This crazy month called November.

November's been a good month. Crazy, but so good.

At the beginning of the month, I took the MPRE. Then jumped in the car with this awesome guy N and drove to Berkeley for the Cal-UA game. After spending way too long looking for parking and walking to the stadium, we finally made it and watched Arizona bear down to a win! 

Our seats were pretty awesome.

The next Thursday, I did my full day trial for my trial advocacy class. It was an amazing learning experience. I was on the prosecution, so it was a good experience to see things from "the other side." It was fun to do the trial. It's got all of the public speaking and the strategic wording and the spontaneity that I think is a good time. We lost, but it there was reasonable doubt up and down our case file, so it was comforting that the jurors, who were community members, were able to see that and come to the right verdict. We also got to watch the jury deliberate, and it's interesting to see what parts of your case that they latch onto and which parts they ignore. Spoiler alert: they don't always pay attention to the information that you want, and pick up on lots of things that you didn't even mention.

Two days later, I took my first final. Gag. And turned in a big paper that Wednesday after that. And then did an oral argument a week later.

But then, I WAS FREE!!

To do things like go to Apple Hill. Or do some mini golfing with N. 

So November, thanks for kicking my butt, and being a blast.

Holy semester.

This semester has been... interesting.

Why interesting you ask? Here's why:
Life was busy. Between school, part time job, externship, and generally wanting to have time for myself, life was busy.
It's all been great though. School has been school. I was stressed, as to be expected, but not in the panic-filled manner that I was last year. The old, tired saying that the second year of law school will work you to death is absolutely true. I'm no longer afraid of being called on in classes, and I know that all of the work will get done, there's just a lot of it.

The part-time job is beautiful. Most of the time it's just holding office hours and doing my homework, which is much appreciated.

My externship at the public defender's office is still amazing. I love the office, love the work, love the clients. It can be kind of crazy and a little trying at times, but I love being able to go there and work with real people on their real problems. It makes me excited for the future.

I'm still running the half-marathon in January (eight weeks! Ahhh!). I've taken LOTS of breaks throughout the semester, whether it be because it was dark when I wanted to run, or my bed wouldn't let me leave, or my knee was being stupid. I'm up to eight miles, and while it sucks for the first three or so, the last five rock. I'm excited to finally do it!

And that's been the last three months. All I have left is two, count them two, finals this year. So much better than five. I go home for Thanksgiving tomorrow, come back in a week, take my finals over the next two weeks after that, and then I'm done! Play time for two weeks!!

Can you tell I'm excited?

First week back.

As of now, I've completed my first week of classes.

Honestly, I feels like I never left. I know I had this whole summer of adventures and working, but when I sat down in my awkwardly linked chair and pulled out my highlighter and my pens and starting taking notes on what the professor said and was preparing myself with something semi-intelligent to say in case I got called on, it all came back.

Another reason it feels like I've been in class this whole time: this is the first time that I've started school without a so-called "syllabus week." You know, that first week of school when the teacher or professor goes over how the class is going to run, lets you out early because you haven't had homework yet, and an overall joke of a week.
Law school doesn't believe in syllabus week.
We have first assignments. So day one of class is a full class, because you already have had homework that needs to be discussed. I'm telling you, we never really left.

I do have to say I'm pretty excited about my classes this year. We're not stuck in sections anymore, so I get to see different people and go to different rooms. For some reason, the tone of the classes is very different. It could be that I'm not scared to be wrong, but the discussion is much more open, the professors are more engaging, and it's much more of a discussion than a lecture. But then again, this is just week one. I could be singing a completely different tune in a few weeks.

The subjects are interesting as well.
Constitutional law is going to be a beast, but it's got to be done.
I'm doing a program that integrates evidence and trial advocacy. It's also going a TON of work, but I'm stoked for it. The professors are engaging and interesting. I love that I can apply what I'm learning in evidence to the exercises I'm doing in trial ad. Plus, trial ad. is fun.
Professional responsibility is all about what lawyers can and cannot do, but it's done through discussing what you would do if you were the lawyer in the case. The "what would you do" discussion is really interesting.

I'm continuing at the public defender's office through the year. I also picked up a part-time job on campus. 

It's going to be a busy semester, but I built it that way. Last year, I wasn't as involved, and I felt like I had too much down time. I'm excited to have a schedule. I'm excited to be working with new people. I'm excites about the things im going to be working on. I'm just pretty stoked on this year. 

Moving stinks, and other things in the past two weeks.

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Sometimes more of a tornado. But things can only go up from here!

