1. Graduated from law and urban planning schools!
2. Studied for and passed (unofficially at this point--the web site says yes but the letter was mailed on Friday and hasn't arrived yet) the bar exam.
3. Left Michigan (within a month of 2 DC friends moving DOWN THE FREAKING BLOCK from my Ann Arbor apartment) and moved to Southwest Washington DC. I love this neighborhood.
4. Adopted a cat. She's blind. When she was in foster care, her name was CiCi (short for Cecilia) and now it's C.C. (short for Carrie Chapman [Catt, a famous suffragist]. She is currently sleeping next to me on the couch and I adore her. Even my dad, who is allergic to cats and doesn't really like them, thinks she is lovely.
5. Started my dream job. Seriously. I can't believe I get to hang out there every day and they actually give me money to do it.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Why I'm Looking Forward to Spring Break
1. No school! No homework (well, I should do some studying for the week when I get back, but nothing due for a week!)
2. It will be WARM. In Michigan, highs next week will be in the high 20s and low 30s. In New Orleans, it’ll be in the 60s almost every day, and sometimes in the 70s.
3. Road Trip! Future Stacy from next weekend is shaking her fist at me right now, but I’m actually looking forward to the (16 to 18 hours each way) drive. The 1L my roommate and I are driving with seems nice, we have a doohickey to play our ipods through the car speaker, I’m packing vegetarian snacks for the road (my contribution since I’m not helping drive), and we’re doing it in two days on the way down (only one on the way home). The road trips I took in college (northern Vermont and DC, both sophomore year) were so much fun.
4. Volunteering for a few days at a really cool group that deals with green building and energy use in the city, and possibly one day with a public defender.
5. Sightseeing—we’ll be in town during Mardi Gras so that should be really exciting. I got a guidebook from the library and already know I won’t have enough time to see everything I’d like to. Oh well; I’ll just have to go back some day! New Orleans seems like a great place to visit for a long weekend or something.
We leave Saturday morning—I have a lot to do before then but I can’t wait!
2. It will be WARM. In Michigan, highs next week will be in the high 20s and low 30s. In New Orleans, it’ll be in the 60s almost every day, and sometimes in the 70s.
3. Road Trip! Future Stacy from next weekend is shaking her fist at me right now, but I’m actually looking forward to the (16 to 18 hours each way) drive. The 1L my roommate and I are driving with seems nice, we have a doohickey to play our ipods through the car speaker, I’m packing vegetarian snacks for the road (my contribution since I’m not helping drive), and we’re doing it in two days on the way down (only one on the way home). The road trips I took in college (northern Vermont and DC, both sophomore year) were so much fun.
4. Volunteering for a few days at a really cool group that deals with green building and energy use in the city, and possibly one day with a public defender.
5. Sightseeing—we’ll be in town during Mardi Gras so that should be really exciting. I got a guidebook from the library and already know I won’t have enough time to see everything I’d like to. Oh well; I’ll just have to go back some day! New Orleans seems like a great place to visit for a long weekend or something.
We leave Saturday morning—I have a lot to do before then but I can’t wait!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Memorable Valentine's Days Past
1. 2000: 10th grade, first girlfriend (a senior!), ordered each other carnations from student government to be delivered during homeroom. Unbeknownst to the other, we each quoted Melissa Etheridge in the cards we sent along with them.
2. 2003: First Valentine's Day in love. Cards with every word scrutinized (seriously, I did drafts of my valentine), photo booth pictures, a sushi dinner.
3. 2004: In January I decided that I wasn't going to date anyone until after Valentine's day because how awkward is it to deal with V-day in a new relationship? My sister came to visit. There was a party at my co-op. At about 12:02am on 2/15, after my sister had gone to bed, I end up making out with a party attendee in the living room. We dated on-and-off for the next year and a half.
4. 2005: Things were not going terribly well with the person from #3 (note: now we're friends! probably better friends than we were when we were dating) but we still got it together for hot cocoa and fancy chocolate mice from Burdick's.
5. 2009: My parents sending tulips, a friend driving ~10 hours to visit, drinks and photos, ziti pizza, pretty snow, flannel sheets, religious school, cocoa and conversations, the roommate and I nominating each other for law school awards (hers made me cry), six 3Ls sharing dessert and wine and telling stories of disgusting injuries and accidents, home to bed before midnight.
It might not have been typical, but I felt loved nonetheless.
2. 2003: First Valentine's Day in love. Cards with every word scrutinized (seriously, I did drafts of my valentine), photo booth pictures, a sushi dinner.
3. 2004: In January I decided that I wasn't going to date anyone until after Valentine's day because how awkward is it to deal with V-day in a new relationship? My sister came to visit. There was a party at my co-op. At about 12:02am on 2/15, after my sister had gone to bed, I end up making out with a party attendee in the living room. We dated on-and-off for the next year and a half.
4. 2005: Things were not going terribly well with the person from #3 (note: now we're friends! probably better friends than we were when we were dating) but we still got it together for hot cocoa and fancy chocolate mice from Burdick's.
5. 2009: My parents sending tulips, a friend driving ~10 hours to visit, drinks and photos, ziti pizza, pretty snow, flannel sheets, religious school, cocoa and conversations, the roommate and I nominating each other for law school awards (hers made me cry), six 3Ls sharing dessert and wine and telling stories of disgusting injuries and accidents, home to bed before midnight.
It might not have been typical, but I felt loved nonetheless.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Rituals
1. I generally turn my cell phone off at night before I go to sleep, but only if my roommate is home (because what if she needs to call me? Or what if something scares me and I need to call someone?)
