More Pumpkins

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday because I get scared easily. However, being in Washington, DC, I am entertained by all of the political nerdy costumes around. Last year (as I described here) I saw people dressed up as Watergate tapes, Janet Reno, Mark Foley-bait, WTO protesters, etc.

This year, I already have friends thinking up costume ideas. For example, my friend from UCLA and nationally known political blogger, Ezra, is dressing up as Jesus with a bong in honor of the big Supreme Court free-speech case about a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" poster. He also found this site, which has stencils of Presidential candidates for your pumpkin.


The bad part about not picking a candidate is that I do not know who to carve into my pumpkin.

Top Chef'ing It

The reason why I love my friends is because, not only did we have a Top Chef Finale Party, we had a BYOD (bring your own dip) Top Chef Finale Party.

We dipped, we took sides, we gasped in delight when Rocco came out, we braced ourselves, and in the end, we on Team Hung cheered when our boy prevailed.

After feeling ambivalent about last year's Top Chef and Project Runway winners, I felt like order had been restored in the world. Hung had undeniable skills to back up the arrogance (though I believe a lot of the cockiness was played up and edited for good tv drama).

And while I wanted Hung to win because of his talent, having him be a fellow Vietnamese certainly was icing on the cake. His stories of coming over as an immigrant and working his way up reminded me of my parents' stories, and his use of tamarind, coconut, and prawns reminded me of the flavors I grew up with (minus the prawns). First Chloe on Project Runway, then Hung. We're taking over the world, or at least Bravo reality shows.

If becoming the first Vietnamese Supreme Court Justice or Solicitor General does not work out, I guess I could also audition for a reality show. I won best knife skills and presentation for my pumpkin mousse dip with graham crackers. (No, I do not have that much free time, I carved the pumpkin while watching Top Model and reading for First Amendment. It's called multitasking.)

Still Not Leaving the Children Behind

Just yesterday, I told one of my friends that one of the best decisions I ever made in law school was writing my law review comment on No Child Left Behind over the summer. I got it out of the way, or so I thought.

While sitting in the library today, I received an email from one of the editors of my journal with a conditional offer of publication. If I was not in the library, I probably would have screeched. This was a huge surprise to me. Although I was very pleased with the final outcome of my comment, the law review typically only chooses 1-2 people out of all the people who write per option (I believe my summer option had 15-20 people).

Although I have enjoyed my time away from my comment, and writing in general, I am excited to meet with the editors to see what the next step is. The publication offer is conditional because I have to still make some revisions to the piece. Considering that the journal has a circulation of over 17,000 and this would be eternalized on Lexis and Westlaw, I am happy to make any improvements.

So I guess it is a good thing that I did not throw away my thousands of pages of research on the comment. Back to No Child Left Behind, the bluebook, and revising. Only in law school do they reward your work with more work.

Blogging Notes

With the craziness of law school, I have sometimes asked myself why I keep blogging. Then I remind myself that I have this to: a) keep my family 3,000 miles away and friends scattered across the country up to date with my life, b) chronicle the odd, odd world of law school, as well as life in general, and c) give myself a "creative" outlet.

However, as of late, I have discovered a few other uses for my blog:

• Writing Sample: When my higher ed professor circulated a copy of my memo to the class with my name redacted, my friend Smash told me that she knew that it was my memo based on the writing style. I assume she picked up my style from this blog, which almost makes me question my academic level of writing because these are usually late night ramblings.
  
• Crime-Solving Central: A few months ago, I blogged about an internet creep/harasser who sent me messages pretending to be my boyfriend and other friends. Since posting his screen name on this blog, I have received several comments and emails from people who have also been harassed by this individual. It appears that this person has acquired school email addresses around the country to infiltrate university networks on Facebook. He/she also likes to "hit" in waves, as 3 unrelated individuals contacted me just this weekend saying that they were harassed.
  
• Measuring stick: After having lunch with some 1L students today and talking about the stress of their first memo, I wanted to look back to see how I was back then. After reading this entry reflecting on my first few weeks of law school, I realized that I seem exactly the same (for better or worse). I just don't have the nightmares of CREAC and stress of legal rhetoric.

Gator Country

On the long list of ways that Alex and I are different is the fact that he is a big outdoors person and I am more city. But I am back from the boonies of Florida happy and tanner (a little sunburnt too). Though I will have to upload all my pictures, here are a few with highlights from the trip:

-Kayaking: Although we did not end up fishing, we spent most of the weekend out by the waters. On Saturday Alex's uncle, Alex, and I kayaked the Juniper Springs, a seven mile river run that was narrow, had crystal clear water, and was full of overhanging trees that we had to navigate around or duck under. It reminded me a lot of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.


The next day we kayaked eight miles of Withlacoochee River, a much bigger river with great scenery and wildlife. Without having to duck under trees, this river was a lot more relaxing.


-Gators! Over the weekend we saw three gators out on the river. Alex's uncle assured us that alligators do not attack people out on kayaks and canoes; the only reported incidents have been people swimming, particularly people who taunt the gator with food or are just plain stupid. To complete our gator experience, we went to a restaurant after the second day and Alex's aunt and uncle ordered fried gator appetizers. They had me try it, and it does taste like chicken- really rubbery not tasty chicken. But now I can say that I've tried gator. Below is the one we say at Juniper Springs, not the one we ate.


-Trailer Trash: Though Alex's aunt and uncle live in a nice wooded area, we were not far from the "hicks." I honestly saw a guy go out into the river, wearing his board shorts and trucker hat, to swim around on his paddleboard with a beer. Then, he pulls out another beer from board shorts and starts drinking the second beer (which is covered in dirty river water). Double fisting in a river, classy. Alex yelled at me for not taking a picture, but I think I was half shocked, half worried about messing with this guy.

-Cuban Food: When we got off the plane, Alex and I stopped at La Terista, a local Cuban lunch counter. So good, so cheap.

-Tampa/St. Petersburg: We explored the cities and beaches, which were very pretty and reminded me of California and Hawaii. However we could not stay out for long because it was extremely hot and humid. For you Seinfeld fans, I felt like Elaine visiting Del Boca Vista between the weather and density of retirees.


-Hanging out with Phil and Lee: Alex's uncle and aunt are hilarious. His uncle is a lot like Alex, more reserved with a dry sense of humor. His aunt, who also happens to be Vietnamese, is over a foot shorter than her husband, fiesty, and is quite the talker with crazy stories. Being around families are fun, even if they aren't your own.

Though it was sad returning back to the real world, it was nice to finally go on a trip with Alex where saying goodbye didn't mean "see you in a month or two." So even with all my prejudices against Florida, I think we both give the trip a thumbs up for vacationing.