Reconciable Differences?

Watching Grey's Anatomy this week, what intrigued me more than the love triangles or crazy surgeries was the story line about working mothers balancing their careers and their family. Although I don't plan on getting married or having kids for quite some time, I still think about this. The more real this lawyer thing is becoming as I slave away in law school, the more I think about what kind of complete life I want to have.

It took me a while to realize that the family set up I grew up with, became accustomed to, and naturally want to have is not as typical as I once thought. My dad left in the morning the same time we did, and was home every day at 5:30pm in time for dinner. He volunteered as a lineman for our soccer games and helped us with our homework. My mom worked part time for most of my childhood so she was usually there to take us to our sports practices, 4-H meetings, piano lessons and much more. We had a homecooked dinner together most nights and I remember being absolutely shocked when we took a survey of my 9th grade class and I was only one of 3 students in our perfect little suburbia who usually ate dinner as a family. Even if my mom had to work an afternoon, evening or weekend shift at the hospital, I always felt like she was there to take care of us.

So I guess when I hear about the types of hours lawyers have, I do have to admit that I get a little apprehensive. Maybe its too much to wish for the atypical nuclear family setup that I had growing up, but I wonder if I can get close as a lawyer. Is it possible to reconcile these two seemingly different types of lifestyles?

I guess only time will tell and I shouldn't be worrying about this (that's another childhood habit ingrained in my head). What I really should be thinking about is studying for finals. So much for my "tv study break." Even a silly doctor show makes me think about the law and how it will play in my future.

Mr. Bush Goes to Vietnam

I don't know whether Vietnam is actually in the news more nowadays or I'm just starting to realize it because I'm getting more in touch with my roots, but I think it's pretty cool. From news stories detailing its economic growth to Congress debating over a trade bill with the country to President Bush's visit.

Although I'm still in the middle about reading all of the news stories about the President's visit, I've found some of the comments made during the trip quite interesting. All these speeches about learning from the mistakes from the Vietnam war, not quitting, and how freedom takes a long time. I wonder if it's ever run through Bush's head that this country has really come a long way since, and dare I speculate- because, the United States left. Or is that too obvious of a lesson?

Now before I get called a pinko, I will just add that I think Communism is bad, especially the means taken to get there. And I do realize that there's poverty and some religious persuction, and all that's bad too. But I think that Vietnam's natural progression to a capitalistic system and their economic growth is telling. Bush and I seem to agree that change does take time; I think where we differ is how much United States involvement in Iraq is necessary for that long-term change to take place. I don't think that we should pull all of our troops out tomorrow, but I do think a gradual withdrawal needs to happen. I think its not realistic to believe that a stable and peaceful democracy, our model of freedom, will transpire with US troops there. I know that there are some Vietnamese (like one of my aunts) who was mad that the US left, but there are others (like my dad) who thought the country was better off when they were forced to handle the problem themselves. As my dad, says, Iraq will only work if you let the Iraqis figure it out.

I will admit that foriegn politics was never my specialty and any idea of what we should do in Iraq is simply a civillian hypothesis, but I can see political spin, or at least political stretches, when it's there. And when you go to a quickly rising country and see their progress, maybe you should take a hint...even if you have to sit under a huge Ho Chi Minh head.

Happy Birthday Mom

Most of my role models are women. Women who exuded determination, compassion, intelligence, and grace. Women like Mother Theresa, Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sandra Day O'Connor, and more. But above all others is my mom. Happy Birthday Mom!

A Jack McCoy Day

Even though I don't really have any desire to go into criminal law, there are just some days when you just want to prosecute people, Law & Order style. I seriously wonder if I should keep reading the news because I'm getting these desires to lock up people, for maybe even things that they can't be prosecuted for. Based on today's news, here's who I would put on trial in my own little world with my own little laws:

• OJ Simpson & Fox for having absolutely no souls: Before class this morning someone mentioned how OJ Simpson wrote a book called "If I did it: Here's How it Happened." I didn't believe it, but lo and behond, I find the article on the front page of the Washington Post. OJ wrote a hypothetical confession and Fox is doing a special on it. I honestly don't know who's worse. OJ, someone who obviously has no shame and doesn't appear at all to care about the psychological effects that this will have on his children or the Goldman family. Or Fox, who has no shame either and will do anything for ratings and dollars. Unfortunately OJ's already been through the judicial system and they found him not guilty criminally (thank goodness for the civil system making him dish out the dough).

• Some members of the UCPD for acting just like some of their big brothers at the LAPD*: Since I don't know all the facts about this case, this is only speculation based on this article I saw online. But in a nutshell, it seemed like the police tasered a student who was leaving the library not once but five times. Whether he had ID card or not, this seems like a very extreme measure to take to get a college student, even with an attitude, out of the library. What's worse is that the police threatened to taser students around who were just telling them to stop because the student was on the ground screaming and telling a girl to back off who asked for their name and badge numbers. *I amended this to "some UCPD members" rather than all of UCPD. After reading my friend's LJ, I remembered that there are good UCPD members out there who have been extrodinarily nice to me, especially with my many LaRouche incidents. I think and hope that these officers who tasered the student are anomoly to the rest, and that UCPD punishes them accordingly.
  

