Ricks v. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

(Obviously I'm only including the "Ricks v." in my titles anymore for tradition's sake.)

However, this is the ugly truth of how my Thanksgiving has gone so far:

Despite how much more exciting Strict Liability cases' fact patterns tend to be (explosions, guns, planes), it's still hard to keep going sometimes. (Actually, the truth is that I slept in, and I have been studying since I woke up.) I am really pretty terrified over finals that will begin in just two weeks. (A week and a half... CRRAP!) But... I do have a lot to be thankful for:

1. Family.

I have a kick-trash family. They are very supportive, even from a couple thousand miles away.

2. My good friend Jessie.

She was kind enough to invite me over for her roommates' shindig this evening, so don't worry, Mom. I have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving.

3. Friends in general.

I am very thankful for the friends I have back home and out here. The people who have been placed in my life have definitely helped me through my first semester, and I'm very fortunate to have their support. Spencer and Greg from my study group have been really helpful when I've been sick, etc. They're great guys.

4. Legal Research Writing and Analysis (LRWA) and Econ.

That's right. I said it. I'm grateful for my legal writing class. The fact that my econ midterm and that many of my legal writing assignments went well has been a serious blessing in keeping me motivated, and giving me a glimmer of hope that I can actually do this. (Plus, my grades won't ALL be awful if I bomb my three big tests! --Yeah... that's not SUPER comforting.)

5. Finally having full days off. Although I'll never have studied so much in my life the way I have/will this couple of weeks before finals, I'm very grateful that I have full days with an empty schedule to actually catch up and study.

6. Northern Virginia. Translation: NO SNOW. Haven't seen a single flake yet! Love this place!

7. Pumpkin pie. I'm off to study some more, and then I'm headed to Jessica's to probably eat some potentially weird vegetarian Thanksgiving food that her roommate made, and pumpkin pie supplied by the good folks at my local Harris Teeter Grocery Store.

K, see ya. Oh. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Double duty, crying, heartburn, blue l.e.d.s and a lack of bloggage...

double-duty:  So today and last night were a bit stressful.  I'll start with yesterday morning.  I got a call from Brother Rickson in my bishopric and was surprised to hear him ask me to give a talk in sacrament meeting.  I said yes and then told him that I was also teaching Gospel Doctrine... perhaps in hopes that he would retract his invite, but he didn't mention it and just carried on with the conversation!  Subtle-attempt-at-getting-out-of-speaking FAIL!  So last night I had to plan both my talk and my lesson.  I feel like neither was great because I didn't give either enough time to develop.  Oh well... the important thing is that I'm done with double-duty, and I didn't get booed out of my lesson or off the stand.
crying:  As I was leaving home yesterday I mentioned to my mom that the week ahead of me was going to be very tough.  "If ever there was going to be a week where I called home from school crying... this would be it."  I'm frankly very scared.  I don't know if I'm going to be able to get through all of it with the grades I want.  My GIS class as I mentioned a couple posts ago is NOT treating me well.  I'll live, but hopefully I'll be happy with the outcome.
heartburn:  I don't think I've ever experienced heartburn until the past few weeks.  It's not great.  I don't like it.  And I wish to voice my opinion that it should be stopped.  That is all.
blue l.e.d. christmas lights:  I know some of you have heard me rant about them before, but I really don't like the new l.e.d. Christmas lights that are blue.  People think I'm crazy when I say this, but they hurt my eyes.  Yesterday, as I helped my mom put up her new l.e.d. Christmas lights, I finally figured out why.  I like the colors of her lights, but the blue ones are different.  She and I went out to her sidewalk to look at the lights when they came on in the evening.  I noticed that when I looked directly at the bulbs of the blue ones (my mom has the large-style lights) they're all fuzzy and my eyes won't focus on them!  The other colors... my eyes can focus on them just fine.  (I like the green.)  But when I stared directly at the blue ones, they look all blurry!  So they've been messing with my eyes from a distance all this time that I've been complaining about them.  So there!  I'm NOT crazy!  (Provided ranting about Christmas lights doesn't qualify me for crazy.)
a lack of bloggage:  As mentioned before... this next week is going to be tough.  And unless I'm going to be shirking on my school-work, you should probably not see me on here for a while.  The semester ends next week.  Wish me luck!

k, see ya.