Yes, A Post About The Weather

I love this weather!

I've been a little disappointed by the lack of rain since we moved here. I've been starting to wonder where all these people who warned us against moving here because of "all the rain" got their faulty intel.

I really hope that this is representative of "Winter in Portland."

Do You Know What Day It Is?

It's Serenity Day! Finally!

Come on, SciFi channel - Don't you want to make new episodes? You know you want to...

A Most Excellent Public Interest Law Post

I encourage everyone to read ambimb's great post "Reality Testing Law School Debt and the Public Interest Career"

I can't tell you how many times I've been told that I'll "never find a job in Environmental Law", and "never be able to pay off my school debt in Environmental Law." Inevitably the advice giver will tell me about the "tons of people they know who wanted to do Environmental Law but are now unemployed or trash collectors." Okay, I exaggerated the last part but these comments are a very common occurrence. I'm not sure if the commenters expect me to thank them and immediately start looking into business law or what, but their Debbie Downer remarks haven't beat me yet.

Dare to dream, right?

Polite Rant

When person A smiles politely at person B it is good manners for person B to smile back. It is not polite for person B to just sort of glare and look away. It makes person A feel bad.

Extracurriculars

While I am so not a "joiner" I've found that just getting a little bit involved at law school has helped me to keep what little perspective I had left. There are lots of choices here at L&C - it seems like there is a group for everything. So I went to a few meetings and this is what I ended up going with:

Northwest Environmental Defense Center - From what I can tell this is an extremely active group. Lots of people involved in lots of projects - and even a lot for the 1Ls to do. The group is so active, in fact, that it is broken down into two subgroups: Air & Water and Land & Wildlife. I ended up getting a little project from the Air & Water side. So far getting involved with NEDC has been the best decision I've made since arriving here at L&C.

Lewis & Clark Docent - I signed up for a regular shift taking prospective students around the school. I love talking about the admissions process and about L&C so I guess it's a good gig for me.

Animal Law Review Source Checker - I'm not exactly sure what a "source checker" does, but I'm in anyway. I think I'll learn a lot and will probably get to meet people that I have interests in common with.

So that is what I'm doing when I'm not doing things related to class. I know you were wondering!

& Haiku

I used to hate the
ampersand. It seemed too short.
Now I think it's fine.

Advice

I have received this advice from many different sources, including some very wonderful people. But I didn't really get it until now, since I am of course a seasoned 1L at this point (HA!)

The advice? Don't talk to anyone about anything related to class.

That includes: how much reading you've done, how you're reading it, how you're briefing it, how long it takes you to read a case, how long it takes you to read a page, how long it takes you to read a paragraph, how many words you look up in Black's, what supplements you've purchased, what supplements you think are awesome, what supplements you think suck, how many hours a day you study, how many weekend hours you don't spend studying, how worried you are about exams, how much you "get it", and how much you don't "get it"

This list is in no way complete. I'm guilty of most of them, but I recognize the wrongness of my ways and pledge to be better.

Back to...something or other. Maybe I'm studying, maybe I'm not. You don't know.

Desire For "Fine"

Some days I come home thinking, "I love law school! This is super!" then the next day I will end up sobbing on the couch for no reason other than the anxiety of dealing with the Socratic Method Fear for even one more day.

I can't wait until my answer to "How was your day?" is just: "Fine."

Better Late Than Never...

Happy Birthday Kristine!

Craftier Everyday

Reading over at Craftier Everyday brings back the good old 0L days. My only advice to you, CE: Stay away from the boards. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, and also, on the LSAT: Pick the correct letter as often as you can.

Good luck!

Little Week

Even though this was just a little three day week for me it felt much longer than 72 hours . But ultimately it was a good 72 hours. I've shaken most of the fear that has gripped me since day 1 of orientation and yep, I still like law school. My surprise out of the gate favorite class is Contracts. Who knew? My professor said on the first day of class that she "guaranteed we would love Contracts." And so far she has been right, at least in my case.

So now it's the weekend and where am I? In the law library. Last weekend I made the mistake of taking most of Friday off and I lived to regret it, so my plan this weekend is to do the bulk of my work today leaving Saturday and Sunday afternoons off for other things. And I actually do have other things planned!

Saturday I'm playing the joiner by going to a potluck picnic thing held by a student group I've decided wholeheartedly to join. And on Sunday J and I are picking up our new roommate! One of the visiting law students who has been displaced by the hurricane is going to stay with us for awhile, and J and I are excited to have her as our guest.

Okay, back to Marbury v Madison...

Participation

Like Kristine I'm happy that my school is opening its doors to students from Tulane and Loyola.