How law school has affected me!

So the other night I'm sitting here catching up on Boston Legal, one of my favorite tv shows, (sad it's over :( ) and suddenly the things they were saying were really irritating me because it could never be true. So I can't remember them all but the number one thing was when Jerry found a case that was totally on point for Allen's argument to the U.S. Supreme Court and said "it's not binding". Well..... no case can ever be binding on the Supreme Court because in order to be binding it has to be from the same jurisdiciton, district, circuit, etc. and has to come from a higher court. Well last I checked the highest court in the U.S. is the Supreme Court so no case can ever be binding. So this is how law school has changed me. I can no longer just watch a tv show and enjoy it, now I analyze everything they say. R has threatened to stop watching any law tv shows with me if I continue to analyze everything because then she doesn't enjoy it.... So I guess I'll have to start watching them when she isn't around, get it all out of my system, and then watch them with her when she gets home and just keep quiet... :)

Other things that law school has done for me is to overanalyze things. I know, anyone who knows me in person knows that I already did this and is thinking to themselves, what is she talking about. Well... people... It's worse. Now every word that someone says I analyze and come up with opposing viewpoints. I don't know how to describe it, but even R says it is worse and sometimes just wishes I would shut up. I question everything more than ever before.

So perhaps all of this is a good sign in the sense that maybe I grasped more this time around. But it just may be a bad sign for everyone else since they have to put up with me. :)

Finals are OVER!!!!

I feel fairly good about finals. Not getting excited about it though. Now I'm stuck playing the waiting game. Hopefully that game doesn't take too long as I can't stand the waiting.

1 down 4 to go - Finals time

So today as I sit here with the start of a cold looming over me I wonder, "why did I decide to put myself through this torture again?" Studying consumes my life and when I'm not studying I feel guilty thinking I should be studying. But sometimes you study so much you don't even know what is left to study and then you get to the final and realize that one topic you didn't study for..... ughhh!!!!!

But I must say that last night's final felt pretty good. I'm probably going to stress about it until I get my grades, but I think I did pretty good.

Tomorrow night's final is my worry, but I feel that I have prepared myself as best as I can so now I just need to give this cold some serious rest so that I can make it through studying and preparing for all of the remaining finals.

Law School Musical

This really speaks for itself!!!!

Returning Lessons Learned

So, for anyone who comes across this blog and is thinking to themselves, I'm lost, I don't know what I am supposed to be doing, etc.... All they tell you is that you should read and brief cases, create your outlines and just learn everything..... What they don't tell you is below.....

First of all, I am a returning student because I didn't quite get it the first time around so now I am required to take an extra class on Friday evenings that basically teaches you everything they didn't teach you in law school. So here it goes....

• When they say to read and brief cases they mean it.

Don't just get the canned outlines and think it is going to be enough. Don't get me wrong, canned outlines can be helpful, though I personally do not use them, they can be a good guide for what you are supposed to get from the case, but you need more. You need to be able to determine how each case expands/modifies/clarifies the general rule of law. You need to be able to use that information to synthesize that rule of law (something you should be learning about in your legal research and writing class as well).

• Don't think that the general rule of law is enough

Expand upon that rule of law. Apparently just stating the general rule of law will get you a C or maybe a B on the final. Being able to expand upon that on the final will get you the A.

• Outlines

An outline is not what you normally think of an outline being very very brief. Outlining means taking the main topics, i.e. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, puting the general rule of law and then giving examples of what constitutes IIED and what does not and then formulating the more specific rule of law from that. The outline should get down to exactly what you would write on the final so that you can memorize that rule of law with factual patterns and then be able to apply it to the situations presented on the final

• Both sides

This is actually what got me in the most trouble the first time around. In Torts I totally understood that you should write the claim that may exist, the definition of that claim, how you can prove that claim and then the defenses and what supports those defenses. Though I only got a B the first time around in Torts that relates to not having a more specific rule of law written out I believe. But where I failed was in Contracts because I didn't state the different points of view on the contract questions, I just went with one view. So keep in mind for all tests that there will be contrasting points of view for every class in which you have essay exams. So for example in Contracts, it would be the Traditional view, Modern View, and any defenses available.

Hurricane Ike

So here we are, 5 days after the hurricane came through town and everything is just getting back to normal. We are fine, minimal damage, but still without power. Overall I must say that we are lucky. So many people lost so much, even just a couple of houses away they had a tree fall on their house. It's really amazing and sad.

School has returned to normal. Thought for sure we would have at least the week after to recover, but school started Wednesday. Its actually a good thing so that we are not far behind and playing catchup as badly.

Friday night school is kinda cool. It is all about how to outline for the classes and how to take the exams. Too bad the hurricane got in the way of a couple of weeks of that class.

Well more to report later.

Second Week's Over

Well I made it through the second week of classes. I'm even ahead of the reading, so why in the world should I feel so stressed out? Perhaps I'm worried about failing, missing something important, creating my outline, money, finding time for studying, money..... who knows.

Overall I'm finding all of my professors to be AWESOME. Only one is questionable, but even she is really good at explaining materials.

I realized today though that keeping up with my cycling while in law school may not be possible. I have done the MS150 a couple of times, but it is a two-day ride and I'm thinking that giving up an entire weekend while in school is just not going to be a good idea. One of the MS150's is actually right next to finals. I'll still be riding, just probably not all the major rides I was doing. I've found that when I get home it is a GREAT stress releasor for me to go ride for an hour or so. Hopefully I can keep that up.

I have learned that people do not necessarily understand just how much studying is involved with law school. My partner thinks that since I am "home more" than she is that I can take care of "interviewing" contractors for additional housework, friends think I can go do anything with them since I'm not working....

Oh, one more thing I forgot about..... Since I am a "returning" student starting over (because I missed the GPA by .02 points the last time around) I have to attend classes on Friday evenings from 5-7 p.m. That combined with the program I want to do on Saturdays from 12 - 3:30, yeah, I have just so much "free time"....

Well enough about that.... More another time.

Miscellaneous thoughts

So before I left my job to become a poor, very poor, law school student a co-worker asked me if I was going to have a blog. At the time I thought, well that's crazy, I have a livejournal account I don't even use so why a blog account too. Since then I have spent the last few weeks thinking about that and what exactly would be the difference between a blog and a livejournal. I still don't really have an answer to the difference between the two, but have thought about making them different for myself. So that has brought me to this blog which I hope will be about the trials and tribulations around law school.



A little bit about me, but not too much you know...... This is actually my second time around for law school. The first time was one year ago when I stupidly thought I could still work full-time, have a life (at least somewhat) and go to law school part-time in the evenings. Boy was I mistaken. I missed making it to the second semester by .02 points and was forced into taking at least one semester off. During that time I reflected on many many things, what did I do wrong, why did I think I could work, how can I afford not to work, etc....... But mostly I tried to clear my mind of what happened and only focus on getting into a position so I could return as a full-time student who doesn't work.

Thanks to a wonderful person that I am lucky to have in my life, I do not have to work this time around. I must say that the no work thing is VERY hard to get used to. Not even really about not having a paycheck and not being able to do everything I was used to being able to do money wise, but more about lack of availability for things such as e-mail and phone calls.

So this semester I'm taking 3 classes I've already taken and 2 that I've never taken. Even the classes I've already taken are different which is good so that I can hopefully stay a little focused in class. I find myself very fascinated with everything I am reading and hope it stays that way. :)

Well enough of an introductory post.