Last week, C and I got the keys to our new apartment on Tuesday, and I had to be out of my old apartment by Friday. It was also my last week full-time at the PD's office. As such, I was refusing to take a full day off to move. So, I planned to pack all weekend to the sound of Netflix or love of my life Spotify, move everything out Tuesday and Wednesday, clean Thursday and be done in plenty of time to sleep a normal amount on all nights.

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Now, moving is never fun. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever. Throwing all of your things into boxes, hauling those boxes to a different place, and then taking all of those things out of those boxes sucks. There's no way around it; no way to make it fun.
Our school's network was down starting the Saturday I planned to start packing. So that meant no interwebs. Which meant a sad and Netflix-less Manda. And not laundry machines. Which meant an angry and frustrated Manda moved dirty laundry.
I have WAY more stuff than I imagined. I lived in a two bedroom apartment by myself, and it was apparently my mission to fill it all. That meant that I moved a few hours Tuesday, a few hours Wednesday, then six hours Thursday. Add two hours of cleaning to Thursday, and it's two a.m. C's boyfriend was awesome and left me an air mattress; I blew it up, flopped down and passed out. Up at five a.m. to unload everything then off to work!

I was out of my apartment on time, so it all worked out.

Peace out, Oak Park. 

This week has been setting up the apartment and helping with 1L orientation at the school.
I bought an antique bed frame that I'm absolutely in love with on Craigslist. I now have a mattress, and I love it even more.

It's been kind of strange not being at the PD's office. I know my email is going to be overflowing, and I miss the assignments. I get to go back the second day of school, but it'll be different to not be there all the time.

Sunday, C, C, and I went to the Sacramento Antique Fair. That was a fun trip. Some of the stuff was what my great-grandfather would have called a nickel's worth of God help us, but some of it was gorgeous. There were tons of trunks to drool over. Like, the most beautiful trunks I  have seen in a long time. If only they weren't two or three hundred dollars.
C and C hit the jackpot though. We found a sweet locker (like a full length high school locker that the nerdy kids get stuffed into), a big picture frame for $5 (score!), an end table, an awesome love seat for our patio, and a beautiful blue dresser. It's now sitting beautifully in my closet, full of my clothes.

Isn't she beautiful??

Monday, I started my job in our school's student affairs office. I'm really excited to get started there. It's the first time they've had people in the positions held by myself and my cohorts, so we're getting to put the procedures in place and start things the way we want to. It's also fun to know everything that's going on at our campus, get to know the student leaders and the administrators, and be able to aid student life in general.

Tuesday, I volunteered in a scavenger hunt for the 1Ls. We got awesome neon orange shirts. My job was to sit at a coffee shop for four hours and tell people they could have free coffee. My life was hard.

Wednesday, I volunteered with registration. I loved meeting all the first years and sending them on their way.

Today, I recruited for my clubs. I had spiels that I could rattle off without thought. Thank you, sorority recruitment. I guess you weren't completely terrible.

Tomorrow, I get to start first assignments. Helloooooo 120 pages of trial advocacy and a bunch of constitutional law. Out of the frying pan we go.

I'm running a half marathon.

It's official.

B convinced me to do a half marathon. I guess I wanted to do it too, but B was kind of the nudge in the right direction. We've always talked about doing one, but never had concrete plans. We decided last January to do one of the Disney ones, because that's just the way we roll.

We have officially signed up for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon at Disneyland on January of 2014.  

That's 26 weeks from now. 

I've been training on and off since January. More off for the past two months. 

But I'm officially back on! I bought a training app, and it's 14 weeks long. The next one I'll do allows you to set the amount of time you have until your marathon, so that I one will fill the final  12 weeks. 

I'm a big fan of the training apps available in my iPhone. I have a half marathon training plan. It's from Zen Labs; I used their 5K app, and I loved it. It all works up gradually, so your conditioning your body to run farther and farther. 

I will say that the first day did kind of kick my butt. I'm definitely sore, but it's all of the soreness I had when I first started running. 

I also have a GPS app that tracks my route. MapMyRun shows you where you ran, at what pace, and what your mile splits were. It's awesome. 

Right now, I'm all amped up about training for this thing. My only goal, really, is to finish. I don't want toy get picked up by the bus for people who go too slow, and I want my pretty Tinker Bell medal. 

I want to move to San Diego.

This post is super delayed, but I think that's the story of my life.

I went down to the beautiful San Diego to visit K for the Fourth.

