Results

For all of you that have been waiting and wondering right along with me. Today the results came in. I failed the bar exam. I will have to take it again. I won't be taking it again until February 2007 - so until then I can concentrate on teaching, debating. Peace out.

Merry Christmas. I hope that you all have a blessed holiday.

Christmas & Changes

It's amazing to me what can take place over the course of a year. Think about where you were back in early January. For me, I was sitting up in Bottineau, North Dakota with my sister in law and their 5 dogs freezing my butt off. Now, I am back at home wrapping presents under my tree - and my "sister-in-law" is doing the same here in California, while my brother is still in North Dakota, in a state of mind that has me in constant worry mode. In February, I was interviewing for a job to be the director of forensics at a small college I had never heard of. Today, I am headed out to that same college to my office - to finalize grades and turn off the light on my first semester of teaching college. In March, it was pouring rain which it had been relentlessly doing all winter season. The month of December has seen maybe an inch of rain in this winter season? In April, I was finalizing my last scholastically graded papers of my law school career. This month I just finished grading several papers and essays. In May, I graduated law school and I headed out with Carrie on a road trip towards hell. The road trip was excellent, but the end result was studying... June & July resulted in much of the same: studying and taking the most grueling test of my life. Now? I don't have anything to do but lesson planning and quilting. August was spent reconnecting with my husband who I hadn't seen in three months, this month is spent gathering his belongings so he can move to the NW for the next six months without me. September was the introduction of my debate team to the circuit. December, That College took 5th place sweepstakes at Fall Champs. October, I find out I did not pass the test I spent weeks studying for. October I submit my appeal for those very results. Even still I am awaiting the results of that appeal. November, marked a large family change. My grandfather passed away. A void in the family - certainly, but more importantly faith in God and hope for a better future for us all in Heaven. December? December has brought many things - Job offers for Loving Husband he certainly could not turn down. Christmas parties, shopping, quilting, present wrapping & packing. 2006 is certainly going to be a year of some of the biggest changes in my life. Stay tuned

Family Time, Turkey, & Tournaments

It has been a busy few weeks - since Disneyland life has been a whirlwind of ups and downs. My grandfather died on the 10th of November, leaving me in my hometown for two weeks unexpectedly. Derek was able to come home to be with the family, and was able to see Grandpa before he passed. It is sad, but it was quite a blessing for my grandfather. He had a very happy and fulfilling 83 years. Thanksgiving came and went with little event. I avoided Black Friday, but truly made up for that today... more of that to come.

This weekend was PSCFA Fall Champs - before the weekend began, I had little desire to really go. I was glad that I did. Not only did my students do great, but it was simply a lot of fun!!!! I can't believe that the students managed to get 5th PLace sweepstakes. That's crazy! That makes me feel like I've done something this semester. :)

He Won!

Grandpa used to play the lottery every Wednesday and Saturday. It was a part of his weekly routine for the latter years of his life to go down to the local store and get a $5 quick-pick twice a week. Thus, in his honor and tradition we decided to get a ticket, so we went and bought Grandpa's final $10 quick-pick ticket shortly after his death... and tonight when I went to cash it in, we determined that he went out on top with a $12 win. We decided to just keep playing until we could play no more. Wish us luck!

All my love...

83 years of life.
56 years of marriage to his lovely wife.
25 years of my memories.
8 weeks spent on summer trips to the beach at Camp Pendleton.
5 weekends spent at cabins in Big Bear.
13 days at home with my family.
3 days sitting by my grandfather's side talking to him in his final hours about my amazing husband and how proud he is of me and when I find out about the bar exam.
1 day solely for an amazing man spent celebrating, crying and rejoicing over his, my grandfather's, life.
An eternity of happiness, sight, warmth and love.

I will miss you, Grandpa - but I know you are in the best place you could ever be. I will see you soon! Until then, whenever I see my humming bird, washing machine, and wishing well, I will think of you and all the memories we shared. I love you.

DISNEYLAND! I love it!

Yesterday, Carrie and I went to the Happiest Place on Earth ... the LONGEST line we waited for was 25 minutes and that was including when the ride broke down. We went on Space Mountain twice and every other significant ride, except Indiana Jones because it was broken (sad day!) We were there from 1pm-6:30pm in the park... and most of the rides we could walk right on! It was EMAZING.

The Bar

So, most of you know my fate (currently) as to the results of the bar exam. I have technically failed the exam. By 1.5 points. A passer needs an average of 7 (out of 10) for all 18 essay. My average? Yah 6.91! So what does that mean? I am appealing. Yes, appeal appeal appeal. Talk about exhausting, emotional, and down right nerve racking. All I do for the appeal is fax one piece of paper back that simply says REGRADE ESSAYS 7, 10, 14, 15, & 18 (Up to six) and a review committee will take another look at my essay and see if it was improperly scored (hopefully) by 1.5 points SOMEWHERE!!! So, today has been sent selecting those essays... Loving Husband will look at them tonight. Wish me luck.

My Week... AND Results

Saturday, October 8th 5:41pm: I am sitting in the final debate round at PLNU, with all of my students watching the round intently, my husband by my side and a computer with internet access in front of me... So I start to surf the web. I receive an email from my friend and fellow test taker which goes as follows.
"Erp. I don't even know how you're feeling right now, but I didn't see your name and I hope that means they just forgot. I heard they miss a few names each time. Etiquette as I have heard it is that I shouldn't contact you until the news has settled a bit. :( but you're one of the most positive people I know and I just wanted to write you a note to say how STINKIN LAME that Bar is!!!! I think the results are pretty arbitrary, since a lot of my (smart, A student) friends aren't on that list today. Want you to know I'm thinking of you. When you come to visit or move, I am taking you for a few big fat peachy Bellinis! All you can drink! Feel free to call or whatever if you want. I didn't see Kara's name either, sigh. You know what though, you two have jobs!! ;) I'm still a temping wage slave. Ok, chin up, and go appeal the heck out of that exam! Hugs, Ali"
This is the first inkling that I have that a) the test results are posted and b) that I didn't pass. Fishsticks! (Thank you, Mark) So, paniced I race from my inbox to http://www.wsba.org/ and see that yes, in fact, the results have been posted... and yes, my nightmare had come true. My name is NOT THERE! ANYWHERE. But, I am stuck... sitting in this room, with my students for another 20 minutes because I can't get to an exit without drawing massive attention to myself. I then make the statement to Loving Husband, I didn't pass and point to the screen.
Saturday, October 8th - 6:02pm: I race home to check the mail, the letters were mailed out Friday, there is a slim chance it would have gotten there by then... and then I will know what portion I didn't pass! Nothing... I drag the useless and meaningless mail into the house and cry for a good solid 20 minutes... Then I redo my makeup and go meet my team, PLNU team and the APU team for dinner. Mentioning nothing to anyone.
Saturday, October 8th - 8:30pm: Loving Husband and I make the decision that it is best to go distract me from reality and we head over to Kelley's for a previously arranged game night. We played Cranium and Hoopla until almost 1am. It was a great distraction and I thank them all for helping take my mind off of the horrible way I was feeling.
Sunday, October 9th - 2:00am: I cried for an hour and then I finally got to sleep. I just had this horrid recurring feeling that I spent three months away from my husband for NOTHING.
Sunday, October 9th - All Day: I slept until I couldn't sleep anymore... woke up at 12:30pm. I moped around the house. I watched Cinderella, Toy Story, general cartoons - you name it, I just wanted to do nothing. I wallowed.
Monday, October 10th: I had prearranged for my morning class to be canceled. Check mail! No mail. Check mail again! No mail. Check mail again! No Mail - DAMN IT COLUMBUS! Go shopping with Nikki and Jackie... very therapeutic and fun regardless of my mood. I was starting to feel better.
Tuesday, October 11th: Check mail... NO LETTER. Start voicing my disdain for the USPS. Go off to work and tell my students my results... they are sympathetic and are truly positive that no one passes on their first time. It was refreshing..
Wednesday, October 12th: I was at work from 7am-6pm all the time KNOWING that the letter was sitting in my mail box at home - waiting to tell me finally: a) What I had passed/failed b) If I had failed within a range of appealability c) Where I really stood with it all. I made the decision while I was at work that I would take the exam again - in Winter 2007. The exam is only offered twice a year... Winter and Summer. Well, this winter I am teaching, I refused to waste another summer and thus left me with Winter 2007. So, I drive home... straight to the mailbox. NOTHING FROM WSBA!
Thursday, October 13th: I don't work on Thursdays so I slept in a bit, got up did some stuff online and around 11am went to mail some invites for the party... mail had already come, but again NOTHING! The rest of my day was disgruntled, but productive.
Friday, October 14th: TODAY! I wake up, also after sleeping in a bit. Take care of some stuff for work and more party stuff and take more invites to the mailbox. NOTHING! That's it. I came straight back in the house and called the WSBA. Left a voicemail. Within the next hour the woman called back with the following news:
Ethics Portion - PASSED Substantive Portion - IN THE APPEALABLE RANGE** I was 1.5 points away from passing the exam entirely.
** Appealable range means that IF I am missing up to 3 points from a passing grade I can resubmit up to 6 of the 18 essays for entire regrading. The gamble with that is that the grade can go up or DOWN, since it's an entire REGRADING. You will receive copies of all your answers again and you will choose based on the information you have from the original grader which essays you would like regrarded and HOW MANY you would like regraded.
SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?I will get in the next couple of days the procedures for the appeal process and copies of all 18 of my graded essays. I then will have to sit down and see where it is likely that I can pull another 1.5 points from certain essays. I will have to decide how many essays to submit and the gamble that I would be taking if I submit too many. The appeal is due by Monday,October 24th. I do not yet know when the secondary results would be put forth. So, we're back on the prayer track... Guidance for which essays and how many to submit and for leniency on those ReGraders. Beyond all that I am exhausted from the whirlwind of emotions that this week has put me through. Thank you all for your support thus far. It really has helped and means a lot to me.

