Professional Navel-Gazing

Since returning from the sabbatical, I've kept my law practice relatively slow.  And I've enjoyed it.  I've avoided marketing or going on a blitz to increase my workload, and instead, I've been doing lots of cooking, reading, gardening, and ramping up my workouts, and plenty of adulting like medical/dental/family stuff, filing/culling, finances/taxes, etc. that I'd completely ignored on the sabbatical (and typically only handled when it was on fire back when my practice was more busy).

I finally made it to the local Din Tai Fung.  

Delicious & only a 15 minute wait for lunch at 1:30 on a Friday!

Because I'm not super busy, I'm not earning as much money as I usually do.  This means that options that historically haven't been attractive to me because they'd require a pay cut are actually worth thinking about.

I wouldn't have realized this, except a local company reached out and tried to hire me for an in-house position.  And I was actually interested.  I prepared a resume for the first time in 12 years.  It felt good to look at a list of all that I've accomplished professionally since I last tried to get hired.  Ultimately, the job was not a good fit -- the job description was a little aspirational -- describing what the hiring manager would love for the role to evolve into at some point in the future rather than a true description of what the job actually would be on day 1.  There were a couple of other issues that made it not a great option for me as well, but it was fun to get a sense of how desirable my skill set is in a corporate environment after 8 years of being on my own.

First time I've been able to put in a winter garden in years!

That same week, a law firm reached out to see if I'd like to consider joining them as a partner.  This is not an uncommon occurrence.  It has typically happened once or twice a year since I've been on my own.  I usually do the math and it doesn't make sense and we part on good terms.  But, as I mentioned, I'm in a unique spot right now, so I'm talking to them next week.

After agreeing to speak with the law firm, I realized I should probably explore my options more fully if that's what I'm doing.  So, I spoke with a recruiter who I put on hold 'til next week and reached out to a firm I'd turned down in the past but really liked to set up a chat with them.

Time to research recipes led me to brown rice straciatella -- so good! 

This is going to be a regular in the soup rotation.

I'm not really sure where, if anywhere, any of this is going.  But I'm meeting new people and exploring possibilities and in doing so reminding myself of some of the things I love about how my life is currently structured that I'd lose if I chose to ramp up my practice to a more busy situation or chose a different path.

Food, Food, Food (and some miles)

This week was super chill.  Lots of healthy food at home, 2 book club events (Pachinko A+, Bonfire B) and some decent runs.

Two of my favorite healthy dishes for dinner:

Brown rice tabbouleh-ish salad

&

Arugula/Spinach Saag

Total mileage: 21.83.  Much lower than hoped for.  BUT, very little pain and several runs that were local high water marks in terms of the amount of time spent at various paces.  Slowly but surely, it feels like I'm making progress.  And the current plan is still to drive up day of and do my best at the Kaiser half.

Half spicy, half original broth

at Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

As expected, the long run was the wildcard this week, and it didn't work out.  12 miles was the plan.  I headed out on Saturday AM in gloriously perfect weather and cruised through 5 miles at sub 12 min/mile pace before realizing that (TMI warning) I was having serious sports bra chafing issues.  It was clear to me that I could finish the full run, but that if I did so, I'd need several days of non-sweaty non-sports-bra recovery to get myself healed up enough to run afterwards.  I made the conservative call and decided to take the next detour off the trail and do 15X30s high effort strides with 1 min walking recovery home for a total workout of 8.5 miles.  Not quite 12 miles, but it included 7.5 minutes at speed with very little leg pain at all.  It was so much better of a cardiovascular performance than last week's difficult 10 miler that I just couldn't be too upset even though I had to bail on the full length. 

Post "long" run hot pot goodies:

Enoki mushrooms, pickled cabbage, 

baby octopus, shrimp balls,

house noodles.

We'll be going back!

So, now, after today's rest day of driving up to the city, brunching with friends celebrating their newly adopted infant, driving back, picking out the winter garden, and some lazy yardwork and puzzle time, the plan is to do the 12 either tomorrow or Tuesday.  Fingers crossed.

I opted for pickles, mac and cheese, and collards

at Buttermilk Southern Kitchen

In other news, a local company has targeted me for a position in-house that is interesting enough that I'm actually seriously considering shutting down my law firm and taking it. 

Updated Tabbouleh-ish salad w/feta

served alongside one of my favorites -- red lentil soup.

We're still in early discussions, but I pulled together a resume for the first time in several years, and they scheduled an interview for next week. It's very fascinating to consider all of the aspects of changing my professional life from the situation I've had for the last 8 years as my own boss (read: working remotely from anywhere in the world only requires my own approval) into one where I have only one (internal) client, a boss that is not me and probably wants my butt in a seat in a specific physical location most of the time, plus all of the benefits and drawbacks of working for a major corporation (yay: free gym and on-site food and drinks, boo: AM status meetings and probably lots of other stuff I've forgotten about since I left the corporate work force).  

A Very Solid Week

On the running front, my foot seems to have recovered.

Monday -- easy jogging 1.09 miles + 0.43 walk.  Stopped as soon as the foot even started twinging.

Tuesday -- complete rest due to work and managing transportation and support for some minor surgery for E.

Wednesday -- TRACK DAY!  Back at the track for the first time in 9 weeks.  2X400; 600; 2X400; 600; 400.  All right on pace or faster than the targets per McMillan Running calculator for my sub 2:39 half.  I also parked 1 mile away and jogged there and jogged back, so with the warm-up and recovery the day's total was a very respectable 5.85 miles.  I'm hopeful I can park and run in this week as well.

Thursday -- 2 X (1 min jump rope intervals between 30 seconds pushups; situps; dips) (9 minutes hard calisthentics); 3 miles easy @ 11:24; 0.18 walk

Friday -- (HOLY SORE ARMS/SHOULDERS, BATMAN!) Rest, attend conference and give a presentation.

Saturday -- (ARMS STILL ANGRY!) 3.21 miles in Altadena.  Anytime you see Alta in the name, you should assume there will be hills.  There were.  The loop was 1 mile with 200 ft of elevation gain, followed by 2 miles with some small rollers to recover it.  Overall, it was a great run.  If I lived on those hills, I think I'd be more fit.

Sunday -- (ARMS, finally starting to recover) 9.3 miles total, including 4 with the local running club, and some run/walk intervals after I picked up a lemonade.  Average pace including walk breaks was approximately 12 minutes/mile.

Total mileage = 23.14.  But more importantly, I got in 2 actual workouts (track and a long run) and a solid hill run to boot.  Overall, this felt like my best running week in a long time.  Next week's goal is to keep up the good work, and try to get in another calisthenics day, possibly a yoga day as well.

