the facts say she's my cousin. the truth says she's my sister. about a month ago, clara was hit by a frontrunner train. the details of this accident are not important or the focus of this post. clara is.
she's been in the hospital since she was in the accident. she moved out of the ICU on wednesday meaning that i got to go and visit her for the first time tonight. she wasn't fully awake, but she was there.
clara is my childhood hero. we shared a room at jacob lake for the summers during my formative years. she's six years older than me and i thought (and think) that she was the coolest person to ever walk the earth. if she cut her hair, i cut mine. if she grew it out, so did i. she had brown eyes, so i hated my blue. she was 6 feet tall, that was my goal. she had elastics for her braces, i strung them through my teeth. she taught me about the finer things in life:
she also taught me the importance of being kind and generous, of making people feel included and important. she taught me the power and strength of being sweet and gracious. she showed me how to fight and how to strive for those things that are good and worthy. she is funny, happy, and pure. she brings light along wherever she goes. she's not afraid to get in and work and she won't stop until the job's finished. she gives warmth to everyone she meets and is somehow unaware of the effect she always has. she provided the best example i could have ever asked for. she is the older sister i didn't have, but didn't need because she is there.
clara has not changed a bit. she is still strong, fighting, and beautiful. she is still the woman that i want to be when i grow up, moreso now than ever. with the Lord, our prayers, and her will, this will be overcome and added to her benefit. and she continues to add to our benefit, just as she always has.
i'm currently sitting in a civil procedure review. civil procedure is my favorite class. it is also the most boring and the most difficult. but it is my favorite nonetheless because of my professor, Lincoln Davies. as its title states, civil procedure is a procedural class. i had no idea that there was legal procedure before i set foot in davie's class. but of course it makes sense. justice couldn't proceed willy nilly and actually be served. and so our lovely court system has created one billion rules that lawyers must follow at every conceivable point of a lawsuit in order to get said suit into and out of a trial. and let me tell you, these rules are detailed. and poorly written. confusing, boring, and obscure. you never see sam waterston or matlock whip out their book of federal rules of civil procedure (or, in their case, criminal procedure, but potato potato) and win a case based on some lame provision in some lame rule because everyone's eyes would glaze over and the tv show would bomb. but, let me assure you, this does happen in real life.
anyway, what i'm trying to say is that civil procedure is not the most scintillating of all topics. but it is my favorite because i had a really exceptional teacher. he is someone who puts his whole heart and soul into teaching, teaching well, and teaching memorably. having just been a teacher myself, that was the first thing i noticed about lincoln. and he has never, ever dropped that ball. he's stayed interesting and interested the semester through making the subject favorable because of himself and nothing else.
which leads to a greater truth: good people make life (the good or the bad) good. people are the best (and possibly the worst, but that is not what we are focusing on) things in the world. they are daily what i am most grateful for, the things that i simply could not live with out and hurt the most when they are lost. they are what make life special and memorable, by in large. and that is why i came to law school. because, through the law, i can work with people.
i met with a councilor yesterday so that she could check out my legal resume and a legal cover letter that i wrote and make sure they are up to snuff. one of the suggestions she had on my resume is that i really should include those things that i am most interested in because, along with everything else impressive and important that i am supposed to have done, they set me apart. they make me into a person to the person who will be interviewing me. and for some reason, that brought me such hope and comfort. i can bring those things that have claim on my heart to help me find work in a similar situation.
that relates back to the whole "i love people" rant that i went on earlier in this post because i am interested in every one of my interests (basically) because of the people that they are connected to. law school has been the most difficult for me not because of the subjects or time that it requires or the new ways that it makes me think, but because i feel like i have lost my people due to a change in location, situation, and a lack of time. and then yesterday, talking about writing a resume, i finally saw the light at the end of the law school: it actually can bring me closer to the things that i love and the people that have made them lovable. there are so many things that i want in this life. and law school really can help me get there.
here are a few more things that i love:
1) horse camp!!
2) this. movie. looks. awesome.
a) partially due to this girl's style. i seriously want ALL of this.
3) please listen to the translation so that you know exactly how hilarious this song is. but know the dance is not for the faint of heart.
4) davies rapping about jml/rmjml (judgment as a matter of law/renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law)
it's backwards because bert made a t-shirt out of it and wore it on the last day of class.
i grew up loving this flawless specimen of maledom, watched him grow from a dashing young scamp into a heart-melting, tear-jerking, quintessential man. let's walk through his perfection, shall we?
