Somebody shake me, please: August 2008

28 August 2008

An update on ruining my life

Posted by Shake sense into me

Law school is still bad. But, luckily for me, I like doing the reading. What is bad is the people. They are bad. This is why:

1) They say, "I studied for NINE hours yesterday!" as if they should be proud of themselves.
2) They say, "I already did the reading for my classes this week, and it's only Tuesday - can you believe it?" as if I should care that they are ahead of me.
3) They highlight their books so much they may as well copy the whole thing on yellow paper.
4) They seem to be able to maintain a social life and study for classes and come to class prepared.
5) They ask me, "Why don't you speak up more in class?"

Get off my back, 1Ls. By far the coolest people I have met are the 2 and 3Ls (and the gossip girl I sit next to sometimes, she's fun). It seems the upperclassmen just don't care as much anymore about the competition and are in it more for either the love of law or the love of drama. It's refreshing.

But the 1Ls are serious assbags.

Well, most of them. Some are okay. Some.

26 August 2008

Can't sleep, there's a cat on my lap...

Posted by Shake sense into me

...that won't stop purring. I'm afraid if I touch him at all in any way it will only prolong the noise, and I really need to sleep. I don't know what it is, but recently he has been so adamant about showing me he loves me. He woke me up last night THREE TIMES from his purring and constant need to sleep right next to my face. Then, of course, he tries to make his "bed" on my face and I wake up from that cute-yet-painful behavior. But anyways, back to the purring.

This cat purrs like he's purring in the olympics or for a world record for longest purr. It's no soft purr, either. It's the loud 'n rumbly purr of either 1) a very happy cat, or 2) a cat that REALLY wants you to know that they aren't going to hurt you.

In this case, the cat is just very happy. Of course. He got to watch Happy Feet yesterday (loves those penguins!) and tonight was very special because "The Hills" was on and he loves to mock that drama. He was all, "WTF!" When Speidi showed up at that girl's party.

My cat will literally jump on my lap when I've got a movie or something on to watch. He doesn't chase the action either. He watched. Intently, cocking his head to one side every now and again in wonderment.

Ah. He has stopped purring. Time for bed!

Blum on Contracts

Posted by Shake sense into me

Anyone notice Chapter 7 of the E&E on Contracts - the first line reads, "Consideration can be fun.1"

Then the footnote for that line reads, "Obviously, depending on your idea of fun. It does help to be deranged."

Well then, that settles that.

25 August 2008

Week two of torture - Go!

Posted by Shake sense into me

So I have come to the conclusion that I have to get used to three things:

1) mind-numbing embarrassment;

2) reading, reading, reading, drinking, reading;

3) Ames (neighbor) constantly posing hypos, comparing study schedules, and thinking he is better than I.

Well, week 2, here we go!

21 August 2008

Well, I guess it all isn't that bad...

Posted by Shake sense into me

This week has been hell, I won't lie. Obviously my emotions are exploding all over the place, as shown by the two divergent posts I made today.

But, I just had torts class - and I got it. It was a great feeling. I understand what the heck that lady is talking about. Finally.

As far as the people in law school - I'm still trying to make friends. I have one, who is friendly, but not very sympathetic to my sometimes trite worries. My neighbor friend keeps throwing hypos my way - I just say I don't know. We aren't even in the same section nor learning the same thing yet (he's on battery, I'm on negligence) and yet I'm being asked battery hypos? WTF? Maybe I should start to disguise myself when I walk to my car.

I digress...I'm sitting outside right now, enjoying a beautiful day, procrastinating on my blog - and this helps. Sometimes all a person needs is a huge breath of fresh air - and to realize that law school isn't everything.

I bet there is more drama to come though, stay tuned.

Thanks for all of the encouraging words.

There are 3 things that cheer me up, which I need to remind myself of when I'm down: my boy, my cat, and the sunshine.

I want to give up

Posted by Shake sense into me

Now I understand why law school can be so scarring.

This is awful.

19 August 2008

Why am I in law school again?

Posted by Shake sense into me

I'm freaked out. Let's just start there.

I feel as though I am the only one in my classes who doesn't get it. Everyone else seems to be able to come up with an answer when called on, but I can't. Sometimes, the answer is right in front of me.

It reminds me of elementary school, when my 6th grade teacher asked a simple question but I was distracted and missed it. He called on me to answer a question, and gave me two possible answers to choose from: higher or lower. I chose lower. The question was what size number does multiplying numbers together give you. I was wrong, and he shouted it out in class, just like this, "WRONG!"

In that situation, I was honestly not paying attention.

