"Hey yous, watch out now, the roads are kinda slippy."

Some reflections on N. East PA:

Coal mining regions are far more beautiful than I had expected.* Pennsylvania sort of evoked a flatter Oregon. It was, to be certain, warmer than the Pacific Northwest though. After a long ordeal involving cancelled flights and the incompetence of US Airways, I stepped outside of the Philly Airport and my glasses fogged up. I hadn't experienced that type of heat and 110% humidity in quite a while. That type of muggy-ness is just disgusting.

The purpose of my trip to PA was my college roommate's wedding. It was the first time I had seen her in over two years and it was wonderful just to be in her presence again. She was completely calm in the midst of chaos, a beautiful bride, a gracious hostess, and is a generally fantastic person. I resolve to visit her more often down in LA (especially once I'm through with school). As a bridesmaid things were also pretty laid back. The wedding party and assorted cousins went bowling (miraculously, I broke 100), we drank ridiculously cheap booze at the bowling alley, we went swimming in a pool with a real live frog in it, and in our baby blue dresses, all of us bridesmaids sweated like hogs. One highlight of the occassion was having more hairspray dumped into my hair than I think has ever touched my hair over the course of my entire life. Thankfully, with my do', I managed to avoid candle flames at the reception which is why I'm here to record these events today.

Some foolhardy(?) ambition...**
Since this post has been relatively diary-esque, I'll close with something equally personal and attempt to attach "For God and Cheese's" first cheesy photo. I'm thinking this might become a regular feature. If this works, you'll be able to see a great glamour shot of me and jdm on the Fourth of July. I appear pregnant, but can assure you I am not. I am just wearing unfortunately bulky layers a top an extremely cold and windy hill.

* On an equally surprising note, coal mines really do look like the mines depicted in Zoolander when Derek returns home.
** And in contrast to ambition, I need only 25 credits to graduate and don't intend to take on more. Here's hoping for a laid back year.

Surf-O-Rama

Now, I don't know about law firms taking summer associates to Tijuana to booze it up and sing karaoke (see infra). I feel that a law firm's money could be spent in a way that would benefit the community in Tijuana in a more positive manner. Perhaps I am too idealistic. On the other hand, I may be hypocritical. I think my firm's recent SURFING trip for summer associates was absolutely fabulous. My upper arms have never been so sore as they were the day after I surfed but the exhilaration of catching waves and actually standing up for a few fractions of a second made it all worth the trip (and the working Saturday).

To top off an excellent surfing experience, after catching waves I drank the first Bloody Mary I actually liked and... appeared in a major lawyer newspaper today. The best tidbits from the article include this quote from the coordinator about how to teach summer associates to surf. He "does what any good lawyer would [do.] '[He drafts] a memo about surfing... And then every year, [He changes] the dates, patch[es] it up and send[s] it back around." As for me, I was quoted as saying, "I'm a Minnesotan, [I hope surfing is] something like sledding."

Another part of the article pictured me, grinning and bearing the weight of the board as I walked in my wetsuit towards the beach. Wetsuits are not so flattering. I never anticipated wearing a wetsuit in my first "paparazzi" moment. Grubby sweats, maybe. A wetsuit, never. I would post the picture, but, in all honesty, it is inaccessible without payment of an absurdly expensive online subscription fee.

In any event, the article went on to talk about some other law firm events including the aforementioned trip to Tijuana. I wonder if any of these summers had experiences like Marissa's TJ OD in the first season of the OC...

"Recently, a group of eight from Baker & McKenzie's Palo Alto and San Francisco offices paid a visit to the firm's San Diego office -- and then headed south of the border with summer associates from that office to visit Baker's outpost in Tijuana.
The trip included an introduction to the office, a talk on efforts to locate new businesses in Tijuana and a Mexican meal, highlighted with karaoke.
Despite some surprise from the summer associates, karaoke is a regular occurrence in Baker's Tijuana office.

"Partners, too, were singing," said [a summer associate]. A couple of tequila shots later, [summer associate] was singing as well, to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On."

Indeed, let's get it on.

Can I get some fries with that shake shake...?

I was walking home tonight from the BART after a lovely dinner with a dear friend from Minneapolis when I was given occassion to appreciate just how much the summer associate life can lead to gluttony, or at the very least, good eatin'. So, I'm walking briskly back to my apartment when two gentlemen slow down to say "Hello." As I pass them by, and they get a look at the other half of me (i.e., the back side of me), one says something I won't repeat for my delicate readers. The other says, "Dang! You look good, keep eating that fine food you've been eating."

Now this comment could lend itself to the interpretation that I had just left a fancy schmancy dinner and was dressed up, as though I had been at Chez Panisse or something. Such was not the case. I was wearing sneakers with the weird leftover work clothes I'm suffering through until my dry cleaning is done. The more apt interpretation of this remark (which was remarkably astute) is that I am indeed eating fine food this summer... and it shows. Awesome insight from an offhand comment. Awesome.

Christmas sweatshirts

To me, a girl who was raised in the stifling humidity of Minnesota summers, one of the wonders of living in Berkeley is the fact that summer is temperate, even cool. Tonight, on the way to "Whole Paycheck" for groceries, I sported my red-orange hoodie as per usual in the evening. Embarassingly, I noted halfway there that my companion, jdm, was sporting a similar green hooded sweatshirt. We looked like dweebs.* Three people laughed at us while crossing the street. Then, on the way back this woman totally blew through her tires when she had to slam on her brakes to avoid running us over in the crosswalk. I saw my life flash before my very eyes. Her tires were totally smoking: serves her right that crazy maniac.

In other news, I am getting a new phone. Soon I will move past my passe Chicago area-code and become one with the 510. For a few days though I will hold on to both numbers just so I can sing, a la Ludacris, that "I've got phones, I got phones, in different area codes, area codes."

I'm off to eat a Frog Hollow peach and return to my work. They are so delicious... holy buckets.

Before I go, note this result when you search for my blog's name on Google.

* jdm contests this assertion. To him, we looked better than twins... we looked like twin elves.