1) he's tall, dark, and handsome.
2) he's foreign.
3) he's got an accent.
4) he's really good at apologizing.
5) he's devoted.
6) he's smart.
7) he's ambitious, i.e., he knows what he wants (you/anne) and he is going to do whatever it takes to get it (you/anne), even if that means waiting for like 10 years.
8) he's a doctor.
9) his last name means happy/cheerful.
10) he's got great fashion sense.
11) moments 8:07-10:39 of this clip.
and really, what more do you need? now, don't get me wrong. i love mr. darcy (the REAL mr. darcy), dimitri, and jim halpert as much as the next girl, but there is something about gil and his undying love for a melodramatic diva with red hair. because as you watch him love annoying anne for 6 hours, you just know that if there was some way to bridge the barrier between you and avonlea, you would blow his mind.
i guess what i'm trying to say here is, gilbert, i would give you diamond sunbursts and marble halls because the only one for me is you.
i was going to post some footage of real's awesome playoff winning goals, but then they lost against l.a. schmalaxy and i am too sad to put up something peppy like the season highlights. it's not the same. not the same at all.
but i do have a new goal.
by the end of law school, i want to know the supreme justices so well that i will have favorites and disfavorites, allies and arch-nemeses. i want to be able to say such sentences as, "oh, justice scalia, i love and/or hate him because in what's-his-face v. blahdeeblah he..." or, "justice samuel anthony alito, jr. is such an angel/devil. his ruling/dissent in..."
so, here is 2011's starting line up of supreme court justices:
John G. Roberts, Jr.- THE chief justice of the united states
Antonin Scalia
Anthony M. Kennedy
Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Steven G. Breyer
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.
Sonia Sotomayor
Elana Kagan
and there you have them. the batmen and catwomen of justice in our nation. so far, based on the research i have done (looking at their pictures) my hopes for favorite and disfavorite are:
favorite- clarence thomas. of course. he seems like the allstate guy of the supreme court.
disfavorite- ruth bader ginsberg. no one is fooled by that fancy collar thing.
who ever knew i would want to intimately know the 9 supreme court justices. not i. i can tell you that. perhaps it is because the nba seems so likely to leave me in the lurch this winter, trying to battle the grey months of january-march without the shining beacon that it and its players are. so, i have to look else where. and these justices judge on. no matter the cost.
i think that there is something singular and exceptional about women who have lived long, rich lives. they have that singular and exceptional something in their hands. and they can give it to you, that wisdom, strength, and love, when the touch you, literally and figuratively. i love grandmothers, those that are mine and those that aren't. and last week my life was especially graced by them.
unlike BYU, the U gives its students breaks, fall breaks even. for my fall break i got to go to hawaii because of my auntie. but we will talk about her later. on the flight from LA to Honolulu, i sat by these two mexican abuelitas, sisters going to hawaii. man, oh man i wished i spoke spanish. it took a few hours, but by the end of the journey they were calling me meja and sharing their flamin' hot cheetos with me. they told me how they met their husbands and how hard it was now that their husbands have passed. they showed me pictures of their children and grandchildren and talked about going home to mexico. mostly we spoke in english, but sometimes they spoke in spanish and i strained their ears to limits using every bit of romance language i have to piece together what they were saying. they held my hands when they were talking and looked me straight in the eye. and before i left, they got my address and gave me theirs so that we could stay in touch and told me how glad they were to meet me. and i couldn't help but believe them. it was the best flight i have ever had due to the unexpected latina matriarchs who took me under their wings.
when i got to hawaii, i spent my a the week with two of my aunties: auntie sharon and auntie jadean. they aren't my real aunts, just two phenomenal women i'm so lucky to have. auntie sharron is from idaho. but she met this hawaiian surfer stud studying at ricks, fell in love, and the rest his history. a woman after my own heart. she and her husband traveled and lived all over the world. they went from idaho to canada to hawaii to seattle to provo to hawaii again. she told me stories from visiting jordan, israel, turkey, china, all over europe. she and her husband served a temple mission in new york and were mission presidents in the philippines. i especially loved her stories from the philippines. she would have been such a wonderful mission presidentina. she said when she got to the philippines, based on what she saw on the drive from the airport to the mission home, she would have flown back to the US immediately if there was a classy way to do so. the poverty was unlike anything she'd ever been exposed to and she truly did not think she could handle it. but then she knew that she was there to serve her missionaries, and that's what she did. she loved the people, but she loved her missionaries more.
