Really, Duke, what a tease that subject line was. Not that you or anyone else should be in a hurry to tie yourself in knots.

As for me, I'm set to graduate in May with mixed emotions. There's a lot about law school that I won't miss once it's in the rear view mirror, but I also realize that it's basically the final playpen. I credit that to the lack of any true responsibility and the company of hundreds of your peers in the same boat. Beyond that, the version of adulthood on the horizon, with suits and ties and grinding work hours, just seems kind of jarring. That said, I am eager to just get on with it. I have a feeling it won't be all bad.

Notwithstanding Bill's optimism, and my own zealous love for the Bay Area, I'll be headed to DC to begin work in mid-October. Two years from now, I could imagine applying for a judicial clerkship and using that break to seek a lateral position in California, but that's all guesswork right now. Besides, I'm not moving until they build the high-speed rail [that's never coming] so Sluis and I can show up at Bill and Suz's door in SoCal at 3am when we're tripping.

For now, I'm pleased to be returning home. The city has become truly gentrified in the past few years, and although there are downsides to the yuppie influx, it's mostly good. Not being able to walk around at night or find decent restaurants nearby were never really attractive features for a city, even if it felt a bit less "soft" than the suburbs. My radical plan at the moment is to forsake my automobile and rent an apartment within walking distance of my office, and in the vicinity of Dupont Circle. If that should come to pass, and I think it will, I would be very happy to host any and all future DC reunions. [But my spring break this year coincides with Bill's, and I'm also interested in meeting up, even if it's in NYC this year to be fair to Jake].

For anyone curious, Flopperz 2.0 is almost beyond bunny adolescence, which he has apparently survived despite his steady diet of carpet fiber and paint chips from the floors and walls of my apartment. He's calmed down, and is developing some of that charm that made me so fond of his predecessor, 1.0. He also has full on mutton chops, a perk of the genes passed on by his "lionhead" breed mother. I expect I'll always feel awkward explaining to people that I own a pet rabbit, but so it goes.

Love,
Shanaynay