loco delictis

Post Exam Prediction

2007-12-11T08:49:00.000-06:00

After the exam, I wept.

I probably Am Jured the class.

2007-11-24T10:38:00.000-06:00

I arrived in the pit of the library at 10am. It is now 10:45 and I am finally about to begin studying.

What have I been doing all this time? I invite you on a tour of inefficiency.

10:00 Get to the library. Note the general forlorn attitude. Unpack crap. Turn on computer, pull out books. Call Mr. Delictis to let him know I arrived okay. Go to locker.

10:05 Arrive at locker. Take out hideous Tax Code and Tax binder. Grimace at how I'm STILL "annotating" the Code. Wonder if I'll finish it today. Look at Evidence stuff in locker. Feel queasy. Slam door.

10:10 Go to Law Review office. Tidy up and make coffee.

10:15 Drop books off at library. Realize that I forgot my extension oord in the car. Wonder just how cold it will get in the library and if I REALLY need the extension cord for my mini heater. Remember how freaking cold I was yesterday. *Sigh* Back to the car.

10:20 Arrive at the car. Grab extension cord. Remember that I didn't get my composition book from my locker, so I have no paper. Bash head into the car.

10:25 Back at the locker. Retrieve comp book. Look in locker mirror. Quickly slam door because I don't recognize the wraith staring back at me.

10:30 Start another pot of coffee in the Law Review office as the pot I made a little bit ago is almost gone. Wonder who drank all the coffee. Assume one person filled up a really, really big cup.

10:35 Back at library. Sort through papers. Ponder whether I want to punch holes with my single hole punch or go upstairs to use a 3-hole punch.

10:40 Feel defeated before even starting.

10:45 Screw it. What's ten more minutes? Blog a little!

Playlist

2007-11-23T09:32:00.000-06:00

ROFL!

While proofing my last post I scrolled down to look at my playlist. What's on my playlist? Evidence - Impeachment.

No Posts Since JULY????

2007-11-23T09:22:00.000-06:00

Has it really been THAT long?

I've thought about the blog. I've thought about you all.

The adage that in your second year they work you to death seems to be true. However, it's not law school that has really worked me to death, it's the "extracurricular" activities that have worked me to death.

I'm an Assistant for Law Review, so I get the opportunity to do more work before I run for the board. I also tutored a 1L class. That meant I had to relearn that class and teach for over an hour 5 times during the semester. In addition, I had to begin my Comment.

The semester has truly flown by. I'm interning over Christmas break so I can boost my resume and hopefully find a job for the summer.

I stopped by my job and someone asked me if I was enjoying time off from work and school. Why yes, I'm enjoying my time off from work and school. I'm enjoying it by spending 12-14 hours a day in the library. :P

I hope that some of y'all still left me on your feed lists! I miss everyone and I'll try to be better. I certainly had tons to complain about this semester, but there were some really rather cool things too. :)

How is everyone???

Write-On Complaining Part 1

2007-07-16T14:59:00.001-06:00

Dear Readers,

The write-on competition started Friday. I printed the information this morning and decided to dedicate an hour to it this afternoon.

My hour sentence just passed.

I have a headache.

I had to open Lexis for chrissakes.

I haven't read ANYTHING all summer, which is a blog post in itself.

I'm not ready for school to start.

Lovely readers, please steel yourselves for about two weeks worth of whining.

I bet you wish I only had a weekend to write my note like some students do!!!!

All my love,
Frill

New Little 1Ls

2007-06-27T16:17:00.000-06:00

My one year blog-o-versary is coming up in about a week. Where was I a year ago? Nervous about law school, not knowing what to expect, worried as heck about how I was going to pay for everything...

Now the 3Ls whose blogs I read a year ago are feverishly preparing for the bar. The 2Ls will be starting their final year and the 1Ls, a little jaded and banged up will start our second year of law school.

I think the past two semesters passed extremely quickly - after the first torturous month. All my blog friends were soooo helpful. The 2 & 3Ls jumped in with tons of good advice.

Where are the little 0Ls? I'm curious. I want to read about those started on their journeys the way I did one year ago.

Let's face it, I'm ecstatic that I don't have to go through that again.

Pro Res Question

2007-06-15T11:08:00.000-06:00

First of all, thank you everyone for your warm words of support. I need it. I'm still smarting. Ouch.

When did you take Pro Res and the MPRE? Is there a preferred time? Do I have to take a prep class? Is it best to take Pro Res in the spring, then take the MPRE in August? A friend of mine is thinking about taking it this fall and taking the MPRE in March.

Right now the thought of taking another test I won't do well on in the middle of the semester feels really painful.

What are your wise thoughts on this?

Honey, If It Didn't Suck, It Wouldn't Be Law School

2007-06-14T13:48:00.001-06:00

That's what Mr. D said to me on the way home yesterday after receiving bad grade news. Todays news was even worse. After working harder, doing more practice tests, reading outlines countless times, I have consistently done worse this semester than last.

Now I know why 2L's quit caring. The work put in isn't sure to pay off. Why try? The class I skipped the most I've done the best in so far, except for LRW. I quit reading cases within the first month, did few practice tests and only read the E&E once.

I'm left shaking my head, ~~defeated, and ashamed~~.

Best Day Ever!

2007-06-02T06:25:00.000-06:00

Mr. D and I had the best day ever the other day. We took a friend home from work and on the way back, we saw a bird shop that was having a sale. Mr. D doubled back.
We stopped and ate at Ashland House, a wonderful little restaurant. We ate outside on the patio, surrounded by lush greenery and chirping birds. A mockingbird kept trying to steal the cheese cracker appetizers kept at the back of the patio!

The food was wonderful! Mr. D had fried chicken and mashed potatoes, a meal he'd been wanting for a while. His lunch came with fresh, yummy green beans that I kept stealing from his plate, they were so good! I had chicken with dried cranberries, which was quite yummy as well.

After our wonderful meal we went to the bird shop. A huge koi pond in the front yard immediately captured my attention. Dogs were running about, barking and saying hi. They had the fattest greyhound I think I've ever seen!

Then I saw the lemurs! They were so sweet. They came to the side of their huge cage and talked to me. With their long harms, striped tails and huge curious eyes, I imagined they would give the sweetest hugs.

All this before we even entered the store!

The birds were in the back. I've never seen so many large birds before. There was a pair of Lovebirds that I particularly wanted to take home, along with some very sweet canaries. The macaws were beautiful and colorful. Mr. D took great pictures the whole time.

Later we went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the new Latin American exhibit. It was okay, not as good as the last one we saw. We went around to see some of the other exhibits that we liked. Some Anselm Kiefers are on exhibit right now that I particularly like, as well as a Philip Guston.

We came home tired, but very happy, murmuring multiple times about the best day ever. We had so much fun.

Our day truly was the best day ever!

I Hate Eggs, But I Love This!

