The Monkey Says Have Fun

Each day between now and the bar exam I am doing one "random" essay in addition to essays in whatever the subject of the day is. I wrote the name of each essay (i.e. CEWB Contracts 2) on flaschards and folded them up. Then I looked for something to put them in and draw them out of... you know, for an element of fun... Here's what I came up with:

I got it on me and hubby's honeymoon cruise last summer. The pure irony of a coconut monkey telling me to have fun right now is about as funny as it gets.

Well, not quite as funny as 'Rape Me'. But close.

Oh, and for those of you on the edge of your seats, I'm deciding to scale back the performance tests I had on the schedule. I'll do two more (instead of four more) plus reading through Honisberg's lecture material again. Tonight, I ended up outlining 4 more property essays that I had done before, but it had been long enough that I didn't remember them very well. I also wrote one out. I'm feeling decent on the property- essay-wise anyways. Then I outlined a contracts essay. And now I'm calling it a day.

Rape Me

Alright, so Paula Franzese says the way to remember termination of an easement is by "END CRAMP" (Estoppel, Necessity, Destruction of Servient Land, Condemnation of the Servient Estate, Release, Abandonment, Merger, Prescription). But... the Conviser comparison chart narrows it down to 6 ways... and they just so happen to make for a much more entertaining pnemonic:

Release
Abandonment
Prescription
Estoppel

Merger
End of Necessity

You can thank me later.

Edit: And guys, since we all know that only women can be raped at common law, you can switch this around to "Rape 'em" and that should work just fine.

Property makes me cry.

Finally time for a lunch break. I punished myself by working through the noon hour for not focusing very well this morning. I finished 88 released property questions, including the first set of 17 I mentioned this morning. My overall average was 65%, which isn't horrible when taking the national average into account. So I've decided not to slit my wrists.

In other news, if we get a property essay about mortgages, I will cry. You will be able to recognize because I will be the puddle on the floor.

A rough start

Property day is off to a rough start.

On the agenda for today: 34 released property questions from MDR, 54 released property questions from Emanuel, outline 3 property essays, simulate 2, make my patented property attack pack, simulate the Westside Community PT at 2pm and review Honsiberg's first lecture on general PT strategies.

So far I have: woken up with a headache, taken 4 advil, went for my run anyway, watched President's Bush's press conference (didn't I say I wasn't going to do that anymore?), threw a sock at President Bush's face, taken a shower, and.... drumroll please... scored 53% on my first set of released property MBEs.

Contracts yesterday and Property today are really getting me down. These scores are significantly lower than my performance on the simulated MBE which was supposedly harder. Last week, I was consistently scoring around 85% on mixed sets of released MBEs. These scores are no better than what I started with during the 6 day PMBR. I think at this point, it's just a mind game. Maybe the torts set yesterday got me overly-confident and I'm not taking them as seriously as I should. Or maybe karma really is a bitch and this is what I get for shit-talking about a couple of individuals in my Barbri class who I think will fail. Or maybe my worst nightmare has come true and the MBE subjects, feeling neglected by my devotion to CA essays, have fallen out of my brain. Whatever the explanation is, I need to get over it and get back to work.

There will be updates to this ongoing crisis throughout the day. Feel free to check back, if for no other reason than to make yourself feel better about your own scores.

Pacman takes the bar

In an effort to postpone today's inevitable list of paced program tasks, I decided to read my fellow bloggers thoughts for the day. And I found that we are all very much at that wall. It's not that I don't have the motivation to pass the bar- under no circumstances do I want to do this again- but I'm just starting to sort of feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall. I sort of feel like Pacman- every time I get time to freeze so that I can memorize one subject, those damn ghosts (the other subjects) wake up again. I have this fear that every time I memorize something new, something old falls out of my at-capacity brain. But still... the paced program keeps us chugging on.

I'm also finding myself more incapable of handling the smallest things. Children are the worst- especially when I'm in Target or at my apartment gym. There was a story on GMA today about some people who complained about their neighbors' loud kids who apparently live in the pool in the summertime. The parents' were actually criminally charged with violation of a noise ordinance. The GMA hosts were of course acting as if this were the silliest thing. But my sympathy immediately went to the complaining neighbors- maybe they're stuyding for the bar, I thought. (a tangential point- the GMA hosts kept commenting about how litigious our society is getting- suing for every little thing, and I was literally screaming at the TV "They said CRIMINAL charges, not a CIVIL law suit you idiots!!")

I also feel like basic information has escaped from my brain to make room for the elements of defamation and justiciability doctrines. Such as... I had to drive to the office I used to work at today to pick up some baseball tickets (It's Law Clerk Appreciation night tonight) and I literally could not remember which street to turn on. I worked there a month and a half ago!

