Fangirlin' It

Well, I'm back at it; this is the third-to-last paralegal class!  The week-plus we had off was really nice, but I'm afraid I kind of got used to not having to come all the way down here.  Tonight and Thursday are Real Property, as in real estate stuff.  Hopefully it will not be boring.  Then the last class is the other part of our contracts/business law class.  The end is in sight.

Hopefully all of you in the States had a nice holiday, and everyone else had a nice not-holiday.

Applied for another job over the break, but I still haven't heard anything on any of them.  Le sigh.

Man, who needs hockey for fights?  Just watch taped depositions.  We saw part of one tonight from Texas (of course) where the various lawyers in the room nearly came to blows over whether one of them who was frequently objecting to things actually represented the witness being deposed, thus having an actual right to do so.  So you've got a bunch of fat, old, white guys insulting each other, claiming they'll object if they want to, and calling each other fat boy and threatening to fight.  All of this in the stereotypical Southern hick accent.  It was hilarious.

I took extra ADD meds before class today, since I've been having so much trouble concentrating all the way through three hours of class at night, when most of my normal dose has worn off, and it seems to be going marginally better.

We're sitting here in Litigation class, and the professor just showed us a copy of a handwritten 'letter' a juror wrote while on a jury.  It was badly spelled and stuff, but mostly it was in the vein of 'I can't believe this case, these people are all idiots, what do you mean four more weeks of this' and rambled on.  The best parts, though, were where the guy was saying he wanted to die (not really, but yeah) rather than be there anymore, the plaintiff's lawyer looked like The Penguin (misspelled), and he was fantasising about killing the lawyers if it would make it stop.  Needless to say, someone decided this guy was just a little unstable, and he was dismissed.

Well, so far I really like this class; the professor is funny and interesting and the other students seem really cool.  I was a little worried about this, so this is a relief.  The professor is talking about the assignments right now, and I'm thinking, 'Sixty-page chapters?  No biggie, not after that WWII class!'.  This is a good feeling.

In other news, we've already been here two hours and I haven't lost my focus yet.  Of course, we aren't doing a real class today, so that's maybe not an entirely accurate prediction of classes to come.  

It seems like every class ever starts out with you being behind on the reading already because you don't get the syllabus or whatever beforehand, and this is no different.  I've got three chapters to read for today and three more for next Tuesday.  Then I've got a class that's actually on Thursdays, which I won't actually go to until the 12th.  The professor did say that we should be getting out a little early, which will be nice.  Oh, this is nice, we just noticed that the three chapters for today are essentially an overview, and there's no actual assignment associated with it.  So the work that's due next Tuesday is on the second set of three chapters.  Whew.

Now we're starting.  Hm, I think I will probably be very bad at knowing when a client is lying to me.  I have this really bad habit of believing things people tell me, even though I know better.  It's weird, because when it's not someone actually telling me things, I'm a very incredulous person--I don't take things on faith, period.  But when someone is sitting there telling me things, unless the story is so unbelievable my ten-year-old cousin couldn't have come up with it, I'll probably believe it until someone else points out, 'You know, that's probably not true.'.  ::facepalm:: 

Wow, as a paralegal, you can get paid to troll facebook, etc., as part of gathering information--that makes your job really easy.  Thank you, social media.  So, let this be a lesson: if you don't want it used against you in court, don't put it on the internet.  Some paralegal will find it. 

This state was the first in the nation to have a certification process for paralegals--wow, we're normally not this forward-thinking here.

Twenty 'til nine, now.  I'm getting a little ready to stop concentrating.

Hm, at the end of all this, I can call myself an NC Certified Paralegal or and NC State Bar Certified Paralegal.  It sounds pretty good.  :) 

It's weird thinking I'll only see this professor six times--one class per week for six weeks and it's done.  Each class is like that; this last history class was a little like that in that we met once a week, but a semester is a lot longer than six weeks. 

Quarter 'til.  These desks are a little uncomfortable because they don't let me stretch my legs out.  Wow, one part of the paralegal profession trademarked Certified Paralegal, so they invented a new word--certificated--to make up for it.  Certificated, guys.  I just, no.  Quit making up stupid words when there are already words in the English language to express your thought.  Or at least let someone who is more talented create the neologisms.  

Nine on the dot.  And we are done.

Well, I start the first class for the paralegal certificate tonight at 6, so I have to go eat dinner right about now (it's only 4 here!).  It's all the way down in South Park, and I'll have to fight traffic on 77 and the Brookshire, which is why I have to leave so early.  I'm a little nervous, but I keep reminding myself that I just got a college degree, so I can do this.  Yes.