Thursday, March 27, 2014

Stop the Slut Shaming: A Federal Judge on Women dressing like 'Ignorant Sluts'

Yesterday, I shared a link via Facebook via Slate about how "Female lawyers who are dressing too sexy are apparently a 'huge problem' in the courtroom."  My mother sent it to me.  As a female who attended law school in Richmond, VA, I am quite familiar with the standards of dress required by many judges.  In Richmond, as a woman, you are told that you MUST wear a skirt to court.  No pants.  And while I hate pants with a burning passion, I can't help but feel upset that I am expected to wear skirts only.  However, it isn't something that really bothers me.  The article on Slate, however, ruffled my feathers enough to share it on Facebook, and exchange in a dialogue with many of my peers.  *Sigh* we thought.  Another day, another hurdle for women to dodge.
Then this blog post came out in response.

I bet Alicia never had to deal with this crap.
Federal Judge Richard Kopf, a George H.W. Bush appointee to a federal court in Nebraska, decided to voice his opinion on the matter in an "effort to educate the bar."

How just about everyone feels by now



It's no secret that this is the never-ending winter.  It's as if Frozen was real life, and Elsa forgot to turn off her magical snow powers in the end.  This little boy's pleas basically reflect my-- and everyone else's-- life right about now.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Small girl, Big City!


I haven’t blogged in a long time.

 A LONG TIME.

A lot of that has to do with the circumstances.  I graduated law school, took the bar, and was working at a job I hated.  I had no motivation, no excitement in my life.  I’ll touch on these at a later date.  Those events are the past.


This is the present.

 
And the present is a GIFT.

 

Over the past three weeks, I have had the ride of a lifetime.  People have been asking me what happened, so here is a nice timeline of the end of Feb/ beginning of March:  Things went kind of like this:
Thursday before the Feb. Bar Exam: Got a call for an interview.  Didn’t get the position because I was “not experienced enough.”  Said thanks, etc.  I was just glad I got a call.

Fifteen mins later: A temporary position opened up as soon as I got off the phone with HR.  Did I want to interview for it?  Obviously I said sure.  HR said that “they” wanted me to come to NYC.  I had no idea who “they” were, but I knew they were in the legal department and pretty high up.  I was internally freaked out because hey, I was in crazy-five-days-before-the-bar mode.  As in I don’t think I showered that day.  But I said SURE, lets do it.  I’ll come up next week.  I made a flight and pushed it out of my brain because—let’s be honest—I needed all the space available to remember the English Covenants and the elements of conspiracy in Virginia.
Monday: Drive to Norfolk.  Listened to a sermon on the radio on the way there (stop judging me) and sobbed hysterically.  If you’ve taken a bar exam, you know where I was mentally at that point.

Tuesday and Wednesday:  Took the bar exam.  NO BIG.
Wednesday Night: Drove back to RVA.

Thursday: Flew to NYC. 
Friday, 1 p.m.: Interviewed.  Tried to form coherent sentences.

Friday, 3 p.m.: Got offered the temporary position.  And oh hey, could I start Wednesday? Kept my cool on the phone. Hung up and danced on the sidewalk.

Friday, 3:15 p.m.: Reality set in.  What on earth??! Am I moving to NYC for three months?  Proceeded to begin to cry.  In public. Normal.  After speaking with my parents and boyfriend, I decided that this was an amazing opportunity for me to gain experience, get to know NYC, and generally get out of the rut I have been in for the past few months.  LET’S DO THIS!
Saturday:  Went apartment hunting.  Shout out to my fantastic friend Holland, who not only let me stay with her for the weekend, but went apartment hunting with me.  By some miracle of God, we found a perfect apartment right near her. 
Ok, maybe “apartment” is too strong a word. 
It’s a shoebox.  A Prada shoebox, because of how expensive it is.  It’s tiny, but perfect for my needs.  But I can touch both walls if I lay down and stretch out my hands/ legs.  Oh, and I had to basically sell a kidney on the black market to pay for it.  It’s a short term solution for sure.
Sunday: Flew back to DC.  My amazing boyfriend agreed to drive me back to Richmond from there because flights are so much cheaper.  Thanks babe!
Monday: Packed like a mad woman.
Tuesday: Flew back to NYC, tried to unpack and get some sort of order in my life.
Wednesday: OH HEY I STARTED WORK!
 

 Then, that weekend, I flew back home for a baby shower for my wonderful best friend since kindergarten.  She was BEAUTIFUL!  And at 7 months pregnant, she was wearing heels.  I can only hope that I am as pretty as she is when I’m pregnant, but I am probably going to be angry/ fat/ wearing sweatpants only.  I am so excited to meet her little man!

So now, after this crazy few weeks, I have decided that I need to start blogging regularly.  I have free time now, and am doing fun things!  I’ll be documenting my time in New York City as a young, broke 20-something, as well as continuing to blog about the legal life.


 Here’s to the next big adventure.