See, I love the Fourth of July. Back home when I was a kid, it was hot, but we would go to Scout Park and lay out our blankets in the grass to let the mosquitoes eat us while we waited for the fireworks. It meant baby brother and dad were handing out watermelon with the Boy Scouts, so if you waited until the right moment, it was really easy to snag half a watermelon.
I love watermelon.
Then the fireworks would start.
I love fireworks.
Now that I've seen fireworks in other places, ours were never huge. But they were awesome. There's something about small projectiles exploding up in the air in a bunch of different colors while they make a bunch of different noises. The ones that crackle. The ones that whistle. My mom's favorite are the big ones that look like a weeping willow, or the ones that burst twice, sending little lights all over the sky. My dad likes the noisy ones, the ones that you feel deep in your chest and set off all of the car alarms. Oohs, ahhs.
Once I was in college, we didn't want to wait for hours or fight the traffic to get in town. So we would stay out of town, get Baskin Robbins, and watch them from camping chairs on the sidewalk.
It's just an awesome holiday. Everyone's excited, and it's just so much fun.

So, for obvious reasons, I wanted to have a blast for the Fourth. So I took the fifth off, and flew down to San Diego early, early Thursday morning. K was kind enough to host a get together at her house, so we had hot dogs, and hamburgers, and pool time, and red, white and blue streamers, and country music, and of course, some beer. A bunch of the ADPi girls came, so I got to see B, M, J, C, and another C. It was a blast and a half. We watched the fireworks from a park. It was gorgeous all day. It was amazing.

Friday morning, I went surfing with D, a friend from high school who I haven't seen in YEARS. It was at this point I absolutely decided I need to move to San Diego, or at least somewhere with a beach.
I loved surfing. Loved it.
Even if it didn't love me.
I got beat up. I had three pretty gnarly bruises, one on each thigh and one on my collarbone, from catching fin when I got dumped. And oh, did I get dumped. On my face, sideways, upside down and backwards. I'm pretty sure I swallowed half of the ocean, and the other half went up my nose. I don't even know what happened. I don't know if I learned how to surf, but I sure learned how to protect myself when I fell off. I also forgot to factor in that my daily sunscreen wasn't waterproof, so let's just say I was lobster-esque at the end of the morning.
That's a lie. I did get up a few times, which D said was pretty awesome. So, I'll take his word for it.
It was an amazing morning. D and I ended up just sitting on the surfboards and talking for a while. It was amazingly calm. And just amazing in general.

After surfing, K, B, J, C, and I went to the beach. This was the second point I absolutely decided I need to move to San Diego, or at least somewhere with a beach. This time I put sunscreen on.
I love the beach. And the ocean.
Beach and ocean just work really well with me. I love the water. Always have, always will. I love being able to walk around without shoes on. Or without pants, because pants are lame.

That night we went to In Cahoots, the bar that Toby Keith supposedly wrote the song about. It was a lot of fun. It was weird to try and dance there. They danced more traditionally; I've learned more progressive and modern stuff. Also, line dances are regional, so I'd be ready to jump in on something, and then would do something completely different. I still had a blast. Country bars always put me in a good mood.

Saturday morning, B left, and K had work (she's such a responsible adult.) So B, J, C, and I got breakfast at Coco's, which was magical. Then J, C and I went to the beach, which is forever and always magical. The whole crew went out that night; shenanigans were had by all.

Sunday morning was nice and slow. K and I eventually got up and had breakfast with the whole crew from Saturday night. Then we sat outside and read our books. Which is the point where I decided I need to move to San Diego. It just needs to happen.

That afternoon I got a late lunch/early dinner with D, my friend from my Germany trip. We hung out for a few hours before I had to be at the airport. It was awesome to catch up, attempt to speak some German, and steal some German music from him. ;)

That weekend was just all around amazing. In every way.

So, I want to move.
Not anytime soon, after graduation, maybe.

My Ode to Otter Pops.

You concentrated tube of sugary-ness,

You sweet relic of childhood's summers,

Sugar-high cohort, who canst thus express

How many naps were missed in your favor;

What belov'd friends haunt about the freezer?

Of Louie-Bloo or Short Kook, or of both,

With Poncho or the Little Orphan Orange?
What magic, mythical otters are these? 
What joy they bring? What pleasure to each them?
What smiles and grins? What wild ecstasy?

Yes, I totally stole "Ode to a Grecian Urn." And yes, I was bored. And yes, I've been eating a bunch of Otter Pops.
They're an essential ingredient of summer. It has been since I was a kid. My uncle would come up to the cabin, and he always made sure we had some Otter Pops in the freezer. He also made sure we got an extra one when our parents weren't looking.
Now, I have to have Otter Pops every summer. I had them in high school. I gave them out during recruitment; that made me a little more popular during those dreadful days. I bought them as soon as they were out in the grocery store this year. C and I killed a box during finals.

