Post Graduation Update

I received an email from the BarBri Alaska folks earlier this week that my class starts May 26. This is the best possible news, aside from the class starting June 1. I will get to walk in graduation and I'll be left enough time to fly to Anchorage and even sleep off the jetlag before starting the class. 

Looks like I'll be in Anchorage at least from May 25 till roughly July 4, then the exam itself is the last weekend in July (28-30). Not sure at this point if I'm going to sit for the exam in Anchorage or Juneau. If my housing situation in Anchorage is affordable and comfortable I'll likely take the exam there because Anchorage examinees may use computers for the essay portion. However, if money becomes an issue (which it normally is) or my personal comfort in my living situation (which is currently TBD), then I may find myself staying with friends in Juneau to take the exam there. At this point it's a toss up between what is the best plan of action considering the magnitude of the test's importance and the high levels of stress I will most assuredly be under at that time. 

In more immediate news, I fly to NYC on Saturday morning. I'm shipping two large packages UPS and checking at least one large suitcase for clothing. This evening I decided that UPS is awesome. A call center rep patiently stayed on the phone with me for 15 minutes answering my questions and explaining the pricing to me. In the end I'm going to ship a massive box full of household stuff and my futon frame for $60. The boxes will arrive when I have requested and the UPS guy is even coming to Leigh's apartment to pick it up so I don't have to drag my stuff down to my car and to the UPS store. Now I just have to hope that I can fit all of my clothing and linens into one or two large suitcases so I don't have to check too many bags on the flight. In all I think it was a good idea to fly because, even though shipping and checking items will be costly, I get the convenience of a 45 minute flight instead of an 8 hour drive, no tolls to pay, and I don't have to have a nervous breakdown trying to drive into Manhattan. 

Tonight and tomorrow I'm just finishing up my packing and spending a lot of quality time with Juneau (the cat). Leigh is going to accompany me to NYC and stay a few nights while I get settled, so we've planned some fun stuff for the weekend. On Tuesday I have to take a standardized test for the federal government for a possible fellowship. This would normally stress me out but I've seen some example questions and I'm just not concerned anymore. I also heard another student who took the exam two weeks ago say one of the questions was "which of the following words is misspelled?" This isn't exactly the LSAT....

Well, I'm headed out for drinks with a law school friend. Next post will likely be from Spanish Harlem. Wish me luck!

This is me avoiding that 10 page paper

Facebook has recently become equally infected with my family members and this "25 random things" survey. I'm bored, so I'll attempt to come up with 25 things as a means to keep myself from doing my homework, but I won't put it on Facebook because I'm becoming less enthusiastic about even having an account there.

Emily:

1. will be 24 in  20 days

2. is currently unemployed but looking

3. hates kids' parents. The kids are great, usually, but the parents I can do without

4. loves to swim but puts it last on her to do list after school, work, and sleeping

5. is very out of shape, mostly due to the attitude leading to #4

6. loves to travel but does most of her "traveling" via internet during class

7. has extensive travel plans starting the moment classes end in May

8. cannot wait to get her life started- meaning post-college/law school/internships

9. loves Alaska and Virginia but doubts she'll completely settle down in either

10. has only ever owned two pairs of pants that did not require hemming

11. wanted long, girly hair throughout her childhood but now as an adult realizes she just doesn't have the face for it but looks pretty cute with short hair instead

12. becomes downright mean when hungry

13. can tell the difference between real hunger and wanting a snack based on how much the people around her piss her off for every little thing

14. enjoys sports an awful lot but is really, really bad at them

15. loves animals, especially anything with big ears and eyes on a little face (I am a girl, you know)

16. wants to be the kind of lawyer who wears jeans, has tattoos, and kicks ass on a regular basis

17. has two tattoos and wants a few more, but is waiting till the time is right

18. is currently purging her belongings 

19. has put her car up for sale, this is sad but necessary. Anyone want a 2007 Toyota Yaris?

