Spring Break is Awesome

I've been on spring break this week, just hanging out at home. And it's been so great. I never want it to end!! Alas, I have to return on Monday to the daily grind. :( Some highlights of my week:

• Played my guitar for 4 hours on Monday while my computer was getting worked on (it broke, but it's all better now, and thankyouIBMfortheawesomewarranty) and wrote part of a song!
• Got to spend some quality time with some of my girlfriends, some more than once!
• Got to sit for several hours at Starbucks with my favorite person (Bryan!!) on Thursday while our car was getting worked on (it was overheating and had a significant oil leak, but it's better now, an arm and a leg later. Why doesn't IBM make warranties for cars? :)).
• Spent an hour on a train yesterday, (after hanging out with some of the cutest kids in the world!) and felt like I was back in Europe.
• DIDN'T EVEN OPEN A TEXTBOOK ALL WEEK. (though lately this is not unusual.)
• Now that you're all cyberupdated, I'm going to try to finish that song. :)
  

Playing Chicken

I've decided that it would be stupid for a mouse to play chicken with a Mac truck. Mostly because Mac has nothing to lose. If Mouse is the only one who is going to be hurt, then Mac has no reason to change course or stop, especially if Mac can't see Mouse. So basically Mouse is only hurting herself by playing chicken. It's suicide.

Learning Corporations Through Song

My Corps professor is notorious for singing to his students. And it's awesome. A couple of weeks ago he sang a song about fraudulent conveyances, and yesterday we got a ditty about executive compensation. (I hear he sang today but I had to miss class to pick up my wallet from a good samaritan - long story). It's hilarious because he's really into it. Sometimes he brings a CD player along for accompaniment. Anyway, I was just googling it and came up with this Record article about when he left his position as dean of the law school. Apparently he's a pretty serious composer at times, who has a keyboard in his office. Who knew!

Our baby's growing up!

Nino lost a tooth yesterday! It's the first one we've noticed, because it's one of the canines. (By the way, I think it's kind of strange that cats have canine teeth... shouldn't they be felines? Whatever).

It explains why he's been eating much less lately - his gums are probably sore!

We're getting old

Bryan and I went skiing with the worship team yesterday, and whew! We're getting so old! Neither of us had been on a mountain before, and he snowboarded and I skied. Boy, are we sore! I twisted my knee a little bit, and between that and my sore butt muscles, I had a really hard time physically getting out of bed this morning. EEK! It was fun though. I still don't know how to stop (hence the twisted knee), but I think we'd like to go again! (And it helped me overcome my fear of winter sports!)

Happy Birthday Tyler

Today's my baby brother's 18th birthday. Wow. I remember when he was a chubby toddler, eating everything in sight. I remember when he was an energetic child, giving my sister and me a run for our money. I remember when he was ten, trying to show everyone how smart he is. I remember when he was a teenager, awkwardly hiding in everyone else's shadow. And now he's officially an adult. And soon he'll be a Marine. Every time I talk to him I'm surprised at his maturity, and this milestone is a big part of that.

Gee, I sound old. At least I didn't post this mush on his MySpace page! :)

Practicing ... for real?

This semester I'm doing a clinical, which means I'm getting 3 credits for working 15 hours a week at a legal services center in Jamaica Plain. I'm really excited about it, because it's really world experience: I get to represent actual clients, and do stuff for them, helping them realize their dreams. But I'm also incredibly frightened about it, because it's real world experience, and I'm representing real people, who are handing me their dreams to make happen. It's so scary. Yesterday I had my first client meeting, and it felt a little bit like a law school exam (which I guess makes sense - they probably design the exams to be a bit like real-world practice?). My client came in and told me all of the things he wants to do, and I was supposed to get all the information I needed to be able to sort those issues out, prioritize them, and begin to make it happen. EEK! An hour and a half later, I was sitting in front of my computer with my jumbled notes trying to write an intake memo, not knowing where to start!

I know it will get better, though; I already feel better about my work so far. I called a client yesterday all by myself, and took some papers to her house for her to sign. Small as that was, it was empowering...

Well this is really just a ramble so I can avoid working on the paper that is due on Monday. I should get on that, actually. :) As usual, please ignore any misspelled words or garbled phrasing.

Tooth Fairy

Some of you know that Bryan still has two baby teeth (lower front). His dentist told him he doesn't have adult teeth, so there's nothing to take their place. Lately one has been loose. Last night it was getting to be too painful so he pulled it. It's weird to say Bryan lost a baby tooth, at 24. :) But he did! We thought about putting the tooth under the pillow, but then we figured it would just fall out and Nino would get it before the tooth fairy came to take it away. And then Nino would try to eat it, and it would be bad. So we threw it away. So no cash under the pillow last night. But it really took us both back to when we were eight years old! :)

Our weekend getaway

We just got back from New Hampshire. We went to our usual place (the same place we went for our anniversary last year) and it was amazing! We had an awesome package. It was nice to be there in the winter and see the beautiful mountains all snow-capped. It was freezing yesterday. Seriously. The temperature was one degree Fahrenheit at 11:30 am. And the wind chill put it at least 20 below. OUCH! It took our car 45 minutes to start (hooked up to the innkeepers' SUV).

Yesterday because it was so cold we went shopping at the outlet malls. And Bryan let me drag him around for like 5 1/2 hours! :) What a guy! Then we had an excellent fondue dinner (and reisling :) ) at the restaurant at the inn.

Today we went snowshoeing here and it was a ton of fun! (I think next time I want to try cross-country skiing.) We met some really great people on our tour and had a blast. Then we came home to our baby kitty, who while we were gone had a great time playing with his new friend Simba. (And even though Simba is at least 3 times his size, and they were at Simba's house, Nino was total Alpha kitty. That's our boy!)

The kicker: my back didn't bother me at all this weekend! Being stress free and lifting free really helps I think!

Ice Skating Photo Diary

Bryan and I finally tried out the ice skating rink on campus last weekend (I think it was last weekend). Here are some pics:

Posing by the post. The girl that took this picture was just learning how to ice skate, and she almost got taken out by a not-so-great skater right after she snapped it.


Here's me relaxing for a minute:
And me "in action"(which sort of looks like me relaxing, but only because I recently discovered I am not really great at ice skating):

And here's my pro-skater husband, taking some quick turns while I snap his picture: