Ten Years

OK, so technically the end of the decade is what, next year? Who knows? I'm never really good at that stuff. However, since everyone had the Y2K hysteria and did the decade lists 10 years ago (and this year), I think it's fair game to talk about it now.

1999: I graduated from high school and had finished my first quarter at UCLA. I was really enjoying myself a lot...well, at least my extracurriculars. I disliked my roommates a LOT and was looking forward to living off-campus. I wanted to go to law school, but knew my grades weren't going to be up to par. My mom and stepdad had just split up and my family had just moved to Vegas (my mom, the twins at 8 months, and my sister). My sister had just finished high school and was pregnant with my nephew Isaac. I had just negotiated with the judge to complete an alcohol diversion class instead of having a suspended license for my MIP (minor in possession). I had finally broken up with my high school boyfriend a couple of months before and was not-so-secretly pining after a guy I hooked up with during the summer. I had no idea if I'd ever meet someone that I could even date long term, much less marry.







2009: Shockingly, I managed to not only finish undergrad, but also a master's degree. I just finished my first semester at Harvard Law School. I really like it a lot, even though I don't get nearly enough sleep. My grades are probably still not up to par, but I try very hard. My roommate now irritates me sometimes but I probably won't move out any time soon because he's my husband :). I've been married for almost two and a half years. I now live on an entirely different coast. My nephew will be 10 in a couple of months and the twins will be 11. But the biggest change? I am happy.







True, it's not all wonderful. I've gained weight in the last 10 years which annoys me (to put it mildly). I don't look as young as I once did. But the last 10 years have been such a roller coaster ride and they've seemingly passed so quickly. The next 10 are going to be filled with so many other wonderful milestones: graduating from law school, beginning my professional career, having children, buying a home. The twins will be on the brink of turning 21 (!!!!!!). I will be officially middle aged (Boo!). But I can't wait for all that life will bring.

Happy New Year, all!

Merry Christmas to Me!

I decided to buy myself a pre-finals pick-me-up. I mean, it makes The Outdoorsman's life easier because he doesn't have to shop for me or try to keep a secret (at which he is quite terrible). I win because I get exactly what I want at a good price and I get it immediately! Of course, this was a rationalization made after I saw the email from Gilt Group saying that there was a sale on Juicy Couture that day and The Outdoorsman was still sleeping so he couldn't talk me down from the ledge.



Little Juicy Couture crown earrings. I bought another pair for my little sister for Christmas too. She's in 5th grade now and preparing to go to middle school next year. Between the Juicy tote I bought her last Christmas and the earrings this Christmas, she's going to be the coolest little 6th grader ever.




The only difference between this one and mine is that mine is in a dark beige/taupe-ish color.

My Life is Hard

I really shouldn't be taking the time to blog given that school is blowing up in my face. My life can best be described by the video clip below (at least, roughly the first thirty seconds). When I was younger I'd watch this and scoff thinking school couldn't possibly be that hard. I still maintain that high school is weak shit, but sadly, I feel a bit like Jessie these days.

Just Workin' on My Fitness

One of the things that many of my classmates have complained about is that in law school, like undergrad, they are starting to put on weight. Maybe it speaks to how sedentary the lifestyle is in LA's car culture, but I haven't had that issue. If anything, I lost a little from always walking around. Even still, I wanted to make a return to the gym. We canceled our gym membership back in LA when money was tight and I was looking forward to going back during the school year when it was "free" (and by "free" I mean, I paid $45 large for it).

Before the semester started, I made a sweet little Excel chart for my week -- on Mondays and Tuesdays when class started at 10, I'd go to the gym in the morning. On Wednesdays, I'd go after my last class. On Thursday and Friday, I'd go between classes. It was a good plan, too...until I stepped foot on campus, got into my first week of classes, and realized I'd underestimated how much time I'd need to read. I kept promising myself that once I got a handle on the reading, I'd go to the gym...next week. Then it was the week after. Then a month passed and I still hadn't gone. Then I started to psych myself out and feel intimidated -- after all, it was halfway through the semester and I was probably the only person who had never set foot in the gym. I would do some pilates at home, but then I realized that I missed doing a cardio routine.

I finally decided this week to nip it in the bud. I texted two of my school friends and told them we had an appointment at the gym after Property class. Incidentally, two was smart because one forgot her gym clothes and by the time she'd go home to get them and come back, we'd be long done. I roped another friend into going today too so there were three of us powerful women in a line on the elliptical. The elliptical is fucking intimidating. I always feel like a clumsy dork when I use it but I think I was a pretty good poseur today. I did a good half hour on the machine (stupid time limits) and felt very refreshed. And, of course, I'm proud of myself because my goal was to go today and I did it. It only gets better from here!

