Family Festivities

Upon reaching the ripe old age of twenty two, I have come to realize that you appreciate some things more as you get older. One of these things is family gatherings.

While I have always loved my very large extended family, I think there are some elements of get-togethers that kids dread. For me it was the long car rides, the fear that my parents would make me play the piano infront of others, the sitting around semi-bored because I never had cousins my own age, and Vietnamese food that my picky palete did not appreciate.

Yet things get better as you get to sit at the proverbial adult table. Today we did our first of two Christmas celebrations with my dad's side of the family. Although I'm not as close with my dad's side as much as my mom's side, I had a lot of fun.

I now enjoy conversing with my aunts and uncles about everything from law school to politics to what they're doing in their lives, my cousins are old enough for me to talk to them too- even if there is an age gap, I haven't had to touch a piano in years, and I take joy in helping to prepare the meals and eat most of it now (I'm still a little picky).

The fun continues tomorrow with Christmas part 2.

My Two Worlds

Since my parents’ house in San Clemente doesn’t have cable yet, I brought some of my West Wing DVDs that I got for Christmas with me to watch on my laptop. Although I hadn’t really seen any episodes since the series ended in May, I instantly hooked into the show again. I watched three episodes, including a fan favorite, Two Cathedrals.

As I saw images of the National Cathedral, something I see everyday as I ride the bus to school, I remembered how much I love the place where I go to school. And as I saw images of the Capitol and heard chatter about policy and politics, I remembered how much I love governance.

Its funny because my rekindled love for all things DC comes hours after I asked myself how I left California. After having Mexican food for lunch with my family, driving along the beachfront, and seeing the sunset over the ocean, I remembered how much I love California.

I know that most people have various challenges with balancing their personal and professional lives. For some it’s figuring out how to have their dream career with balancing their marriage and family. For others it’s deciding whether it is more important to make money or do what they want to do. And while I’m sure I might be going through that eventually, since it already has passed through my head, my question du jour is figuring out how to be in two places at once. Two places 3,000 miles apart.

Ultimately I know that I will be returning to California eventually, whether it be directly after graduation or after a few years. I would be a masochist if I planned on taking the California bar exam (hardest in the nation, along with NY) and did not think I was coming back to California. That’s because I can get a job here but it might be a smidge harder to bring my family and weather to DC.

So as I embark on my adventure to find a summer job and plan my field of study, I guess I will always keep that in the back of my mind. And if someone has California job suggestions of how I can incorporate my love of governance & law with a job that is not in Sacramento, let me know. The only way that anyone could get me to work there would be if Martin Sheen ran for governor. If he could run the country for eight fictional years, I am sure that he could aptly fill the shoes of our Governator.

Top Chef'ing It

I've always joked around about becoming a chef if the whole lawyer thing didn't work out. My friend Liz and I dreamed of opening up a Mexican-Vietnamese Fusion restaurant named "Krisaliz"- pronounced like chrysalis. (The name is also reserved incase we ever opened up a political consulting firm).

Today I got a little preview of what it would be like to a be a professional caterer. My mom put in an order for 100 Vietnamese meat pie appetizers (pictured right), a Florentine Chicken & Spinach Ring (pictured left), and Spinach & Aritchoke dip.

Trying to cook all of these things simultaneously and in 4 hours was quite the challenge. I guess professional caterers have crews of more than one and better equipped kitchens but I think I fared pretty well by myself. The toughest obstacle was trying to figure out how to keep all the food warm. I put the tray of the meat pies back into the oven, which resulted in some of the juices coming out and starting a small fire in the oven but fortunately I noticed the smoke coming out of the oven and salvaged them all. The only casualty was the oven mit that came out slightly charred, but all of the food still tasted good. My mom's boss even asked me how I got this wonderful "smoky" taste to the meat pies, not even being facetious.

Since it seems like this lawyer thing is actually going to pan out, I might put the chef/catering on the back burner (pun intended). However, today's little cooking adventure made me realize that I really need to compile all of these family recipes of Vietnamese dishes. So I've added making a cookbook, full of pretty pictures, as another life goal. Though the cookbook market is pretty saturated, this is more for me and to distribute to other members of the family. A family cookbook would almost be like a storybook about our family and our history. I'm actually really excited about this and it would be done sooner if I didn't have a billion pages of reading to do in the next 2.5 years.

And I also think I'm adding taking professional cooking lessons to my list of life goals. Hopefully I won't set that kitchen on fire.