Bar Results

None yet... But, as the end nears and the waiting period dwindles, I've been weighing and dealing with the fact that people don't really know the exact time in which I receive my results... Some of those close knew the date, but others I could simply put off letting know. Thus if I failed I had a few days to come to grips with that... Well, that's silly. Although prayer won't change the results, it will certainly help calm my nerves as the day approaches all too rapidly now for my stomach to handle. I was a wreck for a few months and studied like crazy, survived the test and did a happy dance and now I am back to being a wreck... ahh full circle.

The last 2 months have been relatively calm, but I woke up on Monday, with this looming dread over my head (sorry for the rhyme) and have yet to shake it entirely. It isn't always beating down on me... but it's there and I'm just plain nauseous.

On October 10th, between 8am-Noon the State Bar Association will be posting (or not posting) my fate. You all can find out at the same time I do (of course I will be awake far sooner than those of you who are not required to be awake before 9am) all you have to is go to the website you will know my fate, just the same as I will. It's simple: if my name is posted, I am happy. if my name is not, I am not happy. Meaning - if my name is posted on the website I have officially past the test to become a lawyer and the last hurdle I will have to endure will be the swearing in as an official officer of the court.

I just have this looming dread. I remember when I tried out for a team in law school and I was certain I had made it. When the email was sent out for those new members, I was completely shocked and had this sense of defeat as I read that email 10 times with no such luck of finding my name. That was for a team that I didn't even care about... THIS is so much bigger. I keep praying for peace about it - whatever will be will be, right? God has a plan and it's his choice, I did the leg-work... but sitting back and relaxing right now, seems like the biggest farce I've ever heard.

Thus, the ticker... you all can know and pray right along with me, up and until the moment I sign online... along with 900 other eager and vomit-pending test-takers.

Stars and Rain

Yesterday was filled with ups and downs...

UP: I slept for 8 hours (sunday to monday)
DOWN: It was from 9:30pm until 5:30am
UP: I wasn't tired when I woke up, went to class and taught a good one!
DOWN: Immediately following class, I had to go to the dentist.
UP: In the car on the WAY to the terrible dentist I discovered that STAR is BACK! Jingle Ball, Jeff and Jer, the whole shabang! It is now Star 9.41 to be found at www.star941sandiego.com!
DOWN: Spent an hour with the dentist torturing me!
UP: I ran some errands after the dentist that included: finally getting my car washed (it had been since JUNE!), and buying some killer random shoes at Target.
DOWN: IT RAINED NOT 45 MINUTES AFTER GETTING MY CAR WASHED. & I threw away the receipt for the free re-wash.
UP: I had nothing else to do all day long except work on my new hobby quilting.
DOWN: My body started to hurt from all the hunching over from quilting so long... (still does, oww!)
UP: I finished my quilt! We had an excellent thunder and lightening show and Loving Husband and I fell asleep in each other's arms.

The UPs win! THE END!

Babysitting, Pet Sitting & Weddings!

For all of those itching to know how teaching is going... it's going really well. It is time consuming, challenging and exciting. I love teaching the ethics class and getting the students to really think about ethics rather than adhering to them or denouncing them as a rule that they must "obey"... it's really interesting and has already brought up very interesting topics of conversation. My Argumentation & Debate classes/team are coming together nicely, I've created a great buzz for the event and people are really excited to jump right in. So, that's my teaching experience so far. I'm loving it!

Thursday & Friday of this week I got the pleasure of watching little Aly. This is my (ex) roommate's niece whom lives up in L.A.. Her mommy and daddy and Carrie (the roomie) were all headed to Boston for a wedding. So, I volunteered with excitement to watch Aly (22 months) and adorable as ever. We enjoyed playing in the yard, playing at the mall and watching much Seasame Street! Did you know they now have a spanish word of the day? Interesting. It was a lot of fun. I also got to visit and watch Carrie's kitties one of whom left a wound on my arm. :) See picture below of Aly and one of Carrie's adorable kittens.

Saturday, I passed Aly off to her Mimi (Grandma) and I headed back to So Cal for our friend Brad's wedding. The wedding was wonderful and the reading of Genesis was interesting.... the reading was longer than my entire wedding ceremony and in fact if you would like to read what we heard, please turn to Genesis Chapter 24. Yes, it is in fact 67 verses long and Brad's Grandpa read it ALL, much to the shock and surprise of EVERYONE... Just for perspective people were starting to chat amongst themselves around verse 50... and to make it better, that's all he did... there was no message, lesson or significance attached to the message. Ahh Grandpas.... So, because of Grandpa's reading the ceremony lasted an entire hour. The ceremony was still beautiful- as was the bride and the happy groom. The reception was fun times had by all. :)

So that's what I have been up to. What about you?

A Weekend Getaway

This weekend Loving Husband and I went up to Big Bear. I surprised him with a weekend at a bed & breakfast for our anniversary/his birthday. He had never been to Big Bear and our stay at the Gold Mountain Manor was amazing! If you are looking for somewhere cozy and fun to stay I highly recommend it.

We stayed in the Presidential Suite for two nights. We had the amazing spa that had jets that we sat in while a nice fire roared in front of us. The last picture of the fireplace and coffee table was the view from our bed. The breakfasts were amazing! The owner, Cathy was so great and helpful and it was such a great weekend in Big Bear! It was just an amazing time to spend with Loving Husband.

Teaching

It is crazy to me that in two days time I am going to be teaching... ME! I've been thinking about this fact, and for whatever reason it feels very natural that this is the path that I am supposed to be taking. I am starting to feel a little nervous, but overall I have this eerie peace about the whole thing. It's nice. NOW, ask me on Wednesday before I go into the classroom whether that state is the same... it might catch up with me, and I'll feel different.

I've been working on syllabi, lesson plans and handouts. Reading through textbooks and figuring out what chapters, books, and articles to have the students read to maximize their learning on the subject of Ethics, Debate and Communication. It's all so strange to me! I mean seriously, who would have thought I'd be teaching COLLEGE! Teaching at a FOUR YEAR COLLEGE! I'm so excited about it and it's sooo great that I have this opportunity... it's just so mind blowing!

The best part?! I get to start a debate team! I am in charge of developing this program from the ground up, and if nothing else I'll always be known for starting the program at the college. That alone is so cool to me!

Well, I best get back to reading through the C.S. Lewis book that I chose for my students to read for the Ethics class. :)

My methods of procrastination

I wouldn't be me if I hadn't compiled a list of my ways of procrastinating... so for all of you to enjoy... this is how I procrastinated while studying for the bar.

