Happy Holidays!

Law school has definitely taken my ability to do nothing. This break, even though I have a good three weeks off, I have not been able just to sit and be still. I spent a wonderful week with Mom and Dad in town, have done a bunch of work on the house, spent time with C (when he's not working) and the doggie, and have done a good amount of work on the Law Review and as a Research Assistant. It definitely never ends... I'm trying to get some "just for fun" reading in as well, to give my brain a change of pace. I have not been able to sit and do nothing at all. Perhaps after the Bar I'll re-learn how to relax?

What a difference 2 years makes

I was discussing finals with my fellow law school warrior, and we agreed that our approach to finals as 3Ls is COMPLETELY different than it was a mere two years ago when we were gearing up for our first semester of exams. As lowly 1Ls we had no idea what to expect and were cripplingly terrified of the "unknown". All we knew is that our ENTIRE grade depended on our performance in a three-hour span, the professors were grading blind (using anonymous numbers), and that our ultimate grade depended very much on the performance of our fellow 1Ls. So scary.

Two years has passed in a flash. I am running out of trite (and non-trite) ways to explain the freakish passage of time. Law school is a time-sucking vortex of stress and knowledge and reading very heavy books. I feel as though I just started school last week, and already I am contemplating graduation and post-grad employment. Alternatively, I feel as though I am not the same person who started law school in the fall of '08. My approach to problems, my choice of words, many of my views on the world, have been completely altered by this experience. I am amazed that so much has happened so fast, yet I know I also have a ways to go before I can be an effective attorney on any level. I know that law school has given me the tools to use, but I have to figure out what to do with them.

Now as a 3L, facing my final three law school exams, I feel... very little. I keep trying to remind myself of my 1L fears: You are graded on a curve! Your performance on this exam is your entire grade! You have to know every rule and every statute we covered all semester by Thursday! Everyone else is studying like crazy too! ... I suppose I have transcended the madness. I know all of these things, but they do not affect me any more. At the end of the day, I know I test well. I paid attention all year and did every reading. I understood the topics (mostly) as we went through the semester. I KNOW that I can review an entire semester's worth of information in the form of my outline and notecards in a three-day span.

Not that I am blowing off my studying - I have heard and heeded the warnings of the complacent 3Ls who start cutting corners in order to "enjoy" their final year before having to buckle down to study for the Bar (which I am worried about!). I am not one of those 3Ls. Two of my three outlines are done, and are mostly marinating in my brain already. My third and final exam is on the 16th and I have a good amount of time to complete my outline and study for that class. I start my practice essays tomorrow. I know I can do this. See, 1L me, it's not so bad!

I really don't see the 1Ls on campus at all. Our schedules tend to be completely different, so most of them are in the library while I'm on campus for class (and I spend the majority of my time in my office anyway - I stay far away from the library because other people stress me out!). When I do see them, I know it immediately - the pack of students with worried faces, clutching stacks of books and supplements, loudly discussing the requirements for a valid contract. I want to tell them it will all be over soon. Hard to believe that was me two years ago (and it was).

Off to study. Ten days from now I will be done with finals forever! (I told this to C and he reminded me I very likely will be clamoring for another degree in a few years. He is correct, so I amended my statement to say "law school finals" instead).

K

One more year.

Two days ago, California released its Bar results. Almost all of my friends from last year who took the July Bar passed and are now on their way to becoming licensed attorneys!

It's a very exciting time. It's hard to believe that a year from now, I will be in the same position. A year feels like a long time, but the past five months have really flown by, so I am sure that it will be Bar-time before I know it.

Sprinting towards finals right now - I have three finals this semester, spaced pretty well. Next semester I am taking four classes but have no finals (just papers and performance tests), so these are the last three finals that I will ever take in law school!

K

One step closer!

I just received a letter in the mail saying that my moral character application had been approved, so now I am one step closer to becoming a licensed attorney... yay!?

