Miss Kitty goes to the club

I'm going home to Denver next weekend for 2 weels to interview at law firms for next summer, and as part of that, I'm also setting up informational meetings with alumni lawyers of Notre Dame and Dartmouth, basically just trying to get anyone and everyone who'll meet me to have lunch. One such alumni, who I found through the Dartmouth Lawyer's Association just agreed to meet with me today and suggested we have lunch at the Denver Country Club.

Well, I called Miss Kitty before I confirmed with him to see if she knew where the Denver Country Club is. "No, I don't," she told me. "But I'm sure we can find it." She paused for a minute and then said"...Can I come too? I'll sit in the corner and not make a peep."

My mother, ladies and gentlemen, who FULLY intends to live vicariously through me when I'm a lawyer.

And now for the softer side of life...

Moving past the offensively liberal tone of the last post, I've got a new blog to share. My friend Christina from law school is in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia with her husband, Chris. The two are going to be fantastic parents, and have been through quite the adventure trying to get their baby (or babies - their application states they're willing to take multiples). They have a blog where they chronicle their journeys and also have links to other blogs written by families adopting from Ethiopia.

This morning, with the help of Chris and Christina, I discovered Maia Papaya's blog, and I completely adore it. Check it out - she's precious.

And now for my desperate plea: SERIOUSLY, Hamilton girls! When is one of you going to get your act together and have a baby?!?!? I am not meant to be a mom yet, but you rat bastards are keeping me from what I see as being my life's destiny: Aunt Bagel.

Republican Fundraiser or Disgusting Inculcation of Militant Values?

On behalf of Big Colle, I am giving everyone an advance warning that this entry is bound to be one of my offensively liberal pieces. Reader, beware.

This morning I heard a piece on NPR about a Republican fundraiser in Manchester, NH. Excited & nostalgic though I was to hear the upcoming NH primary season metioned, I couldn't help but be appalled when I heard the focus of this fundraiser: a machine gun shoot. Apparently, for 25 bucks a person, you can shoot a machine gun that is standard military issue. Even kids get to join in the fun, which promoters (according to NPR) were touting as a "family event." Now, I'm no dummy; I know NPR is totally left-biased, so I decided to research the event more when I got to work to see if it was for real.

Contrary to what NPR made it sound like, this is not as part of the Republican presidential race but is just for the local Republican party. But still, I couldn't help but think of what an easy time I'd have turning this event into a really sick and twisted depiction of how brutal and militaristic our society is. Imagine, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa bringing out the kids for a fun day in the park where instead of swinging or playing with other children, they learn how to fire automatic weapons! I feel really sick just thinking about it. Gun control is not an issue I feel particularly passionate about, but this summer, I've seen some truly sick depictions of guns in everyday life (including the day that I was looking out the window of our house to see one of the neighbors tromping through our back yard carrying his pride and joy: a shotgun, to show the neighbors. We have a flipping baby in the house, and there were at least 3 kids in the surrounding yards all under the age of 5. I'm not particularly passionate about gun control but I AM passionate about keeping guns away from kids.

Then, to add to the brilliance of the whole event, there was this comment posted by a JUDGE about the event:

This will be a great event for the whole family. Gun's are what keeps this great country free. So I encourage all freedom loving Americans to attend this event. and I find it unfortunate that Chris Pappas does not my support my personal freedoms even though I support his.
- Hon. Robert A. Burns, Manchester NH

I'm sorry, but guns don't equal freedom. Guns equal FORCE. Freedom comes when you don't have to use guns to force your way of life or point of view on others. I'm not saying that guns aren't necessary at times, nor am I saying that we shouldn't be free to own guns, but seriously?!?!

jeesh!

aight, already. the poll is on the RIGHT. putzes.

