I survived the Bar Exam -- barely. Saturday night I began running a fever, which hovered around 101 for the next three days. Sunday found me in bed all day, surrounded by tissues, books and paper. The Mister, who works from home, was in his office coughing all day, to which I responded with the world's loudest sneezes. Not that we're competitive or anything. I felt like crap and was totally terrified because I had so much to cram in my head. Monday I managed to study in the living room, curled up in the overstuffed chair that has become The Study Chair over the past two months. The Puppy steals my seat in The Study Chair whenever I get up. So I sit on the couch. He dashes over to join me and I zip back over to The Chair. It's a game we play, but a bit tiring when one is beginning to cough one's head off. The Mister graciously went shopping for the exam supplies I urgently needed: pens (black ink), #2 pencils, a good eraser, bags of cough drops, tissue packets, and candy for those low blood sugar moments.
Because the exam was being held at a hotel at the airport (why?!), which involves a good half hour of freeway driving, I took a room at the hotel Monday and Tuesday nights. It probably wouldn't have been necessary if I were feeling well, but I was soooooo grateful to have that bed to crash on at the lunch break and after the first day of testing. Not to mention that, despite coughing every 10 minutes all night long (the kind of coughing that makes your knees jerk up towards your head and your stomach muscles ache for days afterwards), I probably got more sleep than I would have if the cats were crawling on my head all night like they usually do. Oh, and did I mention room service? Yes, the hotel was definitely a good call.
Yesterday was the written essay portion of the exam and it just sucked. Nothing good about it that I recall. My fever was still lingering around the edges, and I nearly threw up before the lunch break from stress and low blood sugar, so god only knows what I wrote. I remember panicking a few times, which is not like me. They had the unmitigated gall to test us on Civil Procedure, my Very Worst Topic. I was wishing and wishing for a Tax question (and I don't like tax!) but nooooo. I was super ready for a Secured Transactions question. Not a one. Wills and Trusts? Nope. Just nasty old Civ Pro, and a particularly obscure corner of the topic, at that. Bastards.
Today was all multiple choice, which was much better, because at least I knew that all the answers were on the page somewhere! I felt incredibly sorry for all of the folks around me who had to witness the monstrous quantities of loud wet coughing and non-stop noseblowing from my direction. I went through 4 tissue packets in two days, and that doesn't count the box of the hotel's tissues that disappeared during lunch and evening breaks. I'm sure they thought I had the plague.
Results will come out in April sometime. It's like the 2WW on steroids.
We now return you to your regular IF programming.
congrats on finishing the bar! in california it's 3 full days, ugh! sorry you were sick, that really sucks. hope you have time to recover from everything now. ~luna
Posted by: luna | February 27, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Congratulations -- given the circumstances, it's amazing you made it through. But knowing you, I'm sure you did brilliantly. Now take some time to take care of yourself! :-)
Posted by: Aegina | February 28, 2008 at 12:03 AM
Room service....yum. Definitely a good call.
Congrats on surviving the exam.
Posted by: BrooklynGirl | February 28, 2008 at 07:48 AM
Congrats on getting through it, and sure do hope you're feeling better!
Posted by: Sherry | February 28, 2008 at 10:33 AM
This is the point when you promise yourself that you'll never even think about moving to a state without reciprocity (or change career paths which would require standardized tests). You made it through, congratulations. Now you can take some serious left over pain medicine and sleep for a few days!!
Posted by: melanie | February 28, 2008 at 03:13 PM