Why We Probably Shouldn't Have Kids Yet

Because we do things like this to our cats:

But so cute, right?!

I Could Continue to Blog about Our Trip out West, But I'm Going to Bitch about My Week Instead

I promise the trip updates will continue, but today I just need to bitch.  Do you ever have days/weeks like that?  I would say that I was over this week before 10am on Tuesday morning.  That's a terrible sign!

First, I'll start with Hellish Week: Home Edition.

Over the weekend, the pipes under our sink were leaking and the maintenance guy came and took care of it right away.  Problem solved, right? Wrong.  But we'll get to that.  My Tuesday morning started with me getting TRAPPED in our garage.  Yes, folks.  I had a Christine moment.  As I was about to pull out of my garage, the garage door shut behind me and that turned off the lights.  For a brief moment, I was in the garage in the dark with my car running.  I definitely had an irrational fear that my car was trying to kill me.  I immediately turned off the car.  My clicker wouldn't work.  The button on the side of the garage wouldn't work.  So, I did what any person would do.  I called my husband at work.  And he didn't answer.  So somehow I ended up calling his gym (don't ask).  He did call me back and told me about this magical device called an emergency release lever.  So I pulled this lever and manually lifted my garage door.  I am now aware of how unsafe my garage is.  The only way of ingress/ egress is the garage door itself.

Anyway, on the way to work on Tuesday, I almost ran out of gas because the one gas station I knew had diesel fuel closed unexpectedly!  Thank goodness for google maps.  Anyway, Tuesday Morning was quickly followed by Wednesday morning.  Cue flooding of kitchen, broken coffeemaker and possessed garage door.  I woke up this morning to a flooded kitchen—water all over the counter, under the sink, on the floor.  And this water leakage was completely separate from the leaking from this weekend.  And Erik told me that the garage door was opening and closing in the middle of the night last night.  Why is my apartment cursed?!  Anyway, in the midst of all this, I am thankful that we live in an apartment complex that is so quickly responsive to our maintenance needs.  I'm also thankful that Erik stuck around this morning to deal with the maintenance guy and that we don't own a home because otherwise we would have had to call a plumber and it probably would have had to wait until the weekend and cost us $$$.

As if the home stuff wasn't stressful, enter Hellish Week: Work Edition.

Now, I will say that hellish weeks here do not compare to hellish weeks at Big LawNYC LLP.  This week is a new special kind of hellish.  I've been hesitant to mention it on the blog because, well, it all seemed so promising a little over a month ago.  I was hoping that the things that are making me hate my job and long for my days in NYC were just anomalies and things would get better.  Yeah, they haven't.  Today, I went to full on freak out mode.  I chatted on gchat with my go-to advice friend (CR, you are a wonderful friend and I know I don't reciprocate, but I love you and am so thankful we are friends), I emailed my best friend at BigLawNYC LLP and told her that we needed to talk asap (JSkim, I am also so thankful for you but I don't think you read the blog so... yeah...) and I called my former hallway buddy as well (BL, you are amazing and I miss you keeping me centered throughout the drama of daily law practice). 

So... I lost about 3 billable hours of time I was at work today to bitch and moan and mope about the state of affairs of my current law practice.  I'm just over the problems of having to prove myself yet again, doing things that at my prior firm I would have asked a paralegal to do and getting shit work that the junior associates don't feel like doing themselves because I'm the new kid.  I moved every freakin' year of elementary school.  I'm way over being the new kid.  Partners actually stop by my office to ask me if I'm "having fun".  Sure, if I enjoyed getting crap work and not getting much in the way of substantive work all while working 10+ hour days and feeling like I've gone backwards professionally instead of forwards. Yeah, I'm having a fucking blast.  And the whole, everyone is so nice?  Yes, it's true people are friendlier but I miss my crotchety new york coworkers.  And, in fact, it's exhausting to say hi to people in the halls and pretend to be happy when I'm not.  The highlight of my day (pre-coming home to E) is driving on a semi-empty highway in my awesome new car.  I spend my day counting down the hours until I can leave.  I hate it.  As much as the work was stressful at BigLawNYC LLP, I loved the type of work I did.  I can see how a lot of associates join big law firms and hate it.  I feel like my soul is being sucked away and have taken on more work than I would rather just to be able to do substantive stuff that reminds me why I like being an attorney in the first place.  UGH.  Hopefully, this is all part of a transition period until after I come back for my bar leave.  If not, I'm stuck here for at least a year due to clawback provisions in my offer letter.  We don't really have the funds to pay TechLaw PC back for all my moving and bar expenses and my signing bonus.  Le sigh.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Tuesday I was staffed on a deal that will require work over Thanksgiving.  Awesome.  Is it Friday evening yet?!?

