! Two more holiday cards and two presents came after I left!

4. And my bathtub got re-caulked!

5. It's really nice to be back.

on vacation

2008-12-19T21:48:00.001-05:00

I'm heading out of town tomorrow morning, so probably won't be updating til early January.

See you next year, everyone (all four or so of you who probably read this)!

books i'm bringing on vacation

2008-12-19T21:43:00.003-05:00

1. All the President's Pastries--a memoir of a White House chef

2. Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish

3. The Color of Law--this is a mystery novel, nothing seriously law-related.

4. The Orchid Thief

5. Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS

also, a book about modern American nuns (I am really really interested in nuns. I think if I had been born Catholic I would've become a nun) and one about different dialects of English.

clearly I'm going through a non-fiction phase at the moment, but would be happy for fiction (or non-fiction) suggestions.

drinks I've consumed in the past 24 hours

2008-12-19T21:39:00.002-05:00

1. bellini at eve...very swank and grown-up (the bar. the 9 law student ladies and one gallant husband-of-a-law-student were not particularly swank or grown up, but that made it even more fun)

2. malternative (leftover from my half birthday party) with my roommate upon returning home from eve.

3. orange juice (could've been a mimosa, but i have my limits) at this morning's Buffy Brunch. I'm not a huge buffy fan, but vegan pancakes, holiday cookies, 3 wonderful cats, and 3 wonderful friends were definitely worth tromping through a blizzard.

4. pear cider at ashley's with a law student/high school teacher/scientist contingent.

5. a lot of water. water is key.

can you tell finals are over?

Fun Facts I've Learned This Week

2008-12-18T10:47:00.002-05:00

1. Baha'i is the first monotheistic religion to have promoted monogamy from its inception.

2. The Icelandic word for computer derives from its words for "number prophetess."

3. Historicproperties.com is a great procrastination tool.

4. You need 1 recommender for a citibank grad school loan but two for federal gradplus loans.

5. There is a breed of dog called the Polish Lowland Sheepdog and it is SO CUTE. It's like a 40-lb old english sheepdog and it doesn't shed! I know that "they're so cute" is not the way to choose a pet and that for me, it's most important to get a dog who can be left alone while I'm at work, regardless of breed....but I'm thinking of putting myself on a breed rescue waiting list next year. Not a lot of them come up for adoption (I'm not really interested in buying a purebred dog and couldn't afford it anyway) so who knows when/if I'd get one.

What I've Eaten Today

2008-12-17T19:01:00.000-05:00

1. Oatmeal with apples, soymilk, and maple syrup: 7am (before my exam)

2. Mushrooms and a couple squares of dark chocolate (snacks during the exam--hey, four hours of thinking burns a lot of glucose!)

3. Jalapeno cheetos (ok, there was no excuse for this but I was done with my exam and had some other stuff to do before I went home)

4. Spaghetti with swiss chard, garlic, and raisins (mmmm leftovers)

5. Rye toast with mustard and a glass of grape juice (what a weird dinner, yet so oddly satisfying).

Pros and Cons

2008-12-16T11:52:00.003-05:00

In elementary school, one of our writing assignments was an "And Then" story, where something good alternated with something bad (ie, "and then I got an ice cream cone! But then it fell on the ground. And then a cute puppy came over and licked it up! But then it turns out puppies can't eat chocolate and it was a chocolate ice cream cone so it died." I was not exactly a charming child).

So here is my list version of an "and then" story:

1. I don't know anything about corporations! BUT my exam will be over tomorrow at this time.

2. I don't know when my health insurance is stopping and it's annoying to play phone tag with the people who should know but don't and getting new insurance is going to cost about $200 a month through August, and it won't include dental care (see yesterday's entry: what if my toothache is not stress-related and I need another root canal like last year?). BUT I have resources to earn/borrow enough money for everything and I'll have health care through my job until September 2011.

3. It is 18 degrees outside and we are going to get 3-5 inches of snow tonight...perfect weather for walking to my exam at 7:15 tomorrow morning. BUT I don't have to go outside for anything today and I have plenty of warm clothing and blankets and snow is pretty.

4. I have 2 more papers to grade today and 19 more tomorrow. BUT they are going quickly, I gave the first perfect score of the semester, and this job had a lot of financial and educational benefits.

5. I don't know what I'm doing for New Year's yet. BUT I will spend it in DC, with friends, and that will be awesome.

Things that are starting to break down:

2008-12-15T19:26:00.003-05:00

1. Every printer in the law school. Apparently, there's one still working. Folks are getting cranky.

2. The entire right side of my face. Jaw, teeth, chapped lips, runny nose, sinuses, red eyes, sore throat--everything just aches. I know it's all connected. I know it's all caused by stress (convenient, since I don't have time to go to the doctor). But right now I just want to do what my sister had to do to her cadaver in first year med school and just saw my face in half vertically. The left brain is the logical one and that seems more useful for exams anyway.