MASTER PROCRASTINATOR 2005
(in no particular order)
1. Scrubbed the bedroom carpet clean (it wasn't even my carpet)
2. Got a kitten
3. Checked the earthquake website AT least 3 times a day
4. Watched every episode I could find of the Gilmore Girls - yes that means OVER 45 hours of it.
5. Cleaned the cat boxes
6. Painted the bathroom wall on a whim
7. then continued to paint the living room wall when the bathroom didn't take as long as desired.
8. Maintained a list of my procrastination methods
9. MYSPACE.COM!!!!
10. Created fun themes for people's myspace pages.

Home

I graduated from law school, packed, moved and left my husband behind. I studied for several weeks, for endless hours at a time and didn't see my husband for 2.5 months. I took the biggest test of my life, and now I am finally home with my husband in So Cal.

It's so strange to be done. I've been working towards the goal of becoming a lawyer for so many years and I have accomplished all that I can to this point in completing that goal. It just feels good to be done.

I've unpacked all my stuff, even did a little cleaning out of stuff that I don't really need (since I didn't use it for 2.5 months)... Enjoyed spending time with Loving Husband... just the two of us. I'm just glad to be home.

I have about a week to relax and enjoy my freedom and then I start my teacher orientation at That College. It is strange to think that I will be teaching starting in 2.5 weeks! But for now... I'm just enjoying being done.

How I think I did...

To avoid having to repeat this answer or refuse to answer it... here's my initial gut reaction. I am not concluding whether or not I passed or not... so don't ask.

DAY ONE: I was up at 5:00am and was out the door before 6:00am... I arrived to receive the equivalent to the "Golden Ticket" - except it was blue and we all got one. But it was required to get into the testing room, like the Golden Ticket was required to get into the Chocolate Factory... so it's sorta the same. Anyway. The room was a huge at the convention center in Bellevue. Our blue card included a letter and a number. I was Q-28. What does that mean? That means the back of the room was labeled A-Z (So 26 seats across... two per table) and 35 rows long. Yah that makes 910 people that were WRITING the exam... minus a few 50... It was crazy. So we had "orientation" and we are provided these "confidential numbers" that mean nothing until the time that we peel off a label from the magic blue ticket that had our name on it and fix it onto the bright pink confidential card that we then take the stub of (also containing our confidential number) and seal the card in an envelop. All the envelops were then collected and we were told they will be placed in a safe deposit box not to be opened until all results are finalized. So on all of our exams we wrote our "confidential number" me: 439... shh don't tell anyone (except the WA State Bar Graders.) So the exam is passed out... silence falls. Not too bad, all tolerable subjects. BREAK! Man 30 minutes goes fast. 3 more essays! LUNCH! Ugh 3 MORE essays. JET OUT GO HOME! Pay $12 for parking. Come home... study. I can purge my brain of several subjects because there is only one question per bar on certain subjects.

**REFLECTION** All those essays I had enough to talk about the whole space... I feel I got a lot of the issues. I couldn't remember Warranty for Fitness of a Particular Purpose! DANG IT! ... Overall oook!

DAY TWO: Leave the house at 7:00 (sleep in?! NO, still awake at 5:00am.) First set of questions are passed out. Read through them... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?! Criminal Procedure again.... what the hell did I do yesterday? First set of essays yesterday was Crim pro, or at least I thought it was... ((((PANIC))))) what did I do yesterday if it wasn't crim pro? There is only one crim pro on an exam... this can't be crim pro. Where is the Crim Law? OMG OMG OMG.... WRITE! TIME IS TICKING! Break... large mummers of the same... WHAT THE HELL!? Set Two.... Lunch! And now - we have the bliss of knowing almost postive what the LAST three essays of the bar exam will be: Constitutional Law/Admin Law, Commercial Paper & and mystery... Could be the missing Criminal law, but not likely since we already had two crim pros.... could be a second contract, or a second civ pro. What did we get?! Oh yes, here yah go: Constitutional Law, Contracts & Civil Procedure. What is wrong with this?! First Commercial Paper is on the exam 95% of the time. We were lucky to fall in that 5% it wasn't - oh wait... why the HECK did I just spend 3 days, yes count them THREE days studying what a negotiable instrument was if I didn't have to study it??!?!?!??!?! Yah - AND Constitutional law --- ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS tests  STATE LAW --- not this time. Federal. Did I study Federal? Not since SECOND YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL! And guess what was clouding over that, yah commercial paper.... the Civ Pro question was almost duplicate of the previous one that had already been on the exam... SO - the last three essays... not happy.BUT I could still be ecstatic because it was over. The substantive part of the exam was over. Exam is over I pay $12 for parking AGAIN and I head with Ali (see friends list) and Kara to a restaurant for food, drinks (water of course) and STUDYING! Yes, studying immediately following 9 essays.

**REFLECTION** Besides the total upset in the second day and all the outta left field things that they threw at us... it was sooo great to be done. I feel I did ok. If I totally bombed the Con Law - I feel I have enough points to make it up.

DAY THREE: Woke up at 5:00am AGAIN and for the last time... what an unholy hour that is... and was out the door again by 6:00am for registration where this time I received a white ticket. slightly less flare.... but 3 hours from then I would be done so I am not mourning the loss of my blue ticket that much. Six Professional Responsibility Essays (22.5 minutes each) and then I was D-O-N-E! I wrote them, they were fine, easy as cake compared to the previous two days... and we RACED over to Bellevue Square (the mall) to McDonald's (Kara, Ali and myself) to get breakfast in time. I had my McMuffin by 10:24am... and I was done with the bar exam.

The rest of my day was spent getting my pedicure, eating lunch with Ali and getting my hair cut and dyed (see profile picture) it was most excellent and sooo relaxing. Again, thank you all for encouragement and support and prayers and excitement for me. I am still kind of in shock that I really am done. So glad though. Carol is making me food (steak, corn on the cob and green beans) and Loving Husband is boarding a plane as I type and will be here before 11 tonight! I'm so happy.

So how do I feel I did... A-OK. I studied like mad, more than ever before and I feel I got enough down to get what they were looking for. If it is a true test of mediocrity then I did just fine.

Less than 10...

I have 6 days left to study and I am done in 9. I've done 5 essays today, only missing a few issues consistently, I'll work on memorizing all of those later on tonight. I'm missing the little bits here and there, but really this is a test on big bits and so I am trying to memorize those. Don't get me wrong there's a LOT of big bits.

Here's a taste of what I have been dealing with these last 11 weeks... Topic: Evidence: Subtopic: Hearsay... (you've all heard of that. "OBJECTION, HEARSAY") Which really means: An out of court statement made to prove the truth of the matter asserted, ya? Well there are 34 exceptions to that rule. Yep - where statements made out of court can in fact be brought in.... So you state IT'S NOT ALLOWED, BUT.... it might fall..... and the spiral begins.

Then in property (today's poison of choice) If you have a restrictive covenant (not allowed to do something with your land) it is supposed to run with the land (meaning when you sell the property, the buyer can't do it either), unless the party did not have notice (which can be obtained expressly in the deed, by word of mouth or by obviousness [no circus tents in your backyard. do you see anyone else with them? SEE it's "obvious" it's not allowed.]) However if you can prove that an equitable servitude exists because of this restricted covenant, specific to you - THEN you can have a circus tent - warranting it is not a private nuisance that disrupts the enjoyment and possession of another's property... or a public nuisance that puts the public's health, safety and well being at risk AND you suffer a unique harm! So, got it? That little paragraph is just a SINGLE rule. That does not include the analysis to the specific facts I would have to go through - nor any of the other 10 issues that are held within one essay question. Rinse and repeat.

Confused yet? The good thing... I'm not.

It is finished...

That lady sure knows how to write a story! I can not believe how excellent that was. Very unique as compared to other years and such an amazing method of laying out the plot line towards completion... When is book 7 coming out?!

