Ok, Make that 5

I made an executive decision at the last minute and threw a fifth pair of shoes into my carryon.  It was actually a practicality decision, not a fashion one.  I realized I will probably have a few days where I'll be doing quite a bit of walking and my "classic standard" shoes aren't great for walking all over; the lifts wear down really quickly.  (I should know, that's my second pair of those in less than a year.)  They're also a bit difficult because of the very steep incline to the shoe, no platform in the font.  The last thing I need to do is fall down the steps in BART again.  So, I grabbed a pair of much more comfortable and easier-to-walk-in shoes that will go with the same outfits as the classic standards.  That way, if I know I'm going to be walking, I can wear my saddle shoes, and if I know we'll be staying in one place or mostly driving, I can wear the classic standards.

 

(P.S. arrived safely in El Cerrito.)

Tutor Tuesday

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had an official BLSA event this week tutoring.  BLSA used to do a weekly event called Tutor Tuesdays, but I never went.  A 1L, not knowing we used to do this, organized it again, so I decided to go.

The tutoring is part of an after-school program called YES.  The elementary students do activities earlier in the afternoon, and by the pictures on the wall, I guess they go on field trips sometimes, too.  When we arrived they were getting ready for study time.  They each had a folder of special center work.  They're suposed to do a certain amount of work from the folder and then they get a treat of getting to read a story book from the bookshelves.

I sat at a table with My Rhyming Twin, which confused the heck out of the girls at our table, because of the whole rhyming thing.  One of them was convinced we were sisters.  (She also wouldn't believe my braids aren't my hair.)  That girl was in 5th grade, and despite being a bit of a bully and full of attitude, managed to do some work with My Rhyming Twin. 

My girl made me feel hopeless.  She was in third grade and just kept saying she couldn't do anything.  I tried to get her to read, but she couldn't read anything over 3 letters long.  We tried sounding out words, but she couldn't do that either.  Plus, she was constantly getting up, going to get a book, turning pages and putting check-marks on everything.  There were girls like that in my classes in grade school; by the time they were 16, they had kids and drug habits.

Despite her not wanting to work at all, the girl kept talking about how much she liked going to the center.  It made me wonder if she just didn't want to go home.  She was only one of two white children at the center, and she ran right up to my table when she got in the room.  I was kind of curious why she came right up to me, but I didn't ask.  Maybe it was because I was only one of two white volunteers (the other was a middle-aged man).  In any case, it made me feel, for once in my life, like my skin had something to offer.

Most of the time I was sitting there (trying to figure out what to do with this girl), I was thinking about The Legend.  They must have programs like this in the East Bay, and this seems like exactly what he needs.  A job doing anything that pays something, and then a place to volunteer and work with kids the rest of the time.  He would have known what to do with that girl.  I was completely at a loss.

Stop the Press! goldenrail Packs 4 Pairs of Shoes for 10 Day Trip!

That sums it up, and it includes the pair I'm wearing on the plane.  I'm scared.  I'm not living up to my reputation.  Can I truly be fabulous with less than 1.25 pairs of shoes for each day I'll be gone?  What is the world coming to?  Next thing you know, I'll be wearing tennis shoes and ballet flats everyday.  Oh the horror!

 

The shoes I'm taking (note: I may not wear the last ones; they're just in case.)

I love my Timbs

  These are my new favorite shoes  Standard classics The back-ups

 

You know, going through my pictures reminded me of a lot of really great other shoes I have, like the ones I wore to the Ball.  That number may just have to go up to 5.  Still much less than it ought to be ;)

Group Class

Earlier this week, The Prez (see Barrister's entry for pic) arranged for an un-official BLSA event, an exercise class at a local studio.   The classes can only hold five students each, so we had to split up into two classes.  I went to an official BLSA tutoring event with My Rhyming Twin earlier in the evening, so she and I went to the later class with her roommie.  (The Prez came to tutoring too, but left a lil early to go to class.)  Somehow - she must be a miracle worker - The Prez talked Mzzzz Jones into going, too.  But, she was in the earlier class.  Ironically, I think she had more fun than me, despite her strong resistance to going.

The class was ok, but like any other dance-style class, I spent most of it frustrated.  With no arm strength and even less abs muscles, I couldn't do much.  There was this one warm up push-up thing, I couldn't even get down to the ground to push back up again!  And when the teacher said stand up, bend over and touch the floor, I almost laughed.  My body never moves the way other people tell it to. 

