Friday, September 30, 2011

Still Standing

We're entering the middle weeks of the semester.  The newness has worn off and things have settled into a routine.  I still don't feel overwhelmed, but I still need to do more work on this stuff.

This weekend, I have an ungraded paper to finish.  I could use the critique because the next one will be graded and will comprise almost all of my grade in the class.

For the first time in my life, I'm going to start brown-bagging my lunch.  There just aren't enough places to eat around the law school.  There are quite a few within a 10 minute walk, but that means a 20 minute round-trip where I could be reading.  I've had Jimmy Johns deliver quite a few lunches and that works okay, but I have to be on the lookout for the delivery person instead of diving whole hog into my reading.

Next few weeks will be a test of a different kind.  I have drill for the Navy.  I won't drill near final exam time, but other than that, it'll be fair game.  I'll see if this puts an unreasonable burden on my studies.  I'm hoping it doesn't.  Service to my country is still a huge part of who I am. 

I am pretty sure they deliberately schedule 5 days a week of classes for 1Ls as part of discouraging us from getting any sort of part-time job.  I really am looking forward to 2L and beyond, though.  Worst case, I think I'll have a 4 day week, and I really will bend over backwards to get all my classes in either Monday / Wednesday or Tuesday / Thursday.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Feeling on top of it

Funny how 1L is as much psychological as it is academic.  Most of the time, I feel pretty good about things, but recently, I've had moments where I feel like I'm not where I should be.  Today, I feel pretty good.  Still have work to do, but I think I know what it needs to be.

Torts, LR&W, and Property, I understand and know where I need to go.  Civ Pro and Contracts have been less so, but the picture is getting increasingly clearer. 

Tonight is my night without Logan.  So, I'll have the whole night to work on schoolwork.  I have an outline due for a paper on LRW, but I'm about 1/3 finished with the whole thing.  I'll be able to knock out an outline pretty quickly.  Other than that, just reading assignments in Civ Pro and Torts and my work for the week is basically done.

I need to do a better job this weekend of working on my outlines.  Last weekend I didn't do much.  Fortunately, the workload wasn't that bad.  So, a day of effort on Sunday kept me current.

2 weeks from today, we'll be at the midpoint of the semester.  Halfway done.  We really have absorbed a lot of material.  In Torts, it's like the entire semester is a review.  Going through the E&E was totally worth it.  I just wish I had done that in some other classes.  Right now, I have the unenviable task of trying to go through them as the semester is progressing. 

Not that big of a deal, but time management is the real key to all this.

I also am longing for 2L year where I'll have more control over my schedule.  I don't care if I have to take Maritime and Admiralty Law, but I'm going to do everything I can to take all my classes two days a week.  If not, at the least, it doesn't look like 2Ls and 3Ls have many/any Friday classes.

Also, Logan will reach the halfway point of his football season this weekend.  I volunteered to help out a little bit when I wasn't busy, but other than the head coach, I'm the only coach who shows up on a regular basis.  The other guys want to be involved, but have job conflicts (they work rotating shift type jobs.)  Also, our main defensive coach (great guy, BTW), just had knee surgery.  I doubt he'll be able to do much with the team for a while.

So, I'm pretty much committed to being a coach for the team, which is something I really wanted to avoid.  However, in 3 more weeks, the season will be over and I can hunker down for the rest of the semester to open up a biggo can on the finals.

I really, really need to work on my outlines.

I have drill for the Navy here coming up.  I will be going in October and November.  I'm sure that's not going to be great, but serving in the military is such a large part of who I am, I feel like I should try and keep this going as long as possible.  It won't be so bad in 2L and 3L year when I have better control of my schedule.  So, I'll be reading in airports and doing what I can to stay current these next couple of months.  The December drill is right during finals.  I'll have to reschedule that for the Summer.

Of course, you're not supposed to be working during 1L year if you're a full-timer and I'm pushing it on that.  Navy reserve is technically work.  Coaching is taking up a chunk of time every week.  Plus, having to be at the biz every once in a while. 

