The Center of the Home

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I come from a family of feeders. If you are over at my house, I will offer you food. If you are eating at my house, I will offer you more food. If I am at your house, I will offer to cook for you. Both the Pioneer side and the Polish side of my family associate feeding our guests and friends with taking care of them. Even in high school, when my friends would stop by (sometimes after clearly ingesting hunger stimulating substances), my dad would offer them carrot sticks or apple boats and cheese. Are you an out of town guest? We will have a dinner in your honor. Whether or not you want one. Don’t fight it, just let it happen.

Fact: I have a leather couch in my kitchen. Because when people are over everyone tends to gather in the kitchen rather than the living room. Make them comfy and feed them snacks and cocktails. Perfect.

My aunts brought me a table on Sunday. This table has been in my Dad’s family forever. Its 150 years old (sesquicentennial table/Idaho party, anyone?). The table was made before my Dad’s family arrived in Massachusetts from Poland/Belarus. The table was built around the same time my Mother’s family homesteaded Boise. 150 is a perfect number.

As a child, Grandma GiGi used to make us scrambled eggs and pancakes. We’d sit on the bench underneath the portrait of the Last Supper hanging on the painted cinderblock. We’d eat until we were painfully stuffed and GiGi would remind us that we can’t sing at the table or else we’d have a crazy husband.

At Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and any other dinner occasion, I remember making mashed potato volcanoes at that table. I was constantly worried I’d hit the leaf support and knock the hot food to the floor.

Between my own memories of the table, and what a dining room table represents for me and my expressions of love and friendship, I can’t wait to host brunch at my house this Summer. Don’t be surprised if I get a bit maudlin after a mimosa or two.The Table

Public Humiliation as a Learning Experience

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And I am a JD pending one final… Commercial paper/negotiable instruments/payment systems on Monday. I’m not sure why different schools call them different things.

And I should be studying more, but it is SO HARD to study when its my last thing I ever have to do for school. And I had a killer semester internship where I got to play be a prosecutor. And I even have a job for after the bar.

WHAT? DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? Yes, it did.

And how did law school prepare me for work? Well, professors are meaner than judges. So its nice going into court knowing that you already have experienced worse treatment than a judge will give you. I remember my first week of classes as a 1L, and my torts professor called on me. I didn’t know what the answer was so I just started talking. Wordswordswords. The Professor actually stopped me, walked out of the room, came back in several seconds (it felt like minutes) and told the class we were starting over for the day.

And another year comes and goes.

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Well, December 21, 2012 came and went 5 days ago. The supposed end of the world might have been a little more foreboding if the people selling it weren’t on Doomsday Preppers. Magnetic pole shifts, ice caps melting, sun flares, invisible planets. While I’m not a scientist (unless you want to count my poli sci degree as being a political scientist, and you don’t) those things don’t appear so empirically sound.

In 5 days, I’ll be waking up to 2013. I’ll miss 2012, it was good to me. I knocked two more semesters of law school out, I had a killer clerkship, I got to move out of Moscow and back to Boise, Chris and I celebrated a year together, I’ve made new friends and reconnected with old friends. I started a weight training program and dropped 20 (law school induced) lbs. While I don’t usually make new years resolutions (I prefer to make changes in my life as I believe I need them), this has been an especially fast semester and Christmas season. Everything I want out of 2013 is an extension of what I currently have.

So, what do I want out of 2013? More of the same, and a few adjustments on my end. I need to get my buns in gear in the job search. I want to make more thing (crafternoons anyone?). I want to get back into yoga to balance out the weight lifting. Most importantly, I need to quit giving my time to people that elicit negative feelings. Simplify my life. Those things seem like small changes. Additionally, I’m flirting with going Paleo, but I really, really, really love legumes. I don’t know if I can give them up.

I wish everyone feels loved and loving as they move out of 2012 and into 2013.

 

 

 

In which I finally decide that finals aren’t the worst…

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So two weeks ago I was stressed about a bankruptcy exam, my property security exam, and my upper division writing requirement. One week ago I had it narrowed down to just the the last two things, and couldn’t wait for this week so I could have a break from school. Oh, yeah, finals also made me postpone my birthday party (like it has for the previous 2 years). 

Its day 4 of the break, and I’m about to climb the walls. There is one thing I am really not good at-doing nothing (ask BF, I can’t even watch movies without multitasking). I’ve organized my shoes, closet, done laundry, deep cleaned my room, organized  book shelves, cleaned the car, worked 2 doubles and 2 other shifts at work, done my Christmas Shopping, wrote a to do list, filled out product reviews, re-set up a myspace account (its back or something? I don’t know, I can’t figure it out so it upsets me). 

I’m bored. So. bored. I kind of actually like studying for finals, especially when its at the luxurious pace of one a week. My brain is then forced to focus on one subject for an entire week. Its great. Then there is the final, which is stressful and also relaxing (afterward, because your body and mind are exhausted). Post final-final, with the combination of residual adrenaline, the elated feeling of being one semester sooner to graduation, and general spazziness that I am prone to, I felt like a hummingbird. I thought I could run a half-marathon. 

This was all great, but Sunday night I was starting to feel antsy given my lack of things to do. No reading, no writing, no deadlines, nothing. It was unsettling. 

I guess this means I’m finally a real law student?

 

 

 

 

It also means I should tackle some pinterest projects. 

{ridiculous} things people have told me and then argued with me when I corrected them.

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Usually I just give up and walk away, or put my head down and not say anything. However, due to finals and holiday season stress, I’ve got to get this nonsense off my back.

“Poker is legal”
“Twin Falls has an atty gen”
“Prosecutors get murdered all the time in Idaho”
“People shoot at prosecutors all the time in Idaho”
“Vacuuming in a restaurant while customers are in it is a federal felony”
“Carpet cleaners are a scam, they put mold in the carpet so you have to buy new carpet”
“Vacuums actually just push everything deeper in the ground, they don’t really clean”
“I grew up in a really bad family, and I’m fine, those people are just making excuses” From a law student who went to private school… when I was talking about how kids in the juvie system are severely disadvantaged in life from day one.
“I have to remind myself to stay humble”
“Oh, are you finishing law school at BSU?”

Ill have more next week.

Its not that I am mad that people don’t know things, its when I nicely try and explain or correct why they are wrong (especially as it pertains to the law) and they vehemently argue with me like I don’t know any better. I don’t argue with people when I don’t know something. Why? Because it keeps me from learning something AND has the added bonus of making me look stupid. I learned that in 7th Grade at St. Joe’s.