Four Parties and a Thesis

The past month, and really the past week especially, has been quite the whirlwind. Between moving back to California and starting basically from scratch with friends, work, living, etc., finishing a project to finally complete my law and MPH career, my cousin getting married, and catching up with everyone in Indy-I'm exhausted!

Rehearsal Dinner

It was just like Sex and the City

Resemblance? 

Reds stadium behind us. Classy event with a little baseball thrown in making this the perfect dinner for the happy couple

Chili cheese dog? Yes please...I'll take that with a side of Cosmo. Not pictured here: the potato chips, pizza, salad, pasta, and ice cream sundaes which we later consumed.

Ladies Luncheon

While the bride and bridesmaids were getting beautified, all the ladies went to a funky little lunch place.  It was very nice to meet the Dockendorff family before the wedding that evening! We had to boost our side of the church!

The Tortorich girls

More Tortorich girls....

....and more!

My cousin Kirsten

Auntie Judy and Grandma Dockendorff

The Wedding

The wedding was so much beautiful, fun, and relaxing. It started with a big Catholic ceremony: 

Standing in front of Mary. Her veil was so beautiful-her nephews thought it was a cape.

These babies stole the show. One of them stripped down at the wedding, but kept the bow tie on-he was the hit of the dance floor that's for sure

The bridal party. They can totally wear those dresses again

After Party

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Mark and Trisha Dockendorff

First dance.

The happy couple

We clean up nicely. Anyone recognize that dress?

My date. He even matched! Good job Joe! and in the words of my mother, "wow you get ready like way faster than any of us!"

The fam

Thesis

Well, my final paper wasn't exactly a thesis it was more of a final concentration project that I had to present in order to complete the Masters program and receive my J.D. There really is no reason to rehash the tremendously complicated and stressful ordeal leading up to this presentation. It is suffice to say, I presented a day later, rocked it, and received confirmation from my adviser that I have completed all necessary requirements for my program. So it is without further ado that I say, "I AM A GRADUATE!" It wont really seem real to me until I get that diploma in the mail, but as far as I know, I am finished. 

 

I still have the bar to complete (and fingers crossed, pass) but with respect to school, this part of my life is over. It's been a bit of a turmoil and self-discovery process these past few days as I come to grips with the fact that a huge part of my identity (school) is now over and finished possibly forever. On the flight back from Indianapolis to California I had way to much time to think and figure out what I want to do with my life. Though, I still have no clue what I'm going to do with myself, I do know I need a makeover-like major! We're not talking hair cut (though I need that as well), what I'm talking about is a full body and mind fresh start. I realized I have very few hobbies and I have a really hard time just sitting and relaxing-two things I really need to work on. I have a part-time job that I very much enjoy, but it is by no means what I want to do permanently. I have a few things on my life list that have collected dust over the past few years and I think it's high time I revisit the things I used to love to do. Working out and getting this little body back in undergrad shape is #1 priority!

Special Thanks

As a final reflection, I want to thank all my family, friends, acquaintances, roommates, bosses, and the people at Starbucks for being a part of the hardest three years of my life! 

A special thanks to my family, to the Dockendorff's for hosting me at Thanksgiving and being my family contact while all the way across the country. 

To my immediate family for just being the best three people and supports a girl could ask for. My sister especially for always saying the right things and for listening to my sobbing phone calls.

For all the people I worked with-Phyllis, Cindy, John, Steve V., and Professor McCabe and Professor Rong, for being wonderful role models and helping me navigate through the crazy working and academic world! 

To my roommates, Par, Tudor, Joe, Alissa, and most recently, Alex (even if it was just for a week) because I can't imagine it was easy to live with this little stress case! You all listened to me as I poured my problems and drama on you and stayed my friend even after you realized i was nutty! 

To all of my friends both in Indy, Bay Area and San Diego, for visiting me and listening to me when I was miles away!
To my Chicago and MPH friends, Lauren, Sarah, Katy, Cara, Jameela and Pooja-thank you for meeting me for drinks and grabbing coffee when I really needed an "outside law" ear! 
To Kate, Trevor, Sharon, Brian, Ness, Jackie, and Jess-even though not living next to you, you stayed up with my life, and stuck by me even though I was hundreds of miles away!

Lastly, to my little group of Indy friends, Olivia, Ben, Heather, Jordan, Shannon, Andrew, and Par, you were my family and rock for three years. Through all the ups and downs, my friendship with all of you will be in my heart forever. I love you as if you were family, and I can't imagine being as close to another group of friends as much as I was with all of you. 

So thank you to everyone, and I love all of you very much! 

Now it's time for my life to start....

Optimism

For the past few weeks, I've been caught in that post-grad whirlwind that I'm pretty sure many of you can understand. Constantly checking Craigslist in hopes that the perfect job is right at the top of the thread, and you are the fist (and best) candidate to apply. Refreshing gmail to see if that job, or any job, responded inviting you to interview. It goes so far as deleting your J.D. credential for some job applications, because you don't want another email saying, "You appear to be too qualified for this job." We are graduates, with incredible credentials, "Top 1% of the nation" right? Yet somehow, I'm not feelin'.

