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!!!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!