Sick Sick Sick

We're all freaking sick. Argh. My Sister in Law is getting married tonight, so I've got to make nice with people I don't know. All the while there is a snot revolution going on in my head. Sigh. So it is.

I finished my first order at the court this week and was given another order to start. A summary judgment motion with oodles and gobs of facts from both sides to poor through. I still think clerking is the coolest.

On a side note, I watched a hearing before a different judge yesterday... the poor plaintiffs. They thought they had it in the bag because the judge let it go on and on for about 2.5 hours... of which the defendant's counsel spoke only for 15 minutes (thank heavens for that too!). In any case, then the judge goes on and on about how Defendant's are being obnoxious and too strict and not cooperative... blah blah blah. Then in the last 30 seconds he says that unfortunately though, he has no authority over the matter (it was an admininstrative agency) so Plaintiffs lose. Ouch. They never saw it coming. But I give myself some kudos because the whole hearing I kept thinkjing... can this judge override the agency? I don't think so because the Plaintiffs aren't attackign the actual statute the agency is enforcing... just the result of the statute as it applies to them.

Sigh. Good times.

Hurrah!

Grades are in. And I didn't stink it up after all. Thank heavens for that. Now I can move on and continue doing what I've been doing.

-------------------------------------------------------

So thinking about it still... how on earth did I get the grade that I got in my con law class? It was pretty good. And while I like to think that reading close to 4000 pages (no, there aren't too many zeros in that number) helped, I have a hard time believign that I could do that well when I got nothing out of class discussion. It's the oddest thing. But then, I can't really remember what the test was about. That's the only good thing about how long it takes grades to be posted in law school... you can't remember what the test was on anymore :)

So here we are, another semester underway

So I am taking a fullload this summer in an effort to get instate tuition at my school by Fall. Yeah, good luck with that I know. The first half of the summer I am clerking for a judge and taking a class and the second half I have 2 classes. One of the classes is my ethics class. You would think there would lots of sexy itneresting stories to keep the several hour long classes entertaining, you would think... but you would be wrong. Gah! Fun suckers. They've sucked all of the fun right out of my class. So it is. It's also got lots of touchy feely kinds of assignments instead of just a test or paper at the end. Blergh.

On a happier note, I love love love clerking. Too fun. And intimidating really. I'm still working on my first order, but I should have that done by tonight. Lots of interesting topics and sexy facts. I've been able to sit in court several times as well. And let's just say some of the attys are freakign brilliant and others are, well, um, less so? It's been enlightening to say the least. And next week, i get to sit in on a trial. Yeah. I'm so excited.

I so want to be a real clerk right after grad, but we'll see. Grades come out today, so I may be weeping in my pillow.

Does anyone know if the rules for lawyers changes substantially each year?

Just wondering. One of the books I ordered used wa my ethics rulebook, but I got it and it is the 2005-2006 version, not the 2006-2007 version. Do these rules change substantially each year? Any advice here would be good.

Stick a fork in 1L, I'm done

Seriously. I'm tried. That's really the only way to describe what I am feeling right now. Not euphoric, not relieved, just tired. And a little concerned if my speech will ever be the same again... I've been spitting out spoonerisms over the last week like it's going out of style. Seriously, I don't sound like a bright girl. So it is.

Tomorrow we are going on a family vacation for a week. Originally, it was going to be for a week and a half, but this way is better, so I have a few days to, you know, do laundry etc when we get back before I start my externship and Summer classes. I bought the two books I need for my ethics class today. Thank you amazon marketplace and half.com for saving me $70.

So we'll have radio silence for the next week or so here at the yayarolly. Enjoy your beginning of summer. I'm going to Disneyland.

Honestly, were you raised in a barn, or are you just maliciously disgusting?

Gagging. No, really. I'm gagging because of the stench. My carrel in our library at the end of some shelving stacks on the first floor. They get a lot of traffic, and while that's annoying, it's to be expected. HOWEVER, what is not to be expected is that some nasty, nasty man come all the way into the shelves (read: close to me) and let one rip. My eyes watered, I contemplated whether I should make a run for it. Gag. Really. Seriously. Have you no manners.

And just because I'm in a complaining mood... chick at the main tables with your food and crap scattered everywhere, yeah, you. Don't freaking put your nasty, and clearly dirty, BARE freaking feet on the table top. ew.

The last phase of 1L hazing: law review write on

So I have mixed feelings about this whole thing. I am happy that I have more than a shot in hell of getting onto our law review because everyone has to write on. Grades factor in, but no one gets in solely on their grades. After this last round of finals, this is a very good thing for me.

And I had 2 happy restful days between turning in my paper and starting the write on. I watched about 6 episodes of Gilmore Girls, first season; hit major sales for suits and shoes, and generally vegged. Oh, and I reminded my daughter that I am in fact, her mummy.

So the bad thing is that I'm still tired and I don't want to work. But the good thing is that I am not confused. Really, I had this epiphany that I really, truly learned useful things this year that I will really, truly use in everyday practice. The write on is an interoffice memo that LRev gives you like you are an associate; they've done all the research for you. You just have to read through the research, ferret out the red herrings, and write the memo. When you think about it, it's pretty much the same thing that will happen to you as a summer associate... except you will have to do the research too.

In any case, after I read the assignment and read through a few of the cases, while I was and still am a little puzzled about some of the "terms of art" sprinkled throughout these cases (and we are NOT allowed to use a legal dictionary, sigh), I understood the main arguments we would need to make and was able to ignore the stuff that is just background noise. So score one for me. I can take a legal problem, break it down, and apply research to make my point.

I know I'm a sick puppy, but this is kind of fun.

One paper left and the semester is over, kind of

Property final was yesterday morning. Multiple choice. I hate multiple choice. I don't generally do well on multiple choice tests. So I'm not really expecting a whole lot out of that final. I do have hope that my usual multiple choice grade doesn't result because I loved that class and I'm supposed to be a TA for it next year. So it is. Nothing I can do about any of that now.

So now, all that's left is a paper. A paper which is already about 85% done. Only 35% of the grade is on content. My prof is really focused on organization and commas. Sigh. So today I'm editing it since I haven't looked at it in two weeks. It's really not fun to write about something that you have little to no interest in. If I get on a journal, I will not make the mistake of writing my note on something I don't care about.

Paper is due on Friday and the write on starts on Friday. Is there no rest for the weary?

Well that was about as fun as a root canal... the crim law final that is

Gah! That was easily the most difficult final I have had thus far in my law school career. Holy cats. It was 2.5 page fact pattern and a rather challenging set of policy questions. I knew the stuff, but there were just so many issues and I kept second guessing myself. Not good. no confidence. My GPA is now in the crapper. Lovely thought. Which is why I am in the library studying for Property. Sigh. Almost over now.

I know what I am doing this summer!

Hooray. I knew that I was doing the whole summerschoolgetenoughcreditstoqualifyforinstatetuition thing, but the jury was still out on whether part of my credits would be from an externship with a judge. Well the jury has rendered a happy verdict with my number one choice. Hooray. I've been to this judge's courtroom a couple of times for school outtings as it were. The judge seems to be pretty progressive procedurally. I think I will really enjoy it. And in some demented kind of way, I am stoked that I will be writing so much. Nothing like doing lots of writing to get really fine-tuned in a particular style. (Yes you can remember this when I complain about it later).

I don't think I can talk about anything else related to this, but I just wanted to share my bliss.

Yippee Skippee!

Hooooofreakingraaaay! Con law is done. Kiss my patootie! I am reasonably certain that I won't have to retake it, that it hammered my GPA, and that, yes, I will to test another day. I would express my many lamentations of what con law could have been, if only... but there's no point, and I am happy to forget about it.

The rest of today in crim law outline finishing/streamlining. Tonight I take a crim law practice exam, which prof crim law will go over with us tomorrow. Hooray. Crim I think I can do... if I can type quickly enough to get everytihng in there.

Cheers

ethical dilemma for law students and profs to weigh in on

So here's the ethical dilemma. I've come to find out that some people will write a verbose answer to a given topic in their outline like executive power or standing. Does everyone do this? Is it OK to do this. Most people that I've queried at my school say, well, you are allowed to bring in anything that is your own work product, so that would fit. But everyone seems to say that with an uncomfortable pinching look on their face.

Part of me says, well, great, if you want to put that much effort into your prep for the exam, go you. But the other part of me says, but wait, that saves them TONS of time on the test. They can't copy and paste, but they can transcribe quickly, which in the end might be unfair to people who come to the test with only an outline, which as I was taught in jr high, is not something containing complete sentences.

What do you tihnk? I'm really on the fence here. But I am leaning toward it not passing ethical muster. It's the gut reaction. It just feels wrong. I've found that siting down and taking timed practice tests are the only way to go because just writing it down once or twice helps me get started on the actual test. I'm not sitting there thinking I know this stuff, but how do I write it down best.

I truly welcome both sides here. Let me know what you think.

I stil really really hate con law.

I am sick, sick to death of con law. I hate it. I hate everything about it. I hate my prof. I hate his tangents. I hate the detainee cases. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Recommendations please... something to look forward to

I realized that I need to read something that is not a case book. SO I am soliciting your recommendations. I like generally anything except western, harlequin-type romance, and non-fiction science books. Other than that, I'm open.

Despite my hatred of con law, on my list of summer reading is The Brethren. I ran across some hilarious quotes from it while writing my torturous paper for the class with no point. Ooh, and I am going to read Robert Jordan's new book (Ok, i know it came out last fall, but it's new to me).

Help me expand my horizons. I would love some suggestions for fun, drivel too.

Wow, 1L classes are over

Seriously, this last year has to have been the fastest mad dash of time in my memory. But I made it through. Ironically enough, first day of class my daughter was dog sick and last day of class my daughter is dog sick. Which sucks generally. We're starting to talk about getting tubes in her ears, but I guess she is a little older than when they usually do it? I don't know. I just wish she didn't have to be sick so much, poor thing.

