Ok, as promised, here is my update for the past month or so.
Last day of Crim and Professor Cochran
The last day of Crim was tough, we had to study the case of my friend's brother. He got shot a few years ago when he went into the wrong apartment. I didn't know him very well, but Meredith was one of my best friends in elementary school and I went Matt's visitation after it happened. I understand why we studied the case- studying the case of someone that went to our law school and was our age drives home the reality of criminal law to everyone that hasn't experienced it themselves. Understanding why we study Matt's case is important, but it doesn't make it any easier.
On a lighter note, our Crim professor is leaving at the end of next semester to be the Dean at Belmont's new law school. Leirin and I decided we should give him a picture of our section, because he's a pretty awesome professor. He was a federal prosecutor and a Green Beret in the military for a while, so we weren't really expecting much emotion-wise from him. When we gave him the picture of us he actually started crying! I know it wasn't JUST because of the picture, it also reminded him that he won't be coming back to this school and that this is last time to teach Crim Law to 1Ls at Cumberland, but I was still really happy that he cared that much about us.
Last day of Contracts and Professor Walthall
The last day of Contracts was probably the second scariest day of my life. Professor Walthall is about 80 years old but incredibly young for his age. He's at the gym every day, just married a woman in her 60's this summer, and has the most energy of any of my professors. He walks into class with a huge gash across his eye and told us that he had fallen earlier the day before and his glasses had broken on his face but that he was doing fine and that the school's student health services were pretty good. He starts teaching class and about half way through he pulls out a chair. Well, this is weird because he NEVER sits down, but I thought maybe he was going to act out what the defendants had done, because he's that kind of professor. All of a sudden he just STOPS talking, his head falls forward and his eyes roll back in his head. I think he's having a stroke and dying. Some people go running like mad down the hallways trying to find someone to help us since we don't have a nurse at the school. About 4 of us are on the phone calling 911, and Leirin runs up to him and tilts his head back. Leirin starts panicking and drops his head while she's frantically asking people what to do and he starts turning bright red and purple because his airways are cut off. Someone shouts at her to keep his head back and she does. It felt like forever, but it was probably only 2-3 minutes when he finally wakes up. There's a security guard with us, one of the Deans, and the woman that pretty much runs everything in the school in the room by now. A few minutes later the EMTs arrive and hook up an EKG and are taking his blood pressure and stuff like that. Dean Strickland is crouched down with him and says "Well, I guess it's safe to say that we can let the class go, right?" Professor Walthall IMMEDIATELY responds "Absolutely not! We're going to finish up here! Chicken!"
The chicken part is for real, but he wasn't going crazy- the case we were studying was about what a "chicken" meant. Oh the intricacies of contract law. Anyway, he sends us an email later telling us that he had a fainting spell the day before which caused him to fall and break his glasses, and that this is something that has been happening to him for a while and it generally means he needs to exercise more, eat better, and drink less alcohol and caffeine. He said he has a cardiologist that was doing some outpatient tests on him and he would let us know if anything changed.
I'm definitely glad he was and is ok, but it was terrifying thinking you were watching your professor die in the middle of class.
Last day of Torts
My torts professor was definitely not my favorite professor, but we did have A LOT of funny quotes from his class. I decided to type them up, get the class to sign them, frame them, and give them to him at the end of the semester. I did and put it on the podium in front of the class when he got there and he looked at it for a while and said "Oh wow. I've never gotten anything like this before. I will really cherish this."
I'm sure when you read that it sounded really sentimental and heartfelt, but Nelson talks in monotone ALL the time so I really had no idea whether or not he was being serious. The only way I was able to tell he was serious was the next day he came into class and told us that he had hung it up in his office under his invitation to Reagan's inauguration.
Crim Final
meh- not so bad. I felt like I aced the multiple choice questions, and that everything I wrote about was correct. The problem is that his essay questions are statutory analysis and there's no way to know whether or not I missed an element of the statute without getting my test back.
Torts Final
Holy cow, was I going to the right class???? Luckily I wasn't the only one that felt that way. When Grace and I first started studying we realized that we hadn't learned a SINGLE element to any tort other than battery. We pretty much had to teach ourselves everything in the little time we had to study for finals. The exam was 46 pages long. Pages, not questions, PAGES, and they were all issue-spotting. That means the professor gives you this great big long story about the most unfortunate people you have ever heard about before and you have to write about every possible charge they could bring against any possible defendant. It's not fun.
Contracts Final
Lulu had an upset stomach the night before the Contracts final, so even though I couldn't sleep I had to get up and take her out at 1:30 in the morning which did not make me a happy person.
I feel like I did pretty well on the Contracts final too, but there was some issue-spotting on it as well. It definitely wasn't as bad because we had actually been taught stuff in that class, but again, there isn't any way to know if I missed an issue until I get the test back.
Civ Pro Final
The most difficult topic in civ pro wasn't tested on which was frustrating and a relief at the same time. Frustrating because I spent all that time studying it and stressing over the intricacies and loopholes, but relieving because when the test actually came I didn't have to worry about going brain dumb on Erie.
I felt like the multiple choice questions were ok, but everyone else said they were ridiculous, so I'm a little nervous about that. That either means that I knew the material better than I thought I did, or I definitely DIDN'T know the material and I did something very wrong.
Christmas Shopping
I didn't have time to go Christmas shopping while I was studying for exams so I bought almost all my presents online. I'm really happy with everything I got though, and I really think everyone is going to love their presents- especially daddy. I keep trying to tell him about them, but then remember I'm not supposed to :-)
Christmas Dress
What Christmas dress? That's another thing I didn't have time to shop for. Kiyoshi and I did go to the mall once and I tried on 3 dresses but I didn't like any of them. I just brought home one of the dresses I bought for Patrick and Kara's wedding that I didn't even end up wearing there.
Champagne Friday
After the civ pro final, Grace, Megan, Scotty, and I all went to my place and popped our champagne. It was a wonderful way to celebrate champagne Friday and the end of our first semester of law school!!
Kiyoshi's Graduation
It was a little stressful in the beginning because he couldn't find his tassel. Luckily I somehow managed to NOT lose mine and got it to him before the ceremony. It had the wrong year on it, but I don't really think anyone other than us knew that. The graduation itself was long and boring like all graduations are. I was very proud of him, and I clapped really loudly when he walked across the stage, but near the end I got overheated and ended up throwing up in the arena's bathroom. Sport complex bathrooms are NOT the ideal place to be sick...
End of the year party
Grace and her roommate threw a party and so did the 1L class the day before Kiyoshi graduated. Mom called and asked what we were doing to celebrate the end of the semester and we didn't have any plans, so she told Kiyoshi and I to go out to dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Factory (surprise!) and it was wonderful. Then we stopped by Grace's party for a little bit. There were only a few people there and we didn't stay for long, but it was fun. I did not go to the 1L Christmas party. There are plenty of people in my class that I like, but I was in serious need of a break from them, and I didn't want to fight parking downtown and have to pay for drinks.
Going home for the break
After Kiyoshi graduated and I was finished being sick we went back to my apartment and packed up and headed home. My car is acting up again so daddy drove my car and we got home around wish (I think, I honestly could be making that time up). We had plans to go to the Mauldin's to celebrate Anna's graduation, but since I had been sick all that day we didn't. I'm super proud of her too! She's officially an OTR (I know OT stands for occupational therapy, and I think the R stands for resident).
Being home is great, but a little weird. This is the first time I actually feel like I don't live at home anymore. Last year I was moving out of my apartment, and every year before that I was in a dorm and switching from my summer to winter clothes. This year I'm living out of a suitcase. But that's what growing up is like.
On the plus side, I haven't slept this well in a VERY long time. It's wonderful not to have to worry about my readings or whether or not I studied everything and understand everything.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I love you!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Sneak Peek
Just so I remember things to talk about, I'm going to jot down some stuff so I remember what to write about.
Last day of Crim
--Matt McClain
--Making Cochran cry
Last day of Contracts and Professor Walthall
--Chicken
--Fainting spell
Last day of Torts
--"I will really cherish this"
Crim Final
--meh- not so bad
Torts Final
--Holy cow, was I going to the right class
Contracts Final
--Lulu at 1:30 in the morning
--Time
Civ Pro Final
Christmas Shopping
--All online, but great presents for everyone
Christmas Dress
--What Christmas dress?
Champagne Friday
--I can't wait! It's calling my name!
Kiyoshi's Graduation
--So excited for him!
End of the year party
--What a way to celebrate
Going home for the break
--FINALLY!!! I CAN BREATHE!!!!
I love you all and I'll give you more details later!
Last day of Crim
--Matt McClain
--Making Cochran cry
Last day of Contracts and Professor Walthall
--Chicken
--Fainting spell
Last day of Torts
--"I will really cherish this"
Crim Final
--meh- not so bad
Torts Final
--Holy cow, was I going to the right class
Contracts Final
--Lulu at 1:30 in the morning
--Time
Civ Pro Final
Christmas Shopping
--All online, but great presents for everyone
Christmas Dress
--What Christmas dress?
Champagne Friday
--I can't wait! It's calling my name!
Kiyoshi's Graduation
--So excited for him!
End of the year party
--What a way to celebrate
Going home for the break
--FINALLY!!! I CAN BREATHE!!!!
I love you all and I'll give you more details later!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Leave of Absence
Our last day of class was yesterday. Finals start Tuesday. I definitely won't be writing anything until finals are over on the 16th.
I love you!
I love you!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Oh, November.
What a month. I'm exhausted and it's only the 16th!
My days are running together so much now that I don't remember what has happened when or if I've already written about some of this stuff, so bear with me please!
Finals start 3 weeks from yesterday. YIKES. Just so you get an understanding of how stressful that is, my eye twitch is back. My eye hasn't twitched since hell weeks back in high school. If you're unfamiliar with hell week, it's the week before a show opens where we do all the technical stuff. We would sometimes stay up at the school until 2am and then have to be in class at 8 in the morning.
Our open memo is finished, but this week is settlement week which is adding to the stress level. In theory (I think) it is supposed to be relatively simple. Since we're plaintiffs' attorney we ask for a number and we bargain back and forth to reach an agreement with the defense. In real life, if you can't reach a settlement you go to court, but we've been told we HAVE to settle.
So, like it said, it isn't supposed to be too difficult- the problem is that our professor told us ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how this process works. Everyone else was talking about signing up with negotiation partners for settlement and our LLR group had NO idea what was going on. We got an email last weekend saying "Here is your partner and here's who you're negotiating with. Good luck!" No joke. Nothing more. He did give us a sample settlement agreement, but that is really just so we can copy and paste our terms into the same format and turn that in. We've had NO guidance about what we're supposed to do. It's frustrating.
Also, I am SO READY FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!! I haven't had a break since we started school. I know that "real adults" don't really get breaks, but c'mon- if MED SCHOOL can get a fall break, I think we can get one too. Everyone is beyond exhausted, and you can really tell in class. The girls that used to show up every day in class with all their makeup on and put-together outfits are starting to look pretty ragged. That's one good thing about not looking picture perfect every day- no one really notices when you're having a bad day.
Kiyoshi and I went on a lunch date today, and that was nice. It did, however, put me behind on my readings for tomorrow and that's not making me any less stressed, especially since I have 3 classes tomorrow instead of just 2.
The UAB Ethics Team won the Regional Ethics Bowl again. Yay them! They go on to Nationals in January (I think) and hopefully they'll win nationals again!
Mom and Dad get to go to the beach on Saturday already (jealous), but they're going to stop in Birmingham and have brunch with Kiyoshi and me. I'm excited- free food is awesome. And so is seeing my parents :-)
I love you all!
My days are running together so much now that I don't remember what has happened when or if I've already written about some of this stuff, so bear with me please!
Finals start 3 weeks from yesterday. YIKES. Just so you get an understanding of how stressful that is, my eye twitch is back. My eye hasn't twitched since hell weeks back in high school. If you're unfamiliar with hell week, it's the week before a show opens where we do all the technical stuff. We would sometimes stay up at the school until 2am and then have to be in class at 8 in the morning.
Our open memo is finished, but this week is settlement week which is adding to the stress level. In theory (I think) it is supposed to be relatively simple. Since we're plaintiffs' attorney we ask for a number and we bargain back and forth to reach an agreement with the defense. In real life, if you can't reach a settlement you go to court, but we've been told we HAVE to settle.
