divine angst

Sorry (again) for the dearth of good posting lately. I’m working on something sort of meaty for Blawg Review’s Back-to-School Edition (which will be hosted over at Blawg Wisdom) so expect that hopefully by tomorrow evening. Of course, I’m also swamped with school stuff—not just reading, but also this book sale thing. How I managed to get myself on a committee in an organization so fast is really beyond me. Thankfully, we finished our current obligations today so I won’t have THAT hanging over me anymore.

Of course, I do have other things hanging over me—namely things I don’t quite grasp yet or that, at least, have my head swimming. Like calculating damages under expectation interest. Or Gomez v. Toledo. I don’t have those classes again till Tuesday, though, so I can start thinking about Torts instead! Which I haven’t had—and I don’t really know anything about the professor yet! Hooray!

I know, I know, I sound cynical and pissy already! Really, I am enjoying things so far, I just focused (I think) on the wrong class this week. I spent a lot of time going over the Hairy Hand case for Contracts (and the other cases we read on expectation interest) and didn’t spend nearly as much time carefully going over the stuff we were assigned in Civ Pro. Unfortunately, Prof. Civ Pro seems to have higher expectations than Prof. Contracts—or, at least, pushes harder when questioning.

OK. There’s what I’m feeling right now. I don’t want to go into too much more depth, because that might eat into my meatier, upcoming post. The gist, though, goes something like this: law school is fun and exciting but my head is sort of swimming right now. I expect that is normal.

Day 2. It’s over. I said one good thing in one class and one borderline dumb thing in another. Ah well. Humility is a good thing. Also, the real gunners are starting to show themselves. There are about three people who say something in every class, whether they should or not. (OK, to be fair, I haven’t seen any evidence of true gunnership yet; but there is a nice distribution of very chatty folks, less chatty folks, and non-talkers.)

Mr. Angst and I also found a lovely Italian restaurant tonight. A little bit of a hike (not in distance, but in the various public transportation options we had to use to get there—unfortunately, not in a great walking area).

I know, I know, my blogging is getting really dull. I’m still trying to figure out my schedule and get enough rest and remember to make a lunch in the morning. Hopefully I can get to blogging about substantive stuff soon.

It’s about damn time.

subscription required, I’m afraid.

Day 1 complete!

First: I refrained from talking in class for the rest of the day.

Prof. Crim Law announces the students on the hotseat for the week, so she got right into working with those folks today, leaving no opening for me to say anything (except when she couldn’t remember the name of the woman in Texas who drowned her five children and whose insanity plea failed). Even when I pitched in the name, I was joined by several other students. So that doesn’t count.

Prof. Civ Pro lectured the entire time but for a brief Socratic interlude and I was nowhere near his line of sight, so I had no chance to talk in there, either.

For a number of reasons, I think Contracts is the class that will make or break me. It’s first in the day and my built-in self-check system isn’t really awake yet. It’s also the only one in which we are currently reading and briefing cases (though that won’t last long. We’re still covering the general theories and such in Crim; Civ Pro today was all about the general structure of the courts and how he’ll conduct the class. Those will quickly progress, I think).

The first day, then, is over. I have experienced my Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule. And I think it’s going to be OK. Each of my professors seems human (whew!), each seems to have a sense of humor (double whew!), and each seems terribly competent to teach his or her subject. (Most particularly Prof. Crim and Prof. Civ Pro. Those two are scary sharp.) Torts isn’t till Thursday, so I’ll have more to report then.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have dinner to eat and a couple hundred pages to get to.

I’ve converted a few people to book cutting. Huzzah!

Today is the official first day of school. I think I have already spoken too much in class. I’ve filled my daily quota, so I am not allowed to talk in Crim, which I have in about 50 minutes.

I’m a talker, despite being a little shy, so this is going to be difficult. I think it’s more important, though, that I learn to keep my mouth shut and listen to what other people are saying than raise my hand if I’m not going to contribute anything worthwhile.

Also, I need to not try and figure out what’s going on in New Orleans while I’m in class. It just eats my battery life and distracts me from what my prof is saying.

Whoever told Aaron Brown to pronounce the name of the capital of Louisiana as “baTONNE rouge” should be shot.

Just because it’s French in origin doesn’t mean you have to sound like an idiot on national television by attempting to pronounce it that way.

(Hah! He is slipping! I just heard him say “BATun Rouge”, which is proper, as anyone from the South could tell you.)

Not to be pessimistic or anything, but we should all begin to mentally prepare for the loss of New Orleans. Katrina is headed straight for the mouth of the Mississippi. New Orleans’s levees aren’t prepared to handle a storm surge above 15 to 20 feet, and Katrina will probably bring a surge of up to 28 feet. The pumps that keep water out of the basin in which New Orleans sits will not work if they are submerged under 20 feet of water.

So, New Orleans, I am afraid, is doomed. I think there are some people who would say the city could have prepared more for the “big one,” but I’m not certain there are any preparations that would keep a city that is 70% below sea level (and in some places up to 3 or 4 feet below sea level) from being destroyed by even a modest storm.

I worry, too, about the bayou communities. Many of the small towns in southern Louisiana are going to be flooded badly. There will be lives lost. But the water will recede down in the bayou. In New Orleans, it won’t have anywhere to go. It will sit inside the levees and stagnate.

For the next 24 hours, keep New Orleans in your prayers. I cringe to think that this beautiful, historic city might be decimated. I hope for some freak of nature that will push Katrina somewhere else, somewhere less populated, somewhere less vulnerable. More likely, though, we’ll be seeing New Orleans on the news a lot in the next few weeks and Katrina will probably rival Andrew for notoriety in the years to come.

I woke with a start at 4:30 this morning because I heard someone down on the street screaming. Not just yelling, as drunk or crazy people might yell in the wee hours, but soul-wrenching screaming. I thought it was a man, but I suppose it could have been a woman. The scream was just high-pitched enough and edged with that awful sound of panic.

I couldn’t tell exactly what the screamer was yelling, but I thought I heard “Help!” and “Oh, God!”

And just as suddenly as I awoke to the sound, it stopped. I looked at the clock; it said 4:35. I laid awake for a few more minutes, waiting for sirens or other indications of the authorities responding to a 911 call. Nothing.

A few hours later, I woke up again, to a similar sound, though without so much panic. I couldn’t hear words so clearly, either, just a slight variation in sound.

And my eyes popped open.

What was I actually hearing? Not a person down on the street, screaming for his life. Not some incoherent exclamatory sound in the alley below. No, none of those things.

I was hearing Mr. Angst snoring. A gentle snoring. In my ear. And something in my brain translated that into screaming down on the street.

Am I unmotivated or just not a morning person at all? I couldn’t get more than a few pages read in the hour I spent in the library this morning. A little physical activity helped, I think—I’ve been hauling books for a used-book sale all morning—but now I’m too hungry to read.

Off to Chipotle, I think. Or I could go home and try and read there? Too many choices.

So I’m not much of a joiner, never have been. Thus, I am surprised to find myself already signed up to work all day Saturday at the public-interest used book sale. For the whole day. First hauling books from wherever they are now to wherever they need to be for the sale, then actually working the book sale.

I do have ulterior motives—this particular organization raises funds for public interest fellowships. If you participate in the organization through the year, you can apply for funding from them for your 1L summer if you work in public interest. So, work some hours, get a grant for 1L public interest work. Sounds good to me.

But I also have other reasons. I’ve been hearing left and right how important it is to be involved with student organizations. That involvement (much like in college, I suppose) looks good on a resume. That it helps with networking (also a no-brainer). So I’m doing it. I’m getting out of my comfort zone. I think it’s a good thing.

For the first time since we got to Our New City™ I feel a touch of melancholic lonely. I don’t know why—our social life here so far isn’t greatly different from our social life in Our Old City. Perhaps its just that here, I can’t call my old friends to go out. Or perhaps it’s that, instead of spending my days with the same people, my old colleagues, here, so far, I’ve been shuffled from orientation event to orientation event, without much chance to choose the folks I want to talk to—or at least for very long.

I don’t think that last sentence made any sense.

What I mean to say is that I feel sort of unsettled. I’m sure that, in a few months, I’ll be mightily tired of my section and of seeing them and hearing them every day. But for right now, I’d welcome the regularity of a seating chart, the ordinariness of a schedule that doesn’t change every day, and the familiarity of seeing the same faces at the same times.

I worried that our long orientation would be TOO long. Then I thought it was a good idea—giving us a chance to have fun with each other before the hell started. Now I’m back to thinking it’s too long. So much of what they’ve had us doing is fun and we’re meeting so many people but it’s wearing me out. I am ready to get started.

Mr. Angst: “Do you think there’s a place we can get Sugar in the Raw around here?”

Me: “I’m sure we can get it at [Local Gourmet Grocery].”

Mr. Angst: “That’s true. I used to use that when I was working at….um…at….How wonderful is it that I can’t even remember the name of the last company I worked at?”

The old jobs, in other words, start to run together. Not so much for me, since my stints have been more stable. But for him, in IT, they all blur.

I’m glad we’re in school.

I briefed my first case this morning. I have no idea if I did it right. It seemed pretty right, though I am sure I need to work on it a little more.

