and they lost his bag

even tho they never left the airport.

public grumbling

i mean, isn't that what having a blog is all about? and i managed to resist the temptation to do this re: my own frustration the other day (CVS pharmacy. don't even get me started), but this is someone else's hooplah and i feel sooooo bad and i wish i could do something, but since i can't, i'm going to vent on my blog.

so jared went up to NYC after the bar to look for a place to live. and for a number of reasons which i won't go into, the whole thing was a total bust. and that's bad enough b/c but for something totally beyond his control, he could have had a place and now he's got to go back up and deal with it all again.

anyways. so he was flying back today. and was to arrive back at 3:50. until they started delaying and cancelling all the flights. so now it is 8pm and they have just cancelled the last flight. so he has to drive. meaning he will not be here til like 4am.

but he has been at the airport since 11am and if he had known this all those hours ago, he could have just driven and been home already!

and that would suck enough, but it's made worse by the fact that the whole week was a waste and this is just another thing. and the fact that the movers are showing up at 8am to move us. and if it was all going to just be like this, he coulda been here all week doing all the other things he/we could have been doing!

also, i'm a bit bummed b/c i was really excited about having dinner at cassis tonight! ooooh it was going to be so delicious. not that my pasta and four cheese pasta sauce, which is the closest approximation i could come to "protein" in my remaining foodstuffs. anyways.

so it just really really sucks. ugh. being in an airport all day sucks. having to drive 6 hours after you've been in an airport all day really really really sucks. having to do that and then wake up at 8am to do the last minute things involved in moving really really really really sucks.

and i wish i could do something to make it better.

anyways, sorry for that. hope you're all having better days than jared is!

packing breaks my heart

my house is full of crap. lots and lots of little crap. crap i do not need to drag to a new home to clutter the place up before i've even settled in.

but every single bobby pin, or barrette i haven't ever worn, or chapstick from 1982, i just can't bring myself to throw away. don't get me wrong, i've thrown away bags and bags of trash. but every little thing has tugged at me, and told me not to throw it away.

currently, this is what is tugging at my hearstrings:

it's a plastic dinosaur that once sat atop a chapstick i bought. probably in high school. a chapstick i bought solely b/c this dinosaur sat atop it, i'm quite sure.

i think he's going to win. i just don't think i can get rid of him. LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS!

but if you're interested, i'm almost done. it's pretty much down to packing for australia and just boxing up the clothes that don't make the cut. and then dealing with the one or two boxes of totally random crap that you have no idea what to do with but have to take with you.

bye bye, charlottesville. =(

gar!

so i tried to sign up for pepco online, but then after doing so, it told me that it would take two business days to process internet orders, so i called so it would be set up by monday when i move.

then it was an automated system. A DEAF AUTOMATED SYSTEM that would get everything i told it wrong. so that i would have to repeat everything like four times and then listen while it would slowly repeat back to me, "i think what you said is [something totally different than what i said.]"

and finally i just couldn't take it anymore and i was like, "THERE ISN'T A SECOND ACCOUNT HOLDER!" (because it hadn't given me a chance to correct that screw-up it had made in discerning between my yes and no. and it said, "i think what you said is that you would like to speak to a customer representative. is that correct?" to which i yelled, "YES!" and it replied, "i cannot understand if you said yes or no."

i guess it is not programmed to understand words thru frustration, which seems like a flaw in an automated system that companies are trying to use to make processes longer and more drawn out and agonizing for consumers.

anyways, i got a nice lady and we set up my account in mere minutes. at the end, i told her that she was much more helpful that the automated system. she got a chuckle out of that. i also think it would have been fair for her to say, "well i would hope so! those systems suck!"

ok people

those of you who are winding up here by googling things like "2007 virginia bar exam questions," "2007 new york bar exam questions," and "2007 california bar exam questions" REALLY NEED TO RELAX! it's over. breathe deeply. and desperately try to forget about it for the next few months.

out of curiosity, are there people who are posting substantively about their bar-taking experience? like what they thought things were? and is that what y'all are looking for? i suppose i could learn the answer to that if i were better at finding things on the internet (i have said that i am probably the only person who couldn't find porn on the internet) and if my internet connection hadn't been so slow all summer.

anyways, i'm going to go back to sitting on my couch and thinking about the fact that i really should be packing.

this looks like something i'd do

i found these pictures on cuteoverload.com

my wish

i wish you could just electro-shock out the part of your brain with the bar questions.

not all that knowledge we've been cramming in there all summer. i kinda like a lot of that stuff. i mean, the eight ways to end an easement are a part of my heart and soul now.

