more fun lawschool quotes

My dad pointed out i haven't shared any quotes recently:
So, from my favorite class: law and religion in response to the comment "the judge is just wack" my professor said: "ok, so to which analytical prong of Reynolds does judicial wackness go?"

in fam dissolution:
"who wants to discuss this case?" (i'm busy playing peggle and look up as he walks towards my row with the panicked oh-god-im-going-to-lose-my-high-score-look), "don't worry martha, you're exempt today, you don't have to close the window"

when discussing reputation and the concept of goodwill (following a game of hangman to figure out the word patronize): "in developing countries, you go to McDonalds because you know what you are going to get...ususally for me its gas, but that's beside the point"

quick update

There are three things you should know about today.
1. i have developed an unnatural obsession with olives. i never ate them before about three months ago and now i can't stop. i eat entire bottles in one sitting.

2. i was sick on monday/tuesday--barely 48 hrs, and just long enough for everyone to know why it's a good thing you can count the number of times i've been ill in the last 10 years on one hand. I am not good at sick.

3. i am insanely jealous of Adam--who took off with the boys today to go to the Olympics in Vancouver. "PFFFFT," she says as she kicks the carpet of her office.

Living on Skid Road

So, the term "Skid Row", which is a generally slummy and bad place for all you my-english-is weak-what-are-you-talking-about folks, derives from the term Skid Road. A place aptly named for the fact that logs skidded down it back in the day when you could slide logs down roads in downtown parts of cities.

The first of these happened to be in Seattle and was the road i live on (now better known for its endless sirens and crime issues). I'm sure some of you will find that fitting.  Anyways, on Skid Road, the logs slid down the hill with chains until they reached the port (less than a mile from the apt) to be chopped up at the Yesler saw mill.

You can find some historical pics that i didn't feel like pilfering and more info here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7055.

So here are two pictures--sorry, i don't really take pictures of the street much so they are from the snow last year.... as you can see below...things now just cars instead of logs still skid down the road from time to time.

this is why knuckle cracking is bad.

I'm compulsive. and now, because i am compulsive i get to wear socks on my hand and repeat over and over that i am an idiot. 

Last November, I cracked the knuckles in my thumb. It made a strange noise and hurt. Being unable to help (stop) myself, i continued periodically to check if it still hurt (read, i pushed on said thumb over and over every five minutes with increasingly painful results). Realizing that this was not going as i had planned, i discovered a new way to crack the knuckle (twisting rather than pushing, since that hurt less) and moved on with life.

Unsurprisingly, December came and it still hurt. I would catch it at funny angles trying to put clothes on, shampoo, or make a fist--not that i was hitting anything, it just seemed like a smart thing to try to do. Part of the problem could be that i sleep on my stomach with my hands folded under me...so the thumb was continuing to aggravate. On our trip overseas, it was especially painful and i decided that perhaps i wasn' t going to be able to muster the sheer inner will power to leave it alone.

Honestly, i thought i had fractured it. My crazy doctor told me he thought it was a tendon thing and sent me off to the Seattle Hand Surgery center.... yeah, i didn't like the word surgery in there either. After a ten minute consult, on my 30th birthday, I met Sunny--goddess of plastic and contortion--who created this marvelous piece of hand sculpted goodness for me. It's been two weeks and today i go back to start physio therapy.  The thumb is still painful when i take the blue brace of immobility off...so i'm a little worried. Fingers crossed and voodoo mustered that maybe now we are on the road to recovery and motion. READ: Dear God, i want to be able to touch my thumb to my pinky again. Thank you. 

In the meantime, i get to be every parent's poster child for why we don't crack knuckles. UGH.

more law school quotes

From Divorce class tonight:

" i mean no reflection on papal people, but....don't worry, i'm catholic, i'm gonna feel guilty about this later."

"so if you fall off an aircraft carrier, yeah its probably moot and you are going to die--or get sucked into the propeller, but if you don't die, then its going to take forever to turn that sucker around....the catholic church is kinda like that"

"so connivance means you have a floozy friend and you get your husband drunk at a bar with her and leave"

"the fault based systems are primarily in the sooooooooouth where there's a heavy bible-thumpin"

"in FL they said, why is the state of california like a bowl of grapenuts? just a bunch of fruits, nuts and flakes. i'm just telling you so you see the different fundmental underpinnings."

