Sweet dreams are made of these

Last night I had to fight an army composed of Australian Aborigines and Clowns. My subconscious makes me happy.

My Future?

So remember this crazy expensive law school thing I've been doing? Apparently someday all this is supposed to lead to some sort of a job. But I sort of thought I had time to figure all that out. Truth be told, that's a big reason why I went to law school. It seemed interesting sure, but I don't have an all consuming passion for law. I just took one look at the real world, freaked out, and decided to stall and go to law school in the hopes it would lead me on a nice, clear path and buy me a few years to figure everything out.

But uh, apparently we're supposed to start getting "legal experience" right away or no one will ever ever hire us. So I need to find something for the summer pretty much now. Oh boy. Oh, and I better choose right, cuz while some legal experience is always good, getting some in the field you actually want to spend the rest of your life in is even better. Apparently law isn't just some nice neat "Yay, I'm a lawyer, let me go forth and do all lawyery things!" kind of a deal. No, its all specialized. Like heart surgeon v. pediatrician specialized. The same base of knowledge, but you probably don't want a pediatrician doing an open heart bypass. And yes, people change specializations, especially after right after school, but I feel some major pressure to have a dang good idea of what I want to do. Right now.

Here's the problem: I have no idea what I want to do, and I'm starting to feel like the only one. Now that the search for summer jobs/opportunities to be slave labor (internships) has begun, I keep hearing all these crazy detailed career aspirations from everyone around me. One girl wants to work on child abuse cases, others have the perfect civil rights group or regulatory agency in mind, etc. Some even know exactly what firm they want to end up in.

You know what I want to do? Sue people. I've never really given much thought to the million different kinds of law. I just assumed I'd work in a nice medium sized general law firm where random people would come in and we'd help them get an injunction to make their neighbor trim his trees, solve a contract dispute, get damages for a run over cat or other little things like that. Nice normal cases with a little bit of research, a few days in court and then I get a nice paycheck and a nice life. Maybe once and a while we'd get some big case where we fight for the little guy against some big evil corporation. You know, the lawyer stuff you see on the movies and the tv machine.

I'm feeling quite lost here. Not only do I not know what I want to do, I don't even know what will be possible. I don't really know what each field entails, what it requires, or even where I would be able to find a job doing it. I don't know what I would be good at. How much would it suck to decide ok I really like x type of law, so I study for it, do internships and everything I need. And then end up living someplace where that area is impossible to be hired in, or something else happens where I just can't do it. What then?

Plus, I just have no idea where in the world I'm going to end up living. Part of that is just the fun challenge of being a two career family. Needing to take two peoples career aspirations in mind really complicates things. I know sometimes things just won't be in my favor - its more than fair, we're here in DC right now mostly for me. But I'm still a little nervous about what will happen when its Zach's turn. I've known pretty much since I first started dating Zach that he really wanted to live and study abroad someday. We talked about this a lot before we married, and while he knows it kind of freaks me out, we've more or less agreed that if a good opportunity for him comes up the odds are we'll go for it. So whatever I do really should have some international application. Which would be great if I was at all interested in international law or had any language skills or something. Even assuming we generally stay in the states, things are still complicated. Moving even between states is a pain for lawyers, as you have to pass a brand new bar exam everywhere. At the very least we'll probably be moving for his PHD, and from there who knows what college's will be hiring. I just don't know how everything will work out in the future or what I should do to be well prepared.

Future family stuff further complicates things. Right now the plan calls for us to start having kids within a few years after I graduate. Ideally we'll both be able to work part time for most of our adult lives and share in the childcare - which means a flexible job would be great. I'm just not sure what law fields are generally best for that. I keep hearing horror stories of 100 hour work weeks being the norm for lawyers, even more so for young lawyers trying to prove themselves. Even without kids I feel like that would kill me (not to mention my relationship with Zach). But with kids it reaches a whole new realm of impossibility. Oh, and somehow I have to pay back all my student loans, which will end up being about the cost of a house.

So all I have to do is find a field of law that interests me, I'll be good at, I can practice in a wide variety of geographic areas, that has generally flexible scheduling and will pay enough for me to pay back student loans and support a family. Oh and now would be nice.

I'm sure I'll just end up applying to lots of places, and see what happens. It would just be so much easier if I knew where I wanted to end up.

