Slice of Pink

Grace in Small Things: 11/365

1. Receiving a birthday card and coupon from Anthropologie
2. Grilled cheese, French fries, frozen yogurt
3. Three Potato Four
4. Booking a flight to visit Jenny (Gavin and Claire, too!)
5. A husband who actually likes doing our taxes

Grace in Small Things: 10/365

1. A lawyer-turned-Rice-Krispies-chef at Milk and Krunchies {thanks Sara!}
2. The bowl of heart-shaped lollipops in the Career Services Office
3. Finishing my week on-call in Evidence
4. Weather that is just warm enough to enjoy a coffee out in the sunshine
5. Friday night margaritas

Scenes from a Café :: Delta of Venus

Customer: Do you have a pencil sharpener?

Barista: I think I have one in the back office. Do you want me to sharpen a pencil for you?

Customer: Yes, please. If you don't mind.

Barista: Not at all. I'm a pencil-user myself.

Grace in Small Things: 9/365

1. More favorite friends joining the Grace movement
2. Coffee with a new friend, the lovely Justine
3. Banana Republic's sweater tights
4. Dryer sheets
5. Sharing a churro from the Costco food court

Finally Getting Paid

A few months ago, I posted that Lilly Ledbetter got nothing from Goodyear Tire, the company that discriminated against her for 19 years based on her gender.

She may have received nothing from Goodyear, but today she received "an even richer reward": President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. Plus, she got to keep one of the pens Obama used to sign his name on the bill.

Hurray for equality. Hurray for moving forward as a nation.

Deal Breaker

We're sitting in the office, eating tortilla chips and hot salsa, when Will announces, "I really don't think I could be married to you if you didn't like salsa." Picky, picky.

Grace in Small Things: 8/365

1. Finally talking to Lauren on the telephone, after playing two solid weeks of phone tag
2. Chocolate with pecans and raisins
3. Mittens
4. UC Davis to host Special Olympics Summer Games
5. Miss Capucine’s new bedroom

Tuesday's Bike Ride

{Number 15 on the list of Ways to Know You Have Bicycle Culture: Your entire wardrobe can be classified as ”cycle wear”. Especially those stilettos from Christian Louboutin or your new double-breasted trenchcoast from Tiger of Sweden.}

Today I biked in Bitten jeans, an Old Navy coat, Banana Republic sweater, and Poof! ruffled tank top.

Shannon asked what kind of bike I ride, imagining a really cute cruiser. I do have a cute pink cruiser, which I adore. My cousin, Katie, got it for me and I brought it to Davis all the way from sunny San Diego. It is fabulous for lovely weekend rides.

On a daily basis, however, I use a Jamis commuter bike, which has gears and definitely gets me around quicker.

One bike for style, one for swiftness.

Grace in Small Things: 7/365

1. Chocolate covered gingersnaps
2. Old episodes of Friends
3. The Inaugural Poem, Praise Song for the Day
4. Cozy blankets
5. Miniature photos in fun places by Color Me Kate {via Black*Eiffel}

Join us as we wage a battle against embitterment!

Simplicity

I am currently prohibited from purchasing prints. Will says that I have too many unframed items lying around and until I get those items up on the walls (including a largeish Obama piece by Jonathan Hoefler), I can't continue to purchase more.

If I wasn't on restriction, this fabulous bicycle print by Nick Dewar is the next piece I'd buy.

Monday's Bike Ride

In a dress!

Grace in Small Things: 6/365

1. Men in sweater vests
2. papernstitch
3. Talking art law on Monday evenings
4. Tomato gorgonzola soup
5. Planning day trips to San Francisco

Lovely Kayla

Once one of my favorite students, and now one of my favorite friends, the lovely Kayla started a blog, Fly Today and Do It Red. She's also waging a battle against embitterment with a Grace in Small Things Series and, like me, loves tights and rain boots. Heart.

Grace in Small Things: 5/365

1. The classical music at Peet's
2. Sleeping in
3. Kelly Rae's Blog
4. The Dog, Cat, Rat, and Greg (who I saw on State Street in Santa Barbara last summer!)
5. Productivity

Bike Riding in a Dress 101

In the recent comment section of this post, Good Girl Gone Blog asked:

How does one ride a bike in a dress?

Shannon added:

I've wondered that myself. You've mentioned the whole dress wearing while biking thing before and I've wondered about gusts of wind and exposed undercarriages. Do you carry modesty clips so your dress won't fly up? Or do you wear shorts underneath? Or do you just throw caution to the wind and give your town a show? Fill us in!

Number 15 on the list of Ways to Know You Have Bicycle Culture: Your entire wardrobe can be classified as ”cycle wear”. Especially those stilettos from Christian Louboutin or your new double-breasted trenchcoast from Tiger of Sweden.

I ride my bike in dresses. I ride my bike for a night out on the town. I've even ridden my bicycle to job interviews, wearing a full suit, nylons, and a pair of heels.

It's not quite as impressive as it sounds. Once you decide to do it, everything just sort of falls into place.

