I forgot!

I was finally called on to recite a case today--I was prepared but it was a difficult one. This particular Prof doesn't believe in making his students feel inferior and is typically very gentle. Today he seemed to be asking be a lot of follow up questions and interrogated a bit. This was the type of questioning that I had anticipated when I began law school--but haven't seen it in this class yet--a bit intimidating. E, my seatmate, told me that she thought I had done well but it's all subjective, hard to know what the Prof thought. Oh, even more intimidating, I sit in the front row and he stood right in front of me when I was speaking.

The case was about a football player who got upset about his team losing so he intentionally hit a player on the opposing team during the course of the game. I was supposed to defend the Defendents argument. I stated that consent is implied due to the nature of the game (I said it a bit more eloquently in class), so he asked if a player could get away with ANY act during the game--I responded that I could see a player being liable if his intentional act was severe enough as to deny the P the ability to play football again, or if it changed his quality of life in any way. He made a comment about me asking for special circumstances which did make sense later--I made the mistake of saying that there was consent so it should be thrown out BUT if there is a severe injury--sure lets sue. He kept up the questioning a bit and there were others in the class that agreed with my points so maybe I didn't do too bad. At least I get it now, If I am going to say that the elements of anything is met or not met I cannot really put conditions on that (unless it is allowed under the law.) Oops! At least I got it out of the way--I can learn from it and move on...

Things are good!

Everything is still going well. I went to the student organization fair today--I am considering participating in Moot Court and/or Mock trial--I have been told enough times that these things are actually looked at so I know that they are important. I am thinking that I am going to declare concentrations in both General Practice and Litigation. The concentration requirements are easily combined and I figure two certificates is better than none--right!

I am trying to decide if I want to join any of the bar associations. The local one requires me to join the state bar...which would normally be fine but I hear that they start paperwork early if you join as a student--I have a poor credit history that I am working on fixing now but that may not be apparent yet. I have been a single mom for a long time--I have worked full time and often gone to school--I never obtained state assistance, I just tried to do it all on my own and there were a couple times, when I got laid off, that I had a hard time making ends meet and there were some hospital bills that I let go to collections that I still have to pay off. The hospital bills are reminents from a company that I worked for filing bankruptcy. We found out later that they stopped paying our insurance 3 months before they closed. During those 3 months I had a dog bite me, had my first asthma attack ever (requiring a hospital stay), and my son fell off a swing set and sprained his ankle (requiring x-rays) all told--I owed over $5,000. I thought I paid it off with my bankruptcy settlement but I just found out that much of it is still on my credit report and the hospital has no record of the payment. I wrote down that I wrote a check but neither the hospital or the bank had record of it. I am still researching it, I can't imagine that I could have written a check for such a large sum and not realized that it didn't come out of checking account. My fear is that this would affect my entry into the bar. I know that they are good with past financial problems if they are indeed in the past and if there is a good indication that it won't happen again.

On other news my daughter--13, has her first boyfriend (the text constantly/hand holding type, not the dating/going out kind--she is too young for that.) I am slightly annoyed by her constant "he said this, and then he did this" and I honestly think I am a bit jealous--crazy!

My son--8--just started in a public school that has a boy scout troop, his first meeting was tonight and he was super excited. I have to get him a uniform in the next 2 weeks. I am trying to decide if I want to try freecycle (if you've never tried this system--look into it--it is fantastic!!) or ebay, instead of buying new. I never considered how expensive all this stuff was when I was a Girl Scout back in the day...it is a good program though--can't complain there.

freaking out a little

Okay--good news is that Torts and Contacts actually makes sense this weekend (vs last)--I am not really sure that Crim. law will ever make sense, the cases are sooo much more complicated than everything else...

Bad news--I am freaking out about money...again. I didn't have money for city trash bags this week so I put my trash on the back porch until next week--now I have gnats swarming the back porch (yuck!!) All my extra money has gone to pay parking and my kids school supplies. I know that my loan money will come in the next couple of weeks but until then I have very little extra money and then there is the whole concept that it isn't really extra money when it does come--it's loan money that I have to pay back at some point. The trash isn't a huge problem--I can put it in my car and take it to work tomorrow and put it in the dumpster there, not a huge deal. It's the entire point that I am going to be living like this for at least three years. I almost hyper-ventilated at just the idea.

REMINDER TO SELF: It will all be worth it...I will be better off with this degree...It will all be worth it...I will be better off with this degree...

A quick update

I have a minute here at work and know that this is about the only minute I'll have for awhile! Things are going fabulously. I was not called to recite all week (YAH!) and my profs are nice. A classmate likened them all the camp counselors--could this possibly be too good to be true?

I have been taking notes on my laptop and I love it--I haven't gone to school in years so that wasn't typical when I went, I didn't think I would like it but I do. The guy next to me in my classes never takes notes during class--that bugs me--maybe he thinks he got all the information out of the reading or maybe he is going to flunk out. I can't imagine that he is going to depend on retention or that he remembers it all well enough to type out notes later--that sounds insane to me!

I don't know if this is typical but my section stays in the same room for every class and many of us end up sitting in the same area. My seatmate on the right changes every class so I don't know their names but on my left is E and she is very nice and just as stressed as I am. She doesn't work or have kids so she is spending a lot of time over preparing and over analyzing things. Seeing her freaking out over very tiny definitions that she didn't understand makes me slightly thankful that I AM still working and DO have kids because I don't have all day to think about law. I can take a break here and there and think about glasses! I have, however, been dreaming about cases. That isn't so much fun with Crim law cases since there were a few that were downright gross!

Today, as I was walking to my car, a very cute student approached me and introduced himself and we walked to the parking area together (I am cheap so I don't park in the ramp next to the school, but in a lot that's under the highway--it saves me $4 a day & it's worth it!) we chatted and he told me that it was 'too bad' that I had to go to work, he would have bought me a beer at the bar everyone was headed to!?!? Now, I am not an ugly duckling but I am not the prettiest girl in the room either, I think of myself as pretty average AND I am not the skinny chick either so the fact that he zeroed in on me (and not the group of younger, chipper chicks in front of us) was flattering...I agree, too bad I had to come to work. I almost asked if they were planning to go to a bar this evening (we got out of class at 12) but didn't...