I used to love the American Girl series when I was younger. Every single book ended with "Changes for __" and took place in the winter time, I guess that's when changes happened. Molly's dad came home. Felicity's grandfather died. Kirsten made it across the Oregon Trail or something. Did I make most of those up?

Changes for Anh.

I turned 2__ on Sunday. 

KMak is back.

It's my first time being on a trial team and we're going to trial tomorrow. Well, technically, it's a final arbitration hearing, but it's essentially a trial. I can't believe it's finally happening. 

mental captivity

There have been a few times in my life that I experienced what can only be described mental captivity.

Mental captivity is a state of mind that is reached when you are focused on a long-term project. Every bit of output is focused around this one, possibly ginormous project. You are unable to think of anything else. Every bit of new information you learn is for the sole purpose of advancing this project.

When I was a 2L and I wrote a "note" for my journal, I was in a mental prison. My sole reason for existing was to describe and criticize a singular immigration policy. As the due date neared, I kept a page counter on my gchat as I plodded steadily to the 35 page minimum.

Last year, I studied for the bar exam, the most important exam of my adult life. Everyday, I was obsessed with memorizing every single rule that I could. It was my sole focus. It was my life.

Right now, I am on a trial team. We are going to trial in 13 days. Every thing I've worked on for the past month revolved around this case, this set of facts. I stay up at night researching, drafting, review production for possible trial exhibits. I can't think of anything else. Can't wait to escape my mental prison after all of this is over.

Mirror mirror

halloween

I bought a costume at the last minute, so I didn't end up recycling the cave woman costume.

Here I am as Belle:





On Friday, I was a cat:

Recycling a costume

No time for anything this year!

Shredder Costume- How To Make Armor

I made 4 pieces: 2 shoulder pieces, 2 wrist pieces, and a small Shredder claw using craft foam and duct tape. I bought the craft foam at Dollar Tree. It came in a big pack like construction paper.

1. Measure your arms so you can determine how big to make the pieces. You're going to make 4 rectangles.  Here is a picture of an arm. I marked the areas where you need to make measurements using blue lines. Please ignore the red, because I don't know how to get that off the stock photo.



2. Draw your pieces on a piece of paper and use the pattern on your craft foam.



3. Cut out the craft foam pieces. Then you're going to need to curl the foam pieces using heat. Easiest way to do this is to turn on your gas stove and hold the pieces about 6-8 inches away from the flame for a couple of seconds. Wait for the foam to start to wilt and mold the pieces to your shoulder and arm. I just shaped my pieces over my shoulder and arm.



The piece should look like this when you're done.



4. Cover your pieces in duct tape.



5. Draw a fin pattern and cut the pieces out of foam. I used 2 fins on the shoulder pieces and 4 fins on the wrist pieces. I made them all the same shape and size.



6. Cover the fin pieces in duct tape.



7. Tape the fin pieces onto your arm and wrist pieces. The pieces should look like this when you're done.





I taped ribbon on the underside of the armor to attach it to my costume. This was good for the wrist pieces, but not good for the shoulder pieces. I think sewing or taping the shoulder pieces directly to the costume is more effective, but I made my Shredder costume a tube top, so that wasn't an option for me. I also didn't make a helmet.

Sunday night outing