Recap of Christmas Break

Happy New Year!

Here's the rundown of my Christmas Break:

1. Lady Gaga at the Nokia Theater:

We LOVED this concert. Lady Gaga is one of the few musical acts that both Curtis and I enjoy. We went with Tracy & Nancy, and had such a fun time. Ever since the concert, we're constantly listening to Gaga on our iphones and recently watched her on Oprah, which was great.

2. Christmas in Oceanside/Mission Viejo

Charlie got a Snuggie for Christmas from Santa!

We had a very busy but fun Christmas. Unfortunately the Eve started with my poor allergies so I was sleeping all day until we drove down to Oceanside for the church service. Afterward we have Pizza with the entire family and bunked at Grandpa's house. In the morning we made breakfast and exchanged gifts.

We returned to Mission Viejo and Curtis & I ran around the lake, and ended up meeting up with both Adelyn & Ed and Nick and his mom, which was really fun. We returned home and had Christmas dinner on our wedding china and opened gifts.

The days following Christmas had me doing some last minute shopping for my gifts and meeting up with friends. We came back to LA on the 29th so I could leave for El Paso, TX on the 30th for the Sun Bowl.

3. Sun Bowl, Stanford v. Oklahoma, Dec. 31.

This was so fun! Tracy and I flew together from LAX to El Paso and met up with Juls at the airport. It was neat to see so many Stanford fans at the airport. The next morning we took the city bus to the game :-).

Thanks Tracy for the picture!

The tailgate was typical Stanford - excellent, and we had a good time at the game, even though we lost. We were so happy to see Angel, who drove across the country from North Carolina to go to the game. After the game, I immediately dashed out the stadium to get on a bus to go to the airport. I got home around 10 pm that night. That night Curtis and I finished packing for our Honeymoon and toasted the New Year with Cider.

4. Hawaiian Honeymoon

On January 1st, we flew to Hawaii! We arrived around 2pm and were excited to be in paradise for the next week. We purposely didn't do much while we were there, other than go to the pool, gym, spa, and watch football. It was just a fantastic trip.

Picture from the Luau

I hope to have more to say in the coming week, with more pictures.

Happy Monday!

Christmas Break Plans

Now that I know Stanford Football is playing in the Sun Bowl, I can finalize my Christmas Break plans. Here's the schedule:

December 18: last final

(I have some additional assignments to finish in the days after that final)

December 21: Lady Gaga Concert with Curtis, Tracy, and Nancy

- Yes, we're going to see Lady Gaga. And yes, even Curtis is super excited about it.

December 30: Depart for El Paso, TX for Sun Bowl! I'm flying out w/ Tracy in the afternoon and meeting up with Juls and other Stanford buddies.

December 31: SUN BOWL - STANFORD VS. OKLAHOMA at 12 PM local time. (11am PST on CBS). I'm flying back after the game, will celebrate New Years w/ Curtis and finish packing.

- I'm kinda excited to be going to Texas for the first time, even if it's for less than 24 hours.

January 1 - Depart for Maui, flight leaves at approx. 8:30 AM. Watch the Rose Bowl from our hotel, with a beautiful view of the ocean.

- plans include swimming in the ocean, tanning, and spending a day at the spa

- I already ordered a new bathing suit for the trip!

January 11 - Return to LAX, sometime in the evening

January 12 - first day at the 9th Circuit Courthouse!

The next few weeks are going to be very exciting!!!

Pictures & Christmas Stuff

Every year that I've had my own place, I've wanted to get into the holiday spirit and get decorations, but have never felt like it was worth it. I'm not often home, and I spend the actual holidays at my parents'. I do have a few things, and hope to acquire more over the years, especially when I have more funds/more time to make stuff.

This year, I operated under the assumption that since I'm married, I would probably try to get a tree (a real, living tree, not the skinny one in the picture). And it would be fine if I had a fake tree, b/c you just put those up and take them down at your convenience, no water needed. The problem is that I don't believe in fake trees. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the lot and picking out the perfect tree. Year to year the tree is different, which makes it special. Well, last night we talked and decided that it probably wasn't worth getting our own tree this year, since we're going to be at my parents' for the holiday, and then on vacation on the first. I can't say I'm not disappointed, as I was looking forward to picking our first tree out, but I am happy that I got my lights out a few days ago and hung them. I haven't seen them from the outside yet but I hope to tonight when we go to dinner.

The other major household project was putting our wedding pictures up. We finally got the CD's of our pictures, and I ordered a ton of prints from Shutterfly (one of my favorite websites). I had purchased a bunch of frames from Ikea back in August to put up in our room with the pictures, and so I was finally able to do it this week.

I realize the lighting is awful on these pictures and I should have waited until tomorrow to take them, but I guess you'll just have to come see our apartment to get the full experience. And yes, that is my desk that now has 5 Christines, staring at me. We have one more large frame to put up, once we decide what picture we want to use. Of course, this will all be done, and pretty, and we'll be moving (no plans to move yet, I'm just sayin').

