me and the movies

There are some movies I feel obligated to watch when they are on. If I am flipping through channels and one of them comes up, I stay on it and watch it through. I can't help it, even though I can quote the dialogue along with the characters.

Shattered Glass
The Departed
Gone with the Wind
The Princess Bride
Sex and the City
A Christmas Story
Bride and Prejudice
Atonement
X-Files: I Want to Believe (Derek gets particularly pissed at this one for some reason!)
An American in Paris
Sense and Sensibility
Howard's End

It's insane how many times I've seen all these movies. They are all so different that I can't explain the appeal in just a few words. Some remind me of my father, some remind me of good times, some just drew me in.

I can't explain "The Departed" other than it satisfies some bloodthirst that must reside in me. "Shattered Glass" is just great story-telling and acting. "Howard's End" and "Atonement" are just beautiful movies to watch. "Bride and Prejudice" reminds me of home and cracks me up big time.

"The Princess Bride" is just downright wonderful and deserves its own paragraph. I saw that in high school (actually IN high school: some class showed it to raise funds for something or other) and thought it was a great romance. Only when I left school and saw it again did I realize its genius. Last year, I read the book and almost died laughing.

"Sex and the City" scares even me. I was watching it again yesterday and realized I was saying the lines out loud. It's one of those movies I keep on in the background when I am doing something else. So is "Sense and Sensibility" (even though I own the DVD, it's always like the first time when I see that movie) and "X-Files: I Want to Believe".

I guess I also find comfort in familiar things. Like some books I read over and over. Or repeating funnny things Derek said when he was a baby or John wrote to me when we were apart. It's just nice to go back to something I really love.

law school applications chronicles - applications

So I'm almost done with sending my applications. Actually, I just have one school to complete as soon as I get in touch with their Admissions office to answer some questions.

My 2nd recommender never sent his recommendation. It would have been process by now. I gave up the same day I wrote that last post and asked someone else. She took 1 weekend and it took just a couple of days for LSAC to process it. I sent all my applications on Thanksgiving Day and one school already got back to me that my paperwork has been received.

Now I just wait for April when the "watching the mailbox" really begins.

law school application chronicles - recommendations

You know how every book you read about applying to law school and every advisor you speak to about applying to law school and every blog you read chronicling applying to law school talk about that slow 2nd recommendation and you think, "Pshaw! That isn't going to happen to me," as you send that 14th reminder email to that 2nd recommender to please get his ass in gear and send the damn thing?

It happened to me.

I really thought I was above that. I'm not in school and haven't been for 15 years. I'm in regular touch with the 2 people I asked for recommendations and never thought I'd have a problem. The first one came in great time and was processed quickly by the LSDAS and sat in my account just waiting to be assigned to a school.

The 2nd one was my ace in the hole. I expected this one to be the one that kicked all other LoRs in the butt. Especially since I have a stinky LSAT score, I needed my written material to be extra-glowing. The first one was marvellous and I couldn't have asked for more, but I knew the 2nd one was going to go Matsui on it.

After much hounding and unanswered emails to the recommender, I finally get a response that it was sent. It takes 7-10 days for the LSDAS to process it and when I called, 2 weeks after I was told it was sent, they couldn't even tell me if it was received.

Sigh.

So I ask the recommender to tell me when and how he sent it so I can try to track it down. Turns out he was NY and mailed it from his hotel. He gave it to reception and they assured him it would be sent out. So I ring the hotel to find out if they have any unsent mail from that date. The mailroom manager informs me of the procedure for letters and tells me that if it didn't have a return address on the envelope, it doesn't get mailed, even though they submit it to the post office. It is now considered "lost".

Sigh.

I can't blame the recommender, because he didn't know about that and the hotel should have told him, since they sold him the stamp. But I am irked no end because I have been waiting far too long for the letter and I gave him months and a deadline. He repeatedly ignored my emails and I was so frustrated. I didn't want to be angry with him or even let on that I was angry at all because I didn't need him to be pissed off that he was doing me a favor and then be even slower.

