Studying Is Icky

Yes, I said "icky." It is a technical term.

Right now I am NOT a big fan of Immigration Law nor of Secured Transactions. I had classes in both of these areas and am now responsible for knowing and relating huge amounts of information in these very technical areas. I know, I know, law school is not supposed to be easy, but do I REALLY need to know so much about areas that I plan on never practicing?

It would be more fun to shop for a present for Wife. I think we can all agree she deserves a WONDERFUL gift, but I am clueless as to what it might be. We've about decided not to give each other graduation gifts and wait until we can agree on something together.

I know for sure that sports gifts would not be high on her list, but our Little Princess would enjoy almost anything sports-related. She loves her dresses, high heels and tiarras, but is almost as happy kicking around a soccer ball or hitting a baseball in the backyard. Oh, and the two loves are not mutually exclusive.....she'll happily play soccer in a party dress if her Moms will let her.

That does not help with an idea for Wife however...she'd not be happy in a party dress or playing soccer. Guess I know what NOT to buy!

Blue Screen Blues

Did I mentioned getting the blue screen of death about a week or two ago? Right, with only about a week and a half left of classes, plus finals, my laptop computer died. Well, it is possible it can be revived, but I will never trust it again, certainly not for finals. Maybe for note taking that I can back-up everyday during bar review.

I have been using Wife's laptop (Thank you, honey!) that we bought as a back-up in my second year...or was it my third?...when I was having power cord issues with mine. It's been good to have, and Wife enjoys it for portable digital scrap booking and surfing in the backyard on warm summer days. Hence the reason she wants her laptop back soon - summer is nearly here!

Just in case I need to get a new one, we've looked around a bit. A person can get a decent laptop these days for $500-600. Those I've been are bulkier that I would like though. I did some research and found what is undoubtedly the best of the netbooks. Netbook - yes - that is what I wrote. They are those adorably cute little computers meant mainly for surfing and checking email. I found a version though that can handle the MS Office apps, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. I even found someone using it for college note taking. Perfect, right?

The winner is the Samsung NC-10. It can be found on sale for about $400, has a 93% normal size keyboard (some specs I've seen say 95%), with all the keys in the right place. Key placement is apparently a big problem with many netbooks. It is fast, apparently reliable, and the resolution is said to be excellent.

Due to size, there is no CD drive - so an external is necessary, or one can rely on a flash drive to transfer to and from a main computer. I'm told that is how I could load Word and PowerPoint, though I've not tried such a stunt.

At this point, we'll hope once finals are over I can try an XP repair or maybe just zap the hard drive and start over, so I can keep my old laptop. Still, the cute little Samsung is calling my name. It comes in blue. :) On the other hand, maybe if I wait a year or so, I could buy a lightweight but very powerful real laptop and that might be a better purchase in the long run. Ultimately, it depends on what I would want to use it for. For what I've done on my laptop for the last four years, other than burning CDs during finals, the NC-10 would be just fine.

Who knows? Maybe there will be graduation money in my future for just such a purchase!

Symptoms of the Rush

The rush of my last class has just about worn off, and I was hit with the reality of studying for my finals. I am woefully unprepared. At least I still have time. First final - Friday.

I think the excitement and lack of sleep are catching up with me. Last night I had a weird dream about giving engagement rings to two different women, but one was a mistake and I didn't really even know her. I had to try to find her and fix it so the second wouldn't be upset. I'm not sure I actually wanted to marry either one. (I don't know where Wife was during all this - clearly she did not exist, yet.) The weirdness must be from lack of sleep coupled with the episode of Brothers and Sisters we watched last night where Kitty is starting an affair.

I am happy to report I got a fairly good night's sleep and am ready to tackle work and study!

Reporting Live from My Last Class

This is Law School Mama, soon to be Law School Graduate Mama, reporting live at 8:26pm, Monday, April 27, 2009. I am currently sitting in my last formal law school class ever! My professor is standing at the front of the clasroom discussing undocumented workers in the context of immigration law as if we are all still paying attention. I am copying the notes she is writing on the board, drinking champagne and writing this post. (Hey, I might as well get in all of the "bad" behavior I've missed out on while I still can. If that is the case, I should be shopping online. Yes, I've actually witnessed that behavior.)

