Stress and the Faulty Latch

You know when you think you are handling stress really well then something creeps up and taps you on the shoulder and shouts: BOO!?

That's been my day. I woke up after a fairly good night's sleep, but my legs were so tense that it felt liked I'd climbed a mountain the day before. To the best of my recollection, I had not.

Later, reading through Civ Pro essay answers, I found my breathing becoming rapid and my pulse racing. "Knock it off. This is no time for panicking." I tried breathing deeply. Deeply. Deeply. Deeply....

After regaining consciousness*, I felt more calm, but noticed I had bumped my head on the side of the refrigerator that sits in my office. Due to a faulty latch, the door had come open, which is why I'd bumped my head on it when I'd passed out. I started wondering if I could sue the manufacturer in strict liability so they could not use my own negligence against me. We all know that contributory negligence is not a defense to strict liability. Still, since my damages were, well, nonexistent, I guess there would be no point. I swung the door of the frig' the rest of the way open and grabbed a Coke.

That hit the spot. Now if only I had some rum....


*Fictional account intended for humorous purposes.

For my non bar-prepping readers, the "faulty latch" is a scenario that keeps popping up on practice test questions, which is why I think I am so dang amusing, and you may just be thinking I am weird.

Civil Procedure Personality Quiz Results

Yes, I do realize I am blogging instead of studying, thankyouverymuch.

This is in honor of finishing up tax law (for now) and moving on to civil procedure. By the way, expenses of doing business illegally are generally deductible, with some exceptions.

Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You ?

I AM RULE 8(a)!

"You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a stickler for details and particularity, you have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a plaintiff provide a short and plain statement of a claim on which a court can grant relief. While there is much to be lauded in your approach, your good nature sometimes gets you in trouble, and you often have to rely on your good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out."

By they way, I also did this quiz in December of 2005, and posted the results on my blog. I was the same rule then. I am nothing if not consistent. I can't easily link to it, but trust me, it's there. This rule is so seriously me.

Not Freaking Out

This is me today - not freaking out. (OK, well really it is Boy Wonder about 4 years ago, cute, right?) I don't know that I know much more about tax law than I did earlier today. I worked on it for a while, then switched to an MBE practice test, worked a bit, and now am about to go do an hour or so of taxes, followed by Civ Pro.

I know how to live!

I am either in serious denial, or actually feeling like I might be ready for this thing in a week. Either way, being able to sleep and breathe are really good things.

I reserve the right to freak at any time in the future.

Tax Class

Good Morning, Blog Friends!

Today's topics will be Federal Income Tax and Civil Procedure. We'll be starting with tax law since I know many of you, like me, avoided this class like the plague.

Wait, where are you all going? Don't the topics sound stimulating enough? C'mon - here we go, "Gross income is any accession to wealth, clearly realized, over which the taxpayer has complete dominion."

The Tax Code says that gross income includes "all income, from whatever source derived."

Wait! Come back! We haven't gotten to the good stuff, yet. You must report your illegal income, too! Congress wants its share of EVERYTHING and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination will not shield you or your income from that prostitution ring or your highly profitable international drug smuggling operation.

All right. G'bye. I'll see you later. I'll just be here. Studying tax. Alone.

Do Not Try This Without a Safety Harness

What a wild ride bar prep is. Really, it is everything a good ride should be - it's physically intense, offers dramatic rises and falls, allows you to become emotionally engaged, and makes you want to scream, if only you could catch your breath!

Saturday I was down - poor practice test scores. Today I am up - really good pracice test scores and making good headway on essay topics. WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As much fun as this is, I think I'd prefer a monorail - riding high above it all, all the time.

Being Responsible May Only Get You Smacked in the Face

Picture this:

Recent law school graduate who has been studying like crazy for the bar exam decides to do the responsible thing and go check out the hotel in which the test will be administered. It seems like a good idea to make sure of the location, parking...etc..and if you are a believer in conscious creation or visualization or any of that, it helps to have a very concrete picture of the desired goal. In this case - feeling calm and being successful while taking the bar exam.

OK. Said graduate/bar applicant speaks to hotel staff who directs her to the main banquet room that most students will be in - says she'll have someone unlock the door. Very nice. Walk through the hotel that was probably fairly nice in its day, but has become somewhat run down. Still, decent enough, with the bonus of not being downtown where parking would be very difficult and expensive.

