Sick, Tired, and Busy

Well, I feel like I should post an update.

Hi.

This week, I'm done with classes, so I'm trying to study and get ready for my finals next week (Tuesday and Wednesday mornings).

Sadly, for the past few days, I've been sick. You can probably see my tonsils from wherever you live--they're HUGE! So I've been doing a lot more sleeping than I'd like, at a time like this, but I suppose you just do the best you can.

Also...I have company. Furry, small, annoying company.

More on that later.

Hope all is well for you all! And to those of you whom I KNOW had fun Thanksgivings and took many delightful pictures, I'd like to see a posting about that, please...

Pyramid

Do you know the show Pyramid? I haven't seen it in years, but it's a game show, and at some round, someone is trying to describe a category like "Things Your Mother Says" or "Things You Find in a Fridge."

Anyway, we're going to have a round of Pyramid here on the blog, since it occurred to me earlier today, and I have three minutes to type this.

I'll be listing things that fall into a category like the ones described above. First person who guesses right wins. There is no prize besides glory and a feeling of accomplishment, but really, what more do you need?

Here we go...let's play Pyramid!

• The bathrooms at Grand Central Terminal
• The bottom of my backpack
• My wages before taxes

Still Here

Back when I announced that I was going to quit my job and go to law school, I bet you all thought that this blog was going to become so entertaining and delightful as you were able to track my big city adventure and glamorous law school life.

Sorry.

I'm still really busy. Really, really busy. Today I told someone that I have never worked so hard, but I have also never learned so much. (Note: I'm involved in a very specific kind of legal education this semester—clinical education—that makes this year particularly grueling while simultaneously rewarding. Not everyone does this kind of work in law school, but I'm glad I am.)

I often think I'm going to come to the blog and explain what I've been up to so you can all marvel at how interesting/uninteresting (depending on who you are) it sounds.

Yet I don't.

I'm busy.

The clinic I'm a member of is particularly intense, even compared to the other clinics at the school. Near the beginning of the semester, I joked with someone that we had hit the ground running in our clinic...then I corrected myself, that it was more like we had been thrown from a moving car and were trying to keep up. However, it means I get to do really cool things. So as to not bore you with the details, I'll just say that I'm getting to be involved in a giant pile of interesting litigation with a pile of really interesting people. I'm learning from highly respected lawyers, and the things I'm involved in regularly show up on the web, on the news, and sometimes in the NY Times. It's such a fun adventure, but I do have a love/hate relationship with it. I love what I get to do. I love who I get to work with. I love who I'm getting to learn from. I HATE how I don't have time to do anything else. I'm working long, long hours, often with quick deadlines as the litigation moves.

A non-clinic classmate remarked the other day that we were getting close to finals, so she had to say goodbye to her social life. I haven't had a social life all semester. I'm thinking about picking one up in the summer. I'm pretty tired though, so I don't know about that. I think I'll sleep all summer.

I'm weirdly actually really looking forward to finals, because the clinic sort of shuts down, and I'll have a few days to catch my breath. Our supervising professors take over our cases, taking care of any emergencies that might crop up, and we will have a chance to just be students for a little while. This time will be a good thing, because I have a couple of classes that I need to do some serious studying for.

I don't have time to write too much else, but I will say that blog-worth things do happen, and I am keeping track of them all, and perhaps I'll try to fill in the gaps over Christmas break. (One of my favorite parts of being a student: CHRISTMAS VACATION! I never got that when I worked. I am savoring it while I'm a student...I'll be back in a regular job in not too long!)

So here, for your perusal, some forthcoming blogs (right now, titles only, but sure to be delightful when completed):

Chariots of Fire; or How My Family Tried to Kill Me
The Visitor
Guilt for All Foods
Objection!
I Believe You Dropped This
Take Note
Know When to Hold 'Em
Occupy Clinic



Hopefully, I'll get around to writing them before I forget what they're all about. I think you'll find at least one of them to be particularly horrifying, and really, if I have a opportunity to horrify you, I like to seize it.

