Merry Christmas Everyone!
I'm still waiting on Fiancé to wake up so we can open our stockings. We limited our gifts to only stockings this year but really, that's my favorite part anyway. My Grandma continued to send me a stocking every year even after I moved to Florida but told me that this year, she couldn't. I promptly told her "No problem Grandma" and then got off the phone and told Fiancé that I've made him a stocking for 6 years now and if he didn't make me one, I'd cry. Luckily enough, he thought it was a great idea. YAY! I'm on a 30 year streak of always getting a Christmas stocking!
It's still feels strange to celebrate Christmas in a place where there is zero chance of snow. And this is from a person who hates snow! I went through it last year but this is the first time Fiancé is experiencing a December where is still occasionally gets to 80 degrees out. Everything just seems off. The street lights are all decorated with light up trees and bells and such and people string lights on their palm trees but it just doesn't feel right. I wonder how long it will take before this feels normal?
On the other hand, our hometown is getting buried in snow. My Facebook is covered with pictures of half covered cars, car wrecks and snowmen. Brrrrrr. Actually, my hometown has had much too much extreme weather this last year. Over the summer, they had one of the worst fire seasons in ages. My niece and nephew couldn't go outside for weeks because there was so much smoke. Then right before Thanksgiving, they had the worst wind storm on record. Hundreds of thousands of people without power for days. My mom and stepdad were without power for a week and my aunt's roof blew off. Crazy. It was kind of funny trying to explain the damage to my Florida friends down here. To them, the wind gusts seemed extreme but not hurricane extreme and they pretty much universally decided that the power company must have really sucked to let all these people go without power for so long. I tried to explain to them that Pine trees don't react to wind the same way Palm trees do and a single tree can take out blocks worth of power, but they just couldn't comprehend it. Eh. To each their own. I know I'm going to panic the first time I have to sit through a hurricane so I can't talk too much smack.
Anyway, I'm off to go make us brunch, have a great Christmas!
Friday, December 25, 2015
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Digging us out of a hole
I bet you thought that if I hid from the blogging world for months, I'd come back and blog about law school. (The blog is called Taking On Law School after all) But you would think wrong.
I'm going to talk about finances and confess how Fiancé and I dug ourselves into a hole this last year that we now have to find a way out of. Between Fiancé bouncing back and forth across the entire nation due to family issues, unexpected unemployment, one surgery (mine), one significant back injury (his) and the feast and famine aspect of living off my student loan check twice a year, well, we put more debt on credit cards than any one couple should ever have. This last month has been the worst in the seven years we've been together. Fiancé injured his back in November and couldn't work for two weeks. In the almost eight years I've known him, he's called in sick one time. ONCE. Since we were already living paycheck to paycheck to pay back everything from my surgery and me not being able to work for awhile, this knocked us out of the game. For the first time in my life, I had to borrow rent money. We immediately cut every bill we possibly could, stopped buying food and canceled Christmas. I also doubled my work hours two weeks before finals. I had to do what I had to do and I wanted to avoid living in my car more than I wanted good grades. We shall see how that panned out next week when grades are released.
The good news is that 1) Fiance is now back at work and 2) it made us realize that we stopped looking at our finances just because it scared us.
So here is our new plan for 2016 -
GOAL ONE: Stop Eating Out - Now, in a funny turn of events, grabbing Mcdonalds too much last semester kind of saved our butt this last month but not exactly in a good way. In September, I did my normal batch cooking for the semester but rarely had the motivation to actually cook out of it. So when it came time to stop buying things cold turkey, we had over ten casseroles in the freezer, 8 crockpot meals and numerous sides. Why didn't we eat them before? Because I was lazy. However, when I went back and looked at how much we spent on fast food, we easily could have managed to pay our rent last month. So POOF. No more eating out.