A helpful hotel worker unlocks the door. Small talk is made about the bar exam, and others who have similarly asked to check out the room. A casual question is posed by about the assumption that power strips, or something, will be provided for all of the test-takers needing to plug in laptops.

"Uh...no, I don't think so. We could run a few extensions and try to help out anyone who needs to plug in."


WHAT????????

The room starts to spin.

Applicant tries to remain calm. This does not make sense. NO ONE has a laptop battery that will last for the duration of day one - which even if a person shut down during breaks and instruction periods is about 7 hours. We cannot possibly be expected to run on our batteries.

Applicant thanks the man and goes back to helpful front desk person. She has no clue but suggests that catering could answer questions after 8:00 tomorrow morning. "So could the Oregon State Bar" thinks the applicant. Surely they would not do this to us after making us spend $140 on software and leading us to believe we could use our laptops.

Visions of hand-cramping as she tries to write 9 essays, and a performance test fill applicant's head. She tries to remember to breathe deeply. This "reassuring" trip has not proven to be as calming as she'd hoped.

P.S. - Catering assured me this morning that Hollywood Lighting is providing power (glorious power!), so no worries about plugging in laptops. *WHEW* Think there might be a case for negligent infliction of emotional distress had I actually suffered physical injury. Who even HINTS that there might not be power for the bar exam?

Friday Night Frustrations

It's 6:37 on a Friday evening.

I am reviewing Secured Transactions and still plan to at least get started on Ethics. (About time I got into ethics, right? *grin*)

I am tired of this.
I don't want to be here studying anymore.
I want to be enjoying a nice, cool adult-beverage, laughing at something nonsensical, and not thinking about the bar exam.

All right. Whining over. Back to purchase-money security interests. Thank God for Prof. Newell and my crazy friend who talked me into taking Secured Trans this past semester!

Wow

SO MUCH STUFF TO REMEMBER!!!


Think I need this:

Bar Study Update

Some of you know I'd had some trouble sleeping for a couple nights. This was new for me as sleeplessness has never been one of my stress indicators. Nothing quite like having it take two hours to fall asleep and then be awakened a short time later by a cat jumping on the bed and then be awake for another hour..."Hello, my mind is awake now."

I am happy to report that the past two nights have been much better.

What I've learned:
- Breathing deeply and slowly is way better than fast and shallow.
- Nearly any conversation can lead to elements of a crime.
- Keeping to my schedule gives me the illusion of control.
- Getting up earlier gives me more hours in the day.
- During the very limited hours I am doing "work-work," it is best that someone else double-check what I am doing because my brain only has so much room for important details. Right now, if it's not on the bar, it probably is not important enough to take up space.
- It was worth taking a four-hour study break yesterday to go to my kids' swimming lessons and Vacation Bible School end-of-camp social event. I am so proud of of how well they are both doing!

OK, here's two more random pictures from the past few years. The princess was probably about a year ago, and the photo strip of me and my boy was taken right before I started law school:






OK - time to study Admin Law. :)

Property Sucks but My Kids are Cute

I dislike property questions quite a bit. Present estates - future interests - I don't know. Go see a wills and trusts lawyer, not me.

FSDPOR - Frank Sinatra Doesn't Prefer Orville Redenbacher.
Fee Simple Determinable Possibility of Reverter.

Some of you know what I am talking about.

Hey - random photo - how cute is this? From January 2005 - before I even started law school:



and so we have equal time for cuteness - my little rock eater:



They are growing up so fast!

From One Subject to Another

Today my mind is resting easier.
The medication must have kicked in. *grin* Just kidding.

A friend sent me some links to Ellen on Youtube from a 2007 show. She is so funny. This is part 4 ... and the end of part 5 had me barely able to breathe. You gotta love Ellen.

Ir's good to actually NOT be receiving more information to study and to be able to focus on memorizing and practicing. The practice questions are kind of fun, in a completely warped, what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you-people kind of way.

Wasn't UP an incredible movie?

"Squirrel!"


Really - amazing storyline, fantastic imagery, appropriate humor, tackling seriously deep issues - the life we hope for and the life that happens when we aren't looking, making good on promises, and all blended with really likable characters. Amazingly good stuff.

