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!

Round-Up

So it's been nearly two months since I've blogged and truly, life is much, much different than since my last post. Here's the quick recap/roundup:

1 - times I changed my mind on which law school I'm attending.
4 - days it took for everything to come together to change from NYU to Harvard Law!
7 - states (besides California) to which I traveled in the last month
6 - states that were a part of one week-long road trip!
2 - years that I've been married (and the anniversary which we most recently celebrated at the end of July/beginning of August)
1 - vicious sunburn I got at Lake Powell that resulted in awful peeling on my shoulders
Countless - number of mai tais I consumed in Hawaii during our anniversary/pre-law school vacay
4 - weird looks I got from people in Idaho Falls, ID.
4 - people in Idaho Falls, ID who had NO ROOM to judge me!
2470875 - number of times I've had to bite my lip in living with my in-laws for the past month and a half to keep from getting major league attitude at the BUTTINSKY-ness of it all.
800 - dollars I need to spend at minimum on law school books. I wanted to do this because...?
7 - times per day that my hubby, The Outdoorsman, referenced his grand master plan to make me governor of Hawaii so we could live there.
3 - bottles of free booze we scored on our Hawaii trip
1 - number of Hep B immunizations I need before I'm not allowed to start at HLS
2 - number of former Supreme Court (SCOTUS) clerks that will be my professor in the fall
1 - head of the Congressional Oversight Panel (formerly known as TARP) that will be my professor
1 - number of OJ's former attorneys that will be my professor
3 - approximate number of days until we leave California
13 - rough number of days until we get to Cambridge
15 - number of states we will drive through during our move

Note: I have a TON of pictures to upload from my trips. I'll put the majority on Facebook, so if we're not already Facebook friends, be sure to 1) friend me, and 2) check them out there. I'll put up some selections from the trip on the blog that don't involve family. Oh, and if you want to hang out before I leave, let me know! I'd love to see you before I go!

WANT: An apartment; DO NOT WANT: Homelessness

Apartment hunting in NYC is the worst. I've been straight West Coast (insert flashing gang signs here) for my entire life, so I've never had to deal with the insanity of apartments coming up for rent a mere 3-4 weeks before a move date, nor the absolute RIP OFF of brokers. I'm too anal retentive to leave my housing fate in someone else's hands, much less allow them to charge me a full month's rent (which, in NYC, is substantial).

I was checking out apartments on Craigslist trying to avoid paying a broker and found a gem. Mr. VF cautioned me not to get too in love with apartments since we were waiting to hear from NYU about student housing. Long story short on NYU: I got screwed and didn't get family housing. Apparently you're an idiot if you're married or otherwise coupled and then try to go to NYU because you're the only schmucks not guaranteed housing (singles, on the other hand, are living the dream). Also, no advantage for marrieds or domestic partners. You can be a regular ol' bf/gf (or whatever combo you desire) and get family housing. It's a clusterfuck. I digress.

So I found a great apartment (via pictures on CL) and one of my school friends living in the city was gracious enough to go by and look at it, confirming that it is indeed as awesome as advertised. We find out on Monday if we got the place, so cross your fingers, friends!

But wait...it gets better! It's closer to campus by a couple of blocks, will cost the same as family housing (once we pay for all the utilities), and is coming furnished which is what we wanted. Dear 8 lb, 6 oz newborn infant Jesus, please let us get this apartment!!

The Apocalypse is Upon Us

Yesterday I worked up the nerve to visit the Whole Foods near The Grove. At 5PM. On a Friday. My bravery is boundless. Incidentally, for those familiar with the area, the CVS next door is apparently one of the LA area's biggest sellers of Valtrex. Just a little tidbit shared by a pharmacist one day that skeeved me out.

Anyway, I digress. I meandered through Whole Foods while Mr. VF was on the lookout for good wine for me (aren't I the lucky one!). He finds me and says "I just saw the most disturbing thing ever. Come with me." Given that I'd just found out about the Valtrex, a million things came to mind. What I found was worse. Way worse.

O RLY?! As if the clothes weren't bad enough, now we have wine for the poseurs too?! JFC, I thought I was going to die in the middle of the store. I think I hear the galloping hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen.

Funemployment Cooking

Thanks to Claire's link from Facebook today, I have come to know and love a new term - funemployment. This is my life now to a tee ever since the layoff. I actually love my life again...at least, until I go to law school and realize how oppressive life as a law student/lawyer is (don't get me wrong, I'm excited about school, but I think I have a healthy dose of cynicism/realism about what the profession is and is not).

As part of my funemployment, I'm starting to cook again...and when I say cook, I mean real effort-taking meals, not the college student method of cooking where you make a pot of spaghetti. I was craving Italian food, so I decided to make chicken parmesan. I've never had it before, but I like chicken and I loves me some cheese, so I went for it. The Mr. adored his and begged me to make it again last night. I refused because I don't like eating the same thing like, nightly. BUT he did say that I made him a believer in chicken parm because the chicken stayed pretty moist (even upon microwave reheating).

Stats on the project:

1- number of pans I used to pound the chicken breasts.

1- number of pans that I destroyed while pounding the chicken breasts

2- number of nights that this fed both the Mr and me.

4- paper plates I used while making this to reduce my clean-up

3- number of times I spilled the egg mixture onto the floor while dipping the gigantor chicken breasts.

assload - amount of cheese I put on each breast

1- number of times I giggled like a schoolgirl while writing the above

Here is a pic I took with my phone of my creation:

The Sauce:
1 28 Ounce Can Imported Diced Italian Tomatoes

4 Cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Decrease To 1 Tablespoon If Wanting To Make A Lower Fat Version)
Salt & Pepper To Taste
3 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Basil [Ed note: I skipped this part]
Dash Of Red Pepper Flakes

The meat:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Cup Flour
Salt & Pepper
1 Egg [Ed note: since I only keep Egg Beaters in the house, that's what I used. It was fine]
2 Tablespoons Milk
2 Cups Italian Bread Crumbs
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 Thin Slices Mozzarella Cheese
3/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Sauce:
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, and add the garlic. As soon as the garlic begins to sizzle, but before it takes on color, add the tomatoes. Turn the heat to high, and as soon as the sauce begins to bubble, turn back down to medium low. Season with salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes and add the basil. Cook for another minute or two and remove from the heat.

Chicken:

Season the flour with salt and pepper, and place in a plastic bag. Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/2 inch thick. Place each breast into the bag with the flour, and shake until it is well coated. Beat the egg with the milk in a bowl. In a second bowl place the bread crumbs. Dip each chicken breast first into the egg mixture, and then into the crumbs.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a frying pan, heat the butter with the olive oil. Once the butter mixture is sizzling, fry the breasts until golden on each side. Place the chicken breasts side by side in a baking dish. Spoon some of the prepared sauce over the cutlets, and then lay a slice of mzzarella cheese on each. Finally, sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Note: if you have a working broiler (I don't), bake the chicken for 15 minutes, then do 5 minutes under the broiler for more bubbly cheese.