Beachgirl, Esquire!!!

I graduated from law school today!  Yesterday, I got hooded and today was the commencement and diploma ceremony.  I can’t believe it’s all over (other than the bar).  My mom and her boyfriend flew in on Friday.  My aunts and uncles also came for the hooding.  D’s parents, one of his brothers, and his grandparents were here as well.  We had a great time.

Tomorrow, I drop my mom and her boyfriend back at the airport.  When I get home, I jump right back into studying for the bar.  We’ll also start doing some minor packing.  This coming Saturday we move a few things to our new apartment (we’ll officially move on 6/1).  I’m so excited to start this next part of my life!

May 6 – 12

First off…Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there!  I called my mom earlier today to wish her one.  And to make it even greater, she’ll be here in less than a week to see me graduate.  Yeah!  I can’t believe graduation is a week away.  Time sure has flown by.

This week has mostly been relaxing.  I went through some things to get rid of, scanned a few things (and recycled the original), and painted an old desk hutch.  I also finished reading Cloud Atlas.  I really enjoyed it.

Yesterday, I had the 5k.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to run the entire thing.  There were a bunch of hills and I hadn’t trained on hills at all, so my legs were dying.  But I was able to run most of it.  But Thursday 5/2 I ran a full 5k on the treadmill, so I’ll count that as a success.  Due to time constraints with studying for the bar and then starting work, I’m going to drop back to running just 15 minutes a couple times a week.  Plus, we’re hoping to go hiking and do more walking once we move to Asheville.  That should help keep me in shape without needing 45-50 minutes to do a 5k (plus warm up and cool down).

Goals for May 2013

• Run 5k.
• Snowflake to savings at least $50.
• Snowflake to the Wedding fund at least $100.
• Take Family Law final.
• Pack stuff for move.
• Start studying for bar exam.
• Sell/donate unwanted items.

Goals for April 2013: Recap

• Snowflake to regular savings at least $75.  FAIL!!  I was so close.  I had $66.69.
• Snowflake to the Wedding fund at least $100.  SUCCESS!!  We were able to put aside $228.60.
• Finish Law Review commitments.  SUCCESS!! I turned in my last article on 4/22.
• Take Law & Aging final.  SUCCESS!!  I took it on 4/30.  I think it went pretty well, but I won’t know for sure until my grade comes out.
• Go to the gym 2x per week, including finishing the Couch-to-5K program.  SUCCESS!!  I finished the Couch-to-5k program on 4/15.
• Run 5K.  POSTPONED!!  The race I was going to do ended up being cancelled, but I’m running one on 5/11.
• Finish drafts of each of my papers.  SUCCESS!!  In fact, I turned in all of my papers by the last day of class on 4/26.

Apr 29 – May 5

I’m officially done with law school!  It hasn’t completely settled in yet.  I had one exam on Tuesday and the other on Thursday.  I walked out of the exam on Thursday excited that it was done.  I called my mom and said “I’m done!” when she answered.  D didn’t finish until Friday, but we went to see Silver Linings Playbook on Thursday night to celebrate.  Yesterday, to celebrate being done, D ran his first half marathon.  He was able to finish in just over 2 hours.  Because of law school, he wasn’t able to train as well as he would’ve liked, but he was happy with how it went.  We also picked up our caps and gowns on Friday.

So, we have this week off to rest and enjoy.  Next week, we start studying for the bar.  We’re also running a 5k this weekend.  I officially ran my first 5k on Thursday at the gym, but I’m hoping to do it on Saturday at the race.  I’ll let you all know how it goes next week.

Snowflaking: April 2013

Regular Savings:

• $51.65 Amazon earnings
• $3.00 Pinecone earnings
• $12.04 Interest earned

Total: $66.69

Savings for Wedding:

• $50 Monthly savings
• $45 from selling unneeded furniture before move
• $30 Easter gift
• $103.33 left over from Food
• $.27 Interest earned

Total: $228.60

April 2013 Net Worth

Second month in a row my Net Worth increased, thanks mostly to my 401(k) account (it went up just over $2,000 this month).  It’ll be so nice when I start working again so that my Net Worth starts increasing for reasons other than my 401(k) or a new student loan disbursement.  This month, my Net Worth increased by $568.04.  It’ll also be nice having the increase be much more than that.