Sleeping Together

I have a tendency to get up at least once after I've gone to bed. Water, something really important that just has to be written down right now, whatever. Usually I'm fairly lucid, but even on my best nights I usually just grunt and stumble around to wherever I'm going, and then absentmindedly crawl back into my side of the bed.

One night I was particularly tired, so after my stumbling and moaning, I returned, felt around for where Zach was, hopped up onto my side, and promptly fell flat on the floor. Dear sweet Zach had moved over to my side.

Ours is a loving, healthy relationship.

Why I heart criminal law part 2

Ah, class definitely kept me awake this Monday. A small sampling of the awkward, somewhat inappropriate conversation

-We had to read a Cosmo article

-and discussed Cosmos's book of red hot sex

-A student sort of propositioned the professor "you may do the following to me..." (we were trying to define consent)

- Prof: "lets just assume that anytime anyone uses the word morality this semester it will be in air quotes"

- Student: "There will be less free love" Professor: "You mean they'll have to pay for it?"

-"More ask as you go instead of pay as you go" - discussing Antioch's sexual assault policy that requires explicit consent for each new uhm level of contact

- Student: "There should be a physical manifestation of consent - if you let it go in, its in!"

-Student: "Don't all men want sex all the time?"

-Class: "Help, I've been burgled!" (after learning that burglary and robbery are different)

-Professor reminding us how littel what we learn has any meaning in the real world: "but if you've been burglarized say you've been robbed, it s crime against person so they'll show up. Academically incorrect, but it gets results"

-Professor: "How many of you have registered for the selective service? let me turn the lights on so we can see who to send to jail"

IKEA Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

So ever since we've been married and moved into our overpriced box that was clearly designed for elves I've been making an attempt to the place we live somehow amazing. Unfortunately I mostly just read various design blogs which fill me with inspiration that dies quickly upon the remembrance that we have no 1)money, 2)space, 3) creativity. But fortunately some small things are within our grasp - including the various reasonably priced, Swedish styled goods of the classic IKEA! As you may remember IKEA day 1 was sadly decimated by heinous forces beyond our control. Let us not speak of it.

But Friday! was a glorious new day, ripe with possibilities. The class began in less than auspicious fashion as I attended not one but two preemptive makeup classes for criminal law - nothing like discussing the menus rea of rape to start your day on a cheery note. But hey, it was IKEA day, and nothing was going to ruin it! It helps that instead of paying attention in class I perused IKEA's website...

IKEA really is a magical place. We grabbed a quick bite of lunch, and I swear that the IKEA magic made my chicken and fries extra scrumptious. And then began the meandering and the buying. It was like being a kid in a toy store. Everything was so pretty and well designed. Plus there's something extra fun about walking around now with Zach because maybe if we're good boys and girls someday we can have a house with stuff in it!

Also, IKEA makes me want to have babies just a little bit. If Zach ever really wants to knock me up, all he would have to do is take me to IKEA, make awww noises with me and my birth control pills would be gone in 5 minutes tops. I'm sure the effects of IKEA would wear off eventually, but at that moment I would be powerless. Seriously, they have the cutest, funnest little kids section ever. I could make a glorious Dr. Suessian room populated by Mammut. Or a fun jungle room with these Lova leaves and various Barnslig animals everywhere! Perhaps a Ekorre rocking moose as a nod to Zach's Alaskan childhood? Or so many other bright and colorful and exciting possibilities! There's just so much and its just so cute! Really i just want all this cute stuff for myself, but its much more socially acceptable to just live vicariously through my imaginary children.

And now, partly because Swedish names are really fun to say and largley because I am still fairly excited, here is a sampling of what hath been procured: FLÄRKE, Syntes skiss bowls that will hopefully contain small amounts of my desk clutter, Diska and Plastis, a light for my Knubbig, a Kvart, various Kappas and Kardemummas so that Zach's plants no longer have to reside in tin cans, a Svepa to water said plants, an orchid I have named Mia, which shall live long in its Idyll - please send poor Mia good vibes as I'm fairly sure that I will probably kill it somehow, my beloved Alvine Flora that I have long lusted after, Superfin and Snartig, the Granat, and way too many candles and candle related paraphanallia including the Tindra Mys, Granum, Grodby, and way too many others. Of course, they are in good company as our apartment is already populated with 2 Kullens, a Not, Elly, Jall, Trojka, and the ever popular Lack.

