My DCed Life

Back to School, Redux

2010-09-13T23:21:00.001-04:00

After some 20 first days of schools, I still get jitters. And this year, I did not even start classes but I am back to school. Today was the first day of the mentoring program I am volunteering with. And I won't lie, I was a little nervous. What will my mentee think about me? What if she thinks I am boring or not cool? Silly thoughts since this is not about me at all.

Inspired by my brother, who is a "Big Brother" in Oakland, I decided to find my own mentorship program. I thought it would be harder for me to be a "Big Sister" because I'm not as good at just hanging out with teenage girls (this is what happens your only sibling is a boy); however, I know I am pretty good at helping people academically. So I signed up for a great organization that is academically focused. I really admired how no non-sense, but supportive they are with the students. They bring together kids from public schools and charter schools across DC and help them with all aspects of preparing for college: academics, personal maturity, financial, etc. The stories I heard were so inspiring. The mentor I met at traning just had her last student receive a full scholarship to UNC.

The organization pointed out that DC is the most college-educated city in the country, yet it also has one of the worst high school graduation rates. Let's use one to help the other.

As for my student, I don't think there was any reason to worry. She seems very nice. We are very different, but we found common ground in a love for writing, watching football, and Law & Order SVU. I can work with this.

All Politics are Local

2010-09-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

Although most people think of national politics when they think of DC, local politics are also kind of a big deal around here. Marion Barry anyone?

Early voting in the DC Mayor's race started on Monday and the one early voting booth is right outside the metro station by my work. It's intense. Getting to my office past all the campaign supporters and weaving through the vans shuttling voters over felt like running through a gauntlet.

Sometimes I forget that as high-profile DC is as a city, it's pretty small. Everyone seems to know each other, and it's not unusual to see the mayor or his opposition walk down the street and campaign.

It's also interesting to live in a city where people care. LA was so large, and everyone there was so "LA" that mayors races came and went without much fanfare. Here though, lawn signs, rallies, and campaigning everywhere.

Well, at least it looks like a lot of people care. When my co-worker saw an old classmate holding a sign outside the metro, he asked his friend why he supported that candidate. Response: "Who? They just paid me to hold this sign." Good old DC politics.

Top Cheffing It: Volt!

2010-08-30T23:20:00.000-04:00

Back when I was in college, I saw advertisements for a new show called Top Chef. Even though I was an avid Food Network watcher, I did not think I would become such a big fan. "How is this show going to be popular, you can't even taste the food," I remember myself saying.

Well a few years later, I am an addict and thanks to my roommate's birthday, I got to try some of the food too. Her boyfriend made reservations for the coveted Table 21, restaurant of one of the runner's up last season. Eight private seats, 21 little courses, an amazing night.

Some of the highlights were twists on simplest things: fresh beets with a goat cheese mousse and beet macaroon sticks on top of a balsamic glaze. [top picture] There were also interesting combinations that worked surprisingly well: chilled corn soup with blue crabbed and topped with frozen coconut and caviar. Some that didn't work perfectly in my opinion: liquid nitrogen frozen gazpacho; it was like dip'n dots. And some were classic dishes done really well: goat cheese cheesecake with berries. [bottom picture]

Thanks to Top Chef, I think of things like plating and flavor profiles.I have learned cooking tips (ie: when you think it needs salt, add acid instead). And I've also gotten a little more adventurous. At the dinner, I tried sweetbreads for the first time--who thought the throat would taste like a chicken nugget. [middle picture]

I don't think I will be whipping out liquid nitrogen or foam cannisters in my kitchen, but I feel inspired to try out some new recipes.

One Year

2010-08-24T22:53:00.001-04:00

It is hard to believe that it has been a full year since I first started my job clerking. On the one hand, I feel like I just started, on the other, I have seen and experienced so much. After going through a dozen trials, hundreds of cases, and thousands of motions, here are some things I have learned in the past year:

TV has nothing on what happens in real life cases.
Everything I ever learned in law school actually exists in the real world. Especially property. Ugh, property.
The term "complex litigation" is redundant.
You never know what a jury is going to do.
I never want to be a landlord. Nor do I ever want to open a restaurant.
For better or worse, people have faith in the judicial system to take care of all their problems.
The court can do a lot, but it can also only do so much.
A little good lawyering and writing goes a long way.
There are a lot of bad lawyers out there, like report to the bar bad.
Rich or poor, family members always find something to fight about. Their fights are also the worst.
People really do not like the DC government.
Every freak accident you can ever imagine actually happens.
Some people just want their day in court.
People who scam other people out of their mortgages are nothing but pure evil.
The line between criminal law and civil law is not always clear.
People watch too much Judge Judy.
Civil cases can help restore people from wrongdoing.
"Case settled" are my two favorite words.
Justice usually prevails.
My judge is pretty amazing.

Elephant in the Room

2010-08-23T21:06:00.001-04:00

As much as I complained about moving and downsizing closets, a silver lining about the process was getting rid of stuff. Do I really need these notes from 1L year? When was the last time I wore this...or even knew it was in my closet?

Being organized and having a large walk-in closet in my former apartment is a deadly combination. It means I am able to fit a lot in that closet. It means that I keep a lot of things I do not need. I ended up throwing away/recycled bags of things, and donated another few bags to Goodwill.

My reward? A pretty awesome elephant teapot I found at Goodwill for less than a dollar. I am tempted to go back and find more fun things, but then I try to remind myself that I am trying to get rid of, not accumulate, more stuff.

Foodie Family

2010-08-22T20:05:00.001-04:00

Most of the people I know who cook inherited their skills from their moms. I had the good fortune of having two food-loving parents. I remember helping my mom cook dinner--both Vietnamese and American food--and bake goods for the classroom and many bakesales we roped her into.

However, I also remember my dad cooking for us, especially on the weekends when my mom worked. One of my favorite dad-meals was hot dog or spam fried rice, but he made much more sophisticated things as well. My dad, brother, and I also would watch food shows on the weekends on PBS before the food network even existed. Our favorites were Yan Can Cook ("If Yan can cook, so can you!"), Julia Child (way before Julie & Julia), and the Frugal Gourmet (sigh, Jeff Smith, I never knew about the sexual assault charges against you). I'd like to think we were foodies even before it was cool.

My dad visited us this weekend on his way back from a business trip overseas. Knowing how much I like his rendition of Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon came prepared to make it. He even packed the herbs in a zip-lock bag (preparedness runs in the family). The result, a delicious home-cooked meal in my new home. Mmmm.

Back to School

2010-08-21T10:26:00.003-04:00

University Identification Card - Check

Residential Hall-Sized Closet - Check

Attending Orientation - Check

It is that wonderful time of the year. I used to love going back to school when I was a kid. One year, I even had a countdown. I was the kid who loved buying school supplies. Dork, I know.

Well, I am not going back to school, for the second year in a row. And this year, I am not even starting something new, like my clerkship last year. However, I am feeling the back to school spirit. That may be because I just moved in with Alex (which is my excuse for my blogging absence), who lives in a Residential Hall. Everyday now, I see new students moving in, the awkward introductions, the back to school events, etc.

As a side note, moving back into a "dorm" is not as bad as it may seem, nor do you have to worry about me reverting to days of eating ramen. It is not the tiny 10x10 room with communal bathrooms of my UCLA days. I might joke about how old I feel around college students and complain about my tiny closet, but my new place is actually a really nice apartment within one of the newest and most expensive halls at GW, which is saying something because it's the most expensive schools in the country. Heck, with two bathrooms and a washing machine, this is probably even an upgrade from my last place.

To round out this time of the year, I went to my law school's orientation, this time as an alumni panelist. I cannot believe I was sitting in their spots four years ago. I would never want to go back and start law school all over again, but I think part of my is envious of their excitement of starting something new.

Four Year Life Cycle

2010-08-11T22:47:00.004-04:00

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is my four year anniversary of moving to Washington, DC.

Although I had lived away from home before, it was the first time I felt like I was really out on my own. Instead of being 30 miles from my house like I was during college, I was 3,000 miles away. I had come with just two suitcases of clothes and moved into an empty apartment. No furniture. No car. I slept on the floor my first night in DC.

While it seemed like everyone else was reading hornbooks and preparing for law school, I had to build stuff. I feel like building your first IKEA bed is a rite of passage. Aspelund, you will have a special place in my heart.

Quite appropriately for DC, at the end of four years, some things must come to an end. Yesterday I sold my bed and today I sold my desk and executive chair. Even though I have known for months that this move was coming, it was jarring watching my buyers dissemble and haul everything away so quickly. All those hours of building. Undone.

I still remember collapsing in my empty bed frame while spending hours building it. And spending sitting at that desk studying.

At least I will take solace in the fact that it seems like they are going to nice homes. The buyers seemed like great guys, most of all because they were Craigslist buyers who actually followed through on their offers.

And yes, I did just get way too sentimental about furniture.

Mother Nature

2010-08-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

I was going to write a post about how dreadful this weather is in DC. About how unbearable the heat and humidity are. That our assistant's kids tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk this week. That it is supposed to be the hottest day of the year tomorrow. How I feel like I need to take a shower after walking to the metro. All this record heat after the snowiest winter. Woe is me.

Then I accidentally clicked cnn.com instead of blogger.com on my toolbar and saw that a mudslide in China killed 337 and 1,148 are missing.

Then I felt completely ridiculous complaining about the heat. Prayers to China and everyone else who is actually suffering.

What We Eat When We Eat Alone

2010-08-08T23:33:00.002-04:00

The other day, I was listening to NPR's Splendid Table podcast on my way to work. The host was interviewing the authors of a book called What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes. The stories ranged from people confessing to eating junk food or strange concoctions to others eating simple fresh meals in bed while the kids were away. Steak and wine, to bowls of cereal, to spam with cottage cheese.

Though I do not plan on getting the book because the Amazon reviews said that the writing was not all that great, I thought it was an interesting topic. How some people change their eating habits when alone, for better or worse, and what that reveals about the person.

For me, the concept of eating alone is not strange. In fact, now that I think about, I have primarily cooked meals and have eaten alone since I moved into my first apartment six years ago. Even though I have always had roommates, different schedules and dietary preferences usually meant that I cooked for myself (though I usually saved some food for best friend M). And while I have cooked for Alex over our five years of dating, I have never regularly cooked for him because we have lived apart. Hm, upon writing this, I am now thinking about how strange it is going to be to regularly be cooking with someone (note that I did not say for someone- we will be sharing in that duty).

Anyway, I am not sure what my solo cooking says about me. I guess it seems to be similar the stereotype of those 20-something females who like to cook: lots of chicken breasts, salads, things made with Trader Joe bases. Trying to eat healthy but not spend a ton of money or time. I would also bet money that I am not the only one with an emergency box of mac and cheese on the top shelf of my pantry.

When I do have time, usually Sundays, I like to try something new or treat myself. Today I made lettuce wraps and brewed my own Moroccan Mint Iced Tea. I wish I could give a recipe because they were delicious but I improvised with ground turkey, shredded carrots and broccoli, diced portabella mushrooms, and water chestnuts cooked in garlic, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, mustard, ketchup (trust me, the sweetness works). Thanks to the pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables at Trader Joe's, this dish actually only took about 20 minutes to cook.

It may not be the Dominican Republic food that Alex is getting on his beach-front vacation, but this was a nice summer dinner for me . . . and the cats. Guess if you count them, I really won't be eating by myself anymore.

Senseless Crimes

2010-08-07T21:24:00.002-04:00

There are some crimes that I understand. Obviously I do not condone them, but I understand why people commit them. For example, I understand why people steal. A person obtains possession of something he wants. Vandalism though, I do not understand.

Today when I was walking home from Trader Joe's, I passed by Alex's car. The driver's side window was completely smashed in. However, there was no sign that a person even opened any of the doors to try to steal anything. The few things in the car were exactly as we had left them before Alex went on his trip.

Maybe there was some kind of story behind it. But if it was just for fun, even drunken fun, I do not get it. Why smash a window, why this car? What could possibly be fun about destroying someone else's property? Just like I do not understand why some GW students love pulling down ceiling tiles and smashing them when they are drunk. Perhaps I just hope that there is another reason because I do not want to think that there are people that are just that mean-spirited.

Even if it does not change anything, I just still wish I knew 'Why?'

Blessing in Disguise

2010-08-06T18:46:00.001-04:00

Funny things happen when you get engaged. First, everyone comes out of the woodwork with advice, which I actually really appreciate. Second, you start evaluating all these aspects of your life that you did not intend to. For me, it was my religion.

When we started planning for the wedding, some things in my mind were automatic. It would be in California and the ceremony would be in a Catholic Church. Once we found a reception venue, I thought the hard part was over because I knew exactly which church I wanted and that the priest there was available the weekend we wanted.

I also knew that I would have to find a priest in DC to do our marriage prep because we couldn't meet with our officient regularly long-distance; however, I never imagined all the twists and turns that little task would entail. The church that I regularly attended during law school had no record of me being a parishoner. Another priest agreed to do the counseling, but then we found his blog and discovered that the issues that he is most passionate about are the ones that we disagree with. Another priest who my friend highly recommended was moving away. Another had never done counseling before. Another preferred that people do counseling with the parish they belong to. Another required us to go on a long and expensive weekend retreat, and was also awkward on the phone. The list goes on. I think by the end of two weeks, I had communicated with seven priests or deacons.

Needless to say that I was getting frustrated. However, that frustration made me evaluate why I wanted to get married in the church, which is actually a good question. Alex is not Catholic, but said he would do it if it was important to me. Upon reflection, I did realize that getting married in the church was not just important to my family, but for me as well.

Over the years religion and the Catholic Church have served different positive roles in my life. It has helped instill a sense of social justice in my growing up. During high school and college, it provided a community. In law school, going to church had a calming presence during stressful times. And now that I am working in a field that is often depressing, religion has given me perspective and hope in people. It, along with other things, inspires me to be a better person and serve others. Although I do not agree with many current Catholic views, overall, I believe that the church and my religion have been a beneficial part of me.

I guess I can say this now that I have seemed to find a happy ending. We ultimately ended up finding a priest to do our marriage preparation at a church that Alex and I both like. He came recommended from friends who had him for their counseling and raved about him. While we have not met him, from what I heard, he seems like the perfect fit for Alex and me. I heard he provides great counseling through a religious perspective and is not judgmental. He even signed the DC Clergy petition for marriage equality and was friends with Ted Kennedy.

These are the little things that you never think about when you think about your wedding. I can only imagine what the next 1 year + 1 month will be like.

The City

2010-08-06T13:20:00.006-04:00

Although I am one of the few young people who actually admits to liking suburbia, I love living in the city at this point of my life. Last night I went to bed with the window ajar and woke up to the hustle and bustle of the city. There is something exciting about that. Maybe I associate suburbia with childhood, and this makes me feel grown up. Maybe I like the feeling of being in the middle of the action. Maybe I just like not having to drive anywhere.

I guess I should back up a little; this is what happens when I do not update. So in addition to the engagement, another big change in my life is that I am moving in with Alex officially by the end of August. I have been gradually moving over things this past month and staying there regularly while Alex is on vacation because someone needs to feed the cats.

Through his job, Alex currently lives in University housing, which moves me from my apartment in the quiet upper-NW quadrant of DC closer to Downtown DC. For context, my new place is a few blocks from the White House, with a view of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. So spoiled.

As well as being excited to be moving in with the fiance, I am excited about developing a routine closer to the heart of the city. I look forward to being able to walk to Trader Joe's and some farmer's markets, being able to run around the monuments and along the Potomac (once the humidity is gone), and being closer to more performing arts and things to do. Not that I could not do this all before, or could not do it if I lived outside the city. But now it is so close, so convenient. The game plan, as of the moment, is to live here for about one more year so I hope to make the most of it.

DC is no New York. It is not even San Francisco. But it is the perfect amount of city for me.

Back to the Blog

2010-08-05T22:42:00.002-04:00

I have been meaning to write this post for a long time. I kept telling myself that I would start regularly posting again but I kept procrastinating. I think it is because I knew once I came back this time, I wanted my posting to be regular. Maybe not daily, but not the drive-by posting once every few weeks that I was doing post-bar exam.

