Last Day of Class!

It's my last day of class for my first semester of law school! yay!! I think I am slightly in denial about finals next week and the week after though... I'm stressed, but also not really. This semester has seemed really long, but also flown by. I still clearly remember my first day of orientation. I'm feeling pretty excited about almost being 1/6 of my way through law school! We'll see how chipper I am next week. I'll try to update sometime during the next week probably after my Civil Procedure final next Friday to let everyone know how they're going. I'm going to have to buckle down and study study study!

Pictures!

I've realized that I have been lacking in the picture department, so here's to make up for it!

At School (NOT MY ROLLEY BAG)

School walkway

Building where my classes are

Library

At birthday dinner sitting with Chelsea and Courtney

With Chelsea, Becky, and Kristy at same dinner

How my Civil Procedure teacher explains cases

Fall School

Daylight Savings Time

Had my first daylight savings time change yesterday! I like that it felt like I had an extra hour yesterday and that I feel like a slept in an extra hour this morning, but I do not like that it gets dark at like 5 o'clock now. It's nice that it's not dark when I wake up and go to school, but I don't like that it will be getting dark on my way home from school on Tues and Thu now because I don't finish with class until 4:50.  Also changing all my clocks is a pain and I totally freaked myself out this morning on my way to school when I forgot to change my car time.

I'm enjoying wearing my cold weather outfits... but I don't actually like the cold weather that goes along with the outfits! School is going pretty well, I finished my last big paper for my legal writing class which was super stressful, but I put a lot of effort into it so I hope I do well. There is less than a month left until finals start, which is really freaking me out. I've also been unmotivated to do anything. I'm not sure if it is fear of the upcoming finals, exhaustion, or a combination of the two that is making me really not want to do anything. The general sense of just wanting it to be May seems to be the consensus with all the 1Ls. Whenever you ask someone how they're doing the response is somewhere along the lines of "good, but I wish it was (fill in the blank of when we're done)". I'm getting really excited for Christmas break though! I've been playing on pinterest a lot when procrastinating my homework and have a bunch of recipes and crafts that I want to try out! So I'm excited for the time to do that! Also I'm excited to get to see everyone again!! My trip home in October went by way too fast!

Fall Break and Being Back at School.

I had last week off for fall break and it was a great mental health week! Chase gave me his award flights from Southwest so I got to go back to AZ Tuesday to Saturday! It was great to see everyone and it was refreshing to been home with all my friends and family. Also another nice part was the straight AZ roads that I miss so much! Also got to enjoy a fall favorite: Pumpkin porter (a beer pictured below) ! I am now obsessed! I tried to mostly relax and just have fun which was a great stress reliever!

It was a little rough starting class yesterday, but I'm getting into the swing of things. I also got my second paper back in Legal Research and Writing and I got an A!!! Yay! So feeling a little less disheartened after those first two C's I received. It's going to be a long week because we have our last big paper due in Legal  Writing and Research, BUT it's our last paper in that class for the semester! So after this, that class is going to be significantly less stressful so I can focus on my other classes for finals and such! Also there are only 25 more class days left in the semester which is exciting! It is also a little freaky because I feel in no way ready for finals, we just started offer and acceptance in contracts... Excited about being halfway through my first semester of law school though!

My law school motto:

Falling in Love with Fall

Loving that fall is here and I can drink warm coffee and wear boots! I'm officially halfway through my first semester and am currently enjoying fall break! While I'm loving that I've done nothing law school related since I left school Friday afternoon, I can't help but feel a little anxious because I haven't been highlighting cases or doing some homework. Such a bizarre feeling. I've took the whole weekend to just relax.  Friday I gardened for the first time with Pam! So of course I'm posting some pictures of the pretty flowers I planted :). Saturday I took Chase out for a late birthday dinner. His actual birthday was Wednesday and I made him some dinner, but I had a midterm that morning and he had spent the day flying home from Tucson, so we weren't the most energized pair. I was also being slightly pouty because I had no clue what to do with my upcoming fall break. Chase totally got my spirits up because he offered to let me use his Southwest free tickets to fly home!! I can't wait to go back and see everyone!!! So that was definitely awesome!  

