The end of an era

It's usually with some trepidation -- and glee -- that I face down my last week of classes before finals. I'm always shocked at how quickly the semester went, yet again, and I'm always unprepared for the advent of finals.

But this semester, my last classes have been tinged with sadness as well. I just had two "last classes" today. And frankly, it was quite sombering to realize that I will never again sit as a JD student in these classrooms, that a major part of my life is coming to a close, that something that has defined my life for the past 3 and a half years will cease to be. And I know it's going to leave a void.

I won't miss the stress or the exams, but I will miss the friends, the socializing and the learning. I really enjoyed law school. I don't want to face the post-school realities of paying back those loans! What am I going to do now that I no longer have an excuse for not having a life?

Guess I gotta get one...

Wow, three exams, and I'm done. I'm more sad than excited right now. After the exam are actually over, I'm sure the relief will wash over me. But still, there's definitely some separation anxiety here.

Who'da thunk it?

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Here's to tripping on tryptophan and marshmallow-smothered sweet potato-induced highs! I hope everyone has the chance to spend the holiday as they wish.

Happy "it's the official start of the shopping season and omigawd there's only two weeks until finals" holidays!

Creepy hallway stalker chick

I am now the creepy hallway stalker chick. I don't have a wireless connection in my apartment, and I have no plans on getting one. I just use the one at work or school, and that mostly covers my needs. However, it seems that pretty much everyone else in the building -- including the management itself -- has a wireless connection. Most are security-enabled, but some are open.

So, rather than sign up for service, I now stalk the halls whenever I need to check my email. I wander up a few doors until I find an open network and just surf it. It's pretty obvious what I'm doing out there with my computer -- and I don't do it so very often -- but I definitely feel like some kind of weirdo.

Oh well. And what do I do when I actually need to be online for an extended period of time? Right now, I'm in the lobby of my building freeriding the management's wireless.

So not only am I creepy, but I'm also cheap.

Strike three

Sharing the metro ride home after class this week, I ran into one of my fellow evening students. There aren't too many of us left now that I'm a fourth year; many of them defected to the day program and graduated. Anyway, when I asked how things were going, how his wife was, etc., he told me that he wasn't with his wife anymore. This was a bit of a shock because they were planning the wedding during the spring finals of our first year. Well, apparently, she deserted him shortly thereafter and ran off to the tropics with a younger guy. It sounds like he was married mere weeks before he was unceremoniously dumped. Poor guy. He thinks she just couldn't handle the long hours he was putting in -- working and in school. Apparently, she fell for him when he was a garage band rocker and wasn't interested in being married to a lawyer (or law student).

This is the third divorce among my fellow students during law school that I know of. And I think all three were a result of the stress of law school. Two were women and this guy. So sad. I can't imagine adding the stress of the disintegration of a marriage on top of law school. I am so impressed by how they handled it all and themselves. I don't know if I could do it.

On the flip side, I know three men who have had their second child during our reign as students, and one more who is expecting his first. (No women, go figure!) There is also at least one couple getting married, having met in law school and many others who didn't have a long-term relationship entering school and never had the time to cultivate one either. File me in that category.

Sad that the collateral damage of school is so high. My metro friend is quite sanguine about the whole thing now that he has some distance between then and now. And he also learned a lot -- not only about himself and his (ex-) wife, but also about divorce law. He did the divorce himself (with the supervision of an attorney). Who needs a clinic or a journal if you can say you did your own divorce as a student? I'm sure he would have preferred a clinic rather than the pain of the split... but he seems to be doing okay now. Definitely her loss.

A truism

Today my family law prof (yes, the one I have a crush on) remarked that students are the only economic consumers who want less for their money rather than more... and then he let us out early.

I didn't complain.

*Clunk*

That noise you just heard was me dropping a chunk of change on my Barbri review courses. The final payment for the winter course (prep for the February bar) was due today.

Oof. I don't like paying bills that have commas in the amounts.

Wahoo!

Made it to the final, final round of consideration for a position in the Honors Attorney program at one of the federal agencies. I am one of a few dozen that will be argued over as they decide who should get offers for the coveted nine slots. Yay! I made it from "one of the hordes" to an individual candidate under consideration. I am a real person, instead of just a resume now. They are supposed to be making a decision in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed!

And, BTW, this is exactly why I didn't even bother to apply to the Department of Justice, even though it's the cream of the crop for newbie lawyers who want to get into public service and the federal government. I had heard this feedback from friends who work there (or have recently exited), and I am even more at peace with my decision -- although not the situation itself. It's really upsetting to learn that the situation is this bad at our country's top civil rights enforcement agency...

::sigh::

Morning chuckle

Seen on a bumper sticker in front of law school: Republicans for Voldemort

Seen on a t-shirt for sale online: Tom DeLay redistricted my Congressman and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

Heh.

WWJD?

