. . . for a bike! But first things first.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted for 6 months. The basic jist of the last 6 months is thusly: I took the bar on July 26-28th. It was a gruelling three days (well two and a half). I can honestly say it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done (studying and taking the bar). I remember driving out of the garage at the convention center after it was all over and hardly recognizing the world. And of course there was joy and glee, but also confusion as to what I would spend all my waking hours doing.

I waited for 10 days or so for Cedar to return from his research cruise. I was very happy to see my sweet boo. I think he was glad to see me too. After he got back, we rested for a week. Cedar had been working very hard on the boat, and, well, I had taken the bar.

After that we went on our much awaited road trip. Read all about it here. Cedar took some amazing pictures (viewable on the previous link). I think we were on the trip for 2 weeks.

In September poor Cedar had to go back to work. I did some lolly gagging and waited for my bar results. I enjoyed the nice weather and schemed about what to get Cedar for his birthday.

I finally decided on a new bike. But I hadn’t decided what kind - I just knew that his old, heavy mountain bike with broken gears wouldn’t cut it anymore. But of course I’d been giving Cedar hints that I’d get him some camera lens or something. Well apparently he got worried about the whole camera hints and told me he’d prefer a bike. Well, I decided to tell him of the plan. That turned out to be a good idea, because then he decided that we couldn’t just get him a fancy new bike, then I’d be too slow on my mountain bike to keep up with him. We had to get me a new bike too for Cedar’s birthday. An excellent outcome!

A little before Cedar’s birthday we went bike shopping at Gregg’s Greenlake Cycle (the LBS = local bike shop. Bicyclists use lots of lingo). We decided on road bikes because we’d been watching the Tour de France for 4 years and learning more about road racing. But we also thought it would be a good way to exercise - a way that wouldn’t break our bodies quite like ultimate had. So we tried 5-6 bikes (various Bianchi, Specialized, and Trek’s). We road steel frames, aluminum, even a carbon bike (though not to actually buy it, just for kicks). We both ended up liking the Lemond Alp d’Huez the most. It is an aluminum frame with a carbon fork, seat stay, chain stay, and seat post. A picture:

That is the 2006 Alp d’Huez, we have the 2005. The only difference is that the white Lemond part is silver on our bikes.

So we started cycling and really loved it. I’ve got about 500 miles on my bike (Cedar’s probably the same). I would still be biking at least a few times a week, but it gets really cold on a bike when it is 37 degrees out. I’m hoping to have some heavy duty bike gear after Christmas.

I’ve learned that I have much to learn about cycling. I’m still trying to get my bike fit perfectly - the saddle fit is particularly difficult as it takes at least 20 minutes to see if a given saddle is uncomfortable, and sometimes an hour to see if it will cause numbness (a bad thing). Cedar and I might join a co-ed team and get competitive. But even if we don’t do that, I’ll be really glad I started biking. There is something really relaxing - almost meditative - when you get in a groove on the bike - not so much jouncing and jolting as running. I can ride for 3 hours whereas I could never run for 3 hours. Plus, there is so much geeky stuff to learn about biking! For example, a bike with only one gear, which often has no brakes and usually cannot have the crank turn independently of the rear wheel, meaning that you brake by using your legs to peddle slower, is called a “fixie.” A gallery of fixie bikes. In Seattle they are popular with young, shaggy looking men who never wear helmets and usually are wearing mostly black. Go figure.

So we did a lot of biking in September and October. Meanwhile, I passed the bar. Thank god. I also did some temporary work for an immigration law firm downtown. It was a good learning experience, and I ended up working a lot. From working there I realized that I couldn’t really tell if I wanted to focus my practice to immigration law and it didn’t seem wise to focus when I didn’t know what type of law I’d like to practice. So I did some thinking and decided that I’d try to find a position as an associate at a firm that was large enough to have a number of different practice areas. Typically new associates either do a few different kinds of work, or do litigation of some sort. That seemed like a pretty good way to start out as I could gain good skills and experience a few practice areas. I further decided that the important thing in finding a firm was to find one whose people I liked and which would treat me well.

