Taco – Page 35

Ebbing Snow and the (Real) King of Beers?

March 1, 2015 by Taco

At long last, after nearly two months, it looks like the snow situation is starting to improve. This is good for us humans, not so good for snowmankind.

Of course, as you can see, its not like the snow is gone. In fact I can pretty much guarantee we still have more snow than you do. However, the sidewalks have (mostly) transformed back into sidewalks instead of alpine paths or long sheets of ice. The snow mountains are now closer to snow hills, at least in some areas. Point being, we’ve finally got to the point where snow removing and snow melting has passed up snow falling, its nice. I don’t mind snow, but I’ve had more than enough for one year. Over 100″ of snow is plenty, thanks Gaia.

This week was the worst of law school thus far. I was on campus until after 10pm more than once and free time didn’t exist. Heck, I was even doing school stuff on a Friday night (Cardinal Sin) and most of my Saturday afternoon. There is just so much going on, that there are not enough hours in the day. I mean that literally, there is so much I simply can’t do all of it. Which is weird, and oddly unsettling. I’m the type of person, that, for better or worse, I get shit done. So, not getting stuff done does not bode well for me. I sincerely don’t like it. But, when you just physically don’t have the time, there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it. It also doesn’t help that they only gave us one week for our LRW draft and my partner is a neurotic sperglord. But, (for a change) I won’t rage about LRW anymore in this post.

The plus side of the long week is that being on campus late allowed me to explore some of the deeper areas of the tunnels.

One does not speak of the tunnels.

A week of this kind of longevity deserved a good Friday night dinner. SB have procured a Groupon for Boston Burger Company, which conveniently had a location only about a 10-15 minute walk from here. Since it was actually in double digit temperatures, the walk wasn’t that bad. The Boston Burger Company (BBC) is normally one of those places that we can’t afford (so like 99% of the city) but the Groupon brought it down into the “still over our price range, but it was a long week” range. BBC has been featured in several places, from Rachel Ray to Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Their specialty is obviously burgers. So me being the intelligent person I am, took a photo of the side of the menu that didn’t have the list of a bajillion burgers.

Like I said, it was a long week. If you really want to see all the burgers, they list them on their website. SB went with the aptly named “Mac Attack” burger which is contains (in addition to a burger) homemade four cheese macaroni & cheese and bacon (and was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.). It was very good. I mean, how can something like that not be good? I went with the Bahama Mama, which is a conch burger with mango salsa and jerk mayo. It was also good. I got it to relive the Bahamas. I have to say, the freshly caught conch of the Bahamas was obviously better than this conch burger, but that isn’t to say the burger was bad, I just had an impossibly high standard. That said, I enjoyed it and am glad I got it.

Each burger comes with chips, but you get to choose whether you want slaw or baked beans. We did the logical thing and got both so we could try each of them. The baked beans were quite good, the slaw was good but less unique.

Since it was a long week and we had a Groupon, alcohol was on the agenda, and by alcohol I mean beer. SB went with an Allagash White and I tried a new beer (for me) called the Slumbrew Happy Sol.

1. Allagash White – Allagash Brewing Company

2. Slumbrew Happy Sol – Somerville Brewing Company

I’ve already had the very good Allagash White (A Maine favorite!), so I’ll focus on the Slumbrew (A much more local Somerville favorite!). Slumbrew is a refreshingly tart and crisp hefeweizen brewed with local MA wildflower honey, orange peel and coriander, and fermented with the juice from over 1,000 blood oranges. It’s a cloudy, yet effervescent beer, with lingering banana and citrus notes balanced against a healthy wheat backbone and hoppy finish from Mt. Hood and Crystal hops. Yes, I copy and pasted that last sentence, but it sounds so good doesn’t it? Both of these were excellent beers and went together perfectly with our big ole’ burgers, Murka.

After dinner we walked over to Broadway for some Friday treats and more beer. This time I celebrated just a little bit. I went with a six pack of Miller Lite, I know, hardly celebrating. But the real gem was none other than a single bottle of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, yes that IPA. Broadway allows most beers to be broken up and sold as singles. Dogfish Head beers are very expensive anywhere, but out here you can expect to pay 12$+ for four 12 ounce bottles (at least for the 90 minute and 120 minute IPAs, the 60 & 75 minutes are ~12$ for 6, and then their other offerings vary quite a bit in price). So, I decided to reward myself by purchasing a single 90 Minute IPA, which as a reminder, was voted the best beer in America three years in a row (I think it was 04-06, but I’m not positive). I paid 3.50$ for one bottle of beer. Though that’s still less than you’d pay for Bud Light at a bar out here. But 3.50$ is high-stakes beer for me.

If you remember, the last time I danced with Dogfish Head, I lost. To be fair I only partially lost, but this time I was stepping up even further. Whereas the Punkin Ale I had last time was 7% ABV, the 90 Minute IPA is 9%. (If you are curious the 60 Minute is 6%, the 75 Minute is 7.5%, and the 120 Minute is a holy shitting 15-20% ) [Side note, to date the highest ABV beer I’ve ever (and finished) had was somewhere in the 14% range – and that was a challenge].

So anyways, without further ado..

3. 90 Minute IPA – Dogfish Head Brewery

I have to say, it was amazing. Yes, despite my hesitation with the Punkin Ale, the 90 Minute IPA was completely awesome. Granted, if you don’t like IPAs you probably wouldn’t like this beer, but its easily the best IPA I can remember myself having. What really got me, is that it was 9% ABV, but you would never guess it was that high. It had so much flavor to it, it was actually kind of incredible how they balanced the strength of the alcohol with the strength inherent to IPAs to create something wholly drinkable. I definitely concur with the nearly perfect ratings on Beer Advocate, this is just one beer you have to try. Now, as to whether or not its really the best beer in America, who knows, that is entirely subjective (Which is why I’d never really call any beer the King of beers, sorry Budweiser). But at the very least this one is a triple-title holder. From the relatively small (in the grand scheme of things) number of beers I’ve had, this sticks out as one of the stronger ones. As I’ve mentioned before, its only within the past year or two that IPAs started to grow on me, so I think my palate still has some growing to do before I can fully appreciate this IPA, but my first encounter is an entirely positive one. This gets a solid Taco Recommendation.

Next time we meet Dogfish Head, I will challenge your true master, the 120 Minute IPA. 🙂

Having shared that, I am going to settle in for the rest of the night. I have to finish up some parts of an SPO report and do a lot of reading tomorrow. SB’s spring break is this coming week, but mine is still two weeks away, so my jealously is palpable. 🙂

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – Look at these HUGE GRAPEFRUITS I saw at Whole Foods! They are like twice the size of regular grapefruits, and they lord over the tiny full size oranges next to them. Yes I resisted the temptation to make a boob joke.

Catching Up and Two Beer Blurbs

February 22, 2015 by Taco

Hello, long time no see.

Not really, its not even been a full two weeks. Yes, I said I was going to try to post once every week, but watcha gonna’ do about it, nuffin’ that’s what. In fact I think its probably unlikely that I’ll stay on top of that goal, namely because of how busy I’ve been lately (and more specifically, how busy I am going to remain over the coming months).

The good news is that I am getting over my illness (not the mental one). In fact, my senses of smell and taste are probably at about 80% at this point. Yes, for a period of about 5 days I entirely lost my ability to smell and lost about 3/4 of my ability to taste. No, my nose wasn’t entirely clogged up, I literally couldn’t smell. It happened after I tried to help clear my sinuses with a pot of boiling water and some essential oils. I think one of two things happened. I either burnt the tissue linked to my olfactory bulb with the steam, or I overloaded and fried said nerve with the essential oils. Whatever it was, I lost my ability to smell entirely. And I do mean entirely. You know that pungent smell of Vick’s Vabor Rub? Yeah, I stuck my nose in that crap and couldn’t smell it. It was not a fun week, because apparently about 75% of our taste actually comes from our olfactory nerve, not our taste buds. Anyways, its coming back slowly, I didn’t permanently destroy my sniffer, which is nice. The not good news is that SB ended up getting sick as well, but thankfully she is on the upswing herself (her nose never ceased to function).

So outside of being sick what has been going on?

For a little bit it looked like we were starting to win the snow battle. The dunes were ever so slightly receding, sidewalks were starting to be unearthed, the salt started working again, but nope. The snow continues, in fact its snowing right now. Which reminds me, its now officially the second snowiest winter on record in Boston. My timing is JUST SO GREAT IS IT NOT? Some people think we stand to top the list, we’ll see, but between you and me, I wouldn’t mind if we don’t (We are currently at something like 98.3″ whereas the record is 107.6″). We’ve also had record breaking cold temperatures, see my comment on timing above. And, since I am now a walk-commuter, it means I get to take all this magical joyness in. Even the snowmen are sick of the snow.

Though to be fair, its not been horrendous, well it has, but not that horrendous. At least I don’t heavily rely on the public transit system, which has came to a complete standstill on more than one occasion due to the snow. I’d honestly say that for me its mainly the snow make-up days at school that have been the most painful. Being on campus until 6pm on Friday is not my idea of a good time. Speaking of make-up days, school doesn’t slow for the weather. No, our ABA overlords ensure that there are indeed, no real breaks in law school, even during breaks. Subsequently I’ve been crazy busy. Between being a freshly minted Line-Editor, an SPO member, a 1L, and a co-counsel on a (STUPID) LRW brief, there is little time for much else in the world, which is precisely why no post happened last week (being sick was also a factor).

But that doesn’t mean nothing post-worthy happened last week! I picked up my suits from the tailor and they look WAY better, I mean so so much better. I didn’t really have the money to spend on them, since you know, they weren’t cheap in the first place, but I will make even by getting crappy beer for awhile (I know, the horror). More importantly, it was SB and Valentino’s birthdays, as well as Valentine’s Day! We had some VERY delicious salmon, pasta, and bread. We acquired most things from Whole Foods, which was a nice little splurge treat for us.

Before:

And After:

In addition to dinner we had a very tasty cake, which was: Devil’s Food Cake, with a Peanut-Butter-Fondant layer, and Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing, and red sprinkles. It was amazing, just trust me.

If there is one thing I do well its make tasty food, even if it doesn’t look that great (Function > Form, for me). SB even went out and got us some coffees! Since there was a triple celebration going on, it called for some good beer. We actually took a fair amount of time deciding, since what we wanted had been busted up, but eventually the owner of Broadway gave us a deal on the half six-pack and we were on our way (in addition to some Yuengling). So what was this three-pack?