2007-05-31T14:29:00.000-06:00

Oh my gosh, this is so cute! I won't eat eggs at all for the most part, but this is just so darn cute! I love cute, I can't help it!!!

Summer School Started Today!

2007-05-29T16:38:00.000-06:00

But not for me! I'm at Byzantio having a watermelon martini while Mr. D is in a meeting.

I had to go to school today to do some research assistant work. This is the first time I've been on campus since my last exam. I didn't want to go up there. Mr. D didn't want to go there. However, I needed to get some things taken care of for my professor and didn't want to leave him hanging, since he kindly told me not to do any more work until after finals were over. My work didn't take me too long and I got to see some friends.

Friends that are taking summer classes!!!!

Yikes! I can't even imagine going back to school already. Today is the first work day that I've felt like a human being when I got to work. The TBI really acts up when I've been stressed and law school exams have to be the most stress I've been under since the TBI occurred. The only way I can explain it is the feeling of looking at everything through gauzy curtains or with glasses that aren't the right prescription.

Anyway, though, I feel like I've snapped out of it now. I think it was the four day weekend, just relaxing with Mr. D, getting lots of extra rest and generally just chilling.

While at school I found out that grades aren't due until the middle of June. WTF???? My last exam was already more than two weeks ago. Maybe more than three weeks. How long do they need to grade tests? This is ridiculous.

Now I know why the law review write on isn't until July, I guess, while all the normal schools have them in June. We'll just be getting grades at that point. In a perfect world I could possibly grade on to law review at this point, but in the real world, I'll most likely have to write on. In July. #()#$#@!

Anyway, I'm relaxing and finished with a watermelon martini and I'm now wondering what other kind of martini I should try before Mr. D gets back.

Two Recent Yucks

2007-05-28T16:01:00.000-06:00

I know we're all glad that I've discovered the joys of including pictures in my blog posts. Two weeks ago, youngest had an away swim meet. After dropping youngest off, Mr. D and I went for provisions.

First we went to Starbucks. I was immediately curious about the diet version of the Orange Creme Frappacino. It was awful. The drink lures you in with a good first impression, but then the aftertaste hits like a bad cough drop. Yuck.

Then we headed over to Wal-mart and ran across an interesting bag of Doritos. Mmmmmm, marketing ploy, we mused. We felt purchasing the chips would be okay because we knew we were being suckered in by the packaging, not just buying it blindly. Again, thumbs down all around. Mr. D threw the chips away because we knew we would keep eating them just to try to identify the odd flavor.

Yes, 1L summer....relaxing and trying desperately not to think about grades or school. Unfortunately I've been plagued by more law school dreams now than since before law school started. :P

Craftiness

2007-05-21T12:33:00.001-06:00

Saturday was my friend Jeffrey's birthday. He's an avid bird watcher, so I thought I would make a little flock of birdies for him. They came out really cute and worked up really, really quickly.
School's only been out for a week and I'm crafting! That's a nice feeling. I'm knitting a hat for Mr. D now. Actually, I started it over Christmas break, I think. Maybe it was spring break. Who knows - it's kind of a blur.

Chill Time

2007-05-17T20:46:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here playing Heroes with my sweetie. What I'm NOT doing is fretting about school - thinking about the reading I should be doing, the cases I have or haven't read, which classes I've recited in and the odds of reciting again soon. School is starting to drift away in the haze of a very bad nightmare.

Note: school will come crashing back in another couple of weeks when I start obsessively grade checking.

On another game note, I've recently discovered Katamari Damacy. Mr. D bought it for me and it's so bright and fun and colorful!!!

The object of the game is to roll stuff up on to the ball that your little prince is pushing around. I won't go farther, because it sounds ridiculous. Let me just say that it is the perfect remedy for law school brain.

Fitness of Character

2007-05-16T17:12:00.000-06:00

I just finished the bulk of my Character and Fitness evaluation. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I've worked at the same place for ten years, lived in or around the same city for ten years and haven't done anything really bad.

If I'd done this back in September, I could have saved myself $190.

Why didn't I do that?

Oh yeah. First six weeks of law school or something like that.

I'd shelled out almost $1000 in books and spending another $150 on law school didn't seem like anything I wanted to mess with.

I also have to get a copy of my birth certificate, which may prove to be the glitch in my plans. I was born on an Army base in (then, West) Germany. I'm worried that getting a copy of my birth certificate may be quite a challenge because of that.

Has anyone else been in this situation?

Let's Be Friends!!

2007-05-15T11:49:00.000-06:00

Do you have a Flickr account? Are you on delicious? Magnolia? Twitter? Virb? Last fm? Jaiku? Cork'd?

Let's be friends! Email me your contact stuff if you don't want to leave it on here. Social web stuff is fun, but it's more fun if you have lots of friends. Most of my friends are not as computer nerdy as my darling and I are, so most of my friends are on-line friends.

Sigh of Relief

2007-05-14T14:40:00.000-06:00

Thank God. It's over. I survived.

Now I can start posting again!

I don't know why I quit posting. I just couldn't get back into the habit of it once school started back up in the Spring. I'm a creature of habit. If I would have gotten into the habit of doing posting right when I got to the library, or something like that, it would have happened.

I also tried to quit turning the computer on when I got to the library. I am so easily distracted. Maybe not. Maybe I'm only easily distracted when there's three to four hours of Con Law reading sitting in front of me.

In addition, I got more than a little weirded out about people in my section reading my blog. Now I guess that I don't have to worry about that so much. No one every said anything to me about it, but nevertheless, especially after that anonymous comment, I was hesitant about posting. Those days of seeing the same faces five hours a day five days a week and three hours a day on Saturdays are GONE!

Exams went better than last semester, I think. I hope. I guess we'll know in about a month. I certainly felt better before them. I wrote tons more practice tests this semester than I did last semester. Actually, doing two practice tests would be twice as many as I did last semester! I just really, really dreaded doing them. That changed when I challenged a friend to do a negligence analysis for products liability in fifteen minutes. I can handle fifteen minutes. Then I increased it and once finals rolled around, doing a 45 minute practice test wasn't so painful.

Thank you, thank Prof. Torts. She really encouraged me and pushed me to do more, better, faster with my exams this semester. Hearing her say that she had faith I could do well gave me a little more confidence in myself.

1L is over!!!! We did it! We survived!!!!! :)

At Wit's End

2007-05-11T10:41:00.000-06:00

I know - it's been forever.

Since coming back from spring break everything's been a blur. The brief, studying for finals, etc., etc.

I've hit the wall.

In the last seven days I've taken three exams. I have the last one tomorrow. It's the one I've studied the least for because I understood it and kept up with it the whole semester. And, to be honest, it's the last exam.

I'm still reeling from the third exam. I can't concentrate. I can't sit still long enough to focus on future interests.

Future interests requires focus.