Back to work... my fictive publication deadline is looming. There are about seven things vying for first place on my to-do list, so I have no time to write more! Suffice it to say, this moral character passage is the best thing to happen to me all week. I'm not sure if that's awesome or very sad...

K

November...

Well, I successfully signed up for my Bar prep course... which is one item I can cross off my enormous to-do list. It's official: I start studying for the bar a week after graduation in May. It feels so far away, but I know it will come sooner than I think. This semester is almost over, and I feel like I just started... I imagine that spring will be quite the same. Finals in about a month...!

This weekend I had a great time being a "grownup" for Halloween: I sat at the kitchen table, doing homework, armed with a giant orange bowl filled with candy. SO many kids came by to trick-or-treat. I am still amazed sometimes that we own a house - I often feel like I'm just pretending to be an adult and someone will call me out on it at some point. We had friends over as well, so the boys played poker and the law school girls did homework (woo hoo).

Though I did do work, I didn't get as much done as I wanted, so I still am working on the holdover issue. Even though I have published two of the holdover issues already, I feel very behind since I still have one left. I will feel much better once that's done. I hope to send out the first of my own issues within a month after this one... so much to do... including studying for finals (hopefully)?

Ugh. Now it's crunch time, more than ever. Just need to make it to Christmas break... then I'll get a small reprieve and a chance to collect my thoughts and get WAY ahead in Law Review work!

Sore

The past few days were pretty painful - my legs were SO sore from Sunday-Tuesday - so much so that I was crab-walking down stairs and taking the elevator to go up and down one floor at school. Today I finally feel more normal, and think I'll go out for a short run tomorrow, just so that my legs don't forget what it feels like.

Law Review work is ever-present and very pressing. I hope to finish the final holdover issue from last year's board by the end of the month (MUST), after which I can turn to the first of my own issues. Besides that, I have started outlining for Wills and Trusts and am still sending out job applications. I can't believe it's almost November... that means that finals are just around the corner. Already.

I need to sign up for my bar prep course ASAP - before the end of the week. Lots to do.

K

Half Marathon!

This morning I woke up at 4:45, and joined several thousand people in a 13.1 mile run through downtown(ish) Los Angeles. A law school friend of mine who had signed up for the race a while back talked me into joining the LA Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I hadn't ever run a road race before, though I have been amping up my running lately so thus knew I would be able to complete the distance.

The run ended up being great - I finished with a time of 2:09:46 (not bad, for my first time), with an average pace of 9:54 (normally I run an even 10:00). I was nervous because the race was in the street (normally I run on a dirt track), and because the race route included several pretty nasty hills. I am glad I did the race, and so glad that it's over now!

People have been asking me whether the long-distance running has interfered with my crazy law school schedule and responsibilities. I actually have found that the running helps me. It gives me a period of time (30 min, one hour, two hours) to clear my cluttered brain, to focus on physical rather than mental activity, and to take time to be with my own thoughts. So much of what I do is static - sitting in class, sitting in my car, sitting at my computer - so it's nice to have a hobby where I am outside moving my legs, not staring at a screen or casebook. Also, my day-to-day life is so incredibly competitive that it is nice to just go outside and run without any expectations... or people trying to beat me.

The race was slightly more competitive than my normal running environment, but I was mostly running against the clock rather than the people around me. All told, I had a great race today, my leg muscles are crying now, and I hope to run more races in the future. For fun as well as for sanity.

K

Hello, October

Wow, I suppose it's been over a month since my last post (why does this feel like I'm at confession?). Lots has happened since then, but nothing interesting enough to report. I've applied for several more jobs; I've received "thanks but no thanks" letters from a few dozen judges; Law Review work is ever-present, as are classes. I need to start outlining.

For Law Review, I'm still trying to push out the final publication that last year's board was supposed to publish. I really need to get that off my plate since I have two of my board's publications in the pipeline and I want to make sure all of Volume 39 comes out before we start publishing Volume 40. That's a lot of work/stress that needs to GO!