Otter pops are simply perfect.
Except for the orange and green ones. Those are gross.

To leave you with some of the Ode's original content, this is my favorite Keats quote.

"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone..."

Learning to be Domestic.

I am not a domestic person. I can only cook basic meals. I hate doing the dishes, folding laundry, and vacuuming. I can sew, but I really prefer to do that with SUPER basic patterns, and then alter them to produce different things.

But I'm learning.

Lunches are easier if you cook for the whole week. Enter a pot of teriyaki chicken and rice.
Laundry is an all-day project, between walking to a different building to go switch it after a half hour (this is a location specific problem, I guess) and folding it all, so you might as well get ready to watch a few movies. It doesn't help that much, but maybe a little.
And sometimes, you've just gotta dance through the dishes.
I've started turning on my Spotify, putting my computer on the counter, then start the dishes. The floor can get a little sudsy as I bounce and wiggle my way through, but hey, it had to get cleaned too, right? At least I don't dread doing them after work anymore.

My current music crush is Chris Young. So catchy, so precious, so much fun.

Enjoy!

Exciting things this week.

I am officially a morning person!

It's hard for me to sleep past seven a.m. SEVEN A.M. I used to sleep until noon. 

Even better, I got up at 5:15 a.m. on Friday, pulled my butt out of bed, and went on a run. I was out the door by 5:20 a.m.! I felt so successful.

We'll see if that happens again next week. (It didn't)

The sun coming up at the end of my run last week.

I made this laptop case. I have to tell you, I'm pretty proud of myself. It was based loosely on this tutorial. I did a bunch of stuff differently. I padded it: sewing batting to plain white cotton fabric. I altered the dimensions: I did the measurements like they suggested, and it looked massive. Now that it's done, I was right in cutting down the width, but I could have left the length. I have a different closure: I have a button instead of the strip. I used different materials: I found that awesome red vinyl on sale. I wanted something durable, and something that I could clean off easily if it does get dirty.

I'm absolutely in love with the red. And the teal. And the button. I really love the button.

My mom was a little concerned that my machine wouldn't be able to handle it. A completely valid concern; it's kind of old. It took a little while to get going when we were having to stitch through four layers of vinyl, but once we got going, she did just fine. 

In line with my sewing skills, I have officially begun a fabric stash. You have to understand that my mom is a magician when it comes to sewing. That means that she's collected fabric for forever. There's a whole wall of it in her sewing room. Her collecting meant that there was always a "stash" that we could all go to when we needed random fabric. Mine is no where near what my mom's is, and it doesn't necessarily have all of those basics that you might use at any given time, but there's some pretty great stuff in there. Most of it has been bought on sale, as a remnant, or with the help of coupons. 

The only question now is where I'm going to put it when I move...

Everyone I know has been complaining about how hot it is. I haven't agreed with them; it's about 10 degrees hotter back home, and I haven't turned on my A/C yet. So it's not hot. 

Today has made me think they might be right.

It's still 10 degrees hotter back home, but we had rain roll through four or five days ago. The moisture hasn't completely left yet.

Humidity is gross. My hair doesn't like it. I'm sticky. I don't like it.

A/C... coming soon to an apartment near me.
Or not. Apparently, the A/C/ doesn't think that the apartment temperature needs to be any lower than 85 degrees. I disagree. It's been so hot that I can't fall asleep early, so I don't wake up early. Sad face.

Check out my knock-off sausage McMuffins! They're awesome! I actually eat breakfast with this, instead of a waffle with some jam, so that's great.

This week has been short. I leave for San Diego on Thursday to meet up with a bunch of my Arizona girls! I'M SO EXCITED. San Diego isn't going to know what hit it.

My thoughts on business casual.

Now that I've started interning, I've had to go back to wearing business casual clothing during the days. Next year, I'll have to wear a suit, but I'm not cool enough (read: not certified) to represent clients yet, so I don't have to yet.

So every morning, I put on my dress/dress pants/some kind of sweater/skirt and flats (because my ankle is stupid and still won't let me wear heels) and roll out the door. Being out of an office for awhile, I forgot how much I love and absolutely hate business casual.

In some ways, it's awful. Our office is the arctic, and the clothes are never warm enough. For some reason, business casual is expensive. Because of this, I only have so much of it. Which means I end up wearing the same things every week. I could potentially make some of my other clothes work, but I'd rather not show up in something inappropriate, too short, or too low cut. Call me modest. Some of it needs to be dry cleaned. And zipping my own zippers can be kind of interesting some times.