OK, so I am bouncing a bit. It's OK - spot the issue - tackle it - move on. It's a strategy.

Today's Lecture - Hazard to My Health

Today's Barbri lecture, and tomorrow's, was an unexpected video. I have heard that in many parts of the country, videos are all the students get. I cannot imagine having to pay what I paid for video-only lectures. Today's was the worst. This woman, speaking on wills and trusts, did not even attempt jokes. Most try to keep us amused. They know we are bored, getting tired, and are under a lot of stress. Today's lecturer was no-nonsense, and no fun. Most of us were looking at each other with looks of WTF painted across our pained faces.

During one of our ten-minute breaks, a short trip to the restroom had me eyeing the cool, hard tile on the wall, entertaining thoughts of banging my head against it repeatedly until I fell to the floor, unconscious. That seemed preferable to going back to the lecture.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, I did not choose the head-banging option. I listened. I underlined. I somehow stayed awake. I think I'll opt to just read the lecture notes for tomorrow and NOT put myself through the torture again.

Three Weeks and Counting

Three weeks to go. Not that I am counting. Oh, heck, of course I am. This is the last week of bar review classes. We have just three substantive lectures, plus some practice test/review days. I know that all the information I need has pretty much been laid out for me. It's all in a book and learning to apply it in order to answer the questions is just a matter of practice and repetition. The big deal is making sure I have enough time, and use it very wisely over the next three weeks. Just the fact I've made it this far without needing drug rehab, is a good thing. It bodes well for the future.

I am really glad formal review ends and leaves us with two weeks on our own to do with as we each will. I think the stress level will be through the roof by the time test days roll around, and I doubt it would be good to keep so many freaked out people together. Too much crazy in one place. I think I will be able to stick to my schedule as it has been, studying in the morning, working a bit in the afternoon, spending a bit of time searching the government job site , and then studying more into the evening and night. This gives my brain a rest in the middle of the day - plus gives us an income. I don't think a person can effectively study 12 hour in a row anyway. This is what I say now. In one more week, who knows how I will feel? Certainly more freaked out than I do right now. Right now, it is Sunday night, it's been a good weekend, the kids are sleeping peacefully, and all is good.

Anyone Wigging Out Over the Bar?

It would be really easy to eat and drink my way through bar review. There is almost no time that doesn't seem like a good time for chocolate and alcohol. Still, in an effort to be somewhat healthy and avoid the need for diet pills, I'm trying to turn to more fruit and nuts, and only occassional chocolate and margaritas.

One of my mentors asked me yesterday if any of my classmates were acting really weird. She says during her bar review days, she had a few classmates that totally wigged out. Two moved in together to eat, drink and sleep bar subjects. They started taking the super supplement of the day. She said by the the time the bar exam came around their pupils were like pinpoints and they had totally weirded out - but they passed!

I think we all have had our days of wigging out a bit and wondering how the heck we are going to keep all of this information in our heads and not totally lose our minds from the pressure. I've been feeling oddly calm lately. I think it is going to be good. I'm going to hang onto that....now where did I put my supplements?

Pep Talk from the Bar Review Folks

Yesterday during our bar review class, we got a "pep letter." It is sort of a "we know you are going crazy and want to kill yourself, but don't" message. It was kind of nice to know this is the point that we will all start feeling crazy, and losing our glasses, or our minds, or something equally valuable.

I am feeling somewhat stressed, and I know that it will get crazy, but will all be OK in the end. I'm mostly OK, but have started hearing my co-workers say - "You need to get some sleep," and "You are fun when you are stressed." Sad part is, I AM getting sleep. My mind just doesn't really have a lot of room to focus well on anything but bar subjects, and even those are still very out of focus. At least everyone knows, in theory, what I am going through and I don't think the expectations are particularly high right now for my daily functions.

In only 7 short weeks, I will be returning to my normal life, or rather, I will be discovering what the heck normal even looks like. "Normal" may be a constantly changing thing for a while....normal for during law school, normal for bar review, normal before I have a new job, normal for after I find a new job. Who said "The only thing constant is change."? True enough.

Who knows? A few short months from now, I could be starting a new job with new responsibilities, new routines to figure out, new co-workers, new health insurance and a return of premium life insurance, along with a host of other benefits. I will NOT be going to school at night - or in the morning. I will be coming home at night to see my family.....or maybe working late because it is a new job paying the big bucks that will help repay those darn student loans...I repeat, who knows?

