Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Tuesday Updates & Stanford Game Highlights - 3/25/08

I got a good night of sleep last night so today I'm being productive at work and will have some time to give updates. I'm starting with everything except Saturdays games, so for those pics keep scrolling.

School - still in a holding pattern. This weekend I'm going to start mailing schools my rejections (Davis, American, Santa Clara, Arizona, Loyola). I'm really hoping to get a answer on Stanford soon.

D.C. trip - Curtis and I are going to D.C. next week! We will be there from Thursday April 3 until Monday April 7th. The official reason we're going is so that I can attend Preview Day at George Washington Law School, and make an appearance in the Georgetown Admissions office to ask about my chances of getting in off the Priority Wait list. But the unofficial reason is to go on a little vacation, which is something we haven't ever really done before, at least on this large of scale. And Curtis has never been to D.C. (or anywhere on the east coast for that matter) so he's really excited. We're thrilled that we're going to be there during the height of the Cherry Blossom season, and I'll make sure to post pictures from our trip. Plus, one of my really good friends from my church is in seminary in D.C. so I'll be able to see her for the first time in years. I have to do a lot of shopping this weekend to prepare - new tennis shoes, jeans that fit, etc.

Work - work is finally starting to get busy again, which is good because for awhile I wasn't doing much here. It was hard yesterday coming back to work after my trip because I was so tired and had so much to do. But I'm really excited now that I only have a few months left. I'll probably be done on July 3rd.

Wedding - my veil is at home! So I got to try it on on Sunday and it is a pretty as I remember. I'm kinda sad that I have a whole year to wait to wear it for reals. I am getting close to finalizing my invitation decision. There are these invites that have a daisy on them and are lined with yellow, which matches my colors and motif perfectly. I like the sample Save-the-Dates that I ordered- I just need to find a better quality high school graduation photo to use for them (the ones I got came out really grainy). The next 2 things on my list are to start the guest list (with addresses) and choose a photographer.

Easter - My weekend at home for Easter was great, my cousin Shaq was in town to visit so I was able to spend a lot of time with him. And for Easter my grandparents, my aunt and her 3 kids and my uncle with his two visited and we had a lot of fun just hanging out and catching up. I was able to show my aunt and my grandma my wedding binder which had a picture of my dress.
Stanford Basketball!!! - So as you already know, I went to the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game on Saturday with Curtis, my dad and my cousin Shaq (we also saw the UCLA-Texas A&M game) where we won on a last shot by Brook Lopez (pictured in my last post). It was so much fun, but also very tiring, because it was so much basketball and both games were stressful to watch.

After we got our tickets and free parking pass from a local hotel (the Stub Hub last minute HQ) we arrived at the Honda Center, we took pictures a few pictures outside:


One funny tidbit from our time outside is that my ticket didn't work (of course mine, right?!). And because once they scan your ticket you can't leave, I had to walk by myself around to the ticket office, wait in line at will-call and have them write an "Ok" on my ticket so I could be let in. I was so annoyed, all of the other tickets worked! And they were purchased by Stub Hub directly and not by an individual seller (long story regarding mix up w/ StubHub caused this earlier in the week), so there shouldn't have been a counterfeit issue. Anyway, it was good that we left an hour and a half before tip-off because by the time I was seated they were about to do the starting lineup.
That's my cousin, Shaq. We took that last picture while we were waiting for the Stanford game to start.

The Honda Center is great because it's so steep that you can see really well. Here is a picture from our seat:
A few personal highlights from the Stanford game:
- Hearing "GO STANFORD" started by the 6th Man
- feeling about ready to cry after Trent was ejected
- yelling at UCLA fans who were rooting against Stanford "YOU'RE UCLA FANS, WHY ARE YOU CHEERING FOR MARQUETTE? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT YOUR CONFERENCE!!!!!" the people sitting above me were commenting on it and probably thought I was crazy.
- Screaming "the FINGER" and holding up my 2 index fingers every time Taj did something good.
- being asked by Curtis and Shaq if I'm ok during the first half, I said "ask me again when there's 15 min left in the second half" sure enough, with 15 min left, Stanford was in the middle of a promising scoring run.
- Hearing the entire arena gasp when Robin missed his first free throw at the end.
- Having to go to the bathroom at the end of the game and not being able to because it went into OT.
- Having an utterly surreal moment when Brook made that shot at the end, and hearing the entire arena cheer for Stanford even though they were dressed in blue and gold.

