Photo Blog - Week Five

Tuesday, January 29

I often see this trash can being moved around at school. It has a "re-elect Hillary" bumper sticker on it. That is not a recent thing... At least it's a trash can and not a car; probably awkward when your car has a bumper sticker that has been obsolete for several years.

One of my friends and I went out to dinner tonight. Would you like the vegetarian duck?

And here, you can see what all the kinds of curry can make you feel. Wanna feel sexy? Hot? Good? Different? There's a curry for you!

Wednesday, January 30

There are little coffee carts all over the city. They also sell pastries and things. I've never stopped at one.  I periodically pass one like this that cracks me up. This one wants to advertise coffee and donuts, so the sign scrolls between those two words. However, instead of a steady scroll, it pauses. It pauses for a long, long time. So it either says "Coffee Don" or "Fee Donuts."

Thursday, January 31

There's been a school bus strike here in the city January 16. This has been really, really difficult for all of the parents here, particularly the working parents. Some of my school colleagues are parents, and they've had to miss a ton of classes trying to get their child to school, then from school to an after school program, etc.

For me, on my very shallow level, this has been inconvenient because there are just kids EVERYWHERE. They're all over the subway, walking down the street, just everywhere. Here's a pile of kids walking down the street in the after-school part of the day.

A firefighter, not fighting a fire, but doing something else. I saw him standing there on my walk home and thought I'd take a picture. So I did.

Something bad happened to this sign.

Friday, February 1

Happy 100th birthday, Grand Central Terminal!

Saturday, February 2

Today I made the trek to Costco. This is what my Costco looks like, from the side. It's the only Costco in Manhattan, and it's in a big building. It's on the ground floor, while there's a Petsmart in the basement, a Target above, and some other stuff above that.

Another shot, with fewer people.

And my giant cart filled with groceries. Right after this picture, I had to lug it up two flights of stairs. When I go to Costco, I have to take this giant, giant cart, and then I always regret it when I get home because my stuff is so heavy.

Sunday, February 3

Little dusting of snow this morning.

Monday, February 4

Looking downtown out a window at school.

And crazily, I walked past a Christmas tree out on the street on my way home that I know wasn't there in the morning. Why has someone had this in their apartment for so long?

Photo Blog - Week Four

Tuesday, January 22

One of my very best friends at law school just had her first baby. I made this blanket for the baby when I was in Utah for the holidays, since I could borrow a sewing machine there. I've been so excited for the baby to finally be born so I could give them the blanket! Finally, a week overdue, my friend had her baby about a week ago. Today, I was wrapping the blanket up to take it to the bris in the morning.

And I stopped to get a card for the gift. I love the blue sign that says "I'm FUN for Valentine's Day." Because apparently, the other cards are not fun. Or these ones aren't fun for any other events. Whatever. I just liked it.

Wednesday, January 23

In a car, riding up to the bris/brit milah. I was so glad to have another friend who was going who had a car, because we had to be in New Jersey at 7:30 in the morning!

I didn't take any pictures in the temple while they were having the ceremony and speaking, but I had to take a couple of shots of how cute the breakfast was afterward! A breakfast is an important, traditional part of the day, and it's almost always catered. This catering company had it all decorated up so adorably!

Thursday, January 24

Today, I looked down at the subway tracks and realized this was what they had been working on last week. Looking good!

Saw this in the stairwell at school today. Horrified by whatever happened here.

By tonight, I had developed a yucky cough and was feeling a bit feverish. I ordered some soup, and when it came, I took a picture of it because I thought it looked gross.

But it wasn't gross. It was delicious, and I ordered it again another day.

Friday, January 25

Woke up definitely sick today, but I knew I only had one class. When I left my apartment, there was a cab coming down the street, so I hopped in it and took a cab to school to give myself a little rest. 

Saturday, January 26

Yesterday, I had a little blue mark on my hand that I first thought was ink from a pen. But it didn't wash off, and now it's clear that it's a bruise. I cannot figure out what I did to bruise myself, but I did something...

Sunday, January 27

And since I've spent the weekend feeling very ill (some kind of flu-like illness), I've mostly just been cuddled up with my tauntaun, who looks in this picture like he is in charge of the TV remote. He's not.

