North Maple Rag

I checked Moneyball out from the library a few days ago and was informed by the librarian that I should take advantage of Two-dollar Wednesdays at the Oakland Coliseum (actually, he called it Two-dollar Tuesdays, which created some initial confusion among those of us new to Oakland A's events). So, we went to the game last night, had some dollar dogs, and enjoyed what was a beautiful evening. Despite arriving a little late, we saw Nick Swisher's second inning home run (fun for me since I'd just read the part of Moneyball that describes his draft pick).

Anyway, here's our view of the game (courtesy of KVB's phone). Sure, we were far away, but the seats were two dollars.



As we walked from BART to the Coliseum's ticket line, I heard what became the question of the night from a man walking near us. He turned to his companion and said, "So, uh, what do you think of the Roman Colosseum?" He followed that up with what might be the best statement I've ever heard, "Yeah, their's sure is different than ours."

I actually did reasonably well in the law school lottery thing; I got in the one seminar I really wanted and had a nice mix of other classes I was at least midly interested in taking. Then, I started thinking about ways to make my schedule more travel-friendly (read: no Friday classes) and I started hearing good and bad things about some of next fall's visiting professors. Long story short: I'm currently only in two of the classes I started with.

It should be a good semester, though. Right now I've got my classes clustered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays leaving time (hopefully) for completing my writing requirement, going on job interviews, doing some volunteer stuff I've signed up for in NYC, and getting out of town for at least a couple weekends.

Oh, but I am a tiny bit worried about my Corporations class. According to its description, my grade for those 5 credits will come down to a 1-hour final. One hour! I don't think I've had a one-hour test since twelth grade.

Friday night, me and the roommates headed back to the brewery for happy hour. Happy hour was followed by a night of poker complete with unlimited free beer and a mountain of In & Out burgers. My poker playing skills have improved since the last time I played for money (at a seminary, natch). I didn't win, but I had a few impressive hands where I at least gave the impression of controlling the table. And, more importantly, one of the guys (a lawyer, even) told me he was scared of me (because of my agressive poker playing, not because of anything else). Heck, that alone was worth the cost of the buy-in.

I spent part of Saturday at one of the UC libraries working on a work assignment and Saturday evening, SeaAPea and I headed to the airport to pick up KVB (current number of people living in my apartment: 4; number of bedrooms in my apartment: 2). We drove up to Albany for a birthday party that ended up being a lot more fun than I'd expected and then returned home to get KVB settled in her "bedroom" (bedroom = air matress on the floor near the couch I've been sleeping on for the past five weeks).

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at Sconehenge in Berkeley. The english muffins alone were worth the trip. KVB and I BARTed into San Francisco to catch part of the Gay Pride parade after that. I'd been told nothing compares the San Francisco parade and it was definitely an eyeful. We only spent a few hours in the city before making our way back to the barbecue held at our house for the roommate who's moving back east this week. After the barbecue we introduced KVB to one of my favorite San Francisco foods, the It's-It.

So, another full weekend. I like having a busy life, but I'm really hoping that the San Diego trip includes a day of lounging on the beach. Not moving for a day sounds like the best thing ever.

I've got family here. They're extended family and granted, I don't know them all that well (because, well, they live in California), but they've been popping up all over the state this summer and they're also very welcoming. I've been getting lovely invites and my great-aunt and uncle are lending me and my friends their house in San Diego next weekend. On top of that, we've got a San Diego tour guide if we need one (a cousin) and directions to both of the bars another cousin owns. Not too shabby for the girl from South Dakota.

One of the the most difficult things about living in both DC and NYC has been that I have no family living anywhere near the East Coast. It turns out there's something very comforting about having real adult (as opposed to my twenty-something friends) relatives nearby. Anyway, I've got four and a half days until we hit the road. I expect The Thrills' "Deckchairs and Cigarettes" will be running through my head that entire time ("Let's go to San Diego. Hey that's where all the kids go...").

and was reminded just how much I want to find a place that I plan to live for more than a year or two. Since high school, I think I've moved 16 times (give or take a couple I might've forgotten). Except for a couple of months spent at my parents house, a summer spent sharing a house with nine other women, and six weeks of housesitting, I've lived in dorm rooms and apartments that entire time (well, one of the apartments was in a house, but I didn't have access to the whole place).