On that note, I'd better get to work. Law Clerk Appreciation Night at the ballpark means I'd better get crackin' on memorizing my agency and partnership flashcards, knocking out a few essay outlines, and reading the Civ Pro conviser for tomorrow. By the way, Kaufmann was a total hoot- even better that he seriously annoyed the douchebag who sits in front of me.... even though he kind of looks like him. (If you're wondering why the guy is a douchebag, it's because he thinks he's smarter than all of our lecturers... combined)

Oh and for inquiring minds that want to know, I got a 'pass' on my property turn-in essay- Passed on all 4 judging criteria. Woo hoo. Now if only I could get more than 50% of the Property MBEs right, I'd be good to go.

Here's your earnest money...

These questions just crack me up:

"... Earl and Baron agreed on June 15 as the closing date. Baron handed Earl a check for $2,500 and said, "Here's your earnest money. I'll see you on June 15." Earl responded, "You betcha," and that men shook hands on their deal. On the memo part of the check, Baron had written "Earnest money- Grayacre...."

Seriously, this had me laughing for a good minute. I went and told my husband about it and declared that when we buy a house, I'm writing "earnest money" on the check memo. He didn't get it.

Property is a buzzkill

We had our last day of Paula Property today. I really started dragging around the 1.5 hour mark. Unfortunately, that was also the most important part- the part about mortgages that my 1L property professor NEVER mentioned. But, talking to some others on the break, I realized that property is really serving as the buzz kill in the midst of Barbri. I felt like I was chugging along, keeping up, truly understanding the forest while still memorizing the trees... and then we got to property. Is anyone else just completely overwhelmed with this subject? There are A LOT of trees in this forest that I don't know, not to mention the fact that I don't quite see the forest just yet. And now we're already moving onto Evidence- another subject I'm incredibly worried about because of a shitty law professor and my short attention span in law school. Eek.

On another note, I tivo 'The View' every day (because I am a loser), but I have decided that it is actually a valuable show to watch on my lunch break. Yesterday, in discussing the new court ruling in New York regarding free speech and what cuss words they can air on TV I felt it necessary to recite outloud for them the free speech test that they were not understanding. Today, they started a healthy debate on California community property laws in light of Larry Whats-his-name's impending divorce.

And finally, is anyone else the least bit pissed off that Paris Hilton gets to keep her hair extensions while in jail? What about the poor Rustafarian (sp?) man a few years ago who had to go all the way to the 9th Circuit to argue his religious right to keep his dred locks despite the penalogical interest in a safe prison where guys don't hide guns in their hair?? And yet Paris doesn't even have to fight for her right to wear hair extensions? Ah well, it'll just make it easier for someone to make her their bitch- grab her by the hair!

On to crush my spirits with 40 more intermediate Property MBEs and 2 property essay outlines. Then on to come to the realization that I don't know jack about evidence. Have a nice day studiers.

Progress

Just finished the 34 assigned intermediate property questions... On the first ten, I got 2/10... a pitiful 20% that is lower than what i could have achieved just by putting 'C' for every questions. On the second ten, I got 4/10... a still pathetic 40%. On the third ten, I got up to a passable 60% and then 3 out of the 4 last questions. So that's progress, right? Still an overall average of 54%, but the national average is 50%, so I guess I'm doing ok. These property questions are rough- I feel like I have to re-read each question at least once, draw diagrams, and then still end up guessing. Tomorrow, I will time myself more strictly to see how I'm doing in those terms. Off to finish reading the conviser.

Big Brother is watching

So at the "law school" where I'm taking my bar prep class, there is also a Barpassers class across the hall from us. For the last week, tension has been building between the Barbri group and the Barpassers group. Apparently, us Barbri folk are a bit too loud on our breaks. First, there were just rude comments from the Barpassers. Then, a big sign telling us to "BE QUIET". Then, they moved all the benches by the door to our classroom further down the hallway. And finally today, we sunk to a new low. They tattled on us to administration and WE NOW HAVE HALL MONITORS. Seriously- administrators at the "law school" with nothing better to do then tell us rowdy Barbri kids to quiet down so that the Barpassers can focus on their flowcharts in complete silence. I think in the weeks to come we may assign colors for our gangs- red for the Barbri badasses and blue for the Barpasser gangstas. Spread the word.

Oh, and we're two days into property. Despite the bad singing and unendless perkiness, I sort of like her. Although I can't get this song out of my head: "it takes two baby... it takes two baby... to make an easement appurtenant."