Now I’m a REAL law student!

Long day. Two hours of legal writing this morning, followed by lunch with some fellow students and our 2L student advisors, followed by a technology seminar (that I found pretty worthless, given I don’t have a PC and I have already explored all the various online resources they were showing us). Then a session about public interest and public service organizations, a quick trip to CompUSA (where I managed to leave my check card…sigh), then home.

I picked up my cut casebooks and they did a pretty good job. My Civ Pro book is smaller than the others and they could have shifted it down a bit in the hole punch to get three holes, but they didn’t, and it only has two holes. Sigh. Doable, but not as nice. Still, I’ve put all my “first day” readings in my “all-in-one” binder and it is SO LIGHT compared to lugging all the books with me.

Update: CM asked about the price—a lean $27 for four casebooks. That includes fairly high sales tax, so the price was pretty good.

Finally, Mr. Angst and I trekked out to an Aikido dojo to see how it was. It was…different…than what I am used to, though not bad at all. We’ll be visiting the other dojo we’re considering this weekend, so we can make a choice before the new month starts.

So, basically, today was long. My feet are a little tired, my shoulders a little sore, and my brain a bit full. I have an assignment for tomorrow that I’ve already begun to work on, but haven’t finished. So, off to schoolwork.

I realized tonight, as I was walking home, that, by doing nothing more than showing up when and where I am supposed to, I have probably guaranteed myself at least five future wedding invitations.

Damn.

Today was our first day of Legal Writing, which was fine. But going to class reminded me that I have reading assignments for next week and I haven’t had my books cut yet. Given Lawmom’s experience, I am planning to be without my books for at least a couple of days. But I have reading to do!

So this afternoon, before I go back to campus for this evening’s reception, I’ll lug my casebooks over to Kinko’s to have them cut. I’m hoping for a good experience, but I’m not holding my breath for it. I’ll just have to be VERY CLEAR about what I want them to do.

Update: Since I am just having the covers taken off and holes for 3-ring binders drilled, my Kinko’s said my books will be ready tomorrow. And the girl who took my order was completely familiar with the process. I know my neighborhood is popular with students at my and other nearby universities, so I guess my Kinko’s deals with this a lot. I’ll let you know how they turn out when I pick them up.

I got orientated today.

What does that mean? It means I sat through several longish speeches about my class and my school, about various student services and organizations. It means I got a more thorough tour of the school than I did when I visited several months ago. It means they fed me lunch AND afternoon snacks and drinks. It means I continued to meet people. It means I got my locker (and, pooh, it is ALL the way at the END in the CORNER. Of course).

Tomorrow we have some diversity training, lunch with our legal writing classes, and an introduction to our section professors. My afternoon is relatively empty, but I’ll have to be back on campus for a reception with the orientation sponsors (law firm types). Business casual again! Never fear, though, I’ll be in jeans and a t-shirt in the morning, saving my stilettos for the evening.

There’s been a lot of talk so far of the “why law school” thing. Some people seem completely at home, some are completely freaked out, and some are like me: confident, but wondering if I shouldn’t be. My classmates are remarkable, some of them to extremes. It’s humbling, though I don’t necessarily feel inadequate. But enough people were muttering about feeling inadequate that I wonder if I should have such niggling doubts, too.

In many ways, having been out of college for so long stands me in good stead. I’ve worked with people who look stellar on paper but fall short in practice. (It goes the other way, too, and sometimes people are what they seem to be, amazing or not.) So, right now, I just can’t muster up any angst over who I am compared to my classmates. Everyone I’ve met is delightful and Law School is working very hard to eliminate any uncomfortable competitive nervousness.

Today was a good day, in other words. I feel ready. I know I made the right choices. And I have four more days of orientation to confirm that.

I don’t care what the Orientation schedule says—today is really the first day of Orientation. We’ll be welcomed and informed and toured and even fed (if I get there early enough for donuts and coffee). Still, does it count as the first day of school if I’m not taking my laptop? I see no need to lug it over there when I almost definitely won’t be using it. (I will take a legal pad, in case someone says something scintillating that I need to blog later.)

As if the weather knew today was my “real” first day of school, it has cooled down to a lovely 65 degrees. Oops, the Weather Widget says 60 degrees! It’s practically fall! I appreciated the coolness as I rushed this morning to drop off a shirt at the cleaners. (I need it for tomorrow night and I hate ironing linen.) The humidity is still around, which prevents the weather today from being perfect, but I’m not picky. A high under 75 is quite welcome.

(NB: Yesterday, I mentioned to Mr. Angst that the weather in Our Old City was going to hit 103 degrees today and 102 tomorrow and he laughed the most evil laugh I think I’ve ever heard out of his mouth! There’s something about being free from the brutality of August that makes us both very happy. I know, I know, we’ll be singing a different tune in January but, for now, we’re enjoying the weather very much.)