So, like it said, it isn't supposed to be too difficult- the problem is that our professor told us ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how this process works. Everyone else was talking about signing up with negotiation partners for settlement and our LLR group had NO idea what was going on. We got an email last weekend saying "Here is your partner and here's who you're negotiating with. Good luck!" No joke. Nothing more. He did give us a sample settlement agreement, but that is really just so we can copy and paste our terms into the same format and turn that in. We've had NO guidance about what we're supposed to do. It's frustrating.
Also, I am SO READY FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!! I haven't had a break since we started school. I know that "real adults" don't really get breaks, but c'mon- if MED SCHOOL can get a fall break, I think we can get one too. Everyone is beyond exhausted, and you can really tell in class. The girls that used to show up every day in class with all their makeup on and put-together outfits are starting to look pretty ragged. That's one good thing about not looking picture perfect every day- no one really notices when you're having a bad day.
Kiyoshi and I went on a lunch date today, and that was nice. It did, however, put me behind on my readings for tomorrow and that's not making me any less stressed, especially since I have 3 classes tomorrow instead of just 2.
The UAB Ethics Team won the Regional Ethics Bowl again. Yay them! They go on to Nationals in January (I think) and hopefully they'll win nationals again!
Mom and Dad get to go to the beach on Saturday already (jealous), but they're going to stop in Birmingham and have brunch with Kiyoshi and me. I'm excited- free food is awesome. And so is seeing my parents :-)
I love you all!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
A Wedding, A Birthday, A Funeral, and A Fall.
It's been a long time since I've posted, so there's probably a lot more that's gone on since then that I'll forget, but I'll give you a brief recap. The most important things are those listed in the heading of this post.
A Wedding.
My Uncle Patrick got married this past weekend, and it was quite a party. Granddad and Grandma Patty surprised him and Kara with a photo booth that all the guests could take pictures in. It was a lot of fun and there are a ton of really cute pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner and the pictures aren't up on the website yet so I can't show you any of those. I can however, show you a few of my favorites that I took :-)
Albey and Allison
Me and Chelsea
Me and Patrick
Mom being a flower girl.
Me and Albey
It was great to see everyone again. It wasn't so great that Bama lost to LSU, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over it ;-)
A Birthday.
One of my best friends EVER turned 22 yesterday! Can you guess who? I'll give you one hint: Snow White.
That's right! Katalyn's birthday was yesterday. I'm super sad that I didn't get to see her, but I did send her a message telling her that I love her! And for those of you others that miss her, she and her husband have a blog on here too that documents all their awesome escapades and their life ADORABLE son Owen. Go check it out here. I LOVE YOU KATALYN!!!
A Funeral.
So, it's not a funeral in the literal sense, but today symbolizes the death of any social life I may have had in the past semester. Exams start 4 WEEKS from TODAY!! I've decided to do 4 weeks of studying (one week for each class), but divide it up a little oddly. Grace and I are getting together on Wednesdays and Fridays to study together, and write our "super outlines" and then I'm sure we will do some super hard core studying the weeks of finals.
We had a practice exam in Civil Procedure last week and Grace and I both learned that we needed to devote some SERIOUS time to that subject. It was a little disheartening because she gave us a question that would be on a regular 3 hour exam to do in 50 minutes. On top of that, I personally had a problem because of how literal I am!! Her exam instructions said "only using rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(2)". The word ONLY was underlined. So what do I do? I turn to that rule in the book and it says that cases can be dismissed due to lack of 12(b)(1) subject matter jurisdiction 12(b)(2) personal jurisdiction. I thought she meant that was the ONLY rule or procedure we should look at. Not until I got to the second half of the question did I realize she meant that we were only supposed to ANALYZE the question in regards to those two rules, but STILL APPLY OTHER RULES in our answer. At least I made that mistake on a practice exam that only counted for participation and not on a real one that counts for my whole grade...
A Fall.
No one fell, don't worry. I'm talking about the season of Fall in Birmingham. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. Every year I tell myself I'm going to take pictures and I never do. This year I took some just walking around the apartment complex, but the don't do justice to some of the majestic colors you can see in other places of town. Here are two of my favorite pictures to make you jealous of Birmingham's Fall:
I'll take more in the coming days and add them to Facebook.
I am absolutely exhausted right now because I didn't sleep well this weekend and I haven't caught up on my sleep yet. I'm going to take a nap and then start working on studying for Criminal Law!
I love you!
A Wedding.
My Uncle Patrick got married this past weekend, and it was quite a party. Granddad and Grandma Patty surprised him and Kara with a photo booth that all the guests could take pictures in. It was a lot of fun and there are a ton of really cute pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner and the pictures aren't up on the website yet so I can't show you any of those. I can however, show you a few of my favorites that I took :-)
Albey and Allison
Me and Chelsea
Me and Patrick
Mom being a flower girl.
Me and Albey
It was great to see everyone again. It wasn't so great that Bama lost to LSU, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over it ;-)
A Birthday.
One of my best friends EVER turned 22 yesterday! Can you guess who? I'll give you one hint: Snow White.
That's right! Katalyn's birthday was yesterday. I'm super sad that I didn't get to see her, but I did send her a message telling her that I love her! And for those of you others that miss her, she and her husband have a blog on here too that documents all their awesome escapades and their life ADORABLE son Owen. Go check it out here. I LOVE YOU KATALYN!!!
A Funeral.
So, it's not a funeral in the literal sense, but today symbolizes the death of any social life I may have had in the past semester. Exams start 4 WEEKS from TODAY!! I've decided to do 4 weeks of studying (one week for each class), but divide it up a little oddly. Grace and I are getting together on Wednesdays and Fridays to study together, and write our "super outlines" and then I'm sure we will do some super hard core studying the weeks of finals.
We had a practice exam in Civil Procedure last week and Grace and I both learned that we needed to devote some SERIOUS time to that subject. It was a little disheartening because she gave us a question that would be on a regular 3 hour exam to do in 50 minutes. On top of that, I personally had a problem because of how literal I am!! Her exam instructions said "only using rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(2)". The word ONLY was underlined. So what do I do? I turn to that rule in the book and it says that cases can be dismissed due to lack of 12(b)(1) subject matter jurisdiction 12(b)(2) personal jurisdiction. I thought she meant that was the ONLY rule or procedure we should look at. Not until I got to the second half of the question did I realize she meant that we were only supposed to ANALYZE the question in regards to those two rules, but STILL APPLY OTHER RULES in our answer. At least I made that mistake on a practice exam that only counted for participation and not on a real one that counts for my whole grade...
A Fall.
No one fell, don't worry. I'm talking about the season of Fall in Birmingham. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. Every year I tell myself I'm going to take pictures and I never do. This year I took some just walking around the apartment complex, but the don't do justice to some of the majestic colors you can see in other places of town. Here are two of my favorite pictures to make you jealous of Birmingham's Fall:
I'll take more in the coming days and add them to Facebook.
I am absolutely exhausted right now because I didn't sleep well this weekend and I haven't caught up on my sleep yet. I'm going to take a nap and then start working on studying for Criminal Law!
I love you!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween
It's Halloween! Yay! I love seeing kids all dressed up!! And, since I saw this for $1 at Wal-Mart, I decided to get a costume for Lulu too!
I've been pretty crafty this past week thanks to Pinterest, so I thought I would share my crafts with everyone! Let's see, first I decided to try out a new cookie recipe I found and it turned out to be PHENOMENAL! Megan and I LOVED these cookies, and so did everyone else that we let have one. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe!
Then, Kiyoshi helped me carve my pumpkins. They turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
We found the tutorial here, but didn't use it for much other than getting the pumpkin face. I bought a pumpkin carving kit from Michael's a few weeks ago that made carving the pumpkin SUPER easy. Definitely worth the $3!
Cumberland had their Halloween Party on Thursday that I took Megan to. I had actually ordered a costume this year, but when I put it on I looked ridiculous. It was Alice's dress from Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. There was no way I was going to wear the costume in public with the way it looked on me, so I grabbed my red dress out of my closet and put on some of Megan's fake pearls and tried to be Lisa Simpson.
No one guessed who I was, but I wasn't really expecting anyone too. Megan went as Strawberry Shortcake and looked really cute. Sorry I didn't get any pictures, but I didn't want to take my camera to the Barking Kudu.
I ruined my favorite shirt by accidentally leaving a bra in with a load of laundry :-( The hooks ripped holes in the shirt, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away because, 1 it's from Anthropologie and that stuff is PRICEY, and 2, it's my favorite shirt! So, I decided I would turn it into a scarf. Here's how it turned out:
It was sad having to cut up the shirt, but I would've had to throw it away if i didn't. It was actually pretty simple to make, here's the tutorial.
And finally, I actually did something with all my plastic grocery bags other than just throwing them under the sink. I found a tutorial online on how to roll them up so they come out like wipes. It's SUPER simple, super quick, and saves a TON of space!
Please ignore my unmade bed in the background...
I guess that's all I have to say! Bekah might be coming over tonight for some Halloween drinks, but it will depend on how much research I get finished today. Friday my professor decides to tell us that the issue that I felt was the MOST IMPORTANT was the ONE issue we weren't supposed to research!! UUUUGGGGHHH! >-0 (I don't know how to make mad faces, so that's my attempt. It really looks more like a skinny fish or a stickman with no arms that has fallen down...) I wish he had told us that TWO WEEKS AGO when he first gave us the assignment. But, there's nothing I can do about it, so I just have to do ALL OF MY RESEARCH AGAIN!!!
Anyway! I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and gets to see tons of cute costumes! Happy Halloween from me and Lulu!
I've been pretty crafty this past week thanks to Pinterest, so I thought I would share my crafts with everyone! Let's see, first I decided to try out a new cookie recipe I found and it turned out to be PHENOMENAL! Megan and I LOVED these cookies, and so did everyone else that we let have one. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe!
Then, Kiyoshi helped me carve my pumpkins. They turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
We found the tutorial here, but didn't use it for much other than getting the pumpkin face. I bought a pumpkin carving kit from Michael's a few weeks ago that made carving the pumpkin SUPER easy. Definitely worth the $3!
Cumberland had their Halloween Party on Thursday that I took Megan to. I had actually ordered a costume this year, but when I put it on I looked ridiculous. It was Alice's dress from Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. There was no way I was going to wear the costume in public with the way it looked on me, so I grabbed my red dress out of my closet and put on some of Megan's fake pearls and tried to be Lisa Simpson.
No one guessed who I was, but I wasn't really expecting anyone too. Megan went as Strawberry Shortcake and looked really cute. Sorry I didn't get any pictures, but I didn't want to take my camera to the Barking Kudu.
I ruined my favorite shirt by accidentally leaving a bra in with a load of laundry :-( The hooks ripped holes in the shirt, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away because, 1 it's from Anthropologie and that stuff is PRICEY, and 2, it's my favorite shirt! So, I decided I would turn it into a scarf. Here's how it turned out:
It was sad having to cut up the shirt, but I would've had to throw it away if i didn't. It was actually pretty simple to make, here's the tutorial.
And finally, I actually did something with all my plastic grocery bags other than just throwing them under the sink. I found a tutorial online on how to roll them up so they come out like wipes. It's SUPER simple, super quick, and saves a TON of space!
Please ignore my unmade bed in the background...
I guess that's all I have to say! Bekah might be coming over tonight for some Halloween drinks, but it will depend on how much research I get finished today. Friday my professor decides to tell us that the issue that I felt was the MOST IMPORTANT was the ONE issue we weren't supposed to research!! UUUUGGGGHHH! >-0 (I don't know how to make mad faces, so that's my attempt. It really looks more like a skinny fish or a stickman with no arms that has fallen down...) I wish he had told us that TWO WEEKS AGO when he first gave us the assignment. But, there's nothing I can do about it, so I just have to do ALL OF MY RESEARCH AGAIN!!!
Anyway! I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and gets to see tons of cute costumes! Happy Halloween from me and Lulu!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Halloween Time!
I know Halloween is still a week away, but I was Stumbling and I found these links to "Creepy Wikipedia Articles". I thought I would help everyone get into the Halloween spirit by giving you the links to my favorites!
~A laughter epidemic that caused 14 schools to shut down and affected over 1000 people!
~Rocks that move without any human or animal intervention.
~A man that dresses up in a bunny costume and attacks people with an axe.
~A cathedral made entirely out of bones.
~People with a disease that makes them think their hand has a mind of it's own.
~A disorder that makes you think a family member or friend has been replaced with an identical impostor.
~Head transplant surgery- not brain transplant- head transplant.
~A man with a 13 inch long tail.
