This weekend was a complete whirlwind.  I might have overbooked myself just a bit.

Saturday

52 Mile Bike Ride in Pearland

Barrister’s Pre-Party

Barrister’s Ball

Sunday

Houston Humane Society Fun Run

Errands, cleaning, homework

Group Riding Skills course (which ended up taking over 3 hours!)

Yeah…I am a bit more exhausted than I was on Friday.  Anyway I will give you a photo-filled recap:

I made this stuffed pork roast on Friday night.  I didn’t have any string to tie it together but it still worked!

I had a couple pieces of pork loin and roasted parsnip fries for dinner.  After dinner we took Trooper over to Rice/Hermann area for to walk for about 40 minutes.

On the way home we stopped at Whole Foods and picked up the essentials:  beer and vegan parfaits.

Saturday evening was my third and final Barrister Ball (law school prom).  I will be honest…I didn’t spend much time or money prepping for this year because I had really planned/hoped to be spending the weekend in San Antonio at the Sweet Sixteen.  However, that didn’t happen and I did really enjoy attending my last law school prom.  (Trooper didn’t get to come with us although he wanted to)

Of course there is always a pretty good pre-party.  Our friend ended up renting a suite and adjoining rooms so we had three rooms of fun going on.

The weather was perfect for hanging out on the balconies and looking at the Galleria.

Nearly all my fellow 3Ls were in attendance!  (Don’t you love her dress?  I want a dress with a one-shoulder flower now!)

The party was good…the food was less than stellar.  The dinner was a chicken dish with some sort of rice and poorly cooked veggies.  I ate the chicken and attempted to eat some of the rice.

I enjoyed the sampler dessert plates.  The chocolate covered strawberry was delicious, the cupcake was good, and the other thing was just weird.

After dinner and dancing we went back up for the post-party.

Cocktail legs: If your legs are covered in bruises  like mine and you have to wear a short cocktail dress I highly recommend Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs.  It really makes your legs look flawless and it stays on!  I ended up not washing mine off until Sunday afternoon and my legs looked good after sleeping with it on and walking in the Houston humidity.

Within 2 minutes after returning home I was back to my normal clothes and eating snacks.  Dressing up is fun…but heels just are not meant for legs that train all week!

Sunday we got up nice and early for the annual Houston Humane Society’s Fun Run.  Since Trooper is an HHS Alumni we always support the cause.

We got in a nice warm up to the race location downtown.

Trooper was ready to race!

The race also has a costume contest component.  I hope she won because she would stand up on two legs and dance!

And you thought the start of big marathons was crazy?  Try having 1,000 dogs there too!

My boys rocked the race even though it was nearly 80 degrees and humid!

After the race we enjoyed water, ice cream, and the park.

The hubby and I spent the rest of our day at a group riding skills course.  It was interesting to say the least.  We ended up basically doing agility drills and courses on our bikes.  I wasn’t very good.  I also took my first spill on the bike because I couldn’t get my foot unclipped.  After the 3+hour course we came home and collapsed!!!

Please remember I doing a giveaway to help raise money for MS.  Click here to check out the giveway or click here to donate.

and master of none.  For the most part I believe that this statement was meant to apply to law school grads.  In the past 3 years I have learned just enough about a lot of crap.  Divorce, wills, estates, federal tax law, agency & partnership, corporations, property, eminent domain, constitutional rights, contracts, criminal law, and the list goes on.

But in the end I am not an expert in anything.  With federal tax, A & P, and corporations I know a lot of taxes, codes, business structure, accounting, balance sheets, income statements, assets, liabilities, capital gains…blah, blah, blah.

BUT I don’t have an accounting or finance degree so I am not qualified to even apply for jobs that involves crap I had to learn.

I have taken administrative law, oil & gas, and two semesters of property.  I know how the EPA agency works, passes regs, deals with violations.  I generally know how oil is drilled, what drilling fluid is, what fracking is, who has royalty rights under what situations.  But I don’t have a related degree or work experience, so I couldn’t do a job say, like my husbands, although I have learned the same things he has.

Lately I have been really feeling like my law degree is worthless! The legal economy is an absolute nightmare.  People from the top of their class can’t get a job or work for the same amount as someone who could barely clasp as BA.  There is no such thing as the 2L summer job: the one where you get paid the big bucks by a big firm who throws parties and alcohol at you from Memorial to Labor Day in order to clinch your position as an associate the minute you graduate.  There are no locked in jobs.  Heck, there are barely any paying internships.

This photo is from my Purdue graduation–obviously I haven’t graduated law school yet.  P.S. I graduated with honors, distinction, and in the top 5% of my class…worthless.

So here I am.  A soon to be law grad.  A doctorate degree.  A mortgage worth of student loans.  I am either over qualified or not qualified.

