Wall-E & Stanford Bookstore

I saw Wall-E last night with KiYonna! It was sooo good. In fact it's amazing to think of how convinced I was of this robot romance, even though the robots only said "Wall-E", "Eva", and "Directive". Seriously - it's very well done and I highly recommend it. Also, for Palo Alto locals, we went to the pizza/italian place across the street from the Shoreline Theater and it was pretty good! You can get a yummy and good-sized slice of pizza for about $5. It was a great way to kill time before our movie.

Also, wanted to do a misc. mention that I went to the Stanford Bookstore last week, so that is now crossed off on my list of things to do. I probably spent more money than I should have on a Sweatshirt, Basketball T-Shirt, Hat, Putter Head Cover, plus a new shirt for my brother and a driver head cover for my dad. But, I needed some new gear (one of my Stanford sweatshirts was purchased in 2002), especially since I won't be back at Stanford for awhile.

Monday Updates - 6/30/08

Ok, phase 1 of my move back to SoCal is now done and I am (almost) officially homeless. Curtis came up on Friday night. We were able to walk/run the dish on Saturday morning and go to Stacks before my dad arrived. Once Dad got there we started moving, it only took about 2 hours to pack up mostly everything.

It was 3PM and we were pretty much done, so we washed up and drove down to Santana Row for dinner at Left Bank. We had a blast down there and the weather was perfect. After a bunch of delicious food, we went back to my apartment and watched National Treasure and then crashed. Then this morning we woke up early, went to Stacks and then threw out my bed (or as Dad and Curtis call it, "something soft to sleep on"). Dad left around 10:30 and Curtis left around 1:00. I was glad to hear that it wasn't too hard to unpack the cars last night.

Unlike Saturday and Sunday, this morning was definitely not fun. After spending the night on the air mattress, I woke up at 7AM, took a quick shower and then started the task of throwing stuff out and packing my car. For awhile I was really worried that I wouldn't fit everything in the car, but it turned out that I had some room to spare. That made me feel better about driving home, that I'll be able to see out the back window. But I finally made it to work, my hands were raw and I had scratched myself pretty bad in a few places, plus I really sore/stiff from a combination of the walk on Saturday and the lifting, plus the sleeping on the air mattress.

Tonight I'm going to Adelyn's and will stay there until my last day of work!

Summer Movies

Here's what I definitely want to see this summer - in order of priority:

1. The X-Files: I Want to Believe - this one is a no-brainer, right? For you readers who only know me from college and beyond, you might not know that I was a huge X-Files fan. I went to an X-Files convention and everything! I even have an autographed picture of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson on my wall at home. Anyway, this is supposedly a stand-alone X-File, not related to overarching alien conspiracy story. But I hear that Mulder and Scully's relationship is a big part of the movie, and that's what I'm excited for. Opens July 25.

2. Hancock - it was a tough call between Hancock and The Dark Knight, but tie goes to Will Smith on Fourth of July weekend. I just have to try and convince Curtis to wait and see it with me since I'll still be working when it opens (I'm not optimistic). Opens July 2.

3. The Dark Knight - I really enjoyed Batman Begins, I think Christian Bale plays both Batman and Bruce Wayne very well, and I'll be honest, I think Batman is my favorite superhero. Plus it looks like the late Heath Ledger's Joker will be one for the ages. Opens July 18.

4. Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 - It's definitely a big jump from 3 to 4, but I read the Sisterhood books and I loved the casting. I became a fan of Blake Lively before Gossip Girl, America Ferrera before Ugly Betty (Real Women Have Curves), and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) was a huge part of my life. So it's the one movie this summer that I KNOW I will enjoy. Opens August 6.

5. Wall-E - I love Pixar, and this looks like it's going to be a hit. What can I say - I'm a sucker for cute robots! Opens Today. Here's Roger Ebert's Review.

Tied at the end - These are movies that I'd like to see but my life doesn't depend on it:
Mamma Mia! - I usually make a point of seeing now annual movie musical and this will be no exception. The fact that Colin Firth will definitely help get me in the theater. Opens July 18.
Get Smart - Thanks to good reviews, I now want to go see this. It looks like my kind of humor. Here's Roger Ebert's review.
Iron Man - Same as Get Smart, reviews are good so I'll try to get to the theater and see it on the big screen (review).

