Sigh, I just wanted a shiny frame for my diploma...

It came today--Damaged.
So just send it back, right? Simple thing to do, right?

Nope.
First called the alumni center from whom I ordered the frame. No problem, send it back to us via UPS, we'll pay the shipping on our end. We get bad one-we send you new one. She gave me the shipping address, but no account number, I thought she knows what she's doing, I don't need one, right? WRONG.

UPS Store: need account number, I've never heard of that place (uh, like you get diplomas from, like colleges or something, whatever, is it time for my break yet?) No help there.

Finally track down the number of the alumni center and guess what-they don't even know the account number. Call to the warehouse to get, call back-ACCOUNT NUMBER!!! Everything will be ok now, right?

HA! Decide not to go back to bitchy UPS chick and go to package store that does it all. This is probably going to turn out to be a better decision (I hope). The package was delivered to our house my FedEX, not UPS. We're not sure who the account number is for.

The Package Store: manager not there, new kid working, should have walked out the door when he couldn't work the old guy's credit card. STATUS of return of damaged frame: UNKNOWN.
Store was out of the package slips and he didn't have it ready when the pick-up came. Did he call and share this? Nope. So, hopefully tomorrow he will have my damaged frame on its merry way and I will have a new one soon. If not, damaged frame will be picked up and taken to different package store.

I just wanted my undergrad diploma framed, that's all!!!

UPDATE: It was easier just to drive to Boone and switch it out. And I got a new hoody out of the deal!

Know What I Hate?

People who only send you inane fowards.** I'm not a big fan of fowards in general, although there are exceptions. The state trying to sue the beavers for building a dam was good, but for the most part these are repeats of the same sappy, sad, etc. stories that have been passed around a zillion times, just change the names.

Needless to say, I'm not thrilled with people who never send me personal emails, but send me forwards all the time. They will not be getting my new email address.

**I also hate people who use mailing lists to do the same thing. I signed up for a mailing list for a specific purpose, class events, etc. NOT forwards!!!!!!

Seriously?

After the spider adventure this morning, I left for the beach (which is why I was up so damn early to start with!!). I got there around 11:30 am and decided to get some lunch before frying myself on the beach. There is a drink menu and my beach going friend was thinking mojito which just got me thinking "Alcohol!" So we try to order drinks. That's right--try! It turns out that you can't order alcohol on a Sunday before noon. WTF? Not pleased at all. Still we waited until 12:01 and got our drinks with our food. Why does the damn state feel the need to prevent me from drinking before noon? Stupid laws based on religious rules. I boo them. They should let me drink whenever I want, including after 2am in a bar. I mean that is pretty arbitrary anyway. I say you should be allowed to order a drink at whatever time you please! I mean, I have a right to a pursuit of happiness and clearly these stupid laws are getting in the way!

Ewwww!

I am so not a morning person yet this morning I was up bright and early. So what is the worse way to start the day? I walk into my bathroom to brush my teeth and find something that stops me in my tracks. Not the mess that is my bathroom but a large 8 legged disgusting spider (which, by the way I am scared of and loath). So being the brave girl that I am, I smush it then proceed to do my little ew dance, which basically consists of me jumping up and down going "EWWWW!!!". Seriously, after this I require a drink. Is 730 am too early to start drinking?

I find the spider rules to be very simple. If they come into my apartment, they are trespassing and I may kill them. I know that the BarBri guy told me on Friday that I may not defend my property by deadly force unless deadly force is used on me. Based on this my spider killing is perfectly allowable, since after all the spider is likely poisonous on some level and it could kill me (theoretically anyway).

In return, I won't kill the spiders who stay outside unless they try to bite me then it is purely self-defense. Again, they could kill me with their poison. This is the kind of things I think of when I wake up before noon find a spider in my place and am not drinking.