Monday, January 28

Monday, I was back at school, but I had no appetite and my stomach felt a bit yucky. I was pretty frustrated because I hadn't been sick to my stomach at all, but now I was. So I bought a ginger ale from the café to sip. I had to go to an early class this morning to make up for missing an early class on Wednesday when I went to the brit milah. So I had been at school all day and was exhausted, just sipping my ginger ale while I was studying. This is how much I had managed to drink by around noon.

Special Occasion?

My sister sent me some links to some suits she had seen online, and then sent me this link to a suit that she thought I should really, really not buy.

I laughed out loud. It's called a "Special Occasion Suit."

We exchanged the following in email:

Me: It said special occasion, and I'm like, what occasion is special enough for that???
LL: That is what I thought, too. Please bury me in that dress...that might be a special enough occasion. Plus everyone would be laughing so hard they would forget their sadness. :-)
Me: Only if we cremate you so the dress gets to be burned. Because it needs to be burned.
LL: Deal.

Photo Blog - Week Three

Tuesday, January 15

I often walk past this storefront either going to or from school. I love these waving kitties in the window. There used to just be one, but now it has some friends. They always make me smile. Sometimes the battery dies, but someone replaces it within a couple of days and the kitties start waving again.

Wednesday, January 16

This sign made me laugh today. Additional 50% of all markdowns, but only selected items. Uh, how can it be all markdowns and only selected items? Whatever. I'm sure it makes sense to them, but it made me laugh on my walk to school this morning.

In the winter, and even sometimes when I don't think it's that cold, most dogs in New York wear jackets. I took this picture today because I had mentioned to my cute nephews that I kept seeing dogs in coats and they thought that sounded hilarious.

In the rain, dogs usually have on raincoats. And sometimes rain boots. I love it.

Thursday, January 17

I loved the green graffiti on this sign. I was walking partway home from school today (I often do if I'm leaving when it's still light outside, just to stretch my legs and have a nice break) when I passed this beauty.

Friday, January 18

Today in the subway station there were these big barrels. They were doing some concrete work, replacing the foundation of some of the track. It took up almost the whole platform, but this isn't one of the days when I go to school during the rush hour, so it wasn't crowded.

I also laughed about this sign when I was out running errands today. Uh, what grass?

Saturday, January 19

Today I went on a big walk through Central Park. The weather was GORGEOUS and I was determined to take advantage of it.

Here's a baseball field in the park that seems to have been damaged this winter...

There's a place in the park called Turtle Pond. It's called Turtle Pond because there are turtles that live in it. In two and a half years of living here, I've never seen a turtle in this pond. It's going to happen though. I can feel it.

Near the pond, there is a castle. Yep, a castle. And today, there was an ice sculpture of the castle being made next to it, so I took a couple of pictures. Lots of people had gathered around, and it was pretty cool to watch.

Castle behind the sculpture.

Not too far from that is the Bethesda Terrace. These guys were under the terrace. You can't tell from the pictures, but they are playing beautiful, amazing classical music. I love New York.

Looking downtown across the lake, near Bethesda Terrace, at the skyline.

This is a statue that sits in a fountain between the Bethesda Terrace and the lake. It is one of my favorite places in all of the city to sit and watch people.

And then randomly, on my walk home, I walked past a building that had these big statues out front. Uh, okay, why wouldn't your apartment building have statuary? Who knows...but I laughed.

This sign has seen better days.

Sunday, January 20

My baby brother gave me a tauntaun sleeping bag for Christmas. (If you're not a Star Wars fan, it's probably not going to be clear why it's so awesome, but it's awesome). Here it is, sitting on my love seat, geared up to watch TV. Next to it is the Bluebook, which is the style and citation guide for legal writing. I needed to do some editing of an article this weekend, so I was curled up in the tauntaun, editing some articles.

Monday, January 21

I took this one today because the high and the low were projected to be the same on Thursday. And while they're not usually the same, sometimes they'll be within a degree of each other. For a girl from the desert mountains, this is pretty weird. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it.

Made Me Laugh

This is hilarious. Enjoy!

