Hellathon Day 5: Gimme a break!

Today was my 5th straight lecture day in a row.

We get no breaks for the weekend! Everyday it's the same.

4 hours of lecture, 3-5 hours of homework.
Will I ever get to watch day-time tv again?!
Do people really do all this homework?! Seriously?

Good news about the insomnia. Sonata works! I feel almost human again.

Hellathon Day 4: Sleepless in C-bridge

3d day of insomnia.

The insomnia has taken on a life of its own. It has grown beyond any normal bounds of restraint. Despite my taking OTC sleep aids, reading a novel in bed to relax, and feeling exhausted all day, the minute I turn out the lights...it's there.

Waiting for me. Waiting to devour what precious time I have left and turn me into a lifeless zombie.

So it was time to bring in the big guns--prescription sleep aids. Went to go see my doctor and got some Sonata. This is hope in a bottle.

Hellathon Day 3

2d day of Insomnia.

2d day of Evidence lectures.

The spoon-feeding has turned into brutal force-feeding. Today was an especially horrific "double" lecture day. 8. Hours. Of. Lecture.

How is it that I'm only on my 2d day and already I feel 3 days behind? The insomnia certainly doesn't help. I feel like a zombie. Must resign myself to failing the bar (with a slim chance of a miracle pass!)

Hellathon Day 2

First obstacle: Insomnia.

First lecture: Evidence. Some observations:

(1) Wow, this is what it's like to learn blackletter law. Mmmm, very pleasant to be spoon-fed knowledge.

I wish I had gone to Barbri Law School instead--would've saved me months of pointless classes and gobs of tuition money.

Hellathon Day 1

Today is day 1 of an 8 week course from hell: The California Bar Prep.

One part hell and one part marathon, this excrutiating course attempts to cram in 13 subjects of law in just 2 short months. California has the lowest bar passage rate in the country, around 60%. Eek.


The course suggests that you study 10-11 hours PER DAY if you want a hope of a prayer of a chance of passing. Are you kidding?! I haven't studied that much since...well, maybe never.

Today was a short 2 hour intro to "ease" us into this horrible experience and was mostly memorable for the cheesy lecturer we had. He introduced himself as, "the most interesting guy you'll ever meet" and proceeded to pronounce every word ending in a -y wrongly on purpose.

Example: Does he have any liabilit-IE?
Example 2: I love lecturing on propert-IE.

Just shoot m-IE.

Adventures of the Odd Couple in Boston

Every yin needs a yang and every Christina needs a Peggy.

We used to joke that we were foils, and for as long as I've known her (going on 21 years now!) it's still totally true.

Peggy loves attention, I hate it.
Peggy loves to play, I feel uncomfortable playing.
Peggy lives by the motto "Do what you like, like what you do," and I'm not even sure I can tell you what I "like."

So of course it makes perfect sense that despite living in Boston for 3 years, it wasn't until Peggy's visit that I finally experienced some of the touristy stuff this historical city has to offer. I went on the Freedom Trail for the first time, I had my first (and second) bowl of authentic New England clam chowder, and I went to my first Boston Red Sox game in Fenway Park.

Some pictures from our adventures:

Granary Burial Ground--known as the "Westminster Abbey of America" since anyone who was anyone in Colonial days was buried here. Famous dead people include: Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams.


The tombstones had pretty winged skulls on them. They look so benign--like if Sanrio came out with a death inspired line of stationary characters.


Michael warned us that Paul Revere's tomb is impossible to find and he had tried before without success. We found it without even trying because it was so obvious! Makes me wonder if he's really literate...hmmmm.


Ye Olde Union Oyster House--the "oldest restaurant in America."


Here we are enjoying our first authentic bowl of New England chowda'...


...and some fish and chips.


Faneuil Hall--called the "Cradle of Liberty" and "the home of free speech." The first floor was a marketplace while the second was the proverbial "marketplace of ideas."


In the town meeting hall pictured here Bostonians protested "taxation without representation." Famous abolitionists like Frederick Douglas also spoke out here.


Old North Church--made famous by Longfellow's line "one if by land, two if by sea." But what I found really entertaining were the pew cubicles.


Congregants would rent their own pew cubbies and have their family names engraved on them. This was the church's way of making money (and much more dependable than tithing!) The closer you were to the front, the more expensive your cubby.


