The Philosophy of Law Firm Applications

So I am not even done with my first summer internship (LONG post on that later) and I am already having to apply to NEXT summer's jobs. WHAT??? So I have spent my last week in DC slaving away on cover letters. And was inspired to share my fool proof formula for getting a job. 

Actual law firm cover letter: Dear (law firm with five/six names that nobody could ever possibly guess how to pronounce), I am interested in a summer associate position with your firm. After law school, I hope to practice law in (enter city where the law firm is, even if you've never been to). I am interested in your specific firm because of their high reputation in (enter legal field that you actually don't even know what it is), and because I have heard such wonderful things about the firm from (enter person you met once who works at the firm, even though you know they hate their life at the firm). I know I am a great candidate for your firm because (enter quality that you can pretend to have). Please see enclosed materials. 

Truthful law firm cover letter: dear hiring partner who will actually never read this letter, I am interested in your firm because they for some reason will pay me an absurd amount of money and maybe I won't have to take out so many loans next year. I actually hate the idea of 14 hour days and don't know how to pronounce your name, but I hear you take your summer interns to a baseball game in a limo. I don't know anything about your firm or what corporate transactions even means, but I really hope one of the 50 firms I send this letter to offers me a job. I also hope I don't put the wrong law firm name in this letter. 

I think they'd appreciate the honesty. 

The Philosophy of My Coffee Shop

There is a coffee shop in Lubbock that has been around since 1979.  It is literally the perfect coffee shop. It has plenty of outlets for computers. It has Italian Sodas {do you know how hard it is to find a coffee shop that sells Italian soda?}. It doesn't try to be hipster. It is filled with old men who meet here everyday to catch up and law and medical students with coffee stains on their books and fear in their eyes. I love it. It is literally the only place in Lubbock that I have fallen in love with. It plays the perfect toned music to outline to and isn't too quiet or loud. Plus, the coffee is delicious.


It's closing.


{pause for moment of silence}.


They couldn't reach a "mutually agreeable with their landlord". Obviously I blame the landlord.  My perfect coffee shop couldn't be to blame. Never. {Plus, I noticed the other business in this strip have already relocated.} I thought about offering to be free legal counsel to them, but I think there are laws against practicing before you're actually a lawyer {pretty sure Legally Blonde taught me law students can only practice under the guidance of an actual lawyer}. Anyway, I am WAY beyond bummed.

Technically, there is another location.  Next to my favorite pizza place in Lubbock, across from a ridiculously quaint neighborhood grocery store {yes, I just admitted there are quaint places in Lubbock}. BUT, that location is too dark, doesn't have enough outlets, doesn't play the right music, the tables are too small for law books, AND there are too many undergraduates and not enough old men to be a suitable coffee shop.  I may give it one more try, but I am not hopeful.

So, I'm back to hating Lubbock and searching for a new coffee shop. And if someone suggests Starbucks, I might cry.

They gave me my tea in a teapot. Could they be any better? Yes.
Because of the old men behind the teapot, who are just cool.

The Philosophy of Spring Break

Spring Break was a few weeks ago {actually, I think just one week...wow, law school}. I had grand plans to study non-stop for five days {Friday-Tuesday} and then go home with Kyle after his final and do non-stop wedding stuff.  Then I found out my cousin was going home Friday. So I just went home with him and opened my books a grand total of two times all break. It was phenomenal. I really think this semester I have been burning myself out and putting way too much pressure on myself.  I needed the break so badly and I didn't even know it. I had a lot of relaxing time with my parents and did a lot of wedding stuff while I was home. I don't know why girls complain about being stressed out while planning their wedding, it was a blast!! And I got SO MUCH done!!

Bridesmaids Dresses

I actually killed two birds with one stone on this one. I needed to find a dress for a wedding that I am in a week before mine AND finally pick a Bridesmaids dress for my own girls.  I went to a store that carried the one that I was interested in for my wedding and they also happened to carry the line that my friend wanted me to choose from.  I tried on the one I was interested in for my wedding first and LOVED it. Seriously, I wish I could buy this dress {technically, I guess I could...}. Then, in true Catherine fashion, I spent 20 minutes deliberating between two dresses to buy for the wedding I'm in. I picked one eventually and I hope they measured me the right size!!

Wedding Shoes

After picking out the dresses, my mom and I headed over to Dilliard's where we asked the sales lady if they had any "wedding shoes".  After giving us a bit of a quizzical look, she directed us to one pair of shoes that she thought might satisfy this odd request. And they were the ones.  Not typically shoes I would actually wear, but my theory on wedding shoes is that nobody can see them {hello, I'm wearing kind of a long dress}.  I tried these shoes on and they were like orthopedic sandals {I promise, they don't look like that}.  They were also a spectacular price. Wedding shoes-check.