Apr 22 – 28

I’m officially done with my law school classes!!!  The last day of classes was the 26th.  It’ll feel weird not going to class next week.  To celebrate, D and I went out to dinner.  We were also celebrating our 2.5 year anniversary.  :-)

I turned in my Poverty law paper on 4/24, my Business of Law paper on 4/25, and my Art & Cultural Property Law paper on 4/26.  It feels great having those classes completely done.  Now, I just have a final on Tuesday and another on Thursday, and then I’ll be done with law school completely.  It’s hard to believe 3 years has gone by already.  I’ve spent a lot of this weekend preparing for finals.

After my last final, I’ll have a little more than a week off.  Then, I’ll start studying for the bar on 5/13.  My bar study books arrived the other day.  Hard to believe I’ll get through most of that this in the next 3 months.

April 15 – 21

My week was a lot less busy than normal.  I had my last two client meetings at the beginning of the week, but all the documents were ready to go for them either over last weekend or on Monday.  After each meeting, I just had to draft some letters to close out the files.  They’re pretty standard letters, so it didn’t take too long.

Two of my classes were cancelled, so that freed up a lot of time.  I spent a fair amount of my week working on my papers for my three classes.  I spent most of this weekend working on them as well.  I’m hoping that I can do one (maybe two) more read through for each and then turn them in this week.  It’d be nice to have them done and out of the way before finals started.

The excitement for the week was that we officially booked our wedding venue.  They had drawn up the proposal and contract back in March and gave us until early May to make an official decision.  During that time, they held our date for us so we didn’t have to worry about losing it.  On Tuesday, I mailed in the signed contract and proposal and, on Wednesday, I called to give them our credit card info for the deposit.  They say that two of the biggest decisions for a wedding are where to have it and finding a dress.  Well, I’ve done both of those and both were relatively easy.  I hope that bodes well for the rest of the wedding planning.  But that’ll mostly be put on hold for the next few months as we study for the bar.  Once the bar exam is done, we’ll start wedding planning again.  I’m excited about it, especially since D wants to be involved and actually cares about being part of the process.  I know many guys don’t want to be involved too much.  Some girls don’t care, but I’m glad to have him equally invested.  It makes it something we’re doing together, which is what I think it should be.  :-)

April 8 – 14

Another busy week.  This time is was mostly because of Law Review and client commitments.  I had two new clients this week.  Because classes are almost over, I had to draft all their documents within a few days so that they’d be ready for me to have them sign next week.  I got them all done by Friday, but it kept me busy.  I had to read through one Law Review article to look for any changes that needed to be made, and I also had to make changes to two articles and send them to their authors for their final review.  Once I get them back from the author and make any changes they want, I’ll be done with all of my Law Review commitments.

My papers are coming along well.  I revised by Art paper and my Business of Law paper, and they’re much better now.  I just need to add a few things and read through them a few times, and then they should be good to go.  I’m basically finished with my Poverty law paper now, but I’m going to read it one or two more times before I turn it in.  I also need to create a 10-15 presentation on it.

Last night, we had a bonfire at our house.  It was a lot of fun.  Today, we took pictures of some items in our house that we’re trying to sell before we move.  I posted several on Craigslist and have someone coming this afternoon to possibly buy something.  I also sent an email to the law school about another item and have several people interested in that item.  Hopefully we can get rid of everything we want and make a little money.

The weather has been so wonderful this week.  I’ve been able to sit outside every day this week either working on school stuff or reading for fun.  It’s also been great having some time to read for fun.  I’ve already read two books in the last couple weeks and just started a third.  I’m trying to read a few more before we move so that I can donate the ones I’ve read and not have to move them.  My aunt gives me a bunch of books from time to time and I can do whatever I want with them after I read them.  They’re not worth enough to spend time trying to sell them, so I donate them.  After I read the ones she gave me, I have a bunch to read that I got from Christmas off my wish list.

Speaking of selling books, I’ve sold another law book online and made a little money.  That makes the third one I’ve sold in the last couple weeks.  Hopefully I can sell the rest between now and the beginning of next semester.