I honestly don't think it's that hard to graduate from Law School.  What's hard is graduating with a good gpa.  However, ultimately, my first and most realistic goal is to hang out my shingle and practice family law or PI law here, locally, and neither of those really require you to have a good gpa. 

My hair was getting sorta shaggy and needed a cut.  So, I took out the clippers and then actually shaved my head bald.  I've done the clippers before, but this is the first time I've shaved it.  Until they come out with more effective hair-growth prescriptions, my hair doesn't look good, anyway.  Not sure the bald look is better, but I doubt it's worse.  It's easier to maintain, though.  I just don't have time for hair right now.

Finally, I had been eating badly and not-exercising enough these past two weeks.  Time to get back on the wagon.  Back to turkey bacon and oatmeal for breakfast.  No more potato chips and french fries.  I gotta take care of myself, both to prevent a heart attack in my 40s, and to keep my energy level up.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are tough days.  The first class isn't until 10:10, but it lasts until 4:50.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Schedule Coolness

Was just thinking that Logan's football season only lasts six more weeks.  That's good because right about then is when I need to start totally going hermit to prepare for finals.  No matter what, I won't be taking any role in his basketball team. 

Also, I was thinking about whether I'd need to go part-time after my 1L year is over.  However, I was just looking at the class schedules for 2Ls and 3Ls, and things are pretty encouraging.  Might be difficult to get all my classes just two days a week, but it wouldn't be impossible.  Worst-case, it looks almost certain that I'd have a three-day weekend every week. 

So, that's something to look forward to once 2L is over.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Start of Week 6

Tomorrow is the start of week 6.  There are 15 weeks in the semester, not including finals.  I'm 1/3 of the way done.  Unfortunately, this is sort of like running a marathon (in a lot of ways.)  At the halfway point of a marathon, you aren't really halfway done.  Pretty much 20% of your effort in a marathon gets you to around mile 18.  The other 80% is what you need to get you the last 8 miles.

Same with law school.  Since almost all the grade is based on finals and nothing more, you can coast along for a while, oblivious to the iceberg about to sink your ship.  The real work will come in the month or so before finals as the outlines are finalized and the studying for the final exams begins.

I went into this thinking I could manage law school in the unproductive slack time of my life.  That, I was pretty much right about.  I had enough slack time to do law school.

What I didn't count on were the following:

1.  I really, really enjoyed the unproductive slack time in my life.  Not just for myself, but in terms of being able to do activities with my son.

2.  Law school has some aspects where the schedule isn't flexible.  You do it when you have to do it, not when you would have otherwise had slack time.  This has put a strain on a few things.  Nothing too bad, but it's noticeable.

3.  I have no doubt I have enough time to finish law school.  Do I have enough time to get great grades?  Right now, I feel like I don't, but who knows.  I feel like I need to do more. I'm current with all my reading and assignments.  I just wish I had more time to work on my outlines and some other stuff.

One way or another, I intend to finish 1L as a full-time student.  After 1L?  Not sure at that point.  I could continue as a full-timer or drop back to part-time.  A little of it depends on whether I keep my scholarship.

I need something like a 3.3 to keep my scholarship, but as law students know, that's not easy in law school.  The curve is pretty daunting.  It basically equates to being in the top third or quarter of your class.  However, "your class" consists of some pretty smart people.

If I lose my scholarship, I may just decide to go part-time.  That would be easier on my schedule.  It would also mean dragging this out for another year.

The other thing, which is how I'm leaning at the moment, is to try and do whatever I can to schedule all my classes just two days a week.  Yes, that would equate to one murderous schedule that basically lasts from 8 to 8, but it also means I would have 5 days off per week.  (Yeah, granted, 5 days off when you're in law school means 5 days of studying.)

It's not the work I can do at home that makes this tough.  It's attending all the classes.  The more I can compact my schedule, the better.

In the mean time, so far, so good.  I'm still current with everything.  Of course, my personal opinion is that staying current with everything is usually just good enough to get you a C.  I need to work on my outlines and start exam-prepping.  Still haven't quite found time for that.