That's it for updates for now; it's all I'm thinking about. I'll write about my running schedule later, to change it up a bit, but that was all the time I had to blog, so I must leave.

K

Jumped another hurdle

This weekend I finished another major step between me and becoming a lawyer: the moral character application. The State Bar of California conducts essentially a background check on every law student during their final year. This ensures that each aspiring attorney is of "fit moral character." This required me to dredge up information regarding every job I have had and every place I have lived since the age of 18. This was somewhat of a pain, since I have lived in three different time zones/states since I graduated from high school.

I wanted to get the application out ASAP once school started, since my year is going to be crazy. Right now I am in a "calm before the storm" period of time - our first round of law review article production has just been submitted by the staffers, and in the next two weeks my board members will turn them in to me. At that point, I won't have time to do things like moral character or job applications, so I am trying to get that all off my plate now. So far so good...

More soon,

K

Wave 1 out!

WHEW! After a very long and stressful week and a half, I have just sent out my first major wave of job applications - this round went out to federal judges for one-year or two-year clerkships. The key to getting these jobs is geographic flexibility, which I don't really have, but I sent out as many as I could to judges in Texas as well as on the west coast. The grand total: 63. I hope that I was diverse enough... usually people send out 150+ and end up getting a handful of interviews. I'll know in the next few weeks whether I have any interviews... fingers are crossed...

Now that those applications are out, I can focus more on my law review and research assistant work, and can look forward to the next set of job applications that will go out. This is definitely going to be a fast-paced year.

In other news, we have a Labor Day holiday, which ultimately means that I only have one and a half classes next week. Hopefully this means that I'll be able to catch up with my law review and other work :)

ALSO other-brother is coming to town to visit for the weekend! Very excited to have all the siblings in the same time zone for the first time in a long while! Hopefully we'll be able to show him a good time.

More to report after the weekend,

K

First week of class

It's Tuesday of my first week of classes. Going well so far. I'm taking Community Property, Wills & Trusts, and Alternative Dispute Resolutions this year. Have spent most of my first two days of school doing Law Review work. I am led to believe that this is normal.

It's fun to see the 1Ls and 2Ls around campus - they are so serious and so intense, and I feel like it has been so long since I was in their position (although it also feels like it was just yesterday that I started law school). I want to tell them that they'll be OK and that they should relax, but I know they wouldn't take me seriously (I wouldn't have).

Workworkwork tomorrow, job applications due in a few weeks. Here's to getting it all done.

K

Beginnings/Endings

Right now I am sitting at my desk in my Law Review office, for the first time ever! I love that this job comes with an office - it makes up for all of the work and responsibility that will go into the next eight months. I am feeling very official.

School starts in less than a week. 3L orientation is on Thursday, Law Review orientation is on Sunday, and then classes start. I am already getting spammed with important emails from my school, already receiving reminders about graduation. There are tons of meetings and info sessions on the horizon. Deadlines, reading assignments, emails to write, staffers to instruct, jobs applications to fill out...

I'm taking this moment to breathe and relax before jumping in to my last year of law school, head-first of course!

K

MPRE

Just finished the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) this morning - 60 multiple choice questions, 2 hours and change. (This is the legal ethics exam that all law school students have to take pre-bar exam, or at least pre-swearing-in). I felt pretty good about it, but I won't know whether I passed for about 5 weeks. It's always hard with multiple choice questions - I'm usually able to cut the answers down to two choices pretty easily, but the final choice is more of a challenge. Fingers crossed!

Now I can focus on law review work in the next few weeks before classes start. Lots to do to prep for 3L and post-grad as well. More later!

Bittersweet

I think that I have come up with a solution for my lack of time to blog - from now on, I'll try to do quick updates more often, but won't make them as long as I have in the past. Hopefully that will help me be more available as this crazy year starts...

Seven minutes ago I signed up for my very last classes as a law student. It is amazing how fast the time has gone by - I really do feel like I just got to CA and I just started law school, and here I am planning for its inevitable end. Very bittersweet.