I haven't even gotten to the Rule Against Perpetuities stuff.

Almost in tears.

Spring Break is Almost Over

2007-03-17T17:53:00.000-06:00

School starts back on Monday. :(

I take a long time to wind down and do nothing. It's Saturday and this is the first day of Spring Break that I haven't studied for at least two hours. Most days I worked at least six hours.

However, I didn't really do much towards my brief. We just got the assignment right before break, so we haven't really talked yet about what to do. I started researching and getting elements written down, but I haven't really sunk my teeth into it.

Now malaise has set in and I don't want to do anything school related. I'll probably take another week to get back into things. I'm depressed that school is starting back. I feel far more productive not going to class. ha ha!

Geek Factor

2007-03-17T08:04:00.000-06:00

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: High

Geekiness in Love: Moderate

General Geekiness: Moderate

Internet Geekiness: Moderate

Movie Geekiness: Moderate

Music Geekiness: Moderate

Fashion Geekiness: Low

Gamer Geekiness: Low

SciFi Geekiness: Low

How Geeky Are You?

from Stare Decisis

My Brain on Law School

2007-03-12T20:39:00.000-06:00

I went to dinner with a lawyer friend before I took the LSAT. She told me that law school would completely alter the way I think.

At first I didn't see any difference. I didn't argue with everyone over everything. I didn't throw around Latin phrases.

However, negligence abounds! I see torts everywhere. I don't see them and think - oh great, law suits for me to file, money for me to make.

I think, the wrong person, the wrong place, the wrong time, and because of a lack of due care, someone gets hurt. And that someone sues. That someone sues a person who could have easily avoided it and who may not be able to avoid a law suit.

The old Learned Hand test comes to mind along with the saying, "An ounce of wisdom is worth a pound of cure."

Anonymous Posting

2007-03-02T09:17:00.000-06:00

I'm turning off anonymous posting. :)

Anonymous said...

W didn't effing lie. He didn't want to see *only* data dump. So it was okay to data dump on the exam, but with the addition of analysis. - da stcl troll.

Warning! Whining Post!

2007-02-25T11:36:00.000-06:00

I do homework all the time. I read on the way to school in the dark. I read on the way home. My pleasure reading consists of the Contracts and/or Torts E&E's. When I'm not doing homework, I'm working at one of two jobs.

Usually I bear my burden with (little to) no complaining.

Today I don't want to study. I want a break. I go to school six days a week. Yes, six days. We have optional tutoring for three hours on Saturdays, and you know that all the "good" law students are there.

However, I have a motion for summary judgment due on Thursday. It's about 2/3s of the way done, I think. If I skip some classes between now and Thursday it should be suitable for turning in by then. I promised Mr. D that I would complete one section today. That just leaves me with subsections A & B, Conclusion and explanation of summary judgment sections.

Whine, whine, whine = I want some wine before noon.

Mr. D offered a compromise. He'll play Heroes of Might and Magic with me and I can make flash cards instead of reading.

I imagine that after a little bit I'll perk up and finish Con Law for Monday, even though I'm definitely skipping that class. We voted to have Con Law for two hours MW rather than 1.5 hours on MWF. During those two hours on Monday I should be able to wrap up the motion.

Enough whining. I know I'm not the only law student bummed about law school consuming her life.

Crim Law Meeting

2007-02-18T16:27:00.000-06:00

I met with my Crim Law prof about my finals - two weeks ago, I think. Crim Law was my lowest grade by a significant amount, so I wanted to see what happened. What happened was that I listened to him when he said that he didn't want to see a lot of "data dumping." When he went over my test, he kept telling me I didn't do this or didn't do that. Finally I said that I got a lower grade on this test than on all my others because of his data dump comment. I knew all the stupid definitions, I just used them judiciously because of what he had said. Next time I'll remember to ignore that.

Sorry about my lack of posting. Two jobs and trying to fit in two jobs with writing a summary judgment - stress of trying not to make the "mistakes" I felt like I made last semester....

Stressed, worn down...not even reading blogs right now. I miss you all, a lot.

Trying to get going....

2007-02-04T21:05:00.000-06:00

I just read Butterflyfish's post about being less organized this semester. Note that we're into February and I'm just now reading that post.

I'm having a hard time being motivated or organized.

The first two weeks of school, more than half the time I hadn't read for class. Since I recited twice during that time, the odds were pretty high that I hadn't read when I was called on. Fortunately one of those times Mr. D filled me in on the subject on the way to school. Con Law and we have to stand up for that one. Yuck. I survived, though.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the reading assignments are lighter? I'm getting most all of my reading done before Mr. D picks me up. When I get home, I don't have class preparation to do. That's nice, because I just want to hang out with him when I get home.

The past two weeks of school have been better as far as getting things done. I'm almost caught up with E&E's. I worked on flashcards for Property. Those are all done up through the material we'll cover this week. I haven't started flashcards for any of the other classes, but I'll try to get that going in the next few days.

I poked around on Lexis for some law review articles for my prof. I started research for my summary judgment thingy.

I've been a lousy poster, too. I'm still settling back into routines, I think. I hope everyone is doing well. I was able to post on Butterflyfish's blog, so maybe the blogger posting issues have been resolved.

RA, at your service!

2007-01-25T15:44:00.000-06:00

Well, I am now official a research assistant. I think that's really cool. It didn't hurt that I focused on modern American history for one of my degrees and the prof is writing about legal reactions to incidents occurring during this period.

However, I have a client letter due Tuesday for LRW. I'm already feeling the time pressure!

I know it's not impossible, though. It doesn't sound worse than when everyone was worried about getting their Law Review stuff done. (If I had more time and wherewithall, I would have linked each word to a fretting blog post!)

I feel like I need lots more to blog about - this semester's classes, people not showing up after the break, that kind of thing.

I also wanted to say that I have been absent from commenting on lots of blogs that I love to read. This is because for some reason, I'm having a lot of problems commenting on some of your blogs. I can't post on Ana's AT ALL. Butterflyfish, you too, sometimes. So, please know that I'm reading and thinking and WANTING to comment, but some Blogger crapulence is preventing me.

and...we're back!

2007-01-23T10:31:00.000-06:00

Hello, everyone! Sorry about the recent hiatus, and thank you,Butterflyfish for the nudge to update.

I survived getting my grades back. I actually made an A in LRW and was invited to interview for a research assistant position for that prof. I also made the highest grade on the graded memo in my class. I know I'm bragging. I can't help it. It just feels nice to have gotten something right this semester.

I'm waiting for LRW to start, so I'll post more later. I just wanted to get back into the old blogging habit again.

Licking My Wounds

2007-01-09T13:56:00.000-06:00

Grades have been coming in over the past few days.

I didn't expect to make all A's. I didn't expect to make any A's....

but....

Ouch!

What a humbling, miserable experience.

How did y'all deal with this????

