My non-babysitting time is so limited, I find it hard to justify blogs these days. I miss writing, but since I only have about 30-35 daylight hours a week to work on schoolwork, and about 50-60-100 hours of schoolwork to do in that time (really you could work all day and night and still have more to do, were you a masochist), I have forced myself to stay away. This bites. Now we’re trying to get Jack into daycare, and just as I thought may happen, everywhere has a year waiting list (or rather – there are 14 two year olds in front of yours on the list, we may have space in a year when they all turn three, and then we’ll have to tell you about the space we have for three year olds, so call us back in 2011! Bye now!) And I’m like – screw law school! Clearly what this city needs is more childcare centers. There is money to be made in New Orleans, friends, you heard it from me.
Now we’re looking at hiring an undergrad or somebody to supervise him for at least a few hours in the morning. At ten bucks an hour, though, we’ll be paying the same money as we would for full time care, and that BITES. Plus he won’t get interaction with other kids. Plus we only have one laptop and we’d both have to leave and who gets the computer to work on? And who has to (gasp!) write crap out by hand? Sometimes thinking about all of this, and about how law school is getting more intense as the semester winds on, and about how Jack’s naps are getting shorter and shorter and how the only person he wants these days is me me me – it makes me do a death spiral of despair. Also I am thinking about getting a part time job, because our money is due to run out in approximately April, and I’d rather it, uh, not run out. We have access to more loans, but, as you can imagine – we’d rather not. But I won’t work for some lousy seven buck an hour deal, because that ain’t going to do us any good, and there aren’t many jobs that pay more than that, and I . . . am feeling the pressure, shall we say.
But, do note, I would rather be here floundering and losing my mind over deadlines than working at my previous job. Nothing is worse than working there was, nothing.
We had practice exams last week, and I did well on a couple and poorly on a couple. In the latter two classes I have some restructuring to do in the way I approach exams and study, because the profs have different ideas than I had thought they did. Most profs like you to know basic rules of law and how to apply new fact patterns to those rules. These profs also want you to cite authority for those rules, that is, to know the names and courts that cases were decided, know statutes and model codes that we’ve gone over, etc. Every law school book I’ve read says not to worry about that stuff because that’s not what profs are looking for on exams, but nobody told these two, so suddenly every 1L study group at my law school is scrambling to go back and write in all the stuff we didn’t record because we didn’t think it was important. This makes my heart beat a little faster. If I don’t do better than most of my class on these exams (they are graded on a curve, and they are your only grade for the class), then I lose my scholarship, and then we’re really up a creek. Free law school is one thing, but law school that costs a bazillion more dollars in loans was not in our plan, and I wouldn’t really know what to do if faced with that prospect.
Can you hear the desperation? It’s Halloween and I’m feeling spooked.
Anyway, as my title suggests, I’d better go start working on that memo I need to be drafting in the fifteen or so minutes I have before my kid wakes up and wants me to hold him all day. I hope I can make it. I hope I can do all of this.
Now we’re looking at hiring an undergrad or somebody to supervise him for at least a few hours in the morning. At ten bucks an hour, though, we’ll be paying the same money as we would for full time care, and that BITES. Plus he won’t get interaction with other kids. Plus we only have one laptop and we’d both have to leave and who gets the computer to work on? And who has to (gasp!) write crap out by hand? Sometimes thinking about all of this, and about how law school is getting more intense as the semester winds on, and about how Jack’s naps are getting shorter and shorter and how the only person he wants these days is me me me – it makes me do a death spiral of despair. Also I am thinking about getting a part time job, because our money is due to run out in approximately April, and I’d rather it, uh, not run out. We have access to more loans, but, as you can imagine – we’d rather not. But I won’t work for some lousy seven buck an hour deal, because that ain’t going to do us any good, and there aren’t many jobs that pay more than that, and I . . . am feeling the pressure, shall we say.
But, do note, I would rather be here floundering and losing my mind over deadlines than working at my previous job. Nothing is worse than working there was, nothing.
We had practice exams last week, and I did well on a couple and poorly on a couple. In the latter two classes I have some restructuring to do in the way I approach exams and study, because the profs have different ideas than I had thought they did. Most profs like you to know basic rules of law and how to apply new fact patterns to those rules. These profs also want you to cite authority for those rules, that is, to know the names and courts that cases were decided, know statutes and model codes that we’ve gone over, etc. Every law school book I’ve read says not to worry about that stuff because that’s not what profs are looking for on exams, but nobody told these two, so suddenly every 1L study group at my law school is scrambling to go back and write in all the stuff we didn’t record because we didn’t think it was important. This makes my heart beat a little faster. If I don’t do better than most of my class on these exams (they are graded on a curve, and they are your only grade for the class), then I lose my scholarship, and then we’re really up a creek. Free law school is one thing, but law school that costs a bazillion more dollars in loans was not in our plan, and I wouldn’t really know what to do if faced with that prospect.
Can you hear the desperation? It’s Halloween and I’m feeling spooked.
Anyway, as my title suggests, I’d better go start working on that memo I need to be drafting in the fifteen or so minutes I have before my kid wakes up and wants me to hold him all day. I hope I can make it. I hope I can do all of this.
Just remember that whiskey makes problems go away. Put that flask to work for you!
I felt my stress level rise astronomically just reading this! My unsolicited advice is to do whatever you can to avoid taking on a job until after 1L. You are already juggling so much. Even though the dynamics of law school have changed with the down economy, I still think 1L year is the most important by far. Of course if you\’re stressed about making ends meet, that won\’t be conducive to studying either. But cut yourself a break in the long-term plans and goals and just get through this first year of school. Also, I have to say you manage to write some really great posts with such limited time!