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.

Get Me, I'm a Law Student

So this post isn't going to be anything resembling polished or possibly even coherent, but I wanted to post something about how law school is going.

I had this crazy fever for about 12 days, and it continued through orientation, the intense weekend of reading and the first day or so of class. I was frustrated, exhausted and just not wanting to "do this." I was seriously questioning my decision to go to law school, my ability to balance my health and law school, and my desire to be at law school at all.

I did finish all the reading though, and stayed caught up and did the briefing and even volunteered some information in that first Contracts class. I spent quite a bit of time paralyzed with fear at the thought of being called on, and although I still haven't been called on I do feel more confident and think I'll muddle through somehow when the time comes.

I'm sure someday, probably soon, I will look back at the sentence I'm about to write and I'll do something like laugh or cringe but: I like law school.

That's all I have time for right now. Oh, except for I'll mention that I don't have class on Fridays and that is frakking awesome. (That one was for the Battlestar Galactica fans among us.)

Oh, Man!

I can't believe I forgot to post about the great CD I got from T Sinister! I don't have time right now, as I need to go to school and get my computer all set up on their internets. But! I will right this oversight asap. Promise.

Blawg Review Map - Update

Please read about the Blawg Review map here.

Now It Just Needs A Name...

Ah, the joy of having things that work. My new computer - which arrived early - is a pleasure. It's fast and can do the whole wireless thing which I've never had before. Also it matches my new phone, and we all know how important that is.

I have been having a great time hanging out in Oregon. We've been to many touristy places in and around Portland, and took a day trip up to Seattle via the train. Flowers are beautiful and super cheap here which is such a nice change, and the Farmer's Markets are incredible. We went to the big one in Portland (the Saturday Market) and the fantastic smaller one here in Lake Oswego. (I know I'm going a little heavy with the glowing adjectives, but they really are accurate.)

Orientation starts Thursday. I was really, really nervous but now I'm just more anxious to just get started than anything else. Having a nice computer helps.

Houseguests coupled with a slowly dying computer have made luxuries like blogging difficult. The house is slowly returning to its pre-guest state, however, and my shiny new computer is arriving on the 24th. Of course orientation starts on the 25th and life as I know it ends - but at least I'll be tethered to the new laptop and blogging will be terribly convenient.

It's been fun hearing about others' first days of law school experiences. I'll be sure to add to the fray when it's my turn.

Safe and Sound

We're finally, finally here in beautiful Oregon. I don't know what everyone was talking about when they said we would experience a dreary, grey existence here in the Pacific Northwest - we have seen nothing but sunshine since we've arrived.

We absolutely love our apartment and our complex. Everything is nicer than I even expected - and I came in with high expectations. Our neighbors are wonderful, we have a beautiful view from our balcony and the property managers did all they said they would with the place (new carpet, appliances, etc.) We couldn't be more pleased with how things have turned out here.

Of course getting here came with its share of bumps and bruises. We blew a tire on the trailer in Wyoming. Interestingly we have had car problems both coming and going through this small town before. J commented that it's like our own little automotive Bermuda triangle. Anyway, that took four hours to straighten out. So J, me, the little dog and the fish spent one sixth of a day sitting in the cab of a Penske truck in the middle of Wyoming. I did get some of my summer assigned reading done, so at least there was a tiny bit of productivity happening during the ordeal.

This left us way behind schedule. We didn't even make it out of Utah before we had to stop and sleep a little bit. We ended up not in the nice reserved camping spot in Caldwell, Idaho but the party central location of Ogden, Utah: the park and ride off of I-84. Kids were coming and going, presumably with 40s, at all hours of the night. We stayed there from about 10pm to 3am and then pressed on.

Miraculously, and to the credit of J's seemingly superhuman moving abilities, we made it to our new town before the end of business day on Monday the first. We picked up our keys, stashed the truck and slept on the living room floor. We set the alarm for four, but that didn't happen. We were up by five, though, and again because of J's incredible moving stamina we had everything we own in the apartment by about 5pm and had the Penske truck out of our possession forever by 6:30.

And then we got lost for two hours trying to get back to our new house. Portland highways are very different than what we are used to. We found that it is very hard to just get off at an exit and get back on going the opposite direction. We did finally make it home that Tuesday evening and soon fell asleep crammed in between the moving boxes.

Ever since, we've been putting stuff away, putting stuff back together and getting used to the new town. I know I've already said it, but we absolutely love it here. It's so green, quiet, and just plain pleasant. This was the best decision we've ever made - other than getting married, of course!

The "I'm Almost Done Packing" Post

Our big yellow Penske truck and trailer are in the parking lot. There are boxes stacked to the ceiling everywhere I look, and somehow there's still stuff lying around. Unboxed. Mocking me and my now-obvious lack of packing skills.

There's also trash. Almost as much trash as non-trash. Some of it is stuff that I simply can't bear to move again. Stuff that I've moved from back of apartment closet to back of another apartment closet to back of a closet in a house to back of yet another apartment...You get the idea. Stuff that lives in the back of a closet is stuff I don't need.

I'm going to take a break - I think I'll take a walk, get some iced tea and send off my mix CD.

Tomorrow: Load the truck
Sunday, 5am: Buh-bye Colorado!

But WHY?...

I have just completed the final element of the mating ritual that is the law school application process: returning the letters from the jilted schools that ask "But Why? Why Not Me?" While it's flattering that they care why I've decided against attending it's still a little awkward.

I went with a mixture of "It's not you, it's me" and the truth. I even added an anecdote from an admitted students' day in which a current student who had aspirations of public interest law felt she "had no choice" but to enter corporate law. I asked whether her classmates felt the same way. She said yes. I had to wonder where this attitude was coming from. Career Services? 2Ls and 3Ls? Professors? From all of the literature, and my own conversations with their Career Services people, I had to believe that this idea of having "no choice" but to enter corporate law was not accurate. But what if it was? I decided not to stick around to find out. Of course this conversation was not actually the reason for deciding against this particular school, but it certainly didn't help.