Catching Up

A blog update is long past due, I know. I got so caught up in finals, and then moot court, that I haven’t had a chance to sit down and record anything. Finally, however, I am beginning to surface once again – and I even spent this whole past weekend doing nothing!! Yep, that’s correct – no homework whatsoever. The beginning of a new quarter is always so glorious. :)

Well, first things first – I have survived my 4^th set of law school finals – and only have 5 left!!! I haven’t decided whether they get easier are harder. In some ways, they’re easier. I know my limits, and I don’t try to push myself to do 10 hours of studying a day anymore. Additionally, I’ve got a great study group, which makes studying so much more enjoyable. However, since we had all new professors this quarter, there’s always the fear of the unknown regarding how hard the test will actually be. But overall I feel good, and it’s one more thing I can check off my list.

The weekend after finals, our group got together and decorated my Christmas tree. I know…it was well before Thanksgiving – but it was either that, or do it 2 weeks before we broke for Christmas. I decided to indulge early this year and put it up so we could enjoy it. Plus, there’s something about the horror of finals that just makes you crave Christmas. :)

We also watched “Home Alone 2,” which is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I know the trap scenes are sooo unrealistic, and yet they’re hysterically funny.

Three and a half days into the new quarter, I left for Malibu with my moot court team. We competed in Pepperdine’s National Entertainment Law Moot Court competition. I had to argue a copyright issue – as a musician, I enjoyed getting to learn about this area of the law. I’m not sure that I’ll ever end up practicing it (only big firms, mostly in California, where I refuse to live), but it was neat to get exposed to it. Additionally, we lucked out on location. I ate so much seafood last weekend…it was fantastic!! Since I rarely ever eat seafood at home, it was a nice change in diet.

Although I was really nervous going into the competition (think piano senior recital all over again), I loved the actual presentation part. Moot court is a simulation of arguing before an appellate court. At the competition, we were pretending to argue before the Supreme Court of the United States. It’s pretty cool when the judges come in and the bailiff says, “The Supreme Court of the United States is now in session.” And yes, I know I’m a nerd. :) My partner and I ended up competing all the way until the semi-final round, which was really exciting!! While I would have loved to have competed in the final round, I was very pleased with our results.

And now, to give a brief overview of my classes this quarter. My schedule got shifted around a little, so I’m taking all electives this quarter (instead of taking Constitutional Law and Remedies). My classes are: Estate Planning, Individual Taxation (blegh), Advanced Legal Research, Arbitration, and Bankruptcy. While doing my reading for Bankruptcy, I’ve decided that I will like basically any area of law that involves property. :) However, since dabbling in Bankruptcy isn’t really an option, I don’t think I can be torn away from my love of writing wills to actually make a practice out of it – but we’ll see.

This past weekend was glorious – after a crazy couple of weeks with finals and moot court, it was WONDERFUL to be able to relax and do absolutely nothing. On Friday night, the gang came over and we watched “The Christmas List,” which is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. On Saturday night, AnnaGrace and I made a stuffed crust pizza (second time in 2 days!!) and watched “Just Go With” with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Despite a good bit of crude humor, it was actually really cute. Both of us were in the mood for something mindless and funny, so it fit the bill. :)

Well, that’s all for now…I have grand plans of blogging several times this weekend (Thanksgiving!!) to keep you apprised of all my grand adventures. Here’s my list of planned activities (along with some I’m still hoping about!):

• Believe! 5K on Saturday
• More stuffed crust pizza (Dad’s pizza crust + my addition of cheese = gotta be perfection)
• Cinnamon rolls (I’m really craving these and hoping I can convince mom to make her “Christmas” breakfast dish a little early)
• Driving through neighborhoods with lots of Christmas lights
• Christmas shopping – I’m itching to start buying gifts!
• Make frosted wine goblets – I’m testing out a DIY Christmas gift idea on pinterest – and I need new goblets to drink eggnog out of (it’s almost a crime to drink eggnog out of a regular glass in my book)
• Watch lots of Christmas movies – “Elf,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Polar Express…” and any others that I am forgetting (maybe “Home Alone 2” and “Christmas List” round 2???)
• Eat until I’m stuffed…run it off…repeat multiple times…