Contracts

My classmates are so clever, I had to write it down so I will remember:)

I could go off about how we have our hardest test today, and that everyone hates the type of test that the professor gives, but I thought it would be better memorialized it by introducing you to my classmate's facebook statuss from the last 24 hours :)

Enjoy

"I migh be exaggerating, but I think tomorrow's contracts exam will be like an earthly manifestation of Satan. It's like he decided to embody himself as 16 deceptive questions, hoping to confuse everyone and make them cry."

"I honestly think I am going to fail my Contracts exam tomorrow. I'm not kidding. Sixteen deceptive multiple-choice questions is not the way to test one's knowledge of such a complex and stupid topic. I'm hoping I can hold off the tears until after I walk out of the classroom. Why did I decide to go back to school again? Gonna be up all night ...."

"is going to coerce this contracts exam into accepting that I will not yield to its undue influence, despite my weakness of condition. And as we all know, undue influence does not require a close relationship. Because there is no way contracts and I have a close relationship. It's more like a love-hate relationship."

"Wishes everyone luck at William Mitchell's own little version of Russian Roulette . . . K law exam today."

"is about one final away from a mental breakdown. Oh, wait...that's today..."

Oh Contracts . . .

On another note, my friend Jill did a great post on where we have been living during finals.

Finals, Finals, Finals, and Europe!!

So I figured after three weeks, I should probably post something. Just to warn you, it will probably be another two before I do another one.

Finals are on the horizon and my time is all wrapped up in them. And when I say all, I really do mean all. Tomorrow will not be my typical day off as I have my first exam on Monday and there needs to be some studying done. I am hoping to be done studying by Sunday afternoon so I can take the evening off. We shall see how productive I am. Here is a break down of my exams and what I think about them:

Torts: This one is the first one on Monday. I am not too worried about this one because I have spent the last week in the Professor's office (he is my favorite!) having him grade my practice exams. I have been getting good feedback from him and improving a lot. His last email even called my analysis thorough, coming from a professor, I call that good!

Property: This one is next Thursday. I did really well on the mid-term that was worth 50% of our grade, so I get the benefit of going into this one with a bit of confidence. However, I don't want to rely on that confidence, so I will be studying like crazy for this one as well, if I could match my previous performance I would be very happy so I am going to study a ton!

Contracts: this one comes the following monday and is the one I am dreading the most. I didn't do as well as I wanted to on the midterm (only worth 30% so I have some recovery time) and so I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to do better on this one. It is really hard to study for this professor's tests because they are all multiple choice. It is hard for me to not be able to write down my analysis. I also think that it can become a guessing game where some people get it right because they guessed right. So those are the reason's I don't like multiple choice and am not looking forward to this exam. not to mention the fact that another contract professor that I know recently told me that he doesn't understand these exams when he reads them and would probably get a C. Thats encouraging considering he went to Harvard:(

Civil Procedure: This one comes on Friday the 18th. I am in between about this one. I have put a lot of time into my study materials for this exam because it requires recalling a significant amount of information. Hopefully that will serve me well. The most exciting thing about this one is that our professor is taking us out to Billy's afterwards, and he is buying. It is going to be great!

And then I will joyfully go into winter break. It is only 3 weeks, not 4 (for some reason I thought it was 4, I was pretty disappointed when I found out otherwise). I plan on having some down time, getting some small Christmas projects done (making some ornaments, making a frame for the boys' santa photo, planning summer vacation). Which brings me to exciting news . . . SUMMER VACATION!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my summer vacation. Although plans are still up in the air I know what my options are and I am excited about all of them.

Option #1: Paid 5-week clerkship at Leonard, Street. This is exciting because it is not only rare for 1st years to get paid summer clerkships, it is also rare for those clerkships to be at big law firms. This comes through the diversity scholarship I have with them, but they are not sure about if it is going to pass through the budget for next year, which is why I have option #2. After the clerkship Chris and I plan on traveling to Europe! Where? We're not sure yet, I would love to go everywhere, but I know that is not possible. I am going to do some planning over break and see what I come up with. I am so excited about this because I have never been to Europe before!

