Mrs. and Mrs: The Last Post

It feels like days ago when I first talked to the Mrs. about creating this blog. “You write and I’ll give you things to write about,” she said, although I always wanted her to write too. And she did, but the authorship was mostly one-sided. I even hoped that as we lose ourselves in our post-graduate education, she would feel that itch to write more- but the reality is that you’re born with the itch, and you can’t force it on someone who doesn’t have it. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an excellent writer, she just doesn’t care much for blogging.

As I considered the future of this blog, I realized that it didn’t have any. Not because of lack of potential, but simply because I wanted it to be something it couldn’t be: focused. No matter how hard I tried, the lack of specificity of Mrs. and Mrs. always let me get away with rambling. But as I continue my professional development, I know it’s time to leave rambling behind. Instead I  started a new project, “The Jurist in Progress,” which I hope will be more professionally oriented, and perhaps attract a bigger readership.

Regardless, I will be forever thankful to all of you who have shared our accomplishments and not-so-happy days during the last three years. Thank you for always coming back to read about our crazy adventures, and for being so supportive during our college struggles. Thank you also for taking the time to comment, and making the blogging process a lot more entertaining.  I will continue to read and follow you, but I will simply do so from a different username.

‘Til the next one!

-Mrs. This One.

Senior Crisis

Would it surprise you to know that I’m a bit afraid of commitment? I had no problem saying yes to my wife, but almost anything else that requires a commitment scares me.

We might be going to see him Sunday!

Recently, we decided that it might be a good idea to adopt a cat. We have been wanting to get a puppy for a while but our current building doesn’t allow them. And unfortunately, neither will our housing for our next three years. I’ve had a lot of stress-related problems and have gotten good at dealing with them. However, I still feel like something is missing. This is how we ended up talking about the possibility of getting a cat. Did you know some cats could live for 20 years? That’s quite a commitment, isn’t it? Funny enough, this is not the one that I’m struggling with. Rather I’m struggling with prior commitments I’ve made.

To Say You Were Born Gay

Weird. I was trying to research something I thought about earlier while participating in a communications study, and somehow ended up reading this article about being gay. I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the whole thing. If you had been in class all day, doing research, AND participating in a study, you probably wouldn’t be up for much reading either. The article did spark something in mind that I hadn’t thought about for a while.

The Avengers Finally Unleash the Right Hulk

I have no problem admitting that I love comics. I read them when I was little, I watched the animated TV shows, and I played the video games. Then later on came the movies. The latter created some awesome moments. But it also created a lot of disappointment.

Before, when I watched a movie that was based on a book I read, I often left the theater disappointed. This was mostly because my loyalties were still deeply tied to the book. If I felt the movie hadn’t done the book justice, I would automatically disfavor the movie. Then I took a screenwriting class and I learned to appreciate the creative process that went behind an adaptation. This meant that I finally understood that it was absolutely natural for the screenwriter/director to want to make their own mark in a certain story. Besides, we all know time and length also play a role in why movies turn out the way they do. However, this new understanding worked for movies based on books, yet not for those based on comics or cartoons. Why not?

We’re Getting Rid of Nature

I grew up in a foreign land (to most Americans). I spent most of my childhood traveling and it allowed me to see many beautiful places. When I say traveling, I don’t mean the vacation type, but rather a different kind. My grandparents traveled a lot for work and I tagged along sometimes. At times we stayed in hotels, but this was the exception rather than the rule. And when we did stay in hotels, they were very cheap ones. Either way, I got to do pretty cool things: I swam in rivers, climbed mountains, and explored exotic trails. I never went camping or fishing in the traditional sense, but I had my share of adventures outdoors.

YOLO: You Only Live Once

I ditched everything to go on a little road trip with my wife. We “escaped” last night as soon as our classes were over, and after notifying people that we couldn’t make it today to whatever commitments we had with them.

College Resume Tips (Part 2?)

Since I’ve noticed that a lot of people have come to this blog looking for the post I wrote on college resume tips, I’ve decided to upload a sample of a very modified version of my resume. You can find it here.

