My home

My home state is being destroyed by mother nature. In Cedar Rapids, 400 city blocks are under water. At least 3/4 of the state has been declared a disaster area. The entire flood plain of the Raccoon River in Des Moines is full. People are facing evacuation. Homes are being destroyed, memories are being lost, and hope for some relief from all this rain is fading. I get upset just watching it all on TV. As much as I like to hear about my home, I like it significantly less than when it's on the news for something like this.

Fortunately, my specific home is safe. My small little suburb isn't near any large pool of water that is causing significant damage. I'm sure there has been some water in our basement, but nothing to the extent of what other people are facing. Waverly, however, (home of my undergraduate university-- Wartburg College) is feeling it, as they lie on the same river that is invading Cedar Rapids. Several of the dorm buildings have been damaged, and friends still living in the town have been evacuated. It's a bleak situation for me, and I"m not even anywhere near the damage.

Furthermore, the storms just keep coming. And it's not just rain, it's destructive tornados. A tornado killed four boy scouts, all around my brother's age, on Wednesday night. Another town was destroyed about two weeks ago. 170 some tornados have run through Kansas, and 134 through Iowa. When will it end?

Despite all this horror, I'm trying to find reason to celebrate. Many of the boy scouts who survived the tornado went from terrified to courageous in a matter of instances. People are coming together to help save homes, and businesses, and lives. The rain will end. And at the end, the state of Iowa will wake up beaten, but not broken.

This weekend I'm off to celebrate the wedding of one of my dear friends in St. Louis. Yet this past week's destruction of the place I love so much will prominently linger in my mind. I ask for your prayers and thoughts for the people of the Hawkeye state.

near Hades

I've had several conversations with people in the past couple of days who ask me how my summer and bar review are going. At that point and time I find myself at a complete loss for words to describe the complete torture and near hell experience that is studying for the bar. Doctors might be able to understand, but even then, their test are cumulative over a year or (at least to my understanding), and are not the culmination of 3 years of schooling after which, if you don't pass, you have to wait 6 more months in which you drain your bank account. I study 8 hours of day right now, and that number will grow as the bar comes nearer. I hate to be a glum-bum all summer, and I've resolved to be positive as much as I can. But there is truly no way to understand the hellish experience of studying for the bar exam without being there.

Water, water everywhere!

The city I went to undergrad in (Waverly, Iowa...Wartburg College) is experiencing MAJOR flooding (as is the entire area of the state). Here's a link to some helicopter footage: http://www.whotv.com/ If you scroll down to where you see the video box, and then scroll down just a click or two with the video choices, you'll see it...it's called "13 Raw: Chopper 13 video in Waverly". It hasn't gotten to the school itself yet, but I know some of my friends still live there and had to be evacuated. And, my best friend from HS lives in Mason City, Iowa...flooding there closed down their water plant. They have water back now, but it's not safe to drink. Please keep all of them in your prayers.

On a much more fun note, my friend Tim is getting married in November in Mississippi, and I bought my plane ticket yesterday! We're flying in to NEW ORLEANS on Thursday afternoon, spending the evening and night there, then headed over to Mississippi for the wedding. Several of the people I am going with are IN the wedding, so they have to be there for the rehearsal and all that jazz. But it's also Halloween the night before the wedding, so we're going to have some dressed-up fun. All in all, the weekend is going to be amazing, but most likely a debauchle. If any of you have ever heard me talk about the trip to Austin during my 1L year, its going to be like that...but worse (or better, depending on your perspective.) :)

The Joys of being a Huffy Owner

As I mentioned before, I brought my sweet two wheeled ride down to KS after graduation. Starting this past week, every morning when I come out of my house, a spider has made an AMAZING, GIGANTIC web that stretches from the handle to the back wheel. It's a beautiful site (despite the fact that spiders gross me out) and I feel so bad that every morning I have to knock it down. Silly spider, it just doesn't understand. But mad props for your perseverance.

I need some of that perseverance to get through all this bar studying. I can't even tell you how much it sucks. Ugh.

