half-way there

and the hard part is over. right? right????

who is this?!?!

T-16 minutes till my final starts. I'm sitting in the library and dancing to Cab Calloway's "I Wanna Be Rich." Am I sweating the final? Nope! Am I freaking out cuz I finished my outline at 7 am and haven't reread it? Nope! I'm dancing in my seat while Lynn tells me I'm crazy and listening to the song that's been going through my head all morning, that apparently NO ONE has ever heard of before.

I think it could be that I'm only going on 4 hours of sleep and my body is going into its hyperactive phase. That, or I've officially gone off the deep end. Whatev. At least there's good 80s music on the other side of the deep end.

My Iowa Roots

Back in the day, I predicted it*, and apparently the Des Moines Register agrees with me.

*I have since changed my mind on the overall election outcome. I have more faith in Hillary, but I think it'll be close.

This is Yucky.

From a conversation we just had about Business Associations & partnerships and limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships and limited liability limited partnerships....

Me: So first you had the P.
And then you had the LP.
And then you had the LLP, which modifies the P.
And then you had the LLLP, which modifes the LP.
Right?
Lynn: Yes.... you confuse me.

yet another christmas profile

As some of you may know, my current obsession when law school has me down is to read adoption blogs. It started when my friend Christina would show me cute pictures of babies adopted from Ethiopia or interesting stories, but since then it has taken on a life of its own. I think I do it for a number of reasons - 1, law school is stressful in case you haven't heard; reading these blogs is a lighthearted distraction that also gives me a bit of perspective. 2, these kids are DAMN cute. 3, stories about silly little kids are waaaaay better than stories about civil rights, or international law, or conflict of law, or business associations, or any of the other lame subjects i should be studying for right now. ;)

One blog I read is of 2 boys adopted from Haiti. I thought y'all (especially my sisters) might enjoy this story. It dates back a while, but was linked to a current story all about how these little boys have asked for a baby sibling since they could talk. I hope you guys enjoy the picture montage as much as I did.

New Christmas Profile

My cutest roommate ever has the cutest new baby brother ever! Meet Sammy:



Sammy is a very precious, good natured baby with a pretty heavy load already. He was born with a brain dysfunction called Semi-Lobar Holoprosencephaly (HPE), which apparently develops in the first few weeks of pregnancy and means that the brain doesn't grow forward and divide like it's supposed to during pregnancy. I wouldn't want to speak for his family on the nature of this disorder because obviously they know much more than I do, but I do know that they are very lucky that Sammy made it out of the womb (most babies that develop this disorder don't make it past pregnancy). Not only that, but he was lucky to be born into such a loving and positive family. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers, I know they'd appreciate it.



More information on Sammy's condition is here. And this is the website of another little boy in Indiana who has the same condition. Coincidentally, this little tyke is also named Sammy and has a milder version of the same disorder.

Christmas Profile

Every day for the past week or so I have tried to come up with something new and exciting to post about my life. Unfortunately, there is nothing new or exciting about my life. I'm eating, breathing, and living finals - those interviews put me ridiculously behind and so I'm struggling to get it all done in 2 weeks. So this morning I had the brilliant idea that maybe I would post favorite Christmas memories. And the more I got to thinking about Christmas and holidays, the more I realized how many of my stories turned out poorly for one person in particular. It seems like every recent Christmas/Thanksgiving/New Years one particular person got shafted, and so instead of doing a favorite memory, I thought I'd do a tribute to the Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Tree of my family.... my sister, Michelle. ;)



Chelle happens to have very bad holiday luck, particularly with mashed potatoes. It seems that every year she gets blamed for a batch of bad potatoes that weren't necessarily her fault (there! I admitted it!). Like the year that my dad gave her frozen potatoes to make mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. Or the next year, when he gave her a bag of rotted potatoes. And then last year, at Christmas, she got a batch of potatoes that had been left in the water too long, and had turned starchy (I'm not going to go into details about who left her that batch ;>).

I think she may have also suffered the most physical casualties around the Holiday season too. Not to belittle the year that Nicolle had to have a root canal, but I still think Michelle takes the cake. One year, she and I were sitting in the back seat acting like a couple of nimrods while Nicolle drove down the highway. We thought it would be funny to stick our heads out the window and see our hair fly. And it was funny.... right up until Nicolle closed the windows on us. I jerked my head in as soon as I realized what was happening, and started screaming so loud at Nicolle for being a jerk that none of us heard Michelle screaming, with her head now stuck in the window.

Or there was the year that I was sleeping on the couch and one unknown sister started throwing things at me. I didn't know who it was, but I could hear Michelle laughing, so when I got up and left the room in a huff, I hit her.... turns out it wasn't her. Woops (sorry, Chelle!).

PLUS, Michelle's birthday is on New Years Eve ~ an unlucky pick because no one wants to celebrate your birthday on New Years. Last year was a particularly bad birthday because Michelle got sick as an early birthday present and so had to spend her birthday getting a giant shot in the place that no one wants to get a giant shot.

But the least funny and the worst of all Michelle Christmas stories is the year she had to miss Christmas cuz she got into a car accident on her way home from college. She was fine, but the snowy ditch that claimed her car is probably still on her sh*t list.

Now, on any given year, we don't typically give Michelle props for her holiday mishaps. However, this morning as I walked into school and tried to remember all of my funny holiday moments, I realized Michelle probably deserves a little more sympathy than we give her. So here's to you, unlucky holidays sister. I hope you don't hate me forever for this post.