Friday, October 14, 2011

Post #401

I passed the bar! I'm going to be an attorney, it turns out! An immigration attorney, I might add. :)t

Sunday, August 7, 2011

back to firsts

I'm done with the lasts.... last class, last exam, last time I ever take the bar (hopefully)...

It's time for the firsts... as in, first day of work. Tomorrow I meet the Gang at the brand new office (literally...it's brand new). I'm very excited to get started on this adventure, but I just really, really hope that I'm going to impress everyone with my mad legal skillz, and not be a rusty old let-down. I'm sure it's fine, and I'm sooo over being self-depracating, but law school the bar exam has done a number on my self-confidence. So.

I'm off now to plan my first day of work outfit, and get a good night's rest!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Professional responsibility

I hope I have it. Because tomorrow morning, a mere 10 days after completing the dreaded, seizure-inducing-to-think-about bar exam, I am taking its much tamer, annoying little cousin: the MPRE. Yep. I was that person our Dean warned us not to be, the one that ignored emails and forgot deadlines and has thus been required to study for the week after the bar, while all my friends are off celebrating.

Ok, so I haven't been studying all week. But I have been studying all most of the day, yesterday and today, so that I feel somewhat more confident about knocking out this little portion of the wall that stands between me and my professional career.

So to recap:
Last Wednesday = last day of the bar
Friday = MPRE
Monday = starting new job

Yikes! Luckily, September 11 = week at the beach. I can not wait.

Monday, August 1, 2011

new haircut new job new chapter

yeap. i finished the bar, for the first time ever, and hopefully the last. and a week from now, i'll be starting my new job as a law clerk for a small immigration group that i shall call The Gang henceforth, for lack of a better descriptor and for anonymity's sake. if i pass the bar, i am anticipating being a young associate attorney, but that's for chillier days of late fall. for now, i plan to walk to the office and do my time as a good little legal researcher and client handler and so on and so forth. i consider myself extremely, incredibly, horrendously lucky to have found a job, all thing considered. and to be able to work in my field, in the kind of small office environment i was hoping for, and to be able to maintain my car-free lifestyle? all blessings that i thank God for. because i sure didn't do anything to deserve them. but i'll do my best to use my blessings for good things, and to remain grateful.

these are exciting times, in so many ways, on the home-front. because of bar stress and all that, i've not updated on the housing / apartment hunt situation. but we are hoping to have a sweet new place in the same neighborhood sometime within the next two months. we managed to negotiate a fair deal with our landlords of the past 3 years, in which they agreed to let us move out whenever we want, as long as we take the responsibility of finding a new tenant that they approve of. so we're not bound for another year at this point, and they don't have to worry about us ditching them in the dead of winter with no prospects for a new tenant. with the new job, the new paycheck, the new apartment (hopefully. soon), the new lease on life, and the new haircut for the first time in OVER A YEAR, i'm feeling nervous and excited at once. things are heating up around here, i'm grabbing my saddle and holding on for the ride.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

One day down.

Day #1 down. Essays are over. I bombed the first part of the day. I have a vague recollection of panicking on the first essay and then my memory goes blank until lunch. Second half wasn't as bad. I felt like I knew what I was talking about, understood the call of the question and mostly remembered the rules. It was all about racing the clock on that part.

Tomorrow is the MBE. Tonight, a glass of wine.

Monday, July 25, 2011

the suspense is killing me

But I wasn't finished! I had so much left to do! There's so much left unspoken between me and my bar lecturers. I am fighting SO HARD against the urge to stay up all night cramming. So hard. I want to puke. Gah.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Fear and loathing in a firetrap apartment

It's less than 36 hours until the bar exam. Holy You Know What.

As I told T over dinner tonight, I am alternating between terror and tranquility, feeling petrified and feeling peaceful... afraid...and accepting.

But he doesn't need me to tell him that. He's seen Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde both out in full force over the past weekend. Yesterday, he came home and started trying to fix our broken-in-a-three-digit-heatwave A/C while I was stretched across the floor listening to a lecture on corporate officers for the umpteenth time. "T..." I shouted, as he vacuumed dog fur from the vents, "what you're doing is REALLY ANNOYING!"

"I KNOW!" he called back. "I'm just trying to help, you know."

At which point, I wanted to hurl my giant book of MBE questions at him, but refrained probably out of heat exhaustion rather than actual self-control. Five minutes later, I'm pretty sure we were both asleep. At 6:00 p.m.

Between the heat and the stress, it's been a real bucket of sunshine up in these parts. I just can't wait 'til it's all over. And I pray I won't have to do it again.