Archive for April, 2010
Welcome to the Future
Do you think this is what the skype people had in mind when they were creating their product? Today at the Constitutional Law review session my professor skyped in from France. Goldstein was a total champ for spyking in from France at 11 pm. If I were in France I would be eating a fromage course and drinking red wine, not leading a review session. Plus, the session its self was highly entertaining. Nothing like an older man with a headset and some prankster was sending a message across the screen that said “Antonin Scalia, ‘I am the law””.
After a highly entertaining review session I went on a run. It was a really hard run, and not in a good way. My legs felt like they were in peanut butter. I’m not sure if it was the wind, the fact that I’ve been sitting a lot, or the fact that I hadn’t had any protein but I couldn’t seem to “break through”. It was frustrating and I didn’t feel satisfied after my run so I did “yoga abs” on the On Demand. It was nice to do something not running so I plan to incorporate it more often. Yoga is such a great workout and really works your arms and abs. I really want focus on working yoga and abs into my workout on a consistent basis.
#21 Get a Driver's License
Well, I did it! I passed my drivers test and officially am a licensed driver in California! Take it off the bucket list. What does one do to celebrate?
Obviously, a trip to Clementine for grilled cheese and a huge brownie. April is grilled cheese month and so this was the last opportunity for me to get one. I had a white cheddar with roasted tomatoes.
Gooey cheese is SO GOOD!
Of course, no meal is complete without an iced tea.
At this point I decided to decamp to the Coffee Bean because the vultures were swooping in for my table. But before I left I made sure that I picked up a little something sweet to celebrate my victory:
Victory never tasted so sweet. Now if you will excuse me, I have a hot date with civil procedure. Only 8 days left of 1L, oh god, so much work to do!
#21 Get a Driver’s License
Well, I did it! I passed my drivers test and officially am a licensed driver in California! Take it off the bucket list. What does one do to celebrate?
Obviously, a trip to Clementine for grilled cheese and a huge brownie. April is grilled cheese month and so this was the last opportunity for me to get one. I had a white cheddar with roasted tomatoes.
Gooey cheese is SO GOOD!
Of course, no meal is complete without an iced tea.
At this point I decided to decamp to the Coffee Bean because the vultures were swooping in for my table. But before I left I made sure that I picked up a little something sweet to celebrate my victory:
Victory never tasted so sweet. Now if you will excuse me, I have a hot date with civil procedure. Only 8 days left of 1L, oh god, so much work to do!
2 Down, 2 To Go
Well, finals are officially halfway done! Today I had my property final. It went as expected. I’ve never left a law school final thinking it was easy. If it was easy everyone would do it, right? The first part was particularly challenging. We had 33 questions and an hour, which is less than 2 min. per question. And the questions? About 90% of them were at least a half page long. Gah! And its curved so who the hell knows how you actually did. So basically, thinking about it is a recipe for driving your self crazy. When I got home I was preoccupied by the final but I decided to put it aside and go on a run. MAN! I felt good after! I just left all my anxiety on the pavement. Plus, my new mix totally came through in the clutch. What does one do after a final and a killer run?
A glass of Bordeaux obviously (check Iz out in the background. Totally interested obviously). And I had a pasta with my homemade sauce which I enhanced with roasted tomatoes. It made the whole experience so much more flavorful. Then I made a mango soda with the leftover mango compote from this morning and seltzer water:
Isn’t it pretty? Now mix…
It was SO GOOD. It was almost better than breakfast. The mango is refreshing and adds a bit of pizazz to otherwise boring seltzer water. You will have to excuse me now… I have to watch Glee.
Mango Breakfast Parfait
It’s such a yucky overcast day here is Southern California. At 1:30 today I have my property final so I decided to make myself an extra special breakfast. I like to take the morning before the exam to take time for myself. If I don’t know the information by then I’m not going to learn it, am I? Today I decided to make a Mango Puree Breakfast parfait that I read about in Everyday Food.
Seriously Martha, I love you, but I really don’t want to pay 99 cents for the Everyday Food iphone app. Can you reduce the price to free please?
