Law Students

Weekend baking

Posted on June 14, 2009
Blueberry oatmeal muffins: recipe from the oatmeal canister, or maybe it was the yogurt container. Anyway, tasty, pretty healthy muffins, with that characteristic springy texture that yogurt provides. I made them with frozen blueberries.Recipe:Wet: 1 egg, 1...

2 years, 3 months

Posted on June 11, 2009
Dear K,Lately you are obsessed with bees. "Want to go outside and see the bees!" you tell us, several times a day. And you repeat the advice we have given you: "Look, but don't touch a bee. It can sting you!"You also like singing "Happy birthday" to everything...

Haircut #4

Posted on June 10, 2009
This time we went to Lulu's Kids' Cuts in Cambridge, on the recommendation of several moms on one of the local mailing lists. Great place, although pricey, with toys to make the wait go faster. K grabbed some trucks and played happily -- until it was time to get in the chair...

Reflection

Posted on June 08, 2009
I caught sight of my reflection in the window while riding the T.First thought: "Wow, I look pretty today."Second thought: "Hmm, I look different today."Third thought: "That's not me. That's the reflection of the girl sitting next to me."I try to cultivate a zenlike calm...

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How to exit a conversation

Posted on June 07, 2009
Usually I look to CT, the journal-keeper, as the repository of college memories. But this is one she didn't remember, so I'm recording it here. We were in yet another endless conversation with Boring Person, who said something about walking. Either CT or I replied, "Speaking of walking, have you heard about...

First week of Barbri - ARGH.

Posted on June 05, 2009
Tuesday: First day of class. I get a preview of what the rest of the summer might be like: after being swamped at work all morning, I rush out of the office and arrive at class 15 minutes late, after taking three different trains. I doze off halfway through because I'm exhausted and skipped lunch...

Middle child

Posted on June 04, 2009
Last night I dreamed that I had a new baby girl. Her name was Susie.Then this other kid started reading a book to Susie. "Look, he can read!" said JW. And I realized that was OUR kid, our second child, in between K and Susie. I had just forgotten he existed...

Update

Posted on June 01, 2009
We spent Saturday morning on the Island of Sodor. I'd post a picture, but K is scowling in all of them. He loved the bouncy castle, but wasn't as big a fan of the train ride on Thomas. (At least he was not one of the many toddlers throwing a tantrum and screaming, "I want to get off the train!") Today I had no work to do...

Reunion, part 2

Posted on May 25, 2009
Reunion was a bit of a letdown at first. Much smaller crowd than the 5-year, mostly people I already saw around Boston, and everyone seemed more interested in hanging out with their little group of close friends than with catching up with old acquaintances...

Reunion

Posted on May 22, 2009
My ten-year college reunion is this weekend! I can't wait. I've been teaching K our fight song. At our 5-year reunion, I loved the feeling of walking down the street and seeing so many people I knew. I felt like I belonged there again. There was an article in the Harvard alumni magazine about how Harvard alums avoid their reunions because they feel their lives can never measure up to the expectations of their classmates...

Buying stuff

Posted on May 21, 2009
NYT post, based on research by Dr. Miller from UNM, suggesting that we buy stuff primarily as a status signal to others. I'm skeptical. On a related note, I'm also reading the much more persuasive Buying In by Rob Walker, which argues in part that we buy stuff to assert our identity, both as a unique individual and (paradoxically, at the same time) as an identifiable member of a certain culture or subculture...

Yard sale

Posted on May 18, 2009
We had a yard sale this weekend. Several neighbors stopped by, concerned that we were moving. One lady came by in the morning and cleaned out our Lenox and Waterford stuff that we got as wedding gifts and never took out of the box. She came back late in the afternoon and took almost everything we had left for free...

Lies I tell my kid

Posted on May 15, 2009
In some magazine I read, a mom confessed (or maybe offered as a parenting tip, I don't remember) that she takes advantage of her kid's inability to read by telling her that signs say things like, "It's time to go home," or "Don't touch," or whatever the mom wants them to say...

2 years, 2 months

Posted on May 11, 2009
Dear K, Sometimes you drive me nuts. But far more often these days, I catch myself wishing I could hold you at this age for a little longer. You can run, and jump -- your primary form of locomotion for a while, jump, jump, jump instead of boring old walking -- and give spontaneous hugs and tackles and tickles, and best of all you can TALK! You rarely stop talking, whether you're narrating a Thomas adventure as you push your engines around the track or singing the song you learned at school (which, as far as I can tell, consists of the words "Hello Lucas" repeated fifty times)...

