Yikes

Time is seriously flying by. Only two weeks until school starts. One more week of the current internship, then off to Florida. Yay Florida. When/how am I going to buy my books so that I can do my assignments for the first week of classes? Who knows. I already tried once, on Friday, based on a rumor that the bookstore was open until 6:00pm--turns out that's only true on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can't do it any evenings this week (see below), and I'll be gone next week. Hmm.

I'm not sure how I feel about the weeks coming up. They are going to be quite busy. I have four (count 'em, four) law firm receptions this week at various locations around downtown--one each evening Monday through Thursday. I'm missing four the week I'm in Florida, and then I think I have four the week school starts. Then starts on campus interviewing for jobs next summer--plus a few more receptions. I am not used to this whole being wined and dined thing.

I had another productive weekend. My apartment is seriously cleaner now than it has been since I moved in, because I finally have everything all organized and put up. It only took a year. The last step was cleaning out the HUGE random storage closet I have right next to my front door that I basically had tossed a whole bunch of boxes and other junk in all year. Well, now that's done, plus everything has been windexed/vacuumed/dusted, so I feel pretty darn accomplished! Plus I got to hang out with friends, and I also got a little internship-work done too. It's a good feeling.

So, I've been putting off the whole pack for tomorrow and get ready for bed routine because I don't want the week to start...but I guess I'd better get a move on so I'm not completely sleep-deprived and miserable tomorrow!

Annoying!

Tonight, for the second time in a month, I got the hiccups while brushing my teeth. It's annoying because I brush my teeth right before getting in the bed, and having hiccups makes going to sleep a little difficult. These are the kind of hiccups that water and deep breaths don't seem to get rid of, either. Yuck! I wonder why teeth-brushing brings them on? Do I breathe differently when I'm brushing my teeth? Things to ponder...

I had a really good weekend. No one specific thing made it great, but feeling productive while also getting to do fun things with people I love is a good way to spend time.

Hmm, I feel like I'm just babbling. Well, I guess I'll go try and down one more glass of water in the attempt to get rid of these hiccups, then go to bed. Yay bed! Not so yay the fact that I'll be getting up to use the bathroom multiple times tonight because of all the water I'm drinking now!

Wow...new posts two days in a row!

Look, I'm being good and actually posting things when they come to mind! I don't know why as I'm kind of sleepy and probably should head to bed, but you know. I'm obviously going to do this anyway. So, a few things:

1. I don't know what I am thinking, but I'm going to see Harry Potter with a friend at 11:59 pm Tuesday night. That means I'll probably be back home around 3:00 am Wednesday morning. Here's hoping I don't fall asleep in court on Wednesday. But this will be a neat experience as this friend will be documenting the experience of dressed-up Harry Potter fans (ourselves not included--as we are NOT that crazy) for the Houston Chronicle. So we'll see what comes of that. I'm excited.

2. This morning before church, Melissa brought over Season 2 of 24 for me to watch. Last time I had my hands on a full season of 24 (over Christmas break), I watched all 24 episodes in a few days. I'm scared to start watching now, as it will prevent me from doing the things I need to be doing (cite-check is due in two weeks...what?), but am really excited at the same time.

3. I couldn't resist making this Simpsons avatar. Everyone else is doing it. I gave myself glasses because I didn't like any of the actual eye choices, and I should be getting new glasses at some point this month anyway. Yay, new glasses that don't slide constantly slide down my nose because they're broken! Anyway, make your own Simpsons avatar here.

Busy busy busy!

I'm very, very busy and I've got a lot to do, and I haven't got a minute to explain it all to you...

Just kidding, although I have certainly been busy this summer. I really enjoyed my first internship in state appellate court, and that ended a week ago Thursday. I got all day Friday off (a whole day off--amazing!) and then started in federal court this past Monday. I can't go into much detail about what I got to do those first six weeks of my summer, but I learned a whole bunch and really enjoyed working with everyone I got to work with--from judges to attorneys to my fellow judicial interns. Looks like the internship I started this past week will be really good too, so I'm excited.