I'm a little ahead in LR&W, and we're getting to where we're doing actual writing.  So, it's slowly getting to where it isn't quite the total bane of my existence anymore.  I don't mind it so much.  We submit our first memo next week.  It isn't graded, but I'll be interested in the feedback.

In the mean time, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Boy Loves the Gridiron

Bambino continues to do well at football.  He blasted his knee back open over the weekend, but we put the skateboard knee pad on it and he had a good practice.

The coach is making some adjustments.  Logan is now starting at fullback in the I-formation and halfback in the jumbo package.  The coach is also putting together a long-yardage formation with Logan at QB. 

They ran a few plays and Logan was drilling people on the numbers.  He really has gained a lot of arm strength over the past year.

This is going to be a little more involved for him.  He loves football.  Told me yesterday that it was by far his favorite sport.  I think of all the sports he plays, he shows the most talent at baseball, but the pacing of baseball is tough for a little kid to appreciate.

He's doing pretty well at football, too, though.  I think if he keeps this up, he could stand a shot at QB1 next year.  Just depends.  At this age, everything depends on how they grow and progress.

Uggghhhh...

Today was the first day I felt sort of lost in a class.  I'm going to have to memorize a bunch of numbers for civil procedure rules, as well as the rules.  Other than that, I am willing to bet that most of the class is more lost than I am based on participation in class today. 

Though I did notice that one girl in class (super smart one) is grasping the material much better than I am, too.

Just gotta hang in there.  Soon as I post this, I'm gonna knock out some reading and go to bed.

I need more sleep.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

End of Week 4: Getting the Hang

I'm about a quarter of the way through the semester, and I'm getting the hang of this.

Today, I should be able to finish up all my reading for the week and begin working on my outlines. 

Really, I figure this whole thing boils down to 3 tasks:

1.  Staying current with the material.
2.  Preparing great outlines, especially my 1-page summary outlines for each class
3.  Getting the test-taking down.

Right now, I've been doing a good job of #1.  I think I've only showed up to class once having not-read the material in advance.  I know this sounds really odd, but it can be difficult just knowing what you're supposed to read for the next class.  Every prof gives the reading assignments differently.

Some of them (the more organized ones), have all the reading for the entire semester laid out in their syllabus.  That's the easy ones to stay current with.

Others will post the assignment on the class web-site.  The class web-site, unfortunately, can be in one of three (and maybe more) places, depending on the prof.  It can be either on our UT account, on the Lexis class web-site or the Westlaw class web-site.  Or they e-mail our reading assignments to us.

The third category tells us at the end of class what to prepare for the next class.  I need a better method for this.  I had been making a note in my class notes, but that didn't work very well.  (That was how I missed a reading assignment for class.)  I switched to posting any assignments to the top of the notes page and making a note in my day planner.  That works a little better, but still is problematic.  I think I just need to have a separate file on my computer for "assignments due" when they're not specified in any of the other methods and work it that way.

Today, I'll be able to start my outlines.  I know what my torts outline is going to look like.  Property?  I think I've got that one figured out, too.  Contracts?  I may need to visit the prof because he invented his own tool called "Davis Boxes" which others have said practically substitutes for the class outline.  I'm already pretty far along on POICTARACO.

That leaves Civ Pro, which I'm maybe 30% clear on what the outline will look like.  Our school teaches it backwards from the way most schools do:  we learn pleading first and venue in a subsequent semester.

I hope to have the outlines substantially done sometime in October with just minor tweaking from then on out.  This would leave all of November for test practice. 

My 5th class is Legal Research and Writing (aka, "the bane of my existence.")  We've got the first of our two papers due.  This one is not-graded.  My initial reaction was, "Oh, great, ungraded homework.  Like I don't have enough to do already."  Now, though, I'm eager to have them look at what I can do to see where I need to improve for the second, graded paper. 