In fact, the only move I could do was something my sister and I used to do  in our Sunday School classroom at Tippie  (there was some sort of structural pole in the room).  Apparently, it's called a sit-spin.  The class did make me miss ballet though.  With slower movements and a more rigid posture, I can handle that well enough to at least keep up in class.  And I love leaping :)  This class reminded me of when I tried to take hip hop dance lessons.  I'm better off sticking to dancing in my living room.  Less pressure, cheaper too.

Oh well, guess I better find a new back-up plan for if this whole law thing doesn't work out ;)
(just kidding)

More Stories from the Weekend

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr. Trizzle and I had a lot of fun this weekend.  Chinese food, Vietnamese food, and lots of bacon (veggie bacon for me!).

Food

I made my homemade Hot and Sour soup for Mr. Trizzle.  He tried to be nice.  First he said he probably would have liked it better if he hadn't been told the words "hot and sour."  Ok, he likes it but it doesn't taste like hot and sour soup.  Then he says, "it's soup and it's edible," and "hey, I ate everything out of the middle of it."  So now it comes out he doesn't really like it, but it's ok.  Then later he says I shouldn't give it to my friends unless I don't want them to be my friends any more.  So really, not only does he not like it, he thinks it's horrible and inedible!  Fine!  I like it; more for me then. :P  His next words of encouragement: "you're good at cooking bacon."  Oh great, one thing, and I don't even eat it!

Presents

Wednesday was Mr. Trizzle's birthday, so I gave him his birthday  presents this past weekend.  Except for the one I had sent to his office to help brighten it up a bit.  To which his initial response was "who the (vampire) sent me a tree?!"  He also got his Nigerian present since this was the first time I'd seen him since I got back.

I think he liked his presents, even if not enough to take home with him.  (He only does carry-ons, so I'm bringing some of the presents with me on Friday when I go to Cali.)  The Nigerian outfit is rather large, and I'm pretty sure he has no idea what to do with it.  I need to at least get him in it so I can take a picture.

He left one of his birthday presents, too.  The other one was just an it's-coming-in-the-mail printout, so he at least took that sheet of paper.  Since Mr. Trizzle is now an adult with a real job and all that stuff, I got him something every adult should have: stock.  (Mr. Tough Money Love would be proud.)  Mr. Trizzle loves Apple and is always raving about how well the company (and thus its stock) is doing.  I didn't realize when I ordered it that it takes 6-8 weeks to send the stock certificate, so he got a printout.  I just got a notice from FedEx that it is on it's way and should arrive sometime before 4:30 Friday.  It left San Francisco on Tuesday for Oakland and left Oakland today.  Too bad I couldn't have just had Mr. Trizzle pick it up in person!

His other birthday present was an autographed copy of Remix.  (Thank you Creative Commons!)  He claimed he couldn't fit the book in his laptop bag or his suitcase, so I'll be bringing this one on Friday too.

Friends

Mr. Trizzle and I spent Monday evening with Pita and Pita's parents.  I adore Pita's parents and love getting to spend time with them.  Pita is adorable, too.  And usually, very friendly.  She didn't like Mr. Trizzle too much though, he made her cry.  She was sitting on her mommy's lap; he walked over towards them, looked at Pita, paused, and went "blahh ahh ahh" while waving his arms wildly and making a face.  Pita looked at him, looked at her mom, and then started wailing.  Poor thing.  She warmed up to him a bit later and let him hand her Cheerios to throw on the floor.

The Ball

I returned to an almost empty house.  Just me and the shadows of a house-guest who's gone home.  A greasy bacon pan in the sink, blow pop wrappers scattered here and there, extra towel in the bathroom, the little things that just aren't quite right.  It's quiet here tonight; quiet and a little bit lonely.  But also, in a strange way, refreshing.  I can breath a little more; my routine and schedule can return.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade anything for this past weekend.  It was wonderful, and Mr. Trizzle and I had a lot of fun.  I was really happy to see him again and am excited about going to Cali on Friday for Spring Break.  But, it's hard to sort of throw aside your whole life for a few days, trying to squeeze in school work in other places, staying up later, sleeping longer, eating at different times, all that sort of stuff.  In any case, I have all sorts of random stuff going on this week, so I probably won't really have my schedule back until sometime after Spring Break.  Oh well.

Now, for what you guys are all really dying to hear about: The Suit.