While a lot of big things have happened since I last blogged, like the engagement, there have also been many other important memories from smaller events. And now I feel as though there is a gap in the record. This blog used to be a record that simultaneously preserved moments for myself and updated others, particularly my family across the country.

And yes, I called it the record. Which brings me to the other reason why I feel like I need to start blogging again. My job requires me to write a lot. However, my legal writing is mechanical, rigid, and formal--sprinkled with words such as hereby, forthwith, herein, thereto, and interest of justice. They are called orders for a reason.

I like having an outlet where I can write about what I want. Process things around me and put them down in a tangible form. I always felt like writing kept me sane; I have a tendency to over-think things. This way, I just get my thoughts out. Catharsis.

Going into the second year of my clerkship, I still cannot write much about the substance of my work or politics, but there is plenty of other things I can and should write about. Note: I will try to keep wedding-planning posts to a healthy level. While the priority of my blog has never been to cater to readers--I am selfish like that--no one wants to hear about a girl obsess over her wedding, nor should I obsess.

So I am back and with a new look thanks to these nifty blogger templates. Not that the look matters that much because my small handful of followers, if they haven't completely abandoned me, probably view this through a reader, but it is a fresh start.

Judgment at Agincourt

2010-03-23T22:54:00.000-04:00

Last week Alex surprised me with tickets to Judgment at Agincourt, a mock trial presented by the Shakespeare Theater Company. Justice Ginsburg presided over the trial taken from the story of Henry V (you can read a synopsis here). Justice Alito and other appellate court judges joined Ruth, and the case was argued by some of the biggest lawyers in DC--including former Solicitor General Greg Garre and Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh.

Pretty much it was amazing. The nerdy legal and current event jokes. The style of argument. The front and center seats we got because someone cancelled at the last minute. And of course, Ruth, my favorite justice ever.

This is why I love living in DC. And Alex. Only he would go out of his way to get these tickets and enjoy it as much as I did.

March Goodness

2010-03-15T23:53:00.000-04:00

With UCLA's quick fall from grace--Final Four not so long ago, to not making any tournament this year--March Madness can seem like a real bummer. I don't want to fill out a bracket, I don't care who the number one seeds are, and I can't read about Cinderella stories because I just get envious.

So I am taking the $10 that I would have used for a bracket and am donating it to March Goodness. My friend Faithsaultes is working for a great company Razoo, which helps different nonprofits raise money. I love creative fundraising, and last year this tournament idea raised a lot of money for many worthy causes.

So donate. Doesn't matter if your team is good or not, whether you follow college basketball. There's a nonprofit for everyone and every little bit helps.

Springing Forward

2010-03-14T23:58:00.001-04:00

Everyone grumbles about springing forward an hour for daylight savings time. I am just happier to being one hour closer to my favorite season. Here is what I am looking forward to this spring . . .

Baseball games. Do I care about baseball? Not really. But I love being at Nats stadium soaking up the sun and cheering on the presidents during the President's Race.
More out of town visitors coming.
Enjoying the Cherry Blossom Festival for the first time in DC without worrying about final exams being around the corner.
Two trips to see family in California.
Doing anything outside. I finally want to kayak on the Potomac this year and enjoy at a concert at Wolftrap.
Leaving work when there is light outside.
Horse races in Virginia, which will allow me to live out my dream of wearing a big floppy hat.

Warm Fuzzy Sunday

2010-03-14T23:42:00.003-04:00

At church camp, way back in high school, we acted out this story that involved "warm fuzzies" and "cold pricklies." I can't even remember most of what the story is about anymore, other than that the moral was to spread warm fuzzies.

Although I absolutely love my day job, most of what I deal with is very cold prickly. If you are in the court, it means that there is a dispute so intense that it could not be worked out by the parties themselves. The job can be rewarding if you can resolve a situation, but it can be equally frustrating if things do not work out. Really? You're really bringing this dispute to court and going to battle it out for years? Sometimes I just want to shake common sense into our parties. As I mentioned in a blog post last week, it was a draining week. And it literally got cold and rainy.

Fortunately today rejuvenated my spirits. In addition to a little church in the morning, it was a full UCLA day. Alumni brunch club in the morning, coffee with a UCLA friend afterwards, and dinner with another UCLA friend to cap off the day. I was excited to see people making new friends and connecting with others they had met at other events I helped planned. And it made me so happy to catch up with good friends--friends who you don't have to see or talk to regularly but you can jump back on the same page with them immediately.

Today was a good reminder that as immersed as I can get in my work, which often happens because I am a workoholic, it is important to maintain those relationships outside of the office--both with new acquaintances and with old friends. Because though I can't always control what happens in the courtroom, I can at least control my personal life.

Courthouse of Love

2010-03-12T22:48:00.000-05:00

It was a draining week at work. 2 straight hours of argument on government contracts. 3 hours of arguments on a multimillion dollar commercial lease dispute. 2 hour evidentiary trial on drug ring-related eviction. 1 hour debating exhibits in a prison stabbing trial. 3 hours of lawyers arguing over evidentiary motions in an assault & battery/wrongful termination/sexual harassment case. All interesting, but all exhausting, heavy ligitigous stuff.

But piercing through the dark cloud of litigation that hovered over our courtroom this week was a moment of pure happieness. We got to do a wedding. One of the many same-sex marraiges that occurred this week since the same-sex marriage law went into effect, to be exact.

Although I am typically a sap at weddings, I did not expect to be so moved by a wedding of two people I did not know. However, it was very touching to see how excited and happy these two women and their families were to make the marriage official. Though they have been in a committed relationship for over a decade and "married" in Hawaii ten years ago, it was for them to be married under the law. I felt honored to be there with their closest friends and family.

There was also a moment of pride that I got to be at what could be considered a historic event. The civil rights movement of our generation, as my friend describes it. Only five states and one district allow gay marriage. I am convinced, however, that the tide will change as people see that same sex relationships are no different than opposite sex ones.

Most people come into the courthouse unhappy: parties, lawyers, jurors. If it's a good day, one side in litigation will leave happy. If it's a great day, both parties will be "ok" with the result. But with weddings, everyone wins.

Congrats Beverly & Marlene.

Springing

2010-03-09T23:01:00.000-05:00

Signs of Spring in DC

I wake up to sunlight
Faith and I get to sit out on the bench to soak up the sun after an Eastern Market outing
Females get to wear skirts without pantyhose or tights, finally
Tourists infiltrate DC, stand on the wrong side of the escalator, and I don't get cranky
People wear bright colors again
Employees take a break just to be outside
The steps of the Portrait Gallery are packed with people eating lunch outside
Everyone just looks happier

Buddy System

2010-01-20T00:05:00.001-05:00

There are certain areas of my life where I have no problem with self-motivation--academics and work being the main ones. But there other areas where, in the past few years, I have been making regular goals and not following through as well as I know I can. Those areas are daily exercise, leisure reading, and volunteer work. Conveniently; body, mind, and soul.

Now that I am finally out of school and have a normal person schedule, I have decided it is time to really work on these. It has helped tremendously that I have family, friends, and boyfriend working with me. The only thing I hate more than letting myself down is letting others down. And now that it's on the blog, there is some accountability.

In terms of the exercise, there's now a goal behind it, which is running a 5k with my friends and later in the year running a half marathon with my brother while my parents also train for a smaller race. While running is a big fad thing, especially in DC, and I hate feeling like a sheep, there is something to it. I feel like it cleanses my mind from all the legal mumbo jumbo and tedious fighting I deal with all day at work. Plus, sweat to me translates into tangible results in a job where it seems like things get litigated for years. I can just run to mind-numbing pop songs with a catchy beat on my Pandora (it's probably the only time I like listening to Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls) and not think at all. Oh, and I got new purple Nike running shoes. Added motivation.

Leisure reading seems like it would be easy, especially from someone who came from law school and could read on hours on end. However, law school has killed my ability to read. I fall asleep 5 minutes within reading non-assigned text. So now I am trying to keep up with the UCLA Alumni Book Club (admittedly, I didn't finish the last book they discussed in time even though I picked it and felt like a loser . . . it's like volunteering in class and getting the answer wrong).

And finally, volunteering. I think I have come to terms that it is unrealistic for me to commit to some large and/or regular endeavor right now so I just want to do what I can and enlist those around me-- whether that means finally cleaning out my closet and donating clothes to the UCLA Alumni warm clothing drive or delivering groceries on a Saturday with Alex. I am no Mother Theresa, I am not even close to being like so many people who went to my law school who devote themselves to these huge causes, but it's something. And selfishly, I oftentimes think I need that something after being at work and seeing the struggle of so many people in the community. It's the humbling part about working in a trial court in a place like DC.

So there it is. The trinity of resolutions for 2010. Hold me to it, or pick one to join along.

Oh Nine

2010-01-01T17:33:00.000-05:00

My annual review of the year . . .

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Some "firsts" in chronological order (aka highlights of the year): Attended a Presidential Inauguration, ate Carolina barbeque, saw Justice Scalia talk in person, graduated from law school, took the California Bar (fortunately first and last time), worked a full time job, cheered for Brett Farve, watched my first trial, attended a football game south of the Mason Dixon line, hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, helped shovel a car out of snow.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I wanted to read a book a month, which did work out due to my reading narcolepsy. This year my brother and I have a pact to run a half marathon. Hopefully having a buddy will help.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I can think of.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, fortunately.

5. What countries did you visit?
Another domestic traveling year, visiting Georgia and the Carolinas for the first time. It's almost like a different country down there.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
2009 was pretty fulfilling, but question five reminded me that I would really like to travel abroad again.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 20. Getting up at 4am, walking across DC to get to our ticketed area, standing in the freezing cold, watching history, dancing at an inaugural ball. Amazing day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passing the California bar exam. Being the first member of my family to graduate from law school comes in a close second.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting the stress get to me while studying for the bar.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major. Though in a bout of paranoia, I thought I may have had pig flu. I was wrong, of course.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A plane ticket home to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Family, boyfriend, and friends for their unconditional support through a year with many transitions.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Many of the people involved in cases that I see at my job- both the parties and their lawyers.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and paying back my Doan Loan (aka: law school loans).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Passing the bar exam.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas and any Lady Gaga song because they remind me of my nights out with my friends and driving around town with Alex.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Same
iii. richer or poorer? Richer. Finally, a regular income!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Volunteer work around DC.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stress out about pleasing everyone.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas with family in California.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
More every day.

23. How many one-night stands?
Not applicable

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Top Chef, Law and Order SVU, West Wing, Greek, Gossip Girl (I am not ashamed to admit), and my newest discovery-Mad Men. I have also fallen in love with our DVR machine, which has revolutionized my tv watching).

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No one personally. However, there are a lot of lawyers on my "list".

26. What was the best book you read?
The Conviser Mini Review? (bar prep book). I really need to finish reading books; I started about a dozen this past year and cannot remember finishing any of them.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The genius feature on my new iPod touch.

28. What did you want and get?
A wonderful, intellectually stimulating job, where I get to serve people everyday.

29. What did you want and not get?
Making it into the Order of the Coif. Close, but no cigar.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Up! and Star Trek.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I took a break from studying for the bar by going to see Star Trek with friends, lounging by my friend's pool, and going to Ray's Hell Burger and Ray's the Steaks.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If my job and the city of DC was in California or if my family and California weather was in DC.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
25% casual (especially the summer where I bummed around in shorts and tank tops while studying), 25% business formal in my spiffy, new Calvin Klein suits, 50% business casual.

34. What kept you sane?
Taking one day at a time, exploring new lunch places this summer while studying, and perspective from friends and family.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I love Michelle Obama. John Hamm, who plays Don Draper on Mad Men, is also very good looking in his suits and fedoras.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Even though my interest in politics is waning, the economy, since it has impacted so many people I know.

37. Who did you miss?
Many of my friends and family who live in California, and some people from law school.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
The Judge I work for and my new law clerk buddies.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
I saw it on a fortune cookie in my aunt's house: Pray for what you want, work for what you need.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right . . .

snOMG 2009

2009-12-19T11:35:00.002-05:00

A major storm is burying Washington with what forecasters said could be the largest snowfall to hit the region in six years and the greatest December accumulation in more than 70 years. --WaPo

So they are predicting up to 20 inches of snow today, which is probably more snow than I have seen in DC in the past three years combined. Some people are freaking out. I am happy snuggled up on my couch with a blanket and hot chocolate, watching a Law and Order marathon.

Moments like this make me thankful for a lot of things . . .
that I have a cozy apartment with heat
that I finished most of my Christmas shopping so I don't have to go outside
that I have Amazon Prime to finish the rest
that I don't have to leave my building to go to the gym
that I have food and toilet paper, meaning I don't have to fight the crazies at the grocery store
that I have an underground tunnel to the grocery store if I really did need something
that I don't have final exams that I have to go to school to take
that I booked my flight for Wednesday and don't have to try to travel this weekend
that there are dedicated people who brave the cold to keep everyone safe
that I don't live in a place where this happens regularly

DC Nights

2009-12-15T00:13:00.001-05:00

I love DC at night. I love the way the buildings glow. The way the hustle and bustle comes to a standstill. The way you can hear the bell toll from historic churches. It's almost like being in Europe, or a Dan Brown book.

This is an old picture from when I was an intern in 2004, and not the best composition, but I love it anyway. It is of the Old Executive Office Building, one of my favorite buildings in DC.

My post-work shopping, metro delays, and decent weather gave me an excuse to walk tonight. I strolled from my work, to the White House, past the Executive Office Building, and to another metro station. When there are metros right by your work and apartment, it is easy to forget how close everything until you walk. I often take for granted the fact that my office is a mile away from the White House in one direction and three-fourths of a mile from the Capitol in the other direction.

I should take advantage of the above-ground scenery while I can. Once those winter flurries hit, back to the metro.

While I was Gone . . .

2009-12-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

I actually did plan on starting to blog regularly again, not daily, but more regularly. However, the past few weeks have been unusually busy, especially with my parents coming for Thanksgiving. So I guess I will start with a standard little recap (with pictures!) of what has been going in my life in the past few weeks, and then I will get back to normal-ish blogging soon.

1. I am an esquire! (translate: I passed the California Bar Exam and was officially sworn in by the Judge I work for.)

Yeah, another lawyer. Let the lawyer jokes (or requests for free legal advice) commence. In all seriousness though, talk about a huge weight off my shoulders. Although I was pretty confident coming out of the test, I could not rest easy until I saw my name on the pass list. It is nice to know that those awful months of studying during the summer (and years of law school) paid off. I cannot thank enough everyone who provided support, advice, and patience. It worked out fabulously that my parents came to DC right after I found out the news so we could celebrate together and they could watch me be sworn in.

2. Alex and I hosted our first Thanksgiving

After flying back to California for the past three years and braving the holiday travel chaos, I convinced my parents to come out to DC this year. Although I cook regularly, including for my friends and family, I was a little nervous about Thankgiving. It is many people's favorite holidays, including my own, so I could not mess up. Luckily everything worked out perfectly. We had ten people in total, including many talented cooks. The company was hilarious and the food was delicious--including the 20 pound turkey Alex and I brined and roasted. Picture perfect.

3. I decided to stay at my job, and in DC, for one more year.

Well if you were wondering how the job is going, I guess you have your answer. My Judge offered to let me stay another year on the job. Although everyone assumed I would automatically accept because I always rave about my job, I actually mulled for a long time. It's not easy being across the country from your family and I wondered if it was time to be a "real attorney," so I could stop trying to explain to people I am not a secretary. But in the end I decided to stay and am very happy (as is my family and Alex, which is a huge bonus).

November flew by and I have a feeling December will as well. Holiday season galore. And now I can finally enjoy it without horrible finals getting in the way. Just one more thing to be thankful for.

Must See TV

2009-11-08T23:36:00.003-05:00

Amongst one of the many reasons why my living situation has worked out so well over the past three years is that my roommate and I have a mutual love of television and, even better, many of the same shows. Funny because we are both "meh" on other forms of entertainment like movies.

While many law students or young professionals sacrifice cable to cut down on costs, focus on studying, or because they do not watch much television, there has never been a question in our apartment that we would have cable. Having that one show a night to look forward to got us through some stressful or exhausting days of law school. And no, internet tv just is not the same to us. There is something about watching it on a television, rather than an isolated laptop screen, that is part of the experience.

