Graduation

What else can I say right now. I had such a hectic last couple weeks:

getting the public interest award from the bar,
job application due dates,
finally get the OK to get admitted to the bar,
an interview,
an exam, then a paper due the next day, then a mock hearing yesterday,

And now...I finally graduated.

It hasn't sunk in yet. I don't know when it will. I feel so exhausted and happy and I want to hurry up and find those classmates who are leaving town soon, so I can say goodbye and wish them well.

And I want to get back to "real life." The life I left behind wasn't based on "book" learning: it was about the lessons you learn from going through births and deaths and marriages and relationships. The law still seems like a big bunch of theory with a question at the end that won't be answered until I am actually able to help someone with my degree.

Not to say I haven't had a life while in law school, but it was one that centered around classmates and classes and intellectual growth, and trying to figure out how to best use the things about practicing law that I am good at and to decipher the hard parts enough to get through them.

I thought the giant question mark would scare me, but it really is a world of possibility.

And I am ready to take that on.

LMAO

Yep, I have been feeling a little bad about not having a job, but I found this blog, which makes me feel like a million bucks in comparison to some poor saps out there.

My favorite of course, is the infamous naked wizard gets tazed video, for obvious reasons.

Hilarious Celebrity Apprentice Quote

In the board room:

Ivanka Trump: "These are the things that most project managers wouldn't forgo the opportunity to be a part of."

Brady (former Playmate) "I didn't "forgoo" anything."

Wow. This woman is an idiot. LOL!

Finally - my paralegal experience pays off

Throughout law school, I have been shocked and sometimes upset with how easily my fellow law students and potential employers have dismissed my years of paralegal experience. I worked hard at that job. I helped build a firm from the ground up. I happened to have worked for someone who trusted me and who gave me a long rope (which I sometimes attempted to wrap around my own neck out of frustration. That enabled me to develop an advertising mechanism that doubled the net profit of the firm from that point on. I hired and trained staff, including attorneys. I learned how to handle conflict, both with clients and the sometimes ornery opposing counsel in our cases.

Frankly, I kicked ass at that job. The owner told me I had to go to law school because I had a knack for the business and communication portions of law practice. I was successful, and sometimes, when the joblessness brings up that tiny bit of fear about the future that sometimes ebbs when I feel stressed, I wish I could go back to that job.

Which makes it even harder when the skills I honed there are so easily disregarded as unimportant. Paralegals really are the ones running most law firms. They provide continuity, mediate disputes among staff, ensure quality work product and keep the firm on an even keel.

This morning, I got a call from a firm I applied to. Granted, I didn't really want to start applying to jobs at law firms, but it's a small planitiffs' firm, which doesn't offend my public interest sensibilities. The woman who called immediately told me that the firm had decided to hire someone with 3-5 years of experience, but that they loved my resume and experience, and wanted to consider my paralegal experience as fulfilling that requirement. Hallelujah!

The scary thing is that they want someone who can start up a bankruptcy/debtors' rights practice for them. I have a ton of experience in this area, but not as an attorney. The thought of doing all of that on my own scares me, but is also exciting. In this economy, bankruptcy is booming, and I should take advantage of my knowledge in that area.

I really just want to save the world though.

Still jobless. Have company.

So, update is that I am still job hunting. The good news is that:

a) I am by far not the only one. Some of my smartest, most competent friends and family are still looking too, so I don't feel too inadequate because of my unemployment.
2) I have an interview in my hometown for a job on Wednesday. Please God, let me get that job. It pays almost nothing, but it's doing really good, important work.

The job is at a legal services place, and I would probably have to improve my ability to speak Spanish by about a million percent if I got it, but I think I could really love the work. Can you imagine loving your job? I didn't used to, but I can see loving this. Helping people eliminate barriers to employment is a great thing. Who wouldn't want that job?

OK, the bad thing is that I can't let myself get too excited about it. Period. A crushing defeat might be too much for me right now. How about a tenuous optimism? That sounds very good.

My own ecomonic crisis

So, I am running out of money. Fast. I knew when I started law school that my savings would be out by the middle of this school year, and that I would have to rely 100% on student loans. Then my significant other lost his job.