1. Blue Moon First Peach Ale – Coors Brewing Company

Yes you read that correctly, its Blue Moon + Peaches. Also, this is a friendly reminder that Coors brews Blue Moon. I’m ok with Blue Moon, but its actually one of those rare beers that SB enjoys a lot more than I do. However, I do like Fruit Ales (but not lambics, oh gehd not lambics). Since it was SB’s birthday, she was allowed to participate in the sacred beer selection process, and this is what we ended up with. The first time I had it, I tasted nothing. Heck, I didn’t even taste beer let alone peaches. This was because my olfactory system was fried. So, while I technically had the first, First Peach Ale, SB actually tasted it first. I was disappoint, but saved the other beer until I could actually taste it, lest it be wasted. SB commented that the peach was subdued and once I was finally able to taste the beer, I agree. Its actually pretty good for a macro-brew fruit ale, I’d definitely try it again, but I am an avid peach lover (peach flavor lover rather, actual peaches are just neutral for me – I mean I will eat them, but I like peach flavor more).

But we aren’t done with beer just yet. Fast forward to yesterday (a week later). Its now another weekend, which means another beer. I went with my standard Yuengling four pack staple, because I am poor, but I also got a single of something I’ve never had before.

2. Anchor Small Beer – Anchor Brewing Company

So, if you are like me, you are probably wondering “WTF is a small” beer? I mean look at the bottle, its clearly not a small beer. Turns out that even people like me have lots to learn about our blessed nectar of the gods known as beer. The inner beer snob is ashamed. It turns out the tradition of brewing two distinct beers from one mash goes back thousands of years, and for centuries the term “small beer” was used in English to describe the weaker second beer. By application the term came to mean something of little importance. However, Anchor Brewing Company sought to change that and so they took the second beer from their Old Foghorn (made in an all-malt mash) and turned it into the Small Beer. They changed the brewing process a bit for the second beer, and the result was actually quite good. Its kind of similar to a “bitter” but even that doesn’t exactly describe it. Its something I’d like to try again, because it was unique enough that I couldn’t really place all the stuff going on with it, which is a cool thing given the size of the bottle. And that is your beer lesson for today.

So, that is about that. Snow, Cold, Getting over Sickies, Beer, Snow, Cold, Celebrations, Law School. Sort of the essence of my existence since the Holidays, come to think of it. So, wherever you are, just be happy you don’t have to deal with this:

Yes that is real, yes that is snow, yes that snow is on a flat surface. In fact its estimated to be about five stories tall. I have this odd inkling that wherever future Taco is, its not someplace with a five story tall snow pile, but stranger things have happened. 🙂 With that, I am going to bid you adieu, I have a few hours of a Saturday night left to enjoy (after spending most of the afternoon on stupid LRW) and tomorrow I have to go to the law school to meet my partner for more LRW. Moral of the story, I hate LRW.

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – GHOST PIGEON IN THE SUBWAY

More Snow (Again), More Sick, Odd Things No. 2

February 9, 2015 by Taco

I am sick again.

This continues a pattern of me being sick that started once we moved to Boston. In the past 7 months I have been sick more times than I have been sick in the two (if not three) years prior to those 7 months. I think its a combination of 1. Just being out more in general 2. Cold weather 3. Law School (i.e. stress).

Since I am sick, it is only natural that I just got back from running through the snow to a USPS delivery box. I have something that needs to be shipped tomorrow (Monday) and since I just found out that school is closed again tomorrow, that sort of killed my shipping plans. Luckily I found out that the 13oz rule only applies to stamped mail for the Blue Boxes, if you electronically purchase a label then its ok, since they can track you. So that is what I was doing, since the snow is only supposed to get worse.

Yes, more snow, yes this is the third time in a row. I’ve heard as much as two feet, which is of course on top of the 3+ feet of snow that we already have. I saw earlier today where the National Weather Service had said that Boston broke the 7 day total snowfall record, I believe that. In fact, I was just telling SB a couple of days ago that this is the most snow I have ever seen in my life, and I stand by that statement.

But yeah, another snow day tomorrow for Harvard. I was actually surprised by how early they called the snow day, especially since this past Monday they stayed open when they really, REALLY should have closed (I am fairly sure they were the only school in the Boston metropolitan area that had a full day). But they did. In theory that is nice, in actuality it means Friday makeup classes. I loath the makeup class policy, but that is not news to you if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time. But, the silver lining is that I don’t have to go out tomorrow and I already did all my reading today, so its pretty much a giant “free” day that I will get to spend being sick. Still, the plus side is no more walking about in this:

Or this:

Or coming home in this:

To be fair to the snow, those pictures are actually outdated now. There is much more snow. Mother Nature really decided that she just wanted to make sure Boston stayed snowy until mid-August. I actually blame my current illness on the crappy daily walk to school I’ve had to endure lately. The howling winds, flying ice, bitter temperatures, and general wetness of it all are rather conducive to getting sick. I am sure the viruses are rejoicing.

But its not all bad, having this much snow. The upside is that it makes using our French Press coffee maker even more enjoyable on Sundays (seriously, French Press coffee is AMAZING). Plus, there are funny little signs like this posted in the law school:

I guess they don’t want you walking out onto the rooftop ~~garden~~ wasteland and walking straight off the edge of the building, which would be quite easy to do since the snow is now way above the wall along the edge. Harvard also took advantage of the cold weather to build an ice skating rink (which I already mentioned here). However, they took it a bit further and also ordered up some food trucks AND fire pits.

