summer of bar review

The thing about law school graduation is that it's rather anti-climactic. Sure you feel a great sense of pride when you walk across the stage after three long years of discipline and sacrifice to be handed the most expensive piece of paper you'll ever own. But the feeling of accomplishment is fleeting, because you know that you aren't really done with this arduous process until you pass the bar exam. And this knowledge hangs over you like a menacing storm cloud through each champagne toast and every celebratory meal with family and friends.

So I'm now the proud holder of a Juris Doctor degree from a regionally renown law school, but I'm not a lawyer yet. No, the bar exam still stands between me and the practice of law. The bar exam varies state by state, since the Supreme Court of each state has plenary power over who may practice law in their jurisdiction. Most states these days utilize a standardized test of common law principles called the MultiState Bar Exam (MBE), and then throw some essay and/or performance questions specific to that jurisdiction to drag the ordeal out for an extra day. But not Louisiana; Louisiana is special.

Because of Louisiana's unique history, being a relative late-comer to the nascent United States and all, the civilian tradition of Spanish and French law permeate and distinguish the law of Louisiana from that of her 49 sister states. And so the Louisiana bar exam is unlike that of any other American state. For starters, the exam is the longest of all the states, with 21.5 hours of testing over a three day period. Also, it's mostly all essay questions, with a sprinkling of short-answer and multiple choice questions thrown in for good measure.

I'll be sitting for the Louisiana bar exam in July. So my life for the next two months will pretty much consist of nothing but learning Louisiana law. I'm taking the de rigueur Bar Review Course, which lends structure and guidance to my studies, with lectures six days out of the week for the next six weeks. After the course term ends, I'll have three weeks to continue to study the materials on my own, according to their schedule but without the lectures. (I'll be sitting for the Mississippi bar exam in February 2013, which means I'll be doing this all over again come the first of the new year.)

The first week of Bar Review was overwhelming. The second week wasn't quite so bad, but only yesterday did I come to the realization that this feat of memorization is indeed possible. Prior to this realization, I had been actively banishing fears of failure from my mind, but I lacked a firm conviction that I could indeed conquer this material and formulate a sufficient command of the law that I will be able to demonstrate my minimal competence to the bar examiners. (Thankfully, the bar exam tests for minimal competence, not maximum mastery, as is the case with law school exams.)

So I'm now genuinely confident in my ability to do this thing. And that feels good. Despite knowing how incredibly tedious the next several weeks will be, and how hard I'll have to work, I'm sure that I can do it. I just have to accept that the contours of Louisiana law will necessarily permeate my every waking thought, and I will become a living, breathing encyclopedia of legal knowledge. So it goes that, with this update complete, I must return to making of flashcards on the classification of property and the dismemberments of ownership.

2012: so far, so good

Busy. as. a. bee.

Enrolled in 12 credit hours (plus reading & writing time outside of class). Spend approx. 10 hours per week working at the CDC as an extern. Assist a professor 2-3 hours per week. Keep house and home from falling apart. Tend to hubby and critters.

Breathe. Stretch. Repeat.

I try to remind myself to savor the cool breeze of each jasmine-laden moment, because -- stressful though they may be -- they are fleeting. Soon the miserable heat of summer will be upon New Orleans, and I'll be in the thick of intensive Bar Exam Study. Then, with a little luck and plenty of moxie, come the cool breezes of autumn I'll be hard at work at my first Lawyering Job.

So it goes that, even though I'm constantly in a mad dash where I blink five times and it's Thursday again already, I'm trying to enjoy this these last Law Student weeks and days for what they're worth.

The Most Terrible Time of the Year

For a law student, exam time is a horrific thing.

First, there’s the sheer volume of law that you’ve spent all semester learning. You must review it, delving into every nuance, and thoroughly comprehend each and every twist and turn.

Second, there’s the pressure. Your entire grade for the semester rests on your performance on this one exam. Nevermind if you came to every class fully prepared, participated meaningfully in every class discussion, and read all of the optional supplemental materials; that doesn’t matter a whit. All that matters is how you perform on that exam, and if you have a momentary lapse of reason, or your mind goes blank in the exam room, that’s it. You’re screwed.

Third, there’s the inherent unfairness of the grading system. Law professors aren’t free to assign grades based solely on the merits of each exam response. No, instead their grade distribution must align with the school’s grading curve mandate. That is, only so many As may be given, only so many Bs, only so many Cs, and so forth. Which means that the professors frequently end up making arbitrary distinctions between papers on the cusp of two grades (A- and B+ for instance) just to comply with the curve.

