the best little fan... ever.

i forgot to mention.

saw this over thankgiving. if you have not, you should.

three down, one to go.

and i do not care how i did. they are just done.

but, here is a good laugh for you. actually, it almost made me lose myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA&eurl=

that jt... he sure has a great sense of humor.

any guess as to what the last final is?

some legal cinematic entertainment for you in my absence that can only be described as torts hell.

from a civil action...

It's like this. A dead plaintiff is rarely worth more than a living severely-maimed plaintiff. However, if it's a long slow agonizing death as opposed to a quick drowning or car wreck, the value can rise considerably. A dead adult in his 20s is generally worth less than one who is middle aged. A dead woman less than a dead man. A single adult less than one who's married. Black less than white. Poor less than rich. The perfect victim is a white male professional, 40 years old, at the height of his earning power, struck down at his prime. And the most imperfect, well in the calculus of personal injury law, a dead child is worth the least of all.

and...

The odds of a plaintiff's lawyer winning in civil court are two to one against. Think about that for a second. Your odds of surviving a game of Russian roulette are better than winning a case at trial. 12 times better. So why does anyone do it? They don't. They settle. Out of the 780,000, only 12,000 or 11/2 percent ever reach a verdict. The whole idea of lawsuits is to settle, to compel the other side to settle. And you do that by spending more money than you should, which forces them to spend more money than they should, and whoever comes to their senses first loses. Trials are a corruption of the entire process and only fools who have something to prove end up ensnared in them. Now when I say prove, I don't mean about the case, I mean about themselves.

two down, two to go.

and another week...

remind me. why am i doing this again?

exam update.

one down; three to go.
following my professor's advice, i am not discussing it and i am at home watching cartoons, at least for a little bit of time.

msu in the news.

undergrad protestors made msu look, well, not so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwi3JxcXfWo

ugh. of course.

finals approaching and i have been infested by the cold from hell.
colds suck.
at least i am doing slightly better than my section-mate with mono.

i may be disappearing for the next few weeks.

last few weeks of class followed by final exams.
if i disappear, please forgive me.
although, be on the look out for the occasional slap happy post. :)

happy holidays.

it is over.

the open memo is done and about to be turned in.
still wishing i knew how to actually legally write.
:(
at least tomorrow is a free day for me.

congratulations.

big shout out to my cousin tim and his fiancee, emmie!
it's about time.
so, when's the wedding?

i love my male friends, but...

why in the hell would you return to a country that you had to flee because it was at war when it is now on the brink of civil war?

if you can explain that to me, please let me know.

a laugh so good that you cannot help but laugh yourself.

feeling a bit down this week.
a friend sent me these.
no matter what is going on in your life, these should always make you laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk&mode=related&search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ayHcA_n7VY

three cheers for the dem's.

now we just need to makes sure that we do something - that we deliver.
or we will be where the r's are today in two years.
let's make something happen.

forgot to mention.

one of our professors one day insisted that some among us, although he did not know who, were law students possessed by the devil by virtue of some of the questions we asked on our online class site.
that is what i went as for halloween.
a law student... possessed by the devil.

posi. the new term that is spreading like wildfire.

my friend had a new man in her life. he is not her boyfriend. he is her posi.
what is a posi?
person of special interest.
get yourself one today.
the term is spreading like wildfire throughout the one l's.

felony of the day.

malicious ship burning.

halloween anyone?

i need some thoughts on a costume. care to email me?

Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)

how do i love thee? let me count the ways.

been busy, again.

sorry for the delay.
two tests last week.
big scandal at the law college.
yikes.
call if you would like more info.

more later on life...

here is a fun way to waste some time.

www.weeworld.com

contracts.

i accept.
i accept.
i accept.

ebert.

how i heart him.
in case you have not read this...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/PEOPLE/61011001

i do not think i have mentioned it, but. . .

i am the reasonably prudent person.

let it snow.

snow! snow! snow!
yes, i woke up with a smidgen of snow on the ground. mostly flurries with high winds, but snow nonetheless.
even had to clean off of my car.
too bad my heat set off the circuit breakers - twice.

oh, and by the way, did anyone catch george l. on steven colbert?

i heart criminal law.

my crimlaw professor brings in a light saber to lead the class in common law crime chants.

