DONE!

Done, done, done!

I just stepped out of my fourth final - Property - quite rough because it was 9am-1pm, but now we're DONE! I felt pretty good about the test - it was tough and quite thorough, but I blasted through the multiple choice questions (felt confident about most of the topics tested) and spent a good two hours on the essay (after which I could no longer focus on the exam and thus was finished). Thank goodness, we're done!! Survived! 

Looking back on this semester, I think I did pretty well. I came out with basic law school study skills - now that I've taken finals, I know mostly what to expect, and to what end our classes were heading. I'll have a better sense of what studying/finals entail once I get my grades back (in five weeks), and hopefully will be able to tailor my subsequent semesters accordingly. I definitely became a more efficient case-reader and briefer by the end of my first semester, and that can only improve from here. I'm just thankful that I survived my first semester of law school, which is supposedly one of  the hardest. Hooray!

In terms of my original goals/concerns: working out, husband, and friends, I think I did alright. I definitely stuck to my exercise schedule - especially as my stress levels continued rising. It helps that I have access to my school gym - hopefully I keep that up next semester as well. In terms of husband - definitely sometimes it was harder than others to balance school work/being an attentive wife. There were definitely many nights that C hung out with our friends alone, or stayed in with me while I studied, where he most likely would have preferred doing ANYTHING else. For the most part, I think I gave him attention where I could, and the good news is that I will be free for the next month! This means that I'll be much better about CLEANING the apartment (which has definitely stopped happening) and will be more able to spend time with him and go out with friends... segue to friends. I definitely dropped the ball in the 'spend time with other friends' department. Even though I made a bunch of new law school friends (yay), I mostly spent my "free" time studying, sleeping, cleaning the apartment, running, or spending time with C. Next semester, hopefully, I'll be more efficient with my school work, and thus will be able to devote more time to my friends. I do feel that I'll be able to do better in that department next semester.

More later, I'm just elated to be done! Off to party with the law school clan! More later, when I'm coherent again.

K

ONE MORE FINAL

AAAHHHH! Property final on Thursday and then we are DONE for the semester! I am so tired. Lots of studying - I feel as though I put a lot more stress and energy into studying over the past two weeks - the day before each final, I've found that everything is already memorized (thank goodness) so I spend the last days going over specific complex topics or doing problems in the E&E. 

(As I'm writing this entry I keep losing focus and my brain keeps wandering off - buurrrning ooouuut)

One more day.5 of studying, then Property final on Thurs. This one will be tough - 4 hours of final, 9am-1pm. LOTS of essay to write. Not sure what to expect, but it's going to be crazy. Celebration/relaxation are definitely on hand.

Tired.

K

One final push

Here goes... I will be DONE on the 18th. 

Today (the 15th) is study-for-Crim day. 

Tomorrow is the  Crim final.

The day after that is study-for-Property day.

The day after that is Property final.

DIRECTLY after the property final (a four-hour monstrosity), we'll be heading to a friend's house for burgers/drinks/celebration/secret santa gift exchange/RELAXATION!

So close... just a few more days... trying very hard not to get burned out. I don't know how much more my brain can take...

K

2 down, 2 to go!

Second law school final, done! Friday (yesterday? feels really long ago) was my Civil Procedure final. At our school, this was a 2 credit class, thus a 2 hour final. Coupled with the fact that our Civ Pro professor is the slowest most methodical teacher known to man, we had very little information covered during the semester (far less than any other class). This means that everyone taking the exam probably knew everything that was going to be tested, so the only thing separating us from one another was the amount of points earned on the essay. The essay was pretty rough - it was a three-parter that covered two arms of subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. Really, the essay prompt only left out two or three topics, requiring us to write about EVERYTHING else. It was a race to the finish, and race to be as complete as possible. I was happy that I at least finished the essay (some people did not). That doesn't necessarily mean I did well, though, because someone could have answered just parts one and two but could have gone into such an in-depth analysis that she earned more points than I did. [The 2L's told us that the A+ essays tend to earn only 60 or 70% of the possible points - it's not possible to earn more in the time we are given!].

The point is, I feel as though I did my best on Civ Pro, which is all I could do anyway.

After the final, I went down to Redondo to get a massage!!! (a Christmas present from one of my friends... exactly what I needed!). The massage was called the "I sit at the computer for eight hours a day" massage, which focused on the neck, shoulders, back, arms, wrists and hands. It was pretty sweet - I had some huge knots in my neck and shoulders (that seems to be where I center all of my stress). My masseuse kneaded the knots out, which was pretty painful, but this morning I feel less tense (sore from the massage, but not tense). Yay for Christmas massages!

ANYWAY upon completion of this entry, I switch back to study mode. Crim is Tuesday and Property is Thursday. I haven't touched either of those subjects in a week (due to studying for Contracts and Civ Pro), but all the information I memorized and studied before last week is coming back to me quickly. I'm not as worried about Crim as I am about Property. We'll see how the next week pans out.

K

1 down, 3 to go!

First law school final is over! This morning was my first final - Contracts (the one I felt the least comfortable about going in). Now I'm 25% done with my first 1/6th of law school! Wow. Time is flying : ) Do I say that a lot?

It's funny, too, I wasn't nervous at all going in - even when I started the exam. I think that some time before this weekend I had a stress overload (because I was definitely ultra-stressed up until this weekend). Then, after the system overload, I apparently re-booted and restarted in normal pre-finals mode (apparently I am a computer). I figured I'd at least get stressed out when drove to school, or when I was sitting down in the classroom with my computer open, or when the proctor said "You may begin." ... but it never happened. 

I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing - I missed having that surge of adrenaline. Usually I feel like the adrenaline rush helps me - hopefully I did alright today without it. I felt like I did a solid job - I know I missed a few of the multiple choice questions, but all told those went well. There's no way to tell about the essay, because the grading is subjective and because other people may have found issues or made arguments that I missed (and vice versa). Just need to wait.

Our prof told us that the majority of us would make "some kind of a B." That is what I'm expecting on this exam (B's in law school are good). That way if I do better, I'll be pleasantly surprised, and if I get a B, then I'll be right (both good options). Friday is Civil Procedure, then next week are Criminal and Property (both of which I feel much better about). Now that the first final is over, the next two weeks will be downhill. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to study my butt off, but at least I feel better about the remaining finals. 

I'll post again on Friday after Civ Pro - between now and then I'll be studying, of course.

K

UN-stressed?

Today I find myself decidedly un-stressed, oddly enough. Maybe it's just the calm before the storm, who knows? At any rate, today I'm feeling great. I drove up to school today for the first time in a week, just to make sure that my exam-taking software was working (as far as I can tell, it is, and I've downloaded all my documents already). Since I was already there, I worked out, then drove home. On the way home, C called so I drove down to pick him up for work and we ate lunch together. 