• A California Couple for trying to join the "mile high club." Ok, I wasn't as outraged with this article as the first two but since I like to put examples in groups of three, I decided to include this CNN story. As someone who's had to sit by a couple expressing personal displays of affection, I can see why the flight attendants had police meet this couple at the arrival gate.

On a happier note, my memo is finally done and turned in! To celebrate, we all went back to someone's house and had a nice little bbq. Who says law students have no fun.

Side Effects May Include...

Everyone tells you that law school changes the way you see and think about everything. No one ever tells you that it actually changes you physically too. I realized this yesterday, as I was applying my makeup foundation. Now usually I just apply a color that matches my skin tone because I want to cover the natural darkness under my eyes. Yet, as I was applying my makeup yesterday, I realized that the color no longer matched my skin. Yes, my tan is almost gone!

This was a very sad realization for me. Although part of this skin lightening can be attributed to the fact that I always get a little lighter during the winter and the fact that I live on the East Coast, I am certain that this situation was exacerbated by the notion that I am a law school student, confined to the law building, the library, or my apartment. Pretty much the only sun I get is waiting at the bus stop. Gone are the days when I would sit out on Bruinwalk, eat lunch on a patio, or soak up rays at football games.

So before you go to law school, read the fine print. Here are a few other physical side effects either from my person experience or that I have observed from others...

• Back problems. I feel like our school should be giving out free massages with the number of books and supplements we lug around with our computer. Fortunately, I think a lot of us have gotten smarter by reading for multiple days so we can strategically take home less books a night, doing work at the library, carrying our laptops in side bags, etc. And thank goodness for lockers.
  
• Impaired vision. As though we all didn't have bad enough vision from being the nerds we were before, it has only gotten worse by the amount of reading that we have. I particularly blame my contracts book with tiny print, small margins, and beige paper.
• Abused hands. As I look at my hands typing this entry, I see paper cuts from something, most likely from flipping through hundreds of pages of textbooks or printed out documents from the library. And I don't even want to think about the possible carpel tunnel.
• Colds. Having people from across the country come to one place and try to adjust to the weird weather patterns probably festers more germs than a kindergarten classroom. Factor in people's lack of sleep and stress level and you wonder why people get sick all of the time. I've had a sore throat begin a few times but fortunately I've fought off actually getting sick.
  
• 2nd hand smoke. I wonder if all of these people smoked before law school because outside of the law school is always a herd of people lighting up. Same goes with when you go out to lunch. All I have to say is that my asthma-prone lungs are glad that they're banning smoking at bars by the end of this year and that the majority of people I hang around don't smoke.
  
• Addiction to caffeine. While I can usually get through my day with decaf tea, I looked around my contracts today and saw dozens of the yellow coffee cups that they have up in the cafeteria and just as many cans of diet coke.
  

On the bright side, law school doesn't abuse your body as badly as I make it out to be. There isn't really the "freshman 15" that you get in undergrad. Most people don't think they've really gained weight, if anything they've lost some. And I know I actually get more sleep now than I did in undergrad. So yeah, overall I think my parents will be happy that I'm taking care of myself even if I am paler now.

Happy 1.5 Year Anniversary

I can hardly believe that it's been a year and a half since Alex and I started dating. Since I'm not one of those girl who gushes, especially publicly on her blog, I'll just say how thankful I am for everything. I think we've officially become the "old couple," leading a drama-free boring relationship...just the way I like it. *knocks on wood*

And in honor, one of the funniest pictures of our relationship.

Happy 3 Month Anniversary

Today marks the three month anniversary of my residence in the District. Although I thought it was a silly topic to write about, my roommate (its our anniversary too) pointed out that today marks the three month completion of what practically feels like a new life. It's been...

• Three months of becoming a full time student; yes, I have always technically been one but now I actually feel like one. You can tell how exciting my daily life is when I look forward to finding pictures of judges in my Torts book because it means less text to read.
  
• Three months of dealing with adverse weather. Ok, the weather is not horrible but I'm definitely adjusting to rain on a weekly basis, as oppose to a day every other month.
  
• Three months of living away from everyone. Thank goodness for communication and a good roommate because otherwise I might get lonely. Not only is it odd living across the country from my family and most of my friends, but I realized that I no longer live around people my age in general like Westwood. I went from 4 roommates (and many adopted) to 1 (with an occassional squatter). Now it actually takes effort to go see people.
  
• Three months of dealing with some interesting personalities at law school. I'm sure that there were as many eccentric people at UCLA, but considering that 1) I see the same people everyday and 2) law students tend to be more extroverted, it seems like I pick up on people's quirks much more quickly.
  
• Three months of becoming a city girl. I don't think anyone really considers LA a city, and when you're car-lessly isolated in Westwood, you're really not in a Metropolitan area.
  
• Three months of counting down the three years. Let's be honest, as interesting and occassionally fun as law school is, everyone just wants to be done. No one wants to stay here like people hold onto college.