straw poll

the holidays are coming up! so i'm taking a poll.

what should i get tom?

because he is the only one who reads this blog, i am optimistic that the results will be very illuminating.

an ode to walt "clyde" frazier

tragically enough, i am a huge knicks fan. right now, in an effort not to confront the painful amount of work i desperately need to be doing even though it's 9:30 on a friday night, i would just like to take some time to sing the praises of walt clyde. he has been a knicks announcer for as long as i can remember, always ready with a choice phrase like "swishin' and dishin'" or "he's the knick with the knack right now." anyone who's watched a knicks game on msg knows the sound of his voice, and i must say that over the past year and a half, as the knicks have struggled mightily to win even 25% of their games, his voice has been one of reassurance, managing to voice fan frustration in a way that still allows for some optimism that, one day, the knicks may actually be decent again. dare to dream.

(being the eternal optimist, i actually think they're getting better by the day...we'll see how my new theory pans out.)

the other reason i love clyde:

his impeccable sense of fashion.
there is surprisingly little evidence of this on the web, but watch just one halftime show and you'll know what i'm talking about.

tom is traveling

and the nelves are very sad about it. it is stressful when other people travel on planes, i think.

highlighter carnage

so since i've started law school, i've been going through a lot of highlighters. conveniently, i had about 10 highlighters left over from college, when i bought a lot of highlighters but rarely, if ever, used them. nowadays, that is not the case. i'm not positive how many highlighters i've gone through since early september, but if the numbers coloring my books are any indication, it's at least five. not only that, but their rate of decline has been increasing; i started a new highlighter (yellow) just a week and a half ago, and already it's making that squeaking noise that indicates it is running low on lighter fluid. some might argue that this means i'm highlighting too much in my books, but i say it means that i'm completing far too much of my homework.

all i have left in my package of highlighters is a blue, a yellow, and two oranges, and nobody likes orange highlighter.

update: i am thinking of ordering several dozen green highlighters from staples. green is definitely my favorite highlighter color. i can't decide whether this is a good use of money or not.

what is it about football?

when i was younger, i used to think that football was really confusing and really boring and way too violent. i'm not sure when it happened--probably some time when i was 12 or 13 and i finally bothered to learn what all these words like "down" and "quarterback" meant--i started to be somewhat tolerant of the game. and then somewhere down the line, possibly when i realized how much fun superbowl parties were, i started to really enjoy it. now it's pretty much a staple of my weekend, and this fall i actually found myself extremely excited to find that football season was starting again. i've always been a huge sports fan--basketball was and will remain my number 1 sport to watch--but i didn't think i was a football fan until i suddenly was. now i love it, which may have something to do with the analogies between the passing game and ultimate frisbee. though i'm sitting here trying to do some homework while the giants lose their lead. it makes me unhappy, and it really makes tom unhappy. then he yells at the tv.

victory!

well since my reader demanded more blog posts, i have decided to comply, however insufficiently. there is a lot of schoolwork piling up around me and the stress level seems to have ramped up a notch, but it is all not so bad largely because of tuesday's overwhelming sweep of the midterm elections by the democrats. we took back the house and the senate and then rummy retired, and i have to say, it feels totally awesome.

now we just have to make sure we don't f everything up over the next two years so we can hold onto our advantage and (*fingers crossed*) take back the presidency. though on tuesday when i was doing election protection with the law democrats, many of them were so pessimistic about our chances of beating mccain in a presidential race that they were proposing we run a crazy leftist who will at least contribute positively to the national discussion and highlight some of mccain's inconsistencies. i'm not quite ready to make such a concession yet--seems like we've got more of a shot than that given how wimpy and kow-tow-y mccain has been recently, but maybe i am hopelessly naive.

legal research may actually be all i have to talk about anymore

the theme of my recent posts have been, i'll admit, pretty boring. i think the truth of the matter is, my life is somewhat boring at the moment. i mean, it's interspersed with fun things for sure, but i have to work so much all the time! and as a result, instead of witty, amusing stories regarding all the crazy things that happen to me when i'm out and about (i think we can all agree i'm usually full of those), all i have is stories about this ridiculous legal point i read about in a 1973 supreme court case.

though, today being halloween, it was a marginally more fun day than normal; my wacky, infamous professor of civil procedure comes in each day dressed in a three piece suit with a red tie and red handkerchief in the pocket, so naturally a number of my classmates celebrated by dressing like him, which of course amused him to no end. this was made even funnier because for whatever reason (veins being full exclusively of coffee, for example) a ta comes in half way through every class with two mugs of coffee for him because apparently the two he started with were not enough (or alternatively, he has knocked them on the rug). so, once the fake professors had walked in, a bunch of fake ta's walked in carrying mugs of coffee. rest assured, it was hilarious.