LR&W is a mutha.  The other classes?  You can stay current on the reading in anywhere from 1 to 4 hours a week.  (4 hours is extreme, too.  Most don't involve that much reading and the one class that does, doesn't involve that much every week so far.)  LR&W?  Including class time?  Probably takes up 15 hours a week. 

I can't wait to be done with it.  I realize it's all necessary.  They're making me practice things I would not practice, otherwise.  However, it's a muthafargin' black hole of study hours.  To add insult to injury, it's only a 2 credit hour class. 

So far, a few aspects of my life are fraying a little bit. 

I'm still managing to make time to be with my son.  That's not so bad, actually.  I'm still helping coach his football team.  (Total workload there is maybe 16 hours a week.)  I'm still available to him in the evenings.  I might start having him sleep over at his mom's house, though, so she can have him in the mornings.  That'll free up my mornings and give him more time with her.  Her work schedule has changed.  She sees a little less of him, now, because she has fewer days off.

Exercise has been a diaster.  I was making good progress until recently, but did no workouts last week at all.  I also probably need to drop my gym membership.  I barely have time to bathe.  Getting to the gym is out of the question.  I can still hit the weights at the biz, though.  So, that's not a big deal. 

I need to start just taking 25 minute exercise breaks.  Taking an hour away from the books, then taking a shower, for a total of 90 minutes away, is just not a good idea.  However, taking 25 minutes away from the books a few times a day is probably actually beneficial.  So, I need to just nail 25 minutes on the rower or dreadmill every few hours to clear my mind and pump up my energy level.

My diet has been absurd.  I think I'm going to start going to an all-oatmeal for breakfast routine.  The rest of the day?  Who the hell knows.  I'll figure it out as I go.

My time at the biz?  I just need to be there studying in my office a lot more. 

The end result of all this?  I'm going to be getting a lot less sleep.  So far, I'm doing well, physically, but we'll see how long I can keep this up.

If I do well on 1L grades, I will try to get an internship with the SEC or CFTC this Summer.  It'll be unpaid for 10 weeks.  So, it'll be a big hairy deal, but I think it'd be worth it.

In my typical "go big or go home" fashion, if I don't manage that, I'll probably end up reverting back to plan B, which is to set up a PI practice here, locally.

And that's all there is to say about that at the end of week 4.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Keeping up, but need to amp it up

So far, I've been keeping up in classes.  This weekend, I need to make some major strides on getting ahead.  I still want to cover some topics in the E&Es, especially in Contracts.  Maybe a little in Civ Pro.

I also need to get jammin' on my outlines.

Strange, from day to day, my psychology changes.  A couple days ago, I was starting to feel a little bit lost.  Today, I feel right on top of it.  I'm remembering case names off the top of my head.  I feel like the material is all right at hand, mentally.

I think half the difficulty with law school is dealing with your own neuroses.  Law school attracts a certain type of neurotic personality.  The kind of person who frets the small stuff. 

I also have been thinking more about career.  If I do decide on a legal career, I'm reverting back to my original idea of working in PI.  Every area of the law is fascinating in its own way.  Right now, I think I have two main career possibilities.  PI, here, locally, and working securities law in DC or maybe Chicago. 

Those are the two strong ones.  The third one would be working intellectual property in software licensing. 

I've still got a lot of time to work on this, but this whole thing comes at you sort fast.  The deadline for 1Ls to apply for that SEC internship in the Summer is in February, for instance. 

People's fates start to be defined here, not so much in the first year, but in a huge way by the end of the second year. 

Anyway, so far, so good.  I've got a big research project coming down the pike.  The nice thing about my legal research class is that it basically concludes early.  All of our graded work will be done by mid-November.  It'll be nice to actually have grades on things to know how I'm doing.

In the mean time, this will be weekend of outlines, once I finish up all my assigned reading and research.

Logan has a football game Saturday morning, but after that, I'm basically going to be parentis non praesens (yeah, my Latin sucks ass) this weekend.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

First Day of Anxiety

Today was really my first day of Anxiety.  It happened when I heard two rumors.  The first rumor I heard was that my Torts Prof only gave 3 As last semester. 

