Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Well, it's hard to believe, but the semester is getting close to the end. Quite honestly, it has flown by. I only have like three weeks of class left. Weird. That means that the pressure of finals will soon be upon me. Oh, well. Such is life.

I actually had a pretty busy week. Tuesday I turned in my 15 page rough draft of my open memo. We are given a fact pattern and some issues to research and then we go out and find cases and do all the research ourselves (instead of being given the cases). The research itself probably ate up about 8-10 hours of my time and then writing it probably took 4-5 hours. It's actually pretty fun, it's just trying to find the time. I had my tutorial (where I meet with my professor and go over my paper) on Friday. It went well. He told me, "Blair, I tell you this in confidentiality. Your section on the non-compete agreement was probably the best one in the whole class." Awesome. Of course, by referring to "confidentiality" he meant not telling my classmates. So I should be safe posting it here since none of my classmates know this blog exists.

I also had an oral exam for Torts on Friday as well. This was unlike anything I've ever done. I arrived at Professor Burman's office where is secretary handed my three or four pages that contained a complex fact pattern. I had thirty minutes to go over the facts and put together a Tort's case. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. After the thirty minutes, I went into his office and sat down with him for twelve minutes and explained my case using the concepts learned in class. He would interject at times and ask questions. He's a really nice guy, so that made it more comfortable, but no less difficult. I'm not sure how I did on it. I guess I'll find out on Tuesday. I did pretty good on the written exam, so we'll see how I did on the oral.

The picture on the right is Professor Burman - my Torts professor who gave me the oral exam.

Now I have to get ready for yet another Contracts exam on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. How heartless is that? Oh, well, at least I will have a few days to completely forget about it. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to spend the break doing outlines for Property and Criminal Law. But at least we'll get to come back to Utah! (Keep your fingers crossed that the roads will be decent.)

In other news, everything is going good on the social front. A couple weeks ago we went over to the Toy's house (yes, that's their real name) and had dinner. Josh Toy is a 2L and I talk to him all the time at school. His wife, Miri, is really nice as well, and they made an awesome dinner!

The next day we went to Corona Village with Brittany and Sam from my class. They are both really nice as well. We've been planning on going out with them for a few weeks now, so it was cool to finally hook up.

Mike and Leslie came over this past Thursday and hung out for awhile before Leslie heads back to Canada to have their baby. They left Friday and Mike is returning back tonight to finish out school while Leslie stays up there with her family. As soon as school's out, Mike will be heading up there. Unfortunately, he will have to be back for the Spring semester while Leslie remains there for a little while longer. They've had some disagreement on what to name the baby. Mike wants to name him Frank because it is a family name. Leslie isn't to thrilled with that and wants to name him Rex. I guess we'll see what the final verdict is when the baby comes. They're both really cool and I wish them the best!

Here at home not much has changed. Little Trey Bug is getting bigger and smarter everyday. He knows how to say "Juice" now and will go to fridge and wait for someone to get it out for him. The cutest thing he says is, "Boot.........sth." Basically, "boots" with long pause and a lisp. What a fun kid. Nothing better than coming home at night and have him run to the door while I bend down so he can give me a BIG hug. It's my favorite part of the day. Makes all the hard work worth it.

Well, that's all the updates I think I have for now. I'll let you all know when more "exciting" stuff happens. Try to contain yourselves. Patience is a virtue.

Just Call Me "Esquire"

So I've been really jazzed about something I just learned the other day. I've been telling everyone about it. I found out that the proper name given to those in the legal profession is "esquire"! How freakin' awesome is that?! (sorry for using the f-word there, Brenda... :O) So in three years when I finally get my J.D., I will formally be known as Blair Tal Wardle, esq. And I expect you all to address me as such. No, I kid. But it is pretty cool...and you can call me that if you want.

I'm still going strong in school and it is as busy as ever. I've been pretty consistent with staying at the library and studying until about 6:00 pm everyday (although some days I end up bringing some homework home). I think I'm figuring out how to be a little more efficient, so that helps.

We've been studying some pretty interesting stuff. I'll spare you the in-depth analysis, but here's just a few points of law I've learned that I thought were pretty interesting (please ignore the flower bullets. They come with the layout!):

• Assault and battery are SEPARATE charges
  Battery involves making actual physical contact with another person, and assault is causing someone to have appprehension about imminent bodily contact
  ** So here's something for you to think about --> considering those definitions, is it possible for someone to be assaulted without battery? **
  
• Battery doesn't necessarily have to be physical contact with the body directly
  We read a case where a guy was charged with battery simply for grabbing another guy's dinner plate!
  
• A contract can be legally binding even if you think it's a joke
  We read a case where a guy was joking with his friend about selling his property to him. They wrote it on the back of a bar receipt and the court enforced it!
  
