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It's the time of year where people are wearing suits to school left and right. Some wear the suits for interviews, some wear the suits for class labs in Trial Tactics or Witness Examination. I am not one of these people. Most days I feel like a slob. At least I have an excuse to wear my thong sandals since I'm healing up the backs of my heels from the weekend. Still, I feel a bit morose and disappointed that I haven't gotten an interview yet. I know I have skills but with my grades it doesn't matter. I'm not sure I could explain them if I did get an interview. Ah well, I guess the next best thing to do is to throw myself into the Moot Court competition. I may not be on a journal, but it doesn't mean I'm a total loser. Well maybe I'm a minor loser, but I make the rest of the class look good.
Have to enjoy a week that starts off with a power outage. Scarily enough I woke up on my own way before I had to, realized that there was a power outage and was able to deal with it by eating a donut. Having had no true weekend, the brain was in denial that it was actually Monday and refused to concentrate on anything beyond simple statements. My notes show it. I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day.
Sorry to leave you all hanging last week. I had business out of town to attend to and left at the buttcrack of dawn Friday (which makes me wonder...what happened Thursday?). How sad is it when you have to pack a law book and highlighters when leaving town for a weekend. Highlights? A lovely dinner with my spouse at a trendy restaurant with an expensive trendy drink menu. And yes, I had one and felt mildly trendy. Spent one night in a hotel with a fabulous view with my spouse. Lowlights? Spent one night without my spouse in a trendy hotel with a trendy lobby and teeny tiny rooms. Trucked my butt around town lugging way too much stuff in shoes which blistered my feet in three spots. I'm home now and this is good. I'm not standing on my blistered feet, also good. Spouse and I are back in the same spot...very very good.
Can I admit to liking classes without being some sort of sycophant? Now I'm not the type of person to gush about the academic hyperbole that is usually served up in my courses, especially last year, but this year I might actually be learning things. Don't jump to the conclusion that I enjoy every minute of every day here and that I live for discourse that goes on in each of my classes, far from it. In fact, there a couple classes I could happily do without. However, there are actually 3 classes this semester I'm flat out enjoying, and one which isn't particularly bad to go to. From me this is high praise indeed. I've been bold enough to participate in a class more than once without the pain inflicted by being sought out by the professor. My Legal Research course, unlike last year, is one of the best classes I've been to, including my undergrad years. I've learned more in that class in two sessions than I learned in a full year of legal research and writing. The professor is the research librarian here, and the man is brilliant. He's a wealth of knowledge both useful and not so useful but cool to know. I learned more in 20 minutes about Canada than I ever knew before, and I watch News World International. So what does this make me anyway?
I think I'm too tired to care. Yeah, so I got all screwed up and overslept over the weekend, but I also had to get up early to take the spouse to the courthouse for jury duty. He had never been called before, and neither have I (knock on wood). It just has made for a terribly long day, and I currently have the ambition of a tree sloth. You should be lucky I wrote this much. I need to sleep.
Wow, Howard Bashman came back from vacation and I'm overwhelmed with the stories I missed reading! For instance, it seems that Abercrombie and Fitch's Hollister chain owns the number 22. To prove their common-law rights to this number, they're suing American Eagle. I think I should line up now and claim number 17. I've always liked 17. I may have to sue Matt Kenseth for rights, but I can't talk about that...it's NASCAR-related and would be unbecoming a possible attorney. Just suffice it to say...17 is mine, and you heard it here first.
The new school year, time to procrastinate by looking for study aids. Unlike the standard set of Gilberts that serve for all 1Ls, you are sort of on your own in your second and third years, especially if you're taking classes slightly off the beaten path. This semester I don't feel the need to buy every and all aids created for each of my classes. In fact, I don't think I need them for most of my classes. The one I do feel I need one for is Administrative Law (which I also feel the need to mispell every third time I type it). We were informed what an appropriate treatise is for the class, but I don't see myself sitting down and reading a treatise. I'm not nearly high-minded enough for a treatise. I barely rise to hornbook status most days. Instead, I decided to spring for the E&E for Admin Law. I'm thinking that if I can swallow a few examples and explanations perhaps I can muddle through the book. On the outside it doesn't seem to be a difficult course, but the inclass discussion makes me either sit slack jawed not understanding what's going on, or worse, slack jawed with the distinct possibility of impending narcolepsy.