I only have myself to blame. I worked with this man for years and knew what was going to happen, but I really felt, and still do, that his recommendation would be amazing. He sent me a draft and I wasn't disappointed. I love the guy and can't wait to see him again, but this is my life here.

He offered to FedEx it, but I had to first mail him a signed attachment. I have no idea why, but LSAC requires the applicant sign a form stating that you agree that the LoR be sent to the revelant law schools and you waive your right to see the finished LoR. I can understand when schools did interviews why the applicant not see the LoR, but no one interviews any more. What a waste of paper and time.

So I put the damn form in the snail mail and pray he gets it by Monday. In the meantime, I called the Internship Coordinator at the publishing company I interned at and pleaded with her to write me a letter and send it poste haste. She was wonderful and agreed. I sent her a form and reminded her she had written me a great LoR last year and she could just tweak that for law school. She still had it and promised to send it out on Monday.

Now, I am only in a tizzic about it because the school I want to go to requires 2 LoRs. It is small and recently became a Tier 1 school, so 2010's applicants are going to be the best. The competition will be stiff and I am very worried.

I've managed to send out 2 completed applications to schools that only needed 1 letter. The other 4 require 2 letters and I am only waiting for the 1. I would have liked to sent them all already. The books, advisors and podcasts all say by Thanksgiving is a good early time to have sent your application in, but everyone is going to do that. I already have the sucky LSAT score to deal with.

V

Both John and I had read that the "V" pilot was the best ever, on E!, I think. Or a site that quoted E!. Anyhoo, we were looking forward to seeing it last night.

We were lucky enough to see the original miniseries on Sunday. We taped "V: The Final Battle" because we wanted to watch the game. We made Pie put himself to bed last night so we wouldn't miss anything. Priorities, right?

I don't know about "best pilot ever". "FlashForward" had a better time at creating suspense, tension and there was a kangaroo. Despite the seriousness of the events, there was still humor. The original "V" was pretty campy, but really stood out in bits. Some of the characters were pretty one-dimensional, and that was tough to take. But we did enjoy it hugely.

*SPOILERS*

I thought, since the new "V" was to be a series, they would spend a little more time creating the illusion the Vs (Visitors) are Earth's friends. It seemed pretty sped up that a rebellion started up within weeks, Vs peace ambassadors were introduced and the brainwashing has begun, traitors on both sides were revealed. It felt more movie-of-the-week than the establishment of a series here to stay.

The always-lovely Morena Baccarin, leader of the Vs, managed to look menacing and you did want to be devoted to her. The FBI agent, Elizabeth Mitchell, is falling into one-dimensional category. Alan Tudyk, cute on "Firefly", revels as the baddie, much as he did on "Dollhouse". Weakest is Logan Huffman who plays Mitchell's son, eager to believe the V's "peace always" message. David Packer played Huffman's role in the original miniseries. His backstory as Daniel Bernstein, the son who couldn't hold a job and was such a disappointmen to his father, was much more believable than Huffman's. Huffman's Tyler is just a brat who needs a slap.

The original miniseries also had Daniel's grandfather as the grounding element against the Visitors. Abraham lived through WWII and watched his wife being led to the gas chamber as he tried to escape with Daniel's father. So far, there's nothing in the new tv series to connect the audience with the threat the Vs represent.

V in the miniseries also stood for victory. Here, in the pilot, it is just a shortened form of Visitors. I understand the symbolism, but it feels cheapened by the fact that a rebellion is established so quickly. There was also no reason given as to why the rebellion started. Where did the first clues come from? The miniseries established that questions arose after the Visitors arrived and scientists had begun to discover anomalies about the creatures themselves.

