keep moving forward

So last week was absolutely awful, which is why I missed a week writing. We're just not even going to go over it.

The weekend before last Chelsea came up to see me. We had fun. I showed her around Oxford and she met a bunch of my friends. I think she had fun. Then commenced really bad week including a little bit of crying, some break downs, and good friends to help me feel better. But, we're skipping over. Last Friday a bunch of my friends and I went to Northern MS for a bonfire and some Halloween fun. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores on the bonfire. The place we went was actually a farm, and they set up a haunted hayride, trail of terror through the woods, a corn maize, and a fun house type attraction. I went to it last year with some people from Memphis. It was a blast and I think everyone else had fun too. Saturday I woke up and decided to go home. I just needed to get away for the weekend. So I surprised my family by walking in at 10 am. :) I spent the weekend lazing around, watching football. Saturday night I went to go see Secretariat with my friend Robyn, and I ended up staying through Sunday night and driving home Monday morning in time to make it back for class. It was good I went home. I felt better on Monday morning.

So last night was kickball, and my team lost. :( So not cool. Then last night I had my friend Travis over and we watched the Cowboys do really well and then suck it up bad! Tonight I'm going to an etiquette dinner to learn how to be proper at a business meeting, and then Trivia night. Tomorrow I'm playing IM soccer. I finally found a team! I'm super happy about that!!! I am also dog sitting this week for a classmate so I get to have a furry friend running around the house, another thing I'm really happy about since I was convinced to wait until next semester to get my own. Thursday = crazy day: pink dress run and Halloween party. It's going to be awesome! Then this Saturday is the Ole Miss v. Auburn game. It's going to be huge!

After this week starts down month where all the 1Ls start studying for finals in a month. Right now I'm just taking it one day at a time, and trying to move on from last week. Yesterday was easier than today, but maybe tomorrow will be better. Here's hoping.

Subject Matter Jurisdiction

So this past weekend I headed home for the weekend. Partly to help celebrate dad's birthday and partly just to go home. So Friday I headed off to Memphis as soon as class was over. My computer had been acting up, so it was really good I was going home so I could get my dad to fix it. Turns out somehow the date had been changed from 2010 to 2099, and so everything was expired on my computer. I spent Friday afternoon running errands and then I did a double feature at the drive-in with my friend Jessie. We saw The Town and Easy A. I absolutely love drive-ins. Admission plus snacks for under $15 (that includes popcorn, candy, and pop). At a normal theater, that would never ever happen!!! And, I accomplished something on my bucket list, I was the last to leave the drive-in (minus the employees). :)

Saturday was pretty lazy day. I did homework because I had nothing else to do. Lol. That night I went out with my friend Robyn downtown, and in the process watched Florida lose to LSU in the last 30 seconds. Ouch! LSU and Ole Miss are rivals (as I found out this year). Then Sunday I had coffee with some friends and watched the Cowboys suck. :( That night we celebrated Dad's birthday with a chicken dinner and pie and ice cream. Then I headed back to school.

This week is pretty slow. I had another draft of my 2nd memo on Monday morning and then nothing much else this week. My boyfriend however has a crazy week that started last Thursday and continues through this Saturday. So I'm playing the supportive girlfriend this week.

Even though school is slow this week, I'm still keeping busy. Last night I went and played kickball for two hours with some people, tonight is Trivia Night (I hope we win tonight, we were so close last week), either Wednesday or Thursday I'm having a movie night with Ellen, one of my friends here, Friday I'm going out, and then Saturday Chelsea's coming into town. :)

So yeah... that's life.

Rules Against Perpetuities

So this week is one of those random weeks where I'm not going to have a ton of reading, which would generally indicate more free time, but I have two major assignments due within a week of each other. One is this Wednesday, and the second on Monday. It's the same thing, just different drafts, but I've only got part of the first draft done for Wednesday. So that's what I'll be working on tonight and tomorrow. Other than that it's just a normal week.

Fall is officially here, and I'm loving it! Nice crisp weather in the morning, perfect running/walking weather in the afternoon. Last weekend's football game was awesome. It was great weather, and we won! Always a nice choice. I hung out with a bunch of friends on Friday and we found a dueling piano bar, which I think is now our new favorite spot, and then Saturday I went out with Todd and some other friends. It was crowded b/c it was cold outside so there were more people inside than normal.