In other ways, I love it. It feels awesome to dress up in some semi-professional manner. It makes me feel like I'm actually being productive. Or like I'm an actual adult that has work clothes. And I'm not going to lie, some of it makes me feel like I am lookin' goooood.

Right now, I'll keep wearing my great dress/skirt/cardigan/dress pants/flats combos. But let me tell you, I am so looking forward to rocking a power suit.

My Friend is Married.

That's a weird statement to say. I don't feel old enough to be having friends get married.

Last weekend (like a week and a half ago last weekend. I started this post a long time ago), I went home to go to A's wedding. A and I have known each other since kindergarten. (I always want to spell it kindergarden, because that's what a Garten is in German.) That's almost 19 years ago. That's NINETEEN years ago. Our friendship has reached the legal age of majority.

The ceremony was beautiful, and A looked gorgeous in her gown. I didn't cry during the wedding until A went to go hug her mom and dad, and her older sister H turned around, with tears running down her face. At which point I lost it. The reception was a fun party, and we line danced up a storm. 

Congrats A and T!

Afterwards, we went to Roman's Oasis. M and B were amazing and made the long journey across the valley. We matched, until I changed. I've been very reluctant to go to Roman's as a ton of people from high school tend to go there. I was pleasantly surprised. There were only a few people I knew there, and I liked them all. (Which is saying something about people from high school.) I got swing and line dance and spin and get picked up and wear my boots and it was a blast. Definitely going to be going back there again.

Sunday, I had to fly back to Sac, but the weekend trip was a nice little escape into the oven that is Phoenix. It was awesome to be home and visit with friends. 

My experiences as a Finals Zombie.

Now that I am almost four weeks out of finals, I can fully reflect on my experiences.

Finals was not a pretty time in my life.
For the span of three weeks, all I did was study. The sprained ankle prevented me from working out, and I had so much information to make sure I remembered, there really wasn't time for much else. Sleep was an afterthought; I slept when I could, which sometimes meant a 45 minute nap during the break before an exam. I went from drinking one cup of coffee a day, in the morning to four cups, two in the morning, two around 5ish p.m., with possibly a Coke at 9ish p.m. Some days I said screw it and drank a Monster with breakfast. I really didn't care if I was radioactive, only that I was awake.
Because I'm not hungry when I stressed, I ate way less than normal, and allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted because, hey, at least I was eating, right? That meant that there were definitely a couple of lunches that were 4 Otter Pops with whatever caffeine.
Overall, I was not a pleasant person to be around during finals. And I thoroughly apologize to those around me. And thank you for being my friend. :)

However, I can honestly say that, even though this was probably one of the most demanding, this year was probably one of the best years I've ever had. I moved to a new city, and I've fallen in love with it. Sacramento is a great place to live. I had a ton of work to do, but I was genuinely interested in most of it. Classes could be nap-inducing boring, but they also were very interesting and full of some great discussion. I've made amazing friends. I kept a plant alive for the whole year! I can honestly say I love law school.

Since finals ended, I have been just as active as I was during finals. All I did the first week off was sleep. And it was glorious. My body retaliated against everything awful I did to it by getting sick. So I spent three or fours dealing with feeling awful, and still have this awesome cough. I cleaned by apartment, which had been neglected. I've done some crafting, I've done some cooking, I've done some reading that isn't a law book. It's been an amazing break.

BUT I can't seem to sit still. Thankfully, I started working at the Yolo County Public Defender's Office. I've just done some basic transcriptions, and we've started our intern training. I'll be writing motions under the supervision of attorneys and doing client interview. Overall, I'm really excited about it.

The squirrels are wayyy to confident on campus. This one tried to join our study group.

Post torts celebratory Gunther's.

1 a.m. and too much studying.

I made this for each of the classes. My walls were stressful and awesome at the same time.

I MADE BREAD I MADE BREAD

The pretty floor pillow I made after finals were over. After I was done sitting on the floor all day long.

How to Survive Finals: Manda Style

1. Find your study space.
I found the most amazing hidden table in the library. It's back in the stacks, and my many people walk by it. It's just me and my study materials, so I have no reason not to be productive. I just have to get there early enough to claim it from people who want to displace me.
I've also coveted my walls with summary charts, so my apartment has become more helpful as well.

2. Build a study schedule.
I have the material for each class divided up and scheduled so I review it twice in a week. Add practice tests and multiple choice questions, and there's my whole day.

3. Find a good study partner.
C and I have been studying together. When I'm confused, she gets it, or we can figure it out together. There's someone to keep you accountable.
In the flip side, we prevent each other from studying too hard. Like today. We got out of an exam review, so we had obviously been thinking really hard, so it was time for some Costco hot dogs. Which were magical and made life much happier.

