Ok People. Time To Lower Your Expectations.

I feel that when people ask me what kind of law I want to practice, they expect me to say something inspiring and mind blowing. Like "I want to be an advocate for abused children." Or "I want to save the rainforest right down to the endangered toucan." Or even "I want to enforce social responsibility within publicly traded corporations."

When I tell them that I will probably end up defending insurance agencies and contractors, I can almost feel their disgust. I watch the look of disappointment slowly spread across their faces. How the darkness moves across their expectant stares, it's like watching a solar eclipse.

I finally became smart and started telling people that I haven't decided yet- which is partly true. While it's kind of a let-down, it at least leaves them the possibility that I MIGHT do something extraordinary with my law degree. You know, I haven't decided because I can't make up my mind whether I want to represent sexually abused immigrant workers or whether I want to help poor single mothers fight their custody/child support battles pro bono.

The thing is, I frequently have tug-of-wars with myself. There is a part of me that strives for socially conventional achievement. This side of me encouraged me to get straight A's, to win races at cross country meets, to go to law school to learn something that society considers "difficult" and to seek out a high paying career track. But there has always been another force withing me. This is a force of compassion- compelling me to devote my life to something bigger than myself, to constantly give to others, to dream of establishing or working for a non-profit, to live a life of service.

Law school is amazing in that you can pursue a high paying career or you can pursue a career of public service. A law degree gives you the opportunity to be a high achiever, a materialistic success. Or it can give you the opportunity to truly serve the community in an important way and have a huge impact on the lives of others.

So as I finish up my first semester of my 3L year, this battle still rages on inside me. Life of luxury? Or life of service? I can see myself doing both. What should I chose? I know I need intellectual challenges in the career that I eventually choose. I know I need to have an end product or some kind of result to my work at the end of the day.

Do I want to impress my dad by landing a sought-after position in a successful firm? Or do I want to impress my mom by serving the public and helping the less fortunate? Seriously, this is way to much pressure. Maybe all I really need is enough money to buy ice cream every night of the week. What's that? I have to put my kid through college? I'm screwed.

More Than The World

I didn't realize how little I actually mattered until I met a baby who mattered more to me than the entire world.

Exhibit A: me holding my umbrella over Jacob's carseat in the pouring rain, while my freshly straight-ironed hair is destroyed.

Exhibit B: the scene that I relive every morning- prying my eyelids open and rolling out of my warm bed (I really do roll, it takes less energy) at 6ish am to enter the freezing hallway and make a bottle for Jacob. I may swear, I may grumble, I may curse the baby in the next room- but I still do it.

Exhibit C: not thinking twice before wiping Jacob's runny nose with my own sleeve.

This weekend, I had such a great time being with Jacob, tomorrow is going to be a hard day of school. I wish I could shrink him, put him in my pocket and take him wherever I go. Nothing is better than kissing his soft chubby baby cheeks and watching him grin ear to ear (especially not a 4 credit UCC class at 9am).

Happy Easter

From Jacob & the creepy Easter bunny. I feel like someone should do a background check on this bunny.

How Long Will A Law Student Wait In Line For Free Drinks?

The Social Experiment: How long will a lawstudent stand in line for free alcohol?

The Results: 45 minutes.

Last weekend was the much anticipated Law Prom. My 1L year, I went to Law Prom with a bunch of girlfriends and it was the greatest time ever! We got all liquored up, danced like we were crazy (seriously), took pictures of butts with other people's cameras and tried to see how many random asses we could slap on the dance floor without getting caught. Someone probably should have kicked us out. My 2L year, I was three months pregnant and couldn't drink. I decided that a law function without the social lubrication of alcohol would not be a good idea, so I stayed home.

This year I had a very different Law Prom experience. After dinner at a nice restaurant with a (non-lawschool) couple, where we had caviar appetizers, big entrees and a $30 bottle of wine, my husband and I headed back to our hotel room (which was in he same building as Law Prom). We got all dolled up, shared a bottle of Cranberry wine (I may be an experienced lush, but I still drink like a highschooler amateur). We arrived at the dance fashionably late only to discover that the line for redeeming our drink tickets was a mile long. But like any bona-fide law student, I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

My fellow law students were going crazy. They were cutting and pushing toward the front of the line. It was like a formalwear moshpit. I can still smell the armpit of the tall chick in front of me. We finally got to the front of the line 45 minutes later and decided to redeem all THREE of our drink tickets right away (not waiting in that line again!). Surprisingly, it's actually not THAT hard to carry three rum and cokes.

We finally made our way to the dance floor and tore it up! Ahhh, I miss dancing... and I missed watching my husband do his twisty dance (he looks like he is drilling for oil). We decided to head up to our hotel room really quick to polish off our bottle of wine. But let's just say we never made it back down (wink).

