Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

I live near Times Square, but I am sure as heck not standing out in the cold right now. (As you can see by the fact that I am posting...) First of all, you'd have to get out there so early to stand in the cold; I don't know how people go to the bathroom and eat. Second, it's such a mess. I was running into all the people in their 2006 glasses and top hats all over 9th Avenue and the crowds and loud people were already making me crazy. Best if I stay away from crazy screaming people, I think. Did you see those pictures of how crowded it is? I realize it's not as cold as it was some years in the past, but it's still not very warm!

So, a little later than I had hoped, I'm going to put together my 2005 recap and some resolutions for 2006.

Movies I saw in the theaters in 2005:

• Kung Fu Hustle
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Star Wars Episode III
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Vacations in 2005:

• Cruise to Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas with a short stay in Jacksonville, FL
• Connecticut
• Hong Kong

Big events of 2005:

• Taking and passing 2 bar exams (phew)
• Graduating from law school (finally)
• Starting my first real job
• Moving from Chicago to NY
• Spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with Alvin for the first time
  

Resolutions for 2006 (let's see if I keep them - I'm posting them here in order to try to keep myself accountable):

1. Exercise at least 10 minutes a day (c'mon, I'm being realistic) and at least 3 hours a week total.
2. Try to eat healthier and keep a food diary .
   
3. Try to sleep before midnight every day, with exceptions for special events (I'm so bad at this).
4. Put away/clean up at least 5 things a day.
5. Read at least 1 leisure book per month.
6. Keep in touch better. (I know this is one of those vague resolutions, but still...)
7. Keep a more organized budget book.
   
8. Post a randomly selected picture on the blog every time I sign on and have adequate time to do so.
9. And the whole bunch of resolutions I make every year that I can't really quantify: be happy, be more patient, be nicer to people, be more organized, etc. I mean them, but honestly, they're hard to keep and how do you tell whether you've really "achieved" them? They seem more like life goals than a resolution that you can either keep or not.
10. Take enough time off to stay recharged and refreshed.

Have a happy, healthy and wonderful 2006! Stay in touch. :)

Annoyance

I was having a good day despite waking up late - finished Order of the Phoenix, cleaned up a little, watched Naruto - until I got annoyed by the disappearance of my iTunes free credits. First of all, I'm annoyed that I don't remember Lexis saying on its rewards page that they would expire within the year, or I would never have picked them to begin with, because I don't download songs that quickly. Second, I am annoyed because I wrote down that my expiration date is December 31, which means I am either wrong (entirely possible, and in which case I feel stupid for being such a waste) or they screwed up.  I need to get over feeling annoyed before the new year, because that is not how I want things to begin.

Clouds

Everyone always sees different things in the clouds. In this picture, the first thing I saw was dirt getting sucked into a vacuum cleaner. The second was a robotic hand. If I had to pick out another image, it would be a quickly running person. I love looking up at the clouds. What do you see?

Tracking II

6 minutes ago, my package arrived in Maspeth, NY! It's almost here!

Fishersville

I looked up "restaurants near Fishersville, Virginia" because the blank map just wasn't doing it for me, and the first one on the list is McDonalds. So's the 4th one. A cafe, a pizza place and Wendy's round out the list, and the rest are all listed as being in Staunton or Waynesboro.  Interesting. I'm very sure I've never been in that part of Virginia before. I wonder why TAR 8 didn't go there. :)

Tracking

I love watching tracked packages.

 

In Barnes & Noble's online megasale ($1.00 books? seriously!) this week, I ordered a whole bunch of stuff. Enough to get the free shipping for orders over $25.  Only, it's coming in 3 shipments. Apparently, one of the books is not available for another month, and then 7 shipped together by one service and 2 shipped together by another service.  I wonder if they ended up getting delivered from different warehouses?

 

Anyway, one of the shipments has two books that were $1 each. And the shipping is still free because I spent enough and said to ship it all together. I love it. :) A $2 book shipment. Heehee!

