That said, I’ll be visiting some new locations in the next few months. My travel plans are as follows:

November 21 - 23: Boston, MA
November 26 - December 4: Hawaii
December 12 - 14: Atlanta, GA

Also, sometime in March or April, I’m trying to plan a short week-long trip to Spain, which has been on my to-do list for a long time. The Boston trip is for the Harvard-Yale game; I’ll be staying with one of Amy’s friends. Obviously, I have no interest in the actual results of the game, I’m just going to hang out with old high school friends living in the Northeast.

Hawaii is my Thanksgiving trip with my family. The plus side is that it’ll be a nice change from the current weather conditions to be able to get into a bathing suit and do water activities under the sun. The con is, of course, I’ll have to wear a bathing suit. Yeech.

The Atlanta trip is tentative. The tickets are about $250, which I can afford technically, but I don’t know if I’d rather save up for other things like the aforementioned trip to Spain. We’ll see.

Anyway, those are just some of my updates on life. Obviously, if anyone’s going to be in any of those places at those times and would like to meet up, I’m sure I’d be happy to see you unless you suck. Suck less! Just kidding.

Work is…going. There are better days and worse days, mostly depending on the type and amount of work that is available. Oh, we also had our FIG outing that was actually really fun. They took us on a tour of the Federal Reserve gold vault, and later that night we had a lovely dinner and drinks at Cipriani’s at 55 Wall where we got to meet everyone’s plus-ones (e.g. wives and girlfriends). I discovered the next day that going to work partially hung over really sucks.

Anyway, now that the financial crisis has somewhat abated, at least in terms of rush-rush spur-of-the-moment deals taking place every other day, I’m re-focusing on my LSAT studying regime. I’m trying to gather the motivation to take 1-2 full length, timed exams each week until the end of the year. After that, I’ll try to ramp it up to 2-4 until February 7th, which is my test date. In all, I hope to take roughly 30 timed tests by the time I take the real thing. Mostly, I think I need to get used to having to concentrate for such a long period of time, which has been difficult for me. Additionally, I’d like to have done ALL of the available logic games by test day. That’s the goal, anyway.

In all, I’ve completed 6 full length tests currently, but only 2 of which were timed. I’ve can tell I’m improving, but I need to up my score by 7 points to reach my goal. I’m not sure if this is too lofty a goal, but we’ll see. Wish me luck, please!

I don’t know if there’s something morally wrong with being glad there’s an economic crisis going on (my conscience says yes), but I have to say that it’s been a lot of fun — some would say stressful — doing and seeing some pretty interesting legal work as far as banking law goes. I also got sent on a day-trip to Bermuda, where I went to a historical museum and ate lunch at the Lobster Pot & Boat Bar, which was delicious. I had a mango and grilled chicken salad and lemon sorbet for dessert. Yum.

On a further upside, now that I’ve gotten plenty of overtime, I can finally pay my bills and put some cash toward my nice, new coat fund. w00t. (Again, my conscience would like to voice its disapproval.) So, things are going well, then, except it’s getting difficult to find time to do laundry.

On a random note, I found out recently one of the lawyers I work for who sits across the hall from me is an ex-Wheelie, and he was also sales manager at the Wheel back in the day. Color me amused.

So, my solution: online shopping for coats! w00t. I’ve had my eye on this coat from Anthropologie, which I think is lovely, but it has quarter sleeves, so it really wouldn’t be practical. I also like J. Crew’s coats such as this one except in white, but I feel like it’s a bit plain given the exorbitant prices. Hmmm.

Anyway, I’m looking for suggestions for places to buy nice coats. The last time I bought a coat was a few years ago, from Gap (you know, back when their clothes didn’t suck), but that one is already falling apart.

On a warmer note, it looks like I’ll be in Hawaii over Thanksgiving, so that should be fun. More w00t.

So yeah, the book is this lady’s memoir about her travels to Italy, India and Indonesia following her divorce. Obviously, it’s not for guys (or intellectuals), but I laughed out loud many times, especially in the beginning (i.e. Italy), which is always a big plus for me. Her spiritual discourse — this is the India part — is actually interesting though it clearly is barely skimming the surface (but I suppose her editor probably wouldn’t have allowed it any other way). I thought the most interesting parts re:cultural differences were in the Indonesia section.