Now that we have entered into the working world have and have a disposible income, we have upgraded and pay for DVR (like Tivo).I feel silly writing a post glorifying DVR, but it really has changed the way I watch television. I no longer watch what is on, but rather what I want to record. For example, bad reality tv* was one of my guilty pleasures and it was easy to get because it was always on.

And while I still fully defend watching shows like the Housewives of *insert random city here* because 1) there are far worse things to be addicted to, 2) those shows are an interesting commentary on our society, and 3) they were not nearly as bad as E! shows like Rock of Love, I watch far less of those shows nowadays. The Housewives and Top Model have been replaced by Mad Men--which I have grown to love so much, that I will probably have another blog entry devoted to it.

They say that reality tv shows and internet television are killing regular dramas and sitcoms. Maybe I am bucking the trend, but I wonder if other people will revert back, like me, after their fling with bad reality tv.

*I use the term "bad" loosely, as only to differentiate from what I consider quality reality tv shows like Top Chef and Pre-Lifetime Project Runway.

Sick Day Weekend

2009-10-25T21:05:00.002-04:00

Well after eight weeks of working at full speed, being around a sick judge and intern, and enduring the schizophrenic weather patterns, my immune system finally caved. I got sick. I hate being sick. It's a control thing.

While I got my rest as everyone told me to--slept 12 hours each night--I was determined not to be bed ridden. I am not a doctor but I am convinced that staying in bed all day actually makes recovery slower. So I watched football all weekend (UCLA lost, Vikings lost, sad), watched The Firm (a horror movie for a lawyer), and cooked a whole lot of food.

Minestrone soup out of a can did the job on Saturday morning, but there is nothing more nourishing than a home cooked meal. Luckily my cold did not affect my taste buds. Everything was delicious, if I don't say so myself.

Roasted butternut squash with caramelized onions, dried cranberries, capers, and Gorgonzola cheese. I assumed that orange vegetables had much needed Vitamin C.

North African Meatballs with cous couse and glazed carrots. I don't know how authentic these meatballs are, but the combination of olives, tomatoes, ginger, white wine, and cinnamon was fantastic.

I am feeling much better than I did on Friday, which is good, because we have two more trials this week.

Food + Blog = Flog?

2009-10-16T23:12:00.005-04:00

Some people peruse fashion blogs to update their wardrobes, celebrity blogs to catch up on gossip, design blogs for inspiration. I love food blogs, which I guess, is not that surprising since I used to scour through cookbooks and organize my mom's recipe book when I was a kid.

Food blogs help me discover new recipes, ingredients, and cooking methods. I am far from being a gourmet, but it has helped me expand my culinary horizons. Who knew I would love roasted cauliflower so much? Or any roasted vegetable really. It gets me excited about cooking at home, rather than just eating out at restaurants, which usually helps the budget and waistline. And of course, most of them have pictures that fall in the category of "food porn," who does not like that.

Here are some of my favorites. There are actually more than I realized-- so to answer the question that might come to mind, no I do not look at these all day (my work keeps me busy enough). They are all just bookmarked for when I need something, and now I share with you.

A League of Their Own: Two of my favorites who are both big in the food blogging world.
Pioneer Woman: Woman with a great story, funny commentary, and step-by-step picture recipes that will make you drool. She also gives away prizes like Kitchenaid mixers frequently. Basically, all my friends want to be PW.
101 Cookbooks- Healthy Recipe Journal: The first food blog I ever discovered. California healthy cooking never looked so good.

Vietnamese Food Blogs: Helping me recreate dishes and flavors I loved growing up.
Viet World Kitchen: Classic recipes and great articles on Vietnamese culture.
Sunday Nite Dinner: Has not been updated in a while, but the site has fantastic step by step instructions on Vietnamese and other cuisines.
Tia Nguyen, Recipe and Photo Journal: Just discovered while looking for a recipe for chili lemongrass chicken. The pictures make me hungry for my mom's cooking.
Asian Dumpling Tips: From the same writer as Viet World Kitchen, a site all about dumplings. Yum!

Every day cooking: Forget Rachael Ray when you have these sites.
Dinner Tonight: Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Blog. I like this site because it reminds me of the little recipe cards I pulled out of Martha's magazine when I was a kid. Yes, I have always loved Martha.
Simply Recipes: Another early site I found. Easy to navigate and easy to follow recipes.
Smitten Kitchen: Leans more towards the baking side; still many delicious meal ideas as well.
Chaos in the Kitchen: A mom's blog about cooking for her family. While there is a lot of "kid" food, she does a great series about "Recession Cooking" and has useful tips about planning meals.

One amazing thing I discovered is that there is this food blog network, where many of the writers know each other in real life and often make cameos on each others' sites. This also means that they also have links to other food sites, and that you could keep discovering things all the time. So many things I want to try, so little time.

East Coasting through Autumn

2009-10-12T21:11:00.008-04:00

One of my favorite things about living in DC is getting a real autumn. In between the humid summers and slushy winters is the most amazing weather.

To celebrate the start of my favorite season of the year, we headed down to Charlottesville, Virginia to watch the UVA football game, pick apples at an orchard, and go wine-tasting at three vineyards including one owned by Dave Matthews. As my friend Ben said, I had a whole weekend of Stuff White People Like.

I will let some of the pictures speak for the weekend.

View of the Virginia Countryside from Carter Mountain Orchard

Wine and Cheese Tasting at Kluge Winery

Wine Tasting Room at Blenheim Vineyards

Tortious Tuesday

2009-10-06T22:16:00.003-04:00

Torts is always considered the "fun" class in law school. Reading cases was like story time. What kind of crazy freak accident are we going to cover in class next? Turns out, though, they are not such freak accidents. More and more, I see incidents that you think only could be fiction come to our courtroom. Think that cranes never drop those tons of materials they're lifting? Yeah, we got that case.

And now that I am outside the safe confines of law school, I am encountering these incidents in the real world. We were wrapping up another trial this morning (yes, that is trial #5 in 5 weeks) when we received multiple calls. Judge, lawyers, jurors all delayed because there was a fire on the metro. It ended up being a minor incident that was cleared up after a few hours, but not a good day for DC public transportation after a metro bus hit and killed someone last night.

Apparently just as common as train accidents are in torts case books are exploding manholes. I had no idea until today. After the metro fire situation settled down, I sat down at my desk only to hear an explosion. Look outside the window and I see the smoke coming from the ground and a manhole cover not in its hole. Police quickly come and rope off the area and utility company comes within minutes to do damage control. If you ever see me walk around these covers now, the diagram below will tell you why.

I am starting to feel like after reading about all these cases in school and dealing with them on a regular basis at work, I am going to start becoming really paranoid about accidents.

Trial by Fire

2009-10-04T20:35:00.002-04:00

Now that I am over one month into my clerkship, I can officially say that the job is great. Crazy at times, but great.

My judge told me that if I have felt incredibly busy over the past month, it is not just because I am new. We have had four trials in the past four weeks, which is extremely unusual on a civil docket. Most civil cases settle for a myriad of reasons (costs, unpredictable juries, etc), but not on my watch. To give a little context, my predecessor had about the same number of trials in eight months that I have had in four weeks.

I am not complaining in the least though. While trials require a lot of tedious work for law clerks, I have learned so much. I realized that I had never even sat through a full trial before this job. Now I know the whole process and learned about good and sadly, much more about bad lawyering. No Jack McCoys over at my courthouse. Actually most are not even close and it makes me a bit sad about the legal profession (but more about that another time).

The returning law clerks told me that starting off with a crazy schedule like this will make the rest of my tenure seem like a piece of cake. We'll see.

Reading Narcolepsy

2009-09-27T21:30:00.005-04:00

Something horrible happened to me during law school. I lost my ability to read for pleasure.

It has been a while since I have been able to finish a non-legal book because no matter how interesting the book was, no matter what time of day I was reading, no matter how awake I was before I started reading, I would fall asleep after reading a couple pages. Out cold. I actually started reading magazines during law school because I knew I could at least finish an article before falling asleep.

I think my reading narcolepsy stems from the same reason of why I fall sleep if I am just watching a movie. I lost my ability to do one thing at a time. I am a serial multitasker. Even if I was reading the most boring case in the world, the reason why I stayed awake was being I was simultaneously taking notes. While "active" learning was worked for law school, I miss leisure reading. I remember how much I loved going to the library to pick out a new book to read. Heck, I even wanted to be an English major I liked reading that much.

So another goal for my post-graduate life: read a book a month. I have a few options on my shelf: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, which I have been working on for a year or so; True Compass, the Teddy Kennedy Memoir; Rediscovering Lone Pine, a fiction story written by one of my former professors; and a few others. By the end of October, make sure that I have written a book report to prove that I have read something.

Brown-Bag'ing It

2009-09-26T20:59:00.010-04:00

A few weeks ago, I saw a series of articles on Grub Street about what chefs across the country pack their kids for lunch. I thought it was funny that daughter of the chef from Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco (one of the most popular places in the city, so good) does not like cold pizza for lunch. Another interesting tidbit came from a New York Chef:

“She’ll come home and say, ‘Why can’t I have Lunchables? So-and-so has Lunchables.’ No way she’s getting that, so we make it for her. We’ll send her to school with crackers and pecorino and we’ll throw in a piece of candy. . . . You want them to eat, so pack them something they like, but try to come up with the healthy alternative of it.”

Oh Lunchables. How did any of us every want you? Anwyay, that quote pretty much summed up the theme of the article and advice from chefs. Give kids a healthy alternative to things they want. While some chefs talked about making their kids vegetarian sushi or Korean BBQ, most of them packed sandwiches but made them with high quality meats and cheeses. And everything was paired with cut up vegetables and fruit.

Even though I am probably a decade or more older than these chefs' kids, I have been trying to do the same with my lunches. One day when I was running low on food in the fridge, this article inspired me to make a grown-up Lunchable meal with some Ligonberry-wheat bread, fontina cheese, ligonberry jam, and apple slices. Surprisingly satisfying.

I am on the constant lookout for new ideas to pack for lunch. I have discovered that veggieburgers, soups from Trader Joes, baked sweet potatoes, and leftovers like stir-fry make for quick and craveable lunches. Actually, pretty much anything I pack is more appealing than the few sandwich places around the Court and way less expensive. I may look funny in carrying a lunchbag while wearing my suit, but the money I save helps finance those outfits, dinners worth spending the money on, and other things.

Photo: iStockphoto.com

Well Suited

2009-09-24T21:33:00.011-04:00

I love wearing suits. I love how you can feel polished and powerful just by putting on one. I love the feel of the lining on the inside. What I do not love is shopping for them.

Suit shopping for me is frustrating because for some reason, someone thought that women's suits had to be different from men's. While the standard men's suit comes in neutral colored and well-tailored, most women's suits are crazy colors and boxy. Big shots like Hillary may be able to pull off the bright suits (and even that is debatable), but I do not think it would fly for me in the legal profession.

What's more, designers feel the need to frill up women's suits with oddly placed zippers, buttons, patterns, etc. I cannot stand the funny pockets, darts, collars, or lengths.

I do not think that women's suits have to be carbon copies of men's, but I do believe that we should be able to wear suits that are flattering, feel comfortable, and allow people to take us seriously.

I am personally a fan of Nancy Pelosi-style suits. [To the left is the outfit she wore as her first day as Speaker.] Sleek and simple. Though I can't afford Armani like Madam Speaker, I was thrilled to find 2 Calvin Klein and 1 more suit each for $75. Thank you Filene's suit sale.

Blackout

2009-09-15T23:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my first day in chambers completely by myself. No judge, no administrative assistant, no intern. I felt like a kid home alone for the first time. And what happens? Of course the power goes out. FOR FOUR HOURS.

Yesterday once again reminded how absolutely dependent we are on electricity. I had flashbacks to last year, during the California fires and power outages, when I would be sitting in my apartment reading with a flashlight and eating cheerios because I could not warm anything up for dinner.

This time, I was sitting there on a Monday morning with no coffee (only 2 drops had made it out of the coffeepot by the time the power went out), with no light (thank goodness my office has windows), and no way to do work. While our computers may be old and the software may look like it comes from the 80s, we do do everything in the courthouse on computers thanks to electronic filing. It is great 98% of the time-- the other 2% being when you come in early to get work done, like I did yesterday, only to be completely denied. No writing orders, no reviewing briefs, no preparing cases. All because some little current could not make it to my computer.

So what does a girl do for four hours while she waits for the power to come back on?
- do all the filing that I have been putting off for weeks
- read correspondence from prisoners regarding their sentences
- walk down 5 stories because the escalators are broken, only to find out that the court coffeehouse does not have power either
- be jumpy when someone knocks on the door because I have been reading too many of those prison letters by myself in the dim and quiet chambers (it was just another judge)
- pace around the office so I do not fall asleep due to the lack of caffeine and the lack of light

In other words, I basically went crazy with nothing to do. I almost considered reading random caselaw from the books off my shelf, I was that bored. I could not even imagine how prison feels.

AWOL & Apolitical

2009-09-13T09:50:00.002-04:00

As you can tell, my blogging has decreased substantially over the past few months and nonexistent this past week. Between mini-vacations, adjusting to my new job with long hours, and realizing the joys of post-work/weekend fun, I am usually too exhausted to write my daily blogs. I have actually started many blogs this week and then fell asleep mid-type.

Further, there is now so much I cannot write about. Cannot write about the details of the crazy cases we see at the courthouse, cannot write about politics , cannot write about "matters of public controversy" (welcome to the "impartial" judiciary). If you could not tell from the tags, that is a lot of my entries. Politics has been such a large part of my life since I started college. It is strange that I cannot be publicly political for a year-- I am just thankful I was not a law clerk last year during the election.

On the one hand, not being able to blog as much does make me sad. There has been so much I want to write about, and I like having a creative and informal writing outlet to balance with the formal and formulaic legal writing I do all day. It gives me time to reflect and simultaneously update friends and family. Yet, on the other hand, I having time to actually live a life and become exhausted from something other than studying.

I think I am going to try to still blog, just not daily. I mean, that is what most normal people do anyway.

Labor Day

2009-09-07T22:31:00.002-04:00

I celebrated Labor Day today by laboring for a few hours at the Courthouse. Although it was a federal holiday that I got off, I decided to go in because we have a jury trial tomorrow and I needed to prepare some materials. As you can tell, going in also gave me the chance to give Alex a tour and snap a few pictures of my office (see above). I love my wall of leatherbound books of cases and rules. I am like Belle from Beauty and the Beast who loves her library.

Going into work for a few hours also did not feel so bad after an amazing long weekend. Restaurant Week with my favorite conservatives, outlet/IKEA shopping, UCLA football game at the bar with 80 bruins, pool lounging with the older folks at my apartment building, UCLA futbol at Georgetown, Georgetown waterfront relaxation with an out-of-town friend, Ray's Hell Burger, and rooftop dining at Surfside. I was originally jealous of my parents and brother going out of town for the weekend, but it was like I got my own mini vacation in DC.

The relaxation was very much needed this weekend. It is going to be a crazy week with a jury trial and 41 hearings on Friday (a new record, I heard); it is like Labor Week. I am ready though. Let's go.

Restaurant Wars

2009-09-02T23:55:00.004-04:00

I remember one of my favorite assignments in third grade was to create a restaurant concept and menu. How this related to anything we were learning at the time, I am not sure, but I loved it.

I still daydream about what kind of restaurant I would want to open. Alex and I conjured up a restaurant of “pocket foods” around the globe; Liz and I envisioned a Mexican/Vietnamese fusion restaurant; Ben and I joked about starting up Legal Liability Confections if the law thing did not work out for both of us; and I am sure my family discussed bringing actual Vietnamese food to our hometown. If I ever made it onto Top Chef, I would be ready for the Restaurant Wars episode.

Going to work at the courthouse, however, causes the dream to die just a little bit every day. Even though I have only been working for a week and a half, I have seen so many cases about restaurants. Bankruptcy, closures, rent issues, management disputes, contract matters, employee issues, you name it. I bet that if you listed your ten favorite restaurants in the city, at least one of them would be going through a major legal issue. I was shocked to see how many familiar restaurants were on the docket.