Now that I'm at home, I just finished taking a Contracts practice essay, which went pretty well (as long as we don't have to write an essay on UCC 2-207, which we probably will not). I will do another practice essay tonight, and another tomorrow, but I feel pretty good! I think I have everything memorized that I can memorize, and I have most of the concepts down cold. Tomorrow I'll go through the E&E book to spot-check some of the more complex topics, but for the most part, I have it down. Contracts is my least-comfortable topic, too, so maybe that's why I'm feeling calm. 

I think that after Wednesday, the entire finals process will be downhill. The first one will be the most stressful (because we've never done it before and it's hard to know what to expect), but after that, the time will fly by. 

I've come to peace with the fact that we are graded on a curve, and thus that my grade will be STRONGLY influenced by how everyone else performs. My philosophy is that if I perform better than at least half the class (which I think I can do), then I'll end up with some flavor of a B (for law school, that's a good thing). I figure the curve distribution (and not how fiercely I study) will determine who in the class receives the few A's, so there's no point in trying to stress or muscle my way up to that grade, since there's no way to guarantee that you'll be at the top. If I get a solid distribution of B's and B+'s on my finals, I will be happy (also, I think that will be sufficient to keep my scholarship). Obviously, I would prefer to have A's, but there is no logical reason for me to be fixating on that grade, since there is really nothing more in my power to do to ensure that I receive one. Now, it's all up to the curve... and which topics our prof picks. 

The nicest thing is that we've only had one semester of law school - thus the topics we can be tested on are pretty narrow and straight-forward (except in Property because we sprinted through the entire book, so anything is fair game). Plus, Property isn't until the 18th. So there's still time.

Until then, I remain in my bubble of Zen calm, which hopefully will last until the end of next week. I'll write again to post-mortem my first law school exam!

K

Welcome to my world

SO I thought I'd take a study break to show you my study spot. Taped to the wall are concept maps I've written for each of my four classes, complete with a summary of my outlines. I taped them up so I could quickly reference my notes where I have questions. It's kind of hard to see, but there are also post-it notes taped to some of the pages where I needed to add things. 

The one clear spot on the couch is where I sit when I study. I don't study at school because I feel like the nervous energy/stress of other people would cramp my style. Also, I like being able to eat snacks while I take breaks. All in all, it's a pretty good system. 

Today I've been working on Crim and Contracts. I wrote a Crim essay this morning that made me pretty happy (I only missed one issue which was minor, and I hit all the points that were on the cut sheet). Switched to Contracts this afternoon, which is going alright. It's so hard to know what the "right" thing is to study... I'm doing my best... hopefully it pays off. As of now, I have a feeling that Contracts will be tough for me (mostly because it is the first final we're taking but also because it is the subject my brain is the least comfortable with, naturally), and that Civil Procedure will be tough (because we have covered the least amount of information and will be given the applicable statutes, so the playing field will be really level and the curve is going to wreak havoc on our grades). I feel good about Criminal because I spent so much time/energy on it at the start of the year, which has really paid off, and I figure Property will be a beast of an exam for every one of us, so I can't really worry too much about that. We're taking the finals in the aforementioned order, so I'll get my hardest two out of the way starting next week. Hooray.

On that note, here is the view out my window:

Recap of today

Wake up - study - snack - study - practice essay - find all mistakes - snack - study - brain hurts, go running - study - shower - study - break for Top Chef - snack - study - drive C to work to get the motorcycle - study - dinner - study - study - blog - study -  (doesn't the word 'study' look funny? It's starting to lose meaning)

[Sadly, I have the nagging feeling in the back of my head (that I'm trying to suppress) that I'm studying the wrong things, or that I'm not doing as much as I should.]

That was my today. The rest of the evening looks about the same, though I'm going to help C pack. He's leaving for a business trip tomorrow morning and will be back on Sunday. I'm glad that he has something to do this weekend so I don't feel guilty for abandoning him for my studies, which are my sole priority for the next two+ weeks. It's kind of bad that he won't be here, though, because I feel that he's my link to the sane world, and that I'm slipping off into the frenzied mania of studying (though I try to remind myself that there is a world that exists that is not law school). It's tough.

Slowly losing my mind - everything that isn't law school is falling away rapidly. Trying to remain positive, calm, collected, sane, etc. while also cramming several months of information into my brain. YIKES.

I'm hanging in there. Barely. This is the ugly side of law school - but I'll be done on the 18th. Thank goodness.

K

Law school = pain killer?

Let me explain... law school appears to be taking both my sanity and my ability to operate heavy machinery, thus the title of this post. Today I took the car to the dealership because a belt was squeaking (the same belt that didn't get fixed last time we brought the car in). I was quite irritated that I had to go out of my way (read: stop studying) to take in the car, and that I have to take it back again next week to have the part replaced (EXTREMELY close to my first final). Because I was so in my head and focused on the work I still had to do, I proceeded to back my car directly into the metal sign outside the dealership. Small scratch on the car, big scratch on the ego. 

Our legal writing prof warned us that this would be a dangerous time - she said she always fears for her life during dead week because the 1Ls are so intense and in their heads that they fail to notice things like pedestrians or stop signs... we all laughed, but she was so right. Fortunately, the sign I hit was not a living creature or another car. Sadly, our bumper now carries the permanent mark of dead week. Hopefully it's the last thing I destroy before finals (fingers crossed).

This will be the longest/shortest December of my LIFE, I think. Everyone says it gets better after the first round of finals... I hope they are right.

K

P.S. I just read over my old posts and noticed two things. One, it's really cute how excited I was about starting school, and two, my posts have become increasingly more and more boring. I apologize. I will work on this.

Last day of classes

WOW that semester was quick. Today we had our last two classes of the semester... which means dead week is officially here. Contracts final is exactly one week from tomorrow, already. WOW. Lots to memorize still... I also need to focus on essay structure. Based on the hypos that I turned in for critique, I need to make sure that my structure is clear and well-organized. I mostly have the ideas and concepts down, and I mostly spot all the issues, but I need to make sure that my essays are more clear and concise (after all, we only have an hour or so to write, which seems like a long time but is definitely NOT).

Off to do more work... and more work... and more work... hoping it will pay off... I'm so deep in it now, it's hard for me to see the end... also there's no way to know if I'm on the right track because we don't have any grades yet. Rough.

K

Failed!

Oh man, I'm too busy... I had somehow unintentionally created 13 posts per month in this blog since I started it, and I was determined to do the same for November. Sadly, it seems that my busy schedule trumped my desire for equilibrium and balance, and November only made it to nine.