Next weekend I'm going home. Kind of excited about it. I kind of miss it. I've already got plans for the nights I'm there too (which is like two). :) And hopefully, as lame as this sounds, I can get my work done on Saturday so Sunday I can watch football!!!! And not have to worry about making sure all my reading is done and my second draft is done. Yeah, other than that though, just moving right along through the semester. :)

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

I saw that quote on a daily email I receive today and it just totally applies to my life right now. I like to think I'm a pretty good person most of the time, and I have my bad days just like everyone else, but during this past year off, I spent a lot of time working on me. I lost 15 pounds which puts me at my "perfect weight" or so says my bmi. So now I can fit easily into all my jeans from college (yay for not having to spend money on new jeans, again). I also worked on the mental and spiritual side of me. I'm not as spiritual as the rest of my family, and that's cool. I've always believed that you do what works for you. This past year I made it a habit that before I go to sleep every night I tell God 5 things that made me smile or made me feel good today and I thank him for that opportunity, and then I'll offer up any concerns on my mind. It's helped a lot with the other aspect I worked on this past year, which was the mental side. Now, I don't think I was a pessimistic person, but I could be cynical at times. Especially working in the restaurant industry it's hard not to be pessimistic b/c, at least at my store, everyone was very down and they voiced it loudly. I made it a point to start trying to be optimistic, in hopes that it would just become habit. And I am proud to say, that it finally has.

I, being the smart one that I am, dropped my iphone (that i've had less than 6 months) in some water yesterday. Accidentally obviously. It worked fine for a couple hours, and then it just froze. OK, that sucks. That's my life line. I don't have a land line, and I can't be on FB 24/7 if someone needs me. Luckily, my roommate happened to be home when this happened, and she had an old phone that I could use until I got a new one. So, the optimist in me said, at least I have a phone that I can text and call on, everything else is superfluous. :-D Go me! And also, I can still get on the internet b/c my number has an unlimited data plan, so I will still be able to do somethings online. I went to the AT&T store today and talked over some different options, and now I have a decision to make, but I think, I can take some time to make it. And also, my iphone has decided to work today, so fingers crossed, it's drying out with little to no damage (I did have my otterbox cover on it).

Ok, so as far as law school goes. I think I mentioned that last week was crazy week. We had our first memo due on Thursday and I had about a bazillion meetings to go to. The week ended with a bang though. One of my sorority sisters (my twin actually) is moving from North Carolina to Las Vegas and she stopped off Friday night in Memphis, so Friday night I drove up to meet her and we had dinner, and then went out for some fun. :) Then Saturday Ole Miss had a home football game against Fresno State (which we won), and it was a night game, so we spent the afternoon in the Grove hanging out. For those of you who don't know, you dress up to go to the football games here. I mean dresses and everything. Sunday was a day to relax, do homework, watch football, and clean. And after all of this was done, my boyfriend came over and we watched Sweet Home Alabama (I love that movie).

So this week, not as crazy. And, our writing teacher pushed back the due date for our second memo 24 hours. Now it's not due until Wednesday! Sweet, b/c I just did it this afternoon. Now I can edit it tomorrow. :) This weekend is Ole Miss's last home game until the end of October, so that'll be fun. And, last but not least, fall finally arrived last night!!!!!!! I am so excited about this fact. Can you tell?

one month in

Well, things are still going good down here in MS. I feel like the weather hasn't realized that it is now officially fall and that it should now be getting cooler, or at least staying out of the 90s, but no. There seem to be other plans in the works.

School is going well. I have my first writing assignment due this Thursday. It's the Discussion Section of a Memo, which basically means I have to write about two pages of what a the rule we're applying is, explain said rule, and then analyze all the arguments either side could make in their favor. I finished my draft of it today, and am taking it in tomorrow to get looked over. So that's due on Thursday, and then 5 days later (the following Tuesday), I have another Discussion Section due on an even longer problem. *sigh* I know this is probably going to be my most important class, but I liked not really having homework the first month of classes. :) The good thing (I guess it's good) is that Legal Research and Writing both end on Nov. 15, before Thanksgiving. :-D My other classes are going well too. Moving right along. In Contracts we're learning about Restitution, in property we're learning about Fee Simple Defensible, and estates in general (in other words, when you make your will, please please please use exact legal terms so there is no confusion as to your intent). In Torts we're covering negligence still and have moved onto slip and fall cases and res ipsa loquitur (home school people... what does that mean???). I'm curious how someone doesn't see an over-sized arm chair coming out a window at them. Lol. And Civil Procedure is all about Personal Jurisdiction currently. I'm learning a ton, if you couldn't tell! :)

Other things going on.... It's football season!!!! September has 3 home games in a row, so I'm super excited for Saturdays in September. Generally on Friday nights I'll go out with a bunch of law school friends, and then Saturday is the game, generally with the same group, and then Saturday night we go out again. Sunday becomes our day of "rest"/do homework!!! :) This past weekend one of my really good friends Jessie came up and saw me along with her five year old daughter. We had a blast, and got a little sunburned while we were at it. It was very amusing because Zoe (5 year old) was flirting with all the guys at one of the tents. It was so cute, and reminded Jessie and I that it's a good thing we have a Marine, Army Ranger, and Police Officer as her "uncles".

