Questions You Haven't Asked

Although most of you have talked to me a least a little bit about moving to New York, we've all really talked very little about the school I will be attending.

So here's a first in an occasional series I'm calling, "Five Things You Didn't Know About Cardozo."

1. Full name: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
2. Founded in 1976
3. Part of Yeshiva University
4. As part of a Jewish university, all of the food on campus is kosher
5. Located near Union Square Park in Manhattan

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle...

Serious Rules

Yesterday, I went out to dinner with my family to celebrate Captain Awesome officially becoming an EMT.

We headed to his favorite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in town. He really, really got his money's worth.

However, this restaurant is unlike any place I've ever eaten. There was a list of rules on the menu. They will bring you all the sushi you want; however, you cannot waste anything. Order a gross sushi roll? Tough. Suck it up and eat that bad boy. Full? Too bad. Eat it anyway.

What are the consequences for not eating your food? They'll charge you for anything that's left on your plate. Seriously. You already paid for all-you-can-eat sushi, but if you cannot eat what they bring you, or if you choose to not eat it because it's yucky, you will have to pay an additional charge.

Apparently, they're totally serious about it, too. We had to rush out in a hurry to get my dad back for a meeting, so my brother asked for a box for his remaining sushi. They reluctantly granted him a box, but warned him that next time, they would charge him for that uneaten sushi.

Is it just me, or is this totally bizarre?

Days of Yore

In all of my sorting of various bills, pay stubs, receipts, awards, report cards, school papers, and all kinds of other things, I found a letter I wrote to NASA in 1996.

Why did I have that letter?

It was attached to the reply that NASA sent me.

See, back when I was a teenager, we wrote letters for class projects to do career research.

Ah, internet, how you've eased my work load.

Then again, it's been a long time since I got a letter from NASA, so I guess it's a trade off.

Brain Dump

• My apartment has smelled like bacon all day long. I have cooked no bacon. I'm toying with heading over to the neighbors' apartments and seeing if any of them have some left over bacon for me.
• I love Netflix. I'm currently discovering a show that aired and was canceled years ago. I wish it hadn't been canceled, but I'm sure enjoying watching what was produced.
• As I watched LOST tonight (no spoilers), I couldn't help but notice that the characters poured milk for their cereal from a pitcher. Seriously, does anyone pour their milk from the carton into a pitcher so that they can have the pitcher at the breakfast table with the box of Super Bran?
• I had dinner with two dear friends that I haven't seen in a long time. It's always nice to catch up with people, especially two people who are that funny.
• In my search for an apartment in New York, I have found all kinds of interesting things. Today's fantastic find? An apartment where the shower is in the kitchen. The toilet and sink are in the bathroom, but the shower is in the kitchen. I don't know why. I'm adding it to my list of interesting things I've seen in apartments in Manhattan.
• In other apartment news, I've had to make some really tough decisions about what I can and cannot take with me.
• Anybody want to buy a beautiful, wonderful car? (That sound you hear is my little heart breaking...)

Disney Formula

Five minutes into The Princess and the Frog, both parents are alive and the little girl is happy.

This can't last, people.

Oversight

In my haste to type up an example of what I do each day, I completely neglected to include my two delightful conversations with my sister.

She may live a gazillion miles away, but she's always right on the other end of the phone whenever I need some sisterly advice or someone to listen to me whine.

Also, I didn't have a milkshake that night.

And today, I got a haircut.

It's been a pretty busy week.

Today's Events

My brother recently asked me what I do all day these days. Here's a quick run down of today:

1-Woke up right on time. Was still tired, so mostly just sat on the couch for a while working on breakfast and waking up.

2-Got dressed. Too rainy to go for my regular walk outside, so worked on packing some more.

3-More packing/sorting/organizing/resting (I've been under the weather).

4-Dr appointment

5-Returned skirt that was much, much cuter on the hanger than it was on me.

6-Went for a long indoor walk instead of outdoor, as it was still cold and rainy.

7-Picked up Cafe Rio for dinner. Free meal!

8-More packing

9-Back up to Orem to run a quick errand for my brother.

10-Back to Provo. More sorting of boxes.