The first step is to peel, core, and chop the mango. Mango’s are slippery! I was having a hard time holding on to it by the end.
Then you throw the mango into the food processor with a tablespoon of water and 1/6 of a cup of sugar and puree until smooth.
Then layer it into a cup alternating with Greek yogurt.
Yum! So light and refreshing and delicious. I love starting the day with fruit! Always sets a good tone for the day. Then I went to campus to blog this and they had free cookies in the entry hall. Delish! I’m never far away from a free cookie!
YUM! Off to my final, wish me luck!
My Bucket List
So this morning I was reading Carrots N Cake like usual, and Tina announced that she was going to run and marathon and she posted her bucket list. Because I have finals tomorrow and needed a distraction I worked on my bucket list all day today. Let me know what you think, 100 things I want to do before I die:
- Drive a convertible up sunset blvd.
- Spend an entire summer on the Vineyard
- Crush grapes at a vineyard
- Get my J.D.
- Adopt a rescue dog
- Fall in love and get married
- Own a home
- Work on a political campaign
- Have a spiritual awakening
- Argue a case in front of a judge
- Buy a Birkin
- Write a book
- Live in Paris
- Travel all over Italy
- Go to Germany
- Go with the firm on a 5 star vacation somewhere warm and exotic
- Mentor someone like Theresa Perry mentored me
- Have my name on a plaque somewhere on Simmons’ campus
- Be my own boss
- Have a garden and grow all my veggies from it
- Get my driver’s license
- Expand my blog and get its own URL
- Go back to Istanbul
- Go to Lollapalooza
- Sing in a choir
- Go to San Francisco
- Eat at French Laundry
- Go to Fiji
- Have a subscription to the New York Times
- Attend a Presidential Inauguration
- Vote for a female democrat for President (primary election doesn’t count) & she gets elected
- Attend the Kentucky Derby
- Take a bartending class
- Go skinny dipping
- Go to a Turkish bath
- Drive cross country
- Go horseback riding on the beach
- See the grand canyon
- Meet Hillary Clinton
- Meet Martha Stewart
- Go to Culinary School
- Travel the French Countryside
- Eat at the Turkish barbeque at the Kipinski Palace in Istanbul (again)
- Open a restaurant
- Learn how to make sticky buns
- Be a mother
- Ride a mechanical bull
- Go to every Starbucks in Boston Proper (I might have already done this but I have to check)
- Be elected to an office (anything from PTA to the Senate, doesn’t matter)
- Go to Africa
- Learn to Golf
- Be a Simmons Success Connection Mentor
- Own a hybrid car
- Travel up the California Coast on the 1
- Watch oral arguments in front of SCOTUS
- Cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner all by myself
- Have a cupcake from Magnolia
- Get to & maintain my healthy weight
- Sail on the Charles River
- Buy a bicycle and actually use it on a regular basis
- See the pyramids in Egypt
- Ride a camel
- Go to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party
- Run a marathon
- Do a wine tasting
- Renovate an entire house from top to bottom
- Camp in Yellowstone
- Sail around the world
- Meet Ina
- Go to every state in the country
- Go see a stand-up comedy show
- Live on the beach
- Learn to surf
- Encourage a young woman to attend a women’s college
- Read all 3 Master of the Senate books
- Have an outdoor shower in my backyard
- Get really good at tennis
- Fire a gun
- See the 7 wonders of the world
- Hook up with a celebrity
- Visit all the Boston sites mentioned in “The Namesake” in one afternoon
- Have coffee with Jhumpa Lahiri
- Pass the California Bar
- Vacation on a (nearly) deserted island with my husband
- Find a job that makes me happy
- Be self fulfilled
- Use a dog sled
- See Madonna in concert
- Order a $800 bottle of champagne
- Be content no matter what I’m doing
- Fall in love and go to Paris
- Kiss a random hot man on the street
- Go to Sweden
- Stay up all night dancing with my girlfriends from college
- Grow old with someone I love
- Raise productive citizens
- Be self accepting
- Attend the Democratic National Convention
- Sleep in a castle
- Hold my best friends’ babies
- Finish 1L
So bloggies, what’s on your list?
