Random

I bought clothes at Target for the victim I interviewed today...for her to wear when she testifies. The jail interview was something I can't describe without going into details I can't ethically go into.

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There are currently 2 cars on my rather small by city standards block that are serving as people's homes. I want to be sympathetic but am just annoyed, especially because I see occupants of both drinking frequently and one seems to be cooking meth in the van.

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I need the vacation I'm taking next week. I love, love, love my job. But it's been a lot. I can't wait to snorkel, hike, drink, and read. Between buying and borrowing (a disclaimer to my reading list) I'll be reading: Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Barbara Kingsolover's Poisonwood Bible, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Booneville. I will post real links and reviews when I return.

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As Pavement says: "I Need To Sleep..."

Phew...

Amazingly, a year of law school has not further eroded my vision. Although no perscription change also means no cute new glasses, alas.

I bought 2 books for vacation. Those will probably only last me for the first day and a half, so I'm going to borrow some more.

Also, it's my third straight working weekend. Today I need to do some more research. Tomorrow I get to go with my supervising attorney to interview someone in jail.

"The things she says...they're unbelievable"

From my mouth today:

To my supervising attorney: Suddenly the felony murder doctrine doesn't seem so bad. In response to: this.

To my favorite co-intern at the end of the day: "I need caffeinated sugared alcohol.Now. NOW."

The trend continues

Ugh. We had to dismiss the case I was second chairing today. Tomorrow: starting the 4th trial in a week I've sat second chair.

Hi bastage!

In response to a comment on a previous post...

The overall reputation of Hastings being cutthroat is not true. Yes, there was one instance where we needed some research for Legal Writing and Research and pages were missing from a book. I really think that had to be space aliens from years past because I've made loads of friends who are helpful, smart, and most importantly fun. I never had a problem getting notes when I missed a class. I think it's all about how you treat other people. Are there assholes? Yes. But, if you aren't one yourself, you'll find that the majority of people are collaborative and friendly. Oh, and there are some ways in which I feel that rankings/ the curve at Hastings affect the level of competition. But, I'd prefer not to blog about that. If you want more info, e-mail me: skholar@hotmail.com. I'm happy to share stories and try to help if I can. And, once you have a list of your profs, I'm happy to share outlines!

Randomly bursting into song

Today at work my co-intern began singing "A Few of My Favorite Things" about our job. I added things like "Paper cuts on my fingers, motions written by dingers...Files that caaaaaaan't be fooooouuund." It was a good laugh and a horrible sound.

I kept with the trend on the drive home (I give co-intern rides because I like her and because it eases my guilt about driving an SUV in the city). I am all for bikers and give them props for riding in the city with massive hills and narrow roads and loads of bad drivers. But, I am anti bikers who ignore stop signs taunting people to hit and kill them. When one such biker cut me off on the way home, I sang, in a very soothing, girlish lullaby voice: "You have a stopsign too...douchebag...DOOOOOOCCCHEEBAG."

The trial I was second chairing got stayed. Meaning, no second chair for me. It's on appeal. Boo. Hiss. It was a case I'm really interested in. But, I got assigned second chair of another trial that started this afternoon. As in, here's the file, the jury panel has been ordered. You're picking a jury in five minutes. Unfortunately, it seems likely that this too will, uh, go away. The trend seems to be: if you want a trial to go away, have SKH sit second chair.

Ba Da, Ba Da Da Da

Boo: The judge decided today that he just wanted to read the briefs, not hear any additional arguments. And, because I had to completely change the format at the last minute, there are some dumb ass formatting mistakes.

Yay: While hiking the 20 minutes from office to car after work today, I called friend who was in Thailand for a year and is here for one week. She and other friends were heading to a cute diner in the Mission for ice cream. I met them and split a banana split. MMMMM....But, what's up with the pineapple on the vanilla?

And, a weekend recap: Friday, husband's birthday - fried food, friends, and Kettle One. Very good. Saturday, friend in town let's reunite - friends and less Kettle One. Also very good. The rest of the weekend was spent writing brief and nursing hangovers. I sat in sweats on the couch trying to organize case law while the hubster watched Major League (a great movie, BTW). All the warm fuzzies of summer wore off and a wave of school is just around the corner hit me in the stomach.

Here's to thoroughly enjoying the rest of summer.

Everybody's working on the weekend

Guess who gets to argue in front of a judge on Monday? This girl! I'm not certified, so it has to be in chambers as I can't actually argue in court. I have to write a three page brief on window tinting and reasonable suspicion this weekend. The worst weekend possible as I have husband's b-day party tonight (mmm...BBQ and beer,) a friend I haven't seen in a year coming into town tomorrow, 47 loads of laundry, a 5 year old's b-day party and a friend's BBQ on Sunday. But, I am excited and scared shitless.

Ballaz' and Bawlers

My brother in law wanted music while we were hardcore lounging by the pool today. So, my iPod and sister-in-law-to-be's speakers were selected. Sister-in-law-to-be laughed at my music selection which alternated from Ballaz -- including Kanye West, Bubba Sparxxx, and Lil' John to Bawlers -- lovely whiney indie rock selections like Pinback, the Poastal Service, and Feist.