Option #2: William Mitchell's study abroad program in London. My civil procedure professor, who is highly respected in the arbitration field, is teaching an Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) class that I would LOVE to attend. Obviously I cannot pass up the clerkship if I get it, but if I do not, than London it is. Chris would come join me at the tail end of the program(it only runs for a month) and we would travel around Europe.

So either was Europe. I am so excited about all of the opportunities that are showing up on my door step, I can't wait until my summer of fun!!!

Now off to sleep, gotta prepare my body for studying all day tomorrow!

Sorry no tribute today, it will have to wait until I have time to gather up some photos! However, here are some photos of when we took Brooklyn to the Children's Museum this past Sunday:

we had lots of fun!

Two weeks later and . . . Paul

Finally a bit of time to make a post. I've been absent for a while for two reasons.

1) I have had a crazy couple of weeks where I was really lacking in the time department!

2) All my creative juices seem to be being sucked away by WRAP, which leaves me no motivation to write.

So I thought I would give a quick recap of the last two weeks along with what is coming up:

The past two weeks have been filled with

• Fellow Reception
• MJF Awards ceremony (first time meeting Leonard, Street, and Deinard people, and the other scholarship recipients, it was very exciting!)
• Halloween party at Rachael's ( I was cleopatra, Chris was Marc Anthony . . . Still waiting for pictures so I can post them)
• Fellowship Workshop
• Client interview and Counseling exercises (fun, fun, fun, and right up my social work alley)
• Minnesota Women Lawyers Attorney Student Mentor Program Kickoff. ( I am so lucky to have a MN State Judge as my mentor, she is so amazing!)
• Property Mid-term worth 50% of our grade (I feel like I did awesome, but we will have to wait and see)
• Lunch at Leonard, Street and Deinard for my minority scholarship, they took me out to M & S Grill! (this was so fun, I am so excited to be able to be a part of this program, it is going to be great for networking, gaining skills, and possibly a paid first summer internship!!)

Well those are all of the highlights. It's safe to say that Chris has stepped up his domestic game these past couple of weeks, which I very much appreciate!

I guess right now I am feeling like I am in a constant state of GO. There is never a lack of something for me to do, especially with finals coming up in three weeks!!!! Crazy how fast the time goes. I really can't wait for those 4 weeks of Christmas Break where I can do nothing for days on end. It is going to be wonderful.

Now for my tribute this week. Let me tell you about my little brother paul! He has come a long way from the little baby that I loved to take care of. He was always my buddy growing up, and I am so proud of all of his accomplishments this year!

I love paul because . . .

He'll always play disc golf with me, even though I beat him:)

He lets me come watch all of his sporting events

He's a pretty awesome tennis player (I only played him once, lets just say I didn't even come close to winning)

He endures all of my mean sister gestures

The poor guy grew up with two older sisters, gotta love him for not killing us!

He's such a good uncle

And those are a few of the many reasons why I love Paul (he'll probably be embarrassed that I said that, oh well, what are sisters for!)

Now for some recent pics

Wow . . . so grown up!!!

Love ya Pauli!!

Old, and New

So i've made a lot of changes in my wardrobe since I made the decision to go to law school and become a lawyer. I now have more pairs of dress pants than sweatpants (GASP, i know!). My columbia coat is now the least worn coat in my wardrobe. I think, however, I realized the biggest change today when I was putting my new shoes safely in their new spot high up on my bookshelf (D'artagnan chewed through two heels a couple of weeks ago, so I had to find them a safer spot). May I present to you . . .

Old Shoes:

New Shoes:

my sister would be proud:)

Fall Break and . . . Dumas!

The long awaited fall break is finally here, and I must say I have enjoyed it thus far! I spent Thursday studying a little, and then Jill, Phil, and Joe came over for a couple of games of settlers. The studying was productive and the settlers games were tons of fun, so that made for a successful Thursday. Then Friday Chris and I drove out to Iowa to celebrate (a little early) our 1 year anniversary. We went down to Des Moines to see Wicked, which was AWESOME! Not as good as the Lion King, but definitely up there on my favorite plays list. It really was a cool story. Today we drove back and I spent the rest of the day writing my second graded WRAP assignment, the Partial Memo.

The Partial Memo is such that we have to pretend we are an associate in a firm writing to one of our partners about a client and his legal issues that he has brought to us. We end it with our conclusion of the issues and our recommendations. I must say that writing on a Saturday night is not very productive. I think I spent more time on facebook than writing the memo! But I did eventually get it written, which means all's I have for tomorrow is editing.