After the game we had to take pictures to capture our excitement that Stanford won.

When the game ended, I ran to the bathroom and then put on my UCLA jersey.


The guy we were talking to for the bulk of the game came over to give me a high five and was like, "wait a minute, why are you wearing that?" My dad goes "her fiance is a UCLA alum" and this guy goes "so?" and this RANDOM other guy who was listening to this goes "do you have a problem with that?!" It was pretty amusing.

After the UCLA game started Dad and I headed to concessions. We bought tourney t-shirts for everyone and then got some food. When we finally made it back to the game UCLA was down and the refs were calling it tight. The game was boring, but a few exciting things happened. First, the Stanford team walked out and met up with their happy families during a timeout, which was so cool to see, and the entire arena applauded them. Second, during halftime, both the Texas A&M and the UCLA dancers danced to the same song, one after another, and you could hear everyone in the arena cracking up. UCLA, shockingly (lol) was much better. The game itself didn't get exciting until the last 10 minutes, and fortunately, thanks to a great half by Kevin Love and Collison's 2 consecutive layups while Love was executing an (illegal) moving screen, they pulled it out in the end.


They really only won by 2 points, but Westbrook had to be a jerk and end the game with an unnecessary dunk. I don't understand why they older players call him out for his grandstanding because it's stupid and makes teams want to beat them even more.

As with the Stanford game we took a few celebratory photos:

Then we got in the car, and drove home, exhausted but elated. Now I'm sad that I can't go to Houston for the regional but Curtis and I are talking about trying to get Final Four tickets if both teams make it there.

So, that was our great adventure, it was totally worth the money and I'm so happy both teams won. On to the regional semifinals in Houston on Friday!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Monday Updates will be on Tuesday this week

I am too exhausted and too busy at work today to type a lengthy post. But I do want to brag that I attended the Stanford-Marquette and the UCLA-Texas A&M tourney games in Anaheim on Saturday and it was soooo fun. I will be posting pictures and funny stories (I was quite the spectacle in my section) from the game as soon as I have them.

I will leave you with this picture (not taken by me).

yay Sweet Sixteen!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

We Won One!

Hilarious picture of Cornell's coach and the "unofficial" mascot during the first half.
Courtesy of AP Photo/Matt Sayles

Stanford has won the first game of the NCAA tournament, defeating Cornell 77 to 53 !!! Such a step up from our first round appearance last year. Our team clearly came to play - all of our players got minutes, including our freshman, Josh Owens :-). Anthony Goods had a really good shooting game, and our leading scorer was Downtown Kenny Brown(18 pts), as our starters were able to rest up for their 2nd round game against Marquette on Saturday. I am so excited that I have tickets to this game on Saturday in Anaheim. I was a season ticket holder all year and now get to attend a tournament game for the first time (I'm already planning my outfit - I'm thinking 6th Man shirt, Stanford jacket, and UCLA Jersey).

My bracket is doing well so far, out of 8 games I got 7 right, missing the Baylor/Purdue matchup (Purdue won). But tonight I'll have a better idea where I stand.

Onward and upward!


Tuesday, March 18, 2008

My Veil has Arrived!!!

I was so excited today when I got the call from my mom that my wedding veil is at home! I'm so excited to go home and try it on (or, as my mom said, wear it around the house while singing "going to the chapel") The only thing holding me back is Curtis, because he will want to hang out with me while I'm home but I can't wear the veil around him! So I'll have to find good times to try it on.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Monday Updates - 3/17/08

First off, Happy St. Patrick's Day! I feel like it's the one time every year that I get to brag about my Irish-ness. I even bought a new green shirt for the occasion. I'm not sure I'll be actually celebrating, but I will enjoy some festivities at work I'm sure.

Stanford Basketball:
Exciting week for my team - We got 2 decisive wins in the Pac-10 tournament against Arizona & Wazzu. We weren't able to pull it out against UCLA but it wouldn't have mattered much anyway. Curtis and I watched the Selection Show on CBS today and Stanford is in the South region. Fortunately, the way the tourney works is that if you're a top 4 seed you get to play in the location closest to your school on the first weekend. Stanford is a 3-seed, so we are playing in ANAHEIM! Since I was travelling there for the weekend anyway since it's Easter, I got tickets for the Saturday games. Hopefully it will be Stanford vs. the winner of the Kentucky/Marquette game and UCLA vs. the winner of the BYU/Texas A&M game. Then I will be very proud to say that I watched a Stanford tourney game. I keep teasing Curtis that if Stanford makes the final four we're going to leave DC early and fly to San Antonio for the games :-).