So I’ve been networking and researching firms, keeping my eyes on job listings (of which there have been pretty few), and spending some time reading, exercising (running, sadly, not biking), and socializing. I did apply to a smallish downtown firm as a friend of mine knew someone there, and they were looking for a litigation associate. I still may get an interview there, but they are still making the decision as to what kind of help they need. Generally I’ve managed to stay upbeat and positive about the job search process, but I do have moments where I feel a bit forlorn.

Enough about the job search. Cedar and I went to West Virginia for Thanksgiving. We stayed there for 9 days and ate ourselves into oblivion. It was a really nice trip. It snowed about 3 inches, then 5 days later it was 60 degrees. Crazy! We saw Destiny’s (Cedar’s mom) Stardust Cafe in Lewisburg (website coming soon) which was beautiful and had so many yummy drinks and food.

The past two weekends Cedar and I have gone skiing/snowboarding at Stevens Pass and Whistler. Whistler has amazing scenery, though the snow wasn’t quite as good that weekend as it had been at Stevens. It is still very early in the season. Our friend Rhetick has a cabin at Whistler which is very nice (it’s available to rent). The Vancouver traffic almost killed us - it was awful, some tunnel was closed or something. I thought everything was supposed to be nice in Canada? See if I drive in that stupid country again.

And Christmas is upon us! My Dad and Stepmom will visit again this Christmas, so I expect we’ll have a merry time.

So, Merry Cookies, Happy Eggnog, and Sugarplum Greetings to you!

Allright, this is going to be a very short entry, my apologies.

First, I graduated from law school and was very happy about that (though not too happy because I still had to take the bar exam. See more about that below). Pictures are here.

Second (in order, not in time), Cedar and I got our new Prius! It’s silver, beautiful and really a great car. I love it. Pictures here.

Note: the first picture mimicks a picture I found of my Dad when he bought the Maxima that I mentioned in my last post. Anyone want a 1990 Nissan Maxima?

Third: Hellfish (ultimate team) won spring league finals again on my birthday. We kick ass! Pictures.

Fourth: Bar review. You lawyers will groan, break into a sweat, or perhaps sit in a corner and rock upon reading those words. You non-lawyers will think, “I like bars, they sell beer there.” Well, the bar exam is a horrible thing that lawyers make other lawyers pass. Briefly: 21 subjects, closed book, 2.5 days, 5 weeks to study. It is like studying for finals for 5 weeks. I’m serious. So I’m doing that until July 26th, 27th, and 28th. I’m a touch cranky, emotional, stressed, and tired. Poor Cedar.

After that Cedar and I will take our shiny new Prius and drive around, probably on the west coast. I love road trips. I love the Prius. And I love Cedar. It is a fitting counterpoint/end/celebration of the last three years.

I’m going to make like an Oscar/Emmy winner and thank you, my friends and family, for letting me complain to you, asking me how I’m doing, being funny, fun and supportive. I think you all are great. Cedar gets the “God” prize as he is first and foremost the person without whom I could not have finished this whole ridiculous process (school, more school, the bar). Cedar, I love you and I win the lottery every morning when I wake up and you are there.

Oops, been a little remiss on my blog. But I am in the home stretch. Having run hundreds of 400m’s in my life, I can say that this last 4 weeks has similarities and differences to the final straightaway of a 400m.

Some similarities: your muscles are burning (brain is burning), you can see the end and you’re really happy about it, and you and everyone else is hoping you finish faster rather than slower. Someone will hand me a little medal (diploma) when I’m done.

Some differences: I’m not winning law school. I am (was) a much better 400m runner than law student. But I’m ok with that, because I don’t think I’d like myself very much if I were a stellar law student. (Ironically, I did get all A-’s last quarter. I have no idea how.). Finishing a 400m is pretty simple: lift knees, swing arms, don’t get tight. Law school doesn’t have that simplicity.

This quarter has actually been very nice. I’ve had a lot more time to spend with Cedar and my friends. I even cooked once or twice! I’m feeling very good even though the whole job search is looming large.

