I don't know why I ever thought I was missing out on an essential experience of pregnancy by not having nausea. I was crazy! Now I have nauseous off and on all day long. It strikes at the most random times and leaves me hunched over in class with a look of complete disgust (or is it constipation?) on my face. I'm sure if anyone notices, they think I'm going down the mental drain- rocking back and forth to myself and making crazy faces.
Also, I have to pee. Alot. I knew this would happen, but I didn't know how much self control I would lack. I ran a mile downhill to catch my ferry yesterday and each bouncing step of the way I thought I would pee myself. I feel sorry for the poor guy I collided with during my frantic rush to the ferry restroom. Words of advice for unsuspecting third parties: don't EVER come between a pregnant lady and the restroom.
The symptom which has changed my life, or to be less dramatic: my schedule, the most is complete exhaustion. I'm used to going for an entire week off of 5 hours of sleep a night, 6 if I'm lucky. Now I start slowing down at 6:00pm. If I'm at my home or near a couch, I will pass out and wake up at 7:00am the next morning- no joke! I'm so tired by the time I get home that all I can muster is taking off my jacket and walking to the couch before I collapse for 12 straight hours. All I can do during the weekend is lay all day on the couch and take intermittent naps. Oh and these aren't your average cat naps either, these are coma-like, dream-infused naps.
Constipation: wont go away. No matter what I do I can't seem to remedy this symptom. I give up. I'm sick of trying to pour a swiming pool quanity of water down my throat each day. Sick of eating inhumane amounts of fiber. SICK SICK SICK of that nasty tasting, fake "mixed berry" flavored Metamucil. Nothing helps! I feel like I'm walking around with a bowl of poo inside me. I'm even afraid to eat because there is where for it to go...
I don't know if this is a symptom or not, I like to think it is so that I have a reasonable explanation for it, but I dread law school this semester. I hate my alarm for waking me up at 5:05am. I hate the house for being cold. I hate the fact that I have to expunge the energy to get DRESSED for school (I don't even get dressed for my husband) and make a lunch. I hate catching the ferry each morning. I hate the crammed bus rides to my campus. I hate my classes. I hate the students who always know the answers and understand the readings. In fact, I hate everything about law school right now.
I have absolutely no motivation. I do have bitter resentment for my ever increasing student loans though. Today in my 8:30am class, I realized just how much I hated being in law school right now and I started to cry all over myself. I don't think anyone noticed, but I didn't even care anymore. When I realized I was crying, I started to cry more. Before I knew it, there was a low-hanging grey cloud circling above my head and a puddle of tears on my computer.
I hope I'm not fooling myself by saying that it can only get better from here.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Losing Faith in the Big Firms
This week I have been working on a case that never fails to surprise and amaze me. Most surprising is the carelessness of the attorney for the opposing party. This is the same guy I complained about in my post “Even Law Has Its Fools”
Anyway, this guy works for a huge law firm with offices in multiple states- but it would seem from his work that he doesn’t know a thing about practicing law. In his original Complaint he alleges only one claim for relief. However, we just receive a pleading from him in which he provides support for two new claims that are not listed or mentioned in the complaint—you couldn’t even imply them from the facts of the complaint.
Washington is a notice pleading state, so that means all you have to do is give fair notice to your opponent about the nature of your claim and the grounds for relief. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can wait until late in the litigation process, when your original claim seems to be losing ground, to randomly spring new claims on the other side! This attorney blatantly lied in a responsive pleading by saying that we “misrepresented” his original complaint to have only one claim. Rereading his complaint, there are no facts which could be construed in any way to show any elements of the new claims.
I have to add that this guy turned his response in to our office about half an hour before the cutoff. He had several days to turn it in but no, he put it off until the last minute. What if our office had closed half an hour early?
Also, today we caught the plaintiff in a blatant, bold-faced lie. A lie that, had it been true, was necessary to establish her main claim. More importantly we have the documents, the “smoking gun,” to prove that she lied. If the attorney was any good, he would have double checked these documents himself before relying on them in his pleading. I know that’s the first thing I would have done.
