"Game Day" is Almost Here

I may or may not be counting down the hours until Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. I also may or may not have decided on my first post-bar-exam beverage :) I had a mini panic session about the bar exam today, but luckily a DQ treat fixed that.

Studying has really taken its toll on me this week. I woke up a couple of days ago with some major upper shoulder pain; definitely a product of spending too much time reading. I did two things to cure this pain: (1) I got a 3-month membership to a therapeutic massage place by our house; and (2) I have been using Icy Hot and I feel (and smell) like an arthritic grandmother.

I have been having a hard time focusing on studying these past few days; my mind keeps wandering to how great it will be to put this exam behind me. I know that I really couldn't have studied more, so if I don't pass, I will have no regrets about my lack of effort. There is way too much information to know, and I have accepted the fact that I will not know all of it; hopefully I know enough to pass.

I have lots of fun things to look forward to after the bar exam; this is what I have planned for my first week and a half of freedom:

• having breakfast with a friend before he moves to California (I will miss him!)
• a massage to make my shoulder feel better
• my friend's bachelorette party (we are having a spa day; I can't wait for a pedicure!)
• getting a haircut
• our first wedding anniversary :)
• E taking a few days off of work so we can relax at the cabin with RatDog
• starting my job on a full-time basis
• reading for fun (I ordered a bunch of cheap, used books off of Amazon and have been getting them in the mail over the last few days)

We won't know whether we passed until October 8, so hopefully I will be able to push any anxiety that I may have out of my mind between now and then.

8.5 days of studying to go

I'm finally in the home stretch of this evil bar exam. I don't feel like I'll ever be ready, but I'm just ready for it to be over already. I can't wait to enjoy the rest of the summer, and to find out what it is like to live a life free from law school and standardized tests. Well, mostly free from standardized tests... I have another one coming up in a few months, but I'm not going to go into great detail about it, because I'm not sure that my blog is anonymous enough for that. Let's just say that I am full of surprises, and am glad that E is always up for an adventure (or at least the possibility of an adventure) :)

I feel like my renewed sense of adventure is a product of my surgery. In the last few months, I feel like I've returned to "normal"... well, the "normal" that I was before my cyst became symptomatic. Maybe this sense of "renewal" is all psychological, but I am willing to bet that at least part of it is not. My brain was pretty squished before I had surgery.

I plan on doing a blog series about my cyst and surgery after the bar exam, mostly because there is a lot of scary/bizarre anecdotal information on the internet about arachnoid cysts, and I want to provide recently diagnosed people with a more optimistic (and probably a more correct) source of information.

Yesterday I took the day off from studying. I realized that I hadn't taken a full day off from studying and class in about a month (yes, I even studied for a few hours on the 4th of July - lame!). My brain and my body didn't want to study yesterday, and I didn't feel like pushing myself. I think I made the right decision. I feel about a million times more focused today (except for this blog-writing study break, of course).

Anyway, wish me luck :) I don't know if I'll post again before the bar exam, but I will definitely update when I'm on the "other side" of this exam. Can't wait!!!

Busy Times

It's been a busy week or two since I've updated this blog. I'm pretty worried about the bar exam, and I'm really glad that E is here to take care of me and RatDog :) He's been making dinner every night, making us chocolate malts almost every night as a bedtime snack, cleaning the house, going grocery shopping, meal-planning, doing laundry, walking RatDog twice a day (I only have to take him out once a day - woohoo!). Plus, he is putting up with my bar exam induced mood swings, and still manages to tell me that he loves me several times a day (barf! I know...sorry blog-readers). Needless to say, I'm very very lucky.

Our neighbors really like lighting off fireworks. This is bad news for RatDog. Yesterday we had a thunderstorm AND people were lighting off fireworks like crazy. RatDog definitely was in panic mode. Poor guy :( Last night we took him for a walk, and while we were on the walking path, one of our lovely neighbors launched a firework ON to the walking path. I ran away, screaming. RatDog ran as fast as his little dog legs could run (faster than me). E wanted to go have a talk with the neighbor who launched the firework and tell him/her that you should launch them UP and not onto the walking path. I thought that it might be too dangerous to talk to someone who was doing that; drunk people + fireworks.... I'll stay away, thank you very much. On our walk back into the house we saw a family with little kids heading onto the same walking path that we were just on. People (our neighbors) really need to be more careful.

Anyway, our meal plan from a couple of weeks ago turned out well. The corn and potato chowder was a favorite in our house. Instead of buying the seasoning mix that the recipe calls for, we googled it and just made our own from the spices in our cupboard. It turned out great.

Last week we also tried out:

Miami Black Bean and Corn Salad

Delicious; I really liked the citrusy flavors.

Wagon Wheel Taco Pasta Salad

Yummy! But this recipe makes A LOT of pasta salad, so I would recommend making it for a potluck ... or maybe cutting the recipe in half.

Tonight we had:

Lentil Barley Skillet

We had a lot of lentils and barley in our cupboard; this was a good way to use them up. E liked it better than the lentil soup I made in January :)

Here are some recipes that E will be trying out this week:

Herbed Greek Chicken Salad

Creamy Bean Soup with Taquito Dippers

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Crockpot Burrito Soup

Have a great week! Happy 4th of July, a day late :)

Pesto

This recipe is courtesy of my stepmom. It's a great recipe :) Pretty easy to make, too.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (packed) of fresh basil (do not chop)
• 1/2 cup of EVOO
• 2-4 cloves of crushed and peeled garlic (we used 2 cloves, and that was plenty; just ask the people who sit by me in class...haha!)
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts
• Fresh shredded parmesan cheese
• Hot cooked & drained pasta

Directions:

1. Place basil, EVOO, garlic cloves, and salt into food processor and process. (We also added the pine nuts to the food processor; just our personal preference).

2. Pour pesto over the pasta.

3. Top with lots of parmesan cheese and pine nuts (if you didn't add them to the food processor).