What's up with all of the death?

So I think that our house may be poisoned.....except that Fuzzy Britches, CP and I have not been affected just yet.

Last week I took FB outside to do her business and she found a dead squirrel. It was actually hilarious because the squirrel was on its back, little front legs in the air and looked shocked (well, as much as a squirrel could look shocked). We have no idea if it fell out of the tree or what.

Around that same time I thought that I saw a mouse scurry away in the garage so we decided to put out humane mouse traps. Well, CP checked it last night (after setting them on Sunday) and sure enough, we caught a sucker mouse. So we put the trap in a box and drive to woods far enough away from our house so that the mouse wouldn’t come back. Except when CP went to open the trap? The mouse was already dead. We gave it natural peanut butter too. At least it died eating healthy!

Thank goodness I have CP to take care of all of these dead animals!

What lengths would you go to?

I was reading an old Fitness magazine from this past summer and in the back it had bride-to-be polls. One poll asked how much weight brides wanted to lose before their big day. 30% said that they wanted to lose more than 30 pounds. I would say that I am definitely in this category. Because I am a tall girl (5’9”), I would like to think that I hide the extra pounds a little more than a shorter girl, but then again I could just look like a beast and not know it. ;-) Actually, I think that the extra weight is distributed pretty evenly throughout my body, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want it gone!

The poll also asked how far a bride would go to lose weight. Some women said that they would have surgery (!) which I think is very extreme. More people said that they would turn to weight loss pills to lose the weight. And, if I am being honest? I have tried weight loss pills before. I used to love Metabolife because it had enough stimulants in it so that my lack of coffee drinking was not a problem. But then they took it off the market because people were abusing it.

I tried Alli when it first came out and even though I knew that you couldn’t eat fatty things while taking the pills, I did it anyway. During my internship that summer I would then have to quickly run to the bathroom, which was an awful side effect. I’m pretty sure I have those pills lying around somewhere….maybe I should bring them out again as I am more strict with my diet these days…..

Sorry, I got off track as I was writing this. What I found so interesting about the polls were that these all seem to be short-term solutions so that brides-to-be could look good in pictures. OF COURSE I want to look skinny and beautiful in my pictures, but I also want to lose weight and keep it off! I was surprised that a fitness magazine wouldn’t ask more questions about exercise.

What lengths would you go to lose weight for your wedding? Or if you are already married, what lengths did you go to?

My day off

I love holidays! Yesterday was a much-needed day off from work and I made the most of it. Not only did I do a bunch of cleaning, but I did four loads of laundry.*

I also decided to go shopping as I was hoping for some good sales. Economy be damned- there were TONS of people shopping today. I was shocked! Here is my new purse that I found at Macy's:

I have become a big fan of Nine West purses. They are always on sale and are usually pretty cute. I have been using a camel-colored leather Nine West purse for most of the summer and think that it is getting cold enough to switch to a darker purse. Plus, the purse above is made out of fabric- so I don't have to worry about it if it rains or snows.

*The one bad thing about working out a lot? More laundry to do every weekend!

Trying to get into a routine

So I am pretty impressed with myself lately. In law school I reverted back to college habits…sleeping in until 9 (…or 10am), heading to class, and then staying up way too late at night to do work. This schedule did put a strain on our relationship when CP wasn’t traveling because I would head to bed so much later than him. I knew that once I had a regular work day I would be able to fall back into a pattern of getting up at a working hour.

Now that I have been going to the gym, I have been waking up at 5:30am Tues and Thur to commute an hour, then rush to make a 45 minute step class before work. The other three days I have been waking up at 6am, working all day and then heading to the gym afterwards. I believe that I need to change my strategy because in order to make the bus home after the gym on MWF, I have only been able to fit in 30 minute workouts. That is just enough time to get a run/ walk in on the treadmill, but nothing else. So, I guess that means a 5:30am wake up every day. *Sigh*

It hasn’t been too hard so far, but it is getting colder and this week the sun is not even up by the time I get to step class. How disheartening.

So other than being proud of getting myself to the gym, I also decided to sign up for www.fitday.com. Basically it is a website where you put all of your food intake for the day, along with exercise, your moods, etc. It gives you a bunch of helpful charts- a pie chart showing you how much of your intake was carbs, fat, and protein, another chart showing you where you stand on the recommended daily intake for essential nutrients and vitamins, etc. I decided to go with this website because it is free and my company allows access to it.