GOAL TWO: Batch Cook Easy Cheap Meals - I'm thinking lots and lots of dump chicken meals with enough ground beef meals to keep us sane. If I remember in the morning, I can dump it in the crockpot. If I don't, I can dump it in the oven. Either way, we need to stop treating ourselves with food just because we had a bad day.
GOAL THREE: Work More Hours - This is something we're both committed to. Fiancé just got a second job and will be working 6 days a week, over 60 hours a week. I'm still in school but I'm going to keep my hours higher for as long as my boss will let me. I'm volunteering for every extra assignment I can and it seems to be helping. By working more, we will hopefully be able to dig ourselves out of this debt mess and save for the next big emergency.
GOAL FOUR: Stop Being A Crutch For The Other - One reason we go in this mess is that when my surgery happened, Fiancé was working. So I relied on him to pay my half of the bills. Then when Fiancé lost his job, I had just gotten my financial aid money. We obviously have no problem covering each other (we are getting married after all) but we sort of stopped dividing bills. A big bill would come up and one would pay it without the other having any clue how much we were spending. We used to be pretty good with a budget but this last year has just been so crazy, there was no way to budget so we stopped trying. Now that things are slightly more stable, it's time to get back to it. So this week, we finally sat down and went through every bill we have and taped it to the living room wall. Our goal is to have both of us split all our bills so one, my loans aren't covering two people when it's meant to cover one, and two, my loan money doesn't run out like it did this semester.
GOAL FIVE: Keep Our Bills Low - When we crashed and burned, we went and stopped all the bills that are nice to have but not necessary. Netflix, kindle unlimited, knitting software and my wine club went out the window and I have no intention of getting them back until we pay off our credit cards. Those ten dollars or less a month bills are sneaky. Half of them, I didn't even remember we had! Good grief.
GOAL SIX: Pay Off Credit Cards - Now I'm not sure how long this one will take us but I'd like to at least double our current payment plan. It would be awesome to pay them off in 2016 but with two people making less than 10 dollars an hour, that might not be possible. We will have to see.
Now this whole post is all about the things we did wrong. However, we did do some things right. Right before this latest catastrophe, I applied for a bunch more scholarships and I was just informed last week that I got an additional $5,000 a year scholarship. Added to my previous scholarships, this basically means I don't pay tuition anymore. YAY!! Another thing I did to help avoid this mess was when Fiancé was unemployed, I got a paying job. Yes, I still have my unpaid internship too so it's been a tricky balance but it was really the only thing that kept us going as long as we did. I'm so so glad that I didn't wait until we were broke to do this because by then it would have been much too late.
What do you guys do to cut spending?
EDITED TO ADD - I literally just hit publish and I get a text from Fiancé with the news that they're cutting his hours at work again. UGH. Sometimes we just can't win.
UPDATE: Click HERE to see how I did after six months (or so).
I'm going to talk about finances and confess how Fiancé and I dug ourselves into a hole this last year that we now have to find a way out of. Between Fiancé bouncing back and forth across the entire nation due to family issues, unexpected unemployment, one surgery (mine), one significant back injury (his) and the feast and famine aspect of living off my student loan check twice a year, well, we put more debt on credit cards than any one couple should ever have. This last month has been the worst in the seven years we've been together. Fiancé injured his back in November and couldn't work for two weeks. In the almost eight years I've known him, he's called in sick one time. ONCE. Since we were already living paycheck to paycheck to pay back everything from my surgery and me not being able to work for awhile, this knocked us out of the game. For the first time in my life, I had to borrow rent money. We immediately cut every bill we possibly could, stopped buying food and canceled Christmas. I also doubled my work hours two weeks before finals. I had to do what I had to do and I wanted to avoid living in my car more than I wanted good grades. We shall see how that panned out next week when grades are released.
The good news is that 1) Fiance is now back at work and 2) it made us realize that we stopped looking at our finances just because it scared us.
