Zen? I don't think so.

I have been unreasonably stressed and cranky tonight. After relaxing with Thai, tv, wine, Boyfriend Matt, his Roommate Mike and Bederman's "International Law Frameworks", I still hadn't calmed down. I came home and attempted to make a game plan for restabilizing and then falling asleep.

Pre-bed brownie? Check.
Cleansing face wash routine? Check.
Fresh sheets on bed? Check.
Sheets sprayed with lavender? Check.
Nice lavender eye mask from Boyfriend Matt, chilled? Check.

Before I got into bed, I remembered the package sent by my summer employer and looked through it one more time, uncovering a miniature Zen Rock Garden. I assembled the garden (read: put sand in box the size of a credit card) and decided to fiddle with it a little, thinking this would be the key to establishing Zen-ness.

Turns out that this little garden is not the key to Zen at all. I've been using the teeny rake, trying to make the pretty lines that they show in the brochure, for at least 15 minutes. I can't do it. I keep messing up and ending up with giant piles of sand in the middle of the box. Am I that stressed, that I can't effectively master a miniature Zen Garden with three parts (sand, rocks, rake)? Sheesh.

Here's hoping things calm down a bit after exams are over!

Studyin'

There probably won't be many updates over the next week while I am preparing for finals. Here's the schedule:

Wednesday morning: Enterprise Organizations
Friday morning: Transnational Law
Monday afternoon: Evidence
Tuesday afternoon: Insurance Law

This is a semester loaded with basic foundation classes, which is okay, but not as fun as last semester's, well, fun classes. Keep me - and my classmates - in your thoughts as we try not to fail out of law school ;-)

Approaching finals doom

Finals are quickly approaching, which is a little worrisome. I don’t feel like I’m ready at all. However, I got to take a break from preparations yesterday when I took a road trip down to South Bend to see my little sister Jocelyn in Richard III. She gave a flawless performance as Richard III’s mother… her newly grayed hair aged her just enough for the role.

Before her performance, old friend Chris, his girlfriend Jen, her sister Mary Catherine and I went out to dinner in Mishawaka at the Main Street Grille. Chris was the recipient of a gift certificate so we were all treated to great food – we had a baked brie appetizer that was totally scrumptious. I had pecan roasted walleye with amaretto butter, accompanied by a glass of Estancia Pinot Noir. No time for dessert, as I had to get back to campus for the play.

After the play, I met up with Andrea, a high school friend who is now attending Notre Dame Law. We meandered around the campus a little bit and met up with Jos for some coffee. Just after 11 I hopped in my car to make the three hour trek back to Ann Arbor. Thanks to a lot of caffeine, some good music and some phone calls to friends on the west coast (Hi Andrew! Hi Joe!), I made it home safely just after two. Boyfriend Matt sweetly fell asleep with the light on and a book in his hand waiting for my return.

(Aww!)

Today, I am enjoying my last day of work at the hospital until the fall. I finished up my last research project; my last job is to clean out my cubicle and say goodbye for the summer. This afternoon, I’ll drop Boyfriend Matt off at the airport for his trip home, and then I’ll hit the books. Hope your weekends involve less studying than mine

You know you're a dork when...

... the Frosted Mini-Wheats commercial really bugs you.

In the commercial, a girl is competing at a spelling be and is given the word "aardvark". She begins "A... R...", and then the Frosted Mini-Wheats reminds her to focus and that it's the first word in the dictionary. She takes a deep breath, and says "A... A... R... D... V... A... R... K!" The crowd cheers. The commercial ends saying that Frosted Mini-Wheats, a good breakfast, will help children concentrate.

Silly commercial. Anyone who has ever competed in a spelling bee knows that once you say a letter, you can't take it back. That girl should have gotten dinged right out of the competition, Frosted Mini-Wheats or not.

Crepes galore

Matt and I spent the afternoon and evening preparing for our annual Easter brunch. What fun! However, making 60 or 80 crepes from scratch takes a long time, especially when each batch of batter has to rest in the fridge, and there isn't enough room for more than one batch in the fridge.

The rest of the time was spent chopping fruits and vegetables and making the purees for the bellini bar. Tomorrow morning we'll hit church early, then come back here to finish prep and eat all of our hard work with friends! Pictures will, as always, be posted. :-)

Restaurant Reviews

A few months ago, Matt and I finally compiled a list of all of the restaurants we wanted to visit in Ann Arbor. It seems that simply compiling this list was enough motivation to get us to begin actually going to these eateries! Already, we've eaten at Argiero's, the Earle Uptown, Amadeus, Gratzi, Blue Nile, Pacific Rim, Zanzibar, Rush Street, Cafe Zola and Red Hot Lovers. Brief reviews of each are below:

Argiero's
Price: Most entrees between $10 and $15.
Atmosphere: C. Cheap Italian - plastic checked tablecloths, "rustic" tiled floor.
Food: B-. Your general Italian fare. Surprisingly bland.
Overall experience: We had an okay time there, but wouldn't go back unless dining companions were really insistent on it.

The Earle Uptown
Price: Quite expensive.
Atmosphere: A-. The restaurant is in the Bell Tower hotel. Tables are intimate, lighting is perfect. Only drawback? When we were there, we were two of only five diners in the whole restaurant. You start to feel a bit awkward.
Food: A. The food, though overpriced, was great. We especially enjoyed their interesting choices of French-American appetizers, soups and desserts.
Overall: If you're willing to forgo getting an entree to save your pennies, this would make a great dinner. It's especially convenient to Hill Auditorium.

Amadeus
Price: Most entrees between $10-20.
Atmosphere: A-. Kitschy eastern Europe, complete with piano player and crazy instruments hanging on the walls.
Food: A-. Options represent many cuisines, including Polish, German, Austrian and Northern Italian. Pierogis were delicious.
Overall: You couldn't go there too often, because the food is extremely heavy. However, as a special treat, we recommend it. Another perk: a good, cheap wine list!

Gratzi
Price: Most entrees between $15-25.
Atmosphere: A. Classic interior, nice murals, romantic.
Food: A-/B. The food was pretty good… or so we thought. Nicole got violently ill after eating fish there, hence the double rating.
Overall: Our experience was okay, but I think I speak for Boyfriend Matt and myself when I say we’d rather be at Palio.

Blue Nile
Price: Flat fee of approx. $20
Atmosphere: B+. You sit on stools around a sort of basket-table that serves as your table’s personal buffet.
Food: B. Your flat fee gets you an Ethiopian all-you-can-eat meal, including six different vegetables (three of which were indistinguishable lentils), four meats and a ton of spongy bread. Food was not flavorful as our table might have liked.
Overall: The idea of the food is a lot better than the food. We had fun, though, and it’s a good unusual dinner.

Zanzibar
Price: breakfast between $7-15.
Atmosphere: A-. Funky worldy Ann Arbor feel.
Food: B+. The food was pretty good, though brunch offered surprisingly limited options.
Overall: We have better places to spend our breakfast money (see below, Café Zola).

Rush Street
Price: small plates between $5-$10 (expect to order 2-4 per person)
Atmosphere: A-. Tables are a bit close together and the restaurant can be loud at times; general “trendy” feel.
Food: A+. The choices here range widely from seared tuna to roasted garlic and bruschetta to flank steak to chicken skewers. Haven’t had a bad dish yet – and I’ve tried at least 15!
Overall: Great place to eat, especially with groups of people who aren’t picky about their food choices. Consider going for happy hour, where all plates and all drinks (except bottles of wine) are half off. I went with three other girls and we had 12 dishes and a couple of glasses a wine apiece for $53 – total!

Café Zola
Price: breakfast between $5-10.
Atmosphere: A-. Exposed brick walls covered in artsy photographs and paintings. Great for people watching.
Food: A. Highlights of the menu are giant omelettes and a nice assortment of crepes.
Overall: Maybe the best breakfast in Ann Arbor – we’ll let you know after we try a few more places!

Red Hot Lovers
Price: between $3-10.
Atmosphere: B. Crowded, hot diner-like hot dog joint. Perfect if that’s what you’re looking for.
Food: B+. Good dogs. If you want anything else… go somewhere else.
Overall: Fun! Cheap! Yummy! It’s just hard to rank it on the same scale as some of these other places.

So: where next?

Etiquette inquiry

So, here's the problem. Oftentimes situations require a thank you note from Boyfriend Matt and me, as a couple. I often write these notes on our behalf. When I have finished writing the note, I generally sign my name and then ask Boyfriend Matt to sign his own name. In my opinion, this shows that he actually saw and agreed with the thank you note, and that I'm not just writing them willy nilly and saying that they are from "us".

Boyfriend Matt totally and completely disagrees. He thinks that whoever writes the note should sign both of our names. In fact, he thinks that signing his name to a note he didn't write shows that he really didn't read it and just signed whatever I shoved in front of him.

I leave it up to y'all. What's the right thing to do here?

Proof

Check out these two hot shots:


If you'd like to see more pictures from the half marathon, they are posted here. Thanks to Jeremy for being the raceday photographer!

We did it!

Faithful blog readers, we did it! I began writing this blog at the same time Adrienne and I started our training. I'm not sure if either of us believed that we would make it this far, but we did. Hal Higdon provided our very useful 1/2 Marathon Training Program, which lasted 12 weeks and took us from running three miles to running ten. The program wasn't too hard (scheduling time for the runs was sometimes harder!), and yesterday during the run, Adrienne and I felt immensely prepared. I was a little worried that having run 10 miles wouldn't translate into being able to run 13.1 miles... turns out I was quite wrong!

The Martian Half Marathon course was relatively flat with very slight rolling hills. Completing the race took us 2 hours, 44 minutes and 19 seconds (translating to a 12:33 min/mile pace). We certainly weren't the fastest competitors in the field, but really? The fact that we finished was just terrific.

After we finished yesterday, we went to breakfast at a local diner with fellow runners Meredith, Alex, Carlos, McHale, Meredith, Adrienne and cheerers Boyfriend Matt, Jeremy and Mary. We had grand plans to go up to Somerset Mall and shop... they were cut short by my limping and my inability to walk more than 1 mile/hour. Boyfriend Matt and I opted for a trip to Costco instead, where we got new tires installed on the car and bought a bunch of necessities (food, shaving cream) and non-necessities (two giant body pillows). Walking around the store, albeit slowly, was a very good move - this morning, my legs barely remember how far they ran yesterday. I almost thought about going running again today, but that seems unlikely.

Last but not least, I'm counting the hours until 3:45 p.m. tomorrow, when I am finally using the Bellanina Spa gift certificate that Matt got me for my birthday. I'm redeeming it for an hour long deep tissue massage. Woohoo!