Professionally, last week was wonderful.  I prepared for and spoke at a conference and received great feedback.  It's odd to be experienced and senior enough in my career that I'm now one of the people speaking at a conference I want to attend who has ability to answer questions from the top of my head.  I used to be amazed to see my professional idols do it, and now, I'm doing it, sometimes in response to questions posed by those same professional idols.  That evolution is a wondrous thing. 

Alaska!

Last week, we headed up to Fairbanks, Alaska so I could do a visiting lecture at the University and we could hang out with friends, try to see the Aurora, and enjoy the natural beauty of the Alaskan Interior.

Running was, predictably due to the travel, quite light.  Mileage for the week totaled 19.83 including several hiking miles and about 2 hours of snow-hiking (which is no cardiovascular joke!).

We got *very* lucky, and on our first full night, we saw a beautiful Aurora display.  We'd planned our visit specifically with the goal of seeing the Aurora, so we were very pleased.  This trip reminded me every single day that a camera phone is nowhere near as great as a real camera, and I'm hopeful I'll take this lesson and actually do something about it soon...

Work for both of us was a bit more hectic than we'd hoped, so we didn't get Friday or Monday off entirely, but Saturday and Sunday were glorious days off, on Alaskan time, which is much slower than SV time, with deliberate space for weather calamities, unplanned social interactions with small-town friends, hours between cell service, etc.

Just out for a drive along the Alaska Range

Seriously.  How gorgeous is this?

The Alaska Pipeline.

The view from one of the turnouts -- breathtaking and not a car in sight.

The four of us: me, E, D, and Arvay

One of many gorgeous photo ops from the drive.

Sunday, we drove out to Chena Hot Springs and hiked to the summit of one of the trails before soaking and dinner with D & Arvay.  It was a perfect way to spend the day.

See the hot springs steam behind us?

I'd never done true snow-hiking before.  Cardio!

The Summit!

The only real downside was that I cut my big toe in the hot springs while trying to clamber out of the hot water.  The algae on the rocks was quite slippery, and the edges were sharp.  The first time I needed a break from the heat, I surprised myself by using my residual upper body strength and bouldering out with shoulders and back and finger strength and direct foot force against the slippery algae.  There might have been a discussion of mu and force diagrams...  (4 engineers get in a hot spring...)

Emboldened by my initial success, I thought I could do it again after 30+ minutes of hot spring water relaxing my muscles... Wrong.  I angled slightly, the algae did, in fact, have a very low mu value, and my foot slid right over the oh-so-sharp edge of the rock I was trying to climb.

This is a nice clean slice, but fairly deep, unfortunately.

 

Thankfully, between the mineral spring water and antibiotic cream, I seem to have avoided an infection.  So now, I'm focused on workouts for the remainder of the week that don't aggravate my toe.  I'd hoped to do a trail 10K on Saturday, but I'm skeptical that it's a good idea at this point.  The plan is to do non-running toe-friction-free cardio 'til Friday and then tape it up and go for a test run.  If it holds up, I'll shoot for the 10K.  If it seems remotely likely to rip open, I'll likely play it safe.  Wish me luck...

Thanks, Internet

A few years ago, while training for CIM, I realized I needed to find a local running buddy to train with and, thanks to some Internet stalking, I became running friends with Jen.  Through her blog and her IRL interactions with other local folks in the running community, I made several new running friends.

These running friends are awesome -- they arrange group runs, post-race food and fun, relays, and more.  I have literally never attended any event planned by folks in this group and not had a good time.  Unfortunately, two of them are in the process of saying goodbye to the area before they move far away.

I am very sad at the impending departures.  But, I remind myself that I wouldn't even have these friends if it wasn't for the Internet, so I'm trying to focus on gratitude, not disappointment.

I'm grateful the Internet introduced me to great people, *and* I'm grateful that one of them planned a trip to Alcatraz before she left.  The weather was perfect, and Jen, Jess, E, and I had a wonderful day.

Not a bad view!

Also, E and I attended the EFF 25th anniversary.  If you care about the intersection of privacy, human rights, and technology then you should be aware of the EFF.  Some refer to it as "the ACLU for the Internet" or "the ACLU for Technology."  Either way, they are a great organization, representing important legal causes, and I was honored to be part of the celebration.

One of the EFF Founders, John Perry Barlow, took the stage and spoke of how proud he was of the EFF, his "4th child." 

Yes, Grateful Dead fans, that John Perry Barlow

25 years!

I'm loosely affiliated with the EFF, professionally, but every time I attend an event (always due to an invitation via the Internet), I see folks in both the legal and technology communities that I respect, and also, I learn something new.  This event was no different.  

My weekly mileage total was 33.27, which is not bad at all, for the year.  Thanks to the time in SF, however, I spent much more of these miles walking than normal -- only 15 of the week's miles were actually running.  3 of the runs included quality segments, though -- 3.25 miles including 8 X 1 min hill repeats; 2.5 miles with E at 9:40 pace; and 8 miles this AM with MB, a friend from Seattle who was in town and emailed me (over the Internet) asking if I wanted to keep her company on her last "long" run before the San Francisco Marathon next week.

Just Getting On Base

Lately, I am not swinging for the fences in any area of my life.  Instead, I'm all about doing the best I can to score some points and preserve my energy for the next at bat. 

I actually went out with girlfriends in a limo on Friday night, staying out past 1 AM enjoying champagne, a drive to sausilito, a delicious dinner, and dancing.   So that gets me mad social points despite essentially doing nothing else social this week other than BBQ and an impromptu brunch with friends who came to us.  Lesson learned? The best way to wait for someone's late flight is circling the airport in a limo while sipping champagne with friends. 

Our night out included a timeless San Francisco Institution

In addition to our monthly books, one of the members of book club suggested that we may want to do an online course on Science Fiction and Fantasy.  I love the idea of developing a stronger knowledge of this literary form, and I hadn't read most of the required reading, so I signed up.  I'm 2/3 through the first set assignment: The Lucy Crane Translation of Grimms' Household Tales.  If this week is any indication, the reading is likely to be several hundred pages a week.  Doable, but a bit more than I typically read (with my eyes) outside of work.  Thankfully, the writing assignments are 270-330 words each week, and we only have to peer-review 4 submissions each week, so that will not take much time.  The trick will be to figure out how to either (i) get the books each week and fit in more reading time at the gym; (ii) justify even more time at the computer reading the online versions; or (iii) cheat and go for audiobooks.  Unfortunately, despite it being the easiest solution, I'm guessing I won't find audiobooks to meet my goals here.

Side Note:  Ashenputtel (the German Cinderella) is a *much* darker story in the Grimms' version than the one you probably know.

In other news, the low-travel plan for June changed, and E's now traveling for 13 days in the next 4 weeks, while I'm traveling for 14.  Flights have been changed, more hotels booked, driving routes calculated and recalculated.  And, of course, I still need to book a rental car.  Not surprising.

More travel?  Yes, please.  I had to drop a race, and we'll have to host less BBQs, plus find a way to deal with the laundry and time zone madness, but overall, I'm excited for both of my trips.