Last, but not least, I found at least TWO simple spelling mistakes in his responsive pleading as well as a sentence that was lacking a word- and a verb for that matter! Sheesh! (Ok it may seem like I am nitpicking this guy apart, but seriously an attorney who makes big bucks has no excuse for being so careless- and your spelling and grammar establishes your credibility before the judge- that is what we have always been taught in my school). My faith in these big firms is dwindling ever so quickly.
Anyway, this guy works for a huge law firm with offices in multiple states- but it would seem from his work that he doesn’t know a thing about practicing law. In his original Complaint he alleges only one claim for relief. However, we just receive a pleading from him in which he provides support for two new claims that are not listed or mentioned in the complaint—you couldn’t even imply them from the facts of the complaint.
Washington is a notice pleading state, so that means all you have to do is give fair notice to your opponent about the nature of your claim and the grounds for relief. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can wait until late in the litigation process, when your original claim seems to be losing ground, to randomly spring new claims on the other side! This attorney blatantly lied in a responsive pleading by saying that we “misrepresented” his original complaint to have only one claim. Rereading his complaint, there are no facts which could be construed in any way to show any elements of the new claims.
I have to add that this guy turned his response in to our office about half an hour before the cutoff. He had several days to turn it in but no, he put it off until the last minute. What if our office had closed half an hour early?
Also, today we caught the plaintiff in a blatant, bold-faced lie. A lie that, had it been true, was necessary to establish her main claim. More importantly we have the documents, the “smoking gun,” to prove that she lied. If the attorney was any good, he would have double checked these documents himself before relying on them in his pleading. I know that’s the first thing I would have done.
Last, but not least, I found at least TWO simple spelling mistakes in his responsive pleading as well as a sentence that was lacking a word- and a verb for that matter! Sheesh! (Ok it may seem like I am nitpicking this guy apart, but seriously an attorney who makes big bucks has no excuse for being so careless- and your spelling and grammar establishes your credibility before the judge- that is what we have always been taught in my school). My faith in these big firms is dwindling ever so quickly.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Undergrads: Keep Out
Call me selfish, but I do NOT like sharing my nice law school building with undergrads. Every once in a while I will catch a gaggle of undergrads giggling and blushing at one of the tables in the common area of my law school.
It's easy to identify the culprits. Not only do they tote aroung Biology and Chemistry books, they talk about their boyfriends still in highschool (shock!), and talk loudly on their cell phones while chewing gum (also really loudly). They are also easy to identify because, well, they dress like undergrads. They typically wear their Ambercrombie labels, college organization t-shirts, and sorority outfits and accessories.
Undergrads at my school have the entire campus as their jungle gym- to romp and be rowdy. I, on the other hand, only have the sanctuary of one building. I don't understand what compells them to frequent my building. Sometimes I think they do it just to feel cool or something (I wish being in the lawbuilding was enough to make me feel cool). So undergrads, please STAY OUT!
If I was going to commandeer a table in someone else's school, I would work harder to blend in and follow the unspoken behavioral rules. I would at least respect the people around me who are dwelling in peaceful silence or desperately cramming in between classes. AND I would not eat all the taco bowls on the Thursday menu.
It's easy to identify the culprits. Not only do they tote aroung Biology and Chemistry books, they talk about their boyfriends still in highschool (shock!), and talk loudly on their cell phones while chewing gum (also really loudly). They are also easy to identify because, well, they dress like undergrads. They typically wear their Ambercrombie labels, college organization t-shirts, and sorority outfits and accessories.
Undergrads at my school have the entire campus as their jungle gym- to romp and be rowdy. I, on the other hand, only have the sanctuary of one building. I don't understand what compells them to frequent my building. Sometimes I think they do it just to feel cool or something (I wish being in the lawbuilding was enough to make me feel cool). So undergrads, please STAY OUT!
If I was going to commandeer a table in someone else's school, I would work harder to blend in and follow the unspoken behavioral rules. I would at least respect the people around me who are dwelling in peaceful silence or desperately cramming in between classes. AND I would not eat all the taco bowls on the Thursday menu.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Baby Cuteness Overdose
Today I went shopping for my sister-in-law's baby shower- which is next week. Since I found out that I was pregnant, I have been trying so hard to avoid the baby aisles in every department store. I love baby clothes. Imagining all those tiny outfits on cute tiny baby parts makes me explode from an overdose of warm fuzzies and cuteness. But I was a little afraid that endulging these my baby senses would jinx the entire thing.
