Snow Day and Arlington

First, my apologies for slacking so much on posts.  Unfortunately I have been up to my neck with stuff both at work and in trying to get my law school apps out the door once and for all.  I am making good progress and see an end to all this very soon, but more on that some other time.

I wanted to share some great photos I took two weekends ago of our first snow day in DC!  I was super excited when I saw the forecast for snow and was anxious to try out the new camera I had just purchased on Black Friday.

When I woke up that Saturday, I immediately ran to my bedroom window and was delighted to see that the snow had already started falling.  I threw on some clothes and ran to the rooftop deck of my apartment building to capture the action.  Here’s a silly video of me dumbstruck by the snow:

I had lots of fun taking pictures up there and around the building.  Here’s a couple good shots (click on picture for larger image):

Rooftop

Front of my building

From across the street

The snow started coming down very nicely but it eventually tapered off.  Nevertheless, I was undeterred and hopped in my car to see if there were any good places with lots of snow.  I started at the White House where the National Christmas Tree was all decked out, but conditions weren’t great and the snow wasn’t really sticking:

White House

Christmas Tree

I decided to check out the monuments to see if I could fare better, but when I got to the Lincoln Memorial I accidentally ended up on the Memorial Bridge.  This proved to be quite fortunate, however, because as I crossed the Potomac I looked up and could see that the hills of the Arlington National Cemetery were all covered in snow.  I was excited because I have seen so many professional photos of the cemetery blanketed in snow and now I was going to be able to see it and take some photos of my own.  My hands were freezing and I almost slipped once or twice, but it was well worth it:

Arlington National Cemetery

JFK grave site

Flame

Blossoms in the snow

Sign post

Coat of snow

Fall leaves in snow

Flag

Fall tree

Icy signpost

While I was there, I caught the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The snow was really coming down hard but I managed to record the ceremony.  If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend stopping by if you’re visiting DC.  For me, it was really something to see them do this in the snow; their precision in spite of the elements is amazing:

As day turned into night, I put my camera to rest and headed out to buy some Christmas decorations to deck the halls – er – my fireplace!   I highly enjoy the Christmas season and try to add a little of the holiday spirit to my surroundings here and there.  Here are some pictures of what I put up:

All decked out

This should be our Christmas card picture =)

Despite Jason’ Scrooge-like disposition towards “early” celebrations of the holiday right after Thanksgiving, he was merrily surprised and enjoyed seeing the decorations when he got home Sunday =).  Job well done on my part, I’d say!  Can’t wait until the next snow day!

Enough

Ok. I’ve had about enough of this now. There’s only so many times that I can handle 47% of a population reaffirm my rights and equality as a fellow human, only to be simultaneously trounced upon by the other 53% who would rather spit in my face behind the veil of a voting booth than face the sight of me getting married to another man. I get it. The people are divided. A lot of people like me and a lot of people don’t. But I never asked for my rights to be subjected to a beauty pageant. I stayed away from those for a reason. I’m not beautiful. I’m just human. And I just want my rights. So, enough.

Here is some fall foliage to brighten spirits.

What a week!

Oh boy. So it’s been a week since I got my LSAT score. It arrived late that Friday night while I was out partying with Stacey. We had been out earlier for our chief of staff’s goodbye get together with the rest of the staff. I was very thankful I had this to distract me or else I would have gone insane waiting for my LSAT score at home. I had told Jason that I would wait until he landed to check my score (he was flying out to LA for the weekend) and thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long after 11pm when I got my score for his plane to land. I opened the email as he was on the phone with me and screamed aloud when I saw what the score was. I was flabberghasted and overjoyed! I was out in the rain and getting very wet but I didn’t care, my options for law school just got a little brighter =]

I spent the rest of that weekend relaxing and treating myself to chipotle! My high school friend Amy, who now goes to school and lives in College Park, MD, came by Sunday night with her boyfriend Phong who was in town visiting her. We made tortilla soup, a favorite dish now for me and Jason. It was nice catching up with them and talking about my law school prospects.