The Bagel Poll

So blogspot has this sweet new feature! See left....

rainy days and mondays

It's raining this morning - definite bad omen. I spilled soda all down my pants this morning, forgot my keys in the office bathroom (could have been a BIG disaster, as i still have the enterprise key chain on there that lists the make/model, year, and color of my car), my favorite purple umbrella broke, and i'm downright exhausted. I got home from Chicago at midnight last night after my first meet and greet reception at Jenner & Block. All in all, I was very impressed - especially after talking to Tom, a rising 3L I know from Notre Dame who works there this summer. But bouncing back from my 8 hours of driving yesterday is proving a tad difficult. I might try and sneak out the back of the office soon and run to starbucks.

brrrrrr

so cold in the office today! i have a space heater less than a foot away from my legs in the middle of July - go figure.


saw harry potter last night, and was pretty disappointed. somewhere b/t the rushed plot (who thinks it's a good idea to turn the longest book in the series into the shortest film?) and the obnoxious teenage girls sitting next to me who repeatedly clapped loudly when they saw a scene they recognized from the book, laughed at very inappropriate moments and were very vocal and swoony over their love for ronald weasly, i decided that i'm going to rent this movie when it comes out on DVD, pretend i'd never seen it, and give it one more shot. although, I loved the characters of umbridge and luna and wished they'd been given more time to develop them b/c i thought the actresses were brilliant.

My late-night calls.

Two nights in a row at 10:30 pm and 10:32 pm someone from King of Prussia, PA has called me and not left a message. If this someone is you, I don't pick up unknown numbers, so (610) 337-9080, you either need to leave a message or find some other way to contact me.

On another note, this has lead to lots of curiosity on my part as to who my friend in King of Prussia is. I think if it were a telemarketer, they wouldn't call so late and at the exact same time both nights. It's not the dartmouth hater (who does live in PA but not that area) and I don't believe it's my only other (known) friend in PA. Wonder who it is?!?!

p.s.

finally google stopped listing this blog when people google my name and school, so i can rest easy and apply to firms without taking it down. or at least i think i'm safe...


...god help me if i get rejected because i'm offensively liberal. or offensively stupid.

On to bigger & better

This week I marked the half-way point of my summer job. Today I sent out my third, fourth, and fifth resume/cover letter bundle for a job for NEXT summer. If you haven't heard me go on about this before, (and if you have - bear with me) law school is like being on the most settled and definite of five-year tracks. This August and September I'm going to be interviewing with law firms for my jobs for next summer, and so long as I don't drastically screw things up, that's supposed to turn into my job after I graduate. Plus, it's pretty difficult to switch jobs your first few years out there, so it'll likely be my job for a good 3 or 4 years. The process is so settled that I would guess a good 60% of law students out there are doing the same thing (the others are still looking at public interest, government work, clerkships or the like). I'm not actually complaining - I like how definite it is, and if I can just get a good job in the next few months, then I'll be pretty settled for the next few years or so.

The problem is: WHERE THE FLIP DO I WANNA WORK?!?!?! Last year around this time, I decided that I really wanted to live in Boston. Not sure why, but every time I looked outside (mind you, with my feet planted firmly in Indiana), I felt like Boston was the place for me. The four years before that (the whole time I was at Dartmouth), I kept saying how the east coast wasn't for me, and I wanted to go back to the midwest to be near my family. And now a days, I really like the idea of getting a kick-ass apartment in Chicago. Plus, Mark is selling me on the idea of DC - where the winters are the least heinous of all my options. That's a big plus given that i've spent my last 5 years in the worst winter conditions possible in the continental US.

Location indecisiveness aside, there's also the pay/quality of life difference too. In Boston or DC, I'd likely be getting paid more, a LOT more. (Like on the order of 40K relative to Denver, and 60-75K relative to Omaha.) But life in a big firm is MUCH more easy to manage in Denver or Nebraska than it is on the east coast.

I guess what I'm saying is: does someone want to tell me where to go next summer? I'd greatly appreciate it! :)

Oh, and I used to debate the merits of Seattle, but now my stupid sister has a stupid boy who lives in stupid California. ALTHOUGH, word on the street is that he was debating a move to be closer to said stupid sister. Stupid Sister, care to comment?

My youngest roommie

This is Molly, my youngest roommate, after we discovered the fun features on my webcam... just thought I'd add a visual to go along with the previous post.

I don't know what's scarier

This morning Mollie (my latest roommate, age 18 months) and I were walking down a very big flight of stairs after blowdrying our hair. She tripped on her jeans and flew face down the stairs (we were at the very top) for about 2-3 stairs before I caught her, literally by the crotch of her pants. She cried for all of 1.5 minutes but it took me MUCH longer to recover. I think it'll be a while before we do stairs together again. An hour later I was sitting on the sofa playing websudoku and got the crap scared out of me again as 2 huge dogs came bounding in the house and went straight for my head. They're the newest visitors this week.... I'm hoping my allergies hold up.