What makes the restaurant business so litigious? I have heard it is because it is a high-risk endeavor, led by people idealistic people who often have little business sense. They just love food. Throw in colorful chef personalities and a cutthroat industry, and you wonder how any restaurant stays in business.

Although I highly doubt I would ever try to open up a restaurant considering how risk-adverse I am, at least I would have the legal education to fight off any lawsuits.

Wii Memories

2009-09-01T22:59:00.007-04:00

Growing up, there were not a lot of kids our age in the neighborhood. That meant my brother and I hung out a lot. And while we were nowhere near video game addicts and I did not like shooting games like Goldeneye much, we did love playing Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo and later Nintendo 64. Koopa Troopa beach was my favorite track because I knew I could always beat my brother there. It was all about the secret tunnel.

Today Alex set up my Wii and we popped in the Mario Kart that my friends got me for my birthday. Though we were playing with a steering wheel instead of a index card-sized Super Nintendo remote and we did not need to blow into a game cartridge to make the game work again (seriously, where did we come up with that idea?), there were the same characters, magic boxes, and themed-tracks. I still drive like I drove back then, leaning my body with the curves of the track . . . yelling when I get hit by a red shell.

If my brother was not 3,000 miles away, I would challenge him to a Koopa Troopa beach challenge (or the equivalent track). We might both be "grown-ups" with jobs and apartments, but we are never too old to engage in some sibling rivalry.

Criminal Minds

2009-08-31T22:38:00.004-04:00

Is it odd that I am the huge wuss who will not watch horror movies nor could ever be dragged into a haunted house, but I will spend hours reading about horrific kidnappings, read Newsweek specials about the anniversary of the Manson Family murders, and watch marathons of Law & Order SVU-the most gruesome of the Law & Order franchise?

My boss jokes that people watch wrestling to satisfy sadistic urges. I wonder what it means if I wanted to be a criminal psychologist when I was in high school.

Freedom

2009-08-30T22:22:00.003-04:00

After the whole paycheck thing, I would say the best part about transitioning from academia to the working world is discovering how glorious the weekend is after a long week of work. I no longer have to be jealous of 90% of the people in DC who look like they have fun on weekends.

Instead of planning Saturdays and Sundays around a memo writing schedule, how much reading I had for the week, a journal assignment, or even worse- studying for the bar, I get to go to karaoke for my roommate's birthday, do Restaurant Week lunch with my favorite ladies, hang out with Alex, get a Wii, watch football, and sleep in. Granted, I could do many of these things before, but now I do not have to feel guilty about it.

I think it was good that I went straight from college to law school. I never fully understood what I was missing, and it would be hard to have it any other way.

Rest in Peace Teddy

2009-08-29T23:17:00.009-04:00

During college, the Bruin Democrats used to have an annual party celebrating Ted Kennedy's birthday. While the club used any excuse it could to have a party, it was telling that we recognized Ted Kennedy.

Although Kennedy was "only" a senator and had his own flaws, he embodied the liberal ideals and sense of public service. He showed that you do not have to be President of the United States to make a tremendous impact in national policy. As one of the fiercest advocates for civil rights, immigration reform, healthcare, and so many other issues, he showed that even the most privileged individuals have an obligation to be a voice for the people who did not have one.

He was what every young idealistic college democrat wanted to be. College republicans had Reagan, but the Kennedys were ours. While JFK and Bobby were symbols of progressivism, Teddy had the burden to carry their torch. He actually made it happen.

I looked back on my blog from college and saw the many ways he influenced my own "political developement." I remember watching him speak at the 2004 DNC Convention, meeting him at a fundraiser I helped organize for him in Beverly Hills, and even applying to be one of his Senate interns. I remember quoting him in 2005, after a personally stressful political day: "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die."

Thanks for everything Teddy.

Courthouse Chaos

2009-08-27T21:58:00.004-04:00

One of the things that I like the most about my job is the courthouse. It is so full of energy, interesting characters, and stories.

I love coming off the metro and seeing the African American woman with neon blue eye shadow, black pantyhose, and white socks sitting at the same bench every morning. I love seeing the lawyers wheeling large boxes of files--the younger lawyers wearing crisp suits, the older ones with disheveled hair (they all have crazy hair) sporting suits probably older than me.

I love walking into the atrium of the courthouse and seeing the assignment board, like the ticker at a train station, telling everyone where to go. People dragging their heels to the juror check-in. Parties nervously walking to courtrooms for hearings. It is kind of crazy that every day, I go to work at a place where people's lives can change in an instant. Win or lose hundreds, if not millions of dollars. Go free or to jail for life. Win or lose custody of a child.

Every morning I walk in amongst the hustle and bustle and leave when the only people left are the other law clerks and security guards. While that means it has been a long day, it makes me feel like I have seen or been part of so much activity.

Never a dull day.

So . . . what exactly do you do?

2009-08-26T23:22:00.004-04:00

I thought once I graduated law school, I would no longer have to explain to people what I do. It is still a fair question, however, since I am trying to figure that out for myself. As I have been receiving many similar questions about the next chapter in my life, and because I am still exhausted from training, here is an abbreviated FAQ.

Q: What are you doing?
A: I will be working as a judicial law clerk for a civil judge in Washington, DC.

Q: Civil? So no criminal stuff?
A: My judge handles primarily civil matters--which covers everything from slip and fall accidents to business disputes to complex property issues (I thought I would never see a foreclosure or record deed problem after the bar, how wrong I was). However, as I have learned this week, I also get to dabble in criminal law because my judge just came off of that calendar. So I see things like prison correspondence, parole violations, and conviction appeals.

Q: So is this a real job? Are you working for free again?
A: Even though a clerkship is only one year long, it is a "real job" with a pay check, benefits, a office (with a door!), etc.

Q: What does a clerk do?
A: Since I am a clerk for a trial level judge, I help manage his ~300 cases. That means preparing the judge for his trials (ie: preparing jury instructions), pre-trial conferences, status hearings, etc. I make sure that when he is up on the bench, he knows everything that is going on because I have either discussed the issue with him beforehand or prepared the file and a summary. Additionally, since each civil judge has usually ~100 pending motions at any given time (ie: motions requesting more time, motions to dismiss the case), I work with the judge to rule on motions, write out the order, add it to the docket, and file it with the court. It is my job to make sure that all the orders from the judge are perfect, hence the courtoon at the bottom.

Q: How many hours a week does that add up to? Are you going to be a hermit again like you were over the summer?
A: The outgoing clerk said that when she started the civil calendar, she was working from 9am to 6-8pm, depending on the day. Yes, more than many jobs but also less than many other legal jobs. And 1) the days go by quickly when you are working on such a variety of interesting things, 2) it feels great to go home and not have work looming over you like when you are studying for the bar. So yeah, I probably will not be able to do lunch or many happy hours my first few weeks, but I will be a lot more free than the past three years, especially weekends.

Q: How is your judge?
A: Obviously I would not trash-talk him on my blog if I did a problem with him. Luckily, I do not. He is great. Really funny, very smart, and wants my opinion on issues-especially when I disagree with him. Plus, he loves Vietnamese food and California.

Q: What are you going to do after the year is up?
A: I do not even want to think about applying for jobs again, but hopefully I will be a practicing attorney in California. We will see how the job market is.

First Day

2009-08-24T22:29:00.000-04:00

First Day Of School Kindergarten, Minnesota 1989

First Day of Work, Washington, DC 2009

Pants Party

2009-08-23T21:42:00.003-04:00

Instead of being nervous before my first day of work, I was more amazed to find, after rearranging my closet today, that I have accumulated 13 pairs of dress pants and 10 pencil skirts after many years of externing/interning.

We Are Family

2009-08-22T22:55:00.009-04:00

How do you get your butt out of bed early on a Saturday morning even though you are still on CA time, meet some really cool people, help Alex conquer his fear of older people (translate: growing up), get a decent workout, and see new parts in DC all in one? You volunteer.

Last night Alex got an email from We Are Family, a volunteer organization that he helped out a few years ago with his staff. We Are Family is group started by seniors citizens and now run by one employee and a volunteers who deliver groceries, help seniors with housing issues, provide transportation, go on house visits, and more.

This morning, Alex and I joined around 20 volunteers to assemble and delivere 200+ bags of groceries for senior citizens throughout DC on a sweltering, humid day. The people we delivered groceries to were appreciative (except for the woman who pouted when Alex would not give her an extra bag) and I met my first 100 year-old person. The diverse group of volunteers I met were also great-- my favorite being the 7 year-old who helped load the bags with soup. There was something really cool about the fact that by the end of the 4-hours working together, we were all giving each other hugs and waving goodbye. Everyone was just so nice.

I really miss doing volunteer work. Amongst one of the many things that I wish Obama would do is encourage more service. I am a proponent for compulsory community service hours during high school, but that is a whole different blog post. I volunteered for hundreds of hours in high school (and no, not just for college apps) and then kind of dropped the ball during college and law school. I did things here and there, including Habitat for Humanity with Alex before we started dating (the paint fumes won me over) and my law school's legal clinic, but nothing regular.

So I am making a resolution, at least one volunteer activity a month. I think that is realistic with my work schedule and everything else "fun" that I have been wanting to do post-law school.

Acid Trip

2009-08-21T15:39:00.005-04:00

While Top Chef makes for great entertainment, it is also educational. The greatest lesson I have learned after watching five seasons plus a season of Top Chef Masters is that if there is something missing in your dish, add acid.

The Asian Noodle Salad I made yesterday was good but needed something. So I splashed some rice wine vinegar on it. Voila.

Top Chef taught me that while most people tend to over salt their food, what most dishes need is acid to make the flavors pop. My pantry is slowly accumulating more acids: balsamic, rice wine, and regular vinegar; lemon juice and limes. I think whenever I get a house, I have to plant a lemon tree.

My latest food discovery is how amazing acidic pickled vegetables are on sandwiches, particularly on Vietnamese Banh Mi (Saigon Sandwiches from San Francisco pictured above). Sure, I grew up on Banh Mi my entire life but I never put on the vegetables. I always assumed they were soaked in fish sauce or something because my dad did not eat them and thought they were smelly. Little did I know that it was just carrots and radishes picked in vinegar and sugar. The pickled vegetables, jalepeno, and fresh cilantro provide a great balance to richness of the meat, pate (I love pate), mayo-like spread, and baguette. Such an amazing combination of flavors.

Funny how I do not make these food epiphanies until I am 3,000 away from Little Saigon. Hopefully Virginia's Eden Center has something comparable or I might try to make it.

Back in Action

2009-08-20T19:52:00.007-04:00

I am back in DC after a relaxing three-week stay in California. Even though I did not get a big bar trip, I loved going back to my home state and doing touristy things with my family (wine tasting, hiking amongst the redwoods, going to the Hollywood Bowl, visiting museums, walking along the beach) as well as doing local things (eating in-n-out and a lot of Vietnamese food). I would do a more extensive recap but there are many pictures on Facebook and, well, I am mentally still on vacation.

As great as vacation was, it felt good to be back home and not living out of a suitcase. There was a weird comfort about cleaning my room, scrubbing down the kitchen, and stocking my fridge again. I was cleansing my apartment from the Summer of Study.

Finally, after watching hours of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters yesterday, I knew I wanted to cook and had hours to do so. I have been eying Asian Noodle Salad from Pioneer Woman, and despite the lackluster produce selection in DC, it was delicious. Light and summery, had those Asian flavors I ate all summer as well as tons of vegetables-- Napa and purple cabbage, spinach, bean sprouts, red peppers, cilantro, etc. Even though I cut the recipe in half, I still have enough salad for days. Yum.

I cannot wait to try out more recipes with this free time I have now.

California Love

2009-08-06T14:55:00.008-04:00

As much as I ridicule California's direct democracy style of government or their nonsensical laws, there is much more I love about the state.

Of course there is the food. Besides the Mexican food and In-n-Out that Californian transplants crave, we miss the produce and the "freshness" of California cuisine. My mom brought home a bucket of tomatoes from her friend's garden. My dad bought two huge boxes of sweet mangoes from the Vietnamese grocery store. I was excited to go to the grocery store and see rows of produce. We have produce in DC, but not as much and it just looks sad, even at places like Whole Foods.

Even though I have made pizza before in DC, there was something about the pizza I made last night that felt "so California." Maybe it is because the golden state is the home of frou-frou pizzas. Just pepperoni, no thanks. This pizza had sundried tomatoes, caramelized onions, artichoke hearts, olives, chicken, and mozzarella on a whole wheat crust. Mmm.

Another part of California I love: summer evenings. We headed out to the Hollywood Bowl for my uncle's birthday and it was a beautiful night for Miles Davis Jazz night.

I love how the Hollywood Bowl looks when it is lit up at night. Reminds me of California sunsets.

Bar Reflections Part 3: PTSS & Back to Reality

2009-08-05T18:58:00.005-04:00

It is still difficult for me to grasp that I finished the bar exam less than a week ago. That is me, after finishing three grueling days. A dork, but a happy dork.

The million dollar question that I have received a million times since finishing: how did it go? *shrug* I do not know. When you are dealing with such a long test with so many components, it is easy to only remember certain parts- usually the difficult or obscure parts. It was challenging but not as horrible as I imagined it could be. I felt pretty confident on the essays, so for me, I think it will come down to the multiple choice section. It is really difficult to tell when you can always narrow down the question to two choices.

The funny part about finishing the bar exam is that you feel like you have so much more knowledge you acquired over the summer that went untapped. On the one hand, I wished they had tested on the topics that I put so much time and effort into learning (community property, wills & trusts, California civil procedure), but on the other hand I was relieved to get familiar concepts.

All that knowledge floating in my head has manifested itself into numerous law and bar-related dreams. Fortunately no failing the dream nightmares (yet), but dreams in multiple choice and essay structure form. I am reading Pillars of the Earth and then had a dream that Prior Phillip and builder Tom entered into an oral contract to build the cathedral. Was it enforceable?

It is like I am suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from my summer of studying. Everything I see reminds me of the test. That story on the news about kidney transplants immediately brings me back to the tort essay about car accidents impeding the delivery kidneys.

Hopefully a little more time and a little more fun will make me normal again. Or at the very least, maybe having a job that starts in a few weeks where I can apply the law will make me slightly more "normal" after hours. Finally, I decided to extensively blog about this to get everything out of my system. Some closure. So I promise that this will be my last post about the bar until I find out results in November.

Bar Reflections Part 2: Judgment Days

2009-08-04T13:54:00.001-04:00

The Cast of Characters
If I could have documented the period of time before the doors opened while every was waiting outside the Ontario Convention Center, I would have. I believe there were around 1,500 people at my testing center, and 8,000 overall in California.

What an interesting group of people. From people who went to law school straight out of college to people in their 50s-60s. The older men love Hawaiian shirts; everyone loves their flip-flops. One man wore a suit with a Lakers jersey underneath while other people were in pajama pants. There were people chain smoking and others praying. Jewish men wearing yarmulkes, Muslim women wearing Burqas, and people wearing traditional African attire. So many Asian people. So much more diversity than any law-setting I saw in DC; my roommate and I felt like we were at the UN convention.

Yet, even though the dress and ethnic diversity was different, the law school characters were all present. My favorite was the group of "Mean Girls." There was the classic queen bee/Regina character we called "Legally Blonde," who had about 10 pounds of makeup caked on every morning. She and her posse, walking behind her of course, matched with little spaghetti strap tops with velor pants, would give each other little hugs each morning, talk about how long it took them to blow dry their hair out in the morning, and blow kisses to each other once they went to their separate seats. I am not joking. [And before you liken me to Selma Blair's character in Legally Blonde, I am sure at least a few of these ladies are intelligent, but I really do not care about what hair product you use when I am trying to listen to instructions]

And as much as I tried not to, I was sizing up people sitting around me, as everyone else was probably doing. When the guy sitting two seats from me uploaded the wrong testing software (not sure how that is even possible), brought in a bottle of water after numerous warnings that we were not allowed to have any beverages in the room, and came in late almost every day, I thought to myself: I have to be smarter than that guy.

The Test
So the test itself. It is actually funny that everyone knows what the bar exam is but few people know what the test actually consists of, even law students.