As far as those prospects are concerned, it’s still a little tough to get a good idea of where I’m likely to be accepted. A 173 is above the median for, let’s say, Stanford, and definitely around the average for Harvard, but it’s going to be a tough uphill fight for me to try to get into schools like those two because of my GPA. A 2.8 (as LSAC has calculated it to be) is way below the average for the top ten schools, even top twenty. And I also run the risk that some schools may average my two LSAT scores, though I’ve been told that if you make a signifcant jump in your score, such as my 12 point jump I hope, then schools are inclined to ignore the lower score and only use the higher score to determine admission. But even then, I’m gonna have to make a pretty amazing case for myself that will convince these schools that my GPA is not entirely inidicative of my academic capabilities. In essence I wish they could just ignore my GPA altogether and just consider me based on my LSAT score and work experience (and perhaps charm and wit as well). But I know I just have to own up to my GPA and use my personal statement to get them to want me and leave them begging for more. I’ve been working all week trying to figure out what exactly I’m going to talk about. This is probably one of the most challenging writing assignments I’ll ever do, wish me luck!

On Tuesday, Jason and I treated ourselves to our tried and true favorite Mexican restaurant in DC, Lauriol Plaza. Afterwards he surprised me by taking me to this great little cafe near Logan Circle called ACKC Cocoa Bar. We had yummy hot chocolates and I had carrot cake, my favorite!

Finally, this weekend I got to the travel with he boyfriend for his 5 year reunion at Stanford. I had been looking forward to this for a long time now because, one, Jason is always travelling and I never get to travel with him, and two, I’ve never seen the campus. As an infrequent air traveler, I did everything in my power to constantly remind Jason how excited I was about flying with him, even if it annoyed him, the seasoned traveller that he is. Hehe. After some delays in Dallas we finally made it to San Jose late Friday night, grabbed our rental car and headed straight for the class party already under way. Jason was concerned that there wasn’t going to be anyone that he knew, but he did find people and got to catch up with them. All of them were doing exciting things with their lives and we were excited to tell them about our plans for law school.

One of the gay couples that we met at the Stanford Pride mixer on Saturday joked that the partner in attendance who had not gone to Stanford had now earned their honorary MRS degree by attending the reunion (aka the “Mrs.” degree). And as I was now in possession of that degree it was my responsibility to brag about my man to all the people we met all weekend, from his 179 LSAT score to the fact that he had just received an interview request from Harvard (!).

We both enjoyed the entire experience and I was happy that I was able to go with him. Now I can’t wait for my 5 year renuion (UCLA does that, right?) so that Jason can earn his degree from UCLA as well =P.

LSAT score!!!

I got a 173!!! I’m so excited!!! That’s all for now, more later, woot! =]

Tired

Both Jason and I are tired now, admittedly for very different reasons. Jason was doing baton training all weekend, while I was catching up on all the socializing (and alcohol) that I had missed out on because of LSATs last night til 3am. Obviously his reasons are a little less to be frowned upon, but still we’re both tired. I leave you with a picture of Jason to be titled “Death by Laundry.” Gnite!

Party time!

So I am not acknowledging a certain game that took place today, I’m sure the boyfriend will have something to say about it on his blog. =P

Instead, let’s focus on more post-LSAT celebrations!  Tonight, my former roommate Stacey will be hosting a birthday/post-LSAT party with her roommate Steve (the birthday boy who just took the LSAT as well).  I am excited because a couple of coworkers and a former coworker will be in attendance, so that should be fun!  For a taste of Stacey, see picture below =)

Ok, booty shakin time!

Stacey and her free shirt from Hooters

Goodbye LSATs!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have reached the promised land and it is glorious.

I think the exam itself went fairly well for me.  My experimental section was reading comprehension, which was a good thing because that is the section I do the best on.  I got tripped up a little on the games section but I think I recovered enough to do well (games will just never be my strong suit I guess).  I had to rush to finish the first logical reasoning section and unfortunately had to quickly guess on the last two questions.

The second logical reasoning section was my final section of the test.  I was so flustered after having just completed the games section that I forgot to reset my watch to time the section.  I didn’t realize this until halfway through the questions when I went to check the time.  After a couple of seconds of panicking and trying to figure out how I was going to keep track of time, my jedi instincts kicked in and my mind immediately went to the final trench run on the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope:

Impossible.