Well, this is the first friday of my 2L year and just like I had dreamed it would be, it was without classes. Did I do reading? Did I increase my knowledge of law? No. I did laundry. I made dinner. And while I've heard that this is the year they work you to death...and I have been doing a ton of work, this year is going to be good. Because I can do laundry and make dinner and still be a human being.
I would like to apologize to those who took offense to my relegating all 1Ls to the second circle of hell earlier. I was being overinclusive and have since edited it down to those 1Ls at my school. I realize the rest of you are in your own circle of hell right now and really do not need to be in mine. I'd like to thank Katherine for bring me to this realization.
General asshats
Circle I Limbo 1Ls at my school
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind Minivan Drivers
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow Elderly Drivers
Circle IV Rolling Weights Rednecks
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled River Styx Parents who bring squalling brats to every restaurant I go to
Circle VI Buried for Eternity River Phlegyas Republicans
Circle VII Burning Sands George W. Bush
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement John Ashcroft
Circle IX Frozen in Ice Design your own hell
SPOILER ALERT: My mother informed me the other day that the plot line from the Audioslave video "Show Me How To Live" is taken directly from the movie Vanishing Point. I guess I don't have to watch the movie now.
From the "You thought you were done with school once you graduated department..."
Judge Stephen Orlofsky of the U.S. District Court sanctioned a NJ lawyer whose amended complaint was "...organized and drafted so poorly that it is often difficult to comprehend." His shortcomings in his writing are not hard to understand, but his penalty wasn't the normal fees but rather to take courses in federal practice and procedure, professionalism and legal ethics. Seems that his incompetence rose to the level of failure to be well grounded in fact and law. There's a moral in this story for you 1L's. Pay attention in Civ Pro! Rule 11 is real!
Today was an interesting day. Went to the Registrar to drop the Trusts and Estates, she took my form, looked at it and said, "Big surprise." So I guess I'm not the only one not keen on the idea of taking this course this semester. Also, a good friend who I ran into today on campus told me I looked relaxed. I was surprised by this but then got to thinking about it, I've got the reading in hand, the class schedule is settled, and I found out the library carols are wired for my laptop now. I guess I have a reason to look relaxed. Life is pretty good. Things are in control (for now). And people are being friendly like never before. I'm sure that's short lived as well. Either way, I guess it's good to be back after all.
You can scare people if you tell them you're currently carrying 19 credits. You get a look that combines derision, abject fear, and awe. Yeah, I sat through four classes back to back today. It's an ego thing...yeah that's it. Notwithstanding the classes I sit through tomorrow, it looks like I'll probably be going to with Privacy Law over Trusts and Estates. I do think I will enjoy the course when I do take it, but not with the professor that's teaching this semester. I do learn under the "bataan death march" style of teaching, but on top of the other classes I'm taking it doesn't seem worth the effort. That and the class is over 100 students right now, while Privacy is around 20. And now, back to my reading. *wave*
The first day of school...the gunners still gunning, me still trying to concentrate instead of checking my email. It's like nothing has changed. Haven't made decisions on which class to drop, since I haven't gone to them all yet, but as it stands right now Trusts and Estates seems scary. The rumor after class was we think the professor only breathed twice during the lecture. No syllabus and It's as close to Paper Chase as I've ever seen this school, short of making people stand and deliver. Did I mention we have to read Bleak House? Only to have it come up on the final exam, not to discuss in class. I'm thinking, "Do they make Monarch/Spark/Cliff Notes for this?" But we'll see....
The sun is going down on my last day of freedom and what do I have to show for it? A clean house and a newly purchased chair mat. Oh, and did I mention the stretchy book cover with the built in bookmark? I must say I do enjoy the book covers. And now, since I've procrastinated this long...I will now begin my reading for tomorrow's classes. But I think I need some food first. Heh.
Well I've tried to give myself a RSS feed so I can jump on the aggregator bandwagon. I hope it works. We'll see what happens. If it goes horribly wrong or isn't working at all I may just give up the ghost until a break in school. You know, the day before classes begin is a great time for this.
Y'know how I can tell that school is about to start? I go on a cleaning binge. Perhaps it is a form of procrastination, perhaps it's a need to be neat and tidy going into a school year. I don't know, but this house is going to look great before classes start Monday.