Things that make me sad: Part 1

Due to the great timing of BarBri classes I can no longer attend my regular yoga class 3 times a week. This is sad. It is made even more sad by the fact that for 5 days a week for the next 2 months I am going to have to sit in these awful chairs at school with minimum breaks and maximum boredom. Somehow the yoga DVDs just don't quite hack it. It figures that reviewing for the bar would convienently take away my favorite form of stress relief.

BarBri Day One: The Introduction and Family Law

If the introduction video sets the bar for the quality of the rest of the videos, I'm glad we have a decent number of live lectures.

• It was cheesy.
• Low resolution (but this could be the screen and video equipment)
• Did I mention it was cheesy? Bad jokes on the first day? No fair.

Family Law, the class that actually needs the whole 3.5 hours allocated paired with the intro means the first day ran over four hours and lasted just long enough to cancel a trip to the gym. (The university has really weird hours for the gym over the summer including being closed from 1:30-4:30).

The annoying part about Family Law: our prof telling us something probably wouldn't be on the bar, hasn't been tested on for 100 years, telling us to read it ourselves later, and then proceeding to read it outloud anyway. This occurred after the original 3.5 hours of the class passed. I hope tomorrow is better, but my hopes are not high as it is Secured Transactions...

Prepare to Bitch, I mean take the Bar...

Today was registration for BarBri, THE bar preparation class. Tomorrow we kick off the six week course, complete with one 8:30 to 3:30 Saturday class. This means two things:

1. Drinking before noon? Try drinking before 9am, the start time of this wonderful summer course... (this will be induced by many factors, including, but not limited to: overly stressed classmates, complete boredom in many topics (civ pro, con law, sales, etc.), being in class again after weeks off of doing not much of anything...
2. Bitchiness levels will increase all over the country, unless drinking before noon becomes a popular bar prep tool-my advice: buy stock in liquor/wine/beer companies.

I hope we survive this summer and pass the bar. If not an island bartending job may be in the cards...

Friends with Money

No, not the movie with Jennifer Aniston (which sucks by the way), I mean actual friends who have lots of money or make lots of money. Most of mine fall into the first category at this point because let's face it, not too many law students are raking in the dough during the semester. I have concluded that friends with money fall into 2 categories:

1. those people whose parents have it and freely give it to their kids (aka category 1 friends)
2. those people whose parents have money and want their kids to work for it (category 2 friends)
   

Now, both categories of friends with money have plenty of it to cover their everyday needs (which are of course far greater than mine). The distinction lays in how they are about their money. Category 1 friends tend to hord it. Yeah, something about them says they are entitled to it and fuck anyone who would expect them to share. Example: You are the DD (designated driver for all those not keyed into alcoholic language--but use caution since sometimes this term is also used for designated drinker) for 5 nights in a row. Your car, your gas. You don't ask anyone to throw into the gas fund and you buy the only beer you drink all night. The next day you and category 1 friend (who took full advantage of your DD services and lives on the other side of town) go to the mall. You ask her to pick you up on the way (your house is on the way, unlike hers the night before). She responds by asking if you will drive from your place because her gas (for her superior car) costs an extra 20 cents a gallon. Your response: Fuck you. See category 1 friend doesn't want her parents to cut her off so she is very cautious with her money that she is handed. But this will not stop her from dropping $75 on a LaCoste polo. She acts like she earned it when in reality everyone knows her parents will give her whatever amount she needs. Blah. One shot needed over here now. Yes, I know it is 10 am. The mall just opened.

Category 2 friends have a tendency to not flaunt their money and it you weren't told they had it you might not know until they went shopping with you. They can spent it. They can also earn it because their parents made them have jobs in the summer and pay for some of their own shit. Example: You are driving to the bar (you are such a good person to DD all the time) but you have a little 2 door car so fitting the 4 friends going with you to the bar is a bit of a challenge. Category 2 friend says here's the keys to my SUV. We will fit better. You drive. They drink. All is well.