Granted, I haven’t actually went down there yet (since I can’t skate and have no skates) but it sure does smell good walking by the plaza with those two wood fires going. Plus, some people are taking the continuous snow storm in stride, literally.

All this talk of the cold bring me to my next, rather somber point. Its time for my beloved blue Starter Jacket to retire. If you remember from this post, I can sometimes develop an odd obsession with “things” thus:

The Odd Things No. 2 – Blue Starter Jacket

It appears oddly bright blue in that picture.

Anyways, this jacket has seen me through a lot. As of 2015 the jacket is now ten years old, and these past 10 years have seen such an extraordinarily large amount of change for me that its a bit hard not to feel as though my blue jacket was a passenger along for the ride. It was not an expensive jacket. While I can’t recall the exact details my brain tells me that Stepmom bought it for me from Target. Its just a basic fleece Jacket. But it was my basic fleece jacket, and, most importantly, it had that amazing chest pocket that I found out works amazingly for smart phones (after owning the jacket for 9 years).

But, like all things in life, time drags on with its wear and tear and so too did Blue Starter Jacket. It started with a little hole at the bottom, then the dark day came when the zipper irreversibly snagged, forcing me to break a few of the teeth to get the jacket off, which resulted in a bad spot on the zipper and the zipper just generally not being that strong anymore. Finally, the chest pocket started having a few threads come undone around its own little zipper. In essence, the jacket was still a jacket, but it was time for me to move on. It was an oddly sentimental moment and I resisted it for multiple weeks before I finally purchased another jacket, at Target no less, which was HEAVILY discounted from its original price (49.50$ vs. 225.00$).

As you can see from the above photo, it doesn’t look anything like my old jacket, nope, not in the least. I am creature of habit, if nothing else. Its a T-Tech jacket, by Tumi. I had never heard of them, but based on the price I now blend in ever so slightly more with my classmates, but still not to the point of 22,000$ handbags (No I am not even joking). But, generally speaking, this new jacket is a step up in every way: The zippers work, it has a bigger chest pocket (annoying at first, but its growing on me), its more wind resistant, its more water resistant, and its warmer in general.

As for old blue, well, it is getting donated. I thought about recycling it, but “reuse” is even better than recycle, and the law school has a donation area. While the jacket has a few issues, its still a good jacket, and I hope it goes on to serve someone else as well as it has served me.

Godspeed old friend.

—————–

Back to normal affairs, SB and I still managed to have our Friday night out (I wasn’t sick yet) despite the extreme cold (maybe that is why I am sick now). It was my turn to pick, and we ended up going to a place nearby (right next to Darwin’s) called Mona Lisa Pizza & Grill. Somehow we had never actually been here before despite it being so close. I have to say, the food was good, the dining experience was not, namely because it was so freaking cold in there. The guys in the back were fine because of the blazing ovens, but out in the small dinning area (which reached single-digit temperatures each time the door was opened) the heater seemed to be doing very little. My hands and feet were uncomfortably cold the entire time (thanks Raynaud’s). As for the food, I went with the Buffalo Chicken Roll-Up (I like when places call them roll-ups, as opposed to wraps) and SB went with the Fried Haddock Sandwich. My Roll-Up was really good, the wrap itself was similar in consistency and texture to a crêpe. Also, both things were huge.

So, it was good enough to go back, but not until its warmer (though it will probably be super hot in there) or we get takeout. After that we went and got some treats (a cinnamon roll and a piece of apple pie), me some beer (nothing special, just Yuengling Light again), and then chilled. Which, is exactly what I am going to go do now. My reading for tomorrow (I guess Tuesday now) is done, I was fairly productive yesterday (working on an outline for my stupid LRW brief), and also I am getting that late-in-the-day-tired that accompanies being sick. Tomorrow is hopefully going to be a lazy snow day and maybe I will get lucky and convince SB to go obtain the two free drinks we have on our Starbucks account. 🙂 [Edit 2.5: She did!]

[Edit 1: My chill plans were slightly sabotaged, one of my professors assigned an additional 60 pages of reading and my LRW partner wants to work on our brief outline remotely, we’ll see how much of a lazy day I can salvage.]
[Edit 2: We ended up getting Tuesday off of school as well.]

Also, yes, if you were wondering, its still snowing outside as I finish this post. All snow in the world has decided it is time to party hard in Boston.

Until next time,
-Taco

I recently went to a “Mindfulness” seminar, which was hosted by my Doctor. It was at a local church and I thought the design on the floor was really cool, so I took a picture of it.

Week One, Blizzard, Letters, and a Beer Blurb.

February 1, 2015 by Taco

If the title didn’t make it fairly obvious, this has been an interesting week.

Week One

For starters, Spring Semester has er.. started. In classic fashion, it took less than one week for me to become overextended and borderline in an anxiety-breakdown. My blog has had a bit of a “whiny” vibe to it lately, which I don’t exactly like, but things have been kinda stressful, so my blog is just a natural reflection of that. It also helps me to compartmentalize things by listing them out. So, here is the order of things I am going to complain about as far as the spring semester goes, just so you can properly brace yourself for the ample amount of QQ that is about to follow.

1. Fall Grades
2. Spring courses
3. LRW
4. Possible Editor Position
5. Returning to my SPO

On the fourth floor of Langdell Hall, the law school’s library and general pit of Hellish despair, misery, and 100 octrillion-zillion words of law. But the building is pretty.

