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. 

An Homage to University

It's hard to believe I'll be done with my lifetime's worth of schooling in (almost exactly) six months time. Walking around UCLA, I'm from time to time struck by not just the beauty of the campus, but also the unique privilege and environment that makes up my higher education experience.

Clearly, these benefits are not unique to my own experience at UCI and UCLA. A few of the more universal qualities that I will miss about college (and its professional school variations)...

1. A sense of community. This is probably the most missed aspect of school for new grads moving home or to a new setting. There's something comforting about simply seeing a group of people on a near-daily basis, walking the halls, in class, and at class events.
2. The ability to purely learn. Of course there are those who are simply trying to do the bare minimum to graduate, and can't wait to leave school, but for the most part people are paying excessive amounts of money because they have some genuine interest in learning. The freedom to choose your area of interest, and the ability to pursue goals unattached from a direct monetary-sum reward (as in work settings) are equal parts precious and invaluable.
3. A sense of pride in your school. This unifying quality is partly what keeps people so attached to their alma mater, I think. People like to belong to a larger entity, and while there are some elements of this at work, there's nothing quite like showing off your schools' best eats and sights, or cheering for your basketball team or football team.
4. Freedom. Sure there are your occasional enslaughts of exams and papers, but on a day-to-day basis, school affords you unparalleled daily freedom in your schedule. The lack of consequences for missing a day of class and convenience of planning a short trip unhindered are seriously taken for granted.

Okay, enough brown nosing to the higher education system for today. Down with tuition increases, down with the student loan system, down with ugly bureaucratic waste!

RIP Oscar Taveras

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

                             - Mary Elizabeth Frye

Following a baseball team is a weird thing. For a good six months of the year, your team is like 25 friends who you keep up with on a daily basis. You bask in their triumphs, and you share in their sorrows. In the end, the game is just a game, but it brightens an otherwise gloomy day, it brings excitement to what would be a lackluster weekend, and above all it distracts from life's harsh realities.

Unfortunately, today the game of baseball and the harshness of life collided in a most unexpected way. Oscar Taveras, the wonder kid uber-prospect, just 22 years of age, has passed away. Just two weeks ago, he was hitting home runs in the playoffs. And now, we are abruptly and shockingly left with the tragic emotions of "what-if" and "too young, too soon."

I distinctively remember feeling a similar emotion when Darryl Kile and then Josh Hancock passed away while members of the St. Louis Cardinals ball club. I was younger then, and struggled mightily with putting my thoughts into words. I still struggle today, some 10+ years later, but reading all of his teammate's thoughts makes me realize that this news goes beyond anything related to the game of baseball. Taveras was a friend, a son, a future husband and father. He was taken away too early. Baseball means very little in comparison. But as a fan, I mourn the loss of one of my 25 guys. Rest in peace, Oscar Taveras.

Old Habits Die Hard

The proverbial putts has emerged from the abyss.

Today's post is inspired by my recent encounter with Jeremy Lin, of whom I am a fan.

After seeing his tweet announcing an appearance at the nearby Foot Locker, I rounded up a few willing-if-slightly-less-enthusiastic compadres and stood in line for about an hour and half to meet my favorite basketball player in the NBA.

All the while in line, I knew it would be a brief encounter. A few words, hopefully a picture, and then on to the next. With so much time to prepare, I assured myself and my friends that I wasn't even nervous. I had three different things I could say to him, and I would calmly deliver one of them while taking a picture.

No sweat. No pressure. Isn't this even a bit silly that we're waiting for so long?

And then of course, we actually enter the store. And the power-tripping Foot Locker ex-refs are unnecessarily shouting and telling everyone to be ready, no pictures, move quickly blah blah blah.

And all of a sudden, I'm up next and I feel all rushed. I trip over my words, avoiding eye contact while simultaneously and sheepishly handing over my/his jersey to get signed.

I get a response, to which I don't even reply to. By this time, I'm feeling that time limit ticking, and I realize I haven't gotten a picture yet. So I whip out my phone and take a picture... of Jeremy Lin. By himself. No selfie game at all. He smiles, trying not to make the moment too awkward.