Help! I Have Bar Brain!*

Today I lost my glasses.

Last night at 9:00 when I left work, where I study at nights, I had them. I know because I use them to read, and was reading as part of my study plan. (Osmosis seems unlikely to work.) This morning, when I went to get my glasses out of my bag to read in the parking lot prior to class, they were not there.

Now, normally, when I am done studying, I put my glasses in their case, which sits on my desk, then they go into my book bag. Therefore, they should have been there this morning. They were not. I used my old pair, which I still had with me because I just recently transitioned to new ones, figuring my new ones must be on my desk at work. When I arrived at work, there they were not.

I searched all over my work area, in my drawers, the workroom, the bathroom, called wife and had her check all over the house, I searched the car three times, and my book bag countless times. I asked my co-workers. I almost asked our maintenanc man who was chatting in our lobby. I even checked the ground near yesterday's parking spot, halfway expecting to find a sad, squashed blue case with what remained of my glasses, but no.

I finally decided I would have to give up the search, start work, and hope they found their way to a Lost and Found over the next few days. That is when I checked an overhead storage bin in my file cabinet. It is a space I do not even open once per week. There sat my glasses, in their case, safely tucked away.

WHAT?

It was good that I had put them away. Why at 9:00 last night that had seemed like the appropriate place to put them, I have no idea.

Wife says it is like I have pregnancy brain - but it is really bar brain. Yes, I guess that is it. Wow - it is awfully early in bar review to have already lost the part of my mind that is able to function in the real world - the world outside of bar preparation.

I wish Wife and I could just get away alone somewhere for a few days together - just to rest and reconnect and give my bar brain a break. I know she could use it, too. No kids. No dogs. No cats. No responsibilities. Certainly no bar review materials. A resort? A hotel? Motel? There are nice rv parks. I wouldn't be picky.

OK, OK, maybe in 7 more weeks.....

*Credit for the term "bar brain" is properly attributable to Wife.

Bar Review

Wow. Bar Review is Fun.

Wait....let me redo that.....imagine the voice of the monotone teacher in The Wonder Years, or on Ferris Beuller's Day off....now let me try it:

Wow. Bar Review is Fun. (Note the capital letters for emphasis.)

No, seriously, the classes/lectures are actually quite good. Everything you should have learned in law school and spent weeks and weeks on, condensed into a few short pages. Crazy. The lectures are packed and filled with all relevant information.("Evidence that is relevant has a tendency to make the existence of any fact of consequence more or less probable." See how much I've learned?) No fluff. No chit chat. All essential stuff. So far, most of the lecturers have been very good, some are downright entertaining, and clear. BarBri knows what they are doing.

The down side - too much information in a very short period of time. I think many of us, me included, are already starting to feel overwhelmed. Saturday was bad for many of us, from what I hear. Today we have recovered and are back for more, ready to face the challenges of this odd reality we have signed up for.

I've come up with one unique idea for study strategy, but first I have to go back in time a bit.....For my birthday I got a very cool MP3 player that I love. It is blue, and very cute. See:



Wife found it on sale locally, and got if for me because I had complained that my last one did not have any words, so there was no way to search for or group songs. Sometimes you don't want to listen to Def Leppard followed by Cher and then songs from High School Musical 2. Just saying....anyway, this one plugs into a little auxiliary plug in my car, and presto, access to all of my MP3 songs.

Now, on to my study strategy - I noticed the other day that my MP3 player also has a voice recording feature. I was thinking this might be a 15-30 second memo feature, but the manual says you can record lectures, or whatever. We cannot record our BarBri lectures, but I am thinking of recording myself reading my own outline or sample answers from one of our books, and then listening to that when I am in the car. So much of the bar is remembering key phrases that I think this would be useful. Seems like a very handy feature that I will have to test out soon. Just one more thing to love about my MP3 player. That, and it's blue. Wife has the same one in pink. It's good to be made happy by something as simple as a color choice. :)

No testing the voice recording feature tonight though. Tonight, as every night, I will take about 2 hours to outline what we learned in lecture today, then work on a couple essay questions, then do some multiple choice questions. Then I will go home...be home by 9:30 hopefully....see Wife for a short time, then sleep. I have a full night ahead!