So, I’ve been busy, as if you didn’t know. All the travel and other work-related stuff has had me going pretty hard as of late. In fact, I now have a slight cold–arguably because I haven’t been taking care of myself quite as well as I ought to have. Of course, the repeated handshaking with a woman from the admissions office of California Western School of Law who self-admittedly had a cold herself probably didn’t help. But it’s rude to immediately go leaping for the hand sanitizer after a handshake and, well, I didn’t want them to think I was any more weird than I actually am. Even though I had a letter with the offer, I figured it was probably wise not to give them good reason to rescind it.

The offer? For those of you who don’t know, CWSL has offered me a scholarship to attend their school–a Trustees’ Scholarship which is a full ride, including a book stipend. Rounded, that’s about a $100K and, well, who wants to do something to screw up a $100K “gift?”

I guess that was sort of burying the lede, but this isn’t journalism so get over it.

From Thursday evening through Friday night, I was being wooed by the school in an attempt to get me, and the other scholars, to accept their offer. I have to say they did a hell of a job with the schmoozing.

We started with a cocktail event Thursday evening at a trendy bar in the Gaslamp district. Drinks with current Trustees’ Scholars, Admissions people, and the other offerees–introductions were made and basic information about the school and details about Friday’s events were given.

Friday began with a continental breakfast in the Faculty Lounge with some of the faculty. I had a long and interesting (in a good way) discussion with one of the professors–D. Smythe. From there we got a tour of the campus–which is a few buildings on the north end of downtown San Diego–led by one of the current students. Then we sat in on a class–Civil Procedure II, taught by Professor Barton.

I loved the class. The main topic of this day’s class was issue preclusion, and I was literally on the edge of my seat, leaning forward, to see more of the slides and hear better the lecture (I was seated on the side of the room, near the front, so my angle was poor). I’m pretty sure that makes me either mentally questionable or a perfect law school candidate, or arguably both.

After the class, we were taken to lunch at a nice restaurant downtown, where we got the chance to meet a couple of other students and the Dean, Steven Smith. By the time that was over, we had a couple of hours free during which I came home to report to Christopher, and call Dad. Then it was time to get ready for the final event: dinner at one of the trustee’s (and alumnus) home: Roy Bell. Mr. Bell is a named partner in a national firm and was recently named one of the most influential San Diegans.

Mr. Bell and his wife recently completed the three-year renovation…rebuilding, really…of their home. Located on the La Jolla cove, overlooking the ocean, the home was a (ahem) modest 12,000 square foot shingle “shack” with a guest house in front that is about the size of our house. In fact, if you go to googlemaps, their home’s location is still a blank lot.

There, during the cocktail hour, I spoke with several other faculty members, especially Professor Lynch who was charming, straight-forward, and very helpful. In that house, with the lovely art and amazing view, it was very easy to start to buy into the “if I go to law school, I could have this” mentality, but being an older potential student, I kept my head about me…mostly.

Later, at dinner under a large tent in front of the home, I was lucky enough to be seated at the same table as Mr. Bell as well as a former Federal Magistrate. It was terribly interesting to listen to the discussion, and participate, and then dinner was served–salad followed by halibut and filet mignon and then a chocolate mousse dessert that was fabulous. It was all fabulous. By the end of the evening, with location, the wine and good food, and the good company, well, I was sold.

Okay, I do want to make it clear that my decision is not based on the food or wine or opulence of an alum’s home. What has really sold me is that this school emphasizes collaboration and healthy competition. Instead of the unhealthy competition that so many law schools not only tolerate but encourage, it was wonderful to hear that at CWSL, it’s all about building relationships and encouraging excellence without the negative must-beat-others-to-succeed-yourself attitude. The school also offers so many other opportunities–they are very active in the California Innocence Project (using DNA, etc., to exonerate and free incarcerated innocent people), they have the Center for Creative Problem Solving to study and encourage alternative forms of dispute resolution, multiple study abroad programs and internship and externship opportunities; and they even offer additional free tutoring for required classes and other help so that they give their students the best chance of succeeding possible. I like that attitude.

So, though I haven’t signed on the proverbial dotted line yet, it looks like I’m going back to the books.

Yipes.

But I’m excited.

One night during SB2 in Atlanta, in the hotel, the fire alarm went off. Actually, they aren’t fire alarms any more–they are “emergency” alarms. Anyway, at 3:45am it went off. 10 minutes of a klaxon followed by a barely intelligible announcement.

It was nothing.

Yesterday, during personal consultations in my hotel room, at about 9:30 am, it happened here in Philly. Again, it was nothing, but the robotic announcements continued for 10 minutes at least and made it very hard to work.

Just now, it happened again. As I was packing up my stuff to leave for the train station. Now I’m stuck as they said not to get on the elevators or anything until they make an additional announcement. This time I heard sirens on the street.

I’m not overly concerned–they are doing renovations on the hotel so it is very likely a false alarm caused by some construction stuff. Also, I have hours before my train still.

However, I am starting to think that I might be just a little cursed or something.

[just got the all clear, btw]

I have been complaining about the weather here in San Diego (and in Los Angeles last weekend). It’s been a cold winter…for here, of course…and it’s been very rainy. Our back yard has had standing water for weeks and in one of the storms there was concern that the pool would actually overflow.

