Have You Ever?

Well ladies and gentlemen - I DID IT!!! I finished my last exam Wednesday evening around 10:40 and I gotta tell ya, being a SECOND YEAR law student is a serious feeling. Unfortunately for me - I have class on Monday. Sigh. But guess what, that's life.

Have you ever looked back and asked if you would've done it differently if you could do it over? I must say, i never have really had a bad case of Hindsight until now. Funny thing is - what I want to do over has nothing to do with my grades. Sometimes people don't really turn out to be what you thought they were. What's a real shame about being an adult, is that time for easy relationship-building is fading fast. Soon you'll be at an office full of people you hate with a job that sux and a boss that sux worse. When I get a phone call from Layne or an AIM from Andrew or anything from a number of people from "home" or "back in the old days"; I smile.

It's a shame when you invest in a hope that people will be the same today as tomorrow: that they will even BE here tomorrow - or that they'll be the same as you thought they were yesterday.

Some people can be a real waste of valuable time - and I can't get it back...

Random

These past few days have been really random. Wendesday Jay was really sick, so after the final I went to get him flowers. While there I made friends with John, the owner of the shop. Turns out my friend John, has a law degree from UCLA. He is also a third generation immigrant and a Republican. John and I get along quite well - and he went to his car and brought me a book to read: In Defense of Elitism by William Henry III. I'm so excited - I have a new friend.

Friday after the last scheduled final, all the 1Ls [who are now 2Ls] rushed out into the atrium, and then just stood there. We can't really believe it's over. So strong is our sense of disbelief that we weren't sure what to do - we just stood around for a while. Should we go home, relax? Sleep? What? We have no books, it's OVER. IT'S A GREAT FEELING LADIES AND GENTS.

Friday night, Jay, Judd, Jean, Dan, Judd's Dad, and I went to Geoffrey's for supper. It was unbelievable: mmm soo good. The ocean view; the great food, the attentive and snotty waiters: wonderful. :-) Wouldn't want to make a habit of it but every once and while; its great.

Afterwards, Jay and I talked for a while and looked at yarn for Hannah Parmalee's baby blanket. Around 12:30 or so he left and I went to bed. Saturday was also a blast. Jessica and I had lunch and then went to the Parmalee's for Hannah's surprise B-day party. Then Jessica and Thomas Griffen and I watched the village which I HEART. :-)

I'm gonna get some studying in for Torts today; and maybe do a practice test or something. It feels wierd with almost everyone out of the dorms and me still here - studying. It's cool. This whole next week is dead time so besides the tests I'm free :-)

Jay will be back on Monday night and we start summer school Trial Practice on Tuesday. [I actually start that Monday - I have Ethics. ] This is gonna be a killer summer; even though it's not in Texas.

Update

Well; it's FINALLY OVER!! Well at least it is for everyone else. I'm sure you've all heard already but just in case you haven't, we'll do a quick recap:

1. Back pain gets worse - she goes to the specialist
2. Specialist needs new x-rays, films, and an MRI
3. New meds give me anaphylactic shock - EMTs come...
4. We find out what's wrong at the doc's
5. Shock again
6. New meds and she gets bed rest for a week
7. She misses the first week of finals and is now going to make them up tomorrow and Wednesday


See; nothing to it!

So I Didn't Make the Team

But I think that I have had just about enough of politics making decisioins. The tryouts were almost as poorly run as the first year moot. Different people judging each round? A different NUMBER of people judging each round?

I mean, I thought this was about MERIT. This is what I do and what I do well. I am not at all pleased with the way this turned out. Furthermore I would like to know how the Moot Court Board, made up of people who are NOT all on the team gets to make decisions like this.

If this really were a merit based system I would be fine. If this were a system in which tryouts were run fairly and consistently I would also be fine.

There was quite a lot I could have done for this school. I competed very well for ACU and brought its name to be among the top five debate programs in the nation.

It is simply unreasonable to me that someone with talent and dedication to offer has to ride the bench.

Trial team I will do. And will I do Arabian - yes I will. If I win, would I accept an invitation to compete from them, probably not after the way this has gone.

