A day in the life of a housewife/full time law student
I guess this would qualify as "A day in the life of a housewife / full-time law student."
Today is Friday. I usually go to school Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I have Tuesday off to studystudystudy all day, and Friday I usually try to clean the house and studystudystudy.
Part of my day also involves caring for a cockatoo, an African Grey, and a small kitty who thinks the whole world revolves around her...
Me, sleeping, almost time to wake up! Most days I wake up at 7:00 am. This mornign I woke up at 10:00 because I have a tooth infection and I'm trying to make it get better! Haha, definitely not an attractive sleeper. :)
The first thing I see when I wake up -- J (my husband) is in the bathroom getting ready for the day. Then I see our cat, Spinksy. She wants food RIGHTNOW!
Then there's Sophia, my Goffins Cockatoo -- only in this pic she looks like an alien! She wants breakfast as well... Time to feed everyone!
Sophie and Athena (the Congo African Grey) get some cereal in their food dish. They also have fruits and veggies in there.
Then I water J's lizards.
Usually I'd also be ironing J's shirt right now, but he doesn't have court this week so I've told him to iron it himself, he's in no hurry :)
Everyone's taken care of... so my turn to check out livejournal and e-mail. Except Athena evidently thinks she needs more attention. She's flown onto my head.
After my shower I check my e-mail to see whether my professor has written. We are working on a class action that is to be filed today. I want to make sure there's nothing more I need to do before beginning to clean.
Nothing more to do for the professor, so I set the kitchen timer to 15 minutes -- I'm going to spend 15 minutes cleaning each room in the house. (The kitchen might take longer!) I need to load and unload the dishwasher, clear off hte counters and wash them, sweep the floor, take out the trash, and wash the floor.
It takes forty minutes instead of fifteen, but now the kitchen is clean!
It's now 12:30pm... Time to attack the livingroom. And the livingroom is a REAL mess!
But I have a million other things to do (school work) so I'll set the timer for fifteen minutes only...
With only five minutes left I've accidentally spilled the parrot tray as I am emptying it. Whoops...
I finish in time, and then hit the bedroom. The bedroom is a disaster area, so I'll give it 25 minutes. Here's a before pic!
And with only ten minutes left, I've finished early!!
I'll ask J to help me fold the clothes later on tonight. I hate folding clothes, and he doesn't mind helping me with that...
Now for the bathroom... I'll give it 15 minutes. And it's now 1:21 pm
I finish just in time -- nice clean bathroom!
And I've sorted the clothes into lights, whites, and darks for washing.
But it's definitely time for lunch. I make Campbell's chicken and wild rice soup. And I also start dinner -- a frozen crock pot meal.
Then I clean my desk area in the office. The rest of the room is in ok shape. I'm not going to work on it today.
I'm about to start working on school work, but Athena and Sophia decide to get into some mischeif. Athena looks so guilty!
So... they go back into their cages. :)
This is my backpack with all of my books (minus two big folders). Yes, in some classes we read every.single.page. of those big text books. :(
I'm going to work, and let Sophie out for some cuddles :)
She thinks my lunch looks good -- and decides to have some. (I've already finished eating, fortunately!) I think this would be a fun photo essay so take lots of pics!!
Sophie and Athena playing...
I should be working, but of course I'm distracted editing my photo essay!
Ok, back to work. Seriously. Today I need to pick a topic for my Race and the Law class. I have to write a 25 page seminar paper on something relating to race and a legal theory. The problem is I haven't quite figured out what to write on! So the hunt is on to find a topic. It's due in two weeks!!!
Little break for more laundry.
And hot chocolate.
And it's now (ack!) 3:!7pm! J will be home in only a few hours and I still have so much to do!
I post an idea on the law_students community. I can't remember whether the state courts have original jurisdiction over immigration law appeals. If they do, I may be able to combine this topic and the topic of my other class, where I have to write yet another 25 page paper, into one! That would be GREAT!