 

Topic. Watching tracked packages. I could check UPS and FedEx all day to track my packages (and did, in law school).  This morning, when I left for work, I saw that my shipment had left Memphis the night before, and was en route to somewhere. But where would it go?  Now, the mystery is solved. It's in Virginia. Fishersville, Virginia. I don't know where that is, so I'll probably look it up on a map as soon as I finish this post. I like maps. I would have loved that map task at the end of TAR 8.

 

I wonder where the package will be tonight!

Ouch

Ouch. The huge papercut that I was supposed to wrap up in a bandaid last night but forgot is really starting to hurt. And while putting away a big folder into a packed redweld, I think I managed to cut the papercut again! What do you call a double papercut? Argh....

Patatas

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you might notice that I have actually posted this picture before. But no matter, it's what came up during my random photo selection and it goes into the post. (At least it's a clear picture and one that I took myself - the 2 requirements - unlike the first 4 that I pulled up yesterday!)

The potatoes in the picture were from a dinner a little over a year ago at Cafe Iberico, one of my favorite places in Chicago and my favorite tapas place (especially since another one closer to my apartment literally kicked us out for wearing sleeveless inside after never telling us that we could not... long story). They're good. Although I like the patatas bravas (the smaller cut potatoes with a zesty sauce) a little better than these big potatoes. But I like how the big potatoes are really soft. It reminds me of the potatoes that they give you at Greek Islands. And now I'm starting to miss all my favorite Chicago restaurants. I guess that's what happens when you live someplace for 3 years. You develop all these connections that are just never the same afterwards. Sure, it happens in college too, but I think a lot of the connection I have there is to college life itself, less so living as a resident of a city. It's nice having favorite restaurants. The only problem with NY is that there are so many places to try, I think it will be so much harder finding favorites!

Renovations

I'm trying out a new blog feature with the new year, and figure I might as well start it early so I can get in the habit of doing it, and maybe keep a new year's resolution. Any day that I log onto my computer at home (and it's not every day, since I'm on the computer all day at work) and have a free minute to do so, I will post up a random photograph and then force myself to talk about it. Sort of my pseudo-Daily Themes project for myself (see the Accountability link in the sidebar, I'm too lazy to link to the post).

This photograph is from one of the classrooms at my old law school from June 2005. My parents had come in for graduation and we strolled around the school so I could show them what it looked like. I don't remember if they had ever actually seen more than just the outside, but they certainly hadn't seen it after renovations. We ended up running into the very nice person at the law school who is in charge of facilities and he took us on a little tour and we got to go into the courtroom and everything. It was a nice touch and my parents definitely enjoyed it.

If any of you were reading this back in early June 2005, there was still a lot of "am I going to graduate?" drama going on. It was on this day, I believe, that during our stroll of the building, the registrar's office dropped off the final transcripts. Producing relief and glee at knowing that I really was going to graduate and that I wasn't stuck in school for another quarter!

Graduation feels like a really long time ago. It was, of course, but it feels like it's really far in the past, unlike when I started work, which feels like a combination of just yesterday and ages ago. (Do you know what type of feeling I mean? Feels like I've been there for awhile and am getting comfortable, but the time has also flown by.) I don't really miss school, but I do kind of miss the long Christmas break. This is the first Christmas break when I haven't had like a week off to do absolutely nothing. It just feels odd.

The law school definitely looked better after renovations. But now, with my nice big desk at work, this picture reminds me even more of how hard it was to fit everything on the new tables. When the room was full, it was difficult to fit the laptop, the big casebooks and everything else on the tables. But it sure beats the old way of crawling all over the floor trying to stick plugs into outlets. Once the current class is gone, no one's going to remember what it was like. No wireless or IM during class (at least, nothing reliable)... crawling on the floor trying to find an outlet... wooden chairs instead of comfortable swivel chairs.... this is making me feel old. :)

And that's all I have to say about that. I wasn't really telling a story, so I have no way to end it. It's just all rambling. Lots and lots of rambling. (Hmm... I should think about that and this theme and how that's going to work...) And in that picture, it's my dad saying hi. :)

Merry Christmas

and happy holidays to all!

