Legally Blogging - Meet Katie

Check out Katie below, for this week's edition of Legally Blogging!

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The Legally Blogging idea was dreamed up by three ladies who all met in blog-land and instantly clicked. You could say it was love at first sight. The immediate connection stemmed from the one thing they had in common: Law. Obviously, as time went on, they discovered they had much more in common than just law, but that was a great starting point.

Here they are!

They decided to join forces and start a blogging series, to show that lawyers aren't always what you'd expect. The main goal of the series is to connect with other legal ladies out there and meet some great new people. Every week, the hope is to showcase a new person in the series.

Series so far:

Catherine - Part 1
Allison - Part 2
Jackie - Part 3
Jackie (City Girl...) - Part 4
Erica (To The Sea) - Part 5
Crystal (29 Rue House) - Part 6
Bridy (Brid's Journey) - Part 7
Josie (Straight No Chase) - Part 8
Jennifer (Come Rain or Come Shine) - Part 9

If you're interested in participating in the Legally Blogging Series, just send an email to Jackie: jjstoughton [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

We'd love to have you on board!

Hi everyone! I'm Katie and I blog over at KTJ Weighing In  and I'm excited to be posting in this series of Legally Blogging today! So, a little bit about me is that like Jackie I'm also a Pittsburgher! I was born and raised right outside the city and I absolutely love it here. I went to college in Philly, but I found my way back to the Burgh for law school. I actually am a new attorney, I graduated from law school last year, took the July Bar Exam and thank goodness I passed on the first try!

See, don't I look official? I'm very happy that I'm finally done with school and working doing something that I enjoy.

So, on to the questions!

Why did you start blogging?

I started a blog on a whim, to be honest. One day I just sat down at the computer and decided I'd write a post. I just blog about my life and what is going on at the moment. At the moment I'm navigating life finally as a full fledged adult now that I'm done with school for good. And I'm trying to lose weight. While I was in law school all the studying and stress I definitely got to my highest weight ever. I've always been overweight, but after law school and the bar I was at my highest. I decided it was time for a change and started following Weight Watchers in August. After losing motivation and deciding I could use some support and accountability and started blogging. My weight loss has been slow, but I'm working on it. I've lost a total of 37.2 pounds so far and from graduation to now I can already see a difference! 

What do you like to do when you're not blogging?

I absolutely love to travel! I have a goal to visit all 7 continents by the time I'm 40 and I only have 3 left! I also love to spend time with my friends, go to concerts (next up is Of Monsters and Men, Fun, and Justin Timberlake), and I love movies. I'm also a bit of a nerd, if being a lawyer didn't give it away, and so I love to read as well! 

What do you find is the biggest misconception about lawyers?

Well, I see that this is a common answer, but I definitely think that the biggest misconception is that all lawyers are rich. That is definitely NOT the case. There is such a wide variety of legal positions that salary widely varies. 

Also I think a few lawyers give the rest of us a bad name, so to speak. I'm actually a 3rd generation lawyer and back when my grandfather was living and practicing lawyers were greatly respected as a profession. I feel like times have changed in that regard. Now I think some don't appreciate lawyers until they need one. Now, I'm not saying that it is the greatest profession or anything, but I think some have given it a bad reputation. 

Another big misconception is that all lawyers sue. Actually there are a lot of lawyers who have never filed a law suit. You can do so many things as a lawyer and there are so many options that not every lawyer you meet is practicing like the attorneys you see on TV. 

What is your favorite vacation that you've ever been on?

My favorite vacation is probably when I went to Fiji. I studied abroad in Australia and on the way home I stopped over at Fiji with a few friends. It was amazing! Paradise. 

So that's a little be about me! Thank you again for allowing me to participate!

May Long Love

I don't think there's anything better than starting a new job and having a long-weekend sneak up on you two weeks in.  Deciding last minute to escape the city for some mountain camping?  Even better.  Watching three mildly-prepared girls haul about 15 bags of gear onto an almost-missed Seabus to catch their ride to said camping?  Priceless.

Not pictured: the other 12+ bags of stuff

We headed out past Squamish and parked ourselves in the mountains near Freeman Lake.  It was BC camping all around and was glorious.  Right off a forestry service road, surrounded by nothing but trees and mountains.  Our team even scoped out a spot with an on-site creepy abandoned Hobbit Hut.  The perfect escape from city life.

Although, our friend did forget to tell us she had been to the abandoned cabin before... 

 Yes, the "Tantric Pounder" was here before us...

It was a bit of a wet weekend for camping (surprise, surprise Raincouver) , but lots of fun was still had.  Most importantly, it gave us a chance to wear our ridiculously good looking plastic ponchos that were purchased when I was here in the fall, but that we haven't had a chance to wear together yet.  Epitome of fashion, let me tell ya.

Don't worry, though.  The sun did shine for approximately 10 minutes on Saturday afternoon.  Just enough for the women men to bust out the tanning oil, lather themselves up, and frolic around shirt-free.

Olive wasn't sure what to think of the whole situation

Also, can we take a minute to talk about shooting guns?  Specifically, that I joined in on the target practice?  It's not something I'm generally inclined to do on the regular, but since we we just shooting at targets, I was on board.  Bambi's life was not at risk.

 I surprised myself and actually hit my target in two shots.  

The can is now proudly displayed on the bookshelf, but I'm not sure how much longer my roommate will allow it to stay there...

The gang we went with was totally awesome.  Everybody was a hoot and so welcoming.  It's nice to be the new person and immediately feel like you're hanging out with old friends.

 Sunday morning detox

I also think I might have to go to the dentist this week as a result of all the Palm Bays that were consumed, but hey, that's a price I'm willing to pay.  What else are you going to do when you're sitting around a campfire for two days?  Obviously eat too many chips and drink more liquid than your bladder can handle. 

On that note, the smell of campfire is mysteriously still lingering and I have a somewhat dirty condo to clean before my oh-so generous roommate gets home and starts to regret letting me live in her solarium...

Enjoy your holiday Monday, everyone!  I'm off to the beach as soon as this cleaning gets done.  West coast living is the best, am I right?  Definitely a true sea to sky long weekend.

XO

Allison

Iceland Photo Gallery

Since these last two weeks have been somewhat of a tornado, blogging has obviously gone to the waste-side.  I can't bring myself to even open my Bloglovin homepage because I'm so far behind on my usual reading.  I probably have about 500 posts to catch up on.

Also, I've been here for 10 days now and I haven't opened Facebook once on my work computer.  Is that even humanly possible?  Apparently it is.  I wonder how many engagement and pregnancy announcements I've missed.

BUT, I still have good intentions to tell you about my Iceland trip.  I did manage to sort through my photos the other night and bring about 800 photos down to about 500, so I think that's an impressive feat.  I would tell you all about how ridiculously amazing the country is right now, but we'd be here all night.  Neither of us have time for that.  I will do it soon, but I need a chunk of time to put it together.  It's on my to-do list this weekend.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with some of my favourite photos from the trip.

Enjoy!

Take me back to paradise.

XO

Allison