20. spends too much time in front of computers, but that's the story of her generation

21. spends too much time in her car, but that will not be a problem pretty soon

22. is moving to Spanish Harlem in 4 days

23. loves Costco but rarely gets to go there, so it's always a treat

24. wishes she was about 3 inches taller, if for no other reason than to save money on tailoring

25. needs to go write her paper now

Toronto Trip

Every year on the second to last weekend in January Leigh and I make a pilgrimage to Toronto, Ontario, Canada to pay our respects to the city that allowed us to get married. It's a little different this year because we're separated, but we've remained very friendly and decided to go ahead with the trip and celebrate our "anti-versary" or our "un-iversary." This idea started back in September when Leigh bought us tickets to see The Killers at the Air Canada Centre on January 23, and we were married on January 20. 

Last Friday (1/23) we made the two hour drive to Toronto with plans to hear good music and drink our weight in alcohol. Both goals were accomplished. 

The concert doors opened at 7:30 and our schedule was running a little tight, but the opening act wasn't really our style so we went to sushi instead. 

Waiting for the TTC to the Air Canada Centre.

Closer to 8:30 we took our seats waaayyyy in the back, but these were actually really great because we could relax and enjoy things with a good view. 

Attempted self-portrait at Air Canada Centre

View of the stage

View of the stage- note the palm tree theme

The show itself was truly excellent. While The Killers are not my favorite band at all I do enjoy them a great deal. Moreover, I find them to be consistently excellent entertainers. Their live performance was equally good to their recorded music and the video/light show to accompany the music actually added something to the experience. 

(I'm trying to upload two videos of the concert but seem to be having some trouble. More to come later...)

Seeing as The Killers are a Top 40 kind of band, I wasn't surprised to see a notable amount of screaming teenagers. Normally this would annoy the crap out of me but because we were in Canada, and they do everything just a little bit better, the screaming teenagers were actually kind of funny and I didn't mind them so much. The family sitting directly to my left was actually kind of amusing. I was seated next to the Dad, early 50s probably, who was sucking down Molson by the liter. By the end of the show he and his cute, plump little wife were dancing (badly) to the final set. They seem to have been on a double date with their teenage daughter and her boyfriend and everyone seemed to be having a good time. 

That night Leigh and I went out on the town in the gay village/Church Street area of the city, which was also very near to our hotel. We started at a low key grille and bar type place called Churchmouse and Firkin. The place had a really limited selection of tap drinks, so we bought a pitcher of cider to get things started. The line at our favorite Toronto club, Crews & Tango, was really long and it was unbelievably cold so we kept the evening pretty short.

The next day was frigid, but we were determined to do some walking around and possible shopping at the Fluevog store, which turned out to be a bust. Instead we just wandered around Queen Street and made good use of our TTC day pass by taking the subway and street car around. We got a little lost in the Bathurst Street area but made it fun by stopping to watch a pickup hockey game and by counting the number of people we saw walking down the street carrying a hockey stick for no particular reason.

Toronto City Hall area near Queen Street

 

Waiting for the TTC- also a nice picture of my nostrils while Leigh looks adorable

Tower over City Hall

Random statue in the square near Queen Street. 

That evening we ate Thai food at a really, really gay restaurant with terribly pretentious ambience but fair prices and great curry. Then we hit a lesbian dance club called Slacks, which had a great DJ playing and pretty good drinks, though it was a typical lesbian bar where everyone comes in packs and clumps together. After about 45 minutes of listening to the music we left for Zelda's on Church Street, which served as the model for the Liberty Diner in Queer as Folk. This place must be seen to be believed. The theme is "trailer trash" but the food and drinks are both yummy and well-priced. Leigh and I sat there sucking down a 60 oz pitcher of sangria and took it all in. The boys working there wore next to nothing (one guy was wearing a pair of red briefs and a fannypack for his tips and that was all) and drag queens were running amuck. One drag queen in particular stuck her hand down the back of the bartender's pants at one point and he just let her like it was part of his job or something...maybe it is?