Sunday was my birthday, so I of course opened all of my cards and presents as soon as I woke up. I was using the Christmas morning strategy because I forced myself not to open them early. (I am posting a picture of my board with all the cards (and Angela's wedding invitation!)  I've  received since I've moved). Chase got me some awesome boots, but apparently I have fat calves lol cause they were a little snug. So after getting some lunch Chase got to enjoy some boot shopping for a couple hours lol. Found the perfect boots though!! It was well worth the hunt!!!!! I'm posting a picture of them... but they're actually like a dark red brown and not black as it seems in the picture. We then went to go see the Ides of March at this cool theater that serves dinner and drinks in the theater. The movie was pretty good except the ladies in the row behind us must have been so comfortable that they thought they were in their living room because they talked at the movie the ENTIRE time. The movie was pretty good and it was a good day :) Sleeping in, presents, shopping, dinner, wine, and a movie!! Couldn't ask for more! I'm getting really excited to go back home! I'll be back in AZ from Tues to Sat! I'm going to try to get a big chunk of my homework done today... not so sure how that will go... I'm having way too much fun to sit and read cases! Oh! I also just discovered the website pinterest so I really have no motivation. 

Law school is not very much fun...

I'm pretty set into my routine now and have my first midterm done annnddd that didn't go as well as I had hoped. Apparently I way over thought the answers so I spiraled into one of those rabbit holes when you know the answer is right but think it's too easy and so you go with a different one. It was a short 8 question property midterm that had about 3 different fact patterns to base your answers off. I knew the subject matter really well, although I did make one stupid mistake because I had a concept slightly changed. So now that I realized what a mess I was I can better prepare myself for the next midterm and final in that class. I only have 3 midterms (2 for property and 1 in civil procedure (which I have tomorrow morning)). I'm feeling a little disheartened by not doing so well on my midterm, so I'm really hoping to do better on my civil procedure one because it is in an essay format. Law school is hard (total shocker huh? lol). I think the hardest thing is that I feel like I had a solid grasp on everything but the test totally messed with my head. So I'm going to try to learn from my mistakes and just keep trucking.

I am having some fun as well, after our property midterm a group of friends and I went out in Norfolk to Granby theater, which is really cool. I'll post a picture below. We all have weird glowy eyes tho... Also fall in definitely here! So it's cool looking at all the leaves changing color, so pretty! AND My birthday is this Sunday so as an early birthday present from my dad I got a Keurig coffee maker which is awesome! Although I've been drinking way too much coffee lately which is making me a little crazy. Also I'm posting a picture of my carrel in the library, it's kind of a disaster but this is pretty much where I hang out during my breaks (like right now). Missing everyone back home a lot!

Banquets and Breakfasts!

This past weekend my law school celebrated its 25 Anniversary, so to celebrate there were a lot of events over the past weekend. I personally went to a BBQ on Friday night which was fun and I got to meet some alumni and other professors. Saturday night was the big night where the school was throwing a banquet with Justice Alito as the main speaker. Chase and I went and since it was business attire we both wore our suits which was fun to be dressed up. Justice Alito was a great speaker and had some funny stories about his time in law school. Apparently his 1L year his con-law professor spent the whole time trying to get them to quit law school. This morning former Attorney General John Ashcroft had breakfast with my honors 1L class and that was also fun. He had a lot of good insights into political life and life in general. School is going well, pretty boring and also stress inducing because I have midterms coming up on the 7th and 13th of October and a big paper due on the 3rd of October. It also has been raining a lot here which is kind of a downer, but I took this picture last week of the golf course after I woke up. It's cool in the mornings here the lake is all steamy.

(John Ashcroft)

One Month Down!!!

