Yarn Bribery

I am studying for the Bar on Friday night.

I have been studying for hours.  Days.  Weeks.  I like to shut myself into what Fiance lovely calls my Fortress of Solitude (a.k.a. The Wood Office; a.k.a. The Room of Requirement), so that the dogs won't come in and state at me, making me feel guilty for working instead of walking them (Fiance works from home, and claims that if you are by yourself long enough, the dogs will actually start talking to you).

All of the sudden, there is a knock on the door.  "Come in," I say.  Silence.  "COME IN, YOU WEIRDO!" I holler, because Fiance is the only other human in the house and is not opening the door.  More silence.

Annoyed that I have to get up from my comfy chair where I have holed myself up under my "Pussies Unite" quilt with a Trenta-sized mug of Irish breakfast tea, I grumble, push my feet into my foot sleeping bags, and shuffle to the door.  There is no one there except Breck, who gives me this look:

I also see a piece of cardboard which says, "Follow Me."  The cardboard is wrapped in beautiful blue and purple and turquoise yarn and leads downstairs, wrapped around the banister.  I roll the yarn around the card, following it down the stairs, into the living room.  There is dinner on the table, a fire in the fireplace, and Fiance in the living room wrapped in yarn.  I laugh and head over to thank her for being adorable and for making dinner for me.

Trying to untangle her from the yarn, I notice that she is shaking uncontrollably.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" I asked sensitively.

Fiance then gives a beautiful speech ending with, "And if you say yes, I will knit you a hat out of this yarn.  The colors made me think of you."

I said yes.

Moral of the story:  Bribery works.

Procrastinating

Here are three things I know about criminal law:

1. Burglary is the unlawful entry into a dwelling at night with the intent to commit a felony therein
2. Depraved heart murder is murder committed with an abandoned and malignant heart (that certainly clarifies the matter, doesn't it?)
3. I should know a whole lot more about Crim if I am supposed to take a closed-book exam tomorrow....

It's not looking good for me, is it?  And next week is going to be even worse with Administrative and Constitutional Law Exams waiting for me.  AND people keep sending me interesting things in the mail.

My mom sent me the Free-Range Knitter, the 2008 book by the Yarn Harlot/Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  I don't get all the references to the perils of trying to raise kids, but still makes me laugh out loud.

Jha sent me this one for my birthday.  I had never heard of it before.  The patterns in it are nothing super-exciting, but the discussion of knitting's juxtaposition with feminism is pretty thoughtful.  I'm enjoying it.

Basically, my friends and family want me to fail at school.  Thanks, guys.

Back to School

I head back to Atlanta tomorrow for round 2 of Law School Kicking My Butt.  On tap for this semester:  Constitutional Law, Property, Administrative Law, Criminal and more Legal Writing, Research, and Advocacy. 

My bestie is meeting me at the airport and keep me from panicking about having to go back to doing homework after three glorious weeks of food, napping, and pleasure-reading.  We will probably be doing some cooking, a visit to the puppetry museum and a tour of CNN. 

And then....some reading in preparation for Monday.  Sigh....

Prison Knitting

A couple of people sent me this article about Knitting Behind Bars, a program that teaches knitting to prison inmates.  Pretty interesting....the program attributes huge changes in behavior to knitting. 

My friend's aunt works with a group of crocheters at a Tennessee women's prison.  I just packaged up a box of yarn to send them.  Would be cool to learn about the people using my yarn (and also write a paper on the connections between knitting and the law).

V-Day (the organizers of The Vagina Monologues) did a writing project with women inmates to allow people to hear these women's stories.  They created a collection of monologue of the women's stories called "Anyone of Us."  They also created a documentary about the writing workshop called "What I Want My Word To Do To You."  Here's the trailer:



All of this is to say, I guess, that interesting things going on in prisons.

Done!

I'm done with my first semester of law school.  There was much merry-making last night.  Off to DC Friday!

The View From My Room

This is what my world looks like at the moment:

Four parts knitting : Nine parts Civil Procedure


And of course, one big part neon rainbow.

Reasonable Person

I'm pretty sure there is a reasonable person standard in the law.*  I am pretty sure if you were to apply that test to law school, it wouldn't pass.  I mean, really, what reasonable person submits themselves to three years of 60-hour weeks of reading torts, contracts, and civil procedure? 

Apparently, this girl.

My mom required a 1st-day-of-school pic.**  The boring background is my new apartment.  More pics to follow...

The same girl that thought kindergarten was a good idea 20 years ago.

Yea, I was a hottie even as a 5-year-old.  Check out those awesome leggings....oh early-90s fashion...

I make questionable life decisions.

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*I'm not going to lie, I totally opened up Black's Law Dictionary to find a definition, got disgusted with myself, and went to Wikipedia instead.  Sigh...

**Totally made that dress.  Yup.

July BISIO Update

July is almost over and I haven't done a "Because I Said It Out Loud" Update in about a million years.  The thing is, I just looked at my first post on this blog and realized that I set myself a one year time frame on August 8th of last year to finish up all three of my goals: to get into grad school, get my doula certification, and knit a sweater from scratch.  That means I have a two weeks to get that stuff DONE!

