blogedy blog.

Post-Bar Life

2011-08-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

Follow-ups on previous posts:

As predicted, I was not too happy spending June and July studying for the bar. Was a way better idea when it was cold outside. Passed up some fun stuff with friends to get some studying in because work was busy so I couldn't get much done during the week. Hope it was worth it.

The hotel I stayed at during the days I was taking the exam (after screwing up on Hotwire and not getting the hotel I expected) ended up being right next door to the movie theater I saw Kids at, which I now know is the Nuart.

I really enjoyed my week in LA, notwithstanding the bar exam (which, as I hoped, was way easier to deal with knowing I didn't need to pass it). Went to Marina del Rey on my last day there. I had been there once when I was living in LA, to go to a party at the apartment of one of the regional managers from work (during my short and only stint working retail, at Blockbuster Music). I remembered I liked it, and was not disappointed on revisiting it. It's like San Diego in LA. Could definitely see myself living there.

Post-(second)-bar life is good. After the New York bar, I had to pack up and move to New York. After this one, I finally get to start to enjoy summer... now that it's nearly over.

Update.

2011-02-27T09:52:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. I've been busy. Work-wise, 2011 has been the busiest I've been -- January was my highest billable month, and February will beat that, short month and all. But, for the most part, it's been interesting.

As for the rest of things.... I'm feeling bullet-y, so let's continue the trend from the last post:

Saw the first night of previews of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia on Broadway last night. It was good, especially for the first performance. Margaret Colin, the actress who plays Blair's mom on Gossip Girl, was in it, and that made me more happy than it should for someone of my demographic. Also Billy Crudup was in it; I didn't think I liked him, but have changed my mind.
Since my last update, I moved across town. Love the new neighborhood and the new apartment, though we're just now getting around to getting art hung on the walls. It's quite a bit smaller than our last place, but the location is great, and we actually have a good amount of privacy because the buildings near us are lower than our floor, so I can leave the blinds open. Winter sun is amazing. So un-Portland-like.
Just joined Zipcar, so I need to find an excuse to go for a drive soon.
Just started working out again. Made it farther than I ever have on C25K; hope I can keep with it.
Good but conflicting opportunities have arisen for the boy for the summer. Hopefully will all sort itself out.
Went to a ton of concerts in the last few months. Don't have any upcoming ones planned though; need to fix that.
Decided to take the CA bar this summer, since I'll already be there for a wedding the weekend before. Don't really have any desire to live in CA again, but would be nice to have the option if I change my mind. Will likely regret this decision... in June and July.

Alrighty then, back to reading. Have been meaning to read Devil in the White City on the recommendation of many people and have finally gotten started!

One year in.

2010-07-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

A year ago today, two days after I finished the bar exam, we signed the lease for this apartment. It feels like much much longer than that. Since then, in chronological order:

Moved across the country (it took me two flights, since I had to take a second trip to fetch one of the cats)
I figured out to live in an apartment that is 43% the size our house was (though I miss the space, and we didn't really fully unpack this place so it's unnecessarily cluttered, I think we've managed really well)
Took my bar trip to Italy
My cat got crazy-expensive (but successful) thyroid treatment (in one of my first NY-is-great moments, the vet who treated her was the inventor of the treatment!)
Started my job
Got matched with a good officemate, who brought in a bonsai tree that makes our office serene(ish)
Found out I passed the bar
Got a lot of interesting projects at work, including for clients that I never would have imagined I could have been able to work with (e.g., filmmakers and artists)
I became a lawyer (it takes a while post-bar here in NY)
I was at the front of the stage to see The National, who I had never seen and had wanted to see for a long time (and saw them a second time just this week)
I made my first visit to a cobbler, but have not succumbed to commuting shoes (yet)
Took a trip back to Portland (I was a bit homesick before I went, but missed NYC when I was there)
I decided what practice group I wanted to join and was accepted into it

Not so bad! To dos for the next year -- move to a new apartment (other side of town, hopefully closer to the subway), make more of an effort to do stuff that will help me meet non-work people, see more concerts. I recently briefly flirted with the idea of taking the California bar exam soon (before I fully forget what I learned last summer), but I think comments about this weeks' exam have killed that.