Moving to Cali: Fort Collins --> Park City

So.... 2 months later I'm finally blogging about the rest of our road trip.  I count the first 2 days as done with this post (a little scant but why be redundant?).  I'll do it the cheating way and just post photos with descriptions.  Hey, I was at work until 9pm—cut me some slack! :)

Note: We really wish we could have taken some side trips while driving through Wyoming and Utah.  Unfortunately, the cats made our road trip less fun (and not just because of the constant crying).  It wouldn't be right to leave them in the car or do anything that would keep them in the car longer than the 8 hours of driving we had to do to make it to California in time to take possession of our apartment.

Colorado countryside

On the road again...
We were so grateful that the weather was fabulous and the sights were beautiful.

Wyoming - these ranch signs were everywhere.  Love!

They have drive-thru liquor stores here too!

We got bored and brought Pericles out to play.

The rock formations in Wyoming.

Cool countryside.  We seriously could see sci-fi films being shot here.

Wyoming.  Beef country.  Enough said.

Utah rock formations.

Park City!

Ski runs with fall colors.

Olympic Village.  All I could think about was Cool Runnings even though that was in Canada...

We decided to go here for dinner while in town.  We started with the roasted artichoke (Erik even tried it!) and I had the Elk Sirloin.  I really like elk because it's a very mild beefy taste but without the gaminess of venison.  We were really happy that we went here to eat even though it was on the outskirts of town.

 It's fun to look at these photos again.  I truly feel like Erik and I are very fortunate to have been able to take the time to drive across the country to our new home.  We've seen a lot of things that lots of folks will never see and have not taken it for granted!  These photos are only a small sampling of the photos we took (went a little photo crazy from the car), but I thought I would spare you the complete set of 134 photos from this leg of the trip.

Ridge Vineyards

So, I told a friend of mine that I would blog yesterday.  And... I didn't... Sorry!  It's funny how the weekend gets away from you when you are settling in, catching up from being out of town/ working during the previous weekend and cooking 3 meals for the week.  What can I say?  I got in a groove and couldn't break myself away from housework.  Yes, I know.  Feminist pioneers just died a little inside.  I'm sorry to the women of the 1970's and 1980's, but I do love to fold some laundry, cook some meals, and see the clean open expanse of a tidied house (okay, apartment).

Anyway, about a month ago during Erik's and my 3rd weekend in California, we went to Ridge Vineyards (as foreold here).  It's shockingly close to where we live, and it's just amazing wine.  Erik's been a fan and now I am too.  Besides, they have release parties for shipments (we haven't gone yet) and they are so close that we can get free wine tastings whenever we want (we're members now).  Anyway, before going to Ridge, we went to the Steve Jobs memorial at 1 Infinite Loop.  I had the honor of being at Buckingham Palace and witnessing (and contributing) to the Princess Diana memorial in August 1997 so I made Erik go to the Steve Jobs one in Cupertino.  Yes, it's morbid, but we can say that we were there and paid our respects to a great innovator and businessman of our time.  Side note:  I do hope that it comes out that Steve Jobs contributed to charity in some way because there are no public gifts of note and that bothers me.

Anyway, some photos from the Steve Jobs memorial.

Flags at half mast

Erik looking appropriately somber

The memorial.
I didn't get much closer because people left a ton of
apples with a bite out of them (get it!?) and those apples attracted bees . . .

Even though there isn't a large crowd here, you can see that a bunch of
people have come to the site because of the wear on the grass.

Even the gas station near the Apple Campus had signs.

So after that rather morbid excursion, we went up into the Santa Cruz Mountains to drown our sorrows in some tasty vino (after having lunch in a tasty brewpub nearby).

Panoramic view towards where we live (Santa Clara)

This winery is unique in that they don't trellis all their vines.

In theory, you are looking at San Francisco.  If you click on the large version,
you may be able to make out the skyscrapers on the lefthand side of the photo.

Family shot

After Ridge, we went for a hike in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve but that will have to wait for another blog post. :)

Housekeeping items:
I bought two new books for my Scavenger Hunt posts: one for nearby cities and one for nearby hikes.  Expect to see some posts from those (already able to check off 2 hikes and 3 cities!).  AND, my biggest accomplishment.  I finished all the scavenger hunts from my Inside the Apple book before I left NYC!! Yes, I know! I'm very proud.  But I'm also VERY behind in posting.  Don't worry, I have a goal to post more often now that we are more settled and work is starting to get in a flow.