All of that, combined with the fact that all this studying amounts to a major time suck, makes for an unpleasant experience for law students in early December and early May.

I’ve lodged these exact same complaints before, though, so I won’t elaborate any further.

But it has begun once again for me, and I can’t help but whine just a little. Classes are over, and crunch time is now.

So it goes that my days are spent in my study, at my desk, diligently studying legal ethics, health care law, business enterprises, and trusts & estates. I refuse to become a study zombie, though, so I allow myself stretching breaks and dog-walking breaks, and I get up early and get to bed at a decent hour instead of working late into the night. (Since my exams are at all at 9am, I don’t want to fall into a night-owl routine during my study period.)

And although it's unpleasant, I will survive. I will pass all of my exams, even if I don’t come out at the top of the class. Best of all, I only have one more exam period to live through before this law school business is a thing of the past. (Although this is a mixed blessing, because after graduation I’ll have bigger exam worries, like passing the bar!)

In the meanwhile, though, I’m going offline. No facebook, no twitter, no blogging, and no internet stumbling. I shall endeavor to focus on my exams to the exclusion of such distractions. Wish me luck.

the beginning of the end of law school

Time flies when you're a busy bee law student. So it goes that I find myself already halfway through the first semester of my third and final year of law school.

I remember the day I received my acceptance letter from Tulane. It was during the days of my laid back schedule: the spring of 2009. I had received a lot of rejection letters from graduate programs that spring. On the day the letter arrived from Tulane Law, I was home alone with the kitties when the mail arrived, and as soon as I read the word “congratulations,” I started imagining a life in New Orleans. Of course, I was still awaiting other admittance decisions, and I had no way of knowing what my final decision would be. But I knew that New Orleans was relatively close by, and that both hubby and I had an affinity for the city. And the thought of moving there and attending Tulane was absolutely thrilling. I skipped giddily through the house, announcing excitedly to the kitties that we just might move to New Orleans.

As it happened, that’s precisely what we did. Two years and many challenges later, I find myself beginning the end of my law school career.

For the entire academic year I’ll be working as a judicial extern at the Orleans Parish Civil District Court for class credit. So I’ve been in the courtroom instead of the classroom at least 10 hours each week, doing real legal work which has real consequences for real people. And that’s a whole lot more fulfilling than just working for good grades. (Although I’m still doing plenty of that, too.)

As far as classes go, I’ve made the strategic decision throughout my upper years of law school to take classes that interest me and which will give me a sound knowledge base for the areas of law in which I desire to practice, rather than taking only classes in subject matter which will be tested on the bar exam; I figure I can learn what I need to know to pass the bar outside of the classroom, and I’d rather have the in-depth coverage offered in a law school class for those areas of law where I’ll actually be working instead of just being tested once. So I’m enrolled in Trusts & Estates, Health Care Law, and Business Enterprises. I’m also knocking out my final graduation requirement: the Legal Professionalism course.

Apparently, law schools didn’t used to require law students to take a course in Legal Professionalism. The thinking goes that instituting this requirement might just result in fewer crooked lawyers out practicing in the world inspiring nasty lawyer jokes and committing malpractice. So now the American Bar Association has mandated that all aspiring lawyers take course in Legal Professionalism in order to obtain that J.D. (And, now 46 states also require a passing score on a nationally-administered Professional Responsibility Examination in order to be admitted to practice in the state. I’ll be taking that exam Nov. 5th.)

And that is why, along with the substantive law of intestacy, informed consent, and derivative actions, I’m also learning what it means to competently represent a client, why trust funds can never, ever be co-mingled, and other ways to avoid finding myself in front of a disciplinary committee someday.

I’ve heard it said that 3L year is an aspiring lawyer’s last opportunity to be a slacker (after 2 rough years of schooling and before 5-10 years of hard work in the Real World before getting a chance to relax and take it easy). But that’s not been the case for me. I’m still working hard, learning a ton, and running around NOLA like a mad woman, from home to school to work and back, barely getting enough rest during the week.