Tomorrow are my final two classes of the semester, of 2008, of my first crack at law school. Since Thanksgiving, I've been alternating between mainly Contracts and Property, reviewing the most difficult/complex topics in preparation for dead week. I hope to have most elements/class structure memorized by... two days from now? I realized that flash-cards don't work for me, so I carry around a notebook in which I scrawl the class outlines from memory, filling in the parts I missed afterwards. Starting probably in two days I'm going to switch my focus to practice tests/essays to gear up for the actual finals.

SO much to do!

K

Memo done!

Memo is done! Yesterday I turned in my memo, hooray, so now I don't have to worry about Legal Writing again until next semester... what a great feeling! Now I'm somewhat anxious to get my grade back, but I suppose I'll have to wait for that.

Small celebration, then on to study for finals... one class down, four to go : D

Hard to believe this semester is going by so quickly. Tomorrow is our penultimate day of classes, then we have a week free for Thanksgiving "break," then one last day of classes on Dec. 2, then dead week. Wow.

It seems like we have so much time to prepare for finals, but really it is going to fly by very quickly. Lots to do...

K

MEMO in T-1

So the recent dearth of posts is due to our impending memo... this memo is worth 75% of our Legal Writing grade (no pressure) which is 3 of our 15 credits... so needless to say, I've been chained to the laptop all weekend.

Unfortunately, one of C's roommates from college is in town for three days before spending Thanksgiving in Austin with... my family (even though C and I are staying here for my short break). We're happy to have him in town, don't get me wrong, but the "unfortunately" part is because I have spent most of his trip here working... and working... and working. I'm glad, though, that C has a friend to play with while I'm busy. Yesterday one of my law school buddies came over to the apartment and we had a study party - her hubby went to have some "man" time with C and some other buddies in Redondo. All of the "significant others" have been abandoned and blown off lately, due to the big memo deadline and the onset of finals. Hang on, guys, 2 weeks until finals, 3 weeks until we're free! 

The good news is, though, that on Friday our awesome friend Jeanne threw an early Thanksgiving dinner party for our LA family before everyone dispersed for break. It was really nice to come out of hibernation for an evening to spend time with friends and enjoy some awesome food. It put be back an evening, but it was worth it.

I also had my first melt-down of the semester this weekend, but fortunately that's over and done with, so now I can focus on finals. (I'm actually pretty much finished with my memo - I printed a final copy and will do one last scan for errors this evening). 

Anyway, that's the end of the update... I'll write again after the memo is in. These next few weeks are going to fly by...

K

Wow

Time is flying... today was our last Contracts class... for the fall semester (we have it again in the Spring). I can't believe the semester is almost over! I won't miss Contracts (I will spend plenty of face-time with it over the study period), but I will miss our prof. Out of NOWHERE at the end of class, he pulled a guitar out from behind his desk and broke into a funny song about our class, which included advice he's given us and topics that we've covered. I'm not doing it justice - it really was hilarious, and it was a great mood-breaker. We had spent the entire class reviewing the whole course, so tensions were pretty high!

I'm in the library right now, about to buckle down again on my memo (it's due Monday), then Property reading for tomorrow's class (yes, I still do the readings) and then work on memorizing my outlines. I figure I need to get a jump on memorizing because that's the BARE minimum of information we need for our exam essays. Oh, also hypotheticals (I have stuck to doing one a day, so far). 

C's roommate comes to visit us tomorrow evening (yay!) which means we need to clean the apartment tonight (boo) and I'm going to do as much work as possible right now, so I don't spend his entire trip chained to my books (though I'm not making any promises...) Both C and my friends have said that they are tired of me being in school. It is true, I have been putting everything aside that is not school-related... but I'm a first-year and that's expected. It is my understanding that after this semester, things will be better - not easier, but I'll be better equipped to tackle the work load. Hopefully.

Time is ticking! Finals in T-21...

K

My first COLD CALL

AAHHHHHH!!! Somehow I've made it up until today (a few weeks shy of dead week) without being cold-called. To explain: to prepare for classes, we read cases in our casebooks and take notes for our class discussions on various topics outlined in the cases. Often the prof will start the discussion by calling on one unsuspecting student to explain the case, state its facts and the arguments within, then will keep the student "on the hook" to answer questions pertaining to that case throughout class. It is notoriously unnerving. 

In two of our classes, the profs don't exactly cold call... additionally I volunteer answers a lot to avoid being called on. I figured, though, my time was coming because I hadn't been cold-called yet. I've been called on to answer problems or hypotheticals, but never the dreaded cold call. 

Contracts has been sneaky lately - there are two other "Kristins" in our class and one "Krystal," so I've been "false-alarmed" a few times [e.g. my heart starts to beat faster and my cheeks flush but I'm not actually being called]. Today, though, our Contracts prof looked me right in the eyes and called on me to state today's case. It's amazing - I had read the case previously and I had even "briefed" it, that is I typed up a condensed version of the facts and arguments of the case. HOWEVER the minute he called my name, my mind went blank (the 2L's warned us this would happen our first time). Despite the fact that I'm comfortable talking in class otherwise and had a "cheat sheet" RIGHT in front of me, I still was taken aback/anxious about it. After tripping up a few times (answering questions with a tangent, mistaking a minor fact or two), I ended up OK. Of course, I kicked myself for every mistaken word that came out of my mouth (we were warned this would happen as well) and wished that I had stated certain things better/more completely. However, it ended up being fine. Everyone makes mistakes when stating cases, so I was fine. I felt like a blathering idiot at times, but none of my friends even remembered my mistakes.

SO glad that's over with! I'm officially a law student! This rite of passage is complete!

K

where has the time gone?

WOW November is passing in a blur... October did too... being in school seems to simultaneously slow down time (on Mondays, or during some 2 hour classes) and accelerate it immensely (before deadlines or finals). I have a count-down on my fridge for the rest of this month. It's my goal to complete one practice essay a day until finals (in addition to memorizing elements and statutes for each class, and taking full tests when dead week begins). 

We had a practice exam with proctors for Civ Pro yesterday - good practice for the real thing. I did better than I expected, though I missed one issue out of pure idiocy... more practice will definitely iron out the dumb avoidable mistakes made due to nerves or carelessness.

Practicepracticepractice... yesterday also was a mixer for C's job that he had helped organize. Free drinks, lots of schmoozing... Even though it was a school night, I decided to go to support C - though I also brought a notebook with homework as well. Couldn't help myself!

K

BUSY

SO much studying going on - I feel like all my "free" time right now is spent preparing for finals or worrying about finals. I've been going out of my way to spend more time with the husband lately... sadly, though, I haven't been paying my friends as much attention. Hope it's all worth it... one month and counting until finals are done... 

