Monday Night Randomness

Did I ever tell you about the one time I made a majestic wolf picture while I was stranded on that Indian Reservation all summer? No? Well I did. I made a majestic wolf picture with markers and velvet from wal mart. And I made it while I was in my trailer, during the height of my reservation misery. And then I gave it to Dustin. And he framed it. And now it hangs above his toilette. It was one of the best things that came from the reservation. It really is majestic:

And also, today I was thinking, I really hope I didn’t offend anyone with my hunting post. Hunting is rad (when you do it as a healthy/natural food source). And venison is delicious. And I’m sorry if I made you upset. But I hope I didn’t. (this is what Seattle has done to me)

And also, it is Dustin’s birthday week and I am probably more excited about it than he is. But he is gone in Virginia until his actual birthday – lame sauce. Work, sigh. I guess that just gives me more time to prepare! I love birthdays, a lot, in case you couldn’t tell.

And also, I have a witness interview for my juvi case tomorrow morning. With the investigator. And a witness. So official and things. Oh, and because I don’t think I’ve told you this yet, I went to Omnibus on Thursday and when I got there I was surprised by THIS. What? Really? Crazy life. I couldn’t help but laugh, I didn’t know what else to do. Worst [not-quite] lawyer. Poor kid.

Alright, bed time for me now.

P.S. Candy Corn is the shiz. In case you don’t follow me on twitter and didn’t already know!

last day of work snacks

It’s my last day of work and I have snacks breakfast (thanks office lovelies)!

Yep, a maple bar and chocolate milk. Plus some coffee from the office coffee bar, and boy, I can promise you I will not miss the coffee here.

It’s a good thing the people in my office decided to feed my breakfast, since apparently on my last day of work I can’t even pull my life together enough to show up (a) on time for work – I was 30 mins late, or (b) eat breakfast before I get here.

Whatever, judge away. I don’t care. You know why? Because it’s my last day! Hooray!

The Second to Last Day

Guys, tomorrow is my last day of work for the summer. Tomorrow I say bye bye internship, bye bye Umatilla reservation and bye bye trailer park. How crazy/exciting/almost sad, right? Right.

Today my boss came to the reservation to execute wills and other estate planning documents with me. Well, actually he came into town last night and took me out to the Prodigal Son for a beer and dinner (thanks, boss).

We ended spending a ton of time today with the Tribal Court Judge. I actually did some estate planning work for him while I was here, and he apparently was really impressed. I think that means we’re BFF 4 Lyfe! We even took a picture together today – I’ll post it as soon as Doug FWDs it to me (and don’t worry about a confidentiality breach, Judge J told me that I could advertise that I did his will, and I could send people to him to ask about his experience, seriously BFF status).

We also executed a bunch of wills.

And two of the ladies from the office took me to lunch at a pizza buffet. It was really sweet of them, it made me feel even more welcome here. And to make things better I totally doused my meal in ranch like a fat kid – it was good. I think I probably burned it off tonight at the gym though, so I don’t feel too guilty.

Also here are a few things I’ve learned from working on the reservation (I’ll add more later):

• how to wear/rock heels, everyyy day, even in BFE Oregon
• I love Indians in Cowboy hats
• Everyone knows everyone else on the reservation. It’s crazy. And everyone will say hi to you, even if you don’t know them.
• Old me love me (ok maybe I already knew that, but it was totally re-affirmed)
• Working 8 hour days in a cubical is really tiring
• it’s the little things in life – like toilettes in front of your trailer – that make you the cool kid in the trailer park

Ok that’s all I can think of now. Time for dinz (gotta finish up this bag of safeway select frozen raviolis – the portobello mushroom ones – SO good!).

the last week

Today I leave Seattle to go to the trailer park one last time. This week marks the last week of my internship. I really cannot wait for it to be done.

I was talking to Dustin yesterday about how I feel like I haven't had a summer at all. I feel like for the majority of the summer I have just been stressed and unhappy. And the lack of sunshine hasn't been helping things either.

The 4th of July week(end) felt like the only time I got to really enjoy summer. Sunshine + friends + camping with BF + TREW party + adventures = summer time to the max!

