Guess what day it is??!!!

Barrister Ball is tonight! Also known as Law School Prom. It's like high school but so much better.

Fancy dress? Check.
Fancy food? Check
Open bar? Double Check.
Music and dancing? Check and Check.

I never went to my high school prom (Boyfriend broke up with me three days before the dance, that jerk!) so I'm looking at tonight as my chance to make up for it. Plus, it has an open bar so no one even needs to spike the punch.

Me being me, I still hate shopping. I swear I really am a female. I promise! So where did I get my fancy dress? On the Vinted App for $30 bucks. It fits perfect and I don't need to feel bad for buying a dress I'll only wear once because it's used and I can sell it back on the App as well. Boom.

Of course, to make up for the fact that I'm going to be out dancing all night, I had to wake up at six am to work on my brief. Oh law school problems.

My brief is fighting me every step of the way. It's due in two weeks from today and I'm still stuck on researching. I do have a working outline so I don't feel completely incompetent but I feel like I could research ten hours a day for the next two weeks and still not have a handle on the issues. To make it worse, my first oral argument on it is in a week and I'm terrified. The first one is ungraded but I am the very first one. And to make it even worse, I'm representing the Petitioner so I really am the first one to go. Why oh why can't I be one of those aspiring attorneys who like public speaking? I keep thinking that eventually I'll get better at it but it hasn't happened yet. I tried to practice just the opening bit, "May it please the court, my name is _____ and I represent the Petitioner ______." I was in my own home, in my pj's, sitting down and I still started shaking and felt sick. And then I felt ridiculous.

I kinda think that this is why the Barrister's Ball is scheduled when it is. It's after the crazy push to the end begins but not so far into it that we can't take a few hours off to get our minds off of it all.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Zzzzzzzzzzz

How is it that just when I need to sleep the most, my brain has decided that I AM NEVER GOING TO SLEEP AGAIN. This would be fine if I could actually function but no. I'm basically a zombie shuffling from one class to another. I go home and start on my reading but am so tired that I just beg for a nap. Lie down and . . . . nothing. So I get up and go back to my reading, only to be hit by exhaustion again. Lie down and poof. Awake. This happens over and over again.

Last night (day four of less than 4 hours a night) I crawled into bed at 11:30 and tried everything I could think of. Deep breathing meditation, stretching, counting sheep, doing something else, not doing something else and just laying there in the dark. Nada. I didn't fall asleep until after 6am and had to wake up at 8. GAH!

I mean it could be worse. I am somehow keeping up with my readings and have started to work on my appellate brief. (Thanks Redbull!) But it does make me want to punch myself in the brain.

Spring Break!!!

Also known as saving my sanity! Fiancé and I went to Miami to visit a friend from Undergrad and oh my God. You could not possibly understand how amazing it is to hang out with someone who is not in law school. Seriously, it brought my life a much needed perspective change. Now mind you, this perspective change kept me from getting very much school work done. But it was worth it. Plus I did manage to finish my Con Law reading FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER!! And all without having to give up fun time with my friends. I mostly read in the car while we were traveling place to place and a couple times I woke up an hour or so early and read before everyone else got up. I do have a research assignment due next week that I'd hoped to get done by now but eh. I have a couple more days. It was worth it!

Finally saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! 

Coral Rock Museum. This guy was probably certifiably insane but he created amazing sculptures so hopefully he found it worth it. 

Saw a wild alligator for the first time! I'm pretty sure my entire family expected me to see them every time I walked outdoors because just about every conversation starts with them asking me if I'd seen one yet. I can finally say yes, I have seen an alligator. Whew. Oh Washingtonians. 

One reason why I haven't been writing much this month (besides being ridiculously busy) is that my allergies have been kicking my butt. I've always had them but as long as I took my meds, I could still function. Not this year. I actually missed class numerous times because of how bad it was. My eyes were always swollen, my nose ran continuously and I actually sneezed so many times in a row (think 12 to 15 times within 20 seconds) that I ended up choking and inhaling saliva into my lungs. And it stayed that bad for over a month. Understandably, it did not help me focus on law school at all. I remember one particularly bad night where it took me over two hours to read one nine page case. And I had six more cases to read that night. I could barely read the words through my swollen eyes and I went through an entire box of kleenex. It came to the point where I was putting way too much effort in without getting enough out of it. So I put down my casebook and went to bed. It was the only time I've ever gone to class without all or at least most of the reading done and it still amazes me that it somehow worked out because my professor ended up doing a review class. WHEW!

Anyway, I noticed in Miami that my allergies seemed much more manageable. And the pollen count was the same as home. Hmmmm. The second I walked into my house though, I sneezed a dozen times and all my symptoms came right back. So the last couple days I have been focusing on keeping the allergens in my house at bay. I bought an allergen reliever filter for my central ac, used a spray that's supposed to neutralize pet dander, dust mites, mold and pollen and bought two hepa air filters/purifiers. One for my bedroom and one for the living room. Within 24 hours, I was a new woman. I could breathe and concentrate and basically could enjoy life again. With my allergy pill, I feel almost normal. I'd forgotten how much more I can do and how much more fun I am. Trust me, Fiancé is just as glad as I am. No more cranky law student. Well, at least until finals!

We even went out on St Patricks Day. I love the fact that I can bring my dog to the bar because one, she loves it and two, she got to show off her green light up leash. She looked so festive. :P

Best Laid Plans and All

I tried to get caught up this weekend. I really did. And I didn't fail miserably but I didn't really succeed either. Assuming I study until midnight tonight, I should no longer be behind. But I'll have to work my butt off this week to stay that way. It could be worse though! Plus, next week is Spring Break and you would not believe how relieved I am. It could not come at a better time! Of course, I'll have to work on my Appellate Brief the entire time but I should have SOME me time to relax! Whoooooo.

Until then, here's to Redbull and McDonalds.

Told you I'd drop off the face of the earth

It's that part of the semester where I have more and more things to do and have less and less motivation to do ANYTHING. That works about as well as you'd expect it to. Basically, everything ends up taking me three times as long because I keep getting distracted or can't seem to start anything until I literally have no other choice. Even keeping up with the reading is a struggle.

But that stops today. I am putting my foot down.

Today, I am going to class and then I am going to get my outlines caught up. Then I am going to figure out my clerks volunteer assignment and then I'm going to review the tax training because I start tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I am going to man the free tax clinic until one, work on researching for my Appellate brief and hopefully go to a SBA social on the beach. That last one might get cut but I really hope not.

Sunday I will do all the reading for the week for Property and Con law so that next week I can catch up on my clerks assignment.

Boom. I've got a plan. No more stressing which leads to slacking which leads to stressing which leads to . . . well you see where I'm going with this.

I got this. Ready. Set. GO!

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.