You ought to know

• Job is so far so good. Exactly what I expected, the people are nice, and I think I'll enjoy the work. But no one wants to hear me say "hey everything is great, had lunch with my new cohorts last week and in the park alone today and I am liking my life right now" because that is boring. So I will indulge in complaints for two bullet points.
  
• My temporary 'office' is a cubicle near six others. Mine is right near a very very very loud air conditioner. I have decided to pretend its a white noise machine, which works except every seven minutes or so, the whiiiiirrrr-chunk breaks the illusion.
  
• I hate florescent lighting. Hate it. I am considering bringing my own desk lamp that has an incandescent bulb.
  
• I am now done complaining.
• Clownfish officially turned five today.
• File this under recent discoveries that everyone else already knew: "Frost/Nixon" was a good movie.
• In other recent discoveries that everyone else already knew: "Little Miss Sunshine" was a good movie.
• My best girlfriend is [probably] getting divorced, and it has really thrown me for a loop.
  

MILP #113

PtLawmom had the Roundup. Back here next week.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

Clownfish, like all children, tends to have difficulty answering the question "How was your day?" I usually prompt him -- Tell me about the kids in your class... What was your favorite thing today.... When open-ended doesn't work, I go fishing. Did you color anything? Did you work with numbers? Did you go to the library?

At this, he stopped:

CF: How did you know we have a library?
Me: I'm Mommy. I know everything.
CF: Oh yeah? Who made God?
Me: Ummmm, what?
CF: You don't know everything.... you don't know who made God.

We have "meet the teacher day" at Clownfish's kindergarten today....

....and pre-school graduation ceremony and picnic tonight.

I suggest you purchase stock in Kleenex. There is going to be a run on their product.



Edited to add: Instead of crying, I was in an uber-bitchy mood. Sure, it saves on Kleenex, but it was probably less healthy all around.

Working girl

I start my new life as a "lawyer" on Friday.

I got a haircut and manicure.

I plan to treat myself to some new makeup.

I bought a few pairs of new comfy pumps and a few updated tops to go under my suits (sale!).

I bought a new handbag. (Nine West outlet on sale! Awesome, green and big enough to hold a legal sized padfolio! *girl-who-carried-a-man's-backpack-for-three-law-school-years-squee*)

On Wednesday, I have to arrange for Clownfish "before school" care for the year at his new school because I have to be in the office before his teachers do.

I have a dentist appointment today and have to finish cleaning and organizing my closets.

I have a really long 'to do before work starts' list.

The timing works out well . . . it is kind of like going back to school at the end of the summer. Except, you know, with a paycheck.

___________________
We're coming to the edge/ running on the water/ coming through the fog/ your sons and daughters.

MILP Roundup #112: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Edition

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom and Butterflyfish blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.

This week's theme is based on Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a misnamed trilogy as there are five books (and I'm using all five because there is no way I can source the stuff I pull from memory at this point, but I can source some quotes thanks to the Interwebs).

Are you a hoopy frood? Do you know where your towel is? Do you know God's last message to his creation? 42? If any of that means anything to you, then this edition of the Roundup will make marginally more sense to you than to everyone else. I plan to behave oddly... think Ford visiting pre-historic Africa after the whole Golgafrinchin debacle.

• "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so." (HGG Ch 2) JDWannabe. (Waiting for grades)
• "The engines howled and whined like tired children in a supermarket." (REU Ch 21) Rayne of Terror. (Baby pics)
• "This must be Thursday,' said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer, `I never could get the hang of Thursdays.'" Outlaw Mama (on one of those days)
• “A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.” Atty Work Product & Undermotivated Overachiever (on clunky computers)
  
• "It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes." (HGG Ch 24) Legally certifiable.
• "Anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. . . . It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though." Newlawmom. (on disappointments working out ok after all)
  
• "The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate." (REU 16) LagLiv. (on books affecting our mood)
• "It seemed to me," said Wonko the Sane, "that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a packet of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane."Rosy Life in Law School. (on law school orientation)
• "Life. Don't talk to me about life." PtLawmom (on worrying, blog-onymity, life)
• I suppose she could have asked Eccentrica Gallumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six. Cee (Starting to Melt) (on boobs)

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If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at our sites.Expecting Moms in law school are welcome! Hat tip as always to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and his co-rounder-upper, Nobody!
Ok, I have to know if I am the only H2G2 geek--please comment if you understood any of this!

