Chipped Polish & Wornout Jeans

It is cold, wet, and in general unpleasant outside. I had to make a run to the store earlier and then take out the trash, but I am not going back out in that mess again unless I absolutely have to do it. Instead I will spend the day relaxing on the couch, studying for Contracts, and marking my statutory supplement for the exam. The weather is supposed to be the same tomorrow, so I will definitely be spending it indoors. I wish I had more to blog about, but as it stands there is just nothing happening other than a lot of studying, peppered with some panicking, and the occassional moment of relaxation.  Let's face it, law school has made my life dull. Mostly I'm just trying to stay motivated to finish up my studies so that I can relax for a few weeks. It's not easy to get motivated lately; I'm just tired (ok, more like exhausted). At the moment I keep staring at my copy of The Lost Symbol and supressing the urge to curl up on the couch under a blanket and read it instead of  doing what needs to be done. Right now, I guess I will just leave you with this quick update and get back to work.

So I meant to make a post on Thanskgiving about all that I am thankful for, but I had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend and couldn't find anytime. I had to use at least some of the time to study for finals, since yesterday was the first of four finals for me. I also travel, sort of, on Thanksgiving. We had dinner at Nanny's and then supper in Kentucky at my Grandmother's. At Nanny's we got on the subject of pies, no surprise, and how apparently I'm the only one who can make my Grandmama's Pecan Pie and my Nanny's No Fail Chocolate Pie. I am now on orders to learn to make my own pie crusts, and Grandmama would like me to come to her house to learn. At Grandmother's, my aunt Lynnisse and uncle Steve were doing wiring for my Grandmother, and my cousin Ben and his wife brought Kale and Bryce, their two children. It was loud and crazy, but that's pretty typical. The next day, Daddy (What, I'm Southern, I call my father Daddy) went with Grandmother to get the Christmas trees; it's sort of tradition. Well they took forever, and Mama, J.C., and I waited at the house. Some four almost five hours later Daddy calls and says that we need to come outside. Turns out that they had gone to the shelter where he'd been looking at a rescue rottie online, and he surprised me by bringing us Bear. He is a 14 month old rottie with papers and everything. I will snag pictures when he has put some weight on because he is seriously underfed. His former owner could no longer feed him and had to given him up, and at the shelter Bear let his kennel mate eat most of the food. He's a big baby, but he's sweet.

So what am I thankful for? I'll make it short because it's so late. I'm thankful for a lot of things. I'm thankful for the fact that I am able to live in a country where I can go to law school; I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to pursue my career choice. I'm thankful for the support of all my mentors who have guided me and given me such great advice. I'm thankful for my family, who love and support me. For Mama who will listen and give me advice. For Daddy who may pick on me but always comes through when I need him. For my little brother who may get on my nerves but is also sometimes cool. I'm thankful for Jacob, who loves me and supports me and puts up with me, even though I'm a mess, I have random meltdowns, and can be a real handful a lot of the time. I'm thankful that we have each other.

I also made some new earrings for my shop. So now the plug.

One of the downsides of living away from home is that sometimes you get phone calls that aren't exactly pleasant and you are stuck alone in your apartment crying your eyes out. You see, on Monday night Mama called because Little Bit was going in for surgery because of a bad infection of her reproductive system. Well in the middle of our conversation the vet's office called and told her that when they opened her up it was too late, and that she was gone.

Let me tell you a little bit about our Little Bit. She was a rescue rottie that someone had not treated well. She'd been starved and beaten, and then the people had dumped her out at my Nanny's farm. We brought her to our house with the intention of finding her a good home, and we did, ours. We wound up adopting our foster dog, and she adopted me. I became her person, and eventually she slept in my room under my bed. This dog, named Little Bit because she was just a little bit of dog when we brought her home, had probably known little kindness in her life before we adopted her, and she didn't have the best experience with humans. She never quite learned that she didn't have to eat so fast and that she would always be fed, but she was getting better. When she came into our lives she chewed everything from broomhandles to belts, and I think it was because she had been hurt with them so many times. It took her a little while to get used to being touched, and while she grumbled and barked a little she allowed us to pet her. Adjusting was difficult because she wasn't raised properly from a puppy, but for a dog who had been through so much before us, Little Bit was good natured and sweet.

She had grown so used to me being home all the time that when I moved to L-ville for law school, she was having a difficult time adjusting. She would pretty much explode out of the house when I arrived home for the weekend, and sometimes if I came home at night instead of the afternoon she would have to be held back to keep her from jumping off the deck when she saw me. She was very attached to me, and I was attached to her. She was my baby girl, and I will miss her very much.

I wasn't going to blog about this, but some of it might be interesting. Last weekend I was Judge Bulldog, instead of Captain Bulldog, for the first time. I was a mock trial captain last year, and it was my fourth and final year as a participant. This year I was invited back to judge the Midsouth Mock Trial Invitational. I plan to do this every year so long as I can and I am invited. I really enjoyed getting to see it all from another perspective, and it was pretty awesome to be able to sit and talk to coaches, judges, attorneys, and other former mockers. I also enjoyed getting to see the mockers who are still participating; being in KY while they are in Boro and only having a quick conversation on Facebook is not the same as getting to talk and hang out.

It was strange waiting for the rounds to let out, being out of a suit on a tournament weekend, and watching the teams trickle out. Sitting on the bench instead of at counsel table was a totally new perspective. I judged three rounds and presided once. Judges meetings last forever for a reason, and now I know why we used to spend all that time in the room waiting for the judges to arrive. Arriving in the round was strange, since everyone stood up for us instead of the other way around. And scoring was not easy. I'm very picky and harsh, so scoring was a challenge for me. I didn't want to be "that judge"; you know, the one everyone hates. I did give a couple of low scores though, cause I just had to do it. If they weren't good, they just weren't good. I saw some interesting things, and I almost wish I had taken pictures. I saw a witness with what I would like to call super high "hooker shoes". I kid you not, these were at least 7 inches tall stilettos with platforms. She was supposed to be an actress. It wasn't appropriate for court. I also saw two individuals, who I thought might be coaches. One of them was wearing the strangest outfit I had seem in ages. When I had seen her before, I thought that she might be playing a crazy witness, but then she appeared in the judges meeting. She was not a young woman and yet she was wearing this ridiculous black essemble complete with dress that was way too short, shimmering sleeves, and fantastic knee high boots with buckles and straps.  When in Midlands.... The land of mock trial is always a trip.

After the tournament Dr. Vile and his wife hosted the annual gathering, and it was awesome. I got to see my old captain and my newbies from last year. It made me feel so old to see my newbies as captains and even the President of the organization. We swapped stories of the old days, talked about some of the crazy things we used to do in rounds, the way we used to fix mistakes. I met some of the newbies from this year, and there are some good ones. Of course, Jacob and I didn't do much more than hang out between rounds and at Dr. Vile's, and we snagged some breakfast on the run the morning of the second day. We are going to have to make up for that. We had planned to go to the movies or bowling or something after Dr. Vile's but that didn't pan out, at all.

That was weekend adventure on the other side.