Hope that your holidays are filled with lots of fun, food, family and friends, and that Santa brings you all the

that you want this year!

***

Tonight was the second year that we put our own twist on the Christmas Eve tradition of eating seafood for dinner.

The best part is that I think we even made it "seven fishes"! (Tuna, salmon, yellowtail, whitefish, shrimp, crabmeat and eel... we did it!)

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday! I'm off to bed... you know who is coming soon :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Quizzes

I promise, the new year's resolution I entered had nothing to do with gummy bears (love Haribo ones though I do)...

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet rooster 2) Eat more gummy bears 3) Travel to Spain 4) Study time travel 5) Get in shape with Dance Dance Revolution

What Should Your New Year's Resoluton Be?

I think puppies are cute, but I don't want to take care of their waste ;-)

Your Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled With a Puppy

Well - one cute, soft, cuddly puppy... And a very soiled Christmas stocking.

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

Strike Thoughts

I was up early today (for me). I woke up all on my own to my Blackberry alarm and the TV alarm without a problem. It was rather shocking, seeing as how 6 alarms usually can't rouse me from slumber on an ordinary day.

 

Despite being awake early, and despite my exercise program being shorter than I had planned (oh well), I still got to work around the same time as always.

 

Why?

 

Because I was watching all the local channels about the strike! I don't know why I am so transfixed by these things. It's odd.

 

I wasn't really impacted by the strike, so I didn't have any strong opposition to it other than that it would make everyone else's lives difficult.  But then actually watching first hand interviews with these people who, unlike me, wouldn't get paid if they can't get in, can't telecommute, might lose their jobs because they can't get in to work... I started to feel really bad.  Sometimes I forget just how fortunate I am with my circumstances. I walk to and from work every day. Many people aren't so lucky.

 

So I kept changing the channels... NY1, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC.... over and over again. I couldn't pull myself away from the TV as I slowly ate my bagel.  I noticed how different stations were handling the news coverage. NY1 replayed lots of clips over and over again.  CBS was interviewing people in cars (who clearly wanted to be on camera). I don't think I caught much on NBC besides commercials.  Instead of saying "transit strike," Fox chose to say "MTA not running."  And then to interview a security expert to see if the terrorist threat is now higher because the union decided to strike. (Semi-legitimate question, but quit trying to tie everything in the world to terrorism! And if the President stopped saying that open discussion of law helps the enemy, that would help too. But anyway...)  ABC had pretty good coverage, although one of the news reporters on the Upper West Side said that people were taking their frustrations out on her. Poor lady.

 

Once I finally left for work, it was kind of eerie how empty the streets were on a non-holiday workday morning.  It made me feel like it was really early, even though it was like 10:30. 9th Ave, usually packed with people trying to get into the Lincoln Tunnel, was quiet. Barely a horn blowing and certainly no city buses passing by. Or trucks for that matter. It was really quiet. 8th Ave was pretty quiet too. Times Square was a little more crowded, but nowhere near how it usually should be. Taxis were honking, but I think they were just frustrated and overworked. Overall, it's pretty quiet. Would have been the perfect morning to run errands at the bank....

 

At work, it's fairly normal. Lots of people are here, probably some people working from home. But not so abnormally quiet that you would realize it was a state of emergency.  Not like the streets.  Usually there are constant choruses of horns that you can hear from my office. It's pretty mild right now.

 

For those people outside NY, I guess I should explain why it's so quiet.  Until 11 am, no commercial vehicles and no passenger vehicles with less than 4 people are allowed over any bridge or tunnel into Manhattan, or on a bunch of highways in the city.  Likewise, Manhattan is also completely shut off below 96th Street to any vehicles with less than 4 people (I think, unless you originated below 96th, because then you wouldn't need to cross any checkpoints).  So outside of 96th Street, in upper Manhattan, there's gridlock. Some highways aren't moving, but some (like the ones to get into the city from SI) are actually better than usual.  But what I worry about is what happens after 11.  When the floods of cars come into the city.  And even worse - what about the afternoon rush hour? All these cars are going to have to leave at some point...