On the other hand, C used the phrase "malicious intent" the other day in the course of normal conversation, and I was so proud!

Tonight is outline time and then memo 2... due in 12 days... 

K

Nerves

So I appear to be letting my nerves get the best of me... 

I've been somewhat irrationally nervous about finals lately... even though they are a month away and even though a good healthy dose of fear is a fantastic motivator, I definitely need to CALM DOWN and remember that I'm good at school and that it is possible to get all these facts and elements in my brain before December. I'm afraid that my nervous energy is projecting onto my friends (and they project back on me sometimes... not a healthy cycle).

It's pretty safe to say that any time over the next month I'll be in need of a call or a text reminding me that I need to RELAX and just focus on doing my personal best. That's an attainable goal. The other goals are all subsidiary. 

Sheesh.

K

The morning after...

Back to the real world...

Election day was exciting and a nice break from school, but now it's back to the crunch... only about a month left until finals and now we have to worry about taking practice exams/writing practice essays to seriously prepare for exams. Additionally, memo number 2 is due in about 2 weeks, and it still needs work. Lots of work. 

I'm almost caught up on my outlines (working on that right now while chatting with the baby brother on gmail), then I need to make sure that the outlines are in my head COLD. That will be tough. Tomorrow our afternoon Property class is canceled - which means I will be in the library writing hypos and working on outlines. Tonight I'm going to print some hypos to write up so I'll be ready to go tomorrow. 

Oh ALSO 2 of my friends have strep throat. Fantastic. I feel sorry for them, because they are physically sick in addition to the workload/emotional/psychological strain of preparing for finals. Hopefully everyone gets better before then, and hopefully I don't get it as well! Yuck. 

I vacillate these days between confidence in classwork/preparation and where I am in my studies, and the suffocating anxiety that I'm really far behind/haven't learned enough/don't have enough time to prepare. At the moment I have so much to do all at once that I am sitting here doing none of it - not sure where to begin. As soon as I'm done with this post, I'll work on Civ Pro outline, I suppose - then give Contracts a shot... then when I'm sick of that, take a break and print hypos for tomorrow... I also need to read Crim for Friday... I also need to revise my "reasonableness of precautions" section of my 2nd memo... then there's the Property outline... not to mention Crim... Suff-O-cating...

K

Election Day!

SO today is Election Day! I decided to do a non-law-related post for once, just to prove that a small sliver of my life dedicated to other things : ) (for example, Halloween in West Hollywood... I intended to post on that but didn't have time. Maybe I'll do that later).

ANYWAY bright and early at 7:00 this morning, C and I were at our local precinct, waiting in line to do our civic duty and cast our ballots! Even though we were in line when the polls opened, we still waited a good hour and 45 min before we made it inside. We were in line with primarily African-American voters, which is a function of our neighborhood demographic (we are both in the severe racial minority). The energy and excitement from the people in line was palpable - people driving by honked their horns, which prompted cheers from those waiting in line. The woman behind me kept on saying "we're about to make history." When I finally made it inside, the woman who checked my name of the list THANKED me - she said she was so happy to see young people coming out and voting. Despite the wait, I am thrilled to have cast my vote, and am very excited/nervous to hear the results later on today.

One of my law school friends is hosting an election-results party after class today. We're done with Property today at 4:00 and will head straight to her house afterwards... however, depending on how things go on the East Coast, the race may have already been called by then. I am more concerned, however, to see how California voted on Proposition 8: the attempt to overturn CA's decision to allow gay marriage ... very hotly contested issue. FINGERS ARE CROSSED. 

Very exciting day... 

K

Long Day

C's schedule is starting to get crazy... today (and on Tuesday) he is working 2nd shift in addition to his normal work day, so I said goodbye to him this morning around 8am and won't see him again until after I've gone to sleep. This means that I got my Contracts reading done (and watched the Daily Show - Obama '08!) and got a jump on Crim for next week. 

I cut back on gym and added some sleep this week because I've been tired lately - it's helping a little bit. I figure things will only get more hectic and more stressful from now until December 19th (when I'm freeeeeee!), so I'd better get some sleep in now while I can. Hard to believe that it will be November in 2 days... the time is really flying by.

I'll write more this weekend perhaps... 

Oh I'm back to 1.5 Dr. Pepper's per day (it's an average - I tend to alternate between 2-a-day out of necessity then 1-a-day out of guilt). Oh the side effects of law school.

K

Productive weekend

SO this weekend I was uber-cool and spent my entire Saturday doing work for the upcoming week. It was tedious at the time, but I'm very glad that I did... we have a giant chunk of our second memo due this coming Wednesday, at as of Sunday I have written all but the last two paragraphs! Definitely worth the heart-ache and energy spent on my precious weekend. Yesterday an old friend was in town, and miraculously I had time to visit/catch up with him, which was nice.

Strategy from now until the finals is to read over the weekend, then spend week nights memorizing rules/elements for each class and practicing test essay questions to quiz myself (the profs at this school are great about posting old tests and A+ examples online). There is a ton of information to absorb, so I figure it's best to get a jump on it now before crunch time. I read cases a lot faster now, which frees up more time for writing/outlining. (have I written this post already? I'm getting de ja vu... honestly, everything that isn't related to law school is starting to leak out of my brain... apologies if this is repetitive).

Today I'm taking notes in class for a friend who is out sick. There seem to be a few people in our section who have gotten sick lately... which is scary. I haven't missed any classes yet, but I imagine it's extremely tough to catch up after missing an entire day's worth of lectures. I'm taking really detailed notes so she (hopefully) will be able to follow the train of class and keep up for the next lecture... In an attempt to ward off future illnesses, I paid $25 bucks for a flu shot last week. Hopefully it works...

Final thought, unrelated to anything I just mentioned above (and again, might be something I've blogged about before.... honestly, I can tell you all the elements of felony murder yet I can't remember what I've written in past blog posts...): I think that my Classics background is really helping me with legal writing (or a combination of Classics plus my brain). In Latin/Greek classes, we'd read poetry, then pick out single words or single phrases that would shape our interpretation of the poem. In papers, we'd choose a thesis then argue our position, using these words, phrases, and any figures of speech as supporting evidence for our thesis. Legal writing for exams is very similar - we're given a pretty dense fact pattern, and must untwist the language to pull out the words or phrases that indicate various legal concepts/rules that we've studied. We then choose a thesis (win/lose the case, most often), then use each of the facts to support our position. The main difference in legal writing is that we're always arguing the contrapositive, as opposed to Classics where we'd just set forth our positive position.