In law school, I am paying attention. I am paying extremely diligent attention. I am taking notes on everything. But when it comes time for me to answer a question - whether I am called on randomly or not - I can't come up with an answer. I've thought about this a lot in my current state of despair - which is a terrible state to be in when analyzing something - but I think my problem is that I'm not understanding the wording of the questions, and I'm missing important links in rules from cases I'm assigned.

I knew law school would be hard. I bought E&E's to help me through, and I'm reading those before I read the casebook so I can understand better when I do the assigned reading. But this doesn't seem to help me when it comes time to apply what I'm learning. Ugh. I am not sure what to do - whether it's too early for me to really even try pushing through the material because it's going to be beat into me by my professors anyways, or whether I really need to buckle down and do twice, three, four, or five times as much work to get the answers.

And now, remember when I was all upset about my colleagues pestering me about issues? Well now I know why they were so worried. And now I feel like a dimwit for not knowing what it was; like I should have been on it from day 0.

Sometimes, when I'm faced with trying to answer a question, someone sitting next to me whispers the answer to me. But in the face of fear and embarrassment it doesn't help, it only makes it worse.

Right now I think I might be that person that drops out of law school because my grades aren't good enough.

Looks like that good ol' slacker label might stick to me. Or maybe it will be modified to "stupid." No one has asked me to join any study groups as of yet, and I've received a few "No thanks" when I've inquired. This sucks.

Today was only the second day.

I actually thought about going to the school counselor about all of this, because I'm feeling a mixture of distress from my lack of understanding in class, combined with being overwhelmed with the amount of work, add to that fear of rejection by my peers, and multiply it by my lack of self esteem. The result is negative.

17 August 2008

the 1L playas have made their appearance

Posted by Shake sense into me

It's so good to meet them. I like knowing who I won't get along with asap so I can avoid contact with them.

Classes start tomorrow. I'm reading cases from the 1800s in England - one of which involves cannibalism.

And Nikka Costa just came on...so I must dance around my room now. Ciao!

14 August 2008

Who prepares for orientation?

Posted by Shake sense into me

We were of course assigned orientation homework, as I wrote about anxiously before, and I of course started it right away out of excitement...but soon the excitement wore off and I continued watching a marathon of Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC.

Between moving, buying a car, setting up my place, and dealing with random visits from family (uh..hello? I'm in law school - let's pretend I don't exist!) I have not really had all that much time to read the cases that were assigned. I did read them, but to be completely honest, I'm not totally taking everything seriously yet. I really feel like this is my last "fun" week and why should I stress out about orientation homework?

Well, turns out, everyone around me is stressing out about it and asking me what I think. I have read the cases. I know what they are generally about. I even briefed one (my first brief), but I don't really understand what the "issue" is yet. So when I get asked, "What did you put for the issue in blah blah blah?" I return a blank stare. Why are my peers asking me this?! Aren't they supposed to help us in orientation and tell us what the issue we were supposed to find was? Is it okay to return an answer of "Uh...I don't know" to a fellow student?

I feel as though I am already being labeled as a slacker before a group of OCD worriers.

But I'm not a slacker. I've obsessed with law school enough that, for me, this whole orientation thing is nice, but I'd rather hang out at the beach and tan. I fully intend on buckling down during school, but what is with people acting as though their life depends on knowing what the issue is in a case that was assigned at orientation? And why do I get judged negatively because I respond with "I don't know." I am soooo close to wearing a sign that says, "I DON'T CARE WHAT THE ISSUE IS."

Of course, the other side of this - and this is what I was afraid of - I don't study like most future lawyers - at least I don't think I do. I study by myself, and I don't like to talk about what I'm studying until I know I've mastered the concept, or until I know that I just can't master it without talking to someone. Everyone I've spoken to wants to know about the homework, what I think. Somehow I think they are benefiting from others opinions, but I can't; nor can I give an opinion on something I've done a cursory overview of.

The worse of it is is really that I am living in close proximity to one of the most enthusiastic homework question askers this side of the Sierra Nevada's, and it really isn't my thing to discuss an issue when I'm taking out the trash in the morning. LEAVE ME ALONE.

Maybe part of my stand-off attitude is because I am afraid of giving the wrong answer. I really don't know - but I'm more worried right now about taking care of myself and my worries than what the person sitting next to me at the reception thinks of our assigned cases.

I will say that I have, of course, found out how to get the syllabi for my courses and I have marked down the readings I need to do for them. I'm not slacking. I just study differently.