We’ve been playing ultimate, which is great fun. My team, Hellfish, has only lost once. Last year we were the Spring League Champions:

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In our most recent game Cedar took lots of pictures of me (good work honey!):

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The second picture is me landing from a layout catch.

Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of Cedar, though he had an amazing layout catch and score where he ran down a dying throw and caught it 3 inches off the ground.

Things are moving right along here in Seattle. We’re buying a new Prius! Either silver or black with all the options (Navigation system, remote keyless entry, nice stereo, vehicle stability control, airbags, some other stuff I’m not as excited about like auto-dimming mirrors and fog lights):

Anyone looking for a 1990 Nissan Maxima with 220K+ miles on it? Runs great! I found a picture (hard copy) of my dad and the Maxima when he first bought it, lo 15 years ago. I’ll try to scan it.

Then, at the end of May, we’re moving to a friend’s house while I take the bar. In August we go on a road trip in our new Prius. Then I look for a job, then we look for a house.

On the job front things are going well. Recently I’ve been meeting with a lot of Immigration law attorneys. They have been very helpful and kind. I’m hoping to meet with some more estate planning attorneys soon. The job market is still not great, so it might take me a while to find the job that I’ll be happy with. I’m really grateful that Cedar is willing to support us while I look.

So I look forward to all the big changes that are afoot. Once we get a house we’ll probably get a dog not too long after that, and, despite my previous schizophrenia on the whole dog thing, I think it will be really nice to have a little furry beastie to take care of. I expect that Cedar and I will spend some time working with a knowledgeable rescue organization to find the dog that is right for us. And I think not being in law school will really help in terms of being able to have the dog-ownership experience that I’d like.

Classes are going fine. Death and Gift Taxation is fairly entertaining, despite having to read the tax code. Access to Justice is interesting. I led a class with two other students as part of the requirements for the class. Our topic was “Personal Identity, Role, and Values: Becoming a Lawyer, Staying Yourself.” It was a topic I find very interesting and we discussed the general unhappiness and unhealthiness of the legal profession, why people stopped wanting to do public interest work during law school, and how law school socializes law students to a certain kind of legal work (large firm work). Turns out a study was done here at UW law school and 21% of respondents had a serious alcohol problem (meaning DUIs had happened repeatedly), and almost as many had serious clinical depression. In many ways the legal profession is not doing well.

Bus Orgs is fine. The Professor has made it very clear that he hates it when we come to class late and we shouldn’t come at all if we come late. This is a little unusual as I’ve never heard a law school professor mention tardiness. I was very bad and stayed in bed, skipping Bus Orgs today. It was wonderful! I got an extra 30 minutes of cuddle time with Cedar.

So that’s about everything I’ve got to say. Oh, I graduate on June 12th, start the bar review course on the 13th, take the bar on July 26th-28th, and then I’m free!!!!!! Well, free to continue my job search.

Welcome to my last quarter ever of law school!

This quarter should be pretty good. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of my classes. My Bus Orgs class (8:15am - 9:20am) is the most pleasantly surprising. That is a pretty early time and most early classes I’ve taken have been terrible. But Professor Ngugi is a young, enthusiastic guy who has a talent of balancing lectures with discussions. He keeps discussions on topic, which is difficult to do well.

And, perhaps of most import, is the fact that I only have 1 exam (for Bus Orgs). (Of course the exam is two days after my birthday.) My other two classes, Death and Gift Taxation (DGT), and Access to Justice (AtJ), do not have finals. Those classes’ grades are based on problem sets, papers and projects.

DGT has been a very practical class in which we go through problem sets and figure out tax liability for various estate or gift scenarios. It is actually a little bit fun, though the first problem set took a LONG time. I think it has the steep learning curve. Since Estate Planning is one of my interests this class should be very useful (an alum I talked to who practices estate planning told me that DGT was the most useful class she took. She even had and used the text book from the class.)