It all felt a bit rushed for a pilot. Like we were supposed to read something beforehand that would establish why the reporter feels stymied in his job, why Tyler is giving his mother agita, why are Morris Chestnut's teeth so distractingly white and why does Lourdes Benedicto keep getting roles when she cannot act.

when it rains

The Hwangs felt it this weekend. Crawling internet access, poor LSAT score, sicknesses, pet passing.

The only good thing was that Pie's EBT results came in the mail and he scored in the 99th percentile. At least I know my smarts went somewhere other than my foot.

I woke up Saturday morning to take a Pie for his first round of H1N1 vaccination. I checked my email and saw my LSAT score. I stared at it and walked back into the bedroom, woke John, told him and began to bawl. Pie ran downstairs to see what was wrong with Mummy.

I got it together fast for him and sent him back upstairs. I cried quietly in John's arms and then we decided to go ahead with the application processes and hope the strength of my essays will wow the crowd. But I was, and still am, crushed. I've never done so poorly in anything academic since Spanish in high school. And even that didn't disappoint me this way.

John spent the weekend being miserable from the cold. But he and Pie did go to see "Where the Wild Things Are" and he said James Gandolfini pretty much ran away with the show. Pie got a crown from his gymnastics class and he looked pretty cool wearing it. He wore it for a about 2 minutes when the movie started and then told his daddy it was making his head sweat, so he took it off.

Most of Friday and Saturday had me swearing and jonesing for the internets. We called Time Warner Cable and they did whatever and eventually John agreed to an appointment for Thursday! Thursday! I have to fill out forms online. Fuck Thursday.

But then John thought the cable itself might be bad and changed it. So far, so good. We're going to wait a couple of days and see how it goes before we cancel the appointment.

But last night was the worst. I went to bed early. I felt that John was snapping at me and I wanted to snap at him and my head was pounding and he was sick and the Pie was making too much noise and it did me in. I fell asleep in minutes. It felt like was only asleep for minutes when I heard, "Petal. Petal. Felix is dead."

There was much what-ing and Felix-is-dead-ing until it sunk in. John sounded like he was in shock. He couldn't even break it to me gently, he just had to say it. For a while, everything he said sounded like it came from outside of him. Felix is my... was my favorite pet but nothing I was going through was compared to John, who had him from a baby.

We put him in a box and woke Valentine. She clambered into the box and sniffed him a bit and then curled up next to him. That's when I lost it. Both Jackson and Mollie came downstairs and having all 4 pets in the same square foot made my allergies rise up something fierce. John's hands were already itching as he is slightly allergic to Felix. He was slightly allergic to Felix.

Felix. Past tense now.

We decided against telling Pie last night. I tried going back to bed twice but my right eye was itching so bad, I wanted to dig it right out. I'm pretty sure I scratched my cornea. We had no non-drowsy med so I had to wait it out. It hurt when I blinked. I washed my hands and face and stayed up with John for a bit while he was on the phone with the internet people. When he changed the cable, we played around online and then I went to bed.

I woke up to see Valentine still curled up next to her little brother. I'm not sure she closed her eyes all the way last night. It hurts to even think about her.

I told Pie and he was so unhappy. We'd already told him that we'd have to put down Valentimes (what he calls her) but Felix was a surprise. He didn't want to see Felix and I wasn't terribly unhappy about that. I didn't want his last memory of him to be all stiff in a box.

John's awake and we're going to call the vet to see about cremation and disposal. We also decided we might have to move up Valentine's trip to the beyond. We were so distressed at the thought of having to go through this another 3 times. I'm so glad I made callalloo yesterday. I need all the comfort food I can get.

Le Pie est ici

In an effort to not think about the LSAT score, I called Shelly. And talked about the LSATs. Sigh.

However, we did manage to talk of other things, including her trying to get me to take a train to Maryland to help her unpack. More sigh.

The Pie came up and I was telling her how we live a fairly quiet NY life, as compared to the frantic idea that most people have of New Yorkers. We don't have small children, two jobs, have to walk up several flights of stairs to get home. Only one of us has to be in rush-hour traffic and both my husband and child can come home to hot food most days of the week.