Wedding Dress

My dress came in a few weeks ago, and while I was in town we went to pick it up.  We had a slight panic moment when my mom could not get it to zip up {worst.nightmare.}. But then the lady told us we were putting it on wrong {Rachel, we will have to practice!}. It did in fact fit, and we had to actually take it to a tailor to get it correctly fitted {a bit to big, ironically}. I'm holding my breath on this dress, because I fluctuate weight so much, it could either be too big or too small at the time of the wedding. I'm holding out hope for just right {when I was in second grade, I was Goldilocks in the class play "Goldilocks Goes to Court"}.

Rehearsal Dinner

We actually did not have much luck in this arena. Kyle came into town on Wednesday and we took him to a few places to eat we thought maybe we could have the rehearsal dinner.  The first place we went to we had never tried before.  It was a little Italian Restaurant/Pizzeria. It took us literally two hours to get our food.  Apparently the cook either quit or was missing or sick or something, and the manager had to cook instead. The owner eventually came out and apologized {as someone dropped a bunch of plates in the background}. I actually felt sorry for the guy.  But it was quickly crossed of the list.  The second place was a chain Mexican Restaurant that is very good, but too loud and there isn't an actual private area.

Venue

We took Kyle by Circle R {he had never seen it!} and he decided he wants to live there.  While we were there I made 5989 decisions, rapid fire, which is totally against my nature.  My mom and Kyle thought I had gone mad, I was making decisions so quickly.  {Cake table in that corner, cover the soda machines, head table there, guest book there}. I still have to decide on linens and centerpieces but that is about it for the venue!

Save-the-Dates

Walmart.com guys. Seriously, these other places are more expensive. We still have to order them, but I already have it pre-made, so that all my mom has to do is go pick them up. We just have to count how many we need.

Cake Tasting

Wedding. Cake. Forget tax breaks, this is incentive enough to get married. Another decision I made quickly and am quite proud of myself.  After we put down the down payment, my dad texted my mom to let her know that Sam's makes wedding cakes. I probably would've been okay with that. Oh well.  My pink champagne and white cake with a raspberry jelly filling will be spectacular.

Things Still Needed:
-Final decorations for the Ranch
-DJ
-Photographer
-Rehearsal Dinner {Kyle's mom has got this almost figured out I think}
-Honeymoon :)
-Hotel Blocks
-Invitations
-Get the rest of addresses

Pretty good for 9 months out before the wedding, if I may say so myself!

On another note, I am awful at picking college basketball wins.

The Philosophy of a Blizzard

Yesterday it was a nice 70 degrees. I felt silly wearing tights. In the midst of my endless outlining and four hours of conlaw reading, I paused to check the weather. I've recently decided I actually like cold weather and snow and Texas is not a great place to live once you make that decision. I've gotten into the habit of checking the weather every now and then to see if there is any possibility of snow. There was! It was 70 degrees outside and there was a 30% chance of snow. This didn't surprise me, since Kyle's mom had told me they were expecting more snow in Dumas. And Texas weather is weird. My freshmen year of college, I went into a Latin final wearing flip flops. When I was done there was snow on the ground.

So I got excited about the possibility of snow. THEN about four hours later, in the library, Kyle's phone went off with a National Weather Service Alert. BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT. I'm sorry...WHAT?!? We have blizzards in Texas?!?! Yes. Apparently we do.

So classes were canceled today (of course they can't tell you until 7 am once you're already awake). And I've decided I approve of blizzards. At first I was freaked out. My idea of a blizzard is Charles Ingalls getting caught in one for three days and having to eat the Christmas candy. I told Kyle as much and he said "I never saw that episode". To which I cried inside because I'm not even sure he knows there are books and they are based on the author's own life. But anyway, back to blizzards. I opened my blinds and watched the snow blow around and it was actually quite pretty (at least from the safety and warmth of my apartment). Apparently driving conditions were white out. I'm sure all of my northern friends (fink) are cracking up at this, but there's no way I was going outside.

Just the best books ever. 

I stayed in my pjs all day, drank coffee, and outlined. It was like a gift from above to have a whole extra day to outline. I went to Amarillo on Saturday to watch Kyle's niece do gymnastics (adorable) and lost about 4 hours of studying. I got that back plus some. Yes. I'm a nerd. I was excited about outlining. And I'm not even done yet. Classes are delayed tomorrow but I'm waking up to hopefully finish my conlaw outline (which after a month and a half of classes is longer than my outlines from all of last semester--oy).

