Week 2 down!

On my drive to school today I thought a lot about time. It's now two weeks into school and for a fleeting second I had the masochistic notion to count the number of weeks remaining until graduation and start a countdown (I know, I have too much time when I'm on the road). For the sake of morale I decided this was a bad idea, but I'll probably get a countdown going when I'm more than halfway there... less depressing that way.

On the flip side... it's been two weeks and I still haven't been called on yet. Everyone is warned of the dreaded "Socratic method" before starting law school. Fortunately our profs tend to be slightly less sadistic than the urban legend profs. I am comfortable volunteering answers in class (particularly in Criminal, which is my favorite so far), but have never been called on to state the facts of a case, or even to answer a hypothetical. It'll happen one of these days, but so far I've been lucky. I think that fear of looking dumb in class is the main motivational factor right now (since finals are too far away for us to be afraid of them yet).

Anyway, we have a long weekend (yay for Labor Day weekend!) so I'll have plenty of time to balance the homework, the husband, the workouts, and old friends. Thank goodness!

K

Almost Friday!

Random today-thought... the women's bathrooms at school all have pegs where one can hang her purse or jacket while using the facilities. Whenever I use the bathroom at school, I use this peg to hang my bag (because the floor is icky), and I often envision the combined weight of my books and laptop bringing the entire stall wall down with a tremendous crash... one of these days...

Thursdays are my toughest days - first I have Civil Procedure, which is my driest class, then I have Property, which is my longest class. Struggling through Thursday makes my Friday that much more enjoyable... once Thursday is over, the remaining blink of a day is all downhill, thank goodness. Civ Pro today was... as expected... even an awesome professor can't really make jurisdiction a compelling topic...

This morning I skipped a workshop on making outlines in order to 'catch up' on my reading for today. I'm not really behind in my reading, but I'm normally a case or two ahead per class and today I was not. I spent two hours in the library before class reading for both Civ Pro and Property, with the end result that I am now very ahead for next week. Now I really only need to read for Contracts and Criminal, and I'm saving my Criminal readings for the weekend because those cases are the best. ALSO we have a long weekend (hooray for Labor Day!) so it looks like I'll get some good work-time in this weekend, as well as some quality hang-out-with-friends-and-do-nothing-smart time (also important). 

Time for Legal Writing homework... we're writing our first mock-memo in chunks and we have a chunk due tomorrow. I wrote half of it yesterday... here goes half #2...

K

Official

It's hard to put a finger on when I felt like an 'official' law student. I'm in the middle of my second week of classes and I definitely feel official now, but during orientation I still felt helplessly green. At some point during the past week, I must have unwittingly clicked over from 'non-student' to full-blown student mode. Maybe it happened when I stopped checking my printed schedule to determine my class times and locations, or when I looked around and knew the names of more than 50% of my regular classmates. Or when I realized that I know where all the bathrooms and water fountains are, and that canned sodas are cheaper in the basement vending machines than in the dining hall. Maybe when I had to get my student ID replaced (already) after losing my wallet (already)... not sure when it happened, but I'm definitely there.

The transition from worker to student was (surprisingly) not that much of a shock either. Perhaps because I taught for a year, so I technically was still in a student setting. OR (more likely) because I discovered the library and spent all summer reading as many books as I could carry home...

Anyway, I know that I'm a law student because now it is 'normal' to wake up at 6:30, to commute 45 minutes, to carry my weight in casebooks and to come home and impart unto C (whether he likes it or not) the most interesting issues that have come up in class or in the readings. As I'm sitting here, getting ready to prep for Contracts, I realized that I am 'comfortable' here... and it's a great feeling.

K

Mentor

SO my school has a great mentor program sponsored by the Student Bar Association - today they offered us free lunch and we met our mentors. First of all, free lunch is always awesome. Also, my mentor is awesome! She's a 2L from CA, very sweet and helpful. She was my Property prof's research assistant and had lots of good advice for approaching his class, note-taking, and final exams. We ended up chatting for about an hour and will meet up again sometime before the end of the month - she has some outlines for me and wants to keep tabs on my progress. Yay! Definitely feels good to talk with someone who has already survived her first year. 

Also, I'm getting a lot better at briefs. As I read I write down the basic info - generally no more than a quarter of a page at this point. (my first several briefs were about a page long each). The 2L's swear we'll quit briefing altogether, but I've found that it really helps. I need to boil each case down into a few crucial sentences so that I actually interpret the case rather than just read it. It also helps jog my memory when I sit down to discuss the case in class. Yay progress.

