2014: The Year That Was

Life in law school with a job lined up isn't such a bad place to be. Okay, who am I kidding. It probably rivals undergrad for some of the best times in my lifetime.

Going to approach this rendition of my annual wrap-up post with a chronological slant.

January

• My second semester of 2L started off with my very own APILSA event -- Rich Cho, GM of the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), spoke to a healthy crowd at a law school lunch event. It was really cool meeting one of my professional world API heroes, and it was satisfying to have my own brainstormed event turn out so positively.
• On a last second impulse, Jonathan and I saw the Eagles at one of their Forum re-opening concerts. 2014 was a year of crossing off numerous iconic bands from my see-live-in-concert bucket list, and the Eagles started things off in grand fashion.
• Returning to Edge Retreat as a counselor was a trip and a half. But ultimately, it was a refreshing return to some of the things that made my college fellowship experience so great, and an effort to pass that on to a younger generation.

February

• Intramural basketball made its return with an APILSA + Tim team. Although we started off slow, things turned around with the addition of a few key recruits, and a good time was had by all. In the end, we were about 30 seconds away from winning the semi-finals and most likely winning the championship as well.
• I got into dress shoes around this time, doing a lot of research in preparation for work and weddings coming up in the new year. I'm pretty happy with the selections I ended up making (Allen, Jack, and Bruno), and Traci got me my own shoe polish and brush to boot.
• I had the lucky opportunity to intern for the UCLA Athletics Department in the spring semester. Previously flirting and ultimately failing to work in collegiate athletics in some capacity, I finally found the right position within the Compliance Department.

March

• A thoroughly eventful month kicked off with Anthony's bachelor party weekend in a Lake Arrowhead cabin. Good times were had by all, and especially those who were fans of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, Orange Wheat, and Monopoly.
• We made the early morning drive out to Glendale, Arizona to experience our first Spring Training, a longtime bucket list item of mine. Unfortunately, it was in Arizona and not Florida, and I found myself watching the Dodgers and not the Cardinals. Still, it was a cool experience and something I may repeat in the future.
• Mark's wedding and bachelor party festivities, which meant my first return to St. Louis since the summer after high school, and Traci's first ever trip to the Gateway City. I don't think I stopped smiling this entire weekend.
• Tim and I attended our first ever March Madness games. Although we were there to see our UCLA Bruins, the best game might have been the SF Austin - VCU tilt, which featured a crazy come back from the Lumberjacks. We also got to witness UCLA dismantle Tulsa in the first round, before dispatching SFA fairly easily in the round of 32. I won't forget the overwhelming camaraderie of Bruin fans doing the U ---- C ---- L ---- A chant around the arena's four sides, contagiously spreading even to non-UCLA fans.

April

• I celebrated my 25th birthday with one of the best gifts in recent memory -- a record player/turntable from Traci. Much research, used vinyl perusing, and pure and unadulterated music listening ensued.
• The 2014 baseball season saw a return of Mwen and I to the ranks of season ticket holders. This designation should come with a strong asterisk as we wound up selling most of the tickets from our 21 game package. Unlike before however, we beat the system by making profits on more desirable games, and then attending a few others with friends at ridiculously low costs. The Padres still sucked, but in kind of a lovable-loser way. If nothing else, we got some nice side thrills from Stubhub "SOLD!" notifications.
• 2014 was a year of many new hobbies. Thanks to the patient tutelage of my friend Thomas, I received the first real golf instruction of my life. I can now drive the ball straight and in the air once every three or so swings. 

May

• Jason and Nancy, Traci's future roommates/parents, had a very lovely wedding in Anaheim. Apparently my hair reached its all-time peak during the festivities. Although my hair has fallen back to its former drab ways, it's excellent to have more cool friends in San Diego!
• Billy Joel at the Hollywood Bowl -- my number one bucket list concert -- as the perfect way to celebrate the end of 2L.
• The return to the Big Apple. The Metropolitan followed by the Mets. Traci losing the ability to speak while meeting Clayton Kershaw. Catching up with old friends, eating delicious things and watching singing puppets on Avenue Q. Thanks for the hospitality, Le Chez Diane!

