Sounds Like a Challenge to Me

Your task (well, OK, my task):

Pack for a 2 1/2 week vacation. You have the following constraints:

1. You must have attire, equipment, and other items required for the following tasks and events:
   
   
   • caring for your pet cats
   • time working in an office (I know, I know...just go with it)
   • time working at an animal shelter
   • apartment hunting
   • an out-of-town wedding
   • softball game(s)
   • staying at an air conditioned house
   • staying at a non-air conditioned house
   • staying at a hotel
     
   • at least three trips to a bar for various farewell parties
   • summer in Pittsburgh
   • two moving days
   • a four-day drive across the country, with cats
   • summer in Los Angeles
   • handling administrative tasks related to leaving a job, starting school, and moving with an uncertain forwarding address
   • the possibility that it will be more like a month-long vacation with law school classes


2. Everything you pack must fit in a small-sized sedan.


3. You cannot afford to eat out every meal.

And oh yeah...it's not really a vacation, so much as you just being homeless.

Best of luck!

Leda and Katie

One thing I have learned this year is that, while for most people summer means relaxing, warm weather, and fun, at an animal shelter summer is a very difficult season. In the first place, summer means kitten season. This is the beginning of the craziness, as there are kittens practically hanging from the rafters. If that were the end of it, it wouldn't be so bad--busy, yes, but kittens are pretty easy to find homes for. Everybody loves kittens.

But that's not the end of it. Summer also brings an increase in the adult cats that come in. Strays are out and about more, and are brought in. People drop off the backyard momma cat that just had kittens (rather than bringing the kittens in, and spaying/releasing the mom). People move, and the animals are hung out to dry. People just decide they're now simply too busy for their pet. At the shelter we are surrounded by loving, lovable, playful, active, healthy adult cats who did nothing wrong, but ended up with the short end of the stick.

Too often, it's heartbreaking. Recently, a pair of lifelong pals was brought in, Stonie and Ashes, aged 8 and 10. Their humans got divorced and neither wanted to keep them. They were both wonderful cats, healthy and affectionate. Then one morning, without warning, Stonie passed away in the cage that they shared. He was only eight years old, and in good health. He just didn't wake up. We can't prove it, but we really think Stonie died of a broken heart. And now Ashes is left at the shelter, having lost first her home and now her brother.

Every now and then, though, someone walks through the door and magic happens, and it gives you the heart and courage to keep working through the sadness.

The same day that we learned about Stonie, we also learned about Katie. She had been adopted previously but was returned to the shelter because she had been found to be diabetic. The shelter doesn't have the resources to care for a diabetic cat, so there were only 48 hours to find Katie a home before her sugar levels would reach a point that she would need to be put to sleep. It was quite a blow to volunteers who were already reeling from the news about Stonie, and the overall stress of the summer months.

Miraculously, it happened. A couple who already owned another diabetic cat and a three-legged dog saw a post that a volunteer had put on Craigslist. The next day they drove over an hour to come to Pittsburgh and pick Katie up, with vet appointments already lined up to get her the help that she needs. Absolutely breathtaking. I know more than one volunteer shed tears of joy and relief when we found out that Katie had been saved.

(Unfortunately, since then we have learned that we have another diabetic cat, Winston. His case is not quite as urgent, but his time at the shelter is limited unless we can find him a home.)

And, on a more personal level, I posted a while ago about Leda, who was passed up by adopter after adopter unable to recognize how loving she was because she was just so scared. I'm happy to say that on Monday Leda found a home. A woman had seen her at the store a few days earlier, and specifically wanted to adopt an older cat. The woman thought about it for a few days and came back to see her. I explained how Leda was so affectionate through the cage door, but she would be scared to come out, and very scared when she first went home. The woman understood, and was touched by poor Leda's shyness. Happily, she decided to give Leda a safe and loving home. We exchanged emails, and I am hoping to hear how Leda comes along. I don't have the satisfaction of showing Leda myself that she has nothing to fear anymore, but at least someone will.

Yahtzee

...or, "How a $130 Test Changed My Life".

So, I'm pretty sure that most people who read this blog know most of the story already, if not the entire thing, but I really feel the need to put up an actual post about the ridiculously insane past two weeks.

Every once in a while, life turns into a big game of Yahtzee. I'm not talking about breaking up with a significant other, or getting a new job. I'm talking about quietly sitting on a table, when suddenly someone scoops you up, shakes you around in a giant blue cup, and dumps you back out onto the table in an entirely different configuration than you were just in. (Hopefully metaphorically, but I suppose anything is possible.)

On the morning of Thursday, July 3rd, at around 10 a.m., I finalized the last piece of administrative stuff that I needed to do to arrange my move to Philly and attend Temple Law. The student loans and scholarships were lined up. Registration was complete. An apartment and roommate were found. The moving truck was reserved. Specific plans were entirely in place.

