Survived!

Wow. My family has managed to survive Christmas, but just barely. I had a really bad case of food poisoning that left me not wanting to eat for about a week. Just when things were calming down and we were ready for Christmas, Grandmere fell. She is doing well, but it meant Mom and Dad spent most of Christmas Eve in the emergency room. We managed to squeeze in stone crab for dinner and make it to midnight mass, but then Mom came down with some kind of bronchitis. Hopefully, Dad will not catch it. His immune system is low right now due to chemo, so we're taking extra precautions around him.

On the bright side, CHRISTMAS! We opened presents and feasted on some of the 800 cookies Dad and I baked. Karl and I haven't managed to get Mom's blu-ray set up correctly yet (four hours later). I'm afraid it might have to go back to the store until the parents' neighborhood gets better internet service. I got a digital camera, so expect lots of pictures once the memory card arrives.

I managed to see lots of friends and am very pleased with the season. I'll be heading to middle of nowhere Colorado soon to spend New Years with Jake and his family.
I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday season!

Ski Time!

Ski areas are opening left and right, so all of Denver has lost its mind. J and I both bought ski passes and I bought the bullet and bought ski gear. Wednesday was a federal holiday so J didn't have worked. We went up to Keystone with another friend and took day lessons in our respective sports. Skiing for me and snow-boarding for him. I was surprised at how much I remembered from 8 years ago.


The lesson was definitely worth it. I paid for a group lesson, but ended up with only one other man and the instructor (who kept calling himself a coach). My instructor looked very much like Mark Hamilton/Luke Skywalker. Very cute, as is only appropriate from a ski instructor. My poles were taken away for most of the day, my coach said I was using them too much. I only fell once, and that was when attempting to take my skis off, so I count the day as a win. My right calf is extremely sore today. I hope it will feel better by Sunday, when we're heading to Breckenridge to ski.

Halloween!

Halloween was pretty fun and low-key this year. J and I went as zombie JFK and Marilyn Monroe.Zombies were a big hit this year. We had friends come over as a zombie girl scout and a zombie disco queen. J had about 20 trick-or-treaters, including lots of little ones. I may have made a two year old cry...

Another guest dressed up as Faith from Buffy, so I decided we needed some pictures of her staking me.
She then roofied me by pouring me several glasses of her amazing punch. :)

It's official -- I can practice law in CO!

Yesterday was the swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony itself was fine, about 45 minutes. Lots of attorneys from courts and bar associations gave quick congratulatory speeches. The CJ officiated our oaths and then we were official.


Aren't we cute?

Mom even managed to get me flowers from a thousand miles away. Mom is friends with the mother of one of Jake's fellow clerks. The other mother came to see her own daughter sworn in, and brought flowers for me, from my mom. Complicated, but very appreciated.

After celebratory drinks with Preston, we met his wife for a pizza dinner. Delicious. J fell asleep while I watched Interview with a Vampire to get into the Halloween spirit.

Fun-filled Saturday

Yesterday was a ton of fun. J and I met up with several of my cousins and aunt for lunch. L lives in Boulder and was wedding-dress hunting with her family in Denver. We ended up poking through a few stores before lunch. J got to see the frillyness of Priscilla's of Boston and drool over tables in Restoration Hardware.
We then headed to the ND game watch at Wash Park. It was a pretty small turn out -- maybe 25 people compared to the normal 50+. The Irish played poorly, but BC was a hot mess, so we managed to pull it out.
Later, we headed over to a friend's house for a bonfire! There was beer and s'mores. Good times.

Blergh to the max

Job stuff is making me super-frustrated. I've been working through ND's alumni connections and emailing everyone I can think of. The few people who do respond mostly say "I don't know of any jobs, here are 2-20 more people to contact." *headdesk* I am seriously considering the whole solo route again, but it still intimidates me.

In happier news, C and P got married on Saturday! It was a very fun wedding, mostly friends, little family. The ceremony itself was like 10 minutes, then on to the party. I ended up driving the bride and groom home because I was the only sober person by 3pm. :)

I passed the Bar!

Thursday morning was rough. The page said the results would be up no sooner than 9 am. So of course, I was refreshing the page every 30 seconds. After a grueling 11 minutes, my name appeared on the magic list. YES! Jake and I had a shot of tequila to celebrate before he ran to work. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. I refused to do anything job-hunting related, so ended up watching tv all day. I met up with J and several of his co-workers, who had also just passed, for a happy hour. We then moved on to a fancy steak dinner to celebrate.

The rest of the weekend has not been nearly as much fun. I might have had a minor meltdown Friday night over a variety of things. . . There were two events planned for Saturday. One got moved to Sunday afternoon, but the other got canceled. This left J and me with nothing to do but watch bad movies. We watched 1/2 of Bad Boys and all of Transformers 2. The only good thing we watched was Monster Camp - a documentary about L.A.R.P.ing in Seattle (think live action Dungeons and Dragons). It did snow Saturday, so the city is quite pretty.

The upcoming week should be fun. I'm meeting up with cousins in the area to talk about skiing options and watch chick flicks, then the end of the week is blocked out for C and P's wedding!

Bored.

6 hour CLE

Today I had to attend "Practicing with Professionalism," a six hour mandatory CLE to gain entry to the CO bar. It wasn't bad, but there was lots of "don't sleep with clients," "you'd be surprised how easily an attorney-client relationship forms," "don't be negligent." Things I spent a semester and more learning.
I'm feeling more settled in Denver. I have a daily routine worked out that involves job hunting, networking, working out, watching tv and grocery shopping. I'm hoping once bar results are out in a week that the job search will be a little bit easier...