LRW - The Final Final

2006-12-18T12:59:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a week since my last final. Yesterday I finally felt clear-headed, like I was getting back to my old self.

I may not be completely out of the woods, though. Right now I'm listening to a podcast on Constitutional Law and over the weekend I read Getting to Maybe, so there could be cause for concern. I think it's just a winding down thing. There's always a period of adjustment at the end of the semester when that hundred million pound weight known as schoolwork and exam pressures comes off my back.

Anyway, LRW final. I studied for it. I actually made more flashcards for this exam than I did even for Civil Procedure. I knew the flashcards the day before the exam. I made charts of the Texas court system and the federal court system. I listened to LRW podcasts. I did CALI lessons. Who knew there were CALI lessons on LRW? I sure didn't. My friend, A, clued me in around noon the day of the exam and it was a GODSEND when it came to the citation questions.

In other words, I took this exam as seriously as any of the others. Well, almost. I thought it would be a little tough. I studied as if it were going to be VERY HARD. It was actually EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.

Two hours, ninety multiple choice questions. I had about five minutes at the end to correct a couple of answers I figured out that were wrong in the process of working through the exam.

One of my classmates said, "It was so hard that I just gave up and put all B's toward the end."

One thing about law school that I will have to admit is kind of nice. I have yet to finish an exam thinking, "Gosh. I could have studied about eight hours less for this and still gotten an A+."

And it's over. I survived my first semester of law school. And in the words of Martha Stewart, that is a very, very good thing.

I'm Marianne Dashwood!

2006-12-16T21:15:00.000-06:00

I found this at Knit and the City.

Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?

You're Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibilty by Jane Austen!
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Christmas Song Tag - I'm It!!!

2006-12-16T13:03:00.000-06:00

I still haven't written about my last final. I will. I think I'm still recovering from the whole three weeks of hell that was my finals experience.

Thanks to Meg, I'm out of my hole at least for a little bit.

Here's how it works:
I name five of my favorite Christmas songs and then tag five people to do the same.

My Favorite Christmas Songs:
Adeste Fideles
Winter Wonderland
Sleigh Ride (I don't know if this is the name of the song. The lyrics start out, "Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingalin', too...")
Good King Wencelaus
Little Drummer Boy

And I'm tagging:
Butterflyfish
Miss HB
Ana
Katlet
1L Wannabe

I Can't Stop Watching This!

2006-12-12T23:05:00.000-06:00

I've watched this again and again. I can't decide if it's the music, the library ceiling, the utter ridiculousness of it all or a combination. Maybe it's post final hysteria. I just finished LRW, but I'll post on that one later. Right now, I'm going to watch those kitties sniff at the little monster....

Crim Law - Eight Hours

2006-12-06T09:51:00.000-06:00

Torts was awful. Really bad. Like so bad I had to force myself to remain in my chair and not just get up and leave. However, I think I did reasonably well on the second essay. I don't know if it will make up for the disastrous first essay or the crazy multiple choice.

I didn't finish 30 minutes before the exam was over, either. When people finish and leave before time is called, I just shake my head. I don't know what that means. Are they so fast and accurate that they spotted all the issues and wrote such fabulous essays that they checked and double checked? Or is it that they've just reached that screw it point and wrap it up. I don't know. I'm one of those people that usually takes the entire exam period, especially on an essay exam.

Today is Crim Law, the exam for which I am least prepared. This prof has a reputation for giving a very fair exam and having extremely fair grading practices. I think that will work in my favor. He did a really, really good job of drilling things into our malleable little brains in class. I also realized toward the end of the semester that if I sat in rapt attention, my mind NEVER wandering from what he was saying even for a nanosecond, that I would not get called on! It never failed that the instant my mind would briefly wander, even to something Crim related, that I would get called on.

Yesterday I spent wallowing in depression, the same way I spent the day after each of my other exams.

Law-rah posted some 1L advice yesterday that was really helpful for me. I don't think it's sunk in all the way yet, but one thing rang true for me. She talked about having the firm belief that if you want something bad enough and work hard enough, you will get it. That's me! I still think that way, though. I still think that next semester, if I work harder and smarter, I'll do better. However, what she said planted a seed. I'm a muller. I have to think for some time and let them rattle around in my head.

And gosh, grades aren't even out yet. I could still do okay! Actually, right now I just want to pass, or get B's. Please, please, please.

Torts in Nine Hours

2006-12-04T09:16:00.000-06:00

Nine hours from now I'll be taking my Torts final.

Saturday I was so blue I only studied for a few hours. I couldn't make myself do it. Mr. D cheered me up, though and Sunday I was back on track and studied for about twelve hours.

I've been stressed during these exams, but not like I have been in the past. Mostly I've just been depressed.

My dad doesn't like to play games where he doesn't win. I can be the same way, unless I'm really trying to learn from someone and my losing doesn't really matter to me.

I think school is that way for me, too. This semester I don't feel like I have a chance to get the best grade in the class, so I've basically taken my ball and gone home. If I can't do REALLY well, I don't want to play.

I need to get over that. I have more to say, but I have a stack of flashcards left to learn.

How did your exam experiences differ in undergrad and law school? I know I'm not the only one struggling with these perfectionist tendencies. Does it get easier? Do you know in advance that you're going to do well, or is it a guessing game til grades come out? *sigh*

Two Down, Three to Go

2006-12-01T09:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I survived my Contracts final. I thought it was going to be the worst one. It wasn't tooooooo bad. There were only a few multiple choice questions where my answer didn't match any of the options given.

Now I have to prepare for Crim and Torts, which like I said yesterday, I am nervous about since I didn't have my study game on at that point.

I'll be so happy once next week is over with. My LRW final is six days after Crim Law, so that should be AMPLE time to prepare for that exam.

Then I guess it will be time for the Waiting Game.

One Down

2006-11-30T09:32:00.000-06:00

I had my Civil Procedure final Tuesday. Wednesday I was so tired I could barely study for Contracts today. I went to bed at 8pm and didn't get up until Mr. D dragged me out of bed at 6am.

Mr. D's been kind of worried about me. He says I seem really defeated.

In the old days (because it DOES feel like eons ago), when I would finish a test, I would feel like a champion. I would have complete confidence in myself. I'd feel like a champion, like I'd kicked that test's ass.

My non-law school acquaintances eagerly ask me how I did on my test. My reply is, "Well, I don't think I failed it."

This feeling sort of reminds me of how I felt after my first upper level history exam. I made a B+ and my study partner made a C. Neither of us had made such low grades on essay exams before. We got our grades back, reconfigured our study strategy and I made an A+ on my final in that class.

The Torts tutor gave us a finals study schedule that began the month before school ended. We were supposed to study for the last final 3-5 hours a day for that week, then switch to the second to last final the next week, etc. Well, that week sucked for me study-wise. It took me that week to figure out how I wanted to prepare. My second week was better. By the third and fourth week I had my plan down. That was Contracts and Civil Procedure. I still didn't feel prepared enough for Civil Procedure.

