Best Law School Oxymoron: Brief

Sorry it's been a few weeks y'all. Not too much has happened really. At this point I'm kind of wondering where the heck February has gone. I mean, really, wasn't it just January? Maybe I'm just having a good time...

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...

Amazing weekend!

So this past week has been really good. The actual week itself was pretty boring... just school, school, and, oh yeah, did I mention school? During the week, that is my life. Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Writing, Torts, Constitutional law, and Legal Research. For this past week and the next two weeks I don't have Contracts on Fridays, which means I don't have to be at school until 12:30 for Legal Research. Woot!

I got to dog sit again this weekend. I got Maia Wednesday Morning, and I have her until tomorrow morning. As much as she occasionally annoys me (waking me up at 7am by jumping on me is not fun), I love it when I get to take care of her. Her good qualities outweigh her bad (like wandering around the house, trying to bury her bone in various couch cushions).

Friday night was date night. I cooked this mac and cheese recipe I found online for Kevin, and then we went out with our friends later that night. It was a good relaxing evening. Saturday morning Chelsea came down and hung out for the afternoon. That evening we drove an hour east to Tupelo for the Rascal Flatts concert we got tickets to for Christmas. It was Chris Young, Luke Bryan, and Rascal Flatts (best concert ever)!!! I think Chels and I both wish Luke Bryan had played a little longer though. It was fun any how though. :) Chels left Sunday afternoon and headed home so she could go to her Super Bowl party. I spent the afternoon doing laundry, cooking peanut butter cup brownies, and making Con Law flashcards (I've got like 600 cases to memorize... trying to get a head start). Tonight I'm heading to a friend's Super Bowl party. It'll be fun. Then tomorrow, it's back to the grind.

Here's a picture of Maia helping with my homework today. :)

68 and sunny one day, snow the next

So last weekend, I was really busy trying to get ahead in all my classes. However, you didn't miss out on much. We had a 4 day week because of Martin Luther King Jr Day. It was a basic week: go to class, do homework, come home, go to bed, get up, repeat. Last weekend there was a small cocktail party for a friend who got married over Christmas break. His wife is in the process of moving from Texas to Oxford, and she was in town for that weekend. It was fun getting to meet her and hearing about the wedding and honeymoon.

This weekend I came home for a friend's birthday, and I didn't want to have to worry about homework and law school while I was home, and in order to do that, I had to get all of my work done through Tuesday. So I spent a lot of last weekend, and the beginning of last week working ahead in all of my classes. It made for a very long week, especially since I was really looking forward to hanging out with my friends. So I got everything done, and packed on Thursday night. I was also excited because my boyfriend Kevin was coming with me at the request of my friend who's birthday party I was going to. That, of course, meant meeting the parents, something that's never fun, but especially so early in the relationship. It was good though, everything went great.

So Friday night Kevin and I went out with my friend Jesse and her boyfriend. We went to a bar and then went cosmic bowling. It was a lot of fun. I learned that I still stink at bowling. :) Saturday morning we got up ridiculously early for a Saturday (7:30) and went to watch my little sister swim in the county swim meet. She did really good. That afternoon I had a meeting with a local lawyer, not an interview, just an informational meeting. It was very helpful. I look forward to using him as a resource in the future. After that I came back and quickly got ready for the party. The meeting had been at 4:30, and originally I wanted to leave at 5:30, but it ended up being closer to 6. Kevin and I headed towards my friend Robyn's apartment downtown. Unfortunately, they were doing road work on I-40 and it took us an hour to get down there. For her birthday we went to Spaghetti Warehouse, where the service was absolutely awful (and that's saying something coming from me), and then to some downtown bars. We ended up at a place called Raiford's which is a 70s disco themed club. It was a lot of fun.

This morning we got up and went to church before heading back to Oxford. Unfortunately for me I left my Oxford house key in Memphis, luckily though, I realized it about a half hour outside Memphis, so my dad and I met up on the edge of Memphis. We made it back around 4pm though, so I have the rest of the evening to just chill, although I'm going to make flash cards and type up notes instead. Overall, it's been a pretty good two weeks. Next weekend is the Rascal Flatts/Luke Bryan concert that Chelsea and I got tickets to for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to that. :)

Easing back into it

So because of the snow days last week, we only had a 3 day week. This week we have Monday off for MLK Day, and we only have a 4 day week. Then, next week, we will finally go for a full week. This system works well for me because I think that if we had gone for a full week this past week everyone would have been dead on Friday. Well, we kinda were, but it would have been worse.

So this past week I went to my two new classes, Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, as well as my continuation classes, Torts, Contracts, and Legal Research and Writing (LRW). Criminal Law should be interesting. Constitutional Law will be scary. We have this really old teacher who's a little eccentric and spits out citations at us. We had to read one case for the first class, and he cited at least 20 other cases in his lecture. Yeah... scary. And my other classes are just continuations. I really think LRW is going to kick my butt too though. We actually have homework and finals this semester. :-/ All in all, I'm pretty sure this semester will be harder than last semester.

Didn't really do much last week, just classes. There was a birthday party on Thursday night, and then everyone went out on Friday night. Saturday and Sunday I did absolutely nothing, and that was fun. Today I'm finishing off the homework I didn't do last week, and enjoying my last relaxing day.

This week class is all that's going on (as far as I know). Also, my friend Travis got married over Christmas, and so his wife is moving down here this week. Next Saturday there's a welcoming party for them, so that'll be fun. But yeah, that's about it. So here's to another short week. :)

Reunited and it feels so good....

