Today, our cable company sent a nice gentleman over to give us a gift. A lovely and wonderful gift. A gift of TIME.
In other words, a DVR box.
During my scheduled breaks this evening, I have played with this new toy and it is Fabulous.
This is going to make studying for finals so much easier, knowing that I’m not missing my favorite TV.
The class lottery ran and I think I won.
I got my first first first choice class, Civ Pro II. With the prof who gets top evaluations for every class he teaches. It’s the class 2- and 3Ls told me they didn’t think they’d be able to get into. I totally won.
My other class was a little lower on my list, but I’m still pleased with it. I’m on the wait list for the Law and Lit class, though. We’ll see how things turn out.
My schedule is neither the worst case nor the best case scenario. It is right in the middle. I have a big hole on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — but I have two classes each day, so I’ll be sure to show up every day. I do have the marathon Thursday-Friday schedule, but it’s with the three fabulous professors, so I can’t complain.
Next semester is looking pretty bright.
Is it possible that I spent, essentially, five hours straight studying today? That completely blows my “take reasonable breaks at reasonable intervals” schedule. It also explains why I feel completely lost right now. Fuzzy in the brain. Sort of giddy, in a punchy way. Not really a fun feeling, but also not entirely awful.
In more news, my bids for the enrollment lottery were submitted today. In other words, class selection is out of my hands. What did I bid on? Civ Pro II, State and Local Government, Comparative Law, Law and Literature (basically), Law and History (again, basically–the actual course title is marginally sexier) and a social policy class. Not necessarily in that order, though. There are a number of best case scenarios, as far as times go, and there are also a few worst case scenarios.
There’s one scenario that, on its face, seems awful, but on reflection seems maybe not so bad. I’d have class early Monday through Wednesday, and class in late afternoon Monday and Wednesday. In other words, Tuesdays, I’d be done by, um, 9:45 or so? The flip side is that Thursdays and Fridays, I’d be in class pretty much all day. Pretty much straight. On Thursday and Friday. And what do you think are the chances I’ll make it to Con Law on Tuesday mornings more than a few times a semester? (OK, who am I kidding? I have much too much guilt to skip classes very often.)
The ambition fairy says, “Oh, wow, you’d have several hours a day Monday through Wednesday! You could volunteer at that legal aid organization you were interested in, since you’d have so much time! You could do all your reading during the day and not have to do any work at night!”
Then the realism fairy says, “Dear God, how often would I just go home and sleep during the day? Or just take a nap in the library? Or just kill time?”
So we’ll see what the lottery brings me. I’ll put it out there right now, though–I’ve never been all that lucky. I don’t win things. So I’m not all that optimistic that my schedule is going to come out all peachy. The only bright spot in all of this is that if I do end up with the long schedule on Thursdays and Fridays, I’ll have it with three really, really marvelous professors. (Or, at least two marvelous ones and one who really knows his shit.)
So there’s the lineup for next semester. Now, back to Civ Pro outlining.
So now I’m in hardcore study mode. I have reading to do for this week’s Torts classes, outlines to finish, practice exams to take, and ARGH! so little time in which to do it!
I’m sure there will be some posting going on–I’ve given myself breaks throughout my very well crafted study schedule–so you’ll hear from me throughout. I’m just worrying right now because I just spent five days without cracking a book. Was that foolish? Was that a bad idea? My body and brain don’t think so–they know I needed the break–but the little law school fairy who sits on my shoulder is piling on the guilt anyway.
So, back to reading about products liability. Anyone want to explain its evolution to me?
So, y’all? I know I haven’t posted in a few days, and normally I would apologize for that, but not this time. I have spent the last three days in mindless bliss. I made myself a study schedule that would allow me to not to any substantive work over the Thanksgiving break, so I haven’t done any substantive work yet. I don’t plan to do any for what remains of this little vacation. And because I scheduled it that way, I do not feel the slightest bit guilty.
And y’all? I feel terrific. I’ve gotten lots of sleep, I’ve had time to chat with family, I’ve watched some TV, and I finished a book. It’s a book I’ve been reading slowly for a couple of months now, so I feel good about actually getting to finish it! Basically, my brain feels completely refreshed. I feel rested. I feel happy. I feel . . . energetic! Who knew I could feel this good this close to finals?
Now, tomorrow, I may do some work. I may finish consolidating my notes from a couple of classes. That’s the kind of work I like — it requires thought, but not too much, since it’s just revisiting things I’ve already learned. It’s like creating a puzzle. Interspersed with that, I think I’ll play with my nephew some. And watch some football.
But tonight, I’m going to continue the brain-rest. Mr. Angst and I, and the Angst-in-laws are babysitting tonight while my brother- and sister-in-law go out to dinner for her birthday. We’ll watch a movie or some TV, keep an ear on the baby, and just . . . relax. Y’all, this is A Good Thing.
I hope everyone else’s Thanksgiving has been so wonderful. Definitely, this year, I am thankful for this opportunity to refresh myself.