I guess that's possible.  On a forced curve, he should give about 5, but if he had an unusually bad crop of papers, maybe he gave fewer than the max allowed.

The second was that my Legal Research and Writing Prof gave everybody Cs.

Now, my rational self is saying that this is all BS and is probably as valid as most rumors, which is to say, a smattering of truth, surrounded by a sea of BS that produces no good information at all, but maximum shock value.

However, my emotional self got a little spooked.

Honestly, I suspect that the root of those rumors would be that only 3 people got an A that somebody knew of or that it seemed like "everybody" got a C based on an informal survey of people in the class.  Who knows.

I also suspect that the folks who got really good grades probably had a high percentage of the types of people who would keep their lips sealed about it.

Still, right now, I'm starting to come to the realization that I need to do a lot more work.  I'm not doing enough.  I'm keeping up with the reading, but personally, I think that's only good enough to get you a C, or if you're lucky, a low B.  I need to do better.

A lot of it is time.  I volunteered to help with Logan's football team "when I could", but that's turning into an everyday thing.  It never ceases to amaze me how not-involved most parents are.  I just can't split and leave the coaching to the head coach when he'd be the only guy there.  That's too much to ask of him. 

I also need to get a lot more productive with my time.  Need to fill up the slack time during the day.  That means using lunches, and spare hours here and there to study. 

I'm not really behind, but I know I have to put in more work if I hope to do better than most of the class.  It's not a disaster if I finish with middling grades, but that's not my goal right now.  After 1L Fall grades come out, I may adjust my course, but in the mean time, I would like to see how well I can do at this.

I am positive that I will finish 1L year as a full-time student.  Beyond that, though?  I'm leaving all options on the table, including perhaps dropping back to part-time status.  I wouldn't say that the time involved in this is excessive, but it is considerable and it's putting a real cramp on a lot of things I used to do.  That's something to consider later.  In the mean time, I need to finish up some reading and go to bed. 

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Productive Weekend

Well, did no schoolwork on Saturday other than an exercise for Legal Research.  I was in the library a long time, but half that time I was watching the OSU/Toledo game or getting lunch.  Started reading sunday at noon.  At about 9:30, I called it quits.  I still have reading to do for Torts and Legal Writing and Research, but I think I can do all that during my downtime tomorrow.  I have a training class at 9:00 a.m, but nothing after that until 1:00.  That should be more than enough time to knock out all the rest of my reading for the week.

Which should also free me up to start working on my outlines.  Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but heyzeus marimba, there's a lot of books in law school.  I tried hauling all my books at once, once, and I had to use an Army large rucksack with frame to hold it all.  It was a chunk of books.

One of my classes has just one book.  The others have either 3 or 4.  Legal research and writing has a half dozen or more.  I also avoided buying any recommended books unless the prof was referring to them a lot.

I wish I could keep all these, but frankly, when the semester ends, I'll be selling back anything I don't have next semester.  These suckers are more than a grand, new.  If I can get back $400 or so, that's a pretty big chunk of change.

I am finding that I actually enjoy reading the cases.  I never really liked fiction very much.  I like finding out what happens in the real world.  These cases are like little novels.  Dude receives a painting from his Dad as a gift.  Dad dies.  Stepmom challenges the gift in court.

These are all important episodes in human interaction and I really enjoy finding out how the courts rule and why. 

Like most people, I used to get disgusted / outraged at some of the verdicts I'd hear coming out of cases.  Sometimes the popular media portrays the law as one huge, capricious bunch of freeloaders prospering off the efforts of good, decent people.

Even in the most eggregious cases, though, I'm finding that there was some sound logic behind the decision.  You don't always like the outcome, but the process remains relatively consistent.

Anyway, looking forward to putting some work into my outlines this week.  After this week, it'll be 4 weeks done, 11 to go to finals.  The semester will basically be a quarter done. 