I don't know that I'm ready to be a non-student yet, but I suppose I don't have a choice! Best to just jump in head-first and see what happens. At least I have two more semesters to prepare...

K

Look, another July post!

Sweet, I got a second post in before the end of the month!

So far I'm enjoying my time off - as I expected, I have spent 10-12 hours per day just working on Law Review and other job/law related stuff. The first issue of the law review should be out to the publisher tonight (assuming I can work out some of the quirks in Microsoft Word re: page numbers and spacing). It will feel so nice to get a big chunk of my summer obligations out of the way. Very busy summer.

I mentioned last time that A has been living with us. Since he's still waiting to hear about the police job, he's been spending a lot of his summer working out and running. He and I have been going out on long runs every weekend, slowly amping up our distances. We started at 5 miles a few weeks ago, and we're up to 7 miles today. The goal is to get to where we can run about a half marathon distance, then see what happens from there. The running definitely helps counteract the stress.

Not much else to report besides the working and the running. I've started getting emails from my school regarding the start of the year, including orientation for upper class students. This makes it all feel very real... lots to do during 3L. Countdown to graduation and the bar exam begins...

Epic blog fail

Hey guys, sorry I've been AWOL for over a month! This summer I've been goinggoinggoing without a break. My externship at the federal court has been phenomenal. I LOVE my judge and the clerks have taught me so much. I have gotten to work on some interesting cases (and some dull ones), have written several orders, and have watched a number of court proceedings. All of which is (hopefully) preparing me for my foray into the legal career which starts in 2011.

This week is actually my last at the fed court. I'll be using my month (!) of "free" time to complete the tardy Law Review publications left over from last year (the first of the two issues I'm in charge of should be heading to the printer by the end of the weekend, fingers crossed), to do research work for my professors, and to prepare for my third year. Preparation entails studying for the MPRE (professional responsibility exam that all law students have to take and pass before they can practice law), choosing classes for next year, buying books, and getting my moral character application prepared. I'll be sad to leave my summer externship, but I definitely will need my down time to set up for the start of the year. Come August, I'll be jumping back in, for a nonstop sprint towards graduation. Hooray (?).

I've also been on the job hunt - many post-grad law jobs have application deadlines in the fall of third year. I'll be applying to a good number of government jobs (including clerkships at various courts), and will look into firm jobs available through my school. This is the main source of my stress lately. With the depressed economy, more people than normal are applying for government positions, which means that the competition for entry-level jobs is pretty cut-throat. My plan is to be thorough and apply early, and hope that something comes through. Much more on this as the year progresses...

One side note is that brother A has been living with C and me for over a month now. He's doing the job hunt himself, the post-college kind. He has an interview coming up for a police job, which I sincerely hope he gets! I definitely enjoy having him out here, both for his company and also his dog-sitting :) [we've had the dog since March and he's folded into our crazy schedules pretty well. he's very cute and becoming less puppy-ish, which I like. he will definitely miss A whenever he leaves...]

Sorry again for not posting more often - blogging is so low on the priority list these days, since my to-do list already extends into mid-August. I'll try to do better. No promises. Busybusybusy!

K

AAA!

Another quick post... I promise I'll write about the summer job soon.

Side note: EIC is a LOT of work! I suppose this is what I signed up for.

BUT more importantly: my grades came in this semester and I was quite pleased - I ended up getting straight A's. A.A.A. My GPA thanks me :)

K

Quick Update

Alright, a ton has happened since the end of finals.

Highlights:

-Finished finals on the 10th. A rough set this time around, even though I only had three. Glad those are done. I'm still waiting on my grades.

-Flew home to celebrate Andrew's graduation after the fact (he actually graduated 2 days before my Business Associations final). Spent a wonderful almost-week in Texas with the family.

-Epic road trip from Texas to LA where with Andrew in his car. He moved in with C and I for at least the summer post-graduating. He's been out here for almost 2 weeks and it's working well so far!