 

(Of course, it's now after 11... but I started this post before 11. How was I to know it would take me so long? Also, it should be noted that I do work from home often in the mornings. In case you were wondering.)

 

All we can do now is wait and see.  Wait and see...

Christmas Cheer

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents. From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

"Unique creations"? Hmm. Not sure this fits...

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost. You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

Socks. Ha. Dumbledore liked socks in Book 1.

You Are a Classic Martini

You area sophisticated drinker, who knows that simple quality is over-rated. You're a knowledgeable drunk, but sometimes you're a know-it-all when you're blasted. You should never: Drink and gossip. You tend to forget who's standing right behind you! Your ideal party: Has a real bartender. But no one mixes a better drink than you. Your drinking soulmates: those with a Chocolate Martini personality Your drinking rivals: those with a Margarita Martini personality

What Flavor Martini Are You?

I don't think I like martinis anyway....

Apprentice 4.13

My only current thought about the Apprentice finale, until I've had time to process it more:

WTF was up with that ending? It was absolutely ridiculous. And quite a... non-ending.

Anyone else watch?

Haribo-Induced Irritation

I went to my second Duane Reade in 2 days looking for a little Haribo gummy bear fix, and was thwarted for the second time.  Last time, I settled for Sour Patch Kids and had a huge sugar crash at work. This time, I settled for Swedish fish "aqua life." 

But after not finding Haribo gummy bears, it seems like one thing after another was irritating.

First, I was on line to check out and was standing behind this guy as he finished paying and turned to leave. The exact way in which he turned was where I was, so I nicely got out of his way and said sorry. But I didn't expect such an attitude from him! He was like, "You need to look around. You're in the city now." (Or "you're in the city, you know" or something like that.) It wasn't very loud, it was sort of half under his breath, but it was in a very patronizing tone as if he were talking to some little girl who was gazing around at the sights and walking into people because she didn't know what she was doing.

All it got from me was an eyeroll, because I was tired and just wanted to get my second-tier candy and go home.  But what was playing in my head? "Yeah, I know I'm in the city. I live around the corner from this store. Maybe your little know-it-all self should have realized that I was getting out of your way because you turned and were going to walk directly into me."  Whatever.

Second, I get the mail and inside is an envelope from the law school, saying "Welcome to ____ Law School" on the envelope. My thought? What the heck! I just LEFT the law school, why are you welcoming me TO the law school?!  (Yes, I knew it was probably an alumni thing, but why welcome alumni to the law school itself when they just extricated themselves from it?)

Third, I found myself confused and starting to think about Supernatural and ghosts when I saw a very large lipstick print on the mirrored wall of the elevator.  Entirely covered in lipstick, very full lips, etc.  Who was kissing the mirror?!

Now, to watch Apprentice and do work. Lalala.

Strike

Is it funny or sad that a fair number of people are looking forward to the strike like a snow day? :)

TAR 8.11

For the first time since TAR2, the team that I wanted to win from early on won! Yay!

(For the record, the Linz family is the first of my favorites to win since Chris & Alex. Since then, there's been Dave & Jeff, Colin & Christie, Kris & Jon and Rob & Amber. It's been a long wait. I had no TV during TAR3, but I guarantee you I would not have been rooting for Flo.)

The season has been sort of lame with the barely leaving the country and not having very hard tasks bit, but the ending was worth it. I can't wait for TAR 9! They look like they go to fun places!

And I have to say that my favorite part of the whole thing was the geography puzzle. Alvin and I both started screaming, because that task is one of the few that would be great for me. (We usually try to pick who would do which roadblocks were we on the show.) I mean, I read maps for fun. I just wish they had shown us the Weavers doing the puzzle. I mean with the whole, "is Pennsylvania a state?" thing from earlier in the season, that would have just been great. Yay for a smart challenge!

Yay! Finally a good finale. The 2 teams I liked made it to the end as 1 and 2. (There were other teams I liked too, but they got kicked off early on.) And now we get on with the real TAR!

