Bragging Rights

 
Against Dan's will, I am writing the following with a proud smile:

1. Dan was chosen to be Moot Court President for the upcoming school year, and one of his best buddies, Scott Bayles, is vice president. Moot Court is a law school organization in which the members regularly compete in oral advocacy contests. Dan won the 1L competition and made it to the semi-finals this past year. Since Dan enjoys Moot Court more than anything else in law school, he is very excited to lead the program.
2. Grades came out. Despite the hardest, most emotional semester of his life, Dan's GPA actually went up and he remains in the top 15% of the class. He would never take full credit for his success. We both know it could not have been done without all the prayers on his behalf, as well as our amazing friends who helped make simultaneous moving and studying possible.
3. Dan completed his first day of work with Lewis & Roca as a summer associate!

So more on that last one: We are in Phoenix, Arizona for two weeks while Dan is training and orienting himself with Lewis & Roca at their headquarters. He has a comfortable hotel room at Hilton Garden with a king size bed that he shares with me. He will work Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, at which point I will ditch Phoenix to hang out with my sister Pawnee and her family in Surprise (about 35 minutes away). In the evenings I will meet back up with Dan and enjoy hotel-life! I love hotels. I really do.

There's a little bit of "schmoozing" activities that will take place some of these evenings: a baseball game, BBQ luncheon, bowling, a three day rafting trip... The only one I asked if I could opt out of was bowling. I detest bowling! I'm not very good at it, which is embarrassing, and to be honest I find it boring. But Dan says I need to get to know the attorneys, and thus encourage the hiring process at the end of the summer! So I'll go and try to have fun (Oh, "poor me", right? = ) 

I'm having a blast with Pawnee and the crew though! We enjoyed a great BBQ on memorial day with our cousins. It's so fun to hang out with family - and it's even better when you realize that distance doesn't change solid relationships. We ate too much and laughed so hard! It was wonderful. Even though Dan and I were sad that evening after everyone left, it's memories like the previous hours that keep us going and recharge our batteries.

COUSINS! I love them so much.

(Erica, Jenny, Pawnee Kali, Stephanie)

 

Before dinner (which was supposed to be lunch but we all stuffed ourselves on homemade guacamole and fruit salsa!) Kali set us up with "The Newly Wed" game. She had a list of questions and a gift basket for the most-knowledgeable, winning couple. That's where a lot of the laughter came in, as couples argued about how they couldn't believe specific questions could be missed, and as embarrassing moments were revealed... In the end, we all tied at 19/40 questions (some of them were really tricky questions!!) and had a couple tie-breaker rounds. Because they supplied the gift basket, Kali and Taylor forfeited their winning rights to Pawnee and Thomas, who have been married the longest anyway, so they probably needed the date-night kit to spice up their marriage!

One other hilarious moment was when Kali noticed the name on the bag of popcorn she supplied:"Mantequilla." She panicked, thinking she had bought alcoholic popcorn, until she realized that's the word for "butter" in Spanish! Oh, we had a great laugh after that one. In fact, most everything Kali said that night resulted in my holding my stomach. I love that girl!