A New Love

Recently, I realized I've bought seven pairs of shoes within the last year of school. After four years of college, a year in D.C. and two years of law school, I realized all my shoes were sadly out of date. I still had these black chunky heels from high school that I thought went with everything, but compared to my best friends sexy heels, they were quite shabby and juvenile.

And I did not have any fashionable work shoes! Who needed work shoes when you worked in a biology lab for the government? But now as a corporate whore, if I have to get up early to go to work, at least I can look forward to primping and wearing something nice.
























Banana Republic. They look nice, but these pinch at the toes after a full day of walking in the office.

Then flats became the rage and I didn't own any flats. I'm not even 5'2" so wearing flats was limited to flip flops and sneakers to avoid feeling like a shrimp everyday. Even sneakers have a slight raised heel though. But the flats this past year have been pretty cute and a few weeks ago I caved and bought a pair of Dolce Vitas from Urban Outfitters on clearance:

























I always liked the feel of Dolce Vitas because the leather is nice and soft. The flats didn't give me any bruises at all after wearing them for long periods of time.

The rest of my shoes recently purchased within the last year:



















Dolce Vita
Nine West - best work shoes because I feel so tall (at least 3" taller) and smart in them and they are still comfortable
Enzo Angiolini - bought these for Super Roomie's birthday in Vegas when peep toes started coming in
Linea Paolo - love their shoes. I always look to see what new styles Linea Paolo has in the Nordstrom's shoe department.



















Ballerina kitten heels from Tribeca, also from Nordstroms
Guess casual sneakers because my grungy workout shoes just aren't stylish enough when I want to go out but want aesthetics and comfort .

Today was a lecture on the performance essay portion of the Bar exam. It was half pep talk and half strategy and tips for the bar. The guy was personable and told us about all these people who had various difficulties during the exam but still passed: war veteran who was a slow reader because a grenade exploded near his head (he got extra time, but still could only read the first document in the library after 90 minutes) - he passed, a lady who just had a child the same year, someone who on the day of the exam got out of the shower, slipped, knocked her head on the counter and had a concussion but still took the test, a man who had to go to Russia for two weeks to pick up his adopted kid, a woman who rewrote half of her performance essay after her computer crashed - they all passed.

Practicing is obviously the key, even if I don't know a subject that well (I can always look it up later to brush up and I won't forget it again after seeing it as a test question), so my goal is to write at least one essay a day other than the one assigned, and if there's too much homework, then at least one portion of the prompt. I know my weak spot are the essays, so if I keep practicing and learning how to take them, I think I'll feel good on test day.

Shopping helps a little bit.

We've finished reviewing all the subjects on the MBE (multiple choice section) and now we're onto subjects that are only tests in the essay portions. I really do not like how the Bar examiners grade answers because we have to enumerate each and every element even if we know one element is dispositive.

Enough grumbling. Here's what I've bought so far as retail therapy, one of the few bright spots during these endless days of studying:




































Goldsign Lust jeans from shopbop.com. These are my favorite brand of jeans. Sevens and True Religions just don't fit me correctly. Super roomie was right: once you start wearing designer jeans, you can never go back. They just look so good and if you get the right fit, the jeans are still pretty comfortable.

















Hanky panky boyshorts on super sale for $11.90. I know you are asking, $12 for underwear?? But hanky panky makes the most comfortable thongs I know, so the boyshorts are probably fine and won't give me annoying wedgies. These are usually a ridiculous $40.00.



















A&F shorts on clearance. They are not super short like most of my other shorts so I can wear them later when I have to be more respectable and hide the inner hoochie-mama.

Workout update
Chest

1. 35 lbs dbs for chest press on flat bench.
   
2. 32.5 lbs for incline bench.
   
3. 65 lbs on each side for decline chest on the Hammer Strength machine. I get scared doing the decline chest press with dumbbells by myself, so I use this instead.

Back

1. 80 lbs for seated rows.
   

Biceps

1. 40 lbs (the bar plus small plates) for preacher curls!
   

Legs

1. Lunges with 27.5s dbs. I think I might start doing lunches with the squat bar now since it's a bit hard on the triceps to hold the dbs while I'm doing lunges.
2. 80 lbs for stiff-legged deadlift. These always kill me the next day.
   

Finally!

My first flowers from a seed. These are forget-me-nots.
































Remember when this plant was just a tiny sprout?

Everything else on my balcony was bought from a store or the farmer's market. I'm so happy my miniature rose plant survived the winter. This is the first bloom since then.

BarBri = Law on Crack

Where have I been? Studying for the bar most of the time. I just finished doing 35 multiple questions on contracts, my all-time favorite legal subject, and it's depressing that I only got 60% right. Granted, a few of them I made the wrong choice because I was getting tired after being in class for 3 hours and starting at a computer for another 3 hours, but hey, test conditions will likely be even more stressful, so that really isn't a good excuse. BarBri gave us some stats and people who pass the California bar usually 135 of the 200 questions correct. That's about 70%. I guess 60% for the beginning of the BarBri isn't bad, and there are some new concepts that I never learned first year.

I think I do worst under test conditions compared to practice conditions though, so to make sure I pass, I should be getting 80% right. That's pretty high. Anyway, I think studying my brains out will be enough.
























I do make time for working out and if a special occasion comes up, I try to leave my hermit shelter and come out. Such as my best friend's med school graduation or meeting up a friend for jr. high who I hadn't seen in 4 years. We went to the Asian Art Museum in SF and checked out the traveling exhibit on Tezuka's manga and anime work. The exhibit is there til September 9 so you should check it out if you get a chance. He's probably most famous for Astroboy, but there are a lot of other characters and stories he's done that are more sophisticated. Really cool and shows how manga and anime are not just fantasy, fun stuff, but also a serious and creative form of telling complex stories.

Okay, I just needed a break to write. Now I'm going to review all the questions I got wrong, maybe go swimming, do 39 more multiple choice questions and read about Corporations. I have a massage appointment tomorrow though!

Funny event from yesterday: I was working out in my black sports bra, and a worker I knew at the gym said, "Quit showing off your abs." To which I said, they're not that good. And it's true since they could be better, especially lower abs which I find most people have a hard time with. Later, I'm curling 22.5s in front of a mirror, and same worker tells me there's a sign outside that says I have to wear a shirt to work out. "You have to wear a shirt," he says. Confused, because I have never been asked to put a shirt on the previous times I've worked out in minimal attire, plus I have seem other women work out in similar gear, sometimes even just sports bra and tiny shorts, I ask, "So I have to put a shirt on?" and he sheepishly nods. Geez, so I went back to the locker room, put on a shirt, and continued with my workout feeling miffed for about a minute. Serves me right I guess for being a conceited musclehead. Whatever, I curled 22.5s for 4-5 reps each and did 90lbs 5 reps for tricep cable, so I was happy.

I think maybe it was because it's finals time for the undergrads and there aren't a lot of people in the gym now, so I stuck out and was easily targeted. I guess a supervisor might have wanted to enforce the code, but man, I wasn't even sweating on anything. Just curling dumbbells and even then I'm good about wiping down equipment unlike some gross sweaty, smelly men.