Law Students

The aftermath of marriage

Posted on May 21, 2008
I started writing this impromptu series about setups, arranged marriages, my relationship with JW, and how our families handled it after reading a short story (PDF) about a young Indian-American woman reacting to her friend's setup. I kept writing because I realized all of these stories happened so long ago that I rarely think about them anymore...

A tale of two geeks

Posted on May 20, 2008
JW and I met in the spring of our senior year of high school. We had both come off bad breakups and ended up in the same tattoo shop one night. JW's friends had convinced him that this was how he would get over her. It started out as a joke, but as they got more drunk, they started believing they were serious...

Setups I have known

Posted on May 19, 2008
Thinking back over the many weddings I have attended within my Indian community, I can only think of two other people who married someone non-Indian. Out of the others, I'm not sure how many were setups. I can think of five that definitely were. Two of those ended in divorce...

The other side of the family

Posted on May 18, 2008
I mentioned that it took my parents a little while to get used to the idea of me and JW. His family, on the other hand, welcomed me with open arms. His high school girlfriend had been a picky vegetarian, and when his mom asked me what I ate and I said, "Everything," I thought she would weep...

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A suitable boy, part three

Posted on May 17, 2008
My parents disapproved of my relationship with JW for a while. At first, it was because he wasn't Indian. But I think they got over that pretty quickly. The problem was that we were dating.You probably know that arranged marriages are traditional in Indian culture...

A suitable boy, part two

Posted on May 16, 2008
During college, I was at somebody or other's graduation party or sweet sixteen, one of those Indian parties that are always at the same restaurant with the same people, talking to a friend. She dropped her voice. "You know what your mom said to my mom?" she said...

Somebody else's life

Posted on May 15, 2008
I wrote this during finals and never posted it...I have no time to read for fun. I have way too much work to do.Well, maybe I can sneak in a short story here and there. I picked up Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi and the story I read today is about a 22-year old girl named Lata who is a bit of a rebel in her Indian community...

Vacation

Posted on May 14, 2008
I have two weeks off in between the end of finals and my summer job starting. I planned a whole list of things to do, some fun, some necessary. Today, for instance, I was going to run some errands near JW's office, then have a lunch date with him, and then take K to the Audubon wildlife trails nearby...

Finally

Posted on May 10, 2008
After handing in my take-home final today, I stayed at school for three more hours editing the final paper for my clinical. Then I sped home, packed up the car and K, and drove to my parents' place in New York, where I took out my laptop and continued typing away...

Insult to injury

Posted on May 09, 2008
JW: ... and he gave her syphilis.Me: If you ever give me syphilis, I'll divorce you. Deal?JW: What if I get it from a toilet seat?Me: That must be one disgusting toilet seat.JW: It was.Me: It's bad enough if your spouse is cheating. You might be able to forgive that...

Small K moments

Posted on May 07, 2008
We've been trying to teach K not to throw food on the floor. Today at dinner, every time he didn't want something, he handed it to me. I was proud of him. He did fling a piece of pasta across the table, but I'll give him one freebie. Besides, it didn't hit the ground...

Firm advice

Posted on May 05, 2008
On the last day of my Legal Profession class, the professor stuck around afterwards and bought us pizza. I had been meaning to get to office hours all semester, but somehow it never happened, so I was glad to have a chance to ask him my burning question: was I completely naive to believe the things that my firm has been telling me? That I'll be able to balance work with my outside life, that I'll do lots of pro bono and have plenty of mentoring and training opportunities? We spent several weeks discussing how large law firms work, and I often left class feeling grim...

Timing

Posted on May 04, 2008
JW and I were talking about timing for a second kid. I realized that if I got pregnant again today, our kids would be two years apart. Two years sounds like a fairly long time, but when you factor in the length of pregnancy, your kid turns one in the blink of an eye and suddenly you're starting over...

Overheard at the coffee shop

Posted on May 03, 2008
First guy: Here is your coffee.Second guy: Thank you.Third guy: I went ____ plane ___.First guy: Yes, __________.Second guy: You ____ was okay, but _____.Third guy: Ha! Ha!Second guy: Japanese people, Chinese people, and Korean people ____.Third guy: I think ______ different...