Dinner with Turkey Lurkey

Monday night marked the last meeting of the Sports Business and Law reading group I had this semester taught by my Crim prof Dersh and co-taught by the CEO and co-owner of the Red Sox, Larry Lucchino. As our final meeting, we got together to have dinner at Dersh's (who, I was quite delighted to find out, was the voice of Turkey Lurkey in a fairytale show. Totally clutch discovery by someone in my section.

The dinner was delightful -- catered by the apparently go-to Chinese restaurant, Chang Sho. Delish desserts followed. I didn't take pictures of that though because the home itself was quite a conversation piece. His home was exactly how I picture Dershowitz's mind running -- eclectic, different, fast paced, brightly colored, etc.

One of the first things you see when you walk in the house



And just a sample of one wall. The entire living room, foyer, and other hallways were EXACTLY like this with historical artifacts and art all mixed up in there



One of my classmates pulled the yawn + stretch here (note, you can see my polka dot coat on the couch)



At the end, he took us on a tour of his home. After walking through his bedroom (awwwwwwwwwwwwwkward), we got to see his private office with tons of memorabilia. This was one of my favorite things



Yes, that's a dartboard with his face on it. Even funnier, it was completely full of holes.

It was a delightful dinner and good time all around. I'm consistently impressed by the hospitality of our professors here.

Isn't It Lovely?

Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is here. I spend so much of my time trapped at the law school or in the library or inside my apartment that I start to get sick of the same sights and really don't find many beautiful things to look at (except a select hottie in my section). Today I got to get out of the square just to briefly run an errand and in driving alongside the river, I was reminded how beautiful it is here.

Excuse my pictures. They were taken via iPhone when I was driving. I know the one in particular is quite egregious, but I liked the colors of the fall foliage!

Happy Two-Monthiversary!

Today (well, yesterday, but who's counting?) is my second monthiversary of being in law school. It's funny because some of the people that I met just that short time ago already seem like close friends. Perhaps it's the fact that we're in the trenches together every day taking grenades from our professors?

Do I like law school? Well, according to Weemo, I loooooooooooooooooooooove law school because I dressed up like a case for Halloween! But to be honest, I enjoy the process. I like school. There are certainly many things I dislike about school or classmates, but on the whole, the process is rather enjoyable.

Would I recommend for someone to go to law school? It really depends on the person. I've wanted to be a lawyer for 20 years now, so I think that was enough time to think about it. I certainly wouldn't recommend this process for someone who isn't sure what they want to do with their life or is doing this as a "fall back" career. It's too life-consuming to be just a fall back.

I miss my friends back on the West Coast like, whoa! It's crazy because this experience tends to overwhelm your life and take it over to where there's nothing you don't do that's not somehow school related. The people you hang out with? People from school. The people you see daily? People from school. The social events you attend? School functions or parties thrown by classmates.

The best things in my life currently:


The absolute CUTEST!




One hour every week that I know I won't be working on law school-related stuff. My life stops and my drooling over Ed Westwick begins!



Since small bottles of Grey Goose are $50 (FIFTY EFFING DOLLARS!!!!), this is the next best thing.




I bought these adorable boots recently from Target. Only $25 and they're the perfect mix of pink and preppy!

Happy Halloween!

As I've said before, you know you're in law school when you can only think about dressing up like cases or anything else law-related. In undergrad, you dress up as "Slutty [fill in the blank]." Sadly some of my classmates still did the same, but I wanted to break out of that old, tired mold. In my case (rimshot), I had an excuse because our section Halloween party was case/law school-themed. I took some time and came up with this:


Yes, I dressed as one of the major cases from Civil Procedure, International Shoe. Now, don't judge me because that's a Converse which is an American label. At least I properly labeled myself!



How did I do it? Well...last weekend I spent some time putting together small scale models of a shoe with regular paper. The small scale models were pretty tough and I was discouraged from even attempting this project. Luckily I changed my mind. My backup costume was to go as "CambridgeCuti33" based upon our open memo assignment (which was about child pornography which is a whole other story), but I decided to give this one a go.