Today I had a viable excuse, however, for perusing aisle after aisle of dollsized onesies, hats, bibs, booties, mittens, and those adorable, soft baby towels with the folded corners. I overdosed on baby items of all kinds, breathed them all in, touched the tiny materials and imagined even tinier baby fingers and toes inside them. I have to say that even though newborns look kinda squished and wrinkly, a newborn is my favorite kind of baby. They are so tiny and wobbly. So helpless yet so strong. So incredibly mini in all ways. Even those powerful yet unperfected newborn cries have no comparison. I just want to nurture them to death.
I know there is something seriously wrong with me when it comes to babies. When I was young (like ten or eleven), I would try to fall asleep at night by imaginging me at an animal zoo where all the animals had babies and I would steal the animal babies and take care of them myself. It was a sick fantasy, I know. But this just shows how I have been enamored with babies my entire life.
Newborns are as close to the power/divinity of creation that we will ever get. Living proof that there is some miraculous power behind the design of each human cell, that same power that is orchestrating each step of the complex development process. It's so incredibly amazing that our cells know exactly what to do to shape us into what we become- a self sufficient body of organs and systems with independence, emotions, senses, individuality.
I still can't get myself to buy any baby items for our future baby. I guess I need to know whether it will be a boy or a girl first. Maybe I feel guilty endulging my desire to touch baby clothes and imagine my own baby wearing it. Maybe I still can't fathom the though of having a baby, a baby that is mine to care for.
I think newborns appeal to me so much because opportunities to care for them are so scarce. Moms with newborns do not often let babysitters care for the newborns, especially if they are breastfeeding. Newborns don't stay newborns very long either. It's hard to believe that not only will I be able to hold and love and take care of a newborn- but I will have unlimited access to the baby. Finally, a baby I can guiltlessly smother with my love for hours and hours. I won't even have to share! Do I really have to wait seven more months!?! OMG!
Today I had a viable excuse, however, for perusing aisle after aisle of dollsized onesies, hats, bibs, booties, mittens, and those adorable, soft baby towels with the folded corners. I overdosed on baby items of all kinds, breathed them all in, touched the tiny materials and imagined even tinier baby fingers and toes inside them. I have to say that even though newborns look kinda squished and wrinkly, a newborn is my favorite kind of baby. They are so tiny and wobbly. So helpless yet so strong. So incredibly mini in all ways. Even those powerful yet unperfected newborn cries have no comparison. I just want to nurture them to death.
I know there is something seriously wrong with me when it comes to babies. When I was young (like ten or eleven), I would try to fall asleep at night by imaginging me at an animal zoo where all the animals had babies and I would steal the animal babies and take care of them myself. It was a sick fantasy, I know. But this just shows how I have been enamored with babies my entire life.
Newborns are as close to the power/divinity of creation that we will ever get. Living proof that there is some miraculous power behind the design of each human cell, that same power that is orchestrating each step of the complex development process. It's so incredibly amazing that our cells know exactly what to do to shape us into what we become- a self sufficient body of organs and systems with independence, emotions, senses, individuality.
I still can't get myself to buy any baby items for our future baby. I guess I need to know whether it will be a boy or a girl first. Maybe I feel guilty endulging my desire to touch baby clothes and imagine my own baby wearing it. Maybe I still can't fathom the though of having a baby, a baby that is mine to care for.
I think newborns appeal to me so much because opportunities to care for them are so scarce. Moms with newborns do not often let babysitters care for the newborns, especially if they are breastfeeding. Newborns don't stay newborns very long either. It's hard to believe that not only will I be able to hold and love and take care of a newborn- but I will have unlimited access to the baby. Finally, a baby I can guiltlessly smother with my love for hours and hours. I won't even have to share! Do I really have to wait seven more months!?! OMG!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tell Me Now!
I am not a patient person. I'm a sentimental romantic, but definately not patient. I know this frsutrates my husband. The romantic in me sometimes demands surprises. The impatient two year old in me demands to know what the surprise is IMMEDIATELY!
