PT-LawMom

Yay. I’ve finished both finals and am looking forward to a week off before classes start up again. I have no idea how I did on either final but I don’t think I bombed, so that’s a plus. Tomorrow I’m going to spend my lunch hour reading a magazine instead of a casebook and then I’m going to go home and make dinner for my husband and son and then take Pumpkinhead to the park. Hooray for little breaks. This part-time law mom thing is doable, but I can definitely appreciate some time to just be Mom. If only I could take a break from work, too….

P.S. The big drugs I started on yesterday are kicking in and my massage therapist gave me some great homeopathic stuff for my arms/back, so hopefully I’m on an upswing. Thanks to those who expressed concern. I’m hoping for an illness-free finals period next time around.

Apparently my body doesn’t respond well to stress. In the past week, my carpal tunnel has come back with a vengeance and my sciatica has flared up so much that it hurts to walk. Woke up yesterday with a horrible yucky something — ear infection? sinus infection? strep throat? Not sure, but I feel crappy. I have yet another problem on top of that but it’s TMI so I won’t go there. Let’s just say that I’m off to the doctor this afternoon to be checked from head to tail. I’m blogging this so I can check back at my next finals period to see if I’m in the same condition. With all the vitamins I take, you’d think this wouldn’t happen.

In the meantime, I managed to piss off one of my teachers yesterday. The teacher has been really preoccupied and distracted all semester, to the detriment of me and my classmates and did something that really got my back up so I finally said something. Now I’m on the wrong side of that teacher coming into finals and, due to the nature of our exam (see, this anonymous thing is hard!), the teacher will probably know which one is mine. Just setting myself up for greatness here.

The weekly roundup is available here at Butterflyfish’s site.

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis by Reasonable Expectations, PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning.

Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at Reasonable Expectations.

One down, one to go. I think it went fairly well, but I definitely did not have enough time to give a proper treatment to all of the topics. I tried to write short, concise paragraphs about the issues I spotted rather than dumping everything I could think of onto the paper. Several people finished 10 minutes early, which shocked me. Honestly, I just don’t know how I did. I’m usually someone who finishes early but I needed every second on this exam. One guy mentioned an issue after it was over and was going on and on and I started to worry because I hadn’t seen that issue. Then two other people were luck, “Huh? We didn’t see that issue.” So either he was wrong or he’s the smartest guy in the class and will get all the points. I just don’t know.

Can’t rest now, though. One more to go next week. I did take a little time off this afternoon to take Pumpkinhead swimming because I promised him I would. Now I need to put the peddle back to the metal, put page numbers on my outline this time (!!) and get ready for the next round. Thanks to everyone who commented with supportful notes.

I’ve had a cup of Earl Grey and some eggs with low fat basil/tomato feta (yes, Andrea, you kicked off a craving). My papers and books are present and accounted for. I’ve printed my outline. My lunch kit is packed with a bottle of water, some string cheese and fruit (and, yes, a few pieces of chocolate).

All I need to do now is get Pumpkinhead dressed and off to the sitter and then I’m heading off to Starbucks to get something. I think I will drive to school and then sit in my car reviewing old exams/outlines before heading in to set up for the test. Wish me luck!

I’m working on my outline for my civil procedure (yes, still) and I thought I was including way too much at 30 pages, but now my classmate says hers is 90+ pages!! Isn’t there a point where you can’t find what you’re looking for and it’s just not useful? Ugh. I’m feeling intimidated now.

P.S. Yes, I worked on it throughout the semester, although I got a bit bogged down the last three weeks. Now I’m just refining/adding, but I feel like the skeleton key point structure I was using won’t tell me enough to properly answer questions.

Apparently this is the week to discuss whether race matters in the blogosphere. If you’d asked me 15, no even 10 years ago, I would have naively said that race doesn’t matter. Warning: standard white person line - “my parents raised me to be very inclusive and accepting of others.” But now I know that it does and I think it’s an important component of our total self, but not the defining component. In order to appreciate diversity, we need to see the person as a whole and that does include their race and they way their experience in that culture/skin has shaped their worldview.

When I was 16, I moved to a majority-African American city, went to a majority African American high school and “historically black university”. I dated men from all over the world and then met and married a Latino man. I have a biracial child and my brother (who, I swear, has told me “I hate White people. I wish I was Black.” Yes, he’s 26 going on 3. ) also has a biracial son. My best friend is African American. I have seen the light fade or brighten depending on which combination of us is in the room. When my husband and I were first married, his English was very limited but even without knowing that (perhaps just seeing us speaking in Spanish, which we do), restaurant servers, hotel staff, etc., would often ask ME what HE wanted.

