PT-LawMom

Matt Homan at the [non]billable hour has a great post with 15 tips for law students. My favorites are the following:

3. Being good at writing makes you a good law student. Being good at understanding makes you a good lawyer. Being good at arguing makes you an ass.

4. You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.

7. The people who will help you the most in your legal career are sitting next to you in class. Get to know them outside of law school. They are pretty cool people. They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.

8. Your reputation as a lawyer begins now. Don’t screw it up (and quit bragging on your MySpace page about how drunk you got last night).

11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn’t get you rewarded. It gets you more work.

13. You have a choice: You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing. Choose wisely.

15. People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny. They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true. Spend your career proving them wrong.

Read the rest of the tips here.

One of the most balanced attorneys for whom I’ve worked was a telecom attorney whose passion was yoga and healthy living. He would do telecom litigation by day and teach yoga classes at night. He made time for the things that mattered to him and set boundaries with the firm. It helped that he was in high demand by the clients, but I think his keeping his goals in sight was also a great way to maintain balance.

Today I came upon the blog of Ken Harris, Jr., a BigLaw attorney turned solo who appears to be striking a balance by competing in triathalons. More power to him! I always enjoy reading blogs by parents who have found away to maintain a healthy balance between career, family and personal goals. His blog looks pretty interesting. Check it out here.

You can find the weekly roundup here at Saramel’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 back here.

The NY Times has a blog post today listing five everyday grocery items you should be buying organic. I found the list really surprising! I won’t be buying organic milk (amazingly it’s really hard to find organic lactose free milk and I’m lactose intolerant), but I will definitely look into the organic PB and ketchup. That’s pretty easy stuff. Pumpkinhead is a bit of a ketchup addict. He loves veggies, but only because he dips them all in ketchup! We’re kind of Atkinized at my house so we rarely eat potatoes. I did do organic baby food when Pumpkinhead was little, but only because it was easy to find and seemed like such a simple thing to do. I think if I’d lived somewhere other than DC, I probably would have gone with Gerber rather than driving a bazillion miles to the local organic food store (I’m nowhere near one right now, at least not that I’ve found). I’ll have to think about the apples, but it is definitely worrisome to hear that the pesticides can cause attention problems in children. Pumpkinhead is quite the apple eater!

Dear Readers,

I need a change. My favorite classical CD from undergrad broke in two during our move and I have been unable to find a good replacement. I have started downloading random selections from iTunes, but would love some good recommendations for jazz or classical songs that you like to study to (i.e., ones that won’t put you to sleep or distract you from your reading). Thank you in advance for your much-needed help.

Fondest regards,
PT-LawMom

I have so much reading to do for this week. I’ve gotten through two nights worth but it’s almost 7 p.m. and I still have two more nights worth to read. Bleech. Problem is that the last two weeks have been insane and this week is going to be the worst. A new policy has been instituted at work that changes the way we complete certain tasks and one of them is going to take up all my time this week (and possibly next week) to the point where I may have to work through lunch and possibly even bring work home. Sigh… Hope not!

I cannot believe October is almost over! The past few months have just flown by. This weekend has been great. Chapin stayed home yesterday and we got a lot done around the house, then went out today and got him an expensive new toy (read: BIG ASS TRUCK) he has been begging for pretty much since we got married 7 years ago. He’s a happy, happy man. Not sure how happy our bank account will be once we see how much a tank of gas will cost us, but hopefully it won’t break us. Pumpkinhead has had a blast driving around today and then jumping/dancing in the back of it. He was also really excited because a neighborhood cat came over to play with him and was still outside two hours later when we left to go show off the car to my parents.

Anyway, I have about 10 million things on my plate in the coming weeks (cleaning my home office is definitely going to have to wait until Christmas break because a) it’s a wicked mess and b) I really need to get some bookshelves for my stacks and stacks of law books). Seems like every Saturday is booked with one thing or the other and I know time is just going to fly. I cannot believe that this time last year I was complaining about how I had to wait to hear which law school would accept me and then wait a whole 6 months to actually start attending. I guess the busier you are, the less you notice the days and weeks passing by.

In health news, the Cymbalta continues to work. I have been having some continued pain/numbness/tingling in my legs, especially when I cross them or push the backs of my knees against a chair, but I’m trying to avoid that and it’s not constant like it was before. Hopefully it won’t return because I’d like to stay on the lower dose rather than upping to the 60mg. There are some side effects that I’d rather not magnify, but overall I feel 10,000 times better!

Enough procrastinating; I’m off to read some more before the time comes to watch Desperate Housewives (the one show I try catch live and not DVR if Pumpkinhead’s bedtime routine doesn’t delay me).

The New York Times has a piece about Americans getting stuck in long lines coming back from Mexico into the U.S. However, it seems to me that the U.S. government is putting their money where there mouth is on terrorism. They’ve said forever that they don’t want terrorists crossing the border so they need to be checking everyone rather than randomly choosing people who “fit the profile.” You can’t say you want closed borders and then bitch when you too are subject to inspection.

That said, the locals who work and attend school along the border are facing major problems. I think there is an easy answer for that. Just like the airports have made exceptions for frequent business travelers to get clearances, the same should be done for locals along the border. Give them an EZPass or other such quick identification card with a photo ID or some type of biometric system and let them go on their way in a special lane.

I also wonder if the Canadian border is facing similar delays. I was watching Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central last night and he made a good point. Mexicans are almost more opposed than Americans to letting terrorists through the Mexican border because they know if that happens, that fence will be locked up tighter than anyone wants and both economies will be damaged.

According to this quiz, I’m a Dedicated Reader

If only this were true about my reading for law school. And, honestly, these days if I actually make it through a whole issue of Brain, Child, it’s a good month for extracurricular reading!

Under a new law, undocumented immigrant victims of violent crime who cooperate with authorities in the arrest and prosecution of their attackers will be eligible to apply for a new U visa. The visa allows victims of crime to stay in the U.S. for up to four years and to be accompanied by family members. While I think this is good because it helps the government keep violent felons off our streets (especially those gang members and rapists who come from other countries to set up shop here), but I also wonder how strict the requirements will be. It’s not a nice thing to say, but oftentimes people who get involved with these felons are criminals themselves. I wonder how the USCIS will evaluate those cases so that it doesn’t end up like many criminal cases where a bad guy walks because he’s willing to flip on his friend. Don’t get me wrong, this new category is wonderful in that it will protect undocumented immigrants who are sometimes targets of violent crime because their attackers believe they will be too fearful to go to the police. I think this is a great benefit for them; I just hope that USCIS doesn’t allow criminals to stay here simply for turning on their buddies. You can read the USCIS fact sheets here:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/UvisaReminder16Oct07.pdf
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/U-visa_05Sept07.pdf

The House today came 13 votes shy of overriding President Bush’s veto of S-CHIP, the national child healthcare bill. God forbid people should have to pay a bit more for those cancer sticks to help keep our kids healthy. This just really disgusts me.