This brings up a major issue of my law school career, Facebook. I can't tell you how many endless hours I have spent wasting time on facebook. Don't get me wrong, i love keeping up with everyone and reading about my friends and what they are doing. Facebook makes me feel connected even when I don't have the time to physically be with everyone. But, I can't help but wonder how much more productive I would be without it. Honestly, I would probably find other waste of time things to do, these breaks from studying may be what is keeping me sane. So I will keep my facebook habit for now!

On another note, first graded mid-term next week. No worries here though, I feel ready for it and confident that I will be able to decipher my professors ramblings:) If not, I will learn from the experience and do better on the final, that is the good thing about mid-terms, we actually get feedback for once!

Enough about school. I would like to introduce you to the latest edition to our family, Dumas. He is a 3.5 month old rescue dog from WI. We think he is vizsla mixed with greyhound, maybe? We're not really sure, nor do we really care! He is such a sweet sensitive dog, and so smart too! Chris can't wait to get him trained up to go pheasant hunting, he's got webbed feet and a "soft" mouth so he will be perfect.

It has been really fun to watch D'artagnan and his relationship evolve. Dart is very dominant and playful and Dumas is very calm, cool, collected, and always wants to be in your lap (we'll see how that goes when he gets bigger!) so it has taken them a while to get used to each other. But we are now a week into it, and they are becoming buddies:)

He loves to give kisses!

such a cute little guy!

His first day: D'artagnan barking at him, and Dumas just sitting there wondering what to do with this crazy dog!

Tonight: they spent the night wrestling with socks and toys and are now crashed out in my chair, SO CUTE!

The week in review and . . . Brooklyn!

This week was pretty uneventful. Our midterms seem to be approaching must faster than we anticipated so it is making everyone a little on edge, which adds a whole new element to the school atmosphere. I'm also beginning to feel like my school day breaks are starting to fill up with never ending appointments. Meet with the fellowship director, meet with the multi-cultural affairs lady, make sure to go to some required PLP events (we have to go to 10 events by mid next year, something about giving us perspectives on lawyering?), meet with my grammar tutor, etc. That along with the constant studying leaves me drained by the end of the day. It seems like every Tuesday I come to the end of the day thinking, "oh good tomorrow is Friday" and then I realize it only feels like tomorrow should be Friday because I have crammed so much into my brain on monday and tuesday!

But honestly, I'm kinda liking the pressure. I've always been competitive, so law school feels like this constant game that I am working endlessly to win. Though unlike the way I play competitive sports (and board games), I'm hoping the competition doesn't get the best of me! One thing that I have learned as I have grown older is that winning isn't everything. If you knew me 3 years ago you know how much I needed to learn this lesson! I learned that it isn't always worth getting mad at your teammates for making a mistake, or mad at yourself cause you screwed something up, it is about having fun. I try and remind myself of these lessons so that I can remember that it isn't always about being the best, but it's about learning everything you can and having fun! Now I'm not saying I lack the desire to be the best, I do still dream of being number one in our class, I just want to make sure that my competitive side doesn't get the better of me, and that I remember there are more important things!

That being said I can finally "introduce" you to my amazing friends

Brittany, Geri, Me, Rachael, Maureen, and Jill

We have so much fun together, and we even got our significant others to meet and have dinner with all of us (and I think they may have actually enjoyed it, at least I know Chris did!). Safe to say we spent the whole night laughing, which is pretty much what always happens when we all get together. Much needed relief from our law school craziness!!

And now I will end this post with a tribute to one of my favorite little guys in the world and a list of why I love him (and miss him!!)

Brooklyn

I love him because . . .

He is so animated (in this one he is telling me a story about his trucks crashing!)

He makes me laugh:)

Even at the age of 2, he's got an amazing passion for music

He is so adventurous

He never fails to gross out the moms at the children's museum, which completely amuses me (they all look at me grotesquely as I let him eat bubbles, stuff his face into the fountains and suck on the ping pong ball, whatever, germs wont kill him!)

He really believes that he is lightning mcqueen (sp?) sometimes

He has always kept us on our toes (even as a baby)

He sometimes lets me take pictures with him

And so many other reasons!

Well on that note I will leave you now. Our new puppy Dumas comes home tomorrow and I will of course post pics when I can! So excited for my saturday off! Now back to homework, on a friday night!

And fall reared it's UGLY head!

Not that I think the fall season is ugly in and of itself, just a lot of the things it brings are ugly. Such as cold weather, cold house, cold rain, cold car in the morning, cold dog that doesn't want to go outside, cold hands, and layers of clothing . . . all of which I find very ugly:)

Lets just say that the weather had a grand effect on my mood this week. I had my first minor breakdown on Monday (the first cold day of fall, coincidence? I think not!) I just felt overwhelmed with reading and studying for my first practice exam, and anxious about receiving my first graded paper back the next day. Then I woke up the next morning refreshed (albeit still crabby of the weather) and no longer stressed.

First paper was a success in my opinion. I got above the average, hooray! I probably won't ever post my actual grades, because this blog is public and we have this unsaid, and sometimes said rule in our little friend group that we don't ask and we don't tell. It saves the drama, and the people feeling bad cause they didn't do as well as you, or did better than you. The practice test went pretty well. I got in all of the issues that he said we should. However, it left me feeling a little bit unsure about the exams. How much detail do I need, should I focus on less issues and more detail, or more issues and less detail? Our professor didn't really give us a definite answer, but I plan on having him read my response to tell me what he thinks i need to improve on, so that should make it better!

Now with the week behind me I wanted to do a quick note on my wonderful friends and how much they made me laugh this week (and every other week for that matter). I will try to explain what was going on in the following situations, but I'm mostly putting them down so I look back to them one day, and laugh hysterically again:)

#1Lunch and Neil:

There is this librarian at school named neil. And he is not your typical sweet helpful librarian. Not only is he really into is job, but he is also really intense. On our library tour he spent 10 minutes telling us how we should never call the bottom level of the library the "basement" it is not a "basement", it is a "lower level". And you really cannot enter the library when Neil is there without hearing "shhhh". So we were talking about Neil at lunch, and Geri, the appointed Jester in our group, thought (kiddingly) what if "shhh" was just a speech impediment that Neil had, and that he really couldn't help but say "shhh" all the time. She then began listing off the things he would be doing all the while saying "shhh" let's just say it turned into belly laughing by all of us, and the entire lunch room looking at us like we were crazy (not the first time)

#2 Fee Simple me your husband

In property we are learning about how one inherits land. If property is the type that is inheritable forever, it is called a "fee simple". I find the term simple ridiculous because it makes no sense, why not just call it "inheritable land". So fee simple was topic of many of our "this is so stupid" conversations this week. Well one day we were talking about our husbands/significant others, and I was saying how great Chris is at cooking and taking care of the house, and taking care of me:) The Rachel states, "I want a fee simple on your husband when you die." hehe, safe to say belly laughing and staring commenced again:)

I know it is probably not funny to most, but it just goes to show how great (and crazy) friends can really make your week. Next week we are all having dinner at Jill's house and bringing along our significant others so they can meet. It should be a good time and hopefully we can get some good pictures so I can "introduce" everyone to you!

Well that is all for my crazy ramblings. Have a good weekend everyone!

The past week in review

I'm sitting here waiting to go to a grammar workshop (to be explained later), and decided that there is not enough time to start to study something so I thought I would write a new blog.

In the past week many things (exciting to me, probably boring to others) have happened:

#1 I got my first cold call(when the professor calls on you in class and asks you a question with no warning), in contracts no less. I thought I did pretty well, if I do say so myself:) though it was incredibly nerve racking. When you realize that you are the name she just called out (after hoping as she is looking over the seating chart that she doesn't chose you) it takes a couple of seconds to realize that you need to answer, and then a couple of more seconds to find the answer in your notes, and then more to answer the questions she continues to ask you. All in all probably about 2 minutes of my life, but the adrenaline seemed to last way longer than that. Looking back it was kind of fun, even though I hope I don't continue to get called on, I don' t think I will mind if I do . . . It is good practice!

#2 Bought my first interview suit. Is it fashionable? No. Does it make me look young and modern? No. But that is the point of an interview suit, plain and black, makes you look older and mature, and most importantly no one notices it, so they are allowed to focus on you. I still have to get the jacket tailored (another conversation could be had about the tragedy of women's sizes) but I am excited to finally have one in my wardrobe.

