I'm Still Cold

I think if I ever wrote a book, it would be entitled "I'm Still Cold... Memoirs of a woman who was always cold." Anyways, this has nothing to do with the rest of my blog :)

I'm finally done with finals... sort of. My Secured Transactions final was Friday of the first week of finals. I knew that stuff backwards, forwards, upside down and sideways. But yes, the exam was still a nightmare. My Alternative Dispute Resolution final was Tuesday of the second week. That one was a piece of cake. One of my favorite professors taught that class. I only had two finals because I took Trial Practice and my seminar as well. I paid for those two classes plenty during the semester. I still have to finish my seminar paper, which will take only a few days to finish up. Thankfully I only have four classes again next semester, and only two finals. Again, I'm taking classes that make you put the work in during the semester, so you don't have to take a final! I'm looking forward to that since I'll be graduating and my family will be coming into town!

I'm heading home tomorrow into the frigid cold Iowa weather :( I am SO not looking forward to how cold it is going to be. Although it has recently hit the twenties here, we have yet to see any significant snow or ice. I don't mind the drive though, it's only about 9 1/2 hours. However, I am NOT looking forward to the possibly flurries I will be driving into. I HATE snow and ice!!!

Happy Holidays to all!!!

MIA!!!!

I was, I know, a little MIA this past month and a half! Luckily I have returned just in time to disappear again before finals :) So here is what has been going on since my last post in October.

Mounds of research was read and subsequently spit back out into my seminar paper, which was due on October 31st. Along with writing my seminar paper, we had to read two other seminar papers per week and write a short essay on them. My hour long presentation over my seminar paper was on November 5th. Prior to that, I had to write, memorize, and give my closing statement for Trial Practice. I also had to write, memorize, and conduct a cross examination on an expert witness in Trial Practice. Luckily I gained an hour on November 2nd, which I totally wrote into my calendar! November 4th was spent voting :) Around that time I started preparing for the grand finale of Trial Practice... the TRIAL!! Our documents were due for our Trial on November 6th. To top it all off, I took my Licensed Legal Intern's exam on November 7th, which meant studying for that while writing my paper, preparing my presentation, and preparing for my closing statement and cross examination... phew! (I passed with flying colors, btw!) November 8,9,10 were friend's birthdays. Around this time I was writing my direct examination, cross examination, and voir dire for the trial. I also reviewed my partner's examination questions, which takes some time. November 13th we had our Preliminary Hearing Conference for our trial. November 15th I had an Ambassadors event, and then met with my trial partners to go over everything. November 16th was spent memorizing my voir dire for the trial and meeting with our "witnesses" to make sure they new everything they needed to know. The morning of November 17th I had to get my composite picture taken for the school. In the afternoon I was sworn in to become a LLI, and I spent the evening going over my trial stuff. Our trial was the next day, on November 18th. We got a hung jury, which is great for us since we were the defense! November 22 was another friend's birthday, and by this time, I had helped four friends out my being jurors for their trials (they too are in Trial Practice). Along with all this, I worked, kept up with my studies in my other classes, slept (a few hours a night at some points), and managed to eat, do laundry, and clean... I know there are much harder jobs out there, like being a parent, but gosh darnit.. I'm tired!

Compared to my last month and a half, finals are looking like a breeze at this point! You may be wondering how I remember all of this. Because I'm a nerd and I wrote EVERYTHING down. I had so much going on I was afraid I would forget something!

"Eat, Pray, Love"

I am currently reading a book by Elizabeth Gilbert entitled "Eat, Pray, Love," a #1 New York Times bestseller. It is about her struggle and triumph in leaving her husband, home, and the "all American life" as she knew it, simply because it was not what she wanted anymore. She spent about a year traveling first to Italy to learn Italian, something she has wanted to always do, then to India, and then to the Indonesian island of Bali. Everyone thought she was crazy to leave everything behind, but she knew this was what she wanted, and what she needed. I had heard so many great things about this book, so I decided to buy it, and am currently still in the Italy (aka "Eat") part. So far, it is a great book. She writes about topics that many women can relate to. For example:

"Moreover, I have boundary issues with men. Or maybe that's not fair to say. To have issues with boundaries, one must have boundaries in the first place, right? But I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time -- everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else."

That's pretty bad, right? Becoming so deeply absorbed in the life of another, and not retaining your personal qualities that make you you, cannot be good!

That is just my two cents. Now back to writing my Seminar paper!

Another one bites the dust!

Another week has now passed. This week went by quickly (thankfully!) and this weekend has been a blast! Last night I went to the new Warren theater in Moore, OK. We sat in the balcony (a bit extra $) and had full service during the entire movie. Dinner, drinks, and dessert all while watching "Nights in Rodanthe." It is a really good movie...a bit of a tear jerker. The seats are extra large, and you have the option of heating it (like a car seat). Totally worth the extra money :) Today was the pistol shoot competition. I didn't do so great this year, hitting only 22 out of 40 targets. I suppose I have more practicing to do! This weekend I am also puppysitting for my favorite puppies again!!! Maggie has successfully shredded her rope toy, and now there are blue strings all over the living room! Oh well, it makes for a nice arm workout, and a needed break from reading ADR!