Despite the exhaustion and despite the dire job market, it does feel good to be a 3L. There’s a sense of invincibility, because I’m now too far along to fail in this law school endeavor. My GPA, while not at the Top of the Class, will earn me that J.D.; there’s no question whether I’ll continue apace and finish this thing. And while I don’t yet have a post-graduation job lined up, my success is no longer uncertain. I am constantly networking and doing good work with and for the benefit of legal professionals, making a name for myself in the legal community, and I am confident that I will not only find a job, but a job that I'll enjoy. Walking through the halls of the law school and studying in the library, I feel happily isolated from all the fear and doubt that the 1Ls and 2Ls are experiencing.

Which is a good thing, because it seems like it was just yesterday that I was a scared and shaken 1L, reeling from the mental hazing that comprises one’s introduction to the world of lawyering.

And that's your seasonal update, dear readers, for now it is time for me to return to my studies.

{This post brought to you by a cancelled class this morning.}

pro bono and a tangential rant

Pro Bono Publico: For the Public Good. That’s the literal translation of the Latin.

Usually shortened to pro bono, the phrase is now synonymous with free legal work above all else, both within the profession and to the public at large.

Most law schools these days require students to serve a minimum number of pro bono hours in order to graduate. (As it happens, my school was the first to introduce this requirement.) Generally, a student’s pro bono requirement can be met by doing a variety of tasks at a variety of organizations, so long as the work is uncompensated and law-related. Basically it’s legal community service.

At Tulane, the pro bono requirement is 30 hours. I was determined to complete this obligation before my summer session abroad and before my 3L year (which begins the week after I return home), so that I’ll have one less thing on my plate during my final year of law school. The way the timing worked out, I didn’t get to start my pro bono work until last week, and I just finished yesterday, which was less than ideal since it made our final weeks before the trip a little more hectic than the rest of the summer has been. Now that the obligation has been met, though, I’m feeling greatly relieved. (Not to mention super stoked about packing and departing in three days!)

For my pro bono service, I worked at the Lawyer Referral Service of the New Orleans Bar Association. It was a fairly easy job as far as I was concerned, because it required little of me other than a skill I perfected for 5 years at my paralegal job: fielding telephone calls, listening to folks describe their legal problems, and sending them to an attorney who can help them, if at all possible. So it wasn’t very difficult, even though it did require me to resurrect my Sweet Southern Girl telephone persona.

But I’m very pleased with the experience, because it demonstrated for me in a very concrete way the continued need and demand for quality legal services. There’s a Big Worry among my cohort of law students about job scarcity upon graduation, because big firms aren’t hiring at the rates they used to, but since folks continue going through the law school grind, there’s no shortage of lawyers. Of course this leads to increased competition across the board, but particularly in areas like government which used to be something of a safe harbor for law students without impressive GPAs. So there’s lots and lots of law students right now, all across the country, fretting about where and whether they’ll get jobs after graduating. And their worry is actually well founded, because the system which perpetrated $100k+ salaries for newly-minted lawyers is, IMHO, unsustainable.

The thing is that there’s no shortage of need or demand for legal services. (I knew this going into law school, and it’s the reason that I’m not worried about my prospects for enjoying a decent standard of living after graduation; it’s just nice to have been viscerally reminded of this fact during the course of completing my pro bono requirement.) Even still, most newly-minted lawyers are not equipped to meet any of this need or demand for legal services, because all they know about the law is from the classroom and their casebooks. Most law graduates simply lack the real world experience to walk off out of the classroom and into the courtroom if they hope to competently represent anyone’s interest.

And that’s tragic. The way I see it, legal education is severely flawed in many ways. It’s something I hope I can work towards changing once I get my fancy credentials, which I'm one step closer to having now with my pro bono requirement out of the way.

TraveLogue

Introducing: A New Blog! where our trip abroad shall be documented for posterity on the internets.

Click on over if you'd like to vicariously experience our adventure...

summer vacation, 2L version

Two weeks into my summer vacation, and it's feeling a lot more like summer than vacation.

Things were lovely for a little while: the last front of cool, feel-good air moved through New Orleans, which naturally led to picnicking and walking in the park. Hubby and I enjoyed a lovely date night downtown. I luxuriated in several days of post-exam-relaxation, sleeping late and generally doing very little other than watching the Netflix. I re-read a comforting familiar dystopian novel for fun and at my own pace. And even though I fought a little fever bug and played nurse while Hubby did likewise, it was a lovely respite indeed.