    

I'm hoping my 3 weeks off at the beginning of August (before school starts) will make my summer really feel like summer. 

But in the meantime I'm sitting in Seattle, extremely unmotivated after a weekend spent in California (one night in Palo Alto, two in Napa Valley for Danielle's bachelorette party). It's thunder storming and raining outside. And I'm dreading going back to the trailer park for the very last time. On the bright side though, this is the last time I have to make the awful drive from Seattle to Pendleton (at least for a while). 

Also I'll post pictures from this weekend soon. I hope your Mondays are just lovely (and hopefully more positive than mine). Time to turn the happy light back on and do some work while I wait for my laundry to be done. 

Because I have been slacking lately here are some things that have happened lately:

Last week my boss came into town to do some will executions with me. He got there the night before the will executions and had e-mailed me earlier that day asking me to dinner at a steak house. Obvi I said yes! So after work I went to the gym then I came home to get ready. I decided that I would have a beer while I was getting ready, even though I know this might not be the best idea ever, since I was going to meet my boss and I didn't want to seem like a total alcoholic. But I decided to do it anyway. Except when I opened it and took a sip it did NOT taste right. It was expired. I failed. Oh and P.S. by I decided to have a beer while I was getting ready, I mean that I tried to take a power shower, because I'm fratty like that. Also if you follow me on twitter you already knew that (so sorry).

After my power shower fail I went to dinner with Doug. And it was awesome. When I got there he was already 1/2 way through a drink. He had 3 more at dinner. And we ate steak, and clams and drank and it was fun and delicious and I'm pretty sure he got drunk and then the next day he tried to tell me things that he had told me the night before when he was drunk. I didn't know what to do so I just pretended like it was new info. Fun times.

I had yet another trailer park visitor! One of my favorite friends, Beth came and visited me on Sunday night. We had drinks and dessert at a restaurant in town (so fancy ha) and her cousin came and met us too. I wish I would have met her cousin earlier because she seemed super cool. Super cool people in Pendleton? What? No! There couldn't be? I'm such a loser..... Anyway, we even topped off her visit with some Shari's breakfast while I was supposed to be at work. Shhh don't tell my boss! It's ok though because I definitely ended up working late yesterday. So it's no biggie.

Also I have been crazy busy at work this week. So so busy. I've had like 15 clients in my first 8 weeks here. Total. On Monday I had like 4. Today I had 4. Crazy times. So SO busy. But it has been good because I have been able to work more yesterday and today so I won't have to work as much on Thursday and Friday when I go to California for Danielle's bachelorette party!! Napa Valley here I come!

But now I am super bored in my trailer. But I get to go back to Seattle tomorrow after work. Then I only have one week left. And I'm done. No more Indian Wills, no more trailer parks, no more internship story time for you guys (some of you are probably pretty stoked about that haha), so soak it up while you can.

tribal court judge convos

Last week I met the tribal court Judge here at Umatilla. Apparently he doesn't have a will. My boss made it clear that he is an important connection not only for me, or for the program, but also for the center for Indian Law and Policy and also SU Law as a whole (even though my boss worked with him for years and years when he was an attorney here). No pressure or anything.

Last week when I met the Judge:
Judge: it was my birthday yesterday
Doug and I: happy belated Birthday
Judge: thanks, I got this shirt and this watch... both birthday gifts!!
Me: did your wife or your daughter pick that shirt out for you? (it was a bright salmon colored polo)
Judge: uhh I picked it out myself
Me: Oh nice, I like it a lot, it just doesn't seem like something most guys would pick out on their own.

A little while later:
Judge: a lot of people don't really like the old tribal lawyer in town. I think she just rubs a lot of Indians the wrong way. It's easy to do that. Like you know, with the comment about my shirt earlier. A lot of Indians would hold onto something like that.
Me: I was just kidding... I'm so sorry... I think your shirt is really nice... I didn't mean it that way... (ohmygosh ohmygosh)

Today when I met him to have him sign a release form for me:
Judge: where are you living while you're out here?
Me: the Lucky 7 trailer park... haha
Judge: wait, what? really? How'd you get stuck there?
Me: the tribe just put me there...? I don't know... I'm trying to make the most of it.
Judge: really? ummm... wow... really? have you been ok there?
Me: yeah it has been fine
Judge: no, REALLY. Honestly... have you been ok? Nothing weird has happened to you?
Me: no... I mean it was a little scary at first but I've gotten used to it...
Judge: Be really really careful out there. Some bad things have happened there. I want you to be careful. I'm worried about you out there...

