Ok, so, the second-wind thing, while true, didn't result in me updating more religiously as I intended. Instead it made each of the project days significantly better. I enjoyed my daily experiences a lot more this last week and a half, which, you know, is important. I do apologize for not being more interesting though.
Day 317 - Seek Advise from an Expert
Date: November 19th, 2010
For the first time since I started at work, I hit a wall that couldn't be broken down with independent research. All the books, articles and cases I could find pointed the same direction, but the attorneys at work knew that wasn't how cases turned out. I learned a valuable lesson about the legal community. The response wasn't simply to dismiss the concerns I had, but to bring the issue to someone known to be an expert among their legal circles (without sharing case information, of course). Knowing when to ask and when you know is an important distinction and it was a good lesson for me.
Day 318 - Set up a Room with my Boyfriend
Date: November 20th, 2010
When I lived with my previous boyfriend, we didn't really plan things... together. It was the only other experience I had living with someone (not counting a freshman year roommate that I'm pretty sure was karmic retribution for some horrible thing I did in another life). When Justin moved in, most of the condo was already organized in a good way since I'd been living here for a while, but the basement was still being used for storage instead of as an exercise room. Together, we set things up the way we wanted, organized everything and stepped back to reflect on our work. It was a wonderful feeling to work with someone so evenly.
Day 319 - Go to a Wine Tasting
Date: November 21st, 2010
So, I'd been saving one of the more romantic things on my list for a special occasion and November 21st was just that occasion. About a week before our six month anniversary, Justin and I started talking about what we should do to celebrate, but we couldn't come up with anything. Just as we were getting ready to give up and have a night at home (how terrible that would've been...) I got an invite to a local wine tasting. We decided right then it was the thing to do. It was a lovely occasion. We got to sit together, talk about the different wines, enjoy the flavors from local wineries, and snack on really tasty appetizers. The part we both enjoyed the most, though, was hearing about RESULTS. See, the wine tasting was a charity even for RESULTS and part of the event was a presentation about the work RESULTS was doing around the country and around the world. We both found ourselves frustrated that we didn't have money to donate, but we both ended up on the e-mail and mailing lists by the end of the night. I would urge anyone interested in making a difference to check them out. Its a great organization.
Day 320 - Attempt a Rubik's Cube
Date: November 22nd, 2010
The key word here is "attempt". It was hard. I looked online and found stock combinations that should've worked, but I decided against following someone else's step by step. I'll figure it out at some point, but for now, even trying was more than I'd done before.
Day 321 - Offer to Pay for Someone's Groceries
Date: November 23rd, 2010
It just didn't seem right. I was at the store getting ingredients for Day 322 and the woman in front of me kept having to put things back. A can of peas here, a can of green beans there. And just a couple days before Thanksgiving. Usually I wouldn't say anything, because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but it didn't seem right to ignore it. So I decided to offer to pay for the things she'd had to put back. She didn't take me up on the offer and for a while that bothered me because I felt like I could've done more. Then it struck me that forcing her to accept the cans of food wasn't somehow better. If anything it would've been rude when my intention was good. So I left it at her declining my offer and realized later, when I thought back, that I'd never made anyone that offer before.
Day 322 - Make a Pie from Scratch
Date: November 24th, 2010
I told a lot of folks that I was making a pie from scratch and for the most part, people assumed that I meant the pie filling and were impressed. Not quite. I meant everything - as in the filling, the crust, everything. See, excluding the last few years, my grandmother always made the pies for Thanksgiving. She bought crusts the last couple years, but even then she still made the filling. This is the first Thanksgiving she hasn't been alive for so I wanted to do something to honor her memory. I figured the best way to do that would be to make the pies. I made six pies because I was having Thanksgiving with Justin's family and there were 25 people there.
I spent about seven hours on my feet, making dough, rolling it out, cutting apples, mixing pumpkin batter, shaping crusts and baking. It was fantastic. I started with a pile of ingredients and I ended with pies. It was such a wonderful feeling. I made four pumpkin pies (that, of course, being the quintessential Thanksgiving pie), one cherry and one apple. When I got to the cherry and the apple I decided to get creative with the crust. I made one lattice crust (something I learned directly from my gramma) and one full crust top with a design cut into it. In the end, I was incredibly proud of the pies. I got wonderful complements on them from Justin's family, but the highest complement I got came a couple days later from my dad. He said it tasted like gramma's. I had to walk to another room so it wouldn't be obvious I was crying. That was exactly what I was hoping for.
Day 323 - Share a Tradition
Date: November 25th, 2010
One of the things that has been unique to my family was the Dorito breakfast. When I was a little kid, my gramma and I would sit in our pajamas and pick out all our favorite kinds of junk food. Then we would lay out the food on trays, elaborately as though it was the actual point of Thanksgiving, and we would sit and eat and watch television together. See, my parents generally made an early dinner, but didn't eat any other meals on Thanksgiving, so gramma and I decided we needed breakfast. It became a running tradition for every year. So, not unlike the making of the pies, I made a point to continue the tradition my gramma and I had started.