I also found out a few weeks ago that I received a "grade-on" spot to the Houston Law Review. Now, for those of you who have no idea what law review is, I want to keep from completely boring you, so here's a brief explanation: it's a student-run academic journal, and to be on it is a fairly significant honor...that will make me crazy-busy for the next two years. I've spent the last week running around town trying to gather sources for the first article that I'm working on, and will spend the next two weeks cite-checking that article. I'm still a little unclear as to what happens after that, but I'll keep working on it until the issue we're working on goes to print...and then the process starts all over again! It sounds really fun, doesn't it? Aren't you jealous? Oh wait, I forgot about the 60-80 page article I have due in January! Add that to the classes I will be taking and the interviews I will be doing for next summer in the fall, and you can see that things are going to get pretty interesting in the coming months.

I think pretty much everyone who reads this probably also knows that I got a new car last Friday too. The old Camry I had--while still running--was dying one part at a time. The thing that drove me the most crazy was the constantly rattling struts...and the window that went down and wouldn't come back up was the final straw. The new car is a Hyundai Sonata. It's nothing fancy, but it works! And I've never had a brand new car before, so the whole thing is very exciting.

The weather here in Houston has been kind of crazy lately. It seems like it's rained just about every day for the past couple of weeks, until today. The sun is actually out today! But it feels kind of gross and HOT outside. I don't know if it really is all that hot, or if it just feels that way after weeks of highs in the upper 70s/lower 80s and no sun. Or maybe it's just walking around downtown and trekking back and forth between UH's main campus library and the law school with a heavy backpack that adds to how hot it feels outside. That probably doesn't help, at any rate.

I'm trying to think if there's anything else I wanted to share today. I know that I periodically have things that occur to me, and I think, "Oh, I should write a blog entry about that!" But I almost never do that these days. I will try and be better about that.

Pictures

I also decided that we need pictures--it's boring scrolling down my blog and seeing only words. I'm going to post two pictures of Melissa, Staci, and me (known as the law school "tripod"), thanks to Melissa's foresight in bringing her camera for our celebration after finishing our last final.

This one, of Melissa, me, and Staci, was taken right before we left Jason's Deli. I don't think Melissa likes this one, but I do, so I'm putting it on here :)

And this one was taken just before Staci and Melissa dropped me off at the airport for my fun weekend in Fort Worth. Not a bad self-portrait job on Melissa's part.

Update

Just a quick life update before bed:

I'm really enjoying my internship. Even the more "boring" assignments aren't bad because I'm learning from the work. In fact, I think I've learned more practical things at work in the past two weeks than I did this past year in law school. The 35ish hour (or less) work week isn't so bad either--and it's nice to come home and not have homework to do (well, save for keeping track of time, doing "reflections," and posting on the class discussion board so I can get school credit for all this...).

All my grades are in. This is pretty impressive: it wasn't nearly as long of a wait as it was last semester, when our last grade posted over two months after our last final. I didn't do as well as I did last semester, sadly, but I guess that's to be expected. It would have been hard to replicate those grades. I'm fairly satisfied with my performance this past year overall.

I'm typing this in the dark right before I go to bed. I'm in the dark because my lamp keeps flickering off, and I just gave up on trying to keep it on. The lamp is plugged into my special alarm clock for deaf people, which is designed to flash the light on top of making noise in the morning when the alarm goes off. It's a good thing I have that lamp plugged into it, too, because the noise function hasn't been working on the clock lately. Anyway, when funky things happen with the electricity, the alarm clock makes noises and turns the lamp off. I wonder what's with the electricity. Maybe someone is vacuuming or something.

I'm trying to think if anything else interesting is going on with me lately, but it seems that I've covered everything. Right now, I spend my weeks at work, with friends, and at church. Not a bad summer. Not a bad summer at all.

Done!

Had a request for a blog entry now that I'm done with my first year of law school, so here it is! I'm very happy to be done with 1L. Now, however, begins the horrifying waiting game--time to wait for grades to come in. That process is quite stressful. However, I think I'm doing better and feeling more relaxed now than I was a semester ago. Maybe that will change as grades are posted and I like/don't like what I see.

