Chipped Polish & Wornout Jeans

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.

Good news: Today's weather was actually nice enough that since I don't have class until 2:25PM and only have one textbook (Contracts) to carry along with my bag and purse I could walk to the law school. I love being able to walk to class.

It's the first week of November, the weather here in the North is still refusing to pick a temperature, and my life is filled to the brim with things to keep me busy. I've got the Open Memo (foul creature that it is) due next Monday, which means that I have to show up early enough to turn the thing in even though my first class of the day will not be until one in the afternoon. I guess I will spend that morning in the library working on the outlines for Torts and CivPro (Also known as the land of Mordor) since those are my classes for the day. Both outlines are in bad need of an update. Speaking of outlines, I need to have all my outlines updated before next weekend, especially since I'm going to be in the Boro to judge mock trial rounds for the MTSU tournament. Nerdy though it is, I'm excited about that. Finals are in about four weeks, and it scares the crap out of me. Law School finals are not like undergrad finals. Undergrad finals are just the last chunk of your grade when you are a college student. Law School finals are your only grades when you are a law student. So I want my outlines updated and ready for typing ASAP, especially that CivPro outline. CivPro is really the only class I am having trouble in, and I can't stand it. I get so frustrated because I can go into the classroom, having read all the material and think I have an understanding of what I should know, but then the professor speaks and I am lost. I am actually terrified of that exam. Torts, I understand; Property, I get the basics and will just have to review the different rules thoroughly. Contracts, I'm not having much difficulty in despite the strange way the class tends to go.

I think I need to come up with some better responses to the question "So how is law school?" Seriously, mostly what I say is that it’s different; it keeps me busy, and it’s interesting, all of which are fairly lame answers to the question really. I love law school minus CivPro and BLS, and I love that I am learning a lot. I wish I could share some of the hilarious jokes that crop up, but they are just not as funny to people who aren't in law school or aren't going to be in law school soon. I laugh when someone says “Torts makes me want to commit assault and battery" But I'm sure people outside here will just look at me funny when I say it. Law school does make you see the world differently. Daddy (I'm Southern, so yes, I call my father Daddy) was talking about a friend he knew who was considering a law suit. After hearing the facts I spouted off promissory estoppel and why it fit. It's good that I know that, since it's important for the final, but it's strange that I can do that now. I see the legal issues in all sorts of things. I do, however, wish that people wouldn't say I'm in graduate school. Law School is not Grad School; Grad School is for wimps.

I need a new camera. (Whoa, random subject change) I've had my current one for several years, and it has been a good one. But it is beginning to show it's age and the wear and tear of thousands of pictures is starting to get to it I think. My little Samsung has seen better days, though it did serve well all summer what with the 60+ pictures I took at the zoo. It's scratched from all the times little cousins have excitedly tapped it's screen when shown pictures of themselves; it's scuffed up from all the different places it's been scooted, stashed, tucked away, and hidden. The pictures are not as clear and pretty sometimes, which saddens me, and it is often a little weak. It's gotten harder on batteries lately, and so I have to turn it off and charge them more often. I tried to take pictures of my earrings to put in the shop, and very few of them turned out well, which was a disappointment. I wound up having to let Nanny take pictures with her camera. I think that if I don't get one as a gift before then, I will save up my jewelry money and buy myself a new one. For now I will just make do, since I want to take pictures at the tournament next weekend.

Thinking of jewelry, I made five new designs for earrings last weekend; I was really happy with three of them in particular. I left them with Mama to take to work to sell, and I forgot to take pictures of them for the shop. I'm slightly disappointed because they were really awesome designs, and I wanted to see if they would sell better online than what I have now. I guess I will just have to make a few more and photograph them if Mama sells the ones she has before I get home next weekend. I've got some great ideas for necklace/earring sets that I want to try, and I've found tons of new beads for jewelry. But first I need to sell most if not all of the pieces I've made so far. I'm thinking my sales will increase when it gets closer to Christmas. (Fingers are crossed)

So I have always had a penchant for making stuff; I mean I've always been into making my own jewelry, costumes, food, and any number of things. I try not to spend a lot on things I really don't need like new books (though being a bibliophile makes almost a need), new music to put on my iPod, games for my DS (don't judge me, I like to play the ones that are a mental challenge), and other fun things that distract me from the reality that is law school. I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to have some extra money because, after all, I want things and need money to get them. There are also other plans that I would like to save money for, but I won't get into them at this point. So I went to Michael's  in the Boro (a place that never ceases to rob me of my money every time I go in there) and bought beads and findings and pretty silver chain; those were added to my incredibly girly little jewelry making kit, which has wire cutters, round nose pliers for loops, and needle nose pliers for bending things. Then I went home, to the house belonging to the 'rents, and made some pretty earrings. Those are now on my etsy site (link to follow at the end of the post). I also gave like six pairs of earrings to my Nanny to take to work to sell; I need to get some red beads to make pieces in the WestSide School colors because they will sell like crazy. Mama is also into this whole make extra money thing and is selling Avon, which is cool; she promises to take some of my pieces to work with her as well and is even offering to buy me more beads.

This is one of my favorite pairs. I love the leaf beads, but they come ten to a string so if I want to make more of them I have to buy three or more strings. I'm slightly irritated by this because I have several ideas for some leaf inspired earrings. I'm also designing Christmas earrings, even though I know that's months away. What I need to do is come up with a banner for my shop and also a logo to stick on the pretty little boxes I will be using to ship the earrings and stuff. I'm hoping that after this weekend I will have a little extra time to come up with some designs for not only earrings but maybe a couple of necklaces. Hopefully when I go back to TN my Nanny will have sold what I gave her, and thus I will be able to buy more beads to make more jewelry in some new designs. Call me a freak, but I love this stuff. I'm also working on designs for a few presents for Christmas and birthdays; my Nanny also wants me to figure out a way to lengthen a necklace she bought at a flea market or yard sale or something like that. It's a pretty piece, but too heavy for my taste; I should be able to get some amber colored beads and make it work.

I also seem to be in need of a creative Halloween costume; the subject of today's entry is not Jake and I, but just so you know, our one year anniversary is next week and so we will hopefully be going out that weekend. Since at the moment he has that Friday off, it means that I will be at home in the Boro for Halloween and will need to be costumed. If there is a costume, I will try to get pictures, and I will definitely have pictures of the awesome pumpkins I know my dad will be carving. Halloween is fun in the R family household, and I look foward to the pumpkins and stuff every year. I'm thinking for my costume this year buying a red wig and digging out tights and a mini skirt for a version of Julia Roberts' Erin Brockovitch, but more than likely I will go a bit cheaper and do some thing with a witch's hat, some awesome shimmery purple fabric I bought a couple years ago, and purple eyeliner. If I was staying in L-ville I would be at the Decedent's Ball and would have to go all out with my costume, but I'm not, so I will probably cheat a little. And yes this is relevant because creating my own costume counts as crafty. Well it's back to Memo-land for me, so I leave you with the link to my etsy shop.