Monday, July 28, 2008

Recently, in my life...

I've done a lot since posting last. I quit at Carpaccio so I could focus on getting moved to Arizona. My last day was a week ago last Friday. I spent the following week in Ocean City with Melissa and her family. Couldn't have asked for a better vacation. The weather was perfect. Her family is great. Her parents, sister + husband, and then midweek her aunt arrived. Everyone was very welcoming to me, despite not having spent a whole lot of time around them.

The majority of the vacation was spent eating. We were on the beach for about 6-7 hours a day. Did a little boardwalking. The unit we rented was off 123rd St, on Jamaica. Very nice little cozy place. Far enough from the boardwalk to not be overrun with trash. Plenty close to the beach (we were bay side) and other fun things to do.




Other than that, I'm just hanging out. Trying to see everyone before I move. It's more stressful than it seems. I don't want to leave anyone out of my plans accidentally. We'll see how it goes.

Also, since I hadn't uploaded any pictures yet, I'm putting a couple Nantucket pictures in this post for good measure.





In no particular order, that's a sunset view from the Curlew, a picture of the Curlew (where my family has been staying for as long as I can remember on the island), and a picture of Stewie buried in the sand.

That's all for now. More to come, soon. I have to get back in to this blogging thing so that I can keep people updated without calling everyone every few days. Just too lazy to do that.

Also, I am now blogging from my first lap top. I made the transition. It's going okay so far. Still some things to get used to. I'm not used to owning one, so I don't feel like it's "mine" yet. We'll work through it.

Tempe: It's Oh-fish-al

Things are getting to be real all of a sudden. I am leaving in about two weeks, give or take. I still haven't nailed down a departure date. Looking like I'm going to ship my car and fly out the week of the 10th sometime.

So, updates.

I found a place to live, finally. I have two roommates, both first year law students. We're getting a furnished condo at The Lakes in Tempe. Place looks great. Three bedrooms, about 1500 sq ft. Right by the water (lake) and the community pool. The neighborhood is a planned community.



It's two and a half miles from campus, right on the bus route. I'll have more pictures once I get out there.

I have my class schedule locked in as well. Taking five classes, nothing later than 3:30. I start at 8:30 on Tuesdays, which is my worst day. Friday I only have one class, from 1:30-3:30. Every other day starts at 10:30. Not so bad. Taking torts, contracts, legal writing and methods, civil procedure, and a special topics course with the dean. Couldn't sound more exciting, right?

Monday, July 7, 2008

In case you were wondering

I've been busy. I had a fantastic birthday weekend. It turned in to the long celebration I have become (in)famous for. We started Thursday night and didn't stop until Sunday. Bars Thursday and Friday, then my 4th annual birthday crab feast with Joe all day Saturday, capped by a night at the bars again. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it. I got lots of Under Armour goodies as gifts, and once everything was said and done, I ended up with another $95 in store credit to buy more stuff. I also got Law School In a Box from Ross and Sarah, which I plan on reading before classes start.

At 2am Monday morning, I hopped in a Tahoe with Liz and Zack and headed up to Nantucket. I made the wise decision to totally exhaust myself all weekend and not sleep Sunday night so that I could snooze during the 8-10 hour drive. Brilliant. I think I was awake for a total of an hour, maybe two, during the whole drive. I slept until Stewie (Liz's pug puppy) decided it was time for me to wake up and started yipping at me. I'd wait out his outbursts and then doze off again.

We stopped somewhere in Massachusetts near Chatham and Hyannis to visit an old Davidson friend of Liz's and have lunch with her and her mom. Their house was amazing. Huge, spacious, beautifully landscaped/terraced back yard with a pool. Zack and I got a few rounds in on the ping pong table (I'm better than I thought I would be). We stayed about 20 minutes too long at their house and missed the 3:15 ferry to Nantucket. We caught the 4:30 fast ferry and were on the island by 5:45. The weather was great all week. We did a lot of biking, even though my rental bike was a piece of junk and crapped out on me in the middle of an 8 mile ride. We went to a couple beaches--Quidnet, Sconset--and spent some time downtown and in the town of 'Sconset (Siasconset, technically). I am waiting to have my computer back before I upload all my pictures (the best ones involve Stewie and burying things in the sand).

I flew home Friday (planned the trip without realizing that was the 4th) so that I could work Friday night (required). I ended up closing and making decent money, but not enough to justify missing the 4th of July celebrations.

Worked a double Saturday, more money. Then was off yesterday to have my belated birthday celebration with Mel. We had a very relaxing day, except for my lividity with the Wimbledon final. I was pulling hard for Federer. Greatest match I've ever seen, though. She took me to Lewnes' and I got a filet (mid-rare) and some mashed potatoes. Crab balls as an appetizer. She got the filet with sauteed mushrooms. We ordered two bottles of the Murphy-Goode 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and it was fantastic. Apparently, 2005 cabs from the Alexander Valley vineyards are very highly regarded and hard to find. I now know that I like good cabernets. For dessert, we got a double chocolate fudge brownie with vanilla ice cream and whip cream. Unreal.

This week is mostly work and no play for me. I'm off tomorrow but am getting minor surgery to repair a couple toe injuries suffered in the preseason and toughed out for the past few months. This guy is a warrior.

The plan for now is to work through the weekend of the 19th and then be done. I'm most likely going to Ocean City for the last week in July with Melissa and her family, then coming back to pack up and ship out. We'll see how the wonderful people at Carpaccio feel about my plans before I finalize them.