Suffice it to say that today has seen too many surprises for me.

2 hour lunch! :)

The nice thing about juvenile court is that it doesn't resume until 1:30 in the afternoon - that means, if i finish my morning work in time for an early lunch (like around 11:30) and want to take the afternoon to observe in juvenile court (which my boss is okay with), then I have a 2 hour lunch! :)


So today, during my 2 hour lunch, I discovered what is quickly becoming my preferred law firm for my 2L job: not-so-heinous-firm
One of my biggest concerns this summer has been the fact that of all the firms doing On Campus Interviewing this fall, very few of them have practice areas I'm actually interested in and NONE are from Denver. So this one looks really promising although I could be in trouble b/c they seem to have a strong preference for people who go to Colorado schools, but here's hoping!

Question: does any law student out there know, if I'm applying by sending them a resume and cover letter on my own, what's the earliest I can/should do that?

And speaking of applying for jobs for next summer, since whenever you google my name and school, this blog comes up, i'm thinking of changing it up a little. Hopefully all I'll have to change is my profile to get this site to stop popping up in google, otherwise, I might have to take it down for a while or move it.

Today I'm done being a 1L!

That may sound weird to say now that it's 5 weeks after my last final and one week after I got all my grades, but this morning I finally mailed in my writing competition entry and this is the first time I've felt like my 1L year is finally over. Here's hoping I get on to a journal now - I don't know that the entry was good enough for Law Review, but I don't think it sucked.

Hooray, I'm officially a twol!

It pays to do your bailiff's homework!

So yesterday I spent most of the day observing (per usual) and in the afternoon I went to a trial that another intern, Jennifer, had been observing already for most of the day. Apparently, the bailiff in there had been bugging her, trying to get her to do his outline for him. The outline was for a speech that he had to deliver later that night for his communications class. She flat out refused, but later that afternoon when we ran into him another court room, I started asking questions about the outline and before I knew it he had his computer in my lap with his outline up and his speech up and had me working on it.

In reality, I didn't do much, I just read them both - he had already started the outline and was doing fine and the speech was entirely written. I was just curious. So I made a lame comment or two about how maybe he should stick this segment into that box on the outline (the outline was actually a template the professor had given them and he was expected to fill it in), and didn't actually do anything for him. (Which he blamed Jennifer for, entirely. He said that she was screwing everything up for him. ;>) The whole thing was just kinda entertaining and this morning when I ran into him, I asked him how it went.

It went well, apparently - he won the award for best speech in the class. So then we randomly started chatting about various other things and I mentioned how I went to the gas station this morning to get a soda b/c i'm exhausted! (haven't slept well for a couple of nights) It wasn't till I got into the gas station that I remembered that you can't bring liquids through security in juvenile court. So I was screwed.

Low and behold, apparently, in a back room that you need employee access (like the kind a bailiff has) to get to, the court reporters keep a big canteen of all sorts of food and drinks. JACKPOT! instant caffeine. I was soooo grateful, I might just spend the rest of my summer running around the court house seeing if there are any bailiffs who need their homework done for them. :)

I will never sleep again!

I just woke up from a nap to discover that I missed my sister Courtney's only call so far this summer. FLIP! New plan: I will never sleep again. She's at camp - so the only person who gets to use the phone less than she does is her bf who is in boot camp. I tried to call her back, but it's been so long since I've called her, I forgot her number on speed dial. and I got her voice mail anyway.

Week 2 of work is over, and I did a naughty thing and left work early today. The problem is my boss is out of town and there were all of 5 people in the office, none of whom could give me any work. Here's hoping they don't fire unpaid interns for leaving at 2:30 on Fridays...


This weekend will be very low-key for me. I'm locking myself in and finishing this darned writing competition entry. Which means I'll have very little human contact with other people because the family I live with is out of town. I see this as going very badly.... be prepared for some very dark, sad entries. I don't handle being alone very well.

(p.s. I realize this post is really long and rambling for the squat amount of interesting info it conveys. you're going to have to deal though, I'm a dull, self-involved person. ;>)

Why have a blog???

Yesterday morning, I found myself getting frustrated because I was bored and trying to read people's blogs, but none of my regular blogs had been updated in a while. I found myself muttering out loud: well, why have a blog if you aren't going to update???

