This is why I have a roommate

Today as I was unpacking my bag my roommate cam into my room. We were chatting about this and that and our love for the former tenants, who signed us up for massive numbers of coupons, came up. We chatted a little bit looking at places that looked good and we might want to try. Commenting on the totally free ones. I was thumbing through them and she was playing with the dog, both of generally quite and contemplative, as is frequently the case when we get home exhausted from a long day.

"We have to use this one soon it expires Monday" I say of the free smoothie coupon from McDonalds. I finish getting my stuff out intent to work and she says "hey do you want to go now?" I think knowing very well that the responsible thing to do would be work some more but say "yea lets go." 

As we unhook the roof on her miata, to enjoy the last colorful moment of the sunset and then the perfect fall night we were having she asks "do you want to get five guys after?"

"yes" we both smile and laugh.

It was great to go into McDonalds and pay nothing, especially because you know the intent is to suck you in and have you buy something. (My personal good dead for the rainforest today) The smoothie was very good, espeically because it was free, but I don't think Jamba Juice has anything to worry about. 

Five guys was amazing as ever. I think Grace ate as many fries as my roommate combined, I am surprised she hasn't thrown up. (she is quite the pig but more on that later.)

It was a really good evening, the sort of evening you hope to have when you respond to a post on your universities housing board.     

A pretty good Monday...

Which I was owed because last week's (mostly) sucked.
Last Monday I was sleep deprived, which was mostly my fault because I didn't get my memo written before my dad came to visit. My Torts class (which is fun and tends to have cases I understand plus a professor who genuinely enjoys teaching) was replaced by Civil Procedure (which also has a great professor but the subject is terribly dull, and sometimes confusing. it deals with issues like standing and jurisdiction, which are valuable but just not all that interesting.) Which also meant I had extra civil procedure reading to do over the weekend.
Then I had my legal writing class. This tends to be everyone's least favorite class. We all know we need it, and i do think it is helpful, it is just that the format is slow and tedious and then you are thrown out to do something on your own that you don't really know how to do. Then each week after you have toiled with it and gotten very frustrated you are told how you should have done it in the first place. It is really very discouraging, especially when you want to do well.
Last week was especially bad because I wasn't happy with where the draft of my memo was. This admittedly my fault for not working on it sooner than I did. but then we peer reviewed and my reviewer is the biggest jerk in the class, egotistical, talks back in class, thinks he can do no wrong. (He is a good writer, and did a good job editing) but had to humiliate me in the process.
Thankfully was going to happy hour after, nothing helps soothe an ego like burgers and half price drinks.
Today was much better. In part because we didn't have legal rhetoric, we have on on one conferencing with the professor instead. And I had done a good job preparing this draft. Also I was cold called in Contracts today. Something that could have been frightening, especially because it was one of the more dificult cases we have had, and I left my book with many of my notes (stupidly) at home this morning. Thankfully it went as well as it could of. Not amazing but really solid, and that I felt good about.
All and all pretty good. It isn't easy but most of it is a mind game with myself because I have never cared so much about anything before.

Guests-

I am not allowed to complain about my roommate ever.Last weekend my dad came to stay with us, only for one night and he bought me groceries and stuff for the house, not to mention took me all over Maryland trying to find a bulb to replace the one that had burned out in our bathroom. Basically I am saying it was a great visit and there was no reason for my roommate to be annoyed. My dad left on Sunday after dinner and then later on my friend came to stay with us. He mostly slept and hung out in DC while we were at school. So really no reason to complain there either. But after four days of my guests I do feel like she deserves a metal. Hanging out and catching up on all the drama in the Bay Area was great but even though I didn't over-indulge it meant not doing as much work or getting as much sleep.  

I feel like I need a nap. I addition to all the guests I also had a large assignment due and my regular load of reading. Plus I needed to clean the house (something about having my parents visit that makes me even more neurotic). I am still not entirerly caught up, but I will be on the ball by Monday morning, which is a good feeling. All of the craziness left me feeling like I was running up hill and a little out of control. It is nice to have order and predictability. 

And of course there is a call game on tonight. GO BEARS!  

Fireflies

Tonight walking home I saw a firefly. It is too late in the season for them and is already getting cold, but it was a beautiful and made me stop to appreciate what was around me. I only saw it blink once, but it was a gorgeous swan song to summer.  

Don't You Wish This Was The Chunnel Train From London to Paris?

Kinder don't you think.
Although I rarely get to ride in the luxury that is the acela.