June

• The summer of 2014 focused entirely on my summer associate position in downtown San Diego. It was somewhat stressful trying to constantly make a good position, but it was rewarding to learn so much while being challenged on a daily basis.
• It's nigh impossible to rank the weddings I've been to, but Anthony and Emma's wedding was a fantastic time. Like all "Edge weddings," there was a lot of great catching up with old friends. There's also something extra special about standing up there with one of your best friends that cannot be duplicated.

July

• My time as a summer associate came to a conclusion with the entire firm coming together for a Padres-Cardinal baseball game with suite seats. It was strange wearing professional attire and not cheering my head off. Something I may have to get used to in future years.

August

• More wedding fun in August, as Will and Trisha celebrated with cute vows and epic introductions. I loved the parts about fulfilling dreams at Disney and tearing up about UCLA. 
• Before school started up again, my family flew up to Anchorage where we adventured on the Great Alaskan Railroad. It's nice to be able to do more adventurous activities while my parents can still manage.

September

• Visits from Vince and meeting Jeremy Lin stand out as some of the best memories of September.
• Traci and I also belatedly celebrated four years by seeing Sir Paul McCartney himself in concert at Petco Park. Quite a surreal experience to see the legendary Beatle live and in the flesh. Plus, the Live and Let Die fireworks. Rock and roll, indeed.

October

• Playoff baseball returned in spectacular fashion, with the Cardinals and Dodgers facing off again. Although it was the NLDS and not the NLCS this year, the Cardinals still took care of business and utterly annihilated the aforementioned Mr. Kershaw not once, but twice. Although Luigi and I again failed to exact revenge at Dodger Stadium, the Cards came through again with some postseason magic, at least until the Giants (again).
• Somewhere in 2014, my childhood love for baseball cards was rekindled randomly. It sounds silly, but it brought me back to some of those little kids moments of joy to look through my old collection and add a few new cards to boot. #2014hobbies

November

• Traci and I made a short trip up to San Jose and the Bay Area thanks to the graciousness of Karen and her 49er connections. Although I braced myself for the worst, my Rams actually found some miraculous way to come through and beat the niners by the skin of their teeth. First ever NFL regular season game, first ever Rams game, and first win! Not too shabby.
• Relient K mmhmm 10th anniversary tour. The return of Dave Douglas. Aw yehh.
• UCLA defeated USC in football for the third straight year. Although the Bruins would ultimately disappoint (again with Stanford), it was a sweet victory and awesome to finish my law school career undefeated against the bad guys across town.
• UCI took down LMU in the fourth-ever Pappy-Gao Superbowl. All-time record: 3-1 UCI.

December

• The ultimate sports gambling weekend in Vegas finally happened, and it was pretty awesome (for the most part). Although money was lost overall, our teams (Chargers and UCI) won the games that mattered in dramatic fashion, and we experienced the best that sports had to offer with crazy comebacks and edge-of-your-seat buzzer beaters. Just be careful any time someone suggests implementing some seemingly logical strategy that they just looked up on their phone 24 hours ago. #Martingale
• Our family returned to the ski slopes for the first time in a while by making the trip up to Yosemite and Badger Pass. This year, we also swung by Sequoia and King's Canyon, to check out the largest trees on the planet. It was cold, but it was pretty. Particularly memorable was a 7-mile snowshoe hike we did in Yosemite, climaxing with a gorgeous and majestic view of El Capitan and Half Dome. 

Concert Review: Billy Joel at the Hollywood Bowl

Billy. Freaking. Joel. 

It's nigh impossible to capture the feels of finally seeing the one and only Piano Man in concert. After first discovering his music in 6th grade science class, I had gone out and bought his greatest hits CD, secured a copy of his sheet music book, and both played and listened to his ballads, doo wop ditties and rock jams non-stop. I even went and watched his "Movin' Out" musical with my fellow Billy Joel fan and oldest friend Mark. Some dozen years later, that sheet music book now has a bunch of pages falling out, and I've moved on to listening to his original albums on vinyl, but my fandom of Billy Joel has not waned one bit.

Having just finished finals and my second year of law school, I was on cloud nine. One of those nights you look back and remember fondly for the rest of your life.

