Hike!

My apologies for the hiatus from blogging. Being out of law school has made me much less likely to turn my computer on at home... but I'm back!

Last weekend I went on a wonderful hike in Virginia only about 45 minutes from DC with a few friends. The weather was absolutely beautiful. At the start of the hike, we saw an old water mill. Then we hiked about 2 hours to a spot with a wonderful view where we had a picnic. Oddly, everyone had a peanut butter sandwich of some kind (pb & j, pb & bananna for me, pb and pickle, and plain pb). Then we hiked around for the rest of the day until we got back to the car.

This weekend Sohail surprised me with tickets to a latino dance festival. There were troupes from Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and Bolivia. The dancing was beautiful but it was especailly fun because I felt like I was reliving my trips to some of those places. And today I had two soccer games. Now I'm exhausted!

Happy Halloween everyone! This is the trunk of tree we saw...

Some great stone benches...

These trees were still really green but beautiful.

Rebecca & Alicia hiking

Alicia after lunch

Our view during lunch

Lunch time

Part of the mill

More of the mill

The water mill

Soccer Champions and Post-Bar Picnic

My new life has begun and it's off to a great start with a soccer championship yesterday and a picnic today.

Yesterday my GW soccer team won the finals of the alumni league in DC. From the size of the trophy you'd think we'd won the world cup... That how we feel!

during the game

the champions!

some of the boys on my team

Today I organized a picnic to see my friends who I hadn't seen in months. Max found some friendly faces to give him food.

Jared and Luna

Max and me

Jorge, Jackie and Rebecca. Jorge, Rebecca and I were all in the same first year law school class

Nate and Mark. Nate was also in our class.

the bar, albany, and my new post-bar life

The Bar's over!!!!! It was an awful experience that's very difficult to explain but it entails very little sleep, lots and lots of stress and no clue whether I passed or not. I was lucky to have a good testing site but my bar got off to a bad start with a busted pen and a computer telling me that it was recovering from a fatal error in the 10 minutes before the bar exam. Fortunately my computer did not break during the test.... In any case, I'm glad it's over and I really really hope never to have to take it again.

Just before leaving to go take the bar. These two guys were my rocks during the bar exam. If I passed it's thanks to them.

I drove up to Albany with my good friend Tara and we shared a room close to where the bar was being administered. Here's Tara's still smiling before the bar started....

I never did learn most of the things on these flashcards... At least I'll still have them in February if I need them.

Both exhausted after day one... but somehow still smiling.

Our hotel. The theme was turn of the century New York. We were hoping for butter churning classes but all they were offering was cross-stitching.

The sustenance of bar takers

We were marked for two days. I think the bar examiners wanted to give Albany residents a fair warning that they were about to deal with crazed nerds and tell them to stay far far away.

Right after the bar with Anne and Ben (former roommates from Costa Rica and Washington).

One of may outdoor concerts going on in Albany. I think I saw four in the two days I was there but we specifically went to listen to this one.

NY statehouse. While Anne and Ben were at work I visited it and it's beautiful inside and out. Later that day I saw Governor Patterson walking around Albany.

Inside the statehouse.

A mural in the statehouse.

Rockefeller Plaza in Albany. Apparently this was a dilapidated part of town when Rockefeller was governor of NY and he converted the entire area into office buildings surrounding a walkway with a pond in the middle. The egg looking building is a performing arts center

The newlyweds furniture shopping.

almost over....

In less than a week the bar will be over. In the meantime, I've been studying a lot and playing a little. Here's the last week in photos:

If only I could remember all the information on these flashcards!!!

Last weekend my co-ed GW team was in the quarter finals of our league. We won! Hopefully they'll win again this weekend so I can play in the final when I get back from the bar. Here I am running.

And here I am not running. This is the norm...

Max had a great time rolling in the sand at a baseball field. I couldn't wash him for a few days because he had medicine on his back so I had an orange dog for a weekend. Several people told me they'd never seen a dog of that coloring... I guess that's better than saying they'd never seen a dog that dirty...

Finally a bath! I love wet puppies. Puppy likes wet puppies slightly less.

Sit

Be cute

Smile for the camera

a diversion from bar studying

The bar review has basically taken over my life.... But last weekend I got a few great breaks. First there was a wine tasting a Sarah and Barney's and then a wonderful Persian lunch. I also played a soccer game so I guess I can't complain too much but there were way too many flash cards for my taste.

Sohail and Sarah discussing wine... hey, that's not wine!

Barney - host and excellent chef

Boston - host and taste tester

Yes, we posed...

Sohail made this Persian lunch (a celery and mint stew) to keep me going through my review.
It was delicious.

Mad Max!

Although I've spent lots of time with Max at my Mom's house, I never realized how different the world is when you live in a city with a dog. In just one week I've gotten into more random conversations than in a year of living here sans Max. These people include:

• several eight-year-old kids
• a woman who is my education representative in DC, who coaches soccer and who is trying to get a new turf soccer field put in by my house
  
• a little old Russian lady who just moved to the US and is looking for a place to live
  
• lots of fancy pants Georgetown women at the dog park in the morning
• lots of young hip couples having cocktails at the dog park in the afternoon
  
• some basketball playing teenagers who told me I had a "sick" dog (Maman - don't worry, that's a compliment...)
  
• and the list goes on...

Plus, most of the people who used to walk past me without even noticing me now smile at me (actually they're smiling at Max but I just pretend they're smiling at me). It's like everyone's happy in DC all of a sudden. And we've run together every day since Max got here. At first we had a little disagreement about how many bushes were were going to stop running in order to sniff them but we sorted that out (in my favor) and now the runs are wonderful (Maman, again don't worry - it was actually a compromise; on our way to the dog park we stop at every bush to sniff it). Hopefully Max is having as much fun as I am...

This is Max extremely annoyed that, after waiting at least 20 minutes for me to get ready to go to the dog park, we came back to the apartment to get the camera...

Looking for playmates at the park. He eventually found lots of doggies.

Napping while I study

Checking on me to see how the flash cards are coming. Today I was working on my flash cards for trusts and Max was relieved to learn that anyone can create a trust for a pet so if you want to leave your pet lots of money but don't trust him/her to spend it wisely, you can leave it with a trustee to manage it for them (yes, that's really true)!