Plans.

2010-01-17T18:53:00.001-08:00

Started writing this on Twitter but had more than 140 characters worth of things to say about it. Seeing Chloe Sevigny on the Golden Globes has me think about the movie Kids. It's one of the few movies that made such an impression on me that I remember many of the circumstances of seeing it - who I was with (a guy I was dating when I lived in LA - a fellow record store employee, he worked at a different store than I did, but we frequented each others' stores), where the theater was (in a broad sense - it was in LA, I could drive to where it was but don't actually remember what the area was called). I remember thinking how very different these kids' lives were from mine, though they were about the same age as me. It made NYC seem quite gritty - at that point I hadn't considered living there, but a few months later it was on my short list of places to live once I decided to leave LA. (Others on the list: Phoenix and the winner, Portland.)

I still find my decision to leave LA to be pretty strange - it was very sudden, and I don't recall what spurred it. I think I decided to leave in February or March of 1996, and by May of 1996 I had moved to Portland, was living by myself for the first time, and was enrolled at Portland State through the National Student Exchange Program. At that time, I didn't really think I would live in Portland as long as I did, but I wasn't big on long-term plans - I had only applied to one undergrad school in high school (which was heavily damaged by the Northridge earthquake in 1994, 7 months before I started, but I didn't bother looking into other schools), had no idea what I was going to do with my life, etc. I thought I would be dead by 25 so there was no real point in long-term plans anyway. (When I turned 26, I had to figure out a plan.)

Anyway, the guy I went to see Kids with, we stopped dating later that year because I started seeing someone else. He called me the night before I left LA to start the U-Haul trip up to Portland to see if I wanted to do something - I loved being able to say, "Sorry, I'm moving to Portland tomorrow." It wasn't that I didn't want to see him again, but it felt good to have a bit of a plan.

Typing for typing's sake.

2010-01-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Life is sort of settling into a routine.

Work is slow in the mornings, then typically picks up in the afternoons. My holiday weekends have been threatened by work but the work was always delayed so I've had most holidays/weekends to myself. Need to get out of the apartment more, but I'm enjoying catching up on TV shows I've missed during law school - in the last few weeks I've watched Damages, Weeds, Dexter, and a bunch of other stuff. Getting my money's worth from Netflix, after having a disc from The Wire sitting in our various homes collecting dust for forever - we first got it from Netflix before we sold our house, and didn't actually sent it back until maybe October. Oops.

Survived my first big snow storm, though still need to figure out boots to wear to work. I have some cute rainboots I like that I may just use for this winter then sort it out for real next winter. (They have a grey/black spotted animal print pattern thing on them that is good with jeans but I think I want something a little more professional to wear with suits.) I have now started a collection of shoes at work (1 pair for now) so I have something to change into and don't have to carry shoes in my purse (though my huge purse I am still in love with fits them no problem).

Today I went walking and realized 20 minutes away from home that I had forgotten my phones--both my iPhone and my work BlackBerry. Debated whether I needed to go back but decided that if I didn't go back I'd wonder if something urgent had come in from work. It's very cold out and teeny little snowflakes were falling. I was wearing a thermal underwear top and bottoms but was still a little chilly (have been pleased I am getting use out of the thermal undergarments; I bought them for my trip to Switzerland during winter break of 2L year when I went to a negotiation at WIPO for a treaty I was writing a paper on -- best excuse ever to go to Europe). Returned something for the boy at a fancy J Crew store on Madison ( J Crew Collection) that was camouflaged so I walked right by it, then kept seeing people with J Crew bags passing me on the street, taunting me. So I pulled out the trusty iPhone to help me find it, but it started getting sketchy and turning off, probably because it was so cold. Then I had a big decision to make: Whitney or the Met. Had joined both, but decided on the Whitney since I hadn't seen their Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit yet. It was crowded, so spent more time at the Roni Horn exhibit, and really liked it. That exhibit was on two floors and I only saw one, so I have more goodness waiting for me. As I was walking home, I saw that the steps of the Met were packed - guess going to warm museums on cold days isn't such a bad idea.