On an unrelated note, I have found that automated touchless car washes allow me to wash my car without invoking any sort of fear of carwashes. As I mentioned awhile back, carwashes are one of my odder phobias. In particular, the type of car washes in which you ride inside your car on a track make me terribly fearful. This fear has been with me since I was a small child, and being a driver makes no difference, in fact I think it makes it worse. A touchless car wash I sit still, and while it might be mildly claustrophobic it works well and gets the car clean. To make it a better experience, bring a snack! I had an egg mcmuffin while sitting in the car wash this morning.
I believe I'm in denial. Classes start Monday, and I'm not facing it well. I had been gungho about it all, but it has fizzled. I did go to school today to finish buying books, so perhaps this event is related. Being smarter than the average bear, I brought my own bag to lug the extra weight back to the car after dropping off a couple of books in my locker. Ah, the beauty of picking one's own locker. I also found my schedule in my mailbox and found that I was let in to all the classes I'd added, so I'm now facing a dilemma of which class to drop. 19 credits ain't happening. They rearranged the mailboxes based on dropouts and transfers and messed with my sense of order profoundly. I also goggled at the incoming 1Ls. They seem particularly obnoxious and not nearly as deferential as 1Ls should be. You're 1Ls dammit, grovel before me now! I know I was deferential...not that it got me anywhere, but it seemed appropriate. I did not opt to become a 2L peer for an incoming. I didn't have a peer since I was seemingly left off the list until the last possible moment, when someone gave me a perfunctory phone call and proceeded to have nothing to do with me for the rest of the year. Call me petty, but I don't think it's the best thing for me to poison the mind of a malleable law student...I'm jaded enough as it is. Did I mention I really don't want to go back?
I just got back from a small vacation, and I'd like to give a tad bit of advice to those out there who think that a quick 4 or 5 day trip away from home between a summer job and the first week of classes is a good idea. It isn't. While the experience was great, and I got plenty of sun, surf and fun, it has definitely put me out of the loop. I came home to 160 emails on my standard account, and nearly 40 on my school email account, most of which I needed to read and/or respond to. Of course, the fact that I took a job 2 days before leaving did not help. Another bit of advice comes to mind, if you take a job on short notice from an employer and have a trip planned, do not feel guilty about going. The employer will understand. I did have the presence of mind to give myself a day or two to get back in the swing, and probably by tomorrow afternoon I'll have everything back under control. Right now though I feel as if I'm running a race already and the semester hasn't even started. Time to break out the Palm and get organized!
The spouse and I went to dinner at a chain restaurant that was supposedly founded in Boston. The menu is rather wide ranging but has a heavy reliance on seafood. We ordered up a platter of various fried sea creatures, and when it was brought to the table we asked for tartar sauce and cocktail sauce. We were informed that this restaurant does not have cocktail sauce. We must have had some sort of look of incredulity because the waitress continued that, "People in Massachusetts only use tartar sauce, so we don't stock cocktail sauce here." And with that statement she left the table. Now I can see only stocking New England Clam Chowder, or spelling scrod as schrod on their menu, but no cocktail sauce? I know I've had cocktail sauce in Maine, and that's about as New England as it gets. Anyone in Massachusetts care to verify this?
Turns out I ended up at home last night. Plans fell through due to the blackout and I think it's just as well. I leave for vacation tomorrow and with the additional trip leading up to it, I wouldn't have had time to do laundry or those mundane things you do before you leave on a trip. Suntan lotion...check! Toothbrush...check! And to think, when I get back it'll be 4 days until the carousel known as law school begins anew. Where did the summer go?
Last day at work...after yesterday, rather anticlimactic. I had a lot of things happen yesterday outside of the power outage, and they're still going on today. On the one hand, I was finally able to get some money from a working ATM, put some badly needed gas in my car, stop for breakfast, and still beat the rest of my department into work. On the other hand, my travel plans are in total limbo and I have no idea where I'm going to be tonight. But never fear, it's all business not personal...the spouse and I still love each other very much. I would also like to thank Taco Bell for being a beacon of light and tacos in the darkness of last night.
The question of the moment is "Where were you when the power went out?" Me, I was in my car. It's amazing what people will do when faced with no traffic lights. It's coming back in fits and spurts, which is why I'm back blogging now. This has put big kinks in my plans for this evening, which included stopping at the bank, mailing a half.com order, getting gas, and doing laundry. I'm glad to hear it's not anything too horrible...reading science fiction for so many years gave me a full list of possibilities, first of which made me think of all things, EM pulse. Then it dawned on me that I was still driving and the radio station was still on. Sometimes imagination is an awful thing. Hope all is as good as it can be given the circumstances and that your power comes back too.