I took some time off too though; somehow, I convinced Kyle to watch Little Women with me. Which is my all time favorite book and one of my favorite movie adaptations of a book. Along with Almanzo Wilder, Laurie was my fictional crush growing up. They are the only two men Kyle should be jealous of because I was in love with them both. I put the book down for a year when Jo turned him down. And I loved Jo. And wanted to be her! Anyway, that along with the Bracebridge Dinner Gilmore Girls episode made for the perfect Blizzard Day. I really could get used to these things...as long as I never have to step outside of my warm and toasty apartment and can watch my favorite movies and tv shows.

SAY YES JO, SAY YES!!!

I would do pretty much anything to live here.

Jess was always my favorite of Rory's boyfriends

My iced over window before it got even worse. 

By the way, it'll be in the 50s tomorrow. Oh Texas weather.

The Philosophy of Random Thoughts

I have been working on my outlines for the past 2 days straight, with very little sleep and very little breaks.  I am not sure if I have had too much coffee, or too little, or not enough food, but these are the thoughts that are running through my head:

-sovereign. Why after years of having to type that word out can I still NOT spell it correctly the first five times I type it? It is a weird word. Oddly spelled, oddly pronounced.
-judgment. This word should be spelled judgement and is the bane of every law school student.
-eachother should be one word. Anyone is one word, why isn't eachother?
-I am annoyed that word does not recongize latin spellings.
-I never know when to capitalize congress, constitution, state, or court. My notes are very inconsistent with that.
-I pass this picture at least 10 times a day in the Library stair well.  Is it a boy? Or a girl? Why does Texas Tech decorate their law school library in Native American themes? Why is this child sad?

...I think I have been doing this too long...

The Philosophy of the Circus

Last night Kyle and I went to Circus Gatti. It was actually my Valentine's Day gift to him. We are always looking for fun stuff to do in Lubbock and there was a Groupon, so I figured it would be something different to do. I haven't been to the circus since I was about five. My parents took me and my brothers to Barnum and Bailey's and I don't remember anything about the show. They bought us hats though. My brothers both bought jester hats. I wanted to be unique though and insisted I wanted a Dr. Seuss hat. It was tall and LSU colors. I was proud. When the vendor handed us our hats and walked away, though, I was bitterly disappointed. See my brothers' hats had bells on the ends; mine did not. Theirs made a fun jingling as they bounced up and down to the fun of the circus; mine did not. I spent the rest of the circus pouting. Who wants an unhappy kid at the circus?! I got home and discarded my fun and unique Dr. Seuss hat, envious of my brothers, the jesters. When I woke up, my mom had taken my hat and sewn bells on the top of my hat for me. I was ecstatic. Now I had the best of both worlds, bells and Dr. Seuss. I still have it today.

Now this circus was no greatest show on earth. It's a much smaller production and I knew that going in. But it was spectacular for how bad it was. Kyle and I had a blast. First, let's just ignore the fact that we were literally the only ones without kids {seriously? No college kids wanted to go to the circus?! } The show started late. Why? Because the performers were still selling tickets out front. Kyle got a big kick out of that. The first act was a hula-hooper. Granted it was like 10 hula-hoops at one time and I was seriously impressed. I mean I couldn't do that. And you know that girl was the COOLEST in her second grade class. The clown was just awful {he was also the announcer}, but the little kids all seemed to like him. They had a pack of creepy poodles who jumped in and out of rings and were just ugly {unless you like poodles}. There was a human hamster, who almost fell {his ring spun in the air}. There were pony and elephant rides. The last act was the elephants. I didn't realize how adorable I think elephants are until then. They grab onto each other's tails! So cute. These elephants were pretty talented too, and their trainer was a cute old man in a tux.

All in all it was a fun night away from a very hectic week full of work on my trial brief and worrying about being behind on outlines. I didn't get a Dr. Seuss hat, but it was a fun change from dinner and a movie every Friday!

The Philosophy of Crying

If you need a good cry {like tears streaming down your face}, watch this. I watched it and sobbed. Go get tissues before watching. Trust me. 

The Philosophy of Paper Cuts and New Shoes

Law school hurts. A lot. It hurts my brain from thinking so much. It hurts my eyes from reading so much. It hurts my back from carrying so many books. But most of all it hurts because of paper cuts. Yes. Paper cuts. They hurt! And for some reason, this semester's books and notes give more paper cuts than normal. They draw blood. Yes blood! And then, after they draw blood they burn. For days! I am not being dramatic. I promise. Kyle gave me some "liquid bandaid", which didn't help. At least I can someday show my children my scars from law school.

The other injury I currently have is a blister on my heel. I got it when my trusty tennis shoes decided to wear out on me in the middle of a run and the plastic literally came out of the heel. This came two days after Kyle told me I needed new shoes. To which I knowingly replied "nah, they've got a few years left". Well my shoes quickly informed me that I was in fact wrong. I hate it when my inanimate objects take Kyle's side. Granted, they were three years old, so they had a nice life.