Law School:  Obviously, I'm in.  I have an apartment (that I have never seen before).  I am moving down August 14th, moving into my apartment August 15th, orientation starts August 17th (although there are some unofficial activities the 15th/16th).  I don't get my class schedule or book list until I get there.  This would be scary except that not having my books or classes keeps me from panicking about all the other kids being more prepared than me.  I think they do this on purpose.  I did get one of the "if you MUST read something law related this summer, read this" books they mentioned but haven't read beyond the chapter on "Managing Stress in Law School."  I've decided to "manage stress" by going into denial about becoming a 1L in less than a month.  It is working well for me at the moment.

Also, after the Great Computer Fiasco of March 2011, I have another computer.  I have had it longer than 16 hours without being mugged.  I am trying not to tempt the fates by gloating about this too much.

Doula Certification:  I am sooooo close to doula certification!  I attended my last birth.  I am waiting on evaluations.  Assuming they are positive, all I have to do is write some essays and finish up a client resource guide.  I am very much NOT going to be done by August 8th.  My certifcation packet runs out in October (not August like I had feared), so I have a little extra time.  Still hope to get it done before school starts.

Sheep to Sweater:  My sweater is almost done.

I have finished the vast majority of the knitting, sewed a couple of bits on the hood and armpits together have blocked it out, and it is currently drying on the floor next to the air conditioner, pretending like it totally makes sense to try to dry a sweater on the most humid day of the year. 

Reminder of knitting terminology: blocking is laying your wet sweater out the way it is supposed to look.  You flatten out any rolled edges, lay the pockets flat, and pin it out to the right dimensions.  If it isn't the right dimensions, this is the point at which you start cussing and either find someone who is the size of the sweater to get a really nice Christmas present (my mom has volunteered if this particular adventure doesn't work out) or start ripping back your nicely made up sweater.

It grew a little during blocking as I hoped it would, so I think it is even going to fit me like it should.  I won't really know for sure until it is dry and I can put it on.  Then I pick up a button band on the front (right after figuring out just how exactly I am supposed to do that), sew on some buttons, and then rejoice in a new sweater at the hotest time of the year.  I think I can finish this in the next two weeks.  Easily.  Sure...

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Now I am at the point where I have pretty much acheived all my goals for hte year.  Sure, I didn't ever actually shear a sheep, my sweater is knit from yarn that is distinctly not something I spun myself, and my doula cert is going to take three weeks to two months longer than I had hoped, but I'm pretty satisfied.

The real question is, do I continue this blog and if so, what new goals should I write about?  Are you all going to get sick of listening to me rant about law school?  Veer more towards a life blog?  More towards all-knitting/crafts, all the time?

Thoughts?

Nostepinde and The Dreaded Yale 250

I stand corrected.  I stated the other day that "niddy noddy" is the best name for a fiber tool ever.  Then lady friend at Porpoise Knits weighed in to tell me that the best word is, in fact, "nostepinde" (or, apparently, "nostepinne" both of which google tries to correct to "goosestepping")  Yea, I don't have one of those...but they're kinda hot...

Anyhooo!

Now that I have submitted all my grad school applications (and am no longer afraid of plagiarists stealing my ideas...you know I was first...), I thought I would share with you part of one of my applications.

Yale Law School, in addition to the personal statement, diversity question, resume and other materials that most law school ask for, also requires a special essay that is lovingly known on the web as "the dreaded Yale 250."  The prompt is:

Write an essay of not more than 250 words about a subject of your choice.  The Admissions Committee looks to the 250-word essay to evaluate an applicant’s writing, reasoning, and editing skills.  The subject is not limited; the choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers.

Did you hear that?  The choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers....why does that sound so scary to me?  I originally joined my law-school-applying compatriots in hating this essay and wrote some horribly boring essay about something incoherent.  Then I deleted it and wrote this instead (possibly also horribly boring and incoherent...but it makes me giggle that someone on the Yale Admissions committee got to read about knitting):

I knit my first scarf in fifth grade. From there, I progressed to mittens and blankets. This summer I decided to embark on a more ambitious project: to knit a sweater from scratch. To accomplish this goal, I would need to learn how to shear a sheep, spin the fleece into yarn, dye the yarn into a palatable color, and knit a sweater that I actually could wear. 

I have had mixed success. My knitting has gotten progressively better as I have mastered working with multiple colors, casting on and off in different ways, and utilizing various needles. On the other hand, my dyeing skills are abysmal. My attempts at subtle, understated tones more closely resemble failed tie-dye projects from Girl Scout camp. My shearing skills remain untested. Although I recently visited a flock of ewes in my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, I have yet to work up the nerve to wrestle one of the wriggling ladies into place while using sharp clippers to remove her fleece. 

Despite these initial obstacles, I am not worried about failing. I did not know about highway systems before working at the US Department of Transportation. I had never witnessed a birth before becoming a doula. Throughout my life, I have pursued interests that ignite my curiosity and often challenge my abilities. These experiences have given me the confidence to know I can gain the skills to succeed whether I am knitting a sweater from scratch, starting a new job or attending law school

Besides the requisite cheesy ending, I'm not entirely sure what information the admissions committee will get glean from this one....heh, knitting...