All in all, the book is sort of a mixed bag — kind of like a 3-for-1 deal cause each section is so different. Honestly, there’s not many people I think I’d recommend this book to, but I think most people could find something to like about it. This probably isn’t the best review I’ve ever written, but oh well. 3 and 3/4 stars.

Anyway, so this is going to be a pretty vague description of my work, but whatever. Basically, I work in Financial Institutions (”FIG”), which is a practice group within the law firm that focuses on banking law. This means we only work with banks and on deals that solely involve banks. It sounds limiting, but it actually allows the lawyers to do a wider variety of different types of deals for one specific industry whereas most other groups focus on a specific type of deal for a variety of industries.

For us, as legal assistants, it just means that we need to familiarize ourselves with where to get information about banks, bank filings, various Fed opinions, SEC-related information, bank deposits, etc. It also means we often take field trips to various banking institutions to deliver filings, etc. We also do a lot of copy-checking, indexing things, researching-type activities, sending things to be reproduced (we go through mind-boggling amounts of paper), making binders ‘o stuff — though these things aren’t really FIG-specific. Oh, one big thing about FIG is that it is VERY male-heavy, as I have yet to work with a single female lawyer. I am told this is because women don’t want to do it because they think it will involve a lot of numbers (it doesn’t). However, I sort of resent this assertion, so I am going to assume that it is caused by something else entirely.

In addition to myself, there are only two other legal assistants for FIG. I spend all my time with them, especially my officemate, Christina. Luckily, we get along well otherwise we’d be pretty miserable, haha. Christina and I giggle a lot in our office, take personality quizzes, read news, online shop and gossip, etc. This all sounds good and well, but honestly, we’d rather be doing work cause there’s only so much of this stuff you can do in a week without going crazy and feeling like you’re getting a little stupid (with the economy going south, things are seriously dragging). We study for LSATs a lot, too. Patrick, the other legal assistant, is in the office next to us, is a year older than us and seems to find us somewhat annoying/bewildering at times, but is very nice nonetheless.

As for the lawyers, it’s a small practice group with around 35 or so lawyers that mainly do FIG stuff, including, notably, the chairman of our firm. He is sort of a big deal and, according to the Wall Street Journal, “arguably the country’s leading banking lawyer.” So course, as paralegals, we don’t see him very often as he is Very Important, and we are painfully low on the legal hierarchy, haha.

In general, we work with (read: for) the newer associates, about 15 or so of them, and then maybe 5-7 or so more seasoned lawyers depending on needs (maybe we’ll eventually work with all the FIG lawyers, I’m not really sure yet). The first- and second-years are obviously closer to us in age (generally 26-ish), but unless there’s work to be done, they don’t really talk to us because they are very focused on Impressing the Partners, which I have only now discovered is the main priority for any associate at a law firm. I suppose I should have realized this earlier, but I guess I didn’t realize how serious people are about it. (Of course, they’re still really nice, just busy/focused, too.)

By the time they become third- and fourth-years, they’re more relaxed and willing to take time to chat with you and whatnot, so we actually tend to know those lawyers better. (The fifth- and sixth-year lawyers are generally a bit too old for us to really socialize with and the only ones who are left — there’s a culling process within most large law firms where most associates only stay 3 or 4 years — are now focused on Becoming Partner and probably fail to see how chatting with paralegals will help them to accomplish that end.)

All in all, Christina and I are very fond of those that we consider “our lawyers,” though I don’t think they really feel the same about us, haha. I like working here, but I really wish we were busier, as I am not really used to/comfortable with having all this free time. Anyway, this pretty much summarizes my Life at the Law Firm. Another book review to come, soon. Ciao, lovelies.

As a novel, the book is part historical mystery and part Intro to Financial Markets for Morons (Wait!! You mean when you tell people the stock is going to go up they start to buy?!? Like that.) with a little romance thrown in for good measure. And while it doesn’t manage to present a particularly compelling mystery nor does it serve to educate at any level that would be useful (the romance is so poorly done, it’s not even worth mentioning again), a quick pace and eventful plot keeps the book from becoming mired in its (numerous) shortcomings. My instinct was to dislike the book, but somehow it managed to keep my interest and wasn’t unenjoyable.

So, yeah, the writing isn’t anything special. And no, the characters herein would never finangle their way into any Literary Hall of Fame. And yeah, you have to really strech reality to believe that this bumbling bully would ever really manage to unravel any sort of mystery without getting himself killed (the villians in the book just hand him information). But hey — it’s a good subway read and divides up neatly into 20-minute chunks. Three (maybe two-and-a-half if I’d had a bad morning) stars.

I’ve always felt like I should like Gabriel García Márquez more because he’s supposed to be so wonderful, but it was pretty painstaking to get through this novel (though I have to admit I found the first few chapters well-written and engrossing) and I disliked Chronicle of a Death Foretold even more (summed up: blindly following traditions is bad). I read Chronicle for school, however, so I always assumed that I disliked it mostly due to my associating that book with classwork. Guess not.

Baring some use of symbolism that maybe some English majors would appreciate more than I do (I find that symbolism generally does not enhance the value of any book for me because it serves neither to educate or entertain), I failed to find any particularly notable literary value in this book. Also, it talks about the aging process a lot, which I guess I don’t appreciate, seeing as how I’m 22. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy it so reading it for pure entertainment value is out, too. I’d give it two-and-a-half stars.

Every time I come to New York City, my glasses break not long thereafter: the first time was with my family in middle school, and my glasses snapped in half. I wore them with taped up along the middle, a la uber-geek style.

The second time was with my choir cohorts my junior year as part of the annual trip. That year, New York City was chosen, and — what I assumed to be a mild coincidence — the screw came out of right side of my glasses as I sat down for a production of La Boheme, directed by Baz Luhrmann. I held the glasses in place for the next three two hours, and we found a small optometrist’s office somewhere around 43rd and 5th the next day.

I finally realized that this was no mere accident during the summer of my sophomore year when Iris and I planned a trip to Manhattan. Like clockwork, one day before I departed for the trip, my glasses broke (right side, snapped) and had to be taped up once again. A summer later during my internship at Ogilvy, my lenses popped out and I spent the next three months popping them back in on a weekly basis until I got new glasses.

So, as I made my preparations for my viage to New York, I ordered an extra pair of glasses before I left. For a while, I kept the extra pair on hand, bracing for what I assumed would be an unavoidable occurrence. After almost a month, lulled into a false sense of security, I actually thought I was in the clear and suspended that practice (carrying an extra pair of glasses if annoying when you have a small handbag).

I’m sure you can guess what I’m going to say now. So, for the record, last friday, after our annual Legal Assistant Party in a club called No Malice Palace, the screws came out on the right side of my glasses as I was chatting with Patrick and Dave. Dave was nice enough to walk home with me so I didn’t get hit by car. And so it goes.

I came up on the 29th (of May) to start apartment hunting and managed to find an amazing apartment — that was within budget! — within the first 3 hours. Cool. However, because I was traveling with my mom, we ended up staying at the West Side YMCA for the next week until she left. Mostly we did a bunch of sightseeing, bought me a bed, scouted out some furniture, etc. The best part was that we did the cancellation line for Wicked and ended up with amazing seats! The show itself was wonderful, though I felt the first act was significantly better than the second, the latter seeming quite rushed actually. We tried our hand at the lotto for it, too, but didn’t win. A guy that we’d been talking to, Randy, DID win and that was good cause otherwise his friends wouldn’t have come with him. Long story, but he was a nice guy and we were happy for him.