And the Pie is in a school he truly loves. That is so foreign to me. I hated school. Not just like everyone else. I truly hated the place. Elementary school holds no good memories to me. I went to 2: Aranguez Islamia and San Juan Presbyterian. All my older siblings went to AI and were very well-known, and my mother was adored there. I hated that school. I had a couple of friends, but most of the other kids didn't like me because I was bright.

SJP was no better. There, my father was revered. My absolute worst memory comes from that school and my sainted father is right in the middle of it.

I hated getting up in morning. I hated putting on that garbadine uniform. I hated walking up the steps to my classroom. I hated the feeling of wondering if I was going to get hit by the teacher, with a stick, a ruler, his hand or the back of a handbrush. My 5th Standard teacher instituted the tap: students were allowed to "tap up" (slap behind the head) of any other student who was standing to answer a question and made a mistake. One girl's mother was a teacher in the school and after her daughter got her first tap, her mother came to our teacher and told him that the child gets headaches and to not tap her anymore. The rest of us could go suck duck egg. I still remember the first and only time I ever got hit on the back of the head by the boy sitting next to me because I made a mistake reading from a science book. I wanted to close that big, thick textbook and slam him upside the face. I have no idea to this day how I managed to contain myself. I didn't blame the boy, who told me he was sorry afterwards. No one enjoyed doing that to the person standing up. It was a tiny way of sharing the licks, especially among the kids who were beaten more often than others. I just hope that teacher died a slow and painful death.

But.

I digress.

Pie just does not have this experience in school. Neither did Chris. Pie just has the best damn time in school. He does not know how lucky he is. He wouldn't have this experience in public school, or in any other private school for that matter. He does so much in a day and it never feels oppressive, the way my school work did. He's allowed to think for himself and express himself, not a wild way, but in a controlled, creative way that still gives him freedom.

I am so glad neither of my children had to go through what I did. Corporal punishment was against the law by the time Chris went to school, but I still made it very clear that I would not tolerate any teacher putting God out of her thoughts.

Ok. Back to Bom.

law school applications

I'm not sure that filling out law school applications was the way to get my mind off the LSAT score. My heart speeds up whenever I see Inbox (1) in my email tab. I wake up in a panic every morning, wondering if today is the day. I read in someone's law school blog that she did amazing as an undergrad and had all kinds of stuff going for her but she didn't get a great LSAT score and saw more rejections than acceptions.

I'm only applying to 6 schools, in the New York City area: Cardozo, NYU, NY Law, Fordham, CUNY Law School and Columbia. Anywhere else is too far and would require me to move. Actually, even CUNY is far, but...

Fordham means I can come home during the day. Columbia, too, but I don't have the highest hopes for Columbia. NYU is one of my favorite places and there are 2 wonderful scholarships that are right up my alley. NY Law has massive classes. Cardozo has small classes and is the front runner, just ahead of Fordham and NYU, as they are all terrific intellectual property law schools. I think I'm really going into international IP, which might be helpful if I ever have to move back home.

So I've been filling out applications and writing down everything that had to get left out or is needed specifically for a school. The 2 schols for NYU require separate essays, I also need to write 2 Addendums for all the apps to explain why there are 2 LSAT scores and why I there's an employment gap between 2005 and 2009.

[John gave me a small journal yesterday and it is coming in so handy to jot down all these things. I am also waiting on a plug for my Mac. It's okay to fill out the forms on Derek's laptop but I need a lot of stuff that's saved on my hard drive to write the essays. John's computer is on the fritz as well and he is waiting on a video card. I can do research on his, if it were working, but I cannot type on his weird ergonomic keyboard. I need the Sexy Beast for my juices to flow.]

I'm also trying to get the feel of where IP is going and what is needed to get into an academic career. I attended a terrific IP conference at NYU over the summer and am going to a conference on teaching law at Cardozo next month.

Ok, enough of this. Must get back to filling out forms.