Photo Blog - Week Two

Tuesday, January 8

These shoes are totally falling apart. They're my little commuting flats when I have to be dressed nicely. I leave all of my fancy shoes wherever it is that I'm going, and then I just change there. In fact, I don't know a suit-wearing woman in this city who doesn't have a big set of dress shoes in her office, now that I think about it... Anyway, these shoes are going to have to be thrown away soon. I really, really burn through shoes here. I mostly wear athletic shoes, but even those have to be replaced much more frequently than when I lived in Utah. I just walk so much here, and always on concrete, so my shoes just wear right out. I actually have another pair of shoes that I need to take in to be re-soled because I'm not ready to part with them, but these were inexpensive flats that are falling apart all over, so I'll just have to get some new ones.

Wednesday, January 9

Here's something you don't think about if you don't live here: what happens when you buy something big? Every now and then on the subway, you see someone carrying home something huge. I loved this big floor lamp making its way uptown...

Today, I also noticed the tree had a new look. Somehow, someone thought that taking the dead leaves and branches off would make it look better, I guess. And while that might usually be true, if they're all dead, it ends up looking like this:

A little over a week later, the plant just disappeared. I guess someone finally decided it was dead. I kind of miss it, weirdly.

Thursday, January 10

Today I only have pictures that have my face in them, and since I have a "no pictures of me" policy on this blog, you'll have to just get by with this other picture--it's my food delivery confirmation. There's a website (or an app) where you can order food from basically any restaurant that delivers in your area. You can pay with credit card, put the tip on the card if you want, and then food just arrives. I was missing Utah a bit this day and was hoping to get a little Mexican food. It wasn't that great, but I did have a little burrito.

Friday, January 11

There are a bunch of ads in the subways, and in some cars, it's a big collection of small ads instead of one big ad buy out. There's a series of ads by this doctor that are all pretty random about how he can fix your skin, hair, eyes, cellulite, whatever. So someone apparently took out a series of ads that looks EXACTLY like that guy's random ads, but they're this hilarious parody. Click on the picture to blow it up so you can read and laugh about it. I laughed and laughed the whole way home. Some time, I'll see one of his real ads and take a picture of it so you can see just how hilarious the parody is.

Saturday, January 12

New York City is filled with flowers. There are flower shops EVERYWHERE and I love it. I took a picture of a particularly pretty shop I walked past today. It smelled fantastic and was very big--you can kind of see in the picture that there's an inside to it as well, which is unusual. They're usually just big stands out in front of little bodegas. I love them. I try to plan my walking to go past as many flowers as possible so I can smell them all on my way to and from school.

Sunday, January 13

Another thing you might not think about if you didn't live here is package delivery. Like most buildings in New York, my apartment building doesn't have a doorman. So if I'm not home when a package comes, it goes back to the shipping place. Fed Ex will then deliver it to a Fed Ex store, which for me is about half a mile away, but UPS will only let me pick it up from a really questionable warehouse in the Bronx. So I have a couple of options. I often ship things to a friend who lives in a doorman building, and she's great to let me do that. If I order from Amazon though, I can choose to ship to an Amazon locker. They are awesome. Amazon has big banks of lockers all over the place. They're in all kinds of shops and stores. So you pick the location of the locker you want, purchase your item, and then you get an email once it's been delivered. The email has a little code, and you type that code into this screen. Your locker pops open, and there is your package! I use it every time I buy something from Amazon. This purchase is actually a textbook. My textbooks were incredibly expensive this semester, and I was very unhappy about it, but at least I was able to get them all!

Monday, January 14

This is one of the staircases I walk up to get to my apartment. I live up two flights of these. It's a very narrow staircase, and when I moved in, my dad and baby brother and I wrangled my heavy love seat up this tiny staircase and had to pivot it around the corners. It was crazy. So crazy, in fact, that when I move again some day, I will have to hire movers because I'm never moving this couch again.

I guess a random fact to note here is that yes, I've lived in the same building, in the same apartment, since I moved here. I hate moving, and I love my apartment.

Getting Real

We got an email at school late last week entitled "For Students in Their Last Semester."

WHAT?!?!? That's me!!!

Photo Blog - Week One

Last year, my sister LL took a picture every day and posted it to her blog, one post for each week. It was called Project 366, and it was awesome. I loved every post. I loved seeing her kids, her life, everything. So late last year, I decided I'd take a picture every day this year to share with you all.