Now tennis shoe shopping for most people is probably an easy thing. But for me it is a major affair. I'm not sure Kyle realized this when he offered to accompany me. I have very small feet. And very wide. And flat. Two hours of trying shoe after shoe after shoe. And then trying them on again. I finally found a decent pair that I hope will not give me blisters. And Kyle got a little test of what marriage will be like. I hope he doesn't borrow my shoes and run away 😉

The Philosophy of First Fridays

Kyle and I make a point to go out on a date every Friday night.  It is literally the only night of the week I take completely off and don't even let myself feel a little bit guilty (the other nights I take off I feel VERY guilty).  Usually we go out to dinner and watch a movie.  Because let's be honest, we live in Lubbock.  And what else is there to do? I look forward to these Fridays all week and they are the only thing getting me through law school.  They remind me of why I came to Tech, so that I could have Kyle near me and see him more than every 6 months.  I love our Friday date nights.  We try to be creative sometimes, but it is hard with little money and again...Lubbock. But this Friday we went to what is called First Friday Art Trail.  We actually heard about this a while ago and had planned on trying it last semester, but for some reason never did.  Bryan has a First Friday's in their downtown and we would go to that almost every  month when we lived in College Station.  In fact, one of our first dates was a KTB date party in downtown Bryan on a First Friday.  Sometimes they would have movies in their outdoor theater, always have street musicians (my favorite), and it was fun to walk around and look in the antique shops and eat at the yummy restaurants.  So when we found out Lubbock had something similar, we definitely wanted to try it.  Lubbock's doesn't have any restaurants nearby, which is disappointing  so we ate at a new (to us) Mexican restaurant (will not be going back) and then spent 20 minutes trying to find the gallery my friend had told us to start at.  Once we finally figured out where everything was, we parked and walked around.  Lubbock's is focused on art and it consists of a bunch of galleries and shops that open their doors and show art.  It was actually really cool.  Kyle and I both enjoy art (we only hate the stuff that we could do ourselves).  It is kind of funny because we so obviously don't fit with the crowd that was there.  It is one of my pet peeves that liberal hipsters have a monopoly on being artsy and trendy, but that is a whole other blog post for another day lol.  I think we will be going back every few months! We found out that there is a pizza truck that serves delicious pizza on the streets, so I think we be trying that next time instead of a not so great Mexican place.

This was entitled "Alzheimers: For My Mom"  My grandma has alzheimers so I was really moved by it. 

Kyle and I at our first First Friday together in Bryan.  Look how young he looks!! 

Kyle and I probably like photography more than art haha. This was a picture after a tornado. 

The Philosophy of Engagement Pictures

So Kyle and I did our engagement pictures about a month after we got engaged.  One of my KTB sisters had told me about a friend of hers who was starting a photography company with her husband.  I looked up her blog, loved her pictures, and sent her a message.  I was already living in Dallas at the time, and actually Kyle had graduated as well.  We knew we wanted to do our pictures in College Station, since that's where we met, where we fell in love, all that good stuff.  But the problem was we were only going to be there for one more weekend for our friends' wedding, which Kyle was in.  We made a hasty decision to do the pictures then (the photographer was in College Station), and somehow miraculously fit them in on our trip.  We made the 4 hour drive from my house, stopped at our friends and changed (redid hair and makeup for me), and hurried to meet them.  It was like 125 degrees outside, even though it was the evening, and so some of the pictures, unfortunately (be ready to be grossed out), I'm sweating in haha. There was also a mosquito epidemic in College Station that day (I swear), and I got, I think, 19 bites on my legs all in all. We got a ton of really great pictures though, and all in all I was thrilled by them!  Aly and Ryan were so sweet to work with and we had fun combining their ideas with my pinterest findings.  We did pictures on campus, and at our church, St. Mary's.

Make sure to check out our photographer's blog too!  Make My Day Photography! (their last name is Day...isn't that clever?).

This is the building where we had our shared class...for three days.
Also where I had 75%  of my philosophy classes. 

I actually really love these pictures without our heads...is that weird?

Kyle was really uncomfortable during this picture, and I couldn't figure out why.
Turns out, he didn't want my parents to see a picture where he was looking at my butt,
so he made a point to not. hahaha.  The things he thinks about. 

Kyle got his football, I got my baseball. They are now on his mantle :)

I absolutely adore this picture. Doesn't it just look like we're having a laugh with Mama Mary?

h

Pinky Promise

The bubbles sat in his car for a good 6 hours...and were so mushy we couldn't blow a bubble!
I was so sad, i wanted a picture like this.  But I actually think it is kind of cute.

One of my favorites. Poor Kyle though, it hurt his back. 

There was actually an event going on in the Church and we were paranoid they would
open the door with us there...which they did eventually lol.