Fall Grades

So, Fall Grades came out on Tuesday (which was a snow-day, but more on that in a bit). I’m not going to get into specifics. But I will say it was a mixed bag. I had one grade I was really happy with, one grade that I was disappointed with, and one grade that was bad but expected. All in all I came in one grade shy of where I wanted to be. So while it could have been better, it could have been a lot worse, especially considering my educational background vis-à-vis my peers.

And that is all I have to say about grades. They were not crushingly depressing, nor joy inducing. They were just “ok.” For this new semester I hope to bring them up to my goal.

Spring Courses

So my spring course load is, on paper, slightly lighter than the fall semester. Notice I said “on paper.” In reality, this semester is going to be very, very, busy. In fact, if the first week is going to be any indication, I now understand why the ABA makes me sign a thing saying I won’t work more than some miniscule amount of hours in an outside job during the semester. Of my classes, there is only one that actually seems like it is going to be really interesting, and that is of course my elective. Two other classes, Criminal Law and International Law and Human Rights could have been good, but they were pretty much devastated by the professors being HORRIBLE cold-callers. I’m talking, a constant stream of harshbrowns that never stop flying at your face. Plus, the Human Rights professor assigns an INSANE amount of reading.

Now, I must stress this. There is “INSANE” reading for the rest of the world, then there is “INSANE” law school reading. Let’s just put it this way. I would feel safe saying that I read more for one class than most undergraduate students read in 1 entire year of school. I don’t mean how much they are assigned, I mean how much they actually read. I was an honors student in history as an undergraduate. I am no stranger to reading. But this amount of reading is just mind-blowing. In fact, I cannot do it. I have to “intelligently skim” to have any hope of even grasping the 100s of pages we are expected to have on the tips of our tongue.

Point being, my reading load is worse this semester. Then, two of my classes now require essays and giving speeches. Which just adds in to everything else. Of course there are exams waiting at the end, as usual.

Legal Research and Writing (LRW)

I give LRW its own place on the list because LRW is the 10th circle of hell. For all the complaining I did about LRW Fall Semester and PSW, this is literally the worst its been. The ENTIRE SEMESTER (not just three weeks like PSW) is a partner project. Yes. Entire. Semester. You not only have to write a brief (which is not actually brief, as in length, trust me) you have to do freaking moot court, as in oral arguments in front of judges, 2 vs 2. This blows. You know why? Because it means you have to work with an ultra-striver who wants to get everything done (and receive a perfect score, no less) about 300 years before its due. This is in complete and utter contrast to me, who is much more chill about this whole law school thing. To make matters worse, you share a grade. So, my relatively blasé demeanor clashes heavily with their “MUST BE PERFECT ANYTHING LESS THAN DEAN’S SCHOLAR IS SUICIDE” mentality. In other words, it sucks, it all sucks. I hate LRW. It is, by far, the worst class thus far. What is great, is that most law schools only have one semester of it, and ITS NOT GRADED. But nope, I was stupid and went someplace where its GRADED and ONE YEAR LONG. I’ll close by saying that you should probably just brace yourself for me to be bitching about this class until May.

Possible Editor Position

I was extended the offer with my journal to become a Line Editor. Which is basically the next step up the totem pole. On the surface this is a good thing. It means more experience, and more importantly a better line of your resume than just “Staff” or “Subciter.” Of course it also means a lot more time. If you’ve been reading up until this point, you’ll know that I don’t have much of that. I ended up telling them that I would do it if they were short a Line Editor for whatever article I get assigned to. I should know on Monday if I am now a Line Editor or not. Honestly I’m fairly ambivalent about this. If I don’t get it, that’s time saved and I will just remain the bottom man on the totem pole. If I do get it, it will be kind of cool to say I’m an Editor, even if I am the lowest-tier type of Editor.

Returning to my Student Practice Organization

If you’ve been reading the blog for a bit, you’ll remember that I was less than pleased with the administration of my SPO. Its a good organization on the whole, but the time requirements and general dictator-like personality of the supervising attorney left me seriously questioning whether I would be returning in the spring, despite being able to interact with clients and serving a good cause. Well, the decision kind of got made for me, which I was not thrilled about. During the “recruitment” event for the Spring semester (basically where 1Ls who didn’t join an SPO in the Fall and who know realize how important they are frantically try to get in in time to put it on their resume) the supervising attorney introduced me to all those in attendance and went on and on about how I did good work (despite this person very much disliking at least the majority of what I submitted) and how I was going to be coming back this semester. My specific team leaders then were all happy that I had decided to come back. The thing is, I never said I was going to. But, in a public setting when your Boss’ Boss, and your Boss are told you are in (despite this being an assumption) its kind of hard to back out. Sure, I could, but the power balance is so screwed up here (which is a running theme of law school) that I decided to just grin and bear it. If it wasn’t for the fact that I genuinely feel like I’m doing good work (i.e. not making rich old white men richer) I probably would have said no. I’m just going to pull way back this time, doing nothing more than is required to complete my assigned tasks. I care a lot more about improving my grades and my journal than I do my SPO, especially since I didn’t really volunteer this time. The downside is that its even more of a time-drain on my limited reservoir.

But enough complaining about classes, we’ll have plenty of time for that as the semester progresses.

The Blizzard

So if you watch the news at all, you’ll have noticed that the Northeast got a lot of snow last week. Yep.