Work has been *very* busy.  I took on several new clients and projects in May.  I've been paying for it with late nights, some weekend work, and insomnia.  I woke at 3:45 AM last Thursday and couldn't go back to sleep.  So, at 4 I plodded to the computer and worked uninterrupted for 3 hours.  The good: work stress levels dropped.  The bad: had to cancel the PM yoga studio session, I was too exhausted.

More work?  Hmmm... I guess I said yes.  And I guess the main thing I gave up was sleep.  Perhaps I can find a way not to do this one again.  

Japanese studies so far have been less than half of what I'd hoped to do.  My online progress report at japanesepod101.com informs me I've done 19 lessons for 16 hours 29 minutes of total study.  I've maybe done an additional 5 hours of time away from the computer.  Keeping this rate up is unlikely to make a huge difference.  But, like most of the stuff I make space for, it's better than nothing.  If I were to choose a big pie-in-the-sky goal with Japanese, it would be to know the kana before I depart for this trip.  If I can do that, I'll consider everything else a bonus. 

More Japanese?  Ideally, yes.  But if not, then at least I'd like to keep it at this level.  One change I could make is to swap out Japanese for audiobooks in my running and chores.  The problem is, language study is even *more* mentally demanding than audiobooks and will slow down both my running and chores.  Right now, I'm not willing to make this change, but perhaps the last month before we leave?

Work-out wise, I'm also just doing fine. I hit my target mileage (35.48) for the week, and did okay on the quality workouts (9% sub 10 min/mile including 6X1 min @ 8 min/mile and a decent 8 miler with the local running ladies today).  I made up a few tabata and then missed enough to be worse off than where I started last week (current status: 6 to make up).  And, as I noted above, the yoga studio session was cancelled due to lack of sleep.   But I just booked this week's session, so that optimism has to count for something right?

More workouts?  I'd love to, but at least for the next month or two, I think just aiming to keep it roughly where it's been is ambitious enough.  I'm looking forward to a visit to Seattle and the Rock 'n Roll half this weekend, where I'll be pacing a friend.  After that, I have no races on the calendar.  So perhaps I will be able to find a local goal race to work towards in July or August. 

The garden is limping along, but it really needs some attention, so hopefully I'll get to that this week as well.

And there you have it.  Lots of singles.  No home runs.  But I'm playing the game, and doing my best to enjoy it.

So It Goes

I had such grand plans for a high mileage week...

Sigh.

Who Are These People Who Have Time To Just Hang Out?

I'm in survival mode -- focused on upcoming good events and doing what I have to do to get through my gigantic ever-increasing pile of work the rest of the time. Seriously, almost every day for the last 2 weeks, I've looked at E and said, "I can't wait to get to Hawaii."

The end of February/beginning of March is actually my least favorite time of the year, work-wise.  Every year, March 1st arrives and I think, "How is this possible?  Again?  I just finished my invoices for January!"

I tried to fit February's initial billing activities in last week, but I couldn't bring myself to do more than a couple of clients a day because when I'm burnt out, the very last thing I want to deal with is timesheets, deadbeat clients, etc.  Since it's been a very busy time, I had more invoices than usual to prepare.  18, in fact.  Note, there were only 19 business days in February.  And, of course, almost all of these clients had projects that required work on more than 1 days.  Add the fact that I currently have 3 open non-billable pro bono projects and objectively, even I can see that I'm stretched *way* too thin.  I probably did some work on every single day in February, in direct conflict with my doctor's orders.

So, for once, I actually did something about this.  I finally found a way to bump my junior associate up to 75% time.  I am so excited about this, I can't even tell you.  Yes, the reality is that junior folks are never as efficient as experienced folks, but she's been with my firm for a year and she's learned a ton in that time, so I do think it is realistic to start offloading more stuff to her.

Obviously, I had to bag several planned runs to get my work done.  Total mileage for the week was 26.92 and that included a couple of days where I just fit in a short walk (because the shower/get ready time required post-run wasn't available).  I had high hopes of getting in a decent long run on the weekend, but it was not meant to be.  It was hot in my hometown on Saturday, so since I was headed to SF anyways for a night out with my girls, I decided to drive early and do my mileage there in the cooler weather.

This plan had many flaws.  First, there was crazy traffic (like 20 minutes going an average of 0.5 mph to get past a horrid accident), so I lost more time on the way there than I expected.  Then, it was absolutely gorgeous in San Francisco.  Which was wonderful.  Except, I'd planned to run the Embarcadero, through Fort Mason, out to Chrissy Field, and possibly Fort Point and back.  And, when San Francisco is sunny, all the people come out to enjoy those very same places.

Seriously, look at the picture above -- hundreds of folks just hanging out in the sun at Fort Mason. (Who are these people?)

Immediately upon leaving the hotel, I could see that continuous running miles were not going to happen.  I would have to stop to walk when the crowds were too heavy, which would be often.  I could have turned around and hit the treadmill, but I just couldn't bring myself to miss the beautiful day outside.  So, the long run turned into less than 8 run/walking and I scrapped Sunday's run altogether in order to try to dig myself out of my work hole.

Oakland may end up being yet another "just get it done" half-marathon where I don't race at all and just try to finish it comfortably.  Maybe I'll try to commit to the SLO half marathon...

Very Busy Week

Last Monday was a holiday in the United States *and* Canada. This meant a few things:

1. It was "family day" at the mall attached to our Ottawa hotel and the crowds were crazy.  Later, after researching the issue, I learned that this is actually the name of the Canadian holiday:  family day.

2. Most of my clients do not take all of the US Federal holidays.  A typical startup has anywhere from 8-10 officially observed non-work holidays, and many companies include non-federally observed time off for things like New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve, etc in this total.  This means that MLK day, Indigenous Peoples' day (or as the Feds call it, Columbus day), Presidents' day (or as the Feds call it Washington's birthday), etc. often don't make the startup cut.  So, it was safe to assume that most of my clients would have offices that were open and could need legal support.

3. Despite #2, many of my clients employ adults that have children who attend schools that do take the Federal holidays, so I can usually count on a *slower* day, and if I want to try to truly take the day off, Federal holidays are always a good option.

For the Canada trip, I'd taken a "holiday wish" approach.  I'd set my "out of office" auto-responder on our departure and hoped that nothing big would come up, but I was prepared to work if I needed to, since we didn't really have much scheduled that would prohibit me from working.

On Saturday (Valentine's day), I ended up taking a 2 hour conference call and doing mark-ups afterwards, but thankfully, E needed to work as well, so he didn't mind.

This put me in a frame of mind on Monday, for Presidents' day, where I was sincerely hoping I could take some portion or all of the day off.  And life agreed.