I feel like I have a good handle on things, but working on the outlines will help me feel better.  We've really covered a lot of material.  Law school has a reputation of being a "drink from the fire hose" experience.

Still, so long as I stay current with the reading and can devote some time every week to my outlines, I think everything will be fine.  So far, so good.

Little Bit of Everything

Law school continues to click right along.  3 weeks done, 12 to go.  Next week, more than a quarter of the semester will be in the bag.  Time to really start cranking on my outlines.

I've decided that in class, I'm only going to raise my hand under two circumstances:

1.  Nobody else has their hand up and the prof is asking for a volunteer.
2.  If I genuinely need clarification on something.

The reason for #1 is that if a prof asks for volunteers and doesn't get one, they pick somebody at random.  I'm finding that a lot of folks aren't preparing for class and they end up being embarassed when they get called on.  So, I'll try and answer questions I can to prevent an awkward moment for a classmate.

The reason for #2 is pretty straightforward.  Sometimes I really need help understanding something, or more likely, I need help knowing what the prof wants.

An example the other day is that we were studying negligence, which is generally defined as reasonable conduct under the circumstances.  (There's more to the definition, but keeping it simple for this illustration.)  The case was one where somebody was driving the wrong way down a street.  A driver saw the guy, then crossed over to the left, into oncoming traffic in the other lane.

The question was whether the guy's conduct was reasonable given the circumstances.

My question to the prof was, "is it possible that somebody's conduct can be not-reasonable, but also not-unreasonable?"

The idea being that crossing over the center line into oncoming traffic was stupid, but that faced with an emergency, he didn't have time to react and think clearly.

The prof clarified that for torts, it's either reasonable or not.  There's not a third category in-between.

Now, the reason I bring up raising hands is that the class is already identifying the gunners and the other classmates freakin' hate them.  I'm trying really, really hard not to be my usual Arnold Horshack self and end up as one of the guys the class hates.

So, self-discipline:  I will not drink a big-gulp immediately prior to class, and I will not raise my hand except in the two circumstances above.

I also note that although I could be working more on my outlines, I'm keeping up perfectly well with school and yet not destroying the rest of my life.  I'm still getting to the biz on a regular basis.  I'm still spending time with my son and helping a little bit with his football team.  I'm still catching a movie or two with my brother and his girlfriend every week.

Law school does put a crimp on things, for sure, but frankly, it's really like having a job.  You can still do a lot of activities in life, you just can't do all of them right away.  I got pretty spoiled these past few years given the amount of slack time in my schedule.

Now, time to start studying.  I only have one shot at this semester.  Better make it count.  Need to free up a little more time to start cranking on outlines here, soon.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Law School Observations, 3 weeks in

With 12 weeks to go in the semester, I feel like I've established a rhythm.

My theory when starting this was that I could do it in the wasted leisure time of my life.  That's mostly, but not entirely true in practice. 

The time I have to spend in class really does put a crimp on my other activities.  I'll just have to play this one by ear. 

1L isn't that flexible and although the schedules are pretty convenient, they take up almost the entirety of the working day.  I have Monday mornings off.  Friday afternoons off, and other than that, the best I can manage is an hour here or there during the work-day to pursue activities that can only be done during the work day.

On the other hand, I am still watching movies.  Still able to participate to a large degree in my son's sports activities. 

So, it's a lot of work, but it could be worse.

Things should get a little better here, soon.  We should be hiring a full-time office person for the business.  That person acts as the business admin, but also as my personal assistant.  Yes, I'll be a student with a personal assistant. 

This will relieve me of my already minimal duties at the biz.  Somebody else will be able to handle all the bookkeeping entries, pay the bills, etc.  So, I'll be back to the workload I had when I spent at least a little bit of every day either on the driving range or on the course at the golf club. 

I also noticed this week that some of the other students are already falling behind / blowing off work.  In one of my classes, the prof called on 3 people in a row to give us the facts of the case we were supposed to brief.  All 3 had not done the work.