~A woman that convinced people she gave birth to rabbits.
~Faces that mysteriously appear on a concrete floor in a house.
~A mental disorder that makes men think their genitals are shrinking and will disappear.
~The devil's footprints in the snow.
~A Swedish ghost train.
~A part-goat part-man part-sheep hybrid that hides under a bridge.
~A locked vault that coffins moved around in even though it remains locked constantly with no proof of earthquakes or human interference.
~The most haunted house in England.
~Two women that experienced a time slip.
~A man that slowly destroyed his own body.
~A list of unusual deaths.
Happy Halloween!
~A laughter epidemic that caused 14 schools to shut down and affected over 1000 people!
~Rocks that move without any human or animal intervention.
~A man that dresses up in a bunny costume and attacks people with an axe.
~A cathedral made entirely out of bones.
~People with a disease that makes them think their hand has a mind of it's own.
~A disorder that makes you think a family member or friend has been replaced with an identical impostor.
~Head transplant surgery- not brain transplant- head transplant.
~A man with a 13 inch long tail.
~A woman that convinced people she gave birth to rabbits.
~Faces that mysteriously appear on a concrete floor in a house.
~A mental disorder that makes men think their genitals are shrinking and will disappear.
~The devil's footprints in the snow.
~A Swedish ghost train.
~A part-goat part-man part-sheep hybrid that hides under a bridge.
~A locked vault that coffins moved around in even though it remains locked constantly with no proof of earthquakes or human interference.
~The most haunted house in England.
~Two women that experienced a time slip.
~A man that slowly destroyed his own body.
~A list of unusual deaths.
Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 21, 2011
The Snowball Effect
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I don't really have a reason why other than I forgot or was too lazy.
Monday is our next Contracts test so Grace and I are back in study mode this weekend. We actually started early and studied some last night. Not to be overly-confident, but we ROCKED the last test. I got a 9/10 and she got a 10/10. I think it's safe to say we're both happy with our grades, and I feel confident that if I had FINISHED my test, I would've gotten that last point. We didn't tell anyone about our grades because we didn't want people to want to study with us, but that plan backfired because somehow some people found out about my grade anyway. It's hard to say no to someone asking for help, but Grace and I have a system worked out and don't want to have to worry about it being compromised by the addition of more people.
I think I've figured out the biggest difference between undergrad and law school for me. It's kind of a snowball effect- the longer a snowball rolls, the bigger it gets. I'll try to explain. In undergrad, all the courses were pretty much on the same level the whole year. You learned new things, but the concepts didn't necessarily get harder as the year went on. Obviously they got harder when you went from a 200 to a 300 level course, but within that one course, all of the material was about the same.
In law school it's very different. I guess it's more like math. You have to learn one concept before you can understand the next. If you don't understand one concept, it's going to be impossible to understand the next. Instead of learning a bunch of material that's on one level, each new topic builds on the last and the material gets harder throughout the year.
If that doesn't make sense, I apologize and I'll try again later- but right now I'm really tired and want to take a nap before my last class, so I believe I will :-)
I love you!
Monday is our next Contracts test so Grace and I are back in study mode this weekend. We actually started early and studied some last night. Not to be overly-confident, but we ROCKED the last test. I got a 9/10 and she got a 10/10. I think it's safe to say we're both happy with our grades, and I feel confident that if I had FINISHED my test, I would've gotten that last point. We didn't tell anyone about our grades because we didn't want people to want to study with us, but that plan backfired because somehow some people found out about my grade anyway. It's hard to say no to someone asking for help, but Grace and I have a system worked out and don't want to have to worry about it being compromised by the addition of more people.
I think I've figured out the biggest difference between undergrad and law school for me. It's kind of a snowball effect- the longer a snowball rolls, the bigger it gets. I'll try to explain. In undergrad, all the courses were pretty much on the same level the whole year. You learned new things, but the concepts didn't necessarily get harder as the year went on. Obviously they got harder when you went from a 200 to a 300 level course, but within that one course, all of the material was about the same.
In law school it's very different. I guess it's more like math. You have to learn one concept before you can understand the next. If you don't understand one concept, it's going to be impossible to understand the next. Instead of learning a bunch of material that's on one level, each new topic builds on the last and the material gets harder throughout the year.
If that doesn't make sense, I apologize and I'll try again later- but right now I'm really tired and want to take a nap before my last class, so I believe I will :-)
I love you!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Just a Thought
We have all these books full of "lawyering skills" and whatnot, that conceptually make sense, but in practicality really don't. Well, at least not for some aspects. For example, this week we have a "client" interview to get our legal issue for our open memo assignment in LLR. The book actually brought this point up in the text, so I'll just write what it says:
As lawyers, we are frequently in a hurry to find out what the legal problem is. We are trained in law school to stop issues, sift through the facts presented until we find the ones that matter, and then offer analysis of how the law applies to those facts. That is only a small part of what you must accomplish with a client. Avoid the temptation to become impatient when the client seems to ramble or starts talking about feelings.
(And because law school makes all law students slightly paranoid, This comes from "Legal Writing and Other Lawyering Skills" by Nancy L. Schultz and Louis J. Sirico, Jr. 5th Edition, Chapter 9 Section 9.06. For those of you wondering, this is absolutely not in correct Bluebook form, but since I'm not writing legal anything I don't care!)
Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that we as lawyers have to be able to communicate and relate to clients. HAVE TO- as in, it's an imperative. The problem is that in law school we are taught to do exactly what that paragraph says- read through pages upon pages (if I said hundreds it wouldn't be an exaggeration) of legal writing to find the one or two sentences that state the issue, reasoning, and conclusion of the court. We get impatient while reading when the Justices throw in dicta (personal opinion is a close enough definition for now) before getting to the issue or conclusion. When fellow classmates brief a case in class, we roll our eyes, sigh, and zone out if their statement of the facts includes stupid things like the fact that the stolen coat was cashmere (someone actually did that today in class and the whole class laughed at him- no joke). If they can't state the issue in a sentence or the holding in a few words, we feel like they've done an inadequate job and have wasted our time. The professors are the same way! They will stop you mid sentence if you start giving a fact that is irrelevant, and get very irritated if you take too long in stating the issue.
I understand why- it's because it's the same way in trials. The judge is going to get annoyed if you waste his time with irrelevant facts, and the jury will stop paying attention if you ramble on too long. But, while this is important in trial, it seriously hinders us in regards to our client relationship. On top of that, we have to stop every now and then and remind ourselves that these cases are incidents involving real people with real families and real lives. They're not just legal issues that need to be studied. I have found myself actually laughing at some of these cases, and it makes me really angry with myself. It's more than just a schadenfreude-type thing, it's me laughing at a professional baseball player for thinking he could sue the opposing team and the stadium because he slipped on wet grass trying to catch a fly ball. Have I lost my empathy?
I've started making myself go back after every case and thinking about the people involved and how their lives were affected. To be honest, I still think the baseball case is pretty ridiculous, but then thinking back on it- he's probably lost his career. His whole life has been summed up into one measly case that takes up a whole paragraph in a torts book that law students laugh at when they read. His career was ended in an accident on the field, if he's like most professional athletes, they don't really have anything else to fall back on. What is he going to do now? He could go back to school. He could get a job that only requires a GED or High School Diploma, but how many of those are jobs that someone would actually want after being paid a professional athlete's salary. One of his only hopes is to appeal to the judicial system and hope to get some money out of the injury that ended his career.
To get back on track, law school almost teaches us to desensitize ourselves to real life and the people in it. We don't have any classes that teach us how to engage or interact with clients. I'm hoping that the steps I'm taking will help me in keeping myself down-to-earth and not think of every person as just a legal issue- but how can the legal profession expect to have compassionate, empathetic, and caring lawyers when the system pretty much teaches us the opposite? I understand now why people think of lawyers as a "necessary evil" instead of a helpful ally. I know I wouldn't want to go see a lawyer if I felt like I was being dealt with as a legal issue instead of a person- why should we expect any more from anyone else?
As lawyers, we are frequently in a hurry to find out what the legal problem is. We are trained in law school to stop issues, sift through the facts presented until we find the ones that matter, and then offer analysis of how the law applies to those facts. That is only a small part of what you must accomplish with a client. Avoid the temptation to become impatient when the client seems to ramble or starts talking about feelings.
(And because law school makes all law students slightly paranoid, This comes from "Legal Writing and Other Lawyering Skills" by Nancy L. Schultz and Louis J. Sirico, Jr. 5th Edition, Chapter 9 Section 9.06. For those of you wondering, this is absolutely not in correct Bluebook form, but since I'm not writing legal anything I don't care!)
Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that we as lawyers have to be able to communicate and relate to clients. HAVE TO- as in, it's an imperative. The problem is that in law school we are taught to do exactly what that paragraph says- read through pages upon pages (if I said hundreds it wouldn't be an exaggeration) of legal writing to find the one or two sentences that state the issue, reasoning, and conclusion of the court. We get impatient while reading when the Justices throw in dicta (personal opinion is a close enough definition for now) before getting to the issue or conclusion. When fellow classmates brief a case in class, we roll our eyes, sigh, and zone out if their statement of the facts includes stupid things like the fact that the stolen coat was cashmere (someone actually did that today in class and the whole class laughed at him- no joke). If they can't state the issue in a sentence or the holding in a few words, we feel like they've done an inadequate job and have wasted our time. The professors are the same way! They will stop you mid sentence if you start giving a fact that is irrelevant, and get very irritated if you take too long in stating the issue.
I understand why- it's because it's the same way in trials. The judge is going to get annoyed if you waste his time with irrelevant facts, and the jury will stop paying attention if you ramble on too long. But, while this is important in trial, it seriously hinders us in regards to our client relationship. On top of that, we have to stop every now and then and remind ourselves that these cases are incidents involving real people with real families and real lives. They're not just legal issues that need to be studied. I have found myself actually laughing at some of these cases, and it makes me really angry with myself. It's more than just a schadenfreude-type thing, it's me laughing at a professional baseball player for thinking he could sue the opposing team and the stadium because he slipped on wet grass trying to catch a fly ball. Have I lost my empathy?
I've started making myself go back after every case and thinking about the people involved and how their lives were affected. To be honest, I still think the baseball case is pretty ridiculous, but then thinking back on it- he's probably lost his career. His whole life has been summed up into one measly case that takes up a whole paragraph in a torts book that law students laugh at when they read. His career was ended in an accident on the field, if he's like most professional athletes, they don't really have anything else to fall back on. What is he going to do now? He could go back to school. He could get a job that only requires a GED or High School Diploma, but how many of those are jobs that someone would actually want after being paid a professional athlete's salary. One of his only hopes is to appeal to the judicial system and hope to get some money out of the injury that ended his career.
To get back on track, law school almost teaches us to desensitize ourselves to real life and the people in it. We don't have any classes that teach us how to engage or interact with clients. I'm hoping that the steps I'm taking will help me in keeping myself down-to-earth and not think of every person as just a legal issue- but how can the legal profession expect to have compassionate, empathetic, and caring lawyers when the system pretty much teaches us the opposite? I understand now why people think of lawyers as a "necessary evil" instead of a helpful ally. I know I wouldn't want to go see a lawyer if I felt like I was being dealt with as a legal issue instead of a person- why should we expect any more from anyone else?
Monday, October 10, 2011
Red Velvet Yummy-ness
Today was a good day. I woke up before my alarm and wasn't tired at all! It's been a long time since I've felt like that. I also didn't have contracts this morning so I got to sleep in which was a major factor in me not being tired :-)
My left ear has been stopped-up since yesterday and it's driving me crazy because it's giving me really bad vertigo. Yesterday was miserable, and I really thought I was going to throw up a few different times. Today wasn't as bad, but it's still annoying. I took a decongestant that will hopefully fix my problem- right now everyone sounds like a robot in my left ear.
We had a "Called to the Bar" lecture today about how prone lawyers are to alcoholism and drug abuse. That was really uplifting (In case you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm). It was interesting to get to hear some people's stories that had recovered, and happy endings are always nice. What was more interesting though was getting to hear from one of the most infamous lawyers in the state of Alabama. He's a Cumberland grad that went down a VERY bad path and landed himself two felony convictions. Here's a little info about his story. I'm happy to say though, that he's served his time, has found a job, is working with the Alabama Bar to educate other lawyers about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and seems to be turning his life around completely.
