Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Impending Bar Exam

The goddamned bar exam is the only thing I can think about, so it's the perennial subject of this blog and everything else out of my mouth/mind, and will be until it's over.
The thing is the DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and the panic abated for the last week or so, but really? This is terrifying. Because if I don't pass, I have to wait another 6 months and pay another $600, and in the meantime I won't get licensed and it will be even harder to find work. Which, as it turns out, isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world right now as it is. Can you read the edge in my voice? Because it's there, with a little shakiness. And still, I'm too burned out to study any more. Which only freaks me out more. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you.
I am, however, looking forward to staying at the Hotel Teatro during the exam. And eating at alto the night between exam days. I've never been to either of the places before, but they look amazing on the websites, and are really close to the Convention Center where the bar exam is to be held. I figured I could pamper myself (and Rex), given that this is probably the most stressful thing I'll ever do. At least until I have (if I have) kids.
I'm off to see if I can't force a few more minutes of mnemonic device learning into my head. PATERNITY, KIDBARF, CAMPingMAP, ALIE, SID to the REC, HEDDEC, HOACS, RVCABLEFAILS, this sucks ass. And I only know what a few of those even stand for.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Study Breaking

I could pretend it's been a quick study break....
natalie dee
nataliedee.com

Friday, February 13, 2009

Sharing Time

Rex Invictus. He made it up, not me. Creativity in lieu of bar exam studying = good stuff.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Why he's my favorite

Rex just sent me this message:
Люблю тебя всем сердцем, всей душою
It means "I love you with all my heart, with all my soul" in Russian (is that correct, miss grace?). You see, everyone thinks he's Russian, even though he's really from Texas. So it's cute. At least, I think so.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

25 Things, because everyone is doing it.

1. I finally live in a grown-up house. I still rent, but it's a house, with a dishwasher.
2. I am getting married in September. I'm very excited.
3. My little sister is my BEST friend in the whole world. And she turns 21 next week.
4. My college roommate/best friend in college didn't speak to me for about 2 years. I still had dreams about her every few nights. We're speaking again, which makes me happy.
5. I really really don't like bananas. Or anything that smells like them. Yuck.
6. I used to have a gremlin in my tummy. It's back, because of the bar exam.
7. I knit, and crochet. Occasionally.
8. My sister was 2 and a half months premature. She weighed less than two pounds, and almost didn't survive. You'd never know it today (Are all of these supposed to be about me?)
9. I prefer my water "con gas," with bubbles.
10. I tap dance. I've been doing it since I was four, and have performed with my mom and my sister.
11. I had laser eye surgery at the end of 2007. I was almost legally blind at that point. Now I see 20/20.
12. I'm a little OCD. For the first two years of law school, I could use ONLY pink highlighters. Otherwise I kind of freaked.
13. Sleeping is my favorite thing to do. I love naps.
14. I'm taking the Colorado bar exam in just over two weeks. My hands shake whenever I think about how soon that is.
15. I have a law degree, and make $10/hour. I thought I'd make more at this point.
16. My parents are still married. Happily.
17. My favorite color is green. My eyes are green.
18. I really like to stay in hotels, even cheap motels. As long as they aren't too too seedy.
19. I drink champagne regularly. It's not reserved for special occasions in my world.
20. I'm left handed.
21. I hated cats until the day I got one. I'm not sure how I bridged that gap, but now I have two and they are my family.
22. My car is named Harvey. He is 13, but you'd never know it. Except that I just told you, so now you know.
23. I used to freak out about getting older (which included a tantrum on every birthday). That stopped ever since I met Rex. Now I'm comfortable with getting older (old!).
24. We had a dog named Babs when I was younger. She was a really mellow Golden Retriever. I still miss her.
25. I consider myself to be a very fortunate, lucky person. I have a good life, and try to remember that every day.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Making fun of the misled, again.

High school students in Denver got a pair of Democratic legislators to back a bill that will impose a 6 cent fee on plastic bags at the grocery store (really, the language includes all very large stores), and ultimately require that the bags be phased out by 2012. Half the fee goes towards education on the eventual phase-out. The bill is a good one, though maybe not of the most pressing urgency.

The nay-sayers (conservatives) argue that the bill is bad because then we'll just use more paper bags, which require more resources to produce. Well, that is true about paper bags. It just completely overlooks the point--to get people to use reusable bags. Not paper bags, which also contribute to landfills and litter. High school kids aren't that retarded. Unless they're conservatives too, of course.

If you read the article, you might notice the comment that the bill implicates TABOR. Well, if the author knew the difference between a tax and a fee (knowledge absolutely essential to any discussion regarding TABOR), the article might read differently. TABOR specifically allows fees without a consent vote, and a fee is a flat "tax" (it cannot be based on income, for example) that goes to pay for a specific service. The 6 cents per bag is a flat fee (it doesn't depend on how much you spend on groceries, for example--that would make it a tax), and the bill designates precisely what the revenue is to be spent on--the service of educating the public about the bag phase-out. Looks like a fee to me.

All that aside, my favorite part of the op-ed piece is the comments submitted by readers. Naturally, they take the form of debate between those who support the bill, mostly liberals, and those opposed, mostly conservatives. My favorite comment is this one:

I refuse to recycle.
I flush the toilet multiple times.
I use plastic bags and throw them in the garbage.
I drive a car and only worry about emissions at inspection time.
I put used kitty litter in the trash.
I use paper towels.
I use old incandescent bulbs.
I intentionally try to put as much carbon back into the environment that I can.
I refuse to yeild the road I pay taxes to keep up to bicycles.
I run the washing machine with just a few items in it.

I take pride in being a contrarian disestablishmentarain who "fights the environmentalist whacko establishment" any time I can, in my own little way. Mankind, even if totally focused on doing so, CANNOT destroy the planet, nor its environment.

That last sentence is especially my favorite. I'll bet this guy is a big supporter of the Heartland Institute.