I shower...really!

I'm sure everyone in my bar review class thinks I'm a scuz bucket: I show up to class (nearly) every day in sweat pants, my glasses, a hat and no make-up. There is logic behind my choice of such apparel and I would like to take this opportunity to say just why I appear so disheveled.

First, the sweats: I work out most days after class (or ride my bike to and from class), and I find it ridiculous that I would have to wear different clothing to sit in a class everyday for 3 1/2 hours. If we were going to meet important people, or there was a chance I was going to run into someone of significance in the hallway or commons, I might try jeans. But, sweats are just more comfortable...and more practical for me.

Glasses: I ran out of contacts, don't have my new set in yet, and get eye strain when I don't wear them. This is not me being lazy...it's simply my only mechanism.

Hat: I have a light sensitivity in my eyes, and the room in which we have bar review overwhelms them. The direct light in the classroom reflecting off the white paper of our worksheets (yes, we just completed 19th grade and we still use worksheets) is too much for my eyes/ brain to handle. I have to wear a hat to shield my eyes from some of that light so that I don't get too much and my brain shuts my eyes down for me and I pass out, thus making bar reivew worthless.

No make-up: see the "sweats' justification above.

Honestly, I doubt that anyone really cares what I'm wearing to bar review everyday. But should they be interested in why I dress this way, here is my answer :)

They say history repeats itself

Have you ever met someone and thought to yourself, "If it weren't for one tiny little issue...," you two would be perfect together? I have friend like that. From my perspective, we've skirted around admitting we like each other for almost a year now. And I do like him...I really do. Except our "tiny little issue" is a big issue: religion. And it's not that one of us is faithful and the other the opposite. Quite the contrary actually. in fact, we both have such a deep believe in God that the deeper issues of faith are the problem (saints, Mary, salvation upon "conversion", etc.) I keep trying to think of ways to work around this problem to see if it would work; I imagine scenes from the movies where people decide to put everything aside for the sake of love and not worry about anything else, or suddenly everything just coincides and they live happily ever after as we ride off into the sunset.

But this is real life, and if there is ONE thing my time in England taught me is the importance of my faith. Not just my faith, my Catholic faith. I'm not going to go into lots of details because I feel this is neither the time nor the forum to express such thoughts. But I do ask for your prayers...prayers in the belief that either something with him will work out, or that God continues to help me be patient until someone else comes along.

Things that make you go Hmmmm.....

Yesterday was the deadline for our professors to turn in our grades. I've had one grade, the last final I took mind you, since before graduation. I've been waiting for the other two (one of which is LEGAL AID....where there is no final!) since then. I checked this morning and saw that there were now marks in the grade spots: B+ in Legal Aid and a "WG" in Complex Lit. I don't understand either of these grades. A B+ in Legal Aid? Seriously? I'm not sure what else I could have done to get a better grade. Everything was always done on time, I communicated with my clients, I made a couple of mistakes, but that's part of the learning process. I was never told that I could improve upon anything, and was told that I was a great intern. Thus, I am befuddled at receiving a B+. Also, what the heck does "WG" stand for? The guy I work with said he also received that mark and neither of us could figure out what it meant. I thought it might mean "withhold grade" b/c I have some sort of outstanding charge on my UBill, but I checked and I don't. This lack of a grade makes me nervous; our transcripts have to be to the bar examiner's by June 15 in order to sit for the KS bar in July. I will be FURIOUS if it doesn't make it there in time. What further frustrates me is that this final was during the first week of finals. There are only 9 of us in the class. I understand the professor has other finals to grade, but right now, I can't sit for the bar because I have yet to receive a grade in that class. This day is not starting off well.


BUT..on the other hand...yesterday was a wonderful day. The weather was picture perfect: 85 degrees, no humidity, no wind. I sat outside doing bar exam stuff all day, then went on a long bike ride. It was just fabulous. Today, however, it is as humid as the day is long, and also quite blustery. Ick. Good thing I have to work. Then again, it's not like I would be outside anyway. Stupid bar exam.