Tomorrow, we eat turkey. Yay!
Today, I have my last day of Crim and Civ Pro. Um, whee?
I’m not sure how I feel about these classes ending. Yesterday with Contracts was a little different because, well, I still have class today. (And, actually, I still have two Torts classes next week, but since Torts always felt sort of tacked on to the end of the week, that doesn’t feel as weird.) I really enjoyed my Civ Pro class and I really wish I felt like I had learned more. Wait, no, that’s not it. I certainly learned a lot–Prof. Civ Pro really does push his students–but I wish I had more time to let everything percolate.
Today really feels like the end of my first semester of law school classes. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but I’m not really ready to write substatively about it.
Instead, I’ll mention that it snowed last night and I can see the roofs are layered in white now. No, it wasn’t a lot of snow, but it’s definitely sticking, unliket the last batch. I’ll also tell you about how my Thanksgiving packing is probably going to end up being a disaster (I just pulled all my favorite T-shirts and jeans out of the drawer and put them in my bag. I have a feeling I’m going to need to look back over that). And I’ll tell you about how Mr. Angst and I still can’t check-in online for our flight, even though I thought I was being clever by adding his middle name to his ticket this time.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
I had my last Contracts class this morning and now it’s hitting me. It’s hard to believe that the semester is almost over. I have one more class today, two classes tomorrow, and two more next week. And that’s it. That’s all she wrote.
I was talking about this end-of-semester funk with a friend of mine the other day. I mentioned that I wasn’t close to being done with my outlines or even to really having a sort of global grasp on all of our classes, yet despite that I had almost no drive left. She nodded and said, “Yep. I’m done, too.”
And that sums it up. There’s a lot of work left to be done, but I am so done. I’m fighting right now with the powerful urge to say, “Screw it! I know enough to fall in the middle of our very flat and generous curve.” A small voice deep inside–a more responsible and far-sighted voice, I might add–responds with the reminder that there are only a few weeks left in the semester, and if I drive myself to exhaustion I could cross the finish line ahead of the pack.
Neither voice is right, of course. If I flog myself mercilessly to finish with the same drive I started with, fine–but it won’t guarantee I’ll end up on top. Nor is it true that blowing off these last few classes in favor of getting my outlines done–and a few more hours of sleep a night–means I’ll end up at the bottom.
To a certain extent, though, even law school grades are governed by that old equation, “Garbage In = Garbage Out.” So I have to know SOMETHING. The question at this point is “How much?” Where is the line between extra work that won’t help and you should have studied that a little more closely, you idiot? I don’t know where the line is. My intuition suggests that, if my brain is turning to mush from lack of sleep, I’ve probably done too much; but if I have the time to watch the rest of Buffy, Season 1, I’m doing too little.
All of this seems particularly pertinent right now, since I am exhausted. I could not go to sleep last night; I tossed and turned and didn’t drop off until a good two hours after my normal bedtime. The way I feel right now only underscores how badly my body reacts to less-than-adequate rest. Thank goodness I don’t have my early class tomorrow.
Huh.
Somehow, over the weekend, with working on outlines and flowcharts and all, Contracts synthesized in my brain.
So this is what that feels like.
This blog is working on a fantastic concept.
I’m sure that the author of the blog, Toby Stock, has started the blog because he believes there should be more transparency in the law school admissions process. And I bet there are students who are convinced that’s why he’s doing it, too. And I am sure some transparency will result. But this blog is also a marketing technique, and one geared at a particular brand problem: yield.
Harvard Law School is a great school. Some wonderful people I know went to HLS and I know some wonderful people are at HLS now. I sincerely hope that everyone at HLS is there because they want to be. But I know that Harvard is also concerned about its reputation among the subset of law school applicants who can be reasonably certain they’ll get into HLS as well as into one or more of the other “super-elite” schools. And it’s concerned about losing students to those schools. I know because Toby posted this the other day.
I was bothered by this entry. Granted, I’m not really part of the blog’s intended audience, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth.
Look, a lot of prospective law students–particularly the ones who can get into HLS–are not interested in law school because of the number of prestigious faculty. (I think they’re more likely to say, “HLS has So-and-so, but Yale has Such-and-such”; not “HLS has twenty and Yale only has five.”) And a lot of the prospective students who can get into HLS know that they’ll be surrounded by really bright and interesting people no matter what school they go to. So maybe the fact that some students chose a different school over HLS isn’t because that school is “better” but because it’s smaller.
I chose my law school for a number of reasons, but one of the big reasons I even applied to my school was because of its student-faculty ratio. One of the other schools I applied to, which didn’t accept me, was even smaller, and was even higher on my list. The biggest school I applied to was lowest on my list. Basically, I wanted a small student body.
