It's over and done with!

[Thanks to Braam for the totally appropriate pointer.]

The hardest part

It's so goddamn boring.

In other news:
(1) I like snacks.
(2) A federal judge just gave AZ a well-deserved smackdown for denying gay couples state employee health benefits. Fuck you, Jan Brewer.
(3) AscenDance has a great chance of winning America's Got Talent.
(4) If I were at all unsure before about the dangers of sitting in front of a computer day-in and day-out, my current unfortunate back and shoulder pain has me convinced. Really, it's probably healthier to be a construction worker than a lawyer at this point.
(5) Would it be a waste at this point to just go be a personal shopper/life coach? That sounds like fun.

Bar lecture quote of the day

"The rules might not necessarily make any sense here. But at least they are really clear."

Working Lunch

Studying for the bar exam is not a creative enterprise. My entire mental world has been reduced to: Read this. Hear this. Memorize this. Write this. And, my favorite, Fill In This Little Circle With A No. 2 Pencil. If there was ever a less creative activity invented than filling in a circle of prescribed and uniform width with a prescribed and uniform writing instrument, I cannot think of it.

But, well, a girl's gotta eat. So my creative outlet has largely become: Making Delicious Things To Eat. (Most of them are delicious, anyway.) This week, for example, I picked up some Chinese eggplant, a vegetable I'd never cooked with before.* I softened the crap out of it in a pan with olive oil and garlic--which requires more oil than I like to think about--then scooped them out onto paper towels and threw some green beans into the pan to heat through. I served it (yes, we serve in this house, even in a meal for one) with some brown rice from the freezer and a homemade Thai chili sauce. That was the easy part: throw some Sriracha, fish sauce, and lime juice in a little bowl, and voila! Salty spicy sour goodness. Leftovers for lunch today made Corporations go down easier.**

*Is it a fruit if it has seeds on the inside?
**Admit I considered making a poison pill joke here. But. Ahem. NO.

Random thoughts: community property lecture

1. This woman talks like a character on Daria. It's the intonation. And the way she pronounces her S's. And the little giggle-tremor that occasionally creeps in. See here at 1:45, Principal Lee. Oh, yeah. Dead ringer.

2. Community property makes me want to watch Under the Tuscan Sun! Do you think I could get away with calling that "studying"?

Rules of Bar-ville

1. At least one bout of exercise/physical activity every week.
2. No TV unless (a) it's Wimbledon or other sporting events, (b) on a meal break, or (c) after work is done for the day.
3. Cook meals. Eating out is for fun only, not for convenience.
4. If sweets are desired, they must be made at home and cannot be purchased.
5. No pajamas are to be worn outside the house.
6. Hourly lecture breaks must be taken away from the computer screen.
7. Must step outside--even if just on the balcony--every day.
8. Baking is encouraged.
9. Prizes may be awarded for good performance.
10. Limited to one episode of The Wire each day.
11. Read fiction before sleep each night.

[Added 6/30] 12. Do push-ups to guard against wrist pain. (I swear, it works.)

Do any of you have self-imposed rules you want to share? Things that make your life better? I'm firmly convinced the misery of bar studying can be mitigated with good life practices. Do you disagree?

My life

I've been camped out in my house this week catching up (slowly) on bar studying. My life has become, shall we say, streamlined. Welcome.


1. Work.

Lecture, notes, lucky stones, earphones, sweater, raspberries.


2. Play.

Remote, flowers, home-cooked meal, postbar trip planning.


3. Sleep.

Comfy comfy comfy bed.

A quick breath

So I graduated. I can has J.D.? Indeed, it's on my desk, holding up the 2010 class photo and sitting on the 40 forms I need to mail in, like, yesterday.

Family was in town, things were predictably insane, and one lovely residual from the weekend--my best friend of 16 years (or is it 17?)--is still in town until late Sunday night. I'm trying to cram in as much bar studying as I can in between trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Muir Woods, the Russian River, and In & Out Burger. It's not much. I am so behind. Next week is going to, like. blow.

xoxo,
Gossip Girlsai

I am looking forward to this...

"A rancher, being owner in fee simple of a ranch, conveyed the property by warranty deed to a woman. The woman gave her niece a mortgage on the ranch to secure a loan from the niece to the woman in the amount of $500,000. The mortgage was recorded immediately. Two years later, the woman conveyed the ranch to a farmer by quitclaim deed. The woman then defaulted on the mortgage, and the niece brought an in personam action against the farmer to recover the amount of the mortgage due. Assume the woman's quitclaim deed to the farmer made no reference to the mortgage. The mortgagee will probably: [(A), (B), (C), (D).]"

...NOT.