Thursday, June 18, 2009

All Over the Place

Work has taken over my life! But in a good way...I'm really loving it. And this morning - I am going to my first hearing as my client's representation. Eek - wish me luck :)

If I don't get a chance to blog before Saturday, I will most certainly blog Monday because we'll be away celebrating our 1ST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY this weekend! Holy crap I can't believe it! So yeah, I'll have stories and pictures on Monday.

And I also need to tell you about a few things that occurred this past weekend. It included a drunken evening, a lovely bridal shower, and more work. But that's all for next time!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Why, Hello There

Blog world? Are you there? Well, life in clinic has kind of kept me quite busy and I just haven't had time to say hola!

So here's a quick update. I got my case assignments yesterday and am very happy with the selection of my clients. I am dealing with some business/tax related matters, several family/health related matters, and some criminal matters. Overall, I'm getting a fantastic overview of several areas that are of my interest.

Our weekend was filled with fun times. Friday, Kim and I went to a Zumba class which was super fun. It's essentially a latin/dirty dancing class at my gym. The instructor could probably scratch her butt and make it look beautiful. And even having danced my whole life, I felt very uncoordinated and spazzy. But it was a great workout that had me sweating bullets (not that it's that hard to do that - I have a sweating problem). After the class, the four of us headed out to dinner at The Wine Market. Ian and I had been wanting to check it out and were very pleased overall. The food was great, and the sangria wasn't so bad either!

Sunday we played golf with Stacy and Jon which always makes me happy. There was a lot of sun, cussing and beer - perfect morning for us! Hopefully we can do this more often this summer with those two!

And the highlight of our weekend - we finalized our wedding anniversary plans! I think I'm going to keep it a secret until after the fact. But I can say, I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Intense

This week has been crazy folks! I am in training for work all week and 1)it's exhausting and 2)I have a lot of reading to do each night and 3)my poor body isn't used to waking up at 5:30 or 6:00am. I will need lots of sleep this weekend.

But so far, I am loving my job! I haven't quite gotten into the actual working part - but they are preparing us for what we'll be doing. It's super intense but seems like it's going to be an incredible experience. I have already learned so much!

Oh - and I wanted to share the corn and tomato salad recipe with you guys. Here's the deal, Ian HATES corn, but even he likes this salad a lot. So even you non-corn lovers will probably like this.
  • Using a knife, cut the corn off the cob into a bowl (the corn should be raw - don't cook it) To serve the two of us, I normally use 3-4 cobs.
  • Cut 1-2 tomatoes into bite sized chunks and add to the bowl of corn
  • Cut 1 shallot (or 1/2 onion will work as well) very finely and add it to the corn/tomato mixture
  • Add olive oil to coat.
  • Add red wine vinegar (I use quite a bit. But I would suggest starting with 1/8 of a cup and add more as you like).
  • Season with salt and pepper and then let the dish sit to allow the corn to absorb some of the olive oil and vinegar.

Again - super easy and it makes a very pretty salad that tastes fantastic and is super crunchy. The other thing we like doing is adding in other things we like - sometimes we add cold couscous.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Back to the Real World

I am very excited to begin clinic tomorrow! I'm excited for the experience it should provide me, the fact that it's something new, and most of all, I'm hoping for a more normal schedule which will allow me to enjoy my nights and weekends!

I have to say that my time off this past week has been awesome. I had a girls night out on Wednesday - we had yummy mojitos and tapas in Harbor East and then went out for drinks afterwards in Fells. It felt great to be able to catch up and let loose.

Ian took off of work on Friday for us to spend the day golfing (in the rain), but we still managed to have a great time. Friday night I had more mojitos as a cuban (read: not authentic) restaurant and then went out afterwards in Fed Hill.
Saturday was filled with errands and then we cooked out. And today, we went to church, then to Ian's soccer game and then we proceeded to walk for about 4 miles and got frozen yogurt halfway through. Tonight we're on for another cookout with this amazing recipe Asian Pork Tenderloin with a side of Corn and Tomato Salad (everyone seems to love this salad that I make, even Ian who hates corn) over couscous.

So happy we had a fun weekend before I head back into the real world!