and, thereupon, sixty one-L's scream out the elements of criminal law of the common law variety.

larceny:
trespassory
taking
and carrying away
the personal property
of another
with the intent to steal it.

how exciting is my life?

midterm coming up.
ladies' night last friday with the women in my section.
new haircut.
turned in my second memo.
year anniversary of my trip to italy. (how i miss italy.)
proud owner of two cats.
lunch with three other section mates and a professor this past saturday.
section mate in a car accident.
i found a dry cleaner's.

or, is it officially winter?

we are supposed to have the first snowfall of the year tonight. precipitation mixed with plummeting temperatures. exciting.

it is offiically fall.

why?

i had to turn on the heat last night.
it was in the 30s over night.
the cats are sleeping in tighter balls and closer to me for warmth.
ice was on my car window this am, and i had to scrape it off.
the trees are turning glorious hues of red, oranges, and yellows.
sure could stand for a piece of pumpkin pie.

today's zen moment.

i am one with the federal rules of civil procedure.
i am one with a rule 12(b)(6) motion.
i am one with the federal rules of civil procedure.
i am one with rule 8(a).
i am one with the federal rules of civil procedure.

the living dead.

i never remember ever being so tired in all of my life.

warmth is on the way!

okay, but really in about three months. holiday cruise to mexico with the fam! there i will be... less than a day after my last final in criminal law.

woo hoo!

it is michigan and it is cold.

cold and windy today. i think summer has officially gone. my first michigan fall is upon me and i am missing the added weeks of warmth in dc. :(

how is the weather by you?

civil procedure... dunk...

break through in class today. i actually understood civil procedure before i went into class and was right! i may have had a bit of diarrhea of the month when i answered the question, but it all came out. kudos to the early a.m. study group and our tossng around of questions. i am actually excited about starting to read the federal rules of civil procedure. what have they done to me?

highlighters.

i have discovered in that past month that different types of paper require the use of different highlighters. i cannot use the cheap-o highlighters in all of my books. i had to spring for the expensive liquid type in order to highlight in some books. hrm. who knew?

how fast they grow up.

not only did my baby brother dan turn 16 this past june and pass his driving test with flying colors, but now he is going to homecoming with a date! he is going shopping for a new suit... the works. and kathy (my fabulous step-mom) and i could not be more excited. actually, i think we are more excited that he is. i am sure he is feeling the pressure of two crazy gals excited at his first semi-formal.

seems like yesterday he was three and calling my dad a poo-poo head the whole drive out to good ol' gwu in dc.

hopefully more to come on this one. i, personally, want details on the date, Lauren.

and, the addition has a name.

it is benjamin charles... and he is adorable. yippee!!!

new addition to the nuttle clan.

as many of you know, my cousin ran and his wife dmn have been in the process of adopting another little one to join the adorable andy...

great news! tonight, as i write this, they are on their way to pick up the newest nuttle. i'll let you know when i have a name.

oh, and here is the oddest thing.
ran shares a birthday with my mom.
dmn shares a birthday with my dad.
new baby shares a birthday with me...

congrats growing nuttle family! i cannot wait to meet the newest member at the end of the month.

september 12, 2001.

in case you did not see this, or perhaps do not remember it, please take a look at jon stewart's daily show on september 12, 2001. thank you to my dear friend mdb for forwarding this to me. it is a few minutes long, but well worth the viewing... many times over.

how i love jon stewart.

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/09/nine_eleven.html

still dropping.

as of now, gas at the corner is $2.36!

do you remember where you were five years ago today?

i remember very well, as if it were yesterday, the details of september 11, 2001.

my very good friend sab decided this morning to look at the positive... how far we, the girl posse, have come... here are some of her thoughts. and, please, take a look at the positive in your life.

I was driving to work this morning hearing all the talk of remembrances and memorials for the 5^th anniversary of the events of September 11^th and I was thinking about where we all were five years ago and where we are now. All of us were living in the DC area and most had just celebrated the best wedding ever (go A and N)!! Now three of us have moved to the Midwest and I for one can honestly say I NEVER thought that I would be living in Battle Creek , MI but here I am. Big Red is on her way to becoming an Esquire and KL and working to fulfill her dream of becoming an Inn Keeper. HAP is kicking ass and taking names at SEIU before you know it she will be running things over there Andy Stern look out!! EDH is becoming trainer and facilitator master over at Equal Justice Works and NKO has become Earth Mother Goddess and Momma Bear to the extreme!!

