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Today is another Monday, and with it brings the end of June. For not doing a whole heck of a lot at work, the summer still seems terribly ephemeral. I've been mulling the events of the last week, and am trying to be as proactive as possible. I have an appointment with the Dean of Students tomorrow regarding my status at the school (her letter came with my transcript) and I hope she can give me some helpful advice. I trust her, as I have also had her as a professor. I'm not nearly as sad/mad/dejected as I was, time has helped put things into focus. So instead I leave you with some random thoughts.
1. I really enjoy the World Rally Championship. Something about tooling around at high speeds on really awful roads with a co-driver yelling what's coming up next seems really cool.
2. My house is a wreck and my in-laws are coming in two weeks (more or less).
3. I'm reading 4 books at once: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket, Krakatoa by Simon Winchester, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Why? Because unlike work, by doing this much reading on my own I feel like I'm accomplishing something. And, I like to read.
4. I'm not afraid of thunder and lightning. This is really good since I was woken up by said meterological event this morning at 4:45am. I am however afraid of needles, suspension bridges, and automatic car washes.
It's hard to be optimistic at a time like this, but this has become my mantra: "At least I'm going back..." I tell myself this numerous times a day. Yes, my grades came in. The envelope in my mailbox induced tremors in my hands, and also made it very hard to unlock the front door. I gave a passing thought to just sitting on the front steps and opening it, except it was terribly hot out and I didn't want my neighbors to see me cry. The magic 8-ball was correct, I did pass all my classes, and I am going back. Am I disappointed? Most definitely. Did I cry? Yes, and still having moments where I do. Could I have done more? I don't know how. I'm currently seeking guidance from the powers that be but it seems that many of my professors will not be available for meetings until the semester begins. I do give major props to my study posse. I believe that without our diligent efforts at the end of the semester I would not be saying I'm still a member of the class of 2005. Thirty of my fellow classmates won't. This is on top of the 30 people washed out at the end of the first semester.
I'm not sure the write-on (which in our school begins in approximately 2 weeks) is even a possibility for me. It wasn't made clear to what level the grades figure in to this competition, and it might not be in my best interest to invest the time necessary. That being said, it seems with my mediocrity this write-on may be my only shot at success. To sum up: I'm sad. I will be for some time. But I'm going back, and I think it's time to finally put the school sticker on my car.
Thanks to Sua Sponte for this link. She also has some great points on what you should and shouldn't do as a 1L. Go check it out.
[take the test] - [by krystaljungle.com]
After seeing the link on law.com for McSweeney's lists (namely one regarding Hardy Boys book titles and death metal records) I've been giggling my way through the rest of the lists. I particularly like Possible Follow-Up Songs for One-Hit Wonders.
Seems Mr. Orrin Hatch, the same senator who proposed the ability to fry a computer being used to perpetrate piracy is a bit of a software pirate himself. As my grandfather has always said, "People in stone houses shouldn't throw their glasses."
As you may or may not have noticed, I did not put in an entry about the affirmative action decision handed down yesterday. My reason for this is two fold. One, there are so many intelligent well spoken people out in the blog universe already commenting on it I wouldn't be able to hold a candle to those views; and two, this question/issue actually appeared in a slightly different form on my Con Law exam back in May, and I pretty much used up whatever good and in-depth discussion I had on that exam.
Ah Monday. Once upon a time I was a paralegal. When I was a paralegal I worked hand-in-hand with secretaries, and one in particular who was helpful and courteous. Once upon a time I was a secretary. It was a temporary summer gig, but I was courteous, helpful and well liked for my skill and proficiency. And now I'm a legal intern/law clerk. Call it egotism, call it braggadocio, but I thought this job would be a step up in the food chain. I heeded the advice to be nice and deferential to the support staff, and having been one I was. Where has this gotten me? I think the bottom fell out today when the secretary informed me via email (cc'd to my supervising attorney) that I was to do her filing for her, and to continue to do so for the rest of the summer. My attorney is out of the office currently, so no help there...and I had been helpful in the past and gotten her caught up once before. However, is this appropriate? True, I'm not exactly swamped with work right now, however I'm slightly taken aback by this.
From the "we don't need no steeeking law" department...seems that beginning July 1, if you're riding a motorcycle in Tennessee, you'll be able to run red lights. Couple this with the possibility of repealing the helmet law in Pennsylvania and the personal injury lawyers are just rubbing their hands together waiting for the mayhem.
Have you ever been set up to fail? My job, as of late has been nothing but this. I'm told enough to start a project, but key information is being left out on purpose. So, when I believe I've completed the project, I'm told of the additional information that I needed to know in order to do the project correctly. As a result, I have to retrace my steps and effectively redo the project. If this had happened only once or twice I'd chalk it up to insufficient directions to a new employee. However this pattern is getting worse. I find this rather upsetting, and I'm writing this here to keep from screaming out loud.