This Tuesday, the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania exercised their democratic muscle and delivered the message to their elected school board members that they did not agree with their vote to include intelligent design in the curriculum. They voted out of office all 8 school board members who voted to add intelligent design to the classroom teachings. While some make think this election was a partisan powerplay. It was not:

Voters themselves crossed party lines to vote for the candidates they favored. If they had not, the school board incumbents, all of whom ran on the Republican line, would probably have prevailed in a district where 70 percent of voters are registered Republicans.

Pat Robertson, in his infinite wisdom and never at a loss for the absurd, chastised the community by speaking on behalf of God:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city...And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there."

This is only an excerpt of his diatribe. Is this really Christian compassion?

WWJD?

Omigawd, gentlemen start your engines

My FINAL finals begin in a month. A MONTH?!?! Holy major uh-oh! I am really on top of things in one class, kinda in another and way outta my league in the third. Yikes. Why oh why do I do this to myself every single semester? I'm kinda smart... you would have thought I would have learned.

And on a related note. Late Friday was the MPRE. It was much harder than I had expected it to be. Everyone said so. Every question was a matter of nuance, and out of 60 questions, I think I felt solid on maybe 5 of them. Good news for me is that I don't have to pass it because I'm taking the MD bar. But I always want to waive into DC, so I do need the score.

I have to admit that I'm not feeling terrifically confident about how I did. And this test is supposed to be the easy one -- a piece of cake compared to the bar. If that's the case, I'm in deep trouble. Granted, it was multiple choice, which at least gives you the eeny, meeny, miney, mo option... but ugh.

Actually, my plan was this: after I got the choice down to two, I always went with the option that screwed the lawyer. You would be suprised at how often that DIDN'T help. In fact, there were times when my last two choices were diametrically opposed. Not a good sign.

But it's done. Let's hope I'm not the first person in the history of my law school to fail the darned thing.

Eeeks.

A rant

Tomorrow are the gubernatorial elections in Virginia. Both guys have been sniping at each other during prime time and incessantly for weeks and weeks. I'll be glad that the elections are over just to get their commercials off the air.

I'm a progressive, independent person. If I lived in VA, there is no way I'd vote for the Republican candidate. Not because I just toe the party line. Hardly. I don't even belong to the Democratic party. There's one thing that really irks me about his political ads: lack of personal responsibility.

The other guy's ad all have the "I'm [Candidate D], and I approved this ad" tag line. Not Candidate R. Every single one of his campaign ads end with something like "I'm [Candidate R], and my campaign sponsored this ad."

This is a subtle difference, but with the number of time the ads are on air (and how often I'm in front of the TV!), one cannot fail to notice. I know I'm not the only one who has. Now, it may be legal to sorta kinda disavow responsibility by attributing it all to the campaign, but is smacks, smacks, smacks of two-faced political shenanigans, a complete failure to take personal responsibility for the ads that are running while trying to benefit from the attack they make on Candidate D. So, does that mean that we should NOT attribute the positions the ads promote as being his? That the ads do not reflect his platform? Does that mean that he has no control over what they say? Just what does it mean?

It completely irks me that Candidate R has created that distance so that when his attack ads on ... hmmm, a woman's right to choose or the death penalty or even something so unsexy as traffic congestion... run, we are supposed to credit him with the message if we like it but not if we don't? Are we the viewing public to believe for just one second that he is not responsible for them? Are we supposed to attribute it all to the campaign (which isn't on the ballot, by the way)? And if he isn't the man behind the message, then what the hell?

He seems to want to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to clobber Candidate D without having any of the shit he's throwing bounce back at him and stick. I think those tactics are completely transparent and without integrity. If he's gonna sling it, he should stand up and either take it or learn to duck. Forget this "my campaign sponsored this ad" bullshit.

Be a man, Candidate R. Stand by your ads as your own or don't run them. I'd respect you more if you did.

But I still wouldn't vote for you. Even if I did live in Virginia.

Will the real Chuck Schmuck please stand up?

Because dating in DC isn't hard enough... This is downright scary!

I admit it. I do the online dating thing. What's a busy, over-scheduled girl to do? Multitasking is the way to go! Besides, I have more than a few friends who have met their spouses that way. I'm open to the newest frontiers of dating... it's been quite an adventure.

But, being slightly paranoid (can't help it; got it from my mom... don't ask!), I am extremely careful about giving out any personal, identifiable information about me. No one gets my home number, and my cell phone is -- so far -- not trackable. I have a special email account just for the dating thing so it's not linked to anything else (like any comments I might have left on a blog, etc.).

And for the most part, I have found that men aren't as concerned about their identities. They are more willing to give out personal information and often don't understand my reluctance.

However, this is an entirely new wrinkle -- nay, a crease -- in tapestry of singles out there. I guess that the free dating service doesn't require a credit card for an identity check... and this is a really good reason to pay to play.

Yikes! Because being single in the city doesn't already have enough challenges.

::sigh::