It's a Sickness

Law students have a few things in common, almost universally. First, ego. Second, obsessive tendencies. Add those two together with exams and grades, and you're in for quite a ride. The thing about our egos is that while they might appear big, they are easily shaken and we're often extremely self-deprecating. Self-preservation requires we puff up our chests and talk a big game, but when no one is looking we collapse into panic, worry, and pastry.

I sent out a flood of resumes and managed to secure a tentative offer. It looks good and it's with a well-known defense attorney in the area. I am very excited to meet with him and discuss my potential role. A sane person would feel a sense of relief at this, given that our grades are so important to securing a summer job. I don't need to stress about my grades, because I already have something lined up. Yet I cannot stop checking to see if they've posted.

Here is where the obsessive tendencies come in. I KNOW the grades will not post until Friday. I know that they weren't even due until today. I saw THREE of my five professors go into the office to turn in their grades and even spoke to one of them in the lobby for some time, confirming that he had in fact been doing that very thing. I KNOW the deans are going to get together to review the grades, verify they meet requirements and seem consistent and fair, and that this process will take some time. Hence the Friday posting date.

But I still keep checking.

Arlene was positively panicking today when we returned after Christmas break. She was convinced she had failed her torts exam and would not shut up about it. I of course, do not blame her at all and tried my best to calm her down. She can't help it, she's one of us.

On the plus side, so far I like my new teachers and I am very excited for my writing class tomorrow. I love my teacher in that class, and it's been weird not getting to hear his awesome stories. I've missed it.

Oh, and my research professor from last semester said he gave out more A's than he ever had before. I have a sneaking suspicion I earned one of those. Which is actually kind of sad, because it doesn't count toward my average. I have been told that often firms will ONLY ask how you did in Research, so maybe the A will prove valuable. Can you imagine, an "A" in law school? One can dream, I guess.

Back to real life. It seems odd that we adapt so quickly to vacation. At least now I have more things to obsess over besides grades, like reading for class, getting enough sleep, etc.

Oh, on an unrelated note, I've been a vegetarian for 8 days and it's going great!!

Happy New Year

This was a pretty big one, I guess. We made (well, mostly) a pretty major decision. Things are still a bit iffy about The Mad Scientist's job. Once that is settled, and depending on how other things go, we're thinking of having another baby. We had decided not to, but this Christmas I got thinking and it makes me sad to imagine Abby with no siblings on Christmas morning. It was so wonderful seeing everyone and giving gifts, and I don't want her to miss out. On top of that, she is a toddler now. It's crazy. There are a lot of factors, and nothing's for sure, but we'd been so certain that we wouldn't have anymore that when we opened up the possibility I felt absolute joy. Which is odd, because I had been fine with the decision before this.

I am beginning a new weight-loss regimen. I'm going vegetarian temporarily, in an attempt to force myself to learn new recipes and eat more produce. I always cop out and just eat a burger. So far it's been awesome, and I'm really enjoying all the new foods I'm eating. I'm also taking up yoga and doing more to exercise in general. If all goes to plan and I get healthy, we'll talk about having another one. This is also conditional on The Mad Scientist's job, as well. That's a lot of conditions, and on top of all that the timing has to be right. I don't feel like dealing with delivering a baby in the middle of exams.

I'm really scared that I'll be so tired I'll end up cutting class all the time. It's definitely something to consider. We'll see what happens.

Our New Year's was great. We had a little adventure helping someone whose truck was stuck up the canyon. I am really sore and I got some pretty major snowburn on my hands from pushing the truck. My muscles are so sore I feel like I've been working out for two days. I was supposed to do yoga today but I dunno if I'll survive.

Only two more weeks until we get our grades. I am still trying not to think about it too much. I picked up my books, and they were so expensive. More than I thought they would be, based on what I found online but there just wasn't time.

Ugh law school. I miss it and I dread it.

Winter Break, I Guess

I'm supposed to be on a break, but I'm finding it impossible. Sitting home with Abby reminds me so much of what it was like before law school I find myself falling into the same old habits. Like not showering or wearing pants. Bad!

I know I will be miserable if I spend the rest of the break (school starts on January 10) sitting around not wearing pants. The first morning I have to wake up and put on pants I will hate life. So, I'm resolved to keep busy. Today The Mad Scientist took work off to spend the day at home with us. He's been working really hard lately, largely because his job is probably going to end on the 15th and he doesn't want to leave anything unfinished. Why he feels he owes them any favors is beyond me. On the plus side, his boss has set him up with an interview in the same department at the university, so we may not be losing his pension, our benefits, my tuition discount, etc. Cross your fingers for us!

Today I felt inspired to move furniture. So that's what we did. We got the Playstation Move for Christmas (from Santa) and our ceiling fan was causing major problems. And injuries. My poor law school-addled brain kept thinking about who we could sue. Law school has officially ruined the show for me. For those of you who don't know, that's a metaphor for the phenomenon you experience when you watch Law and Order after starting law school. Show is ruined, see? We moved everything around and I like it much, much better. We converted Abby's crib to a toddler bed. She is currently sleeping soundly in it, so I think we made the right decision. How we'll feel tomorrow morning when she's up and out of it and playing at 5 am I guess we'll have to wait and see. So far she basically feels like the bed is an indoor trampoline. Again I think of products liability. Grr. We reorganized all her toys and got the house cleaned up. Our room is still a total mess, filled with gifts we've received but haven't put away yet. I love getting (and giving) but it's hard to find homes for all the swag.