Yes, it fit.  Sort of.  The shirt sleeves were a bit short, and the tie was too long.  Good thing I decided to put the French cuffs on the shirt.  He just left them unfolded, the same way I wear my French cuff shirts (cuz the sleeves are too short.)  And we safety-pinned the tie so no one could see it was too long.  The important stuff fit fine.  Here's some pictures.  (Fyi, these were taken near the end of the night, so it's a little more wrinkled than when he first put it on.)

 

The Ball was a lot of fun, despite the crappy DJ.  And happily, many of my friends who said they weren't going showed up anyway!  Here's some pics:

Me and two of those friends who changed their minds at the last minute, the Prez and Chas.

 

Me and Mr. Trizzle, our full outfits.  Don't you just love my shoes?!  They lace up but that part's sort of hidden by my skirt.I was so concerned with Mr. Trizzle's suit that I didn't really know what I was going to wear until the night before.  I pulled the corset and skirt out of my closest.  I threw the skirt together in an hour or so for a college formal, and it was obvious.  I spent the morning before the ball removing pink basting from the waist line, re-tacking down the bias tape "waist band" and putting a hook and eye on the skirt.

More pictures with friends, My Rhyming Twin and the Giant Jamaican.

  

Th is is one my favorite photos of the night.  (Taken by Tarik Downey.)

And... two more nice photos:  (it was going to be one more, but I couldn't make up my mind.)

It's Finished!

Last night I (finally) finished Mr. Trizzle's suit.  I think it looks nice; now I'm just hoping it fits!  He's not allowed to tell me if he doesn't like it.  He'll have to come up with some other reason for not wearing it tonight.

Here's a picture of the jacket on me just before it was finished.  (Hadn't put the 8 sleeve buttons on yet.)  It didn't fit on my dummy.  And, as you can see, it's a little tight around my hips, but I'm pretty sure mine are bigger than Mr. Trizzle's, so that should be ok.   We'll find out tonight if it fits!

Guest Speaker: Jeff Price

That's the information we had before class about our Digital Copyright class yesterday.  I headed to school half afraid it was going to be one of my ex-Uncle Jeffs.  (Yes, I have more than one ex-Uncle Jeff.)  After all, this guy was coming to speak about his role in the music industry, and my ex-uncle works(ed?) in the music industry.

It wasn't him.  Whew.

[The Jeff Price that did come is the CEO of a company called TuneCore.  Pretty cool company, any musician types out there, suggest you check it out!]

Happy Birthday Mr. Trizzle!!

The title pretty much says it all.  Today is Mr. Trizzle's birthday :)

He's officially a grown-up now.  (Or so I say, since he's a real attorney, is finally closer to 30 than 20, and is (at least for the next 8 months) older than my little sister.)

Here's to you Mr. Trizzle.  May you have a very happy birthday.  Do something fun!  Even if it's just drooling over macbooks. ;)

Ummm... Mine Doesn't Look Like That

So I tried a new recipe this weekend.  I had some carrots left over from making oriental stock for hot and sour soup, so I looked for recipes with carrots in them.

I found a recipe in my Vegetarian for One cookbook for Carrot and Rice Soup with Lemon.  Sounded good to me.  And looked good,too.   

I had to google some of the ingredients to find out what they were: shallots, creme fraiche.  And then I had to make some substitutions.  

The soup was supposed to be made with vegetable stock.  I had these packets of dried veggie soup/dip mix, so I decided to use one of those.  It's basically vegetable stock, except for those little pieces of dried veggies floating in there.  I didn't have long grain rice and since I have about half of a 20lb bag of Jasmine rice, I wasn't about to go by some other type of rice.  I thought I had nutmeg, but it turned out nope, so I just left it out.  And after finding out what creme fraiche was on the internet, I was pretty sure I didn't want  to go on a wild goose chase around Nashville trying to find it, so I used Carnation condensed milk, which I already had in my fridge.  While the soup was cooking, it dawned on me that the tofu in the fridge that needed to be used up pretty soon would probably go nicely in the soup, so I threw that in too.

My soup looked quite a bit different, but it was still very tasty. :)

Every Day Gets Better and Better

What a streak!  Every day there's something new and wonderful.  It's been an eventful week already, filled with so many happy things.  And then today, when I got home from school, there was this:

                             

 

2 dozen roses, just for me!  They're beautiful and smell so nice.  And they match my dining room perfectly.  Happy Valentine's Day

Thank you ;)

This is How I Feel

Like a Disney Princess!  My dreams are coming true!  (I didn't have a princess crown, so I had to use the next best thing.)

