Weird.

I'm getting increasingly weirded out by comments posted by people I don't know. By people who don't have blogs and have really overseas-sounding names and posts with lots of grammatical errors and spam links. I'm thinking of going private again, and just having a separate recipe-only blog. Or maybe I should just stop blogging altogether. I'm not sure anyone reads this thing anyway.

9 days... 9 things to be thankful for.

I'm getting so close I can almost taste it... in 9 days, I will be 87/90ths done with law school, or 96.66%. (I'm a math nerd, leave me alone.) It's so exciting! I can't believe it's almost here - finally!

So, amid the stress and frustration that is finals preparation (think undergrad on acid - we only have one exam that determines the whole semester's grade), I decided to count my blessings and note a few things I am thankful for.

1. Family: I have amazing parents. Thanks to them, I will graduate law school with zero debt and money in the bank!
2. Friends: without my newfound law school buddies (newfound meaning, from 1L year on), I wouldn't have survived law school. True story.
3. Motivation: I'm grateful that I finally learned to not procrastinate. It has paid off by leaps and bounds this semester!
4. Job interviews: I have one thursday to work for Kaplan as an LSAT prep teacher. Wish me luck!!
5. Technology: Making it easier to take notes and prepare outlines, and keep in touch with far-away family members.
6. Cars: So I don't have to walk to school in the freezing snowy weather.
7. Subway: so I don't get too fat during finals.
8. Amazon's amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: responsible for some amazing Christmas gifts (I'll detail them later, when the gift-receiver has received them!) AND my very own sushi-making kit! Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

And last but certainly not least...

9. Adam. I'm grateful for a sweet and adorable boyfriend who takes care of me and holds me when I'm stressed and leaves me sweet notes on my carrel in Finnish. Who watches Disney movies with me (even if he's only "watching" and mainly sleeping) and who will do Angel Tree gifting with me and who buys me adorable pajama pants and skirts for presents, because he knows what I would like best. Who will scrape off my car in the snow and surprise me by wrapping 600 Christmas lights around the railing of my porch so I can come home to my own little winter wonderland. Who gives me forehead kisses and holds my hand in church and rubs my back when I'm tired. This wonderful boy has grown up into an incredible man... the last four years have been bumpy but fun, and things are better now than they ever have been.

I have a lot to be grateful for. I'll be a lot more grateful in 9 days when I'm done with my finals and I can just relax and finally, FINALLY get a solid Christmas break. I'll miss Adam and I hate to be away from him for so long, but hey. #5 will make it easier to be apart. :)

Until then... peace love and kisses, wish me luck on everything!

I'm ready...

... to be done with school. Or at least this semester. I'm not sure I'm ready for real, grown-up life, but I'm really ready to be done with Federal Income Taxation and Secured Transactions. And I'm ready to be done with my 30-page Substantial Writing paper.

3 days until I go home for Thanksgiving... 3 weeks and 3 days until I go home for Christmas, done with this absolutely ridiculous semester.

Next semester, I'm going to (not really sure yet, should find out soon, but hopefully somewhere really cool) with the Trial Advocacy Traveling Team, and New Orleans with the ADR for an arbitration competition. I only have one class, so I will sleep lots and cook/bake even more. I'll get my sanity back (in theory) before I lose it during bar prep again. That is, if I take the bar. I don't have a job and I don't have a clue where I will end up settling, so maybe I'll put it off until February. We'll see. I'm not sure yet. I'm not exactly ready for grown-up life, like I said.

But either way... I'm ready. I'm ready for everything but finals. But finals have to come first so I can go home and have a real Christmas. So I guess... I'm ready for finals too.

The Slow Cooker

... is my friend. This week I will be using it at least twice. Turkey with cranberry sauce (and stuffing and sweet potatoes... I love Thanksgiving so I'm starting to celebrate early!) and Italian sausage and peppers (to be served on hoagie rolls)... yum!

They're new recipes so I have no idea how they're going to turn out. If they're good, I will most definitely share.

3 weeks until Thanksgiving... 6 weeks until I'm home for Christmas. Is my law school education really coming to a close that quickly??

I promise...

I will blog soon. And if not soon, I will be back in full capacity by December 11th. Cause that's when I'm done with the semester.

I. Can. NOT. Wait.


And besides, Christmas is a really good time to start cooking and baking again. I'm going to start with fudge. Peppermint fudge, rocky road fudge, mocha fudge.... What should I make for Christmas gifts this year? (Besides fudge...)