In all reality I am having a good time. I'm having a great time! So random stuff that has happened first: About a week and a half ago I went home for my little sister's 17th birthday. I still can't believe she's 17. In my book she'll always be like 10 or 11 I think. It's so weird to see her growing up. Even though she's still got a long way to go, it amazes me how much of an amazing woman she is becoming. Very kind, very loyal, and very logical about things (as much as she hates to admit it). Every day she becomes even more lovely and more grown. She's learning to listen to what others say, and not just automatically dismissing it, and she's beginning to see what she can accomplish in the future. Seeing her realize these dreams is truly a pleasure on my end. And even though she still drives me nuts sometimes, I still love her, and as she gets older, we're able to connect a little bit more than we have before. I look forward to what the future holds for our relationship.
Ok, enough gushing about that. :) This past weekend was almost non-existent. However, Friday night made up for my lack of the rest of the weekend more than enough. It was Barrister's Ball, aka Law Prom. Kevin and I went out to dinner with another couple before hand at this really fancy restaurant and had an amazing meal (filet w/ garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus). Then we went to where the dance was held. They had a live band (mostly playing Motown music), and everyone looked gorgeous. Almost everyone was there and it was 3 hours of socializing and dancing. Very possibly better than my actual high school prom (sorry Sam and Brandon). It would have topped it if I could have gotten Kevin to dance more, but really, that's partly my fault as we were both busy talking with our friends. :) Here's a pic of us:
Saturday and Sunday I spent in the library. Literally. 1-6 on Saturday and 1-7 on Sunday. I was working on my Contracts homework, Introduction for my group's trial brief, and the thing that took most of my time... My Appellate Brief Outline. For those who don't know what this is, here's a quick explanation: When you go to trial and lose, generally you appeal the decision to the next court up in the chain (the appellate court, generally). You don't do another trial case there, instead the two lawyers argue in front of a panel of judges, and the judges make a decision based on that and the trial court's transcript. Before you even argue though, you have to submit a "brief" to the judges explaining your case. If you're only appealing on one issue (like we are) it'll be about 30 pages long (hence the oxymoron).
So our outline was due this week (whenever you met with your writing prof for a one-on-one consultation, mine was Monday). Really, the most basic form was main points and cases that were going to be used to back up each point. Of course, the more details you do now, the less work you do later. So I basically did all of my research over the weekend, which included reading about 20 cases (only ended up using about 14 or 15) and then forming arguments from those cases and pinpointing where I got my information. All in all, my outline was about 6 pages long. When I went to my meeting today, my prof told me my outline looked like a draft minus substantial sentences, so I suppose that's a good thing. So the whole thing is due in about a month (I should really check on that date), and then we get to argue our case in front of real judges. There are four teachers, and two of the teacher's classes were assigned the prosecution and the other two teacher's classes have the defense. So they'll pair us up (one for plaintiff and one for defendant) and we'll get to argue, and you can even enter a competition to get on the moot court board I think (I want to do that).
Our case is on the right to a speedy trial, and if you look at the facts as are, it looks like the defense (Ripley) has a solid case against the prosecutor (the US gov't). However, b/c I'm arguing for the gov't (which I wasn't happy about originally) I've found a lot of good arguments for them, and am actually kind of enjoying the process of trying to figure out how to craft my arguments and argue my side (I'm taking that as a sign that coming to law school was the right choice). I'll let you guys know how it goes, but I'm pretty excited about it.
Anyways, those things have pretty much consumed my life as of late. Oh yeah, and I've decided to do a 6 week study abroad program at Cambridge in England this summer. I am so beyond excited! however, that's not until June 26, and so I'm trying to push it out of my mind at least until after spring break (which is in two week y'all!!!!!!!!) which I will be spending in GA visiting friends. So that's all from Oxford. Until next time...