Picture from my girls night out:

Picture at Cuban restaurant (before many mojitos):

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Whacky Wednesday

Life got a little busy the past few days. I don't even know if I told you about this process at school to get on one of the 5 law journals? Well, to get onto one of the journals, you have to petition. It's basically writing a huge paper based on about 400 pages of cases and history and research that they give you, that you then turn in and only 40% of the people who turn it in will get onto one of the journals (which is a very prestigious honor, a great experience - each of the journals are publications that come out throughout the year - and each journal has a different topic). So that was due yesterday and I had a major meltdown on Monday thinking I couldn't do it - I had procrastinated too much! But I worked through it and turned it in yesterday. So happy that is over!

To celebrate, I came home and opened a bottle of wine, drank quite a bit with indian takeout, and watched Twilight (since you already know my obsession with the book - which by the way, the movie can't live up to how good the book was). I also am ordering the next 2 books that I haven't read - can't wait to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and read through them.

So this past weekend we went to Meli to celebrate Ian's mom's birthday. It is affiliated with 2 other restaurants which we happen to love (Mezze and Kalis Court), so we were excited to try it out. I was not that happy with it - it was just kind of, eh. I started with the carpaccio appetizer which I admit, was very good and would totally get again. I then got striped bass over lettuce with tomatoes and some type of potato - the fish was supposed to be grilled but clearly was fried or pan seared, and the fish came out kind of room temperature. The rest of the group got mussels, clams, lamb shank, lobster mac and cheese. Everyone had the same impression - it was just okay. But I did try the baklava and it was delicious! And this place has such potential - it's a great atmosphere! Hopefully since it's new, it'll just get better from here.

Oh - and we tried this new yogurt place called Mr.Yogato in Fells. SO yummy. Ian hated it - but that's because it's true yogurt - not ice cream. It's tangy - almost like greek yogurt - and frozen. I added fruit to it and it was delicious! And even better, it's fat free. It was hot outside when we went - what a perfect way to spend the afternoon - by the water with frozen yogurt in warm weather. Love it! I think we'll be visiting this place again if the weather is nice this weekend - I want to enjoy this no school, no work thing as much as possible!

Friday, May 22, 2009

List of Things to Do This Summer

*This is my 25oth post! Wowsers - I don't think it's that exciting of a post to be my 250th - but meh.

As summer freedom quickly approached, I found myself saying just about every other day - OHHH we'll have to do that this summer. I started a list because, well, because I love making lists. But the problem with me being a planner, is I overpack my lists. For instance, here's my list of things I have so far for this summer:
  • Take a trapeze class
  • Take dance classes
  • Go to the gym 4-5 days per week
  • Go to visit family in New England
  • Take a trip with/or go see Lauren
  • Go to NY to visit my brother and SIL
  • Go to about 5489089035 restaurants we haven't tried
  • Have a movie marathon day
  • Have a stay in my PJs in bed and watch TV day
  • Clean the house thoroughly
  • Plant plants outside
  • Have at least 4 get togethers at our house
  • Go away for our anniversary
  • Go away on vacation to a lakehouse
  • Go to Bethesda (where we used to live) to have dinner at our old fave restaurant and meet up with friends there
  • Have my goddaughters come stay with us for a night
  • Go hiking

Add to the list that I am trying to be a better friend since I've been MIA for 9 months, and am now trying to make tons of plans to catch up with them. But then I realize, there are only so many weekends I have this summer - I think I might just run out of weekends to do all the things I've been wanting to do. Sigh. But I'm going to do the best I can. I have high hopes for a lovely summer with family, friends and beautiful weather. But I think I better stop with the list - I think I have plenty to keep my summer full of fun things!

This weekend is pretty packed with me finishing up petitioning (have I explained this??) that is due on Tuesday. But I did manage to plan fun dinner dates for tonight and tomorrow night. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

30 Days of Hell

After hearing great things about Jillian Michael's workout DVD The 30 Day Shred, I decided to try it out. I've had the DVD for a couple months now and finally decided to pull it out after seeing a blogger's success with it. I persuaded Ian to join me in the hell fun. Today will be the 3rd day if I can possibly do it.

Holy shit - I am out of shape. The 20 minutes of her workout have beads of sweat dripping off my face, have Ian cussing very obscene expletives at the TV screen (things I most certainly cannot repeat in this here blog), and have me thinking, can I even call what I do at the gym a workout?? And don't even get me started on the two women working out behind Jillian - all smiley and not sweating - it kind of, just a little bit, makes me want to punch them in the face.

It better be worth it. Every time I go to pee my legs feel like they're going to collapse. And going down the stairs - yowsers. Going up the steps you expect to feel sore after a good workout, but going down the steps always has a way of surprising you.