Well I Guess This Is Growing Up

Husband left at 6am on Saturday to go fishing in Cabo with his dad. I have absolutely no interest in tuna fishing, but baking in the Mexico sun sounds amazing, so I am quite jealous. At least I spent the weekend hanging out in Sacramento at the In Law's house. It was hot -- like one hundred and four degrees hot. I lounged by the pool lathered in sunscreen and read SKH porn -- the real estate section of the newspaper. My brother in law took me for a drive around various Sacramento neighborhoods pointing out houses he thought I'd like. He was dead on. "SKH, I know you'd love Old Fair Oaks. There's a great Craftsmen on a third of an acre that's for sale and totally your style." God bless him, he was dead on.

I always thought I'd live in "The City" forever. Now, I would give half of my right arm to have a nice sized house, a yard, and a pool. I know as soon as I leave San Francisco I will bawl my eyes out and long for the days when I could walk to a burrito, cocktail, and 24 hour grocery store. But, a peaceful backyard where husband and I could go and not see anyone at the end of a long day is starting to sound damn good.

In other not related news... 2 of my best friends have met the ones. N who moved to rural Thailand the day after wedding is living in Houston with hers. Be (not to be confused with the frequently mentioned B) is sprung to the max.

Not so Key Lime Bars

The key lime bars are now cooling. Can't vouch for them yet, but here's the recipe:

Heat the oven to 325. Line 13 x 9 pan with foil, leaving excess foil hanging over the edges.

Crust:
5 oz animal crackers (coconut butter cookies or digestive biscuits may work in a pinch, see previous post)
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
pinch table salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (I used salted)

Beat up the animal crackers. We threw them in a Ziploc and pounded them with a meat mallet.
Add brown sugar and salt, mix up.
Drizzle butter over crumbs and stir until crumbs are evenly coated.
Bake for 18ish minutes.
Cool on wire rack.

Filling:
2 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 tablespoon grated lime zest, minced
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup key lime or regular lime juice (Crazy mart didn't have key limes, so we got Persians)

While the crust is cooling, stir the cream cheese, zest, and salt together with a rubber spatula until soft and all combined.
Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until no lumps.
Whisk in the egg yolk.
Add lime juice and whisk some more.
Pour the filling into the crust, spread it all even and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for about 15ish minutes until it is set.
Cool on wire rack for at least an hour. Once it’s room temp, cover with foil and throw it in the fridge for at least another 2 hours.

Then...loosen the edges with a pairing knife, lift bars from baking pan with the excess foil edges, cut up and add garnish. EAT!

Garnish:
3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted until golden brown (since we used the coconut cookies, we skipped this)

Peanut Butter/ Canned Fish

Our 4th of July has gone something like this:

Wake up late, putz around, drink coffee. Damn, why is it so foggy?
What should we do today? Damn, why is it so foggy?
We could take the dog to the beach, but we just got the car cleaned, and DAMN IT IS SO FOGGY.

Took the dog to the park across the street and decided to go bowling. We didn't suck and it was fun. Went to check out what people were catching on the pier. People were catching all kinds of fish. We also saw someone catch a bird on their line :( and a shark. It was packed with at least a hundred people and many of them BBQing on small webbers right next to pigeon poo and fish guts.

I'd decided I wanted to make Key Lime bars. So, we stopped at Ranch 99 Market on the way home. Oh man was that an experience. Specializing in Asian and Phillipino food, I couldn't really make sense of anything. Peanut butter next to the canned fish? Condensed milk in the coffee aisle? Snacks called "Hot Kid?" Yes, this all makes sense in another cultural perspective, but was very disorienting at the time. And why, God, why so many people? And where are the animal crackers for my crust? We ended up substituting Butter Coconut cookies. Husband suggested something called Digestive Biscuit at first, but the name really turned me off.

Recipe forthcoming.

MFF 4-Ever

What is a resume appropriate way of saying: Mastered the art of finding the one most crucial file among the 750 or so eating up our department in under ten minutes before taking a sip of my morning coffee? Master File Finder, while it has a ring to it that I enjoy, doesn't seem likely to help me land a good job next summer.

For those of you who don't know why I'm asking, it's because the job search for NEXT summer starts this August. I realized that the reason I am freaking out about kids and home purchasing is because I've gone an entire month without actually doing anything related to law school (other than crying over grades.)

Last night I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about how I will be a horrible working mother with a nanny, messy shoebox house and kids who hate me. That was that. I decided there will be no more thinking about babies that aren't covered in fur or homes that don't involve greedy landlords and questionable neighborhoods. To practice, I lied in bed and let the thoughts role around my mind. When anything relating to kiddos and houses strolled throuh, I envisioned myself smashing it with a tennis racket.

So, now I am drinking wine and updating my resume. Take that ovaries and million dollar Bay Area homes!

Because nothing says summer in San Francisco like...

Went to a birthday BBQ at Baker Beach today. Cloudy and absolutely freezing. Welcome to the San Francisco summer. It was good to see old friends and do a shot of Jameson.

Otherwise, let's see...work is hectic. Some movement in my department means a hecctic next 2 weeks. Husband is going tuna fishing in Cabo San Lucas for 5 days next week. He is very excited and I am happy for him. Must make dates with some friends, otherwise I will be lonely and eating canned beans for dinner.

Am currently reading I Don't Know How She Does It. A wonderfully terrifying book. I just told husband that the most convenient time to have a kid may be around the time I take the bar because I won't really be able to work between the time I take the bar and find out my results. What the fuck am I thinking?