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I am coping pretty well with bar review, except for the pains in my wrists and forearms. Thank goodness there's only about a quarter of the classes left. I've even been catching up with all the crazy assignments. I'm feeling good about the MBE too. The kicker came today. I received a phone call during class, and thinking it was related to that consolidation application I stepped out and took the call. Instead, it was a temporary job offer to do local document review. Good pay, great hours...except I'm up to my eyeballs in bar review. Do you know how much it pained me to turn down money at a time like this? I hope they remember me in August. I need work!
Brilliant idea #206 - Take out a driver's ed student during rush hour. Yes, I thought I had made this one up the other day, but I actually saw the car pull out of the school's parking lot this morning...at the speed of snails...on a two lane road where we cannot pass them. Yes, I remember driver's ed fondly. You always had one person in the car who was afraid of every thing, the cocky one, and the one who was just there to get the card to get their license. I think I fell into the latter category. I was the only one in my group who would actually drive over the speed limit in the driver's ed car. Which in itself was a feat since it was a K Car with a million or so miles on it. Getting the gerbils to go that fast took some doing. And as much as the teacher didn't like my driving, if we were behind schedule, he always put me behind the wheel. And yes, I still drive the same way. And I still can't parallel park to save my butt.
If you haven't heard it enough lately, you really ought to consolidate before the end of this month. I've been trying to consolidate since I graduated back in May. So far I've been foiled by the single lender rule, surly web applications, interminable waits on hold, and Bank of America. Bank of America is out to get me. They hold all my student loans. This is because they merged with Fleet Bank. I would not have chosen Bank of America, but I had no choice. As a result, they have first refusal on my consolidation. Earlier this month I got one of those unsolicited pieces of mail from BofA saying, "Hey don't you want to consolidate?" And I said, "Damn straight, who do I call?" And I did. They sent me to AES to do an application. And I did. And it was good. Until today. I get a large packet in the mail from ACS, the servicing company that has been handling my loans. They tell me in no uncertain terms that they are the agent for BofA, and that AES can just bite it, because they're not doing a payoff to those schmoos. However, if I'd like to consolidate with them I can. This was today at 1pm. Check the date. Yeah. Write like hell, fill out an application for the third time this month. Drive to the post office. Pay $13.65 for the privilege of getting screwed by BofA because they're processing applications in California and I need to send it overnight. Proceed to call Bank of America everything in the book. Yes, I hate Bank of America. In fact, I can't say it enough...I HATE BANK OF AMERICA!
This weekend was damn hot. Living on the sun hot. Why did I go outside hot. Therefore it follows that the power would go out. 6:35pm yesterday, boom. No storms, no accidents, in fact we have underground utilities. It came back on for like 2 seconds and then out for the count. It was like being trapped in an elevator. Can't breathe too much, we'll run out of cold air. And instantly, you want a cold drink and realize that you really shouldn't open the refrigerator. What was left to do? Go get ice cream. The only problem was that the ice cream stand was also having electrical issues. We were one of the few people who got a full order in before the power went out for good there too. Mmm...hot fudge. So we went home, went downstairs and hung out. I found out that I can read bar review materials with a small Maglite balanced on my head as long as I don't get too radical in flipping pages. I got a surprising amount of reading done all things considered. And when the power came back on at 5am? Oh happy day. But man am I sleepy now.
Don't you want to be one too?
So I survived the essay workshop. Though I would have to critique my performance quite severely. I don't think the examiners had the following in mind. "Summary judgment blah blah blah goes here." Yeah, details were not my strong suit yesterday. Supposedly I should be doing an essay every day to keep failure away. If that doesn't strike fear, you're better at this than I. I'm not scared, just a bit shell shocked. I have nearly 300 pages of notes now, and that's just totally overwhelming. I'm doing 40 or so questions a day, but these notes perplex me. Other than get a huge binder and an infinite number of tabs that is.
If you're like me, while sitting in Bar Review your mind wanders. You can only engage so much in torts or contracts, but in those fleeting moments of peace you go elsewhere. Where does your mind go?
It's getting harder and harder to motivate myself to drive in for class in the morning. Everyone else's motivation must have been lacking this morning too, because the traffic sucked bad. Everyone decided to be real friendly this morning and let the free world out in front of them. I particularly enjoyed the bus stopping short on a bridge to let a 10-speed to cut in front of him. Why would a bus want to be on time? But then again the bike didn't seem any too fond of traffic signals. I got to have fun again with him later after getting stuck in traffic. That was the story of my life this morning. Bikes were making better time than I was. Of course, I actually decided to stop at red lights. That might have slowed me down.
Well, Formula One may have seen the last race in the United States. Michelin couldn't guarantee the safety of their tires at Indianapolis and as a result refused to run the U.S. Grand Prix. 6 cars started the race and the crowd was livid. What a nightmare. While I'd love to see the Ferraris win, this isn't the circumstances under which I wanted to see it happen. We didn't need this sort of thing to happen in the States.
Fever of 103 at 10pm at night. What do you do? Trip to the urgent care facility. Keep popping ibuprofen until it comes down, and then watch it go back up, and repeat ad nauseum. I have not better get this, whatever it is. Blowing my nose forty million times a day has to be better than watching a fever break over and over. Life here is never dull, that's for sure.
Feel like I'm moving in slow motion today...and it is showing in my spelling. Nuiscance, dfendant, and unreasaonble are just the tip of the iceberg. However, I'm having an existential crisis about a word we've used 4 or 5 times this morning. Foreseeably. Comes up as a typo on Word, is not listed in dictionary.com, seems like a real word and it can't be anything else. So I need to know, is it a word or not?
