The Party's Over. Back to Work!

The Work Part
Sigh. Today was my first day of Barbri. The only good thing about it was that it ended early and the homework for today is "lighter" than most. It's about what I thought it would be in terms of workload. And yes, I am one of those suckers who plans to follow their suggested study schedule. The only anticipated change to it will be using the PMBR questions that I bought on ebay last fall instead of Barbri's.

One thing about today's lecture surprised me though: it was very low key and very "this is going to be, well not quite easy, but not as hard as you think." I thought they were supposed to terrify you into believing that unless you work yourself to death, you are going to fail... oh wait, that's PMBR's line. I was entertained at the veiled comments about how PMBR's method doesn't work over the long run. Generally, I find the Barbri schtick classier than PMBR's. We'll see how it pans out. I was also very saddened to see classes scheduled for 2 Saturdays :( But delighted and somewhat scared to see that classes end the end of June. So July is all me.

The Party Part
It seems only fitting to put what is officially in the past, last. I took my bar trip during finals (since I had none). The Fam and I went to Europe for 2 weeks. And Euro, while convenient for country-hopping, could not have been at a worse exchange rate for us. I still haven't been brave enough to figure out the dollar bottom line :( It's going to be bad--but that's what firm stipends are for right? Wait, I mean tax refunds and economic stimulus packages, right? We had a blast though and it was money well-spent, as is evidenced by the fact that none of us came home this time with scabies. Ew!

We took my daughter with us, and she was fabulous. And I do mean fabulous. By the end of the trip, you could really tell that she needed some peer companionship, but really, truly we were able to take her anywhere. I'm certain that she won't remember much of it, but there are little bits that I hope will stay in her memories as little polaroids, like I have of Hong Kong from when I was her age.

The food highlight of the trip was a $42 2-hot chocolates, 2-pastries tea at a tea room called Angelina's in Paris. I've never tasted anything so fabulous in my life. The raspberries on my husband's tart made me rethink my whole stance that raspberries are to be eaten ONLY when no other berries are available. And the chocolate. Sigh. Amazing. Rich. Decadent. Perfect in every way.

The surprising great thing on the trip was the usefulness of our Garmin Nuvi GPS with European maps. We drove through countrysides and little villages we never would have found (since there were virtually no street signs anywhere) without it. It was definitely an "off the map" sort of vacation.

We got back 36 hours before graduation, which was tight but perfect. I was actually surprised at how much walking across the stage and receiving my fake diploma meant to me. I really don't remember being on the verge of tears at either of my other graduations. The student speakers rocked and really captured the camaraderie of our class. And as luck would have it our main speaker sucked. It was like listening to someone annotate their resume and read it to you for half an hour. But it wasn't even any war story type of stuff of "see how you shouldn't lock yourself into some preplanned destiny" message. It really was a "first, I did this. Then I didn't like it so I transferred here. And I did a good job." Sigh. Total yawn, but it finally ended and we got to walk. I was on cloud nine for the day and when we finally got back home from a big family lunch, I was a little deflated. All of that hard work, and I still didn't really have a diploma. But I'm glad I was part of the whole right of passage experience.

Then I had one solid week at home with child at school and hubby at work, and I did nothing. Really truly, I could not have possibly done less, and it was glorious.

Sigh. Now I'm off to put some laundry in and read up on family law. Cheers.