the thing that i love about my auntie sharron isn't that she has been to so many places or how much she has changed about or added to herself, though those things are wonderful. it's what she has retained. how she has stayed the same. because i can see her serving various missions, moving to various places, visiting various countries and doing it all in her down-to-earth, idaho girl, warm, friendly, and inclusive way. she took what there was to take and gave more back in return. she knows how to make you feel welcome and comfortable. i think that is one of the greatest gifts.
my auntie jadean is simply one of my favorite people in this whole wide world. she and her husband met my parents in law school when the were there lo those many years ago. after law school, my parents moved back to utah and my auntie and uncle moved back to hawaii. but, as has been highly beneficial to me, they stayed in contact. when i was 15, we took our first trip to the hawaiian isles. i've been back 5 times since then. due to my auntie and her generosity, hawaii is one of the cheapest vacations i can take. not bad. this last trip is the only one i've taken on my own. it was me and auntie for a whole week. hawaii has come to feel like home, and i know that to be the work of my auntie. she just grabs you and pulls you into her life and her heart.
auntie is from kansas and she is fiercely loyal to and proud of it. she can't tolerate people who say it's a waste-of-space state because the prairies there are beautiful, you just have to open your eyes to it. what a stark contrast to the obvious beauty of hawaii. i think that those rolling prairies and endless skies profoundly shaped my auntie because that is how she feels: open and easy, wise and timeless, a little wild and unconquerable. she and my uncle aren't members. but if they were, she would be the dream relief society president. she'd be devoted, creative, and tireless. she also doesn't have any children, which is one of the greatest sadnesses that i know of. everyone would benefit from having a mom like my auntie. people are her specialty. reading you and knowing how to tell you those hard truths while simultaneously bolstering you up is what she does best. i got a healthy does of that last week. and that's exactly what i needed.
being back in law school, what i'm thinking is that i want to bring those characteristics embodied in the women that brightened my week last week to everything that i do in my own life.
just like any good law student should, i have become a part of a study group. ok, this isn't a big feat or accomplishment because my study group was practically handed to me by the university, but oh well. we don't need to focus on that. i really like my study group. it consists of my good friend bekah, two mormon dudes, and another girl. as part of our study sessions, we have decided to write out hypothetical situations and apply the different law concepts we're learning in our classes. so, ideally, in each study session we have a hypothetical for:
1) torts
2) civil procedure
3) contracts
someone is assigned to write a hypo for one specific class that has to do with the principles we have been learning and then we reason through the problem together.
i was assigned contracts last week and this is what i came up with:
Eleanor and Carl have known each other for a few months.There has always been romantic tension, but what that tension really means has never been resolved.Eleanor likes Carl, could see them together and successful, thinks that he could be thinking the same thing, but gets the distinct feeling that Carl is a player not quite ready to quit his playing ways.
Carl is a recovering womanizer.When he met Eleanor he thought he might have met his match: the woman who could settle him down.But he knew things would be serious with her and was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to man up to all of that.
As they spent more time together, the chemistry between the two became undeniable.Eleanor did her best to maintain boundaries until some sort of commitment was made, but Carl was persistent.
One stormy evening on a cozy couch, Carl and Eleanor were sharing a blanket watching a movie.However, Carl had something very different in mind and tried time and again to kiss Eleanor.But Eleanor’s kiss-dodging skills were sharp.Finally, as Carl made one last move, Eleanor turned to him and said, “I am not a game and I will not let you play me.You can not kiss me if it is only going to be a game.”Carl looked her straight in the face, nodded, and kissed her.
The very next day, Carl disappeared completely from Eleanor’s life.Eleanor is now suing Carl for breach of contract.
Was Carl’s kiss a contract?
what do you think? contract?
the answer to this question is: yes. by kissing eleanor, carl contracted not to play her.
let me tell you why.
in order to have a contract you need either mutual assent or consideration. so, let's see if there is mutual assent, shall we?
mutual assent needs two things:
1) an offer
2) acceptance of that offer
so, is there an offer an offer in this situation?
yes. the offer of a kiss from carl to eleanor.
is that offer accepted?
no. eleanor rejects the original kiss offer and supplies a counteroffer: "you can not kiss me if it is only going to be a game."
is that offer accepted?
yes. "carl looked her straight in the face, nodded, and kissed her."
and there you have it. mutual assent. contract.
we have already proved that, since there is mutual assent (both parties agreeing on the terms of the kissing), there is a contract. but we are in law school now, and so we have an unconquerable urge to be thorough so we don't get sued for malpractice. so, just to be safe, let's see if we can find consideration.
