Viva Forever

I learnt two things yesterday.

The first is that I got Distinctions for my subjects this semester. Total surprise for Litigation as that subject was freaking hard and the final exam was confusing and poorly worded IMO. But still, that means that I’ve managed to scrapped together an all-Distinctions year, even though I started most of the major assignments the night before. This is comparable to first year Uni where I also got all Distinctions (and High Distinctions) but I put about 50x more work into first year than this year. Hence, even though I’m a graduate now, I’m still not sure what’s the best way to study to achieve best results. Apparently one can do as well when they meticulously study and write notes for every class as well as when they do everything rushed and last minute.

The second piece of news is that I finally got a proper full-time job offer. The salary offered is disappointingly low in my books (I’ve been a [poorly paid] law clerk for three years already dammit!) but I’ve accepted it for now. I’ll be sending out resumé letters throughout the year to see if I can snag a better position elsewhere. But still, it’s enough to live off (I think) and I try to be comforted by the idea that – *fingers crossed* – this salary ought to be the lowest I’m ever going to get from now on.

But still, now that I know my income, I can start preparing to go house-for-rent hunting! I need to pick a place that is preferably the epi-center of my work, Macquarie University (so Tim doesn’t have to drive so far), College of Law campus and friends. Given that all these locations are quite far from each other, finding an available, affordable place might be quite difficult. I guess I’ll just do what I can!

Two days ago, which happened to be a very rainy day, Tim and I were travelling in his car towards his house. We were just coasting relatively slowly down a suburban road, the slowness due to the speed limits as well as the bad weather.

All of a sudden, a little girl came running out onto the road and hit our car.

It happened so quickly. Out of nowhere, between a stationary bus and a car, the girl had ran straight out onto the road, hit the front left corner of Tim’s car (breaking the headlight there) before tumbling backwards like a ragdoll. By the time we parked to rush out, we already heard her screaming in pain and probably fear, and the bus driver and passengers rushing out to attend to her.

Thankfully, she wasn’t very injured. I called for an ambulance and they arrived a short while later, after the bus driver thought it would be a good idea to move the kid onto the bus and out of the rain (as I tried to tell him, you’re not supposed to move injured people in these situations, just as well the injuries were minor). Basically she just had scraped/bruised knee and shoulder, more so from hitting the pavement than the car. No visible broken bones or concussion though she was taken to the hospital for xrays. The police arrived soon after, took statements from Tim and basically confirmed that he was not at fault as the 12 year old evidently (as well as admitted to) running out onto the road without checking properly.

Still, pretty nerve-wracking experience.

In better news, our house is finally officially sold. We’ll need to vacate by around 30 January next year. Since two weeks of January will be completely taken up by full-time study, I’m going to have about the remaining 2 weeks to find a place to rent. Here’s to hoping that I can make it happen!

Yesterday I wrote a marriage proposal.

For work.

MOST AWKWARD LETTER. EVER.

Some guy came to our office and asked us to write a marriage proposal letter to a woman he wanted to propose to. The letter was to contain a number of conditions he’d meet if she agreed to marry him, including agreeing to sign a pre-nuputial and arranging for her parents to visit them. The letter also had to ask her to “forget about their past”. The solicitor in charge didn’t want to write the letter, so he got me to draft the whole thing. Obviously I had to make it sound as professional as standard legal correspondences but goddamn, it was difficult balancing the cold, formal language while trying to sneak a little sincerity in “on behalf of our client”.

Apparently the woman had already rejected the guy’s marriage proposal before when she found out that the only property he owned was owned jointly between himself and his sister (in the event of a divorce between the dude and the woman, it would mean the woman would have a hard time getting a piece of that property because a third party owns half of it). So he’s trying again after also agreeing to transfer the property directly into his own name, along with a number of sweet deals in the pre-nup. Why he thought the best way to propose again is to pay hundreds of dollars to a solicitor to write the proposal for him, that’s anyone’s guess.

Even if they did get married, I wonder how long it would last if she’s so preoccupied with what she could get from him if they divorced. =/

Life Update
So my Uni exams are done, which means that unless I failed (which I doubt, unless they somehow lost my assessments), I’m done with Uni. The only time I would need to go back would probably to do various admin stuff like get my academic transcript, and of course, graduate in April ‘09. Can’t say I’m particularly excited at the moment, but it could be because my exams ended two days ago and I’m still in a bit of a daze. I still have Uni notes and stuff that had piled up steadily over the last five years in the corner of my room, I don’t know whether to get rid of them or not. Then again I still have notes from my HSC so perhaps some major de-hoarding is required.

So what’s next? I’m taking the rest of this week off and hopefully starting from next week I’d be starting full-time work as a law clerk and being paid somewhat properly. I’ll be applying to enter College of Law in January ‘09 to start the rest of the theoretical and practical training necessary for me to be admitted as a proper lawyer. If all goes well this should be completed some time late next year.

