Saturday, September 27, 2008

What we do

A lot of people have been asking me lately what I'm going to do now that I passed the Bar, or, for those who already know, what it is exactly that I do. I'm sure everyone is interested in what Suzy and Tenny do too, so here's a brief synopsis of what we do.


I'm an attorney (or at least I will be once I'm officially sworn into the Bar next month). I work at a law firm in D.C. that we affectionately call Uncle Cleary. I worked at Cleary part-time for about a year, and I just started as an Associate about a month ago. As far as law firms go, it's a great place to work. I mostly do litigation (i.e., court stuff). Right now I'm doing a securities (stocks, Wall Street) case, an antitrust (economic competition, monopolization) case, and a pro bono asylum case. I write, I research, I interview, I think, and I travel. Every day is a new adventure, which is one of the reasons why I originally picked this profession. It's a good gig. It helps me pay off my student loans and feed my family--what's not to like?


Suzanne is a working mom--she works her hind parts off taking care of Tennyson and doing everything else necessary to run a home and family. She does the finances, she does the shopping, she does the cleaning, she takes care of leaking dishwashers, she cooks, she fights the insurance companies, and she does anything else that comes up. She does all this while taking care of Tennyson, which, I assure you, is also a full-time job.


If you ever find yourself needing some inexpensive entertainment, give Suzanne a call sometime in the middle of the day. It would be painful if it weren't so funny. I had a conversation with her yesterday that went something like this: "What time do you think you'll TENNYSON! DON'T COLOR ON THE CHAIRS. WE ONLY COLOR ON PAPER. Anyway, what time TENNYSON! WE DON'T PLAY IN THE GARBAGE. I can't even remember what we were, oh yeah, are you going to be late to...OH NO! TENNYSON! ARE YOU OK? COME HERE. YOU'RE OK. Tennyson just fell off the chair. He has been so crazy today. Anyway, when are you coming OUCH! DON'T PULL MOMMY'S HAIR. THAT HURTS MOMMY. NO, DON'T CRY, IT'S OK. MOMMY'S NOT MAD." Typical mid-day conversation with Suzy.


Suzanne also tries to keep Tennyson busy so he doesn't destroy everything, including himself. Which brings me to what Tennyson does. Tenny loves playing outside. He wakes up and starts saying "outside, outside, outside, outside." He loves to run, swing, and slide. He loves to chase birds and dogs and cats. He loves walking around our neighborhood, pointing out everything he sees and calling it by name until someone responds by telling him he got it right ("...trash, trash, trash, trash, trash, car, car, car, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird...."). Tennyson likes to play with his friends at weekly playgroup, or across the street, or at the park. He also likes coloring and reading and puzzles. He loves to tinker with anything he sees adults use and take it apart and then try to put it back together again. Tennyson mimics everything that he sees his parents doing. During the day he wants to do whatever mommy does. If mommy is vacuuming Tennyson will try to take the vacuum and run it like mommy. If mommy is making pancakes Tennyson wants to pour the flour from the measuring cup into the bowl or break the egg. Mommy tries to let him be as involved as he can be, even if the task takes longer to complete. His favorite indoor activity, though, is definitely taking anything from its rightful place and putting it on the opposite side of the house. Tennyson does not like being confined in any way. Car seats, strollers and high chairs are daily battlefields. But, he does like getting tickled and thrown in the air. Who doesn't?


So, that is what we do.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Picture shortage

Our apologies (especially to grandmas) for the recent lack of Tennyson pictures. Our camera is dead. I'm actually kind of glad because it wasn't very good, and now we have an excuse to get a new one. So, if anyone has any suggestions or is particularly fond of their camera model, the comment box is open for suggestions.

Three sentence book review: Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

We're about a decade late on this one, but that's what graduate school will do to your personal reading list. In any case, Suzy and I both just read Into Thin Air, and for anyone who is even further behind than we were, here is our three sentence book review:

Into Thin Air is the story of the 1996 Mt. Everest expeditions and the tragedies that marked that climbing season, as told by one climber on the mountain, Jon Krakauer. The book is a really simple, easy read (as are most books that make "best seller" lists) and each chapter reads like a magazine article (Krakauer writes for periodicals). Having said that, Suzanne and I both found Into Thin Air to be surprisingly engaging and would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an Everest adventure (without being crazy enough to actually try to climb it).

Suzy adds a sentence: "It's like when you pass an accident on the highway and you don't want to look but you can't help yourself."

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Bar


I'm sitting on the Acela train, heading back to DC from spending the day interviewing clients in NJ. The letter came in the mail today while I was gone. Suzy just couldn't wait so she opened it and sent me a text message with the good news. Jubilation. Hallelujah.

And here's the screenshot proof straight from the UT Bar website:


Go applicant 18918!

Friday, September 5, 2008

It's a long way from Enterprise to DC

We made it back to DC, but not without bringing a bit of the heartland back with us. Here are some parting shots of City Slicker Tenny exploring his country side at great-grandpa Terry's farm in Enterprise, Utah.

Snow cones (50¢)

Playing in the yard

Watering the flowers

Tilling the earth

Digging spuds

And giving them to great-grandpa Terry