*note- i don't like consideration as much as i like mutual assent because it is a lot harder and because i don't fully understand it. but that's no excuse not to make me delve right into it in front of the whole class. just ask my professors. so, let's soldier on by attempting to define consideration.
consideration is an inducement (encouragement, attraction, enticement) to enter into a contract and can be in the way of a benefit to the person who makes the promise (promisor) or a detriment to the person accepting the promise (promisee). in other words, in order to have consideration in a promise the promisor has to be benefitted or the person who is accepting the promise has to be, in some way, detrimented.
promisor benefit: kissing eleanor
promisee detriment: kissing carl
there seems to be consideration here, but let's try one more test just for fun.
another way to test consideration is to see if the promise leads to the detriment. in this case, the promise does lead to the detriment which leads to the promise which leads to the detriment in one continuous and eternal round. look:
promise:detriment:
to kiss -----------------------------------> to be kissed
to kiss <----------------------------------- to be kissed
a perfect case for consideration.
in conclusion, on both counts and for both conditions, yes. this kiss is a contract. i'm sorry, brett and gemaine, but the truth is that sometimes, a kiss is a contract. at least, that's what i learned in law school.
this is the great thing about law school: the professors are funny.
sometimes funny haha. sometimes funny strange.
here are four personality briefs to give you a small glimpse into the humor and quirks of my professors of law. you guess which type of funny applies to each:
lincoln davies (civil procedure)- our first assignment was to read:
official rules of the national basketball association 2006-2007
rules no. 2.VI, 12.a.V to .VII and comments to the rules I, II.b, II.f, and II.k
in case you didn't know, these rules deal with fouling: technical, flagrant, and what you have to do if you commit such a heinous act. we needed to have this background knowledge so we could come to a ruling on this:
were the fouls called on amare "STAT" stoudemire and boris "3D" diaw after robert horry so unceremoniously hip-checked the adorable hero steve nash fair or unfair?
(the action really starts to happen around 00:53.)
alexander skibine (torts)- french. ex-semi-pro-futboller. wears turquoise belt-buckles. wouldn't mind if he woke up from surgery with a tiny rose tattoo anywhere on his body. anywhere. anywhere at all.
david hill (legal writing)- last week we had a mock client interview in class. two brave souls volunteered to be the interviewing attorneys and professor hill volunteered to be the client, a rich, spoiled, bad-attituded 18-year-old named kris hamilton.
walking into class with my friend bekah, we ran into hill dressed in jeans and a hoodie. bekah says, "dressing for the part."
hill answers, "actually...this is just how i dress."
a beautiful awkward silence ensued.
he also compares legal writing to making sausage.
it is a good thing that these people are varied and interesting because they are forcing my brain to do things it has never done nor wanted to do before and i should hate them for it, but i don't. not quite.
i went to a "the weepies" concert last friday. it was an acoustic night and, therefore, they sang "be my thrill" acoustically. i like the orig version of this song. but i LOVE the acoustic. like love, love it. like now the recording i took of it is both my alarm clock and my ringtone. i love love love love love love love love it. but i don't have a full version of it to listen to on itunes and you can't download it either. consequently, i've started listening to and enjoying the original version more.
i would like to go back to the very beginning of this post and the idea of there being two songs that are the same song. because this is a daily feeling in my life, only a little different. in my mind, there are two law schools that are one law school.
the original law school is like the original version of "be my thrill" because it is a lot louder and a lot faster and a lot pizzazzier and a lot more in-your-face-ier. like law students. they wear power suits and carry power brief cases (starting as 2Ls) and use their own rhythm to power themselves forward and into the wide and powerful world of law. this song has that internal drive. it gets you up and moving into to the top 10% of your class, onto law review, onto the dean's list.
this law school isn't my favorite. in fact, this law school is less than not my favorite. it turns me off to the whole idea. and that's probably why i delayed going to law school for approximately 3 years.
but there is another law school. the acoustic law school. it is sweeter and slower and more unassuming. it worms its way into your heart and makes you feel warm with possibility, promise, and sincerity. it makes you think that maybe, just maybe, you can have all the things you wanted, all the things you've aspired to for perhaps your whole life.