I didn’t measure myself, but from local reports I think right where we are ended up with around 30″ of snow, possibly a little more. It was a lot of snow, with a lot of wind, really fast. It was another one of my ~~beloved~~ hated Nor’easters. The good news is, we never lost power. Of course a lot of people weren’t so lucky, several tens of thousands of them in fact. Some of the coastal areas were slammed pretty hard, especially when some seawalls broke. But for us, intermittent internet loss was about as bad as it got. We actually got enough snow that I got a snow-day! Which is apparently a very, VERY rare occurrence for Harvard, whose closure policy was once iterated by a Dean as “Harvard shall close in the event of an act of God, such as the end of the Earth,” and no, I am not joking, that is the exact quote. So that was nice, aside from the Friday afternoon make-up class I ended up having to have. I still have two possible makeup classes hanging over my head as well, not sure when I will find out whether or not I’ll have to endure them. I still really dislike this makeup crap. SB actually had two snow-days, which I am sure she enjoyed as I trudged off into the many feet of snow, wind, and bitter cold. 😛

On the positive side, snow removal efforts are way better out here than I am used to. Heck, apparently you get fined if you don’t clear the sidewalk in front of your home. As a VERY frequently walker, I support that law 100%. Even Harvard seemed to be on top of their game, with ground crews fighting the snow good-fight in a very timely manner.

I suppose when you are used to such snow, you tend to be a little better prepared to respond to it. The downside of the good response is salt and chemicals.

In fact, my jeans feel like they are freaking starched to oblivion because of all the chemicals and salt that are embedded in them, despite multiple surface cleanings with a washcloth. But, I suppose that is much better than slipping and dying a horrible death in the skanky-arse street water/ice pits. I swear, those little “dips” between the street and sidewalk have become my mortal enemy. You never know if you are about to safely step into firm snow, or fall through into icy mud water poison.

The fun thing is we are supposedly going to get like another foot of snow this coming week. But, I tell you what, I do not miss a car in this, despite the difficulty of walking.

Packing Letters

This is actually kind of funny. I spent 3 hours on campus today (A Saturday) stuffing letters. Why would I do this you might ask? Well, because I have to. No really, if I don’t do it I get no summer funding for my job. You see, there is this really cool event here at the law school called the “HLS Public Interest Auction.” It raises money each year for those students who pursue public interest (i.e. poverty) rather than corporate work (i.e. 160k a year starting). Harvard is one of the few schools that actually spend quite a bit of money on supporting their PI-focused students and graduates. The Public Interest Auction/Fundraiser is one such way they bring in money. And, if you plan to receive any summer funding (I do), as a 1L you HAVE to volunteer for three hours. Really not that big of a deal considering that you might get up to 5,500$ in funding if you are poor enough (which roughly translates to slightly above a minimum wage job, while your firm-bound colleagues will make about 30k in a summer, lol). Being me, I wanted to get that volunteering stuff out of the way ASAP. So, I meticulously monitored the page waiting for shifts to open, and sure enough once they did I pounced on them. Little did I know that it was on a Saturday, but still, I wanted to get it done. I actually signed up for 4 hours, because the shifts were only for 2 hour intervals (10-12, 1-3, 3-5), despite you only needing 3 hours. Anyways, the gist of it was stuffing letters and forms into envelopes (to both alumni and parents – Hi Meem) asking for donations to the auction or just donations period. There were about 32,000 pieces of paper in total, for about 8,000 letters.

Its funny too, and I think this provides some insight into what people are like here. Remember, this is a volunteer event, sending letters. However, some people became competitive, hording supplies and trying to pack letters faster than anyone. No, I am not joking. There was literally no reason to do this, but they did, because they have to “win” at everything. The thing is, I produced about 3x as many letters as the next fastest person (and trust me, she was not amused by this fact). This is the one time in my life my assembly line skills paid off outside of well, the assembly line. I was roasting those letters, I’d say I was probably up to about 8 letters a minute at my best (keeping in mind they had multiple parts and had to be folded in fancy ways, labeled, and stacked). I guess when you spend a lot of time packaging medical equipment under crazy time constraints the skills transition over to letters. Perhaps this could be a fallback job.

Anyways, the interesting thing is that we grossly exceeded performance expectations. So much so that it was becoming pretty obvious that most people weren’t going to get their 3 hours in because we were running out of labels (which means we were running out of people to mail things too). However, I used some supply strategy, concealed labels, and delay-tactics to ensure that I did indeed get all 3 of my hours in, I was not about to spend anymore time volunteering than I already had, my Saturdays are a commodity. But, it was interesting seeing all the people we were mailing the letters to. There were four piles. “Alumni – International,” “Alumni – Domestic,” “Parent – International,” and “Parent Domestic.” I was assigned to the “Alumni – Domestic.” Since I had to sign a confidentiality agreement (seriously) I can’t say much, but lets just say I sent some very powerful people letters today, haha. Plus, I got in all 3 hours on the very first sign-up opportunity. So while most people will be rushing around trying to get in their hours as the auction gets close, I can just forget about it.

