I Got A Job

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very happy, relieved, excited and !!!!!!!.  Not just a job, but one that fits 99% of the criteria I had on my perfect job wish list...so happy!  And grateful.  Very, very grateful. 

All is well.  I can exhale.

Law School? Check.

I graduated on Friday.  It was a fantastically amazing, wonderful, perfect day.  Not so much because I graduated and got to close that chapter, but because I was surrounded by people I love and adore.  There aren't many times in life when you get a large group of the most important people in the world to you in the same room, and I think the fact that those people were here is what made the day what it was.  Of course, not everyone who is on that list could be there, but they called, sent cards, emails, texts, etc. and I am still riding high on all the love.  Though I am fiercely independent and am often not as good a friend as I aspire to be, I could not be who I am or accomplish what I have without these people who have enriched and blessed my life.  Friday was a celebration of them as much as it was of me.  I do not have the words to express my gratitude and adoration, but I know you are there and I am thankful.  

Graduation attendees:
Top Row Left to Right: cousin Kim holding baby Joshua, mom, dad
Bottom Row Left to Right: brothers Matthew, Andrew & Mark, cousin Windy, and Joe
Missing from picture are Joe's parents, Judith & Phil

Processing in and taking our seats (I'm the one in the middle looking down)
 



Graduating!

Graduated!  Looking up to confirm my family's approval.  I know they were paying attention because at every graduation I have had thus far, my brothers and Joe make it a point to outdo all the individual graduate cheers which came before and which might come after.  Obnoxious?  Yes.  Do I love it?  Yes.

 The immediate family: brothers Andrew and Matthew, dad, me, mom, brother Mark

 Matthew, dad, me, Mark, Andrew.  Note we are all looking at different cameras.  For each picture, assume everyone who is not in it was taking a picture.  The same picture.  On 6 different cameras.  At the same time.  Totally necessary.  I make fun while also understanding that had I not been in all these pictures, I, too, would have been taking pictures. 

 Joe, his parents, and me.  They met my family for the first time at graduation and it could not have gone more swimmingly.

 Celebratory lunch and cocktails

 My father will make a toast wherever people gather.  Just try and stop him.  This was one of three occasions on which he clinked his glass and stood to speak.  God bless him.


Next up: bar exam.

I'm Still Waiting For An Answer

I ordered a box of cookies recently from a great local, downtown bakery as a thank you for the firm I worked with all semester. When it came time to choose which cookies I wanted in the assortment, I handed the laptop off to Joe and told him to pick from the 12 varieties offered. He chose chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle and butter almond.


“Wow,” I said, “you picked the exact same 4 I would have chosen, except for one.”

“You wouldn’t have picked the peanut butter.”

“Uh, yeah. Okay, hotshot, now a tough one. Out of all the other flavors, which would I have picked instead?”

“Chocolate pecan.”

“Um, yeah, that’s totally right! Wow.”

“I know you.”

“Yes. And yet come my birthday, you still always think I want a DVD. Riddle me that.”

“Uh…Yay, I got it right! Chocolate pecan! Let’s kiss.”

It's So, So Good

The last week has been a whirlwind of awesome.  Unfortunately, awesome comes with very little sleep.  My last final was last Thursday.  In a stroke of bad luck, my last scheduled final was a 4 credit behemoth for which I had 98 pages of notes to memorize and absolutely 0 desire to do so.  So it probably did not go as well as it should have and my fingers are ever so slightly crossed that the curve will save me and I will not soon get a disinvite to graduation.  That would be very uncool. 

I finished the exam about 10 minutes before time was called because there's no sense in prolonging lost causes.  I took a minute, closed my eyes, and hit submit.  That was it.  The end of my law school career (hopefully).  Then I collected my things, walked out of the room and across the building to the law school chapel.  It was empty and dark with just a bit of light filtering through the stained glass windows.  I took a seat and just let it sink in for a bit.  I said my thank you's for this experience, for my safe delivery to this moment, and for all that will come as a result.  I love moments like that, when you have come to the end of something big and you actually know it when it happens.  I think it's important to live inside those moments and just wallow in it for a while, get all up in that moment and put whipped cream and a cherry on top.  Who knows when another one will come? 

I purposefully waited until that final was over to mail my graduation announcements because I did not want to jinx it.  I left school, went directly to the post office, and deposited all the stamped and sealed little missives into the box.  After that, I went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on supplies to load the fridge, bought some fresh flowers and then headed home to scrub my apartment from top to bottom because my best friend from high school would be arriving on a flight from California in 5 hours.  The day after that, my other best friend from high school would be arriving from New Orleans.  The day after that, a new friend would be arriving from D.C.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a fantastic weekend, which I will provide a complete report of some time in the near future. 

I worked my last few days at the firm Tuesday - Thursday, which led me to today.  Today.  A glorious day.  A day during which I am doing absolutely nothing.  I slept in, drank two cups of coffee, watched old episodes of Gilmore Girls, took a long shower, and then, I put my PJs back on. 

When Joe comes home, I am going to go do a little shopping, maybe see a movie, and perhaps, for his sake, the novelty of screaming I HAVE NOTHING I HAVE TO DO into his ear will eventually wear off.

Closure

One of the reasons it took Joe so long to move here is because his New York condo had yet to sell.  It had been on the market since Fall of 2009 and he got offers but they were either ridiculous or fell through at the last minute in heartbreaking fashion.  Leaving his home of 10 years was nerve wracking enough but it was intensified over concerns of whether he could maintain the condo expenses and contribute here.  Finally, once we knew his job would transfer him and we crunched the numbers, we realized it was do-able for both of us, even if the condo didn't sell for a while. 

After he moved here he dropped the price yet again by a significant amount (about 30% total price drop over 2 years) and within a week he had three offers.  We'd been down this road before though so elation was minimal.  He accepted the highest cash offer and we were trepidatiously excited to get a closing date for March 21st.  March 21st came and went and the buyer requested more time.  All too familiar.  It was rescheduled for April 15th.  A week before the 15th, a title search turned up an erroneous tax lien on the condo.  Joe called and verified that he owed nothing to the state of New York and it was a mistake, but we still had to wait to receive a release of the lien in the mail to satisfy the title company.  The New York Dept. of Revenue does not have email capabilities.  It is 2011.  They know this.  Seven to 10 business days later, after April 15th had come and gone, he was finally able to get everything satisfied for the title company.

Closing was rescheduled for today.  The condo and money and closings and documentation and paperwork was all that had been talked about in this house for months, but once we got that last official closing date and a time and a it's definitely going to happen, we both shut up.  As it got closer, I would ask if he was excited and he would say "shhh, not yet."  Didn't want to jinx it.

Joe left for New York last night and this morning.....HE CLOSED!!  It went off without a hitch and he called me on his way to the bank to deposit the checks.  This whole condo selling ordeal has been a roller coaster of emotion and frustration and it is over!  I am so relieved for him and excited for us, and just happy we can finally move on. 

Even though it would have been nice if this had happened at any point in the last two years, I fully realize how amazing it is that we both get to close a chapter of our lives in the same week and how crazy it is that it ended up that way after everything.  My last final is Thursday.  We are SO going to celebrate.