I went to the Barnes & Noble in Bellevue at 4pm on July 15th... around 6pm I got in line and received my wrist band (I was number 43)... and then I waited. I still maintained some level of being an adult and studied pretty consistently until 10pm... then the number of Harrys, Hagrids and Pixies overwhelmed me and I put my studying materials in the car and wandered around for the remaining two hours taking in the excitment. At midnight there was a countdown (ok well, at 12:00:50...) It was like new years but oh so much better. Since I was number 43 I was in the first set of people to get the book and at 12:13 I was the proud owner of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I realized as I was driving home (chatting with Carrie the whole way) that I had not eaten a real dinner, a piece of banana loaf was all I had had since 6pm... It made me chuckle a little (yes, chuckle) to remember back to when Movie 2 came out Shannon and I were consumming large quantities of Pumpkin bread... So tastey breads and Harry Potter go hand in hand, apprently. I came home... to no food. Had a glass of water, got all ready to read. I started at 1:01, I was so exhausted I read to page 57.

I awoke early (for me, volitionally anyway) at 7:50 and opened the book right away. Besides the occasional break for food, shower, checking the internet... I read all day. Calling Shannon (poor you! stuck showing people around rather than reading. sniff sniff) throughout to see if she was able to get BACK to the book. It was EMAZING! I cried. Yes, I cried. I finished at 5:03am (so technically on the 17th)

That is all I will say because I don't want to spoil anything! It's so good... Quit reading this and finish the book!!!!

a BIT stressed

Yah - so I am feeling the stress. Two examples.
1. I was sitting in the library today at one of the larger tables that society says I have to share, when someone comes over and asks "can I sit here" - fine have a seat. The lady sits down and for an hour is not a bother in the world and then the nasal drip starts. Full on slimy snorting LOUD sniffling until I FINALLY get up abruptly and leave. It was apparent to Sniffles that she was the cause of this sudden exit. But it just kept building - it was like a slow torture. It just kept getting louder and LOUDER and my iPod could NOT get any louder.... I couldn't take it anymore. I stormed out of the library infuriated and disgusted and I text messaged Carrie with that thought - yes there was an expletive used. It still makes me angry.
2. I called my mom to get an address for the Parrishes - we decided eventually the best would be just to send the card to the church addressed to them. Then this is how the conversation goes: me: "ok I need to get back to studying." mom: "Ok, so how's the weather." (internal) me: OH MY GOSH! (out loud) me: "Sunny" mom: "What?" me: "Sunny" mom: "Funny?" (out loud me, should have been internal me) me: "OH MY GOSH CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER IN TWO WEEKS! I HAVE TO GO!" mom: "Sorry." Click - I quickly sent her an email apologizing and she responded with she understood -- but still... yah the stress is getting to me.
I apologize in advance for my rabid actions that any of you are unfortunate to come in contact with.

Tortious

So everyone - meet Tortious, Tort for short. :) That my adorable kitten, named appropriately for the time period in which he arrived into our family. It's been a great distraction from studying for the bar. Which for all of those that have inquired and I have shot down or simply not responded, I greatly appreciate all your concern and good thoughts for passing. Studying is a long tedious process which rarely shows signs of progress... but it's coming along. Loving Husband and I are doing well... he's flying up here on the night of the last day of exams, Thursday, July 28th! Yay! It's been so long... but it has gone by too fast! (too fast as far as time to study goes.) Living with Carol and Rich is going great, we all get along well together and seem to have developed a routine in our ways what has eliminated any awkwardness... yay us! Well, there isn't much else going on in life except studying, kittens, and procrastinating. Keep me posted on your lives.

This is Nick :)

27 Days... and sadness

Tomorrow is the simulated exam, I am about as close to ready for it as I am close to being 80 years old. Blah. I am so worn out... I just don't want to study anymore, but I have another 8 subjects not even discussed yet, along with the other 14 that we have already covered. Ugh...

My energy is low - feeling sad too since I just found out that my Jaggie (Grandma's sister... name is a long story, but I digress) was give 4-7 DAYS to live and it is really sad, but at the same time - it's one of those mixed feelings sort of things, because she's 85. I mean she's lived her life and now what's left of it is mostly pain, so it would be selfish to have her loom on this earth to avoid the sadness of her departure. I wish I was there to be able to say goodbye. My mom and grandma are driving down there  tomorrow to see her. Mom's going to take pictures from my graduation, because we hadn't seen her since then. Just sad, makes it hard to concentrate on anything but that.

YES!

I AmJured Law Practice Management!!!!!

Myspace & The Library

***This post was transfered from my Livejournal... which contrary to my statements has been abandoned***

So I have decided to finally give in and join Myspace.com and enjoy the luxuries that are over there as well as what Livejournal offers me. However, UNLIKE Britton - I am not going to abandon my Livejournal, because really - it's home. But if you would like to read rant-specifics about my studying progress feel free to hop over and take a look. :-D But I wanted to double post my last Myspace post because I was so amused by it. So here it is....
____________________
The Library


In all my years of school I have avoided the library like the plague. "They are too quite" - was always the reasoning I remembered... and today I remembered the other reason - there are too many crazy people there.

And since my swearing off of libraries back in '97 (really this is an arbitrary date, I'm not so strange as to have created a binding oath to abide by, but anyway I digress...) the people have gotten crazier and louder - So, at least the library is loud enough now.

Since I am up in the NW and not in the comforts of my own home I have had to find different locations to study at. I normally for college and law school simply studied at home. However, my In-Law's place is just too distracting with all the people in and out of the house - and Borders, Starbucks and the like don't provide ample space and electrical outlets with the regular predictability that I need.... so not knowing the area and not having my campus here I set off for the public library.

Now, back to the crazy people...

Ms. Correspondence: I am sitting at a large table for four, there is a lady sitting on the other side working on her "correspondence" she occasionally looks up, looks right at me and bulges her eyes out. Now, before I came in here - I looked normal enough not to warrant eye-bulging and I have only been here for about an hour so it can't be ME that is in need of these eye-bulging nonverbals. Secondly, she keeps randomly saying "Dear" and "Sincerely" and "TTYL" under her breathe but clearly OUT LOUD, hence her name.

Mr. Grunt and Look: A man recently came in and sat at the table next to me with a cd-walkman, a news paper and a few cds... I assume that his grunts are a result of moving piece of the song, but I think he forgets this and looks around (for what I can only assume) is to see who made the noise. He's a happy man, big smiles and is enjoying putting cds in and out of the cases.

Miss Lost Internet Girl: There is a girl in front of me at one of the computer terminals that I can only assume is doing research for "censorship" because she keeps getting the recycled block window from the public library. Haha - THIS by the way has been the cause of Mr. Grunt and Look to crane his neck all the way around to see what she is looking at. (Which currently is a piercing website?! I think.) Mr. Grunt has now decided to be less conspicuous and has moved to the computer next to hers to join in the fun (he's 40 and I am sure Miss Lost is now freaked out.)

So, how's my studying going? You decide. However, if nothing else the library has become a much more entertaining place to sit for a few hours. I'm going to go TRY and write an essay now.

Studying for me & Celebration for others!

I don't think I have ever had to studying this much, this persistently and this tediously in my life. While life continues on as a Saturday for everyone else I am trapped to the confides of essentially a "weekday" filled with class, studying and homework. It's a dismal day here in the NW...

BUT

In Southern California there is much cause for rejoicing! Troy and Jackie got engaged this morning at Disneyland at the "perfect" spot and after the event, there was much celebration with a friends and their families! Very cool - and might I be one to say- FINALLY! (they started dating a month before Loving Husband and I... and we are celebrating our year anniversary in less than 2 months.)

Congrats again to the happy couple!

Road Trip

1348 miles later - I am in the NW.

The road trip was most excellent and although Carrie and my adventures were limited mostly to the I-5 and Outlets, it was a great time. On the top of the list of wild and weird things we saw, was for sure the boat trailer that lost a wheel on the freeway and the lone tire rolled off and started a brush fire. Poor boat people, but still mildly comical after 500 miles in the car. It seemed that we beat the rain at all of our stops by a few days and the whole trip was great and sunny. Heck even in the NW.


