Happy Birthday, Emma!

Big Ottawa Birthday Shout-Outs must be made to my friend (and now quasi-sister... long story) Emma! Not only is this the tenth anniversary of Emma's 16th birthday, it is also her champagne birthday! I am doubly sad I am missing it... and not just for the booze.

Emma and I have been friends for a long time as you may be able to discern from the photo evidence provided. Because we have matching bowl-cuts, you may not be able to tell who is who: Emma is on the right sporting a jaunty, ET-themed sweatshirt and properly-fitting, properly-applied, drawstring pants. I am on the left, in a complete, Strawberry-Shortcake ensemble. Sadly, this picture was taken before I learned how to put pants on straight or to select a size that don't scream "flood".

5 cool things about M-ah:

1. Emma knows everything about movies and television. Who acted, who directed, who got sick one day and filled in for the third boom guy from the right. She is the only person I can have an intelligent conversation about BtVS with. She is FONT of knowledge. She even knows who I mean when I say "you know that movie, with that guy, that we saw in someone's basement"... I think she can read minds.
2. Emma has a terrific memory. She knows what the hell we did when we were little whereas I have almost no recollection of anything before 3rd grade. Again with the font.
3. Emma is smart and ambitious. She went out and got herself an awesome job at a very cool place that seems a perfect fit for her. They think so, too, as there is talk that she will be moving up in the organization. Soon she will be running a media empire and controlling the airwaves... and our thoughts... no...I may have said too much...
4. One word: Noggin.
5. Emma is the best kind of friend. She is super-nice, supportive, wickedly sarcastic, jaunty, funny ha-ha, and loyal. She didn't kill me when we lived for a year in a dorm together, or in the 3 years after that when we rented a house together. This makes her a candidate for sainthood. Now she's a Brideslave, er maid for me.

I couldn't ask for a better sister-friend.

Have a great day, Emma - sorry I can't be there in a non-blog form with you! Joey and I send our love.

Cold + Dark + Wet

Um, yeah. So the last time I checked I'm not living in the Arctic Circle. So why does it get dark here at 4:30 pm? Riiiiight. The super-darkness would not even be that bad... if it weren't for the rain... and the recent temperature drop.

I grade the weather an F.

Boooooo.

Listening to: "Cold+Dark+Wet" by Greg Brown

Invasion of Bay Street

And so, interview week (and by "week" I mean three-day extravaganza) is over. These are the follow-ups to the on-campus interviews (OCIs) mentioned in the last post. In this round, you actually go to the law firms in Toronto and have interviews there.

Becky and I drove down to Toronto in our rented Chevy Impala, affectionately referred to as the "land boat". Joey practically had a luxury suite to himself in the back seat!

The process is wild. I probably met about 50 different lawyers within three days, ran around all over Bay Street, and got wined and dined (went to Canoe!) Very fun but also very exhausting - on Monday I was "on" between 8 am and 10 pm, then wrote thank you emails until 1 am...

I was incredibly fortunate to have four interviews. Three of the interviews went very well. One went very, very badly - basically it ended me being unceremoniously ejected after 30 minutes of a 90 minute interview. Ask me about it the next time you see me...

On "call-day", I accepted a summer job with a big, Bay Street law firm. Hoorah! It is likely that I will then article there and, if things go well, get hired on as an associate. The Firm is a fantastic place. I was so impressed with how genuine everyone was and how much this firm invests in their lawyers. It is a place that I think I could actually stay at and be happy for the long-term.

Looks like there is an off-ramp exiting the land of law debt! Marco certainly seems to think so... he has already requested a BMW. However, Joey needs to be fully outfitted in a burberry wardrobe before we can even think of that... ;-)