Blog de Beth

Edward Cullen

I've been watching Smallville since the beginning. I read the Twilight books around the middle of last year. (I know, you're wondering where the hell I'm going with this.) Back then, I knew they were making Twilight into a movie, but hadn't really heard anything about it. Then it hit me... Davis on Smallville IS Edward Cullen. The pics on IMDB don't do him justice; you really need to watch an episode of Smallville with him in it. Every time I see him on Smallville I think of him as Edward. (I dare you to tell me I'm wrong!) It's quite sad and frustrating.

Anywho... I was gonna tweet about this, but it was too long, but kinda too short for a blog post, but whatever, here it is anyway. :-p

ps - the cast of Smallville = HAAAWWWWTTTTT !

Classes so far

School has been going well. We're well past the halfway mark and I'm getting excited to be done with my first semester at Phoenix College. Here's the rundown on my classes:

LAS101 - Introduction to Law
This has been a fun class. We're covering just the basics about a bunch of different areas of law. So far we've covered the court systems in general, property (easements), family (did you know that in AZ first cousins can legally marry if they're both over 65?), criminal, and contract. I really like the teacher, too.

LAS109 - Legal Procedures 1
Also an interesting class and with the same teacher as 101. We've been picking apart the Arizona Annotated Court Rules and figuring out why things are done the way they are (because it's in the rules!). We've had the real-world assignments of drafting a demand letter, a complaint, a summons, an answer, and a statement of facts.

LAS131 - Legal Writing
I've had a lot more fun in this class than I was expecting. I absolutely love the teacher, too! The first half of the semester was spent on grammar and writing in general. Now we're getting into case briefs. I think this is my favorite class.

BPC110 - Computer Usage and Applications
I hate, Hate, HATE this class!!! The class is to learn how to use MS Office 2007 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and maybe Access if we have time). I know more about those programs than the teacher does. Helllooooo, made my living as a document formatter! And don't get me started on the teacher. oof

As for the other students in my classes, a lot of them are older (like me). The majority are awesome. There are a few that I wish the teachers had the power to just drop from the program. I bet the teachers are wishing the same thing. And yes, I have an A in all my classes. =)

blogging

I've noticed that my friends are blogging less and less. Is Twitter the culprit? Facebook? Do people just not want to talk about themselves as much anymore? (Highly doubtful!) Is blogging too time consuming? I'm not sure what the answer is. I used to check my friends' blogs every day...now I check them about once a month (if that much). And there aren't that many updates.

I have no answer. Just an observation. Thoughts? Anyone?

Overheard conversation

No, NOT eavesdropping. Eavesdropping is an intentional thing, whereas you don't mean to overhear a conversation...you just do. So anyway. I'm at Bookmans today just wandering the aisles and to see if anything sparks my interest when I overhear a conversation. This conversation is between a boy of about 10 and an older-ish lady (I'm guessing grandmother). The conversation is as follows (more or less, I can't remember exactly what was said):

[Lady pulling boy away from the history section.]
Boy: But I wanted to get a book about the Civil War.
Lady: Then get a good fiction novel to learn about the Civil War.
Boy: Fiction is stupid.

I really wanted to smack the lady. Now I'm wondering if she dragged him over to the "historical romance" section.

Thunderbird Park hike

I just posted some pics from our latest hike last weekend. We did the H3 trail at Thunderbird Park. Actually, looking at the map, we started the H3 trail and took it clockwise with the last leg being the H1 to make a big loop. Afterwards we had lunch at the Salty Senorita. We had a leisurely two and a half hour lunch because apparently they only had one cook in the kitchen. The margaritas were good, though!

We're trying to do a hike each weekend while the weather is nice. Then once it starts warming up down here, I want to check out some hikes in cooler parts of the state around Sedona and Flagstaff. A change of scenery will be nice, too.

job hunt

Since about the second week of this new year I've been looking for a part-time job. I've been looking on Monster, Career Builder, Jobing, and local city and state sites. In this time, I've applied for about 15 jobs that I'm definitely qualified to do. I've had two (2) calls. The weird thing about these calls is that they're for jobs I didn't apply for. They're from recruiters/employers that have seen my resume on a site and thought I'd be a good match for a job they have. I have an interview today at 2:00 due to a recruiter seeing my resume.