in reviewing this post, it seems like i don't like my civil procedure professor. in fact, he is my favorite professor. he is quite excellent at teaching.

legal research

ok i know i said i was back, and i intended that to be the truth. i think i may have to work my way towards actually writing on the blog reasonably often.
in any case, i have been mostly working, although i had a nice relaxing weekend that tom wrote about. on monday i started an exercise we're doing for my lawyering (i.e. legal research and writing) class, in which we are "attorneys" and we interview an actor playing our "client" on video, then critique the interview while also researching the legal issues that emerge from the interview and preparing a memo. the whole exercise does not feel quite as foolish as it sounds, but i'll admit it is fairly foolish. right now i am sitting with the world series on mute trying to do some research on the area and, though i actually have come to love legal research, it is a challenge to stay focused. admittedly if i turned off the television that might be better, but if i did it seems probable that i would just fall asleep. though i may fall asleep with the tv on as well--that may have happened to me a few times before.

hey blog, how's it going?! long time no see! given how long i've been away from you, i'm quite certain no one is reading you anymore, but i've decided to revivify you anyhow, since i think it will be a nice release from the stress of doing schoolwork all the time. that, and i've started to allow myself to procrastinate a little more, even though the flexibility i have to procrastinate is getting less and less.

so, i've started law school. it's actually going pretty well--i am glad that i went to law school, and i think that's saying a lot given what you typically hear from 1Ls. i am taking torts, civil procedure, contracts, and lawyering, which is a sort of legal research/writing course that involves some goofy role playing but actually seems like it will be quite valuable when i actually go out and work at a job. all of my courses involve some interesting material, but i've found my level of focus on the subject and ability to pay attention in class is entirely dependent upon the quality of professor in my classroom. for example, my civpro professor used to have his own tv show, and was the good morning america legal correspondent for decades, and you can really tell--the man tells a story about jurisdictional disputes in the 19th century and has you laughing along like he's a freaking stand up comic. my other professors are not quite so dynamic, but the classes can be fun...or mind-numbing, depending on what day it is and how much energy i have.

on top of school, which has actually created a vortex from which i can barely escape to notify friends and family that i'm alive, i have been playing ultimate lately with a team called crafty. last weekend was regionals, and we rocked out. actually all we really did was hold seed, but we played some tight games and i personally was very proud of us.

so in any case, i've been busy. but i'm back, loyal blog, and i promise to post to you more faithfully. for now i really have to go read about negligence. and watch grey's anatomy.

the countdown begins

well, the time has almost come. i start school on sunday. i'm definitely excited, and also a little bit in denial. i've gotten my student id and everything, so i feel pretty ready, though i'm sure i'll feel a lot less ready as soon as i get in to the classroom for the first time. only one of my professors has actually given out an assigment for the first class, so that is nice--i just hope it doesn't change at the last minute.

i'm back! (i was away)

hey! i'm back! i just had one of the more relaxing weeks ever. i went to pawley's island with tom to join my dad's side of the family for our annual trip down to a house on the beach in south carolina. the weather was great--sunny but not too hot, warm ocean water, oooof it was great! i got to hang out with my two cousins, their spouses, and their five blond sons. plus i read some good books. always good to be home, but i did NOT want to leave.

(these pictures came from the creek that sits behind the house. somehow i have a shortage of actual beach photos but as you can see the creek is pretty beautiful.)

i got nothin to say

i'm on vacation, and i have to say, it's as slow-moving as i had hoped. i'm doing practically nothing all day, and while you'd think that would make me excited for the few things i do have scheduled, in reality it makes it difficult for me to motivate even as far as the shower. it feels good to be on vacation, and i am really hoping that i get legitimately bored by the time i actually have to get up and do stuff.

in other news, i bought a new backpack yesterday, and i am unhealthily excited about it. i feel like i'm in middle school again and this backpack represents all my hopes and dreams for the upcoming school year. here's what it looks like: ain't it pretty?

we'll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes the t-bird away

i'm on vacation!!! friday i finished my job of two years, doing education policy analysis/research/other miscellaneous stuff. i loved the job, and it inspired me to do what's coming next (law school), but i'll admit i was also very excited to be done friday and to have three weeks of doing absolutely nothing to look forward to.

today, for example, i've been in my pjs all day and am currently watching west wing reruns. though to my credit i have cleaned the whole house except the floors. those are next.

