Warning, Extreme Laughter May Follow

I've been reflecting back on some of the fun moments of 1L (yes, there was some fun), and I recollected an early morning laugh fest with my good friend Rachel Gordon. One of her friends sent her the following link in early October and we managed to laugh so loud and so long that I nearly peed my pants. Profanity warning for the faint of heart (my mother reads my blog, so I have to say that). This is entirely out of season, but maybe you'll revisit it come fall and have a good laugh again: It's Decorative Gourd Season!

The Beasts

I LOVE summer. Granted, I wish I didn't have to work at all, but I LOVE not having to go to class, read for hours on end, and deal with a crazy schedule. I also love that my husband is a teacher, so he's around all summer long. It is so nice to come home from work and hit the pool with Adam or snuggle up on the couch with the animals. And speaking of the Clevenstine beasts, to the right is Zooey, our newest addition and my Christmas present from Adam. She is a ferocious beast who eats ANYTHING and bosses the other animals around. Below is our whole crew, which we are so grateful for. Lesson of the month? "Whatever you do," DO NOT put cheapo supermarket flea medicine for dogs of your cat. He WILL start having seizures and nearly die, and you WILL feel like a horrible human being! Luckily, after many baths and hours of forced snuggling, Mr. Nemo is just fine. I knew he was fine when he spent three hours trying to get the hair on the back of his head to lay down flat. (It was sticking up funny after his bath). When your cat's diva tendencies come back, his health is no longer a concern.

Foxy, Nemo, and Zooey dominate our couch... so much for our new furniture staying animal free and beautiful!

It's Been Awhile

Well, I finally figured out how to get my blog to stop showing up as a pile of html code. I am NOT technologically savvy, so this took waaaaay too many tries, but now I'm back. In recent news, we had a fabulous trip to Italy. The amazingly talented Jess Cornett took some beautiful photographs- check them out HERE.

Isn't my best friend the most beautiful bride? Seriously, I have been to a lot of weddings in the last few years- in fact, the year we got married Adam was in 6 weddings! And every bride has been stunning, but I'm going to have to give Em the gold. Maybe it was the simple lace sheath, maybe it was the Tuscan sunset, maybe it was the fact that everything in Lucca has a golden glow, but she was radiant. And Nick didn't look half bad either! No seriously, it was like watching movie stars get married. Not to mention our whole trip was unbelievably fun. "Whatever you do," take amazing vacations with amazing people. You'll never regret it!

In other news, one of my other best friends (yes, I am 25 and allowed to have more than one best friend) is heading to Haiti. Please send out good thoughts and prayers for Melody Rogers over the next 3 weeks. She is being incredibly brave and heading to Haiti to help with relief efforts. It is hot, rainy, and there are still rubble and bodies everywhere. NOT an easy trip, but a tremendously important one that anyone who knows her should support in prayer! Melody is not exactly an outdoorsy type (we bond over this mutual love of the indoors and general laziness), but what she IS is compassionate. Mel has a heart for the hurting that I've rarely seen, and I have so much respect for her willingness to be uncomfortable in order to help where it is really needed. So many "mission trips" are simply manufactured, cushy experiences intended to benefit the people on them and not really serving anyone at any great depth. Not so, in this case. I truly believe that Mel and her travel companions can have a great impact in the lives of people with very broken lives.

Now that I've blogged about 2 of my friends, I guess I should blog something about what I've been up to. I have been spending my summer interning at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a large law firm in midtown Atlanta. As a rising 2L, there's not much I know how to do, but I'm learning a lot. I will say, however, that I really just want to take the summer off! Law school year 1 has left me utterly exhausted and wanting only to float around my pool on a raft all day. If only... what I am going to do is go take a nap right now. Yes, at 4:00 in the afternoon. Next blog post: how I almost killed my cat.

So... I finally finished finals! Praise the lord- I am done with 1L. And I got a summer job, which is another prayer answered for sure. Now I get one blissful week off to RELAX. I fully plan to spend at least half of it laying by my pool. In just a few weeks Adam and I leave for Italy, which will be during our 3 year anniversary. Thinking about that got me thinking about our honeymoon in Costa Rica and I found this funny video from our trip- I am such a scaredy cat!