The cygnets are still swimming and I still haven't gotten my grades yet....aaaaagh! But instead of dwelling on this fact, I will actually try to be useful and write some words of wisdom for the incoming class of 2006.
1. Be nice. This is especially true for those of you going to smaller localized schools. While it might be fun to play the know-it-all pain in the ass, remember that chances are if you're going to become a lawyer in the area where the school is, so are many of your fellow students. These legal communities are rather small in size, and your reputation starts now, not when you graduate. If you plan on being cruel and knifing people during these three years, you best hope you're going to practice somewhere where they don't know you.
2. As it has been reiterated on other blogs, don't rush into getting a study group. I studied with one person most of the semester, only to have her fail out at the end of the semester and leaving me to my own devices. This semester I worked primarily on my own, but did find a couple of good friends with like minded goals with which to study come finals. Of course the grades will tell the tale, but we all felt good about what we did on the exams.
3. Revert to your mom's advice. Eat well, get some sleep, and wash your hands! Not to say I'm obsessive about cleanliness, but you'll be surprised what a den of germs and illness your section will turn into about the end of October. My first semester I ended up with bronchitis which bloomed into full blown pneumonia by mid-November. There is nothing worse for your grades than being perpetually clouded by powerful antibiotics and narcotic cough medicine. The important part of Torts for me was a blurry mess, and my exam showed it.
4. All in all, enjoy yourself. For all the pain and seeming torture you have set yourself up for, you too can become a good law student and a better lawyer. Don't let your self-doubt keep you from obtaining your dream. Good luck, and may the force be with you.
Big thanks to JD2B for my inclusion on his great website!
Thanks to effinchamp, I have found out I'm an african country. If I read this description in terms of law school it makes perfect sense.
You're South Africa!
After almost endless suffering, you've finally freed yourself from the oppression that somehow held you back. Now your diamond in the rough is shining through, and the world can accept you for who you really are. You were trying to show who you were to the world, but they weren't interested in helping you become that until it was almost too late. Suddenly you're a very hopeful person, even if you still have some troubles.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid
Nothing too terribly compelling going on here, the spouse and I are still constructing our IKEA purchases, but what's been done so far is looking lovely. On the work front, the swans in the front pond finally had their eggs hatch, so now they are all paddling around in the pond, Mom and Dad and two grey fluff balls. On the way in this morning I tried to think of what you call a baby swan. It's not a swanlet, and it's certainly not an ocelot. (For some reason the word ocelot got stuck in my head.) It's not a gosling, and not a chick. Wasn't I supposed to learn this in elementary school? Then again I call any group of animals a herd, regardless of what they are.
It's been brought to my attention by the fantastic Fragrant Lotus that my commenting pop-up hasn't been working lately. I think I now have it fixed and you all can comment to your heart's content. I would like to reiterate how thankful I am...and am also happy to find out that people were actually reading this, and not commenting due to technical difficulties rather than some shortcoming on the part of my posts. Thanks for the love!
Have I mentioned I love IKEA? I do. Problem is, the closest one is nearly 4 hours away. But that's okay. Because when the need to go to IKEA arises, it necessitates a road trip. And that's exactly what my spouse and I did yesterday...got up at the crack of dawn, jumped into a midsized automobile (has to be at least midsized in order to carry IKEA stuff) and drove to Conshohocken, PA to shop at one of the newest IKEAs. After 5 hours of shopping, a lovely meal of swedish meatballs, spending an obscene amount of money, and spending an additional hour trying to fit everything into the car, we turned around and drove the 5 hours back home. And you know what? We had fun, because that's what IKEA is all about. This isn't the first time we've done a pilgrimage to an IKEA and I doubt it'll be the last. And we will have cheaply priced funky contemporary scandanavian furniture as a result.
Yes, it's new, it's exciting (sorta), it's Screaming Bean Version 2.0! After I saw so many people change the look of their blogs, I thought I'd bang my head against a wall for about 4 hours and do it too. And yes, I did do it...and was nearly attacked by a big giant ant in the process, forcing me to flee and nearly throw my laptop. Yeah, I'm afraid of ants...but you should have seen this one, it was huge!
I know what you can get me as a present dear! You can get me the flu!
I feel like such a slacker now! And what did you do on your summer vacation? This college freshman created his own fake airline.
I can't believe I've already been working for 3 weeks. Where is this spring/summer going? Of course it doesn't seem like spring/summer since it rains nearly every day! I still haven't received my grades, and am living in abject fear as a result. But hey, I'm working and I'm getting paid. Can't see where this is a bad thing. I'm also getting to catch up on all my reading, so this is also good. Just read Pinstripes and Pearls by Judith Hope, and Broken Contract by Robert Kahlenberg. They're both about Harvard Law, to try to understand how the other half lives. Pinstripes was a great eye opening book about women in the law, but I found Broken Contract to be sort of churlish. Kahlenberg had gone to Harvard as an undergrad, so I see him having gone into law school somewhat aware of what he faced. He should have just gone to the Kennedy School instead of whining about his 3 years that gave him opportunities to interact with some of the best legal scholars in the country. I really had a hard time "feeling his pain." Thoughts? Any reading suggestions?
