Santa does exist!

I have class this morning at 8:30 am. I don't naturally wake up early. I wake up gradually. I set multiple alarms, so that I am awake by whenever I need to wake up.

Apparently, last night I forgot to set any of my alarms. And yet, I woke up at 8:10 am. Not a lot of time, but still plenty of time for me to get to class on time.

All I can conclude is that there is a Santa Claus. Awesome. I'm still amazed that I woke up in time for the 8:30 am class all on my own. Given that I didn't get to sleep last night until 2:30 am as well. Sometimes, I do love my body, my mind. Like on mornings like this one that could have made for a really terrible day, but instead, the day was saved.

I also took a two hour nap when I got out of class at 4 and now I'm trying to talk my brother into walking to Starbucks with me. And later, of course, there will be homework.

And this is the song of the moment.

But all is good in the world because there is a Santa Claus, he does exist!

One week down...

One week down and many many more to go. It was not so bad, but tiring. I felt so exhausted by Wednesday. Just completely out of it. Like my mind had been running a marathon.

The professors are good. None of them are too scary, yet. There had been some stories about Professor Contracts, but he was nice the whole first week. Apparently he'll be kind of...moody sometimes and will snap at everyone. Hopefully that's not the day I'll be on call.

Professor Civ Pro is great, but Civ Pro, the subject, isn't. It's complex and confusing and I don't know. I spend today reading the about the federal civil rules, specifically rule 12, and reading the International Shoe Co. v. Washington case. Oh what joy that was. At least it was better than Pennoyer v. Neff.

Professor Lawyering talks extremely fast and the class is basically just ADR 101, which is fine by me. I haven't been working as hard to prepare for it and I know that needs to change. Fortunately it's only been one week and I'm not realizing this half way through the semester.

Today was my brother's birthday. It's so nice that he's so close to my apartment. I love it.

Also, last night there was a law school happy hour social thing. I went. I didn't notice anyone making too big of a fool of themselves, but I was mostly just focused on taking care of myself. One of the kids in the other section doesn't seem to understand the concept of tact, but I think it's more amusing than annoying. Though I seem to be in the minority...

Should be a fun, exhausting, scary year.

First day!

Today was my first day of law school.

Fortunately, this day didn't start until 3 pm. I had Torts and Legal Research and Writing. Professor Torts spoke with a good pace. A bit soft spoken, but I sit fairly close to the front, so that shouldn't be a problem. Professor Legal R & W is fairly young and has a day time job outside of the law school, but is nice and included their cell phone on the syllabus... Whoo. Not that I'll probably ever call it, but it is there on the syllabus to be called.

All in all I survived the first day and brother survived his first day of college! Yay. So a successful day thus far.

Surely tomorrow will go just as smoothly.

Also, tomorrow will be my one year anniversary on blogspot. Exciting stuff, my friends.

The End of Summer

I feel like this is the end of summer, for me that is. I'm home until Wednesday, then I head to my Aunt's house where I will likely be until Monday, the 17th. Then Law School's orientation is the 18 - 20th. So, today is pretty much it. I'm home. I came home yesterday. I love it here.





Those are pictures of my backyard. I love being home. I wish that I had just stayed here this whole summer instead of in Undergrad town working.

I bought three of my books for Law School on Friday. The three of them ended up being almost $400. And two of those I bought used, though I made sure that they were the ones with the least amount of writing/highlighting. One of them was completely empty, I think it must have been bought by someone who either dropped out immediately or didn't believe in writing in their book. The other one, the writing is pretty light and they wrote in pencil, so I think I made a pretty good choice. I still have 8! books left to get. 4 for my legal research class, 2 for my lawyering class, 1 more for civ pro, and one more for contracts. Whoooo...

This is going to be a fun year.

Now

I'm feeling more anxious about law school. Which is quite natural, since it is a huge endeavor I'll be taking on in about a month and large energy, time, and financial investment. Thank you those that tried to ease my nerves in the last post's comments! It was much appreciated.

Like I said, I know it's ridiculous to be worrying over the bar before starting law school, but it's just a concern I have. I mean, the three years of law school basically come down to that test. If you don't pass the bar, then what good is your legal degree if you want to practice law?

Additionally, I have NO desire to work in BIGlaw. None whatsoever. What am I interested in? I'm interested in dispute resolution-type jobs, public interest work like public defender, prosecution, government legal jobs, and environmental work. Though I am making a conscious effort to not rule anything out. Best to keep an open mind.

