Damn All The Odds

This weekend I got invited to go on a camping trip in Michigan with some of my friends from the YSA in Indy. We left Friday after work and headed up North to Michigan. It was a really nice drive! I love all of the farm land, especially as the sun was going down. We stopped at the South Street Smoke House in Lafayette which was really good. I had a Kansas City sandwich and fries. It was Beef Brisket, provolone and two onion rings on a bun. Add some BBQ sauce and you have a great sandwich. The meat was really tender. This place really had some good food!

After dinner we got back on the road. We made decent time. We got there just as it was getting completely dark. The other part of our group had gotten there earlier in the day and already had the tents set up. It would have been near impossible in the dark. We got a fire started, made smores an shot the bull. It was a good time. We went to bed. I forgot my pillow. Thanks to my friends we were able to make a make shift pillow that worked pretty well. We woke up and let's just say I had a heart attack:

Don't worry, it isn't a health condition, but rather a breakfast dish at a local diner. It had hash browns, ham, sausage, bacon and eggs. It was really good. It kept me full for a really long time. After that we headed back to Weko Beach to enjoy Lake Michigan. I caught some rays before I got in the lake. The water was surprisingly clear. It was also really clean. Apparently, the way the currents work, all of the nastiness from Chicago does not go over to that side of the lake. It was cold, but it felt really good for as hot as it was. We went to lunch and then in the afternoon I just hung out with some friends at the camp site. It was a good time all around. Then I got a shower and dressed to head up to a town about 20 minutes away called St. Joe. It was a really nice place. We rode the Merry-Go-Round, which is the same as a Carousel. They had some really cool fountains.

We had pizza for dinner at the Silver Beach Pizza company, which also randomly serves as an Amtrak stop. It always has a line outside of it and we waited for over an hour to get in. We had appetizers. We got a Carousel Special (mushrooms, ham, sausage and something else) and BBQ Chicken pizza. They were both really good.

After dinner we watched the sunset and walked out on the pier. The bugs ate me alive. Then we headed back to the campsite, made smores and shot the bull some more. Sunday morning we woke up, cleaned up the camp site and took off. We stopped for Church in South Bend. It was a really pretty building, but on the inside the chapel was all green. It was overkill to say the least. After Church, we went to the campus of Notre Dame to look around. The buildings were really nice. We went to the Grotto, which you might recognize from Rudy. Of course I had a drink of the holy water fountains. I can't wait to come back and discover more in October when the Cougar come to fight the Irish. It should be EPIC!

After that we stopped at Culver's for lunch. Ever since I arrived in Indy I have wanted to try that restaurant because I see commercials for it all of the time. I got a pepperjack cheddar burger with fries and a Blizzard like cookie dough frozen custard for dessert. The burger was really good. A double with a lot of cheese and bacon. The fries were crinkle, which I am usually not a fan of, but these were nice and crispy which made them excellent. I also got introduced into cheese curds. They are essentially mini mozzarella sticks. They were excellent as well.

Then we drove the rest of the way home. When I got home, I had a package waiting for me:

After years of rumors that the green Hungarian hymn book had been completed, I finally was able to order and get a copy of it. I'm interested to see if the Hungarians will actually used. They have changed a lot of the songs. Should be interesting. After opening that I got a shower and got dressed for a J Reuben Clark Law Society fireside in Carmel (Carmel is not Carmel!). One of the Assistant General Counsel's for the Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints spoke about the legal issues the Church is facing internationally. It was very interesting.

So, it was a good week. I had a lot of fun. I also got this text from Owen which made me laugh a lot:

Reminds me of my time with Elder Howe on the mission. Our companionship motto was "Damn All the Odds"  (you get an A for the day if you can name the musical). The other reason I'm posting this is because this upcoming weekend (I got next Monday off thanks to my great boss Karen) I'm going to Chicago/Oak Park to visit the Barnes family and Sir Owen himself. It should be a fun trip again and I can't wait to discover more of Chicago!

Red + Yellow = Orange

One of the most reassuring pieces of advice that I received at the beginning of the school year was "Don't buy the hype." Law school is pretty much all hype. You have to have good grades in order to get a good job. You have to be involved in all of these extra curricular activities in order to be a strong candidate post-graduation. The biggest hype of all first year was the idea that you had to have some sort of legal writing experience the summer after your first year of law school if you want to get a good job after your second year. All of winter semester I applied for jobs, but never even got one interview. Finally after my last final I got a call for an interview. Needless to say I didn't get it. I even applied for a volunteer position and they didn't want me either. I was really starting to buy the hype. It was really starting to worry me that I didn't have anything for the summer. Then I got an e-mail from a fellow law student and member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society. It was for a legal internship with a local company that I had never heard of, but I thought I would give it a shot.

A week later, I scheduled a phone interview. It went well enough to get me a second interview over lunch. It was Thai Food. I thought it went well, but at the end the CEO was like "Well, we have to decide if we like you or not." Well, I thought maybe I don't have it. But, later that day I got an offer letter. I'm so grateful this worked out. It was a huge load off of my shoulders. I really don't know what I would have done. Plus, it is a paid position. A sixty-seven percent increase from my last job as a Research Assistant! A college degree really does pay off in the end.

I started last week at EnerDel. They make special types of batteries for hybrid vehicles and as back-ups for energy grid systems. They are pretty neat. My boss is the Assistant General Counsel for the company. Karen is legit. She is good at explaining things and making sure I understand the big picture. She also takes me out to lunch a lot, which means a lot.

I do a lot of random stuff. I help to draft contracts, attend meetings, scan documents, respond to discovery requests and any other random tasks. This week they were moving people from two plants and combining them into one. They decided to hold an orange training  to introduce safety items to both teams as they started working. They decided one team would be red the other yellow. When you bring them together, you get orange. It started at six in the morning. All of the people involved in giving the training were supposed to wear orange. The day before I was responsible for finding orange hats for everyone. The best I could come up with is plastic orange construction hats. It was really fun. The training went pretty well, all things considered.

Frank Sinatra once said that “orange is the happiest color.” I would agree. I'm having the happiest of times at EnerDel. Everyone is really nice and helpful. They are trying to make my experience there a positive one. Plus, I get to enjoy all of the perks of being a part of the legal team!