Patterns are emerging.

The good news is: I feel better.

The bad news is: A good friend of mine (who I'm moving in with in August) just got taken to the hospital by his current roommate. He's been real sick for the past few days and it seems his throat started to close up. I just called but couldn't get ahold of them, but they've only been there for about 45 minutes so I assume they're busy. They took a cab, and word on the street is just that it kept getting worse, not that he couldn't breathe or anything, so I'm sure he'll be fine once they get some anti-biotics into him.

My friend who just told me seems to think there might be some connection between our respective illnesses. I don't think I mentioned it here, but my throat was the first thing that started bothering me. Usually that means the beginning of a head cold, but that never came, there was no soreness, but just kind of a tightning (very slight) when I swallow that hasn't really gone away, and once in a while a deep cough that's coming from my chest (unlike an irritated-throat cough). I don't know, like I said, I'm actually feeling better, so we either don't have the same thing, or he just got hit harder than me.

This is kind of gross, but I went with this guy (and some others) to a club last Sunday which was, by far, the dirtiest, NASTIEST club I've ever been to. I mean, this shit was GROSS. I literally had dirt underneath my fingernails when I got home - how does that even happen? It's not like I was clawing the walls. My pants are in a bag by the door waiting to be dry cleaned, because there was a ring of nasty-ass liquid that soaked into the cuffs. Another guy we went with developed a cold this week. I wouldn't be surprised if we picked something up there; on the other hand, neither of us got sick until Wednesday/Thursday, which is kind of a long incubating period.

At any rate, if I don't feel shiny and new tomorrow, I'll hit up a doctor Monday morning.

Another day, another pen down.

Rebellion of the body.

Ooookay. I don't really know what's happening, but there is something funky going on with my health right now. I'm not even really that stressed out, I'm not eating that badly, and I walk about 2 miles a day and do pilates, so I don't know why this is happening.

Although my fever seemed to be gone Friday morning, I went to school around 4pm and did some essays, but my brain was so tired I could barely concentrate. Then during class, I munched on a bag of chex mix, even though I wasn't hungry, because the constant hand movement was the only thing keeping me awake. I've been waking up with headaches the past few days, but today was the kicker:

I woke up with an eye infection this morning. Though, I couldn't tell you for sure, because I've NEVER had any kind of infection in my life. All I know is that it's completely red and swollen. Wtf?

My problem is that, even if I had time to be making doctor's appointments, my school insurance (because my school LOVES and CARES for us) doesn't allow us to use the school clinic after gradation, and I don't have a GP in town.

Do you guys have any recommendations? Or know some kick-ass over the counter meds I could try?

Update: I tried the hot towel and visine, and that seems to have done quite a bit. It feels much better at least. I'll see how it is tomorrow, and make an appointment with a doc on Monday if I have to. If someone knows of a walk-in clinic around DC, let me know. Also, I think my headaches are attributable to the caffiene withdrawal, which I stopped drinking so it wouldn't contribute to the family of ills.

Swinging Degrees

I just checked my temperature again: 97.1

Isn't that kind of a big swing? Average temp is supposed to be 98.6F right? Oh well, I guess I'm just cool gal.

I decided to take it easy this morning and go to the evening class instead. I'm going to leave in a minute and try to do some essay work before class, but this whole losing a day and half thing is not really what I needed right now. We've got the full two-day MBE review this weekend, and that's starting to look like a lot of wasted hours.

Do thermometers lie?

I have a fever.

Could someone please tell me how that happens. Can I whine for just a minute? I thought I was just being wimpy today. I was so tired during class my brain completely stopped functioning. Which helps explain why the lecturer was just torture for me. My limbs felt strangly weak, but I've started doing pilates all week and my ass and thighs are so sore, I thought it was just residual effect from that (but oh baby, one more week and you'll be able to bounce a quarter off them. hot!) Usually I stay after class and do essays, but due to the lack of neutrons firing, I felt a nap might be in order.

I rarely take naps, because it takes me so long to fall asleep. It was especially brutal today though. It was 6:40 so I set the alarm for 8pm, figuring I'd spend at least half an hour awake. No. I was freezing; I got another blanket, then I turned the A/C down even farther (I'm not sure it had even kicked on - I hate air conditioning), but no luck. The alarm went off at 8 and I was still awake and felt awful. I turned it off and just stayed in bed, finally kind of drifting off, and I woke up around 11pm. I know, I know, ruining my night of sleep, but too bad.