So, I woke, worked a few hours 'til my inbox was clear, worked out in the hotel gym, and took myself out to a 2 hour French Brasserie lunch (mmmm... Croque Monsieur, wine, salad, and coffee!) while reading my book.  Then, I worked a couple more hours and headed back to the gym for a second work out.  Now that's my idea of a pseudo-holiday.  E and I returned to the same restaurant for dinner and we were thrilled with the rich delicious French food and service.

Tuesday, after half a normal day, we headed to the airport for the long trek of working while traveling back to California.  On the drive to the airport, we followed the canal, which at this time of year is frozen, and people skate to work and to do their errands -- is this the most Canadian thing you've ever heard of, or what?

Zoom in, there are people skating on that frozen canal!

Upon landing in SF (after 8-9 hours of travel), we hopped in the car and drove to Santa Rosa, because E had to speak at a conference there on Wednesday.

Night time Golden Gate Bridge Crossing

Thursday was onsite at a client, and Friday, I finally fit in a decent mid-week medium run (7 miles) before taking the train to SF and speaking on two panels at an IP law event.

Look Mom, I'm actually dressed professionally!

Saturday, I spent 3+ hours driving to and working on bookkeeping issues with my bookkeeper (and added in another couple of hours of social fun including a 6 mile easy run, which was so great).

Sunday was the first true off day of work in a couple of weeks and I spent it driving 1.5 hours up to a law school colleague's baby shower, attending the shower and driving home.  I'd planned to do my long run after I got home, but yeah... that totally didn't happen.  Read my book and drank wine on the couch like a boss.  That's what actually happened.

So, total mileage for the week? 19.54.  Considering there was no long run, Monday's workout was a pure gym no run workout, and I'd hoped for 10 or more on my long run, this is actually not bad at all.  See what I did there?  I'm like the opposite of the running bloggers who get down on themselves.  When it comes to my running, I'm like pollyanna (which is also hilarious, because NO ONE who knows me would EVER accuse me of being pollyanna).     

A Typical Week In My Life

The beginning of my week was spent closing a big deal for one of my clients -- it feels like they've been negotiating against this very large company for at least 4 or 5 months.  It was such a relief to approve the final version for execution.  I am FREE!!! (of this deal at least).

The deal was worldwide, so it involved many international folks, meaning conference calls were late, early, and whenever everyone could attend (sleep is not an acceptable excuse in my line of work).  This, amped up to close the deal, and coupled with recovery from Kaiser, ensured that M/T were free of any workout, and the week, in general, was light on exercise.  So much for being inspired to jump into training for Oakland.  C'est la vie.

I did make it back to track day on Wednesday (only 2 weeks off), and was shocked to see sub 7/mile paces on my Garmin for a couple of the segments.  It's been a long time since I ran in the 6's, even if just for 200s.

Due to The Deal plus general end of the month work nonsense that comes from running my own law firm, Th/Fri were similar to M/T on the workout front although I did manage to fit in 3.5 miles walking and 30 minutes of elliptical.  Sometimes, I just have to take what I can get.

One weeknight, we finally defrosted the ranch-raised steak that had been gifted to us from a Texan friend.  We invited another Texan and his wife to enjoy the spoils.  It was delicious.

Happy Guests

Fun With Dry Ice (upon delivery)

E perfectly grilled both the rib-eye and the flatiron.  I made mushrooms and squash.

Saturday, E wanted to run, which is always fun.  So I headed out in the 100% humidity break from the rain for 1.5 with him (~10/mile), and then tacked on a bit on my own to total just above 4.

Saturday evening, we hosted a young couple from the middle of Amercia who just moved to the bay area for dinner.  It's always refreshing to spend time with folks who aren't in your cohort.  They are in their early 20s and still adjusting to the changes from their locality to ours. Their observations were eye-opening.  

In preparation for their arrival, I made bolognese for the first time in years.  Friday, after discussing our potential meal options, E bought half a pound of ground beef, half a pound of ground turkey, and I re-purposed some prosciutto and spicy coppa (how amazing are cured meats?) leftover from the book exchange.  The final sauce was a 3-animal, 4-meat concoction, worthy of the bolognese name.  Mid-afternoon, I found myself smiling broadly, slowly making the sauce over the stove hours before our guests arrived.  It had been so long since I'd taken the time to make such time-heavy effort of food-love.  We served it over orechiette, with a salad.  It was delicious home-made comfort food, and I was so happy to serve it.  Bonus, E and the guests appeared to be happy to enjoy it as well.

Sunday, I woke to rain.  I gamely went out, hoping I could do 10 miles before buckling down to get some work done (as I'm still in the hole from the big deal).  Nope.

I turned around and arrived home at mile 1.15, not quite drenched, but unwilling to commit to the full 10 in the intermittent rainstorm.  So, I took the audiobook and headed to the gym.  I made a simple deal with myself.  I would do an hour of aerobic work on the treadmill at 1% incline.  I managed 5.23 miles, primarily running at 10:56, with the occasional walk break, and the last 8 minutes being a ladder that finished with a minute at 9:31/mile.

Total mileage for the week: 19.78.  Week -6 for Oakland?  Not great.  But, then again, I did some soul-searching and decided that I'd rather focus on getting my mass down for Oakland than speed.  So, I'm not going to worry about pace.  For the next 5 weeks I'm going to focus on mileage, total aerobic load, getting in as many track days as I can, and opting for lighter, healthier food.  I plan to do this despite 2 trips -- one to Montreal and Ottawa and another to Hawaii.  It's a tall order.  

In keeping with the healthier food theme, E and I had a very light brunch after my run today, and I exercised supreme discipline by ignoring my growling stomach and avoiding the popcorn station before watching Breakfast At Tiffany's on the big screen with Cat (interesting to watch a movie where the cat is named Cat while sitting next to your friend Cat), Jen, and several other cool ladies.  Of course, upon arriving home I demanded that we split the last remaining pizza slice in half and have it as a pizza snack before dinner.  So, there's that...

One Of Those Days

Go grab a cup of tea or a beer or a glass of wine.  Because my day was ridiculous enough that I want to share it and I want you to *truly* enjoy it.

It started out with a night of bad sleep due to city noise and a very tight bed in the hotel (E was also sleeping poorly so with each toss and turn of one of us, we'd wake the other all night, neither of us getting more than 30 minutes straight after 2 AM or so).  Now, yes, I realize this is nothing compared to the sleep interruptions one experiences from an infant or even a toddler, but I'm spoiled.  Unless work is horrid, I've reached a point in my life where I usually get 8 hours of good sleep.  And I didn't last night.

Groggy, I woke at my normal time and cleared my inbox and went about my day, doing my preferred routine of post-early AM work late AM run and shower before lunch.  My first hard work deadline was a 1:30 call.  I left the hotel room at 12:20 PM in the optimistic hope that I had enough time get to my car, load my luggage, drive to the San Francisco Center Nordstrom and buy my niece her birthday present before taking the call as I drove down the peninsula.  Teenage Birthday Present Aside:  the number of calls and texts and emails to friends with kids her age has been like a completely separate high billable work project this last week.

