Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

(And Happy Bowling for those of you with teams in bowl games!)

What a Start to Christmas Break

Since I have returned home for break, I've cut my finger while slicing a bagel, burned a knuckle trying to put a pizza in the oven, and now I have a black eye.

These are my two dogs, Macy and Bear. Macy is a 2 year old Portuguese Water Dog and Bear is a 9 month old, 80 pound Bouvier des Flandres.

They both get really really excited when I come home and come downstairs in the mornings. Bear doesn't realize how big he is so it can be painful when he starts jumping around all excitedly. Yesterday morning when I came downstairs, I bent down to pet Bear and he jumped up and his head smacked my face in just the right spot. I noticed the bruising a couple hours later.

And that's how I have a black eye for Christmas.

Happy Graduation

I get a text from Crackberry this morning saying:

-- So walking across the stage first gives me the right to say I graduated first in my class, right?

Me: Absolutely. Why did you get to walk first?

Crackberry: Because when I walked in I naturally sat in the front row front seat for the business section and wrote reserved on it--nobody asks questions.

So, congratulations to all of my friends graduating today! Especially you, Crackberry.

So Over Finals

Last night I woke up every hour or so because my throat hurts so bad and Tylenol PM doesn't do the trick. I'm almost done being sick over finals--and by that I mean, finals are almost over, not that I'm feeling better.

On a lighter note: I'm wondering if law schools will admit me solely based on the scores I've gotten in the law-related classes I've taken in college? The judge's legitimately scary mix of hypotheticals was no match for me. (And then I dreamt my dad got arrested for too many speeding tickets and I got a NG. A-thank you.)

A Wish for Good Grades

I love my school for many reasons. My dad hates it primarily for one reason (any guesses?). Like many of my school's higher-ups, our Provost is hysterical. His genuine warmth, kindness, and humor come second only to our Chancellor. People at big state schools don't get to know that about those who run their schools. They're lucky if their professors can pick them out from a crowd of 300. Maybe those of us at small private schools pay for the chance to be a friend instead of just another face among the crowd, but I don't mind that at all. My professors know that I try hard in their classes by incessantly emailing them and coming into their offices. At big schools, some people try hard by buying class notes from someone to make up for not going to class (ahem, Crackberry).

During the week of finals before Christmas Break, our Provost emails out a Christmas card. It may just be my love of Christmastime, but Christmas cards are one of my favorite things. The Provost may not give a little extra personal piece of advice in the ones he sends, but they still put a smile on my face when I see the email pop up in my inbox. I'd like to share this year's card with those who read this, in hopes that this advice will apply to you as well! (Another bit of advice: Spilling your entire plate of eggs on your couch is not a good way to start a 24-hour study period.)

The Woes of Finals

Good news! Everything is done and booked and squared away for our bowl game! I picked up my tickets this morning and I'm ready to head out there after what will be a crazy fun New Years in Dallas with my best friends.

Bad news. I have three finals this week: Due Process in the Criminal Courts tomorrow, PreCal Wednesday, and Political Science 101 on Thursday (aka the class you're supposed to take as a freshman but I didn't get around to it until my senior year). I don't need PreCal or Calculus for my degree anymore which means the credit won't really count, thus completely erasing any sense of motivation I had of passing studying for it.

All of this means that the next few days will be spent memorizing the soundtracks from the latest three Harry Potter movies, Braveheart, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Tudors, John Adams, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then, when I watch the movies and hear the different scores, I am reverted back to a painful memory of studying. How pleasant.

The local criminal courts judge teaching my Due Process class said our final will essentially be equivalent to a law school exam. We get two fact patterns and maybe a couple short answer questions. Previous fact patterns have included mastiff beastiality, and classy people named Whitney Spears and Kevin Borderline who forge checks in blood (allegedly). The ones on the final should be pretty good. I'm making a good grade in this class since I'm most interested in criminal law and this judge is badass, but I'd like to do really well and impress her since I'm interning for her next semester.

Yay! No more congressional district offices! I'm finally done--free at last. I love politics, but casework is a bitch. I don't care that Social Security is screwing you over because you filled out a form wrong. I don't care that the US won't let you and your five wives into our country, there's a good reason for that! Learn to speak English, and then we'll talk.

Hmm. Maybe it should be time to stop procrastinating.

Catching Up

I kept getting increasingly more busy as the semester went on so I had to neglect something. Sadly, it was my blog. But, it's okay because here's the catch up edition!

The internship is becoming more and more boring. I love politics, but I've decided that if I have another political internship, it has to be worthwhile and challenging. Nothing exciting happens and I'm not really learning anything anymore. Although I have had three older men come into the office to apologize for yelling at me on various occasions. One of them has a knack for knowing exactly when I'm working and laughs every time I answer his phone calls. On Tuesday, he asked if I got paid and I told him they should pay me to talk to him. He wasn't too happy about that comment. Hopefully I can go back to the DA's office soon so I can actually learn something again.

Moot court was a whole lot of fun. I really enjoyed the environment and constructing arguments. I was always complimented on having very good courtroom demeanor, but I'd rather do Mock Trial. Having big-ego'd 3Ls badger you about your argument is annoying. I think it'd be more fun in a trial setting.

I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina last month to visit my grandfather. It was a hell of a time. We had so much fun and had way too much good food. I still have yet to crave steak again. I'm pretty sure I had it twice a day every day we were there. I can't wait to go back though!

It's been really tough having the boy so far away this semester but it's so great when he comes into town every other weekend. It'll be another month before I'll see him again, which really sucks. Especially because I'm really good at screwing things up that make me happy. So, that brings me to the fact that I'm not sure we'll make it, and that makes me really sad. But, we'll see. And until then, I've got wonderful friends to lean on.

I wish this could be a happier post but I'm just not quite in the happy mood yet. I'll get there once I get another interesting internship and figure out what's going to happen with the boy. It's tough when you really like someone. And I'm not known for staying friends with exes. This may suck a little here in the next month or so. That's yet to be determined.