HP

I love the ABC Family Channel for playing so much Harry Potter over the weekend. The best part is that it seems to be the "extended" editions with all these scenes not in the original movies. Are those scenes in the deleted scenes on the DVDs? Or are they only in the TV version? Having just finished Book 2 again recently, I'm in HP-overload, in a very, very good way.

Yesterday, Sorcerer's Stone. Today, Chamber of Secrets. Re-reading, Prisoner of Azkaban. Last full movie seen, Goblet of Fire. Me, happy.

Family Feud

Are you kidding me?

Family Feud question: "Name an occasion when people get sentimental."

My answer and the answer of one of the buzzer contestants? "Graduation."

And it got the big red X!

How can none of the 100 people surveyed get sentimental at graduation?

What would your answer to the question be?

Words II

Take the last post and substitute Boykrazy's That's What Love Can Do.

 

Listening to the radio is fun.

Words

Is it sad that, approximately 13 years later, I am sitting at work getting all the words right to Shoop?

Another Song Association

All 4 One: I Swear

 

Junior high school. Senior Banquet. Yes, we had a "prom." Some people came in limos and did a post-party at the beach and the whole thing if I remember correctly. I showed up in a friend's minivan (my mom was chaperoning anyway) and we went to the diner afterwards. Kind of glad we had a "prom" since I didn't go in high school, but over 7.5 years later, I still don't regret not going. And since for some reason I have better memories of junior high than high school (hence, my issues with law school social structure), I guess I went to prom when it counted.

 

Share. Please? :)

A Real Lawyer

It's official! I'm a lawyer!


Well, in New Jersey anyway. But at least it's not really a lie to say "attorney" as my profession anymore. Kind of exciting. :)

(I was originally going to post a post-ceremony picture of me with the judge who did the swearing in, but I felt weird not asking for permission before posting something like that. So I won't.)

It doesn't feel that different now, mostly because I can't do all that much more now than I could do before this afternoon. But it's nice to actually be admitted somewhere. Pretty good reason for being out of the office this afternoon. ;-)

Reunion

Am I setting myself up for disappointment?

Reason I ask is because I watched 4 episodes of Reunion today. But I suppose I should start the story from the beginning.

When a new TV season starts, I usually try to give all the new shows that interest me a chance. (And there's usually quite a few.) After a few episodes, if I have no desire to watch, I tune out.

This season, it was a little complicated. Fox starts its season early, and they started most of their shows during the time when I was moving from Chicago to NY. As a result, I had to tape a lot of shows at my parents' house, but never got to watch the tapes before work started.

I had taped Prison Break, Reunion and the O.C. Since I kept missing the O.C. anyway because of all the Thurs/8pm time conflicts, I just watched when I could and didn't worry about not seeing the first episode. The other 2, since they're so serialized, I didn't want to watch the later episodes without seeing the early ones, especially since they were new shows.

Once we set up DVR (mid-Sept), I started recording Prison Break and Reunion. As of this morning, I still hadn't watched the videos, so I still hadn't seen any of the episodes. And they were taking up enough room on the DVR that I figured I would just start watching Reunion, even though I hadn't seen the first episode on the tape yet.

Only problem with that? I already knew this morning that Fox had cancelled Reunion earlier in the week. That it was going to end at 13 episodes. That the producers said that the mysteries probably wouldn't even be solved because it wasn't going to be a full season. That it was basically going to end in February.

But I watched 4 episodes anyway.

One might ask what the whole point of that is. Why watch a show that's already been cancelled?

I wanted to see what the concept was like. It had intrigued me from the beginning and I wanted to see what it was all about. And there was nothing on today except the ANTM marathon and I wanted to be entertained while I was cleaning up. It's not the greatest show, I've realized, but it's definitely fun. And I'm sad that Fox doesn't take enough of a chance to let it play out for the full season before killing it. At least the WB did right by Jack & Bobby even if they didn't renew it (sadly).

I always knew Fox was the show-killer network. I'm still just really disappointed in CBS over Threshold. Stupid successful CBS.

Lime in the Coconut

City Lobster, 3 December 2005