CRAZY couple of weeks!

But, some of the good things to come out of them:

We found our wedding officiant.  She's kooky, her whole family can officiate at weddings, and her office is on a boat in Laguna Beach.  We're meeting her in a couple of weeks when we go down for our menu tasting - I can't wait!

I was hired as a research assistant for the Judicial Council of California (a branch of the Administrative Office of the Courts) to work on a criminal sentencing project.  It was great to be chosen for the job by two of my professors, since all of the other researchers are recent law school graduates.  Plus, it pays pretty decently, and I can put the money towards summer cost-of-living if I don't end up getting a paid summer position.

I'm finally off-book for the Stanford trial competition this weekend.  So, at 6:15 am Saturday morning, we will drive to Palo Alto and, in the course of two days, put on four trials!  

On a delicious note, Todd and I made homemade waffles the other night.  They were great!

Now, if 8 hours of sleep per night were a realistic goal, THAT would be something.

2008 Reflections and Resolutions

Before the craziness of the spring semester begins (on Monday), I thought I'd take a look back at 2008, and a look forward to all the things that await me this year!

2008 Significant events (chronologically!):

- become engaged to Todd on February 16 at Disneyland

- trip to Marin and wine country with Mom

- Engagement party thrown by Todd's parents at the Montville Inn in New Jersey

- Engagement photo shoot at LA County Arboretum

- finish first year of law school!

- choose Disneyland as wedding venue

- Dad and Ann retire and move to Vashon Island

- work at San Francisco Unified Family Court

- birthday/ July 4th trip to Monterey

- Alison and Saul's wedding in Montgomery, AL

- trip to Boston to visit Mom and find my wedding dress!

- 2L Year begins

- Ongoing: tutoring Tenderloin public school students; Trial Team

- NACDL Competition in Tampa, Florida; Guavaween!

- Aaron and Djamila's wedding in Prospect Park, Brooklyn

- Barack Obama elected President!

- Thanksgiving with Chrissie and Matt; USC/ Notre Dame game with Todd's family

- Christmas on Vashon Island

- New Years and Rose Bowl in LA

and in 2009:

- will compete in Stanford and McGeorge trial team competitions

- will finish second year of law school

- will get MARRIED

- will go on fabulous honeymoon to Paris and London

- hopefully:

will get summer job at either LA Federal PD's Office, or Nat'l Center for Youth Law

will get fall Public Defenders' Office externship

will do free yoga offered at Hastings consistently

will put more money in savings each month

- with incentive of impending wedding:

will stop biting nails

will eat healthfully (post on how this is already being accomplished soon!)

will work on de-stressing techniques

Even though the economy's in a tailspin, there's still a lot to be excited about in 2009 - and I'm looking forward to every minute of it!

New Years and the Rose Bowl

We arrived in LA around 1 pm on New Years Eve.  Then, we checked into the very funky Beverly Laurel and picked up a FedEx of extra Rose Bowl tickets that Todd's dad had wonderfully secured for us.  We had a lot of happy friends thanks to him! :-)

Chrissie called and we decided to meet she and Matt for a lunch at a very cool burger joint in the Roosevelt Hotel called 25 Degrees.  The menu has about fifteen cheeses from all over the world to add to one's burgers (two types of veggie burgers, too!) as well as a Guinness milkshake which Matt ordered and we all sampled.  After lunch, we relaxed at Chez Weatherlow and Chrissie and I picked up supplies at the supermarket for the New Years get-together that night while the boys played Left for Dead, or something equally violent and gunshot-y.

New Years was such fun!  We ate, exchanged Christmas gifts, chatted, and toasted one another as the ball dropped (tape-delayed) in Times Square.  It was an especially meaningful New Years for Todd and I because, as his mom puts it, we're now in "our wedding year."  This was the first and only New Years we will spend being engaged, and the last we will spend before becoming husband and wife!

