Christmas 2005

We left Thursday right after finals to go home. I spent Friday lazing around with my parents and we went to Rick and Yohanna's for Christmas Eve. Not doing too well with the pictures this year, and I didn't get any pictures there but I took a few before we left the house. Christmas itself was low key as usual.

Me, Dad, Mom

Tree all lit up without my camera flash

Dad and Mom

Snuggles!

After Fall 1L Exams 2005

First semester of law school is over! After we were done with Civ Pro, after the tears, we went out to Jaberwoke with the rest of the law school to eat, drink, and forget. We also celebrated Tiffany's birthday!

We're done! Me, Sarah, and Audra at Jaberwoke

Julie, Tiffany, and Selina- Also TIffany's birthday!

Brian and Donald

Roger and Sarah

Josh and Vida

Josh and his wife Betsy

Cyndra and her family: Larry and Leah (two pictures to get the best in)

Fall 1L Finals 2005

Condensed because of limited time while studying for finals.

Wednesday, December 7: Last day of classes in the first semester! Torts was my last class. Reading Days officially begins!

Saturday, December 9: Audra, Jane, Amy, Ryan, and possibly others get together to review a Torts exam at noon.

Sunday, December 11- Studying Torts, Drinking Tea


Seth possibly studying

Sunday, December 11, 10 pm: Audra, Jane, Lauren, Jerry, and I got together to go over some practice Torts exams the night before the test.

Monday, December 12: I finally finished my first law school exam, and it was rough. Since it was Torts, basically everyone got into a car crash with everyone, someone fell off a ceiling pipe, someone got hit by a train, someone tried to sue a neighboring factory because he couldn't sell his house, and, my personal favorite for obvious reasons, a drunk fell into a hole in the street and sued the hole-makers. After 4 hours of sorting out law suits and developing a new-found legal philosophy I'm relatively sure I didn't fail, but since everything is on a curve, getting a good grade depends on other people doing less well than I did. Now I have to go back to studying criminal law.

After the exam our peer advisors met us with milk and cookies.

Tuesday, December 13, 10 pm: Audra, Jane, Lauren, Jerry, and I got together to go over some practice exams.

Wednesday, December 14, 7:30 pm- Audra, Jane, Lauren, Jerry, Roger, Sarah, Josh L, and I meet in Scott Commons to go over practice Criminal Law exams.

Even though I also study with groups of people, I become paranoid about groups of law students I see studying together.

Thursday, December 15: Criminal Law Exam in the afternoon. I was super excited that I got my favorite chair to sit in for the exam. That matters when you're writing a test for 3 hours. This exam was like sprinting ten miles and then falling flat on your face at the finish line, only maybe more painful. The exams I have coming up are going to be worse. And then when we got home We had five hours of black-out. The entire town was out except for one Applebee's. Living in the woods is sweet!

We had a power outage... while we were studying for finals.

This is me studying by flashlight... because I'm HARD CORE

Akure lit candles to read by

Seth making a fire so we can stay warm and study!

At least I'm 2 down and 2 to go!  The two to go are the worst ones.

Saturday, December 17- Roger told us our Civ Pro Professor posted practice exams on LawWeb. Um, the professor never told us? Thank you Roger!

Sunday, December 18: Pipe in my bathroom randomly starts leaking water.

Monday, December 19: Contracts, closed book exam.

I feel like I'm losing my mind. I still feel unprepared for the Civ Pro test. Hopefully I can fix that all tomorrow, but doubtful. Dreaming of Wednesday night after all the exams are over is the only thing that is keeping me going right now... Closed book Civ Pro is the worst.

When I got home I had a law firm rejection addressed to Mr. Ericka. Sigh.

Wednesday, December 21: Last exam of the first semester was the worst! There was a question that asked about a very specific part of one case. If you didn't know what it was there was almost no way to address it and it was worth a lot of points. The worst part is that we're graded on a curve, and for reasons involving mostly luck the other section had discussed those exact words before walking into the exam. Prior jurisdictional competency.

Still in shock, we then stumbled into Scott Commons where the SBA was providing kegs and our peer advisors had champagne for us. We then went to dinner to celebrate being done and Tiffany’s birthday. Our final bar review party was at Jaberwoke– Law School gets $2 Rails, $2 Pints so a mess basically, more on that soon...

Top Ten Funniest Things Section B Said About that Exam:
10. I tried to deduce the meaning from the grammar of the sentence. - Lots of people
9. I read the entire packet, twice. I knew it wouldn't be in there, but what else was I going to do. - Lots of people
8. I was in denial, so I kept looking for the second sentence of the question, but it was all about word count. - Lots of people
7. "I was in denial so I looked up at the board to see if he had left a hint." - Ericka,
"The kid in front of me did that too, he put on his glasses to do it." - Brian.
6. "The man told us the end time of the exam three times slowly like we were dumb, and then he gave us that question."
5. "I think that exam was a violation of the Geneva Convention."
4. Damn it! I knew I should have slept with the professor. - Lots of people
3. Sitting in a row: Zach: Fuck!, Brian: Fuck!, Audra: Fuck! *laughter*
2. "Think Jerry, think! Think Jerry, think!" - Jerry
1. "I considered writing about Richard Pryor, but it's not even spelled like prior." -Sarah

First Snow! 2005

Yesterday was the first snow here! It is so pretty here! And not really that cold.

Front of the law school

Inside Spies Garden

I've been studying for finals. My entire grade is based on one exam in each class! 