On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

You know that commercial where the kids are going crazy after opening their Christmas day presents? Yeah, that's how I felt that day, minus all of the screaming. I was absolutely giddy and running around the house like a little kid.

Even though its 5 days before Christmas, Alex let me open one of my presents (well, 2 if you count the mini Bailey's Irish Cream that he got me since he knows I like things in little containers) because he said I could keep myself entertained while I was at home doing my parents' giftwrapping and cooking.

Well lo and behold, the entire set of West Wing DVDs. My eyes lit up and I probably let out a little squeal. Not only was I excited because it's 7 seasons condensed in 42 DVDs to keep me busy, but its a very thoughtful and amazing gift. One of those things that I always wanted but never asked for. Amazing.

The same goes for the early gift that my roommate got me: Seasons 1 & 2 of Project Runway on DVD. She is way too sweet and I really appreciated her gift too. Although I'm not a big movie watcher, there are some tv shows that I could, and do, watch over and over again (and thanks to the wonderful marketing of DVD people, now I can!)

I know I do stress myself out a little bit trying to find the perfect gifts for people, and I don't even want to count the number of times I've gone to stores or the mall since I've been home. But its only because I want people to be as excited as I feel when I open something that just shows a lot of thought and love.

Having It All

I remember when my 9th grade class took a poll of how many students ate dinner together as a family and I was one of three people in our class of 35 students who raised their hands. I was always surprised about that. Even if my dad was watching the news during dinner or we would turn on jeopardy, we would almost always eat together and talk about our days.

When I came home from break, I knew I wanted to cook a dinner for my parents. It was so much fun going to the grocery store shopping for ingredients, preparing everything, and serving my parents a spinach and feta stuffed Italian flank steak with a side of roasted red potatoes and greenbeans, paired with wine.

I find it interesting when people think working mom's are "sacrificing" their careers to do domestic work. But I think that there are some women like me who genuinely love doing traditionally female things. I don't think there's anything wrong with that since I never felt pigeon-holed into being a Martha Stewart. My parents were always pretty supportive of me being anything I wanted to be, whether they be "boy" professions or "girl" professions. (Like I'm pretty sure that he would have loved if I was an engineer). So I want to be a lawyer who cooks home cooked meals, cleans, and has perfectly wrapped presents for Christmas. Being home for winter break always helps prepare me for the later half of that goal.

A Christmas Carol

Yesterday I took my parents and Alex to go see a local community production of A Christmas Carol. After being cooped up for the past 2 weeks taking finals, I was ready to fully immerse myself into the holiday season and I thought this would be a nice way of doing it. I'm now a huge proponent of community theater. It's a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment, the productions usually have whole families involved- including really cute and talented little kids, people don't take themselves as serious as profession productions but its still good, and I like the feeling of community togetherness in the day and age where that bond is often lacking.

As I was watching the performance, I reminisced about doing this production in 5th grade. I remembered many of the lines and the scenes perfectly, but I wondered if anyone doing that production in elementary school really got the message.

It seems like one of the most frequent themes in novels, plays, and movies is the story of the person who is caught up in money and his work, but then has a change of heart and realizes that there's so much more to life than that. Whether it is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol that's been around forever or Mighty Ducks (I can relate almost anything to this movie- remember how Coach Bombay had a license plate that said "just win" and he changed after coaching pewee hockey team), all these works of art have this message about life, but I wonder how many of us actually take it to heart? I guess its true when they say everything you need to know for life you learn when you're young, but there is a difference of learning something and actually practicing it.

Home Sweet Home (or as we law nerds would say, Domicile Sweet Domicile)

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I flew into LAX during the day. Usually I have night flights and so I am met with the twinkle of the LA skyline. This time I saw something different. I can't say its very pretty. Unlike most airports I fly into, there aren't lush forrestry around. LA instead is all developed or brown mountains. Instead of seeing any green, I saw homes tightly packed together and highways backed up for miles.

Oddly enough, the thing that reminded me of home was when I saw the giant donut. I don't even really like donuts and I've never been to this donut shop, but I remember one of the first things that I saw when I moved to LA when I was 6 years old was this giant donut. I was in awe; we didn't have this in Minnesota. So seeing it 16 years later brought a smile to my face, because we certainly don't have this in DC.

I'm sure other places have a giant donut but it does seem like a quirky LA thing to do. And just like the backed up freeways, there's something strangely comforting with seeing things like that.