The core posse and the extended tribe has grown with Owen, Soren, Thea and soon baby Boy Margo (according to Owen).

We have become spouses, parents, pet owners, homeowners, and car owners in the past five years. Seen therapists come and go but the GP has remained connected and for that I am truly grateful.

We have come a long way ladies and I want you to know how much I love you all and how blessed I feel to have you in my life. I am so proud of all of you. I am always amazed at how strong you all are and how you meet every challenge head on and with such courage. You have provided me with a well of strength on so many occasions and on a day when the world is remembering a day where the nation showed strength I wanted to take a moment and celebrate and give thanks to the wonderful women who help keep me going when things get bad.

i love you, too, sab.

how cheap is it by you?

gas is down to $2.38 a gallon here.

been a bit busy.

well, as you can well expect i have been incredibly busy the last two weeks. tons of work and it is very interesting. i can say that i have not thought i made a mistake with this new direction in my life. at times i have wondered if i may be in over my head, but that is a different story. :)

last weekend my dad, kathy, and dan came. it is always great to have company and i enjoyed showing him the campus and the lansing area. and, ta da, we went to the dairy store! yes, the famous dairy store. twenty odd types of ice cream, a few types of cheese. tuesday through thursday you can go on a tour to see the kids making the goodies. very good ice cream too. all my friends and family are welcome to come and visit - and we will head over to the dairy store. who doesn't want chocoalte cheese or big ten ice cream? check out the good times to be had by all at http://dairystore.msu.edu/

i have met a gaggle of great people. it is odd, though, being one of the oldest. at times i find it hard to relate and i have come to realize how much growth there is between 24 and 31 years of age. speech, mannerisms, maturity... just the lack of exposure to the world. and, dc is definitely such a different world. all of this makes me even more appreciative of the experiences i have had and the people i know.

my days, for the most part, are spent keeping ahead, which is harder in the beginning. as we move on, it will get easier to brief and understand concepts. and, it is becoming easier, but it is still like learning a foreigh language. it takes time right now. by friday afternoon, we all go home to nap. no joke. where is a daily siesta when you need it?

on that note, i am going off to bed soon. i hope to write more midweek.

farewell

this weekend was the spreading of my uncle tom's ashes in the state of wisconsin. he had requested that half of his ashes be spread between two of his favorite places in that state. the other half he wished to remain with my aunt, his dear wife.

i think it is a beautiful a testament it is to life, and the continuation of it, that someone would chose to give themselves back to the earth in this way.

i very much wanted to go. i went back and forth about going, but in the end, after many conversations with my mom, i decided he would want me to get off on the right foot at law school. so, yesterday, at the approximate time that my family was spreading his ashes, i excused myself from the law library, found a place to sit outside facing west, towards wisconsin, and listened to one of his favorite songs, here comes the sun by the beatles, followed by one of mine, solsbury hill by peter gabriel. and i sat and thought about all of the good things about him and all of the good times with him. i just let the tears stream.

farewell again uncle tom. as we approach the second anniversary of our loss of uncle bill, i know that the two of you are looking out for us from your great, big outdoor barbeque in the sky.

apologies for the delay.

well, it has been a long week, the culmination of which is that i woke up today with an unbelievable sinus migraine headache. just my luck. eight cases to brief and my head was so sensitive to light i thought i would lose my stomach. thank goodness for excedrin migraine. it is my very best friend. an hour or so after taking it and laying in the cold, dark apartment with a cold, wet washcloth on my head, i am virtually ready to go. i just wish i had not lost the time, but such is life. i will stay up until i am ready for torts tomorrow.

orientation, on the whole, went well. i think they did a wonderful job of letting us know what we are in for and providing instruction as to how to get off on the right foot. we even had a sample torts class, a jump into the deep end of the socratic method if you will. it left the majority of us wondering what we were doing here and if we had made the right decision. i think we are all still debating it.

what has been most helpful to me is the research, writing and advocacy class. it provides the overview to everything and the tools to get what you need.

i have to say, aside from being completely overwhelmed and clueless, i am enjoying myself so far. everything is like either putting a puzzle together or taking it apart, which i like. of course, it is not even the first full week of class, so check back soon. that opinion is subject to change.