My third Mother's Day

Posted on May 10, 2009
For Mother's Day, I got a surprisingly cooperative toddler, an unsolicited "I love you, Mommy" with a big hug from K, and a sleep-in with pumpkin waffles when I woke up from Daddy.Last night I half-hoped the rainstorm would last until this morning, so we'd have an excuse for skipping the Duckling Day Parade...

Leaving work now

Posted on May 07, 2009
Suddenly I understand the appeal of keeping a cot in your office.

Dream of a corporate associate

Posted on May 06, 2009
Last night I dreamed that all the first-years in my department were assigned to slice hard-boiled eggs all afternoon. (I think the dream was inspired by this.) I tried to do something different, or at least take my eggs outside, but was handed an egg-slicing instruction sheet and told sternly, "It's very important that these eggs be sliced correctly and uniformly...

Mayhem

Posted on May 05, 2009
Did you know that at common law, mayhem was the crime of dismembering or disabling a body part? And did I mention I started studying for the bar? I'm not going to have lots of time to devote to studying this summer, since I'll be working, so I'm starting early...

Gardening

Posted on May 02, 2009
While K ran up and down the aisles of the outdoor flower display, I was having visions of the two of us, hands in the earth, bonding over the wonder of helping a living thing set root and grow.Fast forward a few hours. K keeps trying to lick the spade and yells at me when I try to dig with it...

Competence

Posted on May 01, 2009
LL: A feeling of competency is vastly underrated as an indicator of job satisfaction- or at least I underrated it when I first picked my legal specialty.When I applied to law school, I wondered if I would regret leaving software. I assumed I would, in fact, and steeled myself to get over it...

Fish pancakes!

Posted on April 25, 2009
The other day K ate two things that he has consistently refused to touch for the past two years: fish and potatoes! I planned to make cod cakes, but I'm not a big recipe-follower and the batter turned into a mess. (The use of the word "batter" to describe a pre-fish cake mixture should be a clue that something went wrong...

My work-life balance

Posted on April 24, 2009
It's been nearly three months on the job. So far, so good.The "work" part: I've been getting to work a little before 9 and leaving around 6. If I'm having a slow day, I leave at 5. No point in sticking around if nobody's calling and I'm going to come in the next morning with nothing to do...

The female model of law firm practice

Posted on April 23, 2009
Ms. JD discusses an article about how now is the time for law firms to focus on diversity and retention. Quote from the article:Women associates leave because they see few if any women partners who reflect a 'balance of life' success story. Instead, they see variations of the theme?the male model with lipstick...

Lies My Parents Told Me

Posted on April 22, 2009
So E. McPan mentioned in the comments that her parents told her they bought her at K-Mart.My parents -- actually, it's all my mother, she's the inventive one in the family -- have told me many questionable facts over the years. The two that stick in my head are:1...

Harnessing the Power of the Mind

Posted on April 21, 2009
K loves the They Might Be Giants song Hovering Sombrero. Or rather, he loves the refrain, but not the verse. To avoid demands to restart the song every time the refrain ended, JW told K that if he thought hard enough, it would come back. K thoughtfully put his hand to his chin and said, "Hmm...

The most boring children's book ever

Posted on April 20, 2009
"'En... lil bird saw... a lion. 'Hello ... Lion,' said... lil bird. 'Wha you do--'""HEN," interrupted K. My eyes popped open and I saw him pointing indignantly to the picture of the hen in "Are You My Mother?" "Sorry, hen," I said, and managed to get through the next dozen or so pages without dozing off again...

On the other hand

Posted on April 16, 2009
The logistics of having a second kid will be tough. We enjoy the relative freedom of our one-kid life. And I'm not eager to have abdominal surgery again. But, another kid who's as awesome as K? Another kid who I love just as much, and who will have her own personality quirks, and make her own jokes, and have her own favorite books? Sometimes that sounds really nice...

Second kid

Posted on April 14, 2009
During a weekend playdate, a friend confessed that she's pregnant again. She said the pregnancy had been rough on her, but they were excited to have a second child.JW had just asked me how I felt about a second kid. My response: "Do I want another kid? Sure, that doesn't sound so bad...

Birthday recap

Posted on April 13, 2009
My 31st birthday was grey and rainy, but otherwise excellent. After sleeping in (until 8 a.m.!) I found K in his crib just about to start yelling. When he saw me he grinned, lifted up his arms and said "I think I'm going to fall!" I scooped him up and brought him into our bedroom, where we played his favorite game (I stagger around while holding him in my arms, pretending I'm about to fall, and then drop him on the bed and fall down next to him)...

31

Posted on April 10, 2009
When I turned thirty, I felt all empowered. You can't tell me what to do! I'm THIRTY. I tell YOU what to do!Now that I'm turning thirty-one (tomorrow), I just feel a year closer to middle age. I am no longer refreshingly not-young. Now I am just continuing to get old...

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