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| Just Toast, being adorable! |
Dear
January, so you’ve decided it time to move on already huh? Gotta make way for
Febuary you say? Well, I can’t say I’m sorry to see you go. Not that you have
been bad, really. Just a little cold; frosty actually. In fact, I did resent
having to de-ice my windshield every morning. And sure do appreciate being able
to feel my toes again. Toast is especially looking forward to spring so she can
enjoy sunshine in the back year, walks and trips to the dog park. So, go ahead
January. Off you go. Ciao, adios, go long yuh way.
So
far, 2012 has been keeping us busy but has ben full of fun too. Tim and I both
started a new semester. Tim is assigning two books to his students this
semester, Night and The Kite Runner. He is enjoying teaching his students how
to be critical readers and thinkers. Although Tim loves his students and is so
passionate about helping them learn to love to read, this semester hadn’t been
a calk walk for him. The administration at his school has very high
expectations and is primarily focused on test scores rather than holistic
education. I know they are placing unreasonable expectations on him and rarely
give him positive feedback. I try to make up for it, but Tim knows I am biased.
He is truly a dedicated, thoughtful and caring teacher. That damn school is
lucky to have him.
As far as law school is concerned,
this semester began with some good news and high expectations for me too. The
good news is I got my grades back and I am pleased to say that my hard work
paid off. I got good scores all around and was especially proud that I earned
the top grade in my legal research and writing class. So, that was great! The
workload for this semester is already in high gear. The school requires 1Ls to
take an additional class, Criminal Law, this semester. And on top of the new
class, all my professors have been assigning us more reading, more projects and
more memos to write. It has been hard to keep up but I am miraculously making
it happen. Almost on a daily basis though I wish for one of those time-turners
that Hermione had in Harry Potter.
I am also starting to make plans for
the summer and that has been a bit of a time commitment too. I am applying to a
very competitive Fellowship program that places first year law students to work
as (paid!) interns in 15 of the top law firms in Sacramento for 10 weeks. It is
an amazing networking opportunity and chance for me to get a type of hands-on
legal work that is rare for first years. Keep your fingers crossed for that for
me. If that doesn’t happen, I’ve got my resume updated and looking fancy and I
hope to land an internship that will let me work only part of the summer and,
for the other half, I’ll participate in the 3 week comparative international
law program that is held in Antigua, Guatemala. Either way, things should work
out. I am just staying busy getting all my ducks in a row.
Neither of us are too busy, however,
to have a little fun now and then. We have been having so much fun with little
Toast (although we can’t fairly call her little anymore!). She is finally
finished with her puppy vaccines and we took her to the dog park for the first
time over the three-day weekend. She had so much fun chasing other dogs and
sniffing all sorts of new smells. It was great to socialize her and see her
play nicely with other puppies. Tonight we are going to a Sacramento (soon to
be Seattle) Kings game, which should be fun. We got free tickets from a
coworker of Tim so we thought we should enjoy having a pro-basketball team in
our town while it lasts. We have some other fun things in the works, like
tickets to see Wicked in SF, a coupon for wine and chocolate tasting we need to
cash in on, and movie coupons we got for Christmas that we are looking forward
to using.
All in all, good things happened in
January. But I’m not sad to get it behind me. Did I mention it has been cold.
Yeah. Freezing. I am looking forward to watching Sacramento turn into spring,
working hard and enjoying life. I am feeling very blessed.
