Jesus DOES love me! yay.

Well, like I said the other day, I'm getting a little better at spotting God's hand (Hand?) in my life. Case in point was today.

I found out today that I will be recieving a grant, and not a measly one at that, to work at Legal Services of NorCal this summer. This means I will be working for 12-13 weeks at a legal non-profit helping those who cannot afford legal services. The crazy thing about all this is that I'm interested in immigration work, and when I told that to the first person I talked to at LSNC, the very first person, before even sending my resume and getting an interview, when I told that to her she told me that she had an immigration project that needed part time help with over the summer. I mean, is that amazing or what? The very first person I talk to on my very first job inquiry has the exact job I was looking for, to a T. And now I have a grant PAYING me to do the exact job I was looking for, to a T.

So I can't help but wonder... is God rewarding me for doing what I said I would do when I applied to law school, doing public interest nonprofit work? Because it seems to me this was all so amazingly easy, so simple, that He had to have stuck His oar in a little to roll those snake eyes just for me (if you'll let me mix my metaphors). How else could the first phone call I made have turned out to be the last one necessary? No, I firmly believe that He is pleased with me choosing non-profit work and wanted to make my search easier because of that. And btw, thank all of you for your prayers about this... obviously, they worked.

I am so excited for summer to begin, I almost don't mind that I only get four days off. Wheeee!

the value of friendship

Now, I know that I vowed at the beginning of this finals period to *not* hang out with friends outside of study group friends and a study atmosphere. But every once in awhile in life, you have to break the rules that define your life, and so when L emailed to say, hey, we hadn't been to lunch in awhile, I decided to take her up on it as a study break. We all need those, right?

L is one of those friends of mine that despite seeing each other a couple times a month, we never quite seem to be caught up. Part of that is that we've known each other since preschool, and not having spent the entirety of our lives together we are constantly sharing what happened between Davis Parent Nursery School days and... the present. We talk about shared experiences ("do you remember when...?"), shared friendships ("so what are they doing now?"), shared ideologies and of course, our lives these days. And despite having not only lunch together but coffee right afterwards, we never, ever catch up. And perhaps that's a good thing, because it means the next time we talk we'll still have things to talk about. We'll always have things to talk about. And that's truly valuable, in this life where most things go by way too fast.

the end of it all

It's getting to that point of the year. Yes, it's the point where the reading assignments dwindle down to the point where I'm writing "end of year" on the pages instead of "end Week 5" or "end Week 10". It's the point of year where I spend time exclusively with school friends, affectionately known as "study partners" or "study groups", instead of balancing my life with church friends, show friends, family etc. And it's the point of year where I end up working on review at home without going to classes anymore. There are ups and downs, and of course it's an extremely stressful point of the year, but yet there's a certain satisfaction I derive from the focus. Things fall into neat categories: this week I spend on Wills, the next week I focus on another class. It's not entirely a process I detest or dread. It's the culmination of little bits of knowledge finally turning into spheres of overall knowledge and grasp of entire subjects. I know, I'm a nerd, and I'll still probably never do as well as I did first year when everything was fresh and passion-filled, but I have to admit -- I don't hate finals. That's all.

Muppet fun at school

Our group presentation in Evidence yesterday was a mild success. I'm proud enough of our stuff that I'm going to post the lyrics here so y'all can have a laugh too. We were so worried the class wouldn't understand the lyrics, but after the first joke they laughed hard and long, so I was pleased with our performance. If you don't think that discussing evidentiary privileges to the tune of Muppets songs (a true tribute to Jim Henson!) is interesting / hilarious, well, then, skip this part:

(to the tune of C is for Cookie) P is for privilege, that’s good enough for meP is for privilege, that’s good enough for meP is for privilege, that’s good enough for meOh, privilege privilege privilege starts with P... EVERYBODY NOW!!! (repeat) (yes, they did sing along)

(to the tune of the Muppet Show introduction) It’s time to meet your lawyer, it’s time to meet your priest, it’s time to meet your doctor on the privilege show tonight.It’s time to meet your hubby, it’s time to meet your wife, it’s time for confidential communications on the privilege show tonight.

(to the tune of It's not easy being green) It’s not easy keeping secrets, I want to tell my doctor exactly what’s wrong with me,When I think it could be nicer, just keeping it between us. That rash on my (pause) back.

(to the tune of Mahna Mahna, wife-husband evidentiary privelege) Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, I killed the neighbor.

(to the tune of Movin right along) We don’t really care about the truth of the matter, the client can chatter, but the lawyer has to remain silent

(to the tune of Rubber Duckie) Father O’Malley you’re the one. You make confession lots of fun. Father O’Malley I know you’ll never tell on me.

(to the tune of Rainbow Connection) Why are there so many privileges before us? Doctor-patient, Lawyer-client, Spousal, Penitent-Priest, Psycho-Therapist patient, Reporter-Source, Accountant-client, Accused privileges, right against self incrimination, informant’s, surveillance, executive privilege

it's of course funnier live, but I'm proud of our unique presentation. According to the professor, in the three or so years he has been requiring group presentations, we were the first to use music in our presentation (thus the unique part of it). After all this singing, we also had a class-wide game of Jeopardy. I enjoyed playing the theme song for that on the keyboard including a major chord for when they got it right and a diminished chord for when they... didn't.

