Tuscany, Day -1

Okay, so this post is not officially about traveling in Tuscany yet. But still, since the trip is on my mind (and I'm on the trip) I thought I should just count this day as a pre-trip day. :-)

Today I went to the mall on the other side of town with ABS to get my stupid portrait taken for my stupid law firm. I am about 1.5 months late in submitting the “professionally taken, professional attired, black-and-white” photo for the summer associates facebook, and finally decided to bite the bullet and do it before I leave for Italy. Fun, I know. Not.

But at least I got some quality time hanging out with ABS out of it. We aren’t seeing as much of each other as we did last semester, since we only have one class together this semester and that class only meets every two weeks. Also, law review apparently really picked up this semester, so he’s hanging out all the time at their depressing office. Since I cannot seem to enter that office without leaving with at least 3 bagels in my stomach (why can’t they serve healthier food there?!), I avoid going there as much as I can. (Though I still seem to end up there at least once a week, much to the chagrin of my stomach, which keeps getting larger and larger…)

Anyway, so I got my picture taken with the photographer at Sears Studio. Super ghetto, and the photographer made me do 14 different poses!! Was that really necessary?! As far as I could tell, the only difference was that I sometimes smiled with my mouth closed and sometimes smiled with my mouth open. (I look better smiling with my mouth open, in case you are wondering… because I look more exuberant and sincere. I’m sure my firm wants all its associates looking exuberant and sincerely and just DELIGHTED to work for the clients!).

The photo session took an hour or so, partly because I couldn’t remember what sized photo my firm wanted, and didn’t have the information with me, so tried to call my firm to find out. Ah yes, I know, what a good impression I’m making already before I even started working there! Sadly, the legal recruiting all left and the operator there had no idea. While all this was happening, AG called me and we had a somewhat anguished conversation, cut short by my phone battery running out. Yes, it was a pretty hectic day. I finally decided just to order a set of prints whose size made sense to ME, and damn the firm if it wasn’t the right one. I checked after I got home, and the size I got was probably fine.

ABS waited for me at Borders while I took the photos, then we walked around the mall a bit trying to decide where to eat. We finally ate at the food court, where there was a surprisingly decent Japanese sushi stand where they sold excellent salmon sashimi for $1 a piece. I was skeptical at first and ordered 3 pieces, was absolutely delighted by the quality, then ordered 6 pieces more. I would have ordered more too, but felt quite full b/c I had also ordered vegetarian rolls. I vowed to go back to that place as soon as I could.

After dinner, ABS and I rode the bus home. He went back to his 2nd home the law review office, while I went to my real home, worked on research for RB, and researched for places to stay while I’m in Tuscany. E called around 9:30 to wish me a happy trip and we talked for a bit. He was the one who really encouraged me to go (and the one who made the point that the few hundred dollar difference in price wouldn’t really matter now that I’m making the big bucks in the summer – oh but I have so many uses for the big bucks! I think I’ve probably already spent most of it by preemptively buying all sorts of things by now. And the rent this summer is seriously going to kill me. But anyway.)

Didn’t go to sleep until 4:30 am.