I'm worried about Crim Law and Torts. They're on Monday and Wednesday, only three days after this.

Like I said earlier, I don't think I'll fail. But that's all I think. It makes me sad.

I know what to do for next semester to feel more prepared by this point. I feel confident that by then I'll be able to do far better.

Unfortunately, everything seems to ride on this semester. That stinks.

I'm a good student. I work hard and study a lot. I just need to focus the whole semester on preparing for the exam.

And don't get me started on how almost nothing in class helped me for the exam.

In honor of approaching finals, a quiz

2006-11-25T22:30:00.000-06:00

Thanks, Ana!

You scored as Dante Alighieri. According to you most of humanity will spend at least some of their afterlife in hell. You have a high likelihood of being exiled, but anyone as bloody fucking romantic as you deserves what they get. You have an exceptional moral code, overshadowed by the fact that you yourself cannot uphold it.

Your existence bears a definite irony, although of fairly Christian morality, many pagans, satanists, communists, and intellectuals admire you and your works for all the wrong reasons.

Also, the brighest star in your sky is never going to be your lover...

It takes a lot of grief to be the cartographer of hell.

C.G. Jung

83%

Dante Alighieri

83%

Friedrich Nietzsche

67%

Adolf Hitler

58%

Mother Teresa

58%

Miyamoto Musashi

50%

Sigmund Freud

42%

Jesus Christ

33%

O.J. Simpson

25%

Charles Manson

25%

Stephen Hawking

25%

Steven Morrissey

17%

Hugh Hefner

Elvis Presley

What Pseudo Historical Figure Best Suits You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Mistaken for a Homeless Person

2006-11-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

Last week I was having a particularly blue day. I sat down in front of the law school building waiting for Mr. D to pick me up. My school, like many others, is not in a particularly classy part of town. While I was sitting there, an intoxicated man strolls up to me and asks me if I need some money. I thought he asked me if I was with someone, so I said yes. He pulls a dollar bill out of his pocket and tries to give it to me!!!!!!! I declined his offer. Then he asked me if I had a place to go!

I know that finals are stressing me out and that I'm looking a little worse for wear, but I didn't know I looked that bad!!!!

On the finals front, I have my first final, Civil Procedure, on Tuesday. I was such a good studier in undergrad. I don't know what's wrong with me now. I'm studying, but it all seems so futile. It's really, really hard to get that good study groove action on. In undergrad I knew the amount of studying required to get the best grade in the class or close to it. Now I don't really know what that amount is, only that it has to be more than undergrad. In undergrad I used to get really stressed out. Now I'm stressed out, but it's more of a defeated stressed out, like - it's useless stressing out because you're not going to make As anyways, or you might make one A.

Me me me me me me MEME!

2006-11-13T16:03:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Zuska for helping me avoid studying for contracts! :)

"What Have I Done?"

Stuff I've done is in bold, stuff I'd like to do is italicized.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

My Goodness, What Language!

2006-11-12T10:22:00.000-06:00

I always look up words in the dictionary (or a suitable facsimile) with which I'm not familiar. Usually I can derive the meaning of the word from context clues, but if you walked up to me on the street and asked me what that word means and I can't tell you, I'm going to look it up. I copy all these words and definitions into the back of whatever journal I'm writing in at the time.

Now that I'm reasonably well-versed in all the legal lingo, I don't have to run to Black's as much. I just ran across a new word while perusing cases during memo writing.

Meretricious: 1 : of or relating to a prostitute : having the nature of prostitution meretricious relationships
2 a : tawdrily and falsely attractive meretricious trash

who hooo!!!!!

Note: Blogging about a word I saw in a case is satisfaction of the element of PROCRASTINATION. ha ha

Age Regression

2006-11-12T08:16:00.000-06:00

I talked to my mom last night and she wanted to know why I sounded so funny. I told her that exams were looming on the horizon and I was getting more and more anxious about it.

I could hear her rolling her eyes through the phone.

"Loco, honey," she said, "I've been going through exams with you and your sister for nearly three decades now. It's always the same before, during and after. I hear the same things. Oh, no, Mom, this time it's different. These kids are smarter. These exams are important. All the tests are sooooo different and special. It's funny how the results are always the same with these new, different, extra super duper hard tests. You always do at least as well, and more often than not, better than everyone else. You're almost (insert your idea of really old age here) years old. Haven't you figured that out yet? Or are you still smarter than me and know everything and I'm still always wrong?"

She continued....

"Loco, these are essay exams. You've been winning writing awards since you were eleven. Your first writing thingy in law school was used as an example of a good memo. Stop worrying and just keep studying. Plus, you're really cute. (Her solution for everything.)"

I responded by slamming my bedroom door and turning up my music really loud. She doesn't understand. These tests are really hard. They're really, super important. Everyone is soooo smart.

Like, totally.

A Dying Dream

2006-11-11T07:37:00.000-06:00

I've been studying Torts all week. I feel asleep reading about Negligence last night. Yes, I've studied for several hours each night and as of Friday night I was only to Negligence. When I did practice multiple choice questions Thursday night, I was getting a significant number wrong.

I feel like I should kiss those top 10% dreams goodbye and focus on passing. I can see possibly an A in LRW, but that's it.

The times I felt like this in undergrad, the solution was to study more, longer, harder. I don't know how to possible squeeze out any - "more."

I feel so lost and behind that I almost just want to give up.

I have two practice exams, neither of which are on the material I've studied this week. One is for last week's study materials and last week I felt like I was just beginning to get geared up. This week was much better studywise, but still I am having a lot of trouble entering the study zone. I think it only happened once or twice this week. Last night I was so tired that I'm not sure I got a lot out of it.

I know these freak out feelings are normal.....everyone is feeling the pressure.

I feel like I'm constantly fighting giving up. I know that law school makes you doubt yourself. I guess I just wasn't prepared for that.

Yesterday my friend asked me a question about felony murder something or other and I said I really wasn't sure. She said, "But you know everything! You always have the answer."

Ha. I must be faking a lot of people out. It's not going to work on the exam, though.

It's List Week!

2006-11-09T16:44:00.000-06:00

Meg has declared this list week! Here are some of the lists going around in my head this week.

A List of Intentional Torts
False Imprisonment
Trespass to Land
Trespass to Chattels
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
Conversion
Assault
Battery

A List of Defenses to Intentional Torts
Consent
Self Defense
Defense of Others
Public Necessity
Private Necessity
Defense of Property

a list of the elements of battery
a list of the elements of assault....
the lists go on and on!

Sleepyhead

2006-11-05T18:06:00.000-06:00

The major thing I've accomplished this weekend is sleep. I've taken long naps and gone to bed at 8:30pm, sleeping til 8:30 the next morning. I've had two naps today.