In other estate planning news, the Washington Legislature is coming up with a new estate tax since its old estate tax was recently overthrown by the state Supreme Court. In a local article in the Seattle P-I, the Gates family gave some statements supporting the estate tax as a fair and less regressive way to tax. Washington currently relies heavily on the sales tax and local property taxes. I thought it was interesting that the Gates family made that statement. It was “family-owned” business owners that were complaining in the article. I’m not sure, but I believe there are tax exemptions anyway for family-owned businesses passed at death. So what are they complaining about? I’m not sure.

I spent last weekend writing a paper for PR (Professional Responsibility - which I took last quarter, but the paper wasn’t due until the second week of this quarter). That was annoying and it made my week very busy. But this past weekend was great. Cedar and I had a nice lazy day on Saturday (well, we did our taxes, but that didn’t take very long). I baked some cookies, and read a book (for fun). Sunday I played ultimate for the first time in 9 months.

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(In this picture I turfed the disc, but I think it was my only turnover)
It was great! My knee didn’t hurt. It helped that the ground was like a sponge. I’m sore today, but everything appears functional. Cedar played very well, I even got pictures!

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Cedar also got a great picture of Bob laying out:

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Wolfe commented on my last entry regarding my use of the word “geek” to describe myself as an “estate planning geek.” He pointed out that the better word would be “wonk.” I agree.

I am hereby, officially, a budding “estate planning wonk.”

I had some good developments on the job front. I met with an immigration lawyer and talked with her about her job. I really liked the sound of the kind of work she did. She also gave me 7 other people to contact, three of which I’ve heard back from about meeting. Somewhat more exciting is that she wants to hire me part-time, though sporadically, this quarter to help with her growing solo-practice. I hope I get to help her as I’d really like to get some practical experience.

So that’s encouraging.

The weather has been a little weird (lots of snow in the mountains), but spring time is upon us, as those with allergies could tell you (I only get very mild allergies, I feel lucky. Seattle is supposed to be pretty horrible for pollen counts.)

I love spring! Even more I love being almost done with law school. I graduate June 12th, start the bar review class June 13th, and take the bar July 26-28. Then Cedar and I plan to take a vacation of some sort (probably a road trip here and there).

So I finished the second of two finals today! I was so happy I ran around willy nilly like McCauley Culkin’s character when he realized his parents are gone in Home Alone. Ah the exuberance of 10 year olds. And law students.

I then had a nice workout (first in weeks). I saw a beautiful double rainbow over the I-5 bridge on my way to the gym. This isn’t it (I didn’t have the camera sadly), but it’s not too different:

Right now I’m sitting in Britta and Kevin’s kitchen, watching Cedar make spaghetti and meatballs. And, the best thing, THE BEST THING, is that I don’t have to read, study, think about reading or studying, or procrastinate while not reading or studying. Life is definitely good.

I realized something during my Transmission of Wealth final today. I actually enjoyed taking the final. That is definitely a first. And it certifies me as a geek. A trusts and estates geek sure, but a geek nonetheless. Other law school exam reactions rank from “Ow, my brain” to “I just got run through a meat grinder” to “Perhaps I’ll move to Australia.” But my reaction to this test suggests I should talk to some more estate planning lawyers about their jobs.

It is now Saturday (I’m finishing this blog entry a few days later). Cedar and I had a great Saturday morning. We read in bed, ate some breakfast, putzed around on the computers, hung some pictures (finally! We’ve had about 15 framed pictures and pieces of art to hang up sitting on the floor in a pile for 6 months), ate some lunch. Cedar’s playing tennis now. He’s playing indoors with Jason since it has been raining all day. I can hear the rain on the roof, it’s nice.

On Wednesday after I finished my finals, and after we ate spaghetti and meatballs, we watched Garden State. It was a good movie, quite enjoyable. I thought the characters were refreshingly real, especially Natalie Portman’s character, Sam.

Yesterday I invited friends to go on a bike ride to Golden Gardens park to see the sunset. Wolfe, Christa, Cedar and I rode on the Burke Gilman trail, and things were going swimmingly until I took quite a spill trying to cross some rail road tracks in the pavement. My bike tire slipped on the metal track, then caught abruptly on the pavement, and since I was going fast I totally lost the front wheel and went flying to the right and up. I landed on my butt and then my head snapped down and the back of my helmet cracked on the pavement. So I’ve got a very sore bum and a light headache. Somewhat coincidentally a guy on a road bike did the exact same thing about 5 minutes after I did while I was recovering on the side of the road. I emailed the city and told them they have a dangerous condition there.