abajo el fascismo

well i keep trying to post pictures from my trip but blogger doesn't seem to want me to, so i'm giving up and moving on. rest assured, it was a very pretty trip to san diego.

the news i really want to talk about is fidel castro's temporary cession of power to his brother, raul. i've studied cuba a lot: it was the topic of several research papers, including my thesis, in college, and i spent a month there in the summer of 2003. i have to say, there is a lot about cuba and its government that has been successful: its health and education systems are absolutely first rate, and its fierce determination to resist the american hegemony that has paralyzed many other tiny caribbean nations is extremely respectable. but what i saw in cuba is a country that is struggling, unnecessarily, in order to cater to the every whim of its leader. fidel castro earned the respect of the cuban people in 1959 but has failed them in many ways since.

cuba is in so many ways a wonderful country with a proud history. the opportunity to move forward without castro is a great one, and the enthusiasm of the cuban exiles is understandable. my high school spanish teacher was herself an exile, and though she has been in the united states since 1960, she continues to count the days until she can return. my only hope is that the united states stays the hell out of it, though it sure doesn't seem likely.

when trees attack

last week, as i was sunning myself in beautiful southern california, the town that i live in, montclair, nj, was experiencing some truly awful weather. i didn't learn until after i climbed over several downed tree branches on my way to the train station that in fact montclair had experienced a "microburst," a seriously powerful wind storm that in this case i believe also involved driving rain. in fact, even a sports illustrated writer mentioned it here (scroll down to the very bottom). he uses it as evidence that we should all go see an inconvenient truth, which i would almost definitely concur with had i seen an inconvenient truth. i would really like to, though, so maybe this will serve as inspiration for me. weather is so crazy!

i'm baaaaack

well as my reader knows, it's been a hectic couple of weeks, and the nellogg has been somewhat neglected. but don't worry!! that won't happen again, at least until two weeks from now when i leave for a week at the beach in south carolina. ahhh, beach.

so the good part of my hectic couple of weeks was going to sunny san diego with tom to visit his brother, sister-in-law, their two children, his sister, and his brother-in-law-to-be. it was all a lot of fun...i got to go to see horse races, to the beach, and to my favorite place of all, the wild animal park. i'll post more pictures later, but for now you can see some of the cuteness here.

SALT

i just got back from a farewell lunch for a (sort-of former) co-worker at the blue water grill. it is a really well regarded restaurant, and i had some delicious mushroom sushi (and i don't even like mushrooms usually!). but then i had some broccoli rabe, and i must tell you: it was insanely salty. unfortunately i didn't process that reality soon enough, and now i feel sort of sick.

i really love salt, it's just that there are limits, you know?

don't step on my [blue] suede shoes

i would just like it noted that i really need to stop wearing my favorite pair of suede shoes on days that it is predicted to thunderstorm.

holy shit, i'm going to law school

as my 3 readers already know, i'm going to law school beginning august 27th. i also know this; in fact, i've known it for many months now, really ever since i received my first acceptance letter. somehow, despite that fact, the recent influx of information for next year--loan applications, orientation schedule, numerous health and school certification forms--has left me realizing that i am ACTUALLY RETURNING TO SCHOOL. i'm very hopeful that i will prove a dedicated and involved student, but i definitely worry that the cushy working life i currently lead has not adequately prepared me to work as hard as many claim law students have to. hopefully after the extensive vacations i have planned for this summer--certainly more on those later--i will feel rested and excited to...read lots of long, dry legal decisions. woohoo!

butting heads

well, i was going to write about my lovely weekend but i'm putting that on pause to write about zinedine instead. yesterday afternoon my sister came over to watch the world cup final with tom and me. we were having a great time watching the hard-fought game, speaking in accents, and being converted to francophilia by julia. i have to say, though i wasn't rooting for france from the start, zinedine zidane played some great soccer in this world cup--especially given that he's 34 and was a major factor in the 1998 world cup--and i would really have loved to see him take home the trophy. as i'm sure everyone has heard by now, instead he headbutted italian defender materazzi after an exchange of words (brazilian lip-readers claim materazzi called zz's sister a prostitute, but how reliable their take on the situation is remains in question). he was sent off with 10 minutes left to go in overtime, and france lost in pk's. what a total bummer. i really wanted him to win it, and i feel as though, if it hadn't gone down that way and zz was still on the field during pk's, france would have won.

especially since materazzi is reputedly one of the dirtiest players in the cup, i have to admit i kinda support zz. not the most responsible thing to do, nor wise from the winning perspective, but if he was in fact defending his sister you have to give the guy some credit. i just wish he could have done it without the refs seeing it.

BBC coverage of the episode
video evidence that materazzi is not so spirited