K

Monday morning thoughts

Ah Monday... I actually didn't dread Monday this weekend for the first time in years... My Criminal Law prof is pretty amazing and the cases we're reading are very compelling, so I'm looking forward to class today : ) I think I'm allowed to say nerdy things like that openly now (not that I ever held back on the nerd comments in the past). The group of people I've been hanging with (mostly in my section) are all really bright and really unapologetically nerdy - it's quite refreshing, really. Nice not to mentally censor my comments, balancing the nerd-factor before blurting out etymological roots or translating Latin quotes.

SO this past weekend... I spent Saturday feeling a little drained and icky, so I spent the entire day on the couch alternating between bad TV and reading cases. I ended up finishing all my readings for the next week, so Saturday was well-spent. Sunday we hosted dinner for our dinner group, so I ended up seeing some buddies as well.

Last week, in addition to being my first week of school, was pretty social for me, considering. Right now I'm doing a fair job balancing friends from my old life, school work and husband. Of course, it's just the beginning and our work will get much more intense, but I'm not bogged down yet. 

Sorry this entry has been a little disjointed and off-topic. I sat down to write without an agenda so this is what spilled out. While I'm at it, though, I might as well bring up commute. I'm getting used to spending 45 min in the car each way... it took some adjusting initially since I'd been running to work. Since January I probably drove the car once a week, on the weekends, and either walked or ran to work every weekday (plus my commute was 1.5 miles). It stinks to waste an hour and a half of my day in the car now, but it's also kind of nice to get some time to myself every day. It provides a nice break between class and homework (which lasts until bed). Sometimes I call home from the road (hands-free, of course) or compose mental to-do lists or just sing along with the radio. 

Yeah, this post didn't turn out as I expected. Just random thoughts, I suppose.

On that note... sandwiches.

K

First week thoughts

My first week of 'real' classes... I have now had at least one of each: Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Contracts, and Property. (Next semester I take the continuation of each class except Property which will be replaced with Torts.) Initially I was worried about the work load since the number of classes had quadrupled from last week, but it was actually pretty manageable. To keep organized, I have five piles of books and binders on my floor, each representing one of the subjects... I take class notes on my NEW laptop, which has also worked well so far.

The readings for Criminal Law have been the most interesting, of course. In the first week we've already been assigned a case about a stabbing, a dead baby case, an attempted robbery case and a rape case. I found the initial readings for Civil Procedure and Contracts a little dry - mostly introductory information about the procedural history of each. My Contracts professor is great, though, so I think that class will pick up once we start reading cases. I worry a little bit about Civil Procedure... 

My Property prof is very young - it's his second year of teaching - but he seems to know what he's doing (after being a teacher, though, I know this might just be an act!). The first few cases for Property have brought up interesting ideas but the cases themselves were somewhat stiff. The prof speaks very quickly and eloquently, so all of us spend the entire 2 hours of his class time furiously typing. I think we'll have to build up stamina for that class because his Tuesday lecture made my brain and fingers hurt!

As 1L's we've been instructed to 'brief' our cases. The 2L's swear that we'll quit doing that once we realize that it's a waste of time, but for now it's really a necessary evil. We're too green to know which parts of the case we can skim and which parts are really important... I think I'm starting to get a little better at it, but I still find I have to write everything down for it to process in my brain. Definitely a new way of working.

My schedule is actually pretty nice... M-W I have one class at 10:45 and another at 2:00. Th my first class is at 11:15 (which is why I'm blogging this morning!). F our first class is 9:00 and our second is 11:15, so we're done at lunch time. Even though we only have two classes per day, I still constantly have assignments that I need to do. Most days I've been leaving the house at 7:15-7:30 to beat the traffic, I work out at the school gym, shower there, then spend the morning before class in the library doing work. It will take a few weeks before my body adjusts to the schedule... and to carrying around the heavy books!

K

Dreams

Right now I'm sitting in the library, looking very studious. 

Even though I haven't had any classes yet (thus nothing to report), I wanted to write an entry about dreams. Last night I had several law-school related dreams. I'm awful at remembering my dreams, but I know that my Legal Writing prof was a character in one of my dreams, and in another I know that I was a law student and was discussing the fact that I had cases to read with somebody. 

This is by far the fastest that my current life has permeated my subconscious. I didn't have Italy dreams until I was already back in the states... come to think of it, I'm not sure I've had a "California" dream yet, and I've been here for a full year! [I dream of CA people, just not of my CA apartment or location]. I must have law school on the brain...