It's 3:21 now. And I've just opened AIM express to see if I can find one of my classmates and ask him about the topic idea. Usually I don't ever use AIM, and in fact, right now I'm blocking everyone but this one person b/c he's in my class.
Athena needs attention. She can't do it the conventional way--mosey over and cuddle. She has to fly onto my head.
I had e-mailed my professor about another idea I had. He responded... It's too expansive. I was going to look at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' record in immigration appeals cases to find discrimination. But that would take analyzing possibly thousands of cases. He says that's a good idea, but too much for this paper.
So I e-mail him back with yet another idea. Maybe I can study white privilege in the context of public education.
Or in the funding of public education. So far he still hasn't gotten back to me...
It's now 4:08 pm. AIM is gone b/c my friend never signed on... so I got off.
And the ppl in the law_students community have answered my question. No, I can't combine the two papers -- there's no way to incorporate parity (the idea that federal and state courts should have equal outcomes) into immigration law.
The Board of Immigration Appeals proceeds directly to the federal courts. Blah. Stupid laws!
So... I'm going to check into more of that white privilege in education stuff. I go to westlaw which has some stupid search mechanism whereby you have to use "connectors". This means "find the terms white within five of the term privilege, within five words of the term education" and then I look in law review articles.
My RealPlayer music list -- It's a George Winston piano afternoon!
J suggested last week that I bring my printer into my office so I can print easier from my computer. So I decide to just move it really quickly so that I can print all these law review articles I've found. But now there's an empty space in the livingroom. I'm sure it will be filled soon :)
The whites are done washing. Our dryer doesn't work well -- it still has the towels in it from earlier. It'll be a few hours before they are done, so I'm going to dry these outside.
When I come in from putting out the laundry the house smells like chicken roast and fresh laundry, and is so clean. I feel like a good wife today. :)
And now a load of darks...
My favorite smells! I love doing laundry with Lavendar!!
Now to install the new printer onto my computer. For some reason it keeps freezing... but it finally gets around to working properly. I need to print this law review article and it has 46 pages... I don't want to use my slow, non-duplexing printer for it.
It's working. I LOVE my printer! My husband got it for me because I would spend a long time flipping over pages on our inkjet. I hate wasting paper (I always worry about the forests). So he bought this printer that flips the paages itself, and it goes REALLY fast too. I'm SOSOSO happy to have it!! (You must be a nerd or a law student to appreciate quite how many pages one prints to have to be ecstatic about getting a duplexing laser printer for Valentines day!)
I've found a good book to look at on my topic. And just my luck -- it's online through the university. I don't have to go anywhere!
Interesting stuff here...
Now it's dinnertime
Still studying... forever studying. I've found a number of good articles!
I let Sophie come hang out with me. Apparently Chex Mix is out to get us tonight. She doesn't like the taste (but keeps trying to find a piece that doesn't taste like the others!) and the Chex Mix plus the dinner has my infected tooth hurting like heck. :( Four ibuprofin to the rescue!
J is home from work and playing his video games :) I'm glad he has something he enjoys like that, b/c I'm very busy right now and don't have any time to spend with him... I gotta get these papers written, plus normal law school reading (up to 200-300 pages/week) plus research for my professor, plus internship...
He brought me the chex mix, chocolate milk, and my favorite candybar to help me study better. :) :) :)
I have a photo of my grandmother and grandfather in my kitchen because my grandmother is the greatest cook I've ever known. I love to try her recipes... and she's my inspiration :)
It's 7:58 and I'm working on my photolog of my day :)
Sophie's getting sleepy and wants cuddles.
I'm going to read the articles for my paper now...
I gotta convince Spinks to share the sofa!
She looks at me and stretches.
And then goes right back down :)
She decides to let me have the sofa... she'll watch from the corner. But Sophie steals my highlighter!
I give Sophie another toy. I'll probably get more hot chocolate and then read for the rest of the night. I think J and I will hang out tomorrow. :)