My second favorite memory was the tiny town of Kalama. :-) Population...10? It was great and a nice break before we powered on into town. No cops stopped us... an added bonus, considering at points I was pushing over 100mph. We killed almost all of God's created bugs. Made stops in places such as Buttonwillow, Gilroy (shopping!), and Willow... sadly no stops in Corning or Weed. And this by far, besides gas was the cheapest road trip EVER. We stayed every where for free. Everyone bought us food, at most we paid for lunches. It was great! Thanks to Carrie for coming with... it wouldn't have been nearly as fun AND neither of us would have been able to read Harry Potter while touring through all the cow-farms of the I-5! How sad would that have been?

Carrie left in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday and I started to settle in. I am enjoying the stay, but much studying has already set in. I am a note card making machine. :-) AND I treated myself to iPod with all graduation fundage. Yay me!

Loving Husband and I are doing well - much to the shock and dismay of all that know that I am in the NW and he is in CA. We're amazing like that. ;-) Hope all of you are well... I still need communication with the outside world, people! You know the email address! Enjoy the sunny So Cal summer.

Dangerous

Giving a cat a bath is a dangerous event. Poor Kitty. Poor ME!!!!

Yah my dad's cat got into something smelly, so Mischief needed to be cleaned.
I have a puncture wound in my arm. The cat did not want to get into the bath - thus the bath went to the kitty, and all the rest of the bathroom. Dear God.

A full week...

So it's been a full week since graduation. Graduation was wonderful, hot and amusing. Only my ghetto school would not have an operable sound system at the momentous occasion... sigh. The party was wonderful, my thanks to Shannon and Chris for making the food run (all greatly appreciated) Pals and friends thank you all for coming and for the wonderful sentiments and gifts. :) Britton thanks for the great flare added to our Balderdash game... Ahh Brad- "You're all wrong it's A TWIT!" - (SHAKING HEAD)

Monday was nice, I simply relaxed and did NOTHING. It was wonderful... the rest of this week I have been at work trying to get everything in order for my departure. My last full day of work will be Tuesday next week. I've been told that the job is mine when I come back, but at the same time --- you never know what can happen in 3 months.

I was offered a contract at the college on Thursday. I haven't seen it yet, nor do I know the official price, but I do know that it was enough to not make me WEEP at the thought of it... so that was good enough. Next school year I will be officially the Director of Forensics for the College Speech and Debate team and part-time professor. :) It's all very exciting. A real job! And an exciting one at that. However, my life is still lived in semesters... think that will ever end?

I am sad that I am leaving for the summer again, although this time the NW  is a much better location than Turlock. Shannon, I was laughing at the coincidence that the last time I left So Cal was when Harry Potter 5 came out, and now I am leaving again for the summer and Harry Potter 6 is coming out. I still think when Harry Potter 7 comes out it would be fantabulous to simply sit in a room and read with you. Amusing and strange to other - but totally perfect for a true fellow Harry Potter fan. We can still do the excessive phone calls over that weekend to discuss plot progression, as I have made the official decision to take the weekend off from studying and read the book.

Loving Husband's off to Canada with Troy this weekend. Their friend from HS is getting married. So, tonight I am enjoy the quiet time at home and starting to pack and catch up on some CSI. Tomorrow I head to Berdo to see the fam one last time before hitting the road.

Carrie and I leave for our trip on Friday morning.
Updates will definitely will follow, mapping our adventure.

Happy Graduation LeAnn! Having had a week free of finals, papers, classes and teachers - you will enjoy it and you have earned it! CONGRATS!

Top Memorable Non-law school related but aptly timed Moments:
(in no particular order)

1. Meeting Loving Husband, being smitten over Loving Husband, convincing everyone I wasn't dating Loving Husband, dating Loving Husband, getting engaged to Loving Husband and - Getting Married to Loving Husband!!
2. The "sunroof incident"
3. "BYOC" - Bring your own chair to dinner... no we are serious.
4. A night including a van, some beverages, a pregnancy test and TWO trip to the drug store.
5. Champagne Nights with Carrie.
6. Living in Turlock for a summer. (I said memorable, not necessarily good...NEVER AGAIN!)
7. Harry Potter 5!
8. Game nights- All of them!
9. The Winner Take All "Phantom of the Opera" Dinner
10. Anything and everything my little brother has done in the last YEAR.


It's been a long, but thanks to all my friends, a great three years.
Thanks for all the support and encouragement!

Random

So Konrad Hack is getting married.
Why I find this post-worthy, I don't know.
But I sure do find it amusing, also I don't know why.

The Interview

It's been an insane week of winding down and running out of time... and amid that was my interview at the college. I was asked to run a debate, critique a debate (NO PROBLEM) give a brief lecture (extemp style, I had 7 minutes) and then have an hour interview in front of facutly - which was roughly 8 people that showed up to grill me. It went E-MAZINGLY. I actually interviewed for 1/2 facutly position, but I sorta edged in the idea that 3/4 position would be equally as exciting and that I would love to do it! Theoretically that would mean more money, and the position is available, so I don't see why they wouldn't want to give it me, I'm great... err ok enough overthetop bigheadedness. Seriously the interview was fantabulous, I gave my testimony, talked about my teaching philosophy, where I expect to see a team after the first year... how I first heard about the college.

The debate was awesome, these students are going to rock with a little training. They debated "Home Schooling Should Be Banned" It was interesting. Pretty decent clash for such little instruction provided throughout the semester. Everyone is excited about having the team and joining it. It sounds like we have a commitment of about 9 right now. I am so excited for next year!

Regarding this year. I have a final on Sunday (MY VERY LAST) and one last paper to turn in on Tuesday and then I am done.

Palz I think that we're doing a mild party here at my place around 4:30 on Saturday after the OH SO EXCITING GRADUATION CEREMONY (Which all are invited to, but those things are not much fun, I know I've been to all of yours! jk)

Last Day

It doesn't seem possible. Today is my last day of class EVER. I mean, yah I am going to have to attend seminars and MCLEs, but that isn't the same thing. The last few weeks have flown by and I am finally settling. The last two weekends were spent in panic mode trying to accomplish and procrastinate as much as possible to complete a 30 page paper, a 20 page paper, a 15 page paper, a journal of my life through 2015, and finally study for my ONLY and LAST final scheduled for May 1st. I can see the end now. I have completed the journal and the 20 pager. After the posting of this journal entry I will complete the 15 pager - and the 30 pager is due on May 3rd, which is essentially done, but needs some grammatical and transition tweaking... but the hurdle of writing the 30 pages has already been accomplished.

In one of my methods of procrastination this past week I figured out the lowest possible scores I could receive in these classes in order to graduate. PASSING at TJSL is 0.67 (how "great" is that?) In order to officially graduate, you must exit school with at least a 2.0 overall. That means I can get an overall gpa for the semester of 1.29 and WALK! So these 3 papers that wrote, yah my worst in my educational career. AND I DON'T CARE!!!! I did bust my ass in one of my classes though, and I am currently setting the curve in that one, so I don't feel like a complete "SENIOR".

Long and the short of it? I am so close to done! I can smell it, taste, and wallow in it.
My last class - 8:00p.m. tonight - at 9:15p.m. you can find me down at Kelly's celebrating with my classmates.

I hate money!

Guys what am I going to do?!?!?! This is what I was told today:

"Your stipend for each course taught will be $2100 per semester. At present, Jon believes that you will earn between $6300.00 to $8400.00 depending on enrollment and number of courses taught (If you teach 3 courses over the course of the year, it will be $6300, if four, then 8400)."



$8,400.00 a YEAR?! UMMMMMM I know it is PART-TIME, but seriously?! My LOANS alone are going to be around $19,000 a year!!!!!!!!!! I shot an inquiry back regarding a stipend for being the DOF - Cross your fingers that DOUBLES that figure you see there.

I have to go cry now.

Anything New?

It is raining AGAIN! WHY? I just don't understand this weather. The weekend was wonderful. Great weather. Guess I have to take what I can get. I am still waiting to hear about the budget over at CHC. Hopefully by the end of this week. Cross your fingers for a high salary.

I am waiting anxiously to hear how your weekend went Shannon.
LeAnn, how are you? How was your break?
Talked with Jess this morning - started talking about the fact that we all need to party hard in 40 days. Yes 40 DAYS I will be graduated. You are all welcome to come to the boring event. Plenty of seating at the Balboa Park Pavilion. 10:30am on May 7th.

Hope all is well. Hopefully I'll have real update material later in the week. Post long. Post well.