The first couple of days I thought that I wasn’t eating a lot of calories, but as soon as I started adding everything up I was shocked. A banana has 100 calories? And I realized that the first thing that had to go? My daily cup of hot chocolate (150 calories!). So now I have chai tea (0 calories). Not quite as tasty, but at least it has some caffeine in it. My fruit intake has slowed because although it is healthy and good for you, there are simply more calories in a banana than celery. And boy do I eat a lot of carbs in the morning- YIKES! The site is definitely a wake up call and will hopefully help me achieve my weight loss goal.

Fitness magazines say that it takes 3 weeks to get into a routine. So far I am halfway there. :-)

Getting worried

As I was a little bored at work yesterday, I googled where we are having our ceremony and reception to see if people had posted reviews or had anything to say about the place. I found good reviews on Trip Advisor which made me happy (especially because we have yet to taste the food….and they don’t allow outside caterers). I also found a website for some couple that had their reception at the Inn this past June. I sent the couple a message through their website and asked what they thought of the place- hopefully they will respond with positive feedback.

However, I am a bit nervous about a post that I found through my google search on a knot-like website. It said:

[name of couple that runs Inn redacted]
[city redacted, NH]

You suck at hosting weddings.

This post was from 2004. What happened????? So I (of course) signed up for the site in order to email the girl and asked why she felt this way. Hopefully she gets back to me and it is not too bad!

CP and I got a good vibe from the couple- we get to take over the place for the entire weekend and it is in a lovely spot. Although, we are a little worried that we booked the place without getting 2009 pricing. We were just so excited about the place….and the couple kept assuring us that prices were not going to go up that much…more just to cover costs. As a lawyer, I knew that I should get prices and such in writing before handing over a deposit, but (sigh) we didn’t.

The Inn doesn’t usually have weddings on the weekend that we picked because it is during fall foliage and they sell out every year. In order to get the weekend, we had to promise that we would fill all of the rooms (there are only 17- the rooms on the property will be filled by immediate family, bridesmaids, and groomsmen) and have our rehearsal dinner there (which we were going to do anyway).

But now I am worried. I hope these girls get back to me…….and soon.

What it is like to be a 1L

Before I forget (as I do tend to have a short memory), I wanted to finish my series on law school and what it is really like. First up? First year of law school.

First comes orientation. At that point, you don’t know anyone. At my school, we were forced to sit and listen to three days of information on topics such as the bar exam, how to succeed in law school, and financial aid. Meanwhile, as you start to talk to random classmates, you are hearing about all of their successes previous to law school (examples: doing the Peace Corps, running their own business, being a doctor). This, coupled with people bragging about their LSAT scores, is really annoying. I mean, we all got into the same school. Who cares what your LSAT score is now? I think that it was a way of people making themselves feel better in an new and scary situation.

After orientation, we had a weekend before classes actually started. Did I mention that you have advanced assignments? Yes, before you even step foot inside a classroom your professors will give you a bunch of cases to read and brief. Oh yeah, and every professor wants you to brief cases a different way. These assignments will take you HOURS so start early.

The first day of class? Completely terrifying. My first class of law school was with the most demanding professor I had in my three years. The professors usually start off with a few words about law school, making sure you do assignments, their technique for calling on students*, etc. As soon as the professor of my first class was done with the overview, she went straight into calling on people randomly. THANK GOD IT WAS NOT ME. Seriously. I have no idea how the kid that did get called on did it. My stomach was in knots the entire class. Also, I found out that I briefed the cases completely wrong so that didn’t help.

My entire first week I was filled with stress and self-doubt. My parents are lawyers so uhh no pressure! Everyone else is also freaking out at the same time so you are in good company. At my school, we were divided into three equal sections. Every section is then broken down into smaller sections for certain classes. This is helpful as you spent a lot of time with the people in your section. However, this also leads to law school being strikingly similar to high school. Everyone knows each other’s business, rumors fly around the section, etc.

