Well, a little past half way actually. I’ve got two exams behind me and two more ahead, but I’ve also turned in a paper. Also, one of those tests is today (the last one is Saturday afternoon).

I can’t wait until 4pm Saturday when I am done.

The first two exams have not been great. Entertainment Law was just long. The prof was a new professor and I think he just miscalculated how much one could write in 3 hours. I got everything done, but it felt a bit superficial because I was rushing to hit the gazillion issues in his fact patterns.

Still, that was better than Monday’s Constitutional Law II test. The prof is this total academic geek and I really like him, but he gets this idea that if he asks things a bunch of different ways, that will make what he is looking for clearer. Instead, what ends up happening is that by the end of the question you can’t tell what he is actually asking. I would much rather he just gave us the fact pattern and said “discuss all the constitutional issues involved in this case.” Plus, it was another racehorse of an exam. I think one or maybe 2 people finished before time. I just finished, but I’m not happy with how I did, I think.

Today it’s Remedies at 1pm. I really loved this prof (she was so clear and organized!) and the class was interesting too. It’s all about damages and injunctions and the like. Not the substantive law of torts or contracts (etc.) but rather what options are available to fix the problem. With the exception of some of the intricacies of an accounting for profits versus “waiving” the tort (aka suing in assumpsit/quasi-contract) and their relations to constructive trusts and equitable liens, I feel like most of this is pretty clear. Even all that “accounting for profits” etc. stuff mostly makes sense.

Some people in class got confused when we talked about tracing and the presumption rules (very short/simplified explanation: let’s say you take my money and put it in your account with your money, then buy stuff or invest some of the money–there are rules about whether it’s my money you are spending/investing or your money), but I didn’t find it hard. I seem to understand some of the numbers stuff better than some of my colleagues.

After the exam today it’s a difficult haul to the end: trusts and estates. There is just so much information and detail in the law for these subjects that I have no idea how I can get it all in my head. Most of it is (mostly) logical, but voluminous. Even with the permitted cheat sheet (outline, notes, whatever), figuring out a system to make the material easily accessible is a bear. I’m glad I have two days between the tests to get my ducks in a row for this.

Speaking of ducks, Crispy just made his morning water landing in the pool. Good day for ducks today as it is rainy and windy. There is even snow falling on the 8 in the mountains east of town. A winter storm this late in the year is odd, but it’s been an el Niño winter. No swimming yet so the ducks are welcome. The cold rain? Not so much.

The no swimming yet means I’m getting my exercise otherwise. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was getting terribly out of shape. This term had made working out difficult and I got sloppy about it. Suddenly, my arms were threatening to start resembling Grandma Mary’s and that, as they say, was that. So, three  and a half weeks ago, I decided to do something about it and started a diet and exercise program.

The diet is just the usual: recording everything I eat, weighing it and making sure I’m getting enough protein, etc. It’s funny, but, at least for me, when you do that it becomes difficult to eat enough rather than the other way around. There is something about knowing that X grams of Y food has Z calories, and seeing what X grams actually looks like, that will get you to eat less of the bad stuff and more of the good. Soups and salads and lots of lean protein (chicken, turkey, grass-fed beef), mostly. Treats of an occasional beer/glass of wine or piece of chocolate or crystalized ginger or a small serving of Stonyfield java frozen yogurt (almost every day for that one) keep me from really missing the bread, etc. I’m not eating. And I still eat at least one piece of bacon on exam days (brain food, really).

As for the exercise, I’ve been doing a Couch to 5K app (C25K) and alternating with conditioning days (sit ups, planks, weights). Never a good runner, I needed the challenge and structure so I thought, what the hell, I’ll try it. The app lets me play my own music (or listen to podcasts of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me) but it tells me what to do via audio cues. With a warm up and cool down, each workout takes about a half-hour (so far) and during that time I hear a voice say, alternately, “Walk” or “Run.” I have it set to tell me when I’m half through the day’s program and when I’m about to do the last “run” segment as well. The first week is something like alternating a minute running with a minute walking (or maybe it’s 90 seconds/60 seconds… I forget). By week 4, where I am now, it’s run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, repeat. Running for 5 minutes without stopping would have been impossible when I started. I can do it without feeling entirely like death now.

By the way, I’m on week 4 because I haven’t been doing calendar weeks. I started the running at the same time as the diet but because of my wonky school schedule, it meant I would do more than one week’s worth of routines in a week (there are 3 workouts per week on the program).

Anyway, so I will finish week 4 tomorrow. I still run like Phoebe I think (see the Friends episode), and I’m slow, but I’m doing it. And it’s got an added benefit of challenging me regularly and giving me a great sense of accomplishment when I successfully complete the day’s run. Best benefit? Between that and the diet, in 3 weeks I’ve lost 6 pounds and my body fat percentage has dropped between 4-5 points (depending on calculation method used). That means more like 8+ pounds of fat gone, and almost 8 inches off my bod all over (1.5 off hips, for example).