Sorry Jeremy.

And then it's over. Fail, David, fail.

Despite all my self assurances that I'd be fine, and that this wasn't a big deal, I reverted back to my nervous-starstruck teenage self. Sigh.

Just goes to show you. No matter how much you think you've gotten over old habits and tendencies, they'll rear their ugly head when you least expect it.

More than anything, I just wanted to have a normal conversation with JLin. In just about every aspect, he grew up just like me and many of my friends. And six years after I started following him during his sophomore year at Harvard, this is the epic failure that I muster up.

Ugh.

reliving the past

Recently some have suggested that my friends and I talk about the past too much.

I thought about the allegation some during my work commute, and ultimately decided that while I did like to relive the good old days more than the ordinary person, that that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If you dwell in current happenings 100% of the time, life will end up just flying by and the entire journey that got you to where you are today will simply be hazy and forgotten.

With that being said, it has been rewarding to focus on the present this summer in order to set-up a more certain future. Now that one critical step has been accomplished, I will take my time and appreciate the journey that got me here over the last three years, post-college graduation.

Cheers to one more checkpoint in this crazy rat race that is adult life.

Although not the original inspiration for this post, an honorary shout out goes to Allen Craig and Joe Kelly today. Thanks for the memories, fellas. You will be missed with the Birds on the Bat.

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

Wedding Fever

This semester has been so busy with various events and activities that I've barely been able to stay afloat in my classes, let alone find some time to blog. But recently I was able to experience some of the happiest moments with cherished friends from different seasons in my life, and I wanted to capture some of those thoughts before too much time passed.

Mark and Emily, March 15, 2014. St. Louis, MO

Mark and I go back to kindergarten. He and I did everything together growing up, during which we engaged in countless silly elementary and middle school conversations about girls and the like. So, it was surreal to say the least, standing up there as he was exchanging his vows. On top of all that, it was my first time back in St. Louis in about seven years, so the nostalgia was being poured on thick as I saw old friends and parents of friends for the first time since I was 18 years old.

It was nice to know that while everyone has matured and moved on to adulthood successfully, some mannerisms and tendencies never change. Despite having been away for so long, I felt like I was laughing the entire weekend. Being a groomsman with old friends Ross, Logan and Pownall was a ton of fun. Getting to go on-field at Busch Stadium as well as the Arch was the perfect icing on the cake -- I was on cloud nine. Finally, I'd be amiss if I did not mention the warm hospitality from Mark's parents, who were like a second set of parents to me growing up in St. Louis.

The wedding itself was traditional and beautiful in a classic-with-a-modern-twist way. The ceremony took place in Mark's childhood church, where I had visited several times as a kid. The reception was held in historic Soulard at the Ben Franklin room which was built back in 1905.

Wedding flair: glassware galore, homemade honey, college pride

Anthony and Emma, April 5, 2014. Sierra Madre, CA.

Coming off of a memorable bachelor party weekend in Lake Arrowhead, I knew this wedding weekend would be a hilarious college reunion, and once again the weekend did not disappoint. Anthony and Emma were one of the first couples I knew that had formed at UC Irvine, and thus a future marriage that I had been waiting on for a long time. Going back to our impromptu sleepovers and discussions about Anthony's perseverance and patience, it was awesome to see everything finally come to fruition.

It was an honor to serve as a groomsman. It's that much more special when you are present for the entire weekend, going through the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, preparation and setup time, leading up to the real deal. Although Yi and I were embarrassingly tardy to the rehearsal portion, I'm thankful that Ant + Em were able to forgive us (eventually). One thing that will definitely stand out to me from the wedding were the heartfelt speeches from both the bride and groom to their parents, as well as the toasts from the fathers to their children. Equal parts comical and touching.

The wedding was very Anthony and Emma, with telling hints of both hipster and cuteness. The ceremony and reception were both at the rustically beautiful Villa del Sol d'Oro, with superb live music from the out-of-town Isaac Gill and his wife.

Wedding flair: thai tea, selfie craze, hair cuts from Gabe