Surviving Oral Arguments

So, I am finally heading to bed. Will have to post a detailed blog regarding my oral argument survival tomorrow. I am off to dream of pale white faces, mainly Edwards, after a non-thought processing later part of the evening of Twilight watching with Trenton.

"Be safe"
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Back from the Break

So, tonight I was reminded that I have a blog to maintain. Yes, that is true, however, I was on Spring Break, which means anything school related was also on a break.

Spring break came and went so fast. The kids, my husband, and I flew out to Park City, Utah on the 27th of February, which now seems a distant memory captured by pictures. With school being so hectic up until the night prior to leaving, I somehow managed to not get any packing done until that night. So, this meant no sleep, a 6:30am departure flight, and an old woman, who thought she had an interesting life sitting behind us, talking for the ENTIRE five hours. So, those $125 BOSE noise cancelling headphones that I so didn't think I wanted for Christmas came in excellent use and I actually got in a few hours of sleep. On a side note, I would suggest and recommend these to anyone looking to drown out the sound of anything, from Spongebob at 7:30 on a weekend evening when you are attempting to get some studying done, to a snoring husband, and especially to a noisy neighbor, be it in the library or on a plane.

Our trip in Park City was pleasant. While I know we were all a little disappointed that we did not see any falling snow, the kids and my husband had a blast snowboarding and skiing. I enjoyed the spa. On a second side note, I would suggest and recommend that anyone who has been contemplating getting a hot stone massage to get one. I was in heaven for all of an hour and a half, no headphone required.

While I had every intention of updating my outlines, making note cards, and getting ahead on my second trial memo during the break, I even had my own carry on suitcase dedicated solely to my school books and notebooks, it pretty much sat untouched in the corner of the hotel room. Rather, I enjoyed the time with the kids and my husband, despite some of the bickering, it was amazing to have six full days of them all to myself. From watching them learn to ski, to hearing of their snowboarding adventures to the top of the mountain, to eating breakfast with them every morning, to having a "daughter day" where we went to the bead store to make bracelets and then had ice cream for lunch, and to seeing them all fall asleep after a long day, was exactly what I needed.

The break extended from Thursday through Sunday of this past week, again with the intentions of "getting ahead." However, that was interrupted by a sick baby girl, who landed in the hospital yesterday, with a violent stomach virus, requiring medication and two bags of fluids. Then after a day in the ER, the evening was spent doing 7th grade projects with my son, who like me, leaves everything for the last minute, meaning 8pm to 12am. Today, was spent trying to get the little one to eat something but as she says it best, "My stomach just won't let me." Half a dinosaur chicken nugget later I had given up all hope. However, the seven loads of laundry finally got finished and all put away and an upcoming 5th birthday party planned.

Tonight, it was back to school, exhausted from my "break" with the hopes that I didn't get called on. I was completely amazed by one of my professors tonight, who simply said for our trial memos, to just go ahead and take a Supreme Court ruling and reverse it to mean the opposite. Just make sure we take out the first part of the sentence "According to the Supreme Court." Seriously? If in real life, an attorney could just take a Supreme Court ruling and reverse it to her favor, well wouldn't she win every time? Last time I checked, the Supreme Court was the highest authority and well, she completely left me speechless. At least Property ended almost 30 minutes early and I was home with enough time to have a bowl of cereal and study a little for tomorrow's "non-credit" mid-term essay. Why I opted into a non-credit class when my GPA was well above the requirement is now beyond me. Well, that professor at least is gearing us for "real life" practice and what is an hour of the week when all my free time is spent at school anyhow.

Not sure where this week will lead, but it is back to work tomorrow. Of course, I probably will be late, as this time change has thrown me off, not that I sleep much, but the extra hour stolen from my life is something I would gladly take back. Then back to the normal routine, work, school, library til midnight, home, sleep, do it all again.....

For them, it is all worth it.......

Bracing for the Break

So, this semester has flown by. Spring break is a day away, which is both exciting and terrifying. That means a week of no school but the end of the semester is rapidly approaching.

So, trial memo one has been submitted and we are full force into trial memo two, which is a continuation of the first. Well, who are we kidding, we are not. I have another large stack of cases to read through and hope to come across the good cases at the beginning of my search rather than the end like last time.

My other two classes seem to be moving along - nothing exciting to report there, just lots of reading, note taking, and more reading.

