Memorial Day and the First Real Week of Studies

The beach really couldn't have been more perfect this weekend. On the first night, we went to the Dock House in Beaufort and my straw hat from Roses stirred up a conversation with a guy who happened to be the first mate on a ridiculous yacht formerly owned by Dale Earnhardt. He invited us aboard where we proceeded to act like we had never been anywhere before, took lots of pictures, and asked a million questions about how awesome it was to live on this boat. The name of it: "Sunday Money." We also met the chef of the ship, who was also about our age and just living the dream.

The next day, we invited them to come to Shackleford with us and they really got the full experience of the southern Outer Banks. The wild horses came right on up to us, the sun came out, and we also walked across to the ocean side of the island with my dad. We returned to Beaufort to have painfillers on the Rhum Bar at Stillwater then played several drunk games of pool at the Royal James, probably my favorite spot. We had a dinner of fish tacos and did a little porch-sitting and loud talking. Later that night, our new friend the ship chef even came out to the bars on the Morehead City waterfront with us, though we saw that he might have been cheating on us with even newer Beaufort friends that he had met on his brief stint at port. We hung out (and took shots) at Sammy's and then went to Chef's 105 before desperately trying to get a cab home. I might have laid on the sidewalk and Christina might have peed in the parking lot, but we made it back.




Not a trick picture, they came up really close and had a little pow wow in front of us.

The next morning, I gorged myself on tomato pie, which turned out to be not so great for my hangover about 30 minutes later. Then we went on the boat with my family to Shackleford for a day of even more intense sun(burn), socializing, and horse-watching. The water was still pretty cold, so there was no swimming, but just a few dips to go pee once in a while. That night we had hotdogs and hamburgers with family (sorry no pics!), I fell asleep on the couch a little early, and played with sparklers. We were very tired and did not make it to the bars, which was good for our conditions on the car ride home the next day.

We did, however, get invited on a last minute trip to Cape Lookout (although we didn't know that's where we were going when we got on the boat) with some friends. Soaked up a few more hours of sun (to get rid of the strap tanlines from the day before) and had a couple more beers before having to clean up and head home. See the obligatory lighthouse picture below.



Last minute trip to the Cape before leaving the coast.

 

We made it home to Chapel Hill (and Christina to Raleigh), and I had gotten it in my mind that I was getting Thai food for dinner. Unfortunately, unlike Chik-fil-a, the two best Thai places here were closed for Memorial Day. I had to settle for Japanese food (some takeout hibachi) which was good but I did not take pics, though that is more likely what most of the people currently studying for the Bar are eating on a regular basis.

 

Last night, after some planning and a trip to Aldi (so cheap), I made sausage and peppers. To make it healthier, I used turkey sausage, some olive oil, and lots of vegetables. Though it might not look appetizing below (because I cooked down the ingredients a lot), like Anne Burrell says, brown food tastes good. I browned the sausage with onions, drained some of the fat off, then added chopped red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. I then added some mushrooms and some juice from a can of petite diced tomatoes (no measurements are exact). After the mushrooms were cooked most of the way, I added the tomatoes. I let that cook down even more and made some brown rice to serve this conglomeration over. This is a combination of about 3 pinterest recipes that I used last time I made it. This instance was just a memory of what I did that last time. I added red pepper flakes (because the sausage was not spicy), black pepper, and garlic salt. At the last minute, I put in about half a cup of regular marinara sauce from a jar, so you get kind of a glaze/sauce. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of a plated dish or the full skillet when it was done (um because it was so delicious and Charlie gets hungry when I pause dinner to take pictures) so this is just a picture of the leftovers.

 

 

Close-up, onions, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes

 

 I swear it is really so much better than these pictures show. We also had a piece of grandma's chocolate cake that I cut up and individually wrapped and froze before leaving the beach. It's a great idea for desserts since we had so many leftovers and we have no more 100-calorie Klondike bars here (though I'm sure the piece of cake, even split in half, was more than 100 calories).

Leftovers for my lunch today

 

Meanwhile, bar studying is going better than expected. I actually downloaded the Kaplan app on my phone and listened to the criminal law lectures while working out and while riding to the beach. Turns out, the daily lectures- at least this yesterday- were not that time-consuming. Needless to say, I have not been previewing outlines for the next day's work or anything, but I finished the Torts lecture at 1.5x speed, filled out the bar notes, and reviewed most of them, while still having time to work on the Contracts foundation course that I didn't get done last week. Unfortunately, I remember (or never learned) anything about contracts, so I'm having to pay close attention. I should be able to get my work done for today and finish that up with any luck.

 

Also, my bar candidate interview letter came in the mail. It is dated May 13th and since I just opened it, I'm sure I'll get the worst time ever. Thank goodness I found the letter though. Would hate to miss that.

 

Annnd I just looked at the assignments for today's bar prep. Don't like the idea of starting with a 4 hour lecture and then having another 1 hour lecture on NC law distinctions later... I feel like yesterday might have lulled me into a false sense of comfort with this study schedule. At least it's still early. And I'm attempting gyros made with hamburger from Pinterest tonight, so I'll look forward to that.