K

Laptop Saga

I am currently blogging from my living room couch on my BRAND spanking new MacBook! My conversion to Mac has taken quite some time... Dad's office uses Mac's so I was always somewhat well-versed with the basic/standard features, but my PC journey began in 9th grade.

Our (small) high school was wireless and provided student discounts for Dell laptops. Starting freshman year of high school I took notes, researched online, wrote and printed papers from my trusty PC. Because it was a fledgling program, our school offered spectacular warrantees and break-down assistance. We even had our original motherboards replaced in a group-wide upgrade. 

After four years of PC laptop, my college computer choice was easy. My original high school laptop suffered an unfortunate beer-related accident in college, so I bought the newer version of the exact same computer. This lasted me through college (with some face-lifts here and there). After college I taught for a year and was supplied a laptop by the school (hooray alma mater!). 

My PC survived the move from TX to CA... this is where the troubles began. I noticed one day that my laptop was getting hot... not in the good way. After an hour or so, the entire bottom of my laptop would be about 70 or 80 degrees F... I suppose the fan wasn't working properly so the mechanism wasn't cooling. Dell addressed this problem by taking my old computer and sending me a new/old (read: refurbished) laptop. Funny thing is... new laptop had the exact same problem!

So... I'm sitting in class the very first week of law school and my poor laptop overheats, triggering THE LOUDEST internal fan I've ever heard. I'm serious, it sounded like a vacuum cleaner on my desk. The fan cools down my lappy... but it overheats again a few minutes later.  I prop one side of the laptop up on my textbook to allow air to circulate underneath, so now I'm typing sideways on a freakish vacuum-computer, still trying to pay attention to the professor. 

The guy sitting next to me laughed and showed me his sleek little Mac - with a wave of his fingers and a few clicks he opened and promptly sorted (!) about twenty different windows. My PC next to his Mac was like WALL-E next to EVE... though I was rooting for WALL-E, I don't think I would trust him with my Legal Writing memorandum or Civil Procedure final exam!

Last night I picked up the husband from the airport (finally! He's been gone a full week!). He told me he had a surprise for me (wouldn't tell me what it was... grr... I hate surprises that are actually surprises) and he took me to the Mac store. Now I am the proud owner of a normal-temperature sleek little EVE computer, and he is the proud owner of a free IPOD touch. That's my husband... thoughtful, thrifty and somewhat self-serving.

C'est amour!

K

Words

Today in Legal Writing our prof spent about 30 minutes discussing the importance of WORDS... my favorite subject! She demonstrated incidents where a single word in a statute can be ambiguous and thus interpreted any number of ways in order to help or hurt an argument. THIS is where my Classics background will help. I spent four years in college studying the minute variations and nuances of single words (particularly in Greek) and the huge effect that the varied meanings can have on a translation... this aspect of legal study is definitely familiar to me. [*This is why I have issues with the Bible... but that's another conversation for a different blog*]

In a fit of giddy excitement I tried to explain the above to my neighbor in class. I don't think he appreciated the connection...

Hopefully I can apply this skill to my Legal writing and analysis. That is the plan.

K

Getting there...

This morning I picked up my books (what a relief that they came in time!). I'm still waiting for my Property book but my email tells me it's on the way.

I met some more people from my section this morning during Legal Research and sat with them at lunch. We ended up talking about the case we're reading for Legal Writing - got into a pretty spirited discussion (I swear I never thought this would happen) which led to several key issues we couldn't work out. In class during the discussion of said case it is clear that we were right on point :)
A good feeling.

Next week our 'real' (doctrinal) classes begin. I am thankful for this preliminary school week where we have a chance to focus on how to read, brief and understand cases. The challenge next week will be to balance the different cases assigned for each of my four classes. I still haven't settled into a work routine (especially since the husband will require some attention). I feel like a law student in limbo - I have my student ID but I'm not yet immersed.

K

Orientation day 2

Today was much "class"ier than yesterday. We had four classroom sessions today, each for 1.5 hours. Our entire class of 300+ was divided into four groups, A B C and D (I'm in C). The orientation sessions today were subdivided even further, so the class sizes were quite small. I finally got to see and meet many of the people with whom I will share EVERY class this first (and probably second) semester.

One of the sessions was a computer orientation in the library where we received our passwords and learned how to research cases on the library website (very helpful). Another was a session full of statistical information concerning lawyers, gathered by one of our deans (slightly less helpful, but informative). The final session was with our Legal Writing professor, an awesome lady who reminds me so much of one of my undergrad professors... in pink converse sneakers!