The next 3 weeks

Here's where I'll be for the next few weeks!

This weekend is the big move! Curtis is driving up tonight and my dad comes up tomorrow morning to help me move out. It's going to be quite a feat, bringing 5 years worth of stuff home (plus throwing a bunch of stuff out and giving clothes to goodwill). I know Curtis and I are going to walk the dish, and maybe the three of us will go to one of my favorite restaurants in the area. Plus I'd like to get over to the quad one last time to say goodbye and take pictures.

My last day of work is Thursday, July 3rd, so after I leave my apartment I'm staying in Campbell w/ Adelyn until then. I'm super excited to hang out with her for a few days. We'll probably be doing a lot of chatting, wine drinking, and watching X-Files and West Wing DVD's.

On July 3 I head up to San Francisco, and I'am spending the July 4th weekend with Juls and Melis! We're going to go to SF MOMA and see the Frida Kahlo exhibit, watch the fireworks in SF and go camping at Pinnacles National Park. I'll probably head back to SoCal on Monday, July 7th in the morning.

After unpacking and repacking, Curtis and I will drive to Palm Desert on Friday, July 11, for 4 days of R&R. I'll finally be able to get rid of the office glow and catch up on sleep from what is likely to be a crazy last week up here. We're still trying to decide what to bring with us. We know that we want to spend a lot of time by the pool, we have a spa day, and we'll probably mini golf and see a movie, but we don't want to get too bored, so we might bring the Wii with us. And I will also bring the Fit so it doesn't get mad at me when I leave it at home for 4 days (the Wii Fit is very demanding).

Curtis and I get home on Tuesday, July 15. Then on the night of July 17 I'm staying at Tracy's house and then she and I are flying up to San Jose together to stay with Melis and Juls! Tracy was coming up and I figured since I had nothing better to do and enough travel credits to go for free, I'd tag along and join in on the fun! We're back on Sunday morning, July 20th. Then I will have a week off and then likely head to my law preview program the last week of July (unless I can get out of it). So I think I will be just busy enough to not get bored but not so busy that I'm not resting.

In between trips I'll also be scheduling appointments with vendors for the wedding. I'm going to try my dress on probably on Wednesday or Thursday, July 9-10, and I might schedule a meeting with a potential florist for July 8th, but it depends on when my final arrival date in SoCal is. I also have to figure out music at the reception location. We'd like to do the cake design and the menu tasting this summer too but we can also do that over Christmas or Spring Break (it'll be nice to have breaks again!)

That's all for now, I hope to have some fun pictures to post over the next few weeks! Wish me luck in moving!

Monday Updates - 6/23/08

Going to be quick today - Lots of packing/cleaning/procrastinating to do!

Weekend:
I was actually at work on Friday until 8:15, so by the time I got dinner and got home it was pretty late, but I ended up not falling asleep until 2AM because it was so darn hot. Saturday my activities were focused on staying in air conditioned buildings. I went to the gym, then got a pedicure, and then the mall to get a pretzel and a cute dress. Because Stanford Shopping Center doesn't have a pretzel stand, I have to drive to Hillsdale if I have a craving. But because of the weather it was for the best anyway to hang out in an indoor mall. On Sunday I had a pretty quiet morning, a short run at the gym and then went to Adelyn and Ed's lovely house to bring them a set of shelves, see the apartment, and hang out for a little while. After a fun couple of hours, I drove back home and stared at my stuff for a few more hours before going to sleep. I just don't know how I should pack this stuff so it will fit in 3 cars.

This Week: Packing/Working, etc.
I have a huge project at work coming in tomorrow actually so work this week will be crazy. We have the apartment until Monday so I need to do a lot of cleaning and packing. Curtis and my dad are coming up Friday night to pack me up and bring my stuff home, and we'll see how that goes.

Summer Plans:
Summer Plans are still a little fluid, other than my trip to Palm Desert July 11-15. I'm hoping to make a trip back to NorCal on July 18th for a reunion of my good tridelt friends. I signed up for a law preview program last week of July at USC, but am trying to get out of it. Plus there's the possible Utah trip to see my soon to be born nephew-to-be. So, this summer will be plenty busy, which is a good thing because I'd go crazy otherwise. I'll make sure to keep the blog updated!