3. My sneakers. I always get a hole in the same part of the right sole before anything else wears out and it's happening again. Right now, I can still wear them whenever--but they're fast becoming warm/dry weather only shoes.

4. Peace in Bosnia

5. My will to study any more tonight--luckily, I just have a little bit more on partnerships and then I can do corporations tomorrow. UGH. This next exam is going to be no fun at all.

Recent Conversation Topics Occuring Between 12:30 and 8:30am at My House

2008-12-14T18:07:00.003-05:00

1. Cute baby pictures

2. Cheese microbiology

3. Pros and cons of leather pants

4. Whether the electrician can wait a few more minutes before shutting off all power for the day

5. Why finals are no fun, reasons 1 through 352594549

Great Moments From Religious School Today

2008-12-13T13:46:00.002-05:00

1. My wonderful male teacher aide from first session gamely attempting Israeli dance.

2. How calm the kids were when we played dreidel. And how much more coordinated they are at spinning it now than they were when I had them in kindergarten.

3. Making sure everyone had the correct hats, sweaters, boots, hoodies, mittens, etc. and was all bundled up. I imagine it must get annoying for parents to do this a million times, but when it's only once a week it is so darn cute.

4. A bunch of kids were absent from second session, so I was left with just four girls. I mentioned that it reminded me of college, and my teacher aide (I know! A teacher aide for just four kids! I was blessed) who's a junior in high school told me she was going to apply to Smith and loved it when she visited. Super exciting!

5. Getting chocolate from one of my students. It is simultaneously the absolute last thing I need (my dietary habits are not all they could be during finals, that's for sure) and utterly perfect and necessary.

A bonus #6, to tie in to yesterday: at services, the rabbi was telling the story of Hannukkah and told the kids "you are lucky to live in a comfortable time, when no one tells you that you can't be Jewish." And one kid raised his hand and said "yes, but right now it is also uncomfortable because of the economy." So we talked a little about how governments provide different kinds of security for us (protecting our money, our rights, the environment, against invasions, etc.) and how some governments might be better at some of those things than others.

Signs of the Recession, Michigan Style

2008-12-12T19:21:00.002-05:00

1. Layaway at stores--I hadn't seen this since I was very little.

2. Sign twirlers outside stores that are going out of business.

3. Clusters of students around the TV in the art and architecture building, watching the auto bailout hearings.

4. The religious school I work at always has a toy drive for kids living in a local domestic violence shelter. This year, the parents living there said toys would be nice, but what they really need are toiletries, diapers, over-the-counter medicine, baby food and formula, etc.

5. Trying to steal the library's donation box. As I've noted before, I love public libraries and really like AADL's director. She has some sort of disability that already required her to walk with a cane, so I'm doubly pissed that she had to be injured foiling a theft.

a bonus 6: Law students prostituting themselves for tuition payments (this probably doesn't have to do with the recession but how crazy is that?)

Words that Appear in My 14th Amendment Exam

2008-12-11T21:20:00.002-05:00

1. Alien

2. Icelandic

3. Sex

4. Shoes

5. Artifacts

And about 3590 others. If you don't have anything useful to say, say it in an interesting way, right?

Feelings About My 48-Hour Take-Home Exam

2008-12-10T17:50:00.002-05:00

1. I have nothing to say.

2. But somehow my outline is 2800 words and the whole thing can only be 3600.

3. And I haven't really gone into detail about any cases yet.

4. It's a good thing that grading in law school makes no sense because sometimes that means people with nothing to say do really well.

5. Right? Please say #4 is right. Otherwise, please hope that I actually secretly (as in, I'm keeping it a secret FROM MYSELF) am a legal genius.

DVDs I've Watched This Semester

2008-12-09T10:25:00.002-05:00

1. 27 Dresses: because sometimes it is cold outside and everybody's got a cold and you just need something to watch where you can kind of zone out for a while and not miss anything. And Katherine Heigl not being as crazy as on Grey's Anatomy (seriously? ghost visitations?)

2. Ratatouille: oh my gosh so good. I mean, I've walked around DC enough at night to have seen real rats. And I am not a fan. But I was a fan of Remy.

3. L Word Season 5: I won this in an online raffle. It has provided much solace (and probably reduced GPAs, but oh well) during finals period, and my school's GLBT group will use it for a sleepover/Lword marathon before season 6 (the last one! sad!) starts in January.