Small Towns

1. I am glad that I don't live in them. 2. If you are buying stamps in them, with no cash, they are great. AND 3. If you are buying oil with an accidental rubber check.... BEWARE!!!!!!

DEREK UPDATE:
Friday I call the Bottineau Oil to see a) if they had gotten the money order and b) if they would recommend the dropping of the charges. He said he had taken the money order to the DA and he was satisfied. I get hopeful and call the DA (excuse me the STATE'S ATTORNEY...I do apologize for such a grave and significant mistake, that I was quickly and sternly corrected for.) The DA pretty much says it's a crime and that it still will be prosecuted. I go through the whole ordeal of what this means for Derek's job... He doesn't care. BASTARD!

So the update on my brother is actually welcomed news and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. At 8 this morning the DA called me and said that he had read the letter I had faxed him (the letter I wrote to the Bottineau oil guy) and had thought about it over the weekend and decided to defer prosecution for 90 days and if nothing came across his desk with Derek's name on it - then he would not prosecute the matter. Well thanks for that mister, I am glad you came to YOUR SENSES!

Really I am super happy for my brother - happy that I didn't have to spend the day tracking down an attorney that WORKS EVER in Bottineau, happy that he doesn't have to pay stupid fees to the court so that the judge can go bowling or something and happy that hopefully all will be well at work again for Derek. And maybe that he learned something - HAHA!

So that is where we conclude with my brother. I am sure he'll get into more drama later that will be cause for great reading material.

MY LIFE:
The weekend was grand. Worked on my paper. Enjoyed my lovely DVR features. And especially enjoyed sharing the Oscars with Shannon and LeAnn.

My Brother

I've waited till I regained my energy for this post, for all of it was drained from me from the hours of 9:30p.m. Thursday night until well into mid-morning on Friday. Allow me to recreate this story for you.

WARNING: This is a very very long post... and infuriating once read... but as always it is entertaining (in a rage-creation sort of way) It's my brother. Oh and it may border on profane every now and again - so don't be offended... or something.

THURSDAY:
It's Thursday night and I am happily watching my Must See TV on NBC, a great relaxing and exciting time for me (as long as no reruns are on) well, I am in the middle of The Apprentice when my sisterinlaw IMs, now for the last few weeks I have been ignoring her on the IM-World because all they want me to do is sell sell sell more of their stock... BLAH I don't want to! So when she IMs me and says "I need to talk to you" I roll my eyes. Then she says she needs to speak with me on the phone NOW! Ok - at this point, I am a little freaked out... maybe my brother had finally met his match with a deer crossing the road, or had been eaten alive by their 6 dogs, or she was pregnant (that was actually my first thought. DEAR GOD!) So needless to say I am a bit freaked out. I find my phone, which had been on vibrate, and I see that there have been 4 missed calls. It rings/vibrates again... and I answer it. The conversation progresses as follows:

Jennifer: Derek has just been arrested.
ME: WHAT?!??!?!! FOR WHAT? WHEN? HOW? WHAT?!?!?!
Jennifer: 2 Sheriffs came to the door and said they had an arrest warrant and took him away.
ME: An arrest warrant for what?
Jennifer: For writing a bad check.
ME: To who?
Jennifer: Bottineau Oil Company.
ME: When did you write it, how much, did they tell you it bounced?
Jennifer: after freaking for about 3 minutes and babbling incoherently,I'll spare you all of that
ME: THAT CAN'T BE LEGAL!
Jennifer: Well Derek is in jail.
ME: Did the bank send you notice of a bounced check?
Jennifer: No. Well, I usually give Derek that stuff, so maybe they did.
ME: I'm calling the bank. You trash the house and look for ANYTHING from the bank, Bottineau Oil, etc..

So we get off of the phone and I call my mother - my dad answers the phone. "Happy Birthday Dad, your son has been arrested so he won't be able to call you and wish you a Happy Birthday."  So I request that I speak with mom, who handles the mail. She hasn't gotten anything either. So together we call the bank (she's on his account, I am not, I need her to authorize my prodding of the account for information.) Together we call the bank--- long and the short of that conversation: The check was rejected only once on 2/3/05. No other checks on his account had bounced since October.

I call Jennifer back, get the number to the Sheriff's office. I speak with Deputy Jim. Deputy Jim is real nice and Slooooowly explains the events of the night, reads the complaint that was filed by the owner of Bottineau Oil to me (only flubbing a few words, such as thus, plaintiff and De-FEN-DANT) and allows me to speak with my brother. I ask Derek if he wants out or if he wants to just sleep there for the night (cost to get out is $400, plus the charge amount of $313.99) He said he would prefer to get out. Deputy Jim gets back on the phone and I request to speak with the Sheriff when he gets back from Chaperoning the local dance at 1 am. It was Midnight at this point in North Dakota.

So I try for the next hour to find anyway to get money to Jennifer. The Jail will not take a check (HA! that's for anyone not just those arrested for writing bad ones) and will only accept a money order, cash or a wire transfer (which can only be done during banking hours) So I go on a search for a close Western Union in hopes that the Sheriff would be kind enough to go pick it up... (Remember: Jennifer cannot drive Derek's truck and especially not with 2 feet of snow everywhere.) I try to load the Western Union Website... IT WON'T LOAD!!!!! It takes 15 minutes to finally get up and running and the closest site for services is in MINOT! 60 Miles away, I wasn't even going to attempt to get it that way. Derek's account has a $300 limit to pull out of an ATM and Jennifer's separate account the same. They would still be over a $100 short. Derek was in jail for the night.

The Sheriff called me a little after 11:00 my time and gave me the details of what Deputy Jim had already explained to me... blah blah blah. He suggested that Derek just plead guilty and be done with it. I said that is not something that you should suggest in any form, until Mr. Phlem* has a lawyer. My tone I believed scared him and he stuttered for a while and went back to talking about the dance he had just come from. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE DANCE!!! I then ask when Derek can speak with a lawyer. He said after he is arraigned. I said NO, there's that little thing called the Constitution and funny enough, although your town is 13 miles from Canada you're still in the jurisdiction of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! God Damn it. I was pissed. Anywayzzzzz I had him fax over the complaint and arrest warrant to my work so that I could see it in the morning... And really there was nothing more that could be done at that point, Derek was sleeping, so we just left him that way... I got the name of the D.A. that was on in the morning and the phone number and said good night.

Spoke with Jennifer and my parents one more time to give them the status of what was going on and went to the computer to research the statute under which Derek was being charged. It looked sketchy to me at best, but really nothing I could do at that point... So I went to my VCR and watched the rest of The Apprentice & ER and around 2am attempted to go to sleep because at 6:30a.m. I had to get up and call the D.A. who would be arriving to his office (Derek was to arraigned at 10) I slept like crap, maybe 2 hours... I was just worried about my poor little brother, his stranded wife and this BASTARD that had him arrested without EVER contacting him to say "HEY PAYMENT WAS SHIT! PAY ME!!!"

FRIDAY MORNING:
I woke up at 6:30 - I called the D.A., he wasn't in yet. I then proceeded to call Bottineau Oil (couldn't hurt to see if he would just drop the charges right?) He wasn't there, he was in some W-State where cell phones had not been discovered yet and would be there till Tuesday. So I waited a bit, called the D.A. back, he still wasn't in. I then decided that this was going towards arraignment, so I wanted to call and talk to my brother to make sure that he says he wants a lawyer before he pleads AT ALL. They wouldn't let me talk to him. I said he never got to make his one call, have him call me before arraignment. The Bitch on the other end said not till he goes to Court. So I start cold calling any lawyer in Bottineau, that didn't take long because there were THREE - two work for the D.A. and the third was out of town through next week. I then called into Minot just to get some legal advice over the phone to my brother in ANY form (I cannot provide it even though I know exactly what he needs to do.) NO ONE was in their office... So I call the D.A. again and he's there- He's really nice. I ask him is this necessary to prosecute? He said he has strict liability. I respond, no under the laws of the United States you have prosecutorial discretion. He didn't like the fact that I knew big words, but was still calm and appreciated that I was concerned. I then further expressed my desire to speak with my brother, told him of Bitch at the Jail and he said he'd put a call in to have Derek call me before Arraignment. I said thank you and hung up.