i was introduced to this law school during orientation week in the form of my dean of admissions. his name is reyes aguilar (king eagle- a bill he fits). he's from texas, but his family is mexican. he's got this sort of old hollywood aura hanging around him. that's right, i said old hollywood aura. and what i mean by that is that he reminds you of a time when men were men, strong and silent, tall, dark, and handsome, used few words, didn't stand for overly emotional emotions, and inspired faith and confidence in all that they met. clark gable. that's who reyes aguilar is to the s. j. quinney school of law.
anyway, i have seriously digressed.
he talked to us a lot during orientation week. on the last day, he was telling us that some of us were going to get really bad grades and that we were going to be sad because we had always been smart and for many of us, that was going to be inevitable. and we probably all wanted to cry, but were trying super hard not to. and then, in a bizarre fate-twist, he started crying. completely composed CLARK GABLE started crying! for absolutely not one apparent reason. so, he took a swig or two from a handy water bottle, cleared his throat, recomposed himself for a brief moment, and finally said:
"my mom died earlier this year. right before she died she gave me some advice and i knew that it was advice because she started by saying, 'listen mijo". for those of you who don't know what mijo means, it's a term of endearment in spanish for your son. it's like saying 'little one'. mija is what you say when you're talking to a girl."
well, unbeknownst to clark/reyes, i started to tear as soon as he uttered the word mijo because i knew what it meant and have recently developed a dominant soft spot for latin american romance languages.
he went on to say, "i stopped giving advice in these things a few years ago because you get so much of it and really you just need a chance to figure it out on your own. but this year is different because i am going to give you advice. maybe it's because i miss hearing, "listen mijo". so, listen mijos, listen mijas. i want you to go home and write down why you came to law school so that you don't lose sight of what brought you here. i want you to have it to look at when you start to forget and when you wonder why you came here in the first place. i don't want you to lose who you are right now at this moment because that you shouldn't change in law school. you should just be adding to it. we chose you because of who you are right now. that is how you got here and we want you to continue being that for the next three years. and i want you to know that my door is always open for you, even if it is closed, it is open."
let me tell you what. i have built no defenses against a clark gable archetype calling me "my child" and telling my not to lose sight of myself and the reasons that i came to law school because they need to be my guiding light. being addressed in familiar spanish made coming to law school with dreams of being an immigration lawyer seem oh so appropriate. and good. and attainable.
moving to law school felt like a break-up with everything i have done over the last few years. and the last few months. i've changed a lot, added a lot, refined a lot, and gained a lot; especially recently. leaving that behind, or feeling that i had to in order to progress broke my heart. but then there was my dean of admissions telling me i'd better not let go of all of that or else. and that his door was always open for me.
that is acoustic law school.
acoustic law school helps me to like not-acoustic law school. or bear it. whatever. it gets me through the classes and the homework and the just wanting to drop my classes because today is the add/drop deadline. it helps me remember that there is more and that that is why i'm here at all.
i submit that this is the best color in the world (toasty golden brown, that is). i've spent a solid amount of my life in pursuit of it. i want it to be my summertime descriptor from my sunkissed coiffure to my perfectly tanned toes. this desire dates back to my childhood. luckily, i have two older sistercousins who share this drive. and together, we have come up with an almost foolproof and highly effective toasty-golden-browning process. out of the goodness and generosity of my heart, i will share it with you today.
so.
step one-
listen to some music that is like this:
i don't know or care why, but the weezer blue album has skin priming properties that greatly enhance the tanning process. it's almost as though the power chords and head-bangy rhythms get the cells dancing and singing and thirsty for vitamin D and sunburn.
step two-
apply lotion. ordinary ol' lotion. i like lotion with aloe in it, but it really doesn't matter. do this 20 minutes in advance. that is the optimum amount of absorption time. just trust me.