So, on the home front, we are off to play in the snow bright and early Friday morning. Early meaning our flight leaves at 630am so we need to be up and out of the house by 4am. We are headed to Park City, Utah for my Spring Break for some much needed family time. Seeing as I never see my kids or my husband this will be a wonderful trip. Being that I don't make it home much before midnight ever and with my memo taking over my life this weekend, I have yet to pack, guess I won't be sleeping tomorrow. I also just discovered that the ski boots that I ordered for Kayden, don't fit. Lovely, where in South Florida can you find ski boots. No where, that's where. So, her little bitty toes are going to freeze until we get there and find her some new boots.

I honestly have a sinking feeling that something will be left behind. However, as long as it is something, and not someone, we are good. Yes, I have been replaying the Home Alone scene over and over in my head where they leave Kevin at home. I can picture Trenton now in survival mode and would actually feel sorry for those who crossed his path.

Either way, I have the most wonderful husband who already has come to understand my exhaustion and granted me some good quality sleeping time on the plane with no interruptions. Nice. So, despite the crazy busy day ahead of me at work and school tomorrow I will get us all packed to go at some point tomorrow night.

Mental note: don't forget to feed the fish.
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No Nap

So, I have discovered that I can blog from my blackberry. Those who know me, know that my blackberry tops right up there as one of my best friends. This is great.

So, the weekend was quite productive. For the most part I stayed at home in my pjs just as promised doing homework. I was able to throw together a pretty decent annotated outline for my trial memo and was surprised that last minute I found some pretty on point cases leaning in our client's favor. However, tonight I realized that I may not have up loaded my outline properly.

Why, why, why. Oh well, after persuading my professor into giving the class an extension and then not even timely uploading my assignment if it did not properly post, she is going to think I have lost my mind after reading the panic filled email I just sent her tonight. Great.

So, non-law school related Trenton and I (my 13 year old) went to see Slumdog Millionaire this weekend. It was a great movie and the music in it was outstanding. It was a nice evening of mother-son bonding.

The only thing I didn't get to do that was on my list this weekend was to nap by the pool in the hammock. But seriously, who was I kidding. That will remain on my list for another weekend, another time....
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Turning Back Time

The end of another long week has finally come to a close. The minutes turn into hours so very quickly. Where did the days go where I longed to turn the clock ahead? I awake almost everyday to my daughter letting me know that she is going to be late for school, again, which in turn means I am going to be running late for work, again. It is a fact that I have come to accept. The extra 10 minutes of sleep, when averaging 5 hours of sleep per night, after putting in an 16 to 18 day of work and school, can feel like an eternity.

This was a pretty eventful week. The copyright infringement research continued and continues. I am finally beginning to understand what in the world my professor is looking for with regards to this persuasive trial memo. However, that was not before spending half and hour in her office on Wednesday where I went in stating, "If I had to write this today, I truly would fail." Generally, I am not one to go to the professors unless it is a last resort, and this was a last resort. Guidance was required. Because I was not the only one feeling this way, I let her in on this small detail. Group assignments in class are great but not always beneficial, we can socialize on our own time. Again, we, as a group, need guidance. We are not lawyers, we are 1L's who have no idea what Point Headings are. So needless to say she deemed me delegate for the class. That's fine. We had two very beneficial classes to finish the week off. Additionally, with our Annotated Outline due this Friday night at 11pm, I thought my position as class delegate might come in handy. This weekend is a long weekend, so no school or work on Monday and seeing as I don't want to stay up until all hours of the night tonight or tomorrow after work throwing together an outline, I began to practice my persuasive argument tactics. It worked. I successfully argued my point of having her extend out assignment deadline to Monday at 6pm. Throwing in an argument of sick children, having to work, and having an extra weekend to really focus on preparing a quality outline did the trick (even when I was faltering, I argued I was willing to give up my few extra credit points, which in the end I did not even have to give up). Time is of the essence. I need all the time I can get at this point. First case won for the class as a whole.

This semester I am also taking Property and Civil Procedure. On Monday, we had our first Property quiz. While I tried over the weekend to find the time to study, I found myself memorizing the twenty practice quiz questions and answers our professor had given us. Knowing that three of the ten quiz questions would come from that quiz my logic for this quiz was based on the fact that I would get at least three correct answers. How in the world was I ever going to understand and apply the Rule Against Perpetuities? I had given up and was crossing my fingers that "B" had to do something because at that point all I really knew was that "B" could not do something 21 years after his own death. All in all I did surprising well, missing only one question. One in which had nothing to do about "the life of A" "the heirs of B" or Greenacre, Blueacre, or any freaking color acre at all......

Civil Procedure is the class that I will be teaching myself this semester. So, any suggestions for good supplements would be greatly appreciated. While my professor is unbelievable and a highly respected attorney, he is a storyteller. He has been counse to and tried extremely interesting cases and while it makes class interesting, I have yet to figure out any hard line rules at this point. Somewhere in my notes it mentions diversity, jurisdiction, and venue but I know that I am missing a lot at this point. However, tonight as class was ending, the professor gave me his rose (it was valentine's night at school). Not sure why, but the gesture and thought was wonderfully unexpected.