Speaking of addiction- Megan and I have been baking like crazy ever since we moved here. Today I made these cookies to celebrate Kiyoshi's MCAT score that he gets back tomorrow:
Well, they WERE supposed to be celebration cookies, but he came over today so I let him have some before he actually got his score because I know he did wonderfully. Also, that's not my picture. I borrowed the picture form the website that has the SUPER easy recipe for the cookies!
They're very yummy, and as I said, super simple to make.
Dralion by Cirque du Soleil was PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend it to everyone! Kiyoshi really liked it too, during intermission he kept asking me why we had to wait so long for the show to keep going. I'm glad he liked his anniversary present :-)
Which reminds me! My cousin Tyler and his girlfriend Elizabeth just got engaged! I'm SO happy for them! I knew they were going to get married, I just didn't know when.
Now I'm going to do my Civ Pro reading that I COMPLETELY forgot about until just now and then go to bed!
I love you!
My left ear has been stopped-up since yesterday and it's driving me crazy because it's giving me really bad vertigo. Yesterday was miserable, and I really thought I was going to throw up a few different times. Today wasn't as bad, but it's still annoying. I took a decongestant that will hopefully fix my problem- right now everyone sounds like a robot in my left ear.
We had a "Called to the Bar" lecture today about how prone lawyers are to alcoholism and drug abuse. That was really uplifting (In case you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm). It was interesting to get to hear some people's stories that had recovered, and happy endings are always nice. What was more interesting though was getting to hear from one of the most infamous lawyers in the state of Alabama. He's a Cumberland grad that went down a VERY bad path and landed himself two felony convictions. Here's a little info about his story. I'm happy to say though, that he's served his time, has found a job, is working with the Alabama Bar to educate other lawyers about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and seems to be turning his life around completely.
Speaking of addiction- Megan and I have been baking like crazy ever since we moved here. Today I made these cookies to celebrate Kiyoshi's MCAT score that he gets back tomorrow:
Well, they WERE supposed to be celebration cookies, but he came over today so I let him have some before he actually got his score because I know he did wonderfully. Also, that's not my picture. I borrowed the picture form the website that has the SUPER easy recipe for the cookies!
They're very yummy, and as I said, super simple to make.
Dralion by Cirque du Soleil was PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend it to everyone! Kiyoshi really liked it too, during intermission he kept asking me why we had to wait so long for the show to keep going. I'm glad he liked his anniversary present :-)
Which reminds me! My cousin Tyler and his girlfriend Elizabeth just got engaged! I'm SO happy for them! I knew they were going to get married, I just didn't know when.
Now I'm going to do my Civ Pro reading that I COMPLETELY forgot about until just now and then go to bed!
I love you!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Success
I am so scatterbrained right now that I don't even really know what has gone in my life and what I need to update everyone about!
I got a 90 on my Bluebook test, which is pretty awesome. I had NO idea what to expect on the test, so and A- was a nice surprise, especially since it is one of the highest grades my LLR group got.
Tonight I'm taking Kiyoshi to see Cirque du Soleil's show Dralion for his anniversary present. I'm pretty excited, but I'm afraid I might have caught the stomach bug that he had earlier this week. I don't want to stop Kiyoshi from going partially because he LOVES Cirque du Soleil, and partially because I spent a good deal of money on the tickets and I can't trade them, so I think even if I am sick I'm gonna go.
We've been watching the Big Bang Theory on DVD since Bekah was awesome enough to let us borrow Seasons 1 and 2. It's extra funny for me because while I don't get most of the science stuff, Kiyoshi does, and it's even funnier when he has to correct the science in the show :-)
We have a closed memo due on Monday. A closed memo means that there are only certain cases that we can use for our analysis. It only has to be 5 pages double spaced, and I've pretty much written all of it already.
Today is the day I usually take Lulu to the dog park, but I'm exhausted, I don't feel great, and I don't want to take another shower today. Hopefully she won't be too mad at me. Maybe I'll take her sometime tomorrow if I'm feeling better. I took her to the groomers this week because Kiyoshi really wanted me to and because they have some special treatment that is supposed to reduce shedding. I was really worried they would cut her too short, but she came back looking adorable, and Kiyoshi is very happy. I loved the bow they put in her hair
I love all of you, and if I've forgotten anything or if there's something you want to know about that I haven't mentioned, let me know!
I got a 90 on my Bluebook test, which is pretty awesome. I had NO idea what to expect on the test, so and A- was a nice surprise, especially since it is one of the highest grades my LLR group got.
Tonight I'm taking Kiyoshi to see Cirque du Soleil's show Dralion for his anniversary present. I'm pretty excited, but I'm afraid I might have caught the stomach bug that he had earlier this week. I don't want to stop Kiyoshi from going partially because he LOVES Cirque du Soleil, and partially because I spent a good deal of money on the tickets and I can't trade them, so I think even if I am sick I'm gonna go.
We've been watching the Big Bang Theory on DVD since Bekah was awesome enough to let us borrow Seasons 1 and 2. It's extra funny for me because while I don't get most of the science stuff, Kiyoshi does, and it's even funnier when he has to correct the science in the show :-)
We have a closed memo due on Monday. A closed memo means that there are only certain cases that we can use for our analysis. It only has to be 5 pages double spaced, and I've pretty much written all of it already.
Today is the day I usually take Lulu to the dog park, but I'm exhausted, I don't feel great, and I don't want to take another shower today. Hopefully she won't be too mad at me. Maybe I'll take her sometime tomorrow if I'm feeling better. I took her to the groomers this week because Kiyoshi really wanted me to and because they have some special treatment that is supposed to reduce shedding. I was really worried they would cut her too short, but she came back looking adorable, and Kiyoshi is very happy. I loved the bow they put in her hair
I love all of you, and if I've forgotten anything or if there's something you want to know about that I haven't mentioned, let me know!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Smile :-)
I love this commercial and it makes me laugh or smile every time I see it, so I thought I would share it with y'all.
Also, ROLL TIDE! We're having a great season, but I do feel sorry for the Gators' QB.
Also, ROLL TIDE! We're having a great season, but I do feel sorry for the Gators' QB.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time for a Breather...
Wow, the past week has been beyond ridiculous. I've got a lot to say, so if you just want a summary and don't want to read this whole post here it is:
Went to the dog park, witnessed WAY too many times for a competition, made tacos and studied with Grace, took a Contracts test, and took the Bluebook test.
On Friday Grace and I went to a different Dog Park in Hoover, and we like it MUCH better than the one in Green Springs. It has obstacle/agility courses, sand pits, lots of shade, plenty of places for humans to sit, and doggy water fountains :-). We also met a lot of really nice people and a not so nice cat. This cat comes running out of the bushes and decides the best place for it to camp out would be right outside the dog park. Of course most of the dogs start freaking out and trying to chase it or play with it, so what does the cat do? This idiot cat decides to climb up the fence around the dog park and sit right on top of it so now the dogs can reach it's tail. It wasn't a pretty sight, and it got really angry when it's tail got bitten, but it wouldn't leave!
Grace and I ended up taking Jersey and Lu to the other side of the park and met two Poodles that actually ran around (it was really weird to see a Poodle move at all), a 6 month old Brittany, and a Boston Terrier. I thought it was super weird that out of all the dogs that could've been at the park, those three were there!
Afterwards I had to run to campus and witness for my friend in an Arbitration competition. Arbitration is SUPER boring. Luckily I was able to use my notes and didn't have to cram MORE information into my already overloaded brain. The worst part was having to sit there through the whole thing.
After I witnessed for Ellen, I went over to Grace's and we made tacos and studied Contracts for a good 5 hours. I've never studied that long IN MY LIFE, but we had so many cases to go over there wasn't another option. On the plus side, the tacos I made and the apple cobbler I bought to heat up were REALLY good, so it wasn't completely miserable.
Saturday Grace came over here and we studied some more, went over some hypotheticals and quizzed each other with the flash cards I made. We discovered that the best way to study with the flash cards is to actually read them backwards- that is, instead of reading the case name and giving the facts, we read the facts and gave the case name. We realized that this was more like what we would get on the tests- a hypothetical with facts in which we would have to decide what cases's facts matched up most closely. That really helped a lot.
I had already agreed to help Ellen this whole weekend with her Arbitration competition, so on Sunday I had to go witness again. This time I WASN'T allowed to use my notes, so on top of all my contracts cases, I had to shove information about a fictional person into my overloaded brain. It went pretty well, but I was more than ready to leave because it was the EXACT same case from Friday, except Ellen was arguing the opposing side. I get home, change clothes, and sit down to do some Bluebook exercises when I get a text from Ellen saying that she made it to the final round and asking if I could come back AGAIN and testify! I agreed, and even though it was the SAME case as the last two times, it wasn't AS bad because I was able to play a character I had already been. The big downside was that this time it took MUCH longer, and the other witnesses were people who had been cut from the team so they weren't very fun people to be around.
I finish witnessing and Grace and I decide to go over the cases one last time to be sure we know them for Monday. We did really well quizzing each other, and I was able to get to bed by about 10.
So Monday morning I'm getting ready for the test and making sure I have my anonymous test number and a pen and everything else. I'm running over the cases in my head while I take Lu for a walk and keep wondering why everything in the distance looks really fuzzy. I decide it's because I haven't woken up all the way yet, and finish walking Lu and getting ready and head to campus. About halfway to campus (the whole drive is all of 4 minutes, so it wasn't that big of a deal) I realize that the reason everything is fuzzy is because I didn't put in my contacts or put on my glasses. Luckily for me I'm nearsighted and can see pretty much perfectly if things are close to me so I didn't have a problem reading my test or anything. I think I did really well on the Contracts test. I ran out of time when I had one point to make, but literally EVERYONE ran out of time. There wasn't a single person that finished their test. Plus, I had already made some notes on the prompt about the issue I was going to address, so hopefully I'll get some points there.
After the test I went home and slept and COMPLETELY forgot that we had our first Called to the Bar lecture that day. I went home and slept through it. Luckily it only counts as an absence in my LLR class and I don't get points taken off of my grade or anything.
Now today was a completely different story. Nothing really interesting happened other than the Bluebook test which was just utter hell. I have NEVER gone into a test not knowing the material- ever. I did all of the Bluebook exercises, I wrote notes in my book, I highlighted rules, I even did EXTRA exercises on the Lexis website, but when I sat down to take this test I almost had a panic attack.
The first question was something like "pick the string citation without any errors". I had no idea- NONE. I flipped to the index and look for string citations- AWESOME it's there! AND there's three different pages that reference string citations. I flip to the first page... it's a page about signals. Ok, maybe I read the page number wrong, so I flip back to the index- nope, I've got the right page number. Well, ok, maybe one of these signals has to do with string citations and I just don't know it because that info is on one of the other pages. Nope. I go to all three pages listed in the index about string citations and NOT ONE OF THEM answers the question that I'm asked. They DO deal with string citations in regards to what order the signals go in, but NOT in regards to what order the ACTUAL citations go in. I look up at the clock and I've spent a good 5 minutes on THE FIRST PROBLEM- and this is where I almost have a panic attack. I make myself breathe for a second, and decide that I'm just going to skip that question and go on to the next one, which was a VERY good idea on my part. Although the rest of the questions were by no means easy, at least they didn't put me in a panic.
When Professor Baggett announces that we're halfway through time, I've made good progress, and while I'm not feeling GOOD by any means, I'm at least getting something accomplished. About 5 minutes after Professor Baggett gives us the halfway time call, someone actually DOES have a panic attack, which puts the rest of us on edge again. I finish before time is called and go back through the questions that I can. I ended up finding mistakes in a lot of my answers, so it's definitely good that I went back over them.
Afterwards, it looked like ALL of the 1L's were in a state of shock- either crying, laughing, shaking, or being completely non-responsive. It was definitely one of the worst scholarly experiences of my life, but at least it's over now and I can relax!!!
Went to the dog park, witnessed WAY too many times for a competition, made tacos and studied with Grace, took a Contracts test, and took the Bluebook test.
On Friday Grace and I went to a different Dog Park in Hoover, and we like it MUCH better than the one in Green Springs. It has obstacle/agility courses, sand pits, lots of shade, plenty of places for humans to sit, and doggy water fountains :-). We also met a lot of really nice people and a not so nice cat. This cat comes running out of the bushes and decides the best place for it to camp out would be right outside the dog park. Of course most of the dogs start freaking out and trying to chase it or play with it, so what does the cat do? This idiot cat decides to climb up the fence around the dog park and sit right on top of it so now the dogs can reach it's tail. It wasn't a pretty sight, and it got really angry when it's tail got bitten, but it wouldn't leave!
