Spoiler Alert . . . GPA Posting ahead

We FINALLY got all of our grades back (our crazy contracts professor took FOREVER . . . even though they were due on Jan. 19th) And I must say that I am very pleased with the results!!

We have 3 classes that are year long classes, so we only got mid-term grades for two of those classes (we don't get a mid-term grade for WRAP). Mid-term grades do not go on our transcript. I did much better than I expected in both classes (especially since I did pretty poorly on the contracts mid-term). And I am excited that I don't have to spend the next semester pulling those grades up!

For the two classes we actually got grades for (Property and Torts) I ended up with a 3.8 G.P.A! Being that I have to maintain a 3.0, I would call that great!!

Huge sigh of relief . . .

Now off to prepare for my negotiation in one hour . . .

To Do List

To Do This Week:

School:

WRAP

-Write 1200 -1800 word advice letter

-Write Negotiation Plan

-Prepare for 20 minute Negotiation

Torts

-Read pp 252 -270

-Read MN Statute 604.01 and 604.02

-Comparative Fault Problems

-Read pp 279 – 280

-Read 2 cases posted on assignments board

Contracts

-Read pp 22 – 68

Property

-Read pp 667 – 675, 682 – 687, 689 – 694, 701 – 706, 709 – 714, 716 – 724, 725 – 735

Civ Pro

-Read pp 73 – 99 (very carefully, i’m on call this week)

Email:

-Librarian to set up appointment for research

Personal:

-Make D’artagnan grooming appointment

-Call US Bank to make sure they allow all of my Spain purchases without thinking my card was stolen

-Read Mediation Handbook and Statutes

Now you know why I don’t have time to blog this week J

SUMMER!

Well I have lots of exciting things planned for this summer, and as they get more cemented I thought I would write about them!

First Up, June 7 - July 9: Clerkship at Leonard, Street, and Deinard. I am very excited about this one. Not only is it an opportunity to see how big law firms work, but it is a pretty flexible clerkship in the sense that we get to pick out interest areas and get assignments in those areas. It is also my first paid internship!! This one is nice because I got chosen for it(so there was no hassle of resume/interviews), each law school in the city gets to pick one student for the program, so there are only four of us, which makes for a nice intimate program. I have already gotten so many opportunities from being a part of this program (connecting with people at the firm, attending events around the city, getting help from their recruiter on my resume, etc) so I am excited to see what the summer will bring!

Next up, July 12(ish) - July 30: Spanish Immersion School in Spain. The only thing about getting the clerkship is that it is at the same time as all of the summer abroad programs at school that I was hoping to go to. However, having a clerkship in my first year is far more important than studying abroad, so it wasn't a hard choice between the two! However, I still wanted a chance to spend some of my last work-free summers in a different country. So I have decided to spend three weeks at a Spanish Immersion school in Spain. They have a lot of different locations for me to choose from, and I am going to do their 6 hours a day program. The program had a lot of good reviews, so it seems like it will be lots of fun, and some good learning time.

Next up, July 31 - August 12(ish): Travel Europe! Chris is going to join me in Spain and we are going to spend about two weeks traveling around Europe. We are thinking about doing a couple days on the coast of France, and then spending the rest of our time in Northern Italy, it should be a really fun time!

Then we come home, go to a friends wedding, and school begins again! It will be one of my busiest summers ever, but probably the most memorable as well!

New Semester, New Goals and Bayler

A week into the new semester and I thought it would be a good time to post my goals for the semester. Some of them school related, some of them not . . .

1. Outline Sooner

this will keep the end of semester scramble to a minimum. I've got an awesome study group that will keep me accountable for this one!

2. Spend more time on WRAP the WHOLE semester

My law school friends will laugh at this goal, as we have already been told by many that we are going to be spending tons of time on WRAP this semester but, at the end of last semester I got lazy with WRAP because I had been doing so well, and that seemed to hurt me a bit in the end.

3. Lose 10 pounds

I have always been an advocate of, "as long as you are healthy it doesn't matter how much you weigh" and I still am. However, I had some health problems last semester that would benefit from me being at my "ideal" weight. I don't think the ideal weight works for everyone, but for me, I see the benefits for my health. In order to do this I have sub-goals

3a. Drink 64 oz. of water per day (this has been made easier by my sweet new water bottle)

3b. Go to the gym at least 4 times per week (having my gym buddy Jill will help keep me accountable)

3c. Track my calories. I joined sparkpeople.com which helps me track what I eat. I have to stay under a certain amount of calories per day, but I like it because I can still eat sweets, if they fit into my calorie amount.

Well I think that about sums up the major goals! I'll post against later in the week when I get all of my grades, I've gotten two so far, and have been very happy with the results. . . so hopefully I will have happy news again at the end of this week!

For my tribute this week . . . Bayler(said in a Southern voice of course)!!

I love Bayler because . . .

He is such a content little guy

they really don't come any cuter than this

The only time he gets upset is when he is hungry

He's got the chubbiest cheeks ever

He's just such a smiley guy!!!

survive and relax

Well, i thought my break would be filled with blogs. I guess I thought wrong! I have been really enjoying these past two weeks of relaxing. It has been nice to spend time with Chris (he took two weeks off), catch up with family (we had four christmas' this year, it was a marathon!), and catch up with some friends.

I have mostly spent my time at the house hanging out and catching up with house things. Actually getting to cook has been nice (tortilla soup is cooking right now, yum!) and very fun.

As for finals, I think that they went well overall. I feel really good about two of them (torts and contracts), pretty good about one (property) and okay about the last (civil procedure). We don't find out our grades until the end of January, so now I am just trying to forget about them and relax until they come.

Surviving finals was one of the most mentally hard things I have ever done. As it came to the end of the two weeks I was exhausted and I felt like I couldn't possibly fit anything else into my brain. It is nice however, to have the first finals season over. Now I know what to expect, how to best prepare, and when to take breaks. Next semester will be a breeze . . . I wish :)

If you didn't know it, I am a person stuck on routine. I find a way that works for me, and I do it that way until it stops working. Pre-finals were no different. The biggest obstacle after you have studied is not to psych yourself out before the final. My goal is to go in with a clear head and to be nervous enough to not get cocky, but not so nervous that it messes with my head. I took some pictures so I could introduce you to my crazy pre-finals OCD self :)

First we start with a good breakfast and some vanilla black tea . . .

next comes one of the most important parts, the ipod. I have a pre-finals playlist filled with songs that make me happy, and songs that make me feel confident. I start it 40 minutes prior to the exam, crank it up, and don't talk/listen to anyone until the professor walks into the room to give instructions. This keeps me from getting stressed/nervous from the idol chatter before the exam, that is about the exam. It also clears my head and gets me ready to go

Finally comes the desk set-up, naked juice just in case I get hungry/thirsty, chap-stick, and four tic-tacs to keep me from biting my nails!

There you have, pre-finals procedure in a nut-shell. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season!

-Laura

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!