**I know you all are tired of me being a Debby Downer, but life is getting serious up in this house and I want to share my struggles for those dealing with similar issues.**

On a completely random note,  I had the best ever workout this morning!  I had the entire apartment gym to myself and spent nearly 2 hours there!  I had to take advantage of having it all alone!

Do you like having the gym to yourself or being surrounded by others?

Feel free to comment, agree, or complain about my law school moanings!

Rarely are there things written about law school, lawyers, or life in general that I agree with.  Lets be honest…I am a realist, although some may call me a pessimist.  Either way I don’t think the world is some happy,wonderful place all the time.  I don’t think you will ever have it all-life is a chess game of sacrifices.

So…I was laughing out loud in agreement when I found this blog post:  Barely Legal’s The Rising 3L’s Dilemma. I have been in this exact same situation countless times.  In fact since the second week of my law school career people I know with hopes of attending law school have asked me, “How is law school?”.  For anyone who managed to survive the first semester I am sure you remember the evil, anxious, revengeful answer you wanted to give that person. And if you hadn’t yet wasted 3 years of your prime you might have even been able to muster the energy to lie and say, “Um, it is okay.  It is law school.”

Anyway, if you ever wanted some insight on being a law student check out the blog: Barely Legal. I have read through some of the posts and they are right on the money!

Alright, I will stop being so real because I have done my research…the blogs about happiness, perfect recipes, dinner parties, and smiles get the most hits.  My realism also includes research people–80k of law school loans and I can research like a mad woman!

I forgot to mention that we went shopping this past weekend. Shopping is a big deal on a law student’s budget.  I.e. The only new clothes I get are the Purdue t-shirts my mom mails to me.  Unfortunately this shopping trip was for work–grown up clothes. I will be a certified mediator after my final ten hours next week and begin mediating at the JP courts as part of a skills clinic.

Top 5 Reasons I Hate Buying Court Clothes:

• Trying on heels after running double-digit miles is extremely painful.  Knowing that you will wear said heels for 8 hours is even more painful.

• They don’t make a suit size: child-like.

• I am SUPER short. Regular department store brands (aka sort of affordable) do not generally make the petite/short sizes so I have to buy designer (aka $$$$$).

• Why are all the jackets cut for people with body-builder shoulders????  They make me look ridiculous…circa 1985 shoulder pads.

• I have yet to find one suit that fits! Pants suits are pointless without massive tailoring and even if I find a skirt suit that fits the hips hit weird, the jacket is too boxy, or the some other weird combination.  Ugh!

Any advice on finding suits, work-appropriate separates?

I must run 13 miles today.  I must not sit on the couch all day and watch NCIS. I must be motivated.

I am sick again…or still.  Either way, I feel like crap.  I spent yesterday on the couch and literally went through and entire box of Kleenex!

The worst thing about having some sort of sinus illness…I am so congested that I cannot taste food!  Yesterday I decided to make a big bowl of pumpkin oats with Cinnabon cereal on top.  Pointless. The pumpkin left a funky aftertaste, I couldn’t smell the cinnamon, and it was an overall  fail.  Luckily it was warm and I was cold so I ate it anyway.

Once snack time rolled around I didn’t even bother.  I ate a toasted bagel thin and pita chips…plain.

Dinner was a can of vegetable soup.  Sadly I have huge amounts of fresh spinach, mushrooms, pork, and other goods going bad in the fridge because I can’t eat them right now.

Since soup doesn’t do much to hold me over I had a plate full of saltines and pita chips.  Exciting…I know!

Marathon Training + Being Sick + Full Time Law School= Bad Idea

As you all know, I already missed 2 long training runs (currently pending missing the 3rd if I don’t run it today) and about two weeks of training due to illness, holidays, and winter weather.

Well I am sick again and the one week of winter in Houston has hit.  I was supposed to run 17 miles on Sunday but it down-poured all day, yesterday was cold and I was miserably sick, and today it is even colder (like below 40) and I am still sick.  I know that this just sounds like a bunch of whiny excuses BUT I must get better ASAP because classes start tomorrow!  Tomorrow I go back to being in school 8 hours a day, working 2 hours, and studying another 4-6 hours.  Obviously, I can’t keep this kind of schedule and be sick.

My dilemma:  skip training to get over sickness OR push training so that I can run my first marathon?

Ugh….I am stressing about this when I should focus my stressing on my last semester of law school!!!!

I am really considering dropping from the full to half marathon.  Has anyone missed a chunk of their training for a marathon?

So far my only long runs are an 11 miler and a 15 miler.  I should be able to get in the last 5 weeks of training including an 18 miler and 20 miler if I get well this week.  This means that I will have to really get serious with training until the race and give up any other activities besides school and work.

Any thoughts, comments, encouragement, etc would be much appreciated because I am freaking out over here!