(no subject)

Well I've done my first week of bar-ish prep work. What surprises me is that it is in fact very much like law school, only faster. Consistently, for the last 4 years, I have been told that law school is nothing like the bar. Now that I'm studying for it I have to disagree. The only differences are the speed, depth of issues (but few cases), and that the bar prep/exam uses latin and old-school terminology that my law school did not.

I took my first essays in property and bombed miserably. I identified the issues and got them all wrong. Hooray - I have time to improve. I am doing the reading before the classes, taking notes during, and compiling my notes into personal outlines after. This is in addition to other readings, other outline reading, and mountains of drills and essays.

I'm already tired, which is a bad sign with 6 or more weeks to go. Still, I'm studying hard now while many of my peers seem to be coasting - perhaps to panic at the end. I am not panicked, but I am concerned and putting the hours in hard-core now instead of waiting for the rush. I can do this, but wow can I see my work cut out for me.

Speaking of cutting my weight dropped about 6 lbs, so the diet is working, albeit in spurts. Bad time to diet.

In far more interesting news: Urban wildlife
Our magnolia is coming into bloom - the rain should make it perfect. Those head-fruit smell lovely. The dove has left the nest for the first times we've seen, to reveal two nearly-feathered dove-pups. I know the mortality rate on baby birds is huge, but there appears to be enough nest for both and they might just make it - it not one probably will. Now we don't know who will be mooning us in the AM - mom or the kids.

During yesterday's rain we got squirrels on the windowsills - they didn't even move when we got close. We avoiding trying being too close to make them any more tame or docile in case the next human they met wasn't so friendly, of course. One snuggled under his own tail and took a nap - I suppose my window was more rain-proof than his tree-home. He was chased off by a black squirrel, who then took a nap in the same spot but with his tail wrapped around himself. It was a good rainy day.