And it has been rough. No spring break trips for us. While classmates headed to Florida and Mexico and other warm destinations, we went on a day trip an hour away to visit friends. I am not complaining - I had a good time. It just is hard to have two people in my household looking for jobs, and being so incredibly low on money. His car needed a new transmission 2 weeks ago. We actually found out about that $1700 bill the same day he got into an accident with an uninsured driver. There goes $2,200.

I figured out that we will be out of money entirely by the middle of June, and I will have to start waitressing or something. No shame in that, but it is a little odd for someone with a law degree to be waiting tables again.

One step forward, two steps back.

He went to a teachers job fair this morning. Said that he handed out his resume and chatted up some people, but no one was interviewing people with his specialty area. I am happy that he went. I think that both of us need to improve our confidence - and you can't do that staying at home!

For those soon-to-be law students reading this, be aware that these are bizarre times. Normally, more than half my class would have jobs by now. Normally, I would have a damn job by now. However, before you go to law school, think about what you would do if you couldn't find a job after. Seriously.

Who knew?

Who knew that after high school, an Associates Degree and a B.A. I would finally catch "senioritis" now? While I like one of my classes, the other two are downright painful at times. I do the reading, but my heart's not in it anymore. I can barely sit through our student government meetings, as the closeminded attitudes of my schoolmates are now unbearable. I need to be done with school. Seriously.

Thank god I don't have a job, or I would really be slacking off!

The most amazing room in the Student Union

My friend is doing a panel at the law school today. And her bus lets her off at the Student Union. So I decided to study here for a while. I went upstairs and found this amazing room. Very quiet, with windows overlooking the lake, but not so many windows that its distracting.

I have been getting a lot done here. I might just stay.

In other news, I still don't have a job. Since that's the way things have been for a while, I guess it is not news after all.

Wide world of Apathy

Reading this blog, you might think that nothing has happened in the past 30 days, but lots of stuff has...I have just been too busy, lazy and apathetic to blog about it. I think it might be good that I am spending enough time living life that I don't have energy left to write about it.

We have a new President, and he's got a tough job ahead of himself.

I went to New Orleans, and loved the experience again, especially the friends, legal work and food part.

When I returned from New Orleans, I found that my boyfriend is the recession's newest victim, and we are now much much more impoverished than we were before.

More on all this later. I am in Worker's Comp class right now, and I should be trying to learn some things.

Well well well, who do we have here

It's me! Sorry for the really really long absence, but I just got really really busy! While we were on hiatus, the following happened:

• The boyfriend's sister had a beautiful baby girl.
• I finished the semester.
  
• I took my Real Estate exam. It went OK.
• I took my Tax exam. It was insanely hard. More on that later.
  
• Finished the Court internship. Judge said he would happily give me a reference. Great!
• Holidays were fun. Spent time with family. Mildly irritated by some in-laws.
  
• Got Wii Fit. In pain from Wii Fit.
  
• Tonight is New Year's Eve. Going out to dinner with some wonderful people, than drinks here at the apartment. Still feeling the holiday vibe.
  
• No job yet. Actually, not much available in the way of jobs for me yet, but I knew that choosing gov't or public interest would cause that. Still hanging in there.
  

I keep getting teary-eyed about Obama's win

So, I kinda knew I would cry when Obama won the election. Actually, while I hoped he would win, I was still skeptical that we could pull it off. I think that I was a little burned out after 2 terms with the Moron. I also think that's how I kept getting dragged into phone banking and GOTV calls for him and HeadCount.

What I wasn't expecting is how touched everyone is about this victory. I feel so proud of our country for picking the smarter candidate and seeing past the Republicans' poisonous rhetoric.

I have been watching news shows like crazy (we cancelled our cable TV, effective tomorrow so we could still get election coverage) and every time they show someone else cry about this election, I do too. I even cried watching Jesse Jackson and he gets on my nerves normally Who knew that Oprah's runny mascara could move me so much?

I guess I am the official election crybaby. And damn proud of it.

Obama's grandma passed away

Sometimes, life just isn't fair. After sacrificing for and encouraging Obama so much, his grandma died last night/early this morning.

I can't imagine the terrible and strange mix of grief and anticipation for tomorrow that Barack and family must be feeling. It seems like such a shame that his Grandma won't get to see him become president.

Rest in peace Grandma Dunham.