Sunday, September 30, 2007

Weekly MILS Roundup #13

Time for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup! Here are the best posts from this week:


The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis here, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at PT-LawMom.

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

Friday, September 28, 2007

First Exam and First Sleepover

I had my first law school exam today. Sure it was pass/fail, but it was still a law school exam. It was a four-hour in-class limited open book (course books and personally prepared notes and outlines only) exam for Legal Methods. There was one traditional hypothetical type question and one policy question. I spent three hours on the hypo and only one hour on the policy question. I couldn't think of much to say on the policy question, although I really should have anticipated the question and prepared an answer ahead of time, but I only had one day to study, so I didn't have time to do everything that I theoretically should have done. I think I passed, so I am not worried about it. We are actually going to get comments back which hopefully will be helpful for refining my exam-taking technique for the real ones in December.

We had the day off yesterday to study. Our nanny also had yesterday and today off, so in the morning I took the little guy out to his grandmother's house yesterday to spend the night -- his first night away from me. He had fun on the train and laughed when we got to our car and he saw his carseat and some old toys of his inside. He must have recognized them even though it's been a couple months since he has seen them. Anyway, there was only about five minutes for the drop off because I had to jump on another train going back into the city. So I quickly showed grandma how to fold the stroller and got the little guy buckled into his carseat and then leapt back up the stairs to the train platform just in time to step on the train.

Back home I worked on my outlines and read and briefed a case our professor distributed to us on Wednesday that he promised would "figure significantly" in the exam. I spent about 8 or 9 hours total preparing for the exam.

I had a leisurely morning this morning, kind of enjoying having the time to myself. Before the little guy was born I used to enjoy having my personal time in the morning, because I get up significantly earlier than hubby. Since the little guy was born however I haven't had that time to myself (or anytime to myself) so it was nice. Not that I don't enjoy our morning time, but most days it is a little more hectic with trying to get everybody fed (pets included), and dressed (pets not included) and get out the door.

So anyway, our exam was scheduled from 10-2, and I was worried about being hungry in the middle, so on the way I bought a breakfast sandwich -- two eggs and sausage on a roll. That did the trick. I wasn't hungry at all until about the last 20 minutes of the exam. But then right after the exam I had to rush downtown to catch the train back to grandma's to pick the little guy up. I ate a luna bar on the way out there and then on the way home I stopped and bought a couple of cheese tamales from a street vendor for a buck each. We got home around 5:45 -- just in time to eat dinner and put the little guy to bed. He was tired because he didn't really take a nap at grandma's, but he was in good spirits. He had fun with grandma -- she had lots of new (to him) toys for him to play with and he got to run around in the yard and go to court and go shopping for wedding dresses (not for him). Although he didn't really nap yesterday either, he apparently went right to sleep last night, which was my biggest fear about him spending the night away. And he went right to sleep tonight too. So everything went well.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Weekly MILS Roundup #12

This week's Moms in Law School Roundup is up at A Little Fish in Law School. Next week it will be back here.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Quick update

This week I was called on for the first time in two classes on the same day. It was Contracts and Civ Pro. I did well in Contracts, but not so well in Civ Pro. Contracts is a small class (only about 35 students) so it is definitely easier to talk in that class. Civ Pro is a large class with stadium-style seating and microphones. It is a bit more intimidating and I panicked a little bit. I had the information I needed highlighted and also written in my notes, but for some reason I kept trying to read the un-highlighted part of the text. Anyway, it wasn't too bad, just not great.

Next Friday is our legal methods exam. We get a day off from classes on Thursday so that we can study, although for some reason Prof Civ Pro has scheduled the first meetings of our TA sections on that day. They are optional and I don't know if anyone will show up. I don't plan to.

Our nanny is actually taking next Thursday and Friday off, so the little guy is going to spend the night at his grandma's house. I will be taking him there on Thursday morning and picking him up Friday afternoon after the test.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Weekly MILS Roundup #11

This week's Moms in Law School Roundup is at PT-LawMom. Next week it will be at A Little Fish in Law School, and the following week it will be back here.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Little Guy News

  • In the last week and a half or so the little guy has really started walking a lot. He can't stand up without holding on to something yet, but once he's up he can go far. I think we can officially call him a toddler!
  • He's also mastered buttons and switches. We can no longer watch TV with him around because he changes the channel or turns it off. He also absolutely loves light switches. We had to move his crib because he could reach the light switch from where it was and would stay up at night turning the light on and off.
  • He has five teeth now (they've been coming in fast in the last month or so).
  • We found out last week that the little guy is not allergic to eggs after all. The results from the blood test had indicated a very mild allergy, but when the allergist did a skin test, which he said is more accurate, it showed no allergy. So I've given him some egg this week and it hasn't seemed to cause any problems.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Professors and the Socratic Method

I am ahead in my reading this week so I thought I would do a rare (lately anyway) midweek post on what my professors are like.

Prof Torts is really nice and funny, he is a visiting professor but has taught at our school before. So far in class he mostly takes volunteers, and when he does call on someone who hasn't volunteered it is because they volunteered before and the question he is asking is related to what they said before. He occasionally pokes fun of people's answers if they are off-base, but in a very good-natured way.

Our Contracts professor is an economist and not a lawyer, but has been teaching contracts in law school for a very long time. In class he selects one person for each case (randomly, no advance notice) and sticks with them for all questions related to that case. Only if they can't answer does he look for a volunteer. It is actually a very safe class to volunteer in because you are not likely to get a follow up question since he will always go back to the original person after he gets an acceptable answer.

Prof Civ Pro has taught at our school before as a visiting professor, but is here permanently for the first time this year. She is the scariest, not because she is mean -- she isn't -- but because it is sometimes difficult to figure out what she is asking and she seems to expect you to remember the smallest details about the cases (like things the court said in a footnote). She does cold calling as well as taking volunteers.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Weekly MILS Roundup #10

Time for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup! Here are the best posts from this week:


The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis here, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at PT-LawMom.

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Family Time

The first week of "real" classes went well. The reading load has been a lot lighter so far than in legal methods, giving me time to contemplate whether I want to get involved in any extra-curricular type activities. There is a pro-bono activity I am interested in but it requires a 4 hour/week commitment for the whole year and I just don't think I can make that commitment four weeks into law school. The other thing I have been seriously considering is running for the board of my law school's women's association.

One thing I am concerned about in general is that a lot of activities and events at the law school start around 5 or 6, which is prime family time for me. 5 is dinner time and at 6 we start the little guy's bath and bedtime routine. Although it wouldn't be a huge deal to miss a night here and there I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing because that is the main part of the time I get to spend with the little guy. I want to be involved in things that aren't strictly academic while I am in law school, but if I am not going to be at the school between 4pm and 7pm is it even possible to be involved in anything on more than a casual level? I hope so.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Weekly MILS Roundup #9

This week's Moms in Law School Roundup is up at A Little Fish in Law School. Next week it will be back here.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Week Wrap-Up

This week was the last week of Legal Methods. We finished our 837 page casebook in 13 days of class (averaging over 60 pages/day). We didn't finish with quite as much enthusiasm as we started, which had something to do with the reading load and something to do with the fact that we all seemed to be coughing or sniffling through most of the week. It was nice to have this introduction -- it served as a relatively low-stress breaking-in to law school classes -- but I think we are all ready to move on to the real classes now. So, on Tuesday it starts for real! (Not that this wasn't real, but it is pass/fail so it wasn't too real).

Oh and hubby and my parental accomplishment of the week was to teach the little guy how to pant like a dog. Yay us!