Which brings me to the firm declaration, that you, a mom, can go trhough law school and survive. Sometimes you feel like it is by the skin of your teeth, but nonetheless you come out OK.

I'm not going to talk about finals right now, I'll think of that tomorrow.

So 1L class recap for me:

favorite class: this is a toughy, it's a toss up between civ pro, contracts and property, leaning toward contracts.

least favorite class: Con law, hands down.

odd thing i learned that i didn't plan on learning: hmmm, 2 major ones I guess. law school is like jr high, complete with gossip or getting used to the administration, which is so not operating from a business model, but embracing gleefully an academic model (translation: talk, talk, talk, do nothing)

favorite prof: prof contracts. bless that woman and her love of the UCC. Don't worry prof contracts, I'll wait 'til you come back from visiting and take your other glorious UCC classes.

biggest nonacademic perk: amazing freaking people that I go to school with. really, there are only a few big stinkers. I'm touched when I think of the dear friends that I have made here. Surprised at some of them being 10 years my junior. But overwhelmed by the decency of my classmates. Here's to us, collegial atmospheres and just being who we are!

Ew... You know it's finals time when

the main study hall smells like a boy's locker room. Just ew.

Oral arguments are over, thank heavens

Yeah, um that sucked. No really. That was just bad. I will say, I'm sure it could have been worse. But not by much. I was just not prepared for the line of questions that the "judge" threw at me.

To add insult to injury, my opponent is one of those annoying put herself up by putting you down kinds of people. And she likes to publish her victories. Which is annoying. I'm being small. But I got creamed by the judge. I don't know if I actually got creamed by my opponent because I think i was shellshocked at that point, so I didn't really follow her argument.

Can I go crawl into a hole now? Only if i take my conlaw hornbook with me.

so the study plan is going only marginally well

Rats. The good news is that I think I have amassed all the research for my paper. This is very very good. The bad news is that I still have to right the damn thing.

The other good news is that I did read all of my reading for the week, except for con law... which i have just been reading the supplements and hornbooks for. The bad news is that I think I need to read the cases from class today. I have no idea what my oh so great prof is talking about. A classmate and I have decided that based on his diagrams the prof's actually calling in life was geometry professor. Lots of triangles and unintelligble scribbling.

Tonight is my oral argument. eek. Actually I am not all that freaked out about it yet. The key word is yet.

Law review write on, getting organized and stress headaches

Blurgh! That about covers how I am feeling these days. Exhausted and just blergh. But somehow, some way, I will pull some energy out of my butt and make it through to the end of finals... um, I mean law review write on. Our school does NOT have a grade on option (not that I would necessarily qualify anyway), so we all have to go through the torturous hell that is write on. My one big problem with write on is this is the first thing in law school that I really really want so badly I can taste it. If I don't make it, I will be so disappointed.
No point in worryabout that right now.

Rather, what I should be worrying about is learning the material we are covering in classes this week (oh, and the material I am supposed to have been learning all semester). I've also got moot court this wednesday night. Terrifying. And a paper for my paper as final class that would be ideal if it were in tip top shape by next Tuesday.

To that end, here is my battle plan:

• No more fun. Not after school. Not at school. It's just for a few weeks. Really, it's time to buckle down.
• Must go to bed early.
• Will do all my reading for the week today.
• Thereafter, commit to 2 major topics each day of a core subject; today will be crim law.
  
• Thursday night and Saturday are all paper.
  

That's all so far. Let's hope it works.

By the way, my frequent updates are in no way related to my desire to procrastinate studying for finals. And if you believe that, I've got a life estate in a bridge in Brooklyn that I would like to sell you.

Reflections on time

As I was walking to church this morning, i noticed that most of the trees and early flowers on my street are in bloom. It's beautiful and smells so good. The sun was shining. I didn't have to wear a coat. Spring is by far my favorite season. It just seems like there is so much to look forward to... like finals, for instance :(

Which brought me to my next thought. My 1L year will be over in less than a month. Wow! Time flew. Really, really fast. But it doesn't feel like it was particularly fast. You know that odd sensation inside when real time doesn't match up with your impression of time. I've learned so much this year. My brain is still kind of extra squishy trying to put itself back together after being so thoroughly deconstructed by all my profs. Still, as I told my hubby earlier this weekend, my worst day at law school is still a bazillion times better than my best day at my old job.

So here's to flowers and trees in bloom, squishy brains, and the approaching end of 1L.

Meditations on mock trials and trials in general

So, I got to go and participate in a mock trial this last week for some 2 and 3 Ls who playing lawyers. It was actually really cool. And it was the first time that I thought, maybe, just maybe, I can do litigation. Part of this was that of the 4 law students participating, 3 were stellar. Just strong, incredibly bright, and quick-thinking. The last one, well, being nice, not so much. I don't know if it was just nerves, but man the opposing counsel sure seemed to know their stuff much better. And I guess that was apparent to the judge too, who granted the opposing counsel's motion to exclude some rather key testimony that I personally tihnk should have gotten in. But the unprepared guy just was not able to be persuasive. Oh, and temper, temper.

So, major takeaway for all genders there, be prepared, know the law and the depos and everything inside and out.

For the ladies: let's talk presentation. I realize this sounds sexist but short of a guy showing up to court in khakis or bermuda pants, it's hard for them to screw up. I've seen at least two times now where women lose the battle in court before they say a word, and I think they both thought they looked great. Tip 1: If you choose to wear a grey suit. And if you choose to wear one that is "chicly" cut (read: more form fitting that not) and if you choose to wear a blouse that is not meant to be tucked in, you've got to wear a jacket. Seriously, I though this girl was wearing grey jeans at first glance. She looked sloppy. Not chic. And honestly, I never thought I would be one of "those" people, but I had a hard time getting past that for credibility. She looked like she was playing lawyer, not actually a lawyer (or soon to be one). Tip 2: big hair=bad in court. I don't care if you had it done by a "professional" before you showed up to court. If your hair is the first and only thing I notice about you, not good. I observed a federal court proceeding about a month ago where this defense attorney came in and I couldn't a) see her face or b) take her seriously. It was long. It was elaborately curled (think little girl). It was hair sprayed within an inch of it's life and had about a 3 inch vertical from the top of her head to wear her hair stopped.

Throw things at me if you want. I feel like I am betraying the sisterhood, but really get several opinions about your outfit and hair (and not just the saleslady who is trying to make a commission) before you go with "that look". Eek.

It's all crim law, all week

Yup. I'm getting the outline together. Sigh. I will pull the motivation out of my butt to do this. I will.

Say it with me: all crim law, all week, all crim law all week... maybe I should do some online shopping?

Time for an awfully close to the end of the semester update

court brief--turned in, check
optional draft of funky class's paper--turned in check (piece of incomplete trash, check check)
panic about finals setting in--check

Things left to do:

• teach myself con law
• outline for crim law (for real)
• do the Q&A supplement questions for property
• write something decent for the funky class to replace the piece of trash
• continue to ignore the need to prepare for oral arguments

Oh, and my hubby is turning 30 next week. I should really think about doing something for that.

The 1L person you don't want to be

I guess that I should say people because there is certainly more than one category that you don't want to fall into. Now that I have my oh so significant (whateveh) experience as a one L, I think I've got a handle on who you don't want to be (BTW--"queen" is used here asexually... I'm not just down on girls. We've got plenty of guys who fit into these categories too:

• personal gossip queen--don't be the one that no one wants to tell anything too because they know that you will say that Billy and Jane made out at jane's instead of going to Property. Just don't go there. A) it makes you look like you're 12 and B) no one cares except for you.
• grade gossip queen--don't be the one that makes it their mission to figure out who got what grades in each class and who the top 20 students in ranking order are. It's icky. People don't want to talk to you because they think you are always angling for some piece of info to fit into your sick puzzle. You also make people crazy, even the ones who aren't grade-centered. You have a disease and it's catching. Just shut up.
• Job gossip queen--don't be the one to tell me that billy bob has seconds with x,y, and z firms. Isn't that billy bob's prerogative to decide whether to broadcast? Even if you think you are talking to other job gossip queens, don't ask, don't tell. We all will get along a whole lot better. Oh, and don't whine about the one interview you didn't get when the people you are talking with would have killed for just one interview, any interview. And certainly don't be gauche and talk about the trauma you are having picking between offers. Puhleaze. One of these days, someone is going to shoot you, and everyone will clap.
• Teacher/course gossip queen--it's good to share knowledge like oh, he likes to test from the footnotes or he always tests commerce clause. But it is NOT NOT NOT good to take random comments like that and make inferences about them and then pass those on as gospel. Seriously, we've got people running around thinking they can't get As unless, fill in the blank. And it's pretty ridiculous stuff. But it goes the rounds as credible because we are all paranoid. It's also not particularly fair to the teacher.
• Dating queen--male or female, don't systematically date your class. Just ew. People will know you are a skank. Period. Preferably, just don't date people in your class.
  
• Study Martyr--I could give a rat's arse how many hours you study, how late, how many supplements you read. If you have something useful to share, share it. if you are trying to get sympathy or intimidation points, shut up.
• "I don't like so and so" person--this is the one that is hard, and I've been in this category, I think we all have, but it's just ugly, especially if you go to a small school. I don't care how big of an ass the person you don't like is... just keep your opinion to yourself. I promise it will get back to them, and you will look oh so jr. high. You can not like them all you want. And you can know that everyone around you doesn't like them too even if none of you ever say a word about it.
• Loud person in the library or study hall--Just don't. Have some respect. People might think you are funny at first. But they will all hate you in the end.
• Person who is only nice the day before they run for something--enough said
• wannabe gunner--this is the guy who comments every class but contributes virtually nothing, other than possibly derailing the whole conversation. Shut up. I dont' care what japanese philosopher Justice Scalia reminds you of. You wanna suck up to the prof, do it on your own time, not mine.

