5 Bar Exam Things

1. I am FINISHED with the Washington State Bar Exam. Longest three days of my life (+8 weeks of studying) and I could not be happier to have the day off today. The only day I took off during all of bar prep was the 4th of July (because it is my favorite holiday), so I am thoroughly enjoying my leisurely morning (read: pizza for breakfast with my roommate). Also we’re having a party at our house later, so yay!

2. My butt is bruised from sitting in that chair for so long during the test. I also have bruises on my arms from where they rested on the lip at the edge of the table while I was typing the test. Brutal.

3. I am pretty sure that no matter what anyone says, or what advice you get, no one can ever really prepare you for the experience that is the bar. I think the most important thing to remember if you ever take it is: take a bar prep class (I liked my BARBRI course) and then study all day every day before the test. Minus the 4th of July. Take that day off and don’t feel guilty about it. But wake up, study all day, go to bed and do it again. Every single day. It’s the only way to get your stamina where it needs to be so you can endure three days of testing and so that you will feel that you prepared as well as you could have prepared. You don’t want to be one of those people vomiting or crying in the middle of the test.

4. If you ever take the bar: stay in a hotel across the street from the testing center. My roommate and I split a hotel room in Tacoma, across the street from the convention center, and it was the best decision. Also bring lots of snacks to your hotel room. Unhealthy snacks like bagels and Doritos. And go out for dinner. And go on walks after you finish the test each day. Then study more before bed.

5. The day the test is done you’ll want to just lay and never move or think again. You’ll be so exhausted. More exhausted than you’ve ever been, but, get up, eat something, and go out. Have a drink. Be with your friends. Look like a beautiful princess in real clothes, with really dirty hair (see picture above). It will make you feel normal again, and feeling normal is the best.

P.S. I DID IT!

gametime (YIKES)!

In just a few hours I’m heading down to Tacoma. To take the bar. YIKES!

The test doesn’t start until tomorrow morning (6am. Again, YIKES), but my roommate and I booked a hotel room across the street from the convention center. Because that commute just sounds unbearable after DAYS of testing and leaves too many things to potentially go wrong. So yes. Tacoma, here we come, today.

I’ve stocked up on granola bars, bagels, and Doritos (because you know, it’s the bar and I have no shame or worry of calories). And, I’m hoping that everything goes smoothly. You know, because even the thought of seemingly minor things like my nail polish chipping during the bar makes me want to cry anxious tears. Needless to say, the stress has finally hit, in a big way, over the last few days.

So friends, I’ll see you on the other side (that means Thursday afternoon). And hopefully I’ll never have to do this again. -- “do it once, do it right, never do it again” right, BARBRI? RIGHT!

girl-cation

Dustin is currently in Michigan with his two besties from Teach for America and I’m not going to lie, I’m a little jealous. Not because I want to be in Michigan or because I’m jealous of his man-cation, but because he gets to spend a whole, long weekend with two of his bestfriends. I mean, really though, how rare is it that you get that much uninterrupted time with your friends? Unless you just graduated law school and you consider your “friends” to be the BARBRI Washington Essay Testing Book, your outlines and your laptop. Then you get like, 8 uninterrupted weeks. I don’t however, so I’m spending my evening a little jeal. #3moredays

Anyway, moral of this story: I want a girl-cation!

Beth+Marissa, let’s do this. Ok?

Even if it’s just a few [rooftop] adventures+girls nights+danceparties+sleepovers in Hood River/Bingen. It is much needed. #imissmyfriends

Oh, and McDs breakfast = mandatory. I guess Colby can come too. #itsnotagirlsnightwithoutcolby? #toomanyhashtags

information overload

I’ve had a headache for days.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s because my brain is full and trying to put more in is just making it expand beyond capacity. Because that can totally happen, right?

 Rules I still need to work on go on the wall. The number of sticky notes on the wall is expanding by the minute. #9moredays

the great apartment hunt

I have only really ever had to find a place to live once before because everything else just kind of worked itself out without any effort on my part. I grew up in my parents’ house, then I went to college and moved into the sorority where I lived for 4 years. After college was over I moved back home for 6 months before law school. That summer was one of my favorites. I worked a lot of food service, and saved so I could get my very own apartment. I also had a lot of fun. I forgot though, how stressful that apartment hunt was. It involved a few very stressful trips to Seattle with B, looking at the most ghetto apartments either of us had ever seen, having a woman in McDonalds tell me I was going to get fat when I was ordering a medium french fries to share. Needless to say there were also a lot of tears involved with those trips.

Eventually though, I found my over-priced, downtown apartment just a short walk away from the law school. I moved in, experienced the whole living alone thing (and being more grown up than ever before, sort of, minus the whole 1L thing) and then at the end of my first year moved back home again for another epic summer in Hood River. At the end of that summer I moved back to Seattle and into the house I’m in now. It is owned by the people I used to nanny for. They were moving, my roommates and I were looking for somewhere to live, they asked us if we wanted to rent their house, it’s beautiful and newly remodeled (heated floors? what?) so obviously we said yes and that was that.

Fast forward two years, in the middle of studying for the bar and I’m looking for somewhere to live again. Alone again. Tears again. I looked at a place yesterday that smelled like urine and had a built in murphy bed in the living room (it was a one bedroom). No thank you?

