Law Students

Big boy bed

Posted on August 15, 2009
For the first time in months, a weekend stretched out before us with no plans. We had plenty on our to-do list, but no agenda.Still, I was glad when JW, who had been lying on the coach bemoaning the latest of a series of minor illnesses, suddenly sat up and said, "Let's go to Ikea and buy K a bed...

Interview with a 2-year old

Posted on August 14, 2009
Q: How was your day, K?A: Good. It was not bad. It was good. Q: What was the best thing that happened to you today?A: I wanted some water and Mary gave me a cup of water. Q: What was the worst thing that happened to you today?A: I cried and cried. Q: Why did you cry and cry?A: Because I had snot in my nose...

Post-bar reading list

Posted on August 10, 2009
I read my last non-law book at the beginning of May. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember thinking, "This is it. No more pleasure reading until after the bar."On a mini-vacation with CT, I bought three books. I rarely buy books (except for K), but I was feeling indulgent...

Tiny violin

Posted on August 08, 2009
I bought it off eBay after K kept trying to play my violin and ruined one of my bows (but actually made some vaguely musical sounds in the process). It took forever to arrive. I made the mistake of telling him that the mailman was going to bring him a little violin...

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Money

Posted on August 07, 2009
Ana wrote about her views on money. I agree with nearly all of them, but for different reasons than she wrote about.1. Rules for expenditures. Ana judges the wisdom of an expenditure according to whether the time will appreciate, depreciate, or retain its value...

Salary negotiations

Posted on August 06, 2009
Over at Starting to Melt, Cee asks whether she should negotiate her salary.I wrote her a long comment (with a resounding YES), but here's my personal story. I didn't negotiate at one of my early jobs because a friend who worked there told me it was a small company and they probably couldn't afford much...

New car

Posted on August 05, 2009
We test drove a car. I think this is our official entry into the market. JW has been asking when we'll replace our ancient Saturn for over a year now. During school, I could use the excuse that we couldn't afford it. Lately my standard response is, "When it explodes...

Everything I hate about Long Island in a neat little package

Posted on August 02, 2009
As I drove down the six-lane highway past miles of strip mall, a kid in the car next to me stuck his head out and kept screaming at me, "HEY! HEYYY!!! SEE HABLA ESPANOL! SI! SI!!" F*** you, kid. You too, Long Island.

Done with the bar exam

Posted on July 31, 2009
Wrists still work, although they need some rest. The essay day was okay. There were one or two essays where I read all the way through the fact pattern and got to "What are the rights of the parties?" and hadn't spotted a single issue. But when I thought long enough, I could come up with various ways for everyone to sue each other...

I did the MBE and it wasn't so bad

Posted on July 29, 2009
Done with Day 1 of the bar exam.Yesterday I blew off the last few study items on my list and took a mental health day. I finally used the birthday gift certificate from my sister-in-law and got a massage and my first-ever facial. Then I went to see a movie, and spent the evening hanging with the family...

Optimism

Posted on July 28, 2009
Yesterday morning K put up stiff resistance to leaving the house. I set up the stroller while he ran around inside. When he became interested in the door hardware, I seized the opportunity to pull his shoes on while explaining how the door worked. Relieved that we were finally ready to go, I hustled him outside and told him to listen for the click when the door closed, because that was the sound of the door hardware clicking into place...

Library!

Posted on July 22, 2009
I abandoned today's Barbri session after about fifteen minutes, deciding that studying solo was far preferable to hearing some guy drone on and on about the rules of evidence. Cutting through the law library on my way to the student center, I looked wistfully up toward the fourth floor reading room where I spent so many hours napping in a comfy armchair (and occasionally studying)...

Those Harvard guys

Posted on July 19, 2009
In conversation with somebody from town, JW told him that I was studying for the bar. "Are you doing Barbri?" he asked. "A friend of mine from Suffolk was doing that, and this guy from Harvard asked for his notes because he missed class. Can you believe that? He was pretty annoyed, but he gave him the notes...

Five years, part 2

Posted on July 17, 2009
Part 1 left off at K's birth. When I think about it now, life with a newborn seems sort of awful, but apparently at the time I didn't think so (except for the C-section recovery part). Which is good because we may just do it again one of these days. I did spend most of my 29th birthday in tears, but they were wiped away when my baby gave me his first smile...