Went to Williams-Sonoma to get a Zoku but I didn't see any in the store. I want one but it was a little hard to get too excited about getting a frozen pop maker *right now* given the weather.

Battling a headache now. Got a variety pack of Magic Hat beers delivered from FreshDirect this AM, along with a free tub of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough, so perhaps that will chase my headache away. Also have a huge amount of rice pudding I made yesterday with rice left over from disappointing Chinese food - it turned out really good but there's sooo much of it it's kind of overwhelming.

Oh hi!

2009-12-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

So yeah. Hi blog. I've sort of abandoned you. But I knew you were there waiting for me. I've been busy going to Italy, and starting my new job and settling into NYC life.

Things are good. I am reminded by the tweets and blog posts of those still in law school that though--for the most part--I liked law school, I do not miss finals. I feel the pain of those still in law school. I remember trudging through the snow last December to take my Evidence final though the city was nearly shut down. Took me 4 hours by bus to get to campus, and they ended up shutting down the school while I was taking my exam (those who were mid-exam were allowed to finish). That exam ended up giving me the worst grade I got in law school. Oh well, 4L grades aren't something to dwell on!

Passed the bar. If all goes well, get sworn in next month. Passing the bar was a huge relief. Though that sounds obvious, it was more of a relief than I had imagined. When telling people what I do pre-results, I had this awkward response that was something to the effect of "I'm hopefully going to be a lawyer." Now, it really feels real.

Doing interesting projects at work. Trying to balance a few things at once, and that's a bit stressful, but so far they've worked out.

Today I went to Brooklyn to buy some chocolate bars at Mast Brothers. We'd bought a couple at Stumptown at the Ace Hotel here, but they were $10 ea, and at the factory they're 3 for $20. Bought 6 different kinds, and have to figure out which to keep for us and which to give away. This was my third visit to Brooklyn. All the visits have felt very different. The first was last summer, to Park Slope, for a work function at someone's house. A few weeks ago, we went to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. I really enjoyed that trip, including a visit to a restaurant that served Uyghur food. This visit, in what I think was Williamsburg, reminded me strongly of Portland. It was raining, so I got my chocolate and came back to Manhattan, and stopped at Union Square to watch "Up In the Air," which was pretty good.

Been watching some TV - watched season 1 of Damages, and am now in the middle of the first season of Dexter. Also been reading a lot. It's crazy how much time I have compared to working full time and going to law school!

A reading...

2009-09-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Waited all day for a charity to pick up a bunch of clothes and some books -- they finally got here in the afternoon; made me miss the ease of loading up the car and heading to Goodwill.

I saw that David Cross was reading from his new book at the Borders at Columbus Circle, so I decided to go. I really like that area, spent a lot of time there last summer and thought it would be cool to live over there.

To get there, Google Maps told me to take an R or a Q I think, but when I got to the station to swap, I wasn't sure what direction to go (Uptown/Downtown is much clearer - cross-town-ish subways just confuse me), so I accidentally ended up in Queens. I love that I can get on a subway and accidentally leave the island. I finally made to the right stop, and got out near Carnegie Hall. My sense of direction is usually good but I get turned around pretty easily here, but then I saw trees, and knew where I was map-wise in relation to Central Park, so I pointed myself in the right direction.

Got to the Borders for the reading pretty early, so I headed back outside for a bit. When I went back in, some people were in the seats, so I sat down too, and pulled out my New Yorker from my New Huge Purse. I bought this purse in Portland before I left and like it but hadn't used it yet - I'm used to carrying a wallet, iPhone and keys and nothing else, so have been using a small cheap purse. In New Huge Purse, I was able to fit the normal stuff AND a New Yorker, umbrella (ella ella), camera, bag that I had used to carry 7 (!) suits to be dry cleaned to the dry cleaners [dry cleaning lady asked if I worked at a bank!], and still have tons of room. It is the best thing ever. It's like having a airplane carry-on bag with me. I could throw in iPod and Kindle and still have room. So, back to the reading. I pull out my New Yorker, getting excited to read NIN story by Sasha Frere-Jones, since I had watched him do a live chat thingy about it earlier today. But, I grabbed an old issue. Luckily it was one I hadn't read yet so I was able to kill the 90 minutes of wait time.