Weekend:
I had such a last-minute fun weekend. On Thursday night Curtis decided that he couldn't wait until next weekend to see me so he flew up on Friday night. We went to In-N-Out on Friday and then watched the Stanford-Wazzu game, then on Saturday we went to Stacks, had a little UCLA-Stanford viewing party (loser buys dinner), and went to PF Chang's for dinner. Sunday we went to Hobee's for brunch, walked around the mall a little while and then came back to watch the selection show. We capped the weekend of with a trip to CPK ASAP and then I took him to the airport. I will say that it's nice saying goodbye to him knowing that I will see him in 5 days.

This week:
Other than the 1st round games on Thursday and Friday, there isn't much exciting going on around work. The person who has been filling in as a paralegal is leaving this week so that will be sad, I'm hoping that we can do something fun to see her off. I am looking forward to going home on Friday - Easter is one of my favorite holidays and I'll get to see a lot of family (the picture at the beginning of this post is my cousin Taylor, from a few years ago). Plus, of my cousins who lives in PA is coming out for the weekend to hang out, so I'm looking forward to seeing him.

That's all for now!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Another Law School Update

Today I got word that I was waitlisted by UC Davis. All I have to say is, I'm confused by this admissions process.


It's not like I'm too upset - I was more fustrated that I hadn't received an answer 2.5 months after my application was complete. I was getting ready to withdraw my application because I knew that I would rather go to USC than Davis, and I didn't want to keep waiting. Luckily, I will have the opportunity to opt-out of the waiting list, so that should be satisfying.

It's clear that I was an unusual candidate and that admissions committees were divided on how to deal with my credentials (a Stanford grad w/ a sub-stellar GPA and LSAT, but with good work experience and recommendations).

Here's the current status of all applications:
In - USC, George Washington, American, Arizona, Loyola, Santa Clara
Waitlist - Georgetown, UC Davis
Out - U of Washington, UCLA
Waiting - Stanford
Application STILL not complete - Cornell

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Law School Update

For those of you following along, I have a few more tidbits of news on the law school front:

USC Scholarship: I received a scholarship offer of $20,000/year from USC, which was thrilling. It's the best scholarship offer I've received so far, which is ironic since it's also the best school I've gotten into so far, lol. Given that I will be living with Curtis after my first year, it looks like if I go to USC I might be able to limit my total loan amount to less than $100,000, which means that I could pay off that loan sooner and Curtis and I can buy a house. Attending USC is looking better and better...

Schools Still Pending: I'm still waiting on Stanford, Cornell and Davis. I don't really care about Davis anymore since I got into USC. Waiting for Stanford is rather fustrating because the chances of being accepted are so low, yet I think because I am a Stanford undergrad alum I was roped in with the huge pool of people that they are re-evaluating in April. Curtis and I decided from the beginning that if I get into Stanford then he's moving up here, so his job is waiting for an answer from them too. Cornell is another story: I sent Stanford my deans certification on Feb. 5 and it got returned in the mail to me last Thursday as undelivered by the postal service. So it's going to be another 3 weeks or so until my application is complete. At least Cornell isn't high on my priority list since I didn't intend to apply in the first place (and I'm not too excited about being in Ithaca, NY). But at the same time it is a top-14 school so I'd like to at least get an answer.

Monday, March 10, 2008

We Are the Ones

There's a new video on dipdive.com called We Are the Ones:

http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/

Not quite as moving as "Yes We Can", but still inspiring.

Monday Updates - 3/10/08

All photos in this post but 1 were shamelessly stolen from my friend Lisa's Facebook Album

Overall Mood:
I'm very tired today, for a few reasons. First, I was busy from Friday after work until Sunday at 4PM. When I got home on Sunday I crashed and slept until 8:30, which meant that I couldn't fall asleep last night until 3AM. So, I'm kinda dragging today, it's the kind of mood where you're so tired you're productive because your brain is too stupid to think of anything else to do other than what's right in front of you. However I am in good spirits because I had a very enjoyable (albeit busy) weekend.
Weekend:
On Friday night I met up with my good friend and sorority little sis Melissa. We hadn't seen each other since December, right after I had gotten engaged. So we chatted about everything that's happened since then. Then we went back to Tridelt and watched "My Best Friend's Wedding" and I showed her all of my wedding stuff. So it was a very fun girly evening.