But then there were chores to be done, and plans to be made, and business to handle. Because even though I'm not actively a law student at this moment (attending class or reading cases) there's always business to be done relating to my chosen career path. And having a home means there's always chores to be done. So it's not feeling very much like a vacation any more, even though I'm not punching a clock or going to class. Meanwhile the warm temps and high humidity have returned to ensure that it is feeling very much like summer.

At least I have roughly another month to tackle things at my own pace before it's time to get back into student mode for summer school. Which will be very bizarre indeed, seeing as how I'll be physically on vacation from home at the time, studying international human rights law at the University of Amsterdam and living in a flat in Jordaan, Amsterdam.

Bizarre, but incredible. Even though I have plane tickets and passport in hand (and two homework assignments already!), it's still somewhat unbelievable to think that I'm going to study abroad this summer. I've never before left the US, and I've always been a non-traditional student. I'm not quite sure how it happened that I'm now one of those twenty-somethings heading off to spend 5 weeks in Europe.

But it's totally happening. This is going to be an amazing summer vacation, even if there is some summer school thrown into the mix!

another year, another semester, and another home

As I greet 2011 and a New Semester of law school, I’m feeling quite content, if a little overwhelmed.

With another semester of law school under my belt, I’m now officially half-way through with my Juris Doctor degree requirements. And while law school continues to be practically all-consuming, I know that this, too, shall pass, and I'll come out the better for it in the end. (Last semester about killed me – working whilst taking 15 credit hours required more effort than I could muster most days, but I survived, mostly with the help of vast quantities of coffee and espresso.)

So far, so good with the Spring semester. I’m enrolled in classes that are both intellectually stimulating and practical, and the reading load seems to be mostly tolerable.

Good thing, too, since in the midst of the New Semester excitement, it happens that I’m once again living in Box House, the inevitable result of our recent move to a bigger place here in New Orleans. And while I love living in an Irish Channel shotgun double in true New Orleanian style, my desire to get unpacked and settled serves as a huge distraction from my legal studies. I try to delegate my time wisely, and I think I’m on the right track: the house is coming together incrementally, and I’ve not yet fallen behind with my schoolwork.

Also this semester I’ll be Acting President of the Law Women’s Association at Tulane. I was elected to serve merely as Vice President, but our President got the opportunity to study abroad in Hong Kong this semester, and away she went, leaving me to act in her stead. While this is all well and good, it is yet another distraction which influenced my decision to take only 4 classes this term.

Hopefully, after a few more marathon weekends of unpacking and organizing, the new house will be much more settled, giving me more time to focus on my legal education and career development. For now, though, my time remains divided between these two all-important tasks.

And trying to fit in a decent amount of sleep. So it goes that with this brief update I must bid you farewell and goodnight, dear readers. Mayhap 2011 will allow more time for blogging than did 2010...

New Academic Year's Eve

Tomorrow begins my second year at Tulane Law School. I'm super-exited. I've had a great summer, in terms of my intellectual and experiential growth as a budding attorney, and I'm ready to get on with the formalized aspect of my legal education.

For all that this year will be a rigorous challenge much like last year, I'm certain that it will be vastly superior in many ways. This time around, I know the Law School Drill. I know how much time I'll have to devote to my studies; I know about the Socratic Method; I know about Exams. The material will be new (and more exciting, seeing as how I get to choose my own courses), but the method and the madness will be familiar. And, I know the lay of the land; the sprawling beauty of Tulane University's campus is no longer daunting or intimidating, instead it is a comforting sight.

I'm also going in this year with a renewed sense of vigor and confidence. Vigor, because I am freed of the doubts that plagues first-year law students: Do I really want to be a lawyer? Is this endeavor really worth the mental exhaustion and the astronomical tuition? I now have the concrete sense of purpose that stems from the certainty that there is nothing that I could do for a career that would bring me the satisfaction of lawyering, and the education I'm receiving is most certainly worth the cost in time, effort, and dollars. Not only that, but I have a career path planned already, one that neither grades nor economic recession can derail. And I have a renewed sense of confidence after having worked on real-life legal problems this summer without faltering, something that led me to law school initially but which I sorely missed during that daunting first year when doing real legal work was not possible.

And autumn is approaching. Even though the New Orleans summer days are still miserably hot, the sunlight grows shorter with every passing day, and the afternoon breezes grow increasingly cool and comfortable. It won't be long before the few deciduous trees put on their fall gowns and the sun is barely up when I'm waiting for the streetcar.

