North Maple Rag

Well, kind of. There are, of course, callbacks to contend with, but for this weekend, I pretended all of that was in the very distant future. Friday at 5:30pm, I finished my 33rd interview of the week and was thrilled. I should've gone to sleep right then, but instead I went to dinner with a firm I like a lot (no official callback yet, but I'm hopeful), saw a movie (The 40 Year Old Virgin: very funny), and made a quick and unsucessful trip to a club in the meatpacking district. I literally fell into bed around 3am and groggily pulled myself out of bed around noon. Since then, my roommate and I have managed to clean most of our apartment, I've unpacked all of my clothes, and I switched my fall classes around a bit (no more Patent Law).

I feel like I should write something about my impressions of Early Interview Week, but it's still too much to process. So far, I'm happy with my callbacks. Since I applied to almost all DC and Southern California firms (both known for frequently taking awhile to issue the callbacks), I also have reason to hope for a few more.

Last night, my roommate mentioned that she had the new Harry Potter book. I started it around midnight and finished it sometime this afternoon with about five hours of sleep in the middle. Yes, I'm a dork and yes, I did have other things that I should've been doing. Oh well, it was good -- not my favorite of the series, but good. And now, I'm not doing much at all. It's probably the last time that'll happen for a while, so I'm enjoying it.

Tonight was one of those nights. I look around at the expensive food and endless bottles of wine and try to remember where I was when I signed up for this life. I know that being an associate at a big law firm isn't going to be like this all the time, but that doesn't mean that it's not completely weird right now. Anyway, if I don't keep this short I'm going to start rambling incoherently, so I'll just say that I wish I could talk to the pre-law school version of myself and explain that choosing this school made it far more difficult than I ever expected to not do the law firm thing for at least a while.

Oh well. The food's been really good.

Nine interviews today. One reception. I'm exhausted. I vaguely remember having four really great interviews today. Everything else has blurred together. Luckily, I only have four interviews scheduled for tomorrow (although I'm going to try to add one or two firms if they have openings). I also have an appointment with an eye doctor tomorrow. I'm pretty excited; I've needed new contacts and glasses all summer, but had to wait until I was back in the NYU health system to be able to afford it. I might also finally upack some clothes other than my suits tomorrow. Maybe.

I flew back to NYC on Saturday. My first flight left Watertown approximately eleven hours after all of Northwest Airline's mechanics decided to go on strike. The mechancis deserve whatever they want; the airline was falling apart without them. Then, I spent Sunday unpacking and cleaning up my writing sample. It doesn't sound it, but the weekend was good. I'm genuinely happy to be back here and even reasonably excited to start classes.

All that, however, is currently unimportant because my life, for the week, is all interviews, all the time. I had seven today and followed that up with a reception where I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in appetizers. The day was considerably less horrible than I'd expected. Most of the interviewers were friendly and engaging. In fact, my final interview of the day was downright fun. I'd really like to get callbacks with a couple of today's firms, but like so many law school things, it seems impossible to gauge how I'm doing.

So far, I have nothing crazy to report. No inappropriate questions. No scary interviewers. No major mistakes on my part (that I know of). One itsy-bitsy crush on one of my interviewers. Oh, and lots of free stuff . . . including a Starbucks gift card that I will certainly be using before my interview tomorrow morning (it's much later than I thought!).

Often, when my brother and I are home, my parents let us make food requests. When I was in college, I'd always ask my mom to make lasagna. This past weekend, my brother asked my dad to grill steaks and my mom to make mashed potatos. Earlier this week, I requested caramel corn. Today, my dad complied with the request.

If there's a heaven, I firmly believe it smells similar to our house right now. And, there are mountains of my dad's caramel corn for everyone to enjoy.

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It's good to be home. That's all.

Actually, the frizzy hair probably started back in Kansas. Humidity + curly hair = head full of frizz. My California summer had magically erased all my memories of humidity. Unfortunately, I think New York's going to have it in spades, so I'll be test driving some styling products this next week.

Me and Nebraska have had a turbulent past. I once went on a completely awful trip to Omaha with a friend who had recently decided to try out being bipolar and I think the state's obseessive devotion to Huskers football is a bit annoying. That said, the gently rolling hills in the northern part of the state are very pretty and I'm a big fan of Wayne.

