Ok, I hate losing. I hate it I hate it I hate it. I know I am pouting. But dang it, I wanted to win. And it is VERY frustrating to lose when the games are close and I made some errors. STUPID errors. Oh, and I missed a serve. I NEVER miss serves. **sigh** SOOOOOOOOO frustrated. **grumble grumble** I am going to bed, and tomorrow starts a round of punishing drills to fix this problem...

Did you know that you can actually bite with fake vampire fangs? The things you learn in law school...

This weekend I went home to go to my friend Brooke's wedding. It is one of those rare events for me, partially because I haven't had a lot of friends getting married (till this year, it seems) but partially because I know both the bride and groom (and ironically knew Devon before Brooke joined my house.) I have to say, it was beautiful. Brooke and Devon, always the cutest and sweetest couple I've ever known (sorry to all other couples, but trust me, they are) looked fantastic, and it was almost sickening the love they have for each other. And being that Brooke is one of my sorority sisters, there were a whole bunch of Phis there. Which made the wedding all the more fun, since it was a mini reunion of the '01 Deltas. Some folks I ahven't seen since graduation were there, as were some old friends that are just too far away to see more frequently. We danced the night away, and had a fantastic time. It was wonderful, and I was sorry to see the night end. As much as I love my friends here in Boston, I miss that college connection I had with my girls. There is just something about college friends that you can't get anywhere else (or maybe that is just my experience, I dunno.) (note: boston folks, I love you lots and lots, you know that...)

On that note, Congrats Brooke and Devon, may you have many happy years to come, and never lose that gleeful love you have for each other.

It's Monday, I can't move that much (see prior post), and here I sit, in Administrative Law. My prof just played us different songs to help us understand the "moods" of the different standards of review. Random? Yes. Dorky? Hell yeah. Helpful? You bet. I love when Profs get creative in helping us understand the weird nuanices of the law. Since the law often is ambiguous, filled with words with no meaning. This helps fill in some meaning. And besides, hearing "we're not gonna take it" in class rocks. :-)

I am sore sore sore sore sore. After an all around frustrating week, I decided to work off some of my energy playing sports. So, after a 2 day softball tournament (where I played three games on saturday, and pitched all three games on sunday) PLUS a volleyball game last night, I am finally sore. And pretty damn happy. I'm all good with my world (well, mostly). And while I can't move right now without feeling the pull of overworked, out of shape muscles, I am happy again. Good thing I am not that much of a ruminant (just for you, trish...) so I can bounce back quickly.

And now, to drag my battered body to class.....

Damnit. Someday, I will hopefully find something that I am good at. Someday. Unfortunatly, I was wrong again. However, I will be mature. I will deal with my faults graciously. I will be mature about losing.



No I won't. This sucks. I'm going to bed...

You know the phrase, "when it rains it pours?" Here's the thing: I hate rain. Here's why...

Yesterday, my car decides it is time for the transmission to die. Yes, practically die instantaniously. It BARELY made it to AAMCO this morning. Along with the joy of my car dying, my cell phone has decided that it feels like only using analog in my room. So I have to sit in the kitchen to get any decent signal. This morning I had to miss class to get my car to the shop. And then I decided to jog home so I could get to my next class. Problem: it was raining (I hate rain.) And, due to avoiding a cat that decided to dart in my way, I rolled my ankle. This likely sprained it. It hurts. And then I had to ride the bus ride from hell, where the driver kept slamming on the brakes, causing me to roll the ankle again. Thus I sat in my class (which I arrived to late, due to the bus being dysfunctional and insanely late) with a pain radiating up my leg. On the break in class, I found out that it is gonna cost a minimum of $1400 to fix my car. This led to a headache.

So, at the midday point, my head hurts, my ankle hurts, my leg hurts, my car is busted, my cell phone hates me and I have a presentation to have ready by 6:30.

By the end of the day (now) I dealt with my ankle (wrapped it in an ace bandage), survived a presentation in my Tech. Comm. class (and only got about 30 negative comments that I don't know if I could possibly have fixed in advance.) And I am only in mild amounts of pain at the moment (this was worse while I was standing and presenting, but it is not bad when I sit.)

However, I still hate the rain...

So for the past 3-4 weeks, I have been working on preparing for my oral arguments in the Superior Court (if you have spoken to me at all in this time period, you likely already know this.) In the past week, I have managed to sleep a little, but honestly not much. This is largely due to my general trait of getting really really nervous before major speaking events (yes, I know I will be fine, and yes, I know I have been doing public speaking for a long time. I didn’t say this was a RATIONAL trait…) And today, October 5, 2004, all my work was to come to fruition. I have practiced my arguments, prepared for “tough” questions from a scary judge, and knew my facts pretty much cold. But, alas, this was not to be.

Why, you might ask. Why, after all your work and planning, did you not do your grand oration? Ironically, it is my own fault. You see, last night, I went to pull a clean copy of the regulations from the library (they are not online.) Since my case involves benefits from April 95 through June 96, I needed to pull the statutes that existed back then. So off to the library I went. And, with a little help from the friendly neighborhood legal librarian, I found that I had to essentially work backward, searching through book after dust covered book, to find all the changes in the code. After about 2 hours I made what I thought was a rather odd discovery. The regulatory statute I had been citing did not exist in April of 95 (the TAFDC). Another regulation, that of the AFDC, was controlling at the start of the disputed time. So I copied the AFDC regs, and made sure the subsections matched up, so I could easily cite them in my argument. As I was going through the subsections, I noticed they were not exactly the same. Very, very close, but not exactly the same. The thing is, it turns out that the small difference that I discovered, if correct, essentially means that the agency was clearly incorrect. And, in turn, my client wins. Or she would, if this goes to court. Likely the department will settle. Which means no argument in superior court. But my client wins, and that is really what matters.

Ah hell, who am I kidding?!? What really matters to ME is that my client won because of something I found. Something that no one, not the agency, not the 6 students on the case before me, not even the 3 supervisors on the case had found. So possibly no argument in court. But damn I feel good.