Category Archives: Old Friends

LA Cancer Challenge Race Goals

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Happy Halloweekend everyone! I went out last night with the Committee and there will be a recap coming at you soon but first I wanted to post about the race I’m running tomorrow: The LA Cancer Challenge.

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The LA Cancer Challenge runs really close to where I live AND it benefits pancreatic cancer research. This is a cause close to my heart. My very good friend and Firm member Shahrin’s mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last December. Shahrin’s Mom is a strong and amazing women, traits she definitely passed on to my friend.

Shahrin and I Summer 09

It is really hard being across the country from your friend and her family when all you want to do is be there to support them. Shahrin did a walk for pancreatic cancer earlier this month, but I wanted to do my part across the country to support her and her mom. So here we are, the LA Cancer Challenge!

As you may know, I am running the Malibu Half Marathon in two weeks (AH!) so my goals for this race are to take it easy. I want to approach this race as just another long run and not as a race. I’ve been sick all week and while I am feeling better, I went on a short run yesterday and it didn’t feel very good. My goal for tomorrow is not to try to smash my PR but just relax and enjoy it. I have started running a lot more since my last 10K. Part of me wonders if because my training base is so much higher now, I will complete the race much more quickly. I’m not sure so again, I am just going to play it by ear.

Speaking of playing… Monica asked what songs I listed to when I run. Here is my playlist for tomorrow:

Obviously I like to listen to a mixture of music. I will write a more extensive music post later but as you can see, I love pop and hip hop. I try to pace my songs, notice the slower songs are towards the front… this is to encourage me to run more slowly at the beginning. Right now my “clutch” songs are “So Fly Like a G6”, “Power”, “All I Do is Win”, “No Love”, and “Sexy Bitch”. Any kind of David Guetta can’t be wrong 🙂

I also did packet pick up today. We got the best swag bag ever!

Reusable shopping bag. Excellent.

Lets break this down: mini brown rice, coffee, a toothbrush (I know I’m a huge dork for being excited about this, but I need a new one), and sweatbands!

The t-shirts were pretty awesome too!

It a tech shirt! This is great because while I love a cotton race tee, it is so easy to sweat through them. I know, for all you non runners out there its kinda gross to hear that. After 12 miles my hair was totally drenched so a cotton tee would be a bad idea. I may actually wear my shirt tomorrow. I love new gear!

OK, I’m off to carb load!

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Thirsty Wednesdays

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Last night Catie and I said goodbye to Kat by bringing her to one of our favorite bars, Thirsty Crow. The first time Catie and I went to “The Crow” we looked at each other and said, “Kat would love this place!” Of course she did.

Last time I got a whiskey cocktail, but this time I ordered a Violet Vapor.

The violet vapor is a combo of creme de violet and champagne. I know we were at a whiskey bar, but what can I say, I’m a champs girl. We had a great time reliving college memories. Lets just say I learned some interesting facts about my trash can last night. I got home late and woke up at 6 am today to go to court. Revelation of the day: I really, really want to be a litigator. Ah, we learn something new everyday. It’s nice to have some direction.

Back to reading and then a run. What is everyone doing for the long weekend?

Friends and Cupcakes and Cocktails, oh my!

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There was no blog post yesterday because I was hanging out with Kat! Kat is one of my besties from Simmons. She and I met First Year during a program at Simmons called the “Emerging Leader Program”. We had to do an ice breaker together and she said that makes awesome home made pie crust. Is it any wonder we’re still friends? Then we lived together Sophomore year. She is a left coaster too, but a little further north. I was so excited to see her yesterday.

I grabbed her at the hotel and took her on a driving tour of LA. When we got to Beverly Hills we ditched the car to stretch our Boston legs.

To have a full LA experience we had to stop at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for ice teas!

We walked up, down, and all around Rodeo and then ended up at one of my favorite 90210 hot spots… Sprinkles Cupcakes.

So many choices and so little time.

Then there was a cupcake photo shoot, obviously.

Love Kat’s new cute hair cut!

We picked a good one: carrot cake!