Best and Worst memories of 1L

New Kid on the Hallway (and then Useless Dicta and others) had the idea that instead of giving 1Ls advice, we should write our best and worst memories form 1L.

Best:
Law school is a geek/nerd dream come true. I loved the feeling of learning and practicing my legal analysis, having misconceptions shattered, getting better at practice questions and yes, even panicking about exams. Competence. The glorious luxury of living in my head. Everything was new and challenging. I suppose validation in the form of good grades in a few classes sure helps me remember 1L more fondly. I'd do it over in a heartbeat.

Worst:
I was so lonely. Sooo lonely. Bullshark was in Iraq. I felt like I was a horrible mommy for putting my son in daycare, and was constantly trying to strike the balance between time with him and studying, and always felt miserable about it. My online community, though my blog and through another site on which I had an online study group, was about the only thing that kept me sane. So on the blog, I vented, I did some angst-laced over-share, I exaggerated some typical classroom stories for comic effect.

And then, my online life and my real life collided and everything blew up and was awkward and terrible for a long while. And that's all I am going to say about that.

But... truth:
1L was not the worst year.
2L was.
By far, hands down, no contest.

Good luck to all the new-Ls out there. Enjoy it. Really.

Stolen Lines #6

"You really don't know what I'm talking about, do you?"

Who was that guy from that movie... with the hair and the chin?
Ummm.... Willem Dafoe?
No! He was in that one with the painting and the guy who was James Bond but not Connery and not the new one.
Charles Bronson? Haha no, Pierce Brosnan?
Pierce Brosnan. Remington Steele. God, I loved that show when I was a kid. I wonder whatever happened to Stephanie Zimbalist, and why I rememeber her name immediately but am completely blanking on this guy. He was in the movie with Pierce Brosnan.
So wait, you weren't talking about Pierce Brosnan?
No I was talking about the guy with the hair who was in that Pierce Brosnan movie that you like. The one with the painting and the girl who my sister thinks is pretty but I don't get that at all.
How am I supposed to know who your sister thinks is pretty?
Right... ummm.... oh! she was in that Mel Gibson movie like forever ago, the one where he was a cop with Danny Glover and Joe Pesci was annoying?
Lethal Weapon?
Yeah she was in one of those movies. And the movie with the painting! You know what I mean.
Ummm
You really don't know what I'm talking about, do you?
Ummmm
The movie with the painting ... and the apple?
Oh! Oh!! The Thomas Crowne Affair! Yeah I did love that movie. What about it?
No, I am trying to think of the guy who was in that movie.
Pierce Brosnan? Oh, I think the girl was Renee Russo.
Yeah it was her. No!! The guy with the hair and the chin and the teeth... the blond guy?
Willem Dafoe?
He was in Thomas Crown Affair?
No, but whenever you say blonde guy and chin its who I think of.
Denis Leary!
What?
I remembered, I was thinking of Denis Leary.
What about him?
Ummmm..... I've forgotten.

* * This is what it is like to live in my head some most days * *

Per Grace: I stole the first line of this post from Salaam Paris by Kavita Daswani.

MILP #111

Proto Attorney gust hosted the Roundup this week. Its karaoke time.

Check it out.

Back here next week.

Freckles

• I wish I could get that damn Jason Mraz song out of my head (But I won't hes-i-tate no more no more it can-not wait I'm yours....)
• Sitting down with a box of crayons and blank paper is fabulous therapy. Pre-schooler not required, but makes for a good alibi.
• Heard the most amazing radio commercial for some Swedish fish related thing--the gimmick was to make the commercial sound like Swedish lessons... one of the translations was "My hovercraft is full of eels." I about fell out of the car.*
  
• I'm way too fair skinned to spend as much time as I did in the sun.
• When Bon Jovi songs occasionally punctuate otherwise boring car trips, I get waaay too excited.
• My son and I play this cute game when he wants a snuggle... he pretends to be a Clownfish and I pretend to be an anemone giving him a hug and protecting him from, yes, a shark. My real life and blog life have officially collided. And its weird.
• Bullets make my blog look freckled, which as Ana has pointed out, means that God likes it more.
  

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If you got the reference right away, and we aren't friends already, we need to be friends. Why aren't we friends? For the rest: click here.

Boobies!

Clownfish: "Mommy, why can boys wear no shirts when we play outside but girls can't? Boobies are just part of their bodies."