All these distressed feelings came to a head the other night. My dad, the always strong advocate for my career goals, reminded me that "everything's going to work out, it just takes time." Well, for those who know me I'm just about the least patient person on the plant-it's pretty terrible. But I suppose I have no choice. My mom decided to throw in her two cents, and proceeded to show me a wave of youtube inspirational videos. As Hallmark as it sounds, I can't tell you how much it brightened my day! One video I particularly enjoyed, and if you have a few minutes, you should really check it out, I'm the greatest pitcher in the world! Some kids make a joke about moving back home, and for most I'm sure it's not the ideal situation. But temporarily, I am so glad to be around my two parents-they're my biggest cheerleaders! It's also so nice to be closer to Bec, I've seen her more this past month, then the past 7 years. Definitely can't move away from these guys again!

I've also been reading the newspaper like crazy. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and of course, Huffington Post. Somehow being connected with the news puts everything in perspective and reminds me, I am pretty lucky-if still unemployed! But the other great thing about reading the paper, is it give me new cooking advice! There is a huge debate in the family as to when, what, where we will get a new outdoor grill. My dad loves his little Weber grill, but I think it's outdated and more importantly I don't know how to use it. I told him to get with the times and get an outdoor gas grill, but the man isn't budging! I'm going to show him this article, 101 Fast Grilling Recipe's and hope the prospect of having me cook such delicious food will be inspiration enough to invest in a new outdoor grill!

Lastly, just for fun I've been looking at crazy houses, condo's, and apartments in the city that I'll never be able to afford, but it's fun in any event. I really want to start looking at these, so if anyone is up for a trip into the city I say we go visit some open houses and see how the other side lives! This house in particular is my favorite! It's so creepy and bizarre, it's perfect! The rooms go on forever, watch the whole slide show, it's unbelievable!

Learning to Cook

So for the past few weeks I've been trying to balance 1) looking for work, 2) writing my thesis, and 3) being far away from all my friends in Indiana. To safeguard from going crazy, I've decided to learn how to cook. Now many of you have tried to assure me that cooking is easy, it doesn't take much effort, and I just need to try. But for most of you, you realize this is an incredibly feat! Especially since my dad is such a wonderful cook, and I don't like it when my father can do things better than me! (It's a continual feud that will never end). Last week, the man bought $60 worth of crab and proceeded to make several dishes with said crab for the following week. He made baked crab, fresh crab sandwiches, crab fettuccine, and crab enchiladas-all of which were absolutely incredible.  Being the stubborn woman that I am, I decided NO MORE! I was going to learn how to cook, and blow him away with my incredible talent! (Yea, this is probably going to take a while...)

I didn't exactly get off to a great start. While at the store, I inadvertently purchased a Cooking Light magazine for $12.99! I didn't realize magazines at the checkout were so expensive! That's how they get you though, I was flipping through it as the man before me was paying, and I didn't want to be rude and just stick the half read magazine back on the rack, so I threw it in with my groceries-HUGE mistake. Se la vie.

For my first experiment, I decided to try a simple tomato soup to stay aligned with my healthy eating kick! Followed by these delectable cheesecake brownies, found also on tastespotting  website. Both experiments turned out fabulously. For the brownies, I would recommend just using a packaged brownie mix. It would be way more simple, and taste exactly the same. I would also recommend a light raspberry glaze on top to make it even more decadent!


These delicious treats will be the birthday gift for none other than the fabulous Loralie Baum! We are going to a cute little restaurant in the Mission called Bar Bambino. It should be fun, and absolutely delicious!

Half Moon Bay Girl

I know the blog title is unoriginal, but in light of the new Katy Perry-California Gurls song that seems to be the theme of my move, I decided to follow suit and title the blog accordingly. The purpose of this blog is twofold: 1) to just keep updates for my Law school and Midwest friend (who I miss very very much), and 2) in light of my awesome stories, try and convince all of you to move out here with me!!

These are pictures along my running route in the afternoons.

The beach curves and bends for about 2 miles to downtown. Downtown mind you is about 4 blocks long and filled with little mom and pop shops. The coffee shop has a special button on it's coffee machine for my mother's specialty coffee, and they knew who I was even before I introduced myself. When I walked into this particular coffee shop the other morning, a knitting club was sitting on the waiting area. We live in the twilight zone.

We also live next to cows. My mom is particularly fond of the cow A09-they recorded themsevles feeding cows...this is what happens when city folk move to the country

Other than that, I spend my days working on my Masters Thesis, working part-time in the city, and catching up with old high school and college friends-not a whole lot going on! Par and I are trying to keep each other on track to get rid of that road trip weight! But I can't say it's a total success...there's just way too much good food and wine out here!


I miss you all, and can't wait to see many of you in July!