Good News; Bad News

I've been a lazy blogger. April has been pretty good so far.

First, I passed the Illinois Bar Exam! Woot Woot! The reason I had to take the exam is because I didn't have five years of practice which is required for reciprocity in Illinois. I have been working under a limited admission to the bar. I have been getting several questions since passing the bar:

1. Are you relieved?

     Yes. (What kind of question is this? If you ask me this question, I will think you are stupid.)

2. Do you get a raise?

     No. I don't get fired.

3. How did you celebrate?

    That day, I went out to eat with friends from my church congregation. That weekend, I went to Michigan and I made my mom make me cake. It was chocolate with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles. It was delicious.

Now I can get on with my life.

The first weekend in April was a doozy! I drove to Michigan to spend time with my family for the weekend. I grossly misjudged the weather thinking that it was spring and did not have warm enough outer gear, so I did not go outside. 

We celebrated Passover.

Passover dinner

 My family celebrates Passover as well as Easter. I celebrated Easter with my parents on Sunday while we watched "General Conference." It was wonderful.

Niece selfie

 Chicago is moving toward spring. I can feel it. We probably still have a late April snowstorm or something. But I'll take the 60 degree weather! Even if it is a little foggy.

The bad news is that my car may have breathed it's last breath on Saturday. As I was driving, it just completely shut down. Luckily, I was able to coast into a parking lot. I tried jumping it, and it would turn on and work fine. However, as soon as I removed the jumper cables, it just completely shut off.

Maybe I just need a new alternator and all will be well. Maybe it's something more serious than that. The question is, do I just retire the car, or do I plug one hole while waiting for the next to burst? I bought this car in 2007 as a salvage car. It has served me well. Within the last year, it has been struggling. I had to replace the wheel ball well, new tires, new brake pads and rotors, and now, whatever is wrong. It is a 2006, so it's lived a pretty decent life, especially for being a salvage car, I think. (But I really don't know what I'm talking about). I will have to wait the verdict from the shop that I towed it to, but it just might be time.

I'm just grateful that I have AAA since I've towed my car 3 times in the past 8 months. Also, living in a city with public transportation doesn't hurt. I don't have to make any decisions today.

A lot to be thankful for

Thanksgiving gives us a chance to reflect upon all of the good things in our lives. I have been immensely blessed. I have a good family, job, home, and friends. I really can't ask for anything more. For Thanksgiving, my parents drove from metro-Detroit to Chicago to hang out with me. 

I roasted my first turkey. I cooked a real Thanksgiving dinner. My mom made pumpkin pie and cranberry jello. Other than that, it was on me. Our dinner was pretty simple by Thanksgiving standards, but it was tasty. I don't know how I could have hosted more than just my parents though. I guess we had enough food for at least 8 people, but it still would have felt so much more daunting to add in more people. Maybe next year I'll invite more people over. But have a little more potluck style.

The weekend was full of shopping, movies, and sightseeing. I bought some needed supplies for my home. I love my giant windows, but waking up with the sun every day has been pretty early, so curtains were on the agenda. I still haven't bought any holiday decorations... so I'll have to look into that. I'll probably end up buying an artificial tree on Dec 26th... 

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. I definitely recognized my blessings much more this year than in previous years. My life is good. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hanging out at the bean with my parents

The Chicago River

Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo

Turkey Trot

Okay, okay. On to the life update.

I went to Detroit for Thanksgiving. I know I know. I didn't tell anyone that I was going to Detroit except 1 person. It was a stealth trip that was jam packed. With turkey, sports, movies, and pie.

The Lions won! (on Thanksgiving, no less!)
Pistons v. Lakers game (Pistons lost)
Catching Fire was AMAZING! My mom's reaction after the movie, "Wow! That was a really good movie" She even "volunteered" to watch it again with my dad since he couldn't come with us.
UM vs. OSU lived up to the rivalry even on a lackluster year (and I didn't freeze)

Posts only mean something if you post a picture so here:

Turkeys! (this photo was not taken in Detroit)

Photo shoot in the car

Those kids could have done a much better photo bomb. Do their parents teach them nothing?

Piston's game

UM v. OSU

I've been AWOL

Nothing too exciting has been going on in my life. I work, I play sports, and I go to random things in the city.

On the 4th of July, I decided that I didn't want to venture to the National Mall since it was going to be crazy crowded. So I went to the Air Force Memorial. It was definitely way less crowded and I was home pretty early.

I didn't actually take photos of the fireworks because:

a. fireworks have to be the most difficult things to photograph (especially with a phone camera) and 

b. I was busy enjoying the fireworks.