Latin also helps me when it comes to memorizing elements. The basic foundation of Latin I is a whole series of charts listing word endings based on declension/conjugation which must be meticulously memorized before one can properly translate Latin text. In law (every class), each concept is made up of smaller parts, which can be tested or broken down into even smaller parts, all of which must be committed to memory for use on exams. For example, in Property we had an entire section on future interests (when a land owner decides he wants to transfer his land to another party at some point). There are about 20 possible means of transferring land based on when the transfer occurs, the number of parties involved, and conditions that govern the land transfer (the various interests have ridiculous names like vested remainder subject to partial divestment, or springing remainder interest). The change of a single fact creates a completely different interest. This section, which probably will amount to three questions on our entire final, was frustrating to many in the class... but to me it was business as usual. 

Lots more memorizing to do, many more essays to write, more outlining to do... but I think it's all possible... 

tentative relief!

OK this week was interminable... I intended to write another post on Weds, but I'll just add that post to this one and write one uber-Friday post. Again... so glad this week is over.

The first part of this week = anxiety and stress over the return of our first memo (as mentioned earlier). My "over-achiever" section had worked itself into a frenzy trying to figure out the mistakes everyone had made on their papers, and trying to determine how that would affect the final grades. On Wednesday we FINALLY got our grades back (40 minutes into class - torturous). I was pleasantly relieved when I got my paper back... I was one point off the highest paper in the class : ). I definitely did make some rookie mistakes (particularly citation errors I should have caught), but overall I was happy with the outcome. This memo was 25% of our grade - the second memo will be 75% (no rest for the weary... we have another big section due next Weds).

The second half of the week = keeping up with the extra work. The class topics are becoming more complex - now that we've learned the general overview of each subject, we're getting into the details that make things more confusing. In Crim we're learning the elements of felony murder (as opposed to regular murder); Civ Pro is the most straightforward - we've moved on from subject matter to personal jurisdiction. In Property, we're sprinting through lease agreements (which often seems to intersect with Contracts), and in Contracts we're studying the defense theory of promissory restitution... We have a Contracts midterm due on Weds (why is everything due on Wednesday this week??), so this weekend I'll be working on my Contracts outline/notes.

The work load for this weekend is also pretty heavy, but I think I'm getting better at reading cases. Now that we're nearing finals/crunch time, I should be focusing more on the big picture/reviewing the stuff we learned at the start of the year. Outlines are going pretty well. I also need to really focus on practice essays, since those will be the bases of most of my final grades. It really never ends. 

I seem to be yo-yoing between feeling good about where I am in terms of workload and comprehension, and slight panic that I'm not where I should be. I definitely spend most of my waking hours working... though I still have kept up my four-mornings-a-week workout schedule (it helps when you're known as the "gym" girl), and I do manage to spend time here and there with old friends and the husband : )

Anyway, I'm off to start Crim for next week (self-defense cases)... Happy weekend, all.

K

Busy busy busy busy busy

It's getting harder to find time to blog. At this point, we're more than halfway through the first semester. I'm still on top of the readings (I'm still reading all the cases - 1L tendencies). I'm honestly getting to the point where law school has taken over my life. I've accepted it (and C has too, mostly).

If I'm not reading cases, I'm working on hypotheticals/practice essays or my outlines (still sorta behind in that department). My big plan is to start making notecards and start reviewing over the next week or two. I figure dead week (which is about 6 weeks away) will be extremely stressful, so it's best if I try to review/memorize as much as I can now while I still have (some) free time.

Seriously, though, when I'm not working, I'm thinking about the work that I still have to do. I still take breaks to spend time with C and with my friends, but I really am completely immersed in law school. I think that's a good thing... I keep reminding myself not to lose perspective, but it's tough sometimes. There definitely is a point at which it's too much... it's also important not to get so bogged down that we're burned out when it becomes time to really buckle down... it's all a huge balancing act, and hopefully we're putting energy in the right places... (I just realize - I use we to indicate general ideas... not the royal we... please excuse the bad grammar in my blog! my brain is in Crim mode...)

K

Great start...

So our Property prof dropped the ball a little bit... not sure why. At the start of the year he posted a syllabus that scheduled our assignments through about October. We got behind the syllabus a few weeks ago, so he's been posting amended syllabi to reflect the changes. Sadly, this weekend he neglected to post the amended syllabus until this (Sunday) afternoon, which means we have to sprint through our Prop readings in time for class on Tuesday. 

Fortunately I took some time this weekend to do the rest of my readings (and work on outlining), so I'm not too terribly affected by the change. It's just a little irritating. I also hope this doesn't indicate the week to come... 

On the plus side, some of my friends and I entered ourselves into a Trivia Bowl, an event at our school to raise money for Public Interest Law (I think). Yay for trivia and yay for good causes! 

Final thought: it's amazing how quickly time is slipping by... I realized Halloween is coming up really really soon... I figured this out at the grocery store this evening as I walked through the HUMONGOUS aisle of Halloween candy! (I was good, didn't end up buying any of it). Crazy. 

K

Tough week

Oh my gosh, I haven't blogged in so long. This week has been pretty heinous, though, so I'm not surprised. First of all, we had to research for our second memo for Legal Writing - a pain-staking research report was due for the law librarians on Wednesday (think: we had to write every single link that we clicked when searching for cases... the other tough part was 'Shepardizing' each case, or checking to make sure that each case was still good law). Additionally, on Wednesday we had to turn in a portion of our second memo (already) because our prof believes in splitting the large assignment up into several smaller ones. Good idea, but the timing was quite unfortunate.

Also, several of my friends are out of town this weekend, so I spent one or two week nights this week hanging out with them. I still managed to get all my cases read, but that means that I have extra work to do this weekend. I need to catch up on my class outlines, which I abandoned about 2 weeks ago, and I have several hypotheticals, or practice essays, to write up for a few of my classes (not graded, but good practice for the finals). (speaking of, finals are still about 2 months away, but they seem to be sneaking into our conversations and class discussions here and there... as if our stress level wasn't high enough as it is!)

AND, in Property we had a 'practice midterm' to do for Thursday (also ungraded), which turned out better than I thought it would (I actually remembered quite a bit without having to go back and check my notes), but it did remind me to check some of the details of the class that I hadn't remembered 100%.

What else? Oh, C's job has been really taxing this week as well. On Monday, he ended up staying at work until 11:30 in order to finish some reports that were due. That didn't really affect me, since I was doing homework that night, other than the fact that I had to make myself dinner. That meant leftover meatballs and scrambled eggs doused in Stubb's bbq sauce. Yum...

I also think I might be getting sick. I'm mentally willing it not to be so... rather I'm blaming several other factors (one being severe caffeine withdrawal, which I think is actually making everything worse). 