My books came in today - I had them mailed to the office where I used to work, so I'll pick them up tomorrow morning. We don't have class until 11:30 tomorrow! Yay for running-errands-time! In the mean time, we have lots of reading assigned for tonight in a combination of books, print shop material, and online pdf. I'm currently taking a reading break (after 4 pages) from my Legal Writing book...

Husband is still out of town. He wants me to call the cable company but I don't think it's going to happen tonight. They'll probably just tell me to schedule time for the cable guy to come by, and I'll be busy all week at school. Plus I'm lazy. I can live without the Olympics on TV... right...?

Maybe?

K

Orientation day 1

Day 1 down! Zillions more to go!

Today was pretty tame, as far as first days go. I had my photo taken for my student ID, received a HUGE packet with information about the school, bought packets of material from the print shop for my Criminal Law and Legal Writing courses, etc. There were several student-run info sessions that were helpful - particularly that of the students who had just finished their first years. Over the course of the day I ended up meeting several people who are in the same group as I am (and who are also in all the same classes that I am). Everyone I met was very nice, seemed slightly nervous/high-strung and knew as much about what was going on as I did! It was comforting to know that we were all in the same boat.

Before our formal orientation address we had a dinner reception with all the law professors. My three buddies and I ended up tracking down three of our five professors. The 2L's told us that our prof lineup is really amazing, so I'm looking forward to starting our real class schedule next Monday. This week is our Legal Writing class - we have already been assigned a fake case to read (for tomorrow) with our paper due in October. Already!

All told, a productive and tiring day (honestly, why am I so tired? We didn't do anything! Or think that hard!). The 17 mile drive took me 30 min this morning, going local, and an hour on the way home - including the 15 minutes that I was a little lost and couldn't find the highway entrance... even with the help of my Navigation unit. How do I manage to get so lost? Tomorrow we have to be at school at 9:00 so I will leave my apartment at 7:00 and work out before class (at least that's the plan).

I'm less intimidated than I was yesterday. It was good to walk through the buildings today and start familiarizing myself with the environment. I definitely feel better after meeting some of the other 1L's, though some of them were sending out real "nervous energy" vibes.

Oh, also our cable box is out so I can't watch the Olympics tonight (boo!) but that means I have lots of time to spend on my reading assignment (boo!). Husband is out of town until Thursday which is both good and bad. I like having the apartment to myself right now, eating the foods he doesn't like and not sharing the couch.

Off to read our faux case again... and again... not sure what I'm looking for yet, but I will soon...

K

Beginnings

It's official. I start law school tomorrow.

Though I am looking forward to it, law school was never really in my "master plan." ... [Actually, my "master plan" used to consist of college, then an ambiguous gray area, then miraculously a job and a family and a house. I've been swimming in gray area for the past two years now - a somewhat productive two years that included a husband and a series of unsatisfying part-time jobs. Honestly, I originally took the LSATs and applied to law school on a whim. Part of my journey through law school will include a study of different fields and possible career paths, but for now I just need to get through day 1.]

Tomorrow is Orientation day. Based on the copious mailings I've received all summer, I know that tomorrow is mostly clerical. Get student ID. Buy parking pass. Purchase books. Meet other 1L's and professors. Pretend that you belong there. I have received my class schedule, my reading lists and my first reading assignments. I bought my law books online and expect them soon. My friends and family all have been warned about my impending time and energy commitments.

Despite all this, though, I don't quite feel "ready" yet. People keep on asking me two questions: "Are you excited?" and "Are you ready?" Honestly, excited + nervous, and no... not yet. I am looking forward to getting started already (the summer was a very long time to wait) but I do have some nagging concerns.

Concern 1: I won't have enough time for my husband.
People keep telling me how much TIME law school consumes. I've been married for almost a year and a half, during which time I've had a very forgiving work schedule. Adjusting to a full-time school day plus (I've heard) mountains of homework will be quite a shock. This leads me to

Concern 2: My school skills are rusty
I've always been a dutiful student, but I've been out of the classroom for two years. Though that's not very long I still worry that I will have difficulty adjusting to a full work load. This summer I've been reading like crazy to "warm up," but I haven't written a paper in a loooong time...

Concern 3: I'm going to lose my running fitness
OK this one is the silliest of my concerns, but a serious one nonetheless. I've spent the past four years as a pretty serious runner, including the past seven months where I ran to and from work daily (1.5 miles each way, but still!). Running helps me find my center, helps me focus and gives me time to myself. Running helped me through the stress of my senior thesis in college, through the long year of wedding planning, the first year of my marriage and the move two time zones from my home state. I worry that my running time will be lost in the press of law school obligations.

So I'm nervous. Excited and nervous.

More to come after Orientation...

K