Adventures of SeattleLawGirl

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 11:09 AM 0 comments

Goodbye January

I can't believe how quickly this month has gone! My last entry was consumed with the excitement I felt knowing I'd passed the bar exam. Since then, a lot has happened! Life without a job *can* still be exciting, you know!

December 31, my friend Jenny got married, and Woodroe & I attended her wedding. It was a simple but beautiful ceremony and a really fun reception! The food was great, the video Jenny's brother made was entertaining, and the music (before we left) was perfect. I am so happy for Jenny and wish her and Michael the happiest of marriages!

January was a busy month for Woodroe, and for me as well. We've not seen each other quite as often, but I am still enjoying getting to know him better and just having fun together. Part of that included attending a couple of wrestling matches, which I've never done before. I can't say that I find it as exciting as football, but those boys are tough - it *looks* painful and hard! Wood coached one of his wrestlers to a division championship, which made him very happy!

January 12, I was sworn in by King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu. Present at the ceremony were my parents, my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, niece, Paul & Susan Ferguson, Marshall & Sarah Ferguson, Sally, Helen, and Judge Yu's bailiff (and my former classmate) Justin. Judge Yu made the ceremony, brief though it was, very meaningful by giving me the chance to express my gratitude to my family & friends for their part in bringing me to that moment in my life. Truly, there is no way I could have accomplished graduating from law school and passing the bar exam without the support of my circle of love, as I like to call it! We went out to the Spaghetti Factory afterwards to celebrate, and even 7 month-old Tara had some ice cream with us!

Throughout the month, I've been searching for a job and also taking advantage of my lack of work by getting together with friends at every opportunity. I had coffee with a dear friend from college, Maggie, and I can't wait to see her again - I was reminded very quickly why I love her so much! Over an hour flew by, and none of that time was spent trying to get over awkwardness at not having seen each other in a couple of years. Maggs - I can't wait to do that again!

Last weekend I hosted a Girls' Night on Friday and had an awesome bunch of ladies over. We had games available but spent the bulk of the evening just talking about life, love, and the SEAHAWKS!!! Who, in case you've had your head buried in the sand, are going to the Super Bowl in Detroit. As we all knew, the Hawks can't get no love on the East Coast, and so the Number 6 seed, the Steelers, are favored to win with a spread of 4 points. Look out Detroit, here we come to DEMAND some respect! Can you tell I'm excited? I've got a $22 bet on the Seahawks in Vegas, so I can't wait to collect those winnings...

I was reminded by an e-mail today of how thankful I am just to be alive with a roof over my head, food in my belly, and a car to drive (and complain about!). I am also blessed to have such an amazing "circle of love" - my friends and family are truly the best.

Until next time!

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 10:36 PM 1 comments

I PASSED!!!!!

Yes, I finally got the good news I had been hoping and praying for! Just before leaving for Michigan for Christmas, I received notice that my appeal was successful and I have passed the Washington State Bar Exam on the first try! Yippee! I will be figuring out the process for getting sworn in and everything in the next week or so. So exciting!

The trip was a great success. My grandmother was totally floored by her surprise party, and despite some hearing damage from the LOUD Lebanese music, we all had a great time. Woodroe joined me in Detroit for the first four days of the trip. He had fun! I think my family and the situations (200 people at the party, 60 people at the house for Christmas!) might have been a bit overwhelming, but everyone liked him and so that is a blessing.

My grandfather ended up in the hospital for three days for an angioplasty & to get a pacemaker. Thankfully he is home and healthy after getting through that this past week.

Tomorrow my good friend Jenny is tying the knot, so I'll be ringing in the New Year at her wedding with Wood. Can't wait for that!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all!

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 4:39 PM 2 comments

Once a week, did I say that?!?

I meant once a MONTH! lol It's pure coincidence that I am posting one month to the day since my last update. However, this day is significant for me, as it's my three-month anniversary with Woodroe! It snuck up on me, so I didn't really plan anything special, but I think I might give him one of his Christmas presents early for an anniversary present...shhh, don't tell on me!

Things with Woodroe are going great - he's a wonderful guy and I am having so much fun getting to know him better. His daughter, Kristina, is also great. They both spent the entire weekend on Lopez with my family for Thanksgiving, and it was cool to have them there! We at entirely too much turkey (if you heard the rumors, they are true - 4 turkeys cooked in TWO days!) and other good food and also had good family time. It was a good weekend - by the time Sunday rolled around, I was ready to leave and get back to normal life, but wasn't ready to off anyone yet, so that's a great balance!

I *finally* completed a big part of the work I'm doing for my uncle, which involved choosing and having printed 300 invitations he is sending out for a surprise party for my grandmother. She turns 75 this December! Seriously...YOU try getting 5 Lebanese people to agree on ANYthing! But the invitations are absolutely beautiful and they went out last week, so now I'm on to the project of keeping track of the RSVPs.

The results of my bar appeal will be coming sometime before Christmas, I hope, so that is something that I'm trying not to think about too much. I will, of course, post those results as soon as I get them! Unless I'm already in Michigan, in which case I'll do it next year!

Oh, and I am flying back from Michigan early to attend the wedding of a great friend, Jenny Egan! I can't wait to meet her fiance/husband and I'm also happy that I get to spend New Years' Eve with my honey.

That's all, folks!

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Election Day

It's election day - be sure to VOTE everyone! As our recent gubernatorial election demonstrated, each vote DOES make a difference!