It is now 9:45 in Bottineau, having no call from my brother, I call the jail AGAIN. Bitch answers the phone and said he was taken up to court. I said did you get a call from the D.A.? She says: "Yeh, I have that message right in front of me... too bad."
WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!?!?!?

My brother is being arraigned for all I know, with several Sheriffs having spent the night saying just plead guilty it will all go away, and NO knowledge that he has a right to request counsel BEFORE the arraignment. I sit nervous and wait for Jennifer or Derek to call me with the status.

RESULTS MID-MORNING:
The D.A. picked up on the fact that Derek was going to be requesting counsel whenever he had the option and therefore did not have him arraigned per say, but had a deferment hearing set for 3/4/05. THANK GOD! I was so relieved, but then a new disaster hung in the wait... What about his Top Security job with the USFA? What would they do to someone that was supposed to have a blemish FREE record and had just been arrested? Sooooo nervous and worried for him. He get's out of jail and has to go see the 1st Sergeant (that is really bad... that's about 3 levels up.) So all morning, lunch with Shannon and into the evening I am worried, as are my parents, Jennifer, Loving Husband, my Bosses & Shannon-- that he is going to lose his job, get an Article 15 (drop in rank and/or pay) or something else horrible... and we WAIT.

FRIDAY EVENING:
Results are in - the USFA is just as annoyed, pissed and wanting to pound Bottineau Oil as Derek is. WHEW. Granted he did lose his badge so he will be limited on some of his duties until this mess is cleared... but otherwise his job is standing. (He had only been issued his badge for about 5 weeks now, it takes a long time to process, OBVIOUSLY.)

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Derek and Jennifer almost celebrate to a large degree just that the military didn't have him killed or something and drive to Minot for a nice dinner. Derek at this point tells me everything that went on in the jail... how the Sheriff and Deputy Jim were really nice, the jail was PINK. Pink bars, Pink walls, pink beds... a bit odd... He said that jail was no worse than Basic Training, but the food was horrible.

TUESDAY:
Today I mailed out a nicely worded letter including an apologetic, an explanation of Derek's side of the story, a plea to drop the charges and a Money Order in the amount of $313.99. Derek never had knowledge that this check had bounced. To the best of his knowledge it simply had not been cashed yet. The first notice that he had that there was a problem was with the local Sheriff showed up at his home to arrest him. What kind of business conduct is that?

I am just in shock. That sort of charge is not even legal in California. In order to be ARRESTED for writing a bad check you have to intentionally defraud someone -- but in North Dakota, all you have to do is bounce ONE check and they can haul your ass to jail.

Moral of the Story: Don't write checks in North Dakota.

*Named changed to protect... well... the guilty ;-)

Shopping

Oh how I love shopping and today - we were BFF! 3 pairs of shoes later and a fabulous pink jacket I am not lacking color at all in my wardrobe. :-D

DOF

So today I met with the kids (what are they 5 years younger -if that- than me?) from That College. I also met Lisa, who I have been communicating with via email for the last month, the department chair, Dean - and the Academic VP - Jon. Yah lots of people - but it went well because this was the email that I just received from Lisa:

"Thank you so much for your time. It was great meeting you. Your expertise in debate is SO evident. I personally feel that you are the best person for the job both from a talent standpoint as well as from a theological one.

I hope this relationship works out. Again, I will keep you posted on our budget situation--that will be the deciding point for the extent to which your team can really participate.

Thanks again for your time here at That College.

I'll talk with you soon."

Excellent - now let's hope that the budget comes through and in my favor. :)

Blah

Ever have one of those days...... yup.

A Raise!

So it has been a full week since the "incident" ... the firm is doing fine. I spent the last week simply combing the office and rearranging everything - simply so that I can find everything. Heidi was not a professional anything - so the filing was horrible, the organization was nonexistent and pack rat is not even a term that comes close to describe so much held onto crap that was in that office. However, after a week of sifting - it is starting to look like a law firm.

Today, Scott's sister-in-law came in to answer phones, and help further sift through nonsense in the office. Her help is welcomed - because now, I don't have to stop what I am doing and run to the phones. Also today Scott gave me a raise! He said I am going to be doing a lot more stuff now that Heidi is gone... and so I went from $10 an hour to $13 an hour - which is oh so excellent!

I wanted to share with you:
My Top 10 List of Why the Hell Was This Kept For So Long

10. 28 phone message books dating as far back as 2001.
9. Candy that was inexplicably OLD
8. Lawyer Directories 1998, 1999, 2000 (we have the current 2004)
7. Water damaged file folders - nothing in them, just saved-empty folders.
6. Documents of John's Ex Girlfriend of 6 years ago (closely filed near documents held for the current GF)
5. Jury Instructions from Arkansas - Neither Scott nor John has ever had a trial there.
4. 5 computer monitors (one might work.)
3. 2 HUGE boxes FILLED with unsolicited clothing catalogs - at least 500.
2. Parking ticket from 2001 (wonder if it was ever paid)
1. Pizza Hut Coupons - expiration date: 2/24/95

Work D-R-A-M-A

What can I say - DRAMA. I had lunch yesterday with Shannon and Jess, which was fabulous... we should do it again soon, but at that time I was telling them about how my boss was driving me nuts - he was annoyed and mad that we hadn't mailed out a document, our response was that we didn't know that it had been finalized - he said yes it had been. Well, I put it back on his desk to verify that fact, that was soooo obvious to him - and what do you know, he sent it back with ADDITIONAL corrections. Does this sound like finality? GRR so I was annoyed as I left for lunch. No biggie, by the time I got back to the office it had rolled off my back and wasn't bothering me.

I continued to work on my project for the day, which was putting together a slideshow presentation for a little 8 year old boy that had died in a horrible car accident (a semi truck ran into them at 45 miles an hour, without EVER breaking.) Poor kid never stood a chance. Sad times...

Well, the day progressed as normal as any other - until the phone call around 2pm - another law firm was calling to confirm an inspection for Thursday at a client's home. Heidi, who took the call was like, umm we don't have that on calendar and I don't remember notice for such a thing. She looked and looked - and could not find the original notice, nor a copy of it. Called BACK that office and said we don't have it - they respond well you signed for it. She asks Scott, who starts to look. She then calls back the lady and simply asks her to fax another copy (this is standard procedure and done all the time, no big deal.) says a few other things about what else was with it - and it turned out that it was delivered along with some discovery (all those horrifically boring questions that suck up mine and our client's time.) Well, in the search for the inspection notice - Scott finds on his desk a copy of that said discovery. I get called into the office.

Scott the proceeds to yell at me about how I need to follow protocol and whenever discovery comes in the mail it is calendar, copied twice, 1 copy to Scott, 1 copy to client, original to file. I let him yell. I couldn't get a word in edge wise and funny enough, I know it's a bad idea to yell BACK at your boss, regardless of who is in the right. So as he is yelling at me, he is also looking through this discovery and FINDS the inspection notice. He then hollers to Heidi, "I found it." So what does she do? She proceeds to call this secretary back and I quote: "You no longer need to fax that inspection notice to us, it's been on Scott's desk this whole time."

Ok, ok, wait. Now there are several things that are wrong with this statement, and several more that go wrong after this statement... but first of all... there would have been NO HARM AT ALL TO SIMPLY LET THIS WOMAN FAX OVER THE COPY THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN REQUESTED. Unfortunately - Heidi was mad that it HAD been on Scott's desk the whole time and chose to express that in a nonconstructive, passive aggressive way.

Scott hears this, in the middle of yelling at me... (although at this point his yelling at me had turned to a more Charlie Brown teacher, kind of yell...) and says "HEIDI GET OFF THE PHONE!" She puts the secretary on hold and says "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?" his response "GET OFF THE PHONE AND COME HERE!" Now Scott's office like most office only have one door - I was sorta in the middle of being reprimanded and I didn't feel that it was appropriate to make a dash for the door... So I sat. In the middle.

