Weekend with T

This past weekend T came to visit from Japan.

I rushed through the airport almost teared up as I caught sight of her sitting at the airport door--with her snapback hat, big suitcase and oversized red backpack looking for all the world like it was totally normal for her to be in California. In America!

Throughout the weekend we brought up old inside jokes and created some new ones. We also spent a lot of time with my family during a car ride to Napa where we played family feud with some pretty funny results.

K: name something people get chased by in movies
Mom: boyfriend! 

K: other than a bull what big animal would you not want in your china shop
T: panda

K: Name something people buy to show they are successful
F: money
A: children

K: Summer sport using a ball
T: beach balley
K: beach ballet?
T: yes K: ballet?
T: yes (mimes serving a ball)
K: volley! Beach volleyball!

 K: when someone's waiting for you after you go to the bathroom what do you say when you come out and see them waiting?
T: the flush is broken
K: ....

T reminds me that it's important to stay connected to those who I care about and who care about me. I hope we will meet again soon and that when we do...she'll finally want to build a snowman.

Do you have any personal experience with lateral support?

8am shenanigans

M: ah gotcha. yeah wheat’s the weather like?
K: grainy


J: are those cheetos
K: no, they're a japanese snack I grabbed out of my cabinet
they're called "curls" or as this bag says"karl"

J: I can smell them, karls
K: want one?
J: kinda. what is japanese cheese like?
K: haha, I'll pass you one after doremus stops looking this way
J: hahaha
....
J: omg, shut up I want a karl
K: hahahahahhaha

S: lateral support?
K: yeah when the professor calls on people
she asks stuff like
"have you ever lost something?"
"have you ever misplaced something?"
but when she called on me she was like "do you have any personal experience with lateral support?"
and I was like...uh.... no
S: hahahah, i have no idea what that is
K: it's when there's a land on top of a hill and another land beneath that hill
and then someone like carves out a piece of the hill
S: like a hobbit den
K: then the land on top of the hill kind of landslides/crumbles down
yeah, and then gandalfs land falls down the hill because there's no lateral support
S: then gandalfs all like
you shall not pass bitch

J: I'll start coughing really loud to cover up the noise of opening that bag
K: hahahahaha
or she should make a joke
and everyone should laugh
so I can open this bag
J: no one's listening, no one will hear the joke

Berkeley Wandering

With a little under a month until finals it's time for me to hunker down and get to work. Of course, it's also important to intersperse work with interesting study breaks. Today, I decided to go on a walk and wander around the neighborhood. Although I've lived in North Berkeley for three months now I have never taken the time to just meander. During my wanderings I ran into...

A friendly cat

A vocal squirrel

A hot sauce shop

Tasted several hot sauces: a garlicky one, a cumin one, and a sweet one

Bought the garlicky one to make spicy chicken wings

A man working the register at Trader Joes with the most amazing golden eyes.

A dog park that I will take Momo to on Monday. 

A print shop 

With very cool "vintage" posters on the walls

A man on the street who winked at me when he saw me looking into the print shop

A building with an accessible roof. 

I attempted to climb up but the last set of stairs to the roof was closed off/under construction.

Enjoyed the sunset from my own balcony.

The spoils of the day!

All in all a rejuvenating walk around the neighborhood and a beautiful afternoon. It was nice to have some time to think and engage with my environment rather than rush by it on my way to class. Can't wait to set off in a different direction another day and do some more exploring.  

My cohort

M, a long time friend from high school, commented after spending an evening with some of my lawschool friends, "your law school cohort is really cool". And they are!

I'm lucky and thankful to be surrounded by cool people at school and at home (with my roommates in Funderland).

Can't wait to hang out more this last week of October. From there it's a straight shot through to exam-stress-freak-out-month of November/December. See you on the other side.  

One Month Checkin: Law School!

It has only been a month since I started Law School, but it feels like forever. The sheer amount of information that has been packed into this past month (and reading, activities, etc) has been way denser than any other point in my life. ever.

I've met some really interesting people, but since studying seems to be everyone's top priority it's hard to find time to really connect with other law school students. In fact, I've probably hung out more with my roommate JM's med program friends more than I have with most of my own cohort.

