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