Milestones

Well, there is only one day left of the Bar Exam and then I will enter lawyer purgatory until late November when our scores come out. I will be neither a lawyer nor a law student until then, but the hard part will be done.

In other exciting news, I have ridden over 200 miles on my bike this month!!! I am actually more excited about this than the end of law school. My legs are looking more toned even though I haven't really lost any more weight. But I am at a lovely 154 which still feels monumental to me, so I will take it for what it is.

Saturday it's off to Canada for a few days and then, on the 11th I start working. Ahhhhhh!

It's Official

I am not meant to be a runner. Despite the fact that it is a great way to burn calories fast and the ideal way to do intervals, I must give up jogging. Yesterday I had a major blow-out on the treadmill, shooting pain in my butt-cheek and much limping. Now I have sciatic pain and couldn't hardly sleep last night. I have taken Advil, iced it, stretched, icy-hot patched it, and more and I still feel pretty sore. Not to mention that I still suck at running and don't appear to be getting fitter or faster in this discipline. Cycling makes my arms, neck, and back sore, but it's nothing like running, and I even seem to be getting better at cycling, making it worth the pain and suffering. Maybe if they come up with the Tour de France for runners to motivate me I'll try again, but for now, I am done with jogging. It sucks and I hate it!

Also official is that I am freaking out about the written portion of the Bar. I am a rockstar when it comes to the multiple choice section, but the written parts are going to kill me. I just completely blanked on a Con law answer, which has motivated me to re-check whether it is likely to be on the exam. I really need Torts and Con Law to be left off. God, are you listening? No torts or Con Law, OK?

800 Calorie Burrito

Mmmm, Burrito. I just ate Le Burrito in honor of the Garmin-Chipotle team. It was 800 calories without guacamole so I probably won't do this too many times, but I did just ride 25 miles!!! That's the furthest I've ever ridden and I did 22 miles on Monday, so I am feeling pretty awesome. My heartrate calculator said I burned 1054 calories. My average speed was 13.4 mph. I am wasted, but all my stress is gone. Now we're watching Le Tour before I go to bed to prepare mentally for my 6 hour practice test tomorrow. Yuck. I hope I do well.

Panic!

The Bar panic has hit. Stephanie and I went to the beach house for the fourth. We stayed three days and did absolutely no work, which was great except when we got back people were taking about how they only did 12 practice essays over the break. Seriously?! Twelve essays?! Holy crap, are we behind. We continue to work less hard than everyone else, and now that we have 3 hours of Le Tour to watch every day, this is apt to stay true. I definitely do not feel ready for the essays or the performance tests, but I can tell I am getting more familiar with the law and better and writing he answers. I also can't help but feel that we are studying smarter than a lot of people. Yesterday, none of the "too busy t do anything fun" people even showed up to the mock exam. It was six hours of hell, particularly when the AC went off for two hours and the room was sweltering, but I thought, "This could happen on game-day, and I won't be able to leave, so I better keep working." I felt like a total freakin' moron by the end and was confident I would fail. To recover, Stephanie and I watched 6 hours of TV. If it hadn't been 108 degrees outside, I would have gone for a long bike ride. I felt awful!

Today I went over the answers and discovered that I did worse than I thought in some areas, and better than I thought in others I could see what I need to work on, where I wasted my time during the performance test, and why I had so much time left over after the essays. I am starting to narrow in on where I go wrong so I can fix it. In addition, that's three more essays I have done, and one more PT test. Perhaps most importantly, fear is very motivating, so I have reason to persevere.

As for my weight loss and fitness goals, I made some progress before the fourth and got myself down below 155, but the Fourth brought me back and now I am hovering around 155. I think I may be retaining water because I have been scarfing down salty, dried seaweed as comfort food so I don't eat something more damaging. Tomorrow I hope to go for a two hour ride again, but they cause me to eat everything in sight the next day, so I am going to have to work on my recovery strategies. I have also realized that my progress is bound to be slower because my back limits the intensity I can exercise at, and also means I have to increase intensity in slower increments. Intervals are fabulous, but they wreak havoc on my back and then I can't do much for a while. The bike is becoming much more comfortable, and I can tell I am getting fitter. Now that I can ride for a longer time without everything hurting for a week, I can start upping my sped and become a respectable rider. Its getting to be pretty fun and the trail is so pretty that I look forward to going out.

I have a job lined up in August...I think. I haven't heard back from anyone, but I had the job when I left 2 weeks ago. I will be working with the American Electronics Association as a lobbyist. It's not in the education field, but they were willing to take me on with no lobbying experience, everyone at the office is great, the salary is fair given my experience in the field, plus I get to work minutes from home. I tend to think I am going to find a way to make this job work with my education goals, but even if that doesn't happen, once I learn how to lobby, understand how the legislature works, and build a reputation, I can do anything I want. Hurray!