It's a Monday all right

Wow. Work is kicking my butt today. My back is killing me, my right knee keeps giving out and my feet hurt.

I love being a caregiver. I really do. However, I do not understand how some people do this for their whole working life.  My body feels shot just for doing it as long as I have. I come home and plug in my heating pad before I even kiss fiancé hello. 

I'm in my twenties! 

One of my coworkers has worked as a CNA for decades. Good lord. 

It doesn't help that one of our favorite residents, the one we called Princess, passed away last night. Our routine is shot and we keep looking for her. 

I'm ready to call it a day. Can I go home yet?

Fiancé and I playing leap frog

Well that is an interesting title. What I am trying to say is that fiance and I have basically played a weird game of leap frog with our education. We met at the local community college but I graduated a year before he did. Both the universities that we wanted to attend were out of town so I went back to the workforce and waited for him to catch up. Then we went on to the University together. However, he decided he wanted three degrees and a minor is Russian. Yes, there is something wrong with that boy. So yet again, I graduated before him. By this point, we had already bought a house together and my moving to attend a law school without him did not make sense on either a financial or logistic standpoint.

Here I am waiting on him again. Out in the big bad world trying to earn a living. How is this a game of leap frog? I mean so far is seems more like a game of the tortoise and the hare. Where the hare keeps stopping for the tortoise to catch up. The leap frogging comes in play in that fiance really, really wants to go to law school. However, when we stopped to think about it, the idea of both of us going through 1L at the same time made us realize that one of us would end up dead. If you have ever seen our house during undergrad finals, you would understand what I mean. We basically stop talking to each other and neither of us study at home. Sometimes it gets bad enough that one of us sleeps on the couch. Oh, and our house looks like it should be condemned. Or possibly fumigated. Garbage can? Oh hell, that is too far away. Yet another McDonald's bag on the coffee table. Yep, it just fell to the floor. Oops.

Since I have already spent two years waiting on him in order to continue my education, I get to start law school first. Lucky me?

We haven't decided yet whether he will wait until I graduate to start or if he will start a year or two after I do. A large part of that decision will be based on whether he gets a decent job in the city we move to. If he does, it makes more financial sense for him to work and help keep my loans down. I will do the same for him once he starts law school. Another consideration is whether he wants to go to the same law school I do. Unfortunately, I am the only one who has seen the school and the area. It is on the east coast and the farthest east he's ever been was Wyoming. Yes, we are most definitely west coast kids. He may hate it there. He may hate the school. As he hasn't taken the Lsat yet, the law school may be below or above him.

So we'll decide on when he starts law school later. Either way, we are planning on leap frogging our way through this.

Ribbet. Ribbet.   

Last Prospective Law School Shindig

So fiancé and I drove up to our hometown this weekend for an admitted students weekend.

It's been really fun for a couple reasons. First of all, I could bring a guest so fiancé finally got to experience the law school madness with me. Even though I am the one starting law school this fall, I can't see how I'm not going to be bringing it home with me. Why not ease him into it now? As it turned out, he was more excited about talking about the law than I was. At the reception, we ended up talking to the Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court. Super exciting all on its own. However, as I'm standing there telling myself not to say anything stupid, super fiancé boy jumps right in and starts talking to her about a case we read in one of our classes. Come to find out, SHE wrote that opinion. Whoa. Thanks to my plus one, I got to hear about the behind the scenes decision making that occurred on that case. It was amazing! 

Free food and wine never hurts either. 

The next morning they fed us again and then we got to watch the finals of the moot court competition. I actually found it fascinating and fun. However, I can not picture myself ever doing it. My heart was beating fast just by watching people I did not know walk up to the podium. 

Will law school finally break my fear of public speaking? 

After the competition, they fed us yet again and gave us a bunch of free stuff! Coffee mugs, coffee, chocolate and salad shakers all plastered with their law school's name. Hey, I'll take it. 

Then fiancé and I went back to our hotel and turned into sloths. Relying on Netflix is great on the wallet but there is something to be said about laying in bed all afternoon channel surfing. 