A few minutes later:
Judge: what year in law school are you?
Me: I just finished my 2nd year, so I guess I'm a 3L!
Judge: what do you want to do when you're finished? Do you have a job lined up after this one?
Me: Indian law. No job, do you know of anything?
Judge: Well we're looking for a prosecutor... definitely keep in contact with me

I guess this means that he has forgiven my comment about the shirt?

He also told me I looked nice in my purple dress today. I think this means we're friends. I think this means I WILL get a job after law school (probably not though, I'm just being really optimistic, because I definitely don't want to live here after I graduate anyway). I think this means that old guys love me. Especially old Indian guys. And I also think this might mean that I might have an encounter in my trailer in my last week and a half here (just when I thought things were going to actually be ok - FML)!

More visitors

Yesterday I had two more no-shows. And I had two visitors!
My mom and our friend Karen (who is actually my 8th-10th grade boyfriend’s mom – haha good times) came to visit me out in Pendleton. Karen had never been to Pendleton and I felt bad that I wasn’t a very good tour guide.
They got here right as I was about to leave for lunch, met me at my trailer and then and they took me to the Prodigal Son Brewery for lunch. Karen totally peer pressured me into having a beer with her at lunch (it really wasn’t hard for her to convince me). I almost felt like a real lawyer (drinking my lunch) ha. I also had the same Portobello sandwich I had when Dustin visited, but with a salad on the side, and it was nom.

The three of us chatted and gossiped about small town things over lunch. It was so nice to have lunch with them. Then I had to go back to work because I was supposed to have a client meeting at 2. The client was a no-show but I did some other work to get ready for a will execution I’m doing in Lakewood on Friday. So I guess it wasn’t a total loss.
Then I decided it was time to leave work and I went to meet up with my mom and Karen at the casino. I totally played roulette for the third time ever and I won $9.75. Big money! I also taught Karen how to play, but she got bored pretty quickly and moved on to the slots where:

KAREN WON $500!!! Whoo! (sorry the picture is so terribly lighted – you try taking a picture at the casino with your point and shoot and see how it turns out haha).
Anyway it was totally exciting! Then Karen bought my mom and I dinner at the Great Pacific Wine & Coffee Co. with her big money (she is the best) – P.S. that is the same place my boss took me for lunch after will executions a few weeks back and the same coffee shop that doesn’t open until 10:30am, WHAT?! I had a Caesar salad with smoked salmon and a side of warm baguette. It was really good, and really huge. I’m looking forward to having the other 1/2 for lunch today!
They then took me back to my car and they headed back to White Salmon. Just about then it started pouring rain and I didn’t approve. Next I went to Wal Mart and got a craft surprise and a movie and came back to my trailer and curled up on my couch until bed time.
I was so happy to have more visitors. It definitely makes my time here so much better. I’m really looking forward to Beth’s visit on Sunday. It’s going to be superfun!
Today I’m going to the senior center for a cobell meeting/to try and meet some more clients. I also have a client meeting scheduled for this afternoon. Crossing my fingers they actually show up!
And one more thing (for and from Beth and Marissa):

A sweet SWEET unicorn pencil eraser! I love it! Thanks you guys! It definitely keeps me company in my cubical.

I live in a trailer park

on an Indian Reservation (for 4 1/2 more weeks - yes, I'm counting down). But most of you already knew that. Here are some picture I took of my lovely home today during my lunch break (seriously guys, today has been soooo slowwww).

(I hope that if you're feeling sad you can look at these pictures and feel better because at least you don't live here - or maybe you do... and if so, we should totally be friends because I'm basically a huge, friendless loser on the rez). 