Another comparison: You walk up to category 2 friend in a bar and say, "I have no cash can you spot me?" she will respond by saying, "Sure. What ya drinking?" Then forget about it the next day. Category 1 friend would also buy the drink but the next time you go out, she will not only expect you to buy her a round but also to buy her a drink that cost 2x as much as your beer the night before. Interest is a bit steep in this friendship.

The same mentality of category 1 friends seems to apply to those friends who have already lined up their 6 figure salaries for next year. After all your public interest, low salary job couldn't mean you are on their level and they certainly won't buy you a drink to celebrate the offer. One glass of wine down. I think I might need another if I am going to make it to bed before 4am.

Graduation Reflections (a.k.a what annoyed me)

Ms. Margarita has been doing more posting than me and she let me know my blogging presense was required asap.

Overall, graduation went quite well. There were some things to drive you crazy (or to drink, depending on your mood).

• The Hooding Reception: food was great if you attempted to eat, however 5 tables for 172 jd/llm's and their families does not work out to a pleasant event, especially when you have elderly relatives with you.
• Speaking of elderly relatives, my husband's grandmother flew down for the ceremony and stayed with us for several days. We were more than ready for her departure as her moods swung from grumpy to whiny. A trip to a local vineyard took care of that one day and we kept her happy with wine and ice cream when we could (this lead to a lot of drinking after noon).
• It was cold and wet for the graduation ceremony, not as cold as it has been (34 one year-in May!). This could have lead to drinking before noon if anyone had thought at dawn to smuggle rum in their robes.
• That's all I can think of right now. Can I go back to bed?
• Don't worry, with the bar class starting next week, I'm sure we'll both have a lot to talk about...

Graduation

After the whole hooding ceremony, I walk back to see my family. My mom and sisters had one observation for me: there were not a lot of good looking guys in law school. Thanks! I have been telling you that for years. I think they have finally stopped wondering why even though I was surrounded by intelligent (supposedly since they were going to a good law school) I still chose to stay single. One hour of watching the guys in my class walk across stage did it. That was it! If only I would have know it was going to be that easy I would have busted out the facebook after 1L year.

Things that drive me to drink...

There is no doubt that getting more than one generation of any family together will lead anyone to drink before noon. Probably not the first day, but definitely by the 3rd day. You wake up thinking "what I really need before this graduation ceremony is a coffee...an Irish coffee." But today, I made it through my graduation ceremony without killing any members of my family or drinking anything before noon. Now that my family has headed home, I am dying to crack open a bottle of wine and just chill on my couch in front of the TV. If only my roomie's family had got the get the fuck out of my apartment memo I left them yesterday.

Thinking for yourself

Hypocrisy: n 1: an expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction 2: insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

Example: Clinton, from TLC's What Not to Wear, doing a commercial stating that we all are born with the ability to think for ourselves but over time we succumb to pressure and stop doing so. This man is famous (and I use that term loosely) for telling people that what they think they look good in just isn't good enough. Yeah, because Clinton buddy you are really helping people out there think for themselves...

Jobs

So I am watching this news story on immigration protests and I have to say, "wah, wah, wah."

They are saying that the American population seems to vote most for deporting them. Well, I have to say there is a place for that. Yes, I said it. Send them home. Why? Because they are breaking the law, and yes, that makes a person a criminal. No one can just sneak across the border and stay. They are not allowed to be here! They are not a guest workers, they are illigal aliens, therefore criminals. If you don't like the label, leave.

Sure call me a bitch, say I am an arrogant American. Whatever. My reason for this stance is simple: incentives. Getting American citizenship is not easy, I recognize that. So why do it if you can sneak across the border and work, worry free? No one would even try. The message sent is sneak in and we will pretend you didn't. As for the people trying to be legit about it, I welcome you. I give you props for making your life better and for doing it the right way. If I could do anything to help you I would. I am sorry that I just don't feel the same way if you are here illegally to start with. I won't give you a job that some American thinks is below them, I would make them take it and get the fuck of welfare. But that is a whole other can of worms, and this glass of wine isn't going to last long enough for me to get all the way through it.