#3 Went to federal court! It was so cool because they were talking about civ pro stuff that I have been learning. It was crazy because I showed up to volunteer and had decided to dress up that day, cause I wanted to wear some of my new clothes. Good thing I did, because my volunteer coordinator walked in and said she was going to court for one of there current cases and wanted to know if I wanted to come to observe! Of course I said yes, and It was really interesting to be able to watch! Of course I loved that it was a woman judge on the bench:) Future me? Maybe . . .

#4 Got my grammar quiz back in WRAP, and did as I expected, a bit poorly. It's funny cause the other people who did poorly are all ashamed of it, only telling you in secrecy. And then there is me, who is self proclaimed horrible at grammar and could care less if you know. Now I had a good reason to contact our school's writing expert and solicit her help. I should be meeting with her next week, and I am excited to finally bring my grammar skills up to par (if not better). This is also why I am going to the grammar workshop today, I really want my skills to improve so people see my writing for how good it is:) and not by how bad my grammar is

Well I think that is all for the main events of the week. I think it would be good to mention that I am seriously happier now than I think I have ever been. The mixture of all of the amazing things in my life puts me on top of the world:) Good feeling to have while in law school? . . . I think yes!

-Laura

Videos that make me smile!

Not really related to law school but fun none the less. These are two videos that have really made me smile this week. Forgive my really bad camera work (i've got one of those flip videos, so it's really easy to get distracted and forget that you are focusing on something!)

#1 D'artagnan as a little guy, when we first got him:)

Cutest puppy ever!!! Right??

Now this one is really long(and a good display of my bad camera skills), but the best part is the first part:)

Gotta love the evil laugh!! My nephew is the cutest

Caffeine Regret

Well I'm up later than I should be because I had way to much caffeine after 4 p.m. I had some coffee expresso mix at bread and chocolate, and then some coke at bonfire . . . safe to say I was tired and felt warranted in drinking so much. But alas, now I am awake, not only with a caffeine fix, but with indigestion from said caffeine fix:( So I figured what better time to write a new blog.

This has been such a very busy week, but the funny thing is it hasn't been busy with studying. I started volunteering at the American Civil Liberties Union this week. This volunteer position mostly consist of reading letters from people hoping to get the ACLU to pick up their case and bring it to litigation. I look at the ACLU's criteria for picking cases and decide whether or not to refer the letters to another agency or send their case up to the big wigs to decide whether or not to take on the case. It has been pretty interesting thus far and I think I am going to enjoy volunteering with them.

It seems like we are getting to the point in school where things start to intensify. Talk of various mid-terms are in the air, and our first graded WRAP assignment is due next week. Yet, despite these things, I don't feel stressed about anything. I think that all of my happiness that comes from being in school, being challenged, having fun with new friends, and finally having my husband home on a full-time basis( he spent the majority of the summer traveling back and forth to and from SD) outweighs what would be stress.

Although I'm not stressed I do sometimes have feelings a guilt. Guilty that I don't get to see my nephews very often, guilty that I no longer get to talk to my dad on a bi-weekly basis, guilty that I don't get to spend much time with Chris now that he's home, guilty that I rarely see my family, and guilty that my dog gives me those sad, "i miss you" eyes every time I come home from a late night study session. I've heard that these feelings are pretty normal, and yet, sometimes I do struggle with them. I guess I get past them when I remind myself that this is only three years. Three short years and then I get my life back with new found freedom in not only time, but career options:) Which is the goal right? So that is what keeps me pushing through. There is an end in sight, and it may seem like a far away sight, but it is there:)

So there you go for my late night caffeine induced ramblings. In ending . . . I miss you all family and friends, but Christmas break is not that far (but far enough that I'm not stressed about finals . . .yet)

Now off to try sleep again . . . so I don't repeat the sleepy Civ Pro class experience I had this morning!