You'll notice that actual gunner is not on my list. At this point, he's my friend. If you ask intelligent, relevant questions or give thoughtful relevant comments, I am all about listening to you. After all, the more you talk, the less likely I'll actually get called on. Seriously though. I don't mind thoughtful participation even from the same person everyday. It's just the people who repeat what the prof just said or who ask about their condo rules that drive me batty.

Can you tell I've been feeling a little pent up frustration lately? really, I like 95% of my class. 2.5% I don't know and the other 2.5% I can't stand. But that's my little secret. I'm just tired and stressed. And I wish the stupid BS would stop. Fat chance, but still.

This all goes triple for one Ls going to small law schools or who go to school in a small law community. And it goes octuple (is that real?) for those of you who go to small schools in a small law community.

Now, true confessions... some of those categories are about people I can't stand, but some of those categories I only realized when I took a hard look in the mirror. Yowza. Self-evaluation is painful at times but totally necessary. Peace out.

BTW, rankings are leaked again. And I know they don't rule the world, but @^%&!$@ is all I have to say about it.

If I had to do it all over again...

I would forego buying my con law case book, and I would buy only the Chemerinsky hornbook recommended by Kristine. Seriously, my book is poorly organized and poorly written and completely unintelligble.

I love the hornbook. So clear. So pretty. So everything that I need. So late for me to figure this out. On my honor, I promise to guide 1Ls next year to a better way.

What we have reduced public libraries to

I don't ever pay to rent a movie. Period. If I have a free coupon thingy, which happens on occasion, then I'll go to one of the megablockwood stores and get a movie. But I don't pay. Which is why g-d invented libraries that have DVDs. He knows me. He knows I'm cheap. He knows that I will sit patiently while I am number 34 on the hold list of 43 library patrons for Grey's Anatomy season 1.

Pathetic.

(You thought this was going to be some moral highground about how having libraries be the free blockbuster is ruining our public library system, didn't you? I'll be able to afford that highground sometime way after law school)

No more laptops!

Wah!!!!! I have a hideous class that I hate hate hate. And now, to add insult to injury, the prof has realized that we are all glazed over playing games or surfing on the net, so we are not permitted to use laptops for the rest of the semester. Wah!!!!!!!!!!

Kristine brought up some good reasons for having a no laptop class, but I'm going to agree with her that I would only want to do it in a class I was really interested in and with a handpicked teacher.

I usually use this classtime to work on my paper for the class or to play games. I've only really listened to guest speakers, but the rest is pretty useless. Sigh. Total waste of my time. I'm collecting crosswords from the papers now to get through these weeks of class.

Looking forward

So 4 weeks of class left. then 2 weeks of finals. then 2 weeks of law review write on competition. then disneyland and socal vacation for a week. then summer school starts. I can rest on August 2. Unless I get onto law review, in which case, I need to write my note in August.

I'm tired. So basvcially, I've decided to go to summer school and extern for a judge for credit. I'll take 2 classes as well so I can get in state tuition. I'm hoping the clerkship will be enough of difference from regular classes to feel like I get a break. the happy thought then is that for the rest of law school I need only take 11-12 hours a semester. Yeah. I can feel good about that.

I still really really hate con law

But I have come to realize it's not the topic's fault. It's entirely my prof's fault. Someone shoot me please. I can't do this for anothe 7 weeks. It's like one disjointed history lesson, heavy on the war, light on chronological order.

Please someone help me! I hate this class.


On another note, I decided to give my laptop a vigorous shake on Sunday night and lo and behold the D started to work. Thank heavens for that.

agnabbit!!!!!!!

So you are won_ering what the hell '_agnabbit" is... well i'll tell you. What things are in common in these wor_s? _ogs, _inner, _elicious, _umb, _amnit... why yes, they are all missing a character at the front of the wor_. That is because... that character is no longer working on my _amn laptop.

Sigh. An_ my warranty plan is only goo_ mon_ay through fri_ay. Snarl! Coul_ this come at a worse time? So, I'm going out to buy a USB keyboar_ so that I can you know, finish the million things that I have to freaking type.

It's over already? no, the agony

Gah! Fast freaking week. Wah! I feel like getting on the floor like my three year old and throwing a whopping good tantrum.

The good news:
appellate brief--in damn fine shape for my meeting with prof writing on Monday
presentation--one of the 4 guys I work with is an ass. And I got to do a bunch of unplanned work
on it over break (asshat)
extra fun paper--neither extra fun nor remotely done.

In sum, I've relaxed, my friends. But being the dummy I am, I only had one weekday where I officially declared "screw it" and just relaxed without feeling guilty.

Anyway, so here I am coming up on the weekend with no con law or crim law read; crim law outline barely started, other extra fun paper barely started. Ugh. I hate that class. I'm reading the trial transcript that never ends for it right now. Mostly I could give a rat's arse. It's a problem. Wish me luck.

My appellate brief is due in a week. I hope to feel somewhat relieved then.

well, I'm off to my last interview of the season

Yup. I get to retire the suit after today. Temporarily anyway. And will be so glad. I'm not even sure that I want this job, but I'm going to the interview anyway. More practice is good, right?

So I have to say, overall this year's OCI for me was a bust. But I learned a lot. Like my resume scares people off. Like don't be too uptight in an interview. You want them to talk about the old lady they stopped in the road to help, or when they were stuck in a hurricane and had to eat ramen for 4 days, or how they can't put their vanity back in their bathroom until they tile the floor, and they can't tile without running water, which they can't have until the vanity is back. These are good things to talk about.

Summer school. Here I come.

3 more days until spring break

And I'm not sure I'm going to make it. Holy cats! I so needed Spring Break about hmmm 2 weeks ago. My arse is dragging. I go to class and all I hear is Charlie Brown teacher-esque mwahmwahmwah. Sigh.

I just got my latest draft of my persuasive memo back from my TA. She was not unduly harsh, it was just frankly that bad. I still haven't done my part of the group presentation work that I need to give to the group on Friday. That's what's in the hopper for tonight. If I can just get that off of my plate, then I'll only have my crim law outline, new draft of memo, and writing a paper for a stupid perspectives in the law class. Yeah, that ought to wipe out the break.

In order to make sure I don't get homicidal, I am doing the following three fun things on break:

• go see a matinee (anyone else feel decadent going to a movie at 1 in the afternoon on a Tuesday?)
• get a spa pedicure (my traditional break time pampering
• go take lunch to a friend who had twins last Fall whom I have not been able to see since and play with her babies.
  

Also, I'm going to lunch with my mother-in-law. Between all that, I am doing my work and unpacking my house. um, yeah. Big fun. But the break from class will be so awesome.

Are we having fun yet?

Update: Yeah, it's now about 6 or 7 hours later and that "new draft" of my memo is finally done. Holy cwap. I'm in trouble.
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Seriously, gah! I am so freaking tired and overwhelmed. This week stink stank stunk! Can you say no fun at all? I can .

All of my family's belongings are finally now in one house, the new one. All that remains to be done at the old house is clean... and I'm thinking, we are not likley to get any of the security deposit back anyway, so I won't be knocking myself out.

My daughter is finally "Well". For the moment.

I won't feel obligated to go home right after school next week so I can move crap from one house to the other. This is a good thing.

However, this last week I got in ZERO studying. And I mean zero. So here I sit at the library contemplating which of the following I should do next:

• Do a new draft of my persuasive memo?
• Work on my group project for my lame class?
• Work on my paper for the same lame class?
• Work on my conlaw outline for the midterm next week
• Do my reading for the week (prof con law and prof crim law were feeling particularly evil and assigned roughly a bajillion pages)
• Redo the takings part of my property outline since prof property did one of those fun: here's several weeks of how we analyze takings. On the last day, BTW, have of those got overruled in a case at SCOTUS last year. Sigh

Really there are myriad other things too, but I can't enumerate them or I would cry.

I think I will do draft of memo first, then con law outline. Then we'll throw darts and work on the rest.

Caffeine. Need more.

Need a recommendation for a good Con Law I hornbook

OK, so let's face it... my con law teacher that I was worried about is the nicest man on the planet, BUT I am not learning con law. Can anyone recommend a good hornbook. I've got several supplements, but I think some hard hornbook reading would really help... anyone? anyone?

It's getting hotter; I'm now in the seventh circle of hell

Gah! Memo is almost done... which is great because then I can just jump right into a paper for another class that I have no idea what I am doing in. On top of general school psychoness, DD is sick, sick, sick. Again. All the while we have moved... mostly. Actually I'd say about half of our crap is in each house. Lovely.

Calgon take me away.

I'm in persuasive memo hell

Hell, I tell you. I can't even put my finger on exactly what makes it so torturous, but man, it so totally is. Is this a bad sign of things to come? Am I going to hate being an actual attorney. I'm sticking to my guns and saying, no, I'm going to love it. For some reason, I think that getting to write more than one major memo a semester is going to help. I mean, i know you can work on the same darn case forever in practice, but I have to believe that you will work on other things too. And maybe if it's real people or real money involved (other than my tuition money) I'll be more enthralled. Here's to hoping right?

I spent the better part of one afternoon and evening this week putting together the outline for the takings section that we just completed for prof Property. Yowza. You can always tell when a particular subject is the prof's specialty by how many million tests and factors they throw at you. I swear I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out the logical order and reasonable usage for each test. Go me though; it's done.

I went, I saw, I interviewed... and now back to our regularly scheduled programming

So, it went OK. reasonably well. Let's face it, the only good thing to come out of it is that I got some practice in before the interview at the firm I really really want, which is next Tuesday. I did NOT get a call back for the firm from this week. And the only people I know who did each got a 4.0. Sick isn't it, that they are actually capable of getting 4.0s. even more annoying, they're 2 of the nicest people I know at school, really. You can't even hate them.