Grace and I ended up taking Jersey and Lu to the other side of the park and met two Poodles that actually ran around (it was really weird to see a Poodle move at all), a 6 month old Brittany, and a Boston Terrier. I thought it was super weird that out of all the dogs that could've been at the park, those three were there!
Afterwards I had to run to campus and witness for my friend in an Arbitration competition. Arbitration is SUPER boring. Luckily I was able to use my notes and didn't have to cram MORE information into my already overloaded brain. The worst part was having to sit there through the whole thing.
After I witnessed for Ellen, I went over to Grace's and we made tacos and studied Contracts for a good 5 hours. I've never studied that long IN MY LIFE, but we had so many cases to go over there wasn't another option. On the plus side, the tacos I made and the apple cobbler I bought to heat up were REALLY good, so it wasn't completely miserable.
Saturday Grace came over here and we studied some more, went over some hypotheticals and quizzed each other with the flash cards I made. We discovered that the best way to study with the flash cards is to actually read them backwards- that is, instead of reading the case name and giving the facts, we read the facts and gave the case name. We realized that this was more like what we would get on the tests- a hypothetical with facts in which we would have to decide what cases's facts matched up most closely. That really helped a lot.
I had already agreed to help Ellen this whole weekend with her Arbitration competition, so on Sunday I had to go witness again. This time I WASN'T allowed to use my notes, so on top of all my contracts cases, I had to shove information about a fictional person into my overloaded brain. It went pretty well, but I was more than ready to leave because it was the EXACT same case from Friday, except Ellen was arguing the opposing side. I get home, change clothes, and sit down to do some Bluebook exercises when I get a text from Ellen saying that she made it to the final round and asking if I could come back AGAIN and testify! I agreed, and even though it was the SAME case as the last two times, it wasn't AS bad because I was able to play a character I had already been. The big downside was that this time it took MUCH longer, and the other witnesses were people who had been cut from the team so they weren't very fun people to be around.
I finish witnessing and Grace and I decide to go over the cases one last time to be sure we know them for Monday. We did really well quizzing each other, and I was able to get to bed by about 10.
So Monday morning I'm getting ready for the test and making sure I have my anonymous test number and a pen and everything else. I'm running over the cases in my head while I take Lu for a walk and keep wondering why everything in the distance looks really fuzzy. I decide it's because I haven't woken up all the way yet, and finish walking Lu and getting ready and head to campus. About halfway to campus (the whole drive is all of 4 minutes, so it wasn't that big of a deal) I realize that the reason everything is fuzzy is because I didn't put in my contacts or put on my glasses. Luckily for me I'm nearsighted and can see pretty much perfectly if things are close to me so I didn't have a problem reading my test or anything. I think I did really well on the Contracts test. I ran out of time when I had one point to make, but literally EVERYONE ran out of time. There wasn't a single person that finished their test. Plus, I had already made some notes on the prompt about the issue I was going to address, so hopefully I'll get some points there.
After the test I went home and slept and COMPLETELY forgot that we had our first Called to the Bar lecture that day. I went home and slept through it. Luckily it only counts as an absence in my LLR class and I don't get points taken off of my grade or anything.
Now today was a completely different story. Nothing really interesting happened other than the Bluebook test which was just utter hell. I have NEVER gone into a test not knowing the material- ever. I did all of the Bluebook exercises, I wrote notes in my book, I highlighted rules, I even did EXTRA exercises on the Lexis website, but when I sat down to take this test I almost had a panic attack.
The first question was something like "pick the string citation without any errors". I had no idea- NONE. I flipped to the index and look for string citations- AWESOME it's there! AND there's three different pages that reference string citations. I flip to the first page... it's a page about signals. Ok, maybe I read the page number wrong, so I flip back to the index- nope, I've got the right page number. Well, ok, maybe one of these signals has to do with string citations and I just don't know it because that info is on one of the other pages. Nope. I go to all three pages listed in the index about string citations and NOT ONE OF THEM answers the question that I'm asked. They DO deal with string citations in regards to what order the signals go in, but NOT in regards to what order the ACTUAL citations go in. I look up at the clock and I've spent a good 5 minutes on THE FIRST PROBLEM- and this is where I almost have a panic attack. I make myself breathe for a second, and decide that I'm just going to skip that question and go on to the next one, which was a VERY good idea on my part. Although the rest of the questions were by no means easy, at least they didn't put me in a panic.
When Professor Baggett announces that we're halfway through time, I've made good progress, and while I'm not feeling GOOD by any means, I'm at least getting something accomplished. About 5 minutes after Professor Baggett gives us the halfway time call, someone actually DOES have a panic attack, which puts the rest of us on edge again. I finish before time is called and go back through the questions that I can. I ended up finding mistakes in a lot of my answers, so it's definitely good that I went back over them.
Afterwards, it looked like ALL of the 1L's were in a state of shock- either crying, laughing, shaking, or being completely non-responsive. It was definitely one of the worst scholarly experiences of my life, but at least it's over now and I can relax!!!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The Demands of Professional School
This week I've finally started feeling the demands of law school for a few different reasons. The first was that I got a flu shot this weekend and ended up having a fever that made me miserable on Tuesday so I couldn't go to classes. In undergrad that's not a big deal at all, but in law school it's a whole different story.
Not only did I have to miss my favorite class (criminal law), I also had to miss the class that I have the most problem understanding (civ pro). On top of that, I always knew that no one took notes the same way and that getting notes from other people is difficult, but it's even more difficult in law school. Some people outline chapters before they come to class and add notes on to their outlines, some people brief their cases, take notes in the book, and take notes in a notebook, some people book brief and only take notes in their book, some people only take notes in a notebook, and some people (me) book brief and take notes in a notebook. Even though Grace and Caitlyn are letting me copy their notes, there's NO way I'm going to be able to get all the information I missed from lecture. I wouldn't be able to get that even if I got the notes from everyone in class!
Another reason I'm feeling the pressure is because I have two tests next week in Contracts and LLR. Don't get me wrong, I'm in NO way upset that we're getting more than one test in Contracts as opposed to the tradition of only having one final like I do in all my other classes. My biggest problem is that I don't know what I need to know for the test. Do I need to know the cases? Where the cases were heard? Their procedural history? What state and year they were decided in? Do I need to know the statutes and rules that are applied from the UCC, R2d Contracts, UNIDROIT, and Common Law? I'm sure I need to know the basic principles we studied like what constitutes and offer, an acceptance, a termination, a rejection, and a revocation- but do I need to know which case establishes which principle? I'm going to err on the side of information overload and learn everything. I sure am glad I'm good at memorizing things... The test is only 10% of our grade, but that 10% could mean the difference between an B+ and an A- or an A- and an A, and seeing as how my scholarship stipulates that I have to stay in the top 20% of my class to keep my scholarship, I need every point I can get.
The other test is the stupid LLR citation test. I don't even know what to expect other than utter hell. Daddy and Mr. JD got a peek at the Bluebook when I picked them up from the airport and couldn't believe there were so many rules. No one warned me about the Bluebook before I came to law school!
After trying to study for both of these tests, I have NO idea how I'm going to make it through finals. I am very grateful, however, that I get a chance to see what the tests are going to be like in Contracts and hopefully that will give me an idea of what the other tests are going to be like...
To wrap up I'm going to relate to you a short story about what happened to me in Wal-Mart that made all this studying worth it. I was wearing my Cumberland sweatshirt and a woman stopped me in the aisle and asked if I was a law student at Cumberland. When I told her I was she asked me what kind of law I wanted to practice, and when I told her that I wanted to do Health Law and Medical Ethics, she thanked me. She said that we needed more people on what she called "our side" to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies and doctors that "cut the wrong damn leg off", and thanked me for doing something to help people out. It made me feel really good inside to know that I can actually make a difference, and that people are counting on me to help them out in the future.
I love you all!
Not only did I have to miss my favorite class (criminal law), I also had to miss the class that I have the most problem understanding (civ pro). On top of that, I always knew that no one took notes the same way and that getting notes from other people is difficult, but it's even more difficult in law school. Some people outline chapters before they come to class and add notes on to their outlines, some people brief their cases, take notes in the book, and take notes in a notebook, some people book brief and only take notes in their book, some people only take notes in a notebook, and some people (me) book brief and take notes in a notebook. Even though Grace and Caitlyn are letting me copy their notes, there's NO way I'm going to be able to get all the information I missed from lecture. I wouldn't be able to get that even if I got the notes from everyone in class!
Another reason I'm feeling the pressure is because I have two tests next week in Contracts and LLR. Don't get me wrong, I'm in NO way upset that we're getting more than one test in Contracts as opposed to the tradition of only having one final like I do in all my other classes. My biggest problem is that I don't know what I need to know for the test. Do I need to know the cases? Where the cases were heard? Their procedural history? What state and year they were decided in? Do I need to know the statutes and rules that are applied from the UCC, R2d Contracts, UNIDROIT, and Common Law? I'm sure I need to know the basic principles we studied like what constitutes and offer, an acceptance, a termination, a rejection, and a revocation- but do I need to know which case establishes which principle? I'm going to err on the side of information overload and learn everything. I sure am glad I'm good at memorizing things... The test is only 10% of our grade, but that 10% could mean the difference between an B+ and an A- or an A- and an A, and seeing as how my scholarship stipulates that I have to stay in the top 20% of my class to keep my scholarship, I need every point I can get.
The other test is the stupid LLR citation test. I don't even know what to expect other than utter hell. Daddy and Mr. JD got a peek at the Bluebook when I picked them up from the airport and couldn't believe there were so many rules. No one warned me about the Bluebook before I came to law school!
After trying to study for both of these tests, I have NO idea how I'm going to make it through finals. I am very grateful, however, that I get a chance to see what the tests are going to be like in Contracts and hopefully that will give me an idea of what the other tests are going to be like...
To wrap up I'm going to relate to you a short story about what happened to me in Wal-Mart that made all this studying worth it. I was wearing my Cumberland sweatshirt and a woman stopped me in the aisle and asked if I was a law student at Cumberland. When I told her I was she asked me what kind of law I wanted to practice, and when I told her that I wanted to do Health Law and Medical Ethics, she thanked me. She said that we needed more people on what she called "our side" to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies and doctors that "cut the wrong damn leg off", and thanked me for doing something to help people out. It made me feel really good inside to know that I can actually make a difference, and that people are counting on me to help them out in the future.
I love you all!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Improvised PB&J
This weekend has been pretty great. Friday Grace, Caitlyn, Nina and I all took our dogs to the dog park and turned the dog park into a black-and-white dog party! Lu did a lot better this time because there were no other GIANT dogs there, and she was able to meet the other dogs one at a time. Lulu was DEFINITELY the smallest of all the dogs, and one of the older ones, but her being the bossy dog she is decided she would bark at all the dogs when they decided to run around and act like dogs. It was really funny to see Lulu chasing these dogs that are 2 and 3 times bigger than her!
Grace's dog Jersey is only 6 months old, probably already 60 lbs, and GIANT! Here's a picture of her when she was a puppy-puppy and only 8 lbs! Now she probably stands 3 feet tall on all fours, and is going to get bigger!
Grace got her from the Humane Society, so she's not sure what she is, but thinks she's an English Pointer mix.
Caitlyn's dog Maggie is about 4 months old and 40-ish pounds. She get to go to Doggy Day-Care every day. I wish I could afford that for Lulu! Maggie will probably get to be about 45-50 pounds, and not much bigger. She's as sweet as can be, just like her mom :-)
Nina has a Border Collie named Finley or "Fin" that LOVES to play. She's one of those awesome dogs that can catch frisbee in her mouth and actually fetches balls and sticks and stuff. Apparently it gets kind of overwhelming though, because she likes to wake Nina up by dropping tennis balls or frisbees on Nina's face.
Anyway, I'm sure you can picture how funny it was to see my little Lulu barking at and chasing after all these dogs telling them to slow down or play nice- or whatever it was she was barking at them to do.
I LOVE that I've found more dog lovers here to hang out with. We're talking about making the dog park excursions a weekly thing so that the younger dogs can get socialized to other dogs, and so that the older dogs don't drive us crazy all weekend long :-)
Saturday Kiyoshi Kuni and I watched a movie called "Immortal Beloved". It's a movie about Beethoven, and it was actually pretty interesting. I had heard is was going to be like "Amadeus", and I wasn't sure I was in the mood to watch a movie like that, but I thought it was much more interesting and I enjoyed it. Afterwards we drove to Railroad Park and walked Lu around for about 45 minutes. It's GORGEOUS there, and it's big on conservation and recycling and all that good "green" stuff.