11-Awkward (all my awkwardness, of course) phone call, courtesy of Karry.

12-Time working on plans to become less awkward

13-Blogging

14-Can't predict the future, but I suspect I'll be getting ready for bed. There may be a milkshake.

See? I'm plenty busy.

Adventures in Baking

I needed to make some cookies for an even this weekend. I found the recipe, dumped the butter into the bowl, and proceeded to gather and mix my dry ingredients.

No flour.

No powdered sugar.

No cornstarch. (Later found the cornstarch in the cupboard, fortunately).

So basically, I had butter and vanilla.

Mmmmmm...butter and vanilla cookies...

Good thing I live right by a grocery store.

Projects

Moving across the country has added a couple of projects to my life. One is packing. The packing project is not going well...at all.

Another project that I am working on simultaneously is eating the food out of my freezer. The freezer food simply cannot come to New York with me, so I am eating my way through it.

Today, I heated up some delicious baked beans that I froze a long time ago, when they were actually delicious. They were not delicious today, so I moved on to some ravioli. I overcooked it. Did you know that ravioli can be overcooked? It can, my friends. It most definitely can.

One of the things that I happen to have a lot of in my freezer is frozen blueberries. From now on, every dish I make will have some blueberry element. Blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry smoothies, and who knows what else will be gracing my plate.

In related news, I recently bought a giant carton of strawberries at Costco. They were too lovely, too delicious-looking to pass up, so I bought them.

These two situations have morphed into some sort of berry-palooza here at my apartment.

Clearly, my life is difficult.

Moving

It turns out that moving one person across the country is far more complicated than I anticipated.

My response to all of the stress? I've been watching Arrested Development, available streaming through Netflix.

Have I been watching this while I productively pack boxes to move across the country?

Negative. But I have really been enjoying myself.

Incidentally, if you're not totally clear as to where I'm moving, stop using your Google Reader and actually visit the blog. It's the audio clue round of Jeopardy, people.

Things I Saw

I had a lovely, albeit chilly, walk this morning.

I saw two interesting things. The first was a little duck family with the cutest ducklings:

This beautiful sight means that it's spring, folks.

The second thing I saw was a dead snake:

(No photo, as I was somewhat afraid that it might just be a comatose snake, or perhaps a sneaky snake with quail-like tendencies).

This not-so-beautiful sight means that the reptiles are dying off in the early stages of the apocalypse. Or it's just a dead snake. Tough to say.

Stuff

How can one tiny person have so much stuff?

I'm trying to get rid of lots of things and downsize the material part of my life in preparation for this fall. It's a giant pain, and I'm basically drowning in piles of stuff.

If it were cool stuff that I could sell to other people, that would be awesome, but alas, it is all stuff that has varying levels of meaning for me but no value for other people.

What a pain.

Poll Results

Well, what can we learn from the results of the poll so far?

You guys have a hard time making up your minds. Sheesh!

And I thought that I was the indecisive one.

End of the Visiting

So folks, the visiting is done. My mind is basically made up about where I'll attend law school, but I'm just sorting out the final details.

On the right, you'll see a poll. Go ahead and pick the city where you think I'm going to be living for the next three years.

People We Meet

Along our travels in life, we meet many people. Some of these people are fun, while others are frustrating. Some are sweet, and some are downright perplexing.

So here we are, folks. After thousands of miles and travel, I have selected one woman as the craziest person I met. Here, by popular request, is that story.

********************************

When I was staying with my friend Laura in California, I got to meet many nice people. Laura is a wonderful hostess, and she always tried to note some commonality between me and the person to whom she was introducing me so that we had something nice for conversation. In this special case, it did not go well...not well at all. We'll refer to this special woman as Jane.

Laura: Liz is out here looking at law schools. (Note: Laura is being a sweetheart to mention this, because Jane's husband is a lawyer and her daughter is currently in law school).

Jane: Oh, really? Where are you looking?

Me: Well, I'm here to see UC Irvine.

Jane: (disgusted) Why would you want to go there?

Me: (nervous chuckle) Well, I suppose that's what I'll find out tomorrow!

Jane: (still inappropriately disgusted) Ugh, all those Asians.