Then I got to sleep in until 9am for the first time in months! In the morning, we walked around downtown Seattle which was surprisingly warm and gorgeous! At the most fabulous breakfast ever at The Library Bistro. Then we headed down to Pike Place Market farmer's market. We bought fresh crab to pay our babysitters (husband's parents) and explored until it was time to ride our ferry home.


It was the most amazing weekend ever and the best parts of it had absolutely nothing to do with Law Prom itself. The excuse to get away was priceless.

5 Thousand Words

I'm too tired to string a series of coherent sentences together. So here are my cop-out photos.

Mini Post

Everyday seems to be shorter than the last or is it that I just have more things to try to cram into each day? And the impending doom of yet another set of finals is finally creeping over me.

Jacob is growing so much each day! It is incredible to actually watch him do new things for the first time. I think he is developing at an exponentially faster rate than before. Last month he started to slowly pick things up and feed himself. But now, I put a handful of cheerios on his plate and he scarfs them down in a minute! Today he used his baby walker for WALKING for the first time. He usually just pushes off the floor and travels backwards unintentionally. Today he was scooting all over the house, oh no! He's getting mobile! And I swear he grew three inches the night we left him at my in-laws for law prom (a post about that to come soon).

Today I had my first taste of summer as I sat in a park and did my secured transactions readings. It was in the mid seventies today! That is ridiculos considering the highs have been in the forties lately and was it just two weeks ago that we got snow? What is going on with Seattle weather?!

I wasted four hours studying secured transactions and I still don't understand priority between all the different types of creditors. It seems like the UCC just randomly piles rule on top of rule with crazy exeptions going off in all direction without reason. Every rule seems to have five exceptions. Then each exception has it's own exception. AGH! This class is going to kill me, I just know it.

Oh and last night I had a dream that some girl was forcing me to pretend to be her fiance. I had to meet her parents, trick them and win their hearts. It seemed unusually cruel. Her mom even made a cake for me that said "congrats bride-to-be." When the truth came out, and her mom was angry and heartbroken, the girl got all pissed that I hurt her mom's feelings. But Dude! You MADE me lie to her! I woke up so angry at her. If I see her in my dreams tonight, she is in for a beat-down.

Thank God Thursdays Are The New Fridays

I got called on in every one of my five classes today. Talk about great timing...ugh! I had a presentation in Corporate Governance that ate up a lot of my homework time. So I didn't complete my assignments to the fullest extent possible (read: I didn't do sh*t).

Oh well, what would be the odds that I would be called on in class out of all my classmates? Apparently I missed the memo from the Swine Aviation Association notifying the public that pigs would be taking to the skies. You woud think that the prof of the class in which I was presenting would take pity on my honor roll deficient soul.

In the first class, I actually did pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Not quite sure how this happened still. But in my second class, I might as well have just stood up and farting the alphabet with my armpits (or legpits- yes, I CAN do that). I didn't have an answer when the prof asked me what cause of action a customer had against a payor bank under the circumstances of the problem. But I guessed each of the following:

"Conversion?"
"No."
"Breach of transfer warranty?"
"NO."
"Um. Presentment warranty?"
"What?!"
"No. I meant, negligence."
"Be more specific please."

My professor for this class is really tough. He expects us to have a detailed analysis prepared for each problem BEFORE we come to class. If he calls on us and we do not answer properly, he marks us absent for the day. Not only that but if you are unprepared, he usually will give the class a long lecture about his expectations while citing the syllabus. I thought he would rip me to SHREDS. But he simply moved on to the next unsuspecting victim.

Why did I get so lucky? He is up for tenure. And the law school was FILMING his lecture today. SAVED BY THE CAMERA.

So I survived, but I can't stop replaying my failure in my head. I thought, after my 1L year, that I was beyond caring about having the right answers in class. I don't know why, but for some reason, I want this particular professor to think I am smart. I want his respect. Instead, I feel like he goes home each night and throw darts at the picture of my face on his seating chart. I bet he conducts satanic rituals where he chants my name in Satan-Speak while jabbing sharp pins into a voodoo doll sporting my North Face jacket.

On a lighter note- LAW PROM is Saturday! I know some law students are vehemently against law prom. But it is the only law school function that I look forward to each year. I LOVE law prom. How can you hate a school sponsored event which includes too much booze, too much dancing, too many delicious appetizers, and a chance to sleep on freshly made hotel bed sheets? You don't even have to worry about getting home with a blood alcohol level of 3.5. All you have to do is clamber into an elevator and hope you push the correct floor number. If you pass out in the hall- that's ok. At least you're on the right floor. Close enough.