A couple weeks ago my husband took me on a surprise date (I may have asked for the surprise date, but I can't remember). After it became clear that he was planning something, I begged and pleaded and pouted to know what it was. He refused to budge, it nearly killed me. (Really, my head almost rolled off my neck under the pressure of impatient mind spasms). I try not to ask for surprises anymore, but deep down the romantic in me daydreams about them.
At first, I thought it would be cool to wait until our baby is born before finding out the gender. I told my husband we should do this, I told him we should be surprised. He quickly reminded me how practical it is to find out before hand- so you can plan and buy things and decorate the nursery. The selfish, spoiled part of me that likes presents realized that finding out ahead of time was the only way to avoid a million pee-yellow and garbage-brown neutral gender baby gifts. Also, the practical me advised the romantic in me that waiting for it to be a surprise would not end so well anyway. I would end up caving in from my inhumane lack of patience, or throwing curiosity fits or pulling my hair out.
There are alot of phony baby gender prediction tests on the internet. There is a chinese year calendar that claims to reveal the gender of your baby based upon the month of conception and the due date (or something like that). There are many other tests that don't explain themselves unless you pay upfront first.
But today I saw an ad for this Intelligender prediction kit.
http://www.intelligender.com/
I was skeptical at first, but then I saw an article about it in Parenting Magazine. The test measures the amount of testosterone in your urine...you can take it as soon as you are in your 10th week of pregnancy (next week for me!). Some respectable people claim to have used it and it boasts a 90% accuracy rating. Really? Do you think this thing works? Husband called bullshit, but I'm not so sure. Anything to relieve my burning curiosity.
I might just order it and take it for fun....
A couple weeks ago my husband took me on a surprise date (I may have asked for the surprise date, but I can't remember). After it became clear that he was planning something, I begged and pleaded and pouted to know what it was. He refused to budge, it nearly killed me. (Really, my head almost rolled off my neck under the pressure of impatient mind spasms). I try not to ask for surprises anymore, but deep down the romantic in me daydreams about them.
At first, I thought it would be cool to wait until our baby is born before finding out the gender. I told my husband we should do this, I told him we should be surprised. He quickly reminded me how practical it is to find out before hand- so you can plan and buy things and decorate the nursery. The selfish, spoiled part of me that likes presents realized that finding out ahead of time was the only way to avoid a million pee-yellow and garbage-brown neutral gender baby gifts. Also, the practical me advised the romantic in me that waiting for it to be a surprise would not end so well anyway. I would end up caving in from my inhumane lack of patience, or throwing curiosity fits or pulling my hair out.
There are alot of phony baby gender prediction tests on the internet. There is a chinese year calendar that claims to reveal the gender of your baby based upon the month of conception and the due date (or something like that). There are many other tests that don't explain themselves unless you pay upfront first.
But today I saw an ad for this Intelligender prediction kit.
http://www.intelligender.com/
I was skeptical at first, but then I saw an article about it in Parenting Magazine. The test measures the amount of testosterone in your urine...you can take it as soon as you are in your 10th week of pregnancy (next week for me!). Some respectable people claim to have used it and it boasts a 90% accuracy rating. Really? Do you think this thing works? Husband called bullshit, but I'm not so sure. Anything to relieve my burning curiosity.
I might just order it and take it for fun....
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Slacking Already
No more lawshool,
no more books,
no more professor's dirty looks....
for coming in late...AGAIN. Or for generally not caring about class discussion. Or for covering the deficiency in my ability to get dressed with the SAME fleece jacket (it's my default). Or for trying to stab myself in the eye with my pencil each time Annoying Guy tries to impress us all with his pompous and irrelevant comments.
I swear that half of the law students in my school are filled with bullshit up to their necks. They are only able to hide their bullshit through the use of elite and elusive vocabulary words. Do people really use words like "tantamount" on a daily basis? Ok, I have to admit that after I heard Annoying Guy use it in a class discussion, I might have used it once in a paper...but I think that's just a survival tactic for trying to "blend" in. Or I'm jealous.
Personally, I'm still waiting for the day that someone in the admissions office realizes that there has been a big mistake and that I was never actually accepted into law school. I sometimes feel like the only person truly alive among a sea of law school obsessed, professor ass kissers. I made is a point after the craziness of 1L year to NOT let lawschool be my entire life (shocking!). But I do envy people who are better focused and more committed to class work/assignments than I am.
no more books,
no more professor's dirty looks....
for coming in late...AGAIN. Or for generally not caring about class discussion. Or for covering the deficiency in my ability to get dressed with the SAME fleece jacket (it's my default). Or for trying to stab myself in the eye with my pencil each time Annoying Guy tries to impress us all with his pompous and irrelevant comments.