The California bar exam is 3 full days of testing consisting of 6 essays, 2 performance tests (which are writing memos, affidavits, or other analysis/drafting exercises), and 200 multiple choice questions. Each day is broken up 2 3-hour sessions with a lunch break in the middle and some fingerprinting thrown in on the side. So it essentially feels like taking 6 back-to-back final exams that are all closed book.

If you think this sounds intense, it is. Whereas most states are only two days, California's is three. This adds to its reputation as the hardest test in the nation. It really is a mental marathon. You have to keep going even if you get a tricky essay on the morning of day 1. You have to keep going even if the girl behind you is tearing up because her computer crashed, the girl in front of you is having a nervous breakdown because she pressed start 1/2 hour before go time, and the guys in front of you will not stop talking about yesterday's questions. You have to keep going even if your friends on the East Coast are done and you still have an entire day to go.

Those three days are the fastest and longest 18 hours of your life. The instructions could not feel any longer and the time to write the essays could not feel any shorter. It is such an out-of-body experience. At the end of each day, I asked myself "did I really just do that?"

I am still a little bit in shock, even a week later. But more on that tomorrow . . .

Bar Reflections Part 1: The Summer of Studying & Emotions

2009-08-03T16:39:00.007-04:00

I am done. I am alive. I am happy. And after a few days, I am almost fully recovered from taking the California bar exam except some related dreams/nightmares (we will save that for part three).

Since this blog is like my own time capsule, I figured I would record my final thoughts about the bar exam, especially since I stopped blogging in the last month. Just need to get a few last things out of my system then I am moving on after that. If you are sick of/bored with bar-related things, come back in a few days. If you want bar exam tips, just let me know. I wrote 7 pages of advice for some friends who asked me for it. Otherwise, here we go.

Overall, the workload this summer was pretty similar to how people described it would be. Non-stop class and studying, especially for California test-takers who often had Saturday classes. By the last few weeks, I even cut out all my tv shows. It was up at 7am, gym for 45 minutes, and then studying until I went to bed at midnight. By the end, it was easier to move all my materials to my bed since I was referencing so many books. My roommate and I started eating dinner at our desks as not to "waste time." I can buckle down. I think I was prepared for that.

What I was not prepared for was the roller-coaster emotions. Previous bar-takers would try to explain how you would feel but you just do not "get it" until you go through it yourself. I never really had a major breakdown or hit the wall in terms of not being able to study anymore. However, there was the constant weight of failure looming over my head that was so oppressive. The weight of having to do this all over again. The weight that all this hard work would not pay-off.

The strangest and hardest part of this summer was the constant self-doubt that inflicted even the most confident of us. It was such a mind-trip. Some people may have thought my fear of failure was irrational, but I do not think it was completely unfounded. Even looking past all the statistics about California's bar passage rates, I personally knew many smart individuals who failed the California bar.

Some days I thought I had this test in the bag because I was rocking graded assignments; other days I flipped to a practice essay and wondered how there could be so much more to learn or why could I not understand something. Am I really seeing this for the first time a week before the test? I wanted to see the light at the end of the tunnel while simultaneously wanting more time. It was really difficult to accept that even if I had all the time in the world, I would not be able to learn everything. That is the most challenging part for the studious, well-prepared law student. The loss of control.

Additionally, there were honestly so many days where what no one said felt comforting. I know so many friends and I appreciated people giving us encouragement while we simultaneously thought "they do not really know what it is like." Sometimes the more people said that there was no way I could fail, the more afraid I was of becoming the girl who surprised everyone by failing. Then I would feel bad for not appreciating other people's encouragement. Similarly, I would have these moments where I would tell myself that the worst thing that would happen is having to take this test again. Then I would feel bad for stressing out. Conundrums.

This probably seems much worse and melodramatic than I meant it to come off. It was not the worst thing I have ever gone though, but it was the most challenging academic endeavor. And I am someone who likes school and studying, I could not even imagine what it felt like for someone else. I cannot count how many times I actually gave myself pep talks. I told myself that I was a lawyer (per instructions of Judge Bruce Lee), told myself that there would be ponies (per instructions of Professor Franceze), wrote a message telling myself to not freak out (per instructions of Professor Honisgberg), told myself that I have always managed to come through during test time, told myself that if I could get published I could write a stupid essay. I probably sounded like a crazy person.

In the end, I made it through relatively unscathed and felt like I prepared as much as I could. I also felt so lucky I had a really great support system that did help a lot. From a roommate who was going through the same thing (we called it the buddy system), to law school friends who sent each other encouraging gchats and emails, to non-law school friends who would do things with you and not make you feel bad for neglecting them, to the boyfriend with care packages and patience, to parents who sent stuff over and wished me luck while they were on vacation in China.

And that's what I did over my summer vacation. Next up: the test.

Hooked on Mnemonics

2009-07-11T21:02:00.006-04:00

Remember when the time when your biggest academic challenge was memorizing the order of the planets in the solar system?

Nowadays, I am trying to cram a billion rules--common law, majority, minority, California, commercial codes, model rules--into my head for the biggest closed-book test ever. Even if we are not supposed to know it all, we are supposed to know (memorize) a lot.

So it is back to using memorization devices from the days of elementary school. I am not a big flashcard person, but I do like mnemonic phrases. They stick. Just think of all the facts you still remember from K-12 even though it is no longer applicable in your life. Here were the ones I remembered off the top of my head:

King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup
Taxonomy: Kingdom, Phyllum, Class, Order, Family, Genus Species

My Very Education Mother Just Served Us . . . (I acutally forgot what the last two were but it all got screwed up anyway with planets changing order and taking away planetary status)
Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (RIP)

BEAD Gum Candy Fruit
Order of Flats: BEADGCF

Every Good Boy Does Fine
Each Line on the Treble Clef: EGBDF

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
Order of Operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction

As for the bar exam, the only that I always remember is "Armadillos from Texas Play Rap, Eating Tacos," which hits all the major areas of contracts: applicable law, formation, terms, performance, remedies, excuses for non-performance, third parties. Thank you Epstein.

Let's Get Ethical

2009-07-10T22:46:00.003-04:00

Once in my Higher Ed. Law class, an attorney came in to talk about NCAA law. He pointed out all the funny prohibitions, such as forbidding universities from taking prospective athletes out to strip clubs. He noted that these rules are only in there because it has happened.

Sometimes I do find learning about laws interesting because of what it says about society or the specific community that the laws are regulating. Behind every law is policy. Moreover, what laws a jurisdiction emphasizes (or more relevant to my life: tests on the bar exam) seem to reflect values or remedying past incidents.

For a little case study, let's take California. The only subject that is guaranteed to be tested on the essay portion of our bar exam is professional responsibility (aka legal ethics). This is notwithstanding the fact that we are all required to take ethics in law school, we all had to take a multiple choice ethics exam, and California requires the highest score on said exam in the country.

So what does this say about California? Either we really, really like ethics or the public does not trust us and we have to keep proving ourselves to them. It is the latter. See, we have good ole Califorian Nixon to thank. They did not add the mandatory ethical requirement to the bar until Watergate.

Additionally, through studying for the bar, I have also learned the differences between California and the national model rules (ABA). Let's see what these rules say about us:

ABA states attorney fees must be reasonable; CA says that they can't be unconscionable. Meaning: whatever the difference is between reasonable and unconscionable, we can charge it.
ABA says that you cannot take contingency fees for domestic relations cases; CA says you can take contingency fees in divorce unless it encourages breakup of marriage. Meaning: everyone thinks we're the land of divorce, now at least the lawyers can get paid.
ABA says you can't literary obtain rights to a client's case until after it ends; CA allows it during the case. One word: Hollywood.
ABA requires lawyers to report other lawyer's ethical violations; CA only requires people to report their own ethical violations. Clearly we have a lot of faith in the honors system.
ABA states that there is a conflict of interest when your family is on the opposing side; CA adds that there is also a conflict when you are opposing someone you're intimate with.
ABA prohibits consensual sex with clients unless the relationship was preexisting; CA felt the need to elaborate that a lawyer cannot demand or coerce a client to have sex and must withdraw if the sexual relations renders the lawyer incompetent. Sad there needed to be an explanation.

So interesting, we require more ethical hoops to jump through, but our rules seem more relaxed and fiscally self-serving than the national model. And apparently we have more promiscuous lawyers. Oh California.

Checking In and Signing Out (kind of)

2009-07-07T23:43:00.005-04:00

Never fear. I am still alive, even if I feel brain dead after doing a 3-hour simulated test over the weekend and a 6-hour simulated test yesterday. That's a total of 300 multiple choice questions. I have never been a big fan of multiple choice, and 6 hours of it is exhausting.

Add on top of that learning and writing 5 essays about dividing spouse's marital property and well . . . there is a reason why I did not want to blog over the weekend. Luckily I did get to take a break, including lounging by the pool on the Fourth and watching the fireworks on a rooftop downtown.

Anyway, I wish I could write insightful blogs about Palin resigning, MJ's memorial that cost LA millions, Obama's healthcare plan, MTV's filming of the Real World in DC, and the other billion current events that all seem to happen while I am in class, but it's post July 4, which means I am going into bar review lockdown. I am still not at the "freak out" or "hit the wall" state, but there is still much studying to be done.

Just did not want people to worry if my posts become more infrequent and I am online even less. In addition to the fact I should be studying more, I really just do not want to bore you all because all I am (or should) be doing is studying.

Some TLC

2009-07-03T23:49:00.011-04:00

My friends and I at law school always joked that our significant others should form a support group. They really put up with a lot over the three years of law school. Planning date nights around memo deadlines and journal assignments, dealing with us when we are stressed-out or are acting self-centered, listening to us talk about law school all the time. No wonder so many people broke-up with their significant others during law school, and there were even a few divorces.

And just when many significant others may have thought the worst was over, here comes the bar exam--where we work even longer hours and are probably more stressed out than the past 3 years combined. I bet they didn't even think that was possible.

It really makes me feel lucky that I have such an understanding and supportive boyfriend. I actually have not been feeling as stressed out right now, but I still study long hours. Even though Alex's work and apartment is only a few blocks away from my class, I only get to see him around 2x a week, and will probably see him less in the next few weeks.

Yet, despite my neglect, I get a knock on the door today. It was Alex with 2 bags of Trader Joe goods and an orchid to spruce up my study space. I was so happy, I almost cried (instead I just took a picture- this picture didn't even have everything). Yummy microwavable Indian food, fresh fruit, granola bars, soups, mochi balls, flaxseed chips, hummus, chocolate covered espresso beans, and more.

As one of my friends said, these guys really do deserve medals.

Paying Homage to the Rotisserie Chicken

2009-07-02T23:48:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, after a long class and long commute back home on the bus because of another metro incident, I was starving and I knew I did not have a lot of food at home. As I contemplated my options, I resisted the urge to get fast food at the fried chicken wings on sale at Giant- knowing that I would regret it later.

What could I eat now? What would satisfy me before another big night of studying? Then I saw it, the rotisserie chicken. (fortunately, Giant sells half rotisserie chickens for people like me)

It may seem silly to glorify a little chicken and write a whole blog post about it, but for me, it is one of my ultimate comfort foods. It was probably because growing up, my mom or dad cooked almost every meal. We hardly ever did pizza or takeout, except when we had a babysitter, but we would have the rotisserie chicken if someone was not going to cook. Oftentimes my mom would pick one up at Costco while she was waiting for us to finish piano lessors or my dad would get one on his way home from work.

In fact, I distinctly remember it being our first meal after moving from Minnesota to California. We were in our little condo on our first night in our new states, and we went to the grocery store and got a rotisserie chicken, baguette, and salad. And that's the exact meal that I got at the grocery store last night.

Unlike a lot of the Vietnamese food my mom would cook, this was the meal that I partook in as well. I was the pickiest eater when I was younger. But I would always be so happy when someone carved off that top piece of chicken breast just for me. I would eat all the chicken first and save the crispy skin for last. I still eat it the same way.

[picture taken at the Fisherman's Warf farmer's market last year]

Murphy's Metro

2009-07-01T23:21:00.006-04:00

It seems like anything that could go wrong, has gone wrong on the red line of the metro. Last Monday there was the metro accident. This Monday someone committed suicide right before rush hour. And today, as people were pushing to get into the metrocar, a woman hit her head and had a seizure. They had to unboard the train and run it on a single line during afternoon rush hour. Fortunately, I think she is ok now, but it is so sad.

Needless to say, it has been a rough two weeks for the DC metro system, which besides occasional track work at inopportune times, is usually highly regarded by residents and tourists. Some of these events are part of the domino effect--metro accident means that trains are running more slowly, and therefore are more full, which lead to more pushing and shoving. I just wish people would relax and learn that even waiting 10 minutes for the next train, while annoying, is not the worst thing in the world.

I know for me, it has been somewhat of a reality check. While I get impatient waiting for the metro with really annoying teenagers or very loud tourists, and I am thinking that I need to get back home to do a billion more practice questions, it's a reminder that there are bigger things than just a test.

Hopefully things will cool down a little bit after the Forth of July weekend (pray there are no disasters then). I have a feeling that I will be reuniting with my friend the bus this weekend or convincing Alex to drive me. And lucky that I have afternoon classes, I will be avoiding rush hour for the next few weeks as much as I can. I hope metro incidents, like celebrity deaths, only come in threes.

[Picture courtesy of David Fettig at PublicDomainPictures]

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

2009-06-30T09:04:00.015-04:00

Now that Al Franken is the official junior-Senator from Minnesota (represent!), President Obama and Congress have a lot more pressure to get things done. One of these things is fulfilling Obama's promise to repeal "Don't ask, Don't tell."

I feel like this is a big test for the Obama administration, because even things like passing the stimulous package do not have directly visible results like repealing this provision would. We see results, or we don't. It has also gotten a lot of publicity lately, with some compelling examples of how we are losing talented soldiers due to this policy when we most need them:

Exhibit 1: Lt. Daniel Choi, a West Point graduate who specialized in Arabic languages and a combat veteran of the Iraq War. After coming out, he was discharged from the military, a decision that military administrative board recommended today. He the President of "Knights Out," an alumni association for gay West Point grads, and continues to fight the policy.

Exhibit 2: Anthony Woods, West Point and Harvard grad/Iraqi War Veteran (mentioned before here), who was discharged from the military. He is now running for Congress in California, with one of his platform issues being repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

and when all else fails . . .

Exhibit 3: The West Wing, Season 1, Let Bartlet Be Bartlet (one of my favorite episodes)
Admiral Fitzwallace [to Tate and Thompson]: We’re discussing gays in the military, huh?
Major Thompson: Yes sir.
Fitzwallace: What do you think? [silence] I said what do you think?
Major Thompson: Sir, we’re here to help the White House form a possible-
Fitzwallace: I know. I’m asking you what you think.
Major Tate: Sir, we’re not prejudiced toward homosexuals.
Fitzwallace: You just don’t want to see them serving in the Armed Forces?
Major Tate: No sir, I don’t.
Fitzwallace: ‘Cause they oppose a threat to unit discipline and cohesion.
Major Tate: Yes sir.
Fitzwallace: That’s what I think too. I also think the military wasn’t designed to be an instrument of social change.
Major Tate: Yes sir.
Fitzwallace: The problem with that is that what they were saying to me 50 years ago. Blacks shouldn’t serve with Whites. It would disrupt the unit. You know what? It did disrupt the unit. The unit got over it. The unit changed. I’m an admiral in the U.S. Navy and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...Beat that with a stick.
----------------------
I love Fitz.

Obviously this is a very tough situation. I can see where the military is coming from as well, and I could imagine that shoving a policy down the military's throat would not be a good idea. I mean, even President Bartlet couldn't do it in the liberal fantasyland of West Wing. But here is to hoping that a real President can work something out to reverse this policy.

Don't Freak Out

2009-06-29T23:59:00.007-04:00

Don't freak out.

I have it written on an index card sitting above my desk, and I might have to write it on the first page of my test so that when I get to a question that I do not know, I don't freak out.

One of the biggest mental hurdles of the bar exam is coming to terms with the fact that no matter how hard you study, you cannot just know it all. You can make and review a billion flashcards, outline every subject, make charts and graphs, do all the assignments Barbri gives, but it is impossible to know it all. There is just too much. Just as important as learning the materials is knowing what to do if you get to the test and do not know it.