Thank goodness it's the weekend now, which means I have time to catch up on the work I didn't get to this week. I'm rewarding myself early with Crim readings today because I'm not sure if my brain can handle much else at the moment. 

I'll blog more next week, when things get more interesting. Sorry to abandon the blog this past week... I didn't even remember to check until just now! 

K

OH also... rumor has it that my section of our 1L class is the "over-achiever" section. I figure as far as reputations go, that one isn't half bad! If the shoe fits...

Divide and conquer

As is often the case, I thought of a great entry for today when I left school, but after an hour of driving I have since completely lost it... 

Yay! OK that didn't take too long... good work, brain!

Today I wanted to write about work load. As I mentioned before, our work load has been growing and growing. At this point the work is still manageable, provided that I spend several hours every day (weekends as well) on homework, including one weekend day of overtime. The required work is not all that terrible; it's all the extra work that's difficult to fit in. Of course we have the regular classwork - reading/briefing cases - but there's also research for memo #2 (including the research report), hypotheticals, practice questions that are posted online and of course, outlining the courses in preparation of finals. 

Most importantly, we have two ungraded midterms coming up; one in Contracts and one in Property. Thank goodness they're ungraded, but we still are to approach them like full tests (which means setting aside at least 3 hours for completion). It will be helpful to take a formatted test for practice, but it probably will also be an eye-opener... I know there are rules and nuances of the cases that I need to review. 

Despite the massive amounts of EVERYTHING we are responsible for learning, I think I mostly have a handle on the work. I mentally have to break down the entire week's worth of work into small assignments, then pretend that nothing else exists. Setting mini-goals = the feeling of accomplishment when I finish them, as opposed to contemplating the workload as a whole (it never goes away - sometimes it gets smaller, but there's always more work that gets piled on).

Off to work on mini-goal #759...

K

Back to work

Thank goodness for a shortened week... I really appreciate my weekends nowadays. My friends and I were really relieved that our first memo is DONE... but I still spent much of my day off reading cases and preparing my research report for my second memo (due on Weds). By now, I have most of my research  legwork done, and I'm finishing up putting it in "report" form. Of course, I also have cases to read for my four regular classes, but that's what the weekend is for... right??

Sometimes the hubby ask me when I'll be done with homework - I usually tell him "after finals." As a 1L, it still takes me time to read/process cases that I read. I think I'm getting better at interpreting cases, but I still sometimes approach them from a Humanities perspective rather than from a Law perspective. I think that will take a little more time to iron out of my system. 

I feel like I JUST started law school (which is sort of true - it hasn't quite been 2 months - of three years); on the other hand, I also feel like I've been at it for years. C and I agreed that this Christmas break, once finals are over, we're getting MASSAGES. By then, I'll really need it!

C's making dinner so I'm off - happy Friday, everyone.

K

Success!

It's over! Today at 2pm we turned in our first graded assignment EVER in law school! I'm so glad to be done with our first memo - after reading and re-reading and editing and re-editing my paper, I was ready just to turn it in and get it over with... I feel pretty good about the finished product, but it's hard to tell since none of us has written a memo before. This paper will be a good measuring stick for the rest of our written assignments. Our Legal Writing prof told us that today we became "Baby Lawyers." Hooray!

To celebrate (and because we don't have any classes tomorrow), my group and I went bowling. We played with stakes... and my team won one game and lost the other. Thus for one day next week someone else will be carrying all my bags... but we also have to bring tasty treats for the other team every morning for a week. I had forgotten how much fun it is just to goof off and NOT mentally worry about assignments or readings. Tomorrow is work day... for now, it's time to relax. We earned it! 

(relaxation will be short-lived, though, because our first writing/research assignments for our second memo are due on Weds and Fri next week... and I have to read for this Friday's Contracts as well) Such is life...

K

Memo in T-2

Monday... today wasn't bad. We had Crim then Civ Pro, and in between was a speaker series about some of the cases that will be tried by the Supreme Court. It's really interesting when profs bring current events and current cases in to discuss in class. It definitely makes the things we're learning in class feel much more applicable. I look forward to following those cases as they unfold; this also makes the presidential election crucial since the new president will probably be picking justices who will be making these crucial decisions. 

Lots of work this week, but I did a lot of it on Saturday. I still have to finish Contracts, but right now I'm putting the finishing touches on my memo. At this point I've read it so many times that I can't tell if it's any good any more... I'm just picking it through for minute grammatical errors, since we'll lose fractions of points for every mistake. We'll see how it turns out...

No class this Thursday, so I just have to make it through Wednesday, then the week is essentially over! Setting mini-goals (like making it through Wednesday) makes law school much more digestible. I've been mentally dividing my days in half. In the mornings I focus on everything I have to do before lunch, then after lunch I focus on everything I have to do in the afternoon. This makes my really long days much more manageable and makes my goals feel more attainable (so I'm not bogged down with an entire day's worth of responsibilities all at once). 

K

Homework update

Another quick post... this weekend will be very work-intensive. Our first memo is due in Legal Writing. Though it's only 25% of our whole LW grade (2nd memo is 75%), we're still feeling the pressure since this will be the first actual graded assignment we've had in law school so far. Our second memo will be graded as well, but besides that the final exams are our only graded assignments. Pressure!

We've all completed our memo drafts already, but they all require some heavy editing. Our LW prof is a STICKLER for grammar and words (which I appreciate), but that also raises her expectations for our papers. On Weds she showed us a 'Hall of Fame' list, which essentially was a collection of horrible sentences that students had submitted to her over the years. Some of them were so painfully bad... we laughed at them in class, but also secretly swore not to make the list ourselves...

The other classes have moderate to heavy amounts of reading. In Contracts we started 'consideration,' which is a somewhat tenuous concept, but is necessary to understand. In Property we're covering tenancy and divisible property, which actually is a nice change after the brain-breaking future interests section. In Civ Pro we're just starting Personal Jurisdiction (finally - we've been crawling through Diversity for weeks). In Crim we're reading about murder - last week was first and second degree murder and next week we start voluntary manslaughter! I shouldn't be so excited about murder, but after slogging through some pretty dense cases about lease agreements, murder cases are a breath of fresh air!

I must be very dull these days, evidenced by the fact that this entire post dealt with my homework assignments... apologies to all my friends! And to C! Good news is I'm learning a lot... and I still enjoy law school, for the most part.

K

Almost the weekend!

One more day! Feeling much better today... week's almost over and I've done all my reading but Contracts. Woo hoo!

Chatting with friends before class right now - thank goodness for my law school friends : ) They help me keep my life in perspective. It's also nice that we're all in the same classes together, which means we remind one another of deadlines, syllabus changes and other assignments. They also remind me to approach school with a sense of humor!

