Elder Law Stuff

So I was finally allowed to apply for the elder law concentration! My school doesn't allow us to apply to any concentration until after we finish the first year but I must have been vocal and active enough with my love of elder law because the professor told me to go ahead and apply now so I can get preference for my classes next fall. Whooooo. This is very good because my school does a bidding system so you rank one class as your top choice, another as your second and so on. You're pretty much guaranteed to get your top couple choices but the others are a crap shoot. However, if you are certified in a concentration, you get any of those requirements right off the bat. So you can put them dead last and rank the other ones you want higher. Boom!


Whoops. I wrote this WEEKS ago but apparently never got around to posting it. 

Since I wrote the bit above, we had a bit of drama. The registrar's office didn't send it to the Elder Law Coordinator because they forgot there was a reason why I was submitting it early. (We did tell them, they just forgot.) Only I didn't know they hadn't sent it. So on the day that bids were due, I wrote the coordinator and asked if there was a problem with my application. Well, yes, of course there was, they hadn't received it. So I ran over to the Registrar's office where the secretary was like "Oh my god! You're right, I totally forgot to pass that message on with your application! Oh me. Oh my." Then I found out that the lady who had the application was out of the office for the week for a conference and couldn't send it until she came back. (Long after bids were due.) I must have looked upset because the secretary promised to text the lady in charge and see if she could send it sooner. Well, I figured that was a long shot so I completely reordered my bids and hoped to get into at least a couple of the elder law classes. 45 minutes before bids were due, I get an email saying the application had been sent to the elder law center. 7 minutes after that, I got the email that I had been accepted into the elder law concentration. BOOM. Reordered my bids in the last few minutes and submitted them.

We all got our fall schedules today and I got every single class I bid on. Most of my 1L friends are all on at least one wait list if not more. DOUBLE BOOM.

My schedule isn't as bad as the other's either!

All 2L's have to take Professional Responsibilities at 8:30 in the morning (YUCK!!) but many of the other classes are scheduled anywhere from 10am to 10pm. And if you happen to want a class that is only available at 8pm, well your day is going to be a mess. And nobody seemed able to make a schedule that didn't have at least a 3 hour gap somewhere. Gaps = death. Half the time you force yourself to stay on campus and then are exhausted by the time class finally rolls around and the other half you give up and go home. Half of those times you end up taking a nap and don't make it back to school. That gap gives you a 1 in 4 chance of skipping class. Yikes!

However, I have no long gaps; a couple twenty minute ones and one hour long break at lunch time. Totally doable.

My schedule will be three classes on M/W from 8:30 am to 2:40 pm and then only one class on T/Th from 6pm to 8pm. I need that late class because it's a prerequisite to basically every other elder law class but since I was able to load all my other classes onto M/W I don't need to worry about any crazy long gap. I'm sure I will absolutely hate myself when it comes to reading for all three classes for Mondays and Wednesdays but my only other choice was to take a class T/Th from 10 noon and then come back at 6pm. I know myself well enough to know that I would make really stupid life choices with a schedule like that.

Basically, my schedule is better than I could have hoped for. Much much better than most!

Oh, and since I'm only taking four classes, I did enroll in a weekend course. My school has a few of these 1 credit classes where they are only one weekend long and then you are done. We'll have to see how it goes but I've heard great things about the one I signed up for and it should actually be useful.

Now back to studying for finals.

Last day of classes!

To anyone who is reading this blog before their first year of law school, this next sentence is for you. Your 1L year will fly by so ridiculously fast, you won't even be able to understand it. How did this happen? I don't even know. I'm thinking magic.

Yesterday was my very last day of classes of my 1L year. Once I get through finals (assuming I do) I will be 1/3rd of the way through my law school career. Crazy.

It was a little bittersweet sitting with all my section mates yesterday knowing that we will all be moving on to different classes next fall. We've spent a lot of time together this last year. It's funny, I know many of these people better than I know many of my friends. Even the classmates I never spoke to outside of class. Law school is a funny beast.

Anyway, I need to get cracking on my con law outline. There will be time for nostalgia after finals!

Lexis gets me, Lexis understands

Lexis was giving out free t-shirts today and I couldn't resist. 

I'd like that super-sized please.

I'm spending the day at a cafe/coffee shop trying to catch up on Property. They sells normal sized cupcakes, the ones you'd make at home in a normal muffin pan.

This family just came in and ooohed and ahhhhed about the "baby cupcakes" and how cute they were. They ultimately decided that everyone (including the five year old) would get two or three cupcakes because they were so small.

This is why Americans are so fat compared to the rest of the world.

I can't even

I belong to one of the local bar associations and as of yet, I haven't heard a thing from them since I paid my dues. Until today. I just received a very nice invitation to a charity networking dinner. The cheapest seat way in the back without any benefits of going is $250 per person. The most expensive is $15,000. Yes, fifteen THOUSAND dollars.  Maybe I just run in different circles or maybe I am just a poor broke law student but either way, what the heck??!! Do you really need that much validation to prove that you are important? I could almost see it if the charity was on some big social issue but it's mostly for the bar association and to pay the attorneies who work for legal services. Something seems off about this. 

Am I over thinking this?

Well, at least I was honest

So I was going through my Property notes so I could figure out just how much I had to catch up on for finals and I found this gem. In vivid red. I really don't remember typing this but at least past me was looking out for future me. Now I know to go back and figure all this out.  

Thanks past me!!

What has law school done to me???

Okay, so we just had our last real class of Con Law today and I realized I made it all the way through the semester without being cold called. In fact, I never spoke once in that class. And as I was patting myself on the back I realized two things.

One -  The socratic method isn't really as hard core as everyone makes it sound. (Or I just have really lazy professors)

Two -  I kind of regret not being called on more. I mean, I'd hate it and I'd get the answers wrong and then hate myself. But I haven't gotten any better at speaking because I've almost never had to try. Maybe five or six times this ENTIRE year. Now, do I know that being cold called on often would help? Well no. But I also don't know that it wouldn't have helped.

I don't even know who I am anymore!!