How many rings is he wearing?

Sunday night I went along with a few people to an open mic night/poetry slam. Having never been to one before, I did not know what to expect. I was very impressed with the open mic in general. Several people were very good, including a 70 year old grandpa who cursed like a sailor and a 20 year old wannabe gangsta with the voice of an angel. We left before the poetry slam -- it cost ten bucks and was a special youth edition. I didn't think I could handle a bunch of 16 year old emo kids expressing how dark and meaningless their lives were.
However, I think the highlight of the evening would have to be WizardMan! An older gentleman, wearing blue velvet robes, complete with gold rope sash. He had a full white beard and wore four giant rings on each hand. He was passing out cards that advertised his tarot readings in the red room. He might have overtaken Heebel's dragon ring. :)

And back again

I'm back in Denver after ten days at home. Not the best news, but the expected news. Still waiting to hear what the treatment will be for Dad. He's in good spirits, except when the Irish lost yesterday. :)
I got to see a bunch of my Atlanta friends while I was home and spend lots of quality time with family. Karl came up from Orlando for a week and Tia was in town for several days as well.
Now that I am back in Denver, I have to work on finding a job. Blargh. I am very tired of all the emailing, networking, etc. Hopefully, it will pay off. At least it's a beautiful day!

Home

I'm back! Europe was awesome. In Amsterdam, we stayed with a lovely 30-something couple. The three of us ate dinner together every night with lots of conversation. I did not realize how many canals were in Amsterdam. We rented bikes one day and got very lost, but enjoyed seeing the city.

My favorite thing in the city is Our Lord of the Attic. In the 1600s, Catholic churches were banned, so a wealthy merchant built one in his attic. I was expecting a small chapel that could seat maybe ten or fifteen people. Instead, I got this: a church that could accommodate over 100 people, an organ, confessionals, etc. This was a fully functioning church for the neighborhood. Pretty cool.

From Amsterdam we flew to Athens. Athens is a lot more arid than I had imagined. And hot. So very very hot. Every day you felt you had a layer of dust coating your skin. The Acropolis was amazing. It's hard to imagine how long those buildings have been there. The New Acropolis Museum was interesting and it was cool being in a brand new facility (it opened in June) that is built on top of a current archaeological site. We stayed in Athens for a day too long due to full ferries, but caught one to Naxos, a small island in the cyclades.

Naxos was great. We rented an ATV and drove around the island one day. Lots of beaches and some historical sites - like Venetian defense towers.






Santorini is the classic Greek island. It has the classic white buildings with blue trim and is located on a cliff. Sunsets over the island are beautiful. We were there for the Volcano Eruption Celebration (the island is part of a volcano crater), which included lots of fireworks. The little lights along the middle and bottom are boats watching the show.


After Santorini, it was a quick trip to Crete. We stayed in Chania with an American linguist. He gave us a tour of the city, which has been invaded many a time. It's a lovely town, right on a harbor.


From Crete, we flew to London, one of my favorite places in the world. Jake had never been before; I enjoyed showing him around. We stayed with one of his friends from MN who is living in Windsor. We went to the National Gallery, saw Big Ben,
walked around Westminister, toured the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum (totally awesome), laughed at The 39 Steps, toured around Windsor and accidentally walked 12 miles in an afternoon, watched a polo match, took a boat to Greenwich, visited the Tate Modern, toured Shakespeare's Globe, got scared at The Woman in Black, poked around Regent's Garden and Camden Markets, and were awed at the British Museum.
I came home to news that Dad was in the hospital. He's ok and out of the hospital, but I don't trust him to take it easy without supervision, so I'm leaving for Atlanta tomorrow. August has been very busy.

Packing

It's been low-key here for the past couple of days and I am loving it. Saturday I went to Indian buffet with M and then to a party at her uncle's home. I managed to do half a load of laundry in the seven hours in between. :)

Sunday I finished laundry -- I live an exciting life. Neighbors were having a birthday party in the backyard last night. We ended up grilling pizza and playing taboo. Fun night.

I have to finish packing and do some other last minute trip details today before the supershuttle picks me up at 3:45 am. I'm super-excited for Europe!

super awkward

Yesterday I was driving around Denver, running some errands. My gas light came on and I vaguely remembered a gas station at a certain point. (Denver has few gas stations where I want them to be.) It takes driving round a block once, but I get there. I pull into a spot and hear a little bell chime. "Weird," I say to myself. Then I see the guy come out of the station. Turns out I was in the Full Service area. I didn't even know they still had those.
The guy comes up to my window. What is the protocol for this? Can I just get out and pump my own? But then I'm denying the guy space to make tips. Could I move to another spot?
I got flustered and just handed him my credit card and said "Regular, please." Then he asked if I wanted him to check tires or under the hood. Again, flustered. "Um, no thanks." He then commented on my Southern "kindness." I smiled and used my fake southern drawl to say thank you. I drove off in a fit of giggles.
What would you have done?

Moves

Just moved over to Blogspot from lj since most people are now using blogspot. The lengths I go to.

Also, did I mention yet that I am DONE with the bar? It was a crazy two days. The first day encompassed eight essays and two MPTs. The essays were fine, except there was one where I wasn't really sure what one part was asking. Other people were also confused, so I feel ok about that. The MPTs were fine -- it gives you a file and asks you to read, comprehend and follow directions. Day two was 200 multiple choice questions. I'm comfortable about passing.

To celebrate, some friends came over for drinking and rock band.

I now have several days to recoup, do laundry and pack for Europe!