So Different Now

White wine is Apollonion, the wine of polite and dulcet discourse, frippish gossip, banal phone calls, Aunt Ethel's quiche, a wine for those busy discussing closure, healing, the role of the caretaker, the evils of butter, the wine of the sincerity monoethic. It occasionally, of course, rises to greatness, and you may have some if you've been economically diligent or are an heir of some sort. I'm sure that even the cheaper varieties have brought thousands of soccer moms sanity-healing sex fantasies.

--Jim Harrison

Thanks to the privacy requirement that prevents me from bringing work home from chambers, I have weekends again. Today marks the beginning of my second real weekend in a row after 6 months of school, interviews, moot court, traveling, holidays, and general madness that meant no weekends.

Last weekend, we went out to dinner with friends, I ran 8 miles, bought a few nicer pieces of clothing to wear to chambers, and E and I tested our engagement by going to Home Depot, buying the necessary supplies and replacing the garbage disposal together (it had exploded in a greasy mess about a week prior--this led to the discovery that ants like grease, who knew?). We succeeded and didn't kill each other. The new disposal eats food like nobody's business. So, I celebrated its usefulness by making salmon-mushroom cakes from the Alaskan Salmon my dad gave us after Thanksgiving. I now have MUCH more appreciation for any type of fish cake made from scratch. It's a TON of work. I also now know that neither I nor E like crab-cakes or salmon cakes enough to ever do that amount of work again.

This weekend, is similarly chill, and I couldn't be happier. Last night, we had a great night on the couch, where we planted ourselves with red wine and watched both volumes of Kill Bill. I like my movies on the ridiculous side, I enjoy cartoons, and I prefer coversations that stream in multiple languages over those that stay in one. If you're like me, you'll like the Kill Bills. Today's grand plans involve lazing around and possibly paying some bills, maybe scoping out a dry cleaner's (which I'll absolutely need now that I'm in jacket and tie mode every day), scratching the more interesting stuff off my to-do list, and making Spanakopita for dinner. The evening's plans involve TetrisWorld on the Xbox (a christmas gift we haven't tried), eating the spanakopita, drinking wine, and well, not much else. Tomorrow, I've got 8 miles to run, and yeah, that's about it.

There's nothing I have to do, but plenty of stuff I can do, should do, will do, and, perhaps the most important one: there's stuff I won't do. I'm thrilled. I HIGHLY recommend externing to any and all law students.