It's a choice

My life right now fits the maxim: I'm a 2L and I'm being WORKED TO DEATH. But, I remind myself daily, it's not required. I chose this life for this month on the hopes that it would pay off in the end. There are more reasonable 2Ls who aren't doing everything all at once (journal, a moot court competition, Appellate Advocacy, courses, OCI, externship interviews for next semester). I waver between jealousy and conviction when I compare my recent days to theirs.

Lately, my typical day looks like this:

• wake up tired
  
• commute
  
• go to class
  
• go to an interview or two (change into the suit or just wear it all day, regardless it needs to be cleaned one of these days...)
  
• voicemail/email between classes and deal with scheduling callbacks, writing thankyous, etc.
  
• read/write/research/grunt-work for class/journal/moot-court between classes and interviews (eat lunch while doing this)
  
• go to 2+ hours of moot court practice
  
• commute home
  
• workout (unless I managed to squeeze in a workout between classes)
  
• eat dinner with E
  
• finish reading/writing/research/grunt-work for class/journal/moot-court
  
• sleep
  

Today, I went to my first class of the semester without having done the reading. Up until today, I was preoccupied with keeping on top of it all. Now, obviously, I'm not. And it's a relief. I'll probably fall further behind in my reading over the next few weeks and pick it up after OCI and moot court calm down. Whatever. Why didn't I slack off earlier?

Overall, I'm enjoying myself in a weird way. I feel very purposeful. I'm accomplishing quite a bit in a short period of time and I feel prepared and qualified to do most of what I'm doing (qualified to babble the same story about myself in 20 minute increments... doesn't take much to keep my ego happy, does it?). I'm certain the decision to aim for a reasonable amount of sleep, a good workout schedule, and healthy eating (okay, so I had nutter butters for lunch today, but in general, I'm pretty healthy) has quite a bit to do with why I feel content.

The decision to give up every hint of a social life for a few weeks was smart. I wouldn't want to do it for a long stretch of time, but for this stretch, I'm glad I did (and warning people worked wonders). I don't think I'd be much fun in a social setting right now anyways.

Given a choice between social stuff and working out when I'm stressed, I'll take the work out every time. Which reminds me, I put 18+ miles beneath my feet last week in addition to 3 hours of yoga. I haven't been this physically active since finals.

Restaurant Review

Tonight's Wednesday Night outing was to Cascal. The outdoor seating is well spaced and much quieter than the indoor din, although the tables are a bit small for all of the dishes that pan-latin food entails.

For starters, E had gazpacho, which was more blended and creamier than what we expected, but quite good. I went for the mixed lettuces, which were average at best. We followed with an order of calamari, which was decent (A- for batter flavor, B- for dipping sauce that was too viscous and not flavorful enough, B- for batter consistency that broke away from the calamari when dipped in the too viscous sauce).

For the main course, we split an order of Bisteca Churrasco. "Rare" came medium, but this is California, what can you do? The entire dish was a huge plate containing grilled marinated vegetables (A-), the Churrasco (B), and a quartered baked potato (A). The side dish stole show. Poblano chile and potato gratin with Mexican cotija cheese and garlic-parmesan crumbs--aka God's Own Potato Mush. DE-Li-Cious. A+.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on the wine list, which looked extensive, because my current life requires Pelligrino, even on date night...

Off to read for Evidence.