Graduation Weekend

Graduation weekend was certainly memorable. My mom was in town for the week prior to graduation (more on that in a separate post), and - as a complete surprise to me - Paul, George's father, arrived on Friday night. It was so special to share the milestone with our family and friends. Thanks to all who shared in the celebration!

Graduation: Live

In case you're interested in viewing all or part of tomorrow's graduation festivities, it will be streaming live on Seattle University's website. The ceremony begins at 10:00 am and will probably last several hours, including at least two speakers and 300+ people being called by name. I'll be near the end. ;-)

What a weekend!

Denaye and David began their happily ever after this weekend. They threw an entire weekend of festivities to kick it all off. We were exhausted when we came home, but we had a fantastic time.

Rehearsal Dinner at the Kennedy Center

Amanda, George, Denaye, David

David (my stepdad), Janie (my mom), George, Amanda

Wedding Reception at the Corcoran Gallery of Art

It was nice to see so many of my high school classmates and meet their spouses. These are just a few of us.

I've learned something?! Hey, I've learned something!

In case it's not obvious from the lack of blogging, the past month has been absolutely crazy around our house. Tonight is a temporary calm before three final weeks of madness, which include a pretrial brief, Denaye's wedding weekend, oral argument, one last outline, and two exams.

Anyway, I was inspired to post by a comment George just made to me. He agreed to proofread a brief for me and found himself struggling due to its technical nature. At the end, he said, "well, dear, you have learned a lot in three years." It took me a couple seconds before I agreed that, yes, I have learned a great deal in the past three years.

With the end so near, I often find myself reflecting on the many changes over the last three years - both personally and professionally. Hopefully I'll have some time after finals and before graduation to share some reflections with you. For now, I'll just say that I can confirm that law school is a very formative experience.

Final Spring Break

I'm in my final hours of my final spring break, so I thought I'd give a bit of a recap.

The first weekend of the break, I flew to DC for Denaye's shower and bachelorette party. It was a fantastic weekend including a stunning shower hosted by the Matron of Honor, Alicia; a fun night out with the ladies celebrating Denaye; and not nearly enough time getting to catch up with my best lady. It was also fun to spend some time with Miranda and Stacie, two friends from high school who I hadn't seen (in person) in years, but who I "see" often thanks to Facebook.

As you may know, I was supposed to fly from DC to London for the rest of the break. However, about a month ago, my competition partner, Josh, and I qualified for the ABA's National Client Counseling Competition in Waco, TX. It was scheduled for this weekend. So, instead of flying to London, I returned to Seattle. I got a few hours of down time and a chance to do some wine tasting with some of my law school friends.

On Thursday, Josh and I flew to Waco with our coach, Sharon, to compete in the national competition. Twelve teams competed; six teams went to the semi-finals; and three teams went to the finals. We made it into the semi-final round where we were eliminated, thus placing us among the top six teams in the country.

With a few hours before our flight, we were able to take in some "tourist" attractions. First, it was the Dr. Pepper Museum for a look at old bottles and a ton of posters and an old fashioned float. Then, we drove out of town for a look at the Branch Davidian Compound.

All-in-all, it was a nice spring break. I'm thankful that I'm not sitting at Heathrow caught up in the BA strike, and I'm actually excited to head back to work and school this week. There are just a few weeks of classes remaining and a couple of exams after that. Bring it!