Procrastination is both a skill and an art. Anyone can merely slack, but to truly procrastinate you need to put some thought into it. For instance, today I mowed the lawn. Now this was a necessary thing to do as well as a diversion, but it was challenging. It's been about 9 or 10 months since I tried my hand at the riding lawn mower, and there's a learning curve I needed to relearn. (Of course this may have used up important brain cells, but I was getting some sun.) I proceeded to do my loopy pattern around the yard, trying to figure out where I'd been, and trying to figure out where to go next. I always end up doing some sort of ever decreasing square/circle/polygon in the yard and leaving myself some part that I need to double back to take care of. Looking at the yard now it looks like a drunken groundsman got a hold of the mower. Perhaps drinking would have helped the process.
I actually stopped studying just in time to tune in for the reading of the verdict. Was I surprised? Not at all. Will the family go after Jackson civilly? Probably, though if you remember the mother said at one point that she wasn't in this for the money. It'll be hard to overcome that one. Either way the best response would have to be in the appropriate parlance, "Woo hoo hoo!"
This weekend was very very quiet. Nearly as quiet as when I lost my voice. The spouse is away on a business trip, and being the type of person I am, I just sort of mope around the house and eat junk food. It's a bad combination really. Lots of racing on TV wasn't even entertaining because I couldn't discuss it with the spouse. Yeah, I would have sucked being in law school alone. And it's funny...I'm an only child, you'd think I'd be able to handle this better, but I'm not. And the june bug that just buzzed my head? It's gonna die. How the heck did it get in here...I didn't go anywhere today!
Prior to starting Bar Review I had heard rumors of "Bar Love." Being married myself I really wasn't interested in the concept, though it made sense. Seeing each other every day, shared dire circumstances, stress...a blooming relationship. Our group is small and I wasn't expecting much of any social interaction beyond the friendly sharing of notes or baked goods, but I think the game's afoot. There's one guy in the class who seems torn between a couple of the girls in the room. During the breaks he always wanders over to talk them up. During our marathon weekend sessions they all went out to lunch together. If he flirted any harder he'd break something. And it's sort of endearing, but endlessly entertaining for me. I doubt anything will come of it, but I need to take my fun where I can get it.
Proving that Bar Review hasn't totally rotted my brain yet:
| Your IQ Is 125 | 
Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Above Average |
Thanks to Crayon 17 for improving my mood with this one.
I guess it can finally be said that the halcyon days of law school are truly now at an end. Yesterday I finally got the last of my Westlaw/Lexis schwag from cashing in my points. I cheaped out at Lexis and cashed it all in on gift certificates, ensuring that at least I'll be able to eat well a few times this summer without any money. And finally I received the long awaited iPod mini. Good timing too since the spouse took off on a business trip today with my fullsize one. Now to outfit this one with a case and protective gear. Which by the way is only slightly less expensive than full size gear. Ebay here I come. And speaking of Ebay, watch out, the Bar copyright police are afoot. I've seen a number of Bar material resales go up in smoke in the last few days as a result of companies asserting their copyright rights with Ebay. Damn shame too, some of the materials were extensive and rather cheap. Figures.
I'm still behind in my reading. For a course that supposedly didn't have that much reading, it has a ton of reading. I really need to get back to doing flashcards for these dumb mnemonics too. There are so many of them I won't remember half of them. I particularly enjoy the ones that aren't even words, or worse, mispelled words. I'm going to remember these? I'll try hard to get caught up by the weekend. In a way I'm glad I had taken all these bar courses, but the review is worse than the courses themselves. Negotiable instruments were not that hard the first time around. Secured transactions? PMSI are not that complicated, why did you have to make them that way? Ah...back to taking notes.
Perhaps Bar Review is making me surly. Heck, who am I kidding, I was already surly. Have you ever wished you could do things behind the wheel that could get you arrested? For instance, I was following a woman this morning who was going to teach us all to drive by doing exactly 2 miles per hour below the speed limit. I tried to use the "Force" against her by willing her to turn, but no dice. (Ever since I had this cold, my Force has been on the fritz.) When we finally got to the red traffic light, she grabs her rearview mirror, turns it toward her and starts putting on eyeliner. You don't know how tempted I was to drive up to her bumper and hit her ever so slightly to make her poke her eye out. Yeah, I'm evil like that.
Today was the day off after our weekend of torture. It was also the spouse's birthday. So of course we had a rip-roaring thunderstorm and a power outage. That's hard to do when your utilities are underground. The storm didn't seem that bad here, but it was fun to watch the people come home in the neighborhood and try to get their automatic garage doors to open. Sneaking up on it in your car really won't help if the power is out. Luckily, everything's back to normal now and the ice cream cake made it through intact.
Okay, so I survived yesterday. It wasn't pretty. The fingers were tired, the wrists were slightly sore. The good part was that we were told we didn't have to study anything last night. Still I felt guilty and went over my PMBR Contract flashcards. I can't say how engaged the brain was in the process, but I was doing something. However, knowing that I had to come back today and do it over again made getting up this morning doubly difficult. Who's up for 6 hours of the UCC?
It's Saturday morning and I'm at school. 6 hours of bar review fun. I can't begin to tell you how much joy I feel right now. The mind wanders off to ideas of food, sun, sleep...anything but contracts damages. Help me.
I think I'm finally beginning to recover, though my eyes still look like I've been out on a week long bender. I was tempted to take a picture to post as part of the eye meme, but that's just plain disgusting. Bar review is hardcore man. We've already had 4 more classes than BarBri, and we have classes both Saturday and Sunday all day. They keep telling us we're going to make it, but wow, I did 49 PMBR questions last night in Contracts and got a big honking 27 right. That just does wonders for the psyche. And I took a nap in the middle of it too. Naps are good, but I don't think I learn through osmosis.
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