Congregants would also upholster their pews and bring furniture from home to spice it up. Here's a picture of a nicely decorated pew.


Fenway Park--Home of the Boston Red Sox!

We thought we would show our spirit by buying some $3 shirts at the bargain bin. The only ones in our size said "Yankees Suck." We felt kind of stupid wearing them since the Sox were playing the KC Royals. Oh well...you get what you paid for!


The crowd went wild at the end because it was a historical game--a no hitter!


Thanks Peg, that was fun!

Peggy bit me

For the last 3 days my lifelong friend Peggy has been visiting and we've been hamming it up around Boston.

Until I find the time to post about it, here's at least one thing from her visit I can immediately share: the youtube video that had us cracking up for hours...



And this one too...

A Bartley's Goodbye

For the last 3 years I've lived a stone's throw away from a national monument of sorts. A monument to burgers, if you will.

Mr. Bartley's is probably the best burger joint in America (so says The Wall Street Journal) and everytime I've walked by it always had a mile-long line of patient clients. And the smell. It smells like food heaven when you walk by.


So of course it was time to finally try it. I have no excuse for passing up this once in a lifetime gastronomical opportunity considering: (1) I live 2 minutes away and (2) it's very reasonbly priced and (3) I luuuuuuuuuuv meat.

The burgers did not disappoint and there were two additional perks: (1) The burgers were all named after famous politicians and Bostonians (The Bill Clinton, The Dick Cheney, etc.) I had the Deval Patrick (Gov of Mass). Click on picture to enlarge.


(2) And we had a last meal with our dear friends before they move to Ohio. Goodbye Birches-you are the mellowest, chillest, coolest, surfer-like people we know. Hang loose.

Done Done DONE!

After taking my last final ever I had the (good?) fortune of seeing my best lawschool bud Alaberi immediately afterwards. Being the chronic journaller, she taped my candid confession (unbeknownst to me!) and made this video commemoration.

Very tricky Alaberi! You're too clever by half :-)



Thanks for your friendship, which made it all bearable. Love ya'!

Shirking Tool

It's Michael's job to take out the garbage so every few weeks we have this very same conversation. And it never ceases to crack me up...even though I've heard it like 10 times before!

Me: Something stinks. I think it's the garbage.

Michael: *silence*

Me: Seriously, the garbage stinks, you need to take it out.

Michael: Maybe it's just your upper lip.

Me: (laughs and forgets about the garbage for a few hours)

Guy TV

In many ways I'm a girly girl.

I love pink, lavendar, and coral colors. My eyes light up when I go to the mall. I can watch Sex and the City reruns until kingdom come. Etc.

But sometimes I'm forced to watch "guy" stuff because I live with a guy and we only have one tv set. Lately, Michael has co-opted the tv with episodes of PBS's Carrier, a documentary about life aboard the USS Nimitz, a Navy supercarrier that is apparently 4 acres in surface area! (Or we watch Battlestar Galactica on Netflix or political news--yup, Michael has an iron fist grasp on the boobtube).

Alyssa Milano aboard the USS Nimitz.

And unfortunately for me, the show is a 10 part series. Each part is 2 hours long. Yeah...20 hours of military footage. Enough said.

But I love tv, even more than I love to be entertained, so I've been dutifully watching my share of Navy and Marine personnel talking about their lives and duties on board the ship. I've learned about ranks, jets, weaponry, etc. But mostly about the horrible mundaneness of their every day lives.


It's basically a floating bureacracy...like a seaworthy DMV. If there is any excitement at all, it belongs to the hotshot pilots who are treated like rockstars because in that neck of the woods, I suppose they are. But even the pilots get bored and antsy when they're not called on to drop some bombs for months.

Watching all this reminds me of how close I was to becoming recruited into the military myself. I remember during my senior year of highschool, some military recruiters made an announcement at school about how great joining the armed forces would be. On a whim of naivete, I signed up.

Two recruiters showed up at my house the next day and told me about how great military life is, etc...and gave me an application. I thought, what the heck. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, I like following orders, and it couldn't hurt to get some military experience. I remembered taking a Myers Briggs test the year before and it said I could have a promising career as a commanding officer. Of course my parents never signed off on it and the rest is history.

But I was that close.