So here's my question of the hour: if you only want to offer to the people with the highest GPAs, why do you interview 12 candidates? really, doesn't this seem like a waste of time to everyone else? But who am I to complain, I did get practice interviewing, right? right.

As far the regularly scheduled program goes, I'm working on the appellate brief this weekend, all weekend, and if I am feeling particularly organized and ambicious, I am going to start my Con Law outline. Heaven Help me. Yeah, that sounds about right for a three day weekend, non?

I need to pick a segment of time to be a fun mom though... I am starting to feel like my kid thinks I'm only the hired chauffeur. Not good this early in the semester.

Happy long weekend everyone.

Putting on my game face

Update: It went OK. Actually I think it went well, but I am hesitant to jinx it. Two interviewers. One guy, one woman. From what I had heard, i thought that I would connect with the woman without too much effort, and the guy would be hard to crack. But it was the opposite. I think I've got the guy's vote. He liked my background a lot... and what I had to say about writing and research. The woman. I just don't know. But after talking to them, can I say I really really want this job. It just sounds too cool. Lots of diverse work, low pressure, nice atmosphere. Sigh. Cross everything for me. Oh, and it works into 10 hours a week during the school year too.

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Original:
OK. I admit it. I'm panicking a little bit. My first interview is in about 30 minutes and it is my top choice and I am not feeling it. My kid was up a lot last night (sick), so I'm tired, but mostly I'm not feeling on top of the world, which is critical for me so I can relax in the interview. Sigh.

OK. Talking myself up. I'm relaxed. I don't need this job. I can go to summer school and be happy about it. So this isn't everything, which means I can go in there and just be my usual charming (?) self and knock this out of the ball park. We are going to talk about everything... I'm going to pay attention to their interests and draw that out. I am someone they want to work with. I am relaxed, but alert. I am charming. Sigh

A little creepy isn't it.

An update on Spring OCI

I applied for 10 firms through OCI and 2 on my own. I thought that I would get about 4-5 interviews. And let us say that this has been a humbling learning experience. I have 8 of 12 reporting back and so far only 2 interviews. Which is OK because, thank goodness, they were my number 1 and number 2 picks. So at least there is that. But man, this is some pretty serious competition. I feel even more pressure to keep my grades to at least the level they are currently. It shouldn't be the psychotic... the whole process.

First interview is this week... wish me luck!

on volunteering and writing as a 1L

So, yeah, I am still a 1L, so who knows if I am the best person to be dispensing such advice, but I feel pretty strongly about this: don't volunteer unless it's something you are passionate about, especially if it involves writing. I missed the memo at the beginning of the semester warning that this semester is infinitely harder than the last. Yowza, you're not kidding. I've got an extra class as compared to last semester and my major paper for my writing class is due about a month earlier in the semester.

So, in short, I think my helper monkey goodness was a poor choice. If you volunteer during 1L, you've got to choose something that has an exact time commitment. Every other week from 6-8, that kind of thing. I thought writing the paper would be exciting, interesting and useful. But it hasn't been. It's been an exercise in frustration. honestly, it's hard to write a good persuasive paper when you don't buy your position. Not impossible to do, just hard. The other thing is, in general (based on my experience and those of some of my peers), it turns out that many non-profits are, well, organizationally challenged. I spun my wheels trying to contact some people across the nation that this org had given me as "good starting points". Only to discover... that everything those contacts could give me, those same contacts had already shared with the same org I am working with. Would it have killed them to go through their email and give me what they already had? And there are no length requirements or restrictions, no particular focus. It's just frustrating. And someone as anal and type A as I am has a hard time saying, OK, here's my line, I will not go farther than x for this paper.

I did send the org a rough draft this morning. One of two things will happen, ok, three... 1) they'll say it's fine as it is, and we'll be done (god willing), 2) they'll say, nononooo, we wanted it to be like xyz, at which point I will bite through my tongue and sit on my hands to avoid exclaiming rather rudely that I have been asking for that VERY SAME INFO for the last month! or 3) (and this is the most likely) they will sit on it for a few weeks and send me a nasty gram about the end of Feb when my appellate brief is due asking if I was planning on every writing their paper, to which I will reply by forwarding the email and attachment that I sent them this morning.

Sigh. Very frustrated right now, but then, I'm no dummy, and that's why I said in my email with the draft that I would not be doing any further work on the paper until I got comments back from them.

Lesson learned.

and a brief pause

I took yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning off. I thought I shouldn't since I was sick this week and my daughter was too, so I really did not get as much done as I had hoped. But it was the right choice.

While my head hasn't been in the game, that doens't mean that I was not spinning my wheels anyway. We visited with the in-laws last night. i played with my daughter. We slept in a bit this morning, had a mid-morning nap and played some more. Giggle and cuddle time with daughter and husband. Very good stuff. I didn't wander into my school until about 11. And it felt great. And no guilt.

My head is soooo not in the game

And it's got to stop right now. Seroiusly, last semeester I think that I played games once or twice in one class the entire semester. This semester, it's more of a have I had ANY classes where I haven't played games? Yowza. That's so not me. I'm just not engaged. The only class that I seem to pay any remote attention to is Property. I heart property. I really do. But even then, my attention span is rather like my little girl's. Which is double plus extra ungood.

So here's the schtick. I am going to pay attention darnit... even if that means that I have to take handwritten notes. I think in Con Law, I've got to do to handwritten only, no computer. It's too tempting and as sweet as Prof Con Law is, it's boring boring boring. So, no computer in there next week... we'll see if that helps or if I start having elaborate day dreams. I can keep my computer in crim and property and just disconnect internet... I think that will be OK. I have to participate in both con law and crim law at least once next week. What else... oh the "extra" torturous class I have this semester (which is pointless and boring, and just a total waste of time), no computer in there either. I've got to participate in there too... that's actually part of my grade.

Sigh. I will do this. I will get engaged. I will overcome the immense boredom. I will. And as g-d as my witness I will never go hungry again...

(OK, maybe a little over the top, anyone know what movie that is from?)

My OCI bids are in

whoopie. I submitted a number and also mailed a few in to a few local firms that are hiring 1Ls but not through OCI. I'm on the fence about the whole thing. I don't need one of the jobs this summer. If I don't get one I will go to summer school and get residency so I can pay for the chipper chicken next fall AND take a reduced class load for the rest of my law school career. Nice, no? I think that I have as good a shot of getting a job as anyone else does. Which, let's face it, isn't saying much.

Mostly, I conflicted. what if I get a job here and I like it, a lot? Will I feel like I need to stay with them 2L summer too? and marry them after grad? Will it make me want to stay in this state? I dunno. But it has occurred to me in the past few weeks that i am not entirely sure what I want when I graduate, and that it might behoove me to figure that one out before I go too far down any one path.

I actually learned something last semester...

my Torts prof is known as THE socratic teacher at our school. Too true. No matter how right you were or how strong your argument, he would stay with you and keep changing the facts until you either couldn't remember your name and original position or you wept... either way, he won. Well, my property prof and I got into it earlier this week on some case and I held my ground. He wileyed the facts and when he stated the other side, I remember thinking, "ooh that's a good one. that's tough" but I was able to think quickly on my feet and come up with ways to distinguish etc... I felt like he ultimately made the stronger argument, but that I would not have been laughed out of the courtroom based on my argument. I forgot about that episode and went on with my day.

The next day a girl in that class told me how she felt bad for me because he was so mean... and honestly, I had no clue what she was talking about. Thinking on it later I realized she meant that episode and thought "I am SOOOOO glad that I had my Torts prof; nothing is scary or mean after that!" So here's to thick skin! Oh and yesterday Prof Property commended me that I articulated myself well earlier that week. Yes. It really isn't about being right. It's about logically, legallly, plausibly holding your own. Right?

It's a whole new semester and I'm in love...

with Property that is. really. Some of the most interesting stuff I have read in law school yet. I don't know if it is the relevance to my daily life? the fact that i've wondered about many of the topics covered before I ever set foot in law school (of course, none of it had to do with whales or foxes :) ) Really though. Interesting stuff. There's an inherent "fair" or "not fair" ness to everything too that interests me.

Con law- *yawn* still. So help me. I HAD to surf yesterday in order to stay awake. Naughty me. But then, what's worse snoring in class or just not paying attention? My biggest revelation so far is that it seems like Congress can do just about anything they want if they can somehow loosely (and I do mean loosely) relate it to the Commerce Clause. Le sigh.

Crim law--the best thing about this class is the prof. Young, enthusiastic, brilliant war stories. But so far we aren't into blood and guts, just punishment theory etc. Again, le sigh. You've got to love any crim law prof though that usually has a video clip for each class, and actually likes law and order :)

My other classes so far are just "meh".

I've only got one more credit hour this semester than last, but holy cats! I seem to be reading twice as much each week. I'm going to have to get organized and early or I will play catch up to an early grave.

OCI drop is next week. The only thing I have left to do is write teh cover letters. Ick! I've decided I'm just going to do the OCI thing. If I get a job, great. Otherwise, I am going to summer school so hopefully I can get in state tuition by fall. Again, meh.

Underneath all the "mehs" I still do love it. I'm just tired. So very tired. Not a good sign only 3 weeks into the semester.

A further thought on con law boringness

Is that even a word? Don't know, don't care. Seriously. I have just been reading opinion after opinion by Marshall. Anyone else want to join me in saying that the man's goal must have been to fill as many volumes as possible? Good freaking grief! It goes on and on and on. The dicta runs for miles with no happy end in sight. And here's the frightening part: these are heavily excerpted! Yikes!

Grades update: the last grade is now in. Not nearly as good as the others. Somewhat disappointing after basking in the prettiness of the others. Sigh. But perspective. I'm fairly certain that the ranking-doodles will have me right where I wanted to be.