I have a way to go until I hit my goal, but I’m really getting there. I figure when I finally can get in the pool, the sight of me in a bathing suit won’t scare off the ducks, and if they don’t want me there, I’ll be able to run away.

One year ago I was headed into finals for the second time. After the debacle that had been my first term results, I was quite concerned. Keeping my full scholarship was going to take a miracle. At the same time, my personal life was swirling the bowl. Lots of dark, except I somehow managed to not care too much about it all.

No, that’s not right, I did care. Enormously. But I didn’t get wrapped up by it. I didn’t try to control things because somehow I knew there was nothing I could do about any of it. I could take my tests and do my level best, but if others were better, my grades would be lower (the curse of the curve). So no control. And the relationship I had put fully in Christopher’s hands–either he would do or not do, and there was nothing more I could do there. So, I just studied, went to my tests, took them, and got on with life.

Somehow I pulled the miracle and got great grades. The marriage, sadly, didn’t work out so well. One outa two. I can live with that. Well, I have to anyway.

Now I’m facing the night before my first exam of this, my fifth series of exams.

Now I want to do well, not just for the scholarship, but because I want to do well. I know I know the material better than most of my classmates, or if I don’t then I must be a real idiot because some of the questions they ask…yoy. I’d like the numbers to show what I’m capable of.

But I’m sort of in the same place–that is, I can only do my best and it will be compared to what others do and I have no control over them. So tomorrow afternoon I’ll go into that room and spew out everything I can about Entertainment Law. And then Monday the same for Constitutional Law; Wednesday, Remedies; and the following Saturday, Trusts & Estates.

And then I’m done for a while. Taking a break.

For now, one last review of my notes, then I’m putting it away. Tomorrow I’ll get up, maybe take a walk (force myself not to do the next day of Couch to 5 K since I just did back-to-back days), eat bacon, and maybe watch an old movie.

Wish me luck.

For the record, a 7.2 earthquake will blow anyone’s ability to study… at least for the rest of that day. Seriously.

San Diego is about 120 miles from the epicenter of that big quake, so it really wasn’t bad here, but it was terrifying in its own way. Mostly, it was so scary because it was so long. I first noticed it as I was standing next to my printer, reformatting a paper for school so as to print it. I thought, at first, that I was light headed and wobbly because I needed to eat. Then I realized it wasn’t me shaking. And then I noticed the sound. And then I freaked.

I went into the hallway and stood in the doorway for a couple of seconds. This is what you are supposed to do. Actually, you are supposed to get under furniture, but I think that is crazy, especially when most of your furniture has names like SNÄPPEN and was assembled with an allen wrench.

Anyway, after a couple of seconds in the doorway, things were bouncing pretty well and showing no signs of stopping. Walls were shifting in ways that looked like something from The Twilight Zone. My lizard brain took over and out the front door I went. The power lines were dancing like marionette strings. Not good. No place to hide. Crouching seemed to make sense, so I did. Like a caveman…er woman. So, there I was, next to my car, crouching and at least mentally whimpering.

Eventually the rolling/bouncing stopped… after 40-45 seconds of “I feel like I’m in a small boat on a big sea” nausea-inducing fun.

I went back inside and straight through to the back yard to check on the cats. Benito immediately attached himself to my shin. Baldrick was asleep under a bush.

Dumb cat.

The pool looked like a science experiment. Big waves. And this was after the shaking had stopped! The skimmer lid had been popped off by the force of those waves. Freaky.

And then, after calling John and Sammy (I have no idea what I said in that call, but I’m sure I sounded like a loon–I’m sorry Sammy) I went back inside and noticed that nothing had really fallen. That was almost more disturbing. Somehow, things rode all that movement out okay. Pictures were askew some, but books were still on the shelves, etc. My brain could not make sense of that. Still can’t, actually.

Anyway, the rest of the day was shot for school work. I was lucky I could remember to zip my pants after that.

7.2. Wow. And over 1000 aftershocks since. Joy.

Since then I’ve had to try and study since exams are soon. Today, however, I got something sort of distracting. ASMP, the photog group I work with so often, has just filed a class action suit (with other visual artist groups and individual artists) against Google, for massive copyright infringement. Their general counsel sent me a copy of the complaint, which I read with excitement. I’ve been completely geeking out because I understand it all! The jurisdictional bits, the federal question part, the class action parts (representative of the class, etc.), and the prayers for damages as well as injunctive and declaratory relief. CivPro and Remedies and IP stuff. Woot!

How exciting! To understand the how and the why of it all! In just one read. Cool. I’m so thrilled, because it means I really have learned a bunch in law school so far. All of this struggle and sacrifice, it really does mean something. It’s easy not to get that while you are in the middle of slogging through another opinion written by Scalia (the man quotes himself in his opinions… sigh) or struggling with probate code ambiguities. But reading that complaint, it all fell into place.

I have an ASMP event to go to tonight. I may be unbearably perky even after my very long day of classes today.

As long as the earth doesn’t move (significantly) again.