I'm not dead yet
Can you tell that things got a little nuts for me around the holidays? Longgg absence. For a couple of weeks now, I've been sitting down at the computer and thinking, "Eh, I just don't feel like it." People have grown concerned due to my total disappearance. i am back, hopefully. I think I am going to need to blog more frequently, now that I am FINALLY starting school again. I'll be taking Modern Physics, in which we play around with lasers and study the rudiments of quantum physics (I think). Physics III, in other words. I really, really wanted to take more than one class this semester to make up for my time away from school, but I just can't swing it.
Here is what is going to happen this semester: I am planning to sit the Virginia Bar this summer, but in order to do so, I have to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam in March. Every lawyer in every state has to take it. I actually passed it during my third year of law school, back in the mid-1990s, but in order to admit me, Virginia requires an MPRE score from within the last two years. Furthermore, Virginia takes their MPRE scores fairly seriously, so I actually have to study for it. It's nowhere near as difficult as the bar exam, but I can't blow it off; I have to dedicate some time to it.
So that's one thing. The second thing is, I got a huge, gigantic, socking promotion that is going to mean a big salary jump once it becomes effective, but means that I will have to transition to a new job and train another person to take over my current responsibilities. That's going to take up a fair amount of time and energy as well. (Short version of the promotion story: During my performance review in December, my boss asked if I wanted to move up to lawyer status, and I said yes. Since I haven't gotten the more manageable workload I expected by stubbornly remaining an official nonlawyer at the firm, I said, "Why not?" My nonlawyer job has kept me too busy to take classes for several semesters now, and the whole point of a nonlawyer job was to give me time to go to school...so why bother with the pretense anymore?)
The third reason for only taking one class is that I don't want to be in class more than two nights a week. I had originally signed up for Modern Physics (plus lab) on Tuesdays/Thursdays, plus Dynamics on Wednesdays. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that going to class three nights a week without a break in between would kill me, especially with everything else that is going on this semester. It wrenched me to drop back to only one class, but I dropped Dynamics today. I will get a full refund, since classes haven't started yet. I just feel like I am so behind on my plan, and I'm itching to catch up...but I am also trying to do a better job of stress reduction and acknowledging my limits. I think I have quite enough to do this semester without trying to tackle Dynamics right this minute, as much as I actually wanted to take the class. Based on past experience with this professor, Dynamics would require a fair amount of work from me.
So, the plan is in place. I have planned a schedule that might (theoreticallY) allow me to get to the gym or go for a walk semi-regularly. I'm getting better about delegating things to my staff, with the added bonus that they are needing less help from me as they learn to do more advanced work. I got sick on January 2nd and had to miss work on Thursday and Friday of that week, but I ended up having four days in bed, counting the weekend, and I actually feel better than I have for a long time. Bonus: Getting sick so early in the season may mean that I've gotten it over with. I'm hopeful for this semester.
Here is what is going to happen this semester: I am planning to sit the Virginia Bar this summer, but in order to do so, I have to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam in March. Every lawyer in every state has to take it. I actually passed it during my third year of law school, back in the mid-1990s, but in order to admit me, Virginia requires an MPRE score from within the last two years. Furthermore, Virginia takes their MPRE scores fairly seriously, so I actually have to study for it. It's nowhere near as difficult as the bar exam, but I can't blow it off; I have to dedicate some time to it.
So that's one thing. The second thing is, I got a huge, gigantic, socking promotion that is going to mean a big salary jump once it becomes effective, but means that I will have to transition to a new job and train another person to take over my current responsibilities. That's going to take up a fair amount of time and energy as well. (Short version of the promotion story: During my performance review in December, my boss asked if I wanted to move up to lawyer status, and I said yes. Since I haven't gotten the more manageable workload I expected by stubbornly remaining an official nonlawyer at the firm, I said, "Why not?" My nonlawyer job has kept me too busy to take classes for several semesters now, and the whole point of a nonlawyer job was to give me time to go to school...so why bother with the pretense anymore?)
The third reason for only taking one class is that I don't want to be in class more than two nights a week. I had originally signed up for Modern Physics (plus lab) on Tuesdays/Thursdays, plus Dynamics on Wednesdays. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that going to class three nights a week without a break in between would kill me, especially with everything else that is going on this semester. It wrenched me to drop back to only one class, but I dropped Dynamics today. I will get a full refund, since classes haven't started yet. I just feel like I am so behind on my plan, and I'm itching to catch up...but I am also trying to do a better job of stress reduction and acknowledging my limits. I think I have quite enough to do this semester without trying to tackle Dynamics right this minute, as much as I actually wanted to take the class. Based on past experience with this professor, Dynamics would require a fair amount of work from me.
So, the plan is in place. I have planned a schedule that might (theoreticallY) allow me to get to the gym or go for a walk semi-regularly. I'm getting better about delegating things to my staff, with the added bonus that they are needing less help from me as they learn to do more advanced work. I got sick on January 2nd and had to miss work on Thursday and Friday of that week, but I ended up having four days in bed, counting the weekend, and I actually feel better than I have for a long time. Bonus: Getting sick so early in the season may mean that I've gotten it over with. I'm hopeful for this semester.