The first downside of using the gift cards is that you won’t get the credit card points bonus for Southwest purchases. Presumably there is a subset of Southwest fans chasing Companion Pass and maybe spending more money with Southwest is worth it to them, but saving $350 was a no-brainer for me. Maybe this will change when I get A-list preferred for the first time next year. I will update if so.

Second downside: they are annoying to use! Costco sends you an email with the card number and PIN, and you have to use these every time you book. There is no way to save the gift card in your account. This was ok for me, since I used them to book several months of flights in one sitting. But, if you don’t fly often, you might want to print out the email. (If you lost it, Southwest forums indicate that you can recover it via memberedelivery.com — click ‘Digital Order Portal’ and enter your Costco order number. Costco customer service may be able to retrieve it for you.)

Southwest assures me that if you cancel a flight booked with a gift card, it will be returned as a flight credit to your account. No idea what happens if you book credit for others that don’t have a Southwest account. If you tell me in the comments, I’ll update.

School
I am in my second year of law school. I am scheduled to graduate in May 2024 but may try to exit a semester early (December 2023). I had to take the Spring 2021 semester off after starting in Fall 2020. I am doing some quantitative research in Spring 2023 and working towards certification as a small claims court mediator. I might come back to DC for a semester or two next year, we’ll see what happens.

Business
elleSAT is alive and well but I have stepped back from tutoring as I find that it takes a great deal of mental energy and complicates my schedule. Most of my time with the business is spent advising other tutors on how to grow their own tutoring businesses – I know that I’m getting better at this all the time since my (much larger) competitors keep stealing my SEO strategy and lifting copy nearly verbatim from my site. The company continues to grow and I have some goals for next year, including building out our B2B sales, formalizing instutitional partnerships, and piloting destination programming. (Want to join us in Costa Rica or Mexico for an all-inclusive law school application retreat, including LSAT sessions, personal statement editing, and onsite yoga? Join my mailing list.)

Real Life
D’s parents moved into a house down the block about a year ago, it’s been a huge quality of life upgrade for all concerned. D and I moved into a new house in August. We have been engaged for over three years and will get married as soon as soon as it won’t have a negative impact on my student loan payments, or as soon as I need his health insurance, whichever comes first.

My mom and dad have been having some health issues and would appreciate hearing from any of you who are in touch with them.

Social media
I still use my business Instagram and have to have a Facebook account to manage it. I am transitioning to 100% business on all accounts except for the Instagram account I share with D. We use the Instagram for fun and to promote our town and local businesses. I’ll probably occasionally use Facebook because there are several Victorian homeowner groups that I like and because Marketplace killed CraigsList. I don’t read anything on LinkedIn and I will probably delete it after I finish school. I’m thinking about getting rid of my blog altogether and putting my pictures on Dropbox instead but I like the idea of self-hosting as many things as possible. I would like to transition our family to self-hosted email and quit Gmail, too. If I ever do that I’ll post about it on here.

Email me if you’d like to get a Christmas card. anita @ anitalife dot com.

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I hope this post helps someone else. I tried many things to resolve this, including:
– Tweaking my Internet Explorer settings within Microsoft Edge
– Setting FireFox as my default browser based on a single Reddit comment
– Spending a long time procrastinating by searching for information about how to make Outlook open dialog boxes in other browsers, then tweaking my default app settings to no avail

What finally worked was adding a password to my existing Zoom account. I signed up for a new Zoom account using my email address, then followed the instructions to login via the email message I received. It’s the last option on this list (“How to link your Zoom account to an email and password.”) This logged me into my familiar Google-integrated account and populated my Outlook invites with the correct static link.

This does not solve the broader Google authentication issue with Outlook popups, but at least I can use my Zoom account with my school email now.

Dear Scholarship Committee:

I am drawn to Legal Operations for the same reason I am drawn to the law: I am fundamentally interested in how people organize society. I am curious about how people access and organize information in furtherance of their ambitions, both organizational and personal. This lifelong interest led me to my first career as a librarian. While I enjoyed supporting library customers, I discovered I could have a greater impact by helping libraries improve their operations. I recognize the intrinsic value of operational work, and I wish to apply my technical management skills to help law firms and courts better serve their constituents.

Legal organizations are most interesting to me because they support the legal structure that allows our society to operate. As a resident of Cook County, Illinois, where the Clerk of Court’s office has been plagued by operational and cultural struggles, I have seen firsthand how the absence of effective systems can harm the most vulnerable residents of our society. My customer service orientation, paired with my strong technical skills and creativity, has prepared me to improve these organizations.