I want a house. More than that, I want to buy furniture. Real furniture. I've been living with industrial-design dorm room furnishings, cast-offs, and the occasional IKEA chair for way too long. I'm currently sleeping on a couch (I'll get a bedroom in about a week!). I know that this is the time of my life to travel, explore, and live in crappy places (and I enjoy doing all of that), but sometimes, a girl just wants matching end tables.

Or maybe it's Oakland. Either way, someone stole one of my license plates. Just went up, unscrewed the screws and walked away with my plate (and the screws). I suspect it was a college kid who was amused by my South Dakota plates. Amusement is fine, taking the plate isn't. I'm currently waiting for the Berkeley police to call me back so that I can fully report the missing plate, just in case it is now sitting on a car that's leaving a crime scene rather than decorating the wall of some undergrad's bedroom. My parents are alterting the South Dakota authorities so that the records there can be updated as well. I expect I'll have to get all new plates which poses two problems: 1) I'll have to pay for all new plates which will really piss me off, and 2) I'll have to memorize all new license plate numbers which, despite the fact that I tend to have a pretty good memory, has proven difficult in the past.

The worst part is that half of my car is now bare. I know some states only require one plate, but SoDak requires two and I like that. The SoDak plates give me a certain freedom -- when I execute a slightly ill-advised or illegal driving manuever, I can simply point to the plates and imply that I'm fresh off the farm. Disingenuous? Yes, but helpful nonetheless. And now, I can only do that half the time. Damn college kids.


UPDATE: I now have a case number and the police officer who filed my report assured me I'm now exempt from any liability if someone commits a crime while driving a car bearing my plates. Ahh liability, that officer sure know how to sweet-talk a law student.


* Please excuse my swearing.

I mentioned my somewhat unreasonable animal fears (and really, except for the oppossums and raccoons in my yard, the fears are mainly limited to icky fish and eel-like things). My post included a picture of an oarfish and what I failed to mention is that I'm not only afraid of being attacked by one the next time I'm in the ocean, I'm also afraid of being attacking while I'm in my backyard or watching tv. See, that's what makes the fear (and me, sadly) unreasonable.

If you're wondering where this all started, the answer's simple: Pierre, SD. My junior year of high school, I competed in the state student congress competition in Pierre (it was held at the state capitol) and one of my coaches made a point of driving us around to "see the sights." Among the sites we visited was the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River. As we were standing at the edge of the dam, my coach started telling us about the 5 ft. long catfish that lived at the bottom. Those damn (pun intended) catfish have haunted me since. I used to have dreams about them attacking me and then gnawing at my arm with gross whiskered heads. The dreams stopped a few years ago, but even now, sitting at my computer, the thought of them makes me flinch.

Anyway, South Dakota Magazine's blog has a post that makes my feas seem a bit more reasoned.

and attended a panel discussion at Boalt on the takings cases that were heard by the Supreme Court this spring. The panel featured two of the lawyers who argued the San Remo Hotel case (one from each side) and fortuitously, the decision was handed down yesterday, as well. The panel also featured a pretty hot shot professor and halfway through his presentation, I realized I'd quoted in him my property final. I was tempted to thank him after the discussion ended since that test went better than I'd expected, but I realized that would've been too dorky.

Anyway, takings are confusing, but fascinating. I was pleased to discover that my property professor provided (whoa alliteration) my section with a very good introduction to the topic and I was even happier when the overview of regulatory takings at the beginning basically followed, word-for-word, the flow chart my ad hoc study group had hammered out. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's reassuring to know that I learned something this year that might stick with me.

