First Year Law (in pictures)

Top 5 Moments from Lost's Season 4 Finale

5. [Regarding the Orchard orientation video]--Locke: "Hey, was he talking about what I think he was taking about?" Ben: "If you mean time-traveling bunnies, then yes."

4. The aerial shot of the mountains and beach as Lupidus flies the Oceanic Six (plus one) off the Island.

3. Sawyer's sacrifice. I loved the development of this character from a selfish ass to the one who gives away his chance at freedom to save his friends. And Kate. Sigh.

2. Christian Shepherd (Jacob?) appearing to Michael the moment before the bomb went off. "You can go now." BOOM.

1. Sun leaves Jin behind. Saddest moment.Ever.

Cut a Little Swath and Lead the People on

While eating dinner out with Monster, we heard Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" on the radio. I mentioned how sad I was that Houston's song ruined the original when her version became so popular.
The original song was recorded by Dolly Parton and was included in the movie, "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" which, for some reason, was a movie I saw over and over as a child.
As an adult, I have more understanding of this particular clip. Even more relatable to me is the governor from Texas, as I have had a few beefs with a former Texas governor in my day (I am watching the HBO movie "Recount" as I type this.)
Anyway, fun song. I would love Monster to be able to see the whole movie someday. If we can find it.

What I learned in First Year Law

1. I am not nearly as smart as I thought I was.
2. Studying all weekend in the law library is not even a teeny bit glamerous.
3. Wifi means half the class is logged onto perezhilton.com during Constitutional Law class.
4. Having half the class on gossip sites, strangely, does not detract focus when you really, really want to learn this stuff.
5. Nearly everything in the vending machine can be justified as a member of a food group at 9 PM.
6. People actually do sleep on the couches in the interaction area. Overnight.
7. Some of your favorite professors will give you the worst marks.
8. My marriage is stronger than ever and my husband is proud of me.
9. I am proud of me.
10. Everyone else is just as scared and down on themselves as I am.
11. First year eventually ends and sanity returns. Slowly.
12. I still have no idea what I've gotten myself into.

Nellie and Molly.

These are my mother-in-law's two little rascals. My advice when watching this tiny clip is to turn down the sound as my voice is mucho high and annoying. But the dogs are cute.

Goodbye Thorny

Thank you for the very personal wedding you gave us. Thank you for being the exact right person to perform the ceremony, tho we just met days before. You made a deep impression on both of us and we will always remember you fondly.

More Vacay Pics

So, pretty lazy days recently. I have been getting up late, eating a leisurely breakfast, reading, catching up on blogs, researching recipes and conviniently forgetting anything concerning law school.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

So nice to finally have one of those again! Monster and I went to brunch with his parents where I enjoyed all my favorite southern dishes: biscuits and gravy and grits with butter. Yum.

Today is a rainy day, so needed here in Central Florida. My mother in law and I are going to run errands. I am so enjoying being on vacation. So restful.

Mani/Pedi

Enjoying my manicure and pedicure my mother-in-law treated me to yesterday. It feels so delicous to have my digits painted bright and sparkley colours.

Monster came home for a few hours and we watched the end of Transformers, our blockbuster summer movie from last year (alongside Die Hard 4, ahem).

Advertising and Me

http://current.com/items/88941392_target_women_yogurt_edition

This link (found on feministing) got me thinking about how the ads I see on TV and in magazines affect me. To be fair, in recent years, I have been receiving my media input from the Internet, where I can breeze past advertiments. While in my first year of law school, I never picked up a magazine and rarely watched TV, so I feel my perspective is fresher at this moment than it ever has been.

Arriving to Florida two days after first year ended, I got a huge dose of magazine reading, thanks to my mother-in-law's two salons and the seven hour transformation from dark brown to sunny blonde with three shades of highlights.

My year of living in Vancouver, plus The Story of Stuff (http://www.storyofstuff.com/) has made me a more cautious consumer. Seeing the U.S. take an economic downturn in part because of debt and spending habits has also made me cautious. So, I came from a place of gee-I-want-to-buy-stuff-I-need-that-I've-been-putting-off-but-at-the-same-time-be-a-responsible-consumer. Twenty glossy mags later, I am starting to believe there are must-have deep conditioners and nail polishes and no others shall do. Of course, these sought-after items are Bumble & Bumble and O.P.I. The pricey stuff.

And thus I realize I am beginning to be suckered back in. Sort of like when my husband's relatives began discussing what sort of luxury car God wants them to drive, I am feeling my entitlement. I deserve brand name items, I deserve to be luxe, pampered, fabulous.

It's a strange relationship I have with things, with images, with beauty. I am really not sure how deep it is, as most of it remains unnoticeable to me, so deeply am I involved within this system.

Mother's Day

We just got home from Monster's grandmother's place. Most of his mother's side of the family was there and we enjoyed a nice dinner/lunch. We are at M's parents now and waiting for the second wave of guests. Lots of good food and a beautiful day.

These are pictures from the past few days, hanging out with good friends again. I missed these two sisters so much. Also, some pics of M and I.

What the Pill Means to Me

From Cristina at Reality Check"

Tired of the same-old lame protests outside of abortion clinics? Looking to impose your religious beliefs in other people's lives in a new and exciting way? The pro-life movement would like to expand your horizons.