On Saturday I woke up early to get on the bus at Stanford for a Cardinal Young Alumni Trip to Napa!! It was my first wine tasting experience, and not only did we have perfect weather for the outing, the people on the trip were really cool. Here's a picture of me and Juls from the bus, it was great spending time with her and Lisa!

First we went to a very small vineyard that actually hasn't started selling wine yet, and we tried some very young wine out of the barrel (and it was pretty good). The grounds of the estate were beautiful, and it was so quiet and peaceful. But we were on a tight schedule so unfortunately we couldn't relax there for very long. Here's a picture from our first stop, Boeschen Vineyards: Then we had lunch at a boat launching place off of Lake Hennessey, which was beautiful - I wish we had pictures because it was quite pleasant. After lunch we headed to the Mumm Vineyard, where we had a glass of champagne and walked around a photography gallery which featured the work of Ansel Adams.
At this point we were getting antsy for more wine to try (we had only had a small tasting of wine and a glass of champagne) and we were bummed that we didn't have enough time to get a second glass at Mumm. But, the guy in charge of the trip told us that there would be plenty of wine to taste at our next stop, the Hendry Vineyard. Let me first say, we had the perfect weather for our tour. It was so warm I was thankful that I was able to take off my sweater and just have a tank on as we walked through the grape vines. We learned a lot about the upkeep of the wines, including the ways in which they use grafting to protect the vines from diseases, or change the type of grape that is grown (these chardonnay vines pictured above actually have zinfandel roots). After showing us the vineyard, our guide took us inside the barn to show us the process from which the grapes become vine.
(This room smelled really good) We learned a lot about the barrelling process - how different types of barrels are used for different wines, and how much of the price is determined by the cost of the barrel. Some wines only sit for a year, while others are for multiple years. You can tell that a lot of hard work goes into making a bottle of wine, and I think I will appreciate anything I drink from here on out, because of how elaborate the process is.

After our tour, our guide (who has worked on the vineyard for at least 30 years, back when they were selling their grapes to Robert Mondavi!) led the wine tasting. We tasted 8 wines: 1 Pinot Gris, 2 Chardonnays, 2 Zindandels, 1 blended red wine, 1 Cabernet, and 1 dessert wine. I ended up walking away with 2 bottles of the Pinot Gris (it was one of the best whites I've ever tasted), and a half bottle of the Cabernet Savignon for my dad to try ($30 for a half bottle!). After the tasting was done I was grateful that we had gotten there via bus, because I was quite inebriated at that point.

We then had a mini party on the back of the bus (see Lisa's photo album on facebook for evidence) while we drove back to SF, and then to Stanford. I had such a great time because I got to meet a lot of fun people from Stanford who had graduated within the last 5 years. That, added to the beautiful scenery and enjoyment of getting out of town for day made for a successful trip.

That night I was quite exhausted, but my best friend Adelyn actually slept over so that we could visit and then go shopping on Sunday.

My friend (and Maid of Honor!) Adelyn and I at her graduation last year from Berekeley

We had a lot of fun catching up, going to Hobees on Sunday morning and then going to Valley Fair to pick out a suit for Adelyn's teaching interviews. I hadn't bought a suit in 2 years so it was fun to look at what they had. She ended up getting this grey pantsuit from Macy's which was marked down and then 50% off, so the total cost came out to about $80! We then met up with her bf, Ed, and shopped for a blouse to go underneath the suit jacket, and found a nice pink one at Express (which as really cute spring stuff btw, I could have spent a lot of money in there!) We then had lunch in the food court and parted ways. It was so great to see her though, since we're both busy and farther away from each other it's hard to find time.
After driving back from San Jose (with the top down in my car, which was awesome), I went to the optometrist and picked up my brand new reading glasses, which are much different than the glasses I had for the past 6 years. I'm very happy with them and the fit, and hopefully these will last as long as the last pair. I came home and crashed, which led to the subsequent insomnia that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
This week should be pretty quiet, I hope to catch up on projects at work, and gear up for my next trip south, which is for Easter in 2 weeks. The Pac-10 tourney is this weekend (I'm not mentioning my team much in this post because I'm a little depressed still about the UCLA & USC games) so I'll be busy watching that, but hopefully I'll have a quiet week and weekend, since this past weekend was so busy. I also really need to start working on the guest list for the wedding, so a quiet weekend may be a good opportunity to work on that. That's all for now :-)