Heidi comes to the door - Scott asks, calmer "Why did you tell her that? That is NOT what you tell someone outside of THIS office." Her response, still more agitated: "WHY IT'S TRUE." His response, agitated again "IT DOES NOT MATTER. YOU DO NOT GO AROUND EXPOSING THIS OFFICE TO LOOK BAD." I am continuing to sit. She then goes on to say well I am tired of having to cover the ass of this office because of shit piling up your desk... etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah. At this point she moves out of Scott's doorway and so I make my mad escape because we are clearly done lecturing ME on following Discovery Protocol. Scott follows.

He then proceeds to scream something about that it is her job to cover this office's ass and to make the firm look good, no matter what is going on inside of it. She responds "DON'T TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME!" His mature and professional response was "I'LL TAKE WHATEVER TONE I WANT." Sigh - and then one of them moved and I was once again literally stuck in the middle of this banter. It went on for another 4-5 minutes of Y-E-L-L-I-N-G... a couple of times Heidi screamed "STOP TALKING TO ME." Scott screamed "I'LL TALK TO YOU AS MUCH AS I WANT, YOU WORK FOR ME." -- I am standing in the middle unable to move, my only option besides standing was to shrink into a ball on the floor and hide - so I remained standing.

Ultimately, this ended with Heidi yelled at the TOP of her lungs "F--- YOU!" and stormed out of the office. Yah he kinda followed her out as she left, but then turned and just went into his office. I, who was relieved to be able to move from the spot that I had been standing in, remained there for a moment just awe-struck at what had just transpired.

A. Blatant disrespect for a superior in the office.

However.

B. Blatant lack of professionalism in handling an insubordinate act.

Which is worse, I'm not sure - I just went back to working on my presentation.
Scott went to go talk to John, who came in at the tail end of the fighting.
Heidi called John's cell phone and instructed him to let her know today if she had a job or not.
A moment or two later I call Heidi and she says she thinks she's going to quit.

Suffice it to say, I was just in awe - I had been being yelled at for something that was A. NOT MY FAULT and B. Scott had told us to break "protocol" and give HIM the client copy because the client was coming in and he could just GIVE her the documents. I knew this the entire time he was yelling at me about protocol, but he was on a soapbox - he needed to get it out. I let him and then after he finished talking to John, I pointed out that I had done as he had asked. I was not there for calendaring to take place, but that we had followed his wishes. He apologized for yelling, but still reinforcing the protocol. Fine, I already do, so no sweat to hear the procedure again, if it makes him feel better. So I felt well enough in handling MY professional berating for the day - although anyone would pat themselves on the back when the immediate comparison has a final thought of "F--- YOU!"

So that was my Tuesday.

Donald Trumps Favorite Phrase...

"You're Fired!" And like several contestants on The Apprentice - Heidi heard those very words, or some softer variation (because John is too nice to be blunt) last night.

I will miss her friendship in the office, but I will not miss the overtly negative atmosphere that was created because of her lack of desire to continue employment with the firm. For the last 6 months she's talked about wanting to quit the job because she's just not happy - and because of that littler and littler things have been bothering her.

It will be extremely weird to go to work tomorrow- she's been there (one month shy of) 6 years. I'll miss her for advice, covering each other to take longer lunches, little things like that. However, I think the firm will advance quicker and go further without her. I just feel bad for her.

I just finished talking to her (why I was waiting to post) and she's relieved. She realized that she never would voluntarily get the ummph to just quit or give notice - so even though it ended on a bad note... it was a clean break and the best thing for her, in her opinion. Although she is hoping for utter failure of the firm. At least there's no bitterness, right?

So tomorrow - I am off to work SOLO.

Much Better

So frustrations are calming - life is settling into a routine for the final "semester" of my life. I look forward to one day not categorizing my life in such methods. :) It will be sureal at the very least. I have furniture! and loving it. It arrived on Friday and we (me) have been accessorizing around it nicely. I need another opinion or two on the coffee table, I think we need a bigger one. It's comfy, loving it... I finally, just this evening have been granted the classes that I want! I finally have the schedule that I want! It's going to be a lot of work, but it's worth it. I'm a happy camper (I normally hate that expression... we're not camping, and what is so unique about a happy camper anyway?) I am looking into a part-time, DOF position at The College out in El Cajon. It sounds really exciting, and I would love to do it. It's all up to God though if he wants us to stay here, if he thinks I can handle it, etc. Besides I am sure that I have plenty of peeps around to use for their services of knowledge and skill :) if I were to get the position. Well, I am off to entertain myself for the next hour or so-- and then it is off to Sammy's!

Seriously?!

Ahh 2005 - what have you given me so far?
I rang in the new year quietly at home with Loving Husband. It was nice, low key and excellent.
On Tuesday at 5:00am it was off to North Dakota. Everyone's initial reaction when they ask where I went on my Christmas Vacation: "Why the hell did you go to North Dakota?!" I simply respond, my brother is in the Air Force there. With the reaction of "Ahh - ok." As if I need approval to go to the coldest (literally) place in the nation. So, yes my trip to Bottineau was one of hokey adventures. As the pilot is landing the plane, he informs us that they tried to located a colder place than where we were landing, but at that very moment Minot, ND was -20 (with wind chill it was -34) and the next coldest place in the NATION was some obscure place in Alaska that was a balmy -8 and that was including the wind chill factor. Sigh, so yes my 102 sack of bones schlepped off the plane, dressed like the little boy in A Christmas Story - to meet my brother at the airport. Once we met up I got my luggage from the only baggage turnstile in the airport and went to his car to head to Enterprise to get me a car.
At Enterprise:
The guys (the same two that rented me a vehicle back in November) were there and remembered me, knowing that I was from So Cal, CA -- they tried to find the best vehicle that I would be able to handle in the ice and snow. I received a bright burnt orange chevy cavalier... freshly WASHED! Seriously?! Yes, washed in -20 degree weather. Does anyone know what that does to a car? Well, let me enlighten you. It freezes all the doors shut (my brother had to put his foot against the car and pull with all his might to open the drivers door; if the emergency brake is on (because that is safety) it freezes the brake to the drum, making the rear tire immobile (NOTE: this was not discovered until a kind ND driver was waving frantically at me a mile down the road, I'm from CA I don't know the difference, I just thought that's how it felt when you drove on ice.) Yes, I did get the extra-total-a-car-for-free insurance... yah so here my brother and I are kicking, punching the gas in reverse, trying to pop the seal of ice from the brake pad in the McDonald's parking lot. Finally - we went inside and got a cup of hot water and dumped it on the tire. Problem solved now time to drive 65 miles to Bottineau, where they live.
On the road:
So we trudge on down the road, my brother in front of me so that a.) he can catch the deer with the front of his car and b.) when he goes sliding around I'll see where the black/thick ice is on the road. Sigh - luckily we made it home without incident.
His Home:
He has a zoo - not a home as I have mentioned earlier. I even started the 12 days of Christmas based off it, but I stopped at the 4th day because I couldn't think of a catchy 5th day.... 1- Homesick Couple 2. Random Rodents (ferret and chinchilla) 3. Puppy Dogs (they got rid of one more, while I was there to make 3) 4. Surviving Hamsters (1 of the females ate her husband.) The visit was uneventful, but nice. It was good to see them and how things are coming together for them at their home. By the time that I left it was a WARM 7' it was nice. Although I am still not "hot" here in California. I adjusted back quickly to my standard of "cold."
School:
Yep back to school. Back to the last semester ever. I got all the classes that I needed and wanted! WAIT... NO I DIDN'T. This week has been a mess of adding and dropping and making deals with the devil just to try and get the schedule that I need and want to take for my last semester of law school. I don't want to take a class on family law when I am going into corporate, real estate, intellectual property. Does that sound like I need FAMILY LAW to further my understand of those areas? Seriously?! Come on people. Sigh, all shall be sorted out or my fate will be sealed with annoyance in one or two classes by the end of this week. Cross your fingers that it is in my favor.
Furniture:
I won't spend long here - I have already sent email explaining this nonsense.... I just needed to memorialize it in the post entitled "Seriously?!" Bought furniture on 12/19. Paid for it on 12/19. Arrived in San Diego 1/9. At my door??? No. Coming within the 72 hours after arrival to the city as promised? No. Coming on Friday or I will blow a gasket? Yes. 2005 is well underway. Some frustration- some excitement, but never a dull moment in my life. May your posts be plentiful.