After that, I went to the Airport to surprise my daddy and Mr. JD. It was really nice to see them after their trip to Haiti, and they seem to have learned a lot and had a good time. I'm just glad they're home.
Today is a day full of studying- which I should be doing right now, but I also have to go grocery shopping. I went to make a sandwich today, but my bread was moldy so I tried to improvise a PB&J by using Ritz crackers instead of bread. It was pretty gross, I don't recommend it to anyone.
I need to study now!
Grace's dog Jersey is only 6 months old, probably already 60 lbs, and GIANT! Here's a picture of her when she was a puppy-puppy and only 8 lbs! Now she probably stands 3 feet tall on all fours, and is going to get bigger!
Grace got her from the Humane Society, so she's not sure what she is, but thinks she's an English Pointer mix.
Caitlyn's dog Maggie is about 4 months old and 40-ish pounds. She get to go to Doggy Day-Care every day. I wish I could afford that for Lulu! Maggie will probably get to be about 45-50 pounds, and not much bigger. She's as sweet as can be, just like her mom :-)
Nina has a Border Collie named Finley or "Fin" that LOVES to play. She's one of those awesome dogs that can catch frisbee in her mouth and actually fetches balls and sticks and stuff. Apparently it gets kind of overwhelming though, because she likes to wake Nina up by dropping tennis balls or frisbees on Nina's face.
Anyway, I'm sure you can picture how funny it was to see my little Lulu barking at and chasing after all these dogs telling them to slow down or play nice- or whatever it was she was barking at them to do.
I LOVE that I've found more dog lovers here to hang out with. We're talking about making the dog park excursions a weekly thing so that the younger dogs can get socialized to other dogs, and so that the older dogs don't drive us crazy all weekend long :-)
Saturday Kiyoshi Kuni and I watched a movie called "Immortal Beloved". It's a movie about Beethoven, and it was actually pretty interesting. I had heard is was going to be like "Amadeus", and I wasn't sure I was in the mood to watch a movie like that, but I thought it was much more interesting and I enjoyed it. Afterwards we drove to Railroad Park and walked Lu around for about 45 minutes. It's GORGEOUS there, and it's big on conservation and recycling and all that good "green" stuff.
After that, I went to the Airport to surprise my daddy and Mr. JD. It was really nice to see them after their trip to Haiti, and they seem to have learned a lot and had a good time. I'm just glad they're home.
Today is a day full of studying- which I should be doing right now, but I also have to go grocery shopping. I went to make a sandwich today, but my bread was moldy so I tried to improvise a PB&J by using Ritz crackers instead of bread. It was pretty gross, I don't recommend it to anyone.
I need to study now!
Friday, September 16, 2011
FRIDAY!!!!
Oh my goodness, I'm SO glad it's Friday. This week seemed EXTRA long for some reason- it probably has something to do with the Blue Book hell that we're being put through. It's miserable. You spend at LEAST an hour or two on each exercise only to get your grade at the end telling you you've gotten 9 out of 23 correct. It makes me seriously doubt my intelligence. The good thing (I guess?) is that I'm not the only one that feels that way, and I've yet to come across a person who ISN'T having problems with it.
I'm on exercise 4 and still feel like I haven't learned anything yet. Don't worry family, I'm going back over them and tabbing and highlighting everything to make sure I learn it, but it really is disheartening. The thing everyone is most worried about is we have a test on the 23rd that's supposed to be very similar to the exercises, but we only have an hour to complete the test. How in the world are we supposed to finish a TEST in an hour if we can't even finish the EXERCISES in an hour??
In other news, I wasn't elected to the Honor Court. I'm bummed, but I'm not devastated. There were a million people running and we had to win by a majority, so I honestly would've been surprised if I HAD been elected. The good news is that our section took all 4 spots on SBA available for 1L's which is pretty awesome :-)
Finally, I just saw this on TV and feel like it needs to be shared.
I'm on exercise 4 and still feel like I haven't learned anything yet. Don't worry family, I'm going back over them and tabbing and highlighting everything to make sure I learn it, but it really is disheartening. The thing everyone is most worried about is we have a test on the 23rd that's supposed to be very similar to the exercises, but we only have an hour to complete the test. How in the world are we supposed to finish a TEST in an hour if we can't even finish the EXERCISES in an hour??
In other news, I wasn't elected to the Honor Court. I'm bummed, but I'm not devastated. There were a million people running and we had to win by a majority, so I honestly would've been surprised if I HAD been elected. The good news is that our section took all 4 spots on SBA available for 1L's which is pretty awesome :-)
Finally, I just saw this on TV and feel like it needs to be shared.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
How to be a southerner.
LLR Boot Camp has some interesting side effects. Other than making every 1L want to rip the Blue Book to shreds, it also sends us to the library in herds to finish our secondary source research before the next LLR class. For everyone in my section, it's after our Torts class on Monday and Thursday. It's pretty funny now to see all of us scrambling around trying to figure out where in the library to go, but I bet it will be even funnier next year when we watch those 1L's doing what we had to do. It's pretty chaotic.
While we were doing some research, one of the girls from Baltimore asked Caitlyn and me to teach her how to be a southerner. It was a pretty fun assignment, and WAY more interesting than our secondary source research. Here's what we came up with:
1. ALWAYS say ma'am or sir when answering a question to adults or someone you're unfamiliar with UNLESS you're sure they're younger than you.
2. Apologize way too often. Even if you're standing still and someone runs into you, apologize.
3. Sweet tea is a must.
4. Hold the door for everyone- you'll end up getting stuck at the door for a long time sometimes, but if you don't hold the door people will think you're rude.
5. Say thank you to any sort of critique from someone of authority even if it's mean.
and my personal favorite-
6. You can say WHATEVER you want, as long as you follow up or precede the statement with "bless his/her/their heart(s)".
Pretty much- kill people with kindness. I had never thought about how true #6 was until we told her about it, but it is incredibly true! You can say, "That is the ugliest baby I've ever seen, bless his heart." and get away with it because, bless his heart, he can't help it!
Kiyoshi's on his way over and we're going to get dinner and then I'm going to get ready for the Bar Review tonight.
I love you!
While we were doing some research, one of the girls from Baltimore asked Caitlyn and me to teach her how to be a southerner. It was a pretty fun assignment, and WAY more interesting than our secondary source research. Here's what we came up with:
1. ALWAYS say ma'am or sir when answering a question to adults or someone you're unfamiliar with UNLESS you're sure they're younger than you.
2. Apologize way too often. Even if you're standing still and someone runs into you, apologize.
3. Sweet tea is a must.
4. Hold the door for everyone- you'll end up getting stuck at the door for a long time sometimes, but if you don't hold the door people will think you're rude.
5. Say thank you to any sort of critique from someone of authority even if it's mean.
and my personal favorite-
6. You can say WHATEVER you want, as long as you follow up or precede the statement with "bless his/her/their heart(s)".
Pretty much- kill people with kindness. I had never thought about how true #6 was until we told her about it, but it is incredibly true! You can say, "That is the ugliest baby I've ever seen, bless his heart." and get away with it because, bless his heart, he can't help it!
Kiyoshi's on his way over and we're going to get dinner and then I'm going to get ready for the Bar Review tonight.
I love you!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Do my eyes deceive me?
Have you ever glanced at a word and read it wrong? Of course you have- who hasn't. Have you ever glanced at a word and read it wrong in front of a whole class? You probably have, it's not that uncommon. What I bet you HAVEN'T done is this:
We're sitting in Torts and I'm called on to brief a case again. I do MUCH better this time than I did last time in Torts, and I'm feeling much better about myself. I know you don't care, but in order to fully understand this exchange you need a little case background. The case is about an epileptic that has a seizure while driving and whether or not the courts should apply strict liability, absolute liability, negligence, or none of the above. So here we go.
Professor Nelson: "So, was he put on any medications?"
Me: "Yes, he was put on..." I glance down at my book to find the name of the drug "...probatin. Oh, wait, no- that would be probation."
Yes, I did that. Yes it was hilarious. I'm glad I wasn't having a bad day and that I'm not a person easily embarrassed or that could've been horrible, because it actually was really funny.
On that same note, every day Megan and I come home from class with funny quotes or stories to tell each other. The problem is that since I'm not in med school and she's not in law school, we don't get ANY of the jokes the other person tells us. It's almost become a game to see who can find a joke from the day that the other person will get. The closest I got was last week when I was telling her about two guys in class talking about damages for a guy that broke into a house and got his legs blown of by a spring gun:
Jay: "I mean, he got $29,500."
Lance: "Yeah, minus legs."
The funny this is how NOT funny we find the other person's joke, and it makes for great stories for our classmates the next day.
SBA and Honor Court voting started today, and we're going to find out tomorrow at the Bar Review who won. I'm hoping that I either win or don't win- I don't want to have to do a run-off election, but since you have to win by a majority, chances are that there's going to be a lot of run-offs.
Kiyoshi's coming over in a little while and I'm going to make him play Mario Bros with me and then go swimming with Bekah, so I should probably quit rambling on here and do my readings!
I love you!
We're sitting in Torts and I'm called on to brief a case again. I do MUCH better this time than I did last time in Torts, and I'm feeling much better about myself. I know you don't care, but in order to fully understand this exchange you need a little case background. The case is about an epileptic that has a seizure while driving and whether or not the courts should apply strict liability, absolute liability, negligence, or none of the above. So here we go.
Professor Nelson: "So, was he put on any medications?"
Me: "Yes, he was put on..." I glance down at my book to find the name of the drug "...probatin. Oh, wait, no- that would be probation."
Yes, I did that. Yes it was hilarious. I'm glad I wasn't having a bad day and that I'm not a person easily embarrassed or that could've been horrible, because it actually was really funny.
On that same note, every day Megan and I come home from class with funny quotes or stories to tell each other. The problem is that since I'm not in med school and she's not in law school, we don't get ANY of the jokes the other person tells us. It's almost become a game to see who can find a joke from the day that the other person will get. The closest I got was last week when I was telling her about two guys in class talking about damages for a guy that broke into a house and got his legs blown of by a spring gun:
Jay: "I mean, he got $29,500."
Lance: "Yeah, minus legs."
The funny this is how NOT funny we find the other person's joke, and it makes for great stories for our classmates the next day.
SBA and Honor Court voting started today, and we're going to find out tomorrow at the Bar Review who won. I'm hoping that I either win or don't win- I don't want to have to do a run-off election, but since you have to win by a majority, chances are that there's going to be a lot of run-offs.
Kiyoshi's coming over in a little while and I'm going to make him play Mario Bros with me and then go swimming with Bekah, so I should probably quit rambling on here and do my readings!
I love you!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Just one of those days...
Today was one of those days where I just wanted to crawl back into bed and try again later, but fortunately the day got better.
I was called on to brief a case in Contracts today and did VERY well. I definitely think it makes up for my not-so-great performance in Torts last week.
I started these stupid Blue Book Citing exercises that we have to do, and I can say without any reservation that I HATE BLUE BOOK CITATIONS! Ugh! I can't believe I EVER complained about MLA citations! I got a question wrong because I was looking at rule 193823239485 for citing quotes that were UNDER 49 words instead of rule 9384569847 for quotes that were 49 words and over... On top of that, the title Blue BOOK is deceiving. It may be one book, but there are three different sections in the book and you have to consult EACH section of the book for EVERY site you want to do. It's miserable.
Other than that not much is going on. Kiyoshi took his MCAT and he'll get the score in about a month. We vote for SBA and Honor Court on Wednesday and Thursday and find out the results on Thursday at the Bar Review.
I believe that is all!
I was called on to brief a case in Contracts today and did VERY well. I definitely think it makes up for my not-so-great performance in Torts last week.
I started these stupid Blue Book Citing exercises that we have to do, and I can say without any reservation that I HATE BLUE BOOK CITATIONS! Ugh! I can't believe I EVER complained about MLA citations! I got a question wrong because I was looking at rule 193823239485 for citing quotes that were UNDER 49 words instead of rule 9384569847 for quotes that were 49 words and over... On top of that, the title Blue BOOK is deceiving. It may be one book, but there are three different sections in the book and you have to consult EACH section of the book for EVERY site you want to do. It's miserable.
Other than that not much is going on. Kiyoshi took his MCAT and he'll get the score in about a month. We vote for SBA and Honor Court on Wednesday and Thursday and find out the results on Thursday at the Bar Review.