At around 2:00, I got the piece of news I referenced in my last post--my new LSAT score. In that post I said I wasn't sure if it would help with UCLA. Again, I have proven that I should not pursue work as a psychic.

After a few annoying meetings at work, at around 4:00 I sent an email to the Dean of Admissions at UCLA to let them know about my updated score. At about 5:30, I got an email back from him stating that they would review my file and be in touch. At about 7:30 that evening, I was on the phone with said Dean of Admissions, doing a phone interview. At about 8:45 that evening, I was back on the phone, receiving an offer of admission to UCLA, a scant 5 1/2 hours after getting my new LSAT score.

To be brutally honest, it was not an automatic decision for me. Here I had on one hand a path that was already all figured out, sorted out, arranged: a known entity which with I had been coming to terms for several months now. On the other hand, this entirely unknown path was suddenly plunked down in front of me: a much bigger move; much farther from my friends and family, and from the city that will always be home, regardless of whether I ever live here again; a much different culture and way of life; heck, even a much different climate.

Over the course of a few days, I began to swim through the mix of emotions that surrounded this decision. Not just the scary differences, but also the exciting ones. Being so much closer to LT. Going to a very highly ranked school. Going to a school with so much specialization and support for public interest work. And, I began to realize that the primary thing guiding my initial reaction was fear of the unknown. If this had happened even a few weeks earlier, before I had found an apartment in Philly, it would've been a no-brainer.

I began to think back to my original desire to go out there. The differences and unknowns were part of the attraction, the desire to experience something new. They weren't bad, they were good! And yes, I remembered the painful disappointment LT and I felt when we first learned that I had been waitlisted even at Loyola Marymount, and would most likely be staying east. LT was with me when I opened that envelope from Loyola. We didn't even make it into my apartment for a while, we just sat in the hallway hugging each other.

So I decided to accept UCLA's offer, and that is where I am headed. It is a decision with which I have become progressively more comfortable, and as plans and arrangements have begun to solidify, the fear surrounding it is slowly but surely fading, leaving the genuine excitement I would have felt if this had been the path I had been on all along.

Is that drippy saccharine sweet or what? Well hang on, now here is where the story just starts to get gaudy.

The one downside to UCLA was cost. Temple was going to be pretty cheap, both because it is a cheaper school, and because I received a partial scholarship. UCLA was going to be more. Not prohibitively more, but considerably more.

That is, until LAST Thursday, July 10th (Thursday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week), when I once again found myself on the phone with the Dean of Admissions at UCLA. This time I was being offered a giant bucket of merit scholarship money, in ADDITION to a much more modest need-based financial aid award. As a result, UCLA will probably cost less than Temple when all is said and done.

Seriously? This is the kind of crap that people write stories about. I mean, not specifically, because a story--even a short one--about emails and phone calls for law school admissions doesn't make for terribly gripping leisure reading. But you know what I mean. It is unreal.

So there you have it. I don't have everything exactly all lined up yet, but through some series of events my act is going to California to attend UCLA School of Law. Way back when I first started piecing together my plan of law school action, this was the ideal scenario I had envisioned. As events unfolded I got used to life with a different reality, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm still a little stunned that all the sudden, out of the blue, it actually happened.

And to top it all off, last Friday the Dean of Admissions at University of Virginia, ranked 10th in the country and which had also placed me on the waitlist, called and offered me a spot. I do have to wonder how many people who are offered a spot off the UVa waitlist actually turn them down.

Well Then...

Umm...

OK, so. Back in September I took the LSAT for the first time. I got a 162, which ranked in the 86th percentile, which was all very respectable, and all well and good. It wasn't enough to get me into the top schools on my list, but I got wait listed at UCLA and UVa, both very highly ranked schools, and got a scholarship offer from Temple.

While I was bummed that I didn't get into my top choice, UCLA, I had operated under the mistaken assumption that the September LSAT was the last one that would really do me any good for applications this year. I didn't realize until the enrollment deadlines had passed that the December, and even the February, dates could have been used.

After getting waitlisted at UCLA, I decided to retake the LSAT in June. I've since come to terms with going to Temple, and am looking forward to it, and see all the pluses it has (not the least of which is the MUCH lower tuition fee). But, it seemed worth the $130 exam fee to take another crack at it. And besides, there was also the minor issue of my pride, which wasn't too used to being in the 86th percentile. So I took the exam a few weeks ago, and while I felt good about it, I didn't have a good feel for just how well I had actually done--whether or not I did significantly better than the first time around.

Apparently, I should not pursue work as a psychic, because I just got my score today: 173, ranking in the 99th percentile.

I don't know if this will help with UCLA--seats off the waitlist are not a guarantee, even whether there will be openings. However, at least my pride is a little happier.