Restaurant Wars

I remember one of my favorite assignments in third grade was to create a restaurant concept and menu. How this related to anything we were learning at the time, I am not sure, but I loved it.

I still daydream about what kind of restaurant I would want to open. Alex and I conjured up a restaurant of “pocket foods” around the globe; Liz and I envisioned a Mexican/Vietnamese fusion restaurant; Ben and I joked about starting up Legal Liability Confections if the law thing did not work out for both of us; and I am sure my family discussed bringing actual Vietnamese food to our hometown. If I ever made it onto Top Chef, I would be ready for the Restaurant Wars episode.

Going to work at the courthouse, however, causes the dream to die just a little bit every day. Even though I have only been working for a week and a half, I have seen so many cases about restaurants. Bankruptcy, closures, rent issues, management disputes, contract matters, employee issues, you name it. I bet that if you listed your ten favorite restaurants in the city, at least one of them would be going through a major legal issue. I was shocked to see how many familiar restaurants were on the docket.

What makes the restaurant business so litigious? I have heard it is because it is a high-risk endeavor, led by people idealistic people who often have little business sense. They just love food. Throw in colorful chef personalities and a cutthroat industry, and you wonder how any restaurant stays in business.

Although I highly doubt I would ever try to open up a restaurant considering how risk-adverse I am, at least I would have the legal education to fight off any lawsuits.

Wii Memories

Growing up, there were not a lot of kids our age in the neighborhood. That meant my brother and I hung out a lot. And while we were nowhere near video game addicts and I did not like shooting games like Goldeneye much, we did love playing Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo and later Nintendo 64. Koopa Troopa beach was my favorite track because I knew I could always beat my brother there. It was all about the secret tunnel.

Today Alex set up my Wii and we popped in the Mario Kart that my friends got me for my birthday. Though we were playing with a steering wheel instead of a index card-sized Super Nintendo remote and we did not need to blow into a game cartridge to make the game work again (seriously, where did we come up with that idea?), there were the same characters, magic boxes, and themed-tracks. I still drive like I drove back then, leaning my body with the curves of the track . . . yelling when I get hit by a red shell.

If my brother was not 3,000 miles away, I would challenge him to a Koopa Troopa beach challenge (or the equivalent track). We might both be "grown-ups" with jobs and apartments, but we are never too old to engage in some sibling rivalry.

Criminal Minds

Is it odd that I am the huge wuss who will not watch horror movies nor could ever be dragged into a haunted house, but I will spend hours reading about horrific kidnappings, read Newsweek specials about the anniversary of the Manson Family murders, and watch marathons of Law & Order SVU-the most gruesome of the Law & Order franchise?

My boss jokes that people watch wrestling to satisfy sadistic urges. I wonder what it means if I wanted to be a criminal psychologist when I was in high school.

Freedom

After the whole paycheck thing, I would say the best part about transitioning from academia to the working world is discovering how glorious the weekend is after a long week of work. I no longer have to be jealous of 90% of the people in DC who look like they have fun on weekends.

Instead of planning Saturdays and Sundays around a memo writing schedule, how much reading I had for the week, a journal assignment, or even worse- studying for the bar, I get to go to karaoke for my roommate's birthday, do Restaurant Week lunch with my favorite ladies, hang out with Alex, get a Wii, watch football, and sleep in. Granted, I could do many of these things before, but now I do not have to feel guilty about it.

I think it was good that I went straight from college to law school. I never fully understood what I was missing, and it would be hard to have it any other way.