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!!!!