In a nut shell law school has been intellectually challenging, intensely stressful, and socially a mixed bag. But moreover I see potential lawsuits and liability EVERYWHERE. I should make an app called "you can sue for that". Next stop, MBA.

----Bonus material, a post I wrote two weeks back and was just too tired to press "post" or something---

Titled: Eat, Sleep, Read, Repeat

Two weeks into law school and it's been incredibly busy. Every day I wake up around 7am (which, for those of you who know me well is a feat in itself), walk for 10 minutes, bus for 10 minutes, and then arrive for my first class at 8:30am. From there it's a blur of Civil Procedure, Criminal law, Legal research and writing, and torts, plus a lot of reading and briefing in the library thrown in the somewhere (and sometimes lunch) until it's 5:00pm and time to head back home to cook dinner and hang out at Funderland(tm) with the homies and sometimes do more work/reading. 1L is like having a job!

The material is dense and intricate but incredibly interesting. Each reading assignment is like overcoming a small very jumbled obstacle. Hopefully it becomes at least slightly easier over time.

Some days are very rough for academic reasons. Some days are rough for other reasons. Yesterday was a day of burn-out academics. Today was a day of burn-out emotions. At least every day's different.

Heading out to Lake Tahoe this weekend for some R&R with my trusty Criminal law and Legal research and writing books in tow! It'll be nice to get outside for a while before I get right back to the grind.

My brain is fried--hope this post makes some semblance of sense. Have a happy labor day weekend y'all!

Sleepless in Seattle

Spent a weekend with college blockmates in Seattle. It was just like being back in college with Seattle as the backdrop. Amazing times that can't be put into words--so in the spirit of the previous post I'll put it into quotes (some context, a lot of these quotes are from random games we played throughout the weekend: contact, minority report, kings cup, shuffleboard, etc)

"The teams are: W drink and... drink, W"

M: "Would you rather always drive 60 in a residential area or always drive 40 on the freeway?"

AT: "The rule is... mates have to make mating sounds whenever they drink"
J: "Cuckoo"
W: "Come on Toshi!"

AT: "Would you rather have everyone think that you had sex with a goat but you didn't, or would you rather have had sex with a goat and have no one know about it?
R: "Do people think that I liked it?"

K: "What is a la vender mimosa? Is that spanish?"
AT: "You mean, lavender??"

J: "Oh man, why did I have to be partners with DRUNK W?"

AT: "Get thee to a funnery!"

K: [laughing uncontrollably] "Ok, I have a word in mind that starts with con--let me think of a hint"
W: "Wait, I think I already know what you're thinking"
K: "Seriously? Ok, on three--one, two three"
K&W: "Constipation"
R: "... that was my word"

R: "The hint is, something that I don't need"
K: "Consent"

Quotation Mood

I have come to realize that quotes are not universal--a meaningful quote to me might be just another ordinary sentence to you. Sometimes even a quote that resonated with me at the time of writing fails to stir any response when I look at it again. In a way, this all makes quote collections wonderful.

The more I read and the more quotes I write down the more I wish life itself could be reduced to personally poignant memorable phrases.

"Hell, we made it so efficient I became unnecessary. I made myself irrelevant."
--Dave Eggers
A Hologram for the King

"She had gone too far into the unhappiness of the world to start all over again. If she could choose to unlearn everything that was supposed to have made her wise, she would start all over again. Ignorant and hopeful, she would marry all over again and have a child all over again and drink beer with her handsome young husband on this city beach at night. They would be enchanted beginners all over again, kissing under the bright stars. That was the best thing to be in life."
--Deborah Levy
Swimming Home

"When you are surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up."
--Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood

"Impossible bliss, incalculable heartbreak, and never a hope of separating one from the other."
--Ken Grimwood
Replay

"You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution. Disappear inside the game: break through the limits: transcend: improve: win. Which is why tennis is an essentially tragic enterprise... it is tragic and sad and chaotic and lovely. All life is the same, as citizens of the human state: the animating limits are within, to be killed and mourned, over and over again... life's endless war against the self you cannot live without."
--David F. Wallace
Infinite Jest

"That's what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories."
--Haruki Murakami
1Q84

"You can't regret the life you didn't lead."
--Junot Diaz
The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao

Hope you enjoyed a little slice of my mind!