what i mean are the questions they actually asked. hell, i'd even keep those b/c i've gotten pretty good at ignoring them.

but what i would get rid of get rid of get rid of and what makes me cringe at least four times an hour...it's the answers i wrote. the really really wrong ones. i mean, some of my essays might have been wrong, but at least i don't know that b/c i've mostly done an admirable job of not looking things up to figure out how wrong i am.

only not always. i may have looked up a couple of things to figure out how wrong i was. specifically i'm talking about the one where i talked about the doctrine of worthier title. ONLY THERE WAS NO DOCTRINE OF WORTHIER TITLE. and then i quit writing, having based my entire answer on something that was not at all the doctrine of worthier title. or something.

i'm sorry that i tried to post about that.

i'm going to miss the bar

yes, i know that you'll all call me sick and wonder what's wrong with me. but i will. it's been a good summer. it's four hours of class a day. yes, i know it's early. but still. four hours. and then the rest of the day to do with as you will. i really should have been better about spending that time with my friends and whatnot, but still, that's my fault, not the bar's. and well, i can't explain it, i just didn't think it was really bad. plus, we were working towards something and i liked that. i can't explain it.

and i enjoyed sitting in the big room with 951 other people. it was such camaraderie! all that energy and nerves and a healthy dose of the sheer ridiculousness of it all. i mean, it was funny. the big plastic bags, the suits with sneakers, the 482 times they explained to you what your applicant number was. it was good stuff.

and now it's over and my life is all purposeless! (ok, so i have a month of travel to look forward to and i am uber-excited about that.)

but i think the real thing that makes me sad that the bar is over is what comes after.

the real world.

the real world comes next. and i just don't know if i'm ready for the real world. i have a strong suspicion i'm not really.

my thoughts on the bar

well, day one is over. and there's not doubt in my mind that today is the worse of the two days. to some degree that's b/c today covered about 18 topics, most of which i'd never had in school, whereas tomorrow is just six, almost all of which we've covered in school (i never took any crim pro. i'm wishing i had.). and to some degree it's probably b/c i had barely managed to sit thru one essay question before today, let alone an entire series of 5 of them.

off the bat, i'd like to say that this summer wasn't at all what i thought it would be. mostly b/c it didn't suck anywhere near as much. well, it actually didn't suck at all. class 4 hours a day isn't so bad. and i got to be in cville with all of my friends for one last summer. but above all, it's b/c i didn't freak out like i thought i would. and when i say "i," i mean all of us. i mean, i rememeber us first year. and i was the worst of them. i was an emotional wreck during finals and i'd be up all the time and i'd cry spontaneously and ooooh, it was just bad. and of course, you barely remember what that's like by third year, when you're just like, "exams schmexams." but i know myself and i was really worried i was going to be like that again, stressed all summer for 3 solid months. crying at the drop of a hat. hating my life. only it wasn't. and i would like to say hurrah for that.

but that's not my point.

so you spend all summer studying for this. diligently going to bar-bri classes while they teach you the law and point out the highlights and tell you the things that are certain to show up. you look at the big books and realize it's impossible to learn everything and you just try to get down what you've got in the 140 page typed file you've saved as "condensed notes" on your computer, focusing on the things that are just sure to be on there.

in the week approaching the exam, you start to feel pretty good. i mean, you know this stuff! you could almost recite this binder!

you feverishly try to read every single bar-bri practice essay. well, you try to answer them, but it's always so disheartening b/c they expect you to know things like the duty of a corporation for snow removal in the state (i mean Commonwealth) of virginia. so you think thru each one and then read the model answers, figuring that maybe if you can read all of them and commit them to memory, maybe you'll learn everything they could possibly ask.

only it turns out that of course they're not going to ask those questions. as a matter of fact, despite the fact that you know hundreds of pages of typewritten notes, they're not going to ask you almost any of those things. they'll ask you questions that will leave you going thru a mental list of every topic you covered in class this summer, trying to figure out if this question fits in that topic. because you really can't figure out what this question is getting at. after all, it's the 9th of 9 questions and you've still got approximately 14 bar-bri topics you still haven't had a question on, and approximately 18 gazillion facts you DO know that they haven't given you any opportunity to tell them. your heart will leap when you start the question with "testator leaves a will," but then fall immediately when the question tells you it was duly executed and dashes all your hopes regarding spouting out the 15 pages of wills knowledge you possess.

so here's what i'm thinking. they tell you all along that law school doesn't prepare you for practicing the law. and then they you spend a summer trying to rote memorize every single aspect of the applicable law in virginia. it doesn't seem like this could possibly prepare you for practicing the law either.

