The State of Good

May 15, 2012
By

Things lately have been good. Not crazy or over the top, not sad and depressing, just good. Good I’ve found is a little bit boring and doesn’t leave much to blog about. Pretty weather, enjoyable weekends, interesting books, work being the right amount of busy…. there isn’t much more to say than that. When things are good I tend to stare at the white page a little longer, thinking of things to say, and often just exiting out before I write any words.

After all, no one really wants to read about good.

Of course when you are good you are able to laugh at smaller things, things that you consider retelling and then you realize, no, not really all that funny, just funny at the time, in the moment. My greatest source of amusement these days are my suggested items from Amazon. I recently placed an order for a sailing knife (for  B) and an infant car seat (as a baby gift) and I’m pretty sure the algorithm has me pegged as a “psycho baby-stealing murderer” if the suggestions are any indication. Hunting equipment and baby bottles? BUT OF COURSE.

I’ve been trying to get back into being more active as of late, dusting off my bike and pulling out my yoga mat. I finally gave into the siren song of Lululemon, investing in a pair of Wunder Under Crops and a Race Tech top and I’m obsessed. Now all I can think about is getting more Lululemon, next on my list is a pair of Groove pants. Fascinating, I know. I also hit up the Shops at Target (insert eye roll now) (mutter under your breath about Missoni for Target) like every other woman in America who loves Target. My favorite items were from The Webster (snagged a tunic) and Privet House (some candles).

In my final roundup of “things that are good” I’ve contined enjoying good books at a rapid rate of speed. The Art of Racing in the Rain got 3 stars from me, the Lost Wife got 4. Next up is “The Discovery of Witches” which I have high hopes for. After that…well, who knows.

All in all, things are good, if not a little boring. But sometimes…sometimes boring is great.

Concrete Jungle

May 11, 2012
By

Since the end of March my travel schedule has included Tampa, Baltimore, Detroit, Sacramento, Las Vegas and New York City. Many of these trips were for work which meant they included drivers and car services (yay!) and meetings and early alarm clocks (not as yay.) I love going to New York, even for a short period of time, because we get to stay in the Meatpacking District which is a part of the city I rarely make it to when I visit for fun. The Meatpacking District has lots of overpriced trendy hotels and this time I stayed at the Dream Hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect; NYC hotel rooms are notoriously tiny and Meatpacking District hotels all have nightclubs hidden away in them so the trick is to get the room that doesn’t pulsate with the beat of the music at 2 am.

I did not find this magical room this time around. Suddenly the high end white noise machine in my room made a lot of sense.

The room reminded me a little bit of a pod or a space shuttle. Everything was sleek and modern and very, very small. It had fancy buttons in lieu of light switches which required deciphering of the image to figure out how to dim the lights or turn them on or off. I never did figure it out and instead resorted to random mashing of buttons. It didn’t have a digital alarm clock either, which made it hard to tell the time in the middle of the night without my glasses on.

The bathroom was fully tiled in penny tile. It would have been very echo-y had it not been the size of my coat closet.

 

What you can’t tell from that photo is that the shower curtain was made of mesh. As in metal. This seems highly counterintuitive but I tried not to think about it because it was too mind boggling.

The best part about the room (with porthole windows that I’m pretty sure I had to pay extra for, haaaaaa, man they thing weird things are cool in NYC) was the view.

Spot on, Dream Hotel, spot on.

Speaking of views, when we flew into New York, we flew over the lower tip of the island. I spotted the new World Trade Center One and then I suddenly looked straight down, and could easily see the two reflecting pools that make up the memorial to the Twin Towers. It took my breath away from 15,000 feet, these serene holes that broke up the topography of sky scrapers and glass. We landed a few minutes later, and as we taxied we rolled past Donald Trump’s plane, and apropo of nothing I had to laugh. It was jarring, being snapped out of my thoughts about the World Trade Center attacks by a black plane with the word “Trump” arrogantly painted across the fuselage, but there it was. I suppose there might be some symbolism there, or commentary on our society today, but I’m too tired to figure out what it is.

My travel extravaganza is winding down and all I have left is my Memorial Day weeekend trip to Boca Raton before I enjoy Chicago for a long, long time.

Happy Birthday Month to Me

May 8, 2012
By

Sometimes you just have to leave the ballet flats at home and go out on a limb.

We Bought…a Beehive

May 7, 2012
By

If you follow me on Twitter you know that my parents recently got a beehive.

I’ll give you a few minutes to process that.

…….

Still here?  Fantastic. My parents got a beehive. As it turns out, you purchase bees by the pound at the bee warehouse.

