Shirking

Tagged... I, unlike Kym, will always do these quizzes to avoid reality whenever possible... If you want to participate by replying, only use word word answers... 1. Where is your cell phone? desk 2. Where is your significant other? Lunch 3. Your hair color? Brown 4. Your mother? Unique 5. Your father? Hunting 6. Your favorite thing? Peace 7. Your dream last night? Anxiety 8. Your goal? Destination 9. The room you're in? Office 10. Your hobby? Ha! 11. Your fear? failure 12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? stable 13. Where were you last night? Home 14. What you're not? untrue 15. One of your wish-list items? house 16. Where you grew up? Ashland City 17. The last thing you did? typed 18. What are you wearing? jeans 19. Your TV? Off 20. Your pet? Amos 21. Your computer? busy 22. Your mood? melancholy 23. Missing someone? Gwen 24. Your car? Kia 25. Something you're not wearing? Make up 26. Favorite store? Goodwill 27. Your summer? Busy 28. Love someone? Yes 29. Your favorite color? Purple 30. When is the last time you laughed? Today 31. Last time you cried? Today

Angels Will Attend

Kym mentioned me on her blog, hoping to inspire me to get back in the swing of things. So here I am. Let me give you a brief run down of the last 10 weeks or so:

- had a final in Intellectual Property Law

- had a final in Advanced Property (was actually a project where we had to create a mixed use development and generate fake papers that you would sign / file if it were real)

- had Negotiable Instruments final (in case you were wondering, a negotiable instrument is a check or a promissory note)

- briefed a case in Conflicts (but of course I was late to class due to a wreck on the Interstate and the instructor was half way through briefing my case - this is the guy who said on the first day of class, "I'm not afraid to fail a fourth year student")

- completed a mock trial in Moot Court - meaning I and my team mates had to act as if we were actual attorneys and file all of this paperwork with the fake judge and then we had to go to fake depositions and prepare fake opening arguments and dress up to go to the fake court. Let's not forget that my big moment before the fake court was to argue why a particular statute shouldn't be allowed to be used by the other side. So I ask the fake judge to remove the fake jury from the fake courtroom so that I can argue a fake point of law. The fake judge sighs with exasperation (not fake) and removes the jury. "Your honor, according to Tennessee Rule of Evidence 202 a municipal ordinance cannot be entered into evidence without Judicial Notice. In order for the court to even entertain judicial notice either the parties stipulate to its use or a metro official must be brought in to testify." At this point, I am beginning to hit my stride. My adrenaline is under control, but I notice that my team mates are whispering and gesturing to me. "Your honor, may I have a moment to confer with my (fake) co-counsel?" Then they tell me they stipulated to the use of the ordinance about 10 minutes before the trial, yet neglected to tell me, even knowing that I was planning to oppose its use. Nice.

- had a husband lose his job with no current prospects - construction is at a stand still. He has had former supervisors calling him to see if he had any work or knew of anyone with work. He has been getting odd jobs from family which has kept us going.

- had my car repo'ed, but luckily I was able to scrape up enough money to get it back within a couple of days (thanks to my anonymous donor).

- had my hot water heater break and leak all over - we were able to do a cheap fix for now without replacing the whole thing.

- found out my child was sent to in school suspension for a second "bad language incident"

- received a call from my mother that Marina had fleas, only to discover when I picked her up that, no, it was lice. We got to "treat" her hair and pick each and every lice egg from her head. She cried and cried. We started the process at 8:00pm and didn't finish until 2:30 in the morning. We washed every article of clothing in our house. For two weeks, we dried the clothes that we were going to wear each day for 30 minutes before putting them on. We had daily head checks for two weeks where we went through each and every strand of hair picking out any remaining eggs. We argued about whether or not to cut her hair (because the best way to solve any crisis is to turn on each other...)

- had to call the state troopers of Alaska to have them drive to the last known location of my sister b/c she stopped calling and e-mailing for about 3 weeks.

- and to top it all off, found out last week that I am pregnant and that the child will likely be born the same week as the bar exam.

So, I've been a little distracted... a little bitter... a little grouchy...

But now to the upbeat, silver lining, right?

- I didn't fail any of the exams.

- I earned back most of the points I lost for being late by stepping right in when I walked into class instead of hiding out and acting like it wasn't me who was supposed to be briefing.

- I argued a point later in my fake trial that the other side had not anticipated. I still was overruled, but after the trial, the lead guy on the other team (who took a year off to work with the DA under a limited law license from the state) said, "I saw what was coming, but couldn't think of a way to object before you got my (fake) client to say what he said. Good job!"

- My husband is starting a GED class and then plans to head to Nashville Tech this fall b/c obviously, this carpentry gig isn't too sweet and I actually have family members that have enough money to offer jobs to him to keep us going.

- I got my car back and lived to drive another day.

- I didn't have to go buy a brand new hot water heater or start taking cold baths - the cheap fix is holding for now.

- I guess the upside to the bad language incident is that at least my son can speak. He did discover, though, that he kind of likes ISS - "it's really quiet and you can get your work done quick." Also this gave us an opportunity to speak to the Vice Principal during which conversation he realized that Robert is almost 2 years younger than everyone else and that his proficiency is absurd, so he said he'll try to keep up with him better (which is what I said that I expected when we placed him at Cheatham Middle and we were assured that of course he would be well looked after...).

- ok, upside to lice, searching... searching... searching... I'll have to get back to you on that.

- I found out that my sister was, in fact, not in a ditch somewhere. She has been calling and e-mailing a lot more frequently lately. And she now knows in her heart that if I need to, I'll call the troopers like that!

- my brother, the doctor / preacher / missionary, put the baby issue in perspective. He politely listened to me complain about not liking change, not liking things to upset my personal plan. He listened to me worry about the timing of the birth and the bar exam, about where I would be able to physically put this child when I bring it home from the hospital. Then he just said, "God has a plan for this child or it wouldn't be here now."

Well, what do you say to that? Nothing.

Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Count your many blessings, angels will attend, hope and comfort give you to your journey's end.