And today, it was only in the 50s (yes, I know, “only” seems a terribly whiny word, but for here that is chilly), but at least the sun was out. Christopher and I decided to drive into LaJolla and take a long walk amongst the wealthy (and the tourists). During our lengthy promenade, we noticed plenty of blooming poppies and rosemary and lavender, and a small copse of dogwoods.

Okay, midwinter, even a crappy one like this year’s, doesn’t suck quite so much in San Diego.

*****
2/3/08 update
Spoke too soon…it’s been raining all day and the back yard is flooded again.

It’s not often San Diegans look at the radar and say “Yikes!” but that’s definitely the case today (click for larger image):

Yes, that’s headed our way. They are predicting several inches of rain (2 at the coast, possibly more than 7 in the mountains) and high winds–all over the next 4 days or so. The Coast Guard is saying it may be the worst storm in 30 years.

So, after walking on the beach in a tank top on New Year’s Day to battening down the hatches….

On New Year’s Eve (today) we drove, top down, to Ikea (got a new couch cover and a frame for the Joey Ramone print). Tomorrow a walk on the beach is likely. It’s supposed to be 80° or so. It’s another Santa Ana and while I loathe the dryness, it seems terribly wrong, in a good way, to wear shorts on New Year’s Day. Seems almost wrong not to walk on the beach if it’s going to be that warm.

Okay, before you get too snippy about the bragging, there are a bunch of storms headed our way and if they do what the weather bunnies think they’ll do, we should have rain from Thursday through next Monday or Tuesday. Inches of the stuff.

So, Santa Ana and a fire warning now, floods and mudslides (and snow in the mountains) in a few days.

Last night we went to another party at the home of the fabulous Rob and Jake. The boys, as usual, had wonderful guests, and food, and booze. A good time was had.

Benito has hidden opposable thumbs. Okay, we’ve never seen these hidden thumbs, but he uses them to open cabinets and closets. We know this because we’ll find doors open for no reason and he looks smug.
Occasionally, though, he gets nailed:

One of the holiday events we like to attend here in San Diego is December Nights in Balboa Park. For one weekend, the museums (almost all) are open and free, the international houses all are open and serving food, Spanish Village art colony is open and selling everything from jewelry to glass art, there are choirs and bands playing, and many thousands of people crowd the park for a holiday celebration. This year in the rain.

It wasn’t raining when we headed out, or when we parked many blocks away, though it had rained a lot that morning and a few sprinkles were still possible according tot he Weather Channel. We took out chances. The questionable weather kept the crowds down a bit so that was a bonus. It made the lines for the Polish food shorter (we got pierogis):

After being there for a while and just after getting the food, the skies opened and we missed the umbrella which was staying fry in Christopher’s car’s trunk. We ended up huddled in the doorway of the Germany house (which looks into the Israel house and I always wonder if that is deliberate) while it poured. (This was taken later, after it slowed a bit):

The rain chased off more people and the long lines for the Scotland house’s desserts were reduced to about nil, so C tried an Edinburgh Cloud:

That is a lemon meringue ball covered in raspberry sauce. He found it quite tasty.

The food is a big selling point. There are Indian Tacos (I think those were actually Native American tacos as their booth was near one of the local tribe’s booth):

And the workers in the House of Palestine’s booth were dancing:

And in the House of Peru’s booth you could get an interesting beverage:

The rain never really stopped completely after it started, so we ducked into one of the museums that didn’t have a line. This was the Automotive Museum. Many very cool cars (including 3 generations of the Miata exhibit) but one of my favorites was this one:

By that time we were cold, damp, and decided to make it a night, hoofing it back to the car. Hopefully next year it won’t be wet for the event (it rained worse the first night!).

We started our day with a walk on the LaJolla Shores beach where we saw tons of surfers, mostly older than us. Nice way to start the holiday, I should think–surfing. It wasn’t a bad way to start even if we were just walking on the beach.

Here’s a pic C took with his iPhone:

Later we went to C’s brother’s house for the family dinner. A mass of Dell’Acquas at table:

Lots of good food and a pleasant enough evening for the most part, but a bit of a scare when Lynn (mother) took a nasty fall after dinner when she missed a step outside. Bad bump on the knee and an ugly scrape on her arm. Luckily, nothing broken (she got xrays the next day). Now if she actually uses the cane she’s been told to use…

Beating out (some of) the hoards and probably denying some kid his much-wished-for-under-the-tree item, C and I gifted ourselves yesterday. There’s only one word for it: Wii!!!!!

We got the sports game with the console and it is so much fun (and very odd)! The cordless remote vibrates in your hand at times like when you make “contact” with a ball. You bowl by doing the underhand bowling motion (it also recognizes when you put spin on the ball), golf by holding the remote like a club and swinging (you can hook/slice), tennis recognizes forehand and backhand, and baseball pitches overhand and you swing the remote like a bat to hit. I haven’t tried boxing yet, but for that you use two remotes which are connected to each other.

Spooky fun how it works.

Here is C playing baseball:

While I’m swamped at work today, I’m playing hooky next week. Guess what I’ll be doing.