I had the Bravo channel on, watching Blow Out, which is hilarious if you haven't seen it. Don't even lie to me and tell me that guy is straight. He cries at everything. Anyway, I had a headache all day, but I didn't take aspirin at night because I wanted to take some sleeping pills. I popped some and got in bed again after midnight, and just started to sweat. I'd been so cold earlier and now I was so hot, even with the A/C blasting. Queer Eye came on and they sent the straight man to this epsom salt bath. The woman in charge explained how it's warmed to body temperature. Only then did it even occur to me I might be sick. I actually felt much better by this point, but I still had a fever of 100.7, so I assume it was higher earlier.

I'm really weird about getting sick, because I almost (knock on wood) never do. It occured to me earlier that I haven't even had a little cold in over a year. I didn't get sick at all this winter. And the last time I had a fever? I honestly couldn't tell you. I took apart half my medicine shelf in the walk-in closet trying to find the thermometer. When I do get sick though, I get sick. I had mono my freshman year, and I was a little concerned earlier because that's kind of how I felt today. Ugh, could you imagine getting mono three weeks before the bar?

My mom has one and only one story about taking me to the hospital as a child. I was a toddler and had a fever that just wouldn't go down. I was the oldest and my mom didn't want to be one of those freak-out moms who runs their kid to the doctor for every cough, so she tried the children's tylenol, then some home remedies (baths, etc), but nothing worked so she finally took me to the emergency room and the doctor gave me, seriously, the adult dose of tylenol, and? Good as new. It's weird, it's like my immune system even fights off medicine. It's why sleeping pills don't really knock me out, they just tend to help me fall asleep a little faster. Of course, I don't have any medicine here for fevers, so I hope it just passes on its own. I'm so hot, I'm baking here.

Okay, whining over. I think the sleeping pills might have some aspirin in them, because my headache's gone, but I'm still wide awake. I should probably go lay down. Being Bobby Brown is on. I've never seen it before, but whoa, is that one trashy family. Not as bad as the show with Britney Spears and her greasy boyfriend. Either way, perfect for me to fall asleep to.

Stressed? Hey, at least you're not starving in Africa.

I have two stories for you today:

Story #1 - Today's Trusts lecture.

The guy doing our Wills/Trusts lectures the past two days was so fucking awful I wanted to die. So, apparently, did the rest of our class, as there was a lot of loud yawning and chatter, which is usually kept to a minimum by the "shush"ers. Five minutes before every blessed break, he'd launch into some ridiculous story about staying calm during the exam. First of all, if I hear one more story about how a mental incompetant, a Vietnam Vet who can't read, a girl who dry-heaved for the first two hours of the exam, or some poor slob who only wrote "I am depressed" one on of the essays, all PASSED the exam - or how NO ONE fails the exam by more than a few points - or how none of the graders actually READ your essays - do you know what I'm going to do? I'M GOING TO THROW MYSELF OFF A BRIDGE. These stories are not helpful, or calming, or motivating me to study, since clearly being smart has very little to do with passing the bar exam. It also begs the question - who are these people who are failing?? If I fail, am I too stupid to live? Is that the point of these stories? I think it is.

Anyway, the lecturer started into a story today about how a boy got the dates mixed up and showed up for the second day, thinking it was the first day. When he realized he was fucked, he stayed anyway and figured it would be good practice when he retook the exam in February. I was really concerned this story was going to end with, "AND HE PASSED! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? IF A GUY CAN SKIP THE ENTIRE FIRST DAY OF ESSAYS AND PASS, SURELY AN ASSHOLE LIKE YOU CAN PASS!" Thankfully, he did not pass.

As he finished the Trusts lecture he busted out with yet another soul-crushing story, so I grabbed my shit and high-tailed it out of there. Later I ran into a friend who couldn't pack up her gear fast enough to escape. She told me that he - honest to god - said that when you feel stressed out about the exam, you should think about the 99% of the world that isn't as lucky as you are. So, while you're trying to cram Community Property in your head and realize you're just not getting it, you should think about all the poor people starving in Africa. What? Listen, once I get my license and deal with my personal debt, I'd love to spend the rest of my life helping the sick, poor, and oppressed - but there is a time and place for guilt trips about the world's ills, and this summer is not one of them. All that's going to do is make me sad, and feel bad that I'm not doing anything but sitting on my ass learning law you can't even use in the real world. What an ass.

Story #2 - Welcome to D.C.