I best pay attention now. This is it, folks!
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me over the years.

More to come as I enter finals in the next few days...

Last Local Government Law Class!!

I am currently in my very last local government law class ever! This has been one of my very least favorite classes and I will not be sad to say goodbye to it forever!

Sadly, the final is a closed-book, no note final. We had only cases as class materials, so most content was by lecture. He was not the best, nor the worst lecturer..but I am quite uneasy about the material I need to memorize. Great...he just mentioned something that sounds totally unfamiliar that is not in my notes anywhere. Even as he is reviewing material, he keeps saying, "Remember when we talked about...? Wasn't that the case....?" Ugh. Just thinking about this stuff is bringing me down from my last class high.

I have to be sure and not overindulge in food (or alcohol) during the upcoming time of celebration. Yesterday at work there was an immense chocolate cake and there was lots left today. I had two pieces yesterday, but today was good about only having about three bites. Still, chocolate and Cokes are great ways to celebrate, to keep awake while studying, and to cope with stress, and if I am not careful, I will end up needing the best rated diet pills. I am sure walks in the sun will be much healthier than all the possible goodies within my reach. As long as the sun stays out, I'm happy to indulge in that kind of treat!

Summer is Calling

Spring has arrived! We had a beautiful weekend, with tulips in full bloom, and the sun shining down upon us. It was the perfect weekend to start dreaming about beach vacation rentals - any beach, anytime, is a really good thing!

We may escape for a few days following my last final...wait, let me say that again, my LAST FINAL...*grin*...and before bar review starts. Bar review, for me, will be formal 5-6 day per week 3 1/2 hour classes for 6 weeks, then 2 weeks of studying on my own right before the exam. Those that run the class say to expect about 6 hours of homework per day. How fun does that sound? Great summer, right? Well, after July 29th, it will all be over.

In the mean time, I will dream about being done with finals and soaking up a little sun and ocean air to get in the proper frame of mind to learn everything I need to know to pass the bar. (...and the sound of semi-hysterical laugher fades into the distance....end scene.)

Three Class Days Left!

What a fun and weird place to be. I have three class days left of law school - two next week and one the following week. It is very exciting and in some ways, things are going too fast to take time to consider. First, I study like crazy to figure out what it is I am supposed to know for the three classes for which I have finals, then I get finals out of the way, have about a week off, go through graduation, then start bar review. Bar review will be long and hard and tedious and frustrating because it has so little to do with anything I want to do with my life (other than passing the bar!)- yet - it is a ritual, and a requirement - and part of the whole law school experience. At the end of July, it will all be over. Weird to finally be here.

Despite not having a new job to go to yet, I feel strangely positive that all will work out well. In my current job, I can go down to half time during bar review, which means I can still work, and not be stressed about trying to learn a new job. It is comfortable and that will be good during the stress of the next few months. In that time, I'll keep up my networking, watching for things in my field of interest, and remain positive that I will end up in a good place that will move my career along on the path that I want to be traveling.

Best of luck to all of you who find yourselves similarly situated! We've almost done it!

Happy 7th Birthday, Boy Wonder!

Boy Wonder was born 7 years ago today. What an amazing 7 years it has been! I remember when he was born, C-section after 38 hours of labor (Wife was a total trooper!), how amazing it was to finally hold him, and how wonderful to give him his first bath when he was less than one-hour old. (Picture of that on Wife's blog today.) I had no clue what I was doing or how to get him into the onesie I was handed by the nurse, but I managed. Wife was still hooked up to an IV and such during our first night together, so he was my boy to watch after, to freak out about when he was coughing up disgusting tar-looking stuff, and to notice the next day that he was turning yellow and then orange. Those first few days were scary. Time spent in the NICU with nurses without much more to do than pay way too much attention to our baby and notice every thing that could possibly be wrong (but wasn't, thank God!) was nerve-wracking.