Beer Blurb

And finally, the best part of the post, the part about food and beer. Since I had a makeup class due to the Blizzard I was a bit later getting home on Friday than I like. But it was SB’s turn to pick and she chose S&S Deli, which we had been to before. Its actually slightly over our price range and the service last time wasn’t great, but this time was much better. I mean, the prices were still above what we normally spend, but the service was much better. SB went with the “S&S Chicken Sandwich – Tender fried chicken, hot, sweet and spicy” and I went with the “Citrus Wrap – Grilled chicken, mixed greens, strawberries, mandarin oranges, goat cheese and tangerine vinaigrette” after debating between that and some clam chowder. Both meals were quite good. After that we bumped over to Whole Foods for some treats (Ice Cream for SB and Tiramisu for me) and then over to the Wine & Cheese Cask for some GLORIOUS BEER. After the first week I was definitely ready for some. However, this time SB was too. She is normally a wine person, but since this is Superbowl weekend she was feeling some beer. So we opted for a 12 pack rather than my standard six pack. I also noticed a special bottle on the way out that I just couldn’t resist, so we left with 13 bottles of beer, rather than our usual six. My excuse is football, your argument is invalid.

The Beer:

Samuel Adams Seasonal Collection

1. Samuel Adams – Escape Route
2. Samuel Adams – Boston Lager
3. Samuel Adams – Crystal Pale Ale
4. Samuel Adams – Cold Snap
5. Crabbie’s – Original Ginger Beer

Since this post is getting a bit longer than I anticipated, I’m going to be a little cheap with the Sam Adam’s beers and say that they were all good. Really, the Beer Advocate descriptions are probably just as a good (if not better) than anything I could come up with. I still think its interesting, even as recently as 4 years ago or so I wasn’t really as a Samuel Adams fan, but I’ll be damned if they haven’t grown on me (Partially thanks to FIL and all the Samuel Adams he has generously bestowed upon me). Its especially awesome because I feel like so many more of their varieties are easier to find out here in Boston, for obvious reasons. Right now Samuel Adams and the Brooklyn Brewery are fiercely battling each other for position in my beer world and really the only real sacrifice is that of my wallet and my fatness.

But the four Samuel Adams beers (especially the Lager – since its their flagship) are all fairly “tame” in comparison to Crabbie’s Original Ginger Beer. In fact, Crabbie’s is so weird for a “beer” that neither Beer Advocate nor the lesser-esteemed (by me) RateBeer have reviews of it. I had to venture to the brewer’s website to find much information about it (the rest of what I found was just websites selling it – to surprisingly good reviews I might add). But really, we don’t much care about what others think. I really just link to BeerAdvocate, etc. to provide a bit of a backdrop to my opinion of the beer. This is my blog after all.

So, how was it? Well, before I even opened the bottle I noticed it was from Scotland, the best country on Earth except Murka. So that is a plus. Also, if you are wondering WHY IN THE HELL IS THERE ICE IN HIS BEER!? Good question. But the bottle specifically says that it recommends being served chilled over ice with a slice of lime or lemon. Who I am to question the Scots when it comes to beer? So, I took a drink and wow. Much Ginger, Much Pazazz. SB wanted to try it, and her reaction was pretty similar. I think the best way to think of it is to not to imagine beer, at all, but rather imagine Ginger Ale on steroids. I’m still not quite sure why the ice is needed, but the lemon/lime is clearly to counter balance the “burn” from the ginger. I mean, holy cow, this stuff is REAL ginger beer, not any punanner replica stuff. It actually leaves a bit of a “burn” aftertaste in your mouth, just as if you were actually eat raw ginger. So, on the whole, its not bad, but I wouldn’t go so far to say I’m in love with it either. It does get better as you drink it, that is true, but this is definitely a 0ne-and-done beer. I couldn’t imagine setting around downing these things one after another at the bar. But, I’m definitely glad I tried it and I might get it again in the future, but I do wish the bottle was smaller, I’m not big on “sweet” alcoholic drinks. As far as recommendations go, if you like Ginger Ale and you like alcohol, this would be a hard one to pass up.

Alrighty, I’m going to wrap this up. Its time to go drink more beer and just chill for the rest of the night. After spending three hours stuffing letters, doing some online school stuff, AND doing ALL of our taxes today I feel as though I have done my due diligence for a Saturday. Tomorrow (today, when this is posted) is Superbowl Sunday, which means more beer and hotdogs and homemade tortilla chips and guacamole! We had a bit of a frustrating time with Peapod, from a coupon problem, to a lazy/whiny driver, to items missing, but they still managed get most of the food to us and they did credit us for what they didn’t get (sadly our Dole Chocolate Dipped Frozen Bananas were one of the missing items, much to Tristen & Valentino’s dismay). But, we still got pretty much everything we needed for the big game tomorrow, either through Peapod or Whole Foods, so I guess we can’t complain too much (other than to their customer service, who SB plans to write to). Regardless, I’m looking forward to some football.

Of course that is only after about 5.5 hours of reading and school work, but I digress, its still going to be a good day, its just not going to start being a good day until about 6pm. I just hope its better of a game than last year and that Daryl 1’s husband Tom Brady ends up losing. Also if the Seapigeons win again then Russell Wilson will have beat two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks in a Superbowl, only one of which cheats.