I made it through one month of law school!! YAY!!! It's getting a little harder to make myself sit down and do all the work, but I'm still going, with the help of lots of coffee :) It was a pretty calm week this week, no earthquakes or hurricanes or my car breaking down, so that was nice. Next weekend is the law school's 25th Anniversary celebration so I'm getting excited about that. They have a lot of events going on, but I'm attending a BBQ on Friday night and then a banquet on Saturday where Supreme Court Justice Alito will be speaking. I'm excited for both of those and I get to wear my suit to the banquet, so I get to feel all lawyerly again which is fun. I always feel like I'm playing dress up or something when I'm in my suit. I feel like I'm a lawyer imposter lol. I'm adding a picture of the swamp road that I took really quick while driving the other day. Also, I've decided that it has rained more in the past month here than it does in a whole year in Phoenix. Well... sorry this is so quick and random! I kind of feel like my brain is jello right now. Oh! I forgot to add that we're dog sitting two dogs... so there are 4 dogs in the house plus roughly 9 wiener dogs next door.... This is the best preventative measure to my wanting a puppy ever.  So. Much. Barking...

Just Keep Swimming

My friend Nick had, Just keep swimming, as his facebook status and that's pretty much how I'm feeling about law school. I'm settling into my daily routine of: wake up, make lunch/ eat cereal/ make coffee, get ready, go to school, go home, do hw, eat dinner, maybe work out, shower, do hw, basically everyday.  We joke around some in class and during our breaks to help relieve the stress, but basically I think every one is getting a little stressed/ burnt out. Also, I'm getting worried because I have no clue how to tie together some of the things I've been learning for finals at the end of the semester, but I'm probably just being a little too forward thinking right now.  

I did have a great weekend this past weekend though, I try to spend friday getting some hw done, and then just relaxing till Sunday afternoon. Since I had Monday off, I got two full days of relaxing which was really great! I got to get out and have some fun. I went to a night club with Chase and some of my friends on Saturday which was a really cool place in Norfolk (Granby Station if you want to google it). The next day Chase and I went to the zoo and were supposed to watch fireworks at the beach, but they never came. Instead we got to hang out with some of my other friends on the beach so that was fun too.

Also I wanted to include a little description about what VA Beach has been like. It's a lot noisier than PHX... there are Navy Jets flying around in the sky all the time because OCEANA base is here. They're cool to look at, but they fly ALL the time, not just in the hours when you're awake. Also the next door neighbors foster wiener dogs, and they really really really enjoy barking, so that's special...lol.  Also, the roads make absolutely no sense, so even though I've been driving to school the same way everyday for the past 4 weeks (incl'ding orientation), I still have random moments when I have no clue where I am. Everything here is soo green though, so it's quite the scenic view on my way too school, there are actually like trees and naturally occurring bodies of water, so I still haven't gotten used to that and enjoy looking around. Although, I've been trying a new route home to avoid traffic and the road is next to what to me appears to be a giant swamp. The water was like 3 inches deep the other day in the middle of the road, so that was bizarre, and I feel like I'm any second going to accidentally move my car slightly off the road and be in the swamp. The water comes up to the edge of the road. I'm not really sure who constructed the road nor why they would build it directly in the middle of a swamp... but it seriously needs a swamp water blocker of some kind. You must be thinking after reading this far into my ramblings... why do you choose to drive on this swampy road? Well.... It saves me like 20 min at least of sitting in traffic, so I've chosen swamp over traffic, I do not like either of the options. Also, I am greatly enjoying living here, aside from how it may seem with the swamps, jets, and wiener dogs. It's awesome being so close to the ocean and having actual nature, even more so I'm pumped that there will actually be seasons changing soon!  Soo that's about all the babbling I have time for today, gotta get back to the books! 

Update! 9/16/2011
I decided to throw caution to the wind and take a picture of the swamp while driving... It's not great but at least you can picture it a little better now!

Two weeks down!