Longer post later when I have more free time.

K

Easy week

After last week, this week has definitely been nice. Monday was my 'Friday,' then Tuesday I had off completely. To me, of course, this meant that I spent Tuesday finishing my memo, reading cases for my next memo... and movie/TV! Very nice to take a break from classes mid-week. Oh the life of a 1L...

Anyway, I've been feeling a little run-down lately (mostly sore throat), so I'm trying to take it easy. I don't want to burn out this semester before finals... or at all... preferably. 

Work load has been nice this week, which helps. Halfway to the weekend...

K

REST!

Ahhh Friday... the end of a veritable MARATHON week. This was the week of no Contracts but triple Property and triple Civ Pro. Because our class schedule was completely scrambled/substituted, I have spent this entire week not knowing exactly what day it was... I've just had my head in my books, trying to get all the required readings done in a timely fashion while still staying sane. Let's just say apartment cleanliness was pretty low on my priority list this week...

Next week will be much easier - we get Jewish holidays off at law school (this is a first for me after parochial high school and college...), so on Tuesday all classes are canceled for Rosh Hashanah. Sadly, to me this means that I can do my homework without the interruption of driving to class... very much looking forward to that. Our reading load is lighter because of the holiday (and no Contracts on Wednesday as well), but I still do have loads of Legal Writing to finish (our first memo is due in a little over a week). It never ends! There really is ALWAYS something more to do.

I'm pretty mentally/physically drained at the moment. I think the 'never-ending week' really took all my energy... Because our classes were done at noon today (AND because I went to office hours and the library after class instead of jetting straight home as usual on Fridays), I have rewarded myself with a movie. For the first time in over a month I'm lying on the couch, watching a movie with NO reading, NO laptop, NO paper editing and NO agenda. For the next hour and a half my brain gets to rest and enjoy a silly romantic comedy... 

...then it's back to my law student 'job.'

K

P.S. Legal Writing prof looked at my memo (two sections of it) draft today and she told me she thought I could become a really good legal writer... huge compliment coming from her! Of course, none of us are there yet since none of us have written anything like this before, but the fact that she thinks that I can do it is really uplifting. Maybe she tells everyone this, but I'll take the ego boost and strive to do what she thinks that I can do... great way to end a really tough week : )

P.P.S. The husband has been really supportive/sweet this week, knowing that my brain really is fried... I did notice!

I got called on!

I just got called on for the first time in class! 

For the past month of classes my strategy has been to volunteer answers as much as a I could, based on the thought that the profs will call on people who are quieter to state cases/answer questions. It worked for a while...

Though honestly, I had it so easy. We're learning Supplemental Jurisdiction in Civ Pro, and I was called on to answer a hypothetical regarding jurisdiction. I didn't have to state/explain a case, which would have been much more involved. Our prof called on me at the VERY end of class. The questions he asked were pretty simple/straightforward, but it's true what everyone says... my heart started beating really quickly and my ears got hot... I answered everything he asked - I made one mistake but besides that I did well. 

The call caught me completely by surprise - though I probably should have seen it coming. Earlier in the class, he called on the person sitting right next to me. Our other three profs know most of us by face and name already (particularly us talkers), but the Civ Pro prof still uses the face-picture seating chart to call on people. I suppose it was my time, based purely on geography.

At least I survived the first one!!

Whew...

K

Property thoughts

Quick Monday morning post... following a work-filled yet chill weekend... back to the grind.

In Crim we're starting murder, which means that the cases are both extremely interesting and pretty gruesome. Awesome to read, compared to the load of Property cases. Although in Prop we're reading about division of property, some of which I like. My favorite Property case from this weekend was a dissolution of marriage case where the ex-wife was trying to claim compensation for her ex-husband's MBA that she had mostly financed during their marriage.

When my poor C came home from work that day (I read the case on Friday actually), he was instantly met with a discussion of whether he could receive compensation for financially supporting me during my law degree if we were to divorce (I think he could... particularly if we accrue any 'marital property' in the next two years). This was a hypothetical conversation, of course... whenever I read a really compelling case I MUST discuss it immediately with whomever I see (which more often than not is the husband). I suppose that's the blessing/curse for living with a law student...

Also, I'm very glad that nobody tapes or listens in on our conversations at home, because sometimes we do discuss some pretty bizarre situations, which could definitely be interpreted horribly out of context!

K

Matilda

Did I mention that this week is tough...? Our Contracts prof is doing a lecture series next week, which means that we don't have any Contracts next week... which means that THIS week we have three Contracts classes back to back, and next week we have three Property classes back to back. This manifests itself in HUGE amounts of reading in the same topic. 

The reason I titled this entry "Matilda" is because I feel like the eponymous Roald Dahl heroine (yeah, I know it's a snobby word but I LOVE it, so there). For the past two years I've been very mentally frustrated and understimulated. I've wanted my brain to hurt. In 'Matilda,' the precocious child developed telekinetic powers because her brain was so underused. Once she began taking college classes (I think she was seven), she lost her powers because her brain was finally being challenged. 

Now that I'm in law school, I definitely have the brain pain... in a good way. I really did miss mental challenge. I no longer feel the frustration I felt while 'working' in the real world. It's a good feeling right now... I just hope that I eventually find a job that balances the working-for-money and the make-K's-brain-hurt elements that I seem to require. 

Sorry if this is jumbled... I'm honestly half-thinking about the Contracts problem that we were assigned for today's class...

K

Scary...

Today on my way home from school I listened to NPR in the car for the first time ever... In middle school I swore I'd never be a 'news radio' person, but I did enjoy it... Mom, you were right. I feel more connected to the 'real world' today. I guess I'm a grownup now...

We're doing Future Interests and the Rule Against Perpetuities in Property right now - really complex. My buddies and I spent lots of time wrestling with the nuances of the rules (frustrating). Ultimately we had the basics right but the subtle differences, not so much. In class things were more clear, but I still don't feel like we have this 100% yet. Law school is so different from high school and college... (at least the first year). I used to grasp class concepts in a flash, without trying very hard. I could get away with skimming reading assignments, or translating Latin passages in class without preparing them beforehand. 

As 1L's, we don't yet know what parts of the readings are important and which information we can skim. We are studying subjects that, for the most part, are completely foreign. It's very high-pressure. I still enjoy the readings and class, but it definitely is getting tougher.

[Offhand note... there is one kid in my class who makes me irrationally angry. He doesn't have any of the textbooks - he comes to class with commercial brief books. He doesn't take notes (he has outlines from other students that he pulls up in class, though he spends almost all of class on facebook/internet). I guess it's not my business, but it still is irritating to me. I constantly wonder who is paying for his tuition... for the most part, though, my fellow students are extremely motivated/dedicated/bright, which is a wonderful change from both high school and college.]