Although my primary interest is now in the law, I have six years of progressively responsible experience supporting information management systems in the government and private sector. At [federal agency], I led the agency’s transition to cloud computing. In this role, I implemented electronic records systems and modernized agency workflows to build an information management framework that collected programmatic data, incorporating at the same time federal privacy and data retention requirements. Through this experience, I came to see records management and business process management as two sides of the same coin, and I developed an interest in project management as well My growing curiosity about solving complex business problems led me to an internal records management role at [corporation], where I [redacted].

This exposure to other business functions sparked my interest in law. The most interesting projects I supported at [corporation] involved [redacted]. As I achieved mastery in the fields of project and records management, tasks like this one helped me realize that a law degree would open the door for me to deliver even more cutting-edge services to clients. I decided to pursue a JD at Northwestern University, a recognized leader in legal-services delivery technologies.

An operations role will allow me to have the greatest impact on the legal profession. My training as a librarian has given me a holistic perspective of information as a stand-alone entity, and I have endeavored to develop the technical skills to harness knowledge within organizations. I also have a strong background in IT procurement, facilities management, contract management, and direct customer service. My strong service ethic drives my desire to increase value for clients, and ultimately, downstream consumers.

I anticipate contributing to the Legal Operations field through active membership in the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium. Since beginning graduate school in 2013, I have volunteered for leadership roles in [various professional associations]. In these roles, I helped to grow membership through innovative programs and outreach.

I was interested to learn from CLOC’s most recent member survey that practitioners see a need for information and resources addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are long-standing personal and professional interests. I have worked on DEI initiatives and programming within several professional associations (including as a law school representative to Northwestern’s university-wide equity department). My own LSAT business has brought me into contact with diversity professionals at law schools and firms around the country, and my growing understanding of the environmental, social, and governance reporting landscape has given me familiarity with trends and procedures in related areas.

These experiences have positioned me to succeed as a legal operations professional and member of the CLOC community. Thank you for considering my application for your scholarship program.

I think the scholarship covered something like 70% of my expenses, I didn’t really pay attention. Because it was during COVID, I had a private room, which I certainly would never have been able to afford otherwise. It was amazing.

Private cabins.

There were no obvious signals that I was there on a scholarship, and there were obviously other people there who had some sorts of creative financing deals going on. It was a great experience. The food was good, it seemed possible to accommodate allergies and other dietary needs there, and the only issue was getting transportation to and from the airport if you cannot afford a car rental. Another person at the retreat told me that it is possible to make arrangements for a car, but there was staff turnover so the only thing I heard about was a Google sheet of people who volunteer to drive people to and from Esalen, which I did not feel comfortable with.

I bought two books related to this trip. The first was a book of a conference proceedings from a workshop about Esalen’s role in American spirituality. The second I found after wondering whether Thomas Merton ever visited: Woods, Shore, Desert, a journal of his journey up the Pacific Coast, which is apparently out of print and now expensive.

Readers of the blog may enjoy this photo I found from Merton’s travels, from the an article where I learned about Woods, Shore, Desert:

I wish next to visit the Monastery of the Redwoods, where Merton took a series of extended retreats detailed in this charming book. I was so surprised by the return of my curiosity and most of all, that I returned with a more relaxed countenance. My default facial position seems to have changed. While occasionally I can slip back into my usual grimace, sometimes now I find myself with a look of peace that D calls my Esalen face.

Watching the moon rise above the mountains from a cliff side hot tub (and from a heated pool) was among the single most pleasant experiences of my life. There were several days full of a series of unrivaled perfect moments. I hope everyone has the opportunity someday to rest somewhere so beautiful.

The baths at Esalen.

I have been remiss in posting about my house on the blog. We left Hyde Park in May 2019, because it wasn’t the right fit for us long-term. There were things I loved about Hyde Park and sometimes I miss it, but things I did not love included:

– Unresponsive elected officials who allowed high-traffic intersections to have noncompliant ADA ramps for over a year despite my weekly complaints (the ramps are still noncompliant nearly 2 years later).

– The closure of a critical sidewalk near my apartment that forced me to cross the street eight times in order to get to the train (including at the intersection with noncompliant ramps).

– The fact that only 50 of my neighbors signed my petition regarding the sidewalk closure, but over 300 signed a petition to open a second dog park within four days (apparently, our current dog park is in *Jackson Park*, not Hyde Park).

– The fact that Dave’s parents have lived in their home for over 20 years and do not know any of their neighbors.