The reading was fun - it appeared to be his first ever book reading. He read a couple stories and answered some questions (with the disclaimer that there was no news regarding the Arrested Development movie). Afterwards, I walked home - it took me almost exactly an hour. I decided to walk up Madison, looking for the shop where my New Huge Purse could see its siblings, but I didn't see one. (Looking it up now, I see it's on 5th, rather than Madison.)

Back at home, and Gossip Girl Season 2 DVDs have arrived, so that's how I'll be spending the next few hours -- watching it and seeing how much of the locations I recognize!

Conservatory Garden

2009-09-08T16:46:00.001-07:00

Conservatory Garden
Originally uploaded by blur_

Looks like my old camera will be heading to Italy with me. It took some lovely pictures today and only crashed once.

Turtles!

2009-09-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Spent a few hours walking through Central Park yesterday, and saw all kinds of stuff I'd never seen before, even though I walked around it a number of times previously this summer and last summer.

My favorite was seeing so many turtles:

Second favorite was boats (which go on the lake where there are turtles!):

Must find time to go back and go on boats.

Found cafe near the boats that sells reasonably priced food + beer; am glad to know I can get an inexpensive-ish beer in the middle of the park should I want one.

The boy went on a tour of SoHo with school peoples, so after he got home from that we went back down there to check it out together. Had some good mexican food + overpriced margaritas.

Got an appointment to get passport renewed next week; have hotels secured for each city in Italy except Rome, which is my last stop. Trying to figure out if I need to get a new camera before the trip. There's a new Sony I want that has good low-light capabilities but it comes out just before I leave. I love my old Sony but it likes to die in the middle of a picture from time to time so I'm not sure if I want to risk it.

Today I am going to mail a bunch of books that I sold on Amazon, and probably go walk around Central Park some more because it's RIGHT THERE and it's awesome. I will bring a real camera this time, not just my iPhone.

I was battered.

2009-09-05T14:50:00.001-07:00

I just got off the most eventful flight I've ever taken - I was battered (in the torts sense) by a fellow passenger when I said I didn't want to swap seats.

The whole story: I boarded the flight early, knowing it would take a little extra time to get my cat under my seat. General boarding starts, and a 10-ish boy and his 7-ish sister came to sit down next to me - I had a window seat, and their family had the two next to me and the adjacent aisle (and I later found out, a first class seat also). The daughter started crying because she didn't want to sit next to stranger. The brother tried to calm her down. The father showed up and asked me to switch, and I said I would prefer not to, as I had already stowed my cat under the seat. (It would be a pain to get him out of there, and add more stress to an already stressed cat, and I specifically woke up at 7am yesterday to check in early to get a window seat.) Apparently this man is used to always getting his way, because he flipped out. He started shouting that I was choosing a cat over a human, then proceeded to throw his kids' backpacks at me, hitting me both times. I asked him to stop, and his son started freaking out, telling his dad to apologize to me. The daughter is screaming now, and the dad says to me, menacingly, "This is only just beginning!" and made some comments about how his daughter would be screaming at me the whole flight and I deserved it because I was an awful human being, etc. Not wanting to get more stuff thrown and me, I hit the button for a flight attendant. When she arrived, I told her that the man had been throwing stuff at me. At this point, the boy decides to defend his father and shouts at the top of his lungs, over, and over, and over at me, "NO HE DIDN'T". When the guy still isn't getting his way, he claims his daughter is allergic to cats. At some point their mother showed up and said under her breath something like, "He doesn't handle these things well." Yeah.