So here are a couple of "pre-fireworks" photos

Air Force Memorial

 I saw this van vacationing in style. Unfortunately I was not up with popular culture to get in on the jokes and tweets of "Sharknado" using this bad boy. I did however post it on Instagram and got the most "hearts" that I'd ever gotten. So clearly Steven Spielberg, Anthony Ferrante, and this family understand that Americans like sharks.

I took the 5th of July off and went with a bunch of people from church to Harper's Ferry, WV to "tube" down the Potomac River. Apparently sunscreen does need to be reapplied within a 3 hour period if you are on the water. I didn't get too badly sunburned, but my legs were noticeably pink.

I'll have to blog about my ventures into the city another time since this post is getting lengthy. Happy Summer!

October Oops!

Where did October go? I cannot believe I didn't post at all.

The best news of my October was the fact that I passed the Bar Exam! Woot! My bar passage came with some drama, because let's face it, it wouldn't be my life without drama.

If you look up the official list of July 2012 Michigan Bar passers, I won't be on that list. It's because my MPRE scores were misplaced since I initially sent them to Illinois and then had to send them to Michigan. So that caused me to be on a different list or something, and so I had to call and tell them I really did pass the MPRE. All is well and it is all worked out now. I did in fact pass the arguably hardest bar exam for Michigan since only 55% passed. I am so happy and relieved! :)

So now, you can write Esquire or Esq. whenever you write me a letter. ;)

In other October news:
I went to Michigan for the U of M v. MSU football game (and Michigan won!)
I watched a lot of Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers

I made Halloween crafts

I ran an adventure/scavenger hunt race in DC called Urban Dare

I dressed up as a replacement referee (I'm blind) for Halloween

I got a new phone and a new laptop since all of my devices died at the same time
I survived my first Hurricane!

All in all, a pretty eventful month!

Nerd Alert!

I love Pi Day! I love people getting together to celebrate math and tasty desserts. Who could not love that?



You may not know how nerdy I really am. A couple of years ago my best friend sent me this perfect pi day shirt:



(I couldn't have asked for a better nerdy piece of clothing. BUT I am considering getting a Woodsy the Owl shirt)

My friend's shirt has pi written out to 1000 decimals (or something like that).

We played pi trivia. (I knew none of the answers... not even what ingredients are in the crust of a pie)




BUT Then we played Apples to Apples. I totally dominated. And these are the words that I won. So I think my marriageability is likely in trouble (I'm totally kidding)

But hear me out on my one dispute. The word to match was "fuzzy"; and I put down "fuzz" ... How could she not pick my card? It could not have been MORE perfect! I don't remember what won, but it was definitely lamer than fuzz.

The Only Advice I Need

My family went to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan to check out the "Holiday Nights" events. As we strolled through the gift shop, I spotted this gem:


Not that I really need any advice to be the best at everything, I thought I'd flip through the pages. That's when I saw this:



I thought this was absolutely perfect. I often convince people of many things without even knowing what I'm talking about. All I need to add are some oxymorons.

Greenfield Village was a blast. And now I can improve my "being the best at everything," so all in all, a good night.

They Knew the WHOLE Time...

Well, I didn't get a photo of their reaction or tonight's 12 "drummers drumming." I went over to my neighbors' house and gave them a box of 12 mini drumstick ice cream cones. (Pretty nice random gift if I say so myself). And they totally weren't surprised and didn't react. They knew it was me!

I guess when they gave the non-description to my roommate, they knew she was poking around for me and they didn't want me to know that they knew. Sad day. But it was still fun anyway. I think they still had fun because they had no idea what was coming. It was fun and creative, and it kept my mind off of finals for a few minutes each day.

I had a nice long chat with them about random stuff. When one of them told me that he was getting a big kid job and that he was just going to continue living the college life and make tons of money and then quit his job after a year or two and live off the money he saved and then get a new job and do it all over again. I promptly told him to grow up.

He said, "I'll get married when you get married."

What?! I meant don't act like an immature kid when you have to move on in life. I didn't say anything about getting married.*

... someone is afraid of commitment

*And it's not like I'm avoiding getting married, it's avoiding me.

They Still Haven't Caught Me

They left this note next to my Ten Lords a Leaping from yesterday. It made me smile.

They still haven't caught me. Apparently my roommate chatted with one of them and their other neighbor saw me and described me as "this tall" (apparently average height), brown hair, and a pony tail. Luckily that amazing description says nothing. Today, I almost didn't get a photo because I forgot to take one, and as I was walking away I realized that I needed to snap a photo. I thought I'd chance it. So it's not the greatest quality photo, but here are my Eleven Pipers Piping.

I'm pretty excited to see their reaction when they find out that it was me the whole time. It's going to be pretty amusing. Now, I just need to make sure I go by when they're all home...

Ten Lords a Leaping

I thought that this one was pretty clever and fun.