I came here for many reasons, one was human rights, and the other was advocacy. I came here for many reasons, one was human rights, and the other was advocacy. This system is run so poorly it cheats the school and the students out of the chance to have their best advocates represent them.This system is run so poorly it cheats the school and the students out of the chance to have their best advocates represent them.

Bluebonnets

I tell you what - I do indeed miss my Texas Bluebonnets!!

This week has been a bit busy for me. Friday Chris and I had our interview with the Mentor Week Co-Chairs so that we could be mentor group leaders for the 1Ls in the fall. We don't find out till the end of this week. I had kind of a long weekend after that: We all had lunch with Judd's mom who came in from Virginia.

After Contracts that day - my last class - I slept till 7:00, did homework till 8:30 - then sat around talking with Jay till like 1:30 in the morning. Saturday I went to look at the house I'm hoping to move into on June first. Sunday of course, was Easter Sunday. Jay went to the late service with me and he enjoyed it :)

Sunday evening Jay, Judd, Dan, Mona, and I ate at Coogies AND WE SAW BRITTANY SPEARS. My Malibu experience is complete.

My Mystery Man helped me prep for my Moot Court tryout from 9:00 that evening till 12:30 am.

I tried out Monday morning...and now we wait!!

In the meantime...I JUST WANT SOME BLUEBONNETS!!!

or daisies...

Moot Team :-)

COULD I BE ANY COOLER??

From: sol-info@law.pepperdine.edu
Subject: Interschool Appellate Advocacy Competition Team Selection
Date: April 10, 2006 4:48:06 PM PDT
To: Community@law.pepperdine.edu
Reply-To: katrina.olson@pepperdine.edu

We would like thank the 92 students (20% of the 1L and 2L classes) who applied for the Pepperdine Interschool Moot Court Competition Team.

The following students have been selected, based on the writing samples submitted, to advance to the next step of the process, the oral tryouts:

Elizabeth Alvarez
Dan Bane
Hailey Benton
Brad Benham
Kyle Cox
Ari Friedman
Sally Goodfellow
Gunnar Gundersen
Wendi Gundersen
Melissa Higashi
K. Jake Hoffenagle
Jennifer Holliday-Bowden
Ted Holmquist
Mary Huebert
Erik Johnson
Joseph Le
Daniel Lengeman
Jean Loh
Audrey Maness
Jeffrey McDonald
Royi Moas
Jackson Moll
Justin Parkey
Andrea Prohaska
Natalie Rainforth
Emily Riley
Brian Roach
Mary Skouras
Rebecca Shult
Lauren Skophammer
Joshua Snead
Jamin Soderstrom
Kari Sowers
Emily Wallerstein
Eric Willis
Dina Yadegarian

Because of Passover and Easter, the orals tryouts will be held Monday and Tuesday, April 17 and 18. The students listed are invited to sign-up for a time slot with Patty Hayes in Room 206 (the Alumni Office next to the Deans' Suite) starting Wednesday morning.

Please do not be discouraged if you were not selected this time around. It is a highly competitive process here at Pepperdine Law School. We encourage you to participate in the Arabian Appellate Advocacy Competition in the Fall and submit an application in the Fall for the Spring 2007 Team.

Nancy McGinnis
Nancy L.N. McGinnis
Associate Dean
Advancement, Alumni and Public Affairs
310.506.6454

VICTORY

I feel as if I never left.

WELL ladies and gentlemen - today was the 1st Year Moot. Let me just say that with my timer in hand, the same timer that has been with me since round one in Mercedes High School in the Fall of 1997, I felt right at home. I cannot TELL you how many rounds that timer has been through. Policy, LD, extemp, whatever man - you name it I've been there w/ that timer. Jay cut the speaker lines and today, on March 25, 2006, that timer went to it's first Appellate Advocacy Round.

I have been working hard on this for two weeks, and this morning I was ready. I knocked it out of the park. :-) After the round was over, my judges said I was the best performance they had seen out of a first year EVER!! Then, later that afternoon, I went off brief on the WRONG issue and STILL was told I was the best in the room and MUST be on the Moot Traveling team.

I am too exhuasted to finish this. But now this is ALL over I will be well rested and can write more this week :-).