WonL

The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Exercise to food to money

It is such a beautiful day and between catching up on Property (two weeks into class and I'm one week behind - THAT is talent) and reading about International Arbitration for work, I decided I needed to get out of the house. I dusted off my bike, aired up the tires and went for a nice ride. I headed toward the C&O Towpath and Capital Crescent Trail. I have decided that those are the same trail to me since I can never figure out how to get from one to the other. Then, I came up with the idea to attempt to figure out how to bike to school. Bad idea...got pretty lost. That's okay, it was a pretty day and all was well until the ride home. You see, heading out of my area towards Georgetown is all downhill...weeee...fun! Um, this of course means that when I am nice and hot and tired and on my way home, all is uphill. Man, it was not pretty. Every hill I came upon seemed steeper and steeper. It was one of those moments where you feel like your legs are moving but you are not actually going anywhere. Yep, I walked it the last 1/2 mile. Needless to say, I felt pretty pathetic the whole way home.

This leads fabulously into my next point...my recent bad habit of EATING. Granted, we all have to eat, but there really is no need for the amount of food they put in front of us at work. I just finished my first week and have actually eaten more so far than I did all last semester. They brought in breakfast three days last week. That's hard to pass up, but lunch is the real problem. They set all of this money aside for each of us to have lunch with practically everyone in the firm. Great to meet everyone, get insight, learn, socialize, etc. I have also tried new restaurants I had not been too before, which is good. Seriously, though, lunch at five different fancy restaurants in five days sure is a lot of food. I will say two things: first, the steak with lobster ravioli at 701 Pennsylvania Ave. is amazing and second, I am doing salad from here on out! Yeah, let's see how long that lasts.

Another bad thing I noticed about these lunches is that they are training us not to look at the price. Seriously, I have ALWAYS looked at prices of meals as a factor my decision as to what to order...even when I am not paying. Somehow, in a mere week, they broke me of that arguably good habit. I went to dinner and drinks with a friend on Friday night (um, because I had not been out to eat enough last week). Anyway, I told him I was picking up the tab because I just got my first paycheck and because he's been a little down in the dumps lately. I was soooo not expecting the $90 total (probably about $70 was mine too) from some little Arlington bar! Note to self: AT WORK money is no object; AT HOME money still is:-)