4. Street Fight: I had rented this about 3 times before and never watched it, but a friend of a friend was involved in making it and I'm really into Cory Booker (he won the law fellowship I got rejected for! clearly that makes him an awesome-r person than me, at least) and it was pretty good. I wish it had more balance, but when Cory's opponent's supporters kept trying to assault the camera guy and break his equipment, I guess there's only so much you can do.

5. The Cheese Nun: Seriously. I am not making this up. It's only an hour long (perfect for study breaks) and it's about cheese (which I love, see my affection for the Cheesetique store in Del Ray) and nuns (I am really fascinated with nuns. If I were born Catholic, I think I might have liked to be one)! I think after the bar exam I should go to France and apprentice myself to the Cheese Nun for a month. Also, just the title makes me happy (and my roommate thought it was HILARIOUS). Try saying it to yourself; you will smile, I promise. Cheese Nun. Cheese Nun! I am the cheese nun. I am the walrus. koo koo ca choo.

Good Places to Get Cupcakes

2008-12-08T15:24:00.002-05:00

1. Cake Nouveau, Ann Arbor. Not my favorite cupcakes (cake a little dry, frosting a little buttery) but the store is SO DARN CUTE and the owner won a Food Network challenge.

2. Cupcake Station, Ann Arbor. Better cupcakes with a better variety of flavors than #1, and a block closer to my house. Mini cupcakes, too, for when I'm feeling indecisive. But it's weird that their reading selection only includes back issues of Car & Driver and other auto magazines.

3. Sticky Fingers, Washington DC. Don't think about the fact that they're vegan (unless you're a vegan, in which case rejoice). The chocolate with raspberry filling makes me so happy. Seriously, if I got married in DC I'd want a tiered pile of these as my wedding cake.

4. Buzz Bakery, Alexandria VA. Sort of out of the way, but adorable and dog-friendly and just lovely. To be fair, I've never tried their cupcakes, but I had an awesome blondie from there at an Oktoberfest last fall and it completely made up for the fact that all the other stands were out of food and I don't like beer.

5. Home-made. Always wonderful.

I'm heading out soon for a cupcake study break with the Outlaws, which inspired the topic. Sadly, there hasn't been all that much studying to take a break FROM, but it's hard surmounting the 3L apathy. Maybe if I baked my professors cupcakes....

Words Used in Weather.com's 10-day forecast for my ZIP code

2008-12-07T13:00:00.002-05:00

1. "Mostly cloudy" (2 of the 10 days)

2. "Snow" or "snow shower" (the other 8 days)

3. "Winds WNW at 10-20 miles per hour"

4. "Feels like 7 degrees Fahrenheit" (currently)

5. "UV index: Low" (you think?)

Too bad all that's standing between me and a flight to Ft. Lauderdale (current temp: 73 degrees) are 2 take-home exams, a 4-hour in-class exam, the remaining 80% of my 20-page paper, and 57 memos to grade. UGH.

Fun Things We've Done in Religious School This Semester

2008-12-06T16:12:00.003-05:00

1. Made our own model Torahs and arks

2. Baked and decorated cookies to donate to a nursing home's Hannukkah party

3. Read lots of picture books...I'm amazed with what good listeners they are and how much they like being read to.

4. Gone on a scavenger hunt (to find things like "two water fountains," "three Jewish stars," etc.) around the temple

5. Looked at pictures of synagogues around the world and built our own "dream synagogue" out of blocks

I can't believe that next week marks the halfway point for this second grade class! I've got some fun things up my sleeve for next semester, too....

Awesome Names for Pets

2008-12-05T16:57:00.002-05:00

1. Aspiradora: For the puppy that eats EVERYTHING. It's Spanish for vacuum cleaner. I'd use Dora, for short.

2. Carrie Chapman Cat[t]: A famous suffragist, and what I'd name a cat if I got one (C.C. for short). Too bad my dad is allergic.

3. Schrodinger: not my first choice (see #2) but I dated a physicist who was totally obsessed with the idea of naming a cat this, because of the famous thought experiment.

4. Pork Chop: what I named the hamster I got in 7th grade. Get it? PORK CHOP? Because it's a HAMster? I thought I was pretty damn clever.

