So, suddenly I was working full time and taking classes at night four days a week. I was petrified that I was going to flunk out and I studied every spare second I had. Seattle University, where I went to law school, has an initial course, Criminal Law, offered in the summer just prior to the beginning of the school year so you can kind of “ease” your way into law school with just one class. Partway through I was wondering what the heck I’d been thinking. I was overworked and exhausted with one class, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like in the fall when I started with four classes. I studied harder than I’d studied for anything in my life. When I wasn’t working I was reading all of the cases assigned and briefing every single case. I had an entire notebook of briefs after that class ended. When I took the final I was petrified that I’d failed it. I learned later I’d gotten a B-. I was thrilled I hadn’t failed but depressed that after all of that study I’d gotten such a low grade. In the fall things got even crazier. Alex was just starting 6th grade and I would leave work, drive ten miles south to Federal Way to pick her up from school, then take her twenty miles north with me to Seattle for class. She spent pretty much her entire sixth grade school year doing her homework in the little cafeteria area called the “Sidebar” while I was in class.
In our union contract it said that management would do their best to accommodate anyone’s schedule who was going to school outside of work. In reality though, this meant nothing Because I couldn’t affect anyone else’s schedule mine couldn’t really change, so I was responsible for finding someone to swap with me every Thursday so I could work a day shift and have Thursday nights free to go to classes. I was a basket case every week trying to find someone to swap. Luckily, I had a co-worker, Jason, who wanted to work on Thursday evenings because it worked better for his schedule so he would swap with me whenever he was scheduled a day shift on Thursday. When his schedule was already a day shift though, I had to go begging. So, the next time the bid for the schedule came up I changed my days off to Wednesday Thursday even though I loved Tuesday Wednesday days off and the crew that worked that shift. I just didn’t need the extra stress. Once the schedule changed I no longer had to worry about swapping into a different shift every week, unless we got an abnormal schedule, so I could mainly focus on just trying to get everything done. That same co-worker became my Supervisor shortly after I started law school and he was so helpful to me. He got me as much study time as he could while I was working, and my coworkers were so helpful to me.
During this time I was pretty heavy and the crazy schedule certainly didn’t help. I had no time for exercise and I was doing a lot of sitting because of all of the studying. Plus my mealtimes were all over the place. I was going to turn 50 in September of 2010 and I started planning a gala party for that event. I needed something to look forward to other than just studying and working all the time. So, I worked on losing weight because I wanted to look good for my party. At this point I can’t even remember all the different diets I was on. I know I did the Jorge Cruz diet for a while, restricting my sugar intake. I also went back on Medifast for a while and lost 30 or 40 pounds, but I was still at least 40 pounds from where I wanted to be for my party. It had been three years since my relationship had broken up and I was actually starting to have an interest in men again, although as busy as I was I didn’t really have the time for men. I had daydreams about getting down to my goal weight and looking hot for my birthday party and feeling good enough about myself to try meeting someone new. But realistically, there was no way I had the time for a relationship.
The party was a huge success. Why wouldn’t it be? There was delicious catered food and an open bar and music and karaoke. But the evening came and went quickly and then all I was left with was the bill and lots of left over food and booze. I worked my way through the leftover food with the help from people at work and my family, but I ate a lot of it myself. It took me a bit longer to work my way through the leftover booze, but it was all gone within about six months I think. And I was heading right back up the scale.
In my 2L year in law school I was feeling a bit more confident as a student because my grades were a little better, but still not incredible. But I felt confident enough to take on some extra responsibilities. And me being me, of course I couldn’t just take on one thing. So, I ended up being the Union Rep again at work as well as the Tower Legislative Rep and the Regional Workers Comp Rep. Then at school I finally got onto the Dispute Resolution Board and I became the evening Student Rep for the Student Bar Association and Co-president of the Labor and Employment Law Association. As the Evening Student Rep, I and some former reps started the Evening Student Council to talk about issues affecting evening law students. I also did a Mediation clinic where I had to have office hours during the week and participate in two day long mediations of discrimination lawsuits. I was spinning like a top and refused to admit that it was too much.
But whatever my brain refused to admit, my body had no trouble giving in to. I was packing on the pounds like there was no tomorrow. By the time I was in my last year of law school I was exhausted, my neck was in constant pain from the tight muscles, and I seemed to never get a full night’s sleep. I was relatively certain that I probably had sleep apnea, but I knew getting tested for it would mean that I was out of work for at least six weeks while I went through the treatment and I couldn’t afford the change in schedule or the loss of any income. I do remember each night as I drove home on the highway wondering if I would survive until graduation.