Luke Skywalker (me) is rapidly approaching the exhaust port (final logical reasoning section) that he must fire a pair of proton torpedoes (scantron bubbles) into to destroy the Death Star (LSAT). Darth Vader (time) is hot on his tail.  All of a sudden Luke hears Obi-Wan’s voice (Testmasters instructor) say, “Use the Force, Luke!  Trust your instincts!”  Much to the concern of everyone back at the Rebel base on Yavin, Luke turns off his computer targeting system (watch) and reaches out with his feelings to complete the task at hand.  Sensing a strong presence of the Force, Vader in his Tie Fighter screams through the trench and finally locks on to his target, triumphantly declaring, “I have you now!” (5 minute warning).  Out of nowhere (Switzerland), Han Solo (Jason) in the Millennium Falcon (Concorde supersonic jet) flashes across the scene (test room) and fires off some laser blasts (flaming batons) which send Darth Vader veering into space.  Han shouts to Luke, “You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!”  Luke fires his torpedoes and zooms off after Han, a burst of exploding debris that used to be the Death Star left in their wake.

Goodbye LSAT!

Ok, so maybe that last part there with Jason didn’t really happen, but you get the idea.

With no idea how much time I had left I was actually able to finish the last section with enough time to go back and check some of my answers.  It was definitely a good note to end the test on =).  Overall I feel like I did way better this time than the first time around (I was not rushing to find a building to jump off of this time).  I think I scored at least in the high 160s (knock on wood!!!!) but I’m crossing my fingers that I cracked 170 (fingers REALLY crossed!!!!!).  Unfortunately I won’t know for another two weeks, so I’ll try to sit tight til then.

After celebrating Saturday night with some drinks, I spent Sunday trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life now that I (finally) no longer had to study for LSATs.  Upon the recommendation of Russell I decided to check out Glee and was pleasantly entertained.  I had their cover of Don’t Stop Believing stuck in my head for days afterwards.  One of my favorite moments so far from the show is Kurt coming out to his dad at the end of last week’s show, which opened with Kurt’s dad walking into a rather embarrassing scene that would leave any dad scratching their head.

Finally, after much delay and anticipation, Jason and I decided to christen our fireplace by burning some of our LSAT material last night.  We are having our friend Mike and his boyfriend over tonight to make smores in the fireplace, so we wanted to try it out to make sure we knew what we were doing.  After a couple of false starts by Jason, I was able to get a good fire going (this was only the first of Jason’s “misfires”).  It was a great feeling to finally be able to burn all this stuff, knowing that I’ll never have to take this test ever again.

Buahahaha!

Jason’s second misfire came after we were done gleefully setting our LSATs ablaze.  So, Jason is sort of a neat freak and anything messy elicits from him an uncontrollable reaction to clean.  Obviously after you burn something you are left with the charred, burned, dirty soot remnants of whatever you set on fire.  And obviously, these remnants will remain near the temperature of a live flame for some time even after a visible flame is long gone.  Nevertheless, the boyfriend (who undoubtedly was ready to have a nervous breakdown at the sight of such horrors that befell our fireplace) only waited an hour and a half before succumbing to his visceral urges (despite my pleading for him to wait much longer) and emptied the debris into a brown paper bag (double lined).  What appeared to be ash at first, wafting out of the bag as he poured more ashes in, soon became a steady billow of ash.  Except, it was not ash at all.  It was smoke.  Yes, the embers had started burning a hole through the bottom of the paper receptacle (shocking) and was now sending a plume of smoke up to our ceiling and dangerously close to the smoke detector.  Jason asked for another bag (which would have done nothing at this point) and I obliged but sent him straight out the door to throw the nascent fireball away outside.  This was the look on my face when he returned and I think it pretty much speaks for itself:

I told you so.

Dork. =P

Showtime.

The hour of reckoning is upon us.

Ok, maybe that was a bit too dramatic, but in case you forgot, that means the LSAT is tomorrow. I am currently sitting at a Borders in Fredricksburg, VA, which is about an hour and a half outside of the beltway (though it took me well over two hours to get here today). I’ll be lodging at the Best Western here overnight to take the test bright and early tomorrow morning at the University of Mary Washington. I swung by the university when I got here to find exactly where I needed to be. The classrooms that I saw open reminded me of high school classrooms in their size and the individual desks that occupied them. Hopefully I’ll have enough space to comfortably complete the exam.

The campus itself is very small, but the brick buildings are quaint and seem to fit in well with the rest of historic Fresricksburg (I think a Civil War battle may have taken place here… Wikipedia anyone?). After visiting the campus I stopped at a church I saw along the way to litterally say a Hail Mary (definitely going back to my roots here, but no matter where I am a church always seems to give me that comfort of home). I checked into my room at the Best Western afterwards, which is nice, sufficient for one night. I then went to grab dinner at Ruby Tuesday, a yummy burger and fries, and a mojito to calm the nerves. While I was waiting for my burger to come out the song Strawberry Swing by Coldplay came on in the restaurant. I thought this was a great omen, as this song has basically been my theme song this summer studying for the LSATs and it’s the song I listen to right before I take a diagnostic to get me focused and get my mind in a happy place =].

Overall I’m feeling much better going into this compared to June. I’ve been scoring really well on the diagnostics, and I was also able to pull off a 168 on the June 2009 exam when I took it last Saturday. I would have to say that that exam is the hardest one I’ve taken, both content-wise and psychologically. It has a lot of tricky questions (not to mention dastardly colored dinosaurs), which are difficult even under the best circumstances. But it was hard for me not to think about my performance the first time around, and this made focusing during the exam very difficult. Nevertheless, I was able to power through and get a much better score. I think it was good to realize that even if I do feel stressed, anxious or nervous going into the real exam tomorrow, and even if it is as difficult as the June exam, I’ll still be able to power through just from experiencing that last Saturday and hopefully still get a good score this time around.

Alright, enough LSAT for tonight, the more I think about it the more anxious it’ll get me, so it’s time to head back to my room, call my mommy for good luck, and let a couple good episodes of The West Wing lull me to sleep!

Cross your fingers for me! Goodnight!

Wait, the LSAT is next week?!

That’s right folks: the LSAT is next Saturday, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way. Studying for this test has become so much a part of my regular routine (again) that it seems a little surreal right now that the LSATs won’t be around to entertain me (ha!) after next Saturday. So engrained in my life has it become that I almost forgot that I didn’t have to factor in my Sunday morning Testmasters class when I was choosing my flights to go home for Thanksgiving (one of those ‘oh, that’s right I won’t have to worry about that anymore’ moments).

But as much as the LSAT has become routine in my day to day life for the past two months, I believe that it is safe to say that it has not taken over my life. This does not necessarily mean that I am any less focused or diligent about doing everything I can to master this God-forsaken exam like I was the first time around (when it felt like it actually did take over my life). Instead, it has made me calmer and more relaxed throughout this second attempt, which in turn has probably contributed to a significant increase in my diagnostic scores compared to my spring scores. I have been scoring in the 170s, even clenching a 175 on a particularly difficult diagnostic just tonight. Compare this with my highest score of 166 in the spring and I think that it’s a safe bet that I’m probably doing something right this time around. In general, questions seem much more clearer to me and I have a better grasp of what’s being thrown at me. In particular, I would say that I now have a confidence in myself that I was probably lacking in the spring.

Overall, I think I’m in a good position right now to perform at my best come test day next Saturday (knock on wood). I still have some more diagnostics to take between now and then, but at this point they serve really to just work out some kinks still left here and there (though I anxiously await this Saturday’s diagnostic in particular for it will be my chance at revenge against the June 2009 LSAT, BRING IT!). So until next Saturday it’s just a matter of staying focused, keeping my head in the game, and really just doing what has become nothing more than a daily chore: mastering the LSAT!

As always, keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!

P.S. More updates on the other aspects of my life next week, including my one year anniversary and the awesomeness that is the boyfriend (without whom this second attempt at the LSATs would have been impossible)!

The LSATs continue. . .

. . . but I wanted to take a little time to shout out to Val who was here visiting DC this week, we had a blast!  And I also wanted to share Coldplay’s (my favorite!) new music video for Strawberry Swing (one of my favorites from their new album!).  Lastly, I take my third diag tomorrow so wish me luck!  Enjoy the video!