Lock Down!

Today, half way through Torts clas (I like Torts, so much "reasonablenes" you could have a really fun drinking game) someone in the back raised their hand and announced, "We are on lock down." Um, lock what?! We are in the middle of class here, bucko. It is after 3 PM on a quiet Wednesday afternoon. Thanks to the availability of wireless access all over the law school, four other people soon piped up that in fact, yes, we were to stay in our building after class (it was the last class of the day) as the SWAT team and RCMP were in the close-by Bio Science building and we were instructed to stay where we are.
I am ashamed to say I couldn't quite hack it and soon after class let out, I made my way to a parking row across from the law school where my husband was waiting to pick me up. We then took the long route around away from the Science building and came home, where I started getting all these emails from school. One of them was addressed to those in the Science building, telling them to barade themselves into their rooms and not let anyone in or out. Still waiting to find out what that was about.
Canadians are so low-key. If this happened in the States, people would be fleeing and evacuating and freaking out.

Sick and Miserable

I knew it was coming since last week but on Monday I came down with a horrible cold. The kind of cold that makes a two minute walk from the bus stop to your apartment a misery, the kind of cold that leaves you shivering with chills all day and then gives you cold, clammy night sweats while you sleep. M. is sick, too. We both stayed home today and are a coughing, sick mess together.

Making matters worse, the jeep is having issues and M. had to leave it in Washington State overnight. And I have missed a day and a half of school. In law school, that's like two weeks. I am trying not to let it bother me, reminding myself I have picked up a few tricks since last term. But still, I get so much out of my classes that this really, really sucks.

I Love the'80s

I joined the exec of the Feminist Legal Society. Where we talk about how much we love abortions. "I love abortion 'cause it's so groovy and fetuses make a great base for liptick." You get the idea. Our group, along with the women's caucus, hosted an '80s theme dance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Morgentaler decision (the Canadian version of Roe v Wade). I won a prize in the dance-off (yes, dance-off). I can safetly say it is the most fun I've had since I began law school. And you can draw your own conclusions from that statement.

Today was a Bad Day

New Housing

Being in school has its perks. One of them is that there is no school on Monday. In theory, this means I have the day off. In practice, I have never taken the day off. Readings, outlines, projects, etc. keep me busy. This week we have two papers due and I will spend the day polishing those up, maybe changing my conclusion. I know I write about boring school stuff constantly, so let me change it up a bit and talk about...moving onto campus. Here is a picture of the place we'll be moving.
At first, I was concerned because the whole cluster of apartments looked so...institutional. M. reminded me that it's campus housing, it's not going to be incredibly homey. Still, I was apprehensive about living somewhere that looked like a dorm. The next day, we went back to the complex to find our particular apartment. And I was very, very pleasantly surprised. Our unit is a townhouse layout, very new, a corner lot with lots of natural light, a sophisticated palate and modern kitchen. So, yey! We move in next month and I'll be so relieved to be on campus. Finally.

Mourning My Last Post

I wrote this long, detailed post yesterday but just as I was poised to post it, the computer shut down (battery power depleted.) In honour of that post (note the Canadian-ized spelling of "honor"), I am posting the image that went along with it. Note that his image was only applicable to one part of the post, so varied was its content.

Classes Begin Again Tomorrow

I decided to come into school today, though, and take care of details: hole-punch all my study aids from last term and add them to my binders, photocopy important papers, pay my tuition (thank you, scholarships! My tuition was estatically low), visit the career center, etc. After running up and down the halls numerous times to my locker, I remembered how exhausting law school is--not only the reading and assignments but all the little things: reading the 20+ emails that arrive from the school daily, coordinating meetings for the clubs I'm involved in, making sure I have all the books, handouts I need for each class, checking the websites for changes to the schedule, etc. It's too much.
On a happy note, M. drove me to school today in our new Jeep Cherokee. It was so nice to get to school in twenty minutes instead of an hour or more. As he'll be starting work tomorrow, there will be no more morning drives, but it sure was wonderful this morning.