This weekend I am studying for finals (eek!) and finding out which bowl Stanford is playing in so I can plan accordingly. Good bowls to hope for: Holiday (San Diego), Emerald (San Francisco), Las Vegas (duh.). Bad bowl: Sun (El Paso on NYE...). And I'll also be reading more coverage about Toby Gerhart's Heisman chances.

Have a good weekend, I'm off to dinner w/ my partner-in-crime, who will hopefully perk me up in the face of what's to come in the next two weeks.

Monday Updates 11/16/09

Good morning!

Weekend: this weekend was so much fun -

Juls & Andy flew down on Saturday morning to go to the USC-Stanford game with us!



After the game (where our team beat SC by 34 points!), we hung out until they left on Sunday morning to drive up the coast back to San Francisco. Curtis and I decided to do a short trip to the beach, where the weather was perfect.

Law School: As of today I am done with moot court for the semester, and I'm relieved. I find out on Wednesday whether my performances during the preliminary rounds qualified me for the quarterfinals. I really don't know what to think, but only 16 move on from 40, so there's no reason to be disappointed if I don't make it.

Update 11/18: I found out this morning that I did make the quarterfinals. My next round is in late-January :-)

The other news is that I will be a full-time judicial extern next semester! I will be working for Judge Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit. I'm very excited about working full-time, the cabin fever has started to get to me. I'll have to take an extra class in the evening two days a week, but I'm really excited about next semester!

That's all for now. Have a good week!

Congratulations from the Obamas

You may recall here that we sent a wedding invitation to the Obamas. Well, we received a response! Here's a scan of the card we received:

I think it's a neat keepsake from our wedding, a way to mark the occasion in the context of what's going on in our country. Here's the address (courtesy of the knot)

The President and Mrs. Obama
The White House
Greetings Office, Room 39
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20502

Stanford Homecoming

Curtis and I got back today from Stanford Homecoming. We had such a good time but we're exhausted. We left yesterday at 9:30 to get to Palo Alto around 3 PM. We relaxed for about an hour and then headed over to campus for the young alumni tailgate - the Alumni Association really knows how to put on a tailgate.

The game started at 7:30 PM and we were able to find some good seats near the student section. The first half was pretty fun and exciting, our team was doing really well and went into halftime 23-0.

First Down!

The second half was not so interesting, but we still got win #5. One more win and we're headed to a bowl game! Today we went to Stacks with our friends who were also at the game, and left town at noon. That is our last Stanford home game planned for the season (although I haven't ruled out a trip to the Oregon, or even the Notre Dame game). But we will be at the Stanford game in the Coliseum on Nov. 14!

Have a good week :-)

Moot Court

There are times in which I realize that when you're in law school, you're learning a new language, and so when I describe something that I'm doing, people who are not crazy, sleep-deprived, stressed, addicted to sugar, caffeine, etc. might not know what I'm talking about.

Moot Court is basically appellate oral argument before a panel of judges. Last year all of the first years had to argue before the "California Court of Appeals" on a trade secret issue. That was for a grade, and also to qualify for the Moot Court Honors Program. I was one of the 40 that qualified, and now I am getting ready for the preliminary rounds.

This time I'm arguing before the US "Supreme Court", which in the preliminary round is 3 practicing attorneys (for the final round the school usually recruits 3 Federal court of appeals judges). There are two issues and two students on each side. I am arguing about the 4th and 5th Amendment of the Constitution. I get 15 minutes to speak, during which the judges frequently interrupt me with questions that I have to answer. You have to be knowledgeable, charming, and able to think on your feet. I'd like to say that I'm good at all three, but generally I get dinged on the "knowledgeable" part - especially this year.

The issue is interesting, but the answer is far from easy. The essence of it is: you can be stopped by a police officer and asked questions without being unlawfully "seized" - a Fourth Amendment violation. But, you can't be interrogated while under arrest without receiving your Miranda warning (you have the right to be silent, anything you say can and will be used in a court of law...you have a right to an attorney...etc.etc.). So the question is, can you be detained by an officer to the point at which it isn't an unlawful seizure but you should have received your Miranda warning? I spent most of my time this semester arguing for my paper that you don't have to be given the warning (that was my assignment, not my choice), BUT -- you have to argue both sides. On Tuesday I argued for the government, and tonight I'm arguing for the defendant. There is a ton of case law on this issue, but no clear answers, especially from the Supreme Court, which is why the issue was chosen.

The real rounds start in about a week, but this week we had practice rounds and it's been pretty difficult, especially to argue the side that I actually wrote about. We'll see how tonight goes when I do my off-brief. After the preliminary rounds, 16 students are chosen to compete next semester, and a winner is chosen in March. Perhaps if I get to the next round I'll be arguing the other issue: is a prohibition of sex toys a violation of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause right to privacy? But for now, I'm focusing on the rights of a criminal defendant and trying to make sure I'm able to articulate a decent argument.

Unrelated note: this weekend I am up north for Homecoming! Hopefully I will remember my camera this time and will put some pictures up on the blog when I'm back.