but maybe that isn't what they're really doing. they're throwing out some totally obscure question that there's no way you will have actually learned the law on. but you're going to hopefully have the knowledge of everything else that might possibly lead you to that answer, and you're going to have to think on your feet and piece it all together and get your bearings til you've made up an answer that's going to pass muster. and that does kinda sound like what being a lawyer is. plus, you're wearing a suit and sneakers, and what's more lawyerly than that?

of course, some of you (ahem, me) will just sit there for approximately 2 hours and 49 minutes twirling your hair w/o typing a single thing while wondering why those bastards couldn't give you an f'in wills question.

it's bar time!

so the bar is in....3 days? i think. and everyone else it seems is freaking out and studying. or something. i just can't bring myself to do it. tho my intel about people freaking out and studying is more from reading a couple of blogs and stuff, b/c it turns out that most of my friends seem to be on my page too. so that's good.

i'm getting worried, but i still haven't written out a single essay answer all summer. keep in mind we're supposed to do about 4 of these per day. ugh. so i'm a bit terrified, but also a bit....well, it's ok. i'm more worried about worrying about things like getting lost on my way to the civic center and if there will be enough parking and what to eat for lunch or where to get breakfast. or my biggest concern--how closely are they really looking at your pants to see if they're bona fide suit pants and not just elastic-waisted black pants that you usually wear to bed.

anyways, the following was forwarded to me by a friend and i found it absolutely hysterical. like i laughed more than probably anyone else will laugh at reading it. but oh how i loved it. so i'm sharing it with you.

and i'm going to put it on the page so you don't have to click a link, but since i'm now a terribly paranoid lawyer-type, let me make it very clear that it came from here and someone else gets all the credit for it.

Trials and Tribulations:What to Expect WhileTaking the Bar Exam
By JEREMY BLACHMAN
Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 13, 2006

True story: my assigned seat for the New York State bar exam last summer -- seat 1734 at Pier 90, if you're curious -- wasn't far from one of the bathrooms. I used it before the test. It wasn't anything special -- no hand soap, no paper towels, a not-entirely-pleasant smell -- but it was all in functioning order. I didn't think much of it. But at some point during the exam, I heard a crash coming from that direction. People looked up for an instant, but no one really reacted. A few hours later, I went to use the bathroom again. The stall door was no longer attached to the stall. I suppose it could have broken on its own, but I prefer to imagine some nervous test-taker came across a particularly thorny set of commercial paper questions, panicked, and in a fit of frustration, went to the bathroom and ripped the door right off its hinges. A little while later, I noticed a uniformed official checking out the bathroom and calling for backup. I don't know if they ever found out who did it. Or, more importantly, if he (or she?) ended up passing the exam.
If only the bathroom assailant had been wearing a catheter, the damage would have been avoided. Seriously. You hear rumors in law school about people wearing catheters to the bar exam so they don't lose precious minutes going to the bathroom. If only he (or she!) had been wearing a catheter, perhaps the stall would still be in one piece.

But no. The assailant couldn't have been wearing a catheter. How do I know this? Because you're not allowed to bring a catheter to the New York state bar exam. It's not on the list of approved items. The examiners are very specific about it. A gallon-sized clear plastic food storage-type bag containing your admission ticket, a government-issued photo ID, your wallet, tissues, pens, number two pencils, a beverage in a plastic container or juice box, a quiet snack or lunch, and hygiene products. No catheter. Unless that counts as a hygiene product. Maybe it should. I have a hunch what they mean by hygiene products -- males probably don't have to worry about them -- but everyone in the test center went to law school, so of course we're all going to wonder where they'd draw the line. What about a couple of q-tips so you can clean your ears in the middle of the exam? A toothbrush? A hair dryer? It says only the snack has to be quiet, not the hygiene products.

New York test-takers are pretty lucky when it comes to the quiet snack. All it needs to be is quiet. Pennsylvania requires that snacks be small -- they give gum and mints as examples -- and unwrapped. It makes me feel sorry for all those folks in Harrisburg who, when hunger hits six hours into the multiple-choice section, have no recourse other than to reach into their pockets for a handful of warm Hershey's Kisses. Other states have fun rules too. Virginia requires test-takers to wear suits (or a tie and jacket) to the exam. And it encourages soft-soled footwear, like tennis shoes. Suits and sneakers: the classic grade-school prom costume. My first inclination was to think the soft-soled policy was for comfort. But this is Virginia, in July. If they wanted the test-takers to be comfortable, in the hundred-degree heat, the suit's a bigger problem than the tennis shoes.