People asked if I had a pattern or anything. No, I didn't. I just put my own Converse on the table and started sketching it out with a regular old ruler, a pencil, and some creativity. Instead of painting each piece (which would have been a nightmare), I spray painted (and now my apartment has spray paint all over the outside walkway). The entire shoe is made out of posterboard. I layered posterboard pieces as there are layers on a regular Converse, used black Magic Marker to line the shoe as there are lines on a regular Converse. I spiral cut an old undershirt of The Outdoorsman's to make one long shoelace and then threaded that through and tied it around my neck to hold the thing up. I held it together with tape, staples, and rubber cement. All in all, with spray painting and assembling, the costume took roughly 4 hours to make (not counting the time it took to make the small models last weekend).

The funniest part is that people thought I'm naturally crafty. HAH! The same person who always says "I have good ideas, but I'd rather pay someone to put them together for me!" Hilarity.

I went with pink because it's my signature color (I'm the only one I've seen at my school with a pink laptop, to put it in perspective) and really, people wouldn't expect anything different. I had planned to put passport stamps on the shoe or wear a beret or something, but decided at the last minute that I'd invested enough time and money into my costume and scrapped it.



Me with the International Shoe salesmen. We're a hot team!

As for our section's Halloween costume competition, I came in third place. What do y'all think of those who finished ahead of me?


First Place: The Bluebook



as



Second Place: Our property professor



as

How Much Will You Pay Me?

So, it's been another eventful few weeks here at the Ivory Tower. I've gotten a couple of grades back. They all put me in the mushy middle of law school life. About two years ago, the school decided to move away from grades (A, B, C, F) to cut down on competition. Now we have Honors, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. Hmmm, looks suspiciously like ABCF, no? In any event, I'm in the pass range...along with 55% of the rest of my class. You see, about 37% get honors, 55% get a pass, and the remainder generally get a low pass (8%) except for those who are so egregious as to merit a fail (which should really be an Epic Fail on the transcript since it's damn near impossible to get and you really have to try hard to fall that low).

In any event, I had an experience today in Civil Procedure that inspired me to write. The Guy With Two First Names (TGWTFN) is an uber-gunner. I mean, possibly even worse than the woman who inspired my last blog post. He's a chronic hand raiser and, even worse, will raise his hand a minute or less before we're supposed to be out of class. He's also That Guy who takes shit wayyyy too seriously. Just one example is when he told a teammate on our section's flag football team that he was going to "bury him in a shallow grave." Yet another example with flag football is when he told my friend/teammate that he was going to "rip out his ACL." He's the type of guy that I imagine going Michael Rapaport from "Higher Learning." (please Google/IMDB this if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Today in Civ Pro TGWTFN asked another one of his RIDICULOUS hypotheticals and the professor responded with a question and said, "You can either answer this or pass to Ms. Femme." The guy looked at me and, without a hint of humor (per his humorless personality generally) said, "How much are you going to pay me?"

1. As if I'm intimidated by the professor's question?
2. As if you'd pass up a chance to answer the question, attempt to show off, and be irritating to everyone?

I didn't say a word. I just gave him a staredown for no less than 10 seconds. I was really disgusted with his attitude. Apparently I need to work on my facial expressions -- I must have given him a look that would melt his face because he eventually said, "I'll answer it" and took it himself.

It's a good thing there aren't many people here like him, but he truly does suck the life out of a classroom in a hurry.

Rain...feel it on my fingertips, hear it on my windowpane

I miss the California sun. I'm already cold here and it's only mid-October. It's been roughly 45 degrees each day for the last several days. Oh, and it's going to rain here all weekend, give us a couple of days of sun early next week, and then rain again all weekend. We also have the potential for snow here this weekend. I'm in trouble, friends.

Two things are keeping me going for now.

1. I got a sweet pair of rain boots from LL Bean



2. Law school tunnels



This sweet set-up allows me to stay warm and dry once I'm on campus because it goes everywhere I need to be. I can go from class to the library to the student union for lunch (and everywhere in between) with nary a drop of water to hit my head. The multicolored Punky Brewster lockers are just a bonus!

Luckily I'm done dealing with this



::fist pumps::

In The City That Never Sleeps

My slavedriving law school decided to give us poor 1Ls an extended break over the Columbus Day holiday so instead of just getting Monday off, we got Monday and Tuesday. Columbus sure did fuck over my people in Puerto Rico, but hey, giving me an extra day off school is one way to make it up to me. I also found out that a friend was having a party in New York for his birthday and, well, we have our first memo due on Wednesday so it was a perfect time to escape the hellish Cambridge bubble and go to New York City. I managed to talk my law school bff TrojanGirl into going with me so I wouldn't be alone and awkward in the city.