I'm back!!!!

Obviously, that was longer than a month. Sorry y'all!

So to catch you up: Finals went well. I passed all my classes, so I'm pretty pleased about that. Then i got three weeks of Christmas vacation. The first two weeks I worked at the Roadhouse and made some really good money. Christmas was awesome. I got an iPod, concert tickets, new suits, new video games, and a bunch of other stuff. It was a good Christmas.

For New Year's Eve, I came back down to Oxford and met up with a friend of mine. We had a blast hanging out on the Square because it was just as crowded as a normal wknd, but there wasn't a bunch of undergrads running around, it was just the locals. I spent my third week running errands, hanging out with friends, and generally just relaxing.

So this past weekend it was time to come back. They were predicting massive amounts of snow for the South, and I didn't really believe, but I hoped. So Sunday, my friend Travis flew into Memphis, and I picked him up and we headed back to school. Unfortunately/fortunately the predictions were true. Travis's flight was delayed about 4 hours, and so when I finally got him, oxford had already been getting snow for about two hours. We hit the storm pretty much right as we got into MS. What normally is a 1.5 hour drive turned into a 3.5 hour drive. However, we made it, safe and sound. AND... there was tons of snow on the ground!!!!

We ended up getting b/t 6 and 8 inches of snow depending on where you were. Needless to say I was beyond excited! I have a bunch of friends who live in an apartment complex with a huge hill behind them, and they hit it up Sunday night for sledding. Monday (and Tuesday) was a snow day. So the few people who had 4-wheel drive came and rescued the rest of us. We all headed over to the Links (the apt complex), and had a sledding party. We headed out to the hill about 11:30 and we were out there playing, sledding, and generally just having a good time until about 3:30. It was one of the best snow days ever, however, I am definitely feeling it today. (SO WORTH IT!!!)

After we were all really cold, we headed to someone's apartment to get warm. Some of the guys ran to the store to get supplies. They came back with two pizzas and two whole chickens. So they made beer can chicken (it was really good actually), and then after that was done, put the pizza in. After a few hours there, we ended up moving across the complex to someone else's apt to watch the BCS Championship Bowl game. My friend Kevin and I stayed until about half time, and then went back to his apt to watch the second half. After that, I headed home.

Let me just say... BEST SNOW DAY EVER!!!! I couldn't have asked for a better first day back.

So today is snow day #2. I don't think there's any big sledding parties again (unfortunately), but I need to finish reading for class (b/c I doubt we'll have three snow days), I need to shovel my driveway so I can get out, and maybe go over to the new law school to check it out. We'll see though, maybe there's a movie night that could happen tonight. :)

I'll post pics shortly from yesterday. The ones above were all taken by a friend w/ a professional camera who captured our awesome day.

goodbye for a month

Welcome to No Fun November. Currently, I'm working on Assignment 3, a legal memo due in two weeks on a very complicated issue with lots of research to go along with it; staying on top of the reading for my four classes; working on my outlines for classes; and starting to study for my finals. Yeah, if that's no fun november, i don't know what is. I am extremely happy though because Thanksgiving break is in two weeks and I get to go home for a week! Of course, I'll be studying the whole time I'm home, it will be nice to be home.

Last weekend was a home game, which we won (finally)! Friday night was a good night out with friends, and then Saturday was a great day hanging out as well. A bunch of us went to go see our Property professor's son perform in the drum line and then he came back and tailgated with us. We shared stories and got to know each other. It was awesome. Sunday was back to work which will carry over until finals. I'm going to try and cut back on my internet time (key word there try) in hopes that it will help. Today I went and got a carrel in the undergrad library. Basically it's a 6' x 5' room with a desk, a chair, and an outlet. I can go in, lock the door and be by myself. I can also lock the door when I leave, so if I want to leave stuff in there I can, and it would be safe. It's on a no talking floor, so it'll be very quiet, and only graduate students can have one. I'm kind of excited about it. :)

Anyways, that's pretty much what's going on. I'm going back to the basics after last month: making sure I'm exercising and eating right, taking time for me, and doing nice things for myself (like buying flowers for myself). Essentially, just taking it one step at a time.

So goodbye for a month folks.

Crappiest month ever

I think Karma is finally coming to catch up. It says, you've been having a good time way to long, i'm now going to rain, no not just rain, but pour on your parade. The first couple weeks of this month just dragged on and on because... well, just because. Most of you know the story, there's no reason to continue it. This past week things were getting better. I went home last weekend, got some re-centering, and was having a decent week. Thursday was the Halloween Party and it was by far the best party ever! Then Friday happened, and all I have to say is thank God for my friend Travis who let me drag him all over the square to avoid some people. I was prepared for somethings, but not everything. I think Is topped breathing for a minute when I saw what I did. Saturday was pretty decent. Football and tailgating with some good friends. Then this morning about 11am I find out that one of my sorority sisters, who I was pretty close to died. She was 22 years old and at UE. Sometime early this morning she died from complications with her Epilepsy. My heart goes out to her family and boyfriend, and to the rest of my sisters still there and those far away. I wish I was there to help comfort them and share in their grief.

Mandy you will be missed so much. You could put a smile on everyone's face and you were so smart (you weren't a half bad IM player too). :) You were the epitome of a Phi Mu lady. You're in a better place looking down at us now. We are grieving for our loss and celebrating your life. LIOB forever. Once a Phi Mu always a Phi Mu.

Here's to a better November... please.