I'm sure you've heard about the London bombings this morning. So, obviously, DC was at high alert today. I don't really live in fear, because there's not much I can do except stay calm in the event something happens. But I've seen few things more terrifying than when I was getting off the metro at Farragut North today, and three policemen were just coming down the escalator. Not just any policemen, they were not in blues, but in full battle uniform, with huge kevlar vests and quite possibly THE BIGGEST FUCKING MACHINE GUNS I have ever seen in real life. I don't really get that. Is there going to be a small scale war on the metro platform? If they find a bomb, are they going to shoot it to death? If they actually find a terrorist, is the biggest machine gun in the world going to make more of a difference than any other gun? I mean, they all bank on dying anyway. All it really does is freak out the passengers.

The parking attendants at the IMF were even wearing kevlar, which I've never seen either. Obviously they got hot, or Bush decided with his all-knowing wisdom that we were no longer in danger, because they weren't wearing them at 5pm. I guess terrorists only strike in the mornings. As I entered the metro on my way back home, some transit employees were passing out little cards to everyone that told us to watch for arabs suspicious people, and to not cry and scream if the trains are running late a terrorist hits the metro.

Anyway, I just wonder what all the tourists think when stuff like this happens. Like do they go home to their red states and tell their neighbors about the "close-call" they had, then praise god they voted for Bush? Who knows.

This is how we study for the bar in my house.

Community property goes better with dark chocolate and peanut butter.

A sure-fire way to make certain you'll never walk again.

1. Wear flip-flops everyday for three months.
2. One day, decide to put on your slammin' 3" heels with your power suit.

3. Take the metro.
4. Get lost coming out of the metro, so you walk at least six or seven blocks through the ghettos of Maryland. Be thankful you put iPod away before getting off train.
5. Make sure three of those blocks are straight up hill (so you get to come back down, too).
6. Realize the courthouse was only a block away from the metro, in the other direction.
7. Sit for awhile so your new blisters can puff up real big.
8. Stand in front of a judge and shift side-to-side so you can feel the blisters squishing between your baby soft skin and the hard (but hot!) shoes.
9. Squish them some more while you stand outside the courtroom arguing with a lawyer and a mediator.
10. Walk back home.
11. Seriously consider shimmying out of your pantyhose on the metro so you can walk barefoot.
12. Exit metro at home, realize you still have 4 blocks to walk in agony.
13. Fuck it, take them off, and glare confidently at the people now staring at you, as if you always walk down the dirty DC streets barefoot in power suits.
14. Get home, throw away brand new pantyhose now filled with holes.
15. Break out the gauze and first-aid wrapping tape you bought when you used to play sports and had legitimate injuries, and wrap both feet.
16. Spit on your hateful, ugly, 3" heels as you leave to walk a mile to bar/bri class.

Hey, thanks CalBar. Really.

I got an email today from some guy at the CalBar telling me my ExamSoft account is now active and I need to go download the software. It was sent specifically to me, and included my account number, so it's not like it was a mass email to the bar takers.

Problem: I'm hand-writing the exam.

Sigh.

Update: My mom's reponse to this is priceless.
"Are you sure you want to be associated with an outfit like the California Bar Association?"

Blogging weariness...

I think Chai and Fayza have a good point about taking a break from the blogging for awhile. I've enjoyed blogging recently as a forum for the Cal bar-takers, and I like having a place to vent and share funny stories, but my brain is starting to turn to mush. With some unusual exceptions for foot fetishes, my stories are boring, since the exciting parts of my day involve going to au bon pain for coffee, and my perspective on life has become incredibly skewed.

For instance, I went to dinner with my friends, who are all studying for the bar, last night and we started talking about moving, since all of us are either leaving DC or moving around in town. Someone posed a question about security deposits and some issues she's been having with her landlord, everyone was silent for a beat, and I responded, "I'm sorry, but that's outside the scope of my knowledge." Everyone laughed, but it's true - we geeked out a couple times about questions on the simulated MBE that we've all taken by now - but we know nothing useful for real life.

But, as far as the bar is concerned, now is the time to hunker down and really start stuffing this information in my brain. It's not like I spend a lot of time blogging, but, as I'm sure a lot of you can understand, even blogging is becoming 'one more thing' to do, when I can barely get myself to take out the trash when it gets full. I'm not going away forever, I'll probably still check the blogs at least once a day, but I might not post as often unless something quirky happens. So, I wish my fellow bar-takers good luck with their studies, and to the person who found my site by googling, "WHAT THE FUCK TO PASS THE CPA EXAM"...good luck with that, too.