I am so happy and so excited!  A week ago I mentioned I had an interview I was excited about, but I didn't want to say more because I didn't want to jinx it.  Well, yesterday I found out I got the Fellowship!!!!

I can hardly believe it.  I nearly started crying.  It's only a 10 week summer Fellowship, but it's with my dream-job organization, so I pretty much consider it my dream job.  A fellowship with Creative Commons.  A Google Policy Fellowship with Creative Commons.  Wow.

Mommy and Daddy are happy, probably mostly because I'll be getting paid (it's a stipend) for working for the first time in 6 years.  And they're happy because I'm happy.  I think Mr. Trizzle is as excited as I am.  He gets it.  He knows how awesome this is; how important Google and CC are in this field (the field I'm trying to make "my" field), and how much this is exactly where I want to be.  It couldn't get more perfect.  Yet, somehow, I think it'll still only go up from here.

 

On another happy side note: my presentation went well today and the class and professor liked my report.  In fact some of the students complained about my being in the group to go first because I set the bar too high.  And here I thought I was just having fun with my homework ;)  If anyone wants to see the whole report, let me know and I'll email it to you.  It's quite humorous, I think.

 

[...ok, now I have to go do my 24-hr take home final...]

Anything I Want?!

I've been missing for a few days - big assignment, report and presentation tomorrow, so I've been busy working.  Most of my readers probably already know this because I've been calling them for assistance, accents, translations, native animals of different countries, all sorts of odd questions.

My assignment is to do an 8-10 page report and then a 20-30 minute presentation about a World Trade Organization (WTO) case involving intellectual property (IP).  The case I was assigned is about a violation of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) which is part of the treaty that turned the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the WTO.  It's an annex, actually, just sort of stuck on the end, but boy is it a big deal. 

Basically, it takes all these old IP treaties and suddenly makes them enforceable by putting the cases before the WTO dispute settlement body (DSB).  Previously, if a country violated part of an IP treaty to which they were a part, the other countries got mad and that was about it.  Now, countries can force each other to trade IP rights for things like banana tariffs or special treatment of shirts.

So anyway, I had to do this report (presentation tomorrow).  I emailed the professor with this question:

For our 8-10 page summary that gets handed in (and then out?) before the presentation, should it be in a sort of paper format, or can it include outline, charts, slides, etc?

This was his response:

Anything you want.

In the words of Munchkinhead, "oooooh, that could be dangerous!"  Exactly ;)

Here's a sample of my report, one of my favorite "passages":

Sometimes, I Just Love the South

It's 72 here today.  Hee hee :D  Not to gloat over my friends and family in Wisconsin; I'm sure the 40 degrees there feels wonderful after all those single digit days.

There's a wonderful breeze here today, sun shining, a few rolling clouds - perfect weather really.  I walked up to school, had lunch with a friend at a yummy new Indian restaurant just a few blocks from my house, walked home, walked back to the bike shop next to the restaurant to take my bike in for repairs and walked back home.  Happiness...*sigh*

Now it's time to get back on my grind: assignment due tomorrow, report due Wednesday, presentation on Thursday and a final on Friday.

Walking in Memphis

Another great weekend!  Yesterday I drove out to Memphis to see the Great Ecclestone.  No performance this time; he was there for mega-mini auditions.  I think he gets less time than they give people on American Idol.  But these auditions are super important and give him a lot of work.

We went out for dinner and then did the famous Beale Street.  It reminded me a bit of The Strip in the Dells.  I liked it a lot.  Just a couple blocks of random shops and various eating and drinking establishments with live music and windows selling beer to passer-bys on the street.  The weather was gorgeous, so it was a good night for just walking (and later driving, on accident) around the city.

I also got a lot of homework done on the trip, nearly all my readings for the week.  Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, I wasn't holding my homework on the steering wheel to read while driving or anything like that.  Stephen Hawking's twin was reading to me.  I love Adobe's read-out-loud feature!  Just plugged in my laptop to my cigarette lighter and the tape adapter into the laptop's headphone's jack.  Perfect :)

Friday night was also great fun.  First, there was moot court competition at school.  I went to root for one of my friends.  Her team won!  Yay, BLSA members win moot court two years in a row. :)

After the competition, I headed out of town a bit to play games with some friends I haven't gotten to see much for awhile.  That was great fun.  One friend was in from DC with her family, so I  finally got to meet her adorable 1 year old.  My other friends killed me at Whoonu - they tied 19 points above me.  But, that makes sense; after all, they're engaged.  (Yes, to each other.)