Most of the time the dresses I wear are knee length, which makes biking in them rather simple; any shorter and passersby might get a peek of my panties, any longer and the skirt has a tendency to get tangled in the spokes. I resolve these two issues by wearing leggings under shorter dresses and by holding the hem of longer dresses in my non-steering hand or by strategically folding and tucking just right. I'd recommend starting with knee-length, a-line types and graduating into fitted pencil skirts after some practice.

The hardest part of biking in a dress is actually getting on to the bicycle. The best way to do this, particularly if the dress is more form-fitting than flowing, is to put the bike in the street and stand on the curb. Just a few inches can make a huge difference. Then hop on and start pedaling.

And, you know, pretty panties are always the way to go, but on days that you are bicycling in a dress, a conservative boyshort is probably your best bet.

If you are serious about riding in a dress, Keeping it Awkward has some practical advice including the angle at which your knees should be. There's also a Diva's Guide to Biking. This is some serious business.

I swear, if I had been so in love with bicycling on the day I got married, I would have pedaled in my wedding dress, like these lovelies:

{The couples are: Rebecca & Jeremy, Jennifer & Kevin, and Chap & Maura, who I do not know, but absolutely adore.}

Grace in Small Things: 4/365

1. Ikea straws
2. A husband who is agreeable, even when he is sick
3. Waffles with strawberries
4. Son of Rambow
5. Lemon tea with honey

Join us as we wage a battle against embitterment!

Grace in Small Things: 3/365

1. An afternoon with friends
2. Good people who give me rides when it rains
3. The local newsstand that ordered lots of extra copies of the New York Times Inauguration edition.
4. Carrot ginger soup
5. Mustache pencils

Dress Wearing Bicyclist

As a dress-wearing-bicyclist myself, not to mention a fan of the lovely Ellen Page, I'm totally in love with this photograph. {via Cup of Jo}

Grace in Small Things: 2/365

1. Bright yellow rain boots
2. The first family in J. Crew
3. Having a window seat in Thursday's Crim Pro class
4. Hope for Women in Science
5. Black cats

Join us in waging a battle against embitterment!

Grace in Small Things: 1/365

1. Light rain on the bike ride home
2. Michelle Obama's Inaugural Gown
3. Balloons!
4. Peanut butter
5. Polka-dots

Join us as we wage a battle against embitterment!

America

New Era of Hope

{Scott Hansen, Artist for Obama}

There Was Wine

(and also cheese)

Currently

Loving: The lovely, lovely weather
Consuming: Williams-Sonoma Hot Chocolate
Craving: Peppermint
Hoping: For a stress-free semester. Ha.
Netflixing: Entourage
Listening to: Excellence in Jazz on Capitol Public Radio
Reading: Evidence Law
Wanting: A Shutter Sisters Flashbulb Necklace
Looking Forward to: This weekend's wine and cheese party

Pink Interviewed

Hope interviewed me!

1. What is your favorite childhood memory?

I actually answered this question here, so, I guess I owe y'all the answer to another question. Bring it.

2. What is the most interesting thing that you learned at law school this year?

Academically, the most interesting thing I learned probably related to freedom of speech, although about five minutes after the final exam, that information fell promptly out of my head. Personally--and perhaps more importantly--I learned to "keep calm and carry on." It is the only way to manage law school. There are two choices in law school: you either keep calm and carry on or you go crazy and lose your damn mind. I think I need the poster for my office.

3. What is your favorite movie of all time? Your least favorite?

I have two all-time favorite movies and I will never, never be able to decide which one I love more. They are: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Amelie. My least favorite movie? Watching From Dusk Till Dawn always comes to mind as two hours of my life utterly wasted.

4. What do you make for dinner if you've had a bad day? What do you make for dinner to celebrate a good day?

On bad days and good days, my husband makes the dinner, so I don't generally make any decisions about what's for dinner. Before I was a vegetarian, I liked to celebrate all good things with a BLA (bacon, lettuce, and avocado) sandwich. Somehow, a lettuce and avocado sandwich, minus the bacon, just doesn't do it. I always say that the next time I eat meat, it will be in a BLA. Maybe the day I graduate.

5. If you could magically learn a new skill without any hard work or practice, what would it be?

I'm torn between Spanish fluency and classical ballet. Forced to decide, I guess I'd take Spanish fluency, which is the more practical choice. Unless, of course, my magical ballet skills were so remarkable that I could drop out of law school and be a prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet. In that case, I'd take ballet.

Now, if you want to be interviewed, please leave a comment saying "Interview Me!" I'll send you five questions to answer.

More than Macaroni and Cheese

I love you more than _________.

Cs Make JDs

The guy sitting in front of me in my Federal White Collar Crime class is reading an article on the Internet entitled "Kegs 101."

I Like I Like Killing Flies

We're two for two in 2009, having received I Like Killing Flies from Netflix and throughly enjoying it. The hilarious film is about a small family-owned restaurant in New York City with some 900 things on the menu and a wacky (yet strangely sagacious) chef.

I'm sorry we missed out on eating at Shopsin's during our last visit to NYC, although, to be fair, our guidebook didn't suggest it to us (I just checked). Sure enough, the New Yorker reports that when guidebooks call to include Shopsin's, Kenny, the foul-mouthed owner, reports that the restaurant is out of business.