On June 7th, the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that gave married people the right to use contraception, the American Life League, along with Pro-Life Wisconsin and Pharmacists for Life International Associate groups want you to join them in protesting in front of facilities that distribute birth control products. The national day against contraception, Protest the Pill Day '08: The Pill Kills Babies, was started to convince the American people of a simple and imaginative idea: attempting to prevent abortion is abortion too. These arguments have been confounded by diabolical scientists and experts who insistently point out there's no evidence to support that the birth control pill works the way these groups claim. As we all know, however, if ideology waited for science to prove scientific points, our ancestors would have never have spent all those years wandering the then-flat earth.

The campaign website is chock full of important information and you don't want to miss the informative "Talking Points" section. Here's a sampling:

Q: The Supreme Court has ruled that it's my right to privacy - who do you think you are to say otherwise?

A: On June 7, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Griswold v. Connecticut decision. The Supreme Court justices first presumed that previous Court decisions dealing with a citizen's right to liberty and security that prohibited invasion of one's home and acquisition of evidence that might later be used to convict him of a crime also addressed privacy within marriage. In fact, the justices argued, "The concept of liberty is not so restricted... it embraces the right of marital privacy though that right is not mentioned explicitly [emphasis added] in the Constitution" and is based on "specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights [which] have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance."


This confusing language, which has no relationship whatsoever to what the Founding Fathers intended, gave married women permission to use the birth control pill. The Supreme Court literally created the "right to privacy" out of thin air.

We now know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that not only did the Supreme Court literally make up the right that you claim gives you permission to use birth control, but the most popular form of birth control, the pill, can kill innocent preborn children. If there is a chance that human beings are going to be murdered, I am going to do everything in my power to help prevent that from happening. If you knew there was a chance that someone might poison your neighbor, don't you think you would try to notify your neighbor and do as much as you could to help save a life?

And before you despair that your right to privacy is being lost, take comfort in the knowledge that once we all finally live in a country where ideology is valued over evidence and our government is run by and for those who subscribe, or succumb, to the exciting agenda of these groups...privacy will no longer be needed. Your point of view and way of life will, conveniently, be decided for you. So what are you waiting for?! Sign up now
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/05/02/pro-lifers-announce-national-day-to-protest-the-right-to-use-contraception

So, I am 33 years old. Never been pregnant. I often reflect on this fact with pride. For all the generations of women who have come before me with no choice over their reproductive organs, I am one of the lucky few who can make a choice--a choice!--over her family size, her womb, her overies. They are mine, all mine, thanks to the pill. Which of course, makes fundies very nervous. After all, if I'm not making more white babies, them Ay-rabs will take over the world, right??

It makes me angry that anyone, much less a concentrated group of people, who try to take this choice away from women through shame and misinformation.

The way I was raised (very fundemental Christian) and the late start I had in life would limit my choices. Except, I had options. I was able to choose a life outside motherhood, a life where I focus 100% on my wonderful husband. A life where we both can sleep in on the weekends, where we can travel, where I can be 33 year old law student.

For years and years, I did nothing but care for other people's children. And I loved it. I need to always have children in my life. In fact, I just got off the phone with a precious little eight year old who I have loved since babyhood. This is not about whether I love chldren or not. A fact others very often don't understand. It's about the major, major lifechanging commitment a child is. I mean, people sit down and plot out the consequences of buying a home and all the responsibility that will ential, but we are supposed to just charge into having children? The greatest responsibility of all?

I write this as my sister is 5 months pregnant with her first child. A girl. I am so excited about her arrival. I can't wait to be a part of this child's life and do whatever I can to help her survive the tenous path girlhood requires. Knowing this little life is coming makes me more aware of recycling, buying locally, recognizing the materialistic, disposable culture we live in. But it doesn't make me want a child.

And while there are other methods of birth control than the pill, birth control pills are very important. My husband reads this blog, and he may cringe to read this, but the guys I had sex with before him? Some of them lied about wearing condoms, I found out later. Besides feeling violated and angry, I was also afraid, as it as my future and my life that would be profoundly changed by pregnancy, not their's. The pill is vital for a single girl's safety while she is looking for love and how DARE anyone try to take that away!

I wish I could say Canada's policies are one thousand times better, but they are not. We must be vigilant over the safety and health of our bodies from those who would take control of our bodies away from us.

But I will bend the light, pretend that it somehow lingered on

I am enjoying my time off. Days at the beach and fun with Monster.

And this song as our beach soundtrack:

"Clarity"

I worry, I weigh three times my body
I worry, I throw my fear around
But this morning, there's a calm I can't explain
The rock candy's melted, only diamonds now remain

Ooh ooh ooh ooh

By the time I recognize this moment
This moment will be gone
But I will bend the light, pretend that it somehow lingered on
Well all I got's

Ooh ooh ooh ooh

And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will pay no mind
When it won't and it won't because it can't
It just can't
It's not supposed to

Was there a second of time that I looked around?
Did I sail through or drop my anchor down
Was anything enough to kiss the ground?
And say I'm here now and she's here now

Ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh

So much wasted in the afternoon
So much sacred in the month of June
How bout you

And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will wait to find
That it won't and it won't
Because it won't
And I will waste no time
Worried 'bout no rainy weather
And I will waste no time
Remaining in our lives together