A Scary Thing Happened on the Way to School

I was walking towards the building and caught a glimpse of myself in the big glass doors.  I looked like Daddy!

Now, looking like Daddy isn't necessarily a bad thing, except I'm a girl and, well, he's not.  Besides, no offense to Daddy, Mommy's much prettier (I'm sure he'd agree) and I'd rather look like her.

But instead, today, with my really curly hair, my giant sunglasses and my green knit beret-ish hat sort of folded over my brow, I looked like Daddy.

Oh well, could've been worse, could have looked like Buddy. ;)

A Great Week in Review

  The fun began on Friday, and it's just kept going.  Friday afternoon I went to hang out with Pita and her parents.  Pita's parents are good friends of mine and I love hanging out with them.  Plus, with Pita around, there's always something interesting going on.  And Pita's mommy, besides being a good storybook-reader, is a great cook.  She made a very yummy spinach/feta/lentil/other stuff salad and even sent me home with some of us.  There are some Southern customs that aren't so bad. ;)  (Pita reading along with her mommy.)

After a great afternoon with Pita's parents, I headed across the Ville for a sleepover at Mzzzzz Jones' place.  (No relation to Mrs. Jones.)   We colored, ate yummy triscuits and watched two movies, on great, one not so good.  One of my favorite parts of the evening was when Mzzzzzz Jones accidentally made Sandra Day O'Connor look like a girl in our class. (Pics of me and coloring book taken by Mzzzz Jones.)

As you know from an earlier post, I got a lot of sewing done Saturday.  Sunday was very productive, lots of homework done and a bit of home cleaned up.  Also broke down and decided to get my favorite pizza from Papa Johns - pineapple and no sauce.  It's a been a long time since I'd had that yummy treat!

My weekends are always three days long, since I don't have Monday classes.  Usually makes for nice, happy Mondays.  This Monday was even happier.  I got a phone call for an interview - I won't say any more about it now, don't want to jinx anything!

Yesterday at school, I was a little nervous heading into class.  We were talking about sampling - and as anyone who knows me knows, I love hip hop (partly because I love finding the samples in the songs.)  But some of my classmates had some different views on hip hop and sampling, one described allowing sampling as " encouraging the creation of Hip-hop at the expense of 'established music."  Others called sampling "lazy" or "uncreative." 

Then, the professor opened class with this and this, switching between MIA's Paper Planes and T.I.'s Swagga Like Us in a way that emphasized the sample of the first that becomes the hook of the later.  And he came out swinging in defense of sampling - first order of business: establishing the creative aspects and importance of it.  Yay!

Class also brought a little pride boost.  A classmate asked me what program I use to create my assignments because they look so neat.  My answer: Word.

  (Assignment sample.)

And of course, every day was sprinkled with wonderful conversations with Mommy, Munchkinhead and Mr. Trizzle.  I think I only emailed with Alfred... hmmm guess it's time to give her a call ;)

What a great run.  I hope the next 7 days are just as great! :)

How to Make a Gourmet Bed, goldenrail Style

Get a good sturdy mattress and top it with a light fluffy featherbed.  Evenly spread two soft, silky sheets.  Add a smattering of pillows.  Cover with an I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Down comforter, two layers of quilts and top with another I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Down comforter.  Enjoy!

(image credits:cc search -  sandwich photo from http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-faced-mango-salami-cheddar-and.html)

Two Sleeves are Better than One

My dress dummy had been wearing Mr. Trizzle's one-armed suit for nearly a week.  Every night before bed I was haunted by this purple-armed monster.  (The dummy is also wearing a purple blouse of mine that needs buttons and the right arm was through the jacket's empty arm hole.)  But no more will that one-purple-armed monster chase me through my dreams.  Ha!  I have destroyed it!  I put the other sleeve on the jacket.

           

I also finished the lining.  All that's left is to put the two together and add some buttons!  (In the picture, the lining is turned out so you can see what the inside of the jacket will look like.)

Doing the lining, I got a not-so-nice surprise: more welt pockets.  Ahhhhhh!    All together, pants and jacket, the suit has a dozen pockets, literally twelve pockets.  Do all men's suits have this many pockets?  It's seems like an insane amount of pockets.  That's more pockets than even Munchkinhead could use!  The twelve includes those little ones inside the main front pockets, which a friend at school suggested are probably for a pocket watch.  I like my idea better.  I don't know many guys who carry a pocket watch; I know plenty of guys who should carry...  Anyway, even if you don't count the little ones, ten pockets is still a lot.