Oh There is One In Every Class

By class, in this sense, I mean the whole class, not just this particular class in which we currently sit, Torts, but the whole class.  The person who thinks that they need not write down anything and just sit and stare.  Not sure how they do it, but it's cool I suppose, unless of course, they then complain that they are unhappy with the teaching of the professors at the school.

We have one of those in our class. 

Every night, this person sits there and stares.  No computer, no real notebooks.  Seems smart but is more of a smarny pants than anything else. 

Yes, this person may be paying for his/her education, but so are the rest of us.  Some of us out of our own pockets, no grants, no scholarships, and no loans.  Straight out of our bank accounts.  Amazing, but this person is not alone in this endeavor.

The annoying point of all of this is just the attitude.  It's like everyone else is below this person.  It's like we're all just here to be the "lower classmen" and not be quite as smart as this person. 

We don't mind this, other than the fact that we don't think this person really could be the smartest in the class.  We may be surprised at semester-end, but for now, this is the general consensus.

A Beautiful Day, Spent Studying

Today was the best day we've had in a long time, weather-wise. It's been raining here so much that we really thought the sun had left the solar system, leaving us like Venus or something. It felt like we were living in Seattle (I think we actually had more rain than Seattle). Today it was bright, sunny, and around 75 degrees so it was quite a nice day. Early this morning, I decided I just couldn't waste it indoors, so I ventured outside, Contracts book in hand, to sit on the patio and read a bit.

I made it through the whole Contracts assignment without getting too bored, even though the UCC isn't the most exciting topic in the universe. The further I get into contracts, the more I want to do something cool and nasty exciting like products liability (plaintiff, of course) or malpractice. Who knows what I'll do when I get out? I surely don't.

Christmas is coming up soon. I do not enjoying shopping for Christmas, especially when I don't know what to buy people. My immediate family is fine. It's just the outlying folks that are more difficult. It's amazing that Christmas has taken on such a "gift" connotation instead of being more about just being together and seeing how everyone is doing every year. I wish it would go back to that - either that or one of these days I'm going to pull a Kranks Christmas and just ditch all the gift crap and take a cruise. For the money I spend on Christmas, I could take a fairly nice family vacation and actually have an adventure instead of another new coffee pot or sweater. I'm sure I'm the only one who feels this way - bah humbug me. It has just gotten way too commercialized for me - and people actually going into debt to buy their kids the $2,000 Range Rover Doll of the Year or whatever is just insane.

I signed up for BarBri, although I don't even know at this point if I'll make it through one semester, much less the entire 4 years of law school. It's disturbing that we don't get our first semester grades until after we've been in second semester for a while. I mean, how do you know if you've flunked out before you've paid for the second term? I guess you just go on faith and don't worry about it. Surely they have plans for people who don't make it...but I haven't heard of any.

Well, that's all for now. I have thoughts in head, but some of them are not for publishing!

Career Services

Well, today this whole law school thing became a bit more real.  In our mailboxes this afternoon were our Career Services Handbooks.  Wow.  We are doing this for a reason.  I know this, but we haven't been in long enough to really see the end of the tunnel and see that there is a light at the end of said tunnel (sorry, had to throw in a little legalese since we can't really use that in law school).

As we're in the part-time program, our tunnel ends in about 4 years for most of us.  The day students get off a little easier, as they don't work outside for the first year, plus they get out sooner than we do.  Going to school part-time in the evening while holding down a full-time job, it's tough sometimes to keep everything going.  (It's amazing how I've learned to type and listen to something completely different at the same time.  Just thought I'd throw that in there.)

4 years.  Wow. Let's see, in 4 years, I'll be (ugh) 42.  My kids will be 22, 18, and 16.  My sweetie will be 48 (also ugh).  I can't believe I'm starting a new career at 42.  I'm sure most of the younger whipper-snappers in my class will have like 50 years of lawyering when they get out, where I'll have like 20.  But, I'd rather do something I love for 20 years than to continue doing something that I don't like as much for any period of time, honestly.  So, I'm thankful that I have the opportunity and wish I'd done it before now.

I'll take a look at the career guide this weekend, just to see what all is offered.  They do a great job here getting folks ready for the real world.  That is so different than undergrad, where I truly think they don't care if you get a real job or not, just as long as you show up and graduate.  Here it just seems much nicer and more thoughtful in this regard.

Cliches oh how fun

I made up a new cliche today - "bark up a contingency."  I was sitting at my desk and wanted to start a trend.  I thought this might do the trick.

Other b-a-d cliches going around right now - DO NOT under any circumstances, say these anywhere.  They are horrible.

Let's run it up the flagpole (and see if anyone salutes).  Where on earth did this come from?  Do people realize how stupid they sound when they say this?

I don't have a dog in this hunt.  Yeah, like fox hunting is so prevalent in the southern US these days.

Let's take a run around the bases and see what everyone has to say.  Okay.  I didn't know we were playing baseball at work.  That makes it so much more fun and interesting.

At the end of the day.  Whose day?  My day?  Well, let me tell you, at the end of the day, the last thing on my mind is another stupid meeting.

If you will.  If I will what?  Listen to any more of this crap?  No.

It is what it is.  I'm sorry, but this sounds like something that Clinton would say in a congressional hearing.

It's like nailing Jello to the wall.  Has anyone ever really tried to do this?  I know that's the point of the saying, but it just brings up an image of a 5-year old home alone.

It's like pushing a rope.  this sounds like something a donkey or circus performer would try to do.  Again, I get the point, but it's just funny.

Babbling

Tonight I just feel like babbling.  I've been doing research for our final memo for hours, and it seems like I'll never find the actual law that goes with the case.  I can find about a million cases, but of course none of those are just right.