Friday night was pretty low-key. A brewery happy hour, shopping for picture frames, and beer and burgers at a fun bar in Oakland filled up most of my post-work hours. Saturday morning, my roommates and I headed north to Muir Woods. We only had a few hours to work with, so we limited the hiking to some of the easier paths. After leaving, we stopped at Marin Headlands to take some cool pictures of the city and the Golden Gate. We then made a quick stop at home before making our way to the Oakland Zoo to serve up Drake’s Beer at the Walk on the Wild fundraiser. Turns out, my roommates are friends with the Drake’s brewmaster, who, for some unknown reason, saw fit to entrust us with four taps of really good beer for a few hours. We spent or off-duty time wandering the zoo and sampling the free food. The event was made all the better by the fact that Drake’s is excellent beer and when you’re handing it out for free, people generally want to be your best friend.

Sunday morning, I awoke to a home-cooked breakfast (seriously, these roommates are awesome) and then BARTed into the city. We stopped at the North Beach Festival, climbed up to Coit Tower, hunted down the famous wild parrots, and shopped in Union Square. By the end of the day, my face had that “I’ve been in the sun too long feeling,” which I love. The weekend ended with a viewing of 50 First Dates, which is really much funnier than I expected.

Hence, the background photo change.

My plan for the weekend is to spend as much time as possible outside. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and the rain will hold off for a while. It's been raining a lot this past week and my co-workers tell me that's not normal for this time of year. I think I need to research this mini-climate phenomenon 'cuz it seems to be everyone's explanation for the weird weather patterns here.

Roommate's parents are in town and last night, they took us out to dinner here. You know, when I was in college and eating pizza multiple times a week, I kind of expected that there'd come a day when I would outgrow it. Hasn't happened yet. Although, my tastes have matured a bit; I'm now willing to try fancy-schmancy toppings like pesto and cilantro and arugula and I like eating at places like Two Amy's in DC that boast about the authenticity of their pizza-making.

Anyway, last night, the pizza was excellent, the beer was cold and good (from here, try the Death and Taxes Black Beer) and the conversation was loud and funny. Good times. Roommate's parents can visit any time they want. Oh, and roommate's dad has a super-cool pocketwatch.

1. I have unreasonable animal fears. I saw this picture about a week ago and it's been plaguing me ever since. I've also recently realized that my yard here in Berkeley is essentially a mini wildlife prserve. We've got a redwood tree back there which, mind you, is cool, but it's also home to a large colony of squirrels and something like a gazillion spiders. There's also a family of oppossums in there. Not cool. I encountered a small one when I walked out the door yesterday and I'm now terrified every I leave or enter the house. Usually, I'm just scared of things like the oarfish that I've only heard about or seen photos of. The fact that I've seen the oppossum just a few feet from where I sleep makes this new fear all that more serious.

2. Drivers in California don't wave. You know, when someone lets you merge or turn, the natural thing to do is to wave and acknowledge they're generosity in sharing the road. Right? No one here does that, which seems weird because I know waving isn't just a midwest thing. It was pretty standard practice in DC and I've seen people do in lots of other places, too. Thing is, waving is a reflex for me, but other drivers here give me the oddest looks when I do it. Is it really that out of the ordinary? It's not like I'm driving around doing the farmer wave.

3. I can't wear my hat here. When I visited DC in April, I bought this Washington Nationals hat. It's a good hat and I enjoy wearing it. This weekend, though, as I wore it around Berkeley, I noticed that I was getting a lot of weird looks and even a few dirty looks (neither of which is a common experience, except with the waving thing above). I think what's happening is that people don't know about the Nationals and they think it's a George W. Bush hat. It's annoying but I'm still willing to give up the hat for the summer if it means passers-by don't mistake me for a Republican.

4. Parallel parking on the left hand side of the street is hard.

5. Someone stole the book I need from Boalt's library. Although, to be fair to Boalt, I should say that the librarian I spoke with was very nice and, unlike NYU, they let anyone who wants wander around.

other than that, I kind of love California. There are lots and lots of reasons to like this state; some silly and some substantial enough to potentially convince me to live here long term. But that's not what this post is about. Actually, I was informed by a New York reader who was in town that this blog gives the impression that I hate New York. I just want to set the record straight: I don't hate New York at all.