I wish I had grasped how difficult Criminal Law actually was. I was enjoying reading the little case book "stories" and now that finals are upon me I finally grasp that the important thing is knowing how to apply mens rea. So I'm trying to sort that out now. 

I also discovered my Torts professor hates torts. He believes in the insurance system instead, so I'm trying to figure out how to work, "but insurance would work better" into all my answers. 

Civil Procedure is evil. And I'm not totally sure I know what is and isn't a legally-binding contract is yet, but I guess the test will tell me. Today is my last Civ Pro class! 

 

Frosted trees outside my balcony

1L Summer Job Letters 2005

UVA Law also affectionately calls this the "1L Mail Merge." We write letters to firms and organizations seeking summer legal jobs. I'm applying to 80 different places. Letters go out today!

Envelopes, Cover Letters and Resumes!

Ready to go in the mail!

Thanksgiving 2005

I stayed in Charlottesville for Thanksgiving. I'm becoming more and more overwhelmed as we get closer to finals. That's why I decided not to make the trip up for Thanksgiving. For most of the weekend, I was buried in a Torts outline. I should currently be buried in a Criminal Law outline but I can't make heads or tails of the subject so I'm procrastinating instead.

I invited my parents to come down here, but they weren't too sure because I had to study and because they were already trying to avoid traveling to the Cape, so an even longer drive to Charlottesville didn't beckon them.

I didn't miss out on Thanksgiving dinner though- in fact, we had two! Sunday, the 20th, we had a section Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner at 6:30 at Jane's apartment. The section dues provided the turkey and everyone else brought sides and desserts. Brian actually cooked the turkey which is brave.

I didn't take any pictures- so here's a good one of Lauren, Jane, and Brian from before

Then on the actual day of Thanksgiving, Joe got the Harris Teeter Thanksgiving meal package and fed the few people from my section who stayed here: Aaron, Audra, Jerry, Josh G, Justin, Aaron, and Nathan. Jerry brought pie and the rest of us brought alcohol.

Again- no pictures from the actual day but here's Joe and Nathan

Keg Race Against Section F 2005

On Thursday, we had a section mixer keg race with Section F at someone's house before Bar Review last night. I actually love Section F. BF= BF. I did however get pretty competitive about this keg race because 1) they already beat us at softball, and 2) I talk to them a lot so I anticipated a lot of smack talk if they won. Alas, every last person in their section came and partied and they beat us. At least they're awesome.

Me with Alec and Akure from Section F

Section F friends: Akure, Tiffany C, Andrea, and Kristen

Section B buddies Justin R and Jim

Joe and our peer advisor Adam

Lauren, Jane, and Brian

Cheers!

After the section mixer/keg race/ pre-party was over we joined other law students at the bar review at Starr Hill bar.

Tiffany N, me, John, Kathy P, Julie at Starr Hill

Tommy at Starr Hill

Tiffany, Kathy, Brian and I wandered away on the corner and ended up joining some other people at Buddhist Biker Bar.

'

On the Corner

Kathy, Tiffany, me, and Brian at BBB

Dinner at Professor Leslie's 2005

Our section has Contracts with Professor Leslie and he's our section advisor/spiritual leader. He invited us over for dinner on Saturday, and even though we were mostly all still hungover from PILA we happily obliged. His wife made three delicious lasagnas for us as well as salads.

Professor Leslie and Ryan

Dinner table

Other angle


Getting more lasagna

Roger, Elizabeth, and Sarah


Me and Brian


Jeremy, Mrs. Leslie, Selina and back of Brooks


Julie


Cyndra and Kathy

After dinner and conversation we checked out their home theater in the basement and he showed us "the music greats" including Elvis. Audra and I had never seen a video of Elvis performing and we promptly fell in love. Too bad we're about 30 years too late.

Donald, Lauren, Kathy, Nathan, Justin, and Jerry


Helloooo Elvis


Jon, Andrew and his girlfriend


Professor Leslie's home theater dance

PILA Semiformal Dance 2005

On Friday, UVA Law's Public Interest Law Association (PILA) hosted a Benefit Auction and Semiformal Dance at the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown Charlottesville.

Spoiler alert: Dance was really fun! 

The PILA auction raises money for law students interested in working in public interest law to help them during unpaid/low-paying summer internships. They get donations of things to auction off like a week in someone's parent's beach house, gift certificates to local restaurants, or activities like dinner hosted at a professor's house.

The 1L class had a preparty in one of the hotel rooms that was more or less on-going throughout the dance.

My date Seth (Section L) and me

Audra, Brian, Kathy, Jim

Me, Kathy, Katy, Sarah

Justin, Aaron, Elizabeth, Nathan

Amy and Josh

There were dancing and drinking in the main ballroom, and tables outside the perimeter where you make written bids for items big and small. The bidding was cut off at midnight so people tried to wait for the more coveted items, ebay-style. The problem is that because of drinking and partying sometimes you forget to swing by for final bid. Each 1L section was encouraged to find something big to up for bid- and one of classmates family put a week at the beach house up for a bid, which was really nice. This years dance also had a masquerade theme though that mostly involved a few masks being made generally available. Lots of fun dancing and partying in general.

Me and Audra

Jerry, Lauren, Jackie, and Dan

Akure, Tommy, and me

Auction time!

Sarah, Selina and Elizabeth


Seth, me, Rob, Kyla, Kyle (no relation)

Nathan and Kathy

Julie, Roger, and Brendan

Ticket

Also Jon got us this sweet ride to go home.

Inside the fun-mobile. Happy birthday Jon!