Why not Law School?

So I have taken the many-years-dreaded plunge back into school. I'm taking classes and studying to get a paralegal certificate. I had my first class this last Tuesday. I was nervous about starting school, but felt better Tuesday morning(thanks guys!). The class was really good. There was so much information presented and a lot of reading I have to do over the weekend, but it was really interesting. I am excited to get back into the student mode. My memory, reading comprehension, writing and analyzing skills, while fine-tuned during college, have suffered due to lack of usage these last few years. So I'm excited to exercise those skills again and really show what I can do:) Right, we'll see how that goes, what can I add to my jamba juice to help me out, I can't remember! Anyway, I'm excited about this new step.

Now, I have been asked the question by a number of people, including dad, why not just go to law school? If I am interested in the law, why go to school to do what lawyers don't want to do themselves, and get paid less then them? Well, I think it's a valid question. First, not all lawyers dump their junk on paralegals, there are defined roles for both professions.(Like Pam, she's not the kind of lawyer to just dump on a paralegal:) Second, I do like the law and have found it very interesting since that high school government class. But I don't necessarily want to be the driving force behind the work. I'm satisfied being given work, moving my way up the paralegal food chain to maybe one day manage other paralegals. I don't really want to have to go out and meet with potential clients or do the courtroom arguing. I'm content doing the research that will direct to the best possible outcome. Maybe one day that will change, but for now, I'm feeling good about this direction.

Except for one thing, my homework is to read the entire U.S. Constitution, does that mean I have to remember everything I read?

Skunks and drunks, but one great campout...

Camping...enjoying the outdoors, listening to a lazy river, enjoying the campfire and tinfoil dinners. Last weekend was one of those type of camping trips and more! A few of us drove out to the La Jolla Indian Reservation where we set up our tents, put on our swimsuits and then tubed down the San Luis Rey River. While not as deep as we might have liked it, there were fun times had by all, especially when you didn't try to steer your tube but just let the current bob you around like a pinball! There were a few bottoms that hit bottom, and a few drop offs which caused one to fly off their tube, but all in all, one fun day on the river.

As for the evening, the four of us girls who were up there first, yes just us girls, were done on the river, we set up the campfire and a good one it was too. We cooked our tinfoil dinners, sat around and talked and then had even more fun when the rest of our group got there. Sometime during the campfire games, a little friend decided to join us. We heard some rustling in a bush, and when the light was turned towards the noise, an animal with a white strip appeared! One of our party jumped up and ran away, screaming, something I have never seen this person do before (don't worry Maren, the secret is safe with me!) This animal even came back a couple times during the night, we were that much fun!

Eventually, the night came to an end and we all retired to our tents, or the flat piece of ground a little further upstream with the great outdoors to keep them company. About 1 hour later, some yelling was heard throughout the camp. As I listened a little harder, it was pretty clear these disturbers of nature, were not quite sober. Come to find out, this group decided to walk right by our friends who were out under the stars, right into the river. They played around in the river, going up and down a couple times until they decided they were done for the night and went off to their campsite. We all then fluffed our pillows, or sleeping mat, and turned in for a restful night's sleep.

Up the next morning, making breakfast over the fire with the smallest cooking set I have ever seen, we got ourselves ready for more tubing and the eventual cleanup of our site. One group took one more bumpy turn down the river before we took everything down, loaded up the cars and drove back to the cooler ocean breezes of San Diego. On the way back down, we couldn't really think of any low points, even the skunk made the high list. It was a great time and start to the summer camping season!

A little family time...

So this last weekend, I went home to my fabulous, but HOT, hometown of Concord for my youngest sister's high school graduation. The weekend and subsequent days were spent at baccalaureate, seminary graduation and the highlight, Northgate high school's graduation. The pictures to the left are of my youngest sister and one with my parents and another with my brother as well. We couldn't seem to get a good family shot. What fun, speeches galore, musical numbers all around. Congratulations Celia, the last of the Christensen clan to make it through the gate which leads to the brilliant and sparkling future that awaits all graduates!

So while I was sitting in the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, dozing through the roll call of graduates whose last names are after "C," I contemplated a discovery made by that quick and witty sister who had just moved on to loftier and grander hights. She had noticed while we were watching a movie, that you can always tell who is going to be evil in a movie by their nose. I had never noticed that before. So the next time you are watching a movie, notice that instrument of deceit, what is it's shape, and then maybe you can tell who the villian might be.

History nerd...

My job sometimes is hard to explain to people. I work to preserve, organize and make available documents of historical value. So when I hear about a great historical find somewhere, I like to pass it on. My favorite time period in history is the US Civil War, so this article interested me. Here's a little bit of the article:

"WASHINGTON, June 7, 2007 - The National Archives on Thursday unveiled a handwritten note by Abraham Lincoln exhorting his generals to pursue Robert E. Lee's army after the battle of Gettysburg, underscoring one of the great missed opportunities for an early end to the Civil War.

An archives Civil War specialist discovered the July 7, 1863, note three weeks ago in a batch of military papers stored among the billions of pages of historical documents at the mammoth building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The text of Lincoln's note has been publicly known because the general to whom Lincoln addressed it telegraphed the contents verbatim to the front lines at Gettysburg. There, the Union army's leaders failed for more than a week to aggressively pursue Lee following his defeat."

I know, it's somewhat nerdy of me, but don't we each have some unique interest that drives us? So there is mine, what a fantastic find!

First post

Ahh, my foray into the blogging world has begun. I was really excited to participate in this now-so- popular activity and am now not so sure that my life or ponderings will be all that interesting to others, but we'll see. So I was trying to come up with a headline for my blog page and the word "ruminations" sounded at least intelligent if not cool. So when I looked up what the word "ruminate" really meant, there were two definitions; 1) to chew the cud and 2) to ponder. So in light of those definitions, that might be where my blog goes. It might not be all that informative or interesting, just a chew-the-cud type of post. Or you may find that there are some intelligent ponderings that give rise to questions and comments. Either way, I hope you enjoy my ruminations about all things intelligent and not so intelligent:)