Luckily, an awesome German woman and her two sons gave up their row, splitting themselves up so that this guy and his kids could sit together. Once they were reseated, the son recanted his defense of his father and started shouting to his father that his father needed to apologize to me for throwing stuff at me. The son was saying something about how he was an A student and had a good reputation and his father was ruining everything. The flight attendant basically had to tell the boy that if he didn't calm down they had to get off the plane, because they couldn't deal with 5 hours of that. I think the boy said he would rather that they drive. But, he eventually shut up.

So 5 hours later, the flight arrives at Newark. I'm thinking, hey, maybe the dude had a chance to settle down, all is fine. In a amazing word, he would even apologize. Or even better, I'll never see them again. Unfortunately, I walked by them on the way to get a cab, and he shouted out, angrily, "Hope your cat had a good flight." WTF? I feel so bad for those kids.

(After the flight was underway, the flight attendant came by to apologize, and asked me if there was anything she could get me - free bloody mary? etc. I said I was fine, and she pushed a free set of $1 headphones on me. Why couldn't this happen on a flight when I wanted to watch a movie and/or wanted a drink?!)

Oh, and on the outbound flight Tuesday, I had my first "Is there a doctor on the plane?" medical emergency - the guy in the adjacent row apparently wasn't doing well but it all got sorted well enough to continue on with the flight.

Had a good time in Portland - went to the zoo, the art museum, the rose garden (2x) and saw some friends.

So, with that done, I now have both cats in NYC. The cat who got here earlier is not a fan of sharing the apartment with the recent arrival (nevermind that we got them at the same time as kittens 12 years ago).

Update.

2009-08-27T14:23:00.001-07:00

Getting unpacked, probably 70% done at this point. We're realizing that we have a lot of stuff we need to get rid of, but it was hard to decide what to keep vs. chuck until we actually had our new space. Need to get rid of a number of books, but having time to read some I've yet to read but have wanted to read and now have time to read will help with that. Not sure what to do about clothes - I have a lot of stuff in a few sizes down that I really like, so I need to figure out if I'm going to get back down to that size soon or just buy new stuff when I do.

Got temporary window coverings put up in all the windows. Just did the bedroom initially, but now have them all done. Though I love the great views we have (sunsets and nights are lovely, especially the last few nights when the moon has been hanging out outside our windows), it's nice to be able to block out the afternoon sun, and hopefully we'll save a bit on a/c costs.

I've figured out the important basics: when the mail arrives, how to get things in the apartment fixed, best close grocery store and alternate less close gourmet grocery store, etc. Did a bit of walking with the boy today and found some lovely fancy-pants-looking blocks not far from here.

Yesterday, I had a little homesickness for Oregon, as I wasted away my afternoon at the DMV. It took almost 4 hours of waiting, and at the end, unlike in Oregon, I didn't even get my license, I just got a temporary license and have to wait 2 weeks for the real thing. While I'm grateful I didn't have to take a test to get my license like I did when I transferred my California license in Oregon, the wait was pretty ridiculous. Oh well, it's not like I have a job or other things to gainfully fill my time.

Am enjoying not working. The first few weeks were so busy with moving-related stuff that it didn't feel like it was free time. Now it finally does. I can make myself a gin & tonic at 4 in the afternoon and not feel guilty. The last few days I've spent unpacking for a few hours, walking around for a few hours, watching some TV (re-watching Lost season 2, because I'm not sure what episode I ended with), and moving CDs from jewel cases to sleeves (long-term project that I'm about 20% done with).

Have an appointment tomorrow with a new vet for my cat -- as part of the exam she had before we moved so we could get a health certificate, they found a problem, so I need to have the new local vet examine her and refer me for treatment. It's a cat-only vet, and though it's on the other side of the park, I think it will be a good place -- the vet has a great resume and I like that it's cat-only. This is where not working becomes super handy: I can take her there in the middle of the day. Speaking of the cat, she's crazy happy here. The boy flew in with her on a red-eye on Sunday, so they arrived early Monday AM. She did great on the flight. She's usually very skiddish, so I thought she'd go straight under the bed and stay there for a few hours. Instead, when she got here, she became an explora-saurus and checked out the apartment and has been chirping up a happy meowing storm ever since. Maybe she likes being an only cat; I'm flying back to Portland next week to fetch her brother.