Oh, Netflix

As I've discussed before, I love the things Netflix thinks it can determine about what I want to watch. First, I've because I've watched Battlestar Galactica (don't judge, I grew up with a lot of brothers), it recommended a bunch of period pieces in a category called "Feel-good Dramas Featuring a Strong Female Lead." Uh, have they ever seen Battlestar Galactica? I wouldn't use those terms to describe it, nor would I think that someone who watched it would necessarily love Pride and Prejudice...

The other category it made for me the other day was "Understated Foreign Mother-Daughter Movies."

Because I only like Mother-Daughter movies when they're understated, apparently...

So Many Stories

But so little time. I have no time to tell you all what I'm up to, but as it has been a month since I have written anything, I thought I'd let you all know I'm still alive.

Too busy to say much else, but alive.

Can't wait to see your cute pictures of all of your kids dressed up for Halloween next week! (Or you can dress them up now and post those pictures. I'm not opposed to that.)

Early leader for cutest baby in costume: my pseudo-niece Brylee. Cutest ladybug EVER!

Things Keep Moving

I know, I know...it's been a while! My apologies. I'm extremely busy and sleep deprived, but it's all good.

Here's a quick, bullet-y list of things I've been up to in the past couple of weeks.

• Job hunting! Crazy that it's already time to be hunting for jobs for next summer, right? Actually, I've been job hunting for about two months now. It's a long process, but I just accepted an offer to work for someone next summer that I'm pretty excited about, so now I can move the job-hunting process off my plate for this year and focus on school.
• SCHOOL! Wow, I'm at school all the time. I'm actually at school right now. In the library. Not studying. (What? I needed a break...) School is going well. I have two regular classes. Then I'm a teaching assistant for another class (Legal Writing and Lawyering Skills for 1Ls), and I also am working in a clinic.
• Oh, the clinic. I'm in the clinic all the time. We're working on some really interesting cases, and I'm learning a lot, but it's EXHAUSTING. I need a nap. If I didn't have so much to do, I would take a nap. But alas, I have four different writing projects to do in the next couple of days, so I can't let up on my regular school work. It's pretty hard to balance my regular school work with my clinic responsibilities, but I'm making it work. It'll be easier now that I'm not also simultaneously looking for a job.
• Camping! I went on a tiny camping trip to the Delaware Water Gap. It's in New Jersey. I know, that's weird, being named the Delaware Water Gap and all, but it is in New Jersey. Honestly, it's not too far away from the city (maybe an hour by car), so it was a perfect little trip. And it's very near a place called Buttzville, NJ, so that was a fun sign to get to see. I may post some pictures of how lovely it was, but that's for another day.
• Church! Church is the only non-school thing I do these days. (Correction: I actually do watch a bit of TV, particularly one reality show where I have a friend participating. Crazy! We never get to catch up with each other, but now I'm getting to catch up with him via television.) Everyone at church is done with their crazy summers and back to the normal pace of things. It's nice to have a good network of people who have my same values that I can have a good time with, when I get time...

Things I have not been up to:

• Adequate sleeping
• Doing my laundry (there have been some pretty questionable outfits in the past few days)
• Washing my dishes (eating off paper plates mostly)
• Blogging
• Enjoying my fair city

Hopefully, I'll get to be up to more of that soon. Especially the laundry.

Fortunately, it's Rosh Hashanah this week. What does that mean? Well, it's a happy Jewish holiday (some of them are mourning holidays, but this one is an eating/celebrating holiday). Unless it is a mourning/fasting holiday, Jewish holidays tend to have a traditional food. What's this holiday's food? Apples with honey. 

I don't eat the apples with honey, really, but I do have big plans to go buy a container of the most amazing ice cream (you can't get it outside of this area) that is apples and cinnamon and honey and enjoying it this weekend since I have two days off of school! More importantly, not are they just days off from class, but the building is physically closed, so I can't come here to work. I'll be forced to stay home. I do have a bunch of work I'm taking home with me, but I also hope to do my dishes, clean my apartment, and go to the park for a while. We'll see how it all goes.

I'll try to be a better blogger, but we may be in a once-a-month phase of this Bacon life. Sorry.

There's an old saying about law school: the first year, they scare you to death; the second year, they work you to death; the third year, they bore you to death. 

I'm definitely in the second year.

Things Get Busy

Well, I feel like I should update you all. I feel like I should have something interesting to say, some delightful anecdote to share.

I don't.