Grades are up

all but one class they haven't "curvified" yet. Lovely. All I have to say is I am really happy. I did much better than I thought I did. Now, I'm trying to turn that into motivation to start studying harder. (Why is Con law sooooooooo boring?)

Thoughts on 1L grades

I don't have them yet, but we are supposedly going to get them in the next week or so. Already people are getting depressed or jumpy or wanting to talk about what they all mean... blah blah blah. Folks... it don't mean a thing. Sure, it might make it more difficult or easier to land one of the 6 1L summer jobs with a nice paying firm. But we all knew coming into law school that there were 6 jobs.

That said, I realized this morning as someone was blathering on that I think I did reasonably well, which is a really dangerous thing to think. I have always said that top 10% is my dream... top 20% will make me ecstaticly happy but anything in the top 50% is realistic... i will only cry if I'm in the bottom half because I worked my butt off. Anyway, I realized that while I have that to hold onto, I've been thinking in terms of specific grades for specific classes lately. Example, I think I got a B+ or an A- in my writing class. But how do you know... and what if I only got a C+... writing is a weird class for me because I feel like there is more pressure because I was a writer before school. Grand scheme of things... I think I can be in the top 50% and have a C+. So it should be OK, but it so doesn't feel OK.

Lesson: find out from someone who knows (i.e., a prof) how to figure out your percentage before you look at your individual grades, if possible. If you have to calculate yourself... make hubby look at grades and calculate first. Sigh. I don't care about grades. I don't care about grades. I don't care about grades. Let's say it altogether now, I don't care about grades....

Officially a helper monkey!

So this week my big plan was get my resume reviewed by LCS and get a job strategy and to also visit our pro bono offices. Check and check. My resume is solid, now I just need to figure out where to apply. Correct answer??? Everywhere. I also had a great talk with my writing prof who gave me some great ideas for how to maximize my summer in the event that I don't get one of the 6 1L jobs available in our community.

The real win though was with the pro bono office. I wanted to get an early chance to see all the new listings, so I could cherry pick a little more. Fab plan because there was exactly ONE legislative advocacy spot. I called, I interviewed, I conquered. Let's face it, it's really more about a warm body, but the point is that it is my warm body. I don't think that I should go into any details about it here, but I will say that I think it is going to rewarding and not a little scary. As they explained my project yesterday, I kept wanting to say, but, but I'm a 1L, are you really sure... But I stopped myself. It's for the semester, and I'll be doing a lot of researching and writing and ultimately they are going to let me present the paper to the legislative committee that governs this issue. How scary is that? But in a really cool way.

I had several reasons for wanting to do the pro bono work... i do want to help, but I also want to force myself out of my comfort zone and get exposed to areas that I usually avoid. I'm a conservative/libertarian. I told the org straight up that I wasn't sure that I bought into the lobby that they are pushing, but that I was willing to work hard and keep and open mind. This is going to be challenging intellecutally, but also, I am hoping that this exposure to new points of view will be really healthy for me.

The only concern I have is that it is supposed to be a 5 hour a week gig, but with the laundry list of things I have to do, I'm thinking it is going to be more. Yeek! Time management will be everything. But then I always do tend to manage my time better when I have more to do. Let's hope that holds true.

Helper monkeys of the world unite!

Break is almost over... what break?

Between the oh-so-fun holiday travels and my daughter being sick with RSV, I've had zero fun down time. I've read my homework for two classes and cleaned part of my house but that's it. Happily, today munchkin is well and went to school, so I have a better shot of getting things done. But they still aren't fun. Like: updating my resume and making appointments with the LCS people to get it reviewed. Ditto on the cover letters. Of course, there's also finding the jobs to apply for. Sigh. I also need to go buy a new suit. Double sigh. I really hate shopping. Between all that, I'd like to find time to read the new Robert Jordan Wheel of Time book... somehow I'm thinking that will be a summer treat.

School starts next Monday and for all of my complaining about not having a break, I'm kind of excited. I love that I get all new classes except for one. And if the next semester goes as quickly as the last one did, well I'll be a graduate in no time.

Last thing. I wanted to share my New Year's Resolutions because then I'll have some accountability for them. So here they are:

1. No more swearing. really I sound like a trucker most of the time and I am afraid that I will let some of those words fly in front of my daughter. And frankly, I want my classmates to remember me for something other than my colorful language... after all even in school we are networking.
   
2. Lose weight... I'm not going to say diet. I'm going to say WAY less eating out. WAY more planning meals, portion control and exercise. It can only make me feel better.
3. No more bashing/or generally thinking ill of one of my next semester profs. I've heard horror stories about him and was getting sucked into that mind frame. He might really be a garbage teacher, but I'm going to make lemonade.
4. Be closer to God. So I know that I rarely if ever mention it, but generally, I'm a pretty religious person. But last semester not so much, and I think it really had a negative impact on me. So i'm going to try to attend more frequently and pray more often than just the night before finals and when my memo is due.
   

There it is. I'll keep you posted. Oh... so far I've already swore once. No matter. Practice makes perfect.

And the holidays are over... thank heavens

I'll spare you the gory family details... suffice it to say, same crap, different year. I've made a new life long resolution though.... no more traveling for the holidays. Maybe then it will be different crap and different year.

I went to New Orleans to see all of my family, who are all now back in their homes. And I didn't realize until I got there how very unique and lucky my family is. Everywhere you look there are blue tarped roofs (a la FEMA), piles of debris and huge tree stumps from enormous trees that were pulled up by the roots during the hurricane. My cousin's husband's family were not as lucky as mine. Her husband's parents and brother lost everything, homes, and businesses. We drove to that area to see what was left and it was erie. It's like there are two parts to NO right now... a place that is almost normal, except that there is too much traffic and all of the stores have weird hours, like McDonalds being open from 11-4 and only the drive through... The other part is like a war zone, but after the war... no signs of life anywhere, front doors wide open and inside you can see the raw wood because all of the homes have to be gutted and treated for mold. You still see an occasional car on top of a fence or a boat on top of a roof or carport... furniture half way out of windows and curtains that are torn into strips flapping in the breeze in the broken windows. It's just odd. And my heavens, the smell. Oh, gracious the smell. Like open sewer or worse.

People that I talked to there are optimistic. They want to get everything restored, but it's going to take a long time... I've moved around so much that I don't feel particularly attached to any one place as "home", so I can't understand their position of "this is where I was born, raised, married etc... and I'm never leaving." But if that's what they want, I hope for their sakes it can be. As for me, I think I would be moving, permanently.

It's over... and I'm kind of recuperating

I say "kind of" because my lovely fantasy about lazing around all day tuesday didn't happen. A) I was sick, really sick, and B) my daughter was super duper extra sick... poor little lamb. Sick enough so that it seems like we might not be making our Christmas airplane trip this weekend after all. The jury is still out. We'll make the call tomorrow night. *Sigh* I just knew this was going to happen. But if she has to be crazy sick, thank heavens it is when I can be at home with her without missing lots of school... or any school at all.

My last final was surreal. The prof evidently decided last minute to change his format... not so that it was substantially different... but it became more of an endurance test. Again... no clue how I did. I'm just glad it's over.

I've decided to wait until right before my break is over to do a 1L first semester wrap up. I don't think I could do it justice now.

Happily all of my books are bought for next semester... and being able to shop the internet for them instead of being forced to pay school bookstore prices. (Sidenote: I just looked back at my blog to link to a post I was sure I had made about why the admin sucked because they wouldn't give us our book list until the end of intro week, thus, only being able to purchase from the bookstore... and I DIDN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT! What was I thinking?) I spent about $250 for books for this semester so far. Although that doesn't include supplements. I've heard the prof I have for Con Law is pretty raw and that I need every supplement known to man in order to pass. Sigh.

I've started reading A Civil Action, which is part of our Christmas homework. Nerdy, but it's kind of interesting, especially if you can banish the image of Travolta from your mind while you read.

And on a very happy mommy note: we gave our daughter one of her presents early today since we are homebound and she is so stir crazy... it's a kitchen playset. I can't tell you how many chocolate milks and pancakes I have "eaten" today. She loves it!

Why you should never think about the exam after it's over

Gah. I feel sick! I just realized that I totally screwed my K damages question. I'm reasonably certain the Prof K wanted expectation, reliance, and restitution damages figured out for the hype... yeah... nice. I only did expectation damages. Damnit.

2 down, 1 to go; and post finals plans

Hooray! Civ Pro was this morning. And it wasn't... so bad. Which makes me wonder if 1) I missed somehting critical or 2) it really wasn't that bad, so getting a really good grade would have required the shedding of actual blood, which I didn't do. Sigh. Guess we'll see.

Monday is Torts. For my class, we've been told by the prof, previous students, etc... re-read the book. Lovely. But it's all about memorization... you get to take nothing into the test. Yikes!

After that test... I'm going to sleep. The next day I will take kidlet to school... in my jammies. Get a donut or other breakfast confection on the way home... and throw my Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea DVDs into the player, grab my favorite blanky and pillow and go in and out of consciousness all day. Then I'm going to go to the library and get Wives and Daughters by Gaskell and read. Other than that... everything else can just go away.

I think I feel it... mild panic is setting in.

in 2 days I have my civ pro exam from a prof who changes her mind like she changes her underwear. It is so frustrating. So you can't take her at her word that anything won't be on the test... or that she is going to test like she told you she would. Sigh. And I'm sick of it. Sick to death of reading the FRCP and purposefully trying to find the wankiest bizarre tidbit about the rule to memorize, 'cause that's about the one thing I think that I can count on with the test.

On the up side, I don't have the glassy, too wide eye look yet... you know the one that clears the room when you enter because people can feel panic and fear oozing from your body.

Calm. Breathe in. Breathe out. Go read the supplemental jurisdiction cases again.