Dealt with some banking stuff today. Last summer, through the firm, we were given the opportunity to set up fancy bank accounts, and I'm feeling weirdly guilty about the amazing level of service I get from them.

Despite the negative reputation of New Yorkers, I'm finding them to be significantly more friendly and geniuine than Portlanders. (Portlanders do trump Los Angelinos for genuineness.) People say hi in the elevators, are (for the most part) nice in shops, etc., and it feels real.

Alright, back to my G&T and New Yorker.

Settling In.

2009-08-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

A boring update; this entry mainly inspired by the fact that I am able to use my dining table as a desk to write it from. We didn't have room to set it up at the temporary apartment, so I'm very excited to have it usable. While typing, I'm eating leftover pasta from a place down the street - I ordered pizza from them earlier in the week, and decided to try their pasta last night. It's pretty good, and nice that it's close.

As I suspected, having my stuff here is making me feel more at home in this crazy place. Everything arrived yesterday, and so far, only two things were broken - one of my Japanese screens got punctured (3x!) and a picture frame broke. The packers took special care with plastic-fronted framed posters, and just put glass-fronted original photographs into a box with other stuff. Oh well, it's not too bad; on the move from the house to the temporary apartment, we lost an expensive wine glass, I was much more bummed about that. Tomorrow I find out of the TV survived the trip, as we have to wait for special uncrating people to finish putting together the (very basic) TV stand.

Woke up early and got a bagel/egg/cheese sandwich from the bagel place at the end of my block; it appears that my building's free breakfast is only during the week, but I'm okay with that, it gave me an excuse to find the bagel shop. After that, walked to Home Depot (35 blocks, about 2 miles). Picked up some temporary window shades - fantastic invention. For $10, I now have privacy in my bedroom. Got some other assorted cleaning and other supplies. I think we pretty much have everything we need now, other than waiting a few more weeks for the blinds to arrive and get installed.

Unpacked my bottle of pastis earlier today - I'd totally forgotten about it, and am currently enjoying a glass; it makes a hot afternoon very bearable. I first had it when I was in France for a friend's wedding in the summer of 2003, when they had an terrible heatwave; it took me a bit of shopping around Portland's small liquor stores to find a bottle. The liquor stores here seem more well-stocked, but it's weird to not have wine in the grocery stores. I've found a number of wine stores with quite a few Oregon Pinor Noir options, including a few with bottles from one of our favorites, Domaine Drouhin.

Tomorrow, the boy and one of my cats arrive!

Alright, back to my pasta and pastis.

Food and things.

2009-08-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

I realized that the way I feel here (see previous post) is very similar to how I've felt when I've traveled in Europe alone. I came to that conclusion as I realized at the grocery store I was buying things I typically eat in Europe: bread + cheese, and yogurt + muesli. I don't actually have bowls, so I just ate some yogurt/muesli out of a big red plastic drinking cup. I am classy.

Went to see Julie & Julia this morning, since shows before noon at the AMC theaters are only $6. I thought I might have the theater to myself, but about 15 people trickled in - apparently there are other people with free time at 10:10am on a Wednesday morning. Movie was good. Funny People is probably next on my list. I'm apprehesive about Time Traveler's Wife - it's my favorite book, and I don't care for the actors in it, so I'll probably just be disappointed.

Made it to breakfast in time this morning. The bagels really are better here.

Going to spend the afternoon reading.

Drying Off.

2009-08-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

I'm having a weird time adjusting. 1/3 of the time, I am thinking this was a big mistake. 1/3 of the time I'm exhilarated and love everything I see and where I am. The remaining 1/3 I'm chilling out and it's irrelevant where I am. That's 2/3 not bad, so we'll work from there.

Today was eye opening: I had someone come by and give me a quote for blinds for the apartment. Note to self: those fancy angled corner bay windows mean that instead of having to buy blinds for a single corner, I get to buy 8 sets of blinds. The amount the guy quoted me was about 4x was I was fearing - was over $2k. Yikes. I went to Home Depot and can get them done through them for under $1k, but still, crazy expensive and not planned for. One more thing to have to think about if we ever want to move to another apartment. I don't get why the building doesn't provide blinds - it seems so wasteful to have each tenant pay for, install, then throw out their window coverings.