Now....7 years later, Boy Wonder is a beautiful, smart, funny boy. No longer a baby, or a toddler, or a preschooler. To look at him now, he is a kid, a real boy, and all boy he is. Sometimes, Wife and I look at each other and have no idea where he gets the things he does. It's not like we are teaching him typical male behaviors, but there they are, just the same.

Maybe his predisposition to love video games is a "boy behavior," but maybe not, as our Little Princess is following in her brother's footsteps. He told me last week he was going to help her become a computer whiz, too. What a sweet big brother, right?

For his Birthday, celebrated on Sunday (and today) we surprised him with a Ninetendo DS , which we'd told him would be a long time before we could get for him. We found one on a good sale, and he has been beside himself happy about it. He's been very happy with his Gameboy Advance, but all the new games are only being release in the DS version now, and the new device has many more capabilities, plus can play his current Gameboy games, so we figured we'd go ahead and get it for him. From other family members, he received a couple of new games and gift cards, so he could go choose another couple games for himself. He chose Monsters v. Aliens, based on the new movie, and a version of Pokemon he didn't have, yet. We found out the DS even has voice capabilities. So far, Boy Wonder has been able to make a monster spit as a weapon when he tells him to. Cool, right?

Yup - he's gone from a teeny, tiny helpless baby to a big First Grader, skilled in reading, math and video games and so much more. His moms could not be more proud.

Happy Birthday, Son!

Milestone

My FINAL paper of law school has been turned in.

What more is there to say?

Oh, right - WAHOOOOOOO!!!!

Random Thoughts During Painfully Dull Class

Random thoughts during the last 50 minutes of class, or whenever I hit "post."

- Happy Anniversary, Wife! Happy 14 years of marriage - may we celebrate many, many, many, many more wonderful years together!

- Hey - there is only ONE CLASS left of new material for this class! Thank God. This guy is killing me. If I hear any more hesitancy and uncertainly of facts, I may scream.

- I am so happy that I am getting close to being done with my FINAL PAPER OF LAW SCHOOL. I still need to add in the figures, polish and check the whole thing, but I am so close that I am thrilled!

- It was so fun to take the kids to Monsters v Aliens last week. See Wife's Blog about our April Fool's Day. After discovering our surprise was taking them to the movies, Boy Wonder declared, "This is the Best Day Ever!" I love that he has a lot of these. He is a happy boy. (Note: Both kids LOVED the movie and near the end both let me know that we had to buy it because it was "the best movie ever." As far as animated features, I still prefer Monsters, Inc., but this one was pretty fun.)

Fancy Nancy and the Four-Year-Old

Life with kids is never dull. :)

Just as Boy Wonder is mostly getting his behavioral act together, Our Little Princess has turned four. We are not so very amused about four. The kids have cousins who turned four within just a few weeks of the Princess's Birthday. Their parents are not amused by four either. The complete stranger that I met at The Learning Palace with twins is not so much amused by four. Four is not that much fun. We would like to go back to three or skip to five now, thankyouverymuch.

Four is filled with sass and attitude and even more independence than three. Fortunately, for us, four is also filled with cuteness, cuddliness, and a thought-process that never ceases to amaze. Our four-year-old can solve most problems for you - just ask and a creative, if not practical, solution will be offered. Our Princess also has a great vocabulary - tossing around words like "flabergasted," "apprehensive," and "hideous." We've found that she is learning some of these words from her tv shows. Nice that they are educational, right? She also learns them from her Fancy Nancy books. She only has one or two right now, but we've read a couple in stores. We were hoping she might get one for her birthday that we talked her out of buying "just in case," but I suspect we will eventualy have to get it. The book she fell in love with was "Bonjour, Butterfly." Now that I look at other titles though, I think the perfect one for her might be Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words. It seems to be on a pretty good Sale at Buy.com, and we do love getting presents in the mail.