4. Find a good caffeinated drink.
Finals means long days and nights with not a whole lot of sleep. I found an iced coffee recipe that had been life-changing for the two days I've used it.

5. Watch where you're walking.
You don't want to, you know, miss the last couple stairs in your apartment and sprain your ankle. Like I may or may not have done on Monday. It wasn't bad, and I'm thankfully not seriously injured or suffering from a broken ankle. It's just enough to be an inconvenience: no working out for three weeks, I have to go down stairs sideways and one. at. a. time.

6. Find the spider that just crawled across the window sill.
If you don't do it, you won't be able to sleep. I'm currently suffering from this dilemma, trying to weight pros of sleeping in the middle of the bed with a demon bug on the loose against the cons of trying to move my mattress and box spring off it's frame with a sprained ankle. Obviously, this analysis is going well.

Sweet April

Hallo! Wie geht's?

The past two weeks have been a blasty pants up in this place.

We got this spell of awesomely warm weather, so that meant studying outside. 

Say hello to my tree friend.

I convinced E to do the Running of the Elk with me. I ran a personal best, cutting almost five minutes off of my time! I was pretty proud of myself, even though I got beat by an 8-year-old little girl.
They also gave us pancakes, and super awesome medals.

Pancakes!

We did it!

Sweet medals.

E eating Susie the Pancake.

I resorted to one of my oldest culinary signature dishes: cereal in a cup. 

I know, you're jealous of my prowess.

Our student government hosted a barbecue out on the quad. With the awesome weather, free food, and some snow cones, it made for a really awesome lunch period. 

My pretty new snow cone v. C's almost gone snow cone.

Friday, a bunch of us went to Happy Hour, then to a rugby gathering. Happy Hour was awesome. It's so different to go places where there are groups of non-law school people. I missed Country Thunder this year, but hanging out with some rugby alumni made up for it. A little bit.

Sunday, I volunteered at a campus family day. My club was in charge of face painting, temporary tattoos, and arts and crafts. More free food, more snow cones. With the addition of a slight sunburn. And this sweet tatt.

So hardcore.

We had kids that kept running back to us to get more body art. Some of them had now more space on their arms and faces by the time the day was over.

Now, I've been chilling in the library, outlining and trying to prep for finals. Wish me luck!

I leave you with my current studying jam.

Tschüß!!

Oh heyyyy.

I'm alive!
I know you may think I died, based on my lack of posts, but I am in fact still living. Second semester of law school is kicking my butt, however.

Soooo.... Some highlights from this semester.

I competed in the 1L Mock Trial Competition. Over 80 people competed in the first round, and I was one of 24 to be selected for finals. It was a lot of fun to get back into a public-speaking/performance competition.

I GOT A JOB!
I accepted an intern position with the Yolo County Public Defender's Office. I'm so excited! I'll be working with public defenders and writing motions on their cases, then watching the attorneys argue my motions in court. The position will continue into my 2L year, which is even more exciting.
Also, I get to say YOLO on a regular basis. Bonus!

Now onto this fabulous week.

Monday, one of my classes was cancelled. It was a nice way to eaaaase back into classes after Spring Break.

Tuesday, I was elected Vice Justice of Phi Alpha Delta. I'm really excited to be involved in an organization again.

Wednesday was boring. C convinced me to go to a TRX class at her gym. It was very hard and I think I almost died. I was sure I died when I couldn't move two days later because my WHOLE BODY was in extreme pain. I'm happy to report that I have since recovered.

Thursday, we went to Firestone to watch Arizona play in the Sweet Sixteen. That meant life-altering nachos and Pretzel Jenga. It was a great game, but a heart-breaking loss. The Cats fought hard, and even controlled the first half, but there was no way for us to respond to Ohio St.'s three point shot with two seconds left in the game. But I still love my Cats and our team is going to be awesome in the next few years.

Friday, C and I went to San Jose for the weekend. The drive is pretty, with hills and flowers and things we don't have in Arizona's flat desert.

Saturday, we went hiking at Quicksilver Park. Talk about hills! Lots and lots of green hills. With lots and lots of flowers. C's brother pointed out poison oak, and C tried to trick me into committing a crime by telling me to pick a golden poppy. Apparently, California values its state flower so much that they made it a crime for someone to pick them.
C and I tried to dye Easter eggs. We remember it being a lot easier when we were kids. I'm not sure if it because expectations were lower then, or if we were just so excited to be dyeing eggs that we didn't care how they looked.