I have to say that I really loved this cupcake! The frosting was not the traditional carrot cake frosting. It was like their other frosting but with coconut-ish flavor! The cake was also very moist and delicious. Overall, it is my favorite Sprinkles cupcake thus far!

We headed back to downtown and had a sushi dinner with Catie. 3/4 of the firm was reunited! Then we went to Seven Grand, where I went for birthday drinks earlier this month, for whiskey drinks.

For some reason my camera was super blurry during this part of the night. Not sure why…

I love the interior of Seven Grand.

Nothing is cozier than taxidermy:

Check out the fresh ingredients… the bartender even gave me a small cup of raspberries. They looked that good.

Having sampled several of their cocktails the last time I was there, I knew exactly what I wanted to order, a Whiskey Sour.Watching them make it was like watching a chemist.

Frothy!

My friends and I had a great time catching up. Its sad that we don’t live across the quad from each other anymore but I look forward to getting together, making new memories, and reliving old ones for years to come.

Love my ladies!

Cleaning out my closet

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Today as part of my vacation/cleansing before the semester starts I decided that I should clean out my closet. Don’t we all have that one place in our houses where we thrown everything? This is mine…

My head hurt just looking at this mess everyday. I mean, the shoe stack, the law books. This had to go. I have to say that I am a pretty good purger of things when I put my mind to it. I do not want to end up a hoarder and  I am type A enough to operate better in a clean environment. So I got cracken’ and actually found some pretty fun stuff in the process. Don’t you love when you clean and find random things from your past? I sure do.

First, I found pictures from college and high school!

Good friend, firm member, and former roommate Kat at the Clothesline Project Junior year at Simmons

Top is Jr. year Simmons Soiree with Alice, Pati, and Cristina from SGA Executive Board. Bottom is Grad Night with Brenna, Katherine, Claire and Melissa. Notice the white dresses? Yep. We graduate in white dresses because that’s now we roll.

Speaking of high school, I found a ton of t shirts! There was an inside joke at New Trier (my alma mater) that it takes three girls to screw in a light bulb: one to hold the bulb, one to screw it in and a third to make a t shirt about it. As such, I have an insane surplus of New Trier t shirts from every occasion under the sun.

Lets take a walk down memory lane…

Prom 2005. Why yes, the theme was candy land. A gratuitous opportunity to play “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent? You betcha!

Winter Carnival 2005. At New Trier the Sr. class always takes on a philanthropy project building Habitat for Humanity houses. In order to finance this the Sr class throws a carnival. Nice, right? Very nice. But don’t be fooled… that grad night party costs the same as building, like, three habitat for humanity houses. Just sayen’.

Shameless braggary. Oh the New Trier swagger…

DEM CLUB! Really more of a “we hate Bush” support group. Yep, I was a member because I have always been “left”.

And now from the Simmons Collection…

Women’s College Represent. I miss Simmons…

Remember this from Simmons Cup 2006?

Then I went through some clothing and found this cute skirt I bought when I was 15! It fits!I remember wearing this around New York City on my first trip with my Mom in July of 2003…

One final cute thing. Buried way in the back I found a Lexis swag bag which had a bunch of notes that I took during Orientation last year…

HA! How to read an opinion. Rule application. How far have I come? WOW! As comical as it might seem I remember being so intense and scared about learning to read opinions and what would be expected of me in class. I am so glad that I am starting 2L. Phew!

Here is the after:

Better. Overall, I had two bags of trash and I rearranged everything to be more accessible. I made a stack of things to give away, a stack of things to be taken in, and a stack of 1L books to sell.

After I was exhausted but I managed to find the strength to make it to Coffee Bean.

I opted for oatmeal raisin because it generally is fewer in calories.

MMM Iced Tea. I came home and went on a very good 4.1 mile run. After I had an insane pilaf mashup for dinner featuring goat cheese, okra, onions, and yellow pepper:

Very good. This is a marathon post. Hope you all enjoyed cleaning my closet!

What is lurking in your closet?

-LCC

Soulmates

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This weekend is all about spending time with one of my best friends from college, Catie! Of course, we both wanted to go shopping so we went to Catie’s mall and hit up all of our favorite stores…

victoria secret for the semi annual sale

Forever 21

And then we made our way to our Mecca… Nordstroms! Did you know that as children both Catie and I had personal shoppers at Nordies? Well, its true, were soul mates.

