gift of sunshine this Christmas

So now I'm home for the holidays, after bidding St. Louis adieu until commencement in May. I managed to return safely to NC after a harrowing 14+ hour drive, moving all my shit back with m in preparation of Singapore for the spring semester. :D Party on, dudes. Last semester is going to be so much more about food and drinking and traveling and seeing people than it is about law. But I've totally earned this, right?

Strangely, perhaps, the nostalgia hasn't hit me. It might yet, or it might wait until I'm actually back in the Lou in May before plaguing me with fond memories. I will miss seeing the people there while I'm in Singapore, of course, but for the most part I am just excited about being in a new part of the world.

Though I'm not even thinking that far ahead right now. Right now, I am focused on the holiday cruise I'm going on tomorrow with family! We're leaving out of Charleston and headed down to the Bahamas for five days. A sunny and warm Christmas, I hope, to go with the sunny and warm winter I'll be spending in Singapore. I am all up for this. Cold weather, I've had enough of you, thanks. I will not miss the cute coats and scarves all that much.

After I get back, I'll meet up with M and A at least, then be just productive enough to wrap up some last-minute things and pack for Singapore.

For now, I am looking forward to sunshine and fruity alcoholic drinks. Happy holidays!

it's like trying to ford the damn river

I've finished packing all my clothes and books (save the textbooks I plan on selling back) and have come to the conclusion that owning clothes and books is a pain in the ass. Or at at least the transportation of them is. Why has no one invented teleportation yet? Why is that not recognized as a real word? (I have many questions.) I also keep looking around and noticing things that will need to be packed that I can't currently do anything about, e.g., my lamp, my sheets/blankets/pillows, and bathroom things. Sorry, I actually sort of need those at the moment. I am legitimately concerned about whether I can shove everything into my car at this rate. If worse comes to worst though, I should be able to store some things at J's place until we can come pick it up in May. Argh, stress!

Honestly, I am much more stressed now than I was while doing exams, which is weird because 'm not actually on a deadline since I can choose when I'm leaving... Still...

I am half-afraid one of my tires is going to blow out on me while driving back, but it might be paranoia speaking. I'm taking the southerly route so there shouldn't be much if any snow (also I should be on giant interstates anyway), but (insert irrational panic) should I get my car's oil changed and get a check-up before I go?! I'm also tempted to leave at, like, 3am and just miss out on the traffic since I'm going to have to drive in the dark regardless. This way I'll end up at home earlier too.

Oh moving in the winter, I hate you. Let's never do this again.

Now I will inhale some coffee because, yeah, caffeine withdrawl headaches are a sad part of the life of an addict, i.e., me. Also I will eat some food and watch some Top Chef because it is that or have a needless stress meltdown. Option B is the wrong answer here.

catching up on catching you up

News from the exam front:

I received my score from my MPRE this week and passed comofortably: I am sufficiently ethical to practice law! Granted, that is not a very high standard. Which is probably more or less indicative of the reality of things, as I am not very ethical anyway. Ethics only get in the way! Sort of like laws. If we didn't have laws, as J said today while we were studying, we would have no crime! Easy solution. In any case, my scores were sent to NY because if I take a bar exam, it will be for NY, which is most internationally applicable (and is accepted for working in DC as well - handily done, DC; I approve).

So here is an adventure in exam-taking: yesterday's exam, Evidence, I took in the morning. It was a three hour thing with short answer and a multiple choice section - not the funnest of ways to spend three hours on a Tuesday morning, but since when is law school fun? I finished the test, pressed save+exit on my exam software, and then every student's exam nightmare became reality: ExamSoft, the exam program, blandly informs me there was an error in the saving+exiting process and that my computer would now reboot. Upon reboot, I was advised by the program to seek proctor. We have no aid to give you in your time of despair, is what the program essentially said to me, heartlessly.

The error? Your exam file can't be found!

My face? Something like D: Actually.

So I got to spend the next hour chasing down proctors, computer technicians, and the registrar, only to end up calling ExamSoft and having them remotely access my computer and alter the back-up file of my exam from the back-up format into the accepted format, then upload and submit that.

Good times were had by all.

By which I mean that once I got to lunch (an hour late), I decided this exam adventure warranted delicious sushi and some alcohol. I was successful in achieving both, at least. But it's over and it's fine: I didn't end up frantically typing made-up rules of Evidence and filling in bubbles at random for nothing.

In food news? I had some brie with fig jam on crackers a week or so ago: so fucking delicious I couldn't get it out of my head. How delicious does this look? It is about 100x more delicious to eat.



Some recipes. Yum. Get me some and I will live off this for the rest of exam period.

everything all the time, stolen from the world

This is the year I stopped writing.