Logistics

I thought I would start with the simple stuff, and bring everyone up to speed about the past couple of weeks

Time:

One question I have been getting is when do you go to class, when are you free, etc. I have about two classes a day, typically one is 2 hours and one is 1 hour. They gave us a really nice schedule where we have 2-3 hours in-between classes to study and socialize:) I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but you will soon see it is! You know how in undergrad they always told you you should study 3 hours outside of class for every one hour inside of class? We always laughed about that, cause no one really studied 9 hours a week for a 3 credit class. I can no longer laugh, because now it is true, and then some.

My typical day consists of waking up, going to class, studying, going to class again, come home and having some down time (typically I pick something to clean, I know this wouldn't be downtime to most, but if you know me, you know it is to me:)) Then I study some more until 10 - 10:30. Then I give myself an hour to watch TV or something of the sort. Then I go to bed and start back up again. I take Saturdays off, to spend with Chris and everyone else, and then on Sunday I'm back to the crazy study schedule.

Now some of you may be asking, "do you really have to study that much? Or are you just being an overachiever?" And my answer would be both. In order to be prepared for class you have to have not only read the material, but understand it. All's we read (except for our writing class) is cases. And these cases can not only be long, they typically use language more sophisticated than the average person does (you know those judges, they want to sound smart). Because of this, reading the case at least 2 times, if not more, is par for the course. Not only do we have to read them, we have to brief them (condensing them to only the important information and deciding what precedent the court set that is important to the rule we are learning). All of this takes a significant amount of time and effort. Now I could just stop after I'm done reading and briefing, but what would be the point? I need to understand what I just read so I can think critically about it. So having to read 160+ pages of cases per week amount to LOTS of time!

Academics:

I have 5 classes...

Torts: is by far my favorite class. You can think of torts as what someone would sue you about if you injured them (battery, assault, false imprisonment, negligence, etc)

Contracts: pretty self explanatory. What constitutes a legal contract. Probably my least favorite. Not because I don't enjoy the subject matter, but because I go into every class thinking I have a full grasp of what we are learning, and leave confused.

Civil Procedure (Civ Pro): Another self explanatory one, we are learning about proper ways of bringing a suit in a federal court, and what we are required to do after the suit is brought. The professor for this class is awesome, mostly because he wears pink and purple shirts and has matching pink and purple glasses, with purple cufflinks:) And he calls out people in class

Property: Yet again, self explanatory. The BEST class to go to. This professor is so cool. We watch you tube in class, and he really knows how to bring the subject matter down to our level (talking about copyright laws in music and such)

WRAP: The dreaded writing class. This class is the only one we don't have with our whole section of 80 ppl. It has been the biggest reality check for me. I have always been a good writer, but my grammar has always sucked! In undergrad no one seemed to care that my grammar sucked, they just graded me on style. Now i get papers(luckily that don't count for a grade thus far) back with writing all over them about how much my grammar sucks!! It has been a good wake up call for me, I really need to improve on it so that in the future my colleagues will take my writing seriously. (yes you can take this as an invite to correct my grammar on this blog, if you so desire to do so. I love constructive criticism!)

There are a couple of things that all of the classes have in common:

1) People get randomly called on in class. It has not happened to me yet. I was nervous about this at first, but now that it has been a couple of weeks and I seem to know the answers to questions even when they are not asked to me, I am more confident that when I do get called out, I won't sound like an idiot

2)In every class but WRAP, the only grade you get are the exams. Some classes have a couple of exams per semester, most only have one at the end. This is driving me crazy as I am used to calculating my grade all semester and going into finals knowing I have an A no matter what.

Well I think that is long enough for one blog, hopefully it brought you a little up to speed. Now I'm in Torts and it's about to start, so I better pay attention

The Beginning

hmm, where should I begin? I started this blog for two reasons.

#1 I wanted a way to keep everyone up to date on everything that is happening in my life during law school. If the past couple of weeks are any indication, I will be lacking in time to spend with the people I would like to spend time with. Because of this, I would like to have a way to fill everyone in. That way, when I do get time to spend with you, we don't have to fill it with small talk and we can get down to the fun stuff!

#2 I thought it would be nice to have an outlet. The craziness of the past four weeks has been amazingly fun, amazingly challenging, and amazingly stressful! Though there has been a balance of good and bad, I thought it might be nice to have somewhere to let everything out, if need be.

Now I must say, I make no promises that I will keep this blog up to date. I have never been good at keeping journals or blogs, However, I think this one may be different. I guess we will just have to see