I suspect Little Miss Four would love learning all of the fancy words and inserting them into her vocabulary. Fancy Nancy not only uses big, fancy words, but she explains what they mean so the readers (or listeners) will know. In some ways, the books are a little irritating, but I think it is just that they are SOOOOOOO girly-girl, which is exactly what our girly-girl loves about them.

I have to admit, books are one thing that are really hard to say "no" to when the kids ask. Now that Boy Wonder sometimes reads bedtime stories to his little sister, I do not regret any of our book purchases or time spent reading together. I can see it paying off, and it is amazing.

Framed! (Just the memories.)

"So, this is Spring Break," she said, staring out the window of her office into the gloomy, rain-soaked cement courtyard. Around her was spread out law review articles, snippets of Supreme Court cases, an Immigration Law syllabus, various pens, paper, and highlighters, and of course, the trusty laptop.

Spring Break has become more like Spring Catch-Up, and neither me nor my family is enjoying it much. Fortunately tomorrow we are going to get out of town for a few days to visit Wife's family and celebrate kids' birthdays, so maybe that will provide a little much needed escape.

I'm almost done with my half workday so I can switch to homework. I'm in the midst of a HUGE research paper that I never should have gotten myself into, but did. I'm staring at my digital picture frame, which tells the story of a couple of snowy days back in December. At the time, we thought it was a decent amount of snow, but compared to what followed, it was nothing. Still, I love the way the pictures move from one to the next, showing the first bits of snowfall, the kids playing in it, the small snowman that was later built, and the creation of snow angels. I see now how a person could carefully load the pictures in a particular order to really tell the story in an artful way, like we do for the "movie" slideshows Wife and I have made for each other for computer playback. Of course, those have music, so are much more powerful, but these silent shows have their own beauty.


I remember when the digital frames first came out. They were so expensive! I had one coworker with one that I just loved. Now you can get a good digital picture frame on Sale for under $50. The one I linked to above is only $33 with free shipping. Can't beat that. Truthfully, I know nothing about the brand, but even the low end ones these days seem pretty decent, especially if it is just to have at work as a nice distraction and reminder of what is important.

Perhaps in the next couple of weeks I will switch my silent show from snowtime to springtime. Bring on the sunny days!

Drives and Backing up...

Yesterday at work I was without access to all of my drives. Yes. All. Even my C://drive. How does that happen? Actually about half of us were without drives. (Not to be confused with lacking drive...) Without even our c://drive no applications would open, there was no desktop access, there was very little productivity.

I did have my laptop and switched back and forth between work work (phone calls and email) and school work. Thank goodness for my lovely little pen drive. How much do we love these handy, dandy lifesavers? The cost of these fabulous creatures had been reduced drastically - like the one you'll see if you click on the link above is under $9 for 4GB (Sale price). You can store a ton of stuff in your pocket to transfer between one computer and another for that price. In fact, they have come down in price enough
that they make great back-up storage.

When our friends from California visited us last week, we discussed backing up our law school notes and papers....on Webdisk, on pen drives, as a different name on the same computer....etc. We've all heard horror stories of someone's computer crashing just before finals, and there went all their notes....

Why was I writing about this? Oh, right....because today my drives are back and now I am a very appreciative worker bee. I LOVE having access to all my drives, my applications, being able to send attachments with my emails...fun, fun, fun! We all need a day like that to show us how much we are at the mercy of our computers, and the ITG folks. They never should have laid off so many people that do tech support....

The L Word - Longing for More

For those who have been following my blog for the past 3+ years (bless you!), you may have noticed that I have been suspiciously quiet about The L Word this season. Yes. As always, I have enjoyed it and I am sad to say, the series finale has come and gone. This season was certainly not as good as the others, in most respects. The entire premise of the season was just a set up for a spin-off that producer Ilene Chaiken hopes to sell to Showtime and develop another series.

The season focused on "Who killed Jenny Schecter," one of the main characters. Each new episode featured another of the main characters developing motive to kill Jenny, and vocalizing the threat. Many of the actions are out of character, and the situations overly contrived. Jenny's behavior went completely over-the-top.