Made it through my second week of law school! Yay! I'm starting to get more into the rhythm of things, especially having Mondays off... we had this past Monday off because of the hurricane and this upcoming one off for labor day... I'm getting better at taking my notes based off what the teacher is looking for, so that's a good improvement for when I get socratically called on! I'm enjoying the weekend off and luckily don't have too much homework. Starting to really miss everyone back home, it's weird not hanging out with everyone over the weekends or being able to make plans to meet up. I've made some good friends out here though, and we're having a much deserved night out tonight.

Survived Irene!!

Experienced my first hurricane yesterday! I went over to Chase's place in Newport News after class on Friday and just got home this morning. There was lots of really strong wind and rain, but luckily we had power until sometime in the middle of the night last night after we had gone to sleep. I came back down to check on the house in VA Beach and there was lots of debris everywhere, but about half the street lights were working and the house has power! So that's nice. I'm racking up quite a few life experiences this week... First day of law school, first earthquake, first hurricane! I don't even want to know what my second week of law school has in store for me! 

Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake Virginia!

Yesterday, my second day of class, was pretty eventful! I was called on in class which was super scary, but successfully answered the question and survived! Also experienced my first earthquake! I  was in the library when it happened and the whole building was swaying and the bookshelves started rocking, but luckily fell. We left the building and ever since it's all anyone is talking about. The also new talk of the town is the upcoming hurricane! What have I gotten myself into?!?! Earthquakes and hurricanes? I'll keep everyone updated on how the rest of my first week goes and my plans for the hurricane!

First Day of Classes!!

Had my first day of actual school today! I started off the morning with civil procedure, then property right after. After a three hour break I had my last class which was Legal Writing, Research and Analysis.  All my teachers seem really nice, intense, but nice! My teachers seem like they really care that we learn the material. Also I met some new people who are in my classes. Have lots of reading to do this semester and I'm pretty intimidated. I've already started a mini study group with two other people who have all the same classes as I do, which is making me feel a little more comfortable.

Oh! And to back track to update you on my car difficulties... The fan in my car is getting overheated through its wires causing it to shut off. My fan shutting off caused coolant to get backed up in my radiator and it cracked in the front of it. Sooo my car is leaking all of its coolant out while I drive and causing my engine to overheat. I'm guessing this is what was actually wrong with my car when it broke down in Brinkley... I should be getting it fixed on Wednesday and until then I'm just borrowing spare Pam's pick up.

Suit up!

Today was professionalism day so... we had to dress like professionals! And as Barney from How I Met Your Mother would say, I had to "suit up". It was my first time ever wearing a suit!! Of course on the first day I was wearing a suit my car decided to make noises and then proceed to overheat... I made it to campus and googled the car symptoms during orientation and adding some coolant has appeased my car. My car is very braty though, so who knows how long it will be happy for.
Here's some pictures of me all suited up :)

3 days down 1 to go!

Just finished with my 3rd day of orientation!! We had a little test today, it didn't go too bad, I feel like I now have a better understanding of what they're looking for.  I went shopping today for some business clothes after orientation because tomorrow is our professionalism day, so we have to wear business attire. I hit like the sale + discount jackpot today though!! I got slacks from Express 40% off and then I got a suit jacket and two button up shirts from the limited $60 off and then 30% off too (Went from $215 to $87!!)!! So I'm super excited about my great deals! I'm getting anxious about starting school, I just want classes to start so I can get the ball rolling, we keep having speakers tell us about how horrible the year is, so I just want to get it going. Aside from that, things are going pretty well! I'm starting to settle in and learn my way around a little. The roads here make absolutely no sense, so it will probably take awhile before I don't need to use a map to go farther than a couple miles, but at least I can now make it a couple miles!

First Day of Orientation!