I wish I was on a cruise right now.  Like right at this very moment.  I could be on the open sea, taking in the night air, somewhere in the Caribbean.  I wouldn't even mind reading some Torts while I sat on the balcony.  Just to smell the sea air would be enough for me.

I don't think I really need a break yet, but I think I do in some respects.  I am looking forward to December and finals, only to have one semester over and done with.  But, then in January, I'm sure I'll be thinking that I would like it to be May so I'll have a whole year down.  Who knows.

Anyway, tired tonight, so retiring early, although the "fall back" thing has been messing with me all day.

Rental Furniture Places

The other day, my husband talked to our eldest, who is now out on his own and getting his own place set up.  He has been looking for furniture and called to see if his dad had found anything free anywhere that he might have.  Since I'm over furniture giveaways as well as everything else at my job, I sometimes come across something that I can get rid of.  Unfortunately, I just had one about 6 weeks ago, and we are fresh out of things that might work for a bachelor pad.

Although disappointed to hear this, the adult-child asked his dad about those rental furniture places.  His dad said he went on and on about how great the deal was and how it would help him get started.  Now, everyone knows that the actual charge in the end for rental anything is more than if you buy it, in almost every instance.  This is especially true of rental furniture places if you don't just outright buy the stuff.  $25 a week doesn't sound bad until you realize what you get for your $25 and how much you still owe at the end.  My husband told him that it wasn't a great idea, and that you should "never, ever, buy anything from one of those places."

My husband said they went back and forth about this for about 10 minutes, and he thinks he convinced the son that it was a bad idea.  He preached about it to me for about 15 minutes as well - just to reiterate what he told our son.

Now, knowing that my husband himself was a bachelor at one time, with his own place at age 19, living alone and working at a restaurant, I asked him if he had ever purchased anything from one of those places.  He very sheepishly remarked, almost so low that I couldn't hear him, that he indeed had.  I thought, "Oh, then he must be speaking from experience.  He was burned and wants to protect his son.  How nice!"  Nothing could be further from the truth.

When I asked him what he bought at the rental place, he said he "couldn't tell me."  Now, this is from the guy who shares absolutely everything with me.  I know for a fact that, other than surprise gifts for me, he has never said this in the 8 years I've known him.  Shocked, I leaned back in the seat of the truck, and said, "Why not?  You tell me everything!" 

Finally, after several seconds of silence, he said, "It was the lamp.  I bought the lamp there."  I instantly knew.  It was the ugly tulip lamp.  He didn't need say another word.

Thankfully, we were parked somewhere.  I had to get out of the truck I was laughing so hard.  (see other story about the lamp for the full picture)

The Ugliest Lamp in the Universe

When I first started dating my husband, he told me that his house, as a single father, needed a "woman's touch."  This was a bit of an understatement.

Although it was a very clean house, despite having three children ages 17, 10, and 8 living at home, it had remnants of a former decorating style seldom seen since the 1980s.  Like early 1980s. 

Ugly drapes (floral print), hideous wallpaper (fruity), and what I like to call a "Mardi Gras bathroom" (green, purple, and harvest gold with roses) were just a few features.  Mind you, I'm not a decorator myself, but I do know what colors match and how to arrange a room.  I know that a master bedroom need not be dark green with purple (yes, purple) trim and doors in order to be nice.  There was also the Western-themed office, created for the guy who doesn't so much as own a pair of cowboy boots.  It just had to go.

I'm a space and design planner at work.  I have an interior designer (and a darn good one at that) as part of my staff.  I've worked with architecture firms for almost 10 years to design spaces.  This poor house just cried out for some serious design.

The weirdest attraction, however, was a lamp.  It was, by far, the ugliest lamp I had ever seen.  The "leg" lamp on A Christmas Story had nothing on this lamp, trust me.

It had a black base, with smoky glass tulips.  It had a three-way switch which turned on either 1, 2, or 3 tulips.  It was not attractive.

I thought for a long, long time that decorating the house was not my business.  Here I was, the new kid on the block, coming into a house where someone else used to live.  Our neighbor really convinced me this new decorating would be great.  She said, "Honey, you've got to get rid of those ugly-ass plastic flowers."  Within the hour they, along with their little wicker baskets, were in the Goodwill pile.  I never looked back.

Now, the lamp was, what I thought anyway, a prized possession of my new husband's.  I really felt bad about my thoughts of smashing it or sending it to the That 70s Show set.  Surely I could find a way to get rid of it.

We eventually bought a new house, something that was just his and mine.  It felt good.  I knew instantly how to get rid of the lamp when we put our old house on the market.  Our realtor said that we really should "de-personalize" the house so that buyers would feel that they could make it their own.  Well, let me tell you, there is no way we would have sold the house if that lamp had stayed on the nightstand.  It was a victim of "house staging".  My husband seemed a little sad, but he was a good sport about it.  After all, he had suggested I rid our family room of a certain antique pink rocker I had brought from my house.  The guilt of my dislike of the lamp dissipated greatly after that.

The day before we had the final yard sale to get rid of the stuff we didn't need at the new house, the now-12-year-old (8 when I met her) looked at me when I picked up the lamp and made a face.  I had an accomplice. 

We put $5 on the lamp, although I really thought it would either not sell or sell for about 50 cents.  Much to my great surprise, it did sell.  As a matter of fact, the darn thing was the first thing that sold when a lady came into our garage, spotted it, and with a huge actual look of joy on her face, said, "Oh I just have to have that cool lamp!"  I looked over, and my husband had the most triumphant look on his face. 

Later, he told me that he didn't really have an attachment to the lamp and that he'd been messing with me the whole time, the dog.