When It Comes To Marriage, We’ve Forgotten All About Teaching

When I was little, I used to think the world of my teachers. They knew all sorts of cool stuff about subjects like math, geography, grammar, etc., and the best part was that they were always eager to tell us all about it. It took a lot of patience and hard work, but for the most part, they always got through to us- or at least through to me. Their guidance was so essential to my growth as an individual that it was impossible not to think of them as flawless individuals.

College Menu: Colorful Vegetable Bake Recipe [Revised]

As college students, we always complain that we don’t have enough time to cook or eat well. In fact, I’ve said this more times than I can remember. However, for my health’s sake and perhaps my wife’s happiness, it’s been a couple of days now that I’m in some sort of cooking mood.

So I did what I do best, that is Google things, and I found the following Colorful Vegetable Bake recipe from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 3 cups frozen cut green beans, thawed and drained
• 2 medium green peppers, chopped
• 6 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3 cups chopped zucchini
• 1 cup biscuit/baking mix
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Place beans and peppers in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Top with tomatoes, cheese and zucchini. In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix, salt, cayenne, eggs and milk just until moistened. Pour over the vegetables.
2. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until puffed and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I’m not going to lie though, the chopping takes a little bit of work. But after that, you can just put it in the oven and continue studying! I did make some changes though: I used fresh green beans, 5 roma tomatoes (instead of 6 plum), red bell peppers (instead of green), added garlic and a yellow onion, and we did it for 50 minutes.

This is how it turned out:

I got skills, don’t I?

Edit (5/10): Forgot to mention that I doubled the salt and the cayenne pepper, and added Italian herbs (but you can do this to taste).

Married During College

This is bizarre. Only recently have I begun to feel like I’m getting the hang of things around here. Right when I’m about to leave UCLA.

It was more beautiful in person!

There are many things that I wish I could change, but I’m finally realizing that I cannot control everything. In fact, the only thing I can barely try to control is myself. And I even have trouble doing that sometimes.

On the other hand, some things seem to be sailing smoothly. My classes are depressing. They are mostly about poverty and injustice in the world. Yet for some reason, I seem to be very good at them. Mind you, this is just my opinion since I haven’t gotten any midterm grades back, but I really like what I’ve been writing about. For the first time ever, I’ve felt comfortable enough to share my papers with others- this used to terrify me.

Work sucks, but that’s what happens when you work in customer service. Regardless of how awful most people are, there are still the very few who brighten my days with their goodness and wittiness. Like the older couple today in which the sir was making fun of the fact that he does everything his wife “orders” him to do. I smiled and told him that that’s how it’s supposed to be done. We all had a good laugh with that one.

My internship is the same as usual: It’s difficult to get myself there, but when I do, it’s not so bad. However, I am in the middle of a text-argument with a peer intern (I was not the initiator) and I anticipate this will be a problem in the future, since we usually work together. In short, I’m being blamed because I looked out after my own interest AFTER I had offered a solution to benefit both. Hard not to do when the answer to the original offer was: “Well, that’s really your personal situation, not mine.” Ha, if it had been just my situation then why are you yelling at me through text messages now? Life is a joy. I buy Whoppers for moments like this one.

Just kidding, I bought them because a coworker dragged me to CVS during our break to get candy. I didn’t complain.

My relationship with my wife is great as always. Well, not as always (we are human, you know?), but it’s been particularly good lately. I will not lie, the law school application process was a big problem for us at times, but ever since that got sorted out, things have gotten a lot better. Also, as I blogged before, I have a duty to force myself to calm down. For my health and all.

In any case, last night after studying for a while, we went to the Westwood Village and ended up at 800 Degrees Pizza for dinner. It was legit. All of this goodness I’ve been going through is made a thousand times easier because I get to share it with the love of my life. I really don’t understand why most people don’t get married during college. I highly recommend it 😉

Best pizza I’ve ever had!

-Mrs. This One