Graduation looms

Graduation is now under 200 days away, and I have been told I am not nice and not patient.  The stress is finally getting to me and showing.  I realize that I am freaking out, but I am not able to stop myself - I am feeling overwhelmed and don't know how to get out of it.  I try to do things that are fun, but I am still worried all the time about school and graduating and everything that it entails.  I am freaking out and people are pointing it out to me.  I don't know how to stop worrying.  The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to be seen and it scares me more than I am able to deal with.

The fear is real, and as much as I try I can't hold my fears at bay.  I am trying to be nice and my normal bubbly self, but it seems to be cracking and I can't keep it up.  I am afraid of many things and now the change in personality might be one of them.  I am really trying to stay my bubbly nice self and I will continue to try, but according to my mom I am not doing a good job at it.

I promise to try and stay nice and positive even as the stress closes down on me and scaring me just as badly as I was when I first started this journey just a few short years ago.

Almost there, but still so far to go

This weekend, I saw I glimpse of what will happen in one year for me.  I see the finish line, but feel like I am still just starting the marathon.  There are so many cliches that I could write, but it all boils down to this: I have come so far in three years, but feel like it has just started because there is still so far to go.  I am constantly in this weird place, where time is flying by so fast yet at the same time go so slow.  If I am lucky and I can keep working hard I will be graduating law school in one year.  This means that my life will be in this wibbly wobbly time flux that will make the year fly by faster than the concord, yet drag on so slow it will feel like a slug's pace for parts of it.  I do not know what my future holds, but I am on the treadmill that I started on three years ago and I intend to see this to the end.

I have much to do, and hope to write more.

Random Things Overheard

When in law school prepare yourself to overhear or say the following without thinking it is strange or funny:

"Embrace the suck everybody"

student 1 "what if he commits suicide twice?"
student 2 "it is one shot deal, you can attempt it more than once, but you can only succeed once."

"this weather can go right down near my tort's grade"

"this must come from California where all the hippies are"

"I am deanlier on Wednesdays"

Best one line law advice from my professor

1. Just don't beat on people.

2. I like criminals, without them we wouldn't have jobs.

City of Ladue v. Horn, 720 S.W.2d 745 (Missouri, 1986) - what started it?

If you have been in Family Law you probably read this case about a zoning ordinance that defined what a family is and said that Horn and the man she was living with (but not married to) did not fit this definition.  Well, if you are like me you probably wondered what would have started this case.
Did a neighbor complain?
Did the police just do a random spot check?
Was this a family that was always getting in trouble and the neighbors wanted them out of the area?
Who paid the legal fees to take it this far?
Looking at the date you would hope it wasn't a racial discrimination, issue.  Looking at the area and the what research was going on at a nearby university at the time you would think this area would be a little more liberal and welcoming of diverse families.  Nope!
What is believed to be the cause follows below.
Joan Kelly Horn's white daughter was dating a St. Louis Football player, who was black.  He would come and spend time at the family's home and a neighbor was upset that in an affluent white neighborhood a black man was playing in the yard with Jones and Horn's children.  Both Jones and Horn worked at the university and knew several lawyers with the ACLU, and it was the ACLU who paid the legal costs.
Please see attached link and read pages 197-199 for the full background on the story.
If the link does not work you can find the information in the book Not Just Roommates: Cohabitation After the Sexual Revolution by Elizabeth H. Peck.  I found it on Google Books.

Sadly, as of the Spring of 2014 this ordinance is still on the books and Jones and Horns with their children living in the house would still be violating it. Please see the link below and read page 65 to see what the City of Ladue defines as a family.
http://www.cityofladue-mo.gov/uploads/Ordinances/Ordinance1175.pdf 


On a happier note Joan Kelly Horn was elected to The House of Representatives

1st rule

The first rule of law school

"Focus Little Grasshoppers"  - at least it is according to my Descendant and Estate's Professor

Best line heard today

Between two classmates who are veterans

"Did you see the JAG Moot Court downstairs?" - Classmate 1

"I saw all those uniforms, thought hell no, did an about face and when on about my own mission of getting out of there."  - Classmate 2

"Yeah, I had enough of that in my 22 years." - Classmate 1

"It brought back some PTSD issues from my 8 years." Classmate 2


DE class - best line tonight
"Has anyone ever gone snipe hunting? My dad took me snipe hunting one night in Alaska when I was 5..." proceeds to tell a sad story
"I was recently told that there really is a snipe bird, but if someone asks me to go snipe hunting you remember this story and say..." - professor
"NO" - class
"or hell no" - professor