One Down

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

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		0%
Elvis Presley		0%

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

Mistaken for a Homeless Person

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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*