So here is our new plan for 2016 -
GOAL ONE: Stop Eating Out - Now, in a funny turn of events, grabbing Mcdonalds too much last semester kind of saved our butt this last month but not exactly in a good way. In September, I did my normal batch cooking for the semester but rarely had the motivation to actually cook out of it. So when it came time to stop buying things cold turkey, we had over ten casseroles in the freezer, 8 crockpot meals and numerous sides. Why didn't we eat them before? Because I was lazy. However, when I went back and looked at how much we spent on fast food, we easily could have managed to pay our rent last month. So POOF. No more eating out.
GOAL TWO: Batch Cook Easy Cheap Meals - I'm thinking lots and lots of dump chicken meals with enough ground beef meals to keep us sane. If I remember in the morning, I can dump it in the crockpot. If I don't, I can dump it in the oven. Either way, we need to stop treating ourselves with food just because we had a bad day.
GOAL THREE: Work More Hours - This is something we're both committed to. Fiancé just got a second job and will be working 6 days a week, over 60 hours a week. I'm still in school but I'm going to keep my hours higher for as long as my boss will let me. I'm volunteering for every extra assignment I can and it seems to be helping. By working more, we will hopefully be able to dig ourselves out of this debt mess and save for the next big emergency.
GOAL FOUR: Stop Being A Crutch For The Other - One reason we go in this mess is that when my surgery happened, Fiancé was working. So I relied on him to pay my half of the bills. Then when Fiancé lost his job, I had just gotten my financial aid money. We obviously have no problem covering each other (we are getting married after all) but we sort of stopped dividing bills. A big bill would come up and one would pay it without the other having any clue how much we were spending. We used to be pretty good with a budget but this last year has just been so crazy, there was no way to budget so we stopped trying. Now that things are slightly more stable, it's time to get back to it. So this week, we finally sat down and went through every bill we have and taped it to the living room wall. Our goal is to have both of us split all our bills so one, my loans aren't covering two people when it's meant to cover one, and two, my loan money doesn't run out like it did this semester.
GOAL FIVE: Keep Our Bills Low - When we crashed and burned, we went and stopped all the bills that are nice to have but not necessary. Netflix, kindle unlimited, knitting software and my wine club went out the window and I have no intention of getting them back until we pay off our credit cards. Those ten dollars or less a month bills are sneaky. Half of them, I didn't even remember we had! Good grief.
GOAL SIX: Pay Off Credit Cards - Now I'm not sure how long this one will take us but I'd like to at least double our current payment plan. It would be awesome to pay them off in 2016 but with two people making less than 10 dollars an hour, that might not be possible. We will have to see.
Now this whole post is all about the things we did wrong. However, we did do some things right. Right before this latest catastrophe, I applied for a bunch more scholarships and I was just informed last week that I got an additional $5,000 a year scholarship. Added to my previous scholarships, this basically means I don't pay tuition anymore. YAY!! Another thing I did to help avoid this mess was when Fiancé was unemployed, I got a paying job. Yes, I still have my unpaid internship too so it's been a tricky balance but it was really the only thing that kept us going as long as we did. I'm so so glad that I didn't wait until we were broke to do this because by then it would have been much too late.
What do you guys do to cut spending?
EDITED TO ADD - I literally just hit publish and I get a text from Fiancé with the news that they're cutting his hours at work again. UGH. Sometimes we just can't win.
UPDATE: Click HERE to see how I did after six months (or so).
Thursday, October 8, 2015
No, I'm not dead
At least, I don't think I am. Can law school be considered Hell?
I've been having a hard time being motivated this year. Not just to update my blog but with everything. I'm kind of doing the bare minimum right now to get by in class and I am spending way too much time just messing around on the internet.
Life as a 2L - How is it different than 1L year?