Study groups

Posted on May 02, 2008
The other day I had a fantastic study session with just the right balance between laughing and getting work done, and learning from the people I was studying with and being able to contribute.Yesterday I did not. Guy #1 showed up late, said he didn't feel well, and went home...

3L roundup

Posted on April 25, 2008
Other than the occasional reference to the Internal Revenue Code, I don't think I've posted about my classes at all this semester. In honor of the very last day of class, here's a summary.Corporate Tax kicked my ass.Legal Writing. I thought it would take up lots of my time and be a chance to seriously work on my writing...

Almost 14 months

Posted on April 24, 2008
Dear K,Over the baby monitor, I can hear the telltale thumping noises that mean you're jumping in your crib. You threw so much food over your tray at dinner. We've been trying to teach you not to do that, and you know now that you're not supposed to. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that sometimes you forget...

Resistance is futile

Posted on April 23, 2008
I never got around to publishing it, but I had a post half-written entitled "Why I'm Not on F***book."1L year I joined F***book because people in my section kept telling me about pictures they had posted there. I joined. I saw lots of pictures of drunk people...

Flashcards

Posted on April 22, 2008
I have written before of my love for flashcards. Last semester, in JW I found a tax flashcard soulmate, with whom to study cards and to speak fondly of the cards we had studied. I was upset to discover that Law in a Flash for Corporate Tax does not exist...

Thirty, part 2

Posted on April 14, 2008
A friend who shares my birthday called and asked, "How do you feel about turning thirty?""I didn't think it would be a big deal," I said. "I thought having a kid would be the big milestone in my life. But my birthday has actually made me reflect about where I am in my life and where I want to be...

Non-contingency

Posted on April 13, 2008
Last night I dreamed that JW and I moved across the country, went to grad school and got jobs, and planned our lives around each other. Just like we did in real life. But in my dream, we didn't get married. We broke up. I felt completely at sea. I had no idea what to do with myself...

Monster

Posted on April 12, 2008
I never watch commercials. I have TiVo.But this one is so brilliant I feel compelled to share.

K in his natural habitat

Posted on April 11, 2008
He's not doing anything particularly exciting -- this is just a short video I happened to take.

Liveblogging 30

Posted on April 11, 2008
I wake up at 5:20 for absolutely no reason. K has been waking up really early since JW has been gone, but today he is following my birthday instructions and sleeping in. Still, I'm wide awake and decide to have some me-time before he wakes up.I look at myself in the mirror...

T minus one day

Posted on April 10, 2008
Tomorrow JW is coming back from his business trip. K misses him, I think -- he's been waking up at night crying. My classes end at noon and as a birthday treat, I have planned a guilt-free afternoon of lounging, browsing in Harvard Square, nibbling on mice, and reading the book I've had out from the library for the past month and have barely made a dent in...

Time is on my side

Posted on April 08, 2008
Citations wrote this comment on LL's post about a moment of wondering whether it was a mistake to have kids:And of course it wasn't a mistake at all. It is, though, a sweet day when you look at each other and realize that soon it will be just the two of you again, and you're still young enough to enjoy it...

Always be my baby

Posted on April 06, 2008
Growing up, it used to drive me crazy when my parents treated me like I was the same person at 15 that I had been at 8. I hated it when they would say to someone, "She loves X," when in fact I didn't like X at all, or when they would tell my teenage self, "Be careful, you always break the glasses," in reference to a butterfingers phase I had gone through years earlier...

Yip, yip says the baby coyote

Posted on April 05, 2008
Dear K,When you're old enough to read this, I hope you'll forgive me. But I'm really glad it's the 21st century and I can have a career of my own, because if my biggest intellectual achievement every day was reading you "Baby Animals of the Southwest" seventeen times in a row, I think I would have to throw myself out the nearest window...

Bob, bob, bob

Posted on April 04, 2008
K has been saying "bah" for bus (which I count as his first word) and "cah" for car and "cuh" for cup and a few other half-words here and there. Today he said his first honest-to-goodness word that he could fully pronounce. It was "Bob."As in Bob Greene, Oprah's personal trainer...

Starting to feel at home

Posted on April 03, 2008
I have been going to the gym!My reading-on-the-treadmill strategy has worked out well so far. In fact, when I have reading to do, I WANT to go to the gym because it's more efficient than sitting on the couch -- I don't get drowsy and I'm not tempted to jump up every five minutes and check my email...

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