(*note- girls- all of this works better if you've got a clean shave. especially since if you shave after you tan you shave off your tan. what a waste.)
step three-
get yourself some trashy mags (us weekly, people, vogue, vanity fair, these are some of my faves) and a diet coke.
step four-
locate some water. tanning always goes better, faster, and smoother with water body near by. so, find a lake, river, stream, kiddie pool, and set up camp. camp should include a towel and/or pool chair, aforementioned magazines and beverage, ipod (just in case), and companion (because tanning always goes better, faster, and smoother with a body body near by as well).
step five-
get wet. everything. hair included. it is a fact that the reflective properties of the water clinging to your skin speeds up the entire affair.
step six-
lay down. read, drink, talk, listen, sing, sleep, whatever for no fewer than 20 and no longer that 40 minutes.
step seven-
re-wet.
step eight-
flip over. repeat step six. repeat step seven. repeat step eight. repeat step six. repeat step seven. repeat step eight. you get the gist. this can go on for as long as you like.
step nine-
once you have finished with the actual sun it is imperative that you slather your skin in lotion, aloe lotion this time. it must be aloe lotion. or hawaiian tropic after sun. that stuff is like liquid gold. the faster you can re-oil your toasted skin, the better. peeling is the suntan's worst enemy.
step ten-
take a hot shower. especially if your tan has escalated to burn. you might say i'm crazy, but i'm not. it hurts like the dickens in the shower, but your skin feels SO much better when you get out. and it seals in the color.
and there you have it. ten easy steps to a perfect tan. this is my life's work, my masterpiece, my mona lisa. use it well and use it wisely.
the spirits of summer have never been less generous. unrelentingly they snatch their sunny days from me, this year faster than any other. i am not grateful. especially since i am staring down the long and expensive barrel of Law School. i've never needed a neverending summer more.
if i were to choose one word to catch and en-capsule the last few months (and what a silly and futile exercise that seems to be) it would be unforeseen. so much of the recent past has blind-and-broad-sided me. i feel indebted to the experience i have gained, to the exposure i have been given, and to the interests, tastes, and involvement that that has led to.
this world is a big one, regardless of what they say. so much to see. so much to do, to learn, to relish, to allow to transform (or transfigure if you are a witch/wizard) you. this has been the common thread through most of these posts of mine. i have been swept up completely in the south wind that has been blowing my way. i hope it doesn't stop. boy do i ever.
i feel like this song a little bit, or a lot-a bit:
and also like this poem. because this summer and those who peopled it have changed me. and there's nothing i can give that will repay them.
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
i opened my email this morning and was greeted by a message titled "Bar Review". and i thought to myself, "self, this seems pretty preemptive. you haven't started classes, won't be taking the bar for a few years, but i suppose it is never too early to start preparing..." so i open it ready to be faced with book lists and helpful hints in legalese, but what i really saw was this:
Fellow Students,
For the well initiated, kindly move on to the time and place section and we'll see you tonight.
For the rest of you...ahem, incoming 1Ls, welcome to Bar Review!What is Bar Review?
Every week your tireless Commissoners (Marc Therrien and Ed Jang with intern Matt), crack open a fresh beer and ponder over which local bar we should patron.Then, we half-assedly compose a semi-coherent email telling you the general time and direction of our location.All this hard work pays off when you, stressed and anxious law student, finally get to relax and realize that law school can be...bearable.
Although your Commissioners and the Bar Review Cabinet strongly encourage that you capitalize on your opportunities to have fun, we also offer a plea for responsibility.In the spirit of responsibility, we have come up with the following guidelines to ensure a safe and fun environment (this list is largely made up so we leave it to you to drink responsibility):
1. Law school classes are hard; Bar Review is EASY!Just follow this simple three step process:
Step 1, show up to designated bar at designated time.
Step 2, have a drink (preferably alcoholic) in your hand.
Step 3, have fun!
2.Use common sense!We understand that common sense may not seem so common, however, stupid is easy to spot.Which leads us to...
3. Don't be stupid.If you require further explanation regarding this rule, bring your local Commissioner a beer and keep them coming…you’ll soon get the picture.
4.If you should find yourself annoyed by our weekly ramblings and would like to be removed from the list, you're outta luck!We encourage you to stop by the Technology Help Desk located in the Law Library and ask to them about email filtering.
5.Photographs preserve memories of a lifetime...FOR A LIFETIME…
While the official Bar Review starts in August, the Summer Bar Review season is in full swing!Join us at Cheers to You (315 S. Main St.)TONIGHT (Thursday, July 8) at 9PM.*STAY ALIVE, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE*
Succeeding in the game of life,
Your Commissioners Marc and Ed
and intern Matt.