Justin and I originally intended to wake up around 9am and have the Dorito breakfast at the condo, but I had to finish two of the pies and we ended up not being able to relax until 11am. Then, of course, we had to get ready and go see Justin's family. He was so wonderfully sweet and apologetic that we didn't have time for the breakfast. He'd even gone to the store a couple days before and bought all the snacks for it. I started to say it would be ok to just have it a day late, but when we got almost to Justin's dad's house, he stopped at a CVS. I wasn't entirely sure what he was doing so I just relaxed in the car, still thinking we'd have the breakfast on Friday.
He came back out with two shopping bags filled with snacks. Doritos, twinkies, cupcakes and other goodies. I couldn't keep the smile off my face by the time we got to his dad's house. When we got there, we explained the Dorito breakfast tradition to his extended family and, much to my surprise, not only did they think it was a cool tradition, they were all for participating. Some of the best memories I have from Thanksgiving are Justin, his dad, his little nephew Christian, his brother and other family members snacking on Doritos, hostess cakes and other goodies before dinner. It was lovely to get to share that happy memory of my gramma with his family.
Day 324 - Shop on Black Friday
Date: November 26th, 2010
Generally speaking I avoid shopping on Black Friday like the plague. I hate the crowds, the pushiness and waking up early the day after a good turkey coma. But, since I'd never done it before and Justin's extended family was in town, it seemed like a good way to kill two birds with one stone. I did something new and we spent time with relatives he doesn't get to see very often.
Day 325 - Show Someone my Memory Boxes
Date: November 27th, 2010
I'm a moderate pack rat. I don't keep everything, but keeping things to remember the important parts of my life is very important to me. While Justin and I were staying at my parent's house, dogsitting, I decided to rummage through the box to look at some things. I ended up showing him my baby book, speech finals pamphlet, high school pictures and other neat memories. It was about halfway through showing him all the little knickknacks of my life that I realized it was something I hadn't shared with anyone before. It truly is lovely to have a best friend and boyfriend that I feel so comfortable with.
Day 326 - Be Part of a Secret Santa
Date: November 28th, 2010
In my life, I have had a few different boyfriends. In only one other case was I with someone long enough or close enough that I spent the holidays with his family, and that wasn't particularly inviting. One of the things that has been incredibly touching to me (and also completely new and unexpected) has been how much I've been accepted by Justin's family. Given my past experience, I expected to have to fight every step of the way just to be seen as human. Instead, when it came time to figure out the Christmas gift exchange, it was just assumed that I'd be included as Justin's girlfriend. It made my day.
Day 327 - Walk Backwards on a Treadmill
Date: November 29th, 2010
Yeah. I was grasping at straws. Also, it was hard and I fell down.
Day 328 - Mail Out Bar Reference Forms
Date: November 30th, 2010
The real reality of the fact that I'm almost a licensed attorney (assuming I pass the bar and don't flunk out of law school, of course), it starting to set in. Its a little scary, but also incredibly exciting. The last thing I needed to do was ask people for references. Now its just a matter of time and studying.
Day 329 - Apply for a Fellowship
Date: December 1st, 2010
One of the things that I've been intimidated by is the quality of competition for good legal jobs. My passion for public representation and public interest law is the main reason I became a lawyer, but even those jobs are often going to people who have the journal credentials instead of the passion (or, in some cases, both). I decided that my fears about not being as qualified or as good as my competition shouldn't stop me from at least applying. I had the realization that not applying guarantees you don't get the job so I should at least give it a shot.
Day 330 - Make a Paper Airplane
Date: December 2nd, 2010
I've folded little paper airplanes in class before, but I didn't realize until this year that there is a real science to a good paper airplane. My dad got me a book on paper airplanes that I decided to save for a time where I really needed good projects. As I've started buckling down to study for finals - now is that time. Folding a proper airplane, built for distance (instead of annoying a substitute teacher) is incredible difficult. Good to know.
Day 331 - Listen to Christmas Song Parodies
Date: December 3rd, 2010
One of the things I used to hate admitting to is that I love Christmas. I really truly do. Somehow that become uncool though. Generally speaking, I sought out traditional Christmas songs and jingles when other people weren't around. Well, Justin doesn't have the same love of Christmas I do, but he's definitely making the effort to see why I love the season. He introduced me to some hilarious Christmas song parodies that, rather than bothering me like I thought they would, just made me giggle. Hooray for hilarity.
Day 332 - Cut down a Christmas Tree
Date: December 4th, 2010
When I was really little (as in, too young to remember), my parents cut down trees. Most of my life, though, they would pick out a tree at a pre-cut farm and we would take it home and put it up. Most recently, my parents switched to a fake tree to make things easier. Built in lights and the whole shebang. One of the traditions that Justin's family has though is to go cut down a tree at this huge sprawling farm in Grass Lake. So we walked around, picked the perfect tree out for his mom and brother and cut it down. It was delightful. We could smell the fresh pine in the air everywhere.
The best part was this amazing church down the road from the tree farm. They open up and serve fresh donuts, hot chocolate, and pastries to the people cutting down trees. In addition to being the best fresh donut I'd ever tasted, the church was incredibly beautiful. 150 years old and seated next to a beautiful graveyard (yeah, I know that sounds macabre, but it was really serene and peaceful with beautiful trees), the church looked like it could've been a Christmas ornament. But, in particular, the whole day was lovely. I so deeply enjoyed being part of Justin's family's Christmas tradition.
Yay RESULTS fundraiser! :-D
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