And so far, I've done a pretty good job of it.

Except for the posting part. It's now February, and I haven't posted any! So here it is, the first week. I'll try to keep caught up on the posting, and it's totally possible that toward the end of the year I'll run out of ideas of things to take pictures of, but we'll see what happens.

So, Project 365. Here we go.


Tuesday, January 1

Today, I had tickets to War Horse. The broadway production was closing this week, so I finally made myself go since I've heard wonderful things about it but have just been too lazy to go. It was playing at Lincoln Center, which has a great program where people 35 years old and under can buy cheap tickets online to pick up there, so I did it. Here's a bunch of people milling around, waiting to go into the theater. It was really, really cold outside, so no one was waiting out there.

And since I was there, I took this last quick picture of Avery Fisher Hall. That's where I'll have my graduation in a few short months. So exciting!

Wednesday, January 2

I was looking for salad dressing in the store today and saw this "salad cream" which is, apparently, "pourable sunshine."

I did not buy it.

Thursday, January 3

I love Panera. This is the salad I had tonight.

Friday, January 4

In New York, I often feel like there isn't enough celebration of Christmas. But after Christmas, I always see how many people had Christmas trees. If you put them out on the street (where garbage collection goes), the City picks them up and chips and recycles them in the parks and such. But for some reason, it takes a long, long time for the trees to be picked up. Here is a pile I've walked past several times before I took this picture. When there's snow on the ground, you end up with a weird pile of snow and trees and garbage all mixed together. But this year, there hasn't been much snow, so there are just big piles of trees like this all over, waiting to be picked up and recycled.

Saturday, January 5

Lots of New York City buildings have good landscaping in front of them in little boxes with the trees that line the streets. In the summer, spring, and fall, they usually have beautiful flowers. In the winter, they have lots of ornamental cabbages. I took this picture because it was an example of a terrible batch of ornamental cabbages. Uh, good effort, folks...

Sunday, January 6

For the first two weeks of the year, I was in an intensive trial advocacy class. It was all day, every day, and it was exhausting. This is a picture from our bench trial (trial in front of just a judge, no jury). I wanted to show you the Moot Court Room at my school. This isn't the best picture, but it does show you the front where I had to sit for this thing. Intimidating, right? The guy in the picture is my trial partner, and sitting up on the bench is the woman who served as our judge, who is actually a federal judge in Florida. Totally, totally intimidating, but rocked.

And the tree pile was bigger, so I took another picture. I couldn't figure out why more people still had trees in their apartments, but...

Monday, January 7

My school has some potted plants inside. This one is dead. It looked dead in November, and it looks even more dead now. So I took another picture, because Somebody'sMother is really enjoying this dead tree...

Not Our First Rodeo

A big part of law school is being called on by the professor all the time. ALL THE TIME. It's part of what's called the Socratic method, and while some professors seem to only utilize it to belittle people, many of them are very good at it. It is a weird, weird way to learn, but you get used to it.

My third year of law school started a couple of weeks ago. This means I have been subject to this interrogation/questioning/whatever you want to call it many times. You go into every class not knowing if you'll be called upon, and if you are, well, good luck to you. Although I don't love it, I've gotten used to it.

All of my classes are comprised of a mix between second- and third-year law students; I know many of the third-year students just from having spent our three years together.

The other day in one of my classes, the professor called on one of my third-year colleagues.

His response: "I wasn't raising my hand."
The Professor: "Yes, but I'm calling on you anyway."

For some reason, I almost laughed out loud. I've never heard anyone say that in a law school class before. Of course you weren't raising your hand -- that's how this game goes!

In many ways, it's crazy to think that this is my last semester of law school. It's very exciting, and only a tiny bittersweet. We'll see if that changes at all in the next couple of months, but so far, things are going very well this semester.

Tread Carefully

I've been back at school for a couple of weeks now. Everyone has been getting sick. There have been a few illnesses circulating.

Now some of my nephews are sick, too.

It's like I'm walking through a minefield every day.

How long until I'm sick, too?

I don't know. But I have to go wash my hands. Again.