So I thought that once I finished my last final on May 11, life was going to be easy--smooth sailing. And it is, to an extent. On that Friday of my last final, I got to go up to Fort Worth and have a fun weekend with some of my best friends from Trinity. We played games, ate out, painted Kaci's house (!), and had together time. I got back to Houston early Sunday morning, and got to spend Mother's Day with Mom and Grandma.

Then on Monday, things got a little more complicated again. I attended a required 2-day judicial process course that was designed to help get us in shape for our summer judicial internships. I found it somewhat helpful, but it was hard to sit in the same classroom all day for two days in a row after just finishing the semester the Friday before. Sadly, I also have homework for that class--a paper due next Friday that's worth 60% of our grade, plus with written "reflections" due at various points throughout the summer along with required participation in an online discussion board. Therefore, some of yesterday was spent in an attempt to work on the paper. I didn't get very far, sadly, so that is going to be the main focus of the weekend.

Wednesday was Kelsey's 16th birthday, so I headed down to Sugar Land to spend the day there. It was kind of a low-key birthday, I think, but there were 6 of us there to celebrate because Rebecca and Ben were there as well. We had roast, potatoes, and corn on the cob (and I'll eat the leftovers tonight, yum) for dinner and then went to chick-fil-a afterwards for milkshakes. No birthday cake, because Kelsey wants to save that for her party with her friends, which will be held next weekend, I think.

Then Thursday was my orientation for my first internship. I'm going to start practicing the principles of confidentiality that are so important and say that basically this summer I will be spending the vast majority of my time writing, researching, and editing. Getting downtown wasn't too bad, and I'll be parking for about $3 a day and splitting that cost with Staci, who I'll carpool with most days. Then Thursday evening, Melissa came over and we went to Sonic and watched Grey's Anatomy, which was shocking. I hate when the season finales completely leave you hanging. Boo.

So next week will begin my full days on the job. I think I'll be working about 35 hours a week or so, which isn't too bad. And I'm looking forward to being able to come home every day from work and have no homework (well, once this paper is over. And I don't have "reflections" to do.).

So there you have it, a post-finals update.

P.S. I'm proud of myself! According to spellcheck, I didn't misspell any words. That's unusual for me.

Ridiculous

Law school makes you crazy. Studying nonstop for exams that constitute your entire grade for a semester is just not fun. In undergrad, I thought exam time was stressful--but now I know that it can be much, much worse. I'm dreading this week (exams on Monday, Wednesday and Friday), and don't see how this is going to end well. I can already sense my GPA falling, especially after the property exam last Friday.

What prompted this post was my studying for criminal law. I'm currently doing hypos (law school speak for "hypotheticals," fact situations where after a situation is laid out for you you're asked to apply the law) to practice for the exam I have tomorrow, and they're a little ridiculous. Here's the first paragraph of one of the hypos in Siegel's Criminal Law ((c) 2005):

"Adams and Barlow frequented the same pool hall. Adams told Barlow that Adams needed help in testing the faithfulness of his girlfriend, Kitty, and, if she proved unfaithful, killing her. The plan was for Adams to bring a box of chocolates laced with LSD to Barlow, who was to offer the chocolates to Kitty. If Kitty accepted the chocolates from Barlow, (a stranger to her), this would satisfy Adams that she was unfaithful and deserved to die."

The situation goes on, and of course someone else samples the candy and dies...and at the end, I'm to "discuss the crimes for which Adams and Barlow may be successfully prosecuted." These kind of hypotheticals are what my grade depends on. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Aren't you jealous of how I will be spending three hours of my life tomorrow morning? And when that's done, I get to come right back and try and study constitutional law, which will be excruciating--but I won't go into that here.

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to noon on Friday when my first year of law school will be done, for better or for worse. And something just as exciting: this weekend consists of a little mini-vacation in Fort Worth and getting to see some of the old Trinity crowd. Yay.