All in all, a much better weekend than last weekend! It pretty much had to be but I'm glad we got away for a break from real life. Whooo

What am I thinking?

I thought that once I made a law school decision, I could relax for a few more months.

But then I google mapped my route to my soon to be new home. 

And now I'm shaking on the couch. 

Am I really ready to move 3,304 miles away? Could I move any farther? What am I thinking? This is a crazy idea. 

Guys, I am terrified. I got accepted into the law school seven miles away. I even got a decent scholarship. I COULD go there. I wouldn't have to sell my house, I wouldn't drag my fiancé, dog and two cats across the country. I could still become an attorney and undoubtedly, still work in elder law. But no, that would be too easy. 

Or maybe I am too stubborn. I want to give myself the best possible chance to work in elder law. The schools on this coast aren't going to give me that. I'll get hands on experience, a concentration, a journal on aging, and dozens of elder law classes. Including one in my first year. 

In order to get all that, I need to move. 

Anyone happen to have any advice on moving across country? Should I sell everything and buy new? Uhaul my stuff? How do I get my pets there safely and comfortably? 

You don't always get what you want

I was waiting to make my decision until I heard back about the second scholarship from the Tier 1. Today I received the email telling me I had not made the cut. %*#&$&@!!!

I know it was a long shot but I was still hoping. My essay was amazing! It was probably the best I've ever written. I REALLY wanted to get that scholarship and I really liked the idea of going to that school.

However, I just can not justify the price tag associated with that Tier 1. Even with the half tuition scholarship I did received, it would still be over 120,000. That's insane. Even if the job market was healthy (it's not) and the field I want to go into high paying (it's not), it would still be insane. I do not think I can pay that debt back.

So Tier 2/3, ready or not, here I come.

Piglets!

The piglets are eating!! Yay! 

Too much!

Wow. It has been one hell of a weekend. It should have been easy.  Get off work on Thursday, drive to the airport and then fly down to Cali for a quick vacation from real life. 

Instead, I had a God Awful day at work and had to stay late. All because my (former) coworker decided to pull a no call no show. Which left me to do all the work. Classy. 

When I finally made it home, my fiancé received a phone call from his mother asking us to drive to her house IMMEDIATELY. She was at the hospital with a dying family member and had just been told that their barn and shop had burned down. No one knew if the horses, pigs or other animals were okay and we lived the closest to go check it out. 

I frantically threw some clothes into my suitcase and we made the hour long drive in half that. 

This what we found. 

This truck is parked three feet from their house. Amazingly, it is fine but it was a seriously close call!

The horses survived but they lost a couple pigs, including  the momma pig. However, while we were there, we heard the baby piglets squealing from under the trough!! We found five of them and then we spent an hour trying to herd them into the sheep pen. The poor confused things were convinced we were trying to turn them into bacon. They'd had a rough day. 

The larger pig is the babies big sister. She's a little scorched but seems amazingly tolerant that her siblings keep trying to nurse on her. 

It could have been so much worse but it was still pretty bad. A years worth of hay and animal feed is gone, most of my father in law's machinery (with which he earns his living) is destroyed, all saddles, halters, and other horse accessories are gone. Not to mention, Christmas decorations, photo albums and other family mementos were stored in the shop.  However, their house is fine and only two animals were killed. Not to mention, nobody was home so they didn't get harmed. 

It could have been MUCH worse. 

Eventually I realized I had to leave for the scholars weekend in California. 

Once I was safe on the plane, I realized my throat hurt. It was probably the smoke, or the airplane, or the stress. Right? Right???

No. 

I managed to catch a cold. By the time I landed, I was miserable. 

All I wanted to do was get to my hotel and take a nap. Instead I had to get dressed up and go eat fancy food. Not the worst thing in the world, but not very fun either. 

I am having a hard time focusing on the law school right now. There are all these events on what this school has to offer but all I want to do is go home and be with my family.