Adventures in Israel: Hula Nature Reserve

My parents are big fans of national parks. They always have been. We used to spend time camping in the Great Smokey Mountains and visited quite a few of the others on road trips over the years. In Israel, a lot of the ruins are national parks as well. My parents bought themselves an annual pass and, as they joked while we were there, it more than earned itself during our visit. Most of the places we went either they or I had been before--however, there was one place none of us had been: the Hula Nature Reserve.

In part, this is because the security situation in Israel for the better part of the last decade has involved flying objects coming from the north (ie Lebanon) and the Hula is within range of that. Although we weren't there during the right time of year, the reserve was still really lovely and reminded me a lot of some of the marsh areas of the Everglades. I spent way too much time looking for alligators.

The Hula Nature Reserve is a bird santuary. See, the migratory patterns of most European and West Asian birds takes them south to Africa for the winter. The layover destination of all these guys is Hula...over 200 different species. So in the high season there are tens of thousands of birdies hanging out with the muscrats and water buffalos (click the photos below).

There was also a video that went with the tour. You sit down in what looks like a really small and very old movie theater and put on 3D glasses...which work suprisingly well over real glasses... Soon, the music starts and you realize that not only is this a 3D movie, this little adventure also has other effects...the chairs move as the birds fly...when they fly past you there is a whoosh of air in your face. Unfortunately, the birds went through a rain storm at some point during the movie, which meant we went through a rainstorm, got shot in the face with water, and some strange little contraptions binked me in the backs of my calves. I say bink because they reminded me of the little mallets used to play that persian instrument called a santour (hammered dulcimer)...anyways, it was all very sensory and really pretty dope. There aren't usually things like that in the parks here and it was a really neat experience.

So, back to my alligator thing. I absolutely expected to find them...and go figure there weren't any, BUT i did find something else that was undoubtedly grateful for the lack of animals with chompingly big teeth: world's most enormous catfish.

Yes, more catfish--about the same size as the ones that live right by the Baptismal area on the River Jordan....These bad boys were ALL over the place and would jump out of the water.

It was a beautiful and super calm place. I can imagine it gets crazy with people during bird season---but the quiet (between large groups of American tourists) was really calming.

And just for good measure...here's A and I on the boardwalk.

Stories from Israel: Akka

On our second day in Israel we went to Akka (also known as Acre and Akko). It is a World Heritage Site and pretty cool place. Lately, there's been an increase in gang violence after about 4 pm, so we confined our visit to the day. We took a sherut (like a multi-person taxi) and then walked into the Old City. The Old City reminds me a lot of Jerusalem---small narrow streets and cramped 'souk' or bazaar like areas. One of the great things about it being a world heritage site is that they have done work to make tours available for reasonable prices. We went and got a multi-site pass which allowed us to visit the Crusader Fort, Turkish Bath, Museums, and the Templar Tunnel.

The Crusader Fortress is in varying stages of excavation

On the left are the Crusader Latrines, to the right is a Tombstone and below is Adam with some of the carved arches.

Touring around we climbed a wall and looked back over onto the Old City. From there you can also see part of a nifty looking cemetary:

Akko is alway full of smells (fallafel, schwarma (usually lamb---dripping fat from its turning skewer while you shave thin strips off into a pita), zatar and spices and the fish in the market), sounds (honking, loud discussions mostly in Arabic, and music from the cars of 20 year olds who have nothing better to do than drive) and stray cats. The Turkish bath featured a movie which is way over the top stereotypical, but funny and gives a sense of the history related to a ruthleess ruler named Al'Jassar, for who a green domed mosque in Akko is named. We didn't go in there because the guy wanted to charge us 10 NIS each. Okay, so i admit that's only $2.50 USD, but the thing is that 6 months ago it was 5 NIS a piece. I blame it mostly on Adam being so blonde.  :)