New York is actually pretty great. It is, in fact, everything in the world all in one place and I'm crazy lucky to get to live in the middle of it. And so, my admission of the day is that despite my growing love of the West Coast, I've started to miss NYC a little. I miss the West Village and Washington Square Park. I miss my bagel shop and bakery. I miss trips to Central Park. More than all that, I miss the excitement of the city. New York, to me, is a city about achievement. It's tough and fast-paced and despite it's challenges, the city can convince you that anything is possible, that no goal is too far-fetched.

So, that's what I miss. It's not enough for me to want to leave California now and I still maintain that I would despise being a lawyer in New York, but all in all I have good feelings for the city. Plus, the bars stay open 'til 4! How cool is that? Although, the party I attended last night in San Jose raged until 5 so Califorinia can compete, I guess. Uh yeah, California can definitely compete . . .

So, I decided to be a geek today and have spent the early afternoon hanging out at a coffeehouse and tweaking the blog. The background picture was taken last summer in South Dakota in Harding County. This blog's getting awful South Dakotay and while that's not a bad thing, look for the picture to change depending on where I am or where I've been.

North Maple Rag's undergoing some changes. It's almost officially summer and the autumny colors are getting on my nerves. As a first step, I've added some new links in the sidebar. Bigger changes will come once I figure out how to do some photo-editing (a challenge since I don't have photo-editing software).

My past roommates got used to me dramatically changing my bedroom layout every few months. My limited living quarters in New York prevented that from happening much this year and my new digs are kind of the same. So instead, I rearrange the blog. It's cathartic or something.

People so often use "voice" as a reason to recommend books. The writer always has a "bold" or "vivid" or "enchanting" voice and I'm never quite sure what that means. Despite that, I referred to a writer's "cool voice" in a book recommendation I made to a few friends today. Gah. I hate it when I write things things like that -- things I really haven't thought about but they just sort of fit into whatever the larger thing is that I'm writing.

As I was thinking about this, I read this interview with Elizabeth Crane. I've read a couple of her short stories and I recently ordered both of her books. I discovered recently that she has a blog and I've been reading it primarily because she has several posts about things that I'd considered writing about here (Stuff magazine, for example, which magically shows up at my apartment every month despite the fact that neither I or my two other female rommates have ordered it). Anyway, Crane's writing is often described as "rambunctious" and that seems about right. She uses run-on sentences and creative punctuation and the thing about that that's cool is that you can hear her telling you the story as you read. She had this comment about her writing that I found interesting:

I say this often but I used to be a big letter writer before e-mail. My letters were, in some ways, really so much better than the stories I was writing then, or whatever I was writing at that time. I would write rough drafts of them, of whatever story was happening at the moment I would make it into entertainment. People would say “Oh you should write about this,” but I didn’t think I could write a story that way.

That comment just made so much sense to me. I love, love, love reading and writing letters and emails and I think it's because those formats facilitate telling a story the way you would if the recipient was sitting across from you. It's so much easier to get sidetracked or let yourself get caught up in a description or be clever in a letter than it is in a short story or an essay that's supposed to follow a certain format.

A few years ago, I took a class on storytelling and the Gospel of Mark. Each week, the class broke into small groups to perform the stories for the rest of the class. It was fascinating to see the multitude of ways the somewhat sparse stories of Mark could be told. It also made me think that if you want to tell a story in a personal way, if you want to guide the reader's interpretation and emotions, then you have to let your speaking voice break in. You have to find ways to wink at the reader and to speed up their reading when you're excited and slow it down when you're not.

I've been reading "update" emails from a group of friends today and all of them have managed, in some way, to do these things. It's incredible how natural all of it is when we're conversing with friends but how challenging it can be when we're writng for ourselves or an unknown audience.

