Thursday, March 30, 2006

Baby Jack 2006!

Michelle and John had a beautiful baby boy, Jack! Welcome to the world Jack!

MicJack
Michelle and her little man

Balsleys
Michelle, Jack, and John

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Virginia Tax Review 2006

I got accepted to the Virginia Tax Review yesterday! It's ranked in the top tax journals and is often cited in Law Reviews, so hurrah! We had a welcome reception tonight at Buddhist Biker Bar with food and an open bar.

I feel immense relief. The competition for everything here is so intense, and actually succeeding relative to so many gifted and hardworking people is huge.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Libel Show 2006

The Libel Show is UVA's musical put on by law school students mocking all things law school or legal. A lot of it is funny only to us because it makes references to law professors, Feb Club parties, or strange school norms. But some of it is more widely accessible to law students or attorneys everywhere like the skits about Bar Review or law firm interviews. They perform for three nights in a row but everyone wants to go the night the law professors also perform a skit. We saw them last night- very cute and fun!

Libel Show 2006
Singing about their highlighters

Libel Show 2006
Judge Judy skit

Libel Show 2006
Thomas Jefferson

Libel Show 2006
Arbitration

Libel Show 2006
Cast after picture

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Studying 2006

I'm back from break and I've been studying so much. As miserable as it is to study and outline constantly, I'm happier knowing that I'm giving law school my full effort. This weekend for example, I have gotten up at 9AM and only left my computer for short breaks to stretch out. I outlined 6 days of tax and am working on Constitutional Law right now. I went to bed at midnight last night when I couldn't concentrate on tax anymore and I will do the same thing tonight. Thought it was time for another reminder about the reality of the situation here and not just post the fun party pictures.

Friday, March 10, 2006

My 27th Birthday 2006

Today Sarah introduced me to the "Birthday Fun Things Game." You attempt to do the number of fun things on your birthday as the number of years that you have lived. I've never played this bfore and I regret missing the easy years when I would only have had to come up with 5 or 8 fun things, but on the bright side, the older you get the more challenging but the more fun this game should get right? So here are my 27 fun things yesterday.

#1 Was being at Katy's beach house in South Carolina for my birthday with my two buddies Katy and Sarah. What a treat! Thank you Katy and family! #2 I slept late- a special treat after Law Review tryouts. #3 I had a bunch of birthday emails in my inbox when I woke up and pretty soon my family was calling to wish me a happy birthday.

Edisto Island 2006
Good morning beach! I'm 27 years old today!

#4 I had Peanut Butter Captain Crunch for breakfast, which is my favorite cereal since I was little.
#5 Playing with Wally
#6 Showered outside
#7 Relaxed in hammock
#8 Walk on beach!

Edisto Island 2006
Sarah walking on beach with me

#9 Taunting seagulls- Well, we didn't purposely taunt them. We had cheez-its, they understandably wanted cheez-its, and we wouldn't share (are those even safe for them?) so they swarmed us. This was terrifying but also kind of fun.

Edisto Island 2006
Seagulls' revenge

#10- We played the worlds' meanest and funniest game of Chinese Checkers while hanging out on the beach. We blocked every single triangle and no one could win. Never play this game with attorneys or law students. It's just not worth it.

Edisto Island 2006
Worlds' meanest and funniest Chinese Checkers game

We got ready to go out and took the first of many group pictures that evening. #11 I love group pictures!

Edisto Island 2006
Sarah, me, and Katy

Edisto Island 2006
#12- Dinner at  California Dream Restaurant in Charleston

#13- Being carded on my 27th birthday. Still look at least 7 years younger!

Edisto Island, SC 2006
#14- This chocolaty peanut buttery drink

At this point, it started becoming a challenge to accumulate more fun things because it was getting late, so it was time to get creative. I've learned my lesson though, next time I play this game I'll have to pace myself morning, noon, and night.

Edisto Island 2006
#15- Pumped gas for the first time! I don't drive and I'm from New Jersey...

My kind friends obliged my quest for more fun items and we all arranged our hair into #16- side ponytails, like from the 80s. Since we were already there we took a #17- scenic drive through Charleston, and while heading back #18- I spotted five deer in the woods. That's always exciting for me.

When we returned to the beach house #19 we poured ourselves some wine and made all sorts of ridiculous toasts. #20- This inspired Sarah to coin the phrase, "that is the shit about which I am talking," to combine sass with good grammar.  We took more group pictures (see #11 above) but this time with side ponytails, Wally, and even our bottles of wine. [censored]

Edisto Island 2006 
Wally is not amused by my shenanigans

#21- We ate many of Sarah's yummy homemade brownies. #22- We played "catch the M&Ms in your mouth." #23- We watched the Oscars (we taped it earlier in the week). #24- We played the card game Phase 10, which actually isn't bad.

At this point I was really digging deep, so I #25 did my famous but rarely seen booty dance. And yes, there is video. And yes, I am still wearing a side ponytail. And yes, it is censored. Now I've broken your heart, sorry. #26- I  then invented the booty-dance-moonwalk. The world will never be the same. Finally, to close out the night, #27, Sarah sang the "Golden Ticket in My Pants."

In conclusion, we had a lot of relaxing fun, we laughed a lot and hard, and the game really inspired us to sacrifice our dignity to entertain each other. Tomorrow we drive back to reality!

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Edisto Island, SC 2006

Spring Break!! We got here late Monday, and it's heaven here. Even though apparently I still have tax homework in heaven.

Edisto Island 2006
View of the beach at Edisto Island

Edisto Island 2006
Me, happy journal tryouts are over

Edisto Island 2006
Sarah

Edisto Island 2006
Wally!

Edisto Island 2006
Girls' week! Woo!

Edisto Island 2006
See what we did here?

Edisto Island 2006
Heaven for Sarah requires a hammock.

Also Katy's mom had us over for dinner last night which is so nice. We also met Katy's dad, brother, and future sister-in-law. We had Frogmore Stew, a delicious concoction of  shrimp and corn and potatoes, that I've never heard of before, but is apparently a traditional dish in South Carolina. Katy's mom also left us a lasagna in the beach house freezer. Thank you!!

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Law Review (and Tax Journal) Tryout 2006

I spent three long sleepless days, including a Friday with classes I wasn't allowed to skip, applying to law journals. I slept 6 hours the first nights of the tryout and not at all the last night. I got it done, and I think it's decent.

I spent the first day revising the article they gave us, and the next two nights writing the opinion. I don't know if you could classify the opinion I wrote as either conservative or liberal, but definitely freedom-destroying. Anyway, I'm proud I got it done, a few people I know bailed on it midway through. Some people didn't pace themselves well and had some other issues. And what Chad told us was true, it was definitely a learning experience; I feel kind of at one with the Bluebook now.

Journal Tryouts
What my journal tryout- in progress- looked like

It also was a bit of a bonding experience between those of us who were doing the tryouts. Roger shared his awesome coffee, Audra gave us all binder clips, Jane gave me staples (and I brought her the clips), I made Sarah finish, and encouraged Jane to keep going when she was losing it. Brian made me laugh so hard with a fake judicial opinion about French fries that I thought I would die. Donald and I spent 30 minutes at the law school basically congratulating ourselves after finishing. So in a weird, twisted way, it was a good time.

When I got home I did everything I had to do to get ready to go to SC and then passed out on my bed like the dead. I've been having a good time on Spring Break so far, but Sarah and I are STILL sick.