My trailer complete with the corolla, a toilet, and a stray trailer park kitty 

Mine is the second one down. So classy.

and because I'm the coolest - a classy self-timer pic of me and my trailer park home!

yesterday and things

This week has been sooo slow at work. Like so slow. I only have one client scheduled for this week and he's not coming until tomorrow (we had a meeting scheduled for yesterday morning but he totally stood me up - standard). Luckily I got invited to an information session tomorrow on the Cobell case/settlement which one of the women in the office is holding down at Yellowhawk (the tribal health center) to pass out some fliers and introduce myself to some people and hopefully get some clients and things.

Moral of the story: I'm desperately trying to find things to do at work today and it's proving to be a pretty unsuccessful effort. It's hard to write wills when you don't have any clients.

In the mean time, here is a picture of my classy trailer park (I snapped this baby yesterday when I was deliriously hungry and thinking I was hilarious after the gym. Dustin took a picture of the fancy hotel he is staying in for work this week and I told him that I was also staying somewhere fancy this week, so I wasn't at all jealous of his waterfront Marriot hotel - pshhh whatever). Enjoy:

I'm actually really surprised there is only one child and no bikes in this picture. There are usually 50 kids on 50 bikes. All. the. time. I'm kind of afraid I'm going to run one of them over one day.

And even though I've probably shared this before, I just really enjoy it so I'm sharing it [again]. This pictures was taken just about 1/2 mile from the trailer.

will executions

Ohhh today I am so tired, and I don't know why. But I don't want to tell you about today, I want to tell you about yesterday.

As you may or may not already know, I live in Seattle most of the time but for the summer I am a "legal intern" working for the Institute for Indian Estate Planning & Probate which placed me with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in Mission, Oregon (which is about 5 minutes east of Pendleton, Oregon, which is in the middle of nowhere). So here I am, 4 1/2 hours from Seattle, away from all of my friends, in the middle of the desert in Oregon. And let me tell you, it was already hot at 7:30 this morning. And I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of excited about the weather (a nice change from Seattle gray-ness, but that is beside the point).

Anyway, the Institute for Indian Estate Planning & Probate is located in Seattle and is a part of the Center for Indian Law & Policy at Seattle University School of Law. Therefore, my adviser is an attorney who used to work here in Pendleton as an attorney for the CTUIR for years and years, and he is also the director of the Center for Indian law and policy, which means that he spends a majority of his time in Seattle. So, because I'm only a law student and not someone who is licensed to practice law, I end up e-mailing him 100 times a day with questions and draft documents for him to look over and whatnot.

Don't worry, I'm trying to get to my point... Yesterday, my supervisor, Doug, came down to Pendleton to do will executions with me! This was exciting since him coming down meant I had someone to hang out with for the day, which I usually don't because I am a huge loser here with like no friends here. So Doug came down here, spent the night with his daughter and grand kids and then met me here at work bright and early yesterday morning. We had an 8am meeting scheduled yesterday, but our first client was a no-show (lame). So we just sat in the conference room and chatted. For being my boss who is much much older than I am, he was surprisingly easy to talk to (that could be because older men love me for the most part haha), and he has SO many awesome stories, it's crazy cool. We then had a 10am client who showed up early and got his will all notarized and executed and whatnot. Success! After that we waited for another client who ended up being a no-show, had two clients cancel and then finally dragged one of the ladies from the office into the conference room to get her will revision executed. Two down. After that we waited for another client who never showed up and then Doug asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him (duh I said yes!).

So he drove me into Pendleton to the Great Pacific Wine & Coffee Co.  Apparently Great Pacific used to be the place where all the cool kids hung out. He was telling me stories about how there was a group of his friends that were regulars at GPW&CC and they used to go there every day and chat and hang out in the same big table in the back and whatnot (which I'd assume would be pretty easy since his old law office was also located on that block, on the top, corner of the old hotel building) and he told me a story about how once him and his friends were jealous of the "rich" people in town going to catilian so they decided to throw a mock coat-tillian in the unused upstairs part of GPW&CC that ended up being like a grown-up prom (if you know how much I LOVE prom then you probably have a pretty good idea of how cool I think this is - I want to do something like that)! Anyway, he bought me lunch, a delicious sharp cheddar, apple & bacon sandwich on wheat bread (probs not the healthiest sandwich ever, but it was so so good) and he ended up running into one of his old friends from back in the day, who teaches at the charter Indian school here at Umatilla. So we talked to him and ate our lunch and it was good.