That night C and I went to the Sharks-Coyotes game. It was a lot if fun, even if we lost. It came down to a shootout, and our goalie missed the first goal. I was okay with how we played, considering San Jose got one goal on a power play and the other in a shoot out, while we got both of ours' in the course of normal play. I also tend to be facetious when defending my sports teams.

Today, C's family had an Easter brunch which I was lucky enough to be adopted for. We had French toast on challah bread, muffins, corned beef hash, and lots of yummy stuff.


Also, I'm determined to be a runner. Why, I don't know, but this is what I get to see on my walk. Happy Spring y'all!

Week One Complete.

Well, I made it through my first week back. I haven't gotten fully back into the swing of things, and the motivation is still a little lacking, but I'm starting to find my rhythm again.

Last weekend I was good and made food for the week.
After last Sunday, I've decided I need to avoid attempting to fry things. Popping oil is really scary. I tried to make these knock-off Chick-fil-a nuggets. I love these nuggets, but they definitely do it better. I really liked the breading from this recipe. However, I didn't know how hot to make the oil, and, as I'm deathly afraid of under-cooking chicken and making myself or someone else sick, I left the chicken pieces in WAY too long, making them kind of tough. Oh, well. They worked on top of salad with some ranch.

The other thing I made was Italian pasta salad. It was SUPER easy, and the portion was perfect for feeding me for a few days. I don't normally like tomatoes, but I made myself include them; it was nice to use ingredients that I normally wouldn't. C tried some too, and she approved.

I had my first Criminal Law class on Tuesday. The professor wasn't in class, but he had prerecorded a video of the lecture he was going to give. So it was all of us sitting in our desks, and him sitting at the desk in his office. It worked, and we got the information we needed, but it was a little strange. I'm interested to see how the class actually goes when the professor gets back.

On Thursday night, C and I went to a food truck round-up. 
SactoMoFo (Sactown Mobile Food. I know, it's concerning) puts on food truck round-ups around the city and in the surrounding area. We had been to a previous event, and had a great time, so we've been watching for another one ever since.

Because we knew that there would be good food and it would be worth it, we drove out to Roseville. We ended up getting a cup of hot chocolate, a corn dog, burgers, and a waffle. While that sounds like one giant mess, it was delicious.

Corn dogs are just awesome, and this one was no different.
It was freezing, neither C or I thought about bundling up, so hot chocolate became a necessity.
Krave Burger is uh-may-zing. The hamburger patties are Angus beef and delicious by themselves. But then they put amazing things on them. I got Da Philly burger: it had mushrooms and sauce and delicious stuff I can't remember. C got a Cowboy burger: friend onions, barbecue sauce and other delicious stuff I can't remember. They come in "packs," so we got two burgers for $6. Yum.

Waffles are always necessary. This vendor makes waffles, then puts strawberries, whipped cream, and Nutella on them. That's all, and it's awesome.

Thursday was a sad day for Arizona basketball; they lost for the first time this season. I didn't have TV access, so I kept refreshing my Sports Center app. It was kind of pathetic.

Friday night a bunch of us went to see Zero Dark Thirty. If you want to see it, I'm sorry if I ruin the ending; there's a huge plot twist: Bin Laden dies. Overall, a good movie. While I'm aware that there is no way this is the whole story, I'm surprised that they released a movie with so much detail so soon after this all happened, especially considering how inside the government organizations the movie seemed to be. Also, I was kind of frustrated with the ending. This awesome agent is amazing and instrumental to the effort to bring down Bin Laden, the quest and driving idea behind the whole plot. She finally succeeds, but they don't show her celebrating. No, they show her alone on a plane crying, seeming to mourn that she has nothing else in her life. While I understand that she probably did have those feelings, the implication of devoting herself to finding Bin Laden was thrown in at the end, when it hadn't been discussed before that moment. The ending seemed disjointed to me. However, Jessica Chastain won a Golden for her performance, so that's testament to how awesome she was.


Saturday and Sunday were lazy days. I hung out, read, and watched some movies. I watched the Golden Globes Sunday night. Missing undergrad is happening less, but watching award ceremonies was something I did on the Pi Palace couch, usually with about 30 other girls, so I did get a little nostalgic. I was really excited that Brave won for animated picture, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway won for Les Misérables, and Ben Affleck won for Argo, simply because his acknowledgement of Jennifer Garner was adorable.
Now it's Monday. Time to start it all over again.

One exciting note of the morning, I had peppermint hot chocolate in my coffee this morning. It's the little things in life, ya know?

Back in the Saddle Again.

Readin' the books once more.

Totin' my old bookbag.
Where you don't sleep every night.
And the only law is the professor's word.
Back in the saddle again.