Now, TrojanGirl and I were already doing big things...a sectionmate of ours said we could stay with her since she was going home to NYC during the break. Then she told me on Thursday she wasn't going after all, but we could still stay at her family's apartment since she didn't want to flake last minute. And her parents wouldn't be there.


As soon as I opened the front door and saw the foyer, I knew we were in for it.


The living room. Trust me, this pic doesn't do it justice at all.


The library. Yes, I said library.


Did I mention that her family's apartment is on Central Park West? Being in that apartment was like a combination of Home Alone and Home Alone 2.


TrojanGirl and I got changed and then we traveled to the Village to hang out with my NYU friends: Pinky, Opus Dei, and Pike. NOTE: I won't be putting very many pics in here because if you care, they're all on Facebook anyway!


Here we are hanging out at Pinch. Please excuse my shirt that is apparently made out of gauze or something. I might as well have gone shirtless. L to R: Opus Dei, Violet, Pinky, Pike, TrojanGirl.


Pike and I decide to take a picture together.



When I saw this, I was like "Dude, TRY to be normal for the next picture!" and he agreed. This is what came next:


Thanks, Pike! It's less normal than the last. It's like he decided to go Blue Steel, and then Magnum on me.


Saturday: TrojanGirl and I spent the early afternoon working on our memos at the kitchen table with a view overlooking Central Park. That definitely didn't suck too much. That night was Sinatra's birthday party at Slate so we got dolled up and headed over.


Who says law school girls aren't pretty?!



This chick was doing the most. Her outfit looked like a bathing suit and she was wearing C3PO glasses. Don't get me wrong; her legs were AMAZING! But that outfit was really something else!





Opus Dei and Pinky decide to have some fun with a belt that we randomly found laying in the middle of the dance floor. How bizarre. As a friend said, "That's how David Carradine got into trouble."






Me with the gorgeous birthday boy Sinatra.



We left the club around 3:15am and headed back for the subway...but first, we stopped for a kebab. Within a minute of standing at the cart, the kebab man propositioned TrojanGirl -- offered her $100 to have sex with him. Straight up, no lie. But at least we got $2 off our kebabs. Not to be outdone, the guy in the taco truck next door called me over to flirt with me...which was (obviously) quickly nipped in the bud. In all my trips to NYC, it seems to be a standing theme that the guys there are just extra bold and say whatever the hell they want. We made a pact that what happened in NYC stays in NYC...except of course for my faithful readers!

Open Letter

Dear "Yellow,"

Yes, we're in law school. I know that you probably worked very hard to get here in undergrad. Undoubtedly you constantly visited office hours and built rapport with your professors because you seem like the suck up type. Now that you're in the big leagues (so to speak), you have to take ALL of your required classes with 79 of the same people on a daily basis. So, it shouldn't surprise you when I say to PUT YOUR FUCKING HAND DOWN. IMMEDIATELY. I shouldn't hear a stupid question come out of your nasally-voiced mouth EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. in EVERY. SINGLE. CLASS.

I have to let you know though...when you speak out in class, you do provide me with endless entertainment. When we were talking about jurisdiction in Civil Procedure and the professor said that you can't remove a case from state court to federal court when it's "in your own backyard" and you raised your hand just to ask "What do you mean by 'backyard?'" I laughed endlessly. I'm sure you heard me. What, did you think the professor was referring to the grassy space between your picket fences?!

Another funny moment was on Monday when our Crim Law TA was talking about the assignment the professor gave and giving some clarification...you raised your hand to ask "So, if I already turned in the assignment, do I have to do it all over again?" Was that a real question? I really have to know. Because otherwise, you looked like a big, flapping wet douchebag because it just seemed like you were saying "LOOK AT ME; I DID MY WORK!!!!!!" Totes obnox. Again, laughter for days, but it seems like this time the rest of our section has caught on. The audible laughter you hear is not people laughing with you, but laughing at you. I thought you should know.

Besitos,
Violet

PS: When there's torrential rain outside, don't wear a fucking short dress and tall rain boots. You look like an asshole.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again!

*sigh*

I'm coming up for air just to say that law school is wearing me out, folks. I have studied harder in the last week than I have studied in my entire life, combined. Here are some highlights since the beginning of school:

• One of my friends ended up in my section. Score!
• I have two superstar professors, but I am truly in love with Warren (or Liz, as I like to call her in my free time. If you don't know who she is, GIYF)
• I have 8:20am class three times per week. THREE TIMES PER WEEK! I am not a morning person!
• Even worse, I have had double Civil Procedure sections on Wednesday-Friday...which is basically like hell on Earth, but worse. I have kept myself going by thinking that I'm planning on going into transactional work so it's not going to be my whole career/life.