It's a time of year I've grown to adore 'lo these past 4 years. Ever since I moved far enough north to see the seasons change (FL only has two seasons: hot and mildly cool, and the mildly cool season is quite short indeed), fall has been one of my absolute favorite times of year. And since going back to school in 2006, I've come to associate it with beginnings, and the freshness of beginning new endeavors, since fall does, after all, traditionally mark the start of a new academic year.

This year, in particular, seems especially significant for new beginnings. For one, Hubby will be going back to school this year to finish his bachelor's degree after an 8 year hiatus. And then there's the fact that this will be the first time in a long time that I've started a new school year without the encouragement and support of my dearly missed father-in-law.

So it goes that I'm gathering my books and getting ready for Evidence, Comparative Private Law, Constitutional Law: 14th Amendment, Family Law, and Environmental Law whilst helping Hubby gather his books and get ready for Asian Religions, Earth History, Poetry, and Latin American Studies.

anniversaries and another reason to celebrate

Since my last post, we've come a long way with our grieving. For the rest of my life I'll miss my dear father-in-law, but after 2 months, life without him is starting to feel "normal."

And lately we've had other reasons to be happy and much going on to keep us focused on the positive, such as...

One Year in NOLA
On July 8th, we celebrated the anniversary of our move to New Orleans! It's certainly been a long, difficult year, but the trials and tribulations have only served to make this place feel more like home. In that year our little basement apartment has been a retreat from the madness of Mardi Gras, a secluded studying place, and a comforting haven of relaxation from the stress of the Real World. The city no longer feels intimidating; I know the sidestreets and the shortcuts, the good neighborhoods from the bad, and the intricacies of the public transportation system. We've found the restaurants and bars favored by the locals (although sometimes it's still fun to 'play tourist' and visit the more touristy places), and we've made some good friends. For all of the difficulties this move has presented, all in all I'm so very glad we're here. And there's still 2 years to go before we can even think of moving away, which gives us plenty of time to make more memories, and for this charming city to grow even more dear in our hearts.

Six Years Married
On August 6th, we celebrated six years of marriage! On the one hand, it seems like the time has gone by so quickly, but on the other hand, when I stop and think of all that's happened in those six years, it seems like it's been a lot longer. Since 2004, we've been through an emergency appendectomy, the euthanasia of one of our pets, 3 moves in 2 cities, the purchase of a new car, an extended separation for the sake of my studies, a bachelor's degree, a year of grad school, a year of law school, the formulation and disintegration of 2 bands, and the death of a dearly beloved, just to name a few. And still we love and appreciate one another. My husband is still my best friend and confidant, and for all of my independence and strength, I cannot imagine my life without him. So it goes that we're heading into year seven of this legal, emotional, and intellectual partnership and I haven't any regrets about the path we're traveling together.

And Another Reason to Celebrate
Hubby has made the decision to go back to school! So on August 23rd he'll be starting with me at Tulane. He's going to finish his bachelor's degree in English. We got him in through the School of Continuing Studies, since he's over 25 and has been out of school for so many years. (Which is excellent because it means discounted tuition!) If all goes according to plan, we'll graduate together in 2012! In the meanwhile we can think about where he'll go to grad school, because I've convinced him that to really get anywhere in this modern world one must have more than a bachelor's degree.

All in all, these are exciting times. We've got much going on, and we're both going to be very busy, but I know that we're moving in the right direction, and that the future has many good things in store for us. The hardest part, as usual, is to not loose sight of the present, and to enjoy each day for what goodness it has to offer, instead of focusing too intently on what lies ahead. For while it is all good and well to plan ahead, it's for naught if one doesn't live in the moment, because the future is not guaranteed. So even though it's deathly hot and we're fighting a little fever-bug, I'll count my present blessings and enjoy this Sunday for what it's worth.

of fathers and fatherhood

Can't help but being a little sad today, what with all of the reminders of fathers and fatherhood...

It's not that I'm not grateful for my own father. I love him dearly and I most certainly appreciate his presence in my life. But he's far, far away. And he has been for many years. Spending this day with him has not been a part of my yearly cycle for at least a decade.

And I'm also grateful for my dear, sweet husband, because he will be a wonderful father when the time comes.

