Life's Peachy Keen

After a week of work, we're finally settling into a groove at my firm. Last week began with training and ended with the usual "poke-and-prod-the-summers-to-see-what-they're-like" phase. Now that we all pretty much have the lay of the land, we're working and eating like there's no tomorrow.

Work update:
I really love (most of) my fellow summers. They are awesome, fun, smart people, and it's really great to know that smart people can have a good time, too. I say "most of" because my office mate (of all people!) is a workaholic. He is way too serious about everything, and it seemed to peeve him that I didn't have much to do this afternoon (my new assigning attorney didn't ever get back to me about setting an appointment to talk about the new assignment). There I was, just lazying the day away after having spent hours on a memo that I'd already turned in (and without another assignment to keep me busy), and he finally says "Shouldn't you be doing something? Like reading a firm brochure or something?" Asshole! Granted, the delivery was very dry, but after having lived even for a week with nonstop dry sarcastic humor, I was ready to throw my laptop at him. Dry sarcastic humor has its place, but not in enclosed spaces for the duration of one's day.

I finished up my first assignment this morning and turned it in an hour early. I actually got my feedback this same day, and (yay!) it was very positive. My assigning attorney even said, "This was your first assignment? You did a great job. I'm sure I didn't do nearly as well when I was a summer on my first assignment." That was very encouraging, and I am now not as scared to face what the rest of the summer has to offer.

(And more importantly...)
Food update:
A recap of last week's restaurants:

Tuesday, Artisanal: A cheese and wine bistro in the W. 30s. It was really cute and made me feel transported into some wonderfully relaxed European cafe. Although I'm not much of a cheese fan, I'm willing to try everything once (usually twice or three times even), and my first fondue experience was a lot of fun. I had a divine piece of cod that just fell onto my fork, making it that much more easy to enjoy it bite-by-succulent-bite. To top it all off (and what I'm most excited about, having a HUGE sweet tooth, you know), I had a cheesecake the size of my head. It was amazing.

Wednesday, Capital Grille: A new place just a block and a half away from the office, this steak place served up a delicious piece of juicy squishily-wonderful filet mignon. I was super impressed with their use of the black napkin for those of us who had black slacks/skirts on. How fancy! The white chocolate mousse was incredible.

Friday, Gramercy Tavern: An unintimidating restaurant with unbelievable everything, this "tavern" had a warm and inviting feel. I had the rabbit. (Sorry to those of you freaking out about my eating Thumper.) The rabbit was amaaaazing. It was so soft and juicy. It wasn't tough at all, and I could just picture a fat, fluffy bunny who did nothing but sit there and eat carrot after carrot. I'm sorry, Thumper. For dessert, I had the apricot tart, and it was reeeally awesome. It was beautifully presented and tasted even more wonderful. Wow.

Today, BLT Steak: The turf half of BLT (there's also BLT Raw, a seafood place), BLT Steak was very poshy in a nondescript way. That may sound horrible, but don't get me wrong -- it was a beautiful place. I initially ordered the sea bass, but then changed my mind about ordering fish when their specialty was (obviously) steak. I switched my order to the filet, and I didn't feel as dorky/weird when one of the associates who was with us did the same thing. Dessert was creme brulee, and it was really good. The initially didn't brown it enough for my tastes, so I asked them to go over it once more. After that, it looked (and tasted) ab fab.

Stay tuned for the next culinary adventure (and I promise I'll try something other than the filet next time). :)

And yes, AC is still awwwwesome.

A $200 Miracle

Actual conversation in my newly air conditioned apartment:

Me: Seriously, air conditioning is awwwwwesome.
My high school friend who's visiting: Yup...it ranks preeetty high up there.

I cannot say enough about how awesome D's and my new air conditioner is. So that we didn't have to drill holes in anything, my friend and I "installed" it with packing tape left from the people we're subletting from. Let's just say it felt really great in a MacGyver-ish way to star in the episode featuring "How to install an AC unit with nothing but a roll of packing tape."

Innovation Station

After taking over two years to request it, I finally received my Phi Beta Kappa membership packet...and promptly put the "Handbook for New Members" to work as a makeshift -- and very effective -- fan. Nice to know it was good for something.

Are they just trying to torture me???

It's four hours later and somehow inexplicably it is HOTTER than it was at 8PM. 82 degrees??? WTF??????

Edit: No, we haven't acquired an AC. DAMMIT. Both of us got roped into firm things that weren't over until after the stores had closed. DAMMIT. DAMMIT.

Update

Nothing's changed.

Wednesday night, 8:30PM:
80 degrees
52% humidity
Lying prostrate on bed, barely moving (except to type).

Indoor Heatstroke?

My first day in NYC was Saturday. It was CRAZY hot. We're talking lying-in-bed-spread-eagled-without-covers-and-STILL-sweating-profusely hot. Everybody reassured me that it would get better and that it doesn't get nasty until July/August. Well, people, it's Tuesday, and it's still CRAZY HOT. What gives??? The apartment I'm sharing with Darlyn is a GREAT deal in a GREAT location, but We Have No Air Conditioning.

Yes, you read that correctly. No Air Conditioning.