Law school tends to attract some interesting people. I went to a fairly liberal law school which means some extreme wackos. For instance, there was one woman that was very worried about unionizing Starbucks. I wanted to tell her that instead of unionizing employees of a company that is usually ranked as one of the best places to work, why not try to unionize a place like Walmart, which is cutting employees’ hours so that they fall just under 40 hours a week, therefore cutting off health benefits? This is the same woman that told me about a program that she wanted to do in New York City. Basically, you paid a monk a couple thousand dollars to be homeless for two weeks. I bit my tongue, but I wanted to tell her that she could do that for free if she really wanted. *Sigh* Yes, there are some odd ducks.

After a few weeks you are still very stressed, but learn how to take a little less time briefing the cases and what exactly each professor is looking for. Now student groups start to call on the first year students to man tables in the hallway, for bake sales, etc. I waited to really involve myself in student groups until second semester. However, I did start up a weekly Thursday night happy hour. I included people from all three sections as we would eventually have classes together the following year. It was a good way to get people away from school and let off a little steam.

Finals your first semester are the scariest thing ever. For the most part, your ENTIRE GRADE is dependent on the exam (some professors have 5% based on your participation in class- i.e. whether you gave thoughtful answers when they called on you). Some professors give a review towards the end of the semester, others show you past exams, etc. Either way, you are in the library from sun up to sun down studying for these exams. For most people, that means making outlines of the class. These outlines tend to be 40+ pages when all is said and done. I couldn’t wrap my head around outlines my first year, so I made notecards of every test, definition, etc. from the semester. I also spent a large chunk of time with fellow section members in study groups. I found out later that this was not the best use of time for me, as I was a better learner by myself than in a group.

Most finals were closed book for 3-4 hours. I would quickly outline the question and the topics that I wanted to talk about and then literally type for the rest of the time, furiously pounding on my laptop before time was called, trying to get all of the definitions, tests, analyses, and conclusions in as possible. After the exam, you are completely drained. But, you have to do it all over again in a completely different topic either the next day or soon after so there is really no time to go home and sleep. Nope, it is back to the library to study!

Christmas break is a much-needed rest between semesters. You will literally go home and sleep for days as you are so tired and your brain physically HURTS. You will then wait for up to a month to get your grades. Grades are very important if you are gunning for a big law firm position.

Second semester starts with people asking about grades and possibly not seeing a few people as they have dropped out. I had some of the same classes as first semester so it was good to see familiar professors and know what they want in advance. A lot of people study abroad the summer after your first year because it is difficult to get a paying law job and you might as well get some credit for going somewhere fun! I went down to South America and had a fantastic time (especially because after a month and a half of not seeing each other, CP was able to come down for 10 days after the end of my program).

Second semester finals are similar to first semester finals so you know what you are getting into, but they still kick your butt.

Misc. things about first year:

-You also learn to hate your law school administration. I don’t think it matters what law school you go to, this is bound to happen.

-The “gunners” (people that raise their hand to try to answer every question and/or just like to hear themselves talk) annoy the crap out of you. Some professors even make jokes about them….don’t become one!

-The first semester of law school your significant others will be very annoyed when you constantly talk about school. You will relate everything you learned in Contracts class, Torts class, etc. to things in every day life. This happens again when you are studying for the bar. I think that this is also because you are still getting to know your law school friends and school is an easy thing to talk about. It also helps with trying to memorize concepts.

*Most law school professors use the Socratic method. That means randomly calling on students for answers. Some professors will call on one or two students for the entire class period, some jump around after a few questions, etc. It is scary. This is why you MUST make sure to read for class every day!

First wedding nightmare

Last night, I had my first wedding nightmare. It was the day of our wedding. I was riding on a trolley with a bunch of our wedding guests to the ceremony.* I looked at my watch and realized that there was only ONE HOUR until the ceremony. I had no idea where my bridesmaids were. My hair and makeup was not done. I had not put on my dress.

To my friends I kept joking that I was going to be late to my own wedding.....while in my head I was kicking myself. I realized that I hadn't planned ANYTHING for our wedding. We obviously sent out invitations as my friends were there, but I realized that other than finding a place for our ceremony and reception, we had not done anything else. I thought, you had a freakin YEAR to plan this wedding and you did NOTHING????

This morning I woke up and told CP that I had a wedding nightmare. He told me that I shouldn't stress about our wedding- especially when it is a year away! While I agree, I know myself...and stress will be part of the process. I just have to resign myself to that fact.

*Note: We will NOT be having a trolley for our wedding.