Tonight was the first time I've ventured out at night - went to Home Depot before they closed to get my order done, then was going to go see a movie. When I was walking out of Home Depot, they said "It's raining!" I thought it was kind of odd to point that out, I guess since that's the general state of affairs in Portland. I quickly found out why they warned me - it went from a few drops to massive thunder and lightning flash flood downpour nuttiness. I got soaked. Ended up hanging out under an awning for it to subside a bit, and by that time it was too late to go to the movies, so I headed back home.

Picked up a package from my doorman on the way in. I love the doormen here. I like how quickly they knew who I was, and how they always say hi and smile. They're basically the only people I know, which is a little sad but it's better than nothing.

Worried about cat issues back home, hopefully will all sort itself out. Boy and cat1 get here Monday!

Scoped out the free breakfast the building offers - I got there at 9:20, it looks like they wrap it up at 9ish, but there were still some bagels and coffee left. Will wake up earlier tomorrow!

First Thoughts.

2009-08-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

We didn't really spend that much time scoping out our new apartment before we signed the lease - we looked at it once before we signed (well, this one and the same floor plan a few floors below), then again quickly after we signed, then after that we had only our memory and a floorplan to work from.

It turned out that the apartment is about 200 sq feet bigger than the place we had been living for the last 6 weeks - who moves to NYC and gets a bigger apartment? So that part was nice - especially since we had way too much stuff for that place we were living in. (When we put our house on the market, we had gotten rid of so much stuff that our house looked so lacking in stuff that one realtor asked ours if we were selling because of a divorce, assuming that one of has had taken half the stuff and fled. But the apartment was 1/3 the size of the house, so it went from sparse to crowded.)

We bought some floor rugs and a new dresser, using the floorplan to figure out where things would fit. Now that I'm here for real, the apartment seems both bigger and smaller - the rooms seem wider but not as narrow as I had been thinking they were. There's a lot of storage space in the bathrooms, and more space in the kitchen than I had remembered.

Flew into La Guardia via Atlanta. It was a very quick cab ride here, much easier (and cheaper cab fare) than JFK or Newark. Got my keys, unpacked the new air matress and filled it up. It's higher off the ground than a normal one and I really like that - I can hang my legs over the edge.

When I got here I realized that there are no overhead lights (except in the bathrooms and kitchen), so tonight will kind of suck - I will try to move my unpacked stuff out of the way so I don't trip and die (we have floor lamps so we'll be fine, but they are on the moving truck with the rest of our stuff which will get here sometime in the next week).

A bigger issue than the lighting is that there are no window coverings - no blinds or anything. There are holes drilled in the metal above the windows so presumably we can get something, but wasn't planning on that expense - hopefully the buidling people will be able to recommend something. Until then, I guess I will be dressing in the bathroom.

Walked around a bit, found nearby drug stores and a couple decent grocery stores, and got some papergoods and fixings for roast beef sandwiches. The food prices don't seem too much higher than they were in Portland. Produce seems cheaper.

Was thinking of going to a movie tonight but the closest theater only has one movie playing, and it's one we saw when we were here last month (500 Days of Summer - didn't think it was all that great). I don't feel like venturing too far away tonight, so I guess I'll be staying in my dark apartment. I did go for a short walk along the river this afternoon - the Goodyear blimp was cruising around, which made me happy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to find a pet supply store and get stuff for the cats (one gets here next Monday with the boy and the other I will be fetching in early September). I will also get my access codes to the roof deck/gym/lounge area, so I can hang out there once it gets dark.

Car

2009-08-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

I'm driving one of my parents' cars this week, since we sold one of our cars, and the boy is using the other to drive to work. It's the car I learned to drive in, so it's kind of old. It had a really classy license plate frame: "Teachers Do It With Class". But, someone broke off the letters "cl" from the last word, making it even more inappropriate. So yeah, my last week of driving, and that's what I'm driving around in.