My best friend, who is the most talented, intelligent, sweet person ever has pretty much the same (I’d say even better) education as me and she had a terrible time getting a job while I have never had a shortage of offers. I made the mistake of suggesting to her once how unfair it was that it appeared that they were taking her race into account and she got really mad at me, saying that I really couldn’t know how it is.

And so that’s the point. I can never really know. I can observe people’s experiences and make conclusions about society at large. I can try to change others through my own actions and words. But, ultimately, race does matter.

Does it matter in the blogosphere? There’s a very well thought-out post at MamaSaga. She says it’s a cop out to say that it doesn’t matter in the blogosphere. I would venture a guess that many bloggers, race aside, are fairly middle/upper class and so that would trend to a certain group. I agree with some of Mama Saga’s commenters that I read blogs that interest me. They are White, African American, Latino, Lesbian, Liberal (majority), Conservative (shout out to new reader Scouts Honor!), Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, Lutheran Men Who Play With Guns ( ), etc.

I think we are attracted to people who are like us and the question is which of the many facets of our diversity are we looking at when we try to find “like” people. My blogroll tends to be filled with outspoken, educated women (like me). I enjoy reading immigrant or immigration-related blogs and stories because I immigrated to the U.S. as a teen and, although I came from a majority white affluent nation, I still had a challenging assimilation period. I relate to immigrants. I relate to Mommies, particularly those who work outside the home. I relate to law students. I relate to WLS patients. I relate to Episcopalians. If we read blogs that make us think and interest us and then we find out that there is something about the person — be it race, gender, sexual orientation or life background — that is surprising to us, then doesn’t that just further help us to understand that group? The Blogosphere allows us to meet people we might never come in contact with IRL. I think it can only help us continue to break down sterotypes about what race, gender and other diversity categories mean to us and to society at large.

I got a lot more done today. Partner 1 was gone and partner 2 was busy so I could get a chair massage during the day and actually spend my lunch hour studying uninterrupted. Found my other brace and some B6 & Turmeric capsules. Class was productive and I’m feeling good. Only low point of the day was a fight with Chapin who says I’m being snarky (duh, I’m stressed).

Thanks to everyone for your positive thoughts and encouragement (esp. Butterflyfish who sent me her great notes to help spur me along in my outline creating).

I wish I was already an immigration attorney. We’re in for it now….

It’s exam week. I’m starting to get a bit stressed. First off, after spending the entire weekend with my butt in a chair that just isn’t ergonomic, my back hurts. Second, after spending the whole weekend, yesterday and today typing (what with practice exams and then the actual work they pay me to do!), my carpal tunnel is back with a vengeance. I had it really bad several years ago (could barely drive my car), but it’s been a lot better in recent years. Of course now that my fingers are cold/tingling/numb and my arm is throbbing, the only of my many $30 braces I can find are for my left hand (not really the problem). ARGH! Of course I went to the drugstore on the way home and didn’t buy one because I was certain I had one at home. Problem is that I really haven’t unpacked any of my office boxes since we moved … two years ago … and I just don’t know where on earth the right-hand ones would be.

To add to the stress, Pumpkinhead is refusing to sleep. It’s like he has a Stressed Mommy radar. He’s been in my room probably 10 times in the last half hour to ask for something. I’m ready to throttle him. I was up at 4:15 this morning and he was up right after me at 5. He wouldn’t settle back down so Bad Mommy sat him in front of Diego and went back to her outlines. Yeah right. No way was he letting me get away with that.

Then I go to work and Partner 1 is on my back because Partner 2 keeps needing me for little time-sensitive projects throughout the day and Partner 1 thinks he deserves my undivided attention at all times (he really is a big baby sometimes - actually stomps his feet at me…). I mentioned after the fourth straight hour of entering messy handwritten edits that my arm was starting to throb and he gave me a speech about when he was in law school 100 years ago, they had to use typewriters and if they made one mistake they had to start all over again. I think I saw him pull out his violin as I turned to leave.

On top of everything else, my mother has decided she needs a “surprise” birthday party the weekend after this one and that I have to coordinate it. Yes, because what I need right now is one more thing to do. She watches Pumpkinhead while I’m in school so what can I say?

It’s Tuesday. My outline isn’t finished. Time is short. Stress.