Pictures from the Weekend

Cute!

Curtis didn't want to touch them but I did :-)

the view from the aquarium

He had annoyed me for some reason ;-)

The backside of water! (it was some kind of waves exhibit)
Bubba Gump's

the view from our table

dessert!
the ride back

Things to do Before I Leave - Update II

There's been some progress:

1. Golden Gate Park in SF
2. Wine Tasting DONE :-)
3.Monterrey Bay Aquarium DONE :-)
4. SFMOMA & the Exploratorium
5. Alcatraz DONE :-)
6. Buy a bunch of stuff from the Stanford Bookstore (shirts, sweatshirts, etc.)
7. A's game DONE :-)
8. The Great Mall DONE :-)

I think I'm going to try and get to SF this weekend to tackle #4, and probably stop by the Stanford Bookstore soon too. I have to say, I've done better than I originally thought I would. It doesn't seem like much but given how much I've been out of town the last few months it's impressive that I've had the time on weekends.

Monday Updates - 6/16/08

okay here we go:

First - Congrats Tiger on winning the US Open! It only took 91 holes on a bad knee but you did it! One thing I enjoy about the American Majors is when Tiger greets his family after he wins. Tiger's wife Elin went out to the first sudden death hole and rode with him on a cart back to 18 for the trophy ceremony, where he met up with and held his almost 1-year-old daughter Sam for awhile (she didn't want to let go!).

(Photo Credit: Travis Lindquist/Getty Images)

Weekend: At the last minute Curtis decided to come visit me this weekend. It worked out really well because I needed a date to the Giants-A's game I was attending on Friday. So I left work early, got him from the airport, then rushed to the Menlo Park Caltrain station and got on the train just in time to make it to SF by a little after 6PM. I met up with my good friend Juls and some of her friends for drinks before the game. The game was a little disappointing, I'm not a fan of either team but I did buy a Giants hat so I could have some allegiance. They did lose, but I did get to see Visquel steal home and you don't see that very often. With that said, most of my time at AT&T Park was spent in the line for the Garlic Fries.

On Saturday we made the drive down to Monterrey so that I could go to the aquarium for the first time in 10 years. We ended up being very lucky and had sunshine almost the entire time we were there. The aquarium was crowded and fun, and we stuffed ourselves after at Bubba Gump's. I'll post pictures soon. Then that night we both didn't feel like going to sleep so we decided to go see You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Instead of trying to explain this movie and what I thought of it, I'll refer you to Roger Ebert's review which I completely agree with.

One unfortunate thing that happened this weekend was that I woke up with about a dozen bites on my stomach, which was a little scary at first. My guess is that a spider just went to town, and I hope it's nothing more than that. But I did wash all of my bedding so hopefully it was just a one time thing. But it makes me excited to get off the floor and sleep on my tall bed at home.

Our plan for Sunday was to simply relax, and we did just that. We went and got bagels and Starbucks in the morning and then spent the day watching the US Open, playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, and I packed a suitcase for Curtis to take back with him. We went to In-N-Out for a quick bite and then went to the airport. Even though he's coming back in 2 weeks to move me out, it was eerie saying goodbye to him knowing that this was our last full weekend in the Bay Area together, as a long-distance couple. In a few weeks our 5-year 400 mile romance will end and we'll start somewhat of a new phase. Maybe we'll move back in a few years ;-).

On Sunday night I actually had a fun conversation with ESPN's golf editor, Jason Sobel. He covered the US Open by Blogging all 4 days with a ton of fun anecdotes, questions submitted by readers, and professional perspective. I had emailed him on Friday to say that I was enjoying the blog, and on Sunday I got a gchat message from him asking whether I was still reading. From this started a conversation about the Open and the implications of a 18 hole playoff. I gotta tell you, chatting with an ESPN editor is a highlight of my sports fan life - it was pretty cool. Now if I can just establish a relationship with some of the ESPN college basketball editors and writers I can die happy.

Law School: I'll feature this in a later post.