As one lecturer pointed out, this concept is the most difficult for law students who did well to grasp. I think he rightly pointed out that people who tended to do well in law school were used to going into a test feeling like they knew everything based on preparing for that one test. Since most professors liked to test on material they covered in class, things appeared manageable and there never seemed like there were any surprises. So many of us are not used to getting a test with a question and having no idea how to start. Out of the dozens of tests that I took in law school, I can only think of one that I ever thought was "unfair" (and my Professor was really crazy).

But alas, law school exams and the bar exam are two completely different things. I am really trying to take the advice of the lecturers who advised us to keep practicing, and working through that feeling of the unknown. What to do when I get to an essay where I have no idea what they are talking about (make up rules, apply all facts, argue both sides, get stuff on paper with headings) or a multiple choice problem that is challenging (try to remember the rule, use process of elimination, and just move on and don't harp on that one question).

And like they said, chances are that if I do not know it, neither do most of the people around me. "Don't turn into a puddle on the ground. Sit up in your chair and answer the question!" -Prof Honisgberg.

Perhaps in all the craziness of the bar exam, there is a life lesson for those law students like me who like to prepare and have control of every situation. That can only get you so far.

[sorry for the bad quality of the picture. I use my phone's camera when I am too tired to get out my real camera]

California Dreamin'

2009-06-28T23:16:00.002-04:00

Flights booked. In California from July 26-August 18.

I will be slightly busy from July 29-31 with that pesky bar exam that I am taking in Ontario; but after that is FREEDOM. It will be so weird from going from my strict all-day study schedule filled with lectures, practice tests, and essay assignments to absolutely nothing. I cannot wait.

California to-do list:

Visit brother/extended family up in the Bay area.
Visit friends who are still around.
Eat in-n-out and good Mexican food.
Get a little more tan.
Sleep-in.
Go shopping for new work clothes.

There is a light at the of the tunnel. Or in the words of Paula the property lady, there are ponies.

Heatwave

2009-06-27T23:12:00.003-04:00

It got hot. Like 90 degrees with humidity hot. It makes me lethargic, as do Saturday classes. So we'll just stick with bullet points. Here is what is helping me beat the heat (and those BarBri blues).

Likes:

Friday Fun Food Day: This week was pizza from Vace, a little Italian deli with some of the best pizza in the city. Plump salty olives with homemade italian sausage, so good. My roommate and I invited over our sig-O's for a little pizza party. Vace Pizza + salad + garlic bread = double date for less than $20.
Lunch al Fresco: Had lunch with one of my UCLA bffs Greg outside. After being stuck in a basement classroom for bar classes, it is nice to see sunlight- even though it was sweltering.
Capitol Steps: Part of GW's orientation includes a performance by Capitol Steps, a singing political satire group. Since Alex works for GW, he gets to go free. It was hilarious. You can check out their songs on their webpage. They even got in a "Don't Cry for me, I'm in Argentina" song for Governor Marc Sanford.
Fro-yo: Haven't had it in a few weeks but man, I would kill for some green tea fro-yo with mochi and strawberries right now. So hot.

Dislikes

Property, Property, Property: And in particular mortgages, land sales, deeds, etc.
Lady at Starbucks: The one day I want to treat myself to an iced coffee before my Saturday class, of course I get stuck behind the woman ordering coffee for over 20 people.
Metro: Ever since the accident, the metros have been even slower and less frequently even though the number of tourists have gone up. What's even worse? Getting suck in the stinky Farragut North station because it's so hot and not ventilated.

RIP MJ, Farrah, Ed

2009-06-25T23:06:00.004-04:00

It seems like every day that I come out of my bar review class, I hear about another sad story that occurred during the four hours when I was away from my laptop. Today, of course, it was about Michael Jackson dying.

I won't pretend to be one of those people who grew up on Michael Jackson (we were more of an ABBA household) and was a die-hard fan. But I appreciate his music and the influence he has had on so many other artists. You knew how popular his songs were when people could overlook his peculiar person life, and people all over the world those songs. They brought people together- whether it was hearing Thriller at a bar with friends, dancing to the Jackson 5 at a wedding, or having your roommate play one of his songs before your 1L finals to pump you both up.

And I certainly won't be like those people who roll their eyes at news like this or point to "bigger" things going on. If people are sad or shocked at Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, or Ed McMahon's deaths today, they have every right to their feelings. And just because they have a status message about it does not mean they do not care about other things. Yes, some people can be a little melodramatic or bandwagon, but every time something happens to a "pop icon" I think it evokes emotion to something bigger than that person-like memories. I never grew up watching Charlie's Angels but I will always remember posing like them in so many pictures with my friends in high school.

Cheaters Never Prosper?

2009-06-24T23:46:00.005-04:00

Today, my friend's facebook status contained a provision from the South Carolina Code of Laws:

SECTION 16-15-60. Adultery or fornication: "Any man or woman who shall be guilty of the crime of adultery or fornication shall be liable to indictment and, on conviction, shall be severally punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year or by both fine and imprisonment..."

This was of course, in response to the bizarre news of South Carolina Governor's disappearance and affair. (Helen S.: I share your pain about unfaithful politicians. I guess infidelity is one thing that is bipartisan)

Although only half of the states still have adultery laws, could you imagine if those states actually chose to prosecute adulterers? We could cover budget deficits and solve economic woes through the cheaters' fines! Unfortunately, adultery is not a crime in California but you can sign this petition to make it one.

Seriously though. Doesn't it seem like there is more infidelity everywhere? I do not know if I read more news, the news has become obsessed with it, or there is more cheating going on, but it seems like an epidemic. From politicians to parents in the towns where we grew up to our own friends. It is just all very sad, especially when there are kids involved. Jon and Kate + 8 used to our Monday night fixture but my roommate and I have not wanted to watch it at all this season.

If we're going to talk about sanctity of marriage, can we start here?

Think Like a Bar Taker

2009-06-23T23:23:00.007-04:00

To call studying for the bar a dehumanizing process would be a little melodramatic. However, there are times when you feel like you are a legal issue-spotting machine instead of a human.

While all of us felt grief about yesterday's metro train accident, many of my friends and I also felt disgusted with ourselves that we started reading the details about the tragedy like a tort law hypothetical. And why am I thinking about the level of homicide and the insanity defenses for the Holocaust Museum shooter? Or trying to figure out how they calculated the damages for the families of the Air France victims? Why does reading the Real Housewives of New Jersey Danielle's give you a review of all of criminal law? And why am I thinking about all of the property issues in Jon and Kate +8's divorce? (btw, reading about them filing for divorce gives me so many flashbacks to all the divorces I've done over the past year, but more on that in another post) And of course there were a host of property legal issues in the story about the eviction notices to Spike, a former Top Chef contestant.

In law school, they tell you to think like a lawyer. But I think (or hope) that even lawyers can separate their work and seeing legal issues from being a regular person. Even if you're a zealous advocate, there's empathy for your client and others. The bar on the other hand- you just see every set of facts as a hypothetical where you must identify and analyze all issues and even non-issues. You run off little checklists of elements for each issue and use stock language like having "a depraved heart" and being the "natural and proximate cause." And your mind leads you to the legal conclusions that would be correct on the test, even if that is probably not would happen in real life.

Studying for the bar is certainly not the worst thing in the world. Even if I issue spot when reading the news, it still does give me perspective. Nonetheless, I will glad when it is all over so I feel a little more normal.

Manic Monday

2009-06-22T23:08:00.006-04:00

When we left class today at 5:30pm, I remarked to my roommate how peaceful the city felt on the warm summer afternoon. There was not the usual hustle and bustle. "Did everyone just decide to stay home from work?"

Little did I know that half an hour beforehand, there was a deadly metro crash, ultimately killing six people.

We had no idea anything was wrong until we got to the metro and the board with the ETAs was completely blank. I knew something was strange, but it was not until we reached the turnstiles and saw bright yellow signs saying "massive metro delays" did I realize that something was amiss. Metro delays are not uncommon, especially during the summer. But I had never seen these signs before.

So my roommate and I headed back up to wait for the bus. Then I received a text message from my dad saying that there was a train crash. On our bus ride home, which was packed, we found out more and more details from people checking their blackberries and receiving calls from friends and family. Crash on the red line (the line I take home). Fatalities. Fort Totten. Train derailed. Reports of 1+ hours metro delays with people packed in sweaty cars. As we saw ambulances head east, we knew they were on their way to the site.

The whole experience is still kind of surreal. Six hours ago, everything seemed normal. The metro, and the red line in particular, was just my way to get to barbri classes everyday. Now it is the headlines nationwide.

I know people or people who know people who could have been on that train, who just missed it by 30 seconds, who were on the train behind the incident, or who saw the train in the collision go by on the other side of the track. While the metro is no more dangerous than any other form of transportation (the last commuter death was in 1982), it still can be unnerving, especially when it is something so connected to so many of us. The metro is the way that everyone gets around- locals, tourists, rich and poor. If there is one connection, literally and figuratively, between so many of us in DC, it is the metro.

Let us hope that they figure out what went wrong and never let it happen again. My prayers go out to the families of those who died and for the recovery of all those injured.

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T23:24:00.003-04:00

Thanks Dad for imparting us with a sense of work ethic, love of good food, appreciation of current events, culinary skills, desire to explore the world, an engineer's mind (even if I did not become one), and so much more.

No Red Friends or Blue Friends

2009-06-20T22:53:00.011-04:00

As I mentioned before, my friends Faith and Ryan are in town visiting. Even though Faith was the President of the Bruin Republicans, a lightening rod position at the liberal bastion of UCLA, she was a uniter and not a divider. That was evidenced by the eclectic group of people who came out to dinner last night to see F&R. In Faith's own words . . .

"we met our group of over achieving student government politicos from out west at cafe asia. where they really do serve food from all over asia. mowgli had his native indonesian and i had japanese. lauren had thai and doan had something from singapore. everyone gave it two thumbs up. it was nice to see the people i adored and hear what they are up to these days. the lefties out numbered the right wingers. a famous blogette, the unions, some law school nerds, lawyers, and the unemployed. represent."

We were also supposed to have a street matador/model/soap opera star that Ryan knows at dinner, but alas he did not show up. Much sadness.

Some people might think the political demographic of this table would lead to huge political arguments. (final count, 7 liberals v. 6 conservatives/ libertarians. We were all in Bruin Dems or Bruin Republicans. And the current jobs range from AFL-CIO activists to Ashcroft's personal assistant.)

Some others might even wonder how we are all friends at all. Cliche, but true answer: we are more alike than we are different.

Sure, we share a love of politics, which led most of us to be involved in student government politics and life in DC. And yes, most of us will be lawyers (final count: 2 incoming law students, 3 current, 1 grad, and 1 practicing attorney at the dinner). But even beyond that, we have "normal people" things in common. Whether it be love of Bravo-reality tv, world travel, or all things UCLA. We can talk about politics civilly (at least most of the time), but we can talk about other things too.

I am always sad when I see people automatically separate themselves from people of different political ideologies, because they are losing out on what could be some great friendships.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

2009-06-18T21:25:00.008-04:00

You know that scene in Mean Girls when Lindsay Lohan imagines that she lunges across the cafeteria and attacks Queen Bee? Or that scene in Election when Reese Witherspoon hears tribal war cry music when she see Chris Klein? Yeah, that's the feeling that some of us have in my bar review class have against some irritating classmates.

They exude the type of behavior that you would probably find annoying after being with the same people for a few months in law school. But since BarBri classes are with the same exact people four hours a day, five to six days a week, it gets to you a lot faster.

In particular, we have a "that guy" in our class. Loud, obnoxious, tells bad jokes, and thinks he's funny. He turns around in class every five minutes, stares, looks for people he knows, and winks at them. Same routine, everyday. The worst is that when you are looking straight at the lecturer on the screen, he seems to think you are looking at him. No, you are the one turned around! Stop winking!

My roommate and I joke that one of us is going to snap one day, climb over three rows of desks, and attack him Mean Girls style. And then we would make it onto "Above the Law," the legal gossip site for being "The Girl Who Couldn't Take It Anymore." Provocation, we would argue! A reasonable person would have snapped too!

If you ever find yourself in a bar review class, or another stressful environment, here is behavior I have witnessed that you should avoid unless you want to become that person:

Make fortune tellers, you know those things you made when you were in elementary school, and play it while some people are trying to pay attention.
Tear the perforated pages out of your workbook for two hours straight. You could not wait until you got home? Everyone can hear you, even if you try to do it only when the lecturer is speaking and not pausing.
Retype all the text from your workbook onto your laptop typing really, really loudly. I was honestly concerned that this guys' keys were going to pop off, he was hitting them so hard. I pray that I do not have to sit by him during the actual bar exam.
Sit by the aisle, put your bags in the narrow aisle ways, take the longest to leave at the end of class, and create fire hazards. It is like the people who sit at the front of the cabin who take forever to get their luggage out of the overhead compartment.
Bring smelly snacks. Tuna fish? Not good for a classroom with no ventilation.
Yell and flip-off cars multiple times outside the law school building whose tires are just a little over the crosswalk. Dude, we are all stressed, but do not take it out on random bystanders and make all law students look crazy.

(And just in case you are concerned, I am okay, not too stressed out, and do not plan on attacking people in class. I just had to catalog this since Alex wants me to write a book about law school characters.)

Thick as Thieves

2009-06-17T23:34:00.011-04:00

The Smeets in town + eating shawarma (my new favorite word) + Real Housewives of New Jersey finale = great way to beat the June gloom and BarBri blues.

It was very appropriate that our good friends Ryan and Faith were in town this week because yesterday was the table-flipping, screaming-match finale of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Faith and I are fellow reality-tv junkies, particularly if its on Bravo. Instead of waiting for her to watch it in Arizona time so that we can discuss, as I usually have to do, I got her commentary live. And instead of Alex rolling his eyes at me in DC and Ryan rolling his eyes at Faith in AZ, the boys got to commiserate together. The only person missing was my roommate, who appreciates the amazingness of these shows as well.

Oh how I will miss our favorite Mob Momma . . .

And Theresa. This is one of my favorite moments from the series, aside from the finale of course.

It is just like we got to know the Jersey Girls and now they are gone (at least until Season 2?) Faith, roommie, and I will have to find a new way to fill our Tuesday nights since we will be devoid of the Housewives of OC/NYC/Atlanta/NJ for the first time in as long as I can remember.

Little California

2009-06-16T19:09:00.003-04:00

One of the very few good things about taking the California bar is that you get to take a class with all Californians. It gives you a sense of home and there's some camraderie. Everyone wears flipflops even if it is pouring rain outside- usually Rainbows. People rock Laker gear and talk about games going into overtime. And you know a good chunk of the people came went to UCLA, Berkeley, or U$C for undergrad because 1) they wear sweatshirts from those respective schools in our freezing cold classroom and 2) it looks like UCLA, Berkeley, or U$C demographically speaking . . .

Helen: do you know adam p.? he was a [student government] person. he is in your barbri class
me: i've heard the name through you but i don't know him personally. that's funny. where did he go to school?
Helen: GW. he is short, jewish and has a lisp :)
me: which describes like...half the people in my class
Helen: funny when i asked about you, and said you are an asian girl he said the same thing
me [simultaneously]: the other half are asian. it's just like ucla

(and before anyone wonders how I know people are Jewish . . . I have definitely heard more than a few people talk about J-Date.)

Riot

2009-06-15T22:45:00.010-04:00

Reading the news this morning, there were two dominant images: people rioting in Iran and people rioting in Los Angeles. In Iran, I get. People are understandably furious about probable election fraud in their recent Presidential election.

LA, on the other hand, even if much smaller in scale, I do not understand at all. The Lakers win, and people take to the streets just like they do every time the Lakers win championship. They even had a commercial that came on after the game that said "Celebrate Responsibly." It's sad that it is not even surprising anymore.

What compels people to riot out of happiness and celebration? I remember being dumbfounded when I heard stories about how students were burning couches, which ultimately led to a car being burned, in Westwood after UCLA beat USC. And I remember being shocked seeing the images of chaos in San Francisco created by people celbrating Obama's win. (Despite not being happy with the people of California for passing stupid evidence rules, this is not targeted at the state. I am sure celebratory rioting happens everywhere-though thinking about it, it seems more prevalent in California.)