After we were nicely tipsy from the sangria we hit a place called Voglie, which is normally a high end Italian restaurant (meaning we couldn't afford a salad there if we came during dinner hours) but on certain nights it caters to lesbian and otherwise friendly crowds. Saturday night was called "Snatch" night. The place was really cool because it's really just a refurbished victorian era Toronto house with lots of smaller bar/dining rooms that go up and down staircases. The whole experience was more like an after hours party in someone's house. The music was excellent and the room we were in had plenty of loungy seating, an excellent bar tender, and about 30 people dancing and talking and laughing. It was mostly lesbians but there were a few straight couples there too. It was really nice to see the intermingling of lifestyles and the common theme that everyone just wanted to enjoy themselves. 

Leigh and I were completely exhausted after that so we found a hotdog cart that was open at 2:30am (Toronto street hotdogs are the best in the world) and walked back to our hotel. The next morning we ate a great breakfast in the hotel restaurant and headed back to Buffalo for my last week in town before moving to New York City. 

Tickets Purchased

Last night I bought my airfare to San Jose, Costa Rica for March 6-13. I spent about an hour researching the Florida option and found most activities to be extremely family oriented and not really fun for someone traveling alone. Costa Rica, on the other hand, will provide me with a true experience and there's a great backpacker tourist culture there, so I'm sure I'll have a great time even if I spend every moment on my own. 

I'm really excited about it and also pretty nervous, but I'm forcing myself to not get really scared until I'm at the airport, in the air, or landing in San Jose. 

YAY! 

Now it's just too bad I studied French instead of Spanish....oh well....

Florida?

My brother and his family live in Jacksonville, FL fairly near to the beach. I spoke with my sister-in-law this afternoon and she said I should come visit them with promises of my own room, bathroom, free food, plenty of freedom to do as I please, etc. Plus I'd get to visit my niece and nephew- that's always a good time. I did some preliminary research and found that there's a celebrated beach scene in the area even though it's northern Florida, and I could always rent a car to drive down the Atlantic coast for a few days to see other beaches, maybe do some camping. There's supposedly really great hiking nearby too. As for cost, it'll be about $150 to fly and my housing would be free. This leaves only activities and food/drink to be covered, which would be no problem considering I was willing to spend about $700 to go to Costa Rica.

In all it's a very nice second idea that I'm now batting around in my head. My only concern is that the other spring breakers/bar hoppers might be decidedly very hetero (I am totally OK with hanging out straight people at straight bars, but 100% hetero/"suburban" atmospheres are just not my thing) or very undergraduate, so I'd be lost for fun people to talk to. This is probably a stupid concern because everyone goes out on the town, to the beach, etc not just superstraight undergrad kids. I'll do some more research and think on it before making a final decision.

It would be really nice to save some money this semester that could go toward other future expenses and still get to enjoy the beach and get a tan. Clearly this would be a far less exciting proposition for me than going abroad on my own for the first time, but I'm sure I'll still have fun either way. I'm also feeling a little bit defeated by such worldly things as money, time, and language barriers/xenophobia in my willingness to so easily abandon my adventurous plans for something requiring far less courage.

On another, less selfish, point- I'm moving to Alaska pretty soon and this might be the last chance I get to see my brother and his family for a while, so that's something to consider as well.

I QUIT!

In reference to the first few lines of last night's post, I'm quitting my job. I do not have nearly enough time in the next two weeks to do everything I need to do prior to leaving Buffalo and the only thing that can go at this point is my job. Luckily I'm not even working that much right now so I won't miss that last paycheck too much and hopefully I can make it up by finding something in NYC.

I haven't told my boss yet. I plan to be a chicken about it and send her an email right before I leave work today so I dont' have to face the music quite so literally.

Spring Break Planning

At the moment I am taking a 3 credit, 1 month class to prepare for my semester in NYC. This class isn't hard, but it requires a lot of reading and homework. Plus I'm working 15-20 hours per week and making a serious attempt to downsize my belongings and pack for my move. In all, I'm quite busy.

So of course the most logical thing to do is not to buckle down and get shit done. Oh no, I am instead planning my spring break trip. I am what you would call an "armchair traveler" or one who plans trips she may or may not ever take. I once sat through an entire Constitutional Law lecture not taking a single note but instead planning my very elaborate trip through the Netherlands and Germany by train. I had planned the flights, train route, and listed sights to see and things to do in every town and city I wished to visit. I have yet to take this trip....