While this is happening, we’ve finally got a potential buyer for our current house. If all goes well and they don’t change their mind, they’ll be paying their 5% deposit tomorrow afternoon and if the rest of the long settling processing goes by uneventfully, then the house should be officially bought around mid-January next year. By then my family would’ve moved to the much cheaper home located much further away. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts I don’t really fancy moving with them, which means that before mid-January I need to have moved out to my own place. The most ideal plan I’ve got worked out is to have moved out, working full-time and studying part-time in two months time (though hopefully at a better organised and paying place). It’s going to be harsh initially I’m sure, but I think I can adjust. But we’ll see.

Annngst
You know what’s an emotion that really bugs me? Jealousy. I don’t tend to be a jealous person as I’m already usually very happy with what I’ve got. I did relatively well at Uni, I’m competent at work, I have great friends, a loving family and the bestest boyfriend in the Universe. However, I think jealousy, or more specifically competitiveness, is something I’ve developed as a reaction to when I’ve felt someone has wronged me. When people do something annoying, most of the time I’d brush it off as “bah, annoying -_-” and promptly forget about it. But every once in a while, when someone has said or done something to imply they are better than me when I feel that they’re not, I get competitive, in a “oh really? We’ll see about that!” kind of way.

So anyway, there’s this person in my past who has done more than just pissed me off, more than just “hurt my feelings”. The details and name aren’t important (I don’t think said person reads my blog, but still, this entry is public and googleable) but every once in a while I hear them achieving great things. And I feel jealous and envious even though what they do has nothing to do with what I do, so I can’t directly compete anyway. And in a way, it’s got nothing to do with what they’ve achieved, it’s the fact that their life is excelling when I feel so viscerally that they shouldn’t, because I know s/he’s a shitty and callous person.

We learnt in 3rd year psychology about the importance of “being heard”. When someone has upset you, it doesn’t matter how many other people you rant and rave at about said person, you’ll still feel the sting because you aren’t being heard by the very person who caused you grief. And I know this is exactly that. I’ve ranted and raved at Tim about the issue, but he’s ultimately not the person whom I’m angry at. Said person made me feel helpless and disempowered, and I reacted the only way I know how, to be competitive and to show to myself that they’re wrong. And every time I hear of him/her being successful, it just makes me unhappy.

And yes, I am aware of how pathetic this unilateral competition is, with a person who probably doesn’t even care about what I think or do. Of course, the answer is “Belinda, MOVE THE FUCK ON”. Believe me, I keep telling myself this. I keep telling myself that the best way to “get back” at said person is to lead a happy, successful life yourself. But there’s the naggling retort I have in my head, “well what if it’s not as successful and happy as his/her life?”, who’s the judge? Sigh. I guess I just need more time or something. It’s just so frustrating, and futile and stupid.

Bah, rambling post is rambling. Anyhow! According to this quiz, I’m a True Neutral Elf Wizard (3rd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength- 8
Dexterity- 10
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 11
Charisma- 13

Those stats aren’t very good for a wizard. Also, it’s very different from the sturdy, dwarven cleric I’m playing. O_o Then again the quiz caters to 3.5 edition and not 4th. *shrugs*

Watched Oliver! a few days ago and have been a bit obsessed with the soundtrack for a few days now. Oliver! was the first musical I’ve ever seen I think, back when I was in year 4 and we had to watch it to learn the song “Consider Yourself”. Even though looking back, it’s certainly not the best musical ever with only about half the songs being any good, it nonetheless kick started my enthusiasm and love for musicals in general (some exceptions of course, one of them being the movie, Rent).

Watching Oliver! again reminded me how terrifying a villian Bill Sikes is. You know how you can tell he’s a horrible person? He doesn’t sing. Everyone else in the movie sings, even the horrible governor in the beginning who sells Oliver to a creepy and white trashy undertaker people, whom at one point, throws Oliver into a coffin then sits on it to stop him coming out. There’s of course those extras who don’t get singing lines but at least they dance! Sikes doesn’t dance either.

Oh and there’s the other stuff he does. Spoilers ahead (are spoiler warnings necessary for a movie that’s 40 years old based on a novel that’s 169 years old?).

Did I mention Sikes is incredibly violent? In one of the songs that Nancy, his girlfriend, sings, she says

“Though you sometimes do come by
The occasional black eye
You can always cover one
‘Til he blacks the other one
But you don’t dare cry. “

I totally missed that verse when I was a kid, but it horrifies me now how nonchalant and joyous she was singing about serious domestic violence.

Oh and the other thing. He kills Nancy at the end of the movie by clubbing her to death. I don’t mean the dancing-at-a-bar kind of clubbing either. To be fair, we don’t see it directly, but when it’s happening we watch Oliver watching it, we hear the sounds of her screaming and him killing her and we see Oliver squirming and being traumatised. Did I mention this movie was rated G and is considered a family movie?

People complain nowadays of kids watching violence on TV and what not, and how that never used to happen but I don’t think such acts would ever get a “G” rating these days.

In other news, I’ve finished my last University class last week. As in… no more Uni classes ever. After my next two assessments (one that I’m supposed to be doing right now) University should be officially over!