And, that's what I've been thinking about today; along, of course, with the information and statistics I need to hunt down before I can really start writing the introduction for the article I'm working on. Guess which one's more interesting.

I finally got a California counties map for my desk. It's a necessity; I keep sitting in on these statewide conference calls and I have no idea where the other people are. So, I'm learning California geography county-by-county and town-by-town (counties learned yesterday: Stanislaus and Yolo; towns: Willits, Escondido, and Oxnard). I think I've got a pretty good grasp on the Bay Area counties and Southern CA is easy since it looks like the mapmakers just got bored down there and started blocking off big chunks of the state and making them into counties.

Last summer, The Head Kid and I started a project photographing county courthouses throughout South Dakota. We didn't get all that far on the project, but it was still a fun way to learn about the state. I don't think I'm going to use the same approach in California, but I am using the county map to keep track of where I've been. So far, I think I've visited 20 of the 58 counties in California (a lot of those are some of the smallest counties). I've got a lot to do this summer.

I had a fun moment today while editing a memo. The bulk of it focused on procedural due process, one of a handful of legal topics about which I think I know a little (as do all of my section-mates). As I went through the footnotes on Goldberg, Matthews, Mullane, and the like, I revelled in the feeling of familiarity. I've been wandering through a legal doctrine I only had passing familiarity with (from undergraduate classes) for the past two weeks and it was great to read something and instantly understand the arguments.

Shortly before completing that task, I'd been given my first writing assignment. It's a project I'm more than a little nervous about it. This assignment will be part of the first draft of the article my boss and I are writing and I'm pretty confident that I'm not qualifed to be writing legal scholarship. Alas, that doesn't change the fact that it's due next week. Wish me brilliance.

And, as you're doing that, email me book recommendations. I'm currently reading Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones. It's unrelated to the Bill Murray movie and, so far, it's very good. The main character is an American interpreter living in China and the author seems to enjoy showing the contrast between the speech patterns of English and Chinese (Mandarin, mostly, I think). It's also a little bit of a mystery and, I suspect, a romance. I'm only about 100 pages into it, but I think I can safely say it's worth your time.

Multnomah Falls (Somewhere between Portland and Hood River, OR).


Shephard's Dell Falls (A little closer to Portland).


The path leading up to Shephard's Dell Falls.


The view of the beach as we hiked out to Point Reyes.


Point Reyes Lighthouse. Seriously, one of the coolest places I've ever been.

According to my calculations, the last time I had a weekend that didn't involve studying or long-distance travel was when I was home at Christmas. Weekends rock.

Yesterday morning, one of my roommates showed me a great running path in Berkeley and then I took care of a few necessary errands and shopping during the afternoon. I joined up with my other roommate (SeaAPea) for an impromptu trip to Alameda. Why Alameda? No particular reason other than it was listed in a book of fun East Bay hikes that she'd bought. We watched the windsurfers and parasailors for a while before heading back to Berkeley.

Once here, we went to Berkeley Bowl (Best. Produce. Ever.). We BBQ'd on our patio and then headed up the street to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Good times. The movie wasn't that bad, but the best part, by far, was when the entire theater (filled with sassy young women like ourselves) started laughing uproariously during the overly dramatic tearjerker scene.

This morning, the same roommate who took me running yesterday came with me to run a 10K in Sacramento. The drive up there was refreshingly short; a nice surprise since I think I'll be headed up there a couple more times this summer to see family. I managed to finish the race despite being terribly unprepared, but my time was disappointing, at best. I think I'll look for another 10K to run in late-June.

After the race, I had lunch with a friend from NYU (Neo Tokyo Times). It seems that a lot of my time in California has been spent with friends that I've met and gotten to know in entirely different contexts. It's fun to see people in new places. Last weekend, when I returned from SoDak, I ran into one of my former Senate co-workers at the airport. It was entirely unexpected, but I suspect we'll now stay in touch (we exchanged email addresses and have since exchanged emails). I also ran into an NYU classmate after work on Wednesday and then spent the evening hanging out at a beach bonfire with a friend from high school. The Bay Area is winning me over by feeling more and more like a small town.