It's just that I miss my father-in-law on this day dedicated to Dads. Spending the day with him, hubby, and my mother-in-law had become an important ritual in my yearly cycle 'lo these past 9 years. Although John is no longer with us, I'm grateful for the wonderful in-law relationships marriage has brought me; I know not everyone is completely accepted and wholly welcomed into the fold of the family they marry into, and that I've been very fortunate in this regard. (Indeed, it's precisely because of the love John and Irene have given me that this Father's Day pains me.) And, of course, I'm thankful to John's memory that he did such good work fathering Adam. But all of this gratitude doesn't fill the void left by John's absence.

Alas, the hurt is part of the healing, so I'll let myself feel it. And I'll remain grateful for the love I knew from my dear father-in-law, and do my best to stay strong for hubby's sake. This day is certainly more difficult for him than it is for me...

the days roll by disconnected

More than a week has passed since I became closely acquainted with death, and still I'm struggling to come to terms with this turn of events. Time seems to have taken on a different character; each day seems to last an eternity and it's become so easy to loose track of how much time has actually passed since that endless night when the sun set forever on John's life.

I did well enough the first few days; I think I was on auto-pilot to get through the funeral. And then we came home, which, for some reason, has been the hardest part. It's like it wasn't real to me while we were in Jackson; it was more like some hazy dream. It wasn't until I got back on the well-worn streets of New Orleans that it hit me with the force of a hurricane: I'll never again go home to see my dear sweet father-in-law. And then the tears came in a flood.

The tears have since dried up, but the sadness lingers. I feel immensely apathetic and the simplest tasks require me to summon super-human strength. Or so it seems.

I know there's nothing to do but work through it. I'm not pushing myself too hard, though; I'm temporarily lowering my expectations of myself, telling myself it's okay to feel this hurt and emptiness, and that I shouldn't be expected to bounce right back to my usually over-achieving self. Because I know that this sadness will pass; the void will always remain, but the acute pain of the loss will ease with time. And so it will go that, in time, I will bounce back to my usual level of productivity.

For the time being though, I'll let myself take it slow, and let the sadness wrap me in its misty embrace. As more days turn into more weeks and those weeks turn into months, it will get easier.

a loss

My father-in-law died last night. Hubby and I were there, along with my mother in law. It was quiet and peaceful. And it was time. The cancer he had been battling since May of 2008 had finally made living difficult for him, so we can only be glad that he went quickly and quietly after the decision was made Friday night to only give him palliative care.

Even still, the loss is hard to bare. I've never before experienced the loss of a close family member. And it's tough.

I thought I'd have more to write; writing usually helps me cope with difficult emotions. But here I find myself at a loss for words. Maybe it's too soon.

Johnny Eugene Hammack
05/15/1941 - 06/05/2010

free time put to good use

With my 1L year now behind me, I've found myself with a certain amount of free time that I haven't known since last August. Even though I'll be doing summer school and wage-earning legal work in the coming months, I'll still have more free time, comparatively, than I did during that hectic 1L year. So, I have two big projects in the works:

A Container Garden
This winter I got the garden bug something awful, and I've been mentally planning an herb and tiny vegetable garden for many months. But I acted the Good Law Student, and focused the bulk of my time and mental energy towards my legal studies, putting off the garden until after the end of the semester. Thus it was with great pleasure that I started buying herbs, tomatoes, peppers, soil, and containers this past week. And this evening, after the sun was low in the sky, I planted and planted until I ran out of soil. One tomato plant remains, and I'll fetch more soil tomorrow and get him settled in his container.
In all, I'm growing two tomato plants, three pepper plants, a rosemary bush, and an herb garden. I'm most proud of my herb garden, because of my ingenious container solution. See, there's been an old non-working charcoal grill sitting in our courtyard since we moved here. (Since ours was stolen almost immediately upon arriving here, we had hoped that we could salvage the old one, but no such luck. It refuses to function as a grill.) So I threw away the lid and the grates, lined the vents with cheesecloth -- so my soil wouldn't fall out the bottom -- and used it as a super-sized planter.
It worked perfectly! It contains my entire herb garden: basil, parsley, mint, sage, cilantro, dill, thyme, chives, and oregano. The creepers -- thyme and oregano -- are toward the front edges so they can do their thing and cascade down the side of the grill, and the tall boys -- mint, parsley, and basil -- are toward the back so they can grow high unimpeded. Delicate cilantro and dill are in the middle, where they can be protected by the shade of the taller growers. (Rosemary has its own pot since its a perennial here in NOLA.)
The veggies are each in their own separate, large pots. I wish I could share photos. I have some, but since my laptop is dead I'm without a good way to get the photos off of my memory card...