This new place will be the place where for the first ever time experience a real, grown up life. It is the place where I will experience life without school for the first time, where I will be living when I start my first ever lawyer job (well hopefully anyway, fingers crossed that I pass this bar). It’s exciting. I just hope I can find the perfect place.

In my expert opinion, finding somewhere to live and studying for the bar have to be two of the most stressful thing. Mixing them together is almost unmanageable. So, the moral of my story today, friends, is that you shouldn’t ever think that you can move during (or in my case the week immediately following) the bar. Not. Worth. It.

weekend study breaks

I am having a really hard time focusing on studying today, so a blog post it is!

This weekend though, was good. I snuck in a few breaks here and there for some fun with Dustin.

Friday I had possibly the most frustrating Doctor’s appointment ever (for some follow up from that time last week when 1/2 of my body from my neck down went numb and I had to go to the ER in the night = so terrifying). I saw someone new. She didn’t listen. She prescribed me a bunch of medicine I won’t take because anti-inflammatories and my stomach don’t mix. But, she referred me to a spine specialist. Dustin told me that the referral was good and really what I needed. He’s always my voice of reason. So I’m trying to look at the positive side, instead of crying, because I definitely teared up from frustration in the examination room. I’m trying to look on the bright side more lately instead of being so negative all the time. I don’t even realize I’m doing it most of the time. Good thing I have Dustin to help me out with that one… But really, I hope this whole thing gets fixed becuase I don’t want to be in pain every day anymore. I don’t want to go numb. I am so mad at the woman who rear ended me in October. (ok, done being negative!)

After my appointment, Dustin took me out to the Pig and Whistle, a restaurant by his house, to meet a few of his friends from college. All but two of the people we hung out with ended up being attorneys here in Seattle, so it was fun to chat with them and nice to have people around to empathize with me about this whole studying for the bar thing.

This is what I wore:

I am obsessed with this pink dress lately. So good.

On my feet I wore these, which I am also obsessing over:
(warning for anyone who thinks that they might want to go to law school &/or take the bar) Bar prep can make you feel really gross. There is no time for things like looking cute most days (it’s hard to care about looking awesome when you’re so stressed about other things and when your skin is having a meltdown). I have been slacking in the beauty department lately. I’m actually kind of ashamed. For example: I usually go a few days between hair washes. I don’t think it’s good to wash your hair every day, and frankly it’s easier not to. But during bar prep I’ve found myself going longer and longer. Like a week. There, I said it. I am just glad that my hair is long enough to go into a top knot, because things are a little out of control lately. Top knots = my hair’s best friend lately. And the best solution I’ve found to getting dressed in the morning when you know you’re going to be sitting all day? Dresses. They’re the perfect outfit. They’re really easy, they’re really comfortable, AND you almost always look cute when you’re wearing a dress. So, moral of the story: dresses = the perfect bar prep clothing. Dress + topknot = uniform until July 27th. But probably after that too, let’s be honest…

Anyway, that got really off topic.

Saturday Dustin left me alone in his apartment for a good part of the day so I could study and he could run errands and deep clean his car. After our day apart, we decided to drive north to find a place to feed us a late dinner because it was so nice out. We ended up at a McMenamins in a strip mall in Mill Creek (what?!):


Saturday I was thankful for Tots and Dustin! Hooray!

Yesterday, because I was feeling pretty good about Evidence (the topic of the day yesterday), I took part of the day off and Dustin and I headed east on i90 into the Cascade Mountains. We ended up at one of Dustin’s favorite places: Rattlesnake Lake.

Minus the fact that there were about a million screaming kids and dogs (dogs = dog poo), it was really relaxing. And yesterday it was actually warm out. Like 80 degrees warm, which is HOT for us.

AND there were ducks in the lake. I LOVE DUCKS!! I waded out into the water and fed them chex mix because I’m a bad person (please don’t lecture me about not feeding them, I know).

It was a good weekend with my favorite person. I’m so thankful I got to sneak in a few really nice/much needed study breaks (which are probably adding to my short attention span today, I think I got a little out of routine yesterday, whatever, worth it).

P.S. at least I’m not studying for the bar in a trailer park :)

my first day off

My favorite holiday is just a few short days from now and I could not be more excited. The Fourth of July is most wonderful (I get to wear American themed clothing, there are fireworks, friends and usually sunshine - although Seattle looks like it’s going to let me down on the whole sunshine thing this year – and all around goodness) and it is even more wonderful this year because it is my ONLY day off during all of this bar prep madness! I need a day off like you wouldn’t believe (and everyone around me needs me to have a day off too – sorry for being a cray, Dustin).

Anyway, things lately have mostly been weird and boring and stressful (like there was that one time last week when 1/2 of my body when all numb and I had to go to the emergency room… but don’t worry, I’m ok).

But things aren’t all weird and bad. Like, for example, last night I took a little break to go to a BBQ at a friend’s house with this guy (isn’t he handsome?):

It was a very welcome and nice break!

Ok that’s really all I had to say. Basically just a long, rambling hello.

Oh, and just in case you need a little more American themed awesomeness… THIS! From last year: