Happy Mother's day

My mom and I visited my grandma today. I wish she could have seen me now. I regret that for much of the time I actually spent with her I was still a rather insufferable middle school/high school teen. She was one of those people who gave much more than they ever took, and I feel like there was a lot more I could have done to try to make her feel happy and appreciated in her old age.

It's hard to believe how little you sometimes know about your own family, considering they are the people closest to you. Sometimes you can spend years living under the same roof without knowing things about your family that you would know about your friends. There are a lot of circumstances in my family that make me deeply sad when I think about them too much, and my grandma's sorrow and struggles (which she rarely if ever told anyone about) are one of them... especially since I did not know about them until after she passed.

It was nice to visit her today, though. It's always good to have these moments to reflect upon such things... it helps to put my life in perspective.

-- Mobile post

Countdown

Behold the lame but endearing sandwich sign at our law school cafeteria. I usually get the '3strikes turkey'... Most of them don't make any sense, to both lawyers and non lawyers alike (Cold Cut Conspiracy, Pastrami Parole, Meatball Verdict??, etc... overall highly unnecessary).

I will be done with finals in three weeks and will be graduating in less than a month... just picked up my graduation gown, which includes purple velvet and looks like it would be handy for the next Harry Potter movie premiere. Anyway, I will finally be saying goodbye to the world of summer/winter/spring breaks, the idea of weekends (3-4 day ones too..), days starting when I choose... It'll be interesting.

I want to post a few things about what I thought about law school
soon, before I forget all my gripes and observations about the lovely
institution. But overall I'm happy to say that I'm actually really
glad I came, as long as I don't get laid off from my job :) hah

Doritos collisions

This is also surprisingly-or-is-it-unsurprisingly good:

MC happy time

This is surpringly-- or unsurprisingly-- good: negra modelo with a
baileys vanilla vodka mix. I guess kind if like an Irish car bomb but
negra is more delicious than guiness.

Tomorrow is barrister's ball, aka law school prom. Graduates trying to
recapture their youth? Well it's the last foreseeable prom of my
time, so cheers :)

Coffee Bean's Honeydew Oolong Tea

Best thing to happen to me all of last week: finding out that Coffee Bean is bringing back its Honeydew Oolong Tea. I actually screamed a little when I read it. While alone in a parking structure.

This tea has a honeydew flavor and scent that somehow matches perfectly with the taste of oolong tea, which is somewhere between black and green tea. Its taste is not as deep/strong as black tea, but it does not have that somewhat grassy taste of green tea. Amber colored and almost sweet.

They stopped making this tea about two years ago, and I have been unsuccessfully trying to find an adequate substitute since. Republic of Tea makes a Honeydew White Tea, but it doesn't come close. It got to the point where I actually emailed Coffee Bean to ask if they would ever bring it back (and I never email companies over things, even when their products cause me great suffering/joy) (and there are few things that go away that I am not able to just forget about in a short time). I like to think that my single email made this whole comeback happen. Haha.

So yay! It's back today! And I noticed there is also a new Orange Blossom Oolong tea too... mmm sounds good. Good enough news to somewhat offset the other big news of the week: my future firm conducted mass layoffs and we 3Ls are faced with quite the difficult choice over start dates (and worries about job security in general). -__- Sad.

Back to studying for my Property Tax final.

Asian Americans in the Obama Cabinet

I am pretty surprised and impressed with the diversity of ethnicity and gender in Obama's cabinet (highly qualified people obviously, not just applauding diversity for diversity's sake). While I of course support the diverse character of the cabinet, I wouldn't have been as surprised if it was 'diverse-minus-Asians,' as I feel is often the case.

The first and second picks were good and received well, but I have to admit that I am especially surprised to find that there now might be up to four Asian Americans serving in the Cabinet (three Chinese Americans, at that!). My surprise comes despite knowing that Obama was raised partly in Indonesia, has a half-Asian sister and a Chinese brother-in-law... I don't know, I just didn't expect it. Anyway here they are:

Gen. Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veteran's Affairs

New York Times profile

Stephen Chu, Energy Secretary

New York Times profile

Gary Locke, current top pick for Commerce Secretary (two previous nominees withdrew)

(A little ironic that Obama's first nominee (Bill Richardson) angered some Asian Americans-- in particular Chinese Americans because of Wen Ho Lee-- and now things have ended up where he will nominate a Chinese American...)

and Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary (does that count as a fourth cabinet member? Okay maybe not technically but I'm going to say it does.)

New York Times profile

I feel so "angry asian man" right now haha but I think it's a pretty significant situation. Anyway, more importantly, hopefully all the cabinet secretaries will perform well in their roles, Asian or not.

Mobile posting test

Driving back from the bay area... Good weekend. Finally gave in and
got an iPhone. it's awesome.