You read The Velveteen Rabbit as a kid and it fucks you up for life, and next thing you know your Partner (Romantic)™️ is driving an extra 2.5 hours to find your stuffed puppy that might have fallen out of the car. I am very, very loved. … and the pup was in the car the whole time.

Rating cross country ski snacks: Milk duds: they’ll freeze and you’ll crack a tooth, 3/10 Granola bar: classic, dependable, 6/10 Sunflower seeds: make me feel like a small forest bird, 10/10 Communal moonshine from a mason jar in a warming hut: no explanation needed, a million out of ten.

The duality of road trips: toggling between early 2000s pop radio, and an audiobook about the assassination of James Garfield.

New low: just got carded for buying DayQuil. Way to kick a gal when she’s down….

Overheard student tour guide to prospective law students: “I’ve learned the most important thing about law school is to not procrastinate.” Partner (Romantic)™️ and I - notorious procrastinators - making eye contact and trying not to die laughing. *don’t do what we do. But like, it works….

How’s it going, you ask? Well, I just made a cup of pour over coffee minus the coffee. Pour over water, if you will.

As I’m wrapping up my current article, it is absolutely astonishing to look back at the first outlines and see how much it changed from inception to final draft. Genuinely not even the same project.

Achievement unlocked: cited a Reddit comment in a law review article.

The camera cutting to Chappell Roan when Cher said that she was dropped by her label was DIABOLICAL.

And one more picture from the 2017 Grammys, for no particular reason….

My annual reminder that I peaked in law school when I was invited to the Grammys - but also, law students who enjoy writing, submit to writing competitions! You never know where they might take you!

When Partner (Romantic)™️ and I were a new thing, I wanted to impress them with my intelligence, so every time I critiqued their writing I carefully detailed with precision exactly what was incorrect about their grammar. Me now: “Sentence funky. Rephrase.”

Somehow, six months after moving to New York, I am just now encountering tik-tockers filming dances on a metro platform. And dear god it is just as obnoxious as I always assumed it would be.

One for the law profs: Last spring, I carefully took notes after each session of my inaugural Advanced Trademark class, noting what worked well, what I wanted to change for next time, revisions to materials, even minor edits to slides etc. Friends, I LOST THE NOTEBOOK.

Partner (Romantic)™️: lighting an incredibly smoky incense cone directly under our fire alarm, then frantically flailing to wave away the smoke: “I just wanted good vibes!!!”

I keep hearing her wife’s sobs. There are no words.

My phone just autocorrected “ducking” to “fucking.” This is it. I have won. Man has triumphed over machine.

Made it back to Virginia in one piece. Highlights of the family road trip: our dinner of vodka and pretzels in a hotel in Savannah; ten hours listening to an audiobook about Teddy Roosevelt; and my father driving me absolutely insane playing DJ and relentlessly switching songs ten seconds in.

Top hits of day 1: my father being very creative with lanes, almost going the wrong way down a one-way road, arguing with the gps lady for an astonishingly long time… and me missing the entrance for our hotel, getting shunted back on the highway, and having to drive to the next STATE to turn around

Ok team, the world may be burning but I still have to drive my parents fifteen hours from Florida back to Virginia. I guarantee that hilarity will ensue. Stay tuned.

Well 2026 is coming out swinging I guess.

Somewhere, a federal public defender realizes she's on call to do the President of Venezuela's initial appearance on Monday.

NYC subway conductors are already *done* with people tonight. “Yo my man, let my doors go, what you doing?”

Partner (Romantic)™️ may not be a millennial, but they knew that blasting Mr. Brightside was the best way to get me up and moving to go out for NYE when I was ready to take a nap… and that’s what really counts.

My schedule and sense of time is so fucked that we just TONIGHT started a twelve-day Advent calendar. On the one hand, wow did we screw that up. On the other hand, there is never a bad time for twelve days of cheese.

Us: “We’re starting late and trying out a new spot, and it’s our first time out since last year - we’ll just do a short little exploratory thing, nothing crazy. Also us: skiing an almost nine-mile loop up (and very eventually down) a mountain. I love uphill skiing.