Late this afternoon, I returned to Berkeley and bought a winter coat. The good people at the North Face Outlet Store win the "North Maple's Helpful People of the Day" award for not getting angry while my roommate and I tried on about 50 coats each before finally making our selections after the store had officially closed (hey, the sale ended today). We ended up getting great deals . . . and the same coat. We'll both be in NYC next fall, so keep an eye out for the dorky girls dressed like twins.

Hmm . . . this post has ended up being just a rambly itinerary of my weekend. Sorry 'bout that. As a bonus, here's some tips for next time you visit California's fine capital city:

• Nearly every street is a one-way (at least near the Capitol and downtown). It's very easy (shockingly easy, in fact) to end up going the wrong way down one of them. Not that I'd know from experience or anything . . .
• The American River is very pretty. It has a big gold bridge. If you should ever decide to run near it in the summer, though, bring buckets of mosquito repellent. Towards the end of the race, the only thing that kept me running was the swarm of mosquitos after my blood.
• The Tower Cafe serves huge salads. Did you know that Tower Records started in Sacramento? Neither did I.
• There are two Macy's stores at the downtown mall. One has men's clothing and home furnishings. The other has women's and children's clothing and, I assume, housewares. If you agree to meet someone at Macy's, make sure you specify which one. If you don't, confusion will ensue.

South Dakota Magazine's blog often lists features lists of upcoming SoDak attractions and travel tips. Recently, they've been featuring little known restaurants, shops, and other activities throughout the state. This post highlights some of the best places to go when you're looking for solitude and it's got some good recommendations.

The Glacial Lakes is my favorite suggestion on the list because, well, that's where I'm from. They're right about the Indian legends that accompany most of those lakes. I'm not sure if any of them are true, but they were always fun to hear. Stony Point at Lake Kampeska (just a few short miles from my house) has a legend involving a contest among warriors, a stranded princess (Is the daughter of a Chief called a "princess?" Probably not, but you get the idea.), and a daring rescue. Good stuff for a summer night at the lake.

Neither of these is Stony Point, but they're all I've got of Lake Kampeska.

SoDak t-shirts are few and far between; so much so that I contemplated buying a Sioux City (that's in Iowa) shirt at Old Navy a few days ago (I didn't do it, Sioux City's guh-ross). Luckily, this tee is now available.



All sorts of stuff has happened in SoDak, it's just not many non-South Dakotans are lucky enough to know about it. Anywho, the website selling this tee is classy. That alone might make a purchase worthwhile.

Until this past weekend, I felt like I hadn't taken a deep breath since the beginning of April. Between finals, oral arguments, and making summer arrangements, the last month and a half of school was a blur. I finished my last final on May 11 and since then, haven't stayed in the same place for more than a few days.

Logically, I should've stayed in Berkeley this past weekend. After weeks of traveling, a two-day trip to South Dakota seemed a little silly. Luckily, I ignored logic and went home anyway. The trip was great and I relaxed for the first time in a long time. The Head Kid has a nice post about what made it a good weekend and I don't have much to add to it.

Now, I'm in California for good. Well, least for a while. And, even though I'm happy to be settled for the next couple months, I'm looking forward also to doing some exploring that doesn't involve airfare or cross-country drives. This weekend I think I'll try to see some the parts of San Francisco that I missed during my trip out here last year. On Sunday, I'm heading up to Sacramento to run a 10K. Luckily, they only time the first 200 finishers, so I won't have to know just how slow I've become.

The rest of my weekends are up for grabs. I've got a good list of places I can see with just a day trip and a shorter list of places that will require an entire weekend. Also, since first deciding to spend the summer out here, I've discovered that I have quite a bit of extended family out here (mostly in southern CA and Sacramento). Their presence might influence some of my weekend choices.

The bad news about Berkeley is that I don't have internet access at home. I'm hoping to find some free wireless nearby, but haven't had much luck so far. If I find it, pictures and more frequent posts will follow.