My parents bought 3 33 (update! they bought 33 not 3, WHOOPS) pounds of bees. I thought that would equal 3 of the little boxes you can see up there, but as it turns out, this what 33 pounds of bees in the back of your car looks like:

Yes. My Dad drove the bees home. You’d think he’d have called them a cab or paid for Amazon delivery, but no. The man drove the bees home IN HIS CAR.

I bet you are wondering what you do with the bees once you get home. This is what I wondered. Well, waiting at home was an apiary (a beehive) and their friend who is a beekeeper. Now before you get super excited I regret to inform you that apiaries do not look like old fashioned yellow dome shaped hives with little “layers” – nope, they pretty much look like a box. Boring. The beekeeper slowly transferred the 3 pounds of bees into the apiary.

I KNOW. WORST JOB EVER.

Everyone knows the most important part of the hive is the queen bee. She bosses all the other bees around and tells them what to do. You have to buy your queen bee separately and she comes in a little box with a sugar cube plug. The beekeeper puts the box (with the queen) into the hive and then the bees and the queen nibble on the cube from both sides until it is gone. Hopefully when it is gone the bees accept the queen….if not…MUTINY. Or they drive her off and Mom and Dad have to get a new queen. You’ll know the queen has been accepted when the bees start making honeycombs and honey and bringing pollen back to the apiary. Here is the beekeeper putting their queen into the hive:

A few days later Mom snapped a picture of the bees bringing pollen back to the hive. Thank goodness for telephoto lenses, amirite? (I used some fancy Skitch skills to draw fancy hot pink arrows showing the pollen grains just in case you weren’t sure.) This means they accepted the queen bee!

Can you spot the heavy lifters in this photo?

Their beekeeper friend came out a few days letter to check on things. These are baby bees and they have a young queen so they had started forming honeycombs but they weren’t in the trays that are in the hive. Whoops.

The beekeeper said this is ok and he moved things around a little bit. The bees should get the hang of it soon.

Because I think it bears repeating: WORST JOB EVER.

My parents don’t have a full beekeeping suit but they have some gloves and a hat contraption should they need to poke around for any reason. They live in the mountains in Utah which is a great beekeeping region. They don’t call it the beehive state for nothing. They have to pay attention for skunks who will come tap on the hive at night in order to work the bees up so they fly outside the hive as a tasty little snack. Oh and of course they have to watch out for bears.

Yes. Skunks and bears that come try to eat your venomous stinging insects. BEST HOBBY EVER.

(I like to tease my parents about their bees and remind that most people get chickens and call it good.)

As far as why, well, they are good for the environment and it seemed like a fun hobby. (My parents definition of fun is up for debate.) They have a friend who is a beekeeper so they don’t have to do too much of the scary work themselves which I think is a big plus.They don’t have any plans to sell honey, just enjoy it themselves and share with their friends, so it isn’t a business endeavor.

For now they are leaving the bees be. They just have to stay away from their flight pattern and keep their eyes out for predators. This fall they’ll harvest the wax and honey. Mom and I have grand plans of a weekend of candle, soap and lip balm making. We will wear our best pioneer bonnets while doing this. (I lie. Pioneer bonnets would make it hard to drink wine while making candles. Priorities people. Priorities.) They are going to get some signs for the trees near the hive:

Luckily for them the neighbors and the homeowners association are all cool with the bees. The hive is on the back edge of their property where it isn’t landscaped so it isn’t an area where people walk or kids play (there is a steep cliff nearby). The current estimate is that their hive will produce about 5 gallons or 25 pounds of honey this first year. Since I have priorities (shopping) I want to order these tags to put on our honey bottles:

Source: etsy.com via Daisy on Pinterest

 

 

 

And there you have it. My parents got a beehive. Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are. But…I think it is kind of cool too and I’m definitely looking forward to our jars of fresh honey. And yes, if you ask, my parents will totally name one of the bees after you.

Insanity: New York’s Pro Bono Bar Admission Requirement

May 4, 2012
By

If you are a member of the legal or law school community then I’m sure you’ve heard about the new pro bono work requirement being added to the New York bar exam. If you are normal not you are probably rolling your eyes and clicking the little “x” button in the top corner of this page and wondering what on earth all the lawyers are getting worked up about again. 

In short the state of New York is adding another requirement to becoming admitted to the bar, but this time it isn’t another section of the test or another background check form to fill out. Beginning in 2013 applicants to the bar (also referred to as Poor 3L Suckers in some crowds) will be required to donate 50 hours of pro bono service in order to become admitted the bar.

On its face this seems like a great idea. Lets help students learn, lets get services to those in need, lets help people who can’t afford counsel. Win-win-win.