I could think of no possible situation where I would simultaneously ecstatic and have the urge to burn something or destroy someone else's property. Even if you're drunk or in a mob, I still don't get how that would be your gut reaction would be to riot.

This is amongst many of the reasons why criminal law would be difficult for me. I would be too fixated on figuring out why people did what they did instead of prosecuting or defending them.

(Both pictures courtesy of the LA Times)

No California Love

2009-06-14T23:36:00.005-04:00

While all my California friends are celebrating the Laker's championship win, I am not feeling as much of the LA or Cali love.

All day today, I've been review evidence- the first subject where we have to learn the California law. While I have a pretty good grasp of the federal rules, I am just starting to learn how California is different. I made chart of differences . . . and it was 7 pages long. sigh. That pretty much means California is the opposite of, or has an exception to, every federal law.

My frustration is not really amount the material of information I have to learn, but really how stupid the California law is. California's deviations away from federal law just seem completely arbitrary. Sometimes it screws over the accused, sometimes the party bringing the case. You just never know.

The bigger picture is that this is what happens when you have bad governance. When you have term-limited state legislators passing new laws relating to evidence based on the hot news story (thanks for bringing us the "OJ rule" California). Or when you have the public voting on rules of evidence (thanks for bringing another horrible Prop 8- this one doesn't have to do with gay marriage but rather changing all the rules for criminal cases). Evidence is hard enough for many law students to understand; not to sound elitist, but how are non-lawyers supposed to be savvy enough to know how to change it.

Can we just have that big earthquake so we get a fresh start and end this direct democracy experiment?

Study Treats

2009-06-13T23:16:00.007-04:00

If there was ever an upside about studying for the bar exam, it is that the demanding hours makes you judicious in what you do with the time you carve out as "free-time" and it makes you really appreciate the breaks you take. You figure that if you have such limited personal time, you better do something you really want to do and enjoy it.

Since we have class 5 or 6 times a week (which is +2x as much class as we had in law school), and my roommate and I declared Fridays our food excursion days to get us through the long weeks. We are usually good about cooking all our meals at home, so this is a fun treat and a way to explore DC's emerging street food/mom&pop shop scene. Last week was the Greek Deli, this week was the Korean Bulgogi Cart (left), next week is Pedro & Vinny's vegetarian burritos. Both the Greek Deli and the Bulgogi cart were amazing--better than the food at most restaurants in DC at a fraction of the price.

After a painfully boring lecture on Friday, knowing that I would be too drained to work, I headed out with the DC Bruins to an outdoor movie screening. It was a beautiful night out, I got to see a lot of people I have not seen in a while, and as an added bonus- the movie they were showing was the Breakfast Club as part of their "I love the 80s" series. 80s music amakes me very happy. Also, I could relate to being locked in school on a Saturday morning.

Funny how I have lived in DC for 3 years + 1 intern summer and this was the first time that I have partaken in DC's famous outdoor movie nights or tried many of their famous lunch eateries. Who knew the only motivation I needed was the bar exam?

Food Fighters

2009-06-11T23:57:00.007-04:00

Why am I studying dozens of hours a week this summer to join a profession that is the punchline of many jokes? Because everyone once in a while, lawyers and lawyers-in-training do some pretty cool things like fight for the street tacos.

The LA Times had a story about how a legal team, which included law students at UCLA in the clinical program, helped overturn a city ordinance that prohibited food carts. Although LA has power to pass regulations to protect health and safety, the court commissioner found that LA's regulations did not further either. That would have been a great clinic assignment.

In honor of law students, clinical programs, my alma mater, hardworking street vendors providing delicious food, and the recent lift of the DC food cart ban as well, my roommate and I are going to patron the Korean food cart tomorrow before class.

(photo courtesy of LAT as well)

Two Tales

2009-06-10T23:15:00.006-04:00

Today I was going to blog about congressional candidate Anthony Woods, but I will have to start off on a more somber note.

While I was in BarBri classes this afternoon, many of the people in front of me in class were reading news stories and I could see the yellow or red ticker on top of the web pages, which indicates breaking news. None of them were sitting close enough for me to tell what they were looking at, and I do not bring a laptop to class.

When I came home, I discovered that at 12:40pm today, an eighty-eight year old "hardcore" white supremecist, James von Brumm, entered the Holocaust Museum today and killed security guard Stephen Johns with a rifle.

While any killing is sad, this incident seems overwhelmingly tragic. Such a violent and racially charged murder with anti-semintic overtones in a place that memorializes the victims of that same exact kind of hatred. And how scary it must be to have this kind of event happen in a crowded tourist attraction right at the beginning of summer.

Rest in peace Stephen Johns and many thanks to the officers who shot down Brumm before he could inflict any more violence.
------------------------------------

Shifting gears from grief, to maybe some hope, as I mentioned above, I was originally just going to post on Anthony Woods, a congressional candidate with a biography that Aaron Sorokin couldn't even dream up. I highly recommend you read about his story here.

To make a long story short, he is an African-American male who raised by a single-mother who worked six days a week as a maid. He graduated from high school with honors and attended West Point. After that, he was deployed to Iraq twice and earned a bronze star for his service. Then he attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he mentored low-income minorities applying to college and went to rebuild homes in New Orleans in his spare time. While at Harvard he came out as gay and was honorably discharged. Now he is running for Congress in California's 10th district to, among other things, repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. He thinks that while we are fighting two wars, the army should not be turning down talented soldiers.

I think whatever happens in his race for Congress, he has a great deal of potential in politics or whatever else he pursues. He's already done more at 28 than many people do in their whole lives. In addition to having that great story that shatters so many stereotypes, he has that conviction and initiative to fight for what he believes in. He's a do'er, and I like that.

There are so many people in the world like Anthony Woods, and that is what restores my faith after reading tragic news like I did today.

The End of the World

2009-06-09T22:05:00.005-04:00

Storm's a Comin', originally uploaded by Backwards Bill.
Taken on June 9, 2009, uploaded June 9, 2009

If DC was ever invaded by aliens, attacked by a foreign country, or witnessed Armageddon, I have a feeling it would look a little like today. Coming out of BarBri class, the weather was hot, humid, and generally sunny. However, some foreboding dark clouds loomed, and before we knew it, the sky turned black. It went to day to night in a minute and strong winds gusted out of nowhere, whipping around tree branches and kicking up leaves. Street vendors quickly started taking down their umbrellas and packing up their carts. And then people started running. Everyone wanted to make it to the metro before the clouds opened up and dumped rain, or even worse-hail, down on us.

DCist has noted how "words like 'soaking,' 'relentless rain,' 'flooding' and 'monsoon of Biblical proportions that will drown all but our souls' makes it into every weather forecast." I have done DC summers before, thunderstorms and all. However, I have never seen storms as bad as this year. Daily flood watch, trees knocked down, power lines going out, etc. Whereas in previous year a thunderstorm would last for an hour, now they go all night long. Early this morning the thunder was so strong and continuous that it almost felt like our building was shaking. Damage and getting wet aside, however, it is actually pretty cool to watch as long as you're inside.

Climate change? God punishing DC? Who knows. Just be sure to pack your umbrella if you are visiting DC. (Faith, I am looking at you)

Quarter-Century

2009-06-08T23:33:00.011-04:00

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. Even with all the bar studying, I still had a fantastic and relaxing birthday weekend, and I think it made me appreciate everything more. Since I need to get back to reviewing my flashcards, I will just do a photo recap (those are more fun anyway).

Friday: Star Trek on Imax, Icecream Cake, and a great night with my law school posse.

Saturday: Study day so I could have my brithday off. Now you can see the desk I will be living at for the next two months.

Sunday: Delicious lunch at Ray's Hell Burger with my boys (ps. Alex and I have been fans before Obama & Biden made it cool)

All I wanted to do was lounge by the pool on my birthday. Thanks David for letting us hang out at yours so we didn't have to drive all the way back to the District.

Finished the day off with a fabulous dinner at Ray's the Steaks. Funnily, I didn't know Alex was surprising me for dinner here when I requested Ray's Hell Burger. Even if I got my red-meat intake for the month covered, I did not mind. Both were amazing. Alex was good company too.

And in case you were wondering, that's a 28 oz. piece of steak, which he didn't get half way through (don't tell him I told you that). My piece was much smaller but still delicious. I highly recommend it if you're in DC.

I did not even plan a single thing this weekend or stress out and it all worked out perfectly. Maybe I should take that as a life lesson? Anyway, a great start to 25.

Spies Like Us

2009-06-06T22:55:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I was just telling my roommate that I wanted to go on a spy tour of Washington, D.C. I am generally obsessed with stories about spaying, but after watching Breach, a movie about FBI agent Robert Hanssen who spied for Russia, I really wanted to know about all the espionage history in the city. This morning I wake up to find out that there were spies in the neighborhood.

Instead of studying, I read and became enthralled by the story of Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, the couple who was just arrested and indicted for spying for Cuba for thirty years. The story itself was very interesting. They became "true believers" after visiting Cuba and learning about the Revolution during an academic trip. Someone from Cuba came out to where they were living in South Dakota to ask them to spy. She says be joined the State Department instead of the CIA because he was not a good liar. Yet, they lived their whole lives with this secret from apparently everyone. Never bringing up Cuba at all, especially not their personal meeting with Fidel.

What I found equally fascinating, however, was how close it hit home (no pun intended). The Myers live about two miles away from my apartment, and I would pass their building frequently on my way home from work. They used to deliver messages by exchanging grocery carts at the store, my money is on the historic Giant on Wisconsin. And then I found out that Kendall Myers was one of my friend's favorite professors at John Hopkins. Suddenly this couple went from being movie-like characters to real people.

Who knows, there could be spies in my huge apartment building.

Star Trek

2009-06-05T23:33:00.001-04:00

Tonight my friends and I went out to the Imax theater by Dulles to go see Star Trek the movie. Having grown up watching the tv show Star Trek the Next Generation (I embrace my nerdiness, see left), and hearing so many good things about this movie, I was very excited. The movie definitely lived up to all of its hype. So good.

I really enjoy movies that explain characters. This Star Trek reminded me of Batman Begins; taking characters that people are familiar with and providing the backstory. Add in humor, a good story line, and attractive actors and it makes for an overall great movie. After seeing this movie and Up last week, I am afraid that the rest of the summer just will not live up.

What made the night even better was that I got to see my friends that I do not get to see as often since bar classes started. They and Alex even surprised me with icecream cake and party decorations at Alex's apartment afterwards. A happy ending.

Ready . . . Break

2009-06-04T23:54:00.005-04:00

"Is it August yet?" is the new "Are we there yet?"

It was just one of those days where I was in such a daze, I got discombobulated in my own apartment building. After I got home from class, I got off the elevator on my floor and was not sure which way to go. I seriously thought for a moment that they moved the elevators.

This is what happens when I have class five (or even six) times a week for the first time since my second or third year of college. I also blame the property practice tests that kicked my butt today, four straight hours of afternoon class (I am only conditioned for two hours at a time), and the bizarre apocalyptic weather we have had--not your usual type of DC summer storms.

I am taking it easy tomorrow (sleep in, go out to lunch with Alex and roommie, see Star Trek imax with friends after class) before I get lost going to my room or something.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

2009-06-03T23:17:00.005-04:00

June in DC means thunderstorms, humidity, and a flood of interns and tourists. It also means that DCers will be complaining about all of the above.

Recently, a blog about DC Interns has surfaced, whereby people submit stories about interns being annoying. While I am sure the blog is just meant to be good-humored, and some of it is funny, I am moreso amused at those who actually have animosity against DC interns.

Now, I may be biased because I was a Capitol Hill intern in 2004, but interns are not all as bad as people make them out to be. Are there interns who think they are self-important? Sure. But c'mon, we are in DC. Half the people working here, government or not, take themselves too seriously. Even outside DC, there are always those people we work or went to school with, who are annoying and/or think they are God's gift to earth. There always the few in any population that give the rest of the group a bad name.

Most interns that I worked with or met were nice people, often away from home for the first time, and willing to do the grunt-work no one else wanted to do. Get your coffee, check. Open letters from crazy constituents, check. Walk 5 blocks through the thick layer of humidity in your suit to deliver a twenty pound UPS package, check. If thinking that you are saving the world gets them through their day, so be it. Interns are young, immature, and allowed to be idealistic. What is everyone else's excuse?

As for tourists, aren't most of us pretty much long-term tourists in DC? Very few of us, especially in Northwest DC, are actually native, so why are we so territorial? I really think that if we labeled escalators so that everyone knew that you stand on the right, walk on the left, we could really cut down on 97% of the hostility. Until then, maybe people should take a breath and not roll their eyes at families blocking the metro because they are looking at a map and are excited about their first visit to DC . . . because by doing that, DCers just look like the bigheaded interns they just complained about.

[Picture of me at my lowly intern desk 5 years ago, man was my hair long]

Pizza Party

2009-06-02T22:05:00.006-04:00

One of the good things about my bar review schedule is that I can cook and eat all my meals at home. No more packing things up in the Gladware. In fact, planning meals and cooking food has been one of my outlets to keep me sane.

While out stocking up on groceries this weekend, I found something amazing at Trader Joe's: 99 cent pizza dough. I have had random pizza cravings the past few weeks, but have resisted the urge because of how bad for it usually is for you. Making it though meant healthier (yeah, still not the healthiest thing), cheaper, and more delicious pizza.

The dough was very easy to work with, and I covered it with Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic pasta sauce, tons of chopped pineapples, chopped turkey kilebasa, chopped garlic (can you tell I love garlic?), and lightly sprinkled it with parmesean cheese and oregeno. It turned out really well. The crust was especially good: light, airy, crispy but chewy on the inside, and the perfect thickness. A pizza for probably less than five bucks and enough to last me at least four meals if I add a salad on the side. I feel like I am ready for my own Food Network show.

Over the past few years, my roommate and I have made BBQ chicken pizza and a roasted butternut squash pizza with rosemary, both of which were great. So many other possibilities to try. So many other recipes to try generally. Lucky for me I have 2 more months of studying to go cooking crazy.

Picture courtesy of Devour This.

Street Food from Homelands

2009-06-01T20:17:00.009-04:00

It's funny what you find when you play tourist in your own city. When my aunt and I were exploring an off-street of Adam's Morgan during graduation weekend, we stumbled across a corner with Argentinean, El Salvadorean, and Mexican food and craft tents. Since we had just had lunch, the vendors kindly told us to come back and that they were out every Friday-Sunday.

Yesterday, when Alex and I were looking for a cheap lunch spot, I remembered the street vendors. Boy did that make Alex happy. For just around $10, we shared a carniatas taco, roasted pepper tacos (never seen them before, but they were delicious), a chicken tamale, and fresh mango juice. Everything was homemade and fresh, including the very hot salsa. I really enjoyed sitting outside, eating our food on a bench, while little kids were running around and parents were getting food.

Though it still cannot compete with the hole-in-the wall tacquerias in California, it was vastly superior to all of the mexican/tex-mex restaurants that are strangely popular in the DC area.

When I went home, I did a little research on this place I discovered was called Mi Tierra, translate: My Homeland. I highly recommend reading the linked WaPo article because it describes how Mi Tierra was a collaboration between the city and vendors who may have difficulty setting up full-fledged restaurants. In exchange for allowing these places a place to legally sell their food, the vendors take classes on accounting, food safety, and small business management. Seriously, such a cool idea.

While some people may argue that these street vendors hurt local businesses who actually do have to pay for all the licensing fees, I actually feel like these vendors bring in many people who would not normally come to the area. Moreover, the market also serves another purpose as there were tents set-up Spanish speakers to talk to people about health and legal issues.

The United States is definitely behind the rest of the world in terms of street food. This is especially a shame because we have the opportunity to showcase the many cultures represented in our melting pot, salad bowl, or whatever we are calling ourselves these days. So I am fully in support of any initiative to increase that, while providing the added bonus of helping immigrants and teaching them about business practices. Everyone wins.

Pictures and article info courtesy of "Home is Where the Tacos Are"

Up

2009-05-31T21:10:00.006-04:00

I know it summer when I actually go see movies. Aside from my Oscar-nominated-movie-binge I went on in January, I hardly see movies during the year in the theaters.