This week is going to be pretty long because of all the stuff that needs to get done, but I'm looking forward to the night game on Saturday, which equals sleeping in!!!! :-D What a concept.

3 weeks in

Wow. These past few weeks have really flown by. I'm finishing up my third week here at Ole Miss, and having a blast. Other than the craziness last week (car breaking down, and getting freaked out while I was home by myself) all has been pretty awesome. My classes are fairly interesting. Property Law is by far my favorite. I think it's because I just get the subject matter, and so it's easy, and therefore I enjoy it a lot more. Civil Procedure puts me to sleep. Torts is pretty interesting. I have mixed feelings about Contracts. The prof is pretty cool (today he illustrated one of the cases by climbing up on top of the podium and jumping off while having us all bang our books on the table) but his teaching style is a little strange to me, so that's kind of hard. Then I also have Legal Writing and Research. Those are two separate classes, and Research only meets every other week, so that's nice. I don't know what I think about those classes yet other than the profs are pretty cool. All in all though, school is school. I go to class, I take notes, I come home and read for four hours taking more notes, and generally by 6 I'm done for the evening, which makes it a lot easier to treat like a job (which was one of the biggest pieces of advice that I got).

I have made several friends, and we go out on a weekly basis to the Square (kind of like Beale St, except a square :-D). We have our general haunts already. We're trying to get a weekly trivia team going. We did our first week last week, but this week got cancelled b/c no one did anything over Labor Day Weekend. We've also already had our first Law School party, which was fun. And of course, our first football game was last weekend. We lost in double overtime, but it was a good game. Before the game everyone goes and tailgates in the grove, and it is a massive affair. I had a blast! I cannot wait to do it again next weekend! Tonight, I am going to a concert. I am making my little sister wildly jealous and going to see Luke Bryan. I am really looking forward to that. I have also started an experiment this week, which will hopefully continue, and that is getting up a half hour earlier and going running/walking before I head to school. So far so good. :)

That's a quick synopsis of my life currently. It's still perfect, and I still wouldn't change a single thing. I am happier than I think I have been in ages. I walk around with a big smile on my face. I think I must look ridiculous sometimes, but I don't care.

Orientation

So Wednesday was the first day or Orientation. It went from 9 - 5 (or was supposed to, it was really like 9-3). We spent the morning in the auditorium on campus having so much information given to us, I thought my head was going to explode. I don't remember half of it. We had a lecture about what law is, and then were introduced to various student councils like the LSSB and Honor council, as well as the law school registrar, and the financial aid office. After that we met our small group leaders, and got in our groups of about 8 - 10, and went to lunch. I'm a big fan of small groups, just because it gives you a stepping stone to meeting the other 190 people in our class. After lunch we went back to the auditorium for a lecture on how to brief/outline a case, and then we went back over to the law school building and had a "break out" session, which basically meant we had about four 2 and 3Ls come and tell us about the first week of classes, and what to expect this semester. They also gave us the inside scoop on all our professors. That was nice. After that was the ice cream social, and I got to walk around meeting more people.

Thursday was supposed to go from 9 to 3, or at least that's what the countless emails we got said, but on the program we got on Wednesday, at the top, it said 9:30 - 3 for Thursday, but about 3/4 of the class didn't see that (including myself, I wonder if it was the first test). We spent the first hour in the auditorium listening to various speeches from various alumni, and then went over to the law school and had our professionalism seminar... basically we were given a bunch of ethical problems to discuss. It was fun. After that was lunch. I think the idea was that the 1Ls and alums were supposed to mingle, but that didn't really happen. After that all the 1Ls had to get their picture taken. Section 3 went first, then 1, then 2. I'm in Section 2, so I had to wait until 2 to go get in line. In the meantime I got the wireless key so I can get onto the Law School's wireless, and then I went and met some more people. I actually just randomly sat at a table, and it was full of people from section 1. They were all really cool, and one of them is holding a potluck on Saturday that I got invited to. I also met a few more guys in section 2. One of them was working on getting a group together to go to the home football games. So now, I also have someone to tailgate, and sit with. :-D

So far, I'm really liking law school. I'm definitely pushing myself out of my comfort zone by putting myself out there to meet people, but I haven't been disappointed yet. :) I have a goal to meet everyone in my section, and actually know them by name by the end of the semester. There's only 70 of us, so I think it is totally doable. It's the meeting people outside my section that will be hard, because my classes are only with the people in my section. Someone told me this week that going to Law School is like going back to high school, because you're with the same people day in and day out, and the years are so small (200 students is the biggest number they have had, possibly ever) that news travels fast. Good to know I think. I am totally ready for classes to start! Tonight though, I'm heading out on the town (at least until 1am when all the bars close, Lol).