Until next time,
-Taco

Back to the Grind

January 24, 2015 by Taco

So I find my whopping 1 day break between Winter Term (J-Term) and Spring Semester has passed me by. Imagine that. On Monday I start the next semester, complete with a full course load. I am not thrilled, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

First, let us revisit the end of the Problem Solving Workshop. On the whole, the class probably came out better than I was expecting. Yes, I realize I’ve complained about it a lot, and make no mistake I am very glad its over, but it could have been much worse. I got a decent team and the way we divided up work was pretty good. Overall, I still think the class is largely a massive waste of time, aside from the cliché “It teaches you how to work in groups!” motif. But its over. The “Final” for the course involved going downtown to present about a week’s worth of legal research to an attorney. Some groups stayed at the law school, others went to people’s houses, some went to actual firms. I was in the last category and my firm was Ropes & Gray, a Vault 25 firm.

We met with one of the partners. An actual partner. Many groups just met with associates, we got a partner. We were more than a bit nervous about this. But, it turns out that we were really lucky. Our partner was awesome. He is younger (for a partner) and was amazingly friendly. In addition to being a biglaw partner he is a classically trained singer, an amateur comedian, and he has his own one-man cabaret show (no seriously). Where some groups got pretty heavily grilled, our entire meeting was very collegial.

When we were waiting for him to come in everyone was nervous, as mentioned, but once he got into the room we knew things were going to be just fine. He started by passing around the brownies and cookies and fruit. He told us that since everything gets billed to the client, “You either eat it, stick it in your desk, give it to your secretary, or take it home for your wife or kids. If none of them want it, you feed it to your dog. I guess you aren’t supposed to feed dogs chocolate, but I’ve been feeding my dog chocolate for years and he is fine. … He is obese though.”

I’ve now told that story multiple times, and I still laugh. It is made funnier when you realize that this is a white collar biglaw partner man who bills out at 1100$ an hour.

So, my first real interaction with a partner was very good. As mentioned, other groups did not fare so well. While we did have another class the next morning, that evening outing was realistically the end of PSW since there were no actual assignments for the last day. I was happy to see PSW go, until I realized that it meant that I was about to start yet another 1L semester. Unfortunately this semester has the makings to be worse than the first one. One of my professors is literally in the bottom three reviewed professors at the law school. I mean their feedback is just atrocious. Another professor is known for having HORRIBLE cold calls and for basically being an unnecessarily cruel asshat. Then, as if Legal Research and Writing needed to try to be any worse, we now spend the entire semester working in pairs on a brief and oral argument. I mean, come on, its like PSW bred with LRW and made hellspawn. My other two courses are a bit up in the air right now, so they could go either way, but overall, I am not enthusiastic about Spring semester. At least I have a summer job (assuming my background check pans out – which it should). I think I am actually still burnt on law school and this not really having a break thing is an adjustment. I’m still used to undergrad where you have a long break with nothing filling the gap. Law school has a short break and the work doesn’t really stop, I had so many emails and “Do this now” things over break that my mind never really got to shut off law school (except for West Baden weekend, yay Meem!). But, this is big people world and long breaks like that don’t exist for most of us, so tough-tooties for me I suppose. I’m just hoping law school will appeal to me more in the second year (which I’ve been told it should).

Aside from lawl skewl, I did have my acupuncture appointment. It went well, and the acupuncturist was very nice and willing to listen to my very lengthy medical story. I think I ended up with about 30 needles in me. Honestly its not really as bad as it might sound. I was telling SB, of the 30 needles, I’d say only 5 “hurt” and of those five only one (in my left hand) hurt bad enough that I winced. Oddly the ones in the places you’d think would be really bad (like the back of your knee) weren’t bad at all. Acupuncture made me feel weird. It was like.. an internal pressure of sorts, but it wasn’t a bad thing. Maybe it was a placebo, but my body felt very strange while I was lying there (After the needles were all in I laid under a heat lamp for about 20 minutes – nearly fell asleep too). My shins felt like they had a load of pressure in them, but my numb spot on my back felt better almost the instant he put the needle in there. After I left I noticed something very, VERY weird. My legs didn’t hurt. It was crazy, I had forgotten what it was like to have legs that don’t hurt, so much so that my legs not hurting felt messed up. Odd isn’t it? The pain free period lasted about 30 minutes, which was similar to when I did physical therapy a few years ago.

Sadly I doubt I’ll be continuing acupuncture. He recommended 4-6 sessions to get me “stable” and then from there its kind of like chiropractic treatment where you need to go every little bit to keep it up. The thing is, its 65$ a session, which we can’t afford. On top of that, his schedule is crazily restrictive. He only is there on M, W, F, and Wednesday is a half day. His schedule is very much catered towards morning appointments, buuuuut mornings are full of classes for me. I designed my schedule to have big openings in the afternoons on W, Th, F.. of which only Friday works for the acupuncturist.. but those appointments were all full. So I dunno, between scheduling difficulty and the cost I’m not sure if its feasible to continue.

I have yet to have my physical therapy appointment.

So, that is really all I have for now. I’m trying to enjoy my last little bit of freedom. I already have a ton of reading I need to do for Monday, but I’m procrastinating as long as possible on that to try to eek out just a bit more of my miniscule break. We are having some snowy/icy/nasty weather here, which makes doing nothing a bit more easy.

So, with that said, I’m going to go back to doing just exactly that, nothing. 🙂

Until next time,
-Taco

The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard, as seen during a recent evening walk home.

Ebbing Snow and the (Real) King of Beers?

Catching Up and Two Beer Blurbs

More Snow (Again), More Sick, Odd Things No. 2

Week One, Blizzard, Letters, and a Beer Blurb.

Back to the Grind

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