So when a very real possibility of a trip comes up I take the planning aspect quite seriously. I purchased plane tickets for a trip to Montana/Washington State for my spring break back in November but, due to changes in plans, it seems to make more sense to use my credit with Delta for something else and plan a different type of trip for Spring Break.

A whopping 3 of your voted in my poll and so far Costa Rica is out in front. Luckily this was in the forefront of my mind since October or so. Initially I wanted to go to CR to try my hand at kayaking in some big rivers, but at some point I was hit in the head in just the right spot so that I could come to several realizations: 1) I can't consistently roll a kayak 2) Costa Rica has some scary ass rivers 3) I'm going alone, so if I tried paddling it's likely I'd not make it back. There were other realizations, mostly about the cost of rentals and such, but anyway....

So I called Delta and they said I could use my $400 in credits later, no problem, as long as I paid them $150 fee for the inconvenience of clicking a few things on their computer screen to change my flight. Flights from NYC to San Jose run about $340 with taxes, and Delta is now charging closer to $500 before taxes on the days I actually want to fly. So it's looking like it's in my best interest to just bank that Delta money to use later (before Nov 2010, to be precise) and just bite the bullet and purchase a shiny new plane ticket for spring break. It kills me just a little bit, but whatever. My theory is that in 6 months I won't miss the $150 quite so much as I do right now and I could use the Delta ticket for last minute or emergency travel or maybe to get me part way to some place on my way back from Alaska at some point. That's the theory anyway, I'm sure I'll be similarly pissed off at Delta for screwing me out of $150 when that time comes...

So now my attention has turned to sightseeing/beach bumming/taking a surfing lesson. I'd also like to do some rafting (*cringe*) and maybe hike in one of the rainforests, but that'll depend on timing and cost of a guide or group. At this point I'm planning to fly in Friday March 6, hang out in San Jose for a few days checking out the sights and enjoying the nightlife. If I do any organized touring it'll be from San Jose at this point. Sometime Monday or Tuesday I'll catch a bus to Jaco, a great surfing town with a fun, bohemian feel to it and enjoy the water for the rest of the week. Toward the end of the week I'll head back to San Jose to stay over the night before my flight leaves.

Upon departure I'll have extensive lists of things to see/do while in country, hostel beds booked and confirmed, and lists of possible tours, etc along with tons of "just in case" phone numbers. This is about as unplanned as a trip will ever get for me. It's driving me a tiny bit crazy, but this is supposed to be a backpacker type thing so I'm forcing myself to relax and go with it.  This will also be my first time leaving the country on my own, so it's a real right of passage thing and I'm really excited about that. 

It's looking like my hostel stay all week will total about $100, not bad for a 7 day trip! Food and drink is very reasonable in CR, so that shouldn't be any more pricey than buying a week's worth of groceries in Manhattan! Taxis and buses are under $5 no matter where you're going, so I'm not even worrying about that, and I doubt I'll be buying may souvenirs since I'll be carrying everything around on my back all week. The only activities I see setting me back would be surf lessons and rentals (lessons are about $65 for a few hours of instruction, rentals are about $15/day) or any traditional rainforest excursion/rafting trip  (tours run from $65-150 depending on what is included). Luckily all of this is optional, so I can play it by ear depending on how my bank account is looking. 

At any rate, I'm planning to book my flight tomorrow or Tuesday along with making hostel reservations, so then I'll be locked in. 

Have I lost my mind? Perhaps, but I'll be carrying pepper spray, so it's all good.

Odds I'll chicken out? None, because I'm too stingy to waste the airfare!

Spring Break Poll

It's probably way too early to be doing a poll because I *might* have two people checking this blog at this point, but I can't help myself. I'm a complete extravert in the purely psychological definition meaning I cannot make a decision without getting input from others to help me weigh my options.