You see, while IKEA may be a magical place of color and design and love, I'm not all together certain that it isn't also a slightly evil magic that disables common sense. After all, everything is soo pretty and ooo look how reasonably priced! We must purchase it, and that thing over there, and that too! Plus the store is huge and windy, and is scientifically designed to weaken your resolve. You know what we actually went there to get? Just a few nice, simple, cheap Flarke bookshelves so that Zach could have a desk again (I'm certain that his books get inspired by our rambunctiousness and reproduce when placed in close quarters on that desk). Yah... we spent about 5x what the cost of "just a few bookshelves" would be...

Not that I'm bad mouthing IKEA! I still happily long for the next time I can make pilgrimage to that giant blue sanctuary. And I'm still in the warm glowy phase that occurs after significant retail therapy has taken place. It's a nice place to be - I actually don't hate our apartment right now! Actually I'm fairly proud of us - we did spend more than intended (and I'm not even going to go into the subsequent costco trip - it was all food, and thus does not count. Right?) but it could have been oh so much more. While I continue to lust after the Expedit and the Hemnes and oh so much more, we managed to make it out with relatively small purchases, most of which serve a real purpose. So yay us, yay IKEA, and a big old yay for materialism!

(Oh, and the title? So in the 80's they made a horrible movie about break dancing. And then a sequel, which surpassed the originals level of horribleness, but did have an awesome name : Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. So now whenever I see Something 2 - I automatically add Electric Boogaloo. Which means I giggle at inappropriate times..ie. Godfather 2 - Electric Boogaloo.)

The Evil Winter Followed Me

As many of you know, during my BYU days I took great joy (or at least did it often enough that one would assume so) in complaining and/or mocking Utah in general and BYU in particular - yes they both have good qualities, and it was a good experience overall, blah blah, but that's not the point. Above all else I hated loathed and despised the snow that would fall like a plaugy pestilence and coat the world with hate and despair. It was just so very very cold and wet and slippery and slushy and was just generally a concoction created by Satan to make mortals long for the warmth of the underworld, or commit homicide for a pair of mittens, or at least swear a little. I swore I would never live in such a winterland massacre again.

Unfortunatley, in all my hatred of the snow I think I may have underestimated the power of the cold.

You see, winters in DC look beautiful. The sun is shining, it looks happy and warm - and best of all not even a hint of snow in sight. I was walking up to school today and well it was more than a little cold. And windy. Reaaallly windy. But Zach walked half the way with me, so I was distracted and fooled myself into thinking I had adjusted. My face still wanted to crawl off my skull and hide, but I assumed that was just because it wasn't covered. So I kept on walking and eventually reached my school.

Of course I was happy to get inside but it didn't seem like that big of a deal. About 5 minutes after sitting in a warm building something odd happened. My nice, covered legs starte dto do that tingly thing, like they had just woken up. My whole legs were shot through with horrible pins and needles, liek a thousand angry bees as they worked there way back into life. Yes, my freakin legs had actually turned numb from the cold and fallen asleep. I hate the snow, but it never turned my freakin legs numb! I swear, Utah winter followed me and just put on a disguise of bitter, biting cold to try and hide its evil.

Law School is making me a bad person

This morning in my public law class we were discussing problems with different ways of lawmaking, specifically the revolving door from regulatory agencies to private firms (ie. I work for the gov't and have lots of friends... why hello big private firm that tries to get the gov't to do things that help your clients! whats that you say? Because I know people I should work for you? And you'll pay me how much? Wahoo!) and how that makes things all corrupt and blurs lines and blah blah blah. I was right there, until he mentioned a friend of his that has gone between gov't and the private sector about 14 times. And now makes seven to eight MILLION dollars a year! Suddenly, I'm much more ok with it.

It's happening everybody. I'm becoming a bad lawyer person. Last semester I figured out how you represent bad people and causes - its all about faith in the system! Because if you beleive in the judicial system, why then it would be unfair for you not to do your best for the bad person because then you're not letting the system work! How dare you! You have to take the big paychecks and represent them or else you're failing the judicial system and then justice and freedom and America and puppies will all die! So come on! Take a giant paycheck - for the puppies.