We drove through the state entirely on Hwy. 81 which is one of my roads. This won't come as a surprise, but I get a little sentimental about roads. I-29 and Highways 12, 20, 81, and 212 in South Dakota. I-95 on the East Coast (despite its awfulness) and the 101 on the West coast. Anyway, Hwy. 81 goes past my grade school and it was part of my morning drive during high school, not to mention the fact that I generally have to take it anytime I want to go anywhere in Watertown, or leave Watertown. It was nice to see a new stretch of it.

My mom's best friend from high school lives in Hutchinson, Kansas and her daughter, who is the same age as me and used to be my pen pal, lives in Witchita. We met up with them in Haven and drove to Yoder for lunch at an Amish style restaurant. I think it's safe to say that most any meal made in an Amish community is going to be good. Anyway, my meal was fantastic and the pie that my mom and I shared at the end was, well, something better than fantastic.

After lunch, we decided to drive all the way home (about an addition 10 hours of driving). We stopped for snacks and magazines in Belleville, KS and bought some popcorn at a drugstore. Best. Popcorn. Ever. If you ever get near Belleville, it's totally worth driving downtown to the only drugstore and picking some up. It was white cheddar and caramel and I just can't lavish enough praise on it.

Anyway, Kansas is pretty in the same way that all of the plains states are pretty. My mom and I breathed sighs of relief back in Texas when the prairie opened up before us. Most prairie people I know have the same reaction whenever they return to the plains and first seen an open expanse of farm or ranch land. For me, it's all about the sky. Other places have lots of sky, but on the prairie you feel like you can see all of it.

We stayed in Woodward, OK, which is small and not unlike a similarly-sized town in SoDak. It was fine. Our hotel room was spacious and I finally gave in to the allure of a Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic (who's food I don't generally enjoy). We arrived in Woodward fairly late in the evening and left prett early the next morning, so I don't know much about the town other than they stop selling wine pretty early and their gas stations have a depressing beer selection.

The morning we left, I slept until right before the Kansas border (Helooooo Kansas!), so there's not much else to report. Sorry, I know y'all were waiting for the Oklahoma report with bated breath.

I started sneezing at exactly the same moment I first opened my car door in Texas. Then my eyes started watering and my throat started to close up. Ahh, summer on the prairie. Nothin' like it.

Texas is okay. The area around Amarillo looks a lot like home, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't think I could ever live in Amarillo. That's a big deal since, as my mom has pointed out, my most frequent assessment of new places I visit is, "it's nice, I could live here." Maybe it's the really loud bugs. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the fact that town has little, if any, character. Maybe it's that the beautiful homes in the historic district were all for sale, while large, cookie-cutter homes seem to be rapidly invading the outskirts of the town. Maybe I just don't want to live in Texas (although, I'm holding out on making that a definite pronouncement until I've visited Austin, which I hear is lovely).

Anyway, Texas, y'all talk with big, thick drawls and at least that's endearing. There are few sounds more amusing than unapologetic drawl.

Due to a number of silly reasons I'd rather not go into, New Mexico has been one of my favorite states for the past couple of years despite the fact that I hadn't ever set foot here until today. Luckily, the Land of Enchantment is wonderful.

The drive today was gorgeous. New Mexico, like Arizona is greener than I'd expected. And the rocks and mesas and whatnot make the drive across the northern part of the state pleasantly varied.

Tonight, my mom and I are staying in Albuquerque and we made an effort to get here early enough to enjoy the city for a few hours. It's colorful, with the big blue mountains in the distance, fluffy white clouds overhead, and brightly colored storefronts and homes. There's also a whole heck of a lot of adobe around here. Adobe's been a rarety in my travels and I find it to be more than a little charming. Old Town's nice and Route 66 is slightly less seedy here. Also, the Rio Grande flows through town. The Rio Grande! It's one of those geographic things that's come up frequently in my history classes but has never seemed all that real. I think my mom was a little alarmed by how excited I was when we first crossed it.

The only fault I can find with New Mexico is the hotel that my mom and I were originally booked at. We pulled up to find an empty reception desk, a dirty lobby, and a general feeling of sleaziness. After waiting around for the receptionist to turn up, we left and I talked our way into a full refund from Priceline (their "policy" was no match for my negotiation skills). Anyway, we're now ensconced at a cleaner and hopefully safer hotel, so Albequerque's back in my good graces.

Tomorrow we're driving through the northern part of Texas and spending the night at some small town in Oklahoma. I wish I could spend more time in New Mexico, but I'm consoling myself with the thought that they'll need some campaign volunteers (or possibly workers) here in the next couple years.

Midwesterner that I am, I hear "Arizona" and think of tumbleweeds and cacti. Turns out, Northern Arizona, specifically the Flagstaff area, is very treey and mountainy. In fact, every part of the state that I saw was much more green than I'd expected.

The highlight of my day in AZ was, of course, the Grand Canyon. I'd always heard that the Grand Canyon is the one thing that never disappoints visitors and that was certainly true for me. I think it's just impossible to accurately anticipate something of it's size and scope. Like my mom, I now want to go hiking and camping in the Canyon. Alas, all we had time for yesterday was the typical tourist stops on the southern rim. Another trip is definitely in order.

We spent the night in Flagstaff, which I've heard is a nice town but I didn't see much of. We rolled into town after sunset and it was raining, so there wasn't much exploring other than finding a place to eat dinner. We eventually settled on a slightly seedy looking diner that was full of people who appeared to be locals. It was a good choice; the corned beef hash (my favorite road food) was lovely.

The hotel and diner were both on Route 66, which I've seen quite a bit of on this trip. I didn't realize until yesterday that I-40 pretty much follows 66 across the southwestern states. A few stretches that I've seen have been cool, but for the most part the road's now kind of . . . seedy. It's too bad. It's easy to see how traveling it 40 or 50 years ago would've been a good time.

Oh, I guess I also think of the Arizona Billiards Bar in Potsdam, Germany when I hear the word, "Arizona," but that's probably a story better left for another time.

Tonight's my last night in California and I'm more than a little sad about leaving. Luckily, I'm simultaneously excited about spending some time at home and even looking forward to going back to school. I've had a great summer and my California relatives can now be broken into two groups: the ones who start conversations with, "When North Maple moves to San Diego . . ." and the ones who start them with, "When North Maple moves to Sacramento . . ." I'm not yet 100% convinced that I'll be living here after law school, but it's nice to feel wanted.

Whenever I travel, I think of the part of The Grapes of Wrath (the book, not the movie) when the Joads finally reach the lush orchards of California. Tom Joad comments that the only members of his family who can truly see California are his youngest siblings. The other members of the family are too wrapped up in Oklahoma and can only see California as a comparison to it (well, that's the way I remember the passage, it's actually been a long while since I read the book). I've found that phenomenon to be true for me. I love to travel aand explore, but I always see new places with South Dakota in my thoughts. Somehow though, that hasn't been true this summer. I think California's the first place I've seen for itself, and while that's not necessarily a reason to return, it's something.

Anyway, California's been great and I've seen quite a bit more of it this weekend. My mom and I spent some time at Yosemite yesterday (it's just as spectacular as everyone says) and today we drove south. We're staying in the desert tonight and early tomorrow morning, we'll hit Arizona (Hellooooooo Arizona!). we're headed to the Grand Canyon tomorrow and New Mexico the day after that. So, exciting times ahead. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Went to Millbrae last night to see Wedding Crashers and all the good things I'd heard about it were true. It's hilarious and the director somehow managed to stumble upon a couple of "my" DC landmarks (in other words, places that aren't landmarks at all, but have significance just to me).

I spent today in my kitchen frantically trying to finish my sections of the article I'm working on. Yesterday there was some sort of electrical mishap in my office building and the people in charge haven't yet fully restored the power. Working from home has actually been a good thing; we don't have internet access in the apartment, so I have to walk out to the street anytime I want to check my email or putz around online. Needless to say, I've done quite a bit less of each today than usual.

This is two days late, but Saturday was my parents anniversary and since they both occasionally read the blog, I just wanted to post a quick congratulations to them. They've been married for 28 years. 28 years! They were my age when when they got married and that's kind of mind-boggling for me since my law school loans are the biggest committment I've ever made. Anyway, it's incredible. They're incredible.

Congratulations Mom and Dad!