*Before* I left the hotel room, I made sure to locate my car key because my hands were going to be very full.  Then I loaded up -- the rolling bag that doubles as my virtual office, the back-pack, the giant purse, and the large shopping bag from the Nespresso store containing enough caffeinated capsules to cover my needs for at least the rest of Q1 (oh, I'm officially an addict).

I rolled and carried all of these items to the parking garage, but when I got to my car, my key was not in the normal pocket where I *always* put it in my purse.  It also wasn't in my back pockets, or any other obvious place I could think of.

I took a few deep breaths.  I decided to take the systematic approach.  I unloaded every single thing from my purse into the Nespresso bag, assuming I'd eventually find the key.  Instead, I found:

 -Business cards from every professional introduction I've made since the purse was purchased in fall of 2013 (thanks, Sis!  you always make me buy the best stuff)
-Approximately 30 pens and pencils
-Large wallet
-Small wallet/phone case
-Smallest wallet attached to janitor-like key set
-Receipts.  So many receipts.
-Eyeliners, moisturizers, sunblock, lipliners, gloss, chapstick, eyeshadows, powders, foundation and brushes (A majority of which had only been used once.  Probably while attending a wedding.)
-Approximately 5 bags of nuts/trail mix from plane flights and a couple of packets of random food handed out at races
-Lots of binder clips
-Hairbands and a comb
-Deodorant (I actually stand by this one, I keep deodorant in my purse at all times.  What?)
-Sunglasses, tissues, sewing kit
-Mittens (because, you know, mittens are very important in Northern California)
-Gum

Well, crap.  As the remaining items in my purse decreased, I was slowly coming to the conclusion that I had likely left my key up in the hotel room when I'd gone to the trouble of taking it out to be sure that I had it ready.

See, I have a bit of a disorder.  I'm not very aware of what's in my hands.  When I get mentally distracted, I regularly pick things up and put them down wherever.  Phones in freezers. Laundry in pantries.  Random items lost to the ages found several years later in completely odd places.

Once, when I lent my car to a friend, he had it detailed and when he returned it, he handed me not one, but *2* gallon ziplock bags full of pens and pencils.  In case you were wondering who stole your pen?  It was me.  But it wasn't on purpose, I swear.

First, I email my client and ask to reschedule the 1:30 call to another time.  It was very clear to me that I wasn't going to get through this ordeal in any time to be calm and together enough to host a conference call.

Then, I checked all the other pockets and compartments of all of the other bags.  Finally, I loaded up all the bags and trudged back to the hotel where I asked for a new key and, of course, found my room in the course of being cleaned by housekeeping.  Gesticulating wildly (no Cantonese), I finally convinced her that I'd lost something.  She emphatically assured me that she hadn't found anything.  But that didn't surprise me.  Because I often end up putting things in my hands in very unexpected places.  She cocked her head to the side as I lied down on the floor and started searching under the desk, the couch, the bed and the bedstand.

Eventually, I asked if I could see the trash.  It took a while, but she finally understood what I wanted.  I started picking through the refuse from the outside of the see-through trash bag and she came over with gloves.  She made a motion to put them on and help me, but had a look of serious relief when I motioned that I would take the gloves and paw through the trash myself.  "You.  Be careful.  Glass."  Yes, Ma'am.

After a few minutes, I became convinced that the key was not in the trash, so I stopped looking and resumed my search of the room, frantically picking up towels, looking under sheets, and going through all the zippered pockets in all of my various bags before re-starting the search of the contents of my purse.

Nothing.

She seemed to sense my frustration and actually removed the trash bag from her cart, put it on the ground, ripped it open so that it was just a plastic sheet on the floor and gave me back the gloves.

That's some serious customer service!

After pawing through the trash of approximately 5 or so other hotel patron's rooms, I confirmed that my key was, in fact, *not* in the trash.

Finally, I opened my phone and called AAA.  I haven't had to use AAA in a long time, but I love them.  They have great travel contracts with many brands that result in better rates that you can get through any other loyalty program, *and* free roadside assistance (even if I did end up sitting on hold for 20 minutes before the final arrangements were done).  They gave me an hour window, *and* they gave me the bad news that to have the locksmith make me a new key would not be free, unfortunately.  It's one thing to slim-jim into a vehicle for free.  But apparently making a key is much more difficult, and close to $200.  Between the lost billable hours and the fee, this unknown placement disorder incident was not going to be cheap.

Resigned, I walked back to the garage and warned the garage attendant that a locksmith would be coming sometime in the next hour.  "Did you call *our* locksmith?"  Ummm.... what?

Apparently, the parking garage has its own locksmith and it's free.  Cool!  I call AAA back and sit on hold for another 20ish minutes to cancel my apt.  Then, I called the building's locksmith.  As I did so, I realize they are probably only free for lockouts much like AAA is free for lockouts and they are probably going to charge me for the key... Sigh.

While I'm waiting on hold I decide to search the detritus of my purse (now mainly in the Nespresso bag) one last time.  Lo and behold -- there was the key.  I have no idea how I missed it when I did a piece by piece transfer from one bag to the next and a second piece by piece search, but I'm not complaining.  I hang up on the building locksmith and drive to the exit station.

But you know what they want at the exit station?  Oh, yeah.  A ticket.  Somewhere in the mess of removing and putting my purse back together I appear to have misplaced that one.  So, I fill out the lost ticket form and pay the penalty.

Finally, I drive to Nordstrom and buy my niece's present.  I am very careful to ensure my car key is in my hand and that the car door/trunk is locked by the remote locking mechanism in my hand.  I go in and the helpful saleswoman who is only 7 years older than my niece guides me on what is cool.  I take my purchases back to my car and I'm not kidding you...

I CAN'T FIND MY CAR KEY.

Back into Nordstrom I go, and of course, it's on the purchase counter, just waiting for whomever to pick it up.

Finally home, several hours later than expected, I log into a client-issued computer to start a large project (sometimes I need access to client's corporate networks and they want me on hardware they control).  The computer immediately crashes.  I try to reboot.  It fails.  Thankfully, my key is back in its normal pocket of my purse, so I drive to the client and spend 45 minutes working with their IT department.  They inform me that it looks like either the hard drive or the motherboard failed, so I'll have to come back tomorrow AM.

I did make it home in time to do my last client call of the day at 5:15.  But I was kind of shocked that the conference call server didn't go down or something else didn't go wrong. 

So now, I'm calling the day officially done.  I'm not even going to chance it.

A Different View

A few months ago, I was randomly selected to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire for federal jury duty.

Looks like I made the cut...