Wedding: The only new thing is that my dress arrived at Jinny's! I'm very excited to go try it on when I get back to SoCal.

Work: At the end of today I will have 13 days left of work. I still have some projects floating around but nothing too exciting. I cleaned out a lot of my work stuff (notes, docs, etc.) last week but I'll probably wait another week until I start taking down my personal stuff - I don't want people to get sad when they come into my office. I was excited to come in today because I want to enjoy the days I have left and the people that I've come to enjoy working with.

Move: So my move back to SoCal is complicated by the fact that my stuff is going to beat me there. My lease ends on June 30 so I am moving on the 28-29. Curtis and my Dad are coming up to move me (method has not been established: UHaul? Caravan? I'll keep you posted). But I am actually working until Thursday July 3rd so I will be a bit of a nomad the last week. I'm staying with Adelyn at least until my last day of work, but I'm thinking I might stay in the bay area for the July 4th weekend. I figured I might as well take advantage of the fact that I can drive home whenever I want so I'll be stocked with an air mattress and a suitcase and we'll see how it goes! My goal is to be back in SoCal by the 8th, which is my Dad's birthday, so I'll be there for that and have some time before Curtis and I go to Palm Desert for vacation. So that's the plan for now!

I realize this turned out to be really long - so apologies. Have a good week!

Monday Updates - Coming Soon!

I'm watching the playoff round of the US Open and that's distracting me enough from work, so I'll try to do my updates tonight :-)

Rory's going to Yale! (Part 1)

(For those of you who don't watch Gilmore Girls, I'm sorry - you might not understand the gravity of this post)

On season 4, the episode called "A tale of Poes and Fire", among other things Rory is making her pro-con lists for Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. She's torn because her and Lorelai had always talked about going to Harvard and she had Harvard paraphernalia on her wall, but Yale seems to have more pros. Plus there's the added bonus of Yale being much closer to home.

But she's still torn, because Harvard was always a dream, until she comes home and Lorelai has decorated her room in Yale stuff.

And then she knows that Yale is the school for her. It may not be what she intended, and it might not be what everyone expects, but she knows that she will be happy with her decision.

More to come ;-)

Monday Updates - 6/9/08

Hi there!
The nice thing about Monday updates is that it at least forces me to post something every week, and it forces me to reevaluate everything that's going on in my life. So here goes!

Summer:
My plans are coming together as to what I'm doing this summer. I am so excited because Curtis and I just booked a room at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa in Palm Desert for 4 nights. We're going the first weekend after the 4th of July, and I'm so excited! We're going to just do nothing for 4 days: lie by the pool and read, sip daiquiris, sleep, maybe go to the spa, etc. I also got a full scholarship for a law preview program at the end of July, which is 6 days in LA working with law professors. I'm still thinking about not doing this because I want that week of vacation and packing, but we'll see. I'm also hoping to get out to Utah this summer to see my new nephew-to-be who is due on July 6th, but I might end up waiting until he's older.

Moving:
Adelyn and Ed came by yesterday to get some of my furniture for their new place, so now my front room is very empty, and has now become the Wii Fit room (see below for more details!) But I still look around and think that I have way to much stuff.

Weekend:
Friday was super fun as my friend Stephanie was in town for the weekend! We had food/drinks at Nola's and then went to Rudy's for dancing. I hadn't done the whole downtown PA partying thing in so long! I ended up going to sleep that night at 4AM so I ended up spending all of Saturday in my apartment, mostly in my bed.

Sunday I woke at about 7:45 and decided to go to Best Buy to try and get the Wii Fit and a Wii console for my parents. I got there at 8:20 and was the third person in line. The employees at BB are nice enough (and smart enough) to open the store early just for wii buyers so I only had to wait for about 2 hours before I was on my way back home with my new toys. The Fit is actually pretty cool, I banked 30 minutes of activity yesterday and I'll probably get on it tonight after I go to the gym. The strength training and the yoga would be especially good for me as I'm not very strong or flexible. But my Wii trainer thought I had a good center of gravity, so that was good to hear!