But at least I know it's making my body work - and hopefully the amount of sweat dripping off my face is just a clue as to how much fat my body is losing.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Mommy Itch

I do not think I can hide the fact that I love kids. I think they're adorable and they make me laugh uncontrollably. I have 7 nieces and nephews and the 3 kids of my matron-of-honor are essentially my family. I always wished I'd had younger brothers or sisters - but maybe my love for kids is because I didn't have younger brothers or sisters.


I grew up hanging out with one of my best friend's family - she's one of 4 kids and I was so jealous. She had tons of cousins and her recent wedding was a blast with the majority of the guests being her family. One of my other friends is one of 8. Yes - that's a lot of kids! But again, I love seeing her with her siblings - her recent wedding was also a huge one - over 400 people I believe, but that's because she had over 100 family members coming.


Since we've been married (almost a year - I can't believe it!), I have noticed that I have the Mommy Itch. It's like my body is telling me it's time to have babies. I see kids at restaurants, church, on the street, in stores, on TV and when I see them, whatever else going on around me suddenly stops. All I can see are the kids. Almost instinctively, I turn to Ian: "I want babies." He's used to it by now - thank God the Mommy Itch is hitting me after we're married - I'm sure he would've been running screaming from me had I started with those types of comments beforehand.


His response is "I know honey - soon." We had agreed (much to Ian's dissatisfaction) to wait until I'm finished with law school and settled in a job. That means we have to wait until 2-3 years. It's scary and exciting all in the same moment that starting a family is that close to becoming a reality. But at the same time, it feels so far away. You grow up thinking, get married, have kids. Or maybe that's just how I thought. But I met this amazing man, married him and now it's like I have to trick myself into thinking it's not time to have kids yet.


So Ian will have to keep hearing me say those words: I want babies. I can't help it. I am so excited for that chapter in our lives. Maybe the Mommy Itch kicks in when you are at a point in your life that you'd imagined you'd start having kids. I know I'm not the only one out there that Mommy Itch has attacked. What makes it kick in? Does it kick in for everyone?


Well until we're at a point to start having kids, I wish the Mommy Itch would hide away in the sidelines somewhere. Because I'm pretty sure it's a little old to keep hearing "I want babies." And until we're at that chapter in our lives, I'm pretty happy being just the three of us (I can't leave Tessa out of course!), enjoying each other and the freedom that comes with it.

Monday, May 18, 2009

I Need More Balls



Friday we played in the annual golf tournament that benefits the scholarship fund in my grandfather's name. It goes to the same high school which my uncle and brother attended and where Ian and I were married. We had a blast as always and luck must've been on our side because the rain held out until we were all finished! My grandfather was the golf coach at the school and even though I never met him, I'm sure it's the reason golf is in my genes. I love it and almost went to college on a full scholarship for golf - but any good golf schools are far away from my home in DC so I decided against it.

Lucky for me, Ian happens to love golf as well so it's a great activity for us to do together. After all, what is better than beautiful weather, drinking beer, chatting and laughing while riding in a little cart? We often talk about how it'll be a great activity for us to do as a family and for the two of us when we retire one day.

Well, as much fun as Friday was, I did not have a good game - in fact, I think it's just about the worst I've played. I stopped counting how many balls I lost at 6. And for you non-golfers, golf balls are expensive! At the golf shop, 3 golf balls can cost about $12-15. That's a whole lot of money I left on the golf course! It's a good thing the booze was included.


Thursday, May 14, 2009

Engrossed

Have you ever been so engrossed in a book that it makes you cry? Giddy? Laugh? Fall in love? Wait not so much the last one? Hmmm. Maybe that's just me. My brother and sister-in-law (SIL) bought me the first two books of the Twilight Series awhile back for my birthday (in November) but because law school kind of took over my life I hadn't gotten around to reading them. Well, I started the books 2 days ago and am finished with both of them. I curled up and was giddy from the excitement, as Ian sat next to me laughing at me.

Never before have I fallen in love with a character quite as much - and certainly not a vampire! The books have me wishing I was the main character, a teenager falling in love for the first time. And I never understood why women find the character from the movie so attractive - he was not my cup of tea...until now. The character fits his looks perfectly - or maybe the other way around. The writing kind of made me want to be a vampire myself.

I'm glad it only took me 3 days to read them because it put a huge damper in my plans to get my project done that is due in less than 2 weeks. Thank goodness I don't have the rest of the series yet, I don't think the project would ever get done.