Updating My Online Presence
This is a big project. First, I'm going to sever this blog from my professional life. I'll still provide updates as to what's going on with me and my legal career, but I'm not going to make an effort to steer clear of the mundane. This blog is going to be geared at folks who know me IRL and who want to know what's going on in my day-to-day life.
Second, I'm going to create a whole new blog dedicated to legal issues and the kinds of things I'm interested in professionally. Ya'll will be free to visit over there, but I won't feel like I'm boring you with my legal interests.
Third, I'm going to compartmentalize my website, separating the personal from the professional. This will entail making a legal sub-domain which will serve as the portal to my professional services, accomplishments, interests, etc., leaving the main site much as it is now, although I do intend to redesign it a bit.
So this is a big project, but one which will be somewhat enjoyable (because I am, after all, an old-school HTML geek) and wholly worthwhile. Stay tuned for links to the new pages as they get up and running.

Otherwise,
I been enjoying spending time in the kitchen without feeling guilty or rushed. This weekend I made fresh-squeezed lemonade, a crock-pot roasted chicken (the leftovers of which are soon to become chicken salad for lunch), from-scratch jambalaya, and from-scratch fettuccine alfredo with prosciutto, mushrooms, and green onions. Not only were the results of my hard work in the kitchen yummy, but I relished in the slow pace of it all. Yay for kitchen therapy!

So I'm all poised to make the most out of whatever free time I can squeeze out of this summer.

a 1L no more and other law school news

My first year of law school is officially over. Yay!

The feeling of accomplishment is immense. I can only imagine how good it will feel to get that JD in hand come 2012...

The exam period was daunting, but I survived. No word yet on grades; they'll be weeks in the coming.

In the midst of it, though, I was dealt a major set-back: with two exams down and one to go, my laptop died. It wasn't completely without warning; Mr. Lappy had been giving me fits when powering up and when waking from sleep, so I had been regularly backing-up my Absolutely Essential data, but I haven't yet managed to save all of my digital photos or archived e-mails. Alas, I remain hopeful that I can salvage those things some way or another.

Luckily, my trusty old ThinkPad, with his dead battery and held-on-by-one-screw-screen came to the rescue so that I didn't have to hand-write my Constitutional Law exam. He'll serve my portable computing needs for the summer, and at home I can share hubby's desktop, and by mid-August I should be able to save up for a new laptop. I will not, however, be buying another HP. Instead, I'm looking to custom build with AVADirect, so that I can tailor my computer for doing what I need it to do: helping me to be a better law student and someday-soon-lawyer.

So, with my 1L year behind me, I'm all geared up for a busy summer. I've got my judicial internship, and not one but 2 part-time law clerk jobs for local small firms. And I'm taking a summer externship class. Although summer school means I'll be super-busy, it will be a good thing because I'll start my 2L year with more credits than students who don't do summer school, which will mean a lighter class-load at some point in my law school career. On top of that, the externship meets Tulane's "skills course" requirement, which is a fancy way of saying that you can't graduate without doing hands-on legal work for class credit. By getting that requirement out of the way now, it will be one less thing to worry about down the road.

The externship involves two components: classroom and field placement. During May and June I'll have class 1-2 times per week, and then during July I'll be working in the Family Law Unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services. Classes start on Thursday, so I haven't really had much of a break, and the way things are looking I'm not likely to get much of one.

Not that I really mind working through the summer. I'll get some great experience and it will feel good to be working again, but I hope that at some point we can plan a few weekend trips here and there to visit friends and family in Mississippi...

yikes

Let's hope this won't be my fate!

Unlike poor Mr. Parker, I feel I've got Constitutional Law in the bag. It's Property Law and the Rule Against Perpetuities that just might kill me...

h/t to Josh Blackman

mental marathon

The curse is come upon me,

the curse of law school exams, that is. When TLS will test not merely my aptitude for applying the principles of the Uniform Commercial Code, Constitutional Law, and Property Law to hypothetical fact patterns, but also my mental endurance.

The exam period, which began on Thursday, is like a mental marathon. The challenge is to have a working understanding of the legal doctrines and rules we've been learning all semester, not merely in the abstract, but in order to apply those doctrines and rules to new facts and predict an outcome during the three hour exam. The pressure is enormous, not only because of the massive amount of law we've covered over the last 16 weeks which must be condensed into something that is mentally digestible, but also because in law school one's entire grade for the semester rests on that final exam. Nevermind if you've come to every class, done all your homework, and participated in class discussions; it doesn't count towards your GPA. All that counts is your performance during those stress-filled three hours of testing.

