A Room with a View

Boston's kind of a pretty place. People should come visit us.

The Non-Super Bowl Party

As much as I love football, I've never watched a Super Bowl. That's just how my parents raised me. In what probably amounts to a case of ignorance being bliss, it's never bothered me too much that I don't get to see the game. However, as I grew older and came to know the wonders of good party fare/appetizers, I became extremely envious of Super Bowl parties, where apparently such things are had in abundance. I explained my frustrations to Annie last year around this time. We decided that there was no reason we couldn't have a party celebrating the joys of finger food even if we didn't partake of the pinnacle of commercial glamor and American sport that usually accompanies such parties. Thus, in what we hoped would become a tradition, we held our inaugural Non-Super Bowl Party.

We continued the tradition this year. We made a fruit salad, bought some wings, and procured a bag of tater tots that really should only have been purchased by a day care or a mother of twelve. We invited a few other couples, who brought other fantastic appetizers, including homemade meatballs that just made the world better and the greatest cheese dip ever (they mail ordered the ingredients). It was great fun, and we may have made some friends, which would be a first for us as a couple.

I would have posted pictures, but the following happened: part of our massive grocery shopping trip for the party (3 grocery stores! None of them had Lil' Smokies!) included a trip to BJ's--a sort of east coast Costco. There, we got batteries for my camera. As we were heading out, I realized that the cashier hadn't rung up the batteries, so I went back and paid for them. The guy who checks your receipt at the door was very impressed. He was adamant that I should receive a medal. Well, however much integrity I have, I make up for it with stupidity. I left the batteries in the shopping cart in the parking lot. So we don't have any pictures.

...and then I found five bucks!

The Rest of My Day

1:30- I start working again. My lunch breaks are always longer than I want them to be because I'm easily distracted. ESPN.com, realclearpolitics.com, drudgereport.com, hulu.com, and my netflix account constantly beg for my attention, and I give it to them much more often than I should. Incidentally, all of the stories about Peyton Manning paint him as a great guy, extremely hard worker. It's a sad product of today's sports that I'm just waiting for him to make the inevitable mistake that will assassinate his character.

I start working on the Natural Resources homework for tomorrow. The assignments usually range between 40-50 pages per night. A lot of students here are probably faster, but it usually takes me three or four hours to get through all of it. Today, by 3:00, my head is about to explode. I decide that now would be a good time to go back to the gym, but Annie gets off at 3, and I want to see her before I go. So I start doing research for the Environmental Law Clinic, which I'm doing this semester.

3:00-4:30 research. Reading statutes and cases, figuring how how they apply to the facts of our case. I like doing this, which bodes well for my career. I often don't like law school, but I like doing litigation work. I hope I'm actually good at it, but I don't know. I wrote a brief for a really easy appellate case last summer, and we won that case. But it was the legal equivalent of a layup. I spend about 30 minutes a day torturing myself by wondering whether I'll really be a good lawyer or not.

4:45- out the door to the gym. Spent a few minutes just talking and goofing off with Annie before I left. Best part of my day so far.

5:00-6:30- basketball. Spent most of the time waiting to get on the court. I'm slower than I used to be, I can't shoot anymore, and I don't jump as high as I used to. I shouldn't feel old at 25. But gosh, do I love playing sports. You know how some people just feel at home in the water, swimming? I feel at home on the soccer field and the basketball court.

On the way home, I pick up parsley for the pesto we're going to make for dinner. Annie ends up making it while I continue reading my Natural Resources assignment.

8:00- FHE. We sing before we study, which Annie originally hated (and may still hate), but I love and think is important. Her voice is really good; I wish I could get her to sing louder so that I could hear it :)

8:30- a couple episodes of Seinfeld. Sometimes this space is filled with Friends (Annie cannot live without Friends, and it turns out I like the show), Alias, or the Dick Van Dyke Show.

9:30- back to work. Still have to read for Theories About Law, tomorrow's assignment for Federal Civil Litigation, and the scriptures. Still, I'll put a cap on it around 11. I've learned over the years that you can get away without doing all of the reading.

My Day

Many of you may not be aware of the kind of person I've become. I think that most everyone who ever looks at this thing has spent some period of time in which they were pretty closely involved in my life--knew what I did most of the time. But not anymore. So, this is how things go now.

Woke up at 7:45. That's a good morning--3 mornings per week I go prepare breakfast for a lesbian couple and "their" son, and then I take the little boy to school. Those mornings, I have to wake up at 6:15. Even waking up at 7:45 today, I seriously contemplated going back to sleep until I absolutely had to wake up.

Annie did that morning job this morning, and she gets home from it at about 8:25. Just in time for me to kiss her as I'm walking out the door. We make fruit smoothies every morning--I left it on the counter for her, where I also tragically left my part of it.

Class at 8:40- Federal Civil Litigation. My group and I, along with all of the other groups, had submitted a drafts of a Complaint last Friday, and the professor spent today telling us how terribly we'd done. He thinks that we should be so dedicated to our jobs that we should be up every night reading laws and treatises between midnight and 2 a.m. He tells us that every day of class.

Class at 10:20, right after the first one ended--Natural Resources Law and Policy. I have a visiting professor for this one, and my experience with those that they're fairly low quality. If this guy's tasteful clothes and impeccably styled hair are any indication, he plays for the other team. He also has stlyishly long stubble, which he sometimes plays with absently as he's trying to get through another sentence, which doesn't come easily to him. The concepts in the class are interesting, but I prefer to get them from the book.

11:50- walking home for lunch. I had planned to play basketball at the campus gym before going home, but my gym clothes are sitting, perfectly packed, next to my smoothie. It's a 15 minute walk. Winds in Harvard Square average around 12 mph, which combined with the habitually sub-freezing winter temperatures makes for a cold walk. Deciding whether or not to call Annie or a family member on the walk home is a question of how much I love my hand that day.

I guess I have a lot to say about my day :) So I'll split it into another post.