I'm busy with school. Last week was the first week of classes. The week before last, I had orientation for a couple of things I'm involved in this year.

I have no free time. I am one busy girl.

In bullet form, here are some things I've been up to:

• Working on some large impact litigation with my clinic
• Job interviews for next summer
• Sitting in classes
• Reading for classes
• Emailing people all over the country, in research
• Lots of editing
• Working on writing a large research piece
• Having house guests for the weekend
• Sleeping (some nights hardly any, then other nights, like last night, WAY too much)

All in all, I'm very busy.

I'll see you all in a year.

After the Storm

The streets are drying out. It's still windy, but not unbearably so.

Slowly, the streets have filled with shoppers, kids, people walking dogs, and cars.

Taxis are back in circulation. Even the buses are running again.

The air smells clean and fresh.

The hustle and bustle of NYC has returned to my street.

And now, I feel home again.

All Quiet

It's eerily quiet outside. Although it has rained off and on today, it's not raining right now.

All of the stores are closed up. There are still people walking around on the streets, but far fewer cars than usual, and no buses, as all public transit ceased at noon.

We're not expecting the worst of the storm until tonight and early tomorrow, so I fully intend to sleep through most of it.

Still, it's weird that it's just not my New York outside right now.

Be Prepared - Emergency Broadcast System.

When I moved to New York, I had quite a bit of food storage. It's part of my heritage, after all, to be prepared.

Somebody's Mother thought I also needed to be storing water. I am too cheap to buy bottled water. I then embarked on a fun task. I decided that I'd be able to acquire bottles for/of water for free by taking a bottle from each event at school where drinks are served. Each bottle became a delightful treasure, and I looked forward to getting them, bringing them home, and putting them under my bed.

I have acquired a pretty substantial collection. (If it's an event with bigger bottles, where you pour a glass of water, I have been known to grab the empty/full bottles of water at the end of the event and take those bottles, too.)

About a month ago, our fifth Sunday lesson at church was about hurricane preparedness. The bishop emphasized that the Stake didn't want anyone to panic and wasn't saying one was going to happen, but they thought we all needed to be prepared. We examined maps, looked at evacuation zones, made plans to acquire appropriate goods for our own personal storage, etc.

Flash forward to this week. Hello, Hurricane Irene! That counsel from our Stake is starting to look pretty prophetic.

You've probably heard some about Irene on the news. Here's what you need to know, if you're wondering how I'm doing:

• I do NOT live in any of the evacuation zones. I'm a little bit too far inland, and a little bit up a hill, so I'm in good shape. So far, they have ordered mandatory evacuation of only one zone in Manhattan. The storm is not on track to require evacuation of more zones, but if it did, that would still not be me. About 250,000 people have been ordered to evacuate so far.
• One of the girls in my ward asked, last month, if I could be her evacuation plan. I laughed and told her of course, thinking we'd never need to worry about it. Yet here we are! She's on track to be here tomorrow, so no one needs to worry that I'm alone or anything.
• All of the public transportation will shut down tomorrow at noon. I'm basically going to be stuck in my neighborhood, but since it's going to be a hurricane outside, I'll be okay.
• Church on Sunday is canceled because of the lack of public transit and the mandatory evacuation. I know, you're all jealous. :)
• I have plenty of water and food. I could live for a long, long time. 
• The girl who is sheltering at my apartment also has her own food and water that she is bringing, so we're set.
• The largest problem we face is a power loss. If we lose power, we won't have water. (Water has to be pumped to the tops of the buildings, but that doesn't happen with no power.) Again, I have plenty of water storage, and I will fill the bathtub if the power goes out for toilet-flushing purposes.
• Airports are all shutting down.
• The worst of the storm is supposed to be Saturday night into Sunday, ending by Sunday night.
• I anticipate being back at school on Monday. I have too much to do to take any days off!
• It is still 100% possible that the storm will fizzle out or change course, and that it'll just be a touch rainy and unpleasant instead of hurricane-y.

All in all, things here are fine. No need to worry about me. It may be difficult for me to reach you or for you to reach me. This week, after the earthquake, cell service was down because the towers were overloaded with calls. That same phenomenon could occur this weekend. Additionally, if we lose power, I'll need to conserve my phone battery. I'll be in communication with Somebody's Mother as much as possible, so if you are wondering about me at any point during the weekend, you can contact her.