Life is good. I wish every legal presentation could include musical jokes... do you think I could take my keyboard into court with me???

Easter tidings of joy

We sang "Now the Green Blade Rises" in church this morning. It's an Easter hymn but set in a minor mode with a fairly haunting melody. When I was a kid, there was a TV show I only watched once that sported an introduction with a similarly haunting tune. I wished for years after that that I could remember the tune and recreate it, but never could. "Now the Green Blade Rises" is actually the closest song to it, and for that reason I've always liked it. Nice to sing it in church this morning.

My Easter has been quite satisfying, and if I didn't get all the homework done that I should, well, that's why I finish my reading before finals start. It was really the perfect day, filled with friends, family, church, chocolate and other things that don't alliterate so I won't list them here. I have been ditching church a lot recently, so if possible, church actually meant something more to me today than it usually does every Holy Week, because I was listening intently and with a fresh mind.

I love going to a church that simultaneously hosts nearly every adult who helped raise me as a kid plus people my own age too. I love that I know every other person there, even on Easter when the Easter-Christmas Christians show up. I love that I used to be the kid hunting the eggs on the lawn and that I used to be the kid hiding the eggs for the littler kids and that now I'm a choir member and occasionally play for a service too. There's a certain familiarity with one's home church that never disappears. And yet Easter is especially wonderful these days because my grandparents live so close that they were a part of it too for me this year. All in all, it's been a really nice day. Reality can reach out its hand and slap me in the face tomorrow morning when I start briefing. For now, I'm just rejoicing with a billion other people that Jesus saves, and that means me too.

God's hand

Well, in little and big ways, these days I can usually feel the presence of God within my life. Some days He provides me with a DVD at a thrift store that I had thought about getting the week previous. Sometimes He provides me with the perfect job. Tonight, He gently chided me for ditching out on the Palm Sunday service by making every entree at the potluck tonight contain cheese.

A little background: I gave up chocolate last year for Lent, I gave up cheese this Lent, and I was planning to go to the potluck but ditch out on the service afterwards. So... God smiled and presented me with the simple conundrum: I could eat the free food and break my promise to Him in front of all my friends who know I'm giving up cheese for Lent, or I could make my sacrifice a little more meaningful by declining to eat at all. I'm happy to say that I chose the latter. Oh, how I love Easter... Now excuse me, I'm going to go eat some parmesan-less spaghetti.

This afternoon I'm playing as a substitute for our organist for children's choir. Please keep her and her husband in your prayers; his cancer is giving him a rough time of it right now.

That's it for now. More later.

frickety-freakout

OK, so someone I don't know was knocking on my door agin tonight. What the frick is up in these condos? So many people I don't know ringing my doorbell at all times of the night....

Tonight it was some strange old dude, so I didn't answer the door until a younger guy that I had met before rang the doorbell instead. Turns out the older dude was the father of the resident of the upstairs condo (and the younger guy one of her friends). So I didn't need to freak out tonight (although I did, and understandably so after last night's activities). He was just delivering the new key, since they changed the locks on the garage door after the incident. So now, finally, I'm going back to homework instead of feeling unsafe in my own home.

a little more excitement than I need

It's such a beautiful day outside, I can hardly believe all the drama that went down here last night. The birds in the tree must have baby birdlings because when I sat down outside they made a big ruckus until I folded myself up and went reluctantly inside. It's bright and sunny and cheerful and I can't believe it's the same world as it was last night.

I first found out something was wrong last night when the neighbors rang my bell and talked loudly outside. I didn't know who was out there or what the ruckus was about (sorry to use that word twice, but I'm in a ruckus mood), and it frightened me enough to call my mom, who told me to call the police. I dialed 911 and the operator informed me that the ruckus had already been reported by my upstairs neighbors, and that there was a fire in my garage. It was out by the time I ventured out, and bit by bit after the fire trucks and police arrived I found out the story.

Evidently there is a man who scams people in Davis a lot. What he does is, he finds people who need to sublet an apartment. He moves in and doesn't pay rent and refuses to leave until they officially evict him. Evidently this happened to my naive upstairs neighbors (both girls) and when they told him to leave, he decided that what they really meant by "leave" was "go downstairs, use our key to open our garage and start a fire with your magazine", which was exactly what he did. The police encouraged him to leave, which he did, but only after about 10 cops showed up on my front lawn. I share the garage with them, so this is how the fire in my garage started. Nothing and nobody were harmed, so, I guess in the end everything turned out all right. They didn't arrest him because evidently the elements of arson include destruction of someone else's property, and since the magazine belonged to him he didn't technically commit that crime. I feel like he was trespassing or burglarizing our property, but the police didn't agree. So he's out there right now, probably looking for the next apartment to scam.

The whole thing shook me up a lot and, needless to say, I didn't sleep too well last night. But it's all over now and the fresh air and bright sun is helping me forget it all. I'm simply glad nobody was hurt, and that life will go back to its happy normalcy of boring routine mundanity. Who says a mundane life is unhappy? I'm beginning to appreciate it after having it momentarily shattered.