I have NO idea where in the country I will be next year...

University of Illinois Union
Originally uploaded by VSmithUK

Applying for law school is kind of weirding me out. I haven't the slightest clue where I'm going to be a year from now. I think this is the first time since waiting for my mission call that I've felt like this. (Holy crap, it's been 5 years since I got my mission call... that's nuts.) On Thursdays I work two shifts. (What's wrong with me that I'm on my computer between these shifts!? You'd think I'd have had enough computer time.) I spent the whole of my first shift compiling my "short list" of schools that I'm going to apply to. I've been working on figuring out where I was going to apply for a long time, but today I finally just decided on 10, yes, TEN schools that I'm going to apply to. I'm applying to a wide enough range of schools that I don't know if I'll end up in LA or Connecticut. It's a lot crazy.

Here's my long "short list" (I remember when McCain and Obama were picking their VP, the media kept talking about their short lists of candidates, and I want my own short list) of schools:

• Arizona State University:  It's not a bad school it seems.  It's a VERY hot school, but I think I'd rather be super hot at the beginning and end of the school year than frozen like I frequently am throughout the school year in this frosty Frigidaire of a city I live in now. 
• Brigham Young University:  Ok... this one's a no-brainer.  It's the least expensive top 50 law school.  It's 15 minutes from home.  I can find me a Mormon wife.  
• University of Cincinnati:  This is a nearly top 50 school that is actually a safety school for me.  They didn't make me pay the application fee, so why not, right?  I actually started my application to them because they were the first to offer me a fee waiver, but then a BUNCH more schools offered them to me.  (In fact, aside from BYU and ASU, all of these schools offered application fee waivers.)
• University of Connecticut:  I'm not really sure why this one is happening.  Pretty much the same reasons as Cincy.
• George Mason University:  This is a school that I'm really interested in.  It's a top 50 school, it is right by D.C., and it's a conservative school (which is only appealing because I won't feel quite as weird being a Mormon in a conservative atmosphere.)  Being right by D.C., this is probably the best dating atmosphere for me aside from the two schools in Utah.
• University of Illinois:  This is a great school that's ranked really well.  I don't know if Chicago is where I'd want to end up, but it would be cool to get accepted there anyway.  This school is the one that I think is most likely to reject me.
• Loyola Law School (L.A., CA):  There are like three Loyolas, so it's necessary to say that this is the one in Los Angeles.  I think it would be fun to go into entertainment law.  The only way I'll end up at Loyola is if that's what I know I want to do.  (This is also pretty much a safety school.)
• Quinnipiac University:  This is a SUPER-safety school.  I'm just entertaining this idea because I wonder if I could get a full-ride scholarship there... probably not, but I want to find out.  (This is definitely my least likely destination.)  (Can you believe I'm applying to two schools in Connecticut?)
  
• University of Utah:  This may be the most-likely destination.  It's also a top 50 school that is very cheap, but not quite as cheap as BYU.  Like BYU they have a great employment placement rate.  It's close to home, etc. 
  
• William and Mary:  This is the second oldest university in the country.  Cool, eh?  Yeah, this is a fairly prestigious school in Virginia, but I'm kind of only applying because they made it free.  It's cool that it's in Williamsburg though.  There's tons of history there.

There ya go.  My "short" list that actually felt super long.  Where do you see me?  Provo?  Salt Lake? Arlington?  L.A.? Champaign? Tempe? Hamden? Hartford? Williamsburg? Cincinnati?

McDonald's Monopoly, My Procrastination, Faults, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Law School, and Pumpkin Flavored Things

it's Monopoly time at McDonald's again...
Originally uploaded by Scorpions and Centaurs

(That is quite possibly the longest blog title I've ever written.)

I have such an addictive personality. I know I've discussed that before, but it's really sad when food that generally disgusts me can be among the things to which I get addicted. I am on a crazy streak of eating at McDonald's. I'm convinced that they've found addictive chemicals to lure me back in again and again. (Yeah Jeff, they're called fat and sugar!) Also, it's Monopoly time and I'm afraid that that is contributing a great deal to my frequency of McDonald's visits. It really is sad. I always regret it after I go, but I keep going back. Random: Since I'm so awesome and am always giving my readership great rewards...(lies, I never give y'all ANYTHING)... here is a free McDonald's Stamp Code! First come, first serve: 8XZ3QDT819J. (I don't think it's against the rules if I give it away for free!)

Uh... so I had a GREAT institute lesson yesterday. It was about repentance and the Atonement of Christ. There was a great quote that Brother Jacobs shared about taking the blame for our own actions. Thomas Carlyle said: "The greatest of all faults, is to recognize none." The whole way home I kept pointing out to myself in my mind how my own actions are almost always responsible for things that go wrong in my life or that make me upset. It's ME! (Currently, my fault of procrastination is why I only got a couple hours of sleep and feel like a zombie today.) Something that is probably also my fault for eating so much garbage is the OBNOXIOUS zit that won't go away on my nose. My struggles with it have made my whole nose red, and hence the reference to a beloved reindeer in the title of this post.

After getting my most recent LSAT scores back (it went well, but I got one point below the range that I wanted to be in), I have been getting all sorts of emails from random law schools. They're law schools that I've never really considered going to. Many of them are pretty nice, and many of them offer to let me apply without paying the fee. However, they are all in locations that I've never really considered living. Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Richmond, Louisville, Iowa City, Philadelphia.... yeah... I've never seen myself in any of these places. But I have to be honest, I'm getting really excited about going to law school. And I think it would be a bit of an adventure for me to go to one of these schools in regions that I've never even been. Anyway, I am a lot more excited about law school now that I get to just start applying and seeing where I end up.

I love pumpkin flavored things. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookies. Pumpkin pie is my favorite pie. I dare say that pumpkin chocolate chip bread is my favorite bread. I LOVE THE STUFF! I don't really understand why, but I'm always very happy about the influx of pumpkin flavored things around this time o' year.

Hmm... ok, bye.