Answer: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona

It isn't hosiery! It's called a compression sock and it's purpose is to help with circulation and also skin contact protection from the boot I'm wearing! Just kidding... it's an overpriced nylon... =P

*Sigh* Reading Jabrone's blog brings back memories of my own weekly Wednesday night bball crew... before I came to Lumps regularly, I was part of a Wednesday night bball crew too with all my non-believer friends. It was alot of fun... *sigh*... I think I'm going to hang up my sneakers and exchange them for golf shoes... I'm gonna miss basketball.

It appears that the word has been leaked out to my department that I'm going to law school next Fall. I just heard from a co-worker that I've been pretty much excluded from the planning of next year in terms of assignments so I'll probably end up being given random stuff to do (and having increased times of unproductiveness) and that really sucks. The good news is that it looks like I'll be given a very good rating for 2002 as my latest quarter evaluation was pretty high. Guess that means I'll get a slightly bigger raise this year. Then again, maybe they don't give me a raise...after all, I'm going to law school...we'll see. Still, it's nice to know people appreciate your work. God's been good to me. Praise Him!

I've been trying to get to know my new cubemate the last couple days and I've decided that so far, I have positive impressions of her. Her name is Sujata. She's of Indian decent and she grew up in Cleveland, Ohio (which is the one of four states whose names begin and end with the same letter... name the other 3... the answer later). She went to the University of Chicago for her undergrad and Ohio State for law school. Her husband is studying at Cal Berkeley for his Ph.D. in religious studies specializing in Christianity. Isn't that cool? That's pretty darn cool. Specifically he specializes in comparative studies, comparing Christianity with other religions. Interesting stuff... I wonder what a theological discussion with him would be like, then again maybe the discussion would be more like a philosophical discussion....hrmmm

So, we are allowed to bring children into work on Christmas Eve as the company is planning some creative arts activities and a special lunch for the kids on that day. I don't have children. I wonder if I can bring my cute cousins with me to work? It would be fun.... or I guess I could bring my little sister but she's not very little...

Yesterday, an awesome time sharing and talking with DY, MT, and BT at lunch. Then afterwords, Coffee Bean and just time walking with DY, talking about our common pasts and witnessing to skeptics.

Today, one of my co-workers, an attorney, (and one of my many bosses) took me aside today to talk about my decision to go to law school. He's a Chinese New Yorker, a mentor figure here at work for me, and also one of my recommenders for law school. He gave me lots of good advice and some thoughts about going to law school on the east coast versus school in California. He also gave me some advice about law school itself as well as attorneys in general (particularly, why people hate attorneys, always remember that if an attorney is yelling at you, he doesn't know what he's talking about... because if he did, he would be able to explain it without resorting to yelling). He also told me that if I should decide to go to law school in New York, he can definitely help me get a clerkship there after my first year with his connections over there. The other thing we talked about is that if I were to go back east, then it may be quite difficult to come back to California unless the school I go to is a nationally recognized law school (like NYU or Cornell. Fordham's law school is very good and it would be very easy to find a job in New York after graduation but it is a virtual unknown here on the west coast. Things to ponder...

Law School on the East Coast
If you look at the list of schools that I'm applying to, you'll notice that a ton of them are on the east coast: NYU, Columbia, Cornell, Fordham, Duke, UPenn, (possibly Georgetown) with some in the midwest (Wash U, Northwestern). I don't know what's the likelihood of me getting into any of these schools but I think I have a fair shot at the least Fordham and Wash U. So the question is why the east coast? Because it's cold? Because the schools are great? Because I'm nuts? That's it... because I'm nuts.... but seriously, God tugs at my heart. When I talked to MT about it, he joked seriously that I could continue to build on the ministry he started in New York and I think I would like that although we'll see how much time law school gives me to serve (hopefully lots but I think that's really optimistic)...