My goals for spring break are (no particular order):

• Less than $500 to fly there (this means limited cities in Central and South America, most US territories, and the UK/NW Europe region during certain airline sales)
  
• Fun, active stuff to do (water sports; hiking; touring cultural sites; hopefully a beach and sun, but not required)
  
• Affordable food and drink
  
• Generally safe for a female to travel alone
  
• "Backpacker" style travel, no resorts, and I'd prefer to support local businesses rather than American-owned ones
• Ability to see and do a lot in one week
  
• A good place to visit in early to mid-March

I'm VERY open to other suggestions, as I've never gone anywhere for spring break but instead picked up extra hours at work, so I'm a Spring Break Virgin, so to speak. I'll be leaving this poll up indefinitely, but I would like to make a final decision within the next 2-3 weeks so I can book my flight and look into a hostel. 

Only in Law School...

I received an email from our Dean of Students today regarding graduation and found a few comments to be very particular to law school....

"As you can imagine, because of security for the Prime Minister [of Kenya], your family members will not be able to approach the stage to take pictures at Commencement. I am in the process of hiring a photographer to take pictures of you receiving your diploma, which would then be available to purchase from a photographer."

Not only are we having to concern ourselves with possible assisination attempts against our commencement speaker, but we're also being forced to purchase pictures of ourselves getting our diplomas. Hmm...frivilous antitrust/monopoly claim, anyone?

"Tickets: ...Each graduating student will have six tickets reserved in his or her name. We have no extra tickets, so please do not ask (and no parents or politicians calling - I HAVE NO EXTRA TICKETS!)"

Apparrently the calls from politicians (who are likely also parents/grandparents of graduates) has been a real issue in the past. What a wonderful use of taxpayer dollars that a politician would take 15 minutes out of his/her day to call SUNY Buffalo Law School and put pressure on the Dean of Students for a few lousy graduation tickets. If it's that big of a deal they can have a few of my tickets (if I even get to go) as I'll probably only be using 3 of my 6.

You know, if they held the ceremony outside on a beautiful Buffalo spring day (springtime is very nice here) ticket availability wouldn't be an issue....just a thought.

Bar Bri and such

Until today I was under the impression that my Bar review course in Anchorage would not start until June 1, 2009 or so. This would give me from May 7 to 23 to relax, maybe go on a trip or something. I'd also get to attend my graduation ceremony on May 23, see family and the like and have a full week after that to get to Anchorage and get settled before I start studying. It all sounded ideal for facilitating the best possible bar study session because I'd get to relax a little beforehand and attend my graduation.

This afternoon I received an email from the Alaska Bar Bri office saying that the class will most likely start in the "second half of May" and that a tentative start date would be posted next week. This is very frustrating for me. If class starts the week of May 25 I will have to haul ass to pack up my apartment in New York City, visit family for a few days and then fly to Anchorage. If it starts the week of May 17 the same situation will occur and I will definitely miss my own graduation, which means I might not get to spend any time with my family before moving very, very far away.

This is really throwing a wrench in my plans. In addition, I recently realized that I can fly one way to Anchorage for a mere $250 if I leave from Toronto- which is completely feasible considering that my graduation is in Buffalo (1.5 hours away). It would have worked out perfectly to attend graduation on May 23 and then fly to Anchorage sometime in the following week. Now I may have to make a decision between seeing family before I go and paying closer to $450 to fly out of Washington, DC (in addition to travel costs to visit family in Virginia) and having to drive about 5 hours to the airport.

Commence tension headache.

Internal Resolution: I guess I just have to remember that these are all very important events in my life. It will be unfortunate to miss graduation, but if I must it is for the more important purpose of passing the bar exam.

As for visiting family before I leave, I'm sure there is some middle ground that can be reached. Maybe I will fly to the southern states from NYC for a 4-7 day visit and then fly to Buffalo so I can still take advantage of the $250 airfare. It might end up being A LOT of traveling, but it's very important to visit family before making such a big move. I'll not likely see them again until Christmas of 2009 or possibly later than that.

Not getting to go on a brief vacation after classes end May 7 can be remedied by taking a proper post-bar exam trip in August or September prior to starting work (and if I happen to get a fellowship or short term position abroad the "trip" will be built into my work).

I suppose these inconveniences are the price one pays for following their heart and taking risks in life.

