State of the Turtle
School is going reasonably well. I’ll get my the first draft of my second memo back from Legal Writing this week. As long as I didn’t screw it up, the re-write due at the end of the month should not be too bad. I have a short statutory research assignment due this week. I’ve done the research and written a draft of the memo, but the assignment is a bit vague. I’m going to try and meet with the professor this week to clarify a few things. Criminal Law really started coming together for me in the last 2-3 weeks. I’ve completed my outline through the end of October, which means it’s only trailing class by about 2 weeks. Torts is another story, however. My initial attempt at an outline wasn’t very good. I have all of the information for it and just need to get going.
My goal is to finish all of the outlining by Dec. 7. That will leave 4-5 days of studying for the Criminal Law final on Dec. 12, then 9 days of studying for the Dec. 21 Torts final. I suspect that my studying will mostly encompass memorizing rules and taking practice exams. Right now, I’m feeling ok about everything. I’m convincing myself that getting a B+ is good enough.
On the home front, I’m getting decent enough time with the kids. I try to play with them as much as I can on weekends. I’ve been cooking them pancakes each Saturday morning, and trying to read to them each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. In between, we’ve been wrestling, playing board games, and this weekend a few fall sports along with jumping in piles of leaves. I need more time with them, but I think we’ll survive until Christmas. I really need more time with the wife, as I tend to neglect her in favor of the kids (she doesn’t seem to mind this…). We need a date, or a series of dates. Again, I’m sure we’ll survive until Christmas.
I’m hitting the gym and running with regularity, which is a really good thing. My back is finally recovering from having to lug a ton of books around (my new wheelie laptop case rocks!) and I’m lifting heavy again. I’m running on the treadmill now that the weather is colder, which means I’ll typically have to settle for shorter, more frequent runs. So far, that has mostly been 1.5 miles twice a week, which is not nearly enough.
Knocking on wood, I’m pleasantly surprised how physically and mentally resilient I’ve been to the stress of job+school+family, without much sleep on the side. I think optimism keeps me going, and I’m hoping I can hang on to it for the next couple of years, at least.