I'm sad that Christmas is over, because now I'm (nearly, after New Years) back to normal. This break has gone really fast because we have had so much stuff to do, but I know it's going to slow down. I miss school so much. I'm excited for this semester, because I get to take Criminal Law. That should be swell. Also, I get to begin volunteering for the pro bono initiative. I'm leaning toward the immigration clinic or the Street Law Clinic. I guess it will depend on the schedules.

Still no grades yet. We won't find out until January 15. I'm terrified and still in shock and nearly to the point of not caring. I know there isn't anything I can do at this point. I'm hoping the heavy doses of NyQuil didn't screw my Contracts exam up. Time will tell. I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Didn't Get the Number off that Truck

So, Torts. Ugh. What a frakking nightmare. By the time it was over I felt like I had been violated. Seriously. Like I had been robbed at gunpoint (hmm it's torts, so I guess I was what? Hit by a negligent train?) or something. Traumatized. The first two hours I felt fine. The questions were pretty easy. There was a lot on res ipsa loquitur which was so specific I had to guess. We had a break, and then part two. Part two was much harder. There was a lot of proximate cause, and the questions were so very specific. It was awful. Still, I think I did pretty well all in all.

Who would have thought that CivPro would be my best exam?

Contracts was today. A few days ago I came down with a horrible cold. I've been so plugged up and drugged up I couldn't effectively study. I finished my outline but didn't study it much. I showed up for the exam today, and it was nothing like I expected. I can't really explain how, it was just odd. One-third multiple choice. I couldn't get over the fact that I had an 80% chance of getting no points on each question. Awful. I am pretty sure I nailed the essays, but who's to say?

We won't know our grades for three weeks. Home, no school, just me and Abigail for three weeks. Any normal person would be thrilled. I think I might be bored to death.

Tortfeasible

Monday will be my Torts exam. I was feeling very comfortable with it until I took the practice test. My professor is old-school, so he doesn't put up old exams for students to see, doesn't allow you to record his lectures, and it's completely closed book. Oh, and mostly true/false and multiple choice. Still, I was okay with it. I get torts, it just makes sense to me. Or so I thought.

A couple years ago a number of students got together after the exam and wrote down as many questions as they could remember. They typed them all up, provided answers, and made a 4 hour exam out of them. Some are duplicated, some are from supplements, and some are the real deal. I started taking the exam, trying to simulate real exam conditions. Until I noticed that the numbering on the exam appeared to be wrong. Things weren't lining up right. I was about 3/4 of the way through it and decided to stop and grade what I could. It took 2 hours, because I had to redo all the numbering. Finally, I realized it wasn't the document, it was frakking Open Office. It was all screwed up for some reason.

I got it all graded, and I'd scored a 67%. Apparently that's a decent score for one of his exams, so I guess I'm happy?? Anyway, now I'm going through all the questions one by one and making sure I understand the answer. I've heard the best way to study for his exams is just re-read the entire casebook. But he'll spend half an hour in class focusing on the "etc." in one line of the Thorns case. No way that sort of thing will jump out at me if I just read the book again. I figure the test is the best way to study but I'm just guessing.

Sounds like I'll be doing a lot of that.

Never Too Busy for Tradition

Obviously being in law school has kept me from doing things that matter to me, but I am determined that it is not going to ruin my holiday season. I took time to put up the Christmas tree and really enjoyed it. One thing I keep meaning to do that has not happened (in almost two years) is get some photos taken of us. It's just such a struggle getting everyone ready and heading out. I can't even think about picking out Christmas cards. I've found a solution though, thanks to Shutterfly and their fantastic blogger promotion. I have been using a similar site for digital scrapbooking for a while now, but they made some changes I didn't like. Shutterfly has proven to be a fantastic tool for me, especially given how busy I am. To be able to choose the photo you want and create a Christmas card (even without having a Christmas-themed photo taken) really saves time and energy. Plus, who knows if Abby would be interested in posing for a photo at a professional studio?

Instead, I grabbed some random photos of her and placed them in one of Shutterfly's 800+ holiday card templates. I haven't finalized the changes yet, but here is what it looks like so far:



It looks great, doesn't it? And I did hardly any work at all. In fact, I made this in about five minutes in between practice Torts exams.

Something else I love, is that ever since I became a mom I basically have a ready-made gift idea for my in-laws and my parents every year. Anything Abigail-themed and photo-based makes them happy. Sites like Shuttefly let you get great gifts with minimal effort, that will be cherished for years to come. I like the custom calendar options in particular. If you live far away, you can make a custom calendar so your family can see your little one every month. Also, I hate picture frames because when you give them they might not go with the recipient's decor, so these desktop plaques are great.

I'm already getting geared up for Abby's 2nd birthday party, and I'm going to make custom invitations to go with the theme of the party. I did this last year (with matching Thank You notes) and got a ton of compliments. I even used the extra ones to do a page in my scrapbook.

If you would like to get 50 free holiday cards, take advantage of this promotion for bloggers. The requirements are minimal and you get to take advantage of their fantastic website. You can check it out here.

One Down!

Last night I went down and slept in the guest room. Abigail has been crying a lot at night lately and I was worried about not getting enough sleep. GOOD CALL. Apparently she woke up every half hour all night long. Not sure what's going on there, but I am really glad I went downstairs to sleep. I slept great and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for my CivPro exam at 8:30.

I had finished up my outline on Tuesday and decided to spend Wednesday relaxing and sort of forgetting about it altogether. We put up our Christmas tree and I watched an entire disc of How I Met Your Mother. It was legen-waitforit-dary!!!

7:00 when my alarm went off I freaked out for a minute. What if it was a mistake to take a day off? What if I flipped the page and everything on it was totally unfamiliar? I was terrified.

But, I showed up, and from the get-go I knew I had it. I've never felt so good about an exam. I NAILED IT.

Or did I?