The California Bar provides a list of twenty-three approved items, including "up to two pillows without cases," "silent analog watches, timers and clocks not measuring larger than 4x4 inches or smaller," and "ear plugs or plastic material normally associated with the sport of swimming." Huh? Is there a swimming section on the California bar exam? Maybe that's why so many people fail. Or maybe they fail because the questions are written by the same guy who wrote the "not measuring larger than 4x4 inches or smaller" clause. That leaves clocks measuring… exactly 4x4 inches? I guess so. It must stem from some episode in which a test taker tried to wheel in a "good luck" grandfather clock. Or something.

Even putting aside the hours of enjoyment you can have packing your test-day clear plastic storage bag, preparing for the bar exam isn't a heck of a lot of fun. Most people say the worst part is doing hundreds and hundreds of practice multiple choice questions, but I think the worst part is how doing those multiple choice questions makes you feel about the world. Nothing good ever happens to the people in practice bar exam questions. Everyone who crosses the street gets hit by a car, every doctor botches the surgery, parachutes never open, contracts never get fulfilled, anyone who uses a lawnmower ends up in the hospital, as soon as you write a will your whole family dies, employee benefit plans never pay out their benefits, computers all get viruses, your friends are always intoxicated, stealing your farm equipment, and driving it into the barn, police search you all the time for no good reason, you can never find a good place to hide your weapons, banks never recognize a signature as a forgery, and the forger always flees the country.

Not that it's any better for criminals. Arsonists never burn down what they mean to, thieves always end up murdering someone, conspirators can never convince their fellow criminals to back out, no one is ever given access to their lawyers before questioning, and spring guns go off in everyone's garage, each time killing the neighbor kid who just meant to return the tools he'd borrowed.

On the other hand, the best thing about taking the bar exam is that eventually you get to stop studying. The morning of the exam, I got off the subway and walked over to my test site with some ripped-out pages from the Conviser Mini Review (how is a 900-page book a mini-anything?), trying to cram some last-minute knowledge into my head. I realized as I was about to cross the street that the review pages weren't on the list of approved items (unless I was going to eat them, quietly). So I threw them out. And, of course, they landed on top of pages and pages of other people's study notes. If you're taking the bar exam later this month, and you want free review materials, just go find some garbage cans on the west side at nine in the morning on July 25th. More than you'll ever need.

But I can do even better than telling you where to find review materials. I can give you the answers, despite the stern warning against it. One of the first things you hear when you enter the bar exam test site is a disembodied voice telling you that "revealing any of the answers in any written, oral, electronic, or other medium is a violation of the copyright and grounds for failure of the exam and disqualification in the character and fitness portion of the evaluation." I understand they want to keep the questions secret. But the answers? What good are the answers without the questions?

I've decided to violate the rules. The answers to last year's New York bar exam were, in no particular order: A. B. C. D. A. A. B. C. D. D. D. D. C. B. B. C. D. A. A. D. B. C. A. D. So there you go.

I promise they're as accurate as the Bar/Bri lecturer who thinks he knows what the essay topics will be. Or the tarot card reader who sees "easements, lots of easements" in your future. A few final words: Don't wear a catheter. Unwrap your gum. Make sure you bring your swimming goggles. And you're all ready to pass the bar exam. Good luck.

blargh

so studying for the bar is....well, i wouldn't really know how it is. i am wholly unmotivated. it's really very sad. at first i thought i would get more motivated once it was july and the test got closer and all that, but no, no i have not. so now i am not only way behind on everything i was supposed to be doing, but i am just as unmotivated to do things now, and as an added problem, it seems that i did just enough work in the first month to be sick of studying.

also as an added problem, they seem to have left all the topics that make no sense at all to me until the last week of class, so not only am i unmotivated, but it just feels fruitless to try to learn secured transactions in two weeks.

oh, and i just keep wanting to plan for my bar trip. i mean, at least i get to still take the bar trip if i fail, but somehow it just doesn't seem right. i thought it was good that we had planned everything a while back, but i hadn't realized that that still left all the fun and excitement of planning and checking the weather for every city we will be in. neurotically.

i'm really not sure how much time two people can spend looking at rain jackets and toiletry bags for travel, but i think that jared and i have spent approximately 5 hours each of the last 3 days doing these things. and approximately 1 each day studying for the bar. if that. but i have a new toiletry bag! and new sneakers! that are light like air, but might pinch my feet. and a growing list of things to buy at target! oh how i long to go to target! target is way better than studying for the bar.

anyways. that is how things are in my life right now. if anyone is still reading. sometimes i still feel like i should post, but mostly i just suppress that b/c i feel like i should be studying. tho that generally degenerates into freecell pretty quickly. so maybe i should start back with the blogging. to keep future generations abreast of what really goes on when you "study for the bar."