The End of 2011

fter finishing my first semester of law school with my sanity and relationship thankfully still intact, winter break was more than welcome. I had a lot of not-thinking, not being in the library, and sleeping to catch up on. Overall, I would say it was a success, except that it came to an end and classes have started again. Alas, to keep myself distracted from the shiny new set of $500+ textbooks I should be reading right now, I will post about my first winter break since undergrad.

After a couple days of the above-mentioned catching up I had to do, the sister and I were off to Upstate New York for a much needed visit with our extended family. It was complete with seemingly infinite pepperoni rolls, sugar cookies, and board games. We even started a never before attempted bowling excursion to spice things up.

Pie

Sugar Cookies

Grandma, May You Rest in Peace

In case you can't read it, the text says: "Will you love me in December as you do in May, will you love me in the good old fashioned way? When my hair has all turned gray, will you kiss me and say, That you love me in December as you do in May?"

hose are my grandparents. I took that picture back in 2008 at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. After a five year battle with heart problems, my grandmother passed away this month. Although I added the text on the photo above in 2008, the answer ended up being yes. My grandfather loved my grandmother in the same way he did when they first met as teenagers through her last very difficult days.

My grandmother was a wonderful lady and was a very big part of my life. During my childhood summers we would make play-dough together, weave rugs out of old sheets, and  decorate sombrero hats melted down from Styrofoam cups. At Christmases she would make her famous pepperoni rolls and vanilla cake. Then during my summer visits, when I was too old for childhood arts and crafts, we could just sit back and watch silly TV shows while discussing which male actors were the the most attractive.

She was always very young in spirit. She had the greatest sense of humor, as in only she would think something silly was funny. Then she would proceed to laugh about it for so long that you would eventually get drawn in and laugh too. For as long as I knew her she never lost that youthful sense of humor. My grandmother was also very honest. She could be upfront and tell you like it is, while still being her charming self. She was a smart lady with a lot to say and wasn't afraid to share her thoughts with others. Although she was much more, I will probably always remember her best for her sense of humor and honesty.

I am still missing her, but I am thankful that she is no longer in pain. My grandma is in a better place now-- next to her son, her parents, and all the others who are no longer with us.

She was beautiful inside and out, from beginning to end.

My grandma as a young teenager back in West Virginia.

Christina, The Beauty Pageant Contestant

es, you read the title correctly. I competed in the 2012 Miss Sinergy beauty pageant (all for charity of course). And I placed second! Crazy, right? Now, for those that know me well, this seemed completely out of left field, but I really did it to do something outside my comfort zone and to try and help me improve on my inner beauty. After all, with the help of a good spray tan and a makeup artist applying drag queen levels of make up, I had plenty of help with the outer beauty element.

Internal beauty? How would a pageant named after the outside physical beauty help my inner beauty... Well, that's simple. Since when does the most beautiful girl win the beauty pageant? Ok yea, the ugliest girl never wins, but the final winner always has to have the entire package. She has to be (or at least seem to be) beautiful from the inside out. Have you ever met anyone that was drop dead gorgeous but then after getting to know them for a few minutes or days or years later you find them to be repulsive because their inner beauty does not reflect the outside appearance? I know it's cliché to say this, but I honestly believe that physical beauty is overrated and inner beauty is all that matters, except maybe in a photograph. I know too many people that become more beautiful physically to me because of what they offer from within and so many gorgeous individuals with sucky personalities who I can't look at for too long without getting annoyed. To a certain extent, I really only see the inside after a while. Maybe that's how everyone works, or maybe I'm unlucky, or maybe I'm actually really lucky because of it. No matter the explanation, it's the honest truth. There are many people who may not have a very fortunate lot in the beauty department, but then after getting to know them I can't look at them any other way other than as beautiful. Physically beautiful, really just because their inner beauty radiates outward.