In other news, I went home for the weekend. Joy! I love home. It makes me happy. Also, I named two of the kittens (the friendly ones, not the wild ones).

Wendy

Anabelle

They are very sweet. They purr as soon as you touch them, which I love. Some of the other cats and kittens are wild...which is no good. Can't get within a foot of them. Oh well, there is always Hercules.

This weekend

Friday was pay day at work. I can almost afford this. I just want a laptop that is small, light, and has a long battery life. Supposedly this laptop's battery life lasts for seven hours. Sounds good to me. I don't want to have to buy another battery for law school exams. A friend of mine (she is now a 2L) told me that some of her 1L exams lasted up to 5 hours and that she had to buy extra batteries for her laptop so that she could finish her exams since she wasn't able to actually plug in her laptop to keep it charged (my law school building is a bit behind with technology in the classrooms). I actually can now afford this laptop, but I can't afford to put Microsoft Word on it, so might as well wait until I have enough money for that too.

On Saturday, my brother came up. I had him drive all around town and tried to point out restaurants and shops to him and his girlfriend. I also showed them the trails and caves that are around as well. It was fun. I like having him down here. I'm really beginning to look forward to August.

He left today. We went here for lunch and it was delicious. I'm kind of sad to see him go. He said he'll be up on Thursday though.

Work tomorrow. It's not so bad, just monotonous. I like having somewhere to go and something to do and to be paid for it as well. Just, my brain is so inactive. Oh well, that'll likely change in August.

Class Schedule

Class schedules have been posted. I have Civil Procedure on Tuesday and Thursday, though I start my Tuesdays and Thursdays with Lawyering (a "how to be a lawyer" type class) at 8:30. Could be earlier, I guess. Since I'm only about walking distance of five minutes from my apartment to the law school... I'm not too concerned about the time. I have Contracts three days a week and Torts four days a week. My friend, Connie, is jealous because her Civil Procedure class is three days a week, while mine is only two. Oh! I'm kind of bummed. I wanted to be in the same section as Connie. But, of course, since there are only two sections, she's in section one, while I'm in section two. Figures. Oh well, we did compare our schedules and find that we have class at most of the same time in the building, so it's not like our schedules completely mismatch or something like that. It just would have been nice to know that I have someone completely in my corner and I in her's.

I only have one class on Fridays though, thus far. One of my classes (Legal Research and Writing) has yet to be scheduled. So that class could ruin things. Meh.

My brother and mom were up yesterday and today. He was visiting Undergrad school for his schedule and summer welcome stuff for the fall. He has his class schedule in order now too. As a nerd, I'm super excited about this. Plus, he's majoring in engineering, which is amazing to me. I only thought briefly about majoring in engineering. I had such a tough time in physics that it seemed like a ridiculous idea to me. So, I'm excited for him. I hope he sticks with it.

I'm thinking of putting this design on my wall in my new apartment, but maybe in a different color. Then again, the price is a bit high to me. Hmmm, something to consider I think.

It is Lola's birthday today! She's 6 (or 42 in human years).



Isn't she pretty? Well, I think she is...

Summer of Sacrifice

On Sunday, my baby brother graduated from high school!

He, his girlfriend, and I had our graduation reception altogether. It was really great to see the family. My great Aunt and Uncle from Florida even came up. That really meant a lot to me.

Then today was my first day of work. I mainly just scan documents all day, but it isn't too bad, once you get into the rhythm. Plus I can come and go as I please and I can listen to my ipod and drink diet cokes. I also put in a couple of job applications for the evenings and the weekends. Mostly because... well two of my good friends are home for the summer, I don't really talk to Clementine much anymore, and Amelia spends her free time with her boyfriend or her other friends, because in her words "we see each other all the time anyway" which translates to be maybe one or two lunch dates a week, but oh well. I already brought this up with her and that did not go well at all.

I think this will just be a summer of all work and no play. Which is fine as long as I make enough money to buy a new laptop, my books, and have money left over for the school year by the end of summer.

Graduation Day Extravaganza!