5. Grandma/Grandpa. Because how hilarious would it be to yell across the dog park "Hey Grandma! You stop sniffing that!"

DC Neighborhoods I Might Live In Next Fall

2008-12-05T16:51:00.002-05:00

1. Shaw (I'll be working here, so it makes good sense)

2. Logan/Dupont Circle-ish (there's a bus that runs all along P Street, which would be convenient for getting to work)

3. Columbia Heights/U Street-ish (easy Metro commute, plenty to do, and I have my fingers not-so-secretly crossed that if I decide to live with roommates, a certain owl-roofed house might have a spare room)

4. Eastern Market (because I love it, not because it is particularly practical or affordable).

5. Kalorama/Adams Morgan-ish (see 4)

Meanwhile, it is way too early to look for housing for next August or September. Especially since seriously 2/3 of the listings on craigslist are for housing for the inauguration.

Things I've Cooked Recently That Turned Out Surprisingly Well

2008-12-03T09:34:00.002-05:00

1. Moroccan vegetable stew over quinoa

2. Apple upside-down cake

3. Tomato-eggplant curry

4. Butternut squash and sage lasagna (this also froze really well in single-serving portions...it was like making my own fancy-pants organic TV dinners, but cheap).

5. Moo shu vegetables

Nicknames My Friends or Relatives Have Used for People They've Dated

2008-12-02T16:58:00.004-05:00

1. Stretching Strap

2. Hamlet

3. The Abortionist

4. Mr. Red Line

5. 1984

How I Celebrated Getting a Job Yesterday

2008-12-02T16:56:00.002-05:00

1. A cupcake

2. Calling family, friends, recommenders, etc.

3. Not working on my land disputes paper

4. Volunteering at the Community Kitchen (I made delicious carrots) and chopped a bunch of peppers and tomatoes

5. Sushi for dinner.

Reasons I Donate Blood

2008-11-30T13:02:00.003-05:00

1. People really need it--when my brother was being treated for cancer, it was amazing how much better he felt after a transfusion.

2. It's irreplaceable--donating money isn't a substitute, and no one can give extra blood to make up for what I don't donate.

3. For everyone I know who can't give because of ridiculous and sometimes discriminatory rules. All of my gay male friends, women who've dated bisexual men, people who've gotten tattoos in the past year (even with sterile needles, at licensed places), anyone who's ever lived in Africa, etc.

4. You meet friendly donors and nurses. And sometimes you get pins or t-shirts or coupons or other fun things.

5. It's a chance to lie down and relax for a while. And you HAVE to eat cookies afterwards. It's an actual rule.

Sports Teams I've Followed

2008-11-29T15:56:00.002-05:00

1. NY Yankees: This got me a lot of grief when attending school in Massachusetts, but it really was more of an rebellion against my Mets-fan parents than anything against the Red Sox. Plus, how could you not love someone as hardworking as Hideki Matsui?

2. NY Liberty: Oh, the glory days with Rebecca Lobo (who kept getting injured so never really played), Sue Wicks (openly gay! and from Long Island!) and the Witherspoon/Weatherspoon duo.

3. Washington Nationals: Unlike #1, nobody hates you for being a Nationals fan. They just get this confused, pitying expression. But I think Nationals Stadium is one of the best places to see a baseball game: the Racing Presidents, a Capitol view (if you crane your neck), easy Metro access, movies and fireworks after the game, bobbleheads, veggie chili-cheese fries from Ben's chili bowl, a musical selection that inexplicably favors Hava Nagila, and soft-serv in those plastic baseball caps. With all this, who cares that they've lost approximately 80% of the games I've attended?

4. Michigan Wolverines: I don't even really know the rules of football (people have tried to explain it to me. I can keep it in my head for about 45 minutes before I forget). But when people hear that's where I go to school, they like to talk about how the team is doing. And I do like the excitement of game day, and hearing the marching band practice during the week.

5. Davidson Wildcats: My patented NCAA bracket-picking strategy of choosing winners based on whether I know people who attended a given school finally came through for me last year. And the Davidson team just seems so darn nice. I want to bake them all cookies. Davidson's success also compelled some east coast friends to venture to Michigan (it's not easy getting people to visit here--especially when it's still snowing in the midwest and the cherry blossoms are in bloom in DC). I have high hopes that they'll make it to the Final Four this year so everyone has to come back to Detroit.

Beverages I Dislike

2008-11-28T11:04:00.003-05:00

1. Beer: seriously, once my boss took me to a brewery and I got a pint of beer--it was the only thing they sold there--and I made it through the foam and then had to stop because I was going to puke.

2. Tea: I can handle it with lots of milk--this is how I made it through having tea with the Sheriff of Nottingham (I am not making this up. There is an actual Sheriff of Nottingham, whose duties are largely ceremonial these days, and in 2001 I had tea with him while an exchange student in England) but I don't really enjoy it at all.

3. Kombucha: it's tea (see #2) but fermented. bleccccch.

4. Any sort of low-sugar juice with Splenda in it. I don't care how many people tell me they can't taste the difference. I CAN.