Funny moment with Liz on the second day of school: so, they have us put namecards with our last names up on the table in front of us. This kid gave a wrong answer on the first day. She came back the next day and asked the same kid another question. Again, he gives the wrong answer. Her response? "You're 0 for 2, [name]." Seems innocuous enough, but the sting with which it was delivered made more than a few of us go "DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!" Of course, under our breath because she would cut us with words if we spoke out. That said, I adore her and her class...and trust me, this is not because I get it (OK, it's not wholly because I get it)!

As for the cross-country trip, that was a hot mess. Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook got a bit of the insane flavor of that trip. Maybe I'll have time to post about it sometime...I just doubt it. It's unfortunate because in between the suckiness, there was actually a decent experience.

I miss having time to catch up on my friends' lives. I'm sorry I've been so MIA. I just need to get my bearings. I've closed down the library a couple of times this week. I've been running on 6 hours of sleep per night which isn't that great when you consider the fact that I need to let all these concepts marinate and give my brain recovery time.

Goodnight my friends. I miss y'all and hope to catch up with you soon!

Goodbye to Everything I Thought I Knew

I intended to post more pictures of my Quest, but was kind of interrupted by this whole moving thing. So basically, I try to catch up with blogging and now I'm already behind again! Oh, and since I want to blog about the trip and it almost certainly can't come before our western states trip and Hawaii trip, I'm going to be behind atWeeMo -like levels.

I did want to take a minute to recognize some of the fabulous people in my life who have been super supportive of my trek as I march towards law school.

WeeMo: Thank you for your never-ending support. From lending a thoughtful ear to me when I needed advice to proofreading my personal statement to encouraging me to shoot for the moon. Although I made it, I will miss the shit out of you. Thank you for all your help and I look forward to the time when we're not just friends, but also professional colleagues.

Weatherjen: You were also such a rock star in helping me throughout the application process. And really, who can forget the Power of Three plan for my future reproduction! You always had a supportive and friendly word to throw my way about the profession and I admire your enthusiasm for this work and your willingness to always lend a hand to me when needed. As with WeeMo, I'm really looking forward to when we can sit and talk shop and I'm not just a clueless 0L doing so!

The Outdoorsman: I would be remiss if I didn't mention my loving, supportive, amazing, wonderful partner. I mean, even if you didn't know anything else about him, knowing that he's willing to leave everything behind to join me in Cambridge makes him pretty awesome. Thank you for putting up with my moving grumpiness/slavedriver personality, my fit of fancy in changing my mind (and turning YOUR life upside-down too!), and believing in me long before I ever believed in myself. T.O. has been telling me for about 4-5 years that I'd make a great attorney and bought me a book to study LSAT questions all the way back then. I got frustrated and gave up, but he always knew it was the right path for me. I love you, muffin!


There are others who I haven't named individually, but please know that your friendship and words of support have meant a million to me -- anything from quick emails to Facebook comments to random happy hours and everything in between. I don't want to say "Goodbye" but "See ya later!" since I know that you will all be in my life forever.

With that said, I'm going to bed. I have a 9 day cross country drive, moving into the apartment, and the beginning of the rest of my life on which I'm excited to get started. Stay tuned, y'all!

This is No Longer a Vacation; It's a Quest! (Part 1)

For the first part of my vacation, I went to Sin City to visit my family. After staying there for a week, we went to Lake Powell to go boating for the weekend (my parents and two kids in one car and The Outdoorsman, two kids, and me in our truck). Here are some of my favorite pics from along the way:

I saw this on the road to Sin City and I just cracked up. Can you imagine if I actually had to go to school out here?!




My little brother Kicks and nephew Monkey at Cracker Barrel in St. George. Salt of the earth type shit, huh!




My little sister (Holly Snobby) and my stepsister (Stilts)




I tried to take this picture low-key of Stilts since she spent most of the time talking on the phone to her boyyyyyyyyyyyyfriend.





Colorado City. Home of the crazy fundamentalists. This is what we're "protecting marriage" for?!




Beautiful Arizona




Kicks and Monkey hiking on a small island at Lake Powell. They both adorably kept their little life jackets on!





Sunset after a long day on the lake





Flying Monkey!





Congratulatory cake. My mom surprised me with this at the lake. Red velvet because "red is close enough to Harvard colors." Love her!






Next set: our trip through the mountain states!