Pot calling the kettle black. Obviously.

SOOO - the job has started, and while I've come close to posting a couple of really interesting stories on here many times, I stopped myself because I'm not actually sure how much information I'm allowed to share. But as for general observations, now I'm really glad I opted for this internship over the public defenders - from what i've seen of the PDs, I was not at all impressed. I even saw one case where an attorney came to represent his client (who was incarcerated at the time) in a termination proceeding (meaning that the state had filed to have his parental rights terminated forever) and the darned PD hadn't even contacted his client! I've found that a lot of them are so disheartened or jaded that they barely even represent their clients at all, let alone to the best of their abilities.

Meanwhile, this job is different than what I thought it would be in a lot of ways. For example, so much of what I've been doing is actually parent-focused. Basically, if there is a case for abuse or neglect and the children are removed from the home, then the focus switches to what services the state can provide the parents and have those parents completed them. There isn't a really wholistic evaluation of the problem or situation or causes or solutions as far as I can tell, just an evaluation of is this person mentally competent, and if so, what services should we make him/her do before he/she can get the kids back. But the services are really limited to services the state already provides (like substance abuse, parenting classes, domestic violence classes, etc.). So in court, usually we sit down for any given case and just discuss what services the parent has or has not completed, and typically, there isn't even an evaluation of what put the parents in the courtroom in the first place. So it's not a very thorough system in as much as it doesn't really address the problem as a whole and how to solve it or whether it's solved.

That said, I do enjoy watching the process. The job isn't as sad as I thought it might be - mostly our cases involve substance abuse on the part of the parents. Although there have been some really sad cases of molest where it's pretty certain that the kids are going right back to the home (and in one case this will be for the 3rd time) without anyone ever being charged with molestation or treated for that kind of a problem. My favorite part of the job so far is probably mediation - those occur when the state has initiated termination suits against the parents and the parents and the foster parents sit down to try and work out a guardianship or an adoptive agreement or whatnot, without the use of a judge or courts. My second favorite part of the job are the characters in the courtrooms cuz between the judges and the bailiffs, you never know what will be said. One judge got annoyed when a mother who gave birth to a crack baby asked why she can't have her baby back. She leans over the bench, looks her straight in the eye, and yells: BECAUSE YOU POISONED HER!!!! well put, I thought.

Let's see... not much else in my life. I might be getting a part time job at a country club soon though - keeping my fingers crossed. But for now I've rambled for so long that I should get back to work.

Long Term Rentals/Short Term Leases?

Had a great weekend in Omaha! Went to visit paige and lynn and get a bridesmaid dress (see pix below) and now I've got to get ready to leave again to go back to Indianapolis. Quick question: does anyone know of a cheap place to rent a car for 3 months or to sign a short term lease? Right now, all the rental car places are quoting me some 700 dollars a month and that's more than half my summer stipend, not even including gas. So I'm trying to figure out the car situation for the summer and I'd appreciate any and all advice!





This is my dress.... although it'll be in navy. Despite all the halter debate, I had to agree. It's the best style of dress for me. SOOOO excited for this wedding!

I just lost 2 cars, a house, and a trampoline.

1L year is done, I'm in Denver for two weeks, and I'm doing all I can to procrastinate on my writing competition entry.

Case in point: last night I spent 45 minutes gambling with Peggy, my 10-year-old cousin. The game? stack 10 dixie cups up into any sort of arrangement and then take down your arrangement and stack all the cups together faster than the other person. I was a rockstar at this game - if you know me, I very rarely lose to little kids because, truth be told, I'm a jerk. That said, last night I was thoroughly whooped in the highest stakes round we had all night. I had already won both Peggy's grandparents' cars, their house, and her trampoline. I had wagered it all in exchange for her little sister too, and then the unthinkable happened. She kicked my ass. Soundly. Kudos to her, but now I'm still without a car or a house or a trampoline and so life is not looking too bright today. Well, that, and this darned writing competition entry is calling. I'm only about a third of the way through the 253 pages of material we have to read. Yuck.

Last Day as a 1L

And then next year, we will have caught the dreaded twol-itis (better pronounced toolitis). I haven't been able to sleep since 5:30 - I'm so ready for this year to be done!!!!