Saturday, March 8, 2008

This Picture Says it All

As much as I hate Kal, tonight they got screwed by the refs too, and that isn't right.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

The Guest Tree


Kyle Terada for espn.com
This all started when Pat Forde, an ESPN.com columnist, wrote a "bucket list" of things he'd like to do associated with college basketball. #3 on that list was be the Stanford Tree for a game. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3207618&sportCat=ncb
Well, the band invited him and last week at the Washington game he got to be a tree for the first half. (And it was funny, the people sitting around me were like, what's up with the tree, why is he dancing like that??? Now we know why)

Here's the article, it's a fun ode to Stanford and its quirky band:
Showdown at Pauley Pavilion tonight - 8PM, and I'm bummed that I can't be there.
GO STANFORD!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Things to do Before I Leave

I'd also like to go back to Woodside Park, pictured above, but since I've already been there I will exclude that from the list.


I've been thinking about my impending departure from the Bay Area, and decided that I need to make a list of things to do before I leave. Here's my first attempt:
(one caveat: if I get into Stanford I will not be leaving the bay area but will nevertheless be too busy to do the tourist thing)

1. Explore Golden Gate Park in SF

2. Go wine tasting (I'm going this Saturday for the first time!)

3. Visit the Monterrey Bay Aquarium (as an adult)

4. Go to the SF museums & the exploratorium

5. Go on Alcatraz and take a boat around the Bay

6. Buy a bunch of stuff from the Stanford Bookstore (shirts, sweatshirts, etc.)

7. See a Golden State Warriors Game (and maybe a Sharks game, but I'm not really into Hockey)

8. Visit The Great Mall

I think I will try to come up with 2 more so that I have a list of 10.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Monday Updates - 3/3/08

Stanford Men's Hoops:
We beat both Washington and Washington State this weekend, we honored the seniors on Saturday which made me more than a little teary, and this week we travel to LA for the first of likely 3 consecutive SoCal trips for the UCLA and USC games. (the other trips being the Pac-10 tournament and and the 1st/2nd rounds of the NCAA tournament, given that we are a top-4 seed). I've really enjoyed watching the team this season and I will be sad when it's all over.

Weekend:
After work on Friday I met up with 3 of my tridelt friends at Blue Chalk to check out the ivy league mixer. We ended up ditching it to go get frozen yogurt instead, lol. Then I went to airport to pick Curtis up and we spent the weekend together. We ate a PF Chang's on Friday, CPK on Saturday and Stacks on Sunday (yes we like to eat). Other than that we mostly layed around my apartment, watching college basketball and playing on his new MacBook Pro :-).

Daylight Savings:
So apparently Saylight Savings begins March 9th. Unfortunately that means 1 less hour that day to relax. I don't remember it happening so early in spring, but oh well, I get to leave work while it's still light out.

Law School:
I'm still waiting to hear from Davis, Cornell, and Stanford. I suppose Stanford could be any day now and I'm getting quite impatient. Cornell and Davis both have status checkers and neither have changed in the last few weeks. Curtis and I booked our trip to DC to visit GW, Gtown and do the whole DC tourist thing so I'm looking forward to that mini vacation. Right now USC is a pretty good option, I'm going to their preview day in mid-April. I gotta say, the idea of being able to go to law school in SoCal, at a well-reputed school, in the region where I want to practice, is hard to resist.

Wedding:
Nothing new of note this week, probably because Curtis was here :-). But I'm hoping to hear from my cousin Courtney soon because she was planning to go try on bridesmaid dresses this past weekend. I did get some sample save-the-dates in that Curtis and I both liked. They're pretty simple but they're cheap and easy to design and order (they're from http://www.shutterfly.com/). Just for fun I put a picture from our high school graduation on the save-the-dates, and everyone thinks it's a recent picture! I have to keep telling people, "actually, that was from 5 years ago!"

This week:
This week I'm really going to try and focus on 3 things -
1. Being very productive at work
2. Getting my letter to Georgetown done, now that I'm for sure paying the admissions office a visit
3. Finishing my financial aid applications

That's all for now :-)