Rest assured, I'm well prepared, perfectly located, and not at all concerned about the coming weekend. I am blessed by following the counsel of prophets and leaders and wise parents, who raised me to always be prepared and self-sufficient. I didn't have to go out and buy food or water or anything. (Confession: I did go buy a carton of juice, after deciding I might want some juice this weekend.) I was just already ready to deal with it, and having been prepped a few weeks ago about the unlikely possibility of hurricanes in NYC, I feel ready to deal with the situation. It's like they say--if you're prepared, you don't have to fear. :)

I'll shortly return you to your regularly scheduled Bacon Blogging, assuming NYC doesn't decide to have some other random natural disaster in the next week...

Earthquake Update

Well, folks, it's true! There was an earthquake out here. The epicenter was actually in Virginia, so it wasn't too terrible here. I was at school, in class, when it happened. Although many buildings in Manhattan had to evacuate, we did not.

This was actually my first experience with an earthquake while being awake. I have to say I'm not a huge fan. I found the whole thing oddly disconcerting, which was compounded by the fact that several people in the class didn't even notice it. (They may have been hung over, so maybe they already felt weird.)

Anyway, other than losing cell service for a while (due to heavy usage, not due to any structural damage), things in NYC are just fine. No damage, no injuries. Just a lot of people standing out in the street, waiting to get back to work.

Whiners

Some people (LL) are unhappy with my recent lack of blog posting. My apologies. I've been busy. Very, very busy. Unhappy with that? Sucks to be you--life is just getting busier for me! I'll try to do better, honestly, but this is going to be a very busy year for me.

I know I promised a posting about how my family tried to kill me, and I'll do that, but I don't really have time now, so I'll share one brief story from my week.

Earlier this week, I was walking near Union Square on my way to the subway station. Walking toward me was a person that was probably middle aged, but looked a bit older. He or she had a very rough look. So rough, in fact, that I could not tell if it was a man or woman.

He or she was wearing an open flannel shirt as he or she walked toward me.

Man or woman, those were breasts I did not need to see this week.

Heat Up, 'Til You Sizzle

Also, I'm in a suit, walking around outside to and from court.

Consensus

I should have known to not give you all a poll for something. Although I love you all, you've never been able to make group decisions. Of course, you all do come from many different parts of my life, geographically speaking, as well as being from my past and present (and future? Ooooo...creepy!).

Anyway, there was no consensus on the poll. Those who voted wanted a more private Bacon experience. I'm not sure why you voted that way, if perhaps you thought that a private blog might entice me to be more detailed in my accounting of my life, or if you all were the kids picked last for teams and just wanted to belong to something.

Those who made comments were generally opposed to the privatization of the blog, mostly because of Google Reader issues. (There's a whole tangent I'm not going to take here, but really, it's a mystery to me that Google Reader can't manage to read private blogs for you, even though this blog is brought to us all by Google!)

Perhaps I am to blame in all of this. Maybe my poll didn't have enough choices that most closely matched your tenderest feelings. Deepest apologies.

Moving forward, essentially, nothing will change. I'm keeping the status quo for now. I'll make only one request of you, and that is if you have a blog that links to mine, please don't use my name in the link.

Other than that, I appear to be all yours for the next little while.

I'm out of time, but hopefully I'll have time later this week for a really special post I've been crafting for a while now. It's called "Chariots of Fire, or How My Family Tried to Kill Me."

Poll on Your Right

Because this is somewhat a democracy, there's a poll on your right. Feel free to express your thoughts. I may take them into consideration. It's tough to say.

Also, so this posting isn't just a waste, here's an interesting story for your day. This morning, there were five police cars on my street a few buildings away from me. As I walked past, a big group of police officers were headed into a building. One was just standing out on the street, waiting. I said good morning to him. He smiled and said good morning back to me. I have no idea why they were there, but I was kind of sad that I had to go to work and couldn't remain to see what they came back out with. (People? Drugs? Who knows?)