Let's just say that acquiring some sort of AC unit has zoomed to the top of our priority list. To put it into perspective: Yesterday Darlyn bought hair conditioner (we had been making do with purloined hotel conditioner from my San Francisco trip, which, while wonderful-smelling, is just ghetto fabulous all things considered). Today I bought shower gel (again, we were using purloined shower gel in the interim). Tomorrow and no later we will be buying an AC unit. After that, as Madonna would put it, "nothing really matters."

First Day Jitters

Last week my firm had an orientation kickoff event in San Francisco for the summer associates in all of the offices. Even though it may sound cheesy, it actually turned out wonderfully. Meeting everybody else in the summer class made today, my first day, much less painful.

On our first day in San Francisco, we were split into teams to participate in this super fun scavenger hunt called The Go Game. Even though it got a little crazy running around the streets of San Francisco (the coordinators actually warned us that people get so into it they forget to obey the fundamental kindergarten "look both ways before crossing" rule!), it was a lot of fun to indulge in a bit of the competitive spirit. There were clues sent to each team via cell phone that had us running to street corners and finding the answers to such curiosity-piquing clues as "Go up the alley along Margrave Place about 50 yards. Be stealthy and climb the 10 stair steps on the right hand side. Right in front of you is one of the rarest sights to behold in San Francisco." The answer? A swimming pool! There were also such interpretive clues that inspired creativity such as "In a series of pictures, show your team being daredevils!" One of the team's interpretations showed a hilarious series of the entire team rolling down the asphalt hills of San Francisco. Good times.

There were also the expected "orienting" talks such as one discussing the transition from law student to lawyer and another discussing harassment. The latter was actually a little fun because the approach was interactive where we placed scenarios along a "Green light, Yellow light, Red light" spectrum according to whether we thought it was "Okay, Use Caution, or HELL NO." Calling things red/yellow light now seems to be the punchline of the summer.

While it may sound trivial, this all culminated in easing the pressure of today's first day. As I changed outfits twice and put on two different sets of jewelry before deciding on my trusty graduation present pearls, I realized that the first day jitters were just not there. Why's that? After having met everyone on the San Francisco trip (and, thankfully, liking them all!!), there was no first-day-of-school-is-everyone-going-to-like-me? feeling going into today's Big Day. So, while it might be a little daunting to go into something completely new that I've never done before (Business and finance transactional law? What's that?), it's at least a little reassuring to know that the people I'll be with will make it an (enjoyable) experience to remember.

Necessary Reproduction, STAT

Last night at dinner, a group of us (among them LawFairy) got onto the topic of hotness and who should feel a duty to reproduce in order to contribute positively to the overall aesthetics of the human race. We agreed upon Angelina Jolie (the epitome of hotttness, in my opinion) and Antonio Banderas (mmmmmmmmm...). TAB mentioned their movie "Original Sin" and its porn-like qualities. Intriguing.

Amazingly enough, "Original Sin" is on TV tonight. I am, of course, now watching it. And the world makes sense.

As an aside, other people who need to reproduce (and not adopt -- I mean actually share their genes with the world):
Charlize Theron
Brad Pitt
Taye Diggs
Lucy Liu
Natalie Portman
Halle Berry

Two-thirds of a lawyer!

I'm done!

On Thursday I took my last final of the year, and I am now officially a 3L. I still remember when I was entering as a 1L and the 3Ls seemed oh-so-wise and knowledgeable. Now I'm one of them. (While some might say that it's not nearly as exciting to finish 2L as it is to finish 1L or 3L, I say a pox on you people! This is rockstar awesome.)

On Tuesday, I found out that our Bankruptcy grades from last term had been posted. This was not good news. Literally scared out of my mind of that exam, I had spent a good week and a half trying to figure out the basics (let alone the ins-and-outs) of Bankruptcy Law. It was not pretty. Last term, right before the Bankruptcy exam, our Trademarks grades were posted from the term before. I did horribly in Trademarks, and it really dampened my spirits for the Bankruptcy showdown. Determined not to have that happen this time, I waited until after Con Law to check my Bankruptcy grade. Guess what???? I did okay!! Okay, not stellar, but definitely not shabby. I was flippin' ecstatic to see that precious median posted both so innocuously and so mercilessly on the website.

I leave for New York on Sunday (muy exciting). On Monday I head to San Francisco (again, muy exciting) to chill with my parental units until Wednesday, which is when my firm's orientation kickoff event in San Francisco begins.

Time is flying by so quickly. I've dropped off my car with a friend, who has awesomely agreed to car-sit. I've dropped off my plants with a friend's hubby, who has awesomely agreed to plant-sit. I have yet to pack or even clean my apartment, but that doesn't bother me. It's not like I'll be gone forever. At least for now, though, it feels pretty damn good to know that there's no longer anything to stop me from going.

Subservient Chicken

Oh my god. This job has got to be the worst. I'm both horrified and -- yes, I'm embarrassed to admit -- also vastly entertained (horrible of me, isn't it?). Horrified-entertained in a train wreck sort of way. Man alive, the finals distractions are endless.

Back to studying Con Law. "Why do we need freedom of speech?" I wonder what the Framers would have thought of blogs...