The all encompassing aura of fear has dissipated. And not just for me but for everyone. The 1L gunners have mostly quieted down and most of us just want to get through this so we can move on. More people have stopped reading than ever before. Professors do not cold call as much and it almost feels more like an undergrad class. I personally still read for every class but I've basically stopped taking notes beforehand and just fill in my outline during class. Do I understand the material as well as I did last year? Well, no. But I have much more free time. Is it worth it? Undetermined.
The amount of out of class work has skyrocketed. Many of us are on an executive board of at least one club, sometimes more. (I'm on the Elder Law one of course!) We have internships or jobs or are looking for an internship or a job. And we are doing more pro bono work. All of this takes away from our classes and we just have to make it work and hope for the best.
The new baby 1L's look to us for advice. This is probably my favorite part of being a 2L. I tell them not to freak out. Stop taking five pages of notes for every case and no, you do not need to highlight EVERYTHING. It's great.
We're no longer in sections so I am meeting so many other people. As a 1L, you have all your classes with the same 65 or so students. Now I have classes with other 2L's and 3L's. In my Wills class, I'm pretty much the only 2L.
Now that I'm officially in the Elder Law Concentration, I have certain events, office requirements and pro bono opportunities that I have to do. Some of them are a pain but for the most part, I love being surrounded by other students who are interested in the same area I am. Of course, next week when I am stuck in a suit every other day in order to volunteer at a conference, I may not feel the same. But we'll see.
Basically, 2L year is surprisingly different than my first year but all in all, I like it better.
I've been having a hard time being motivated this year. Not just to update my blog but with everything. I'm kind of doing the bare minimum right now to get by in class and I am spending way too much time just messing around on the internet.
Life as a 2L - How is it different than 1L year?
The all encompassing aura of fear has dissipated. And not just for me but for everyone. The 1L gunners have mostly quieted down and most of us just want to get through this so we can move on. More people have stopped reading than ever before. Professors do not cold call as much and it almost feels more like an undergrad class. I personally still read for every class but I've basically stopped taking notes beforehand and just fill in my outline during class. Do I understand the material as well as I did last year? Well, no. But I have much more free time. Is it worth it? Undetermined.
The amount of out of class work has skyrocketed. Many of us are on an executive board of at least one club, sometimes more. (I'm on the Elder Law one of course!) We have internships or jobs or are looking for an internship or a job. And we are doing more pro bono work. All of this takes away from our classes and we just have to make it work and hope for the best.
The new baby 1L's look to us for advice. This is probably my favorite part of being a 2L. I tell them not to freak out. Stop taking five pages of notes for every case and no, you do not need to highlight EVERYTHING. It's great.
We're no longer in sections so I am meeting so many other people. As a 1L, you have all your classes with the same 65 or so students. Now I have classes with other 2L's and 3L's. In my Wills class, I'm pretty much the only 2L.
Now that I'm officially in the Elder Law Concentration, I have certain events, office requirements and pro bono opportunities that I have to do. Some of them are a pain but for the most part, I love being surrounded by other students who are interested in the same area I am. Of course, next week when I am stuck in a suit every other day in order to volunteer at a conference, I may not feel the same. But we'll see.
Basically, 2L year is surprisingly different than my first year but all in all, I like it better.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Dollar signs in my head
So last semester, I had to jump through a ton of hoops to figure out when I could have my bladder surgery scheduled so that I could get reimbursed for my out of pocket expenses and yet, wouldn't have to drop out of school to recover. Well since my surgery ended up being a lot more involved than expected, it also ended up being a lot more expensive. And the bills are coming in. I went to my financial aid office today and found out that when I had talked to them before, they had meant that only the prepay amount would be covered and even though I now owe thousands and thousands of dollars, federal loan laws do not allow me to be reimbursed because it is not not the same school year as the surgery was.
Of course, if I am unable to pay my hospital bills, it will go to collections and the Bar may not allow me to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar.
Oh and I also found out today that due to a rule change, I will no longer be able to keep my job at the Elder Law center once classes start up again.
Oh this is going to be fun.