my goal, by the way, is to provide an update every weekend. i can already tell you the warnings they gave about time are correct. i am already behind despite all of my work to not be so. (of course everything we are doing takes much more time in the beginning, but should become easier as the semester progresses.) so, please do not take offense if i do not return emails or calls with all expediency. it is not that i do not want to talk or write; to the contrary, i probably do not have the time. so, please, just give me a few days to do so.

hope the weather in your neck of the woods is nice - and not inclusive of warnings, especially for extremely high pollen counts.

cheers.

pre-day one...

okay, so technically not the first official day of orientation, but...

today was technology training. about sixty of us (there are multiple sessions) sat in a lecture room and registered our laptops, learned about free printing, and registered with westlaw and lexis. i already looked up my grandmother's case before the illinois state supreme court. (the people of the state of illinois v. mary saisi for those of you that have access.) remind me to tell you about her get-out-of-jail-red-velvet-cake if you have not already heard that story.

i had to laugh. so far what everyone said is true. law school is going back to high school. i could see and feel the cliques forming on pre-day one. i also actually believe i was the oldest person there, or at least i felt as though i was. actions, mannerisms, speech give us away so easily sometimes.

onward to the official first day tomorrow. feeling out of touch with the world, so please send some email to keep me feeling tied in to the world.

back in mi

i have been out of touch for a few days, taking some time off prior to orientation.

chicago was good. it is always good to see family. i think we all drive each other crazy, but what would we do without each other? i love everyone of them dearly. how big the babies are! andy at three and brandon rapidly approaching one. i am so glad to have them so close.

i spent a day on my dad's boat up around the fox lake area. i cannot remember the last time i spent an entire day on a boat. it took me back to every summer growing up, visiting dad and kathy in florida. every weekend was spent on the boat, either fishing, lobstering, or diving (the adults) and snorkeling (me). weekends off the coast of fort lauderdale and miami, or down off the coast of big pine key (http://www.fla-keys.com/lowerkeys/) in the florida keys. fresh seafood was in abundance. those were some good times. nothing beats the spray of warm salt water on your face.

ha. big pine key. there are many islands around big pine key. one was used to film pt-109 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057393/), the story of jfk's experiences as a captain of a pt boat. everytime we went out,
"know what was filmed there?"
"yeah, dad."
"pt-109. story of jfk."
"yeah, dad."

going back in for the night...
"see that island?"
"yeah, dad. jfk."
"it's where they shot pt-109."
"yeah, dad."

good memories. ;)

on my way back to mi, i added to my family. mikey and i are pleased to welcome dakota, a 12 pound black and white female cat. so far, so good. she's a sweet pea. just as active and full of life as is my dear mikey. long days ahead, and mikey deserves a friend.

i must confess that i am a person that needs her alone time. without it i am an big ball of crankiness... these three weeks with plenty of time on my own, i am ready to re-engage. i pity the person that phones me next... are they in for a long, long, long conversation.

back to reading...
more tomorrow on orientation, but if you care for a sneak peek, here you go: http://www.law.msu.edu/orientation/schedule.html

took a drive down to Chicago for my weekend - and 31st birthday. the drive took me only about four hours, which is about 30 minutes over the 3.5 hours it is supposed to take. not too bad, really, especially considering that virtually everyway highway between the greater lansing, mi area and illinois are under construction. remember... two seasons in the midwest: winter and construction.

went straight to vdp's for an evening out with the gals. jake (www.shopjake.com) had an evening reception for a designer at the rush street store. after two long years, i finally met the two genius men behind the phenom that is jake. and what was not to love? fabulous store with fabulously expensive and chic clothes. what did i love, of course, but the $1100 purse? i swear that it is like radar for expensive goods... and it is genetic. somehow we always pick the highest priced item in the room without knowing it. drives me crazy. give me at least three years. i'll be purchasing $1100 purchases left and right. (and hope you are in the line of purchase to get one from me!) if you get a chance, also check out pedro garcia shoes (www.pedrogarcia.com). i think i may be in love.

tomorrow... 31.

i have been in my new apartment, my new hometown for a week. no denying that it is here. a new path. a new journey. fear alternately plagues and excites me. am i too old? will i be good enough? only time will tell.