On an additional note I ended up watching Living Lohan and Denise Richards: It's complicated last night (they came on after The Girls Next Door, which I LOVE). They were rather predictable and therefore boring in their selfish self-centered "life is so hard for me" way. I think I'll stick with Bravo and the Real Housewives of NYC from now on.

That's all for today - Happy Monday!

Gadgets

(I've really gotten into blogging! I've thought about all these things I could write about! We'll see how long it lasts once I get home and on vacay)

So lately I've been lusting after a few gadgets. I don't really have the money to buy much, so some of this stuff is completely practical and I definitely plan to buy it, and other things (like a 42 in. LCD TV), aren't.

1. Digital Camera
Especially with all of this blogging, I've been wishing that I had a working camera to add pictures. I got one for Christmas 2003 but it never really worked right, so I'm looking forward to moving up. I think this is something that I will buy soon, just because with everything going in the next few months I will want a camera to cover it. For the past few years I've been lusting after the Canon PowerShot SD1000 and after a bit of research, I think that's what I'll end up with.

2. An iPhone
Curtis and I both really want iPhones, and we're both due to get a new phone contract. So we're thinking about getting on an ATT family plan together this summer if they offer the iPhone at a rebate (that's the rumor...we'll probably find out next week).

3. A MacBook Pro
My Dell laptop is dying, so I'm hoping to get a Mac for law school (the CA Bar is letting you take the exam on a Mac as of this year!). I think I'm going to get the MacBookPro 15 inch, which is what Curtis has, but I haven't decided for sure. (Let me know if you have Mac Advice - is the Pro worth it or should i just get the MacBook?) I'm probably going to wait until August to buy it, and I'm hoping that my loans can help cover it. Some schools will let you add the cost of a laptop to your annual budget so yo can get loan money for it, so that's what I will try to do to help with expenses my first semester.

Also, if you're a student and you buy a Mac computer this summer, you get a free iPod touch or iPod Nano. If I get an iPhone, I'll probably go w/ the Nano (although I have a relatively new one now), otherwise I'll get the touch.

4. The Wii Fit
I went to Best Buy last night and found out that they're getting their next shipment of Wii Fits on Sunday so if I want one I have to get there around 8:30 AM and wait. We'll see if that happens. I'm looking forward to running in place, doing yoga, and taking advantage of a new opportunity to have a fun workout. Click here for a funny video of Anderson Cooper learning about the Wii Fit (or as he says, the "Why-E")

As a side note, I'm also looking for Wii MarioKart so if you know of anywhere that has it in stock, please let me know!

5. A LCD TV
This is the one I will definitely be waiting for. I was at Best Buy yesterday looking for Wii stuff and decided to look at the TV's. I think after we get married we'll save up for a nice 40 in. or so LCD. After all, watching Stanford Basketball & Football on Saturdays on a nice TV will help ease the pain of not being at the games.

My San Francisco Adventure

Today was an exciting day! I've been working on an appeal brief to the 9th circuit for the last few days and it was due today. We were filing it from San Francisco so after going into my office early this morning I loaded up my car with three boxes and drove to the Orrick SF office. I got set up with my own laptop so I could keep up with email while I was there, and a local paralegal was ridiculously helpful in making sure we had copies of everything we needed and had everything ready to FedEx, etc. So we got everything done and filed with about 40 minutes to spare, and hopefully there were not any huge mistakes.

Now I'm tired :-)

What's in a name?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my name and what I want to do after Curtis and I get married. Socially, I will go by Christine Hart for sure. But I do like the idea of having my family name and my married name be a legal part of my identity.

I know that professionally, I'll apply to summer associate jobs as Christine Harding or Christine Harding Hart. This is because I will be asking people from my Orrick job to be references, and I don't want them to be confused when someone calls to ask about Christine Hart.

And I also know that I want to have Curtis' name because I want us to have one last name, especially for our children. I think it's easier and I'll admit that I like the tradition of the woman taking the husband's name. Plus, I really like his last name and it won't be much different from what I have now!

What some women do is change their middle name to their maiden name so that they retain it. But my middle name, Elizabeth, is actually a family name on my mother's side with a rich heritage and I hope to have daughter named Elizabeth (Elizabeth Hart sounds sooo good!). So as of now, I think I want to make Harding a second middle name and have my full name be Christine Elizabeth Harding Hart (a hyphen is out of the question) but I'm not sure that's actually feasible. The good thing is, there's no real hurry to change your legal name after you get married so I have some time.