First Thoughts on New Job

I know that I owe everyone photos.  Photos of our AWESOME! road trip out to California.  Photos from our AWESOME! weekend adventures to both Half Moon Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains.  And, finally, photos from our AWESOME! new apartment.  But you're stuck with photos of my new office.  ::Shrug::

You're also stuck with my first impressions TechLaw PC from my first 3 days.  (Please don't begrudge me my cheesy fake law firm names).

• I feel like I had been in a time warp technology-wise.  It's all very overwhelming.  I actually got to choose between a PC and Mac! Wow.  (I picked Mac)
• People here are SO FRIENDLY.  Like, almost too friendly.  I leave work every day exhausted from the friendliness.  I'm a perky person, but there are limits, people!
• I was able to pick out art from an art room for my own office.  Yay for not having to share an office anymore!
• My firm only uses color paperclips.
• I get to work on cool IPOs with start-ups.
• The pay is the same as NYC but the hours are WAY better.  My prior definition of a run-of-the-mill bad week: 9am to 2am.  My new definition: 10am to 10pm.
• My firm not only takes recycling seriously (very seriously) but also composts and supports a local food bank.
• There is free sparkling water in the cafeteria.
• People here wear clothing that is not just black.
• Partners stop by my office to say "hi" and encourage me to "stop by" their offices to talk about what they are working on.
• My commute home today consisted of a harvest moonrise over darkened mountains.  It was amazing.  No joke.

Now the photos.

Yes, my office comes with a plant!

View from my desk.

The door from my desk.

View from door.  My window overlooks an exterior courtyard.

Paperclips in color!

Still Unpacking

Ugh.  It feels as though I'll never be unpacked/ settled.  Yes, I know it's only been a week but it's been a week of continuous unpacking/ organizing/ deciding what to donate, and I'm pooped/ bored/ over it!  Thank goodness I pushed back my start date until the 10th.  If I had to start work this coming Monday, I would just be beside myself.

As for California, I haven't had much time to explore yet (or blog) -- not wanting to leave the apartment a complete mess.  Today, I have plans to venture out and test drive a few cars (yesterday, I test-drived two cars) and go to the mall to use my coupons that stores so kindly sent me for my birthday month and today is the last day to use them.

This weekend Erik and I plan to finish things up around the apartment and do some exploring.  I bought an awesome book 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Francisco.  We are going to pick a hike to do this weekend as well as do a wine tasting at Ridge.  TGIF!

Wish me luck!

Moving to Cali: Blogging on the Road Is Harder than I Thought

I've been very deficient in the posting during this trip (believe me, I'll definitely be posting all the photos at some point).  Here are a few teaser photos from days 1-2.

About to hit the road
Hinsdale, IL

This was the highlight of our day (before BWWs)

Well, there's always that.

Halfway point
Gothenburg, NE

Nebraska

Colorado-style pizza (new favorite) and a local microbrew
Fort Collins, CO

So many bikes!
Fort Collins, CO

Moving to Cali: Our Soundtrack

As I previously mentioned, our cat, Celeste, is crying NONSTOP on the trip.  Here's a clip of the melodious meowing (and freaking out).

You can barely see Pericles in the carrier to the right, but he is an amazing traveler.  Really great.  Today, we opened up his carrier and he didn't even try to escape.  He just sort of looked at me like, thanks for the air flow but I'm okay where I am.

Moving to Cali: Brief Update

As you can imagine Erik and I were wiped after driving all day on Sunday.  This was exacerbated by the fact that we immediately went to Buffalo Wild Wings and gorged ourselves on buffalo sauce goodness.  Therefore, no blogposts were written last night and I've run out of scheduled posts! We are set to get into Fort Collins, Colorado early tonight so expect a real update with photos tomorrow of our first 2 days of road tripping.

Some brief points of interest:

• Celeste is still crying the whole way.  However, this time I covered her carrier with my jacket and it either muffles the sound or makes her shut up.  Either way, our sanity has been restored.
• It rained during most of the drive (really, all but the last 45 minutes).
• Nebraska's speed limits are amazing -- 75 mph -- wha wha!
• BWW's is still our favorite guilty pleasure.
• We made it through an 8+ hour car ride without the stereo/ radio working in the car and didn't kill each other.  Our marriage is definitely going to last!
• We went to the "World's Largest Truckstop" and it was the most memorable thing on our drive...

1,300 miles down, 1,700 miles to go!