I believe that is all!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Champagne Friday?
One of the things I miss the most about home since moving back to Birmingham is Champagne Friday! It was an absolutely ingenious way to end a week, especially if that week had been extra stressful. Now that I'm back in Birmingham and living off of student loans, there's no way I can afford Champagne, plus it's not as much fun if you're drinking by yourself (I think that's actually the definition of an alcoholic).
Today started the campaigns for SBA and Honor Court. I haven't campaigned for anything since middle school, and I wasn't really going to do much campaigning for this. I was banking on my name being first since it's in alphabetical order and just getting picked that way. I know, I know, not a great tactic, but I just didn't have the money to campaign. Well, a the meeting last night they informed us that we have to put up at least one poster, even if we're running unopposed. Lame. Anyway, I was going to get some of my high school friends to help me think of a cute/funny slogan, when I thought of something myself. Here's my campaign poster:
I'm pretty proud of myself, I think it's pretty funny, and it's gotten a lot of laughs so far. Even though I've got my posters up, I'm not planning on doing much more campaigning other than maybe making an "event" on Facebook to get people to vote for me. Luckily the campaign only lasts until Tuesday at midnight, so there's not a lot I have to do to keep people's interest.
Today is my mom's birthday! She's pretty much the best mom in the world.
Look how happy she and daddy are :-) I won't tell you how old mom is cause she might freak out (probably not), but I will tell you that they got married when they were twenty and have been dating for over a quarter of a century!!
Emily decided we should throw a surprise party for her, so we celebrated her birthday last week since Daddy is leaving for Haiti tomorrow morning.
Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!!
For redundancy's sake, I'm going to say once again that Daddy is going to Haiti tomorrow morning. I'm glad that he's going to help other people out and be a good person and everything, but at the same time I wish he was going somewhere that didn't have so many diseases! He's gotten a million and seven shots to prepare and is taking all sorts of other pills, but I'm still a little worried. I'm not so worried about the political stability because if there is any problems, the U.S. Embassy takes them to the Embassy and flies them back home personally. I know he and Mr. JD are going to have a great time, and hopefully help a lot of people, but I'm going to miss him.
We started "Blue Book Boot Camp" today. The Blue Book is the universal citation method for legal anything. Apparently it's hell on earth. We have a few assignments online, and hopefully I'll get one done tonight, but I'm keep you posted on how miserable this whole thing makes me.
Now, I believe I am going to take Lulu on a walk, go visit Kiyoshi, and then meet Daddy and Mr. JD for dinner :-)
I love you all!
Today started the campaigns for SBA and Honor Court. I haven't campaigned for anything since middle school, and I wasn't really going to do much campaigning for this. I was banking on my name being first since it's in alphabetical order and just getting picked that way. I know, I know, not a great tactic, but I just didn't have the money to campaign. Well, a the meeting last night they informed us that we have to put up at least one poster, even if we're running unopposed. Lame. Anyway, I was going to get some of my high school friends to help me think of a cute/funny slogan, when I thought of something myself. Here's my campaign poster:
I'm pretty proud of myself, I think it's pretty funny, and it's gotten a lot of laughs so far. Even though I've got my posters up, I'm not planning on doing much more campaigning other than maybe making an "event" on Facebook to get people to vote for me. Luckily the campaign only lasts until Tuesday at midnight, so there's not a lot I have to do to keep people's interest.
Today is my mom's birthday! She's pretty much the best mom in the world.
Look how happy she and daddy are :-) I won't tell you how old mom is cause she might freak out (probably not), but I will tell you that they got married when they were twenty and have been dating for over a quarter of a century!!
Emily decided we should throw a surprise party for her, so we celebrated her birthday last week since Daddy is leaving for Haiti tomorrow morning.
Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!!
For redundancy's sake, I'm going to say once again that Daddy is going to Haiti tomorrow morning. I'm glad that he's going to help other people out and be a good person and everything, but at the same time I wish he was going somewhere that didn't have so many diseases! He's gotten a million and seven shots to prepare and is taking all sorts of other pills, but I'm still a little worried. I'm not so worried about the political stability because if there is any problems, the U.S. Embassy takes them to the Embassy and flies them back home personally. I know he and Mr. JD are going to have a great time, and hopefully help a lot of people, but I'm going to miss him.
We started "Blue Book Boot Camp" today. The Blue Book is the universal citation method for legal anything. Apparently it's hell on earth. We have a few assignments online, and hopefully I'll get one done tonight, but I'm keep you posted on how miserable this whole thing makes me.
Now, I believe I am going to take Lulu on a walk, go visit Kiyoshi, and then meet Daddy and Mr. JD for dinner :-)
I love you all!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
A Day of Firsts
Yesterday was a day of firsts for me- the first time I got called on to brief a case in class, and the first time I ever made a cheesecake!
We'll start with the not so good first, getting called on to brief a case in class. It was Torts, and even though I had read the case and done my brief I looked like a complete idiot. I knew the facts, I knew the procedural history, I knew the ruling, I knew everything, but when he called on my I was unable to form coherent sentences!! This usually isn't ever an issue for me, so the fact that I was flustered made me even MORE flustered. So I give the facts and my professor starts asking me questions and I have NO idea what he's talking about. I think maybe he's gone on to the next case I'm so lost. At one point I even have to say "I'm sorry, I just don't know" AND "I'm sorry, but I have NO idea where you are." It was humiliating. I wanted to go up to him and show him my notes and book and say "Look! I promise I read the case! I did my work!". After class, without me asking how I did, I had a few people come up to me and say that he had grilled me extra hard, and that made me feel a little better, but not much.
I think it was probably worse in my head than it was in reality, but I hated the feeling of helplessness- especially when I had done my work. Needless to say, I've learned to look over all my cases again before I go in to class in case I'm called on to give a case from last week.
Now for the awesomeness! I had already decided I wanted to bake something, but after my not-so-great performance in Torts, I was determined to make something extra unhealthy! If you don't know, I am ADDICTED to Pinterest, and was prowling the pages when I came across this picture for a butterscotch cheesecake:
It looks delicious, right? Well try as I might, I couldn't find the recipe, and I was upset.
Then I come across a recipe for these cookies:
These sounded great and I was all set on making them, when I came across this recipe:
Ok, now I'm hooked, and I decide I'm going to make my own butterscotch cheesecake by combining the cookie recipe and the cookie dough cheesecake recipe with a butterscotch ganache.
Here is my White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookie Dough Cheesecake
It is delicious! Here's the recipe in full.
For the Cookies:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoon water or milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
An additional 1/2 cup of both the white and butterscotch chips to fold into the batter with the cookie dough balls
For the Ganache:
1/4 a bag of 11 oz butterscotch chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
For the Cheesecake:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 1/2 cups Nilla Wafers
4 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
For the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, combine the butter and sugars for the cookie dough. Add the water (or milk), vanilla and blend. Mix in the flour, salt and the chips. The dough will be fairly soft. Gently roll the dough into small balls (about a teaspoon size, maybe a bit larger) and place them on a wax paper lined plate or baking sheet. Place them in the freezer to harden while making the rest of the cheesecake.
For the ganache: Heat the butterscotch chips and heavy whipping cream in a small sauce bowl on medium heat until melted. Transfer to another bowl and let cool to room temperature while you make the cheesecake.
For the crust: Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, combine the butter with the chocolate cookie crumbs (I had to crush these by hand and it was not fun). Press onto the bottom and about halfway up the sides of the prepared pan.
For the cheesecake: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour until smooth. Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix just until blended. Be careful not to overmix – incorporating too much air into the batter can contribute to a cheesecake cracking on top during baking. Mine still cracked, but I didn't mind because it still tasted wonderful!
Pour half the batter into the prepared crust. Gently stir in the cookie dough balls and the additional 1 cup chips into the remaining batter. Pour into the pan, spreading the batter to the sides of the pan and evening it out across the top (it is ok to see bumps of cookie dough here and there, smooth it the best you can). Bake the cheesecake at 325 degrees for one hour. Turn off the oven and prop the door open several inches. Let the cake sit in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, pour the ganache on top, and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate until chilled (ideally, overnight). Once the cake has pulled away from the edges, run a sharp knife around the pan to make sure none of the cake is sticking, and VERY carefully remove the outside of the spring pan.
Whew, that's a lot of steps, but it makes for a WONDERFUL cheesecake! I'm so glad I tried to make one!
Also, Kiyoshi took the MCAT today, so there's a BIG load of stress off of him and me. I know he did wonderfully, but now I can't wait for his score to come back so he can know he did wonderfully.
We'll start with the not so good first, getting called on to brief a case in class. It was Torts, and even though I had read the case and done my brief I looked like a complete idiot. I knew the facts, I knew the procedural history, I knew the ruling, I knew everything, but when he called on my I was unable to form coherent sentences!! This usually isn't ever an issue for me, so the fact that I was flustered made me even MORE flustered. So I give the facts and my professor starts asking me questions and I have NO idea what he's talking about. I think maybe he's gone on to the next case I'm so lost. At one point I even have to say "I'm sorry, I just don't know" AND "I'm sorry, but I have NO idea where you are." It was humiliating. I wanted to go up to him and show him my notes and book and say "Look! I promise I read the case! I did my work!". After class, without me asking how I did, I had a few people come up to me and say that he had grilled me extra hard, and that made me feel a little better, but not much.
I think it was probably worse in my head than it was in reality, but I hated the feeling of helplessness- especially when I had done my work. Needless to say, I've learned to look over all my cases again before I go in to class in case I'm called on to give a case from last week.
Now for the awesomeness! I had already decided I wanted to bake something, but after my not-so-great performance in Torts, I was determined to make something extra unhealthy! If you don't know, I am ADDICTED to Pinterest, and was prowling the pages when I came across this picture for a butterscotch cheesecake:
It looks delicious, right? Well try as I might, I couldn't find the recipe, and I was upset.
Then I come across a recipe for these cookies:
These sounded great and I was all set on making them, when I came across this recipe:
Ok, now I'm hooked, and I decide I'm going to make my own butterscotch cheesecake by combining the cookie recipe and the cookie dough cheesecake recipe with a butterscotch ganache.
Here is my White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookie Dough Cheesecake
It is delicious! Here's the recipe in full.
For the Cookies:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoon water or milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
An additional 1/2 cup of both the white and butterscotch chips to fold into the batter with the cookie dough balls
For the Ganache:
1/4 a bag of 11 oz butterscotch chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
For the Cheesecake:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 1/2 cups Nilla Wafers
4 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
For the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, combine the butter and sugars for the cookie dough. Add the water (or milk), vanilla and blend. Mix in the flour, salt and the chips. The dough will be fairly soft. Gently roll the dough into small balls (about a teaspoon size, maybe a bit larger) and place them on a wax paper lined plate or baking sheet. Place them in the freezer to harden while making the rest of the cheesecake.
For the ganache: Heat the butterscotch chips and heavy whipping cream in a small sauce bowl on medium heat until melted. Transfer to another bowl and let cool to room temperature while you make the cheesecake.
For the crust: Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, combine the butter with the chocolate cookie crumbs (I had to crush these by hand and it was not fun). Press onto the bottom and about halfway up the sides of the prepared pan.
For the cheesecake: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour until smooth. Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix just until blended. Be careful not to overmix – incorporating too much air into the batter can contribute to a cheesecake cracking on top during baking. Mine still cracked, but I didn't mind because it still tasted wonderful!
Pour half the batter into the prepared crust. Gently stir in the cookie dough balls and the additional 1 cup chips into the remaining batter. Pour into the pan, spreading the batter to the sides of the pan and evening it out across the top (it is ok to see bumps of cookie dough here and there, smooth it the best you can). Bake the cheesecake at 325 degrees for one hour. Turn off the oven and prop the door open several inches. Let the cake sit in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, pour the ganache on top, and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate until chilled (ideally, overnight). Once the cake has pulled away from the edges, run a sharp knife around the pan to make sure none of the cake is sticking, and VERY carefully remove the outside of the spring pan.
Whew, that's a lot of steps, but it makes for a WONDERFUL cheesecake! I'm so glad I tried to make one!
Also, Kiyoshi took the MCAT today, so there's a BIG load of stress off of him and me. I know he did wonderfully, but now I can't wait for his score to come back so he can know he did wonderfully.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Take Two
I re-did the curtains in the den and I'm MUCH happier with them!
Also, I'm done being a Suzy-Homemaker for a while now. That was too much Little House on the Prairie for one day...