Just finished the first day of orientation and a little intimidated, but not quite as nervous anymore. I got there a little late this morning because parking at Regent is horrible! The first hour was for getting paperwork done and mingling with other new 1L's so it wasn't too big of a problem. Tomorrow I am definitely leaving earlier though. The Dean introduced himself to me and the two girls I was sitting with during the mingling time and he was really friendly so that was calming for my nerves since I also have him as a teacher. After that we went into the mock trial room and heard from some speakers on introduction to law school basics and about study skills. We also had basically the first day of our Legal Analysis class today, since what we are learning in Orientation is potentially going to be on our final. They provided us a lunch which was actually pretty good. After lunch we learned how to brief cases and did a few examples. We start our property class lectures tomorrow, which is also going to be potentially covered on our final exam. They already gave us homework too! I have to read 4 cases and a statute and brief the 4 cases. I did make two friends today which is good :) I met a bunch of other people who were all very nice as well so the school year shouldn't be too bad! At the end of lunch I received an email from the Financial Aid office that said I owed about $17,500, due before the 22nd.  I panicked a little and went to the Financial Aid officer after orientation to straighten things out. The Financial Aid office sent me to the Business office and it turned out there was a glitch in the system which caused me to be billed double for everything including tuition. They got that straightened out thank goodness so all went pretty well today.  Off to office max to buy some school supplies!

Fun Weekend!

Had a fun weekend so far! My Dad came in town on Thursday and hung out with Pam and I till last night (Friday night) and we went to some awesome dinner spots! The first cool place we went was Bubba's on the Chesapeake bay (photo below). The next night we went to Mahi Mah's with Chase and Mike. After dinner we walked around on the boardwalk (photo below). My dad also got the excitement of getting a desk with me off craigslist and the endless shopping for a chair to go with my new desk and curtains, I still don't have either of those.  Chase and I had lots of fun at the petting zoo this morning and got to feed some goats and chickens etc. Here's some pictures below!

Decorating!

Today was very odd having Chantel gone (she returned home safely after a very annoying flight home full of delays and a night spent in Dallas).  I went to lunch with Alana, a 3L (Third-year Law Student), who I met for lunch during my tour of the Regent Campus back in March.  She was very helpful with answering all my questions from about orientation (which starts on Monday, Aug. 15th) to how school is to what type of bag is most commonly used. Once I returned to the house I was all excited/stressed so I decided to unpack more and finally hang up all the pictures that I had laying on my floor.  My room is for the most part put together, aside from needing to get a desk. My closet on the other hand is a mess... but that's for another day! Why do today what can be put off to tomorrow, right? Probably not a good mind set as I enter into law school, but oh well! Hopefully the saying will flip flop around soon.
Here are some pictures of my room :)

Smoke on the water

Was planning on going to the beach with Chantel today, but of course with Murphy's Law, the whole town  was covered in smoke. There is a fire south of the city on the Virginia/ North Carolina border in a swamp. You could barely see and it smelled horrible! So we decided to wait a bit and then go to the aquarium. The coolest part of the aquarium was the otter out front which was free to see! A little later Pam and I dropped off Chantel at the airport and she unfortunately has a delay there now. It's weird to see Chantel go because it's like the vacation that I felt like I was on isn't a vacation and it's official. Not sure how I am feeling right now, slightly sad but slightly excited for the change. I'll keep you all updated on how things go tomorrow!!

Washington DC!!!

Went up to Washington DC with Chantel to go see Jess Barnes and her fiance Mike! It was a super fun weekend and we stayed with them in Alexandria, VA which is right outside of the city for Saturday and Sunday night! It was amazing getting to see all the sights that I've heard about and seen in the news. We walked all over the city (and sometimes even while being rained on) and got to see some awesome sites like the Washington monument, Capital, Lincoln memorial, White House, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Holocaust Museum and went up the tower of the old post office building for a great view of the city! Mike and Jess were awesome hosts and we also got some delicious cupcakes from Georgetown Bakery. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes in the rain for those cupcakes, but they were definitely worth it! Here are a few pictures from the trip: 

Settling in VA Beach

Sorry to be so slow about posting! These past two days have been pretty busy. Yesterday we woke up early to go to breakfast in Nashville at this delicious restaurant, Pancake Pantry, honestly the best pancake/syrup I've ever had! Then we made the long drive to VA Beach and made it to the house at about 11:30 pm! I was sooo happy to finally just get here, I was starting to think the driving would never end!!

