Posts from — August 2009

Just a few updates to my 101 goals in 1001 days project, because not every little update deserves its own blog post.

1.  Molly and I had our monthly dinner in June at Pei Wei. Yum. Sadly, we missed July’s dinner because of our trip to California. We’re going to try to double up in August to make up for it.

2.  Molly, Mom, and I went to see a show at the Cactus Theater called “Walkin the Line,” which was a tribute to/impersonation of Johnny Cash. It was pretty good, much better than the Johnny Cash show we saw at the City Bank Auditorium a few years back as part of Celebrity Attractions.

3.  Visited PawPaw in Brownwood over Father’s Day weekend. Details here.

8.  So far, right on schedule with the dog grooming. Sophie is happy.

11 & 15.  Most brilliant idea evah: pay Molly to do these for me!

19.  Had the car washed in June, then had to skip July because of travel and copious rain.

22.  It’s with a heavy heart that I must report the demise of the tomato plant. He grew pretty well, although he never once made a bloom, much less a tomato, and then one day he plunged to his death in my yard. Remember, he was living in a Topsy Turvy planter, which was hanging from the ceiling of my patio. I guess my poor tomato plant was having feelings of inadequacy because somehow he unscrewed himself from the ceiling and plummeted one whole story, fracturing several limbs upon his landing. He was properly disposed of and he will be fondly remembered. Better luck next summer, I guess.

25.  Is it just me, or is watching the local news the most boring thing on the planet? Very hard to force myself to do this, and even then I can only make it about halfway through. Ugh.

27.  I don’t think I’m quite writing twice a week, but maybe I’ll have more to write about once school actually gets started. Of course, then I won’t have any time.

32, 35, & 38.  Right on track with the pedicures, manicures, and hair appointments.

43.  So when I said I wanted to floss every day for a month, I didn’t specify that it had to be 30 days in a row.

48.  I did compile a lifetime reading list (which you can view here). It’s a work in progress, meaning that it will probably never be fully complete. Alas, my ability to cross books off the list is subpar.

49.  The Netflix movie goal is sadly neglected. I had such good intentions.

51.  For my nonfiction book I read Law School Confidential. I hope I can use some of the helpful hints in that book during law school.

52.  The one Shyamalan movie I’ve rewatched is “The Happening.” What a crappy ending. It starts off so well, and ends so horribly. This man really knows how to disappoint.

59.  The one movie of this category that I’ve watched also just happens to be the one Netflix movie I’ve watched (see 49 above), and that was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I hadn’t seen it before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jack Nicholson… what can I say about him that hasn’t already been said? He’s fabulous.

68.  The saving-change project is well underway and we’ve already almost filled up an entire mayonnaise jar with change. Molly has already started talking about the places she wants to go with our post-bar-exam-trip money.

73.  I promised Molly at the beginning of the summer that if she’d completely organize her bedroom and get rid of a bunch of stuff, I’d redo her room for her. She previously had baby pink walls and a quilt with pastel horses on it, and that was so not cool for a newly minted 6th grader. Believe it or not, it only took her two days of hard work in her room to get it almost Martha-Stewart organized. Amazing how quickly that can get done when there’s a good incentive! Anyway, she has gotten new bedding and we’re preparing to paint the walls gray. After that, she’s getting new carpet. I’ll post pictures when it’s finished.

77.  The office organization project — are you sitting down? — is almost completely done. Yep, you read that right. If you’ve ever seen my office before now, you can appreciate the gravity of this statement. I’m so excited about having a functional office (almost) again!!

83.  The new city we visited was Anaheim, California, on the dance trip (details here). We also spent one day in San Diego/Coronado Beach, but I didn’t count that because we were just there for the day.

86.  We’re a little behind on the two recipes per month, but not too far behind yet. We can make up for it with a little work.

87.  The three new beers I’ve tried are (a) Shock Top Belgian White brewed by Anheuser-Busch, (b) Warsteiner Dunkel brewed by Warsteiner-USA, and (c) Thunderhead India Pale Ale brewed by Pyramid Breweries. Of the three, I liked the Warsteiner Dunkel the best. The Shock Top, I suppose, was meant to compete with Blue Moon, but it just didn’t come close. The Thunderhead IPA was good, but a little hoppy for my taste.

89.  I’ve only tried one new bottle of wine so far, and that was Chateau Ste Michelle 2006 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I’m no professional or even wannabe pro wine taster, so I can’t really speak to the flavors it had. I just know that I liked it.

91.  The five new restaurants I’ve counted were all in California. I didn’t count any airport restaurants (and I use that term loosely here) or any park food. They are (a) breakfast at Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel, (b) pizza at a pizzeria in San Diego, the name of which I can’t remember, (c) Bubba Gump’s in Anaheim, (d) Tortilla Joe’s in Downtown Disney, and (e) House of Blues in Downtown Disney. All of it was good, but the guacamole at Tortilla Joe’s, the awesome omelet at Steakhouse 55, and the humongous pizza in San Diego were my favorites.

So, that pretty much gets all my progress up-to-date. Have you started your list of 101 goals yet (I’m looking at you, Cousin Laura!)?