-Started my job at the federal court = lots of work but I enjoy it and I really like my judge. The first week is over already - went by so quickly. I am going to learn a lot this summer. I'll blog about the summer job separately later.

-LAW REVIEW: taking up all my 'free' time. I have so much work to do both on the issues that the previous EIC left for me and in preparation for my issues for next year. Lots to do. Lots to read. Very little time. It's a daily sprint.

That's why I haven't been able to blog. Mostly because of Law Review, but also everything else.

K

One down, two to go!

Ah finals... today we took our Con law final, which was open book. I have decided that I do NOT like open book/open note finals. It is nice to have my reference materials with me (less to memorize in preparation), however professors tend to make their questions a ZILLION times more difficult since they know everyone will have the same rule statements and outlines handy during the exam. Thus, this morning we sat for three hours of "ohmygosh" in a row - I wrote two+ hours of essays, and am still not 100% sure I hit the issues that the questions were targeted at (sorry for the dangling preposition. I am tired).

No time to worry about Con since Federal Courts is on Thursday. This is another open book exam, and on a topic that is exponentially more difficult than any class I have taken so far. I thought this semester would be easier since I only had to take three classes. Untrue. Off to study for Fed Cts and when I can, Business Associations which is another story for another day. Trust me, you'll hear about it.

The puppy can't wait for me to finish finals (did I ever blog about getting a dog? can't remember. seriously, folks, law school kills brain cells) since he never gets my undivided attention these days. Husband too, for the same reason. He starts classes this week, which is both good and bad. This means he'll be gone four hours each evening on Mondays and Tuesdays this term. Busy busy busy.

More later, brain hurts and I am about to subject it to more torture.

K

Finals

Today is our three-year anniversary! C is celebrating by going to work. I am celebrating by crating the dog and studying for finals. I actually will take a break this evening and we'll go out for dinner (which is all the time I can really spare). The good news is that I only have one more year where our anniversary will fall before finals...

Separate note, yesterday was my last day of class as a 2L. Time is flying.

K

With great power comes great responsibility

I laughed out loud at this line in Spiderman (see the title of this blog post), but I am starting to think that it's true. This past month was a flurry of law school nerdiness. Moot Court competition for the 1Ls, which was lots of work but really fun - brought back vivid memories of last year. Law Review conference in Texas (got to see mom and dad, which was a treat). Currently wrapping up classes and getting outlines prepared for the rapidly approaching finals. The cycle never ends.

It is a little scary to have so much more responsibility this year, but I am glad because this (hopefully) means that I will be better prepared for the looming job market and the start of my legal career. The hand-over of the Law Review will happen soon, I think. I will spend the next month shadowing the outgoing Editor in Chief and then she will graduate and I will be in charge of everything. So exciting but also very scary and humbling. I just hope that I can fill her shoes, and that I will be able to leave my own mark on the publication that is now in its 40th year.

The saying goes that the first year scares you to death, second year works you to death, and third year bores you to death. I doubt that will apply to my third year! I anticipate another loaded whirlwind of a year. In addition to classes and the Law Review, I'll be searching for jobs (yikes!) and of course getting ready to graduate (which requires taking the MPRE and submitting my Moral Character Application - more on this later). Considering how fast this past year went, I'm sure it will be no time at all before I'm getting ready to take the bar exam YIKES!).

Finally, on top of all the other craziness that is my life, C and I just adopted a puppy! He is a rescue dog so we're not 100% sure of his breed - we think he's a mix of dachshund, beagle, and perhaps some chihuahua. He has lived with us for two weeks now and is slowly getting used to our routines. We are slowly getting used to life with a dog. It definitely adds further snarls to our already nightmarish logistics, but it is nice to have a dog around. He keeps C wonderful company while I am out and busy, and he keeps me grounded. I have a tendency to get lost in my head and in law school (as seen by the fact that I haven't blogged in over a month), yet I get a healthy dose of perspective every time I have to set aside my work to take my dog out to run or to poop or to play.

More as the semester draws to a close - coming soon: a discussion of my summer plans! I have another externship (with a judge!), but I'll post about that later.