Never fear, relatives who worry about my safety: these weren't the police officers with the machine guns. I've never seen those ones on my street. Other streets, sure, but not my street... This was a low-level offense, I'm sure; my street is very safe. My street could be a stand in for Sesame Street. We have fewer Muppets, but it's basically the same otherwise.

Adventures in Bugs

Today, I saw a huge flying cockroach as I walked under some scaffolding. Gross.

I think it might have followed me home. I can sense its presence.

Fortunately, I have a video intercom, so if it tries to get me to buzz it up, I'll know. If it somehow blocks me in here, well, that's why I have food storage.

Busy Busy Bee

Where on earth have I been??

Working! My internship is keeping me really, really busy. I am learning a lot and am looking forward to telling you all about it and the interesting things I've been doing, but right now, I just don't have time!

One great thing about interning for a non-profit organization is that they genuinely can use the help, so I'm getting to do a lot of really great substantive work, and I never have to get anyone coffee or make copies or sit around feeling useless.

The work is hard, but it's great.

More info to come, including a more information on the end of my 1L year and a sneak peek at next year.

Can you wait? You'll have to--I'm busy!!

Skirts

One thing that helps in the heat is wearing a skirt. Skirts are cooler, better circulation, no clingy pant legs, etc.

One thing that's not great about wearing a skirt is that when a subway train approaches a station, it creates a pretty dramatic breeze. I was wearing a skirt today as I went down some stairs toward my train on my way to church. A train got to the station as I was walking down the stairs, and I had a very Marilyn Monroe moment.

My sister sent me this link about another hazard of wearing skirts. I'm in court a lot these days, but fortunately, the courthouse where I'm spending time isn't quite like this one...

Weatherman

Today as I exited the subway after my ride home from work, I saw an umbrella man right at the exit. Umbrella sellers don't normally just stand out on the streets with their carts of umbrellas, but whenever it rains, there are freestanding umbrella carts that appear as if by magic by most subway exits. It's really impressive, and sort of puzzling because I am not sure who those people are when it's not raining. Are they somewhere else with some other cart? Sleeping? Day jobs? Spider-man? Tough to say.

Anyway, the weird thing about today's umbrella man was that it wasn't raining. It was cloudy, but not raining. We've been in the middle of a horrible, unseasonable heat wave (think 100 degrees, 100% humidity), and the weather forecast said it was going to rain tomorrow, so I knew it was going to cool off and rain a bit, but I was still surprised to see the umbrella man out while it was dry. Then, as I walked home, it started to sprinkle a bit. And about 5 minutes after I got into my apartment (maybe 10 minutes after seeing the umbrella man), it was POURING rain, with big, impressive lightning and thunder. How did he know???

Forget The Weather Channel--the umbrella men have the weather down.

Vacation

This is the last weekend of my vacation. Monday, I start my internship. I am incredibly excited, and I'm ready to begin, but that's mostly just because my super-awesome house guest, LL, is gone, and I'm not having nearly as much fun without her.

That's right--I had company! LL arrived last Thursday for a sisters' weekend here in the city. LL now lives in the country, so I went up to the airport to ride the bus home with her because I didn't want her to end up in Astoria or something. Her flight was very, very delayed, but she finally got here.

We went to the temple, we went to a Broadway show, we shopped, we walked and walked and walked and walked (9 miles one day, probably 5 miles another day), we ate gooooooooood food, we laughed, we lounged, we talked and talked and talked, and we just had a grand ol' time. 

This was the first time LL's husband, JC, and her three boys, ages 6 and under, were all home without LL. The boys pulled out a miracle and napped, slept in, went to bed early, and went pretty easy on JC. Of course, now that LL is home, they're back to their usual behaviors, but...

Manhattanhenge - twice a year, the sun sets perfectly aligned with the grid here, and because of the tall buildings and view of the horizon, it's pretty spectacular. LL and I caught this on Monday. This shot is from a minute or two before the perfect alignment.

And perfect sunset. Jealous? Come visit. :)

The day before she left, we were talking on the phone with her boys. I teased Moo, her 4 year old, saying that I was thinking about keeping her forever. He replied that I could keep her for one more week. What a sweetheart! I wish I could keep her forever. It was so fun to show her around my city and to just have someone to laugh and enjoy my break with. It was perfect.

Looking across the reservoir during our walk home after Manhattanhenge.