Five years, part 1

Posted on July 16, 2009
Five years ago today I wrote my first post on this blog. I had just decided to disrupt our comfortable lives by applying to law school, after months of soul-searching about what I really wanted to do with my life. I applied to five schools, three in Boston and two in New York...

Two weeks

Posted on July 15, 2009
The bar exam is exactly two weeks away.Until now, I've been feeling pretty laid-back about the bar. Standardized tests are the one thing in life that I totally know how to do. I am constitutionally incapable of walking into a test unprepared. Besides, this is Passachusetts...

Done with bar lectures!

Posted on July 14, 2009
Does it reflect badly on my career choice that the only bar subject I found intolerably boring was Corporations? At least it was also the subject I knew the most about.

We drew engines all morning

Posted on July 13, 2009

Weekend baking: soft pretzels

Posted on July 12, 2009
From Smitten Kitchen. Despite the wow factor, I have to admit I prefer the ones from the street cart. And I'm less tempted to eat five of those in a sitting. These took about four hours from start to finish, with about an hour of active time. The process is very similar to bagels -- after an initial rise, roll the dough into strips, shape, poach in boiling water with baking soda and sugar, and then glaze and bake...

K's joke

Posted on July 10, 2009
K (knocking on my leg): Nop, nopMe: Who's there?K: Nobody.Me: Nobody who?K: Nobody is at the door.He made up this joke himself. Don't quit your day job, kid.Another favorite K-ism of late: he'll start fake-crying and when I ask what's wrong, he'll say, "A monster ate my breakfast!"

Prince Philip

Posted on July 09, 2009
Speaking of fraud as grounds for annulment, the Barbri family law lecturer (Schechter, my favorite) told a story about a woman who tried to get her marriage annulled because her husband was not, as he had claimed, European royalty. No dice.A friend took the bus from New York once to visit me at college...

What I learned from half a lecture on family law

Posted on July 08, 2009
1. It's called a "shotgun wedding" because the pregnant girl's father would march the baby daddy there at gunpoint. I never knew that.2. You can marry your cousin in Massachusetts. But you can't marry your step-grandparent, your in-laws, or your grandchild's spouse...

Lessons from the simulated MBE

Posted on July 07, 2009
Or, what not to do for the actual bar exam:1. Go to bed at midnight the night before. Wake up every hour and a half until being forced out of bed for good at 5:30 a.m.2. Lose your watch.3. Arrive at the exam five minutes after it starts... 4. ... without any #2 pencils...

A rant about the law

Posted on July 04, 2009
Studying con law. Just like in law school, it pisses me off. Take state action, for instance. The only way to know what constitutes state action is to memorize all the relevant decisions and guess about the rest. For instance, we all (assuming the only people who read this blog are lawyers) read Shelley v...

More Statute of Frauds

Posted on July 03, 2009
Bar studying continues apace. Next week I start my leave from work!K has been helping me. "Hey, K," I'll say, "do you want to hear about the Statute of Frauds?" He always says yes, and when I'm done listing all the types of agreements and defenses, he says, "More Statute of Frauds!" That kid has always had a massive attention span for his age...

Bar study update

Posted on June 24, 2009
Toddler.Full-time law firm job.Studying for the bar exam.Any two out of the three would be plenty, but all three at the same time is... challenging.Work has been heating up, which would otherwise be good except that I'm getting way behind on my studying...

Point seven

Posted on June 23, 2009
Met a Very Important Partner from another law firm. Somebody asked how many lawyers at his firm. He answered, "243.7.""Point seven?""If you count up the people working part time.""Oh, I thought it might be because one of the attorneys is eight months pregnant," I joked...

Potty time begins

Posted on June 22, 2009
"I'm ready to poo!" said K this morning.He has never announced this before. Usually he'll play quietly by himself and avoid attracting my attention after he poops, to put off the diaper change as long as possible."Do you want to poo on the potty?" I asked him...

"Avoid marriage"

Posted on June 17, 2009
The Internets are abuzz with news of Sandra Tsing Loh's divorce and, more specifically, her anti-marriage essay in the Atlantic (which I first came across through Amber). So here's what I got out of this piece: Marriage requires too much work.So much work, in fact, that most people just don't have the temperament for it...

The greatest gift a bar exam studier can receive

Posted on June 16, 2009
At orchestra rehearsal, a friend asked how bar studying was going. "I was just listening to a lecture on the way over," I replied. "I can tell you anything you want to know about defamation." I expected her to laugh and change the subject, but instead she said, "Really? I've always wanted to know about defamation!" And she really did...

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