Also, I'm done being a Suzy-Homemaker for a while now. That was too much Little House on the Prairie for one day...
Hurricane
Wow, so this hurricane has turned Birmingham into a swamp. Samford has no power so all my classes today were cancelled. I decided to spend the day making another curtain for our dining room and taking pictures of the ones I had already made.
I can't believe I have some legitimate before and after pictures! I used this link and tutorial to make the Roman Shades in my room and the dining room.
My room:
Dining Room:
I think they turned out pretty cute.
Now here's a before picture of the dining room door:
and an after with the curtain I free-handed :-)
Before den picture:
After den picture:
I'm not sure I'm happy with it, but I don't know what else to do- there's SO much window to cover!
Now I think I'm going to do my readings for tomorrow and take a nap! Yes, that sounds wonderful :-)
-EB-
I can't believe I have some legitimate before and after pictures! I used this link and tutorial to make the Roman Shades in my room and the dining room.
My room:
Dining Room:
I think they turned out pretty cute.
Now here's a before picture of the dining room door:
and an after with the curtain I free-handed :-)
Before den picture:
After den picture:
I'm not sure I'm happy with it, but I don't know what else to do- there's SO much window to cover!
Now I think I'm going to do my readings for tomorrow and take a nap! Yes, that sounds wonderful :-)
-EB-
Thursday, September 1, 2011
New Beginnings
I feel like before I write any more I need to make some clarifications and apologies. First of all, I apologize for the legal language and phrasing that I'm sure will ensue as a result of these classes (I already caught myself telling Kiyoshi to "contact her again and explain to her in plain terms that there was no negligence on your part and that any reasonable person would have acted as you did, so you shouldn't be held accountable for your tardiness").
Secondly, there's things I should probably define now so you're not completely lost when I mention then later on.
1L/2L/3L: First year, second year, and third year law student. I am a 1L
LLR: Lawyering and Legal Reasoning class. This is a special class Cumberland makes 1L's take to focus on legal writing. It's apparently very helpful but demanding, and I will want to kill myself by the time the 50 page memo is due.
Bar Review: This is NOT what it sounds like. It's a party-ish thing that different groups in the school throw once a month so everyone can relax and cut loose, NOT a review class for the Bar Exam.
Called to the Bar: Part of our LLR requirements. They bring in speakers or have special workshops we have to attend.
Civ. Pro: Civil Procedure. As of right now my least favorite class, but that may all change.
Con.: Contracts.
Crim. Law: I'm sure you could guess this one, but it's Criminal Law. This is probably my favorite class because our Professor is pretty awesome- you'll see why in a second.
PAD: Phi Alpha Delta. The international law fraternity that Cumberland is a part of, and that I have joined.
SBA: Student Bar Association. It's just like SGA in high school or undergrad, but they call it the Student Bar Association instead of the Student Government Association
WIL: Women In Law
Now that the second week of law school is almost over, I feel like I can say with confidence that Civ pro is my least favorite class, and crim law is my favorite. One reason is the cases in civ pro are SO boring, and all you do is read rule after rule after rule after rule. Crim law on the other hand has interesting (although sometimes disturbing cases), and our professor is really funny. He played this song for us today:
I've also decided I need to get more active in school organizations again. I was really active in middle and high school, and then I guess I was daunted by how big UAB was so I didn't participate in much. I'm worried I might be going into participation overload though, I'm signing up for everything I can. I've joined PAD, I'm going to a meeting for Women In Law, I'm running for an office on the Honor Court (a branch of SBA), I volunteered to be an Ambassador for Cumberland, AND I've volunteered to be a witness in mock trial competitions. I also plan to participate in the Williamson Trial Competition which is the only competition open to 1L's, but that's not until next semester so I may change my mind.
The first bar review is tonight, but I haven't decided if I'm going or not yet. Kiyoshi and I want to watch a movie and actually get to talk this week before I go home for the weekend. With my classes and his studying I feel like we never see each other or have real conversations!
I think that's all. I love you!
P.S.: The banana bread still turned out gross- I think mom left out an ingredient, or my oven doesn't work properly :-/
Secondly, there's things I should probably define now so you're not completely lost when I mention then later on.
1L/2L/3L: First year, second year, and third year law student. I am a 1L
LLR: Lawyering and Legal Reasoning class. This is a special class Cumberland makes 1L's take to focus on legal writing. It's apparently very helpful but demanding, and I will want to kill myself by the time the 50 page memo is due.
Bar Review: This is NOT what it sounds like. It's a party-ish thing that different groups in the school throw once a month so everyone can relax and cut loose, NOT a review class for the Bar Exam.
Called to the Bar: Part of our LLR requirements. They bring in speakers or have special workshops we have to attend.
Civ. Pro: Civil Procedure. As of right now my least favorite class, but that may all change.
Con.: Contracts.
Crim. Law: I'm sure you could guess this one, but it's Criminal Law. This is probably my favorite class because our Professor is pretty awesome- you'll see why in a second.
PAD: Phi Alpha Delta. The international law fraternity that Cumberland is a part of, and that I have joined.
SBA: Student Bar Association. It's just like SGA in high school or undergrad, but they call it the Student Bar Association instead of the Student Government Association
WIL: Women In Law
Now that the second week of law school is almost over, I feel like I can say with confidence that Civ pro is my least favorite class, and crim law is my favorite. One reason is the cases in civ pro are SO boring, and all you do is read rule after rule after rule after rule. Crim law on the other hand has interesting (although sometimes disturbing cases), and our professor is really funny. He played this song for us today:
I've also decided I need to get more active in school organizations again. I was really active in middle and high school, and then I guess I was daunted by how big UAB was so I didn't participate in much. I'm worried I might be going into participation overload though, I'm signing up for everything I can. I've joined PAD, I'm going to a meeting for Women In Law, I'm running for an office on the Honor Court (a branch of SBA), I volunteered to be an Ambassador for Cumberland, AND I've volunteered to be a witness in mock trial competitions. I also plan to participate in the Williamson Trial Competition which is the only competition open to 1L's, but that's not until next semester so I may change my mind.
The first bar review is tonight, but I haven't decided if I'm going or not yet. Kiyoshi and I want to watch a movie and actually get to talk this week before I go home for the weekend. With my classes and his studying I feel like we never see each other or have real conversations!
I think that's all. I love you!
P.S.: The banana bread still turned out gross- I think mom left out an ingredient, or my oven doesn't work properly :-/
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Why Not?
I decided I might try blogging. Not that my life is all that interesting, but since there's a lot going on in my life right now, those of you that I don't get to talk to frequently can still keep up. I apologize if this is rather ramble-y, I don't really know what y'all want to know about and what you don't- plus I've had 2 glasses of wine ;-)
The first two weeks have law school have been pretty interesting. I definitely got myself way too worried about law school, I don't know if it's because I was a Philosophy Major, or because I was already exposed to reading cases through Dr. Benditt, or a combination of both, but I'm having a much easier time adjusting than a lot of my classmates.
I still feel pretty confident about my writing, but I haven't gotten my first essay back, so it's very possible that that will change come Friday. On a side note, I need to remember not to have more than 1 glass of wine before I brief cases...
I didn't think I was going to have any time to make cupcakes during law school, but I actually find that I have a lot of extra time on my hands (for now at least). I made some cupcakes just for fun last week, and a batch of cookies last weekend. Right now I'm trying my second attempt at banana bread in two days. I made some yesterday with some less-than-ideal bananas, and I thought it tasted disgusting. Kiyoshi and Kuni liked it, but they'll eat almost anything. I'm trying again right now and hopefully I'll be successful.
Kiyoshi takes the MCAT next Thursday, so needless to say he's been studying like crazy recently. He only has one class and a lab this semester, but I've hardly been able to see him at all because of all the studying he's doing. I know he's going to do incredibly, and I'm so proud of everything he's already accomplished.
For those of you that don't know, I'm rooming with Megan Ehlinger. I went to pre-school with her and danced with her, but didn't really get to know her until high school. She's at Med School at UAB, and so far we've been really compatible roommates. I have to admit I was a little worried because she's very much a "girly girl", and I'm very much not, but I've loved rooming with her. She is busy ALL of the time, and I have no idea how she does it. There's no way I could do Med School, she's literally at Volker from 8 am to at least 10 pm every day.
Lulu seems to like it here well enough. We have a big bay window that she loves to look out and walk on the sill of. I hate that our view is of the parking lot, and hate it even more because Lu has picked up a habit of barking at passerby's from Copper and Dobby (that wasn't a problem before I moved home for 8 months). She was behaving so well here that I started calling Mom and Daddy to brag about it, and then she had to go and screw it up. She would walk with Kiyoshi and me without her leash, and if she started to walk away all we had to do was call her name and she would turn right back around. When I took her out to go pee, she would go do her business and then come back and SIT DOWN next to me and wait for me to put her leash back on. So we started taking her out without her leash. She did wonderfully for about 3 days. Then I take her out 2 days ago without her leash, and she's wonderful until we start to go back up to our apartment. As soon as I turn to walk up the stairs, she runs as fast as she possibly can down the hallway and out of my sight. I run after her, but by the time I get to the end of the building she's nowhere to be seen. I start to panic because I can't run in two directions looking for her, and decide to take off in the direction that I usually walk her. She's nowhere to be seen, I start running in the other direction calling for her and finally see her running down from the entrance TO THE HIGHWAY and only catch her because someone was unloading her groceries and Lulu tried to jump in her car. Needless to say, she's not going out without her leash anymore.
I suppose I've rambled enough, plus the timer says it's time to see whether or not my banana bread is a success. I love you all!
The first two weeks have law school have been pretty interesting. I definitely got myself way too worried about law school, I don't know if it's because I was a Philosophy Major, or because I was already exposed to reading cases through Dr. Benditt, or a combination of both, but I'm having a much easier time adjusting than a lot of my classmates.
I still feel pretty confident about my writing, but I haven't gotten my first essay back, so it's very possible that that will change come Friday. On a side note, I need to remember not to have more than 1 glass of wine before I brief cases...
I didn't think I was going to have any time to make cupcakes during law school, but I actually find that I have a lot of extra time on my hands (for now at least). I made some cupcakes just for fun last week, and a batch of cookies last weekend. Right now I'm trying my second attempt at banana bread in two days. I made some yesterday with some less-than-ideal bananas, and I thought it tasted disgusting. Kiyoshi and Kuni liked it, but they'll eat almost anything. I'm trying again right now and hopefully I'll be successful.
Kiyoshi takes the MCAT next Thursday, so needless to say he's been studying like crazy recently. He only has one class and a lab this semester, but I've hardly been able to see him at all because of all the studying he's doing. I know he's going to do incredibly, and I'm so proud of everything he's already accomplished.
For those of you that don't know, I'm rooming with Megan Ehlinger. I went to pre-school with her and danced with her, but didn't really get to know her until high school. She's at Med School at UAB, and so far we've been really compatible roommates. I have to admit I was a little worried because she's very much a "girly girl", and I'm very much not, but I've loved rooming with her. She is busy ALL of the time, and I have no idea how she does it. There's no way I could do Med School, she's literally at Volker from 8 am to at least 10 pm every day.
Lulu seems to like it here well enough. We have a big bay window that she loves to look out and walk on the sill of. I hate that our view is of the parking lot, and hate it even more because Lu has picked up a habit of barking at passerby's from Copper and Dobby (that wasn't a problem before I moved home for 8 months). She was behaving so well here that I started calling Mom and Daddy to brag about it, and then she had to go and screw it up. She would walk with Kiyoshi and me without her leash, and if she started to walk away all we had to do was call her name and she would turn right back around. When I took her out to go pee, she would go do her business and then come back and SIT DOWN next to me and wait for me to put her leash back on. So we started taking her out without her leash. She did wonderfully for about 3 days. Then I take her out 2 days ago without her leash, and she's wonderful until we start to go back up to our apartment. As soon as I turn to walk up the stairs, she runs as fast as she possibly can down the hallway and out of my sight. I run after her, but by the time I get to the end of the building she's nowhere to be seen. I start to panic because I can't run in two directions looking for her, and decide to take off in the direction that I usually walk her. She's nowhere to be seen, I start running in the other direction calling for her and finally see her running down from the entrance TO THE HIGHWAY and only catch her because someone was unloading her groceries and Lulu tried to jump in her car. Needless to say, she's not going out without her leash anymore.
I suppose I've rambled enough, plus the timer says it's time to see whether or not my banana bread is a success. I love you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)