New Years fun with Jenny, Chrissie, Matt, and friends (not pictured):

The next day was the Rose Bowl!  Todd was very nervous.  We woke up early, watched a little of the Rose Parade (including a Vera Bradley breast cancer research campaign float with Cynthia Nixon of Sex & the City on it!) and picked up Chrissie and Matt to head to Pasadena.  We got there in no time at all, walked to Old Town, and then met up with other friends: Jesse, her parents, Eric and his friend, Dalton, all decked out as a Trojan warrior, and Seth and Josh.  We got some grub and settled down in our ridiculously great seats, only one section up from the field!

There was a Stealth Bomber that flew overhead, and the bands for both USC and Penn State were impressive.  And, once the game started, we all hooted and cheered and high-fived every time USC scored a touchdown.  They ended up beating Penn State by two touchdowns!  

Chrissie and I in front of the Rose Bowl:

After the game, we met up with still more friends - Jeff and Marcelo, and ran into Clint  - at El Cholo, where we ravenously ate about seven bowls of chips, after having eaten nothing but kettle korn and drinks all day.  The food and company were great, and when we finally left, it was with full stomachs, happy hearts, and very, very exhausted bodies.

Jeff (humorously?) pretending to stab Chrissie and Matt:

Our flight didn't leave until Friday afternoon (it ended leaving on Friday night, thanks to four hours of delays!), we made one more stop before heading back to San Fran: Disneyland!  Well, we DO have annual passes, so why not?  We had a delicious lunch at Naples, went on a few rides, saw the reindeer, and I was reminded of what our reception flowers will look like when I saw these beautiful Icelandic poppies in Fantasyland:

All in all, a wonderful LONG vacation, and I still have half a week before school begins again!  Am sure there'll be a few wedding things I'll get taken care of during this time... hopefully!

Massive Christmas Post

The day after my last final (Family Law), I flew to Seattle, which was in the middle of a furious snowstorm.  Dad and Ann picked me up and it took two and a half hours to get the ten miles to the ferry terminal from the airport.  We saw more than thirty cars "slide out" or stuck in snow banks or on streets.  Winter with a vengeance!  When we finally reached Vashon that night, we stopped at La Playa for dinner and went to bed.

The next few days before my 93-year-old grandma arrived were relaxed, calm, and freezing!  The snow kept falling and there was a blizzard almost every afternoon.  I went on long walks in the neighborhood taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.  We also explored Vashon town center, saw the rather terrible Four Christmases at the local cinema, walked across Dale Chihuly's bridge of glass in Tacoma, and ate lots of great food.  

Luckily Grandma arrived without any trouble and, although she had a cold, seemed to enjoy sitting on the couch next to the wood stove and watching TV or visiting with us.  Todd arrived on Christmas Eve, due to work.  It was so great to see him!  

Christmas day was lovely.  My stepbrother Joe, cousin Alison, her husband, Frank, and their son, Spencer all come over to Dad and Ann's house on the island to celebrate.  We opened many presents, drank much apple cider, and took lots of pictures.

Over the next few days, Todd and I got a tour of Vashon.  It really is a spectacular place, halfway between Yosemite and a rainforest.  We went out to eat at Green Ginger and The Hardware Store, both island staples, with the whole family.  

Todd and I also took the walk-on ferry into Seattle where we visited the Space Needle (and made it to the top!), the first Starbucks, the Experience Music Project museum with its tower of (playing!) guitars, the adjacent Science Fiction museum (two places for the price of one!), downtown, the Olympic Sculpture Garden, with its fabulous Oldenburg and Calder, the Seattle Mariners' Stadium (in the freezing rain, no less!) and Pike Place Market.  At the Market, we ran into - of all people - Todd's cousin Aaron and his new wife Djamila, whose wedding we attended in Brooklyn at the end of October! What a small world!

On Sunday, we went to Joe and his girlfriend Brenda's beautiful home in Puyallup, where we had a wonderful Italian lunch.  It was so nice to meet Brenda and catch up with Joe.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to Los Angeles on New Years Eve! I'll save that for the next post!

Me, Brenda, Grandma, and Ann at Joe and Brenda's home:

Todd and I at Joe and Brenda's home, next to their tabletop tree:

Christmas dinner (at about 3:30 in the afternoon!):

Dad and Ann's home, completely covered with snow: