Fun Things!

I've tried all semester to keep a school - rugby -social life - sleep balance. It's mostly worked, and now that I'm in exam week, having a few hours every day to feel normal is even more important.

I stopped by school the day before my first exam to get something out of my locker. I was only there for ten minutes, but the stress level was palpable. I felt sick just being in the building surrounded by stressed out 1Ls. So this is what I've been doing for fun since classes ended:

• 4.5 mile walk/hike in Franklin Park with Izzy
• drinking with classmates at 2pm after our first exam
• watching the Pats demolish the Jets 45-3
• Christmas sweater and white elephant gift exchange party with my rugby team
• tour the Museum of Fine Art's new Art of the Americas wing with BrandonB
• dinner at a Mass Bar event with QC; the food was cooked by Top Chef seasons 1 and 8 contest Tiffani Faison
• puppy play date for Izzy and Remy
  
• Northeastern basketball vs URI. They lost, but the grad students got free food and great seats
• law school party after our first exam
• finally going to the gym and lifting - twice so far!
  
• Watching the Pats (currently up 33-0 over the Bears) win again
  

Fun things still to come:

• ice skating on the rink right by my apt. It finally opened on Saturday! I was planning to go with Dan today, but we were rained out :( Hopefully I'll go Monday or Tuesday.
  
• going to Our House East for the school-sponsored party after the last exam on Wednesday
  
• Boston Pops concert with my mom and Justin's mom on Wednesday night

I promise I've been studying too. I've been to seven optional reviews in the past week and a half. This post is the necessary antidote to the craziness of the previous post.

After that, I'll be driving to VA, for my sister's PhD graduation from Virginia Tech, and finally, back to Maryland. I'm looking forward to being on a school schedule again and having a few weeks off over Christmas.

The things I know now

I have a fantastic teacher for property who often says things like "now that you're lawyers" or "now that you have lawyer-brains." Today, during one of our review sessions before finals, she explained this by comparing how far we've come since the first weeks of school. Which is true, but I still think it's a little scary to be held to "lawyer standards" after less than 1/6 of my schooling.

I just read an article in WaPo that required using my lawyer-brain. Basically, 6 women are suing Wal-Mart for discrimination against female employees. It's a class action suit that started in California in 2001 (that's the procedural history for ya). Wal-Mart is challenging whether it's an appropriate class action. The women won the right to certify as a class in federal district court, and the appeals court upheld with a 6-5 vote. The Supreme Court just granted certiorari, meaning they'll hear arguments this spring.

So how does my lawyer-brain respond to this, especially during this crazy period leading up to finals?

Oooh, that's a Rule 23 issue! We just learned that last week. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (the Bible for law) Rule 23 - Class Actions says that (a) a class must meet these four prerequisites: numerosity, commonality, typicality, and representativeness. Wal-Mart says the class doesn't meet commonality, which says there must be a common question of law or fact for all members. Yes, they're all female and employees, but that's not enough in common - some are hourly, some salaried, and they work all over the country and under a variety of job titles.

(a) makes sense to me and you need all four. (b) is trickier - types of class actions - and you need to fit in (at least) one category:

23(b)(1)(A)- kinda like Rule 19 required joinder - you need all the people added to the class that way everyone gets the same result.

23(b)(1)(B) - kinda like A except it has to do with if the result would hurt those not joined. Not sure if I get this...

23(b)(2) - the big bad company is being a jerk (cigarette companies, credit cards) and the only way to make them stop is a big class action creating injunctive relief. This, I get. It's Erin Brockovich.

23(b)(3) - there is a clear common question of law or fact and it's most efficient to have one giant case.

Wow. That was a good review, but sometimes I want to turn this off. I have a plan for not going crazy this week - that will be my next post.

I got a job!

YAY!

(and sorry in advance if this seems like I'm bragging, I promise, I'm just really excited)

So I wrote a little bit about co-ops before, and it's a super long application process. I submitted 12 apps through the school for the First Collection on Nov 10, and also have been looking for places to apply on my own. So there's 3 school rounds of collections in Nov, Jan, and March, plus a million other public interest legal internships out there.

One of the apply-on-your-own ones is Northeastern's Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE), pronounced FERGIE. Like the Duchess or Black Eyed Peas singer. And one of their positions is in DC advocating for/working with homeless people. And it has a stipend.

So, it's absolutely perfect for me. DC. Homelessness. Paying.

And I got it!!!!!

I'll be at National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty for 10 weeks this summer, and back playing 7s with the Furies. I can't wait!

And, just like that, I'm done worrying about co-op apps and finding a job in DC. I was worried this could drag out for months. I'm so relieved!

Going Home for Thanksgiving

I feel like this is a normal rite of passage for college kids, just like going away to school, and most of them either vaulted it with ease or tackled it when they were 18. It's weird to be 25 and really be away from home for the first time.

Thanksgiving was a mostly-good blur. Had a few days in Boston with Justin, flew into BWI, had a phone interview (more about that later), Harry Potter on IMAX, family time for Thanksgiving (only about 40 this year :( ), shopping at 3 am, relay marathon with my sister, getting a Christmas tree on November 27, doing lots of civ pro studying and flying back.

It was made a lot easier by the fact that I'm near Logan, my mom is near BWI, and Justin's family is near PVD, so the potentially hardest part about traveling went okay. And, I didn't get caught with any of the naked body scanners!

But what a weird feeling. DC was home for the last few years. I intentionally avoided that word in college, worried I'd hurt my mom's feeling when I referred to my on-campus apartment as home. But the last three years, living in a great place surrounded by friends, that was home. We even had a Christmas tree the last two years.

I'm not sure what Boston is. I'm going to be here for at least 3 years. But this apartment doesn't really feel like home. Yes, it's where I'm an adult and pay my bills and where I sleep on the futon every night. But oh yeah, I'm still sleeping on the futon every night because I'm scared of my bedroom. Definitely not home.

Now I'm back to school for a crazy 2.5 weeks of reviews and finals. And then back to MD for the holidays. So despite the Mass. driver's license and plates, I guess that is home again.

My favorite time of year

Justin visits, and we drink beer and watch rugby/football/basketball/hockey. It's pretty much how it goes, and it's always my favorite weekend. Plus, he walks Izzy all weekend, and I get to do laundry at his parents' house. It's a win-win-win-win-win. This time we went to Beer Advocates' Belgian Beer Fest, which if you're a beer dork at all, you know how cool that is.

Annnnnnd

We got matching shirts. Seemed like a great idea after 3.5 hours at the festival!


On Monday Justin visited me at school for lunch and we got always-amazing Penguin Pizza (half Caribbean Jerk Shrimp, half Pimento). And one of the best things about this visit- it will only be two weeks until he is back up here again!

NATIONALS!

No, I didn't go. But I need to give a shout out to all my awesome teammates on Beantown for bringing home #2 in the country, and the Furies for coming in at #6, their highest ranking in years. YAYYYYY rugby!

And, as a lovely captain found out the hard way, TSA will not let you through security if you are visibly intoxicated.

School is getting harder

I expected this, of course. But, wow. I just spent 12 hours at school, and missed rugby practice. I'm absolutely exhausted and can't think anymore, and I'm not even done for the night.

I'm getting ready to apply for summer co-ops in DC on 11/10, and Justin is visiting this weekend, so that's why things are crazy. At least I have his visit to look forward to :)

Practice exam

So I took a practice exam last week. It wasn't graded. My entire law school experience isn't graded, so of course this isn't. That's great in some ways - students here are less competitive with each other than at other schools, from what I can tell.

But it is incredibly unsatisfying. We have about 221 1Ls. Approximately 7 people got check+, meaning they are doing very well. Approximately 7 people got check-, meaning they are required to attend weekly academic support workshops that are optional to the rest of us. Everyone else got a check.

A check tells me nothing. I'm not awful, great. I'm not top of the class, oh well. What have I learned in the last seven weeks? Most people had a few words on their paper, but I didn't even have that. Ugh. I've never wanted feedback on a paper more in my life.

OPENING NIGHT

Well, I've only been waiting for this day for months. Celtics home opener, against some team from Florida, and I'm in Boston for it! Unfortunately the FL team is the Miami Heat, including the "talents" of LeBron James, so while that's a coup for NBA ticket sales, it priced me out of the market. I held out hope that I'd be able to get a scalped ticket, but by the time I got there, people were asking me if I had tickets to sell. Even though I didn't make it into the Garden, it still was a great night.

It started off with a GW Alum in Boston Happy Hour. I tried to convince a few friends to come, but everyone backed out. I wasn't about to turn down 2 free drinks and food and exploring more of Boston, so I went solo. It was at Ned Devine's, part of Fanuil Hall, and I ran into Crobb, who played GW rugby for the men's team, so there was at least one friendly face.

Then I headed over to the Garden, just a few blocks north. After failing to procure a ticket, I joined BrandonB and friends at a nearby bar and we had a great time cheering on the Celtics win.

I had a bit of a Lost on Boston crisis on the way home, but otherwise this was a great night and I loved being downtown.

Finally, fall!

Over the last eight years, I've been in Boston during: January, March, June, July, August, and December. I've always missed fall, which is supposed to be New England's most beautiful season. Well, now I am finally able to enjoy it!

Last Sunday I reffed a rugby game at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, so I had a little over a 2 hour drive roundtrip. This weekend I went to New Haven to visit Anita, and spent 5.5 hours in the car. I don't mind the driving, especially when it is incredibly beautiful out!

Plus, the last two weekends have been somewhat temperate- almost t-shirt weather, as long as you're moving around. We toured around Yale's campus today and crossed off a few items on Anita's Intern Scavenger Hunt, visiting Skull & Bones Society, the Rare Books Library, hiking through East Rock Park, and enjoying a delicious coffee drink from Claire's Corner Copia.

I'm sure I'll be whining about the cold in a few days, but for right now, fall is great.

Lost in Boston: Where is 90?

I missed the on ramp to 90. See the awkward turn? In my defense, it was dark and I've never gotten onto 90 from Mass Ave, so I missed the exit amid all the parked cars.

40 minutes later I finally got on the Mass Pike (aka 90) somewhere in Watertown. Kind of a disaster, and I still had a 2.5 hr drive to New Haven to go. At least I had my trusty (borrowed) map.

POW 10/20

My pizza-making dropped off for a few weeks. It's just not as fun solo. But this Pizza Wednesday, Dan came over and we had bbq chicken and broccoli. That's becoming a standby since it seems sort of healthy with all the green stuff on it. It was great to see Dan and finally have him over to the apartment. In the meantime, I'm still keeping an eye out for other places and considering moving if I find the right place that makes me feel safer.

I also made pumpkin bread last night. It turned out...okay. It's a little heavier than I'd like, which is the same thing that happened when my sister made it last week, so perhaps it's the recipe we both used. It's delicious with Nutella, though :)

Undefeated and it feels so good

Beantown's DIII team just swept the division going 5-0 with a win over North Shore!!

It has been such a fun season. And, I finally started having a social life - I went out with teammates on Thursday to Queeroke (queer + karaoke) at a fun bar in my neighborhood, and Saturday to a team party to celebrate after our win.

Rugby and drinking...aka Justin visits

Justin flew in at 8pm on Friday night. It turned out my rugby match was at 8:30pm in Boston (Friday night matches are very unusual), so luckily one of my teammates picked him up at Logan while I was warming up and he made it to the game. We had a great match in a stadium under the lights, defeating Charles River. All of Beantown came out for the DivIII game and gave amazing and loud support throughout the game. It was so cool to play in a stadium!

Saturday we went to his family's house to watch the Bruins, and then headed back to Boston to watch Northeastern men's rugby take on Army, with former GW rugger Rizzo playing #9 for NEU.

That's the rugby half of the weekend. Then the drinking began. We visited Rock Bottom and Beantown pub with friends. Sunday we went to Sunset Grill & Tap and Deep Ellum, beer meccas that Justin has been waiting to go to for years. Sunset had amazing food, too; we split pumpkin ravioli and swordfish skewers. Monday we finally made it to Sam Adams R&D Brewery which is just a few blocks away from me. We enjoyed a tour, the tasting room, and a post-tour trip to Doyle's for free pint glasses. It was a great weekend, but Justin's visits always end too soon :(

What law school is like

I sent my mom an email with details about what I'm actually doing in law school, and realized it might be interesting to other people. And if you're already bored, just skip over this post.

My three core classes are property, torts, and civ pro, and I prefer them in that order.

Elliff, dealing with property and oil well blowup http://lawschool.courtroomview.com/acf_cases/8958-elliff-v-texon-drilling-co-

Hymowitz, which I read tonight for torts, dealing with combining multiple drug company defendants who marketed DES before it was known to cause birth defects http://www.4lawnotes.com/showthread.php?t=1018 (easy to read brief, not a case)

Daynard, which I covered in civ pro (civil procedure, having to do with the proper way of filing a case, making motions) is really neat. Basically a NUSL professor was one of the top advisers during the 90's to a lot of suits against tobacco companies. When the suits were finished, they didn't pay him his cut which had been agreed to with a handshake and not a signed contract. He sued and won. It's a lot more complicated but that's a quick version. With some of the money he established a visiting scholar program and one is at school this week.
http://www.ecasebriefs.com/blog/law/civil-procedure/civil-procedure-keyed-to-subrin/complexity-it-all-comes-together/daynard-v-ness-motley-loadholdt-richardson-poole-p-a/
http://www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/faculty/directory/daynard.html

Break-in

My apartment was broken into on Oct 1. I realized it when I got home from school around 4pm. Izzy was in her crate and is fine, but was a little jumpy. They took my laptop, camera, and a few other things. I'm kind of a mess about it so don't feel like going into more details.

Winging It

Beantown rugby is ridiculous. Ridiculous! They are currently #3 in the country and have a historical record of 639-61. I don't think I've ever been on a team, for any sport, that's so used to winning, and playing at such a high level of competition.

We have 40-50 players and 3-5 coaches at every practice. In a lot of ways it's similar to the Furies with having a huge team and very knowledgeable coaches. I'm definitely glad I went to Beantown instead of another local team which wouldn't have had the same depth.

We have three sides

• A, who plays in Women's Premier League against the Furies and 6 other teams across the country
  
• B side, who generally plays WPL opponents' B sides or other senior women or collegiate teams
• C side, which is playing in Div III and is a new team this year

I've been playing with C side which is a perfect fit for my level of skill, fitness, and time commitment this year. We had a nice win over Furies C on 9/12 and Middlesex on 9/19.

But yesterday, finally, Saturday was a Rugby Day again! We've been playing matches on Sunday because WPL plays on Sundays, but Saturday matches are a rugby tradition and having a recovery day is very helpful. I started off playing scrumhalf for Beantown, but I had muscle spasms in my back on the 19th and had to come out early, and problems persisted throughout the week, so I was switched to wing and scheduled to play only a half against Amoskeag.

We took the field, the forwards drove the ball up the field, sucking in the defense, and then the ball spun out to the backs. My outside center made a great cut and passed it to me just steps outside the try zone, and I scored! Only 48 seconds into the game! And that was pretty much how the rest of the game went, with me scoring another try, the outside center earning a hat trick, and many other people scoring. It was so fun. I feel like every time I go back to playing wing, I have this realization that it's an incredibly fun position.

Catching up

School started and my posts stopped, sorry. I knew it would happen, but didn't plan to take 25 days to get caught up. I did write a few posts...but didn't publish them, because they weren't perfect. It's a blog. It doesn't need to be perfect! So here comes a few postdated updates.

Also, I got another mouse. This time, it was with a snap trap and I discovered it hours later. This one I felt really bad about, as compared to the one I bludgeoned, which felt like a victory at 4am. This one was just sad.

Lost in Boston: South End edition

9/17 - This is the route I took to (southern route) and home from a team dinner tonight. I liked ending up on Storrow Drive - it's very pretty, winds along the river, and had a great view of downtown. Tonight was misty and the buildings were backlit with a normal city glow that never really gets dark, and part of me is so happy to be in Boston. It's a big, beautiful city, and I've been waiting years to come here.

But....getting lost sucks. I'm getting the hang of some things, and did recognize both Mass Ave and Washington...but still managed to turn the wrong way.

POW 9/14

Yummy white pizza! Garlic, basil, onions, mozzarella, and parmesan with broccoli on top. Delicious. All that's missing is the roommates to do the dishes :-P

POW 9/8

Brandon came over and we made a supreme pizza - sausage, peppers, onions, garlic, and probably a few other things I can't remember by now. He really likes crust, so we tried using 2 lbs of dough, but I think that actually made too much crust. Either way, it was still delicious.

Things I like about Boston

I could probably write a whole post about the T, Boston's subway (and bus and rail) system.

• I travel 3 stations, or 6 mins, up the orange line
• I usually wait 0-3 mins for a train, never more than 4 mins during rush hour
• The most I've ever waited was 10 12 mins
• You can eat and drink on the T
• I usually get a seat and the orange line has yet to be annoyingly crowded
• It only costs $1.70 flat rate per ride, and with my $52 monthly unlimited pass I am paying even less
• Dogs are allowed to ride on the T!
  

Other things I like:

• Northeastern Law - the professors are awesome
• Most of my new classmates are laid back and friendly
• My new laptop - after 7 years with a refurbished Dell, it's great to have my amazingly lightweight Toshiba that is actually portable!
• Beecher St dog park
• Beantown rugby
• Having a new mattress
• BBQs/dinners with Justin's family

Some things I'm not liking so much or that I miss compared to DC - being lonely living by myself after having MEY and Anita as great roommates, cold weather, T stations being outdoors (they will be freezing soon!), Furies rugby

POW 8/31

Pizza of the week! A new category to celebrate my weekly pizza-making. Unfortunately I had some cancellations so I was cooking for one this night. So, I split the pizza, to give me a little variety. Half was bbq chicken with mozzarella, half was fresh tomatoes and basil from my own plants. Yay for pizza!

I caught a mouse

Impressed? I KILLED the mouse!

So I'm tossing and turning on a cheap Ikea mattress, which I think I'm going to have to upgrade asap, because even before rugby it was difficult to sleep on. It's not firm, which means when Izzy jumps into bed, she slides into me. I think it bothers her, too, and the last three nights she's cycled between bed, rug at the foot of the bed, and her crate.

I think I'm hearing things - little noises of mice running all over my bedroom. This is ironic because I just waited 4 days, didn't see anything, and left the management company a message around 9pm saying I think the mice are gone. Well, at 10pm one ran right by me and I almost stomped it and Izzy chased it around the kitchen for a while. So I am trying to sleep, on an ice pack, and hearing imaginary and possibly real mice and keep waking up and am super stressing.

Around 3:30 am I get up and decide to move to the futon in the front room, which is much more comfortable. I also haven't seen mice (yet) in that room. Izzy's a step ahead of me and immediately goes to the sticky paper I left in the middle of the kitchen. It's been out for 24 hrs, but I have my first victim!

Izzy is really good and immediately listens and goes to her crate. It's me and the mouse. His long tail- maybe 3 inches - is on the glue sheet as well as back feet. The front feet are on it, but moving, not stuck. He's working incredibly hard to move. Without tail, he's maybe 1.25" and sorta cute, if not for the fact that HE IS IN MY HOUSE AND IT IS 3 AM.

He seems mostly stuck so I google it to see how long this will take. One site mentions peanut butter, which I had put a little in the middle to lure the mouse, can void the stickiness.

I go back and check and his frantic motions are working - now he's got a back leg free! The tail is starting to slide! He's moving towards the corner of the 5x10" card!

I grab another sticky trap (thank you management for leaving me a couple extra), pull off the paper, and stick it square on top of the mouse, who still has a leg or so on the original paper. I seal it into the baseboard of the cabinets. But I can still hear him moving! There's a tiny space, and mice can fit almost anywhere. I was worried if I went back to sleep he might get out.

My first idea was to pick up the two sheets, place them in a bag, and deliver a death shot. So I got my hammer and a bag. This sorta seems more humane instead of making it starve to death or have a heart attack on sticky paper, right?

But I'm worried that if I lift the second sheet he might not be attached, and it's also stuck to the cabinet and floor and might be hard to get off. So, plan b - hammer the sheet into the mouse. It wasn't a single death shot, more of a volley of shots until I found the head, but that mouse is dead!

I really hope it's been this one mouse that I've seen so much of since I moved in. But even if it's not, I now have one success under my belt. And now I can go back to sleep for an hour of peace.

RUGBY

After my debacle of getting lost last Thursday, I have been acutely aware that I'm missing rugby in my life. It's been my 2-4x week habit for 5.5 years, and I think fitting in the time for rugby will provide me with a workout, a social circle outside school, and an excellence stress relief. So, I'm going to try my best to make it work.

I made it to Beantown practice tonight. A little bit late because of killer traffic, and I missed stretching, which is part 1 of why I'm writing posts at 5 in the morning. I'm sadly out of shape, but it was a good, hard practice, so I feel good about getting back into playing. Because I didn't stretch, and haven't played since June, and we used some techniques new to me, my back really hurts and I'm having trouble sleeping. A small price to pay for playing rugby again.

Town hosts the Furies in two weeks, and two of my favorite people are going to stay with me!

Wow, I picked the right school

Orientation was Monday and Tuesday this week. I can't describe how, especially Monday, it left me with the certainty that this is the best school for me. Now, I'm not expecting law school to be fun, or easy, but I did have several hopes as I went through the application process: to be at a school that was not crazy competitive, where people cared about making a difference not just making hundreds of thousands of dollars upon graduation, etc. I've heard a lot of things that emphasize that so far this week.

Also, the unique thing about NUSL is the co-op program. For undergrads, this means 5 years at Northeastern - eight semesters in class, and two semesters working. For law school, this is how it's different:

Typical school:.............................NUSL:
1L - 2 semesters of class............1L - 2 semesters of class
Summer associate job.................2L - starting June, a quarter of work or school
2L - 2 semesters of class............three more quarters - alternating work/school
Summer associate job.................start 3L year in June - 4 more varying quarters
3L - 2 semesters of classes

Total:
6 semesters in class...................2 semesters + 4 quarters
(about 14 weeks each)..............(14 weeks and 11 weeks, respectively)
2 summer jobs............................4 co-op jobs
(about 11 weeks each)...............(11 weeks each)

So, in case you missed the part in bold, I'll have four jobs when I'm starting a job in May 2013, as opposed to my peers at every other law school that will have two.

There's a ton more to the co-op program - choosing fall-spring or winter-summer to work, job placements in the US or abroad, and all the possible positions. For now I'm definitely considering a co-op in DC and/or going abroad. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about this down the line.

Study time

I did a lot of reading this weekend. At least it feels like a lot, until I get to next weekend, when I'll probably have twice as much. I made it out for most of Saturday daytime to help a friend move, and locked myself out in the process. Besides that, mainly reading and a little bit of writing.

Lost in Boston

Looking back, I'm actually a little bit unclear what I did Thursday and Friday in Boston. Besides getting lost. There was definitely a lot of that. Thursday I tried to go to rugby practice, and found out that there's a field at 250 Western Ave in Cambridge (wrong) and a field at 250 Western Ave in Boston (only 1.1 mi away but might as well be 111 when you're lost).

Friday I went to campus to get another book for class. I've been pretty lucky when it came to getting books. The wonderful people on the staff and board at Friendship Place, where I've worked for the last year, gave me Barnes & Noble giftcards as a going away present. That has been sooooo helpful, since casebooks cost about $150 and the supplemental books are usually around $40. Also, I got several books from a good friend from high school who graduated from NUSL last year.

I did a bit of wandering through JP on the way back from campus. I know the main roads, but am not even close to understanding the cut-thrus yet. Hopefully, in time.

I thought of something I did Thursday! I went on a long walk over to Jamaica Pond with Izzy and a classmate.

And something else for Friday - went back to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) and got my Massachusetts plates and a very fake looking paper license to use until my proper one comes in the mail.

Rain, rain, go away (Monday-Wednesday)

It's the third day of steady rain in Boston. I can't complain too much, because I know it rained all last week in MD and DC, but still, it's not conducive to me exploring the city. I haven't ventured out much, but I have gotten to know a few of my new classmates.

Tuesday night I hoped to check out a local music place with a student who lives two blocks away, but when we got there we quickly decided it was not our scene. Luckily, it was near Doyle's, which we had both visited and liked, so we stayed there a for a while and soaked up some local flavor.

Wednesday I hosted a group of students to talk about an assignment for our first class: imagine you are part of a group forming a utopian society. You are in charge of the legal system (courts, prison, etc). What sort of system would you set up, and why?

It's a pretty intense assignment, with flexibility to go in almost any direction. It was neat to have six people, and six different opinions, talking it over. It's also nice to have a few faces I'll recognize when I start orientation on Monday.

It's so strange to think orientation is almost here. There's a networking site - a "fake facebook" that I've been using to meet other students, looking for housing, etc. The home page of the site has a big countdown X days X hours X minutes X seconds until Northeastern Orientation!

When I first was accepted, it was 150 days. Now, it's 4 days, 10 hours, and change. It's weird to be so close! I've got a lot of reading to do before then, as well as go back to to RMV to get my plates, get my books, and a bunch of things I'm sure I'm forgetting...

The Revolution is just the beginning

That was the tagline from North Bridge, which I visited on Thursday. I went to Concord, home to "the shot heard 'round the world" and the beginning of the American Revolution. It was pretty neat, and Izzy and I had a good time walking around. I'm looking forward to exploring more of MA's historical spots.

Exploring JP

Today I wandered around Jamaica Plain, or JP, for a while. It has a reputation as the most diverse neighborhood in MA and being very friendly and liberal. It's similar to Columbia Heights (where I used to live in DC) but bigger and nicer.

Izzy and I explored SW Corridor Park in the morning. It was supposed to be a run, but we kept stopping to say hi to other dogs. I talked with a bichon frise's owner, who has lived in the area for twenty years, for quite a while, and found out about a dog park off Beecher St. The park is awesome - fully fenced, lots of toys and water, about 8 blocks from my apt, and Izzy loved it. He also told me about Centre St, which is like Main Street in JP.

I headed there in the afternoon. It's only a mile away and has many fun shops! I went to Ace Hardware (mousetraps and key copies), Gadgets, Boomerangs (thrift store), Goodwill, and a few others. I now have a VHS player (to watch gametape) and ice cube trays. Between Gadgets and the thrift stores, I could get any possible kitchen item I could ever desire, from kitchen torches to a monkey wine bottle holder.

I also went to the grocery store, which wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. Going to the grocery store is up there with checking voicemails on the list of things I hate to do.

I mentioned how nice the people in JP are. It's directly in contrast to how the rest of the state drives. The nickname "Masshole" is well earned.

I also mentioned mousetraps. There's a strange hole in my bathroom, so I knew this might be a possibility. And several times when I have come home and let Izzy out of her crate, she'll ignore me and immediately begin a dedicated search of the apartment. Last night I watched one run along the baseboard of my bedroom. So, I have a mouse. I now have poison-free repellants and between that and Izzy's German Shepherd capabilities, I am sure we will be just fine.

I'm waiting around for Comcast tomorrow morning, and then hopefully venturing out to Concord to make a beer delivery for Justin and check out the beginning of the American Revolution.

My first day alone

I'm making some progress - still surrounded by boxes, but I've assembled a few things, finally received my proper keys, and turned in the original lease. I hit another road closure coming back from the management office, but successfully found my way back home. Izzy and I explored Franklin Park today which was pretty cool.

I also found a really helpful Boston Neighborhood website. That one says I live in JP. USPS says I live in Roxbury. My lease says Boston. All three appear to work as the city/town in a mailing address, but it's a little tricky.

Just made a run to the CISP office and got a textbook for $25! I'm excited about that, because the rest of my books will be closer to $150. I tried to pick up my T pass at the cashiers office but it's not ready yet. I wandered around campus for a while which was fun - I haven't really seen Northeastern besides the law school and gym, and it has a really pretty campus, especially for a city school.

I made plans to go to Maine this weekend with BrandonB and his friends - I'm so excited. 3 days of beautiful Mt. Desert Island, hiking, boating, etc, with Izzy too.

I'm trying to plan what else to do- these two weeks are going to go so fast! I have to go to student health and get a tetanus shot :( I was hoping to check out the Museum of Fine Arts, which is right next to campus, but tickets cost $21.50! I guess I've gotten spoiled with DC and all its free Smithsonian museums. Just checked the Franklin Zoo - another $14.00. Ugh. I will splurge for the Aquarium, which is $21.95. I have totally gotten sucked in by these great ads all over the city with penguins and I really want to check it out.

Time for more IKEA assembling...

Monday - day 3

First we dropped off the Penske van. While 16' was annoyingly big, it was pretty comfortable to drive/ride in. It was across the street from Puritan ice cream. On Saturday night I wanted to order their black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream at Doyles but they were out. So I really wanted to try it but the shop wasn't open yet.

We headed out to DD for breakfast. At the corner we saw two cops, and were curious about all the blocked roads the day before, so I asked if anything had happened - was there a parade? The cop replied, "Yes, something had happened"...and took a long dramatic pause before continuing, "five people were shot."

Apparently it's gang violence, they don't target random people, just other gangs, it was a planned reprisal from last week's shooting (?), and the cops were out in force trying to prevent it, because there was a big Dominican festival on Sunday, but it happened anyways. We talked to the cops for a while and while some of it wasn't great to learn, overall I do feel better about my neighborhood. That might sound counterintuitive, but at least I know what my neighborhood is like, which is better than an unknown, and the cops were pretty nice.

Time for even more shopping - this time of the curtains, couch cover, pillows, cleaning supplies variety. Surprisingly, all together it was even more expensive than the IKEA trip. Also, a few more causualities- I've now run my toe into an IKEA cart and ripped part of the nail off, cut myself with scissors, and have a scrape and a bruise from a box at Target falling and hitting my leg.

I dropped my mom at the airport - I have now gotten to/from the airport without getting lost TWICE!!

I've been craving ice cream all day so I got it with Dan in Back Bay late at night at Emack & Bolios. They had a "purple cow" which was black raspberry with bits of blueberry and white and chocolate chips = delicious!

Day 2

We wandered around and checked out the green space near the Stonybrook T and looked for good places to walk Izzy. We also got breakfast at Ula's, a popular bakery that is next to the Sam Adams R&D brewery. Then it was time for IKEA, my favorite store in the world.

We hit a bunch of road closures and got massively lost. After about an hour in the store I had to leave to take Justin to Logan, and then back to IKEA for part II. We got lost leaving IKEA too (apparently, reversing directions we didn't understand the first time pretty much guarantees getting lost). But when I got back, my mom and I got so much stuff, and didn't have to pay any sales tax!

BrandonB met us in the evening to help load a couch from an apt in Beacon Hill, and that was it for the day. We sort of forgot to eat lunch and dinner.

Moving to Boston!

I'm starting a little blog, probably just for the two weeks before school starts, to keep you updated as I discover Boston.

The drive up is best described in numbers:
5:45 am - when we left
3 people, 2 vehicles, 1 dog
1 - stop in New Haven to see Anita and have awesome pizza
10 - hours for the drive
$100+ paid in tolls

0 - number of keys my realtor had ready
800 -number of sq ft in my 1 bed apt!
2 - walk in closets in the bedroom
6 - people helping move in - my mom, Justin, and his family drove up to help. We got dinner at Doyles Cafe afterward - definitely will be going back there.
11 pm - how late the liquor store across the street is open even though the sign says 10pm

So, that's Saturday. I'll try to do a quick recap of each day.