This year, I kicked off the summer by seeing Up in 3-D with Alex, David-the pixar enthusiast, and two other friends. It was the perfect treat after my all-day BarBri class. The movie is excellent and I highly recommend it.

Any review I will try to do will not do the movie justice. I will just say that it is one of the funniest and most moving movies I have seen in a very long time. I even cried- and I hardly ever cry watching movies. Pixar has certainly shattered perceptions of what animated movies are supposed to be like.

The movie-watching marathon continues next week when I go see Star Trek on Imax with some of my other friends. I have a feeling that I will really appreciate the escapsim and air-conditioning that movies will provide this summer. I definitely welcome movie suggestions throughout the summer-mainstream, indie, whatever.

Review of Bar Review

2009-05-29T23:04:00.005-04:00

13 hours of class down this week plus ~24 hours studying, 7 hours of class to go tomorrow. A Saturday! That is more class tomorrow than I had in a whole week in my last semester of law school. Sigh. Going part-time last semester was both a blessing and a curse.

I already am feeling drained from bar classes. It reminds me of the workload of the first year of law school, but without the countervailing excitement about the newness of everything and first-year idealism. But so it goes. I am going to try to keep my self-loathing to a minimum, especially here, because I know 1) I am still lucky to even be where I am, 2) everyone is going through it, 3) I hate incessant whining.

So here is a list of things that have kept me going this week and will probably help me the rest of the summer:

The roommie. I am very lucky to have a roommate also taking the California bar. It is the buddy system. We keep each other going, we walk to class together, we keep each other accountable, we can vent to each other, we give each other looks when the BarBri lecturer says something stupid.
Gym + West Wing every morning at 8am. Great way to start off the day.
Snacks & Caffeine. The first day of our 1:45-5:45pm classes I almost fell asleep until I remembered I had pretzels in my bag. Every day since then I have packed fruit in my bag. The munching and natural sugars have kept me awake. And as much as I hate to do it, I am going back onto caffeine. 1 diet dr. pepper limit per day though. We made a costco run today to stock up.
Family, boyfriend, and friends. Thanks for giving me space when I need it and talk to me about non-law stuff.
10pm TV programming. Housewives of NJ, Make Me a Supermodel, heck even NBA playoffs. Something to look forward to at night. The more mind-numbing, the better. We might break into our Gossip Girl Season 1 dvds soon.
Cooking. The benefit of afternoon classes, thus far at least, has been that I get to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home instead of being at school all day. Making a meal is so therapeutic.
My new bookshelf. It makes me feel grown-up and happy. It is part of my plan to make my apartment a grown-up apartment rather than a student one. It is already looking better.
Graduation pictures on facebook. People should post more up so I can take a break and peruse them.

That is it for now. I promise I will try to mix up my posts so they are not all about studying for the bar.

Spellbound

2009-05-28T23:15:00.006-04:00

The Scripps Spelling Bee is one of my favorite annual competitions I watch. In addition to loving to watch competitive things generally, I am captivated by all of the human elements. There are always the quirky and distinct personalities--complete nerds, class clowns, cocky kids, awkward home-schooled kids, nervous wrecks, eerily mature pre-teens, the unusually 'cool' kid who looks out of place, and the many students who fulfill ethnic stereotypes. And those are just the spellers. Their parents are equally as entertaining, from the overbearing to the ultra-supportive.

The little montages about how they study and about their other interests are also fascinating. And how cool would it be to be 12-13 years old, be on national television, and how your own little clip? Maybe that's why I also enjoy watching it so much. It celebrates student academic competitiors. While I may have played sports and spelled averagely, I rocked those math competitions. (seriously, what happened? I cannot even do arithmatic now) And going to those math competitoins, especially at the higher levels, exposed me to the same kind of personalities and rituals as it seems exists at the spelling bee.

After cutting two hours of my studying to watch the bee, I am hoping to find the same kind of discipline to study for the bar as those kids use to learn the etymology and spelling of all those words. Pictured above is this year's winner, Kavya Shivashankar (courtsey of WaPo). Poised, confident yet humble, and always smiling throughout the bee-- I want to be like her.

BarBri Bootcamp

2009-05-27T23:34:00.007-04:00

"So you pay $3000+ to go sit in a classroom every day during the summer and watch a video?" Yes.

That is the same question I get from everyone who tries to understand what BarBri bar preparation classes are like. If it sounds ridiculous, it is. But it is what thousands of law school graduates across the country are doing, because there is no better way. Even those who have live classes are essentially watching a video, since no one is allowed to stop the lecturer for questions.

Staring at a big head, filling out our glossy blue workbooks. The whole experience is kind of surreal. To best describe what the experience has been like over the past two days, I have come up with some analogies:

Boot Camp- This is probably the most accurate description. This first week, we have to do these practice multiple choice questions. Why test us before they have taught us anything? To kill our "I just graduated from law school" egos. It is the whole military break you down so they can build us back up type of thing. Point out how little we know so we are scared into studying. Most of us did need a kick in the butt to get us out of summer coasting-mode. I guess it is also a way of acclimating ourselves with the testing format.

Big Brother- I wonder how people would react if they walked into a room and saw us all staring at a big talking head on the screen yelling (ok, not yelling, but speaking forcefully) about how BarBri is the only program that knows how the bar tests, that changes all their books when the bar changes, that knows all the tricks, and is the only program you need; everything else is a waste of time. And it is scary how well the indoctrination works. They give us a schedule, and we follow it exactly. I admit it; I am a sheep.

Rachael Ray- I have only watched a few different BarBri lecturers but most of them have the same exact presentation style, one very similar to the dreaded Rachael Ray. The fake excitement, the cutesy abbreviations and own lingo (or Spanglish), the over animation. On the bright-side, it keeps you awake for hours, if only because you are shaking your head at how ridiculous they sound. I guess it is better to err on the side of annoying than boring.

I am not meaning to bash BarBri. It is actually the opposite; I am really in awe of how disciplined their business model is. You have to give credit to any company who is able to maintain this kind of monopoly. (not meant to be a backhanded complimented, I am serious)

It has only been two days, but it seems effective and most of the methodologies seem to serve a purpose. No one would be paying this much money if they did not think it was at least semi-useful. I sure know I would not be studying as much if I did not have a schedule telling me exactly what to do and practice tests showing me how much I needed to work on. It is just an experience like no other. We will see what the rest of the summer is like.

KD is a J.D.

2009-05-26T23:48:00.007-04:00

It is official. I am a law school graduate. It was a great weekend with so many of my family members who were able to make it out from California for a great, though a little too hot, sunny graduation weekend. What else can I say other than the ceremony was nice and brief, the speakers were good, and there were bagpipe players--I really liked the bagpipes. A perfect ending to a good three years.

Although my pictures are slowly going up on facebook and flickr, here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Andrew, Dad, Mom, me, Alex

My favorite girls

The whole gang. Immediately Family, Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, Great Aunt, Great Uncle, and Alex.

I would write more, but the school was not lying when they said it was commencement. Two days after our graduation and it is already time to commence classes to study the bar. Off to review property.

Graduation Weekend, BBL

2009-05-23T08:46:00.001-04:00

I think I am technically a law school graduate because I officially have enough units, but the next time I will be back, I will have a diploma to prove it.

Off to play tour guide to the family.

Finishing Strong

2009-05-21T18:45:00.004-04:00

*disclaimer, this will be the first and last time I will gloat about my grades. I am graduating from law school, let me have my moment*

My best academic semester at UCLA was my last semester because I was determined to get a 4.0 after barely missing it several times. Likewise, I fought senioritis in my last semester of law school by aiming to get a 4.0 so I could raise my gpa to from cum laude to magna cum laude level. Nerdy yes, but I need some motivation to get me through my last semester.

Well, I got my grades a few days ago. I had received a B+ in my Business Assocations class. Any other semester, I would have been satsified, not thrilled, but satisfied because I would tell myself that it was not an area of law I was interested in. But with less classes this semester, I actually had time to focus on the class and learned that I actually do enjoy corporate law. I partcipated in class, I went to office hours (for the first time ever!), I was so prepared. So I was disappointed with my grade. But when I went to pick up my test today, I realized that my professor forgot to grade one of my answers. Fortunately he was in his office, realized his mistake, and changed my grade to an A. What a great feeling.

Honestly, I do not know that getting a 4.0 this semester will even bump me up to the next honors level, but I do not care (ok, maybe just a little). I am more excited that I was able to push myself and be just as diligent of a student, if not more, leaving law school as I was coming in. That I did not let law school kill my "academic spirit." To have grades that reflect that, is of course, icing on the cake. I am hoping to continue the momentum through the bar exam.

Thanks Teachers

2009-05-20T13:59:00.005-04:00

Now that I am officially done with two decades of schooling, I have been a little nostalgic. As excited as I am to start working, I am going to miss school because I am one of those nerds who actually liked school. A large part of that had to do with the teachers and professors I had. I was thinking yesterday about how some teachers were pivotal to where I am today, and I decided to send them thank you emails.

I sent one to my AP US History/Government teacher who pushed me like no other teacher in high school. He did not just expect us to pass the AP tests, he expected 5's, and conducted class accordingly. Daily quizzes, running our scantrons through the grading machine in front of the class, expecting us to back up all test questions with sources. And what other high school teacher uses the Socratic method? It was probably some of the best preparation for law school. He gave me the pocket constitution I still have in my bag today, and once told me that I would make a great Solicitor General.

Another thank you went out to my eight grade honors English teacher. Honestly before, I never really realized that I was a good writer. There was a time when I was on the math team and wanted to be a doctor or psychologist. However, her assignments made me realize that my strengths lay elsewhere. And while I am far from the smartest kid in my classes still, I now have confidence in my writing, which has taken me far in law school.

I have had so many other great teachers, but those were the ones who had the greatest impact. If I ever need motivation as to why I want to do law related to education, I will just remember them.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits

2009-05-19T23:39:00.005-04:00

For the second year in a row, I was fortunate enough to attend the Women Bar Association's Annual Awards Dinner. While the dinner was more low-key this year because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (and you know how much I love Ruth) was not there this year and the economic climate sobered the mood and the number of sponsored tables, I had just as much fun this year.

This year's Woman Lawyer of the Year was Solicitor General Elena Kagan. You can just call her General. She has the kind of resume that every law student and lawyer aspires to have. Princeton, Oxford, Harvard Law. Supreme Court Law Clerk, Professor, White House Counsel to Bill Clinton. First female Dean of Harvard Law School and Solicitor General of the United States. And potentially the next Supreme Court Justice.

What I liked most about her though is how "down to earth" she seems. I know that term is cliche, but that is the only way I can describe it. Her self-depricating humor, how she does not try to mask her New York accent, how she got students free coffee and a skating rink at Harvard, and how she polled the audience of whether she should wear the Solicitor General's uniform. (Who knew that the SG had a uniform consisting of a morning coat with tails and pinstripe pants. I had no idea!)

The keynote speaker was also very inspiring. Meanne Verveer was Chief of Staff to then First Lady Hillary Clinton and is currently Obama's ambassador for global women's issues (kudos, btw, to the Obama administration for creating this position). The way she spoke about the hardships women must endure around the world, women that she has met, and projects that her office is working on was equally heart-wrenching as it was hopeful.

Then there was the judge I met at the VIP reception (my boss snuck me in). She was one of the earliest members of the Peace Corp in the 60s and went to India. She fell in love with a man from India and fought the "Peace Corps" bureaucracy to let her marry him, and fought them again when they wanted her to stop working when she was pregnant. She argued that being pregnant was not a disease and was able to continue her work. You could tell she has just as much fight in her as compassion, which to me makes a great lawyer or judge.

I could go on and on about other remarkable women that I met, but I will leave it there. Everytime I go to these Women Bar Association events, I feel the "girl power." I think now that I will actually have some free time next year, I want to do some kind of volunteer work. Whether it be a women's organization or just public service in general, we were reminded tonight that it is needed now more than ever. As economic times are tough, domestic violence goes up and people, particularly women, are afraid to speak out about injustices in their work place for fear of losing their jobs.

Kennedy Center

2009-05-18T22:53:00.008-04:00

As part of graduation week festivities, I got to go to the Kennedy Center to see Ragtime. (picture courtesy of DCist, who had a glowing review) Even though the school subsidized the event and we only had to pay $5, I would have paid more because it was a great show.

Sometimes I forget how easy it is for me to see these kind of performances at the Kennedy Center, which is just a few blocks away from Alex's apartment. Everything I have seen there has been great, and Laura Bush was even at one of the shows we saw. I feel so "grown-up" and fancy whenever I go, like when Sam and Mallori went to the opera at the same place (yes, another West Wing reference).

With another year in DC, free of law school, I am starting to make a list of things I want to take advantage of while I am in the District. One of them is seeing more performing arts, especially because there are so many free ones in DC.

Open Minds

2009-05-17T23:18:00.003-04:00

Every morning since classes ended, I have started off my day by watching West Wing while running at the gym. Before, during the Bush Administration, the West Wing used to be my political escapism--what I wish the Presidency was. And while the Obama Presidency has far to go, even I can admit that, I feel like it is closing the gap between my idealism and reality.

It is not even just about liberal versus conservative. It is how the President speaks, frames issues, governs, and represents the country. A great example came today, with Obama's speech at Notre Dame's commencement. (read the text or watch it here) It is the type of speech that fictional President Bartlet would give at his alma mater. Confronting controversial subjects like abortion without being confrontational. The analogies, the connections, the imagery of fisherman. It is something that fictional Sam Seaborne would write. So good.

Guess Who

2009-05-16T17:49:00.003-04:00

On my way to the metro today, I passed by Filene's Basement, where there were four black sedans and suburbans and half a dozen men with little pins on their lapels and earpieces. I have seen enough episodes of the West Wing and been to enough political events to know that these were probably political secret service so I went inside to try to figure out who it was.

Despite following the secret service around the store, assuming that it would lead me to whoever they were protecting, I was not able to figure out who it was. I saw one of them talking to an older white woman who I did not recognize, so I am not sure if that was her, a friend, or just a normal customer.

I am hoping my smart and political savvy friends would be able to help me figure out who it was. Clues:

I am almost certain it was a woman because the secret service were downstairs in the women's section almost the entire time.
It was someone important enough to have four secret service cars and a dozen secret service gaurds.
This person shops at Filene's Basement, which means that she likes designer clothes at discount prices.
This occured on Saturday around 10am, meaning that it was probably not Michelle Obama because she gave the commencement speech at UC Merced.
This Filene's was next to the Mayflower Hotel, which means it could be someone in town for something.

School's Out for the Summer

2009-05-15T23:41:00.000-04:00

Summer* means being able to go to a Nationals game and stay for extra innings without worrying about waking up early the next morning to study.

As much as I loved law school, yes I was one of those oddballs who loved law school, the biggest downside was probably missing out on fun because I always had reading or studying looming over my head.

I know that once I enter the working world, I will also have time, vacation, and monetary restraints, but I am hoping that will be better than saying no to Foxfields horse races every year because of finals, spending my holidays at home outlining, missing out on UCLA alumni events because of night classes, sporting events because of mock oral arguments, declining wedding or birthday invitations because of some large due date. Overall, I think I did the best I could to balance school and a real life, but I am looking forward to a job that I can leave at work and more free weekends.

*And by summer, I mean the periods of time before and after bar exam studying.

Done Done Done

2009-05-14T14:56:00.004-04:00

Well since I last posted, I have studied for and completed two finals, ate where Obama and Biden had a burger, realized that I may actually find corporate law interesting, celebrated my fourth anniversary with Alex, and woke up for the first time with nothing to do. It has been great.

I feel like the next few weeks will be full of reflecting about law school. However, right now, it is still surreal. I cannot believe that I will be getting my diploma next week. Where did those three years go?

To answer my friend Doug's question, I will probably keep writing on this blog while I am in DC rather than start a new one. Whether I will be posting everyday is something I will figure out as I embark on bar studying and the working world. But now, it's off to celebrate some more.

Be Back Later

2009-05-02T16:31:00.003-04:00

My life is not all that exciting, but it is even less exciting while I am studying for exams, giving me nothing to write about and less mental stamina for me to find anything else. So I will be back after finals, or at least after my first one.

Picture courtesy of www.thepiratescove.us.