If today is indicative of how the school year will unfold for me, I am doing pretty well. I got a reasonably restful sleep (though my dreams were full of orientation), I got up early and ran an errand, made my coffee, and have read through my blogs. We may hop up to the exercise room yet this morning, and I should be energized and excited for my day. Or I hope so.

Orientation, here I come!

Anyone else getting really sick of commercials for men’s body spray? They run constantly and they’re awful: I want your boooooddddddd…..check out that booooooodddddd….. Or the ones with the guy in the elevator who gets assaulted by women who, apparently, cannot restrain themselves due to the HOTNESS of the smell of the body spray. Somehow, these ads manage to combine objectification of women AND men in ONE SINGLE AD. (Also, if I ever saw a product called “BOD” on some guy’s bathroom counter, I might have to laugh.)

As well, one of the mobile phone companies in the area has another annoying ad, featuring a musician singing about the company’s featured monthly plan. Her voice is OK, but she’s styled herself totally á la Liza Minelli in Cabaret and tune is sappy. They play it at pretty much every commercial break. I could live without ever seeing the ad again.

About a Boy, by Nick Hornby

I actually finished this one before A Civil Action, but it was right before we moved and things were crazy, so I didn’t post about it.

I enjoyed this book. It’s very British, which is always fun, and it’s pretty bald, not a lot of sugarcoating. I can’t really discuss which aspects are least sugarcoated without spoiling it, and I think everyone should read this book, so I don’t want to spoil it.

It’s also sort of depressing, in the description of social situations. Many unmarried parents, many irresponsible parents, many irresponsible people. Argh. Real, but hard, at times.

But funny, too. That’s Nick Hornby, though. Funny and real, all at the same time.

So, good book. Read it.

I was woken up today by music coming from the street behind my building. There’s a small school there, I believe of the religious variety, and they must be having a fundraiser/street festival. They had music this morning. A Janis Joplin-y blues guitarist who sang about Jesus being her stand-up man. I heard the guitar and then I heard her voice and I realized sleep was no longer a possibility.

So now I’m awake. (Yes, I slept in this morning.) Bar Review last night was a lot of fun and I found that I already know a lot more people than I expected to. That is sort of unusual for me—but not unpleasant at all! We left at a reasonable hour, but I slept in anyway. After all, vacation’s over! I have to be at school every day this week, no later than 10:00 each day and, some days, even earlier.

Our community service activity today could have been better organized. Of course, part of the problem was that the animal shelter was not really equipped to have twenty-five volunteers show up late in the day when all the animals had already been walked.

But never mind that; we got to play with cute dogs (including one great guy named Cesar, with a bulldoggish face and funky markings who, within five minutes, rolled over and gave me his belly with a big grin). And we got to meet each other. Frankly, the latter is why Law School plans these sort of events. I’m sure they want to provide great opportunities for people who enjoy volunteering, but they also want to give us a chance to meet each other outside of the academic setting.

So it was a good day. I met several girls who live near me, one of whom is in my section. I met a guy in my Legal Writing class. I found out that my legal writing prof rocks (whew!). And tonight is Bar Review—the orientation kickoff party (their description, not mine).

I’m looking forward to a light day tomorrow. No law school events planned! But there’s an air show in town, and I am DEFINITELY going to see that. I love air shows.

Mr. Angst and I walked through the farmer’s market on our way home from the “students and spouses” breakfast this morning. I LOVE the farmer’s market. We got some beautiful yellow squash and zucchini; a gorgeous stripey eggplant, fresh raspberries, and three giant bundles of herbs: mint, rosemary, and basil. There’s no way I can use all of these things before they start to go bad, but I will try my best.

For the time being, my kitchen smells delicious. I think tonight, I’ll saute some of the squash, after marinating it in some lemon juice, olive oil, and basil.

A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr

I picked this up at Half Price Books before we moved and have been reading through it a bit at a time ever since.

I liked the first half; the middle was very dense, with lots of description of the trial; the end was maddening. I know this isn’t fiction, but it’s a hell of a book that leaves the reader with such a sense of dissatisfaction at the end of it all. Perhaps I was expecting something different because I’ve seen the movie (and the movie DOES have a nicer ending than the book), but I was just annoyed when I finished the last few pages.

One more thing: I was pretty sure I did not want to be a litigator BEFORE reading this book; now I am certain.

I can’t really recommend this book. I am sure a lot of my readers have read it already; some of you HAD to read it for your first year of law school. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not a book I’d suggest anyone run out and read right away.