One down--2 to go

And that's how I feel... mixed sentences and inconsistencies and just too tired to care. In some ways I think that an 8-hour take home exam is an evil way to start your first exam ever in law school. But I was mightily greatful for that when I experienced the classic "Contracts? Did I take Contracts? I don't know any of this stuff" feeling when I looked at the test. I got over it in about 5 minutes... talking myself down from the ledge so-to-speak.

Overall, I have no idea how I did. Did I get an A? Probably not. Did I fail? Definately not. I think that most decent law schools are set up so that you only fail if 1) you don't show up or 2) you never read, prepped, or attended class. So yeah, somewhere in the middle. But honestly no freaking clue. Here's a puzzler for you though. Why does it take until the end of January to get grades? Here's my theory: your tuition is paid for next semester and no longer refundable at that point.

Gah, I've got Civ Pro on Wednesday. And I'm trying hard to pull some motivation out of somewhere to keep going. I can. I will. It's just so much more draining than I thought it would be, and it's really the first time that I have felt that being a mom to a young child is a rather weighty disadvantage. I can't just disappear and study for two weeks. I guess we'll see in the end.

Review of Pride and Prejudice--the new movie

Sigh. Grumble and then more sigh. In the interest of full disclosure, I love the 6 hour BBC P&P version and can't picture a more perfect Darcy or Elizabeth or Bingley for that matter (not so much Jane). In any case, when I heard about this remake, honestly, I wasn't expecting much good to come of it.

The first 20 minutes or so fulfilled my expectations. But then, it changed for the better. I can't put my finger on it exactly. I hated Lizzy. I thought Knightley's portrayal as too flippant and light and the Darcy not quite proud enough. (And can I say that her wigs sucked... really, could they not find one to cover her own short hair in the back; every scene that bugged me to death).

The ball was where it really changed for me. I loved Mr. Bennet holding a crying Mary, realizing her pain and caring for it. I loved the slightly tipsy Mrs. Bennet. Overall, their portrayals through the entire movie were more "parent-like" than the BBC version, and I liked it. You realize that their shortcomings towards their daughters are not out of a mean or even selfish spirit. Rather Mrs. Bennet's neuroses are truly on behalf of her soon to be impoverished daughters.

Collins was spot on. Loved it. And Judi Dench as Lady Catherine was also fabulous. I was rather disappointed with their rather unappetizing Colonel Fitzwilliam. Yeech. And Wickham was perfect. Charming right up to the bitter end.

Overall, it could have been better. They could have cut 10 minutes of the crying Mr Bennet/Lizzy scene at the end in favor of more time at Pemberley, developing any kind of Georgiana character. Or even allowing Darcy and Lizzy more interaction at Rosings.

I will concede that the proposal scene in the rain was wonderful. Possibly better than BBC (though obviously not true to the book). Let's face it, it's always good to see a wet Darcy. I just felt that the scene had lots of power. I liked the impropriety; that they yelled. Of course it's too bad that it was half way through the movie before we see any chemistry between the two.

Jane was far better in this movie than in the BBC. I liked this portrayal better, showing that a very good Jane can also be lighthearted, instead of unfailingly, boringly proper.

The two rather dismal castings were that of Bingley and the Gardiners. Bingley was ghastly. This Jane should have pitched him; he had no spine at all. Yuck. And the Gardiners did alright with what they had, but were about 20 years (at least) too old.

As I hated the first 20 minutes, the last 15 or so didn't do much for me either. I liked the second proposal in the field but was left in the cold after that (actually the whole "body and soul" thing was a bit much as well, but you can't have everything). Too much gushing from Mr bennet and Lizzy... NO WEDDING! What? The whole Pemberley as marrieds was just too much. Blech.

So what do we learn from this folks? As a lover of Pride and Prejudice Utah; Pride and Prejudice Bollywood style and the original film version with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, I obviously don't mind even serious deviation from the book. But unless you can improve on perfection (BBC version) don't go there.

Whip out the party favors! Today was the last day of classes!

Yay! Woohoo! Whoopee! Whee!!!!!!!! Zipp!

OK, not sure where the Zipp came from, but still I do feel some pride in having made it through my first semester, especially since it looked kind of dicey for the first month or so with my daughter's problems.

In any case, here we are. I'm done with Torts. I'm done with K. and I'm done with Civ Pro. Whee! Again. I say Whee!

Even better, I treated myself to a matinee. Where I saw Pride and Prejudice, which I will review in a subsequent post since I'm a pride and prejudice freak.

In any case. Now the really hard work begins. I've got a Civ Pro practice exam tomorrow morning. And I am actually a wee-bit concerned. Jurisdiction seems like forever ago and joinder doesn't seem all that recent and that was last week. Yikes. I guess tomorrow will be a good reality check for where I am at with my Civ Pro knowledge (not far :( ) So it is.
Tomorrow afternoon is play with daighter time. And tomorrow night is either Civ Pro or Contracts.

I'm in a quandary over the Contracts study time. I actually think that I know most of it pretty well. I need to review the elements of each big rule, but I'm not honestly sure how much more I am going to do with K. It's an 8 hour take home, so you really don't have to have the greatest outline or know everything cold. There is time to look up the wording you want from a case or rule... Contracts exam is next Friday. I think I'm going to do an even rotation on all my classes until Wednesday. Then Contracts only Wed/Thurs. Then pass out on Friday night :)

Good luck everyone!

Cwap!

I'b sick. *achoo* Which really stinks. Today was supposed to be a major study day for Torts. Instead I slept for ever and couldn't concentrate on what would be important to make a flashcard out of. Happily though... I realized that one of my todos was to read the pertinent sections of E&Es for contracts and civ pro, and even more happily I had the Contracts one at home. So, while I did and do feel like dookie, I got through about 240 pages of the E&E for K. Hurrah.

Let's all hope that I feel like a human again tomorrow because I've got so much to do. How can it possibly be that my contracts final is in less than 2 weeks? Argh! Blech.

I just took my 8-hour take home K practice exam... Oh!

Actually, surprisingly, somewhat shockingly, it wasn't that bad. In fact, astonishingly, I came out of the practice exam feeling like I knew more than I thought that I did. Which is obviously way better than coming out of it feeling like I actually knew less than I thought I did :)

I need to review implied warranties a bit more. And I about spit water on my computer when I read the question about damages... Um, we haven't covered that yet. It's on the syllabus for next week. So I made a rather short answer to that one based on things our prof has said in passing... good thing this isn't the real test or that answer wouldn't be passing. Tee hee! I'm a little slap happy, can you tell.

Things in general that I learned today:
1) I like 8 hour take home tests. Seriously, maybe it's because I know it doesn't count, but i was so relaxed;
2) you don't have to use the stupid exam software that shuts down your whole damn computer--our test is open everything except help from actual people. So when I couldn't remember which UCC section was sale of goods, I hopped on Lexis and looked it up. Suhweet! It's also extremely handy to be able to search my outline on my computer. Love that find function.
3) I get to take my test in my jammies.
4) I am capable of concentrating that long even though I'm at home--which I had wondered about
5) IRAC is stupid. But I did it anyway.
6) My outline is not so bad. I noted the sections that I needed to beef up as I went along. Also, I had formatted some of the sections differently and found the one I like the best. Hurrah!
7) Caffeine is your friend.

So that's it folks. Now I'm putting the books down until Friday night, whereupon I will pick them up with a vengeance and study my guts out for the duration.

Why Friday night you ask? Because my sweet daughter and I are having a mommy/daughter day on Friday. We'll either go to the children's museum or the zoo; I haven't decided which yet. but I figure there shouldn't be too many people at those places, since everyone else will be shopping.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Memo due today and other updates and go Greg Abbot

So, I printed 2 copies of my memo last night... got the right cover sheets, honor code statement signatures etc... And stuck a fork in it. I was done. I should be feeling elation, right? Nope. I kept looking warily at my backpack wondering if the paper could possibly be an A paper. Just sitting there in my backpack... unfortunately my best guess is that no, it's not. I really want this grade in this class. I worked really hard on it, and I can't help but wonder now if it was enough? if I focused on the right things? One grade classes suck... guess that means all law school classes suck :)

So onward to today. I made my "everything I need to do for final prep" list and printed a calendar for the next month. I used to use this method when I worked for Big Corporate Monolith. I would plan my week or month, depending on what my deadlines were and designate specific tasks each day to accomplish my goal. The first two items on my daily list were must dos... can't leave the office until they are done, no matter what surprises are in my day. The rest of the items for the day had to get done if I had no emergencies. But I was allowed to reward myself for crossing off each item. Like going out to lunch instead of staying in or playing ONE game of minesweeper. The system worked really well for me especially for the more distasteful assignments. And here, I've figured out that outlining is a "distasteful assignment". I'm sorry but it's the truth. I have absolutely no enthusiasm for doing my outlines. Blech. So I'm back to ye old list method. I'm really hoping that will help keep the panic at bay too since I will see all the bitesized study chunks and have them planned, I won't think that I am forgetting anything or spending too long on any one item.

Last but certainly not least, Go Greg Abbott!! and Texas for having a law against SpyWare.
And for you civ pro folks who want to see another complaint, here's TX's complaint against Sony

Happy as a clam!

I moved to my new carrel this morning... it is so silent over here you could hear a pin drop... Ok maybe you can't really hear a pin drop, but all you hear is the clicking of keyboards or pages turning or the occasional sniffle. Hurrah!

And I've gotten a lot of the polishing done this morning on my memo. Sometimes it is good to acknowledge your weakness. I'm glad that I moved.

That is all.

But how can this be all that I need to know about Contracts?

