Bar Stories

There is a robust tradition of Bar Exam lore. The Bar Exam is such a crazy process that the bizarre and outrageous are inescapable. There’s the one about the person who wrote “I am depressed” on their performance exam. Then there’s the one about the woman who had appendicitis on the first day of the exam but put off surgery until the test was over.  And of course, last year there was the earthquake.

I didn’t have anything quite as extreme happen, but it wouldn’t have been the bar exam if things didn’t go wrong on the first day.  A section of the room where I was didn’t have any power so we started a little over an hour late and didn’t get any time for lunch.  Then towards the end of the first essay portion, the Examsoft program on my computer stared malfunctioning, making it so I could not backspace or delete anything.  And because these things always come in three; a couple of buddies and I decided to get pizza after the first day.  Good Idea? Fabulous! (that’s a Barbri joke) No it wasn’t.  Chris and I both got food poisoning.  Not cool.

Everyone who takes the bar has a funny story too.  And no, the food poisoning story is NOT funny!  But this one is: There were a bunch of applicants at the convention center, all from a certain fourth-tier law school, wearing green shirts that said: “Do it once, do it right, and never do it again!” 

As my friends and I were walking back from lunch on day-two, we started talking to a guy from that law school. One of my friends said to him: “I’m glad that you’re not wearing one of those stupid shirts.” To which he replied: “That’s because this is my third time.”

If you were to just ignore the six hours a day for three days of complete misery and the fact that I was sick, taking the bar was kind of like a nice little vacation. It was fun hanging out with my friends that I hadn’t seen for a while.

I’m so glad I’m done.

What Happens When Steve Isn't Home...

Steve is in Ontario, taking the CA Bar and I'm here in LA.  It feels kind of like "Home Alone" (more like the scenes where he is eating ice cream sundaes for dinner or watching old movies and less like the scenes where he hates his family or is trying to outsmart criminals).

So what I have I been up to with no supervision?  Well, I went to work,

Hung out with the dogs,

Researched baby stuff,

Cleaned the kitchen,

Ate broccoli and mushrooms for dinner (a rare occurrence because Steve can't stand them),

Went to Yoku Yoku with my visiting teaching partner and visiting teaching sisters, 

And let the dogs sleep on the bed (Steve said it was okay; and yes, I will wash the sheets before he comes home).

It's been fun, but I'm glad Steve will be coming home tomorrow because I miss him.  Plus, my life is not really very interesting or exciting when I'm a hermit.

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast

(breakfast on Friday, that is)

Bar Blues

In case you are wondering where I have been, I have spent the last two months in the state of Columbia, at a place called Blackacre to be precise. There I have been dealing with all sorts of characters whose names usually start with the letters “P” and “D.” These crazy people like to run each other over (as well as commit a wide variety of other torts and crimes), that is, whenever they are not selling widgets. Oh, and I can’t forget Harry and Wanda, one of whom is always dying or else seeking a divorce.

That’s right; I’m studying for that California Bar exam where I will spend three days for six hours a day sorting these fictional characters’ problems out. Just in case you haven’t heard of it, the bar exam is a particularly sadistic procedure that lawyers have set up in order to limit their competition so that they can increase their fees. CA lawyers are especially sadistic (read greedy); adding an extra day, covering more substantive law, and doubling the length of the performance tests.

If I learn everything in all these books then I can pass for sure.

April has recently been circulating this picture with the false and misleading (a favorite word combination of lawyers) claim that Kiki studies more then I do.

What she failed to mention is that Kiki sleeps all day and this was like the one time she ever studied Barbri.

Well, I guess I had better get back to work…

Oh, but one more thing. Don’t you people taking the Utah bar and other two-day bars call me after day two and brag about how you’re all done. I’ll bite your heads off.

We're having a...

baby!  I know you already know that, but it got you to read my post, right? We went to the radiologist today for our standard mid-pregnancy ultrasound. Baby Garff was sleeping upside down, curled in a ball. Kind of looked like it was trying to do a somersault.

We had people calling all day, asking if we had been to the doctor yet. Steve's aunt and cousin left us a message as we were about to go into the ultrasound to figure out the results. When I went to work, I was asked several times about the timing of my appointment. And Catherine called last night to ask what time the appointment was so she didn't have to call every hour to find out the answer to the burning question in all of your minds. Guess everyone is really excited to see if the new member of our family will be wearing mostly blue or mostly pink.  Even our blog readers were so disappointed to see that Steve posted about our concert last night and gave a misleading title, giving several people false expectations about his blog post (he did it on purpose).  

The newest addition to our family will be sporting a Y chromosome.  You guessed it (you lucky 5 people, you!), in December we will be joined by William (Will or Liam?) ____ Garff. It was actually pretty funny how we found out: the u/s tech put the goo (it was warm this time, yay!) and transducer on my belly, and we were all immediately flashed by our expositionist fetus.  There was no denying that it was a boy.  I'd post the picture, but I don't know if it would make it through your internet filters! We did get a great shot of him staring at us with a weird face, that kind of makes him look like he comes from a horror flick:

In less exciting, but no less important news, William does not have a cleft palate, and his kidneys and heart are well formed.  He also has very long legs, and a bit of a beer gut. The tech estimated him at 266 grams or (9 oz/0.59 lbs). Kind of a big boy, measuring a few days ahead of schedule. I keep trying to figure out how he fits in there, because my belly isn't very big and I've only gained 4 1/2 pounds!  I guess its because he likes to stay curled up and in a tight little ball so he isn't really taking up as much room as you'd think.

Here's a foot.  He has really long legs and big feet. Steve hopes he'll get a son that doesn't take after my side of the family (all of my brothers are between 5'5" and 5'8")

Next on the list, baby shopping!  Anyone have any good room theme/bedding ideas?

Time's the Revelator (and it will reveal this afternoon)

Last night April and I headed up to Largo to see Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.  We were treated to, what is quite possibly, the best concert I have ever attended.  They brought out some of the guys from Old Crow Medicine Show for a few numbers and John Brion even came up for a couple of songs.  The Largo crowd is a particularly subdued group.  Everyone stays in their seats.  People there just care about the music. There are no lighters (or worse cellphones) swaying to the slow songs.  People just want to sit and soak it all in. 

Gillian still has a perfect voice that was on for the entire set and when David plays, it's like he is channeling the ghosts of a hundred old-timer-hillbilly guitarists. They played some new songs that were all very good.  It looks like the new album is going to be a combination of the contemporary folk of Time (The Revelator) with a few new gospel songs.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the gender poll is split evenly at exactly 50/50 (which, I guess, is exactly what you would expect).  We find out in a couple of hours.  April remarked that it feels like Christmas morning. Stay tuned...

The 4th

We spent a wonderful afternoon at the pool at Grandma's house with Dave, Mary Lou, Missy, David, Jake, and McKayla (Derek had to work).

April read Harry Potter, I can assure you that my reading material was not nearly as interesting.

After a Barbecue at Dave and Mary Lou's, April and I rode our bikes down Ballona Creek to see the fireworks at Marina Del Rey.   This is the second year that we have done this.  We love it because we get to watch both the Culver City show and the marina show while we are riding our bikes.  Plus we can ride our bikes right next to where they launch the show at the marina. Nike came along and did a great job of keeping up with us on our bikes. 

He also did a good job of not getting spooked by the fireworks.