On to other things. I've been scolded by several friends to get back to posting on a regular basis, so I'm going to try for once a week from now on. Plenty of news to report since my last update!

This past weekend, I finally met the bulk of Woodroe's family. We left Seattle Friday evening to spend the weekend down in Dodi, where he grew up. Dodi is a small town southeast of Olympia, near Pe Ell. During the course of the weekend, I met Wood's dad (Bill), his mom (Cassie), his sister Nancy & her husband Jansen and two of their kids, his sister-in-law Shannon and her five kids (his brother Jared I've already met - he was out of town), his grandpa Kiser, and his grandma on his mom's side. Everyone was super friendly and reminded me a lot of my family - everyone around a lot, chaos, lots of kids, etc.

Part of the reason we went this weekend is that the elk season was open and Woodroe wanted to go hunting. So we got up at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday and headed out for a day of hunting! Since it was a modern rifle season, we all had to be wearing bright orange, so I donned Wood's hunting coat (bright orange) and a felt had to keep off the rain (also bright orange). My friend Kerri giggled for 10 minutes when I described my getup, which also included jeans, thermal underwear, a sweater, wool socks, and hiking boots.

Wood's dad has worked for Weyerheauser for about 40 years, so he knows the logging roads near Dodi like the back of his hand. We drove around in three separate trucks (Wood & I in one; Bill & grandpa in another; two friends of Bill's in the third) for about 10 or 11 hours. At times it was just raining, but there were moments of serious wind and also snow when we got up to the higher elevations. I didn't see any elk (dangit!) but towards the end of the day when Bill took us to see a lovely waterfall, we saw a doe and a buck - beautiful! The bonus to an already fun day was that the two of us spent 11 hours in a truck together and didn't want to kill each other by the end of the day!

That evening after cleaning up, we went over to grandma's place to visit with her and Cassie. About 7pm, the power went out due to a little windstorm. I don't know if the power's even back on now! Turns out by the next morning there were trees and limbs down everywhere, and both the power lines and phone lines were affected. It took me back to my childhood on Lopez, where we'd have outages pretty much every winter. Thank God for Coleman lanterns, woodstoves, and generators! We didn't return to Seattle until late Sunday evening, and the weekend was a success. And a relief, as I was pretty nervous!

I also have news on the job front - I am now working for my uncle from home, helping plan a couple of events that he is putting on in December and February. I'll be doing that at least through the holidays, which is when I will hear back about the status of my bar appeal. So prayers for that, and for finding a lawyer job when the time comes, would be greatly appreciated!

My niece Tara is now almost 5 months old - I can't believe it! She is the most active baby I've ever been around and I love being her aunt. My nephew Brendan got his first taste of middle school football when we went to a game that Woodroe was coaching a couple of weeks ago - I think Brendan might turn out for football when he has the opportunity! He knows a lot about the game and taught me a few things I didn't know.

I think that's all for now - I'll try to be more consistent about keeping this area updated! And I might even get the ambition to do Christmas cards this year, so if I don't have your current address, please e-mail it to me! Love to all of my friends & family...

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 11:20 AM 0 comments

Like a Yo-Yo

Well, this last couple of weeks has been a bit like a roller-coaster ride, or a yo-yo! I found out two weeks ago that I had not passed the bar exam my first time around. My results didn't actually come in the mail as they were supposed to do, so all I knew was that my name was not on the WSBA pass list online. After an hour or so of feeling sorry for myself, I ended up moving past the disappointment and had a lovely weekend with Woodroe and his daughter. I eventually told my mom that, although I certainly was not glad that I'd failed, I really appreciated the love and support I received from all of my friends and family. It *almost* made it worth it!

Fast forward a week; I got my actual results, and found out that I had only missed passing by ONE POINT! Which created a combination of feelings within me, including frustration that I had missed that dang point and relief that I had not bombed the exam after all! I also found out that everyone within 2.5 points of passing was allowed to challenge their results by submitting an appeal - so I requested a review of my score on the full number of questions (6) allowable. I won't hear about the result of my appeal until the end of December, but at least that is done...

I am still job-hunting, though now I'm much more flexible about *what* I apply for. Internships are again a possibility, though I've had no joy in that area either. In the meantime, my family (immediate and extended) is helping me make ends meet. I also may be flying to Florida for a week or two in November to do some work for my uncle...what a hardship...not! :)

Things continue to go well with my boyfriend Woodroe and I am so thankful to have him in my life. My family is doing well, thank God. And Marshall & Sarah's wedding last weekend was a beautiful hit! So that's the news from my neck of the woods today...bye for now!

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 10:50 AM 0 comments

Frost & Sweaters

Fall has truly arrived! Though a part of me misses the warmth and sunshine of summer, I also love autumn - when you see frost on the ground in the mornings, see your breath hanging in the air at night, and when you get to drag out an entirely different wardrobe! So far this fall has been mostly beautiful, though it's gone by quickly.

My big news remains the same - my relationship with Woodroe (who I mentioned in my last post) continues to grow deeper and better every day. He's a wonderful man and I can't wait for my friends and family to meet him, and he them!

Aside from that, I also have an interview at Preston Gates tomorrow afternoon, so prayers for that would be greatly appreciated!

Finally, I may be headed to Michigan for a week to help my uncle out with a project and visit with family. I'll be back in time to get my bar results and attend Marshall & Sarah's wedding. Oh, yeah, the bar results come soon. Eek!

posted by seattlelawgirl @ 11:30 AM 0 comments