A fruit-full week.

This past week was a productive one.
I also realized I've been eating a ridiculous amount of fruit. Like I've been CRAVING fruit lately.
I have a smoothie for breakfast with muffins with fruit baked in.
I have fruit for snack after my classes.
I have fruit for my evening snack when I get back from the library.
I've just been eating fruit.

Everyone keeps asking me how I'm liking school, and they all seem to be confused when I say I'm loving it. Yes, it's a lot of work, but I actually enjoy reading the cases. Classes are engaging, terrifying at times, but always enjoyable and engaging.
I had a really good class on Friday. Property is my only class, and the professor is pretty intense. The book he co-wrote with another McGeorge professor is used at Harvard. He's awesome.
However, he has this fantastic talent of calling on people in their momentary lapse of attention. It's common knowledge that when he does this, you have been "Sprankled."
He called on me Friday, AND I WAS READY!
I gave him all the facts, he kept asking me questions, and I kept having the answer.
I even got a "Good job, Amanda."
WHAT?!
All of my classmates congratulated me after class. That's how awesome it is to do well in his class.
Nothing could ruin my Friday after that.

Saturday night, I got to have dinner with one of my good friends from U of A. It was awesome to catch up and have some down time.

Sacramento cooled down a lot this weekend. Instead of using my air conditioning, and the electricity I have to pay for to power it, I open windows. It's cooled down enough that I've finally been able to add all of my blankets to my bed, which is so much more comfortable.
I was also cold enough when I went to bed that I busted out this gem.

I also love Arizona football.

This is a hand-me-down from my baby brother, who received it as a hand-me-down from one of our close family friends. I'm not even sure how old it is, but it's one of my favorite things to sleep in!

After today, I've decided Sundays are my favorite day of the week.
I woke up this morning, put on my slippers (!) and went downstairs to start some homework. I then proceeded to bundle up on the couch and do my reading, with some naps in between. The smell of bread wafted through my windows.
After I finished all my homework, I went to Walmart to do my grocery shopping. I was really surprised at how excited I was to go to the grocery store. It's an outing, I get to drive a little ways, and frolic around the store.
Sundays are also my cooking day. After I got back from the store, I baked some apple banana muffins using this recipe. That'll be breakfast for the next week.
I also try to make a dinner that I can use throughout the week. Today it was Chinese sesame noodles using this recipe. I'm not as big of a fan of this one. It turned out REALLY peanut-y. It's good enough for this week, but I don't think I'll ever make it again.

Overall, I had a really solid week.

Loving the legal life.

Domestic Sunday.

I was a domestic goddess today. Or as domestic as I'm going to get.
I did laundry.
I baked. Delicious strawberry pancake puffs for this week's breakfast.

Yum.

I did dishes.
I painted a pot for my baby cactus who desperately needs a home.

I also did more reading. Go figure.

Today was bid day for the beautiful ADPi girls back in Tucson. I didn't think I would be that upset about missing today, simply because I hate recruitment, but seeing all of the pictures and comments from people who went back kind of bummed me out.
It also reminds me of how proud I am to have been a part of such a great organization. And it's incredibly rewarding to see the new girls, who I may never meet, wear the same expression of excitement and joy as the ones worn the girls I welcomed home at the beginning of their freshman year. Now, those girls are women welcoming others into our sisterhood.

As the days go by, I start to notice little things about my area of Sacramento. Today, it was bread.
There's a Sara Lee factory a block away from campus. All day long, the scent of fresh bread wafts in through my windows. It's a great thing to wake up to as well.

Trying to make this place a temporary home while missing the old ones.

Lazy Saturday.

Today was a lazy day. I got through Monday's work, but I didn't do half of the other stuff I needed to do.
What I did do is go grocery shopping. And guess what? I DIDN'T GET LOST!
If you know me, you know I'm seriously directionally challenged. My Tomtom is one of my best friends. Sacramento is a very bad place to be if you get lost easily. There are a ton of different freeways, but they all share exits, so when you exit, need to be in the designated lane for you chosen freeway. If you're not in that lane, it's difficult to get over because there are cars everywhere. Sacramento also apparently doesn't believe in warning you when two lanes merge. They just...disappear. I've gotten better at spotting these vanishing lanes and altering my speed to fit within the other cars. I've also gotten better at being a little more aggressive and claiming my spot on the road.
My big find today was the closest Walmart. I went for the low prices, and the fact that I could knock off my whole list in one go. This Walmart was special: it's a two-story Super Walmart! The fun part was going upstairs: you put your cart a cart escalator that grabs onto a hook on the front, then ride the normal escalator up yourself. SO COOL!
But I've designated tomorrow as a productive day. I'm going to get through Tuesday's work, cook a real breakfast and dinner, prepare food for the rest of the week, do laundry, and clean the apartment.
Ready... BREAK!

One week down...

I SURVIVED MY FIRST WEEK!!!
Law school is nothing like undergrad. As an undergrad, I rarely went to the library, I barely studied, and classes were way easier.
Here, I'm in the library almost every night, I study seven or eight hours a day, and classes are more demanding than anything I've ever done. Your attention can't stray in the slightest, professors could call on you at any moment, and if you're not paying attention to what your classmate is saying, you might miss the whole point of that class period. Being mentally "on" all of the time is the biggest challenge, and can be exhausting.
The other challenge is being able to make yourself sit down for eight hours a day to study. The people I study with and I have found an awesome study room in the library that has comfy chairs that make it a little better.
The books are big and I'm having a blast writing all over them.

Even though the classes are hard and being called on in class can be intimidating, I'm loving this. The logical process of finding a rule, and applying it is exactly how my brain works. I'm figuring out what the different professors are looking for and am getting faster at briefing the cases. I know that I've only survived the first week, but I'm actually really enjoying law school. Go figure.

Along with figuring out my classes, I'm figuring out how to handle my apartment. I've been cooking a little bit, and I've been pretty proud of the results. I'm planning on cooking a bunch tomorrow in preparation for the week, because I really have no desire to make an actual meal between my study sessions. Here are some examples of my great culinary creations:

Rice and chicken with soy sauce. Yes, it's simple, and yes, it's in a giant mug, but it was satisfying when I finally got around to each at 10:30 p.m.

I've decided to call these pancake puffs; they're just pancake batter baked in a muffin tin, but they reheat really well.

Life is good. :)

And so it begins...

It's official. I have officially started what will be three long years of death: law school.

In case you didn't know, I am attending University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, and despite being slightly nervous as to what I've gotten myself into, I'm actually very excited to start this next chapter in my life.

At this point, I'm about a week in.
Last Saturday, my mom and I left Phoenix and started our two day drive. Most of it was uneventful. There were some interesting points.
I had never seen Joshua Trees before, and I was really interested in them. Enter the blonde moment: I didn't realize that they actually had bark, and that was really exciting for me.

It's a little blurry because I may or may not have been driving at the time. Leaning towards the may.

I got a new mouth guard for my water bottle, and he's happy to see you!

We spent the night in Bakersfield, then drove the rest of the way up on Sunday. We stayed in a hotel Sunday night, and I moved into my apartment on Monday!

The rest of the week was orientation.
My favorite part was the Dean's Welcome and Oath of Professionalism Ceremony. All of our professors, were welcomed by all of the staff, and took the oath.
It was explained to us that by taking that oath, we became part of the legal community. We have the reputation and credibility of the profession resting on our shoulders.
The dean also explained that as we begin our law school career, we are going the conversation that is the legal community. There's a constant exchange of ideas that we may not understand now, but we will.
It made me excited to start and to be a part of this school.