How do you answer that one? Go on some rant about puritanical misogyny? I thought about it but instead I told him:

"When girls are your age or [your cousin's] age, its totally fine for them to go without a top. When they get older, their boobies get bigger, and girls are more comfortable wearing a bra or a bikini top."

Clownfish: "Oh are boobies heavy and the bra hold them up?"

Me: "Something like that."


Edited to add:

"Who makes sand mommy?" Clownfish, after seeing a quarry. We discussed how some things come from the Earth, that not everything is made by a person.

"Wow! The Earth is more amazing than the people who invented GPS!"

MILP #110

PtLawmom has it this week.

Proto Attorney (f/k/a Formerly Knocked Up and In Law School) is guest hosting next week.

Then back here.

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.

To do

Should do, like yesterday:

• Fill out a bunch of stuff for new job
• Ship one more box of books
  
• Hunt down two of my bar recommenders who still haven't sent their recommendation letters
• Figure out what the hell is up with another part of my bar application -- some problem with an employer
  
• Clean out my car, return Bar/Bri books, get a hair cut (we're in perpetual headband land here), ooh and maybe a manicure and pedicure?
  
• Write thank you cards
• Pay bills
  

Actually doing:

• Just arrived home from a lovely visit with my sister and her family
• This involved swimming, mini-golfing, and a trip to a farm
  
• Going to a birthday party for a 5 year old this afternoon
• Packing for next week's trip to kid-friendly amusement park
  
• Watching terrible movies on television
• Eating vine fresh tomatoes grown in our garden before they go bad
• Writing this post
  

Nothing to say

The August doldrums have arrived in blog land. I will be in and out of town for the next two weeks. I'll probably pop in occasionally. Be well.

MILP #109: High Crimes and Misdemeanors

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis between PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School blogs. We originally rounded up just the moms in law school, but then discovered that those women eventually graduate. Who knew? So now all the moms in the legal field (heh) are represented. We aim for Sunday posts.

This week's theme:
We're all guilty of something. Let's just put it out there, shall we? Our crimes, misdemeanors, and guilty pleasures.

• Romance novels. Cee.
• Sexy haiku. Googiebaba
• Asking for help "prioritizing" as a means of saying "impossible." PtLawmom
• Ice cream and fancy lunches. Magic Cookie
• Being neighborly. Lag Liv
• Thinking about roads not taken. JDWannabe.
• Impatience. NewLawMom.
• Failure to muster enthusiasm. And you know what else
• Raging desire to discuss MBE questions. Better Together
• Cake Wreckery. TrannyHead
• Honesty pays off. Legally Certifiable
  

New pre-L mommy in law school... go wish her luck:

• Possession of pink school supplies. Under-motivated Overachiever.

__________________________________
If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at our sites.Expecting Moms in law school are welcome! Hat tip as always to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and his co-rounder-upper, Nobody!

How to Survive the Bar Exam Itself

I post this for posterity, for those who will come next, and for myself, so when someone asks me what I did or how I did, I don't give lame or untrue answers.

Pack trail mix fixin's. My personal mix was Rice Chex cereal, whole almonds, craisins, and M&Ms in a small plastic sandwich bag.

Go to bed early each night. Seriously, I would watch one show, take some sleepy stuff (only needed it two nights actually), set three alarm clocks for 4:30 a.m. and go to sleep. No night time studying. At all. Not even a little. Really.

Wake up early, shower, dress, and review. And get some breakfast. And water. And caffeine. And caffeine. And then pee. Try to eat well during the day. Try to walk around or something slightly physical.

Say, hypothetically one of your friends comes up to you when you're milling around waiting to get through security in the morning, and say she's freaking the f**k out and saying the "F" word* and telling you about how much she studied the night before and how she's an anxiety ball etc., excuse yourself to the bathroom. And then lose her in the crowd. Because you do NOT need that.

MBE: On the morning of the MBE I did 50 warm up questions from BarBri's MPQ2 book -- one for which they expected me to get over 70% correct. I did because they were pretty easy. Doing that in the morning might freak some people out (OMG! I am getting stuff wrong! I will f-word!) I get that it might not be great for everyone. It worked for me because on any practice exam, my accuracy rate was always for sh*t during the first 20... I really think this helped me hit the ground running. It didn't hurt me anyway, and gave a me a sense of control.

Essay days: I was a fan of scanning my checklists before essay days, and I reread my personal outlines for wills/trusts, secured trans, commercial paper -- the subjects I was sure I'd get hit with and felt less confident about.

So that's how I survived the Bar.

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* The F word.