Call/text/stalk us at (801) 44-U-PUTZ (Ed) or (801) 41-ED-LAW (Marc)
Time: Today, Thursday July 7 @ 9PM
Place: Cheers to You (315 S. Main Street)
Specials: College Night - FREE Pool $4.50 & $5.50 Pitchers
Trivia: First person to answer with the CORRECT* answer will get a free drink on us!
A four time Academy Award winning film featuring police and mob infiltration is a remake of THIS Hong Kong crime thriller.
*The correctiveness of an answer is to be determined by the person coming up with the trivia questions.Common knowledge and reference materials (i.e. encyclopedias, libraries, the interweb, your teacher, your parents, your spouse, the media, etc.) will not be considered in the final answer.Any challenge or criticism to our trivia methodology will be promptly ridiculed or ignored.
so, that is different than what i've become accustomed to. there was no spiritual quote, no one imploring me to walk outside of a chalk circle. just people wanting to drink. what a novel idea.
i was in this movie today with my dear tessie and relishing the sensation of actually understanding the foreign language being spoken around me when she turned to me and said, "we need to start watching more foreign films." and my answer was, "my life IS a foreign film."
i'm not sure what kind of a foreign film my life is, if it is a killer romance, a charming and enchanting fantasy, a heart-twister, a classic, or just trash, but it sure is something. and as soon as i made that connection, i obviously started casting the characters of my movielife.
i have decided i would allow myself to be played by:
marion cotillard (since we look EXACTLY
alike)
dame judy dench (she is a Lady and so am i...
in my film)
frieda pinto (did you see her dance-moves at the end
of slumdog?)
amanda bynes (her acting track record is sterling)
and these are actors who i think have the chops to play my leading foreign man (though some of the choices aren't foreign, per se...)
jack black (i just have an inexplicable crush on him)
nicolas cazale (let's be honest, who
can argue with those looks?)
cristiano rinaldo (for the intense soccer scenes)
capitan jack sparrow (or johnnny depp.
either will do.)
i also think that the soundtrack would probably be a mashup of 50 cent and caetano veloso. please play these songs as the exact same time, or as close to the exact same time as you can, to achieve the ambience.
i'm still deciding where it should be set. should i keep it true to life and film it in america (an american surrounded by foreigners)? should i inverse the whole situation and move the production to brazil? or should i just choose a dream destination like italy, hawaii, england? should take place in the past or the present? who will direct it? who will make cameos? what will i say when it wins 10 oscars? i have a lot more planning to do. but, all in all, i think it's fleshing out nicely.
a lot of the time, i really do feel like i'm in a movie and that there should be subtitles for me. it is a strange business with its ups and downs. i've never experienced being a minority like this before. finding my personality and my voice in different cultures is wonderful, but sometimes i feel so off balance like i'm missing the most key components in my own life. in those moments i find myself badly wishing that my life actually was a movie, that there was a recognizable storyline i could make comparisons with, that when the plot twisted i would always know it was for the better. but life is not scripted. some side-stories lead you nowhere. sometimes things do not end happily ever after. some princes are not so charming. sometimes the ugly stepsister wins. and the whole grand point of life is that we never do know what is going to come next, which option will win out and become reality. there are no musical cues or helpful camera angels or spotlights to forecast what is coming next. there is only us living life day by day.
lately it has come to my attention how much i like being informed of what is to come. i don't mind if i see the end of a movie first and occasionally flip to the back of the book to spoil the surprise ending. i'm so grateful for fast-forwarding and speed-reading so i can pick up the pace when the going is too slow or intense. my mind is hyperaware of innuendos and foreshadowing. but these things don't happen in real life. not in the moment. perhaps you can pick it up with that 20/20 hindsight, but not before. these days i never know what is coming in the next hour let alone around the next bend in the greater storyline that is unfurling before me. it is an excellent exercise in trust.
this is the first time that they have both been gone at the same time. when bry went on his mission, jacob was still around. and when jacob was in hawaii, bry was here. but now jacob is in puerto rico and bryan is in california and i am on my own. siblings, at least in my experience, are often taken for granted. and they shouldn't be. it is not the same without them here. i wasn't cut out to be an only child.
and, to be doubly cruel, bryan took his wife with him. just when i had finally gotten a sister.
it doesn't make it any better that i am listening to james taylor on repeat and that it's 3 in the morning. there's nothing for it but a photo montage.
some mood music:
let the memories flow.
one of my favorite pictures of us
bryan in a picture
jacob in a picture
in our sunday best (jacob's a little bit too starched)
i've had many such places in my life. growing up i always had two homes, two rooms, two addresses, two places to claim and to claim me.
