Poutini's on NBC!

Greetings from Hogwarts!

Admittedly, at the beginning of last week I wasn't so sure about this law school thing... everyone seemed so serious! So I spent the first week sniffing around every corner like a cat, cautiously investigating my new home. Down every hallway, in every nook of the library, under desks... I finally made a remarkable discovery. I'm at Hogwarts!

What with the vellum-covered, gilded volumes of ancient spells and traditions, black-robed portraits of austere alumni tipped over slightly, looking down over the Great Hall (Starr Reading Room). They even talk to me when there's something pressing and belittling they have to say. ("I passed the bar the first time around... will you??") The campus is a small compound of gothic stone buildings, there's quidditch (frisbee) in the quad and geeks abound! (Of whom I am Queen, if you haven't guessed by now.)

As for classes, I have McGonagall for Transfiguration (Civil Procedure). She's all elbows and points, but teaches us how to physically turn wrecked cars into solid gold and a broken foot into a mile of paper. It's fascinating!

Then there's Professor Trelawney for Divination (Lawyering Process) - a lovely and loopy waif (some say she talks like she's on painkillers... really she's just not of this planet) who makes circular answers to all our questions about the art of reading tea leaves. (By tea leaves I mean cases, the only things in the world that might be able to predict the future.)

We learn Potions (Contracts) from a man with a delightful Southern inflection, which is probably the only reason I can follow a word he says. And Lawd, if you don't get every ingredient in there, have you ever got a mess on your hands!

Ancient Runes (Torts) is taught by an actual ancient whose eyebrows precede him in every good thing.

Finally, Defense Against the Dark Arts (Criminal Law), literally meets in the dungeon (basement) of the library. There, we learn how to combat all manner of dark works with only the use of a well-chosen and mighty... pen.

After a long day labouring over massive volumes of ancient spells, our Phantom Grey 3000 conveys me home to Ron and Crookshanks, both of whom are settling in nicely. To think two weeks ago I thought I had seen the end of magic for a long time (for nothing is more magical than a gypsy masquerade...) and now here I am in the thick of it! Just reading this stuff conjures the spirits of the men and (more recently) women who wrote them. I nestle into wood-paneled nooks to commune with them, absorbing all of it... Awaiting the day that I'm allowed to use it all as a full-fledged Witch (...lawyer).

Leidt, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... now playing at a theater near you.

(Credit where credit is due, Kate Jones definitely came up with the title for this post and our eventual feature film...)

A week back in Toronto and the 10 (11?) hour stretch that finally got us to our destination seems so long ago. We drove 2,562.5 miles from Clinton, Connecticut to Kate's door in Park City, Utah. We spotted license plates from 36 of 50 states, (Hawaii plates, and others, are rather thin on the ground. "Thin in the air! Generally pretty trim." We did see Alaska though!) we saw a black bear, drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park and added quite a few new hotspots to our list of Random Cities Of The World Kate Jones And Lady Liberty Have Inhabited At The Same Time.

Our last day we drove from Denver, visited Boulder briefly and then drove the rest of the way through Colorado and halfway through Utah on our way to Park City. We didn't realize at the time, but Route 36 runs right through Rocky Mountain National Park and so Luna huffed and puffed through the mountains and beautiful scenery. At 14,000 feet everything was suddenly "Awesome!" and I can only attribute it to the lack of oxygen. Hairpin turns? Awesome! Freakily tame chipmunks? Awesome! Rocky Mountain High? Awesome! I would have loved to camp out there forever, it was beautiful.

Kate Jones miraculously managed to drive almost the entire day. Definitely thanks to seasons 1 and 2 of How I Met Your Mother.... which was LEGEN...wait for it... DARY. We drove into Utah in the dark and after a slight detour made it into Park City to stay chez my WONDERFUL godmother in her lovely hotel room on Main Street. The next morning we went to go check out Kate Jones' apartment and after meeting Tallulah, the cutest-French-bulldog-puppy-ever, we found her brand-new, ski-in/ski-out, winter-ready apartment not twelve steps from her new place of employment. And yes, of course I beat her up.

We spent the weekend exploring the sights and sounds of Park City, from the resort amusement park where we roller-coastered, zip-lined and sled down the dormant ski slopes to Park Silly which was an impressive manifestation of craft show and farmer's market, and also checked out a few neighborhood eateries and grocery stores. The countdown is on for a certain festival in January, and we'll see if there might be a Part Deux to 'Lady Liberty in Park City.' Holy Sundance, here we come! I left Park City last Sunday and then got to see my aunt and uncle's home and the sights of Salt Lake City before catching a plane to see my Mr. Liberty in Toronto... via Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Minneapolis. (It's ok, I don't even remember the last three flights.) And there he was, waiting for me with a beautiful bunch of sunflowers!

In other news, poutine sales are up, LSATs are swiftly approaching and in Toronto it's cool with a chance of rain... ah yes, the abrupt end to a summer that never truly began. Happy September!

A view of Kate Jones' backyard...