– The horrific lakefront winds in the Indian Village neighborhood – I think Hyde Park is colder than most of Chicago because it protrudes further into the lake, but it’s truly terrible where there are additional wind tunnels because of high-rises along the lake.

– Incredibly spotty service in (pretty expensive) restaurants. I once had the same salad made incorrectly in five different ways  – I have nothing to say about this that Yasmin Nair hasn’t said better. Please read her piece, Hyde Park: Where Food Goes To Die, which explores the critical question: “What kind of culinary omerta survives in Hyde Park to keep its restaurants at such a depth of mediocrity?”

– Social justice warriors who post online patting themselves on the back for their refusal to call the police on violent criminals, leaving them at-large to prey on others in the neighborhood. (On the other hand…why bother reporting anything when the State’s Attorney appears to have a policy of not prosecuting crime?)

– Carjackings in broad daylight.

– Roving bands of pickpockets inside of restaurants, including at 9am on Sunday mornings.

The last straw was a series of increasingly violent muggings on the lakefront bike trail that I commuted on. Adding insult to injury were the subsequent blogosphere musings about how the Lincoln Yards TIF is the true culprit, not the people who actually committed the crimes. (I see now what people mean when they talk about “personal responsibility.”) I felt that I did not share the same values and goals as many of my neighbors, and I thought we were paying too much to live in a neighborhood where I didn’t feel safe walking after dark. One day, after yet another bleak news report, I found myself looking into concealed carry permits, and decided I would rather move than carry a gun to feel safe. This was all very disappointing because I’d truly hoped to raise a family in Hyde Park. It was also probably the best bike commute I’ll ever have in my life, and very possibly the best bike commute on the planet.

I told D that I wanted to move, so he started looking at houses on Redfin and one day last winter, he took me to an open house in Blue Island. We took a stroll around the block and I noticed how much warmer it was than Hyde Park. On that walk, I saw a for-sale-by-owner sign outside our house and I impulsively called the seller. We drove back the next day to see the for-sale-by-owner, I fell in love with the house, and then fell in love again with the immediate surroundings.

Blue Island is, literally, a city on a hill. It’s not a hill I would have noticed before moving to the midwest, but moving here has allowed me to experience life more fully. Take this hill: growing up in Virginia, moving to the midwest has given me a new appreciation for geography. When I go home to Virginia now, the topography feels much richer to me. Blue Island is on a ridge, and it’s one I would never have recognized as such without living somewhere so flat for so long.  Sometimes, driving, I feel that I am suddenly somewhere ancient. D feels it too, and when we look up the roads we learn about the indigenous people who lived here. The first people on this continent built a road along this ridge, following a buffalo migration route.

To this day, I have no idea how D, the most practical person I have ever met, was persuaded to buy this home with me. I think that the home itself cast some sort of enchantment. During our first visit to the house, I felt a sense that it spoke to me, asking me to live in it and care for it. I think many of my neighbors felt the same way when they found their homes. It’s something that binds us, this feeling of taking shelter within an entity, and giving shelter, in turn, by helping these houses to survive for the next hundred years. I wonder whether the people that the houses speak to in this way have something in common that brought us all here. I don’t know how else to explain that every person on my block is a wonderful and thoughtful person with an eye for beauty and the ability to find joy in the midst of hardship.

These houses have been loved since their inception. Most of them were commissioned by or for individuals. Ours is an exception: William Vandenberg, a local builder, lived in the homes he built only briefly, preferring to build a new residence, sell his current one, and repeat the cycle. William and Anna Vandenberg lived here from 1890 to 1892. Later, someone named Harriet planted peonies from her grandmother’s farm from a cluster dating to 1875. I think these are some of the same flowers that we enjoy today, since I learned that peonies can live over 200 years. I believe that I am the third person who has lived in this house to serve on the Blue Island Library’s Board of Trustees.

We have always been lucky with our living situations. When we started dating, D lived in an amazing apartment in Rosslyn, then he had a nice one in Dupont Circle; I lived in a terrific group house in Mt. Pleasant and then we had a great setup at my house in Maryland. Our condo in Hyde Park was also very nice. But this house is the best by far. The only thing we gave up was the bike commute and the lakefront. The bike commute isn’t a huge loss since I barely went to the office before COVID-19. There is a rather scenic canal in Blue Island with a nice bike path network, and I never went in the lake anyway because it was never warm enough. The city/neighborhood is just as integrated as Hyde Park but we have a bigger Latino population, which was a huge selling point for me.

We have a nice porch that we used to sit on a lot instead of watching TV and talk about how we didn’t watch TV. This changed because I went to law school and now TV is apparently the only way I can make myself relax. We have a garden and wonderful neighbors and almost everything we need within walking distance. There are so many birds singing that people can hear them in the background on the phone.

One of the reasons we pulled the trigger on this house was our feeling that the community was inherently resilient. If D and I have a creed, it’s something like the Strong Towns ethos. We don’t see eye-to-eye with most YIMBYs, especially since the overlap between YIMBY and “Democratic Socialism” turns us both off (to say nothing of the “gulag landlords” memes among the NUMTOTs, which I’m pretty sure are not ironic), but Strong Towns comes pretty close to our view of the world: the importance of inter-relationships, self-determination, self-sufficiency, planning ahead, fiscal responsibility, etc. I feel completely validated by our decision to move here after COVID, which confirmed that Blue Island is a strong town in all the ways that matter.

Somehow, the history of human settlement here, along the Vincennes Trace, comes up when we talk about our town. And somehow, everyone we meet here seems to know the history. There is something about the place that makes you pay attention and think about your place in the world and in time.

If your job will let you work remotely, please consider joining us here in Blue Island. It is special. There is a small cohort of people around our age who like owning and fixing interesting properties, or having room to make art or create incredible spaces, or all of the above. There are people of all ages doing that, but there are a few I look forward to raising children beside and growing old with, and having a critical mass of creative young people gives Blue Island a vitality and energy and optimism that I think is difficult to find in places where you can live comfortably.

I started a new instagram account for our house and our neighbors seem to enjoy it. Maybe you will too. I like living in a house that reminds me of both my own mortality and of my unique abilities. I like knowing about the people who lived here before me, and seeing the traces they left in this world. I wish that everyone lived somewhere that made them feel as safe, content, and inspired as I have felt since moving here. My house is beautiful, and I want to make it even better. Improving my house makes me want to improve myself.

I know that I am the happiest I have ever been in my life, because last spring, I saw pictures of the peony gardens at the Nichols Arboretum in Ann Arbor. The pictures reminded me of the particularly fine rose garden in Portland, and I thought for a moment that I might like to go see them. They are lovely, and it must be spectacular to see so many peonies in one place. Then I went outside and looked at the peonies beside my house, and realized that there isn’t a peony display on earth that could make me want to miss a single minute with the ones in my own garden.

Thank you, Harriet, for the flowers.

I’m doing two podcasts with free question explanataions, and if I ever decide to learn to edit audio, I may do a third one on how to study for the exam (interviews with past students, etc). For now, you can listen to me explain individual logical reasoning questions and reading comprehension passages.

LSAT Logical Reasoning podcast

LSAT Reading Comprehension podcast

Earlier this year, my neighbor Mildred passed away in her mid-90s. She rode the train from Mississippi to Chicago as a young girl in the midst of the Great Migration, and eventually owned her own salon. D and I spent a Friday evening in her company at a funeral parlor contemplating all the changes she saw in her life. She looked beautiful and the funeral home had obviously been unchanged since the 1970s or earlier. I felt very lucky to have the chance to pause in this space outside of time and reflect on Mildred’s time on earth.

Today, we attended a funeral for my neighbor and friend Carol DiPace Greene. Carol and I met attending city meetings, where we both had a great deal to say. We differed in our assessments of local politicians, and we had spoken less since I went to law school, mostly because it was impossible to ever get off the phone with her. She would call to regale me with stories of local corruption, coverups, and send me emails with voluminous attachments from her FOIA requests. She and her friends would joke that I was a young CDPG. This is one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received, not that Carol was old, herself – she died far too young at 68.

She joined me on the local library board shortly after I was appointed, and I enjoyed being her partner in crime there, and by crime, I mean citizen oversight.

It was always a pleasure to attend meetings with her. She was indefatigable, whipsmart, and a force to be reckoned with even while she was in and out of the hospital fighting cancer. A single mother, Carol and her wonderful son were a fixture in the community, working tirelessly to organize food drives, giveaway events, and all manner of other direct service. One of the world’s truly kind people, Carol never stopped looking for ways to give back, and never stopped fighting for underdogs. I was delighted to meet her son for the first time at her funeral, where he spoke movingly about her life and legacy.

There were at least sixty people there of all ages and backgrounds. I pity young people who only hang out with other people who are exactly like them. When I die, I want to go like Carol: admired by people who have absolutely nothing in common except a commitment to the values and places that connect us.

Spending this time with CDPG, her admirers, friends and family reminded me that what I like most about living where I do is feeling like I can make a difference. When I decided to go to Northwestern for law school, it was in large part because so few people where I live will ever have that opportunity. I am lucky that I live somewhere where I feel like I can use my education and experience and skills to lead and to build things that will help others, rather than feeling powerless or feeling an urge to blame myself or my family for social inequity.

