The Philosophy of a Hurricane

I'm not going to lie, I wish I was on the East coast, so I could be cuddled up in my pj's listening to a storm with no power (instead of at a library in my pjs, reading CivPro).  School would be canceled for the week and I would use the time to get ahead.  Sigh.  I guess I will just have to deal with the 75 degrees and sunny that it is in Lubbock (yup, we are back to warm weather, my sinuses cannot handle this, I wish it would just pick a season.) and be very glad that I am safe (I don't actually find anything about the hurricane funny or desirable, it is devastating). The song "She's Like Texas" by Josh Abbott has a line "her moods can change like the weather out in Lubbock"...um truth.  (Side note, that song makes my mom tear up.  I think because I have green eyes and live in Lubbock).

In all seriousness though, I am praying hard for all of my friends in D.C. or New York (or anywhere on the East Coast). And can we please just take a moment to ponder this.

These are the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, standing outside in a HURRICANE. Can you believe this? Please stop what you're doing and say a prayer for them.  I started tearing up myself when I saw this picture.  Arlington Cemetery was always my favorite place to go when I lived in DC.  I would wander around for hours by myself, pondering the lives of the names on the identical grave markers, wondering about the courage that they had to give their lives for something greater than themselves.  For me and for every American.  It is such a humbling experience.  I would wonder about their lives, who they left behind, who placed the flowers on their graves, what their stories were.  I would always end up at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watch the changing of the guard.  Once I saw a group of veterans watching.  These old men were in wheel chairs, and when the change of the guard occurred, every single one of them stood for those soldiers, refusing help from anyone.  And tonight the soldiers they stood for continue to stand in a hurricane for the unknown. God Bless them and watch over them as the storm hits. 

Philosophy of Procrastination

Right now I am doing anything, except for writing my memo.  I have cleaned my apartment.  I have done all my reading.  I have listened to the new Taylor Swift CD (yessssssss).  I have done my dishes (all of my 14 coffee cups were dirty. I wish I was kidding).  I have listened to the new Taylor Swift CD (did I already mention that? Well I've done it 5 times...). I have watched the Pretty Little Liars Halloween special (o.my.gosh. why do I always watch them alone?) while eating Popeye's.  And now I am writing this because Katria told me she didn't know what was going on in my life without a blog update (we text everyday, how is it we never actually talk about what's going on?).

I think winter is about to hit hard here in Lubbock.  At least for the next few days.  And by hard, I mean 50s.  But I think it is actually supposed to freeze Saturday morning.  Or at least that's what my iphone weather channel app tells me.  So of course, it is time for duck slippers.

My parents are coming in tomorrow morning.  I am super excited.  I haven't seen them since I moved here.  It is Family and Friends day at the law school.  It makes me feel like middle school, but I don't even care.  Plus some of the married guys are bringing their kids.  so.  exciting.  (One of the mormons brought his 8 month old baby the other day and I got to hold him.  He was born like 4 months premature or something and so he is tiny!). I don't know how they do this with families.

This is what professional school is doing to us. 

Because nothing else exciting is going on in my life {except losing my lunch box (found it in the printer room of the library) and my keys (found them under the passenger seat in Kyle's car)}, here are pictures of pumpkins.

I guess I'll get back to that memo...

The Philosophy of Negotiations Week

This has been, by far, the hardest week of law school.  Which I will get to in a bit, but first, Gardsky's.  Kyle and I have been told by multiple people that Lubbock has the most restaurants per capita (is that the right term?) than any other city.  Which apparently people take to mean they also have the best restaurants (definitely debatable, with a very strong argument on the side that this is false).  We have been fairly disappointed with every local restaurants {it just took me five times to spell that word correctly, embarrassing.  Last Friday we tried a place called Gardski's.  I was craving Chili's salsa all day, so my suggestion was Chili's.  But Kyle was definitely not in the mood for what he calls "bad frozen food", so me, in my selfless way, gave in to Gardski's {full disclosure, we ordered chips and salsa to go from Chili's later that evening as a condition of me giving in}.  So Gardski's.  Apparently it is one of the oldest buildings in Lubbock (or the oldest restaurant in Lubbock, something like that).  It is in this really old quaint house that I fell in love with.  We ate upstairs and had a rather quirky waiter.  I loved my food (steak), but I don't think Kyle was too impressed with his.  It serves American food primarily I think (hamburgers, steaks, chicken, etc.) and was not expensive at all (yay for students!).  I definitely think it was the best restaurant we've found so far.  http://gardskisloft.com/

Isn't it wonderful?
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Now to this past week. It was awful. Just plain awful.  Tech Law is fairly well known for their Mock Trial, Moot Court, and Negotiations teams.  This week was the intra-school competition for Negotiations for the 1Ls.  I wasn't going to do it, but I thought if I didn't I might regret not participating. So I signed up with a partner, thinking erroneously that it was a one day competition {it was an entire week}.  The prelim rounds were three straight days.  And then there was a "break" where the teams with the most points moved on, and then single elimination after that.  Well my partner and I did much better than I expected {we barely put any effort into it} and we not only broke, but we made the semi-finals.  Exciting right? No. I hated it.  Because I did not get home earlier than 10 o'clock any night this week.  Not too late right? Unless you still have 5 hours of reading to do for school, which you cannot slack on, because, well, it's law school.  Every time it was announced that we won, I cursed a little.  I was so ready to just lose and be able to focus primarily on school and actually get some sleep again.  I felt slightly bad because my partner was obviously more into it than I was and was disappointed when we lost in the semifinals {I thanked the team that beat us}.  I also was grumpy because I did an online quiz that was due on Wednesday last Saturday, got a 100 on it, and then forgot to press "Done" so it was late.  grrrr. stupid me.  So this past week pretty much sucked.  I am glad that I did negotiations in the end {primarily because I won't be tempted to try Mock Trial or Moot Court in the spring}.  But I am so glad it is over.  Side note, the team that knocked us out in the semifinals ended up winning the whole thing.  Good for them.  

In celebration of me getting my life back {as much as is possible in law school} and in celebration of Fall, Kyle and I had a fall date last night.  We went to a pumpkin patch {pumpkins lined up on the side of the road} and got pumpkins to carve!  In full disclosure, I couldn't bare to cut my pumpkin; it was far too round and perfect and happy.  But I did help Kyle with his, and the seeds are on my counter so that I can attempt to roast them later.  I also have two baby pumpkins.  Kyle laughed at me.  While we carved our pumpkins, we watched my annual Fall movie, "You've Got Mail".  If you have never seen it, drop what you are doing and go rent it.  It is by far the best Fall movie or movie about New York ever.  Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and book stores.  What could be better?  In that movie Meg Ryan talks about reading Pride and Prejudice over and over (guilty) and how Anne of Green Gables made her cry (guilty).  I pretty much just want to be her in that movie.  

"Don't you just love New York in the Fall?"
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"I wanted it to be you."
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So that was my week.  Rough.  Glad it is over.  Who would have thought that I would be looking forward to just a normal week of law school? Weird.