Today I graduated from college. Well, provided I passed all my classes... I walked in two of the ceremonies - the Honors one (at 9:00 am) and the Arts and Sciences ceremony (at 1:00 pm). Both ceremonies lasted about two hours, though one would have expected the Arts and Sciences ceremony to last two to three times as long. Though there was probably only 1/3 of the seniors there. I know I was the only Honors graduate in my major. All the other graduates who received honors in my major (about four of them...) skipped the Arts and Sciences ceremony. My parents wanted me to go though. So, I did. After all, without them, who knows if I would have made it this far? If I would have been as successful as I am so far? The graduation ceremony is as much as a celebration for them as it is for me. So, if they want an all day affair, then so be it. I'll happily oblige.

Next week is my baby brother's graduation! I have a feeling that my parents, or my mom at least, will be more emotional at this one. I think my college graduation got downplayed a bit as a big symbolic step into the "real" world since I'll be going to law school in August, but my brother is the baby. Once he moves into his dorm in August, my parents will be...childless. I mean, of course they'll still have us, but I guess, well, we're gone.

Anyway, I'm excited to go to my brother's graduation next week. It feels a bit unreal, that everything is happening so fast, yet so slow too. I like it all though. No complaints, yet.

The Future

Yesterday I went to an end of the year celebration/food thing for an organization I'm in. One of the members asked me if I'm ready or excited for law school. It's a question I've been asked before by friends and friends of parents and so on and so forth. As for my answer, I don't know. I'm ready to graduate, that's most definitely for sure. I can't wait for May 16th to get here. I think after that, it'll hit me more that in the fall I won't be an undergrad anymore, but a law school student instead. It'll be weird too. All my friends will still be undergrads, because I'm the one that is graduating in three years, but it'll be nice for them to still be around. Hopefully, it'll be comforting and supportive too. Also, my brother starts Undergrad school in the fall and his dorm is maybe one minute from my apartment and since my apartment doesn't have a washer and dryer, I'll so be using his dorm and that's exciting. I'm really looking forward to living so close to him. Also, he and his girlfriend won prom queen and king last night! I'm happy for them. It feels so...American or something. I feel like I should be eating some apple pie and watching baseball.

I don't know what the future holds, but I'm looking forward to it.

Decision-ish

So, I've made a preliminary (read: subject to change) decision concerning where I will be going to law school this! fall. As of right now, it's Undergrad school. Mostly because it is in-state for me and it's public, making it by far the cheapest school. I have received two scholarships from other schools...but I would rather go to Undergrad school over those. However, if a school I would like to go to more (and there are a couple) offer me scholarships, all bets are off.

You see, the thing is...with going to Undergrad school, I'll graduate with no debt. If I choose one of the private schools, I'll have debt and with an uncertain and unsteady economy looming in the future, it just seems a better idea for me to attend a school that I know and could/would be potentially happy at. And if I get more scholarship offers, I'll consider those of course. Afterall, it is only January, I have only heard from 5 of the 15 schools I applied to so far, so there is plenty of time for me to hear from more schools about money/acceptances.

I'm content with the decision.

I'm not going to tell my Dad about it though. He's been pushing Undergrad school for months now and he hasn't really been talking to me since December 31st when I told him I liked and would rather go to another school more (another school whose tuition is twice that of Undergrad's tution per year... eek!). So yeah, I'm going to wait for him to stop being silly and then I'll let him know what I've decided-ish.

My Mother

Sometimes I think my mom was born in the wrong decade. She has no desire to clean or cook and obviously hates doing either, especially the cooking. She would much rather be working, she's very independent. If my dad asks her to do something (like an errand or something) my mom is just like, 'meh whatever' if she wants to do it, she will, but otherwise, not a chance. She has no problem going to movies and running errands and taking trips on her own, she doesn't have to have my dad with her, in fact I think most of the time she prefers to be on her own. Also she has to fix things on her own. She's the one that maintains the vehicles and the computers (well my brother helps with that). And this is a women who turns up the radio to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Who discusses Vonnegut with me and was so excited when she saw that Barnes and Noble had a copy of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

I think that because my mom was born in the 50's in a Midwestern farmhouse to Baptists, she felt compelled to major in education in college (though she hated it when she was a teacher) and get married then have a couple of kids. I think if my mom was born now she'd have a career and forget the marriage and kids part, but I don't know if she'd be any happier. Who knows.

Also, happy new year. I don't really have any resolutions, except I'd like to be healthier (eat better) and I'm going to work on becoming a morning person. I just think that would work to my advantage in the long run.

New Year

Admittedly I am more excited about Vanderbilt winning its first bowl game in 53 years than I am about 2009.

This happens with me and football. We have a love/hate relationship. Really.