More countdowns.

2009-08-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Everything seems to be continuing to fall into place - cars are getting sold, plane reservations are made, apartment is acquired.

As of yesterday, I am unemployed. Finished my last day at the old job, and have free time on my hands until the new job starts in October.

A week from today, I fly to New York, get the keys to the new apartment, and wait for my stuff to arrive.

Two days from today, packers come, followed by the movers - meaning I'll have basically no stuff here from Tues onward.

This weekend we need to sort out what stuff we will bring to NY ourselves, and also buy any furniture or other miscellaneous things that we want the movers to take for us.

I'm a little sad I probably won't be able to do a few of my favorite things one last time before we go: drive to the coast, go on a hike, drive through the gorge to see the waterfalls and Mt. Hood, go wine tasting... I can maybe fit some of those in when I come back for one of the cats in September. This coming week will be spent with friends, having a final drink or meal with them. I've made great friends at law school and it sucks that I can't pack them all up and take them with me.

I think I'm going to take a little nap. I think there will be many naps taken during my next 2.5 months of freedom!

airplanes! airports!

2009-07-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Despite all the traveling I've done, I still love airports and flying. Which is pretty awesome, because rather than freaking out about the bar exam, I'm getting excited about my trip to New York tomorrow!

And for today, I have a fun mix of MPTs, essays and flashcards in store... along with an 80 minute massage this afternoon. Sweet.

Also, I realized an upside of bar studying: I haven't had to wear any shoes other than flip-flops for most of the last 2 weeks. I even have a little flip-flop tan line on my feets.

Library!

2009-07-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

I've been spending 4-6 hours a day at the public library, sans laptop, so I can get some studying in with less distraction (other than screaming kids and people who ask if they can take a chair and people who talk on their cell phones - it's all less distracting than the Internet and two cute cats).

I feel like I don't really know how to study for this exam, which frustrates me a lot.

The other day, I was looking for an ATM card I'll need in NY next week. I found it, along with my library card that I got years ago but didn't ever use. I thought about, but decided against, putting it in my wallet, thinking that I wouldn't use it, having walked in and out of the library multiple times the last few weeks without looking at any books. But today, the spine of Christopher Buckley's 'Supreme Courtship' caught my eye - it's something I'd been wanting to read, but Amazon wanted $14+ for the Kindle version, and I bought the Kindle based on the purported $9.99 pricing scheme, so I refused to pay more than that for a book I can't then give to someone else, or donate, etc. So back to today, I see the book. I check it out, even though I don't have time to read. (I've been limiting myself to articles in the New Yorker, so I don't get sucked into something longer and end up reading it all night.)

I'm going to read the book a bit tonight, since I can't focus on practice questions anymore - as I'm reading a question, random bits of law spew out of my brain (e.g., I see a fact pattern about a construction worker, and immediately start thinking about NY's special protection for injuries to construction workers -- but not others -- on the construction site, nevermind that the question is about a contract or something completely unrelated, and an a multistate question to boot, so I need to filter out the NY laws). Anyway, I'm sort of hoping that it isn't that good so I don't stay up too late reading it. But I'm kind of excited about the library now. And I'm hoping there is a good branch near me in NYC, because as the movers said, we have way too many books. (But I like having books...)

Alrighty then.

countdown.

2009-07-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

Two weeks and a few hours from now, the bar exam will be over with, not that I'm counting down or anything.

The move is starting to feel real: our house closed yesterday, so I'm no longer a homeowner, which is a huge relief (both the stress of selling the house and the stress of home ownership). The moving company who will move us to NY is coming by today to scope out the amount of space we'll need on a truck. We'll be looking for an apartment in the days immediately after the exam, then moving 2 weeks after that.

Barbri lectures are done, now it's just down to learning the material. Today I worked what will probably be my last few hours at work until August, then I only have a week back at work before 2.5 months off. The current plan is for that 2.5 months off to include a week or two in Italy!

Ok, back to studying. Was just feeling a little bad that there wasn't any content on here.

Moo.

2009-06-09T21:50:00.000-07:00