Getting in my Face Time

One of my nephews, Moo, recently discovered FaceTime. His mom has an iPod, and I have an iPhone, so we can talk together face-to-face. He and I have video chatted before, but this is easier for him because he doesn't have to go into the computer to do it.

At some point a couple of weeks ago, when we got on the call together (which he had initiated, telling his mother he really needed to speak to me), he said "Hi Tita [his name for me], I haven't Face Talked you in such a time!"

So, so cute.

Yesterday, he wanted to "Face Talk" me again. So we did. At one point, we were discussing my schedule. He's very advanced now, being six years old, and asked me when I'd be coming to visit him. I explained when my next planned trip was.

He asked if had to plan around breaks or take turns with other people to go on trips. I thought this was an adorably brilliant question, and I explained to him that while I'm in school, I have to plan around breaks, but in the fall, when I start my job, I'll just have to take turns with everyone.

He followed up by asking what I was going to do for a job. We've discussed it before, but he really has no frame of reference for it, so it's difficult for him to grasp.

I explained again that I was going to be a lawyer, and he then asked what lawyers do. I explained that lawyers help people solve their problems, sometimes by going to see a judge in court to have the judge make a decision.

He then asked, "is it like a tennis court?"

I burst out laughing and told him that a tennis court was a kind of court, but this one is a court of law. I told him I'd have to send some pictures to explain, and he seemed satisfied. He then carefully marked the date on his calendar when I told him I'd be coming to visit next.

What a cute little guy. I can't wait to snuggle him up when I see him in person!

Busy Bee

I started this year out very busy. I'm in an intensive class that meets every day, all day, for the first two weeks of the year.

So I don't have much time to write about much.

But rest assured, I've got some things percolating.

My class is a trial advocacy class. They bring in judges and lawyers from around the country to instruct the students in small groups. Today, we did a bench trial (which is just a trial with no jury--we'll do one with a jury later).

The judge running my group is an actual federal judge from Florida.

There is something infinitely terrifying about standing up in front of a federal judge to object to some testimony you don't want coming in.

But there's nothing quite like when she sustains your objection.

Things We Do

For the past year or so, my sister, LL, and I have exchanged pretty regular text messages. It's an easy way for us to communicate since we have pretty different schedules. We use our texts both to actually communicate important information as well as to complain, tell jokes, and basically just keep each other company.

Today, during our conversation, LL began creating presidential emoticons. I thought I'd share them with you all...

:-€

Teddy Roosevelt

(:-0

George W. Bush (doing his eyebrow thing while saying "nucular")

:-;

Bill Clinton (half smile)



Any others, readers? So many presidents, so little time...

Who Said That??

My sister's voicemail service transcribes her messages and emails them to her. I was walking home from a friend's apartment the other day and thought I'd call her to chat for my 10-minute walk. She wasn't there, so I left a quick message wishing her well in her Christmas sewing project and hoping she wasn't feeling too ill, as she has been sick in the past couple of weeks.

This is what it emailed to her. She forwarded it to me. I cannot even figure out what I was saying from it, and I'm the one who left the message:

"Hey, it's me. I was just walking home from Summer I'm looked at 10:00 on Monday but I call and see how you were. But hope you're having a great day and I cannot choose where to go eat and that Jim is going well do not tell probably what you're doing. You're probably sleeping to Jim Grant. Anyway, hope it's going well and I'll talk to you later. I love you. Bye" 

Ho Ho...Huh?

There's a court officer at the building where I work who looks a LOT like Santa Claus. Really, really a lot.

I would not be surprised to find out that he worked as a Santa on the weekends. I would be surprised if he came down my chimney on Christmas Eve, but that's mostly because I don't have a chimney.

The other day, one of the other court officers was being pretty rude to a woman in line to enter the building. This is really out of the ordinary--they're basically a lovely bunch at this building. This guy was CRABBY though.

Then, the Santa Claus officer told the woman not to mind the officer, because he was a "mean, angry bastard."

So, now I'm pretty sure he's not Santa Claus, as I've never heard a Santa say that.

I had to stifle my laughter all the way up to the office, when I promptly burst out laughing and sent a text message to my sister.

I only saw the angry court officer today and not the Santa officer. I was a little disappointed.

But you know, this close to Christmas, it's probably hard for him to be at court...