K

Tired today

Hey, very short post today because I am pretty exhausted. Unlike last week, this week's work load was not particularly demanding... actually it was pretty light... but the concepts we're learning in both Property and Contracts are starting to become extremely complex/abstract, requiring lots of brain hurting. I spent the weekend reviewing Property thoroughly and doing my Legal Writing assignment. I got a lot of it done, but still have more readings to do for the week. 

Despite the work, I still managed to have dinner with my friends - Birthday dinner for J on Saturday, then dinner party dinner on Sunday. It was nice to see everyone and to take a study break... but on Sunday the night ended with a pretty spirited conversation about politics that was interesting but didn't help me with the stress/pressure. I'll need to find something relaxing to do some time this week to make up for it, I think.

Just tired...

...off to read about dead babies...

K

Times are changing...

One of my friends observed that our work load this week seemed suspiciously more than in the previous weeks... I think she's right. The readings at the start of the year were tough, but the workload was still manageable. Now that we're one month into school, the profs seem to be sneaking more readings into the syllabus. The workload never shifted dramatically, but has crept up on us slowly but surely. I realized this yesterday evening when I had Contracts reading to do... for the past three weeks, I have finished my week's readings by Wednesday at the latest, leaving me time to organize work, start outlines, make note cards, etc. This week I didn't get everything done right away. Next week will probably be the same (though I'll get more done this weekend - last weekend I didn't do a ton of work on my birthday-day). 

Still on top of my work, still enjoying law school... it's just tougher now. Bring it on...

K

Quick note

Figured I'd drop a quick note today before running off to do homework/dinner/card night. It's amazing... I feel like I'm on top of all my readings (I'm at least one reading ahead per class) and additional work requirements (Legal Writing memo 1, now also memo 2, plus practice problems). I am on top of my work, yet there is ALWAYS something else to do. There is always another case I can read, another problem I can write up, or memo sections that I need to edit. 

I mentally am in "law student mode" from the moment I finish working out/showering (working out counts as me-time), throughout my classes and through evening study/work time (commute also counts as me-time). The intensity of my study tends to dwindle as the evening progresses - I get my very best and most efficient work done in the hour and a half before my first class. By the evening, I am pretty drained so I work on editing my writing or reading supplementary articles for Crim (not graded, just interesting lawsuits that shed light on elements of the cases we are studying). The work won't be done until finals... this much is certain!

Tomorrow is my tough day... I've done most of my reading for both classes already (we're behind in Civ Pro and I have to read about 10 pages for Prop)... just need to muscle through classes and then it's Friday again! WOW I'm almost a month into law school. Time is flying...

K

"Think like a lawyer"

So on my drive home today I thought of a really brilliant and detailed blog entry, complete with clever analogies and witty interjections. Sadly my Contracts reading took precedence this evening, so I shall give you the "Reader's Digest" version, with a moment of silence for the awesomeness that this entry could have been.

...

Digest: the other night C and I were driving to see our friends and we got into an argument (this happens fairly often... never over serious, deal-breaker issues... no, we like to argue over pretty mundane things generally. But anyway, we were arguing). Just as the argument was starting to take a turn for the worse (me frustrated, C frustrated, neither of us getting our points across), I took a deep breath and decided to approach the argument 'like a lawyer.' 

I broke down my grievances into:

1: my current state of mind (frazzled and focused on homework)

2: the catalyst (C forgot his motorcycle was still at work - threw off our travel plans)

3: the reaction he gave me (shrug - not a big deal)

4: my interpretation of his reaction (shrug - it's your job to keep track of logistical stuff, why is this such a big deal to you?)

5: my reaction to his reaction (is it my job to keep track of your stuff?)

6: his reaction to my reaction (why is this such a big deal to you?)

7: proposed solution (C will 'please' remember that my brain is very focused on law school right now and I'd appreciate him picking up some of the mental slack, because I'm practically a zombie by 7:30 pm every day)

8: proposed result (C pulls more weight around apartment, K is able to focus on husband and friends in addition to homework/daily chores, C and K get along)

...and it worked!!! The argument was dissolved logically, and we were no longer at each other's throats. Success!

Long story short, everyone warned us that law school would change our interactions with our loved ones and it is 100% true. Living proof. Right over here. 

Back to Contracts...

K

Birthday!

Well, 24 feels a lot like 23... but now I'm officially a year older and perhaps wiser? I had an amazing birthday this year. It's funny; after birthday #21, birthdays no longer are such a big deal. You still celebrate your birthday, but not with the same determination. My birthday this year was low-key but FUN.

Friday night I went out with the amazing ladies from my section. We went out to dinner and ended up sitting and chatting and laughing for another five hours after that! It was nice to spend time with my new friends in a non-law school setting... though we ended up talking about law school quite a bit anyway. I loved getting to know everyone better - little pieces of crazy personalities started to shine through (that's the best part). The more hard-core ladies stayed until midnight to take a 'happy birthday' drink with me (and they sang to me too, louder than I thought was possible for three people to sing)!

Saturday, my actual birthday, was low-key but also fun. I ate lunch with two of my closest 'old' friends (from my former non-law school life) at Pei Wei (I know, not too classy but I hadn't had it in ages). We then spent the rest of the afternoon at J's sitting around, watching Arrested Development, drinking champagne and playing dominos. Very relaxed, very enjoyable. 

I remember my birthday last year - we had JUST moved out here and my parents were in CA visiting. We went out to dinner in El Segundo with some of dad's CA friends, then watched Cirque du Soleil : ). At that time we had just barely met the first of our Boeing friends (who are now my favorite people in the world) and I didn't know where the best grocery store, gas stations and restaurants were. 

C and I have now been living in CA for over a year. Looking back, it's hard to remember a time when we didn't live in this apartment, or didn't know the friends we know. I'm still getting used to the traffic and lack of good parking but I'm still LOVING the CA weather, the friends and the life that C and I have formed together. Law school has slotted very neatly into our CA life as well. We now have a comfortable (yet crazy busy) daily routine that lasts from 6:45 am until after school/work around 5:00 each day [...then comes homework time]. Though I have JUST met my law school friends, we have all clicked together nicely. One year from now I will probably be looking back on this one, trying to recall a time when I didn't know EVERYTHING about my law school friends and didn't yet know how to read a case, form an argument or take an exam. 

It's true... the years go by so quickly after college (even during). Enjoy the heck out of them!

K

P.S. The last thing I received on my birthday was a letter from some very kind soul who FOUND my lost wallet at my friend's apartment complex and mailed me a message with their phone number so I can go claim it! Hooray for good people : ) Now we just need to find C's wallet...