We might have to make a trip to New York soon and, if we don't get kicked out (which happens often, apparently--no parties of five allowed!), I'm ordering the Chocolate Orange French Toast. Or, maybe the Postmodern Pancakes. Or maybe the Mac 'n' Cheese Pancakes.

True Colors

The day after Christmas, on the way to lunch and a movie, we smashed up our car on the freeway. The details of the crash are relatively simple--in order to avoid an accident on the verge of occurring up ahead (lots of hard braking and smoke), Will veered into the next lane and was read-ended by a Kia. The damage was minimal, relatively speaking: our rear bumper was basically ruined, the Kia's front bumper was pretty scratched up. No one was hurt. The airbags did not deploy.

I like situations like this, obviously not because we now have to pay a $500 deductible to our insurance company, but because of the way my husband reacts in lousy situations. He remains remarkably calm and collected, a trait that makes him, as my uncle describes, "the guy you want up at the plate when it's the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs."

So, the first thing Will does after the crash is tell me to call the folks we're meeting for lunch and tell them to order him the soup and sandwich lunch special, as we'll be a few minutes late and don't want to miss the movie on account of this small hold-up.

Will then calms down the slightly-freaking-out other party.

At this point a California Highway Patrol car shows up. And then a second CHP car. And then a third. Not much going at at noon on the 26th, I surmise.

I'm thinking there's no way we're making it to lunch and a movie.

We've now got a lot of officers hanging out with us on the side of the freeway in our hometown, a quarter mile from the mall exit. The officers take info from the Kia people first. The Kia people depart. It's us and the CHP left on the side of the road.

With the barely noticeable damage to our vehicle, the three CHP cars, and the four officers taking reports, I'm pretty sure it appears that we're being interrogated for something more severe than a fender-bender (warrant out for our arrest? knocking off a liquor store? involvement in a high-speed chase?). I'm also pretty sure that every single one of my former students passed by in the 20 minutes or so that the report-taking and insurance-calling took. I report the awesomeness of this every time I relay the story (who cares about the actual accident, I'm practically a criminal. It was three cop cars and us!).

We make it to lunch.

The people we are meeting look seriously concerned. Will, ever the counselor, assures them that everybody is okay, accidents happen, no biggie.

The accident is forgotten.

We laugh in the movie, just as we would have if we didn't have a car in the parking lot that needed a brand new bumper. I sneak a peek at Will several times during the movie. He's concerned with only two things: popcorn and Jim Carrey. I'm glad we chose a comedy and, even more, I'm glad to be married to a man that hits a grand slam when the pressure is on.

Friday Night Bike Ride

I have a long, cold bike ride ahead of me this evening.

Sure, I ride my bike on a daily basis--to school, to the grocery store, to the coffee shop--so I'm not really complaining. Even when it is cold, drizzling, or thick with fog outside, bicycling is my main mode of transportation. The reasons are fourfold: I hate to drive, biking is my main form of exercise, it costs a boatload of money to park on campus, and I like it.

But sometimes, I prefer to drive. If I am going someplace more than, say, five miles away or if it is pouring rain, the car is definitely the way to go. Tonight would be the perfect night to drive: Will and I are going to a little art auction on the other side of town. It's dark, cold, and I'm wearing a dress.

But, alas, our car is the shop after we (read: Will) wrecked it on the freeway. I'll tell you all about that fun tomorrow. For tonight, I'm checking in to complain (just a little bit) about riding all the way across town, in a dress, in the cold, on my bicycle.

I'm totally sucking it up, but there better be wine at the end of this bicycle ride, is all I'm saying

Focus, Focus

Love this from the Marc Johns Blog. {via Swiss Miss}

Scheduled to Serve

I've always wanted to be called for jury duty so you can imagine my delight when I received an official summons in the mail this week from the Yolo County Courthouse. (Or, maybe you can't imagine my delight. Probably you can't.)

But, wouldn't you know it, I was summoned for duty the first week of the spring semester. Obviously, I can't be hanging out at the courthouse during week one of the law school semester. Sadly, I had to call and postpone. 

I might be the only person in America who is disappointed over missing jury duty. 

Stand Up Routine

This is me backstage, quickly writing my speech for the robotics 10 year reunion last Friday night. This showed up in the Antelope Valley press yesterday:

"I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of the robotics team, to be a part of this family," [Wallace] said, noting she has seen these students grow up, graduate, go to college, become engaged and marry. "It's so nice to share that with you."

I don't know if the press quoted my speech correctly because my notes were indecipherable scribbles on a sheet of lined paper, but I do know that they failed to quote any of my funny bits. Which is totally not cool.

Final Answer

I saw an incredible number of terrible movies in 2008--Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Role Models, Yes Man, You Don't Mess With The Zohan, and Four Christmases, to name a few.

I am hoping for better in 2009 and my first film of the year, Slumdog Millionaire, didn't disappoint. It's a brilliant, raw film that certainly has me encouraged.

Happy 2009