I was 8 when Nordstrom opened at Old Orchard. Nordstrom is the best department store because there are so many personal touches that you would find at a really high end department stores like a cafe but they have great clothing and more affordable clothing also! Plus, a great shoe department. We didn’t actually buy anything… but we spotted this great top:

Twihard madness at Nordies

Then we did the only logical thing left to do after shopping: EAT! We hit the Nordstrom Cafe…

I love the Nordies Cafe because nothing ever changes… The table at Old Orchard are exactly the same!

Catie and I decided to split an entree which was a great idea. Catie is super healthy and eats a very balanced diet and inspires health in others (like me). We got a stir fry.

Yum! Can you believe this is a half portion? Its like a normal full portion that I would make for myself! The other benefit of slitting entrees is that you save money. I only paid $8 for this meal!

Yum! And for dessert? We went back to our roots…

With Boston Cream Pie! The cake was better than expected. Overall, the cake was moist and can you really go wrong with Boston cream pie? Of course not!

After pie we hit shopping hard! Highlights included buying a running bra because wearing a yoga bra while running is a poor choice, and size 6 denim Editor pants from Express for $20!!! Wee! I love a good deal.

Off to bed because I am wiped!


JP Licks

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No offense LA, but I like my ice cream to be real. Not that I don’t have a place in my heart for Yogurtland and Pinkberry, but sometimes you just want REAL ice cream. My favorite place in Boston for real ice cream is JP Licks. There are a number of locations in Boston. Carolyn and I went to JP Lick, Harvard Square between happy hours.

I always order the same thing at JP Licks. I know its lame, but why should I mess with perfection? I always get oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips. The oatmeal cookie has oatmeal which I love but also has a slight cinnamon aftertaste which makes it even more delicious. The chocolate chips make me feel like I’m eating an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (my favorite cookie!) It should be noted that this is a low fat hard yogurt so I suppose it isn’t really ice cream but its more like ice cream than tart yogurt!

YUM! This is for real my favorite ever! I could have it everyday all day. OK, maybe not all day but its soooo good. I need to have this more than once a year.

Carolyn didn’t love her selection so she went back for oatmeal cookie also, and it was much more satisfactory.

Wish I could have it all the time. More proof that I have to combine Boston and LA into one super city!

Triple the Happy Hour

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Lucky for me, Carolyn in a believer in multiple happy hours. First we enjoyed “two buck chuck” pinot grigio while watching this women:

Love barefoot!

After we took our party to Gredel’s Den in Harvard Square. I love Grendel’s because they have awesome happy hour food specials and wonderful drinks, which aren’t that expensive.

As mentioned above, Grendel’s has a superior drink list at low prices. I had a French 75, which I’ve had there before. It consists of gin, lemon, simple syrup and a champagne float! I love an added champagne float!

So light and refreshing! I also was eying a cocktail with lillet but I was glad I opted for the “75”. Its an all time favorite. Carolyn and I decided to split two options on the menu. First we wanted the panini because it contained prosciutto. This was clearly a no brainer because we love our prosciutto. The we split the Santa Fe salad and we added shrimp. Grendel’s has such awesome specials, it was only $1 to add shrimp!!

This was my portion. The panini also had sausage and the salad had cheese and a great dressing (which we obviously got on the side). It was a great deal and the food was only $8 total!!!

Once we completed our drinks we moved on from second happy hour…

And later went to Shay’s in Harvard Square for third happy hour! Shays is a great wine and beer bar. The patio was packed but there wasn’t anyone inside. We sat down and ordered the Hob Nob pinot noir. It was very good. Later I had a glass of the Stump Jump Shiraz. Both were good and the bar was perfect. No frills but good service and not too crowded and not too deserted. A great place to stop in for a glass of wine.

The Hob Nob.

three cheers for happy hour!

Then we headed back to Allston on the bus to Carolyn’s house. I love a Carolyn happy hour and I love it more when it involves three pit stops!