Gah! I've just figured out that I have only 6 contracts classes left. 6 civ pro classes left and 6 torts classes left. And as I outline, make flashcards, review generally, and finish the reading for the semester, the only statement I have is: That's It?!?! Don't get me wrong. I've got more than enough to study, but I have this sick feeling in my stomach that if I had to deal with a contracts suit right now, my client would lose??? I think anyway. It's just weird to think that they are willing to stamp on my transcript, "yes, yaya knows everything she needs to know about contracts, torts, and civ pro". I had to giggle at Kristine's latest post because she was reading my mind.

Even more mind-blowing for me is that this 1L thing... at least all of the uncertainty is almost over. Next semester I won't be freaked out because I know how to brief, how to read my profs, how to answer in class, and in a few weeks I'll know what the exam experience is like, and in a few months, I'll know if my outlines were worth anything when I get my grades. Really, how scary can second semester 1L be?

Onto a more neurotic note, I'm contemplating... OK, not contemplating, but actually doing... changing my study area. At my school, we are assigned study carrels and the 1L carrels are in a different area of the law school than the 2L and 3L carrels. In many ways, I've loved being with the rest of the 1Ls. I like the camaraderie. I like being able to get up and walk an aisle over and ask my favorite torts peer what the heck some case is really about. But a few things are happening 1) it's damn noisy in the 1L area, 2) I'm part of the noise all too frequently and 3) some people are getting psycho about exams, and it's making for an unpleasant vibe. It gets under my skin, and I am not working as hard as I need to. So I left the secretary in charge of carrel assignments a note with my pick of the open upperclassmen carrels on her desk tonight. Hopefully I can move in the morning. It's kind of a pain. And I worry that I am going to miss out on some bonding... Example, my civ pro exam study group came out of talking about our outlines in the 1L area... but ultimately, I think that I will get a ton more work done. And frankly, that's all that matters to me right now anyway.

It's time to get really serious (without getting psycho!).

Memo crazy--but surprisingly still well-adjusted

So... I'm a little jealous of some of the folks in law blog land that seem to have more than one graded memo for their writing class... don't get me wrong, we've written several memos, but they were all ungraded. So, now, we've got the mother of all memos, the graded one due right before Turkey day. Ugh. I've met with my prof several times, and I think I've finally got most of the structure for the elements and factors nailed down. But it feels weak, KWIM? In any case, I did just finish another draft this afternoon. Yeah! If the rules are "she who dies with the most drafts wins" well, then, I'm well on my way to winning.

I like the memo, kind of. the kind of part is that I am dog sick of the topic and worry about it in general. I do think this is probably my "most relevant to being an attorney" class. But I get heartsick realizing that it is just like any other skill you learn... if you don't use it, you lose it. So I've decided that whatever pro bono stuff I start doing next semester, I want something with a lot of writing. So there! (yeah, that's mature).

Tonight... we are having friends over, eating pizza and playing games. And contracts, civ pro etc... can all just bugger off. (at least until tomorrow).

I still haven't caught the OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! finals are in 3 weeks panic yet. I'm plugging away on my outlines. Ok... mostly contracts ebcause that's the one I'm most afraid of. 8-hour take home. Yuck. I'm sure it will hit me some time in the next few weeks. There are already a couple of people walking around with the "deer in the headlights look". Sigh.

And no, career services, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Memo? check! Behind in all classes? check! check!

I am practically giddy that my memo is done... ok not exactly done, but I turned in the draft today and in my world that draft is the hardest to do. And of course, by draft, I mean 6th draft. I figure that whatever I turn in that my TA is going to edit should be the best that I can do. In any case, having that off my plate for the next week will hopefully help me get caught up in my classes, which all suffered for that damnable memo. *Sigh*

Last week and so far this week have been the first weeks where I have read the matierals for classes, but didn't write up a brief for them. I know several of my other blogging 1L cohorts gave up briefing early on and now only book-brief, but I just can't let go of my need to do it. Really, I wish that I could because I really don't have the time for it if I want to get good versions of my outlines done. Sigh. Why am I chicken to stop writing briefs? Frankly, I'm my own worst enemy. 1) I find that my mind wanders a lot more in class when I haven't briefed. The exercise of briefing is usually where I key in on things that I need to get answered in class or pieces that I know i need to pay extra attention to. and 2) I don't read carefully. I don't. Not like in the beginning of the semester. And briefing forces me to go back through and see the nuggets that I missed the first time around.

So there it is. Either I pull some concentration and enthusiasm for reading cases out of my butt, or I keep writing briefs. Frankly, my enthusiasm is waning. Don't get me wrong. i still love school. I love the nerd that it is turning me into. For example, I just got a new cell phone from sprint this weekend. The form that I had to sign had in big print a section about arbitration. I know I wouldn't have paid attention to that before. And i actually did take a split second to consider if arbitration would likely be a bad thing for me as a consumer in my relationship with Sprint. I'm turning into a legal nerd. And I love it. It's just the day to day grind that's got me down. I had a well-tuned machine humming along nicely for studying until that damnable paper came along, and now I'm behind and tired.

True confessions: I can't say that at this point in the semester I'm all that shocked about my lack of enthusiasm. In undergrad, like clockwork, I would lose interest in my classes (or at least the prepping thereto) about 10 weeks into the semester. I guess I have a short attention span? or is that a motivation span? Sigh. Another month! Then finals for a month! Then new classes! Yeah!

I'm still here and buried under tons of paper

It's been a bit since I posted, so the fast catch up is: the Civ Pro midterm sucked. In some ways. Happily, I think that I was able to answer most of the questions reasonably well. Unhappily or happily (I guess it depends on what you do with it) the exam was 90% of the material we either 1) read but didn't discuss or 2) spent one class on. The whole 5 weeks of personal jurisdiction... nope, not on the test. Grrr! Luckily, I had spent some time on my own on the other material, or I would have been screwed. It's not graded though. So whateveh. Oh, and the other big thing that I learned is that when she says there are 5 questions to answer in an hour. That's not what is really going on. It's 5 main questiion each with 3-6 specific subquestions... you start doing the math on that and you realize that you are doing well to get more than 2 sentences down per answer. jeez louise. So it is. Now I know what to expect in December.

The research paper is done and turned in. Now I'm writing the memo to go with it, realizing that my research was only half-baked. And if I have to sit through another "lawyer panel" of attys who tell me that "after your class rank, your writing and research grade are the most important, and if they suck, well quit now" I'm going to scream.

The memo is sheer torture. Not because of the writing. I like the writing. It's the "there's no way in hell that we can win this case" factor in the writing that is killing me. I keep going back to my research and adding new research because I'm convinced that there's got to be some case somewhere that will help us out. Sigh.

On a brighter side. We're coming down the home stretch. 6 more weeks and I won't have to be scared of the unknown any longer. Honestly, that's the test of this semester more than anything... you have your first everything, first embarrassing socratic moment, first memos, first tests, etc... 2nd semester has got to be easier because you know how to brief and how to answer questions.

So cheers!

procrastination and re-fueling.

So, here it is. The last day of my fall break. The break that was not ever really intended to be a break. Because it isn't a break when you get a research assignment in your last class before break and it's due when you get back. Sigh. Yeah, I know I'm in law school, and I have work to do on break; I just was hoping for a somewhat lighter load. So cheers to a week without classes and a pedicure, but that's about the only nice thing I can say.

I've done all the research for this damnable project, now I just have to write it up, and surprisingly, I am uninspired. Gah. I'm tired and don't feel like trying that hard. Which is really terrible, I know. I haven't even started my Civ Pro outline yet, and I've got a midterm next week. Sigh.

It's not that my enthusiasm for school is waning. It's not. I'm just already getting a little worn down and this week hasn't been the refueling kind of week that I had hoped for. Sigh. Which leads me to half-assed work and procrastination. I think my peers would laugh if I suggested that I was even remotely a terrible procrastinator. It's just because I haven't let myself do it until about a week ago. But now I am.

The hardest thing about procrastinating is stopping. really. the whole thing is a big cycle. You procrastinate, then crank something out in half the time it should have taken, but you are more intense, then you're tired and don't want to do anything for a few days... and before you know it, you're procrastinating the next work item. Sigh. Vicious, vicious cycle.

Here's my pledge: no screwing around until I get that paper done today. Then I can do something fun for 2 hours. Then I have to work on Civ Pro outline for 3 hours... and so on and so forth. Rewards. I'm all about rewards.

Cheers!

Remember that law school is only a part of your life

This is my writing prof's mantra. He tries to beat into us the idea that we are still whole people and that law school is a very small part of the whole. Mostly I think Yeah, yeah, and when I am caught up I will try to remember that.

But this last weekend, I really did make that a priority. Thursday, I picked my DD up from preschool a few hours early and we went to the park and played and frolicked for a few hours. It was really good time for us. And I had such a clear head that night when I started to do my studying.

Saturday night, I went on a bona fide date with DH. We went to dinner and a movie. And I can't remember the last time that happened. We ate slowly and chatted over dinner instead of inhaling our food and keeping one hand ready to stop DD from throwing her food, etc. We saw Batman Begins at a second run theater (which is why we could afford the dinner and a movie. really good flick. I was pleasantly surprised. And yes, Christian Bale is rather yummy.

We also stopped at a game store and bought Ticket to Ride Europe. It's a German game where you build train routes all over Europe. And it can be played with just 2 people. Which is nice. A lot of the more fun games seem like you have to have at least 3 players. Anyway, we've spent an hour the last couple of nights playing it, and it has been really cathartic to think about something other than school. I'd recommend the game.

And I'd recommend remembering that you really do have a whole life. And that law school is just a small part of it.

End of week 5

Before I posted I had to stop and double check how many weeks into this I really am. Holy cats. 5 weeks down. That's one third of the semester. Here's the break down, now that I am an "oh-so-experienced" 1L

The three core classes still aren't bad. I still think that I have great profs. I really love the style of my Torts prof who is the most Socratic, no "being on call" on certain days. You're on call in every class. That used to scare the poo out of me, but I really see how it forces me to engage more everyday.