Scavenger Hunt: Grand Central

The statue on the top of the entrance was created by
Jules-Félix Coutan's and is called "Transportation". 
Minerva and Hercules (Wisdom and Strength) hold
up a standing figure of Mercury (Commerce). 
It's surrounding a 13 foot Tiffany glass clock. (Ch. 131)

Construction began on the Grand Central Depot in 1871.  (Ch. 69)  The creation of the terminal would make 4th Avenue (now Park Avenue) the hoity-toity (side note: had to google the spelling... I've said it before but never have seen it in print) neighborhood it is today.  (Ch. 69)   In 1871, it was known as "Death Avenue" because of all the public transit on the street.  (Ch. 69)  Fast forward 40 years, and the building as we know it (the "grandest Beaux-Arts structure in the city") was finished in 1913.  (Ch. 131)

Seriously, click the photo so you can see the rectangle. 
It made my day and felt like a true scavenger hunt find.

However, what Grand Central really is known for is the interior.  Unfortunately, I don't have the best photos of the interior.  Google it. :)  What I do have is the photo on the left.  The view of the stars that we can see in the Main Concourse almost didn't happen.  If you click on the photo, I think that you will be able to see a small rectangle where the rod meets the marble.  That rectangle was left as a reminder of just how dirty the concourse ceiling was and how something so spectacular almost wasn't found.  (Ch. 173)  For my law friends, you remember the case.  Penn Central (1978).  (Ch. 173 and Property, Fall 2007) 

The funny thing about the concourse ceiling is that the artist painted it backwards.  The books says that it's probably a result of the artist relying on a celestial globe as his model.  Therefore, it's a God's eye view of the heavens.  (Ch. 131)

This photo is taken from one of the pop-up restaurants in the terminal May 22, 2010.
Little did we know all the cool things to see there!

One of the things that's been on my list for a long time to see is the Graybar Passage (a very original name because it connects the terminal to the Graybar building).  In that passage, you can see artwork left over from WPA artists from the Depression.  (Ch. 131)  I wonder how many people pass under this every day and have no idea.  Of course, I felt compelled to tell the kiosk worker why I was taking photos.  I like to think that he's going to tell other people and we can all share in this not-so-secret knowledge together.

The passage.  You can barely see where the arch is darker in color. 
That's where the mural is.

The theme of the mural is the progress of transportation.  You can just make out a train.

A better view of how hidden in plain sight this is.

Moving to Cali: NYC --> Chicago

Me in front of my (old) building

I will say that I am very thankful that the entire trip to California will not be like our road trip from New York to Chicago this past Thursday.  It was a brutal 14-hour drive (with stops).  I say "brutal" because I drove for all but an hour of it.  It seemed only fair to do it like that because Erik will be driving the rest of the day (albeit for shorter drives) since his car is stick.

We left NYC at 8:24am (only 24 minutes behind schedule, which is a HUGE record for us!).  It was surprisingly not painful to leave my apartment.  I don't think I'm really processing it.  I'm just happy that I finished my sightseeing, ate at my favorite restaurants one last time (hello, 6+ pounds of weight gain!) and spent time with my friends before leaving NYC.  We (the City and me) left on good terms.

Good bye, NYC (picture taken from New Jersey)

Yes, we are cheesy and took a photo of every state sign.

The first part of the drive was terrible.  It was rainy and Celeste would NOT
stop meowing.  She literally did not stop for most of the trip. By the end of
the day she was so hoarse, it was pathetic.

Ohio!

Erik at a rest stop in Ohio -- making plans for Friday night

Indiana, the state where we drove directly into the sun for hours...

  [Illinois not pictured because it was already dark when we got to the state.]

I guess I would cry too if I was stuck in a small mesh box...

Pericles was a great traveler. Usually, we would have them in the same carrier, but decided that for this trip, it would be best to have them separate.  That ended up
being a great idea... for Pericles.  Celeste was rolling around in her carrier and generally being a pain in the ass.  We also chose not to sedate them this time like we did for the move from Illinois out east.  It didn't really help much and just made them act drunk while doing the same things they did this time, which was more annoying than sober kitty meowing.  We tried Vetri-Science Composure Chews (we were told they were really helpful at calming cats down).  We gave it to her, but I'm not sure it worked.  That all being said, they made it safely and were fine when we got them to my in-laws.  We're lucky our cats are such troopers and don't freak out in new places.

Please no photos of me, I look terrible.
As you can see, Erik and I got a little bored in the car...
Also, we did not purchase a Jeep.  We rented a car from NYC to Chicago and will drive
Erik's old car from Chicago to California.  We also got this one-way rental for only $90!
Don't ask how we got such a crazy deal because we don't even know.  Luck!?

I think that the fact we made it to Illinois (803 miles) in one day without killing each other or any major arguments should be considered a HUGE accomplishment.  Let's hope that all our other drives go so well (but with less back pain for me).