Is this normal three weeks before finals? Maybe I'm just stocking up on sleep. I have low level anxiety right now. I feel like I should have more rules memorized, done more reading, more studying.

Instead of studying and memorizing, I'm sleeping!!!!!!!

It's not even that I'm kind of tired and sort of want to take a nap.... I just fall asleep. My eyes close while Mr. D is talking to me.

It's really hard to be motivated. I want to do well in school. I can't believe I'm sleeping so much.

Where is that burning, fiercesome motivation of undergrad? Right now I just feel beat down. In undergrad I would intentionally wait to study, relishing the stress. I know that won't work now. I can't just study all night the night before and make the highest grade in the class. However, at this point I feel like no matter what I do, it's too late to do really well.

Mr. D says he's seen this semester after semester....the naps, the blues, the defeatism. He says I go for a week wearing sweats everywhere, then one day, the fire is lit and it's on.

I think that comes from knowing exactly what was entailed to be the best. I'd just buckle down and do it.

Now the thought of memorizing a 30 page outline seems impossible. Never mind that I would learn 250 paintings for an Art History exam. For some reason, that just seems like no big deal.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Law school sucks. I don't regret my decision to be here, but it sucks ass.

Another thing - could people please stop asking what makes law school so hard? Or if people won't stop asking that, could someone in law school tell me how to explain why it is? The explanations coming out of my mouth aren't met with any understanding. I say, "There's one test. Everything is new. It's a lot of pressure. Everyone wants to do well. You don't really know what to expect. You're not regurgitating material, you're applying rules to a new fact situation." No one I know seems to think that's a big deal.

And We're Back!

2006-11-03T13:11:00.000-06:00

Okay, sick of worrying about people at school reading my blog. If you're in my section and you read this, you're probably sick and tired of the same people I am.

Anyway, back to more important issues....
Exams are rapidly approaching.

Oh, ye wiser 2L's and 3L's, share your exam preparation tips and exam taking tips for a lowly, humble 1L who wants to make good grades.

My outlines are all current. I have Emanuel's outlines and all the E&E's. I've read most all of all of them.

Why is it that I'm having so much trouble getting myself to study? I don't want to work on this stupid memo, either.

Mostly, I'd just like to sleep.

*sigh*

How many?

2006-10-31T21:25:00.001-06:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
462
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Thanks, Law Bitches!

How many?

2006-10-31T21:25:00.000-06:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
462
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Thanks, Law Bitches!

No Longer Anonymous

2006-10-30T13:20:00.000-06:00

Someone in my section just asked me if I had a blog. I should have just said no, but I was taken aback and not sure what to say.

I'm more than a little weirded out. I mean, I don't think I've said anything offensive and I don't think that would bother me if I had.

I just don't like it. It makes me feel like now I need to censor what I say.

It makes me feel as if I need to be careful as to who I bitch about.

All this is probably exacerbated by the fact that people are starting to get really wound up about finals. The tension level has increased dramatically just over the weekend, it seems.

The thought of memorizing all those outlines is nerve wracking, but hey, at least mine are done.

No Class Tomorrow!

2006-10-26T18:26:00.000-06:00

Prof K cancelled class for this Friday. We convinced Prof Civ Pro to let us off, then Prof LRW emailed us and said we could have class on Monday instead of Friday. Yay! I have a Friday off!

What will I do with all of that wonderful time???

Go to the library. Work on my final memo. Get my Crim Law outline updated. Read E&E's. Try to start memorizing outlines.

A Chill Day

2006-10-22T13:58:00.000-06:00

I am sort of taking the day off. I haven't had a blow off day in a long time. I go to school six days a week and study seven days a week.

All my outlines are current. I think I've done all the research I need to do for my final memo. I am also almost current with all my E&E's.

After this I'll have to kick things up a notch, I know. My finals will start in five weeks. I should be taking practice tests and reading more of my E&E's.

Sometimes a break is not such a bad thing though, right?

My shoulder is so knotted up that I can't turn my head. It's nice to just spend a lazy Sunday sitting next to Mr. D playing Heroes of Might and Magic and not worry about making top ten percent.

So far today I've gotten completely caught up with many favorite blawgs. I've also managed to catch up here, here and here. I also bought Mr. D a nifty present that I think he'll like. :)

*sigh* It feels quite nice to wile away a day.

At Long Last

2006-10-17T19:26:00.000-06:00

Time is flying by so quickly that I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd posted until Ana gave me a nudge. Thank you!!!!!

Guess what, folks? I'm in law school! I'm busy! I study A LOT!

I'm slightly drunk posting, so I'll keep it short and sweet and try to work into my schedule a regular time for blogging.

First memo's were returned two weeks ago. I received a "check-plus" and the prof asked if he could use parts of my memo as an example for other students working on memo #2. Memo 2 was turned in Friday and now I'm working on the real deal.

I got my Civ Pro practice mid term back. He wrote lots of "good analysis" and "good argument" on it.

I'm struggling with scheduling and time management. I guess that's normal. I'm getting my outlines in order and wondering when I'm going to memorize them.

I've had the experience now of not knowing the answer in class and not knowing where in the case the answer might lie.

I've laughed when Crim Law prof nailed the lead gunner.

I've gotten drunk at happy hour.

I've done work for K's during Civ Pro.

Guess what? I'm in law school!

Gunnerrhea

2006-09-17T07:43:00.000-06:00

My section has one gunner and two junior gunners. They were tolerable at first, but now I want to stab the main gunner in the eye every time he opens his mouth.

My irritation reached new heights the day he sat down next to a junior gunner and said, "What are we going to argue with the professor about today?" Junior gunner, recently shot down for his idiocy replied that he'd learned his lesson and was going to keep quiet. My friend and I argued whether stabbing the gunner in the eye with a pen would be justiable homicide.

To Brief or Not to Brief

2006-09-08T12:25:00.000-06:00

The first four weeks are now over. Yay!!!!

It's come to my attention that some people aren't writing out separate briefs. Is this a common practice? Am I wasting valuable time? Right now I read the case and highlight the different elements with different colored highlighters. Then I go back and type up a brief. In class, I write important notes that we discuss in class on that piece of paper.

Should I just be reading and highlighting? It seems like having a typed brief for the cases seems like a good study aid....not that I have a chance to really go back and look at them.

It's hard for me to shift my procedures, often to my detriment. My first couple of years back in school I taped my classes and then went back and transcribed them. You read correctly, folks. It took some time to wean myself away from that, but my grades didn't sink.

Please share your wisdom!!!!!

To brief or not to brief, THAT is the question!!!!

30% Dixie

2006-08-27T21:44:00.000-06:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

30% Dixie

10% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I'm so Tired, My Mind is on the Brink

2006-08-23T15:49:00.000-06:00

I am so tired - physically and mentally.