5. Vernor's ginger ale. People in Michigan are big fans, for some reason. I'm a big fan of ginger ale in general (including in Shirley Temples!) but this just doesn't taste the same.

Memorable Runs

2008-11-27T11:42:00.003-05:00

1. 1996 Hershey Track and Field Youth Nationals--by some crazy twist of fate, I ended up on New York's 4x100 team--we came in fourth, but just as much fun as the meet was getting to fly to Harrisburg, take a tour of the Hershey factory (the real one, not just the ride at Hershey Park), go on all the rides, and meet kids from all over the country.

2. 2004 Rockville Twilighter 8k: My first footrace with Tess--I remember being so thrilled by the people standing on their front lawns spraying us down with garden hoses. The DC area in July is HOT.

3. Summer 2007 when Tess and I ran 5 miles along the Mall in the mid-day heat and afterwards, outside the Metro Center station, a pigeon crapped on my head. Tess gave up the last of her water to rinse out my hair. Now THAT'S a true friend.

4. 2008 Race for Hope: My dad, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, some of my aunt's friends, and six of my friends all raising money for brain tumor research. I even convinced my friends to wear shirts with ridiculous illustrations of my brother's brain. What incredible people.

5. Today's Turkey Trot in Ann Arbor--not my fastest time, not the flattest course or the best weather (my arms went numb about halfway through) but it was great to get outside and see some friends and burn some calories before dinner. And playing with an adorable dog was just icing on the cake--despite suffering the consequences now. I've NEVER had an allergic reaction to animals before, so this is very weird. Thank goodness for antihistamines, curling up on the futon, and watching the Detroit parade.

And you? Any good athletic experiences?

Happy thanksgiving!

Public Libraries I've Loved

2008-11-26T08:08:00.004-05:00

First of all, I should say how much I love public libraries; getting a library card is one of the first things I do when I move to a new place. This isn't meant as a dig at awesome university libraries, the Library of Congress, etc. But public libraries are something special. So here's a list of places I've held library cards:

1. Emma S. Clark Memorial Library on Long Island: where it all began. Their quiet little periodicals room with the stained-glass angel, the mural of a carnival hanging in the children's section, the dictionary their staff bought me for volunteering at the summer reading program. I still have my first library card, circa 1988.

2. Northampton, Massachusetts: home not only to the typical public library-ish things, but to the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library!

3. Missoula, Montana: Despite not knowing anyone when I moved there one summer, I had a very pleasant couple months-- when I wasn't at work I did a lot of walking my landlady's dog, riding my bike (the bike was a story in itself--yellow with pink spots, cruiser handlebars, no gears, back-pedal brakes) around town, visiting the farmers' markets and cooking stuff, and--most of all--lying on various riverbanks and reading.

4. Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC (twice each): DC libraries are the only ones I've been to where you go through a metal detector on the way IN. But the selection is very good (especially if you request books online so they can be shipped to your home branch), they have great, free, ASL classes, and they provide such a community hub. Arlington libraries are a little less gritty, but serve the same role and have books in so many languages! One day, I'd really like to serve on the Board of Trustees for the DC library (Mayor Fenty, if you read this, call me!).

5. Ann Arbor District Library: They're doing a great job--serving substantial populations of immigrants, students, young children, long-time Ann Arbor residents, homeless folks, etc. Their director has the BEST southern accent. There's a vending machine section by the periodicals so you can have hot cocoa while you read magazines. They stay open til 9 most nights and have free wireless. The buildings are beautiful, and the main one is right across the street from the city's central bus station so it's easy to get there by public transit. My only complaint is that they put some copies of popular books as "zoom lends" which cost a dollar to take out--I know it's probably a great revenue stream for them, but it seems so undemocratic and I won't do it, on principle. It's not like there aren't great books in the non-zoom section to read while I wait.

I also love the new central library in Minneapolis, the Del Ray branch of the Alexandria libraries, and the fact that the Clayville, NY library let a couple get married there.

And you? What libraries do YOU love?

Things I Did Tonight Instead of Outlining my Land Disputes Paper

2008-11-25T22:03:00.002-05:00

1. Ran 3 miles (not outside--are you crazy?--but in the IM building; my favorite treadmill was taken but it was still pretty fun)

2. Ate the rest of the chocolate-caramel apple I was given as a half-birthday present (thank you, my favorite 1L Outlaws!)

3. Convinced my roommate she needs to attend a puppet show version of America's Next Top Model Season Two in Ypsilanti next week.

4. Started this utterly ridiculous blog.

5. OK, I'm going to go outline the damn paper now.

And you? What do you do to procrastinate?