divine angst

And it’s another All Request Weekend post.

C asks, “How do you manage with having (what I imagine to be because it is for my husband and I) such a different schedule from your husband’s? Do you try to treat law school like a job so you’re around when he’s home?”

So, for starters, Mr. Angst is also in school, which has it’s plusses and its minuses. The plusses are that both of us are more or less on the same academic calendar, at least in the fall, and so we tend to be very considerate of one another when things get busy or stressful. Also, because his classes are at night and mine are during the day, we can pretty much work it so the dog is only alone for about six hours a day, total. (That’s THIS semester’s schedule. No clue how next semester is going to work.)

The minuses are that he is in class at night, which means I don’t see him three nights a week. Other minuses include that he is on quarters, so the spring gets really funky when he’s got exams during my spring break, etc. The last big minus is that neither of us is working more than a few hours a week, so we are broke.

I had always intended to treat law school like a job–the 8-to-5 thing–and have more or less been able to do that. More or less. This year it’s more difficult. I am actually on campus from about 9:30 to 4 three days a week, but all of that time is packed full, so I don’t necessarily get a lot done in terms of reading, paper writing, etc. I have to rush around to the library to pick up printouts, check out books, do source-and-cite assignments, all within about a one hour window each day that I’m on campus. So that sort of sucks about this semester. And it’s basically that way because I’m just really oversubscribed with stuff. Thankfully, I’m done with my interviewing (but that’s another post), so the end of my week has really opened up since I don’t have callbacks to schedule. Of course, I do have hours to do for my judge, so it’s not like I have two free days a week or anything.

That’s a lot of detail to answer a pretty simple question, so I guess the pretty simple answer is that we manage the best we can. This semester–and I think year–are going to be much harder than last year. Mr. Angst’s classes are getting more difficult as he nears the end of his degree program, my schedule as a 2L is completely insane, and–oh, yes–we got a dog this summer. All of those things at once means we are stretched really thin. So we’re just trying to hold on and get through it, and not lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. Life has its ups and downs lately, more so than ever before, I think. But we’re coping.