The title of the the blog is an advertisement that is on the train from Atlantic City to Philadelphia. (I take a New Jersey transit train from Atlantic City to Philadelphia and then get on the much nicer Amtrak train from there to DC.) The adds must be in every car, and they have been posted for the last few years. I see them every time I am leaving the shore and every time I think "yes thanks for rubbing it in jerk." It has to be the last thing that you would like to see as you are leaving your vacation for the real world. I don't know what the add is for, probably an airline or a travel agent or some other similar service or maybe it is some wealthy Parisian sadist's way of getting her jollies. I think that the Amtrak adds are much more civilized, they make me want to get on a train, instead of just wishing I never had to get up for school again.

Because I couldn't find a picture of the coffee counter
 here is the scene from Marnie

I am home safe and sound and ready for another week. It is hard to face reality again, but as transitions into it go I can't think of a better way than Amtrak. I love taking the train, something most Americans don't understand. (Even with the kid kicking the back of my seat and the depressing advertisements both courtesy of New Jersey transit.) Maybe it has something to do with being from a "railroad family" both my grandfather and great-grandfather were railroad men, and I think there are days my dad wishes he had taken up the family occupation. Train travel is so calming and civilized, I don't have to take off my shoes or disply the contents of my bag. I can get up and walk around, there is WiFi on  the trains and places to plug in your computer. Even when we get stalled, which is not uncommon, I don't mind all that much. And I love it when my travel takes me to beautiful old stations, Union Station and Penn station are some of my favorites although the old station in California my great-grandmother used to commute out of holds a special place in my heart. How many people can say they are the fourth generation to get a cup of coffee a counter? (Plus it was in Hitchcock's Marnie doubling as the Hartford Connecticut.)  I will gladly take a train over flying or driving (at least if I am the driver.)

Bitten, burned and undetered.

I love visiting the shore. In all honesty it is probably my favorite vacation spot. (Part of that I will admit has to do with how I classify vactions in my head, I feel like if you come back more tired than when you left it is a trip rather than a vacation- which basically leaves out major cities.)
It doesn't really have to do with the beach, I am still partail to the beaches I grew up going to, and I am really not a sun worshiper. (Not that I wouldn't love to be but the sun doesn't tend to like those of us whose complextion falls on a makeup scale somewhere between "translusent" and "pale ivory.") I tend to be the person on the beach in a hat, cover up and SPF 75 sitting under an umbrella; today I went out with only SPF 15 on and paid the price. I can usually tell when I should move inside but we had a bit of a breeze, the only real sign that we had just missed a huricane, and I wasn't as aware of the temperature of my skin as I usually am. Needless to say I am now somewhere between candy apple and boild lobster.

No the reason I love the shore has got to be my family here, especially my aunt. Her home is so warm and full of light. We always end up having wonderful converations and eating way too much fabulous food. She and my uncle have completely redone a 1920's shore house and it is beautiful, the only house I feel as comfortable in as my mom's. Everything is done in beautiful sea inspired colors, soft muted tones, comfortable furnature. Every morning I wake up and the house smells like it has been bathed in sun light- bonus if she has been baking fresh blue berry muffins like this morrning. (For those of you who have read harry potter I think that morning in my aunt house would be one of the scents my felix fleicis potion. God I think my geek is showing.) I always leave feeling so rested and ready to face the world, it couldn't feel further from DC and the stress of law school and real life.   

The Jersey Shore

I am spending the long wekend on the Jersey shore. But just so there is no confusion my Jersey shore looks a lot more like this... 

than like this...

It is hard to belive that we are only two weeks in, I am already tired. ( I will blame it in part on school deciding to hold a special Friday session and therefore having an extra day of class this week.) Lame especially considering the fact that I would have been able to get out of town a day earlier and avoided the traffic, except with the hurricane coming I guess the shore is dead. Leave it to me to plan a beach vacation for during a huge storm.
Although it seems that now the storm has passed, missing us pretty much completely and now we have beautiful weather and smaller crowds that your usual labor day. It is sort of perfect for my intentions, relax spend time with my family, soak in the calm. I am even caught up on my reading so I only had to bring my computer. (I was able to read a novel today on the beach!) It is shaping up to be a great weekend!

Were having a heat wave...

Okay so I guess it isn't a heat wave if it is August into September, but last week it was so pleasant and I thought "Fall, early, yes please." We even had our air conditioning off, (in an attempt to save some money and the planet.) But then Monday the planet said "Just kidding." And we have been having temperatures in the nineties since the start of the week. This isn't a huge deal, I did sign up to live in what was a swamp not even 250 years ago. No it is the collision of the swamp weather with modern life that is frustrating. I seem to always choose the Metro train that has lost its air conditioning and I always seem to end up seated next to the largest smelliest person on the train. Even that I could live with, I am on Metro for less than an hour every day.
No it is the fact that school seems to think that it is appropriate to cool the building to sixty degrees that drives me nuts. I am in three shirts and a sweater with my legs pulled under me and I am still cold. I am excited about the prospect of fall and reasonable temperatures. Honestly I wish that they would cool it with the cooling it!

So why am I dressed like this?