Of course, if I am unable to pay my hospital bills, it will go to collections and the Bar may not allow me to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar.
Oh and I also found out today that due to a rule change, I will no longer be able to keep my job at the Elder Law center once classes start up again.
Oh this is going to be fun.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Stress relief at it's finest!
So I know I said in my last post that summer break is a lie but I have actually done a few things that are non-law school based. 90% of it relates to yarn. I didn't really think about the fact that I had stopped knitting once classes started but boy am I making up for it now.
I was somewhat out of practice and this picture was before it was washed so it looks a mess. I swear it looks much better now.
And then I made myself a pair of plain black socks for the days I dare to wear pants at my internship. They are the most boring thing I've ever made but they fit their purpose perfectly. Someday I'll make it back to my crazy socks but now is not the time. Sigh.
Now a good part of these were made while I was recovering from my surgery but still. It's an impressive amount of projects!
First I made a baby blanket for my newest niece.
I was somewhat out of practice and this picture was before it was washed so it looks a mess. I swear it looks much better now.
After that, I made another baby blanket for my neighbor.
Then I made a set of dryer balls for my sister (who'd only been asking for them for two years now!)
And then I made myself a pair of plain black socks for the days I dare to wear pants at my internship. They are the most boring thing I've ever made but they fit their purpose perfectly. Someday I'll make it back to my crazy socks but now is not the time. Sigh.
Now a good part of these were made while I was recovering from my surgery but still. It's an impressive amount of projects!
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Life got in the way.
I can not believe it has been so long since I updated this blog. I suck and I am sorry.
Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to since I last wrote that kept me away from the blogging universe for so long.
Finals -
I walked out of my con law final feeling like I flunked it 100%. I spent two (of the four) hours on the multiple choice and the first essay and then the final two hours on the last essay because I COULD NOT find out what the issue was with the hypo. Yeah, the law is a little vague but ... It could be a separation of powers issue but probably not ... oh is it?? No, it can't be that. For two hours. Gah. I think I had two pages for the first essay and 10 sentences for the second essay. Some how I pulled it off because this was my second highest grade (and in the end, my highest. See below).
I walked out of my property final thinking I had done okay. And I had!!! I 4.0'd it and my essay was emailed to the class as the model answer. They even gave us our ranking. And then a week later we all got an email saying that there had been an exam error and the class was being converted to pass/fail. My GPA and ranking tanked and I was so angry I couldn't even talk. Actually, I'm still so angry I can't even talk about it. GAH!
I seriously thought I NAILED torts . . . and it was my lowest grade. I don't understand it either. Eh. Such is law school.
Surgery -
Directly after my last final and still during finals week, I had bladder surgery. It was supposed to be minor with a quick recovery period but once they cut into me, the doctor found that it would need more work than previously thought. I woke up three hours later than I was supposed to and went "What did you do to meeeeeee?" My fiancé and I had set it up so he could help me for a few days and then head back to Washington when I was up and about again. Due to the change in plans, I had to have a friend move her and her dogs into my house for three weeks after fiancé left. Two weeks out, I still couldn't dress myself. Yesterday (which is almost 2 months post surgery) I painted my toenails and then realized that all that curling over made my abs cry and I am still in pain from it today. Ridiculous.
Work - So I was supposed to be cleared to start work at the Elder Law center on campus a little over a week after my surgery. Ha. Yeah. That didn't happen. And when I finally was cleared to go back to work, I made such a great impression that I was promptly sent home. I guess I looked like I was in significant amounts of pain. Which to be fair, I was.
Internship - Three weeks after my surgery, I started my internship with a General Magistrate. I like it but I spend 90% of my time feeling incompetent. From what I hear from former interns, everyone feels that way. Hmmm. But on the bright side, I AM LEARNING SO MUCH. I have definitely learned more from the one month of this internship that I have in my entire first year of law school.