2. I am on two email lists that send out daily messages around midnight. One of them I never read before I go to sleep--it stays in my inbox and I read it in the morning.
3. Specific prayers as I'm turning off my light at night and when I wake up in the morning.
4. Calling my grandmother every week on the walk home from religious school.
5. Putting any change I have at the end of the day into a big cup--when it's full I'm going to donate it (did you know if you donate your change the coin-counting machines at the grocery store and stuff don't charge you a fee?).
2. I am on two email lists that send out daily messages around midnight. One of them I never read before I go to sleep--it stays in my inbox and I read it in the morning.
3. Specific prayers as I'm turning off my light at night and when I wake up in the morning.
4. Calling my grandmother every week on the walk home from religious school.
5. Putting any change I have at the end of the day into a big cup--when it's full I'm going to donate it (did you know if you donate your change the coin-counting machines at the grocery store and stuff don't charge you a fee?).
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Lost
1. Wallet, fall of junior year of college, in the registrar's office at college. They returned it soon after.
2. Keys, winter of my junior year in college, while making a snow angel en route from the co-op I lived in to the co-op the person I was dating at the time lived in. Recovered soon after, with the help of a flashlight.
3. Con law book, spring of 1L year. Since the book is about 1400 pages and about the size of two cinderblocks, not quite sure how I managed to misplace it. Never recovered.
4. Phone, last fall, approximately 72 hours after passing up the opportunity to get a spare one or sign up for loss-protection insurance (switching from an individual plan to a family plan), in an airport shuttle van. Never recovered. Luckily, I still had my old phone, which (despite having a talk time of about 35 minutes between charges, a crappy camera, and an inability to charge while turned off) is built like a brick, a fact I am often grateful for because I drop it probably once a day.
5. Keys, tonight, somewhere between my house and the Kroger checkout line. Not a huge deal--it's easy enough to make a new copy of the house key, I can easily replace my Kroger card, and the only other thing on it was my bike lock key, but yuck. Hopeful it'll be returned.
2. Keys, winter of my junior year in college, while making a snow angel en route from the co-op I lived in to the co-op the person I was dating at the time lived in. Recovered soon after, with the help of a flashlight.
3. Con law book, spring of 1L year. Since the book is about 1400 pages and about the size of two cinderblocks, not quite sure how I managed to misplace it. Never recovered.
4. Phone, last fall, approximately 72 hours after passing up the opportunity to get a spare one or sign up for loss-protection insurance (switching from an individual plan to a family plan), in an airport shuttle van. Never recovered. Luckily, I still had my old phone, which (despite having a talk time of about 35 minutes between charges, a crappy camera, and an inability to charge while turned off) is built like a brick, a fact I am often grateful for because I drop it probably once a day.
5. Keys, tonight, somewhere between my house and the Kroger checkout line. Not a huge deal--it's easy enough to make a new copy of the house key, I can easily replace my Kroger card, and the only other thing on it was my bike lock key, but yuck. Hopeful it'll be returned.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Words I Usually Misspell
1. knowledge
2. receive
3. prejudice
4. judgment
5. indigent and indigenous (yes I know these have very different meanings, and I will be using only one of these frequently in my career. thank goodness for spell-check!)
2. receive
3. prejudice
4. judgment
5. indigent and indigenous (yes I know these have very different meanings, and I will be using only one of these frequently in my career. thank goodness for spell-check!)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Socratic Coping Methods
Three of my four classes this semester use the Socratic Method. That's a form of torture particular to law school, where instead of TELLING the class what he or she would like you to know, the professor instead chooses an unlucky student and asks a series of questions intended to elicit the information. This is very inefficient, and--for the day's victim--more than a little intimidating. Yesterday I got called on in one of my classes and this morning I got called on in another (will I make the perfect trifecta and get questioned in tax today? I'll know in about 2 hours.
So here are my survival tips:
1. Do the reading. And do something (highlighting, margin notes, briefs in a separate document, those little post-it flags, whatever) that enables you to quickly go back through it and answer questions about it.
2. If you haven't done the reading for some reason and you think you might be called on, it's ok to (VERY occasionally) email the professor ahead of time and ask not to be called on that day.
3. Treat the questions like exam questions--spend more time explaining how you reached an answer than what the answer is, combine the law + the facts in a given situation, acknowledge both sides of an issue but choose one you think is better, and BE BRIEF.
4. Don't be afraid to guess. Alternately, after you've guessed for a while, don't be afraid to say "I'm not sure."
5. Most law school exams follow blind grading. Your performance in class isn't going to affect your final grade in class, which is usually based 100% on your exam performance. And even if you think everyone in the class is going to laugh at your mistakes, they probably won't even remember them.
So here are my survival tips:
1. Do the reading. And do something (highlighting, margin notes, briefs in a separate document, those little post-it flags, whatever) that enables you to quickly go back through it and answer questions about it.
2. If you haven't done the reading for some reason and you think you might be called on, it's ok to (VERY occasionally) email the professor ahead of time and ask not to be called on that day.
3. Treat the questions like exam questions--spend more time explaining how you reached an answer than what the answer is, combine the law + the facts in a given situation, acknowledge both sides of an issue but choose one you think is better, and BE BRIEF.
4. Don't be afraid to guess. Alternately, after you've guessed for a while, don't be afraid to say "I'm not sure."
5. Most law school exams follow blind grading. Your performance in class isn't going to affect your final grade in class, which is usually based 100% on your exam performance. And even if you think everyone in the class is going to laugh at your mistakes, they probably won't even remember them.
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