Orientation at Texas Tech School of Law starts (for me) on Tuesday, August 18, with a library tour and a laptop configuration session, followed by two full days of listening, questions and answers, small group breakout sessions, free food and drink (!), and generally shuffling about in groups of people who — fingers crossed here — will be just as confused and disoriented as I will be. Hence the name: orientation.

Just in case you don’t have your calendar handy and you’re feeling a little bit disoriented yourself, that’s less than a week away. Where in the world did the summer go? In the last few days, I’ve been trying to get totally organized in time for school to start. Just in case a future law-school hopeful ever stumbles upon this blog in a frantic search for helpful information, I present Eight Steps to Law School Preparation.

1. I read parts of Law School Confidential, and I plan to read Getting to Maybe. The beginning of Law School Confidential is about the LSAT and the application process, and probably the entire second half is about your 2L and 3L years, the bar exam, and finding a job, so I only read the parts in between that had to do with the 1L year. I thought it was useful and I particularly liked the whole color-coded-book-briefing-with-highlighters idea. Getting to Maybe deals specifically with succeeding on law school exams, and from everything I’ve heard it’s most useful if you read it during the semester, finishing up around Thanksgiving. That’s the plan.
2. Inspired in part by Law School Confidential, I made an epic trip to the office supply store. Not that this was difficult for me; I do LOVE me some office supplies. I stocked up on highlighters, pens, pencils, binders, dividers, and Post-It flag thingies. I don’t really know if I’ll use the binders and dividers, but they were just so cute! Anyway, Molly can use them if I don’t.
3. The orientation info packet we were sent specifically said not to buy any books until orientation, just in case they have to change your section assignment, but there’s no way I was gonna wait that long. Waiting that long to get books would mean that your only option would be to buy the books at the local bookstores, unless you ordered books and then had them shipped overnight. Of course, the increased shipping cost would defeat the purpose of ordering the books online at a lower cost, now wouldn’t it? I knew I wanted brand-new casebooks because I didn’t want anyone else’s notes and/or highlighting to interfere with mine, so I ordered those from Barnes & Noble. If you have a membership card there, which I believe is $25 a year, you get 10% off all your purchases. This saved me probably around $60, which is almost like getting a small book for free. I also got some used books from the local bookstore, as I was able to find some that weren’t marked in at all.
4. I went ahead and got a few supplements even though I think you’re supposed to wait and see which ones you’ll need, if any. I got Examples & Explanations (E&E’s) for each of my classes except one — Torts, Contracts, and Civil Procedure — and I got a commercial Contracts outline (Emanuel’s). The E&E’s were recommended to me by my brother, who recently graduated from Tech Law, so I’m confident they’ll come in handy. The commercial outline was recommended in Law School Confidential. We’ll see if it was a good investment or not. The one class I didn’t get supplements for is Legal Practice and I don’t think any will be needed, if they even make any.
5. I decided to use Microsoft OneNote for notes, briefs, and outlines. The consensus is that it’s the best PC application for law school, so I’m going to give it a whirl. I set up a notebook for each of my four classes, with sections in each for keeping track of readings and assignments, reading notes, lecture notes, case briefs, and outlines. I have no idea if I’ll even use all those categories, but they’re there if I need them.
6. I’ve spent some quality time this summer with books and movies. Books that I read for pleasure, that is. I figure I won’t have much of a chance to indulge for at least the next year.
7. I set up this blog because I want to have a record of this whole adventure for myself. This is going to be a fun/scary/enlightening/challenging/unique experience.
8. I shopped for some new clothes so that I’ll look less like a hobo and more like a future lawyer, or at least a respectable citizen. After working from home for the last eleven years, my wardrobe has devolved into not much more than an assortment of T-shirts and capri pants. My brother and my sister-in-law have both told me that they wished they had realized sooner that the people you go to law school with today will be your colleagues tomorrow, and the impressions you make in law school will matter.

And here are some things I haven’t done, whether I should have or not.

1. I haven’t read one single word in any of my law school books or supplements. I was in such a hurry to buy them, and yet I can’t make myself start reading them. Rationale: My understanding is that different professors will highlight different cases, and I’m not interested in doing unnecessary reading/studying.
2. I didn’t buy a Mac. But oh, how desperately I want one. Alas, it’s just not in the budget for this semester. As soon as I can, though, I’m getting a 13-inch MacBook Pro, and don’t try to talk me out of it.
3. I haven’t come to terms with the fact that I’ll have four — FOUR — 8:00 classes a week. That is to say, I’m still staying up until 2:00 in the morning and waking up around 9:30. This. Has. To. Stop. When school starts up, I’ll be waking up at 5:30 every morning. Yep, I said 5:30. That’s a.m., as in morning. Please hold for a panic attack.
4. I haven’t canceled my cable subscription, complete with HBO. I refuse to believe that I won’t have time to watch my favorite shows: So You Think You Can Dance, True Blood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Cleaner, Intervention, and maybe others. I won’t likely be able to watch them live, but I’ll DVR the heck out of them and watch them on my terms. Take that, busy schedule.

So there you have it. At this point I have no idea if I’ve been brilliant or not, but I’ll let you know as the year progresses.