Have I mentioned that the song Satisfaction by Benny Benassi has to be the most annoying song ever? It is.
According to The Neal Pollack Invasion, tomorrow August 15 is Fair and Balanced day on the internet. Use this day to be as fair and balanced as you want. Use the slogan here there and everywhere. And if you happen to be scratching your head right now trying to figure out why I'd want to be fair and balanced, see this lawsuit.
According to Michael T. Reynvaan, I should not discuss on my blog NASCAR or other interests that would seem unlawerly. He thinks it might not be professional as an attorney to have such interests, but instead speak about bridge, marathon training, or sailing. (Thanks to Bag and Baggage for the link.) As a result I will also refrain from speaking about rodeos, tractor pulls, dirt track racing, demolition derbies, or farming. I wouldn't want my prospective clients to misjudge me. None of my clients could ever have similar interests, right?
Dinner found us at a food festival tonight. Gotta love a place where you can have bauernwurst, jamaican beef patties and strawberry filled crepes in the same meal. Mmmm...
Here's hoping the day has found you without the fallout from the LoveSan virus. While my home computers are safe and clean, the same cannot be said of work. In fact, I started the day with having to sit through a forced update script by the IT department which had a number of pop up errors..."Yes I know I don't have XP...Yes I know I don't have 2000..." However, in the aftermath of the script I seem to have gained some really annoying adware. I can't find it on my local drive with AdAware, but it's residing somewhere. I gain two or three popups with every new page on Yahoo. Not just the little innocuous ones either, but the ones that pop up and say, "Hey, you should install this...click yes and it will be done!" So far I've gotten them for Gator, WeatherCast, and Speed Blaster, and that's without leaving Yahoo. And did I mention the extra "click" I hear when I click a link? No I'm not paranoid, it's there. Something is tracking me. I'm very intune with my computers, and I know when something is up...even if the Help Desk is ignoring me.
I believe I have finally figured out who in this office whistles incessantly. It's not that I don't like whistling, but when you sound like a tone deaf finch it can be trying on one's nerves.
Happy Birthday Fidel!
I got my teeth cleaned today! See!
From the "Just when you thought it was safe..." department
Seems the blob that threatened Little Egg Harbor Township, NJ is no more, they chopped it up with a motorboat when capturing it in a net proved futile. My favorite part is that now that they've chopped it up, it could return, just like a bad B-movie. Quoted from the NYT article, "We don't really know what happened to it," said Neil Brooks, who helped his son Matthew paint a sign pointing blob-seeking tourists to another part of town. "There might be `Son of Blob,' `The Blob Returns' or `Baby Blob.' "
Ah, last week of work. Can't say I've set the corporate world on fire, it's not even the least bit singed by my presence, but I hope I've learned something from this experience. Got to have dinner with a good friend of mine with whom I used to work, she's still debating on whether she wants to go to law school. She did get in to where I go, but decided on deferring for the year. I can't really press her into going, since I'm not sure it's a good decision for her. I'm hoping a year (or at least a few more months) might give her impetus to make a decision for a career path.
Ah, the RIAA may see the FRCP as a "minor procedural issue," but U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro is going to make them adhere to it.
After reading Jeremy's ponderings about having to buy a suit I have to interject the total inequity of interview clothing. See I went to a seminar last year as a 1L in which we were told about appropriate interview attitude and clothing. The seminar was being done by a very slim woman who had been part of HR at a top caliber NYC firm. She made a comment which irked me and still irks me. "For those women who feel it necessary to ask me whether it's appropriate to wear a pant suit to an interview, I have to say, if you have to ask then you shouldn't." What exactly does that mean? She also went on to say that as a woman wearing a pant suit you would be immediately struck inadequate when facing another woman in an interview. What she failed to grasp was perhaps I look better in a pant suit. Perhaps I feel more confident if I do not have to worry about my pantyhose and my fat knees. And I did buy a pant suit, wore it last year, and when I did I got a half dozen compliments from both men and women in my class about the look. But to see the sycophants in my class who bought into everything she said and went about in ill fitting skirt suits looking like black shrink wrapped sausages, is that the image you want to portray to the interviewer? Look good, feel confident...if that means wearing fuschia, go for it! And oh, Jeremy? I'm thinking a dark charcoal grey with a small thin pinstripe.
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