Food Tour with Carolyn

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I love hanging out with my friend Carolyn because we have the same objectives: treats (in moderation?), good restaurants, barefoot contessa viewing, wine, and frequent bathroom breaks. We also share a love of photographing everything we see. This image of a squirrel pretty much sums up what we did:

Treats! That’s pretty much our main priority! We also saw the Public Garden and the Boston Common.

And then there was a duck photo shoot which might be added at a later date. We had dinner at Figs which is an awesome and affordable restaurant in Beacon Hill. I got to meet Carolyn’s old roommate who just finished law school. She promised that there was a life after 1L. This made me happy.

Our visit wasn’t all treats and photo shoots. We also went on a two miler. Blog confession: my vacation working out has not really been happening. But I’ve been doing a lot of walking and also I kept pace with Carolyn which is awesome because she’s running a 1/2 marathon on Sunday!! WOOOO Carolyn! More specific food posts to follow…

Spending the Day with Shahrin

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Last Saturday and Sunday I spent the “day” with Shahrin. Technically, it was two days but sadly only ended up being a little of 24 hours. We made the most of it though hitting Harvard Square, Sushi, watching numerous TV shows, feasting on her mom and aunts excellent cooking, getting pastries in the North End, and shopping in Faneuil Hall. Whew. Here is a short recap:

First things first, Shahrin gave me back my copy of Unaccustomed Earth and in it she had a spare key from my Boston apartment. Cool, huh? Then we had lunch. First thing you have to know is that the food at Shahrin’s house is always amazing. I had five pieces of fish when I arrived Saturday. On Sunday I had this eggplant:

The sauce is so good! You can always count on flavorful food when you visit Shahrin. We also enjoyed raspberry tea. The tea is loose leaf so Shahrin and I bought “tea balls” for the tea (insert inappropriate joke here).

Then we went to the North End and I took this picture of the Custom House. The last weekend my friends and I were in Boston together we stayed with our friend Catie there.

I remember when the big dig was going on and this whole area was a dirt hole. Now its really pretty with grass, trees, and fountains.

We went to a little cafe in the North End where we could get canolli and tiramisu. There is a lot of talk about Mike’s Pastry and I will be the first to tell you that Mike’s is good. However, Mike’s is also busy and not really any better than any other of the amazing North End cafes. We went to a cafe further down Hanover, the main drag, which was less crowded and has delicious pastries. I had a chocolate covered canolli

Shahrin had a tiramisu and of course we ate off each others plates

and then we had a latte and an espresso

I love the North End, or “Little Italy”. I snapped some pictures on my way to Quincy Market. Here we have Modern Pastry and Paul Revere’s house:

Then we went to Quincy Market where we indulged in a little shopping and we got drinks at Anthem. I really loved their drink selections but the service was a little bit slow. Shahrin had a ginger margarita and I had a sparkler, which is a pear compote with a prosecco.

We also took a photo shoot because we waited about 45 mins for our drinks:

Finally we got drinks!!

While the service left a lot to be desired the drinks were amazing. My sparkler was really light and very summer appropriate. I love a pear cocktail because its fruity but not sweet. I really don’t like overly sweet drinks. Pear is a good fresh flavor without being too much. I also love ginger so the margarita was delicious. Then it was about that time when we had to say good bye and we were sad…

I hate saying goodbye to that face! I really miss Shahrin. I was a little misty eyed on the T after I left. Shahrin is an amazing friend who would literally do anything for me if I wanted her to. She has always been there for me. She really is my hero. After I left Shahrin I went off to Allston to spend more time with Carolyn.

A year ago today…

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“Welcome to the tribe, and what a glorious tribe it is. We are tiny, but we are everywhere” -Gwen Ifill, Simmons College Commencement 2009

I graduated from college!

I cannot believe that it has been a year. The week I graduated was also the week I moved out on my own and the week I was accepted to UCLA School of Law. Crazy, huh? Who knew 7 days could change your life so much? A lot happened that week and a lot has happened to my friends and I this year. Honestly, the first year post grad has been pretty hard on all of my friends in different ways. Luckily, Simmons sisters stick together. I can’t wait to go back next week and see my friends!