My Crazy Weekend

Let me preface this post by saying that while I am energetic, I'm not the type of person who can have a full day and wake up the next morning and feel fine. So today I am dragging, but I will say that I had such a fun weekend that it was worth it.

Fortunately, I had Friday free, so I was able to clean up my apartment and watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I liked the kid the ended up winning, he was very funny and it was his 4th and last trip to the bee, so he seemed deserving. Ironically, the word he won with, "guerdon" means "reward" (when I was writing this blog, the spellcheck didn't like that word...funny!). The Scripps Spelling bee is so fun because it's really exciting. You look forward to every word and it's fun to see really hard-working kids competing for the title.

On Saturday I woke up early and relaxed for a few hours until noon when I met up with Adelyn at Santana Row for lunch, shopping, and most importantly, Sex and the City. We both liked the movie, although it was rather predictable. Of the 4 story lines, I thought Samantha's felt the most realistic for her character. I thought Miranda and Charlotte were a little more one-dimensional than they were in the series. Jennifer Hudson was fabulous in her role as Carrie's assistant - she should really be in more movies. Overall, it was very entertaining and enduring, and I'd recommend it for any fan of the series.

After the movie, Adelyn and I hung out at the Wine Bar until my dad met up with us. He is in SF this week for work so he came in early to hang out with me! We ate at Consuelo's, my fav Mexican restaurant at Santana Row, and then headed home for some Wii golf, tennis, bowling, and boxing. I think he wants a Wii now ;-). Then on Sunday we woke up, went to Stacks, and then headed to San Jose to play golf. For not picking up a club in 5 months, I actually played pretty well. We had to leave after hole 14 to head up to the city because to go to Alcatraz! We got on the 4PM boat and spent 2 hours on the island taking the audio tour an exploring. We took some pictures so hopefully I will feature those in the next few weeks. I was really happy to visit Alcatraz, because it was on my list of things to do before I leave the Bay Area.

After Alcatraz we met up with 2 of my dad's co-workers and had dinner at Norton's Steakhouse. I had a delicious steak and a baked potato. If you've ever been to Norton's, you'll know that sometimes they will present the menu on a cart, featuring all of the meats, including a live lobster. The lobster was hilarious – he kept trying to crawl off the plate, as if he knew what his fate was. After dinner my dad drove me back to Palo Alto and I got back around 10 PM and crashed.

Overall it was a great weekend, I had such a good time with Adelyn and Dad and I'm happy that I did so much.

Monday Updates – June 2, 2008

Wedding – Just a brief update on wedding planning today. I made contact with a potential florist, Fantasy Floral, to let her know that I can't see her until July but that I'm definitely interested. She is one of my many vendors that were acknowledged as a Knot pick for 2008. I'm also rethinking the bridesmaid dresses, but I'll talk more about that in the next few weeks.

Law School – I am leaning towards a particular school, but I am giving Georgetown a few more weeks to accept me before I fill out my loan papers. On a whim I applied for a scholarship from USC to a law school prep program (it's 6 days of law school training in LA this summer) and I actually got it, so if I go to USC I might be spending 6 days this summer learning about how to be a good law student (sounds fun, doesn't it?).

Work – Work is OK, I have 5 weeks left, which seems like a long time to me. I know I will miss the people and some of the work, but I think I am ready for school and ready to be a lawyer. I was really lucky in that I was given a lot of responsibility here, without much oversight, and I got to work closely with attorneys who are both hard-working and dynamic. The cases have been really fun, especially when we have to file oppositions to class certification.

Weekend – I think I'm going to devote an entire blog post to the crazy weekend I had, so stay tuned.

That's all for now! And here's another important reminder: my house – 8/8/08.

Happy Birthday Jon!

First, before I get to me and the Monday Updates, I have to give a birthday shout-out to my brother Jonathan, who turns 21 today!!!!

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JONATHAN!!!!

From what I hear, they my mom is taking him out for dinner tonight but we're going to have a big celebration in July.