Yesterday morning I couldn't remember any of the cases I'd briefed the night before.

I'm worried I'm not learning anything because I never have a chance to go back over anything I've read to study it. It all just seems like a struggle to get as much out of the cases as possible to write briefs and then pray I don't get called on.

I'm completely exhausted.

I know this is normal 1L experience, but could someone tell when (like what day number) it gets better. If I just knew when that day was, I could hang on by my fingernails until then.

I have about six cases to brief now. Hopefully I'll make it to bed before 1am.

*sigh*

I'm a Survivor

2006-08-20T08:48:00.000-06:00

I have completed my first week of law school. Whew!

I have had all sorts of adventures.

I missed a class. I had looked at my LRW schedule wrong and thought it started at a different time. I arrived about thirty minutes before it was over. I pressed my ear to the door and listened to the last part of class. Afterwards I went and talked to the prof, who said I was more than welcome to come to his later section and I could sneak out when I needed to go to Civ Pro. I think Prof LRW is going to be my favorite. It's my smallest section and he really seems to want to be available to us.

That same day I forgot one of my books. Mr Delictis kindly brought it to me after I broke down and called him. I thought about buying a copy from the bookstore then returning it after class, but it wouldn't have my highlighting and notes in it.

I got called on in class by Prof CrimLaw, who I think is the most hardcore. I got called on and had the right answer!!!!!!!!! who hoooo!!!! I wanted to stand up and do the happy dance right then and there, but deemed it inappropriate and quelled that desire.

I feel exactly the way they said I would at orientation - like I'm merely treading water. I'm not briefing every single case. I'm worried that I'm not understanding everything (anything?). I am doing all the reading and I highlight the cases with different highlighters (blue for procedural history, yellow for reasoning, etc etc). This weekend I started making flashcards. It's too early for doing outlines, right? I'm worried I'm not doing my briefs correctly, although I feel more adept than some of my classmates who've never done it before(thank you, Delaney!).

However, I made it through my first week. I think I'm officially a 1L now.

In other news, LawMommy had her first day of orientation yesterday and I can't wait to hear all about it!

School Daze

2006-08-14T11:09:00.000-06:00

Here I am, sitting in the library after my first class, which was Contracts. I have several hours to pass before Civ Pro, so I thought I'd update before hitting the books.

Last night I felt like it was the night before my first day of middle school. I had a zillion folders spread all over the bed, was looking exasperatedly at my schedule and wondering how everything was going to fit into my backpack.

All weekend I thought I had Torts and Contracts today. Sunday night I discovered I had Contracts and Civ Pro. I realized that USC does NOT stand for United States Constitution, it stands for United States Code! I learned that I had purchased ANOTHER incorrect book, this time from the bookstore where I misread what book went with what section. What else, what else.....

However, once I identified the panic with the crisis of middle school, I calmed down considerably. Middle school sucked at first, running around trying to find my locker, carrying tons and tons of stuff around, walking up and down stairs and generally just going crazy made up the first week or so. After a few false starts things evened out.

The girl sitting next to me in Contracts a great organizational tool that I already said I was going to utlize myself. Stuck to the spine of her Contracts books she had a piece of green paper with a "C" on it (I realize it should be a K though, right?) and - this is the genius part - her Contracts binder was green. My complete OCD/anal retentive freakishness was ALL OVER that. How perfectly divine! I have been worried sick about grabbing the wrong materials for class one day and just being stuck.

It made me think of some things that can help me stay calm and organized during this first couple of weeks. First of all, it's driven me crazy that I can't remember my schedule (or even read it correctly, it seems!), where my classes are, who the profs are. Well, that's because this is a new environment. At UH, (where I'd been going for the past, uh, 17 years) I chose my classes and created my schedule. I knew who the profs were in advance for the most part. I knew where the classes were. This is a whole new ball game. So....I'm going to put a copy of my schedule next to the bookshelf so that I can pull everything the night before. I'm going to color code everything.

And I'm going to take some more deep breaths so I can relax....hopefully.

One final note, and really the most important one. Thank you so much for all your words of support. Ana cracked me up, and you better believe the promise of that glass (bottle) of wine at the end of the day is tiding me through. It was nice to look and find more and more comforting words each time I checked my email over the weekend. Cella, thank you for the outlining tips. My degree is in Art History, so attaching pictures to cases is a PERFECT idea for me. Thank you, thank you! Kat and Law-rah, thank you for your good vibes as well!

Okay, the USC and I have a date for the next couple of hours.

Orientation Part One

2006-08-11T09:53:00.000-06:00

My orientation days are Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I've been through two days of orientation so far. After I got home on both days I went straight to bed. I'm just emotionally exhausted and stressed out.

Yes, I'm so stressed out that instead of reading, I'm blogging. I know that's not unusual. I don't know how many times I've read, "I should be studying for finals, I should be reading, I should be...." I can at least take some comfort in that, I suppose.

I've bought the wrong books twice - once from the bookstore, once from Amazon. *sigh* That's not helping my stress level. I'm not used to having to buy books from the bookstore, I'm used to knowing what to get in advance and getting it from Amazon and saving a TON.

Orientation has been okay. I've met only *one* person from my section, though. All the C section (ha ha!) people I've hung out with are really nice. It seems as if law school is composed of guys and tan, blonde haired girls.

We have classes with our LRW profs during orientation, so I've met one of my profs. Prof LRW seems nice, relaxed and funny. I even answered one of his questions. I was going to write it down so that I could share it with y'all, but I told myself, "Certainly I won't forget this momentous occasion." Certainly I did less that ten minutes later.

I'm glad that I read about briefing during the summer, because we didn't really go into it in detail. I wish they'd show us something about outlining. I'm not sure how detailed or general to be, only that I need to do it!

So to combat my anxiety, I'm going to put clean sheets on the bed and go for a run. I'm going to put all my law school books on a shelf in the library, just like I did in undergrad, pulling off only the book I need for the next hour.

There's a couple of links I need to add to the 1L advice list. Maybe I'll do that later and actually go read some of them. I know they say to just relax. Maybe that word will sink into my thick, anxiety addled skull. Relax. R-E-L-A-X

I see that I haven't talked a lot about orientation. Maybe I'll do that on one of my study breaks later today. When I do that, I'll be able to discuss the new zen mind I will have developed.

It's My Favorite Drink!

2006-07-30T01:52:00.000-06:00

You Are an Appletini

Most of the time, you're a typical party girl / guy.

But when you get super sauced, you really up your sex appeal.

What Mixed Drink Are You?

Stolen from Fox Law

Collection of 1L Advice

2006-07-27T15:27:00.000-06:00

I've assembled a small collection of 1L advice that I've stumbled across at some point or another. This is not an endorsement, but I thought it might be useful for myself and maybe others at some point. If I've left out any advice, please let me know and I'll be happy to add it.