I am lucky that people like Carol showed me how to make a difference in my community and how to live in friendship and solidarity with others.

Rest in power, Carol.

It costs me between $220-350/month to run the business when my annual expenses are included. I also spent at least $2,000 setting up my website, social media, etc. I don’t know how anyone starts a business with actual capital investments. I started tutoring on nights and weekends while I was still at Accenture, and I reinvested nearly 100% of my income from tutoring (first into a brand kit, then into a website and other marketing collateral before the big investment in an attorney). Bootstrapping went against pretty much every instinct I have. Even though I could see positive returns immediately from the investments I made, there was something unsettling about working so hard and not ever having my bank account balance go up.

Another thing I learned about running a business at this scale is how little you can actually make per hour even if you are charging your clients a lot of money. I spend a not insignificant amount of time each month creating marketing materials, engaging with customers (free consultations, etc), and conducting administrative and business development tasks. This experience will definitely inform how I price my professional services in the future.

The business is profitable, but would probably not be worth my time to operate if there were not other things that motivate me about it. This is in many ways a social enterprise business, and I feel real affinity and passion for my customers, who I think were underserved in the market by companies that I feel some antipathy towards. The business also creates flexible income opportunities for some very cool people. And, perhaps most important of all, having tutoring to fall back on gives me tremendous peace of mind and a sense of financial security.

This list does not include interest from the times I have carried a balance on a credit card. I’ve also spent a lot of money on my home office over many years and have not included those costs (or the cost of my tablet – I decided to buy one instead of a laptop so that I could draw for students).

Monthly costs:

Web hosting: $120

Associated subscriptions (Canva, e-commerce sites, Zoom, etc): $100

Bank fee: $15/month

Startup costs:

Website design: $850 (got really lucky with this)

Business incorporation: $269

Other marketing/business services: $400 (had someone set up forms and newsletters in SquareSpace along with a few Canva templates)

Legal fees: $2200 retainer (my attorney is very generous and has let me actually spend this on services instead of maintaining the full amount as a retainer with the firm)

Ads and stock photos: ~$500

Annual costs:

$79 filing fee with Illinois Secretary of State

Domain name registration fees

Other costs:

Swag: ~$250 (I bought my tutors and some clients masks. Also, a letterboard to make better Instagram posts. Next up: pencils!)

Are you taking students?

Please see LSAT landing page for current availability. I stop teaching two weeks before the end of each academic term.

I prefer to work with students who are practice testing above 163 and missing questions within the logical reasoning and reading comprehension sections. I have limited availability and can offer shorter sessions to these students. Many working students appreciate the opportunity to schedule shorter sessions with me. If you want to meet with a tutor over your lunch break, please contact me. If we are not a match I will refer you to another tutor.

How much do you charge?

As of September 9, 2021, I charge $120/hr. Prices are subject to change. Sometimes I forget to update my website copy. Current prices are on the elleSAT booking page.

I charge $90/hr for an initial hour-long consultation. People who are very close to achieving 170 and who are stumped by a few of the trickier logical reasoning and reading comprehension questions often only need 1-2 sessions. There is a reason I charge a lot and do not do free consultations; it’s because people don’t stay with me for very long and because I give away the store during the first session. (Also, you can listen to me talk about LSAT questions on this podcast to see how I approach the test and if we might be a match.) We discuss your goals, your work so far, what is holding you back, and chart a course forward. We also review your past work on logical reasoning. Bring 5-10 questions that stumped you, or, I can tell you which sections to take before we meet.

How long are your appointments?

Depending on how many questions you are missing, it takes an hour to go through a reading comprehension section and it takes half an hour to go through a logical reasoning section. For best results we should work together at least twice a week until you are regularly testing in the 170s.

You should also take two full practice tests/week and review them with one of my partners who specialize in logic games. Van, Kerry and I charge the same prices so that students can meet with any of us.

What if I can’t afford you?

I can sometimes work with students at discounted rates but can’t discuss this possibility outside of the initial consultation. If you really can’t afford $90, send an email to contact @ ellesat.com. I also refer to other tutors who charge less than I do. I know money is an issue which is why I hang out on message boards and have a newsletter and a blog and Instagram and a podcast. I’m working on funding for a scholarship program. Check back for updates.

Do you do applications consulting?

I give advice to students during our sessions but for in-depth work, I suggest engaging a professional editor. I have a very talented friend who I recommend highly.