Now, I'm definitely not complaining that the only calls I've had are from resume searches by recruiters/employers. I am saying it's frustrating that I haven't heard a thing from the 15 places I've actually applied to! I'm definitely qualified for the jobs I've applied for... I'm wondering if they're thinking I'm over qualified? I do state in my cover letter that I'm looking for a part-time job because I'm in school. *shrug* I dunno. It's just really frustrating.

School

I know, I know... Why the hell am I blogging about school when I just graduated with two degrees? Well, because I'm going back. Yes, apparently I am a sadist. The law school thing is out of the question for the time being (time and money constraints... mostly money) but I'm still really interested in it.

The happy medium that I came up with is becoming a paralegal. I did some research and there are only two schools in the Phoenix area that are ABA certified: Everest College and Phoenix College. The program at Everest is such that I'd have to get another Associate Degree which is just absurd. Phoenix College has a certificate program for those that already have a degree. It will take me three semesters and I'll be done.

School starts today and I'm taking four classes: Introduction to Law, Legal Procedures 1, Legal Writing 1, and Computer Usage & Applications. It should be an interesting and informative semester. Well, except for the stupid computer class that I asked if I could test out of...to no avail. At least I know that class will be an easy A. =)

the Spice Girls

Quite a while ago Maureen had the brilliant idea of making our own spice racks. She'd seen some cool magnetic ones, but they were obnoxiously expensive and she figured "hey, how hard can it be to make them?" So we got all the supplies and spent an afternoon gluing magnets onto tins. She got hers up lickety-split, but I never got around to it (for various and sundry reasons). That all changed over the past couple of days! Maureen came over to help me put it up. Once up and I went to fill the tins, I realized that the majority of my spices were woefully old. After a trip to Sprouts, I was ready to go. Next thing you know... Voila! A really super freakin cool spice rack! I wish I'd done it much sooner. ;-)

Pigtail day at the 459

It was pigtail day today for some of the ladies of the grand jury. From left to right: Paulette, Ronda, Ashley, Beth (me). We just have way too much fun in there!

Hiking

Since the weather is finally cooling off a little, the hiking season has begun here in Arizona!

At the beginning of this month we went and hiked the Go John Trail. The trail is in the hills around Cave Creek and is about 6 miles long. I've posted pictures from the trip. It was a nice hike, but I hear it's much better in the spring when the hills are covered with wildflowers. Unfortunately, we picked a long and "moderate" hike for our first of the season and it just about killed us (not to mention it was pretty darn hot out). Once I get into better hiking shape I'd like to try it again in the spring. On the plus side, we went to the Horny Toad for lunch and beers after.

This past weekend we went up to South Mountain. We started at the Buena Vista trailhead and hiked along the National Trail, looped through Fat Man's Pass and Hidden Valley, and headed back the way we came for a total of about 3.5 miles. I've posted pictures from the trip. The hike started out with Lise getting stung by a bee on the tip of her finger. Then about halfway through I twisted my left ankle and scraped up my right knee from the fall. Luckily it was just a light sprain and I continued on (my knee actually hurt more than my ankle). Then, about three quarters of the way through, as I was stepping up a bunch of rocks, my left calf totally seized up. I had to stop and massage it out a little before I could even move. I managed to hobble the rest of the way back. Injuries aside, it was a nice hike and I'd willingly do it again some time! Again, in hiking tradition, we had to stop for lunch and alcohol afterwards. We went to Poncho's and indulged in great Mexican food and margaritas.

I'm not sure when or where our next hike will be, but I'll try to post pictures from them, too. I'm hoping to do some hiking around Sedona and further north in the pine country. In the meantime, I really need to get some decent hiking boots!