Prof. Lois Schwartz
Dahlia Lithwick
Garret Moritz
3L Epiphany
more from 3L Epiphany
A Mad Tea Party
Will Work for Favorable Dicta
Passionate Discourse
Magic Cookie
more from Magic Cookie
Wish I Would Have Known
My So-Called Internet-Based Life
Collateral Evidence
Soap Box Lawyer
more from Soap Box Lawyer
Confessions of a Sober Law Student
Peanut Butter Burrito
Burning Light of Reason
Modern Acropolis

Law School is Easy

2006-07-25T20:19:00.000-06:00

A former co-worker came by the other day to say hello to everyone. I knew that he was planning on going to law school after graduation, so I immediately hit him up about it. He rambled on about how easy it was and it was mainly kids. He told me that I would do just fine and not to worry about it. He said that as much as I studied in undergrad, this wouldn't be any worse.

Did he finish the first semester? No. Was he going full time? No. He was working full time and over the course of the semester, his job began requiring lots of travel, so he decided to quit. As he admitted, one really needs to be able to attend class and do the reading to ensure success. Also, he was travelling to really cool places and the job pays well, so law school didn't seem as important.

Did I feel any better after his visit? Nope!

Hmph.

Haircuts All Around!

2006-07-23T15:47:00.000-06:00

Haircuts for everyone! I've noticed a few posts lately mentioning trips to the salon including Frequent Citations, Cella Bellum, and Divine Angst. A week ago I too changed my hair. I wanted something that would be cute and easy to take care of during school, so that I wouldn't feel like a hideous gross-out if I didn't spend an hour blowdrying it. I'm thinking that if I have to be at work at 6am once school starts, I might want something a little less high maintenance. I've gotten lots of compliments, so I'm reasonably pleased. Mr Delictis smiled when he saw me, so that's a good thing. It's a little above chin length, shorter than I've had my hair in years and years and years.

In other news, this being the one of two kid free weekends before school starts, Mr D and I spent our time snuggling and playing lots and lots of Heroes of Might and Magic. I have a strict policy of no computer games during the semester, though, so we have to play all we can before August 9. Yikes! It's coming too quickly!

I can't believe it! I have been working on this for more than two years and now it's just about two weeks away.....

Blogger Woes

2006-07-21T14:10:00.000-06:00

Blogger has been giving me fits. I'd go to my page and it would display code rather than the lovely blog you see now. I am moderately well versed in html and I discovered that when I edited the template, the code towards the bottom of the page was being deleted for some reason. Too bad I didn't figure that out until after I redid my links for the second time. Now I'm keeping a copy of the template on my desktop. I'll edit that and then cut and paste it each time into blogger rather than wasting my time editing only to have to redo it later.

Has anyone else had these problems and knows of another way around this besides the old-fashioned wordpad fix? This doesn't happen in Dreamweaver, so I'm somewhat at a loss.

Unfortunately, because of these incarnations I managed to lose some of those original links from the first version. If anyone has been left out, please let me know. I was actually thrilled to hear from Anastacia who wondered why she had been deleted. I really like her blog, especially since she's a fellow Houstonian and a Montrosian. I didn't realize that anyone besides Kristine had looked here. Well, her and Mr Delictis, that is. ;)

Law School Roundup

2006-07-20T11:55:00.000-06:00

Well, well, well. I feel somewhat famous. It seems that I have already made Weekly Law School Roundup. Perhaps this is an indicator of future law school greatness.

22 Days til Orientation

2006-07-18T16:38:00.000-06:00

This morning I counted the days until orientation. I'm getting close to the deadline. Tomorrow will only be three weeks until school starts. I'm almost ready to get started just so that getting started can be over with!

Have I done all the things I'd hoped over the summer? No. Hardly. The summer before last I accomplished everything I wanted. I have spent my time wisely though, I believe. Mr Delictis and I gazed into one another's eyes, played Heroes of Might and Magic, laughed, loved and all of that love stuff. I love him endlessly and I would rather wile away my summer in his arms.

I have felt some redemption by reading on other blawgs that I should not spend this summer pouring over material for the upcoming school year. I had that feeling myself. Going in to a rough year drained and burned out because I studied all summer does not sound like a wise move. I've read most of DeLaney's Legal Reasoning so I have some idea how to brief a case.

One thing that I feel is necessary to finish before school starts is having my iTunes organized. When I moved my music over to my new laptop (a lovely gift from Mr D), much of my lyrics, artwork and album info disappeared. That will not do. A major source of procrastination for me is to spend ages looking up all the aforementioned information so that all my boxes are filled in iTunes. Yes, it's incredibly anal retentive. I get such a sense of satisfaction when someone happens to look at my iTunes and sees how I have ALL the artwork and ALL the lyrics for ALL my music. Right now I'm on the f's.

I'm going to try to get in the habit of updating more frequently. I get the idea that nothing exciting has happened, when in reality, nothing exciting really has to happen for me to post. I love reading the minutae of people's lives and perhaps if anyone's paying attention to this, they'll enjoy reading mine.

Law School on the Brain

2006-07-05T14:16:00.000-06:00

I eat, live and breath law school. What will it be like? What will I be like while in it? What will my grades be like? Will I do well? Will I do poorly?

I dream about school almost every night. Last night I wore some fabulous clothes in my dreams, I might add.

I work very hard not to talk about school _all_the_time_, but it's always on my mind: paying for it, finding a job, working during it, my grades.....

It's just a little over a month before it starts.

Law School on the Horizon

2006-07-01T12:19:00.000-06:00

It's been some time since I kept a blog, probably since I was taking web design classes. I became interested in the blogosphere once again with the onset of law school. Somewhere in the world, I mused, there must be other people hoping to attend law school. And so I discovered the "blawg."

During that time I was moving, beginning a relationship, taking the LSAT and then taking the Princeton review. Let's not forget taking 15 hours, opening an exhibit of medieval illuminated manuscripts, working and hoping to spend time with the future Mr. Delictis. Some time in all of that I had to write the dreaded personal statement and actually apply to law school.

There was no time for blogging then.

I've graduated now, summa cum laude, I might add with a double major. After almost twenty years of attending college off and on, I am quite proud of myself. I managed to be accepted into law school.

My next hurdle has been paying for law school. With my less than stellar credit, I don't qualify for private loans. A co-signer, you might say! Your parents! My parents - unwilling. Enough said. I have managed to scrape together almost all the money necessary for the first payment due on Friday. A loan from my 401K should cover the rest of the year.

That hurdle crossed, I now HAVE to do well enough this coming year to be able to transfer to my first choice school. Right now I'll be attending a private school downtown. I would rather be attending the cheaper and more prestigious school farther away from downtown. Stafford loans will then cover my financial aid needs.

There you have it, my law school story in a nutshell. It's a little over a month away from orientation and I've stressed so much that I have a rash. I can't wait to see what I'll be like once school actually begins!