K

Ugh

I always hate it when blogs don't update for weeks and weeks... sorry, guys! I honestly forgot for a week or so that I have a blog (oops!).

Moot Court went well. We spent five days in Vegas (my first time ever) for the competition. We argued our three rounds of prelims on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday morning. After round three, we were seeded 8th (yay!) and advanced to round 4. We had a really awful round 4 judge who took over the round and steam-rolled each of us, one at a time. Naturally, I had to argue last, so I watched as each person was squished one-by-one before getting up to argue my position. It was not my finest fourteen minutes, but my team and I were proud with our performance... AND now it's over!

Another piece of fantastic news: after waiting about a month to hear, I learned that I will be the Editor in Chief of my school's Law Review next year :D. Basically this means that my third and final year of law school will be spent editing articles and citations, working with authors/board members/staffers and overseeing the entire publication of our Law Review. I am still not 100% sure about everything I will be required to do, but I am pretty excited about it.

Anyway, I have to go - no class today, but I'm working on my law review article (due at the end of the month), class reading for tomorrow and an article that I'm cite-checking as a work-study job. Hopefully going to fit a run in there somewhere. 

K

Yay!

SO good things have happened - that's part of the reason why I haven't been updating the blog (sorry guys!). Here's a summary:

Moot Court: The days have been ticking down steadily to competition. In the past few weeks, I have been preparing for the moot court competition - refining my arguments, arguing in practice rounds, meeting with my team/advisor, etc. 

I actually leave for competition today (!!!) once my morning classes are over. I am very anxious but excited. At this point, there's nothing more that I can do except to read over the problem and crucial cases and remind myself of my best points and recommendations given by our various practice round judges. I really want to get this weekend over with (so I can start preparing for finals and maybe see my husband), but I am also nervous. I'll update when the competition is over on Sunday.

Law Review: The other piece of exciting news is that I was just selected as next year's Editor-in-Chief of my school's Law Review (!!!). This means that next year I'll be running the group and will be in charge of the publication of our Law Review. It's a staggering amount of responsibility and work, but I am so happy that I get to participate in the Law Review in this way. This will really put my writing/editing/language skills to the test. Yay for new challenges!

Hopefully after this moot court competition weekend, things will start to calm down...

More later...

K

Crazy person

Ugh.

Today has been one of those forgetful days where I never seem to have everything I need in the proper place, which means that I have been walking in circles from one building to my car to another building like a crazy person.

Example: I went to the library to print a source that I needed for my Law Review production assignment, only to find once I got there that I left my copy card in my car. I went back out to my car to get my copy card (and to get money for a snack that I desperately needed). Having printed successfully, I went to the vending machine only to find that I was five cents short of peanut M&M's (my snack of choice) and thus I am eating cookies that are not half as satisfying.

This is just a small slice of my day. Seriously, I've been doing this since I got to school and went to the gym this morning at 10am. Grr. Currently I'm getting ready for another round of practice oral arguments for moot court. Today is the first day we will be arguing "off-brief," meaning we have to represent the party that, until now, has been our imaginary opponent. More difficult still, we have to argue both sides back-to-back (which I've never done before - not even last year for the 1L competition), so I'm hoping I don't confuse the parties/arguments while I'm up at the podium.

Ugh. This week needs to be over.

K

De ja vu?

I just signed on to write a new post... then read last time's post... and realized I had nothing new to say. Exactly what I said last time. [Coincidentally, I am currently watching "Groundhog Day" on TV!]

Actually, law school has warped my sense of time. I only know what day it is based on what class I happen to be attending that day. I have a virtual post-it note on my desktop on which I have my schedule and deadlines written out day by day. Without these I would be completely lost. The way I survive is by taking the semester week at a time. Nothing can exist past this week or else I get too overwhelmed...