Venue

The Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, CA.

- Saturday, May 17, 2014.

- My first time at the iconic Hollywood venue, and more importantly Joel's first ever performance there as well. I thought it interesting that Joel several times made comments about his time living in Los Angeles (in the Hollywood Hills), often with hints of not caring for it so much, and yet the crowd automatically loved any reference anyway.

- One such example: he prefaced "Piano Man" by telling us that the gig he sings about in the song was at a bar on the corner of Wilshire and Western. A location we had passed on our way to the bowl.

Recap

- I knew I had to get tickets once a tour was announced for 2014, Joel's first national tour in some two or three years at least. At first it was Madison Square Garden that was announced, and I legitimately thought about seeing him in NYC, but then luckily a slate of what wound up to be three shows was announced for Hollywood.

- I considered myself very lucky to have a girlfriend who also appreciated Billy Joel's music with me at the show. I looked around and noticed a few diehard fans there by themselves.

- Opener Gavin DeGraw was decent, but the crowd seemed to not really care. Such is the case when you have a crowd of mostly middle-aged and older fans.

- Joel came out just after 9 o'clock, on a Saturday. Pretty good crowd, indeed.

- Joel made a point of playing some of his lesser hits, which was pretty neat, but it also meant the omission of a few really good songs that I was hoping to see (Uptown Girl, Just The Way You Are, The Longest Time, My Life, We Didn't Start the Fire). I could see a long-time fan really loving the opportunity to hear some seldom-played in concert songs though.

- Joel had no bones about criticizing his own stuff. When one fan called for "Honesty," Joel responded by saying, "Honesty? Nah, that's another one of those bulls*** songs."

- Joel and his band played "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (for obvious reasons) for the first time in some 20 years. Prefaced the song by saying that they might mess up, which would at least prove that everything is live and not just a recording.

- The entire Hollywood Bowl crowd taking over the vocals on "Piano Man" was every bit as magical as one could imagine.

- Joel's range is not quite as high as it once was, but I didn't mind the key being tuned down a few notches. His showmanship and piano playing skills more than made up for it.

- Loved the sax solos and the overall immaculate performance of the backing band.

- Joel covered "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys, which makes for the second straight (legendary) act I've seen that has paid homage to them. I later found out that he covered "Your Song" by Elton John in another one of his later shows at the Bowl.

- During the encore, an unannounced Adam Levine came out on stage to help sing "Big Shot." I didn't recognize him at first with his bleached blond hair, but Traci did have a minor heart attack when she realized it was him up there.

- Favorites of the night: Miami 90210, Pressure, Vienna, New York State of Mind, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, Piano Man

Concert Review: History of the Eagles

Seeing the Eagles live in concert has been on my bucket list since I became a fan back in 10th grade, so it was pretty surreal to finally hear those perfect harmonies and legendary ballads in person some 10 years later. I actually own one of their Live in Concert DVDs from one of their fake farewell tours, so I had some idea of what to expect. Still, the night met all expectations and will be remembered for its outstanding musicality and its impressive length of show. Not just legendary American musicians, but worldwide rock stars.

Venue
The Forum in Inglewood, CA.
- Friday, January 17, 2014.
- It was pretty cool to see the former home of the Lakers and newly renovated music venue in its colorful glory. It was also a packed house, the fifth of six sold-out shows in the span of two weeks.

Recap
- This one came together at the last minute, complete with my brother driving up from SD on the day-of and scrounging for StubHub tickets all afternoon. We were stuck with "obstructed view" seats in the end, but we made do by moving over to a relatively empty section right in front of the big screen.
- There was no opener, but instead an intermission as the Eagles played a total of approximately 2.5 hours.
- The format was neat, as the show started with just Frey and Henley playing on a couple of amplifiers with acoustic guitars. They began to tell the story of how the Eagles evolved, with each new band member coming on stage in rough correlation to when they joined the band.
- Special appearance from one of their older guitarists, Bernie Leadon.
- In addition to Frey and Henley doing their thing, I thoroughly enjoyed the songs led by Timothy B. Schmit, who "plays way down low and sings way up high" and Joe Walsh, who really went above and beyond in terms of energy and goofiness.