Digging Out

I spent all day today digging out of pretty much DC’s biggest snow storm of all time. I don’t know what the final official snow totals are but believe me this was worst than the storm that hit us in December. It took me pretty much the entire day to dig the snow off our driveway and clear the boyfriend’s Prius in case he needed to go to work tomorrow, though even the major roads in and around the city are still pretty trecherous to travel on. I think I did a pretty good job clearing the snow, though now I’m gonna be sore for days. Definitely earned some good boyfriend points hehe =P.

Accepted to Northwestern Law!

Earlier this evening, in the midst of one of the biggest snow storms in the history of DC, I got my email from Northwestern Law informing me that I have been admitted to their J.D. program!  I was completely floored.  I knew it was going to be a long shot for me to get into a top ten school, but it happened and I am still stunned, amazed and ever grateful that I have this amazing opportunity now.  This is just great.

I’ve been researching the school all evening, trying to gather as much information as I can.  They have a Diverse Student Admit Day happening in late February that I think I am definitely going to attend.  I have never been to Chicago before, and I know relatively nothing about the city, so I want to experience it as much as possible in case I do end up going to Northwestern.  Obviously I still have to wait to hear back from every other law school that I applied to, but if this is the best law school I get in to, it would be too good of an opportunity to pass up.

It’s been a month since I submitted my first application and I’m two for two now, with 15 applications still pending.  I feel very fortunate so far, fingers crossed for the rest of my admissions cycle!!

Imma Back!

On Wednesday the boyfriend and I went out to do a little celebrating for the fact that I got my first law school acceptance. Actually, we had already planned to go out that evening just to have some fun but now we had good reason to go. We started at a relatively new restaurant in Chinatown called Nando’s Peri Peri, a Portugese-style rotisserie chicken restaurant. I had some gift certificates to use from a silent auction prize I had won a couple of weeks ago. We ordered their signature dish, a half chicken plate with two sides, which was absolutely delicious. They have another location just south of Dupont Circle and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area.

After dinner we stopped by Lucky Strike Lanes to see if we could do some bowling but decided to return on a Monday when they have their all you can bowl specials (yes, we’re thrifty =P). Instead, we decided to head back home and play some Super Mario Bros Wii, our favorite game to play. The boyfriend is a gamer but I’m horrible when it comes to video games and I’m usually the one dragging us down when we play together haha. I’m always running out of lives and keep having to use the ‘Continue’ option to restart my lives. Everytime I do my character, Luigi, pops up on the screen and says “Imma back!” which usually illicits a disappointed head shake from the boyfriend. There’s a lot of yelling that goes on during game play, usually because I’m doing something wrong, but it cracks us up everytime =P. Nevertheless, my abilities have been improving and I do have some shining moments every now and then. Definitely some of the most fun I have with the boyfriend! =]

Still Glowing

So I woke up this morning definitely still glowing from my GW acceptance. And on top of that, it had been snowing all night, so the scene outside in my neighborhood was gorgeous! Three inches of fresh, puffy snow, the kind that sticks on everything and makes the trees look like giant snowflakes! I dug the boyfriend out of our driveway and now I’m on my way to work. I think today’s gonna be a good day. =]

Accepted to GW Law!!

So I just got my first law school acceptance letter in the mail today and it’s from a great school! GW has offered me not only admission but also a $100,000 merit scholarship! This is incredible and I almost fell out of my chair when I read it! It’s certainly an awesome way to kick off my admissions cycle. I know I have a lot of longshots pending, but this is a great school (with a great offer) to have in my pocket. Relief! Go me! =]

Still winter

In case anyone in the capital region had forgotten, mother nature reminded us over the weekend that it is indeed still winter. We got hit with about a half of foot of snow on Saturday. Unfortunately I was recovering from a cold so I couldn’t go outside and play during the storm (see the boyfriend’s post on the last big snow storm). But I was feeling better on Sunday and had some errands to run so I took some detours here and there to see the snow covered monuments. I got some good shots on my camera, which ill upload later, but for now here’s a shot of the Capitol from my iPhone!

Done with apps!

So I’m finally, officially done with law school applications, as of this past Friday!  As you can imagine, I am relieved that I can move on with my life, though now I have to wait and see where I do and do not get it (which is stressful, but for me not as painful as trying to explain to admissions committees why I’m worthy of a law school education).  I’ll go more in depth soon (now that I have way more free time) on what the application process entailed, but for now it’s time to relax and be silly, following the boyfriend’s lead:

Crazy hatter

Crazy eyes

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.