I'm fascinated at the idea that I may end up on a federal jury.  I've heard two sets of conflicting feedback re: the likelihood that this may happen.

The most common theory is that lawyers always get stricken.  The party with the weaker legal case will use a challenge to get rid of you if you're a lawyer because you can easily spot the flaws in their case.

The other lore I've heard (from a career clerk for the federal judge I externed for who sat on 3 federal juries in her career and a few other sources) is that if they are going to trial, particularly federal trial, both parties think they have a great case and a lawyer is a much better bet than a random citizen in terms of actually paying attention to the evidence and ruling in accordance with the law.

I'm amused to see that I'm totally ambivalent on how this may play out.  I can't help but think that one of the reasons I can be ambivalent is because I saw how seriously the jurors took their duties when I was a federal extern.  The jury is one of the greatest legal concepts this country has (at least in the criminal and tort worlds, where I had the privilege of watching it be applied, very seriously and thoughtfully by randomly selected panels in the federal court system).

So, if I end up on a jury, so be it.  I'll serve to the best of my abilities and my practice, professional life, and personal life will all have to take the hit (given the dates at issue, I'll likely have to cancel pre-arranged travel).

If I don't end up on the jury, I won't be sad -- my practice, my professional life, and my personal life, will likely be better off.  Another individual will take my place.  And if my experience is any indicator, they will take it seriously and do a thoughtful deliberate job at arriving at their conclusions as well.

Going With the Flow (NYE Goal Check-in)

I've set a record this year for breaking my first New Year's Resolution the earliest in the year ever.

It's a PR!

On January 13, not even two full weeks into the year I failed to meet my goal of having finished every book club book this year by the actual meeting.

In my defense,  The Age of Innocence, just wasn't doing it for me.  I was shocked that this book was from the same author as The House of Mirth, which I adore.  I couldn't get into it.  I definitely had enough time to finish it, I was just too annoyed with the characters to do so.  So, I'm resetting and committed to finishing Wuthering Heights for next month.

On the running front, I'm slowly getting back in shape, which is nice.  I did 8X400 at track day yesterday and hit all of them at sub-8/mile pace, fairly consistently, which made me happy (1:58; 1:54; 1:56; 1:56; 1:57; 1:57; 1:56; 1:56). The effort wasn't actually that hard, which was ideal because I'm registered for a 10K this weekend so I didn't want the track workout to be my best effort for the week.  Bonus -- today, I'm not very sore.  Also, I'm doing very well on the running with joy front.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), one of the half-marathons I registered for this Spring is no longer on my schedule.  E's family wanted us to join them to go skiing in Jackson Hole that week and it was a no-brainer as to which option was more attractive. 

On the space front, I'm trying.  I have been better about balancing my time and building in empty space, but it's a work in progress.  I'm still ridiculously over-booked, but less so than historically.

For yoga, I still need to get in to try out the new studio.  I'm hopeful I may be able to make it happen today or tomorrow.  This one's tough to balance against the "leave space in my schedule" goal.  We'll see...

I pulled the winter garden and will be starting my seedlings this weekend, so that one is in good shape.  I'm a bit concerned about the drought we're experiencing in California.  I may need to scale back the garden this Summer, but I'll start my seedlings with expectations and hopes for miracle rain/snow just in case.

On the professional/financial reverse goal side I opted not to compete to get a new client today, telling them to stick with their larger law firm, since they'd negotiated a discount that eliminated my economic advantage.  This, my friends, is *major* progress for me.

2014 Goals

It's that time of year again and my goals this year fall into several categories:

1.  Space.  When it comes to space, physically, I'm pretty good.  I don't generally succumb to clutter and I regularly purge physical things (although, truth be told, right now, due to holiday gifts, I have an abundance of cardboard boxes in our living room that need to be dealt with).  While spatially, I may be good, temporally, I'm terrible.  I used to compare myself against my mother and congratulate myself, but as I've aged, I've realized that even my *very* laid back father was actually a work-a-holic and dedicated socialite who regularly over-booked his time, so, other than my lovely husband who taught me to build in "do-nothing" days on vacation, I have no good role models on this very important topic and my continuum is skewed heavily to the over-extended time side.  I regularly let my time become so crowded that everything I want to do only fits if *everything* goes *exactly* according to plan (side note, this makes me very intolerant of others who have loser definitions of time and inconvenience me).  When the inevitable happens and everything doesn't fit, I triage.  And I do it well.  But, the needs in an emergency are very different than the needs one could address by being thoughtful with foresight.  I've realized that by neglecting to intentionally build in enough buffer space for life, which *never* goes completely according to plan, I'm partially responsible for all of these emergencies that make me triage anxiously while my blood boils.  So, my very hard to quantify goal for 2014 is to maintain enough temporal space that emergencies only happen when they are *relatively* unavoidable.  Note -- startups operate in full-on emergency-all-the-time mode, so professionally, I can't completely control for this one.  But I can admit that it exists and structure my personal life accordingly, which is something I haven't done in the past.  I'm not sure how to quantify this one, but I think I'll be able to be honest with myself about whether I'm successful or not come year-end.

2.  Yoga.  It was with a sad heart that I read the Vanity Fair piece on Bikram being sued for rape and sexual harassment.  Given that I already have a love-hate relationship with Bikram Yoga, this article pushed me over the edge (even if all of the allegations are false, the tone of many in the Bikram community who were interviewed had a high ick factor).  So, my 2014 goal is to find a new studio where I take an average of one class a week.  I am happy to learn that there is a hot yoga studio nearby that only heats to 90F instead of 105-108F.  The class I took in Barcelona was only heated to around 90F, as have been other classes I've taken in SF, ATL, my hometown, and more -- and 90F is just so much more doable than the Bikram-prescribed super-heat. In the mid-100s around 60 minutes is where I really start to devolve into a serious mental struggle not to storm out of the room in annoyance -- yes, no doubt that mental discipline to stay in the room has value, but it's so unpleasant that it means it's hard for me to motivate to attend and I end up dreading and/or finding reasons to skip my yoga practice.  So I'm looking forward to finding a class I can commit to without such a huge mental conflict.  Also, E and I agreed to do 1 healthy day a week during 2014 where we do a minimum of 30 minutes of yoga together, eat only vegetarian food, and consume no alcohol. 

3.  Running.  Oh boy.  I've got a 10-miler, a 10K, and 2 half marathons on the calendar between now and the end of March.  I just wrote up a training schedule that is reasonable for the distances but not *that* demanding and I'm looking forward to trying to stick to it.  Overall, with running, I think my goal this year is to run with joy.  Again, with the impossible to quantify goals!  But, seriously.  I enjoyed hiking on the Queen Charlotte Track so much that if I had time to hike every day instead of running, I honestly think I'd prefer to do that.  This was a huge revelation to me.  I *like* running.  But I don't *love* it the way many in the running community do.  It's functional for me.  It fits (see #1 -- because I'm bad about allocating time, running has been very pragmatic for me in terms of fitting in workouts for the last decade of my life).  I'm very goal oriented, so signing up for races and following training plans means that the runs have importance and will likely get done, unless it's serious triage time.  But the true *joy* of running for me has been few and far between in the last several years -- I do know that I get much joy from running with friends (yay track day and long runs with friends!) and running at paces that aren't pushed while listening to audiobooks, so I'm going to try to maximize those activities along with any and all other running activities that make me feel happy to be alive.