Although, I may be more excited about Vandy than 2009, because I have no plans tonight. Sadness. I have a family christmas tomorrow (in the morning!) that apparently I can't miss. Ugh. I don't want to go, I don't want to go, I don't want to go. I have to though, since it is my 97 year old great grandmother that is having it. For obvious reasons I can't miss it. Plus I still don't have a front license plate either. Joy.

Home

Home for the holidays. I love it here. The house is big and roomy. I just lay around, read books, watch tv, get on one of the four computers and mess around on the internet, and hang out with the three dogs.

Home is my sanctuary, my safe place. When I come home, I end up feeling whole again. It's just...restorative out here, in the country I guess.

Right now there is no where else I'd rather be.




Though, I won't be able to get back to school to check my mail in a while, but oh well. I'm okay with knowing that I'm 4 for 4 (with 11 schools pending) so far. No rejections yet.

Heck yes.

Got in to another law school today! One that I'm seriously considering going to and one that my dad likes (that's important). Oh and it's in a city I could live in and the school has a great sports law program (and I love sports...) This could work. It could so work.

I'm 2 for 13 (accepted into 2 and still waiting to hear from the other 13...) No rejections yet either.

Now I should probably work on that econ paper, but I think I'll make some celebratory mashed potatoes instead.

And it's Amelia's birthday too! Which is awesome as well.

Such a fantastic day.

iTunes Bill

My iTunes bill is:

Bob Dylan
Barry Manilow
Florence and the Machine

Eclectic, yes?

The final count is 15. I applied to 15 law schools. A part of me thinks this is overkill, another part thinks I should keep applying. It could happen. I only meant to apply to 12. Then I sat down at the computer and next thing I knew I was filling out applications and hitting the 'submit' button. Damn LSAC and it's convenient website.

I have to work on two papers over break. Thankfully, only one of them is somewhat due when I get back to school (I have to make a 30 minute presentation). I also have to do an interview project, but that won't be too awful.

I love being home.

Craziness

I can understand not voting for Obama because of his tax cuts or because he's inexperienced or because of his lack of military knowledge, but my parents chose to not vote for him (and are now extremely upset that he won) because they say he's a terrorist.

Call me crazy, but I don't think the American people would have elected a terrorist, I don't think the media would have let that little fact just slip by, but my parents are convinced that they did. I tried to rationalize this with my dad today but he was having none of it. Which really makes me sad because between my parents, my dad is the rational one. He was the one I would always discuss politics with because we had different opinions we could have a calm discussion about it and that meant a lot to me. Now I feel as if I can't discuss politics with him or my mom because they aren't thinking rationally right now.

It makes me sad that I can't share this monumental historical event with them and discuss it with them. I've always valued what they have had to say and I feel like that is loss right now because they are so upset that McCain lost. I tried to discuss with my dad the fact that Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent, but he just wouldn't hear it.

On the brightside, he did say that he thought California should have failed Prop 8 (No to H8). So, maybe there is some hope.

Whoops

I watch way too much tv. For the past two days I've been watching The Practice on hulu.com It's a good show. I wish I would have watched it when it was on tv, but I was a little young then I guess (would have been around... 9-10 years old when it started). Of course, I should be writing a paper that is due tomorrow... Eh.

My roommate's birthday is today. Yay! She's now 21.

My dad got out of the hospital today. Thank God.

I took the LSAT on the 4th. When I got out, I felt okay. I didn't feel the urge to drink myself into a stupor or anything like that, though I can easily understand why someone would. I really need to finish my law school applications. I should find out my score in about ten days or so. I hope I did well enough so that I don't have to retake the damn thing in December. That would be awful. I don't even want to think about it right now. Back to The Practice.

LSAT

I took the LSAT today. I think I did okay. Not sure though.

Then I went to the festival. It was kind of fun, but not really. I went to it last year and the first night is the best night to go. Of course the first night was last night... so being the responsible (nerd) kid I am, I stayed in and ate cookie dough ice cream instead.

My team won today too and so did Vanderbilt. Yay! I love college football. I love this season.

Visited my dad today too. He's doing alright, but it doesn't look like he's getting out of the hospital anytime soon. On the brightside I can see him everyday, but I know it sucks for him to be here. I just wish he would get better.

LSAT

I take the LSAT on Saturday.

My Dad is in the hospital. He's just down the street though, so I can see him every day.

He'll be fine too.

Just a lot of things going on...