Extreme Stress at Work

I am on edge these days, with my law school schedule on overdrive, preparing for my recent oral appellate argument, taking the early bird PMBR review, not getting my regular studying done, and trying to get out of town this weekend. What I don't need is someone being hateful to me, and especially being hateful to me for no reason. My relative boss has always been a mystery to me. He either has a screw loose or just doesn't care at all about other people's feelings, and I have never known which it is. He came out to me today and asked a normal question in a hateful voice. What is his problem? I don't know but I am sick of it. I don't know whether he knows his tone is so inappropriate, but it is just ridiculous. I don't want to let him make me sick. He needs to get over himself.

Moot Court Blues--Finale

Well, my appeals argument is over. And it went well. Much better than I thought it would. At the time of my last post, I was worried. Worried that I didn't know the facts and the law well enough. That I wouldn't have time to get up to speed. That I wouldn't look convincing in my arguments. That I would fall apart during questioning. We had to make our appeals in front of a panel of three lawyer judges, and who wants to look bad in that situation?

I worried because I was exhausted, and rather than staying up late every night last week to work on it, I kept falling asleep early. I needed to memorize my argument, and there was no time. On top of that, I was going to a concert the night before my argument. WTF?

But I pulled it off. I am a good memorizer, which is good. When I went to bed the night before, I felt fairly confident I could recite most of my argument without reading it, which is a big no-no.

Luck was with me. I woke up the morning of my oral argument and I was not nervous. I WAS NOT NERVOUS. Unbelievable! I guess I felt like this was my best effort under the circumstances (you could however argue about the circumstances) so my attitude was take it or leave it.

In front of the judges, I held my own. I could state the facts without looking at my paper. I didn't falter. They started asking me questions, and I knew my case well enough to answer them (at least most of the questions. ) Their questions highlight pretty quickly whether you are prepared or not. I actually got into the conversation with the judges and didn't even hear them call time.

I could have done better of course, but I did OK. And OK feels darn good.

Later, some other people told me I did well. (Some others did falter up there.) We still lost our case because we had bad facts. The teacher said so. The case was designed for us to lose. But he wanted us to experience what it is like to have a case with bad facts. Bad facts make bad law, they always say.

I did not want to be the one from our team doing the oral argument. But I was the only one who could do it due to time constraints. The interesting thing is I kind of liked appealing the case. I didn't mind being in front of the judges. It didn't scare me. And that is good.

Moot Court Blues--Episode 10

I am going down. I have to give my team's appellate oral arguments in the next few days, and I am not very prepared. I am somewhat prepared, but not as much as I need. This is in front of a three-judge panel, and I hear it is brutal. The other class had their arguments last week, and the judges raked everyone over. The sad part is I don't have enough time to prepare. But I will have to do my best.

Please Hillary--Don't Quit the Race

I am so dismayed that people are trying to get Hillary to quit. They are saying she should step aside and let Obama nail down the nomination. Who are they to make these rules up? What they don't understand is that would not only be unfair to Hillary but it would also be unfair to all the people who support Hillary, and it would also be unfair to the states that haven't had their primaries yet. There will be plenty of time to square off with John McCain when the time comes.

Walmart Sucks

Walmart is a disaster. Just as they were starting to look better with their environmental initiatives and fits and starts toward being a more responsible company, here they go again: Suing a brain damaged woman for the money she needs to lead a decent life. Details on Anderson Cooper tonight. She was an employee of Walmart who was injured in an accident. She won a settlement; now Walmart is suing to get some of their money back. It is not that they are not entitled to do so. What is at issue is their backwardness. Their cold heartedness. Their utter stupidity about business in this day and age, and their backasswardness when it comes to public relations. I love it that they are getting such bad press about this. They deserve it.

Count Down to Graduation

I am sitting here after class exhausted, and panicked about the next five weeks. I have so much to do before graduation, and I don't see how I can get it done. Moot court oral arguments, three tests, and haven't even really started studying for any of them yet. Fill out the bar application. Try to get at least a little sleep. Try at least to clean up my hopelessly dirty condo. Not lose my mind. Continue trying to lose a few pounds. Forget about even trying to do exercise. I love school too, and I hate that my last five weeks are going to be so awful. I did order my cap and gown yesterday, so that is a good thing. Another good thing is it looks like I am going to graduate. Another good thing is I will pull this off. Flip switch. Flip switch. Flip switch. Know that I will get through this and do well.

New Look for BizABiz

I decided it was time for a change for BizABiz and chose a new template. As much as I liked the other scenic one, it just didn't fit the subject matter very well. I am a writer/editor (in addition to the other things I am) and this template seems more like news or magazine column type, so it makes me feel more at home. Plus a change now and then is good.