So, I might have butchered Gene Autry's song, but it's true. I'm back in Sacramento, settling back into my apartment and a routine. The motivation to study is not there yet, but I'm working on it. Thankfully, I did get SOMETHING done over break, so it's a little less hard.

Winter break was just that: A BREAK. 

Poca Spot looking for Daddy. 

I was able to be home with my parents and the dogs. I've always missed my dogs when I'm away at school, but it was worse this semester. Why, you may ask? My theories: (1) finals were way more stressful for me than they ever have been. This is a different kind of exam: you have to write everything, and even if there is a multiple choice section, you can narrow it down to two answers which could go either way. (2) I live alone. I LOVE having my own space, but it's quiet. Especially during the exam period. I would go out at night to get the mail or take the trash out and realize I had never unlocked my deadbolt from the night before, meaning I had not had any face-to-face interaction that day. It's easy to do when you're focused, have stocked up on food so you don't have to go shopping, and have created a study command center on your kitchen table. (3) Dogs are just adorable, and all of my friends with don't have a dog, or had sent their dogs to their parents house so they didn't have to worry about them during finals. 


I got to drive Mama's new mommobile. She got a Rav4, which she has decided to call Babe the Little Blue Ox, because it's been doing all the work in the family. The best part about Babe is she has this awesome key fob that does everything without leaving the depths of the abyss called my purse. For example, I was using the car to go to work. I would walk up to the driver's door, wrap my hand around the handle, and the door would MAGICALLY unlock. I would throw the purse on the seat next to me, push a button, and it would MAGICALLY start. Also, my iPhone would MAGICALLY sync with the Bluetooth, and my music would MAGICALLY play through the radio. Awesome, right?

It was a great time to be a wildcat this break. The football team played in the New Mexico Bowl and kind of sucked it up for the first half. By the fourth quarter, we were still down, so I kind of wrote us off. THEN we got a touchdown with about a minute left. THEN we recovered the onside kick, and turned it into another touchdown to win. HOLY CRAP. Let's just say there was some screaming and jumping around in our family room that morning. 
That night, Daddy and I drove down to Tucson to watch the basketball boys play Florida. Same situation, we were down, and I had kind of written us off. THEN we came back to win in the last nine seconds. HOLY CRAP. All of McKale was jumping around and screaming. The game made me remember why I love U of A. Everyone was so excited to be there. Also, Tucson has some strange people, like the old guy who wears layers of U of A gear so he can strip down in the middle of the court during halftime. Not only does McKale 
tolerate him, he's encouraged and everyone is more than willing to 
join in on his cheers. So. Much. Fun. 
(Sidenote: the boys are currently 14-0. BEAR DOWN.)

I also got to see Baby Brother. He couldn't get days off work for 
Christmas, so we drove to him. 10 hours in the back seat each way. Let's just say I slept for a good portion of it. We were a little cramped in his one bedroom apartment, but it was so nice to have everyone in one place. We mostly hung out, watched movies, and played some Wii.

Baby Brother in his shop. He's the grubbiest mechanic there.

Mama was a master at Mario Cart.

As I mentioned before, I did get to go into Johnson & Associates and do some work. It was mostly filing, but it was nice to touch something legal that wasn't theoretical and had a right or wrong answer. And the office is just fun to be in.

For New Year's, a bunch of us went to C's house in Tahoe. It was fun because it was law school people, and our other people, i.e., B came with me. I was made fun of the whole drive up because I was so interested in the snow. I have seen snow, but it's always been dirty or iced over. Up there, it's stuck to the trees, creates snow banks, and there was powder everywhere. 

See! It covers the mountains!

The first day there, we just played in the front and back yard in the snow, mainly having snowball fights. I'm not very good at making snowballs.

SNOW ANGEL!

New Year's Eve, we hung out at the house to avoid the cold and the crazies. It wasn't a crazy night; we played games, made fun of the online coverage of the New York ball drop because their correspondents were AWFUL, and had a good time. 

My NYE kiss. Thanks B.

The next day, we went to one of the resorts to hangout for a little bit. We went to the casino, where C gambled for the first time. She won $9 from a slot machine. We ate lunch, then walked around Heavenly for a little bit. I found snow pants I really want; they're pink and $180, so we'll be waiting on those for awhile. That night we watched movies. They put on Fight Club because I had never seen it, but then I fell asleep for the last 10ish minutes, which everyone said was the most important part. Oops. 

The wind blowing around Heavenly was awful. Hence the ninja scarves. 

We came back to Sacramento on the second. I dropped B off at the airport, and since then it's been me trying to get back in a routine. 
Time to get back in the saddle again.