Facebook and the Problems it Allows

This will be one of those posts where I talk shit about people I'm supposed to respect. Deal with it.

It's no secret that there is a very serious religious divide on the maternal side of my family. One group is full fledged fundamentalist Christians (they make Jerry Falwell look like a reasonable, concerned citizen) and the other is a mixed group consisting of athiests, catholics, agnostic, and a lone Episcopalian (me!). As I'm sure you can imagine, the fundies just love to spread their "message" in a number of given ways. Unfortunately those fundies who are related to me take the more "aggressive-shove-it-down-your-throat-fire-and-brimstone-will-make-my-point-even-at-the-most-inappropriate-and-unneccessary-moments" approach (that's a technical term, by the way).

This behavior has found its way to Facebook, which was previously a haven for college kids to post random shit about themselves and leave mindless notes for friends to giggle about. Since Facebook has caught on and it's now open to "no network" users, it's a free for all resulting in even certain members of my family joining and using it for unpleasant purposes.

Normally I wouldn't care about people joining websites and using them, it's not my business at all, but some people are using it as an opportunity to facebook-stalk and use aggressive language about religious ideas toward other people. Plus these are the very same people who only a few years ago were preaching to me about teens and young people joining "dangerous" networking sites that promote "secular" ideas. Now they're on MySpace, Facebook, and whatever else...I can only guess that the difference is that recently their pastors have told them these sites can be used to evangelize while before the sites were only useful to people with non-Christian or evil motives (i.e. pedophiles).

Facebook used to be fun, now it's becoming a tool for anger and resentment. I'm completely addicted to the site though and, because it's almost ubiquitous for members of my generation, it's really the only viable means we have to regularly keep in touch with people we've connected with over the years. I'll continue to use Facebook for sure, but I think I might be using the "Blocking" mechanism for the first time very soon. No point is being Facebook stalked (which is normally kind of a compliment, if you think about it) by those who only wish to bring you down.

Next time I'll try to post something more cheery and maybe even funny...

Sunday moving and stuff

I've pretty much been moving apartments non-stop since November. First to my own place, which involved a lot of dividing up of things and downsizing, now from my own place to a room full of boxes at Leigh's apartment (sort of the staging area for my move to New York) and in about 3 weeks I'll be packing everything up for good to ship and flying to New York.

My current move is involving and incredible amount of giving away/selling of belongings. Most of the things I don't mind losing, (i.e. books I read once but wasn't enthralled with, a printer that works *most* of the time, clothing that I haven't worn in months) but last night I sold my Riot Turbo kayak, three VERY used whitewater paddles, kayak skirt, and possibly the men's size XL wetsuit that my dad decided I could have tailored to fit me (right, because tailors LOVE refitting neoprene and that's not at all more trouble that buying myself a women's sized one that actually fits..I digress...). 

If it all sells I'll get just shy of $300 for it, which is actually a profit on what I paid for each item, but I'm still really sad to see the Turbo go. I had hoped to get some good paddling in this spring with it and learn some basic skills feeling a little more stable in a bigger style whitewater boat, but alas my room in New York is just way too small. In fact, my queen sized futon will be very nearly wall to wall on all sides when I pull it out for sleeping, so there's not spare room. Hopefully renting/borrowing kayaks for roll practice and stuff won't be too difficult if I meet some nice people while I'm there. Supposedly there's a pretty extensive outdoorsy community in the NYC area, so I'm sure there's at least one kind soul who won't mind hanging out with a newbie like me.

The rest of my day will be spent unloading my car of all my stuff and doing homework for my class on Tuesday. This weekend is pretty much shot for any kind of fun, but I might be able to fit in a movie tonight if I get started soon.

First Post

Hi all.

I had a livejournal for a few years and decided to upgrade. This is sort of going to be a continuation of that blog and I'm going to stop posting there. A few friends have blogspots and I'm pretty impressed with how simple they are but you can still post photos and do other things that livejournal requires a paid account for. Not sure how interesting this is going to be, but it's nice to have a place to leave inner monologues and sort things out, or to just post pictures and such. 

And yes, I stole my title from the movie Mona Lisa Smile. 

More later...