Except I think this is a horrible idea. A truly horrible, bad idea. Worse than clear Pepsi and those jars of peanut butter and jelly swirled together.

To start with I find it amusing that New York is creating this requirement. New York which has, bar none, (ha!! lawyer jokes!) one of the top two hardest bar exams in the country. So lets take a state that is already viewed with fear and trepidation and make it that much harder to get a license to practice in. Lets make that license contingent upon 50 hours of work (which is no drop in the bucket) and thus becomes a nightmare for anyone who decides midway through their third year of law school that they want or need to take the New York bar exam but didn’t go to law school in New York. Those applicants, to put it mildly, are screwed, am I right? I don’t think you can put in 50 pro bono hours the summer you are studying for the exam so you are now punishing anyone who didn’t “plan ahead” even though the decision of where to take the bar exam is dependant upon their spouse, their kids or any other number of things out of their hands.

You are also creating a huge hurdle for attorneys who are already practicing in one state and are looking to become admitted in New York (I haven’t read that they’d be waived of the requirement which is why I’m bringing it up) by saying “Hey, while you hold down a job somewhere else, and you study for another bar exam, please be sure to find 50 hours of your time to donate.”

In summary my first argument is that logistically this is a nightmare.

My second argument rests on an assumption no one is going to like, but I’m putting it out there anyway. Do you know how many rules are in place to prohibit cheating on bar exams? Those rules exist because in the past, people have tried to cheat. No need for lawyer jokes here, and no need to assume it is just lawyers- people cheat on spelling tests in first grade, on medical boards and CPA exams, and, no surprise at all, on the bar exam. So lets add an element to becoming admitted to the bar that brings innocent (or maybe not, hah, a little criminal law joke, oh God, where did my sense of humor die?) third parties into the mix: the indigent clients that are the touted basis for this requirement. Sure, some enterprising young adults might just entirely fudge the affidavit they are required to sign (excellent basis for an ethical legal career by the by) but others might begin helping someone and then, through whatever faults of their own, not follow through and lie about the rest of the hours. So now you have an unethical new lawyer and an indigent client who just got hosed by shoddy volunteer work. Special. Because people try to cheat or game the system this turns clinics and other places where you can volunteer into full time babysitters. No longer are they focused on training their small group of dedicated students, now they have to implement policies to make sure no one is fudging their hours and deal with the huge rush of people since everyone needs to volunteer now. I think this is overwhelming and unfair to all of the volunteer legal organizations out there.

Last but not least you are taking law students and requiring them to volunteer their time to people who can’t afford counsel. Some might call this the blind leading the blind. Others might call this absurd. Frankly I find it a little insulting to the client, a little “hey you can’t afford a lawyer at all and we want to teach these young whippersnappers something so we are letting them practice on you!” Not only that but the majority of these kids, who are practicing on the marginalized sector of society that probably needs the most protection, don’t want to be there.

Yes, the law students will be monitored and supervised.

Yes, there are clinics and programs across the country that have law students volunteering their time to people in need.

Yes, pro bono work is a cornerstone of “doing the right” and it is admirable to instill this trait in lawyers as young as you can.

But. Such a huge but.

You are forcing people to volunteer. These clinics are no longer filled with students who are truly yearning for the chance to help someone out, you are filling them up with everyone and my limited knowledge of statistical sampling says that not everyone is going to be driven by the desire to help. They are driven by the Fear Of God also known as The Fear Of The Bar Exam and Being A Real Lawyer and they are not who I want to see handing out legal advice. They are young, scared, and don’t know what they are doing. They are hoping for a long fulfilling career of being a law librarian or doing corporate transactional work, all they want to do is get admitted to the bar, but here they are (in a now  max capacity program since everyone is looking to volunteer) giving advice to someone who can’t afford a “real” lawyer.

It is insulting to everyone I think. The law student, their client, the program.

If the state of New York really cared about providing legal services to those that can’t afford them they would require that lawyers – who have already passed the bar and been admitted and know what they are doing- provide legal services. Lawyers have to renew their licenses, they have to attend continuing legal education, so why not add a pro bono work requirement? Maybe let them swap out 10 hours of continuing legal education for 10 hours of pro bono work. Then you have “real” lawyers dedicating their time to people who need it and you don’t have already freaked out of their gourd law students trying to help someone when they have no clue what they are doing themselves.

 I know I’m not the only one with these opinions but I hope that other states take a good long look at New York’s latest requirements and realize what a truly horrible idea it is.

Lawyers have enough jokes flying around about them. Lets not hurt our image even more and put an at-risk group further at risk. To me that is just common sense.

 

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