So now it is spring break and I’m going to jury duty on Monday! Yay (sarcasm). But after that I’m going to do some job work, then Cedar and I will take a three day weekend down to Oregon. Maybe we’ll go to the Oregon coast.

Next quarter my classes probably are: Business Organizations, Access to Justice Seminar, Death and Gift Taxation, and the Refugee and Immigrant Advocacy Clinic (RIAC). I’ve been doing the clinic this whole school year as it is a year long thing. RIAC is a part of the Northwest Justice Project.

Cedar’s Aunt Cayla reminded me that public service can be very rewarding (something I didn’t mention as a benefit in my last post). She is right, and RIAC is the reason I know that. I’ve been helping low-income immigrants and refugees get and maintain their benefits, get their citizenship, and find low-income housing, among other things. I have real clients and I talk with them and help make their lives a little easier. It’s been a great experience, and very rewarding.

In other really fun news, Cedar’s Mom opened a restaurant in Lewisburg, WV. Here are a couple pictures:

I think it is really beautiful, I could live there (more pictures here). and Destiny tells us it’s going gangbusters. I feel so proud to have such an entrepreneur in the family.

Well, I’m about finished blabbing on here. Happy Saturday!

Five days until my PR (Professional Responsibility) final. Studying for that class has been frustrating (my friends and Cedar must be pretty tired of my complaints). The Professor’s lecture style makes it very difficult to take notes as well as to organize broad concepts into a coherent outline. But you have to start somewhere.

My second final, on Wednesday morning, is Transmission of Wealth (ToW). ToW should be called “Wills and Trusts” but the professors thought it would be more confusing to students and would-be employers by making up a fancy name, which I can tell you, doesn’t actually reflect the material covered.

Can you tell I’m a little disillusioned with law school professors right now? “Disillusioned” is the nice way of saying it.

Last night Britta and Wolfe stopped by with tasty Paseo sandwiches. Paseo is a Cuban sandwich restaurant in Fremont and makes the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. Seriously. I had a grand old time eating, making hot cocoa, protecting Cedar’s sandwich from Britta and Wolfe’s wandering fingers while he worked late, and sending out sarcastic emails to Hellfish, my ultimate team. Turns out sarcasm is a wonderful palliative to a cranky law student.

In talking with Cedar about the kind of job I’d like last night, I’ve decided on the perfect job for me: managing Cedar’s photography business. I haven’t yet figured out how to incorporate my two other interests: historical linguistics and the study of the negative psychological effects of law school and the legal profession. If you think of such a job, do let me know!

The other thing I realize about my ideal job is summed up by one handy phrase: “Happy medium.” That should by my personal motto actually. The reason is long, detailed and boring, but the upshot is that litigation is too time consuming and doesn’t have enough human contact. Transactional and service jobs don’t have enough deadlines or structured supervision. Public interest work pays too little and is often emotionally draining. Private practice can be boring, morally dehumanizing, and require way too much time. Some of the dissatisfaction I feel stems from the specialization of the world: lawyers in particular focus and narrow down until they are experts on, say, trust litigation, or non-profit formation. I need variety, the happy medium. I am determined to find the relatively interesting, 40-50 hour, varied, and at least a little geared towards the needs of humankind job.

That’s a snippet of my latest work: “Ali’s View of the Labor Market and Where She Fits In.” Stay tuned for more installments.

Cedar (also known as IT department par excellence) has set up this sweet new blogging software on our website. I have a blog! I don’t know if that therefore makes me a blogger.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting (not much in the next couple weeks because of finals). I’ll try to make my posts interesting, at least to those of you who want to hear what I’m up to. Feel free to comment on entries and let me know which ones you particularly like.

Coming real soon. There is already some of my old content, like dog stuff, and my law journal, to the right.