I really hope that my lack of preparedness for my peers asking me about this does not permanently reflect on my reputation at this law school, but if it does it does, and what can I do. C'est la vie.

12 August 2008

Initial thoughts

Posted by Shake sense into me

It has been a wild week. I moved in, bought a car, and met a lot of incoming students at my school.

Today is only Tuesday.

The people I have met so far are awesome. I feel like I fit in (so far). I don't hate it yet - but all I've been doing is going out with law students and getting to know people, so, no competition yet! Besides kicking ass at bowling.

Anyways, financial aid is awful. I've increased my debt on my credit card and I can't pay it off because I have no savings. I'm really at a disadvantage because of this - so my first piece of advice to 0L's - SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.

I won't be getting my financial aid refund for another couple of weeks and I have about $100 to live on, if I don't use my credit card.

I guess this is what being a law student is like. Quite a rude awakening.

The great thing though is that every function I've been to so far I have either had free booze, free food, or BOTH. Of course I am the one getting seconds on wine, and next time I will be bringing a zip lock baggie to store extras.

The other thing I noticed is that compared to all the other girls, I'm about 40 pounds overweight. I thought I was "healthy" but turns out...I need to lose 67 pounds. Pffffffffft.

Official orientation activities begin tomorrow.

08 August 2008

omg

Posted by Shake sense into me

having issues with the blog....thus this new boring look that i hope you like!

having issues with packing...as in it's not happening and i'm moving in under 24 hours.

having issues with everything...well, not really but packing and blogging are my life.

i won't be around much in the next week. i apologize as i know i have adoring fans that just need to know what i'm up to every other minute.

no fear, i'll be back.

oh and ps: i only read 3 pages of my "homework." procrastination kicks in early.

07 August 2008

Is it bad...

Posted by Shake sense into me

that I'm excited to do my homework?

I made coffee, cleaned off a table that was full of boxes, and set up a nice little area to do my homework on.

I'm sorta excited about it. I'll relish in this because it will probably be the last time I feel excited to do homework...

06 August 2008

I'm in a section

Posted by Shake sense into me

My schedule was posted this week. It's good to know my schedule, I've been anticipating receiving it for quite some time. I don't have class after 2:30 pm which is great, but when I saw other sections get out of class at 10:30 am on certain days, I was pretty jealous. Whatever, they can start drinking beer earlier than me. Psshhhh.

I also received a homework packet for orientation...I can't really say I didn't expect this because I've been a long time reader of law student blogs and I am well aware that I would receive orientation homework. So, no commentary on the shock of this as there isn't any.

I've been making progress on packing. I did more today than I thought I would, and I stayed pretty organized too. I feel like all I've been doing is cleaning and laundry, but today I actually packed 3 boxes. The move this weekend will be interesting, with my folks coming to town and His, logistics will work out perfectly or at least be entertaining. Me, my dad, and His mom are all control freaks. I just don't want anyone unpacking my stuff. Some people might welcome the help, but I have a place for everything and I like to be the one to put it there. Plus, I don't want anyone judging me based on the contents of my boxes or the way I packed them.

In other news, I'm trying to find a good tool to track my expenses and budget for school. It seems to me that finances and budgeting is a popular blog topic for law students, so if any of you are reading this, let me know your thoughts. I mostly want something to tell me if I'm under or over budget in certain areas at random times of the month. Like, have I spent too much on dining out/coffee? How much left do I have to do grocery shopping? Can I save anything this month?

Also: What does anyone think of Ikea mattresses? I bought one. Hope it isn't horrible. The price tag was irresistible!

05 August 2008

Folding laundry sucks

Posted by Shake sense into me

That is all.

01 August 2008

I recommend cleaning before you start packing

Posted by Shake sense into me

...because it's a lot easier that way. At least I imagine it's a lot easier that way, but my lazy ass prefers to do things the hard way. It's more challenging this way!

Yesterday was my last day at work. I really hope that I never have to make copies for someone else again, but something tells me I will. At least it won't be in my job description anymore. I hope, that is. Please. I have grown to understand many a different copy machine in the last 4 years, but I refuse to put this skill on my resume: "Copy documents 46% faster than coworkers."

Since today is my first official day of unemployment, I used it to format my computer and all that fun stuff. In spite of all the naysayers, I've decided to stick with using my Mac for law school. So today I partitioned the hard drive and got windows all set up. I just hope nothing goes wrong on that end. I plan on only using the windows side for exams.

That was a boring paragraph.

Oh and remember that post a couple days ago about Ms. Inappropriate? Turns out she gave everyone hickies by the end of the night. Glad I left before that happened.

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