A few years ago, due to a series of unfortunate but hilarious events, I put onion-soaked contact lenses directly in my eyes so I could go skiing. So no, this sprained ankle won’t stop me now. All medical advice unwelcome, thanks.

One thing that I’ve become increasingly certain of over the course of this year: As an academic, I do not have (and never will have) a responsibility to teach students to use Gen AI ‘ethically’ (as if that were possible). The idea that academics should be doing this is a blight on the sector.

Most critical snowstorm prep: acquire port; mull wine; wax Nordic skis; pray for sufficient snow to go skiing in Central Park.

A few weeks ago I thought of the most perfect, wonderful, amazing Christmas gift for Partner (Romantic)™️. I didn’t write it down, promptly forgot everything about it, and have been obsessively trying to remember it ever since. … I have now realized that I DREAMED that I thought of the perfect gift.

Watching a spy movie with my parents. First car chase: Me: “I love that she’s driving instead of him! … if I were a spy I would absolutely not be the driver.” My dad: absolutely hysterical laughter

Update: we all survived, but at the cost of my sanity. The last time we did this, we listened to 10 hours of an audiobook about the founding of the state of Ohio. This time, I picked the audiobook. It was not a raging success.

I am 24 hours into driving my parents to Florida. I desperately wish I could be live-tweeting this adventure, but a) this isn’t twitter, and b) I am driving and cannot type. But send thoughts and prayers pls.

Misplaced my phone while cleaning out my parents’ fridge. Bet you can’t guess where I left it….

Ok but why does the Netflix movie Thursday Murder Club have a just ridiculously stacked cast?!? I knew all the headliners, but they just threw David Tennant in there without even advertising him?

Delighted to discover that the Halloween flash tattoo I want is available into November because I really don’t have time this week and… did I just get an extension on a tattoo?!?!?

I have a new favorite hobby, and it is watching people row their boats BACKWARDS in the Central Park lake.

I am *one hour* into a flight to Munich, and apparently everyone is pregaming so hard that the entire plane is already out of beer. I am impressed and concerned.

Partner (Romantic)™️: “It weirds me out a little that you wear your mom’s clothes. It’s fine, I’m just noting.” Me: “Does it help that she wears my clothes too?” Partner (Romantic)™️: “… maybe.”

I’m not really posting much anymore, but I need to share that in a single 24-hour period, Partner (Romantic)™️ 1) saved me from a rattlesnake, 2) roasted me a chicken, and 3) sewed the button back on my skirt. Holding out for the right soulmate really paid off.

My father just used the phrase “the Catholic wedding that I had to go to.” … his wedding. He was referring to his wedding.

Apparently I need to play a game of Jenga to finish this draft….

I was having an absolutely terrible day, and then I taught for two hours, and… now life is grand. My students are so wonderful, I’m so lucky.

Just checked my spam folder, and I'm honored to share that I've been invited to speak at the International Conference on Forensic Science and Research in Osaka, Japan, and to submit my article to the Journal of Neonatal Surgery. Not sure why either of them want a copyright scholar, but ok...

Also, this is happening:

I’ve somehow become tech support for my parents, and I don’t know how to tell them that they couldn’t have gotten stuck with a worse person for that role

Just brought flowers to Partner (Romantic)™️ to apologize for turning into an absolute basket case this law review submission season. The only question is whether this bouquet will be enough to get us through, or if I’ll need to keep them coming…

Today's misadventure: the motor in my standing desk has completely died, leaving me stuck at the absolute lowest height setting. I know I'm short, but come on.... a couple days of this and my knees will never be the same.

Had a nightmare that I was at a protest at the White House and some dude tried to explain to me how you become an attorney. … my subconscious gets points for realism, I guess….

My friend and I both made Valentine’s Day cards out of construction paper. Hers is GORGEOUS, with beautiful calligraphy and perfect little hand-drawn hearts. … mine looks like a kindergartner’s arts and crafts project.