The trick in law school is not just to master the material and pass the bar.  80-90% of the folks who finish law school can manage that.  (This, of course, doesn't take full account of the 20-30% who drop out during or after 1L.)

The trick is that you need to outperform your peers for your grade.  There is a forced curve.

In B-school, if you could master the material to an A level of mastery, you got an A.  If the entire class got As, the prof probably wasn't bothered.  It didn't work out that way.  I think most people got Bs.  Some people got Cs, but more people got As than Cs in every class.

So, to get good grades, you have to outperform your fellow students.  Law school is competitive by its very nature.

I've been on the lookout for the folks who will fill out the left side of the curve, and generally, it's hard to find them.  The kids in my class all seem pretty smart.

Every now and then, though, somebody will give a very unmistakable indication that they're going to be the part of the class that is having difficulty with just maintaining the minimal GPA.  Bless their souls, but you can probably get into law school with an average intellect if you managed to get a degree and did okay on the LSAT.  That, of course, doesn't mean it'll be easy if you chose to do that.

Hearing about classmates who are falling behind?  I know you shouldn't take joy in other people's troubles, but right now, my main concern is having the time to put together good outlines and practice for exams.  I can't imagine trying to make up ground on reading I was supposed to have done as well.

Of course, at this point, nothing proves anything.  It'll all boil down to how well we apply things on the final exams.

In the mean time, though, during week 1, it seemed like everybody else was brilliant.  Now, I'm starting to see that maybe not all of them are.  Near as I can figure, I will need to be in about the top third to maintain my scholarship.  I'd like to do better than that.  However, that's just speculation at this point.

I have met a couple of other students who are parents.  Not so many others who are my age, but I feel a connection with the ones who are parents.  We have a set of challenges that a young, unencumbered student won't have to worry about.

Also, at some point, maybe during Christmas Break, I need to revisit why I'm doing this and what I hope to accomplish.  I would love to do an internship with the SEC over the Summer and try to get a job with them after graduation.  However, the internship would mean time away from my son.  Working for the SEC would happen just as he's going to High School.

Sometimes you just have to make choices.  At the current time, I'm leaning towards the idea that the important thing is to be with him until he flies the coop.  I suspect I may have deep regrets if I miss out on his last few years at home.

Now, a job in Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, etc., wouldn't be so bad.  Those are all 4 hours or less from my house.  I could spend weekends here.  However, DC?  That's basically airline distance.  So, maybe I need to focus on available jobs in the immediate midwest. 

I also feel pretty good because I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm of this.  I'm actually gaining energy and hitting the books harder and more efficiently as I go through this.  It's been a long time since I'f been a student, my one semester of Arabic notwithstanding.

So, in the mean time, no use talking about law school.  Time to get back to doing it.  I'll be in the library this weekend doing another workbook project for Legal Research and Writing, but then, thank god, there won't be any more workbook assignments from that workbook anymore.  That workbook has been the bane of my existence for the first month of Law School.

The semester is starting to gain momentum.  3 weeks are done.  12 to go.  After next week, we'll have basically completed our first month, with just two and a half more to go.  Then, finals.  Then, crying or jubilation.

So far, if I had to give my life a report card, it would be:

Family:  A-.  Basically doing the stuff I need to do.  Minimal negative impact on time with son, but noticeable.

Business:  B-.  Keeping up.  Haven't really missed anything, but we'll see.  Less time than usual, but I'm able to do as much or more than I did prior to starting law school.

Fitness:  C.  Not failing, but room for substantial improvement.  Probably working out 3 times a week versus 4 or 5 prior to.  Need to get better at finding the time for fitness. 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

3rd week begins...

I can't believe it's September already. 

Week three started today.  I'm still adjusting to the new sleep schedule.  I'm still current with my reading, but need to set aside some time to work on my outlines.

So far, not too bad.  The classes are still interesting. 

Time to get into a rhythm that will carry me through the semester.

The nice thing about being old is that time really flies when you're old.  The not-so-nice thing about being old is that time flies. 

Anyway, just trying to keep up.  Can't wait to take those finals and see how I do.