Anyway, overall, it was a good start to my NYC trip, but by the time my mom left I still had three weeks left until my start-date for work…eeek. Okay, so my agenda was pretty simple: 1) Decide on first-day-of-work outfit and 2) Furnish apartment. Technically, I budgeted $1,000 to buy all furniture. Technically, I’ve stayed well within that budget. In actuality, however, I’ve had a lot of expenses that are not strictly furniture, but are for the room nonetheless. For example, buying a floor length mirror, over-the-door hooks, totes and cubbies, hangers, etc. Either way, the room looks great (if I may say so myself), but yes, I have overspent. I’m not all that upset, really. I’m waiting for my two most expensive furniture pieces to come in, and I’ll post pictures when they do.

So, moving on. After deciding on my furniture (and in-between checking the order status and tracking on everything constantly), I decided to focus on decorating, such as buying a Mint Potted Topiary from Crate and Barrel and buying my pièce de résistance…a painting!

I love my painting! It’s a wonderful 62” x 26” print on canvas (it’s a canvas transfer with some textured gloss overcoat) of Last View of Tuscany by Philip Craig. It matches perfectly with my comforters and bedding. In a somewhat amusing (ahem) story, I actually got it off Craigslist, except the first time I went to go get it — note that I had to take an hour-and-fifteen-minute subway ride — it started raining like crazy the second I got out of the subway. I ended up having to buy a Times from a Starbucks nearby and run over to the guy’s apartment being completely soaked and ridiculous with my drenched newspaper flopping over my head — only to reschedule for later. At any rate, the guy I bought it from was really cute and when I went the next day to transport the painting back home, the cab driver was, like, the nicest cabbie in the whole of New York. I feel the painting and I were kismet. I think I’m going to name it Bartholomew after my ex-car.

Also, my birthday has managed to pass rather uneventfully in comparison to last year. However, no one’s in town so that’s not really unexpected. I ended up hanging out with Marek, and we just caught up on the past semester, went to Pinkberry, etc. I’m also going out with my roommates tomorrow (it was supposed to be today, but both roommates had bad days at work so we just got dinner and drinks at Yukka and left it at that) to party it up, haha. Anyway, I’ll hold off on talking about the roommates (who are pretty great, by the way) because I need to get to bed soon…

So, now I’m roughly three days away from starting work (OMFG!!), and I’m both freaked out and completely excited as well. I’m restless to become a productive member of society, haha. At any rate, I love New York. I have yet to meet any unpleasant people, which I realize is an anomaly. I’d write more, but I’m quite sleepy. More tomorrow!

Alright, so, when I first got my new computer (the inverter on my previous Pavillion broke), I was really psyched until I found out that despite having nice specs, I was actually worse off in terms of what I could do. There was the file-transfer bug plus compatibility issues plus general unfamiliarity plus that POS user account control. I basically couldn’t play any of the games that I’d gotten this computer in order to play and three out of the seven programs I use most often weren’t compatible. Color me peeved.

Needless to say, being told it was “more secure” did not seem like much of a plus at all. Anyway, it took me at least a week to — begrudingly — configure everything to get to some point where I was able to do what I needed to do.

Flash forward a year: I haven’t noticed anymore bugs, though I won’t vouch for anyone else. Now, before, reformatting on XP was an incredibly arduous process requiring hours of your somewhat undivided attention. On Vista, it took about 20 minutes and I was up and running after about half an hour of installing drivers and updates. Now, I’m not suggesting that people should immediately pick up a copy of Vista because gee, at least it installs quickly, but I really think there’s a number of not insignificant improvements that genuinely make it easier to use. I was pleased to find that all my precious programs are now finally Vista-compatible. w00t. Additionally, when I’m not busy cussing out my computer for compatibility issues, I actually find the interface pretty attractive.

I can completely understand people who were pissed off when it was released and even six months after that. However, honestly, can anyone tell me what’s currently so terrible about Vista? (Preferably someone who has actually used it as opposed to a Mac fanatic that has never spent more that 5 minutes on Vista.) UAC can be turned off in about four clicks after the system is installed, so no that doesn’t count.

Anyway, maybe I just really dislike Apple, I dunno. I just think people are taking one look, saying OMG IT’S NOT THE SAME!! and deciding they hate it. Then again, I’m also the only person that likes Office 2007, haha. Change is good! Go with it, people!