You can measure my stress level by the food I eat

I know when I am under too much stress because I start having crazy cravings that I can't ignore. When I start feeling a little frantic or have a bad day, all I want is comfort food. Mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade queso, ravioli with Alfredo sauce. Well you get the idea. 

When the stress gets a little worse and I start having to cut down on my sleep, then I want sugary sweets to give me a little boost. Donuts, ice cream and cupcakes. Oh the cravings I have for cupcakes. 

But when it's do or die time and I'm pounding back the red bull like a champ, well, that's the point that my body goes Yo Stupid! Do you have any idea what you're doing to us?? And that's when I start craving spinach. Or summer squash. Or both. 

I was trying to write the statement of facts section of my Memorandum of Law and all I could think of was veggies. Lots and lots of veggies. I knew I needed to buckle down and NOT go to the store but I couldn't concentrate. Finally I gave in and called my neighbor/friend to see if she had anything fresh and green. Noooope. So I gave in and ran to the store. Just to get spinach. Nothing more. Yeaaaaah. I came home with spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, and green onions. And then I ate and ate and ate. It was fabulous but my memo is no closer to being finished. Sigh. 

I made what I call Caprese Toast which is one of my favorite lunches. I love Caprese salads but as a main meal, they aren't quite enough for me. One day I decided to put it on some italian bread I wanted to get rid of and now I'll never look back. 

I should warn you that if you ever show this to a true Italian, they will want to smack you. This is nothing new to me because I add cream cheese to my spaghetti sauce (GASP) but I don't want anyone to be taken by surprise. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 ripe tomato, sliced 
• 2 slices of italian bread, sliced thin 
• Mozzarella cheese, either shredded or sliced thin. The shredded was on sale so that's what I used this time.  
• Fresh basil roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Garlic salt
• Avocado (optional - sometimes I add it sometimes I don't)

Start by brushing some olive oil on the italian bread and a sprinkle of garlic salt. Go easy with this, we aren't trying to make garlic bread, just add a bit of flavor. Place it on a cookie sheet and broil until brown and crispy. 

Take out of the oven and load it up with cheese. I was running low but usually, I'm a wee bit more generous with the cheese than in the picture. 

Put it back under the broiler until mostly melted, pull it out and turn off the oven. Add the sliced tomato and basil and drizzle some balsamic vinegar over the top. 

Add avocado if wanted and EAT. The avocado does make it a little more of an adventure trying to get it into my mouth in one piece but usually it is so worth it. 

If I set everything out before hand, I have enough time to slice the tomato and avocado while the bread is toasting, so from cupboard to mouth is about five minutes. Even a law student can manage that!

That was less than helpful

So basically every time I talked to someone in career development about what to do this summer, they'd tell me to go to the workshop that was on Friday. So I went.

After three hours, I knew exactly what I'd known before. They spent a full hour on how to write a resume. Half that long on a cover letter. What I really wanted to know was how to find opportunities for volunteer work or even something paid. (Yeah, I know. Long shot but a girl can dream.) I've already had two meetings with career development to go over my resumes and such. The workshop was nothing new.

A few weeks ago, career development was pushing a judicial internship on me for this summer but my scholarship wouldn't cover my tuition for it and really, I could do it during the year just as well. Once I decided it wasn't for me for the summer, I've had no feedback on what to do now.

Considering how hands on my school has been up to now, I feel a little frustrated.

Who says Law School isn't fun?

That awesome moment in Torts when we're all talking about exploding heads and falling body parts and our professor comes up with this gem:

For wrongful death claims, under the common law, the liability ends with the person who died. So it's much better to kill them than to merely harm them. And for that matter, if you're going to negligently kill someone, kill lots and lots and lots. You won't be held liable. Instead of the slogan "vote early, vote often," in tort law it's kill early kill often. 

This explains so much about torts.

Too many things to do, not enough time

If I fall off the face of the earth for a few days, don't be surprised. I have got a TON of things to do the next two weeks and I have no idea how I will manage to do them all. 

Actually, I have one idea on how to do it all. Stop sleeping. 

It's a combination of three R&W assignments due next week (two of which were only assigned today), career development workshops, a networking shindig, and the admissions department wants me to help with the scholars retreat. The same scholars retreat that convinced me to move 3,500 miles to go to law school in Florida. Oh and various meetings scattered throughout. 

Now obviously, only the R&W assignments are mandatory. The career development workshop is highly advised and as I desperately need to figure out what to do this summer, well, I'd better go. The networking thing I would gladly skip but I RSVP'd long before my schedule got so wonky so I am stuck. And as to the scholars retreat, well that is the ONLY thing I actually want to do. So I will. Even though it is the same day my second memo is due. Here's to an all-nighter!!! 

Oh did I also mention Fiancé is leaving to go back to Washington and I don't know when he'll be back? Boooooo. 

I am really not going to enjoy the next ten days. Wish me luck!! 

Suiting Up

Yesterday was the first day that I looked and the mirror and wasn't taken aback to see myself in a suit. Now it's undoubtedly because I've worn one so often during the last two weeks for the Wills Event but still. It was a big moment. I wonder if I would feel strange in scrubs now? I definitely miss the pockets in scrubs. I'm pretty sure I'd be able to fit at least one of my casebooks in there and you can't do that in a suit!

I do have a question for the ladies though. (Men can chime in too, no judging here) I've only been able to get my nylons to last through two days before getting a run or my toes breaking through. Is this normal? I hardly want to have to buy a new pair every other day so I'm really hoping there is a trick to getting them last longer.
How long do they last for you? Is there a magic hose secret I don't know about?

Professors want to make us work for it

I'm pretty much used to the fact that I can be cold called at any point in a class. I almost never am called on, but I am used to the fact that I could be. What I am not used to is the professors who like to make us come up to the front of the class for one reason or another. Sometimes it's to argue one side against another classmate who takes the other side. Sometimes it's to work out hypos or explain a topic. We had to do it in Criminal Law too but I somehow managed to not get called on for that.

It caught up to me in Property today. I was lucky in that I just had to go through one hypo and part of one case but I'm still hoping it'll let me off the hook for awhile. It wasn't too bad. Apparently I spoke too fast and I had to go over the hypo again but I had a group up there so we all took turns. All in all, not a horrible experience.

But I still miss undergrad lecture style classes.

Oh, and about the fact that I'm almost never called on. I've found that those in the back row get called on the most. The middle rows in the middle of the room get called on almost as often and the middle front row after that. I sit in the very front row on the side and I almost never get called on. I do raise my hand and volunteer sometimes but that's a whole different beast than being called on out of the blue.

I'm helping Mom