The truth about summer break - It is not a break at all. I'm working part time, interning the rest of the week and there was the Law Review write on after finals. (I didn't finish as it was the same week as my surgery. I tried but I just couldn't.) OCR stuff is starting to heat up with cover letters and resume's due next week. I was invited to apply for the Honor's program but even that requires a ton of work. I really need to start working on the paper for that. I am applying for a DOJ internship for this fall and need to fill out all of that paperwork as well. Oh and all the try outs for moot court, trial team and ADR are this month. Don't remind me of this sentence later but I'm almost looking forward to school starting again so I can take a break. Good lord.
Anyway, I can't promise that I will keep this as updated as I would like but I will try to not let it be so long next time. I see that my traffic has increased so if there are any soon to be 1L's reading this, feel free to comment with any questions you have. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.
Here is a quick snapshot of what I have been up to since I last wrote that kept me away from the blogging universe for so long.
Finals -
I walked out of my con law final feeling like I flunked it 100%. I spent two (of the four) hours on the multiple choice and the first essay and then the final two hours on the last essay because I COULD NOT find out what the issue was with the hypo. Yeah, the law is a little vague but ... It could be a separation of powers issue but probably not ... oh is it?? No, it can't be that. For two hours. Gah. I think I had two pages for the first essay and 10 sentences for the second essay. Some how I pulled it off because this was my second highest grade (and in the end, my highest. See below).
I walked out of my property final thinking I had done okay. And I had!!! I 4.0'd it and my essay was emailed to the class as the model answer. They even gave us our ranking. And then a week later we all got an email saying that there had been an exam error and the class was being converted to pass/fail. My GPA and ranking tanked and I was so angry I couldn't even talk. Actually, I'm still so angry I can't even talk about it. GAH!
I seriously thought I NAILED torts . . . and it was my lowest grade. I don't understand it either. Eh. Such is law school.
Surgery -
Directly after my last final and still during finals week, I had bladder surgery. It was supposed to be minor with a quick recovery period but once they cut into me, the doctor found that it would need more work than previously thought. I woke up three hours later than I was supposed to and went "What did you do to meeeeeee?" My fiancé and I had set it up so he could help me for a few days and then head back to Washington when I was up and about again. Due to the change in plans, I had to have a friend move her and her dogs into my house for three weeks after fiancé left. Two weeks out, I still couldn't dress myself. Yesterday (which is almost 2 months post surgery) I painted my toenails and then realized that all that curling over made my abs cry and I am still in pain from it today. Ridiculous.
Work - So I was supposed to be cleared to start work at the Elder Law center on campus a little over a week after my surgery. Ha. Yeah. That didn't happen. And when I finally was cleared to go back to work, I made such a great impression that I was promptly sent home. I guess I looked like I was in significant amounts of pain. Which to be fair, I was.
Internship - Three weeks after my surgery, I started my internship with a General Magistrate. I like it but I spend 90% of my time feeling incompetent. From what I hear from former interns, everyone feels that way. Hmmm. But on the bright side, I AM LEARNING SO MUCH. I have definitely learned more from the one month of this internship that I have in my entire first year of law school.
The truth about summer break - It is not a break at all. I'm working part time, interning the rest of the week and there was the Law Review write on after finals. (I didn't finish as it was the same week as my surgery. I tried but I just couldn't.) OCR stuff is starting to heat up with cover letters and resume's due next week. I was invited to apply for the Honor's program but even that requires a ton of work. I really need to start working on the paper for that. I am applying for a DOJ internship for this fall and need to fill out all of that paperwork as well. Oh and all the try outs for moot court, trial team and ADR are this month. Don't remind me of this sentence later but I'm almost looking forward to school starting again so I can take a break. Good lord.
Anyway, I can't promise that I will keep this as updated as I would like but I will try to not let it be so long next time. I see that my traffic has increased so if there are any soon to be 1L's reading this, feel free to comment with any questions you have. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.
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