OK - maybe that does happen to people. I want to give Ilene the benefit of the doubt. After all, she put lesbians into prime time, and made us sexy, successful and multifaceted. She created a family of characters that tons of people have blogged about, many Internet communities thrived on, and people are still talking about, even if it is in a negative, I-can't-believe-you-ended-the-show-this-way way.

What way would that be? She did not tell us who the murderer was, and claims to not even know herself. Fancying myself somewhat of a writer - I kind of understand this. Sometimes the story itself takes over, and presents its own answers, and maybe that just didn't happen. Maybe it will happen after an innocent woman goes to jail. Maybe we will get to find out how it all unravels because Showtime is now providing via the Internet the murder interrogation tapes, post-series finale, for us to all absorb. This involves loyal fans watching favorite friends say things totally out-of-character, thus ruining a bit of the integrity of the show...but still....we hang on...and we watch....and we wait for the movie...because, by God, there might eventually be another series with lesbians on TV.

This really has been ground-breaking television. It is the first series to focus around lesbians - their lives, their friends, their careers - just life, same as most shows, but without the heterosexual couples. It was done in a big, glamorous way, removed a bit from reality so as to entertain and filled with lots of eye candy, sure to make viewers, gay and straight, happy. So far, a 5-season boxed set of The L Word is on sale at various places. Presumably, in the fall, the 6th and final season will be added.

We own the first four seasons, so eventually will have to get the other two. For me, this is really a must-have for my DVD collection. It will be interesting to look back in 10 years and see what has changed, beyond hair styles and fashions. Hopefully, by then, there will have been many more lesbian-focused series, and we'll be saying, "Remember when this was the first?"

Ilene has been a role model for me, and though many people are quite upset by what she did to her show, the genius is that she had a show for 6 seasons that she could manipulate as she so desired. The ratings were so good that Showtime kept the show on for 6 seasons, and has agreed to a movie piloting the next possible show. She developed characters that we loved, and hated, and lusted after, and cried for - we were all along for the ride. What writer doesn't want to create a reality so powerful that people get angry when the characters do not act in accord with their personality, or who protest when someone dies, or is outraged when a couple breaks up? This is success. Ilene deserves huge credit for the world she created and for her part in advancing lesbian visability.

I Won't Need Sunscreen

Spring Break. It conjures up images of the beach, volley ball, sunscreen and too much alcohol. Wait...maybe that is just MTV. When you are a law student "spring break" tends to conjure up images of outlining, researching and paper writing. Cr*p - who signed up for this deal?

Somehow we got this far in the semester and I've not outlined anything. I have kept up on my reading and for at least one class, that is a HUGE requirement because it all builds on each other and won't make any sense unless you keep up. Still....I need to spend a couple days playing Review What I've Learned and a couple days doing some serious paper writing. It will be so great to have my paper DONE!

So, though there may be cheap travel insurance available, I don't think I will need it this spring break. A quick driving trip up to see Wife's family and celebrate birthdays is about as far as we'll be adventuring. At least we will save money on sunscreen.

Thinking About Vacations

Did anyone see Private Practice this past week? I will admit that it is one of shows that we record and watch later, and really, it is mostly fluff and eye-candy. It has gotten substantively better this season as compared with last, but still....it is mostly pretty doctors deciding with whom they should have sex, and somewhere along the way saving, or losing, patients.

Anyway, in last week's episode, one of the main characters is making vacation plans for her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. She's surfing the web and a co-worker sees the beautiful tropical pictures on her screen and declares it "vacation porn." How accurate is that?! Haven't we all spent at least some time drooling over the destinations we lust after?

I saw a great shot for Machu Picchu travel just last week. I once interviewed a woman who had just gotten back from Machu Picchu for an article I was writing and I've been in love with the idea of going there ever since. Natural beauty combined with history and timeless mystery. Sounds good, doesn't it? Of course, right now, a few days ANYWHERE away from the work and stress of real life sounds good.