the great salt lake city
jacob lake, arizona
i've never really known whether to say i am a utahan or an arizonan and have settled on utah mainly for the simplicity of it. if you say you're from arizona at the north rim of the grand canyon, a long conversation usually ensues rife with information too in depth for most first meetings.
commuting between these two residences got me thinking early on about the importance of place and how people can change based on the setting they're in. i'm a different person in utah than i am in arizona. different parts of me are needed in both places. salt lake is more normal, more regular, a more stereotypical home where i live with my mom, dad, two brothers, and dog. when i'm in salt lake, i'm doing things that most americans do: going to school, hanging out with friends, shopping, watching tv, texting. jacob lake is more wild, unorthodox. when i'm there the internet is crap, cell service is out of the question, and up until a few years ago, there was no tv to watch. hanging out with friends means scampering around zion, lake powell, bryce, the grand canyon (of course). the backyard is a ponderosa pine forest that smells like vanilla when it rains and like heaven even when it doesn't. each place carries with it its own responsibilities, challenges, and rewards. i've been away from my arizona home for a long time. it is the one i ache for most. sometimes i suspect that redrock sand runs in my veins.
in the past few years, i've put a few more homes under my belt. chronologically speaking, hawaii ranks third in my home collection.
kailua, oahu to be exact
my parents have some dear friends who live in kailua, auntie jadean and uncle eric. due to some gross oversight, i don't have any pictures of them to share. they are some of my favorite people in the whole world. i've been lucky enough to visit them 5 or 6 times. since day one, hawaii nestled me into itself making me feel warm, welcome, and sunkissed. sometimes i have hawaii days when it feels like nothing but that island will do. a terribly expensive void to fill.
i think i was predisposed to have a hawaiian soft spot. when i was 5 i used to hang out with my older cousins sometimes. they spent a lot of time with polynesians. wishing i was polynesian started then and has yet to stop. some of the kindest, biggest, most charitable people i've ever come across are poly. it's part of their culture in a different way. so i get to be a slightly different me when i am with them, more open, more connected, more free with myself and those things that i have to give.
scotland would probably fall next on my home timeline. i went there with my family when i was 16. it was extra cool because we went during the world cup. and thus was cemented my life long love for soccer. but that is beside the point. when i got out of the car in edinburgh i thought, "i'm home" and kept right on thinking it even after we left scotland behind.
who doesn't love this?
scotland feels like a high and haunting bagpipe melody to me, chalk-full of that slightly sad wisdom that comes from history. oddly enough, i get a very similar feeling when i go to the hopi reservation. something about these places makes my throat catch when i think about them because of the pasts that they are connected to. my family, in different ways, comes from these two lonely, lovely places. both are harsh, scotland for its cold, arizona for its heat. the people who come from them are strong and proud and i feel honored to be linked to them.
walpi, arizona
if you had asked me while i was on my study abroad in vienna if i would ever long for it, i would have laughed in your face. and then i would have had to eat my words. these days, i even miss the german. and the cold german speakers. i miss being foreign and daily discovering that my way of life isn't even close to being the only way of life. i miss my house parents, helmut and edith, who i also don't have pictures of... and i miss milka strawberry chocolate bars. i put on some goooooooood pounds thanks to those. oh, the joys of being a 19 year old in europe, thinking that eating american food is a novelty and a privilege. this is the place and experience that really compelled me to find who i am on my own. and that is an irreplaceable opportunity.
wein, osterreich
lately my blog has taken on a latin flavor. as has my life. somehow, through the friends i have made at the elc, i have started to feel a new home-call: latin america. i've never been there and i get homesick for it. i love who i am when i'm with brazilians, mexicans, bolivians, argentines, colombians, peruvians. i can be as loud and crazy as i want. dancing to heavy-beats is the dominant activity. humor is a little off color. and the food is phenomenal.
it's like i've just been waiting for life to sound like this:
and for james taylor to sound like this:
i love speaking english in a really heavy accent and somehow thinking that makes me bilingual. i love trying to help people find their place in my culture and, consequently, finding my place in theirs. i love seeing how many different ways there are to look at the same things. latins see me very differently than americans do. i think that's due to a combination of factors: that i am different with them and that they see the world differently.
sometimes i get afraid that i am going to lose this home before i even get to visit it. what a horrible fate that would be.
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