After lunch Doug drove me around Pendleton and showed me some good places to eat and we drove past the water park (WATER PARK, WHAT? WHO KNEW THERE WAS A WATER PARK IN PENDLETON!! I'm sooo going when Dustin comes to visit - duh)! Anyway, then we drove past the skate park and I saw these kids there and thought to myself "those kids look like my Hood River friends, I feel like I need to go there and be their friends." Random. But then later I totally saw a picture on Dave's FB page of him skating at the Pendleton skate park. It totally was my friends. A-holes. In Pendleton and didn't even call me - SO rude. We're in a fight (hah)!

As I was saying, Doug drove me back through Pendleton and told me stories about his days as a a pistol shooting champion of Oregon (or something), and as a sniper for this time when the president was in Pendleton (there is totally a picture of him and Jimmy Carter in an old Oregonian - cool) and about how his dad totally got sent to Penn. to Indain boarding school and all types of other cool, super badass things.

I really hope that when I'm as old as Doug I have that many super unique and entertaining stories. He has done so so many cool things in his life, and so many important Indian Law things too. I definitely hope that I make a difference for Indians when I'm a real grown up lawyer! Hopes & dreams!

Anyway, today after work I'm headed back to Seattle and I can't wait. The end of this week marks the 1/2 way point in my internship! Hooray! The summer is flying by already (even though we're technically only 1 day in). Happy summer everyone!

the creepiest client

I've been kind of debating whether to post about this or not, but I basically just sent this in e-mail form to my friend Julia who is doing the same internship up in Puyallup, so here goes:


story of the creepiest client:


So yesterday this guy comes in to see me after having seen my picture and a write up in the Umatilla tribal newspaper and when he gets here I take him into a conference room for confidentiality purposes and I quickly see that really he needs like nothing done on his existing will (WTF creeper). He seemed nice enough but things started to get awkward real fast. Like I said, he didn't really have anything he wanted me to do for him except change this one designation on his separate writing gift list because the person he was gifting this truck to passed away a while back. I'm pretty sure he could have just changed that one on his own because of the separate nature of the piece of paper, but I was trying to be nice and he was my first client all week so whatever I guess. I figured that at least I'd have something to do for a few hours. Anyway, after he tells me about his beneficiary change he tries talking to me for a really long time about non-will-related-things, and is kind of getting flirty (did I mention that he is like 50ish years old, ewe. I feel like this is old enough to be really creeped out but not old enough to brush off and blame on his being senile, which eh was not). 


Then proximity to work came up and I was like oh yeah I live pretty close which is really nice... and he was like I bet you live in the trailer park, in uhhhh the 2nd trailer in on the left. WTF?!?! OMG! HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE I LIVE! So I was like oh haha, that's funny trying to brush it off because at this point I'm totally creeped out. 


Then he proceeds to try and tell me that I seem tired and like I need coffee and then he says something about how we should go get coffee. I just pretended to not hear him and laugh awkwardly. 


Then he started talking about what a bitch his daughter is and asking me if I'm nice to my dad. I'm obviously feeling pretty awkward at this point and try to wrap things up by asking him if there is anything else I can do for him, THEN he awkwardly goes (in a super creepy way) yeah I have something else you can do for me and then mumbles something. WHAT THE HELL?!


So now I'm trying to figure out if I tell my supervisor or not (my supervisor is an older gentleman who is so nice and wonderful and who used to live here for years but I feel like that's kind of an awkward thing to tell him). Because I don't want to seem like I can't handle my own. And also I thought about the fact that maybe I misinterpreted him and if I did and I told on him that would be really bad for me and for the program. 


I'm thinking maybe I'll just wait until my supervisor gets here to execute documents, I'll have Mr. Creeper come in and sign in the presence of my advisor then then I'll be done with him. Unless he comes to my trailer and snatches me up in the night, "ROOM" style. FML.


UPDATE: 


Thank you all, lovely friends for your comments. After reading them (and working on creeper's documents and learning about his gun collection (FML)) I decided that I most definitely needed to let my supervisor know what was going on. He just got a long, crazy girl e-mail, I'm sure he's excited haha! I heart you all!