The Evening Gown Competition

Anyways, back to the pageant. The seeds for entering a competition like this were planted when I was an audience member at the last year's Miss Sinergy competition. Initially I was convinced to attend because the ticket money went towards charity (mainly a breast cancer foundation), plus it's always fun to dress up for events. At the event I met some great people and got to talking to a judge who was adamant about my entrance in the next year's competition. He said I would be a great candidate. Then, at the after party, I met some of the contestants who also recommended that I enter next time since they had so  much fun participating. The candidates said that they met a bunch of amazing people and it was just an overall great time. They didn't report any of the usual catty-ness you'd expect at a pageant, plus it's all for charity. Since then my little sister had been encouraging me to just go for it. And you're only young once, so I just went ahead and entered.

Law School Update

Before law school started I was going to write a blog post about my expectations for the upcoming semester. I never got around to actually writing it because I was so "busy." A funny notion looking back, now that I really know what it is to be busy. Thanks law school!

I'm only about halfway though my first semester of law school and it's already a little too fuzzy for me to remember all my expectations but here's a quick summary:

Pre-Law School Me: "All the law school students I've met are all such Negative Nancys about the first year, always complaining and whining. It's just a lot of reading, it can't be that bad. All you have to learn to do is not procrastinate and get stuff done. No big deal. I'm so excited, whooo hooo, can't wait!" 

Now for the reality...

Weekend before first day of class: Started the seemingly harmless first day reading assignments only to find out that when reading a dense law opinion, three pages can take up to an hour to brief, let alone understand. This was a frustrating kick in the butt. Spent all weekend reading and then when I was finally finished for Monday's classes I was terrified that I didn't understand the cases I had read to the extent that my classmates might. This would all be well and good if it weren't for the infamous Socratic Method I knew was awaiting me.

Side note on the Socratic Method- I'm not a fan of public speaking, or even speaking in groups. I'm also not really a fan of small talk. I don't like expanding on my verbal answers and I hate BS-ed responses. I like simplicity and getting to the point. Either I know the answer or I don't. But when  you're called on in law school "I don't know" is never an acceptable answer. Considering the amount of times you're called on, it's not possible to know all the answers. You are supposed to reason your way to some answer. Definitely not something I'm good at on the fly. I'm fine at it if you give me some time and I can write/edit it, but I can't talk it out in front of 70 people. Basically, I have the fear of being called on in public, PLUS the fear of trying to BS some type of response, which makes the Socratic Method more than a little daunting. 

Once JD classes began: No matter how much reading I did, the stress was immense. I was so terrified of getting called on and not knowing the answer. After reading 35+ pages for each class, the professor would then ask about one specific word that a judge used to express XYZ. He would even goes as far to make the whole class wait until you re-read the entire case until you found that one little word he wanted. No matter how detailed your reading was there was always more the professor could expect you to explain to the class. 

I couldn't eat some mornings. I was a monster on the metro ride to school. Arya had to learn to stop trying to engage me in any conversation because of the inevitable attack that would come out of me. (I've learned that I need to deal with stress better...).

And all of that was only the first week. Then my legal writing course began. It was probably the class I most looked forward to. The practical layering skills, unlike what was taught in my core classes. These 2 credits seemed manageable until my first memo assignment came around and I sat down at 7pm to begin and wasn't done with a basic draft until 4:30am.

That's enough complaining. Most of the above was drafted around the end of the first month of classes. I've learned to manage it all much better now. Still TONS of work, especially since I have many outside of school obligations this month (more to come on that stuff later). Even though law school hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies,  I really do love the academic challenge. I love that the first year is a tough/dark time for even some of the more brilliant law students and the fact that it's so difficult makes it all the more rewarding for me to get through each week. Then again, I may change my tune and want to quit again by tomorrow morning.

Now back to my infinite amounts of reading. I've learned a lot so far, but I still haven't managed to stop procrastinating (see evidence above). The hard part of the semester hasn't even begun yet... studying for finals. Wish me luck! Hopefully I come out alive in December.

"The Big Easy"

reat music, great food, and great fun was what made my 4th of July weekend trip to New Orleans way more than great. My amazing friend, Kait, and her hubby (both visiting from Australia) met me and Arya down in Louisiana for a long weekend adventure.

As a warning, this post is just going to center on pictures. Some taken with Kait's awesome new camera and some from Arya's iPhone camera. So please be forgiving if there is a difference in quality... some of us are just too lazy to carry around nice cameras. ;)