I swear that half of the law students in my school are filled with bullshit up to their necks. They are only able to hide their bullshit through the use of elite and elusive vocabulary words. Do people really use words like "tantamount" on a daily basis? Ok, I have to admit that after I heard Annoying Guy use it in a class discussion, I might have used it once in a paper...but I think that's just a survival tactic for trying to "blend" in. Or I'm jealous.
Personally, I'm still waiting for the day that someone in the admissions office realizes that there has been a big mistake and that I was never actually accepted into law school. I sometimes feel like the only person truly alive among a sea of law school obsessed, professor ass kissers. I made is a point after the craziness of 1L year to NOT let lawschool be my entire life (shocking!). But I do envy people who are better focused and more committed to class work/assignments than I am.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A Recurring Battle With Subway
The international Subway Franchise operates according to a universal and unwritten rule:
Thou shalt have no more than 5 olives on thy six inch sub.
I love olives (back, not green). I never thought to put them on a sandwich until I saw them among Subway's sandwich condiments. A veggie subway sandwich with olives is one of those little things that makes life so rich and beautiful. For the 2.5 minutes it takes me to devour the sandwich, I am not just content but spellbound, I don't think I'm capable of carrying on a conversation or even retaining any semblance of an intelligent thought.
There is one defect in this blissfull experience, however, and that is that the subway sandwich engineers refuse to put more than five olives on any one six-inch sandwich. This is so frustrating! Why so stingy? I'm not on the Jared diet, and if I was, would a handful of olives really put me over the edge of the calorie count? Would it kill them to have a little generosity with their condiments?? SERIOUSLY. How much money are they saving from skimping on ten or fifteen extra olives?
This has bothered me so much that I started to request "extra olives." Upon hearing this request, the sandwich engineer will faithfully sprinkle a whopping total of SEVEN olives on my sandwich. At first I thought it was a fluke or that they didn't hear me. But then this happened every time I requested extra olives and at different Subway franchises too. I just gave up. You know, I would be willing to pay an extra 50 cents if they would simply put a generous serving of olives on my sandwich. But I have such a hard time communicating to Subway what a normal serving of olives should be that I feel like explaining "generous portion" would be a hopeless task.
Next time I go to Subway, I'm freaking bringing my own sandwich bag of olives. (I'm also considering organizing a mass picket outside my local subway location, but the logistics aren't fully formed yet).
Thou shalt have no more than 5 olives on thy six inch sub.
I love olives (back, not green). I never thought to put them on a sandwich until I saw them among Subway's sandwich condiments. A veggie subway sandwich with olives is one of those little things that makes life so rich and beautiful. For the 2.5 minutes it takes me to devour the sandwich, I am not just content but spellbound, I don't think I'm capable of carrying on a conversation or even retaining any semblance of an intelligent thought.
There is one defect in this blissfull experience, however, and that is that the subway sandwich engineers refuse to put more than five olives on any one six-inch sandwich. This is so frustrating! Why so stingy? I'm not on the Jared diet, and if I was, would a handful of olives really put me over the edge of the calorie count? Would it kill them to have a little generosity with their condiments?? SERIOUSLY. How much money are they saving from skimping on ten or fifteen extra olives?
This has bothered me so much that I started to request "extra olives." Upon hearing this request, the sandwich engineer will faithfully sprinkle a whopping total of SEVEN olives on my sandwich. At first I thought it was a fluke or that they didn't hear me. But then this happened every time I requested extra olives and at different Subway franchises too. I just gave up. You know, I would be willing to pay an extra 50 cents if they would simply put a generous serving of olives on my sandwich. But I have such a hard time communicating to Subway what a normal serving of olives should be that I feel like explaining "generous portion" would be a hopeless task.
Next time I go to Subway, I'm freaking bringing my own sandwich bag of olives. (I'm also considering organizing a mass picket outside my local subway location, but the logistics aren't fully formed yet).
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