More pictures from 1L year to follow!

Rainy Days...

I have to say that it has been extremely difficult for myself and many of my friends to stay inside and focus on studying when the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. The past 2 weeks have basically been full of the most fabulous spring days you could dream of, so having to study has been less than blissful. Well, God must have seen my frustration, because I woke up this morning to a gray, rainy day. Obviously my first choice would have been to stay home, curl up under a blanket with my hubs, and watch movies all day (or teleport myself to Chicago to watch the Hills marathon with Em), but the library is not so bad either. At least I'm not glaring at everyone outside in pure envy.

In 4 days I will be done 4 days! Which means in 5 days, I'll be laying by the pool getting tan. At some point I will hopefully find a legal job, but you know what? I just can't worry about that quite yet. For now finals, and after that- well, I think I've earned a little relaxation time and a chance to catch up with all my non-ELS friends. So PBA girlies- expect your phone to ring next week, because it has been too long! And just to bring back some REALLY old school college memories, look what I found among my thousands of photos:

Italia on my mind...

So, for all my non-ELS friends who haven't heard from me recently (i.e. anyone besides Em), I am smack dab in the thick of final exams. One week from today and I will be a 2L- assuming of course that I pass, but I'm going to assume that! I've been studying for my property final for almost 48 hours straight now (save the 8 hours I've been home in the last two days). Talk about a bunch of nit-picky rules that I won't bore you with! I'm now seriously having to question my "gunner" status, as I'm pretty sure that I'm one of about a dozen people remaining in the law library. Hmm... I'm determined to make it to 2:00 a.m. though. Got to get in those last few practice questions!

In other, much more exciting news, Adam and I leave for Italy in just a little over a month to see my bestie get married! So, for anyone who has spent any time in Italy or London, hit me up with your fave places!

Fired Up!

Man, I have just become a blogging machine today. I guess I have a lot to say because everyone around me has a lot to say, and it has gotten me thinking and gotten me fired up. I've been thinking about the comments that have been swirling around Emory Law, Facebook, CNN, you name it, everyone's talking. I've heard a lot of intelligent comments, but a lot of ignorant ones too. So I just thought I'd throw out my two sense on this whole debacle, for whatever its worth. Here's my disclaimer, though: I'm not claiming to understand the ins and outs of healthcare reform. My instinct as a Christian says that it is simply that compassionate thing to support healthcare for all, but my understanding of the financial repercussions is basically zero beyond what common sense can tell me, and I don't have time to philosophize over all the possible outcomes. The sliver of knowledge I do have comes strictly from my 1L law classes, and let's face it, even at a top 20 law school, we're the tadpoles in the legal ocean. So seriously, before anyone flips out, these are just my personal naive ramblings and nothing more.

As previously stated, I don't purport to know much about the U.S. Constitution (just more than the average high schooler, really), but I will say that regardless of what side of the universal healthcare issue you stand on, you should be able to see that one could interpret parts of the Constitution to authorize the recent bill. I'm not saying you have to agree, just that any reasonable person should be able to see that it is a possible interpretation of the text.

Please note Article I: Congress shall have power to lay tax... to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. Furthermore, we know that the healthcare industry is actively involved in interstate commerce, so any kind of healthcare reform involving regulation of the companies themselves could be seen as explicitly authorized under the commerce clause. Just a thought.

I get it, though. People think that if Congress can now tell people that they have to purchase a certain good or service that Congress is basically claiming limitless power. But I personally don't believe that. The text of the Constitution explicitly reserves certain authority to the Executive, the Judiciary, to the States, and most importantly, to the people. Furthermore, we cannot forget that it is the people who have the power to elect our own representatives. It is not a perfect system. Believe me, I know it is flawed in many ways. But I, for one, am grateful that I have a voice (however small it may be), and that I live in a country where we decide things by a majority vote and where healthcare is something that is available at all. I feel this way because I have been to places where the people have no voice and where people die of stupid diseases because, not only is there no health insurance, there is no medical care at all.

All that to say, I think it is important to remember, as we get all hot and bothered about U.S. politics, that what we have going on here in the U.S.- like or not- is a lot better than what much of the rest of the world is dealing with.