I tied thread around them so that they could be leaping. A little tedious - sure, but still fun.

I got about 50 firemen in 1 package at the dollar store. ... I should really check out the dollar store more often. It has some pretty cool things. :)

Figuring out Federal Tax...

I only have one "real" final this semester and I go in bouts where I feel prepared and bouts where I feel like the subject is completely foreign to me. Federal Tax is pretty dense stuff. It made sense when we talked about each topic in class, but as I'm reading my notes about reversionary interests, like-kind exchanges, and capital gains and losses, it all just seems to be Greek. My final is at 8:30am on Monday, so I'll have to be ready for then. I had high hopes of a 3.8 at least earlier this semester. But I think I'd be content with 3.5/3.6...

As for my 12 Days of Christmas prank, this is what I left for my neighbors:

I had actually written another little note that said something about leaving out the 'cross-dressing' princess (Mulan), but I thought it was funnier in my head than what it really would have been when they read the note. So I refrained. (I do have a filter, sweet!) I also wanted to write something about the skinny jeans controversy because I felt that I could have worked it in somehow, but I am just not that witty apparently.

I'm excited for tomorrow's item. I just hope they don't catch me setting up...

A Christmas Miracle

So today, I tried to do the delivery like three times, but I suspected that they were watching for me. I know they are probably not hanging out in their cars when it is 19 degrees out, but I could hear talking, so I decided to hold off.

I really have no idea if they know that it's me. I kinda hope they don't because it's more fun. And if they do know it's me, I hope that they would tell me that they know so I wouldn't have to be so sneaky about it.

I gave them eight packages of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
And wrote, "they were brown cows." I think it's cute.

Swan-ish

This morning I dropped off seven "swans" a swimming. I really like this one. I was going to put them all in one bowl, but I thought it would be more dramatic with seven bowls.

It took a little more time and I was concerned about getting caught, but it seems like they weren't paying attention at 7:45 am.

Time needs to slow down

I can't believe it's already December 6! Where is the time going? I need more time. I want it to go fast and slow at the same time. It's complicated. I need more time to study, but I'd like to be done with the semester. Life is pretty fickle. In 8 days I will be home with my family! Crazy crazy! Just 1 major final, 1 small final, and a paper stands in my way.

On day 5 of my little 12 days of Christmas adventure, I left 5 ring pops with gold ribbon tied around them. I of course forgot to take a photo again...

But today, day 6, I took a couple photos of my "six geese a laying"

I forgot to take photos of my day 3 of the 12 days of Christmas. I left 3 childrens books - Chicken Little, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Hares (yes hares). It's a fun little thing. I wish that I had picked up real chickens though. That would have been hilarious... Another time... maybe the opportunity will come.

Today was amazing though. I got to see the lights at Temple Square. It was a bit crowded and chilly for my taste, but I enjoyed the evening. Here are some photos from my adventure.

Cross Culture

I remembered to take a photo today! Hurray! 2 turtle doves! :)

I celebrated Hanukkah today with some friends just because I live in Provo, so half the people have never even heard of Hanukkah despite Adam Sandler's attempts otherwise. And it seemed like a fun thing to do. I also decided to celebrate the 8th day of Hanukkah, because it's more aesthetically pleasing.

I thought this looked pretty cool with the last light hanging on and the wax buildup from the other candles.

Overall it was a fun night. But I'm exhausted. 8 hours of studying and 2 hours of frying latkes, and then 4 hours of hanging out with friends... I'm beat! This is why I don't plan parties... too much work! I like having people over, but it needs to be like 10 people max, or it has to be potluck, or no food. That's my future party plan.

Happy December!

So a couple of years ago my roommates and I did the whole 12 Days of Christmas for a Secret Santa project. I wanted to do it again, so I started it tonight. I dropped off a Partridge Family cd and a pear on the doorstep of my home teachers.

I meant to take a photo to document. But I forgot.

So instead, you get to look at a photo of llamas. Some group on campus does "Carollama" where you go Caroling with Llamas. They meet in the law school parking lot. So when I was walking home tonight, I think they were packing up and I decided to take a photo. I really wanted to take a photo with me and a llama. But I was worried that I would get chastised. So instead, here are the llamas that go caroling.

Happy December!

Happy Palestine Day!

I generally really like all Holidays. They are fun and an excuse to each chocolate. Valentine's Day is pretty fun. But then I realized what Valentine's Day at the Law School* is like... People go overboard in decorating (which is why Law School is a lot like High School). But overall, I'm enjoying the day. I even got left a note by a secret admirer!

It's good to be loved. :) Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

PS: if you didn't click on my links, you should. You will find my new favorite website...

* Maybe not all Law Schools, but just BYU Law School?