Friends from the Blogosphere

On Friday we had some Blogger friends (Hi Audra and Dylan)that we'd never met in real life before stop by our house. It was fun meeting them in person, and we all had an easy, casual time, which is what you hope for in these situations, but it doesn't always happen.

The kids showed off as they always do when we have visitors - playing fashion show and various other things while we watched on and tried to have adult conversations. Eventually the kids found a nice balance betweent their own games and letting us talk...I think it happened shortly after I put pizza in front of the kids. :)

Dylan is also in law school, so eventually conversation rolled around to that topic. Just before we bored our partners into comas, Wife and Audra left the room to have their own conversation that centered around NOT law school. We were all entertained and engrossed in good conversation, so a good time was had by all.

Our friends were on a vacation, which we both agree is a great idea. Where is the toll free number where we can get one of those? I suspect a good vacation is some months away for us....but maybe we'll enjoy a mini-vacation or two here and there to keep us sane.

No time for rest

Things sure have gotten busy. Have I mentioned that I was stupid enough to get myself into a paper class my last semester? Yes, it's true and it is sucking up SO MUCH TIME, as paper classes tend to do. Granted, paper classes tend to be where I learn a lot and it is some of the most interesting time spent...but the time is inversely proportional to the amount of credit earned. That means there are other classes to be fretting over and studied for. Where has the time gone?

OK, this is no time to stress out. Maybe a nice little nap on the just-right mattress I'd like to buy from the discount furniture store or some such place, would be good. Nap, study, nap, study...oh, right, work. There is that...and there are these little kids running around my house making napping nearly impossible. Well, it is a nice fantasy.

Back to my regularly scheduled life.....

Of Carpets and Dr. Seuss

There are advantages to rarely being at home during daylight hours. The first, and perhaps most important, is that you don't notice how dirty the dogs and cats have gotten the carpet. I went home part-way through the day yesterday so I could study, hang out with the dogs that have been left alone much of the week because Wife has been busy with the Book Fair at Boy Wonder's school, and be ready to enjoy Dr. Seuss Night (also at the school) that evening.

I cleaned the carpets only a few weeks ago, but already they don't look so great, and the spots of cat throw up donot helped. (Thanks anyway, girls!) YUCK. Maybe we need one of the powerful steam cleaners, rather than a fairly simple and inexpensive carpet cleaner. I certainly know why Wife wants us to get the carpets professionally done, but I just can't see doing it right now, with the spring rains about to start and our backyard already looking like a giant mud puddle. Perhaps we should wait until warmer, drier weather sets in.

As a follow up - Dr. Seuss night was fun for all, the kids both came home with their faces painted and carrying more spoils from the Book Fair, which has been a huge success this week. Be sure to check out Wife's blog.

(Nearly) Have Degree - Will Travel (Not)

A couple days ago I heard two day students talking (I make the distinction because they are generally younger, have less responsibilities, have the luxury of participating in whatever activities and clerkships they are fortunate enough to qualify for, and often have somwhat different priorities than the majority of evening students) about where they want to work.

"I'll go wherever the jobs are."

"I hear there are still firms hiring in Texas."

As the discussion went on, they were pretty sure the jobs were not in a cool part of Texas, but were probably in some barren wasteland devoid of all culture and real opportunity. I guess they could have hopped on the Internet and checked out some job sites. Maybe there are good opportunities in San Antonio or Dallas. I imagine Dallas resumes would look pretty much the same as those you'd send to New York, Seattle, or LA. It must be nice to have the flexibility to be able to move wherever will be best for your career. One of the guys was talking about going to another country to practice International Law.

I have to say, as exciting as moving might be to provide opportunity, Wife and I are at a point in our lives we'd like to stay close to family. It's important to us, and good for the kids. Besides, we already live in what is arguably the best part of the country now - mild weather, very few natural disasters, very few dangerous (poisonous) insects or reptiles, it is a beautiful environment, lots of "green" people into recycling and doing good things for the earth, largely Democrats, fairly supportive of gay rights and progressive legislation. Finding a good job here will be just right for our family.