Atticus Finch has died.
Today is like every other day...slightly overcast, definite possibility of rain, and me trying to entertain myself. So I bring you my favorite timewaster. It's strangely addictive even though when you truly realize you're doing nothing of substance it doesn't deter you from doing even more. I bring you SegPlay! SegPlay is a fun use of your time in where you can fulfill your artistic side while wasting time like never before. I can't remember where I got this link from originally, it might have been a Lockergnome newsletter. So color to your hearts content, and remember, it's impossible to color outside the lines on this one.
I want to go to Las Vegas. I've been there before, and unlike my spouse, I really enjoyed it. My mother has watched the Travel Channel a bit, and she in particular wants to go to Bellagio to see the Christmas decorations. So I'm thinking, what a way to get around another batch of finals than to go to Las Vegas and stay at Bellagio. I went to their page this morning...and now I really want to go.
How best to tell someone off...last summer I was looking for temporary legal work either as a paralegal or a legal secretary, and had signed up with three different placement agencies in the area. I got blown off by two of them, and actually got a decent position from the third. Mind you, this was last summer. Anyway, when I came home from work tonight there's a message on the answering machine from one of the other two agencies. Seems they have a litigation paralegal position for me, and they want me to give them a call...and if I'm not interested to give them a referral for some other poor schlub. First instinct was to call this person back and tell her a year is too long between phone calls and to go climb back under her rock, but being a possible lawyer in the community someday I'm thinking that perhaps this isn't the best tactic, and that I should go about it differently. Thoughts?
I have this theory that when you go and buy a minivan, part of the contract is that you must give up a few points of your IQ. And, if you put a "my child is an honor student" sticker on this minivan, that IQ loss is multiplied by a factor of 3. For every 10 incidents I have on the road driving to and from work, at least 7 of them involve a minivan. And so ends my rant for the day. Thanks for listening.
It's always fun to see what brings people to your blog. And these days it seems to be alpacas. So for all you people out there looking for alpacas...llama, alpaca, love your llama, alpacas always, llama llama ding dong.
Screaming Bean A
shocking number of the proxy
police might come
and they were good.
job in my picture and a good
job in Times Square,
here Screaming Bean
A hermaphrodite of blogging.
So what... what what what does it
addicted to have to keep
that one for eh?
9:36 And a shocking
number of Attorneys to wrap presents for
instance, we have to normal...swan activities, but
you go.
Courtesy the amazing poem generator
And no, I'm not a hermaphrodite.
What does it mean when your grades start appearing in your nightmares? I got woken out of a sound sleep at 6 am Saturday morning by a dream about getting my grades. I had dreamed that I failed courses I hadn't even taken, and that my gpa was a resounding 0.36. And I supposedly won't see my grades for a couple more weeks. I don't know if I can handle this.
My heart just isn't in working today...it's actually sunny outside for once, and I can't hold a train of thought more than about 30 seconds. I'm thinking I'm going to have to call it a day and head home early. And anyway, I have to wrap presents for my spouse's birthday. I do think I did a good job in my purchases, but we shall see.
Fragrant Lotus has posted the return of IA (formerly of Attorneys Suck) to the ranks of blogging. So go check out patent pending!
In case you wanted to know more about the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, here you go.
And now for something totally different...something interesting about my workplace is the plethora of waterfowl on our property. For instance, we have a pair of nesting swans outside the front door. The swans give me a surprising amount of entertainment during the day, not for normal swan activities, but for the male's insistence of keeping his space geese free. We have a shocking number of Canadian Geese in this part of the world, and they seem to congregate where ever there is water. And when there are geese inside his space, he gets impertinent. He fluffs himself up and charges across the water like a jet ski to scare them away. So, the geese keep their distance but have decided that this is a cool place to hang. I met three of them just off the path from the parking lot this morning, pretending not to be there, just playing it cool, until I approached. And I got hissed at! Punks! That's what they are!
My Bloginality is ISTP!!!
My apologies for being so lax in postings. Started my new job last week and was afraid that the proxy police might come and nab me for lurking and posting on blogs. Job is rather interesting, think I made the right choice is working for an in-house counsel for the summer. I get to do all sorts of interesting projects, including harkening back to my health law days and working on a HIPAA policy. And here I thought I could forget that stuff. Been reading actual books for a change, and how refreshing it is to actually entertain myself with my reading selections. One book too good not to mention, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Outstanding book involving a hermaphrodite of all things. And to prove I'm actually a law student...snicker snicker, picked up and read Legally Blonde. I liked the movie, and the book was better. Yeah, so what...that's what the summer is for, reading whatever I want!
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