Streak of Good Luck

Some pretty awesome things have been happening over the past few days. As I blog about the bad times, I thought I should also blog some good things. Thursday morning was actually pretty awful, to be honest, but some good things came out of it. M. and I took a trip down to the States for a job interview. The day got off to a very rocky start, but M. did get the job and a few added perks that take care of other items on our "to do list" for us.
Crossing the border, we had a hard time getting back into Canada. It could be because both M and I have American passports and yet we live in Canada. I keep my expired Canadian passport for verification but sometimes having two raises more concerns. So, after asking us a bunch of questions and looking over our documents, we were sent inside to answer even more. It was nearly 10 PM, we had had a rough day and, after waiting in line over an hour and a half, I just wanted to go home.
We walk into immigration and it's empty, so we got to see someone right away with no waits. They were able to immediately pull up Matt's paperwork on their computer and see that we checked out. But the best part was they gave M. a visitor's visa so he can apply for a BC driver's license. This makes registuring a car in Canada possible, as I don't have my BC license (I am still working on optaining some lost documents). In other words, that border crossing ended up making our "to do list" ten items shorter!
Also, that morning in checking the mail we found that I had received $4000 in scholarships for the spring term, making my tuition payment nearly nothing.
We are breathing a bit easier over here in Tales of Law and Love land.

Why I am an Athiest and Why I don't Refer to Myself as Such.

A subject I am reluctant to blog about, since I know how controversial it is, is this. This article, the New Atheism, is very relevant to my life. Over the holidays, some of my sisters discovered I am an athiest (I have not been involved in religion for the past five years, but as the title to this entry hints, I don't exactly shout it from the rooftops). They were very puzzled at how I, who had been a missionary for a fundamental Christian organization in my teens and early twenties, could have "turned my back on God". I chose not to delve into it with them, as they are the two youngest of my sisters and have different memories and interpretations of our family's history, and I wish not to disturb those with any of my reflections.
Over the last few days, I have been thinking over what exactly religion means to me and why I've been so comfortable and happy and at peace with a mode of thinking I never imagined myself embracing.
After I left my parent's fundamental church, I was still a Christian. My thinking was that I just needed to find a church that was a better fit. After visiting a few in my area, I realized that the services, the youth outreach, the congragation was so very, very similar to what I experienced in my parent's church growing up and this made me deeply uncomfortable.
So, maybe I would be Jewish or something. I read about different religions and tried to find one I could believe in. But, by this time, I was deeply involved in my studies and doing a lot of reading on religion, philosophy, etc. I was trying to get to the history of it all so that I could find my place. Instead, what I found was that religion was making less and less sense to me. I was taking a sociology class that did a lot more to dispell the myths of human interaction and consequences than my Bible ever did. I was beginning to become a humanist. Seeing how similar the human condition was throughout time.
I think my religion (being a Christian) made me feel separate from Muslims or atheists or Buddists or, really, anyone who didn't believe like I did. I would befriend those with different beliefs but deep inside, I would still feel that I was better than they, that I possessed a truth they had yet to come to know. And thus, I was better than they in that aspect.
When I shed religion, I began to connect with others in a much more genuine way. If someone I met was gay, I no longer felt superior to them. If someone had an abortion, same thing. I no longer was shocked and horrified but could relate instead to their human condition, the circumstances they found themselves in.
It is very hard for people to understand, but becoming an athiest made a better person. This is why I bristle when someone says, "But you don't believe in ANYTHING??" Not "believing in anything" sounds so hollow, so shallow and immoral. It does not describe my life, which is full of love, goals, family, friends, emotion.
I may come back and re-write this post someday as I do not feel I expressed everything as best as I should.

Goodbye '07, Hello '08

2007 was a rough year. No question. I should have realized the tone of the year when, New Year's Day 2007, my laptop crashed, destroying all my stored photos, a 60 page paper I was trying to get published, everything on my hard drive. Gone.
I started a new job to save money for the move to Vancouver and I felt ill-at-ease and overstressed the entire time.
I went to California over Memorial weekend for a-ahem-very memorable weekend.
Then, the move to Vancouver and the long wait (still waiting) for a visa for my husband. Classes began in September and that same week M. flew back to Tampa to work, as we were running low on money and still no visa. We thought, as all paperwork was in and we were on the "fast track" list, it would be just a few weeks before he could return. As I stated above, we are still waiting.
Further, M was offered a job in Vancouver and we applied for a work visa, being told that would take just a few weeks. Still waiting for that, too, and it could be months before we see either.
Last year has been a marathon of endurance. And still, there is more endurance to go until we get into a stable situation, on campus, with M working in Vancouver. Last year SUCKED. But I have hope for this year.
My goals for this year:
1) prepare well and do well on exams
2) find a summer job
3) get into an apartment on campus
4) get more involved with school associations, groups

That's it. Pretty simple. I am not making lofty goals for my private life (like the one year where my goal was to see a Broadway play) as I have very little life outside studying and school. But that's ok. This time next year (January 1, 2009) I will be half way finished with law school and have a much better idea of what's next.