4.  Books.  As I mentioned, audiobooks became such a part of my life this year that they are no longer eligible for goal-setting, they're like my version of television.  So, I think I'd like to have a goal of reading *all* of the book-club books this year (again, back to #1, I was unable to read one of the assigned books this year because work and life spiraled out of control and something had to give, so it was my book club book -- I hosted the club and had to ask silly questions about how the book ended).  On top of that, I think aiming for 24 books read total is a good idea.  In 2013 I hit 21, so I think I should be able to do 24 without too much unreasonable effort.  Plus, I want to be someone who *reads* books.  Yes, audiobooks are awesome, and I sincerely enjoy them, as evidenced by their complete insertion into my daily life and my removal of them from the goals.  However, my experiment whereby I listened to and then read The Great Gatsby (for book club) definitely confirmed for me that I lose quite a bit when I just listen to the audiobook.  The mental effort and reward for me is *much* higher when I actually read (and turn the page for that matter, as I don't have an e-book-reader).

5.  Garden.  Historically, I've never included the Garden in my goals, it's my hobby, and I've always found a way to fit it in somewhere.  But in the interests of #1 -- I'm trying to be honest with myself about what takes time in my life and what I'd like to accomplish, so I'm adding it this year.  I'd like to get my seedlings started before the end of the first week of February.  Normally, I just do this, but this year it will be a bit more complicated because all of the heat mats for the seedlings are currently deployed under Guito's cage.  (I should probably buy him better heat sources and take the mats back for the garden.)  I'd also like to do the following:

a) Get the winter garden cleared out and covered with plastic before the end of February so weeds don't grow.

b)  Turn the soil, add compost and other amendments, and fully prep the beds for planting before the first of May.

c)  Get seedlings in the ground ASAP after the last frost as the weather permits.

d)  Get the tomato cages and staking for beans, squash, etc. all done before June.

e)  Be home for the majority of the harvest season so we can enjoy the bounty of the Garden.

6.  Professional/Financial.  For the record, ever since I was a teenager, I've had goals in these areas but I've never felt the need to share them -- they've just taken first priority over everything else in my life except my family/friends (and, sometimes, if I'm honest, they've even beat those out).  So, I've almost always met them.  This year, my professional/financial goal is to recognize that my life is at a point today where it's okay if I miss a professional or financial goal if I have to do so to meet one of the goals above.  And the big goal is to {gasp} let go enough to let that happen.  I suspect this is actually the hardest goal I'm setting for 2014.

  

New Shoes

Last week, I managed 18.28 miles running and walking  (including 3 miles sub 9 min/mile and a great 6.5 miler with F on her second to last long run before CIM) and another 60 minutes on the recumbant bike.  I know I should go back to Bikram, but now the class card has expired.  So, other than the health benefits I know I will receive, I have no incentive.  It's so hot, uncomfortable, and looking at myself in the mirror with very little clothing on while sweating profusely and contorting isn't exactly a cherry on top of that already less than appetizing sunday....

This week, I was a slacker on the workout front.  Work is *insane* right now and I'm struggling to stay afloat.  I'm having nightmares again, which is a good indicator of the stress needle getting much too high.  When that happens, something's got to give.  In the short term, getting time in exchange for giving up a workout is a great choice.  But, in the long term, my stress levels increase unless I get my mileage or other workout minutes up in parallel with the pressures I am under, so it's not a sustainable one.  C'est la vie.

In perfect evidence of my lack of commitment to my workouts in the short term, after a walking workout with a couple of short sprints to get the heart rate up on the treadmill to finish my book club book on Monday, I took Tuesday and Wednesday completely off.  Thursday, I unpacked my bag at the hotel, excited to get in my first real run of the week after my workday, only to realize I'd packed everything *except* running shoes.  So, instead, I managed 30 minutes easy on the recumbant bike (in my socks) and 2 miles walking in San Francisco (with a stop at Lady FootLocker to buy a new pair of Brooks Ghosts).

Friday, finally shod, I did a decent 4.4 mile fartlek along the Embarcadero with a brief stop to listen to the lapping water and touch the sea.  I'd hoped to fit in a run to Hopper's Hands, but I didn't have enough time, so it will have to wait for another time.  I did, however, get in some time in the mid 8's/mile, so I was pleased.

Saturday, I fit in a slow, easy 3+ mile loop around AT&T Park. I've been stressed, did I mention that? So, today, Sunday, finally home again, I set no alarm and was shocked to sleep 'til 9:45 AM, which killed my run plans, and turned them into a lame 1+ mile jog with a dead garmin. When the MP3 player died in sympathy, I called it, and walked home.  Instead we biked to and from brunch with E, F&P, plus the always adorable honorary nephew R and F's mom.

Total mileage on the shoes for this week?  A whopping 14.5.  But some decent close to 8 min/mile segments and 30 minutes recumbant bike + 20 minutes actual biking with inclines over the train tracks both ways.  And, more importantly, despite not having a race on the calendar (other than a turkey trot) I'm committed enough to running these days that I went to go get new shoes when I forgot to pack them for a 2 day out of town stay.

As I read all the running blogs I read, I find that, much like other areas of my life, I am odd.  I'm serious enough about running to do things like track my mileage, have a garmin, know pace information, and maintain a decent mileage base such that I'm guaranteed to clear 900+ miles plus for 9th year in a row, despite family health emergencies, work, drama, and life in general (and including 1,000+ for 7 of the same including a max of 1,660 in 2011).  But, I'm not fast.  I'm not a classically dedicated runner.   I don't give up social or work obligations that I *know* will impinge my training (but I will make sacrifices for races).

When I've got a race on the calendar, I feel I share more in common with my fellow running bloggers.  But these last few months?  I'm feeling like I'm in my more typical state of outlier.  Either way, I enjoyed my 14+ miles this week and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can pull off at ATL turkey trot despite the complete lack of training.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you're healthy enough to do a 5K, life is great!

Dear City of Oakland... Seriously? WTF?

A couple of days ago, I received a notice from the city of Oakland claiming I had failed to respond to a parking ticket issued to my *grey* Honda (with my license plate number) that was issued to me at 4:55 PM on July 30, 2013 at 3300 Lakeshore Dr. 

My issues?