Writing is still my favorite class, even after the memo I turned in this morning. I am all about any class where I can see the direct results of my efforts applicable to ANY law job I ever get. And my writing prof is still my favorite. Heeelarious.

We're gearing up to do our semester research project. Isn't it sweet of our school to make it due the day after fall break? yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. We've had several mini research assignments, but we usually do them in groups, and we're not allowed to work in groups on the final research project. So, frankly, I am a little intimidated. I can find anything I need to on Lexis and Westlaw. That's no problem. My problem will be the research log we have to keep where we show what BOOKS we looked in for specific parts of our research. Yowza. I still stink at finding stuff topically in the books. But then, hopefully after the research project, I won't have that problem anymore.

I think the most pleasant surprise about law school is my actual classmates. They are awesome. 99% are perfectly normal, not overly competitive people. When I have to miss class because I'm sick or my DD is sick, I get lots of offers for notes etc. No matter how diverse our background, we all seem to be sticking together. And that, I think, is tremendous.

Now back to my K outline.

Can I say just how much I love my legal writing class?

I realize that 99% of it is my prof and his approach to teaching, which is always interesting and usually hysterical. But I really like it. We are on our second assigment right now. I tend to think that it's going to be easy because I've got it making complete sense in my head, but when I put pen to paper, the organization just kills me. Prof Writing says not to worry about that though. To bask in the frustration of these assignemtns because the more we fight it out now, the easier it will be in the future.

Quote of the day: "He with most drafts, wins." Amen.

Sometimes, it's just better to let them go

So, let me apologize right now for the rather dramatic turn away from the law that this post is about. But I'm at school, it's late, I'm exhausted and I've got to get this out.

So, ongoing family saga, mom was having some R&R after the hurricane with some friends of hers and left my grandfather with my uncle. She's taken care of him for the past several years and has had pretty much no time off. Well, she's no longer relaxing. She is in my uncle's city with my grandfather at the hospital; and this time he's not looking good. And I have finally reached the rather emotional distressing truth that it's probably better if we all just let him go.

I guess there are some background things to understand here. First, he's 86 years old and he's my hero and always has been. He's done everything in his life that he wanted to do. He worked hard to do that and loved my grandmother fervently for the 60+ years they were married before she succumbed to alzheimer's and died 2 years ago. We all wondered when grandma was sick, if he would be able to outlast her. He was so afraid of her being alone. I mean, she wouldn't have been alone, but he wanted to be the one to try and take care of her. When she died from pneumonia, we were all shocked. She was healthy as a horse until that bout of pneumonia. Contrast with my grandpa, whose first heart attack was about 30 years ago. He's had several heart attacks and bypasses and almost died 7 years ago and got one of those mini defibrillator thingys implanted. The past couple of years, he's had dangerously low blood pressure and made it out each time.

This time is different. He's tired. He doesn't want to survive any more hurricanes. I think after grandma died, he willed himself to live to help be an anchor for my mom who had lost her husband the year before in a tragic accident. But now, I think that he feels like he isn't an anchor in a good sense anymore. He's more frail and needs lots more help. I think he feels like he's a burden and he's ready to go.

When I got the call tonight that he's in the hospital, my first reaction was: please, please let him make it through; please don't let him go. But as the night has passed, I think that I am coming to the same conclusion that I did with my grandmother before she died, it's not fair to keep them with us just because that's what we would like best. He's lived a damned full life and he's ready to rest.

They say things come in threes... I thought with the hurricane thing that it was its own set of three, you know three parts of my family, three houses etc... But maybe that was only one.

School books and toddlers

So how exactly do you explain why mommy can color in her books but she can't?

Putting the emPHAsis on the wrong syLAble

Yeah, that's what I've figured out about my studying. Now that I've realized that my prep for class isn't getting the job done in helping me synthesize the material… I'm not reading deep enough or seeing the forest… I am implementing a plan! I love plans. Yeah!

I will have a "topic" of the week. Because I can't do a good job of in-depth analysis every week on each class; I just don't think that I would really be getting much out of any of it. So, one core topic a week. Also, my week isn't Sunday-Saturday or Monday-Sunday. My hardest day is Wednesday. I see all of my prep work as getting to and through Wed. So my topic week will start on Thur and end Wed, so I have maximum study time and don't feel pinched.

For example, this week, I will be focusing on Torts. Without realizing I was focusing on it at the time, last week was civil procedure. So with Torts, I'm starting my outline this week for all of the materials we have covered on battery. This is my chance to really dive into supplementals etc…

I'm hoping this will take some of the pressure that I frequently feel that I am placing on myself to get a deeper understanding of all of the materials. This way it's scheduled too and I can't put it off.

I also though that I should confess that I have officially become a Rainbow Briter. I color in my case books, and it is really helpful. Especially in my civ pro class where it is not good enough to quote the case from your brief, but you have to say exactly what page, paragraph, and line the quote is on. Never thought that I would do it. It sounded like a PITA, but it really is more efficient for me, and I really think it wil lhelp me be faster on the exam too.

Oh, and if you are having civ pro trauma understanding Civ Pro, get the nutshell. Worth its weight in gold.

No wonder my grey hair is multiplying... 2 weeks in review

So, I got to thinking last night about a lot of things and realized that if I feel emotionally tired, it's got nothing to do with law school. Here's the recap of the personal life problems and disasters in the last 2 weeks... some are obviously more trivial than others, but I am going to count them because I know they contribute to my "I got hit by a Mack truck again, and again, and again" feeling.

• DD has been sick since I started school... she's only been able to attend 3 days of preschool out of the last 12.
• I don't have back up sick care so DH has missed work and I have missed classes
• I feel like Dred Pirate Roberts from Princess Bride addressing Wesley's life each night "sleep well, wesley. I'll probably kill you in the morning". In my case, it's me telling myself each day "study hard, enjoy your classes, you'll most likely have to drop out next week". As lightly as I am putting it, we're not that far away from that as a reality. We have to have health insurance and it's only affordable if one of us is working full time... so, Dh can't lose his job because he has to stay home with sickie DD all the time. And I can't flunk out because I need to be with sickie at home all the time... it's a problem. We're going week by week, day by day.
• I couldn't get a hold of my mother, aunt and her family or cousin and her family that needed to evacuate from New Orleans.
• They're fine now, but they're lives are not.
• My good friend from prelaw school city kicked her husband out for infidelity last week... she let him come back two days later. He's going to give her an STD before all is said and done.
• My cousin (a different, non New Orleans cousin) couldn't find her year 18 month old son on labor day... they found him in the bottom of their pool... Thank God, they were able to get him to emergency room in time. he's going to be OK
• Dh came home with a fever yesterday. Not a big deal, but that meant no study time for me until late.
  
• I'm getting sick.
  

i think that's all for now. Now, don't get me wrong. I know my life is better than most people's, but I just realized that all this was why i was feeling tired. Here's to a better week. Cheers!

end of week 2, and now, hopefully, back to our regularly scheduled programming

I finally got through to my mom yesterday. My family is still OK and they said that they are able to get food and water. They are packed like sardines in a motel, but they are so greatful for that. They plan to stay there until they are let back into the city for a few hours to get clothes, paperwork etc. It looks like my cousin doesn't need to worry about that so much because she has friends still in the city helping with evac who took a boat past her house... it's basically gone. She's holding up well though. As soon as mom can get back itn and get the stuff she needs, she's going to come and stay with us for a while. I'm so glad. I think this whole thing has just shaken me up and reminded me how much I would really miss her if she weren't here anymore.

I still worry about them and probably will until I see them with my own eyes. But I feel much better.

I missed class this Thursday and study groups yesterday because my daughter is still sick. She kind of got better, then not. Lovely. One day at a time though, right? hopefully by monday she will be all better and able to go to preschool for the entire week.

Classes, I'm not sure what all happened this week. Frankly, I wasn't very engaged with law school. Every extra second I had, I was surfing to get info, any info about my family and their city. I finally realized yesterday morning that I had to stop. I was internalizing everything too much. Don't get me wrong. My heart breaks for the people who are still trapped, who have lost loved ones, and who have lost everything they have, especially the people who can't afford to rebuild. But I'm too tender hearted you know. It was just taking over everything in my head. So, I'm not watching anything on it anymore. The only news I'm reviewing is the times pcayune at www.nola.com. After talking to my mom and getting the straight talk of what is actually going on down there. I really want to reach through the TV at the news networks and slap them around a bit. Completely irresponsible journalism. In any case, nola seems to actually print what is really going on straight from officials' mouths... the officials that are actually present there.

In any case, where that leaves me as a law student is... at school. I'm in the 1L study room and will be here the live long day. I'm really behind and I've got to catch up. I still like my writing class best. Contracts isn't as bad as I thought it might be. And civil procedure, well, I must be missing something because I swear that i "get it". And that can't be right, now can it?

shock, concern, and relief.

Sometime late Tuesday night, it finally sank in that NO is pretty much gone. And that it would be more than a miracle if my family didn't lose everything. really, if a house sits in standing water, in the south, in the summer, with the critters, and the sewage, and the bodies, EVEN IF (when) they get the water out, there's nothing to do but raze the house... move far away and eventually (read: 20 years from now) sell the land.

I was horribly distracted in class yesterady and Wed is my day from hell. My DD had to go to hospital to get chest xrays to rule out pneumonia (she doesn't have it, thank goodness) and I can no longer get in contact with my family. Nice day.

I don't know why I'm so worried about my family now. I mean, I know they made it trhough just fine. Maybe I need to stop keeping up with the news reports of unrest. It's just never an ideal situation when lots of people are packed into areas without their own space, and reassurance that they still have a home to go back to.

So, today, I will try to get through the crappy phone lines today, and I will stay home from school today and take care of my sick daughter. And hope that I can get it all off my mind for a while.