So, my plans for the long weekend. While, I did previously mention I was going to be first in line at the library on Sunday. I think I am changing my plans again. I am starting it now, by going to watch my one hour of TV for the week (Grey's), then I am going to stay in my pj's all weekend, spend some time with the kids and my husband, have a nice valentine's dinner compliments of Omaha Steaks, and study from the confines of my own study room at home, and even try to squeeze in a much needed nap in the hammock out by the pool)....

Change of Scenery

So, I think it is important to give a little insight as to who I am prior to bombarding you with the trials of my life and law school adventures. I am a first year, second semester, evening student and a full time paralegal for a small law firm where I have worked for the past ten years. Additionally, I am a mother of two wonderful children, who are 13 and 4, and the wife to the most amazing and supportive husband around.

So that being said there is very little time to study and prepare myself for the school week ahead. Sunday is "my full day" to do with it what I please. Usually that means I hit the library at 10am when the doors open and leave when the shut the lights off at 12am. However, today, with the sun finally shining, I though a change of scenery was in order. I woke my husband up at 9:30am and asked him to get me down the beach chair, asked my daughter if I could borrow her "nap time" pillow and kissed my sleeping son good-bye, who asked if he could have sushi for lunch. Sure I said quickly, ask your dad to add it to the grocery list.

I was going to the beach, armed with a ton copyright cases and statutes that still needed to be read so that I could put together a case synthesis chart that is due at the beginning of the week. There was just no way I was going to be able to focus today in that small little study cubby reading about the four factors of fair use. I decided that being at the beach all day I would at some point need lunch. I made a quick stop at Publix for a sub and a bottle of water and was facing the ocean by 11am. By 2ish I had read almost all of the cases and decided it was time for lunch. Not more than two seconds after pulling half of my sandwich out of the wrapper I was attacked by a flock of seagulls who literally took the entire half of my sandwich out of my hands. So needless to say, I quickly wrapped up my other half of the sandwich and ate it in the confines of my car later. I continued on with my reading, quickly learning that the counsel for Two Live Crew's copyright infringement case is actually my Civil Procedure professor. Interesting.

As the sun started to fade and I began to pack up my things I was approached by a gentleman from Costa Rica, who I think if I wasn't married, would have asked me to be his wife. I really am not all that overly friendly and am not sure why people feel the constant need to talk to me. The glow that I had about me today, I later discovered was not a glow of radiance, but of sunburn. Clearly, I forgot my sunscreen and I am sure at this point I would glow in the dark. So, now, as I sit in my favorite study cubby, procrastinating completing my case synthesis chart, I have discovered that maybe changes of scenery do not always work out for the best. Next Sunday at 10am I will be first in line for my favorite study cubby.

Life and Law School

So, pre-law school and pre-facebook during my myspace days I tended to "blog" about my random "thoughts and thinkings" about life in general. However, this past semester and even now I just have not had time to do that. I find that my status updates on Facebook provides a small insight into what is currently happening in my life but those are generally cut short due to the amount of text that is allowed to be posted.

On the eve of my final exams last semester and in an attempt to once againt prove to my husband that my amount of time spent in the library was nothing more than time spent in the library I came across the most wonderful blog. A blog written by a mother, like myself, who also is in law school. It was perfect and I spent hours reading her posts feeling that I was normal and the things I was experiencing were not out of context. Her blog is called Diary of a Law School Mom and if you so desire can be subscribed to at http://diaryoflawschoolmom.blogspot.com/

She is in her final year of law school and with some pressing matters ahead of her was on the search for guest blogger. Naturally, I sent her an email from Denny's late last night, where I was attempting to read case after case on copyright law, and told her I was interested. I awoke this morning to good news that she would love for me to guest write on her blog. My crazy hectic life of working full time, going to law school at night, attempting to raise two wonderful children, and maintain a marriage somewhere in between is similiar to the life she leads.

So, I have created this blog so that she can link in the blog posts that I write and in addition can sporadically post about my crazy life. Mainly this is for the family and friends that I fail to keep in touch with and those whose phone calls that go unanswered or for the phone calls that I should be making but just don't have time to. Now, you can see what I am doing with my life, how the kids are doing, and everything in between.

I am still trying to come up with a clever blog name so for now it will be called "Tory's Trials of Life and Law School and the link for anyone who would like to subscribe is http://torystrialsoflifeandlawschool.blogspot.com/