Snacking Through Lunch
I’ve noticed the past few days I’ve been having snacks instead of a formal lunch. One of my favorite snacks are Lara Bars. This is another thing I’ve noticed my favorite bloggers eating. The ingredients in this bar, literally, are cashews and dates. Kinda like a healthy Turkish Delight (favorite dessert item of mine!)
I’ve been doing a good job of focusing on studying but I’ve allowed my mind to stray a bit. Things I’ve thought about in the past 4 hours:
- Maybe I will do a 30 day Jillian Micheal’s shred in June or maybe July. Anyone done this or have any thoughts on the topic?
- If I need a formal dress before I finish losing weight and get my formal dresses tailored I’m totally using “Rent the Runway”. Maybe my birthday?
- I still really want to do all my shopping at Whole Foods.
- I want an espresso machine in my apartment.
- The redesign of Pandora is distracting.
- I hate that finals are making me break out.
- The “countdowns” all my friends have going are making me anxious.
That’s about it for now! Back to present estates and future interests!
Off the Wagon…
I haven’t had a bagel for two months mostly because they have no redeemable nutritional value but I figure I was entitled. That is a dangerous feeling for me to have because I can justify everything with it. I will run tonight, I will run tonight, I will run tonight…
Siggi
Oh Whole Foods, as if I have the money to shop in you. Well, last night I pretended. While picking up a treat to celebrate a successful day of studying I eyed a Siggi yogurt. I’ve seen several food bloggers and friends eating Siggi and I really wanted to try it. So I threw caution to the wind and bit the $2.29 bullet and decided to try it.
Siggi is Icelandic yogurt which means that it is thick! Thicker than Greek yogurt which is good because I love the thickness of Greek yogurt. I choose orange and ginger because they are two of my favorite flavors so how could that go wrong!
For me, the best part of Siggi is that it has no additives and very few ingredients. I’ve said it before, I love looking at a label and knowing what all the ingredients are. Food like this is so clean. Clean food leads to a clean body.
The flavor was also excellent! It was kind of tart and definitely isn’t sweet, which I like. I love sweets, but in breakfast yogurt I prefer that it isn’t sweet. Overall, I loved Siggi. I can’t wait for the day when I am an attorney and can shop at Whole Foods all the time!
In Control
“There are two ways to live life. One is stressed-out, the other isn’t. One hurts, one doesn’t. Look, if you’re having a nightmare, don’t you want to wake up?” -Eckart Tolle
Um, yes I would like to pick the second one please! Since yesterday was essentially a family/social/small amount of work day, today became the first “real” day of reading period. Reading period in law school lasts for two + weeks. This is wonderful, since my entire grade is dependent on one exam which is curved against a bunch of truly brilliant people. Obviously this is also a recipe for stress. The theme of the entire last semester was “clinging on for dear life”. This semester the theme is “I have the power to make choices”. We are all in control. I can choose to go on my run, eat well, set a realistic study schedule, and manage my stress. I am in control. That is what I intend to do this semester.
Along the lines of eating well…
Last night for dinner I had a multi grain rice pilaf with roasted Brussels sprouts! I never liked/tried Brussels sprouts before but I figured that there was no way I wouldn’t like them roasted. Everything is better when slathered with EVO, salt and pepper, right? Naturally. Plus, its probably the healthiest thing I’d had in a while (because we have to balance out all my treats). And now for another gratuitous shot of my dinner.
After dinner a (very) small group of section 3 people went to the Gaslite, in Santa Monica. They are known for having karaoke every night. Of course there was an eclectic group of regulars hanging out and rocking out. Hardcore. I also observed some new dance moves for the next time I dance with a mic stand.
The only down fall was that there was no tonic at the bar. What is a g&t loving preppy to do?
There was a girl in a North Face, pearls + she had a martini. I felt like I was back in the North Shore, but I opted away from the martini. I love me a martini but I had a review session today and it is finals. Time to show restraint! I was really glad I went out last night. It mellowed me out and reminded me that fun and finals CAN coexist, despite all other indications. Lets hope I can keep this mellow zen up until May 6th around 5 pm. Whose with me?