1.  I haven't been in Oakland for months, and I certainly wasn't there on July 30, 2013.
2.  I've never been to 3300 Lakeshore Dr.  Looks like a nice neighborhood, but I haven't had the pleasure just yet.
2.  My car is *bright* blue.  Not grey.
3.  Why is my license number and the make of my vehicle correct?  It couldn't be because I previously paid a ticket issued in Oakland without contest would it?

In short.  Oakland -- I am *not* impressed.  This looks like incompetence at best and blatant fraud at worst. 

Yes, I did file a detailed contest, including data from my garmin (showing me working out on the peninsula 10 minutes before the ticket), a photo of the blue (not grey) car, and an invitation that they subpoena IP addresses from Google re: emails I sent within 10 minutes of the supposed ticket that would put me in MV.

Of course, none of this is dispositive.  They could easily decide that someone else had my car despite my protestations that it wasn't possible.  It's essentially a case of he-said-she-said, where he is the city of Oakland parking.

Awesome. (Oh, and yes, I will spend the time and money to appeal this as far as I possibly can... I mean, WTF?)

Some Thoughts On the DOMA Arguments (Now With Curse Words)

So, I'm back with day 2 of SCOTUS marriage law comments. I was just going to take a break to read the DOMA arguments and be quiet, but I laughed at an early passage in the transcript and had to share:


JUSTICE SCALIA: Really, that's very peculiar. When -- when both parties to the case agree on what the law is? What, the -- just for fun, the district judge is -- is going to have a hearing?

Why did I laugh?  Because I pictured Scalia stopping himself from saying, "What the Fuck?"  I'm pretty sure that's what he was thinking.

It was pretty dry from there, so I made it halfway through the transcript before I hit this bit, and my jaw dropped:

JUSTICE KAGAN: Well, is what happened in 1996 -- and I'm going to quote from the House Report here -- is that "Congress decided to reflect an honor of collective moral judgment and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality." Is that what happened in 1996?

Guess what, kids?  That is actually what happened.  This is the justification in the House Report for DOMA.  In nineteen fucking ninety-six.

Sometimes I forget that I live in California, and the Bay Area, at that.  But when I read this statement, I was reminded that I was in Berkeley at that time.  Clearly, my daily experience was not remotely in line with the majority of the population the House thought they were representing. At the time, I assumed the proponents of DOMA would not have been so open with their judgment and rather would have tried to rely upon "the traditional institution of marriage" as a "bedrock" of our society that needs to be "preserved". 

In other news, it almost makes my brain explode to read this statement in today's culture of awareness of bullying.  I can't imagine what was considered acceptable bullying of homosexuals at that time if this type of language was considered completely reasonable justification for passing a law.

Intellectually, the best part was the awesome moment when Justice Kennedy creates the most unlikely bedfellows:

JUSTICE KENNEDY: Well, I think -- I think it is a DOMA problem. The question is whether or not the Federal government, under our federalism scheme, has the authority to regulate marriage.

Bam.  See that?  That's the moment when the traditional 10th Amendment States' Rights advocates ("Federalists") just got lumped in with the same sex marriage crew.

Where are all the States' Righters, you ask? (You must not be from the South).

Hmmm... and what's the current status on state laws for same sex marriage:

  Same-sex marriage¹

  Unions granting rights similar to marriage^1,2

  Legislation granting limited/enumerated rights¹

  Same-sex marriages performed elsewhere recognized¹

  No specific prohibition or recognition of same-sex marriages or unions

  State statute bans same-sex marriage

  State constitution bans same-sex marriage²

  State constitution bans same-sex marriage and some or all other kinds of same-sex unions

---

¹May include recent laws or court decisions which have created legal recognition of same-sex relationships, but which have not entered into effect yet.
²See the article on same-sex marriage in California for the status in California. .
 (Source: Wikipedia)



Looks like Iowa and Washington are the only states where that party would be any fun. 


Just when I thought I couldn't be surprised any more, right before the end of the transcript, I came upon this exchange.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: As far as I can tell, political figures are falling over themselves to endorse your side of the case. 

MS. KAPLAN: The fact of the matter is, Mr. Chief Justice, is that no other group in recent history has been subjected to popular referenda to take away rights that have already been given or exclude those rights, the way gay people have. And only two of those referenda have ever lost. One was in Arizona; it then passed a couple years later. One was in Minnesota where they already have a statute on the books that prohibits marriages between gay people. 

So I don't think -- and until 1990 gay people were not allowed to enter this country. So I don't think that the political power of gay people today could possibly be seen within that framework, and certainly is analogous -- I think gay people are far weaker than the women were at the time of Frontiero.

I did *not* know that.

Like yesterday, Wow.

Hollingsworth v. Perry Arguments

It's been a long time since I've posted anything purely about the law here. But it's time.

I had a busy day at work, which was a bummer, because I read tweets and facebook updates that let me know that many of my legal colleagues were totally focused on the arguments.  Unfortunately, for me, it's close to the end of quarter, so I had to work 'til after 6:30.

Finally, I took the time to read the transcript of the oral arguments before the Supreme Court today and I think it makes sense to summarize some of the issues the justices raised:

Heads up to all you married opposite sex couples who don't plan to (or can't) have kids:

"JUSTICE KAGAN: Mr. Cooper, could I just understand your argument. In reading the briefs, it seems as though your principal argument is that same-sex and opposite -- opposite-sex couples are not similarly situated because opposite-sex couples can procreate, same-sex couples cannot, and the State's principal interest in marriage is in regulating procreation. Is that basically correct?

MR. COOPER: I -- Your Honor, that's the essential thrust of our -- our position, yes."

AND

" MR. COOPER: Yes, Your Honor. The concern is that redefining marriage as a genderless institution will sever its abiding connection to its historic traditional procreative purposes, and it will refocus, refocus the purpose of marriage and the definition of marriage away from the raising of children and to the emotional needs and desires of adults, of adult couples."

Apparently, if you're like me (married and without plans to procreate), under the Prop 8 supporters arguments, the state has no more interest in protecting or recognizing your marriage than a same-sex couple one.  After all, you're just an adult couple...

Think about it.

You Know, :

Mr. Cooper: If, in fact, it is true, as the people of California believe that it still is true, that the natural procreative capacity of opposite-sex couplescontinues to pose vitally important benefits and risks to society, and that's why marriage itself is theinstitution that society has always used to regulate those heterosexual, procreative -- procreative relationships.


Lest you think I'm exaggerating, I direct you to the discussion of Turner v. Safely on p. 27.

The Court -- the Court here emphasized that,among the incidents of marriage that are not destroyed by that -- at least that prison context, was the expectation of eventual consummation of the marriage and legitimation of -- of the children...

Seriously.

Thank goodness this looks like it'll be settled on standing grounds, because the substantive argument seems to be coming down to "But We Need To Avoid Bastards" and "Married Couples Exist Solely To Have Unprotected Sex and Produce Children." 

Wow.