I really do think I'm learning a lot though. My hectic schedule teaches me time management (even more than before). Moot Court is pushing me to verbally articulate my thoughts with specificity (my tendency is to make broad statements without tying them to the concrete facts and issues in the case). Hopefully this all pays off and these skills will be helpful in the job... still working on that. 

Ran out of ideas of interesting things to say (arguably the post hasn't been interesting anyway). 

Tired.

K

yep, still drowning

2L spring is pretty brutal... as mentioned before, I've been working on Moot Court for the past several weeks. Now that our brief is done, my team and I have been doing several practice oral arguments per week (to prepare us for competition). So far we have argued three rounds and have another one coming up this Friday (my non-class day). Between Moot Court practices and classes, I have been plenty busy (even though I'm only taking three classes).

Law Review is also picking up speed - the first draft of our Article was due yesterday (was it just yesterday? feels like last week) and we are applying for Executive Board positions this week. More on that later (interview is Sunday).

I'm also still doing research assistant work, and have also picked up another job working as a cite-checker for a publication that my school is hosting for the next four years. I promised myself that I wouldn't join anything new or add anything to the schedule... trying to keep my promise!

Off to work, just needed to do the quick boring update... more later

K 

Coming up for air...

Oh my. The semester started with a BANG.

I had such a wonderful Texas vacation and was so sad to come back to LA (but happy to see C again; he had flown back early to work, which I think I mentioned before. Maybe I didn't... my brain is very achy right now!). The MINUTE I stepped off the plane in CA I launched into full-on Moot Court mode. My team, which had spent Christmas break in three different time zones, reunited in CA to work on our written appellate brief.

I can write more about the competition later. For now, I can say that our problem is based in insurance law and deals with issues of preemption. My team, made up of three members (one writer and two oralists), spent the past week polishing and perfecting the brief that we worked on throughout Christmas break. My fellow oralist and I had earlier researched and submitted our separate arguments to our writer, who put everything into one big glorious brief... we spent a full week of 10-hour days crawling through the final draft and perfecting every WORD and COMMA and citation. It was mentally and physically draining to work for that long and with such intensity, but I admit I really did enjoy it (how sick is that?)

If nothing else, law school affirms my love of the written word. I loved that my team and I would debate the proper use of punctuation; we spent far too long searching for the "perfect" word to go in certain sentences. Words have such distinctly different effect, and there is usually one FANTASTIC word that really gives the paper "oomph." (I'm having a really hard time articulating this in my blog - probably because I spent all my 'good words' on the brief!).

ANYWAY, I was at school 6 out of the past 7 days on the last week of my Christmas break... today was our actual first day of class. My schedule this semester is interesting - I only have three classes and am only taking class three days of the week. However, between my Moot Court competition (practice rounds start TOMORROW) and the Law Review article (first draft is due next week), I will have no shortage of deadlines and obligations to fulfill. This semester will be challenging. 

I'm already drowning a little bit - just came up for air to say hello and now must go back to work... here's hoping that I can do everything!

K

2010

Already a new year. By far the least eventful of all my New Years Eves to date. I flew in from Texas on New Years Eve day, having stayed up far too late the night before reconnecting with old friends. I didn't sleep on the plane, and ended up in California having mysteriously added two hours to my day. When I got home, I didn't sleep because I wanted to spend time with the husband, whom I hadn't seen in a week. Thus, by the time midnight rolled around on the west coast, I was already in bed. I must say, it feels good to be home.

I'm enjoying this lull before school starts again - in two days I'll be back at school, in the final week of our Moot Court brief-writing. One week later and classes start again. I feel like I'm holding my breath right now, willing these next two days to last longer than they will. I'm excited to get back to school, ready to see my friends, but not quite prepared to launch back into the stress of law school full-tilt. At least I have two more days.

C has been working third shifts this week (working all night, sleeping until 3pm). He'll get two days off in a bit, then will switch to first shifts. It's always strange to me when his schedule is so crazy. Right now he's asleep and I'm charged with waking him at 1pm so he can meet his tutees. Busy man.

Off to watch some more movies, while I still have the time!

K