Week recap

Three of my four classes this semester are now complete! I can’t believe how fast this semester flew by. All that I have remaining is a final in tax law on December 11th. I’m also doing research assistant work for the Venture Capital Course offered next semester so I will still be busy the next couple weeks.

I am also getting excited to go home to Sammamish in 12 days for winter break. It will be nice to see my mom, dog, sister, and niece!

Exercise: I had some good runs this week, including a hill run at Wunderlich Park (76 min, 12 miles) and a Moody Road Loop in Los Altos Hills (62 minutes, 10 miles). Tomorrow morning I head to the Marin Headlands for a challenging half marathon. It should be super fun!

Doesn’t feel like November…

The weather here is ridiculously nice for late November with temps in the mid 60s and sunshine every single day! Furthermore, the weather forecast for the next 10+ days holds the strong west coast ridge of high pressure in place (a “blocking pattern”). This translates into more tranquil weather with sunny days and crisp nights/mornings. This is great for activity around the bay area, but when it comes to skiing, a west coast blocking pattern is the worst possible news. The slopes in the high Sierra and Tahoe are bare and the temps are not even cold enough to consistently make snow artificially. It definitely looks like the resorts won’t open for Thanksgiving and maybe into the first week of December. The resorts in the Pacific Northwest suffer equally in such a pattern. While they have some snow on the ground, none of the resorts in WA and OR have enough to open. Whistler Blackcomb got just enough snow last week to open up but by the end of the dry streak I imagine they will be in big need of some white stuff. I hope that when this pattern finally breaks down, it will stay down, and we can start accumulating some snows for Tahoe trips and the Whistler vacation in January.

Today my team gave our presentation for Deals class. It was fairly complex and there was a ton of information so it definitely seemed like the crowd had difficulties taking it all in. I think we did a great job though!

I also ran again today, despite the area of pain coming back a little after yesterday’s first run. It wasn’t bad pain, but I knew it was there. Hope it will magically begin to fade away….

Law and Business Society Speaker

On Tuesday we had the second speaker for the Law and Business Society. We were extremely fortunate to have Professor Grundfest speak, who is an amazing lecturer and teacher of two excellent courses at the law school (capital markets/securities regulation and venture capital). We had a great turnout and the students enjoyed the talk, which was very informative, relevant, and engaging.

I also had a very fun class today in corporate governance where my comments on the weeks readings were displayed to the entire seminar and were the subject of much laughter (and ridicule). I wasn’t expecting this greater audience, but it was a good time and I have no problem laughing at myself

Since my foot is still hurting a little, I have been hitting the gym hard the past couple days to do the elliptical machine, which does not put any pressure on the hurt spot. I sweat like crazy on that thing and I think I actually get a pretty darn good workout. Of course, I would much rather be running outside, but if I can’t run, I think the elliptical is about as good a workout as I can otherwise get.

The plan tomorrow is…. guess what??? MORE ARRILLAGA GYM, BABY!!

Fun negotiation

Today I had a really fun negotiation exercise for real estate transactions class. I negotiated the lease terms as the tenant with the landlord, which was another student. We each met with a practicing attorney to discuss strategies and then did the negotiation as they observed. After the negotiation, they gave us feedback on our performance. It was a really great experience and we came to an agreement on the deal!

The two Halloween parties over the weekend were fun, but it may have been a bit much. I didn’t get much sleep and I was really tired yesterday and I got a little sore throat now on top of that. As a result of the general crappy feeling, I didn’t do anything yesterday as far as exercise. Today, I went on an easier 62 minute run in Los Altos Hills (Elena Road looop) and I actually felt fairly decent so it wasn’t so easy (in a good way). This gives me hope for a quick rebound. I plan on getting a lot more quality sleep tonight!

Getting Busy

Things have gotten a quite busy all of the sudden with various assignments, reading, and events to attend. Tomorrow I have a client interview exercise in downtown Palo Alto which should be fun. I ran today at Los Altos Hills for 60 minutes. I covered a loop I often run in surprisingly fast time, especially considering my legs felt a little tired. I plan on running tomorrow afternoon.

Back in CA for the second time

I am back at Stanford as fly back week is over and classes resume tomorrow. I had a really fun time at home. Between the 50k trail race and the Mount Stuart speed climb, I got some quality relaxation time at home. I basically forgot everything about reading law textbooks, articles, and assignments, but now it’s to get back into the pattern of class and reading. Next visit to Sammamish will likely be for winter break in mid-December for some skiing!!

The flight itself and returning to the airport to pick up my bags which somehow missed the flight tired me out today so I basically did nothing. I plan on running tomorrow, most likely a loop in Los Altos Hills.

Back Home!

I am back in Sammamish for flyback week! At Stanford Law, second and third year students get a week off from classes for law firm interviews. This is mostly for second year students as myself and many other third year students do not have any interviews lined up. The result? A complete week off. I decided to come back home, run a race, and maybe get in a climb or two later on in the week.

Tomorrow morning I head out to Cle Elum for a fun 50k race – the longest I have ever run by a considerable margin (not to mention the most elevation gain). I feel like my preparation has been good and the weather should be nice.

Huddart Run

I had a good run at Huddart Park today despite it being in the middle of the day and quite hot. Huddart is one of the best places to run on a hot day because it is all in thick, shady forest. The run was 76 minutes long, approx. 2,000 feet of gain, and about 11 miles.

Today was also the second day of classes. The corporate governance colloquium seems like it will be lots of fun. Tomorrow is the first class of my one other course and it should be fun too.

First Day of Classes

Today was the first day of classes of my last year at Stanford Law School. I had tax law in the morning and real estate transactions this evening. Both classes were interesting. Tomorrow I have tax again in the morning and a corporate governance colloquium in the afternoon.

This afternoon I had an awesome run with Hari at Los Altos Hills. We started at the city center on Fremont Avenue and ran around to Elena and back through La Paloma + an add on. Total running time was about 62.5 minutes and the weather between at around 6 pm was idyllic with temps in the mid-70s – weather for world records! Yesterday I lifted a little at Arrillaga gym.

2L Year Finished

I completed my final this morning and now my second year of law school is complete. It’s unbelievable how fast time is flying! The exam was a four hour closed book test with lots of writing and lots of memorization. Both my hand and head hurt right now. I tried my best and I feel like I did well so I am proud of myself. Spring semester was fun with some great classes – I feel like I learned a lot. Now it’s time to fly home to Sammamish for a day and then make the drive down back down to Cali. I am excited to start work next week and see what law firm work/life is all about (at least for summer associates