• If you own mineral rights to your land, your neighbor can drill a well near the property line and legally pump all the oil out from underneath your property
  
• And finally... Criminal law is becoming VERY intriguing to me
  We just read a case about a korean lady that shot a 14 year old girl in the back of the head for shoplifting orange juice and only got 6 months of probation...and I agree with the sentencing! I'll see if I have time to post it on here so you can get the details and see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, that's the law school side of things. I've been trying to give updates about family life and social life too, so I'll make a few comments about that before I sign off.

Last Wednesday we had the Nish's over to our place. It was pretty fun. We ate a little pizza, played some Wii, and talked. Heidi and I aren't used to this kind of thing, so we felt a little out of our element. We're both pretty socially introverted and don't like to bother with inviting people over, but we're trying to turn over a new leaf over here in Laramie. They're a really cool couple, so I hope we get to hang out more often.

As for the family side of things, we were able to have a good extended weekend with our family. It sure was nice to be home with all of my favorite people in the world. We drove to Tremonton Friday right after school got out and arrived about 8:00 pm. I got to play basketball with Dane and my old work buddies. It was a pretty relaxing weekend, but unfortunately I still had homework that needed to be done (which, you'll be happy to know, I finished). On Monday we had to drive home, but not before eating at Goodwood Barbecue in Ogden with Mom, Dad, Fritz, Brenda, George, and LaVada. It was a nice finish to a great weekend. I was truly happy to see everyone again.

I got thinking about it, and we'll be home at least once a month, every month until the end of the year. We were already home in September, we'll be home for Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, and of course, Christmas in December. So living this far away, so far, hasn't turned out to be that bad.

And finally, I'll leave you with some VERY GOOD NEWS!
My dear, ol' mom talked with the county attorney that she works for (Box Elder County), and he said that I could come and intern there this summer! WOO HOO! That means we'll be moving back for at least three months this summer! If everyone keeps their fingers crossed for us, it may be a permanent move back to Utah (if I can transfer back to BYU or the U - we'll see).

Well, it's always best to leave on a good note, so I'll consider that my cue. Roll credits.

Release the Hounds!

I'm into my second week of law school and things are still going good. I'm starting to get some pretty big work loads. On Monday I only have two classes so I'm done at 12:00. However, Tuesdays are my busiest days - FIVE classes. So I usually have a busy day studying on Monday. After taking about a half hour to come home, eat lunch, and see my family, I get back to studying. Yesterday, I got back to school at 12:30 and ended up staying there until 7:30 pm! I only got up twice during that span to get a drink of water (about a one minute break). That's a whole lot of studying! Interesting thing is, when I'm doing my work, time just flies! Before I knew it, it was 7:30! (Truth be told, I actually didn't get it all done. I neglected my reading for legal writing. But I figured I could get away with it this one time...and I did.)

The material is so awesome to study! I'm loving every second of it. So far we've read a pretty substantial number of cases (I've listed them on the left side), with a variety of situations. I really enjoy coming home and talking to Heidi about them and getting her take on it. We usually agree.

Speaking of Heidi, she has turned out to be freakin' Betty Crocker! She's an amazing cook! We've had some excellent dinners here in Laramie, courtesy of Miss Crocker herself! Tonight was Chicken Curry and it was cooked perfectly with the perfect proportions! We've had Ranch Enchiladas, pizza, baked cheesy potato crisps, just to name a few. She's so good to have dinner ready for me when I get home. What a great wife, eh? I couldn't be doing this without her.

As for the social situation, we went up to the ward campout this past Friday. We got to mingle with some more of the ward members. In fact, we met a girl who was friends with Kaylyn - Shane's (my buddy) wife. Small world. We did have a tense moment on the trip though. We left town with less than a quarter tank of gas in the Element and we had to drive UP the mountain about 45 minutes. The gas light came on half way there. ** gulp ** I didn't think that we'd make it back but I coasted in neutral most of the way back and the Hallewells followed us just in case. By the time I pulled into the gas station, my needle was far below the empty line! (Dad would have shook his head in disgust if he would have known!)

Wednesday we're having another couple from the ward over to play the Wii. The Nish's. They live in the same complex as us and they just moved here too (from Canada). Cool couple. They're expecting a baby soon. Also, since they're from out of the country, neither is allowed to work. He goes to school and she stays home all day. So Heidi has someone nearby she can do stuff with, if she wants.

Well, other than that there's not much else to say. Heidi is posting our apartment pics on her blog, so that's something you can check out. We had dime-sized hail the other day! That would be worth putting some pictures on for! I'll have Heidi put it on her blog.

For now, I better go. My professors have "released the hounds" and I better get running or I'll get devoured! ** yipe! **