Frequent Citations

I Passed!

I did.  I passed the Bar.

Let me say I never would have gotten through the last 24 hours without the example of Beanie who persevered when necessary to triumph in the end. 

And it goes without saying that I wouldn't have made it without you, dear readers, and your wonderful encouragement.

Rehash

Mostly, I'm not going to rehash the bar exam.

It seems to have been the Year of Secured Transactions, which I find unfortunate because I did not study that subject even a little. I went to the class, I filled out the hand out, I moved on. It was at the bottom of the list for frequency of testing, and I had other priorities such as learning something about corporations--which was not tested.

So there you go. I did remember enough about the subject to scribble a few sentences on the subject.

That was the low point of day one. Day two, I was still sleep-deprived so when I finished the multiple choice section in the morning an hour early I took a nap. I felt better when I woke up so I went over some answers, made sure I had read carefully. Still, I have no idea how I did on it. When I was doing practice tests sometimes I thought I was doing really well and it was disastrous, sometimes I thought it was dreadful and I did extremely well. So who knows?

We'll find out in only 4 months or so. In the meantime I'll continue to have nightmares that I wrote my essays in the wrong books.

Bar Done?

I'm home.

One bar test done, three months of fretting to go. I'm already wondering if I wrote essays in the wrong books, because that's just the sort of thing I'd do.

But hey, it's done and I live to tell the tale. Yes!

Also: the town of the massive herd animal is definitely the place to go if you're going to have to take this thing--I swear it's the best-kept secret of the state. And, well, maybe that's especially true if you have a brother there who goes to absurd lengths to spoil and pamper you while you're there.

I'm not a princess, but I can play that role...

So I may or may not regale you with more details at another time, but for now it's enough to say--wow. I did it. Hot diggity.

Wall, Meet Face. Face, Wall.

If I fail the blasted bar exam, we can all look back at this moment as the reason why.

Late this afternoon I called TFL and wailed: "I can't take it any MORE." I didn't just hit the wall, I went crashing into it face first.

Done. I'm done. Do I know enough? Am I ready? Not even close. Frightening, really, how little I know. I never even got around to rereading the class hand-out for Secured Transactions, much less did I outline it. Other classes I gave the most cursory of reviews. I confess to studying Wills, but I still can't remember what you need to prove one. Witnesses, yeah, and... litmus paper? Hmm.

But TFL scooped me and my enormous pile of books up from the really fabulous friend's place, where I've been studying for the past two weeks, and brought me home and plied me with grilled steak and wine (the steak was grilled, not the wine). I listened to GirlChild play the piano, I finished up the Great CD Project, and sort of studied Domestic Relations. As in, I informed TFL that if we were to divorce in our new state, it would have to be someone's fault. And also that DISMAL spouses can be disinherited, but I can't remember what ISM or L stand for. D is divorce and A is abandonment, maybe S is separation agreement? Yeah, maybe I'll get around to looking that one up. I flipped over to the Wills outline to see if it was there, but it wasn't. TFL sort of looked at me cross-eyed, but when I went on to inform him that a lost will can be proved with a copy he decided it was time for a nap. He's smart that way.

Anyway, best of luck to everyone out there who's been on this same nutty trip for the last three years with me, and who are all going to pass their bar exams by miles.

I'm flying out tomorrow, so it'll be radio silence for a while. Y'all be good. And remember what Clarence Darrow said: if you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.

What Studying For The Bar Really Makes You Think

You see the same basic set up over and over. The detour--it's always a car crash in the parking lot on the way back to work.

After a while you want to scream at the idiots who don't inspect the chain of title more thoroughly.

And, as I've said before, the answer is always go to jail, and yeah your rights were violated but no one's going to do anything about it because of "harmless error."

So this blog post hits it exactly right. WARNING: very bad language!!

Rule In Shelley's Case: Or The Sliver Of Silver

I'm listening to Sam Cooke (what a heck of a singer) and working through MBE problems because I'm determined to ignore how frightening the state essays are.

And I remain the Queen of Property Law. Even the crazy weird ones about the most obscure rules, I get. I mean, Rule in Dumpor's Case? How often are you going to need to know that if a landlord consents once, he consents for ever and ever? Well, actually, that might be handy.

I remember Shelley's Case because it's the one about remainder in the grantee's heirs. So the other one has to be about the grantor's heirs, yes?

Yes, I'm pretty screwed here. I don't think Property is going to make up for the bloodbath that is Con Law.

In other news: GirlChild made the most phenomenal chocolate pound cake with extra cocoa and chocolate chips, so one small piece is about the equivalent caffeine dose of 4 espresso shots. Maybe 5. Perfect.

Also, TFL is actually calling movers. Egad. Now if only he would call lenders for student loans... oh golly. One major stress at a time, anyone?

I'm going back to listening to Cooke and pretending that missing 4 out of 6 the occassional Con Law questions isn't that bad.

Crim Pro In A Nutshell

Go to jail. Also, the Exclusionary Rule is a fairytale, found with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Where the Supreme Court draws lines is absolutely mystifying to me, but if I go by the above rules I generally get to the right answer.

Sometimes I wonder if Warren is spinning in his grave. Sometimes I wonder if the Founding Fathers are. Mostly I figure it's a good thing I'm not inclined to break the law.

Baaaaaaaar Fatigue

I've outlined somewhere over 70 essays. I got ONE right. It was on wills. I get smatterings of correct statements of law elsewhere, once in a while I reach the right conclusion...

And then there's the Move.

Lordy.

In other news: I ordered the hard drive LL recommended and I've been loading disc after disc, making sure we've got all our music in one place. We have a lot of it, and it turns out some of it is not half bad. Not half bad at all.  Insert disc, do a few evidence problems, insert new disc, read the domestic relations outline, rinse, repeat.

Torts Is A Nightmare

I spent all the live-long day on Torts yesterday and I still get questions on comparative/contributory negligence wrong. I can tell you the rules, but whether I get the right answer seems to be random.

Negligent infliction of emotional distress? Again, I can give you the description and tell you how it's applied, but the difference between the two prongs is elusive at best.

Today I must move on to a different subject. Maybe property, which makes so much more sense to my twisted little brain.

Bah.

I'd rather be finding a place to live, and lining up a way to pay for all the tuition that's coming due next month...

In other news: GirlChild went to The Art Fair last week and brought home a pair of phenomenal earrings for me. I told her to spend my mother's birthday check (and if you know my mother, you know earrings are a highly appropriate way to spend her money) and get me something snazzy but work appropriate. She excelled. She will, of course, have many commissions in the future. I'll try to get her to take a picture of them for your viewing pleasure.

Still Plugging Away

When I'm not playing with iTunes or something, I'm studying. And studying. And studying. And soooo not prepared.

Also trying not to think about how soon it's coming up because the heart attacks really slow me down. Nevertheless, I'm having a hard time stirring up a good panic and I can't tell if it's because I'm just too tired, or because I think I actually have a shot at passing, or because apathy has won.

I compared answers with a friend who also did the practice MBE on Friday and we had a huge overlap on questions we both got wrong. We figured that was a good sign, because those were probably the hardest of the impossible questions, right? If you disagree, please don't tell me.

Anyway, I'm studying out of the house and away from my computer. Helps with the studying, but not with the blogging.

Studying for the bar is not conducive to a well-rounded life-style.