Slept in till about 9:30 this morning and after some breakfast burritos that Pam made us, started moving everything up into my room. It only took about an hour with Chase and Chantel's help, but oh man does humidity make you sweaty!! After moving we went to Rudees for lunch and then Watermans. After an orange crush, we walked around on the beach for a bit and called it a day after that. I started to unpack everything this evening and it's coming all pretty well... I'll post a picture once I get everything unpacked and hung up :)

Never been so happy to see Tennessee!

Escaped Brinkley, AR yesterday!!! They tried to hold us prisoner by not having the right piece for my car and then charging a lot to install the other piece that would make it work yesterday. Although the 4 people we interacted with were very friendly and went above and beyond to help us, I have no desire to ever go back.

Last night we made it to the suburb Chantel's aunt lives in and went to dinner with her grandma. We're really bummed that we missed our day in Nashville for a day in Brinkley, cause quite frankly there is no comparison between the two. One has awesome bars, shops, and a long history of music celebrity. The other has sonic, closed shops, and an obsession with the ivory billed woodpecker. So the better choice is obviously clear but apparently my jeep decoded it really wanted to try to see one of those woodpeckers... But hopefully this morning Chantel and I will get to spend at least an hour I'm Nashville to at least see the city as we eat breakfast.

Today is our last long drive, thank God.

What can go wrong will go wrong...

My car randomly broke down on the side of the I-40 right by the guard rail... apparently the worst place to be stuck.  We called AAA, but since I'm towing a uhaul it's not covered under my plan so we had to call another tow truck company and were stuck on the side of the road for 45 minutes with semis and cars whizzing by in the heat and what looked like a swamp behind us. The tow truck driver was awesome and took us to the small town Brinkley, AR and brought us to the auto repair shop where luckily the owner happened to still be there after hours. The mechanic took a quick look at it and thinks at least our electric fan is shot because it smelled like an electrical fire, but there was also fluid leaking from the car so who knows. The awesome tow truck driver then took us to McDonalds to get some food and then to the nicest hotel in town because according to him there are some not very nice areas. We were instructed to stay in our hotel room and not to wander around town. The hotel is okay... kind of like a motel 6... and this is where I am now... I'll keep everyone updated on the progress tomorrow!!

This is horrible

Chantel must be a masochist and I am sadistic for doing this to her, because there is no fun in waking up at 3:50 am to get ready to drive for 16 hours for the second day in a row. Teleportation needs to be invented NOW.

Stopping in the Lone Star State

It was very bittersweet leaving Phoenix this morning. I'm sad to leave my family and friends, but excited for all the new experiences. Chantel and I headed out a little late and the uhaul was a little scary at first, but we're getting used to it. Stopped in Amarillo, Texas because we're 4 hours behind the plan because of how slow we're going and we hit a couple storms on the way. We're both excited to be out of the car and sleeping for a bit before we wake up early and head back out on the road.

Miss everyone so much already!

Packed up

Packed up my uhaul today, thanks to my dad, Jess, Alexa, Derrick, and Christa for the help! Just had my lunch/dinner today too (thanks to Angela, Andy, Alexa, Amanda, Alyssa, Christa, Dani, Derrick, Heather, Kevin, Kristen, Matt, Sarah, Tara, and Zach)and am starting to get sad about leaving. The whole thing is becoming less surreal and more real and it's really frightening.

Amazing Space Saver Bags!!

My new favorite toy... Space saver bags!! Look how much my memory foam mattress topper shrunk!

It's official!!

Got my uhual today!! Nothing to help me break it in like getting stuck in the corner of my apartment complex for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to back up with it!

Adios Couches!

Sold the couches on craigs list too! Didn't sell for too much, but at least I don't have to worry about hauling them around. You were very comfortable couch/tables while you lasted!