Me: (stunned silence)

Jane: How are YOU ever going to compete with all those Asians?

Me: (still totally shocked, blurting out the first thing I can think) I am really, really smart.

Jane: (patronizing chuckle) Or really, really stupid.

Where Was Liz - South Bend, IN

Sure enough, I was visiting South Bend, Indiana, where I saw the University of Notre Dame. I can honestly say that I've never seen anything quite like it. Here are some pictures:

For some reason, the people in South Bend are really, really interested in having statues in their yards. Here's one house where the occupants are working on their collection:

But their neighbors are really, really out of control...

Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus:

Lots of birds on campus. They are terrifying to me, and these ones were really, really big! (Note: I was not calm enough to take these pictures. I was definitely far away while Somebody's Mother got these crazy shots of these big birds.)

I can tell from these pictures that the birds don't look nearly as large and terrifying as they were in person, but I swear to you, they were scary!!

And everywhere we went, there were lots and lots of birds. There was even appropriate signage.

Where's Liz - Part 5

Here's the last one, folks. Where's Liz?

Where Was Liz - Orange County, CA

Well, folks, although Matt's guess was once again my favorite, Tiffany's guess was much more accurate. Orange County was a wonderful paradise. I spent four glorious days in California. My very kind friend, Laura, was fabulous enough to not only let me stay with her, but also to shuttle me around, take me to the best restaurants, take me to a wonderful concert with her, and generally just spoil me silly. Although I was there to see a law school, I sure enjoyed all of the rest of that trip as well!

Here are some pictures:

FABULOUS beaches. The Californians were all very chilly, so hardly any of them were out. Non-crowded beaches are my favorite kind!

This bird watched Laura and I eat our amazing lunch at La Sirena. For some reason, the bird refused to get down on the ground, but just hopped from fancy car to fancy car, and since we were in Orange County, he had plenty of choices.

All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful trip. It snowed in Utah while I was in California, making California all the more tempting...

Where's Liz - Part 4

It's that time again - where's Liz?

FAQ Part 2

Everyone continues to ask about law school. Since I have been neglecting those questions for some time, I thought it would be a good time for another Q and A post.

Didn't you just finish your undergrad? Why on earth are you going to go to more school??

Such a good question, dear readers. Such a good question... Some people go to law school because they don't know what they're doing with their lives and want to postpone figuring something else out. Some people go to law school because they want to be rich.

I am going to law school because I want to be a lawyer, and there's just not a way to get around the law school part. In truth, I suspect that I'll enjoy law school more than I enjoyed my undergrad, as I won't be working and will be able to focus on my studies. The classes I've visited have been interesting and engaging. I'm looking forward to classes this fall.

However, I completely reserve the right to whine, complain, feel stress, and discuss how difficult law school is once that day comes. We'll be sharing the experience together, folks, the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly.

Have you picked a law school yet?

No. Stop asking. The more you ask, the slower I will be in getting an answer back to you. Some of you are already relegated to hearing my decision some time around Thanksgiving.

I intended to post my decision in a posting here on the blog on May 1st. However, recent developments have caused me to push back that timeline to May 15th at the earliest. If somehow, it's sooner, you'll be happy. If not, then you won't be disappointed. And if it's later, well, you'll still live. Until then, my official answer is that I don't know where I'm going.

Stop asking.

So are you saying that you know but you're not telling us yet?

That's not what I'm saying. I don't know where I'm going. Really. Some people have expressed disbelief in my lack of commitment to a school at this point. Those people clearly do not know me well.

I'm so glad you're going to law school! You're going to meet so many great guys and then you'll get married!

I know this isn't a question, but it is a sentiment that gets expressed frequently, and I wanted to address it at this time.

Dear readers, I am going to a law school--not a finishing school. I'm not going to school so that I can get married. I'm going to school so that I can be an attorney.

Where do your parents want you to go to law school?

My parents don't express their opinion on the matter. Truly. I imagine that they have them, but they want me to make my own decision, so you'd have to ask them.

Well, if you don't have anything good to tell us about law school, at least tell us how things are going in general.

Wonderfully, thanks. I'm very much enjoying the traveling, relaxing, and sleeping in every day.