I've been working diligently since classes were over on Wednesday. And I'm secure in the knowledge that, in the end, it will all be alright. I'm not going to fail. I will have my J.D. in 2012, and with it I will carve out a satisfying, meaningful career path for myself.

But I can't help but feel the pressure. And I sincerely wish to do my very best on all 3 exams. So, I've been putting in 9+ hour days of studying, and I will continue to do so until May 3rd, the day of the last exam. For this reason the law school exam period is like a marathon.

It's exhausting. And it's excruciating to be locked up in the climate controlled library, day in and day out, while all I want to do is revel in the glorious New Orleans spring time. I feel like the Lady of Shallot: trapped in the tower of the TLS library while shadows of the world pass me by, damned if I quit weaving the web of my study guide to go down to the Camelot that is the French Quarter.

I am half sick of shadows.

If I can just persevere, though, it will all be over two weeks from tomorrow. And then I'll be able to enjoy a much-needed 3½ month break from the rigors of law school.

spring time in New Orleans

The weather is perfect: mid-70s and sunny with a breeze.

Flowers are everywhere, and there's verdant new growth cropping up on every branch, shrub, and vine.


The air, humid as always, is lush with the rich scents of wisteria, jasmine, and other mysterious blossoms unrecognizable to me.

It's so wonderful I'm having difficulty staying focused and on task. All I want to do is wander around and experience the beauty of each day, occasionally stopping to sit and wonder at my good fortune to be alive and well in such a lovely place. But law school finals lurk in the background, and anxiety never fails to disturb my tranquility. So I'm striving to find a balance between working diligently and not taking a single precious day for granted.

spring break

For the last 8 days I've done absolutely nothing productive. It's been beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

My vacation began with a jaunt up to Brandon, to spend the weekend with the in-laws. I enjoyed a belated birthday supper of steak and fried mushrooms and cauliflower, and the next night hubby and I cooked from-scratch jambalaya.

From there, we went to Jackson and spent a few days with old friends. While in Jackson we made sure to eat at the Thai House and Sakura Bana. And, of course, we spent our Tuesday night at the very best place to be in Jackson, Mississippi on a Tuesday night: Fenian's Pub.

On Wednesday, we went to McComb, and floated down the Homochitto River in kayaks with some new friends who are NOLA-McComb dual residents. (The kayaking, I must say, was incredibly fun -- much moreso than I imagined. I hope we can do it again this fall!) Then on Thursday we returned home, where our kitties were waiting.

Since returning home, I've done a few chores here and there, and Hubby and I have enjoyed cooking together in our own kitchen. Tomorrow, though, I must get serious again with my productivity. April 15th looms very near, meaning taxes must be done. And final exams will be over and done at 5pm on May 3 --one month from today, meaning outlining must begin without further delay.

For tonight though, I'll continue relaxing. And come tomorrow, I'll be grateful to have had such a restful, rejuvenating vacation to fortify me for the long, busy weeks to come.

fare thee well, LRW

Last night, as of 8pm, my appellate brief -- one of the formative rites of passage of the first year of law school -- was finalized & bluebooked. (I've been merrily reviewing & revising since Tuesday when I finished my drafting.) Today, it's not yet noon and already the brief has been proofread, the table of contents & table of authorities checked-and-double-checked, and the whole thing copied and professionally spiral-bound. And it's not due until 12noon tomorrow. WooHoo!

It feels so good to have successfully not procrastinated to the last possible minute. Thank heavens I'm not still writing, which would leave me scrambling to get it copied and bound tomorrow morning. I'm so proud of my time-management skills!

The feeling is extra sweet because it marks my last weighty assignment for LRW (Legal Research and Writing; we're big on acronyms in law school). All that's left for the class, after Spring Break, is oral argument. And I'm not sweating that. Even though public speaking is not my forte, 'tis something I've become more accustomed to through the years, and after becoming intimately familiar with my argument 'lo these last 6 weeks of researching and writing, talking about the case and the precedent will be a cake walk. Add to that the fact that oral argument only counts for 5% of my grade, and I'm simply not all too concerned about it.

Now, with LRW moving to the background, I can take a short time to relax and then focus all my energies on preparing for final exams.