Bear Grylls Is My Hero

One of my favorite shows is called "Man vs. Wild." Bear was in the British Special Air Service and was at one point the youngest British climbers to climb (and live to tell about it) Mount Everest, at just 23 years of age. In "Man vs. Wild" Bear is dropped into an area, such as the jungle, Sahara, swamp lands, etc, and shows you how to survive. Not that I ever plan on being lost in a swamp, but you never know! It is educational nonetheless.

Part of surviving is being willing to do things you NEVER thought you could do, but the instinct to survive is stronger than one might think... Here are some things I don't think I would be willing to do (Bear has done all of these on the show):

1) Drink the fluid from elephant dung
2) Drink my own urine
3) Sleep inside a camel (literally inside... he cut the camel's stomach and took out all of its insides... then slept inside it)
4) Cut the skin/fur from a large, rotting, smelly animal, and use it as a "blanket" to keep warm
5) Eat "sushi" (he caught a fish, and took a bite out of it right after "thumping" it on the head... he called it sushi, I call it eating a raw fish)
6) Swim in a swamp where I know crocodiles or alligators are
7) Catch, kill and eat a skunk
8) Use a urine soaked shirt as a hat to keep my head cool in the Sahara... NOT happening
9) Eat scorpions/spiders/beetles, or any other horrible looking little creepy crawler
10) Get lost in the first place without my cell phone!

Here are some things I found fascinating:
1) If you just happen to have a random potato chip in your pocket, don't eat it. You can light it on fire and use it as a match. It holds the flame because of the oil it was cooked in.
2) Dry dung is just as good as firewood!
3) If you tie both ends of a snakes skin (assuming you caught, killed and skinned the snake first) it works great as a canteen! Bear happened to keep urine in his, drinking it later. I would maybe keep water in it instead :)
4) If you magnetize a little piece of metal (like a paper clip) by rubbing it on your hair, then you put it on a leaf that is floating in a little pool of water, and over a few minutes, it will show you the North/South line
5) If you are in the Northern hemisphere, you can point the hour hand on your watch towards the sun, and North is half way between that and the 12 on your watch.
6) If you have a little piece of a granola bar left in your bag, don't eat it. Instead, use it as "bait" on a trap.
7) To determine the depth of water you need to jump into, tie some "rope" (made from whatever is available) to a rock and drop it in the water. Keep track of how much rope you are releasing before it slacks, indicating that the rock has hit the bottom.
8) Vulchers only eat fresh meat, so if they are around, the animal is probably still good to eat. And if it is a really hot area, a rock will work great for grilling yourself a zebra or camel steak!
9) To determine the flow of water in a place where the water doesn't look like it's moving, take a long stick, poke it into the ground leaving about 6 inches above the water. Tie your empty water bottle to the stick with a "rope" (See #7). After a few minutes, the bottle will have moved and you can then determine which direction the water is flowing.
10) You can make a homemade fishing net out of a Y shaped branch and a shirt! Then you can have sushi (see #5 in the first list)!

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies and Indiana Jones... and the cat.

Baxter and Maggie... my two favorite labradoodles in the WHOLE world. Baxter, who looks more like a poodle, has the personality to match. Although I noticed tonight that he enjoys actually sitting ON my foot...silly dog! Maggie, who looks more like a lab, also has the personality to match. She gives me a workout though since she would play catch ALL DAY if I let her sucker me into it.

So unfortunately these aren't exactly MY dogs... they belong to Shyla and Clay, good friends of mine. But I enjoy "puppy sitting" when they are out of town. I claim them as my own when they are gone. And I swear, if they disappear one day, I don't know anything about anything :)

I'm also on a personal quest to finally see all of the Indiana Jones movies. I happened to see the last one that was in theaters this year, but my friends were appalled when they realized I haven't seen any of the other ones. Clay just happens to have the entire collection, so I am currently on "Indiana Jnes and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," which came out in 1981. I wasn't even born yet!

Oh yeah, and did I mention they have a cat. Such a sweet, innocent little creature (just a touch of sarcasm there). I'm convinced that he is planning a sudden attack on me at some point in the middle of the night. He's going to sit on my face and smother me to death in my sleep... I'm on to him!

"Those Who Save Us"

I often do not prioritize my free time to be able to read books that (a) have nothing to do with law, or (b) have nothing to do with law school. I am working on that though! Although I love (and have all of) John Grisham's books, the books I truly love are those about WWII from the perspective of those actually in the heart of it. One of my favorite books is entitled "Night" by Elie Wiesel. The book is based on his experience as a young Jewish boy, and being sent with his family to German concentration camps (Auschwitz and Buchenwald). Maybe it has more meaning to me now that I've been to Europe. Although I love Europe, the memories that will be engraved in my memory forever are those of the Dachau concentration camp, the building where Anne Frank and her family hid, the many parts of Berlin (Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin wall, the Jewish Memorials, etc), etc. Maybe it's because my grandfather was in WWII. Or maybe it is because I am 100% German. I really don't know why this topic and point in history pulls at my heartstrings, but it just does.

I have just started reading a book called "Those Who Save Us." Although it is a work of fiction, (from the perspective of an average, "normal," German girl during the war), it still holds meaning. Out of the millions of people, I figure that it cannot be that different from what one person would call their life story during the Holocaust. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, but it is already keeping me up late at night, as I am unable to put the book down!

"Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere"
- Elie Wiesel