Back in May, I wrote about my youngest daughter Shauna graduating from California Western School of Law in this post. After graduation, she moved from San Diego to Washington, DC where she had accepted a position with a large international law firm, Mayer Brown. Shauna works on securities litigation and compliance in their Washington, DC and New York City offices.

In July, she took the New York State Bar exam in Albany, New York. It is arguably one of the toughest bar exams in the country. As you can imagine, the exams are tightly monitored and have security requirements. To enter the exam room, you must show your seating ticket and an official government-issued photo identification such as a passport or driver’s license. They have a list of items that applicants are allowed to bring to the test center. All items must be in one clear, resealable plastic bag.

On the first day of the test, they had a half-hour lunch break. They were told to take their seating ticket and photo ID in their plastic bag for re-admittance to the test center.

Shauna sat with a group of attendees and had lunch outside. When she finished her lunch, she walked over to the trash receptacle and threw away the wrappers from her food. Then she realized she had thrown her plastic bag with her seating ticket and photo ID in the trash!  Normally, you could reach into the trash receptacle and retrieve your bag, but this was a secure trash can that was built more like a postal mail drop box. Once the trash is dropped inside, there’s no reaching in to retrieve it. It had a locked door on the side to empty the trash when it’s full. Shauna was in full panic mode. With no seating ticket and no photo ID, she wouldn’t be admitted back into the test center to continue her exam. Months of preparation for the bar were about to be wiped out.

She saw a police officer and asked him for help. He didn’t have a key for the trash bin, but he said that he could call for the maintenance crew to come and open it. She only had a few minutes of the lunch break left. One of her new-found friends tracked down an exam proctor and told her about the problem. It turned out this particular proctor was the lead supervisor for the crew. She had seen Shauna in the exam center earlier and recognized her. She told Shauna not to worry and to come with her.

This proctor took Shauna to the security desk and told the security people to let her in to the exam – her seating ticket and photo ID would follow once the trash bin was opened up. Shauna was totally on edge as she returned to her seat. You can imagine how tough it was to get her head back into the exam for the rest of the afternoon. At the end of the day, she was exhausted.

After the second day of the bar exam, she told me it was the toughest mental challenge she had ever faced. New York doesn’t set a target for releasing the exam results. Typically the results are revealed in November.

Yesterday, she was still at work in Washington, DC at 8pm when she sent me a text message. She passed the bar exam! Great news! According to an article in The New York Times, approximately 10,600 people took the exam. Only 61% passed. This percentage is skewed lower by the number of foreign-educated examinees. Exam takers who earned their degrees from an accredited school in the USA passed at a 79% rate.

We celebrated Shauna’s success with a cocktail, then cooked Cornish hens on the Traeger wood pellet grill. Donna prepared the hens by rubbing them with oil and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Then she used 6-ounce cans half full of pineapple juice inserted into the cavity to stand the hens up. This is a variation of the beer can chicken grilling method.

Cornish hens ready for the grill

Donna served the hens with a balsamic tomato conserve, garlic smashed red potatoes and sauteed asparagus with peppers and red onion.

Cornish hen with balsamic tomato conserve

To be honest, I don’t think cooking Cornish hens on the Traeger is worth the effort. A whole chicken or chicken quarters gives much more bang for the buck in my opinion.

Shauna’s not finished with the New York State Bar – she still has to go through a character and fitness review. I don’t see her having any issues with that. She should be sworn in to the bar in January.

We have cooler weather today. I’m posting late because I spent the entire morning on the pickleball courts. Donna played for about two hours before heading back to the coach to take a call. I hung in there for three hours playing doubles with people from Canada staying here for the winter at Fiesta Grande RV Resort.