I know I’m not the only law student who values a small student body. I also know that a lot of law students are NOT like me. They do not WANT to go to small law schools. They’ve been at institutions of every size, from large state university to small liberal arts college. And for whatever reason, they don’t want a small law school environment. They want a LOT of people around them–for the intellectual stimulation, for padding, for whatever. And I think that’s great. If they know they want a larger student body in which to blend, great. But I just hope they KNOW it. Harvard seems to be implying, though, that the larger student body is the best student body. The PREFERRED student body. And more so, that people who choose “other” schools over Harvard are doing so for the “wrong” reasons–or at least are completely unaware that “bigger” equals “better.”
I hope Harvard’s blog gives prospective law students some insight. My suspicion, though, is that it won’t. Because it’s nothing more revealing than information they’ve heard over and over and over again from other sources–both official and non-official. Harvard is big? Yep, Toby will tell you that–and tell you why it’s a good thing. Applications get read carefully? Sure, Toby will tell you that, too. And then you can get on the boards and read about the student perspective. And share information with other applicants. Are you any more informed than you would have been without the blog? Probably not.
I think everyone should blog. So I am glad HLS has a admissions blog. But I’m not convinced that, in this case, there’s a lot of value added by the blog. I hope I’m wrong.
JoePa is so damn old.
Also, he’s Old School. Squared. Cubed. If you looked up “old school” in the Football Dictionary, JoePa would be the only definition.
He is also a damn fine coach.
Honestly? It’s impressive. May we all be So Damn Old and still going to Bowl Games.
Last summer, a store I have a love-hate relationship with discontinued my favorite product. First, it was no longer available in the store; then it wasn’t available online, either.
I could have cried. (I might actually have cried.) I had more than one of that particular product, in more than one color, but they needed replacing. Indeed, since the discontinuation, all but one of my items has given up the ghost. And despite looking in many other stores since then, and trying on many other styles, I have yet to find anything that fits as well. It’s been a nightmare of ill-fitting garments.
Yesterday, I was online looking for something else entirely, and I discovered that they had started selling my favorite product again! Yay! Hooray! Huzzah! So today I showered and dressed and hauled my butt to their local retail outlet to pick myself up two or three of my favorite product — you know, before they decided to discontinue it again.
I wandered around the store for a good ten minutes, looking for the nook in which they had hidden my item when, finally, a black-clad sales associate asked if she could help me. “Yes!” I said, “I’m looking for this particular product in this particular line. Could you show me where it is?” I saw the look on her face. So I added, “Unless it’s….catalog only?”
“I’m afraid it is,” she replied. “I’m not sure why, but we just don’t have them in the store.”
“OK,” I said, “what about this other product I’m interested in? It’s sort of new, and I’d like to see it in person before I buy it?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Those are catalog only, too. They’re my favorite, though; I stocked up last summer when we did have them in the store.”
Well, I thought, how nice for YOU.
She then offered to show me some other things, but she had already lost me. I was a woman on a mission–a mission that had been thwarted. I admit it, I am the worst sort of retail customer–interested in one thing only, unwilling to accept a substitute, and quite happy to take my money away from the store and give it to the internet.
Which is what I did as soon as I got home. But you know what I discovered? (Yeah, it gets worse.) My favorite product is backordered until December 10! With standard delivery, then (7-10 days), my favorite product should arrive here sometime after Christmas. (Because in the two weeks before Christmas, 7-10 days always becomes 12-15 days.) Even if it does arrive on time, by the 23rd of December, I still won’t get it till after Christmas, because I WON’T BE HERE.
The love-hate relationship continues. Stupid store.
During a discussion of liability associated with owning wild animals:
Student: “What if the lion was in a public place, like at the circus, and you still got mauled?”
Prof. Torts: “Is the lion in a cage?”
Student: “Yeah. You’re at the circus and you just decide you want to go pet the lion.”
Prof. Torts: “And I’m an adult of average intelligence?”
:::snort:::
Please, please, PLEASE, if you are a law student, read this.
Please.
It will make you laugh. And this is the time of year when we most need laughter. I feel really so much better about law school now. And I’m not joking when I say that.
Here’s the skinny:
Stocking up on Sugar in the Raw™ from the local copy coffee shop. Cool or not?
I’ve been able, with some effort, to watch Smallville this season and not think “Spike!” whenver I saw James Marsters.
But in tonight’s episode’s fight scene (and I won’t spoil it by saying more) our boy Brainiac looked very Spikelike. I think Marsters will never live down his days as the other vampire with a soul.
Did you realize that Thanksgiving is next week?
Yeah, me neither.
It really hit me yesterday, when a friend of mine (who is just a really, really nice guy) said he it would be a good Thanksgiving for him. I asked if he was visiting family or his girlfriend and he said, “No, I just have a lot to be thankful for this year.”
Which was at least a little startling coming from a law student at this time of year. (To be fair, he’s a 2L, so has a little more perspective right now.)
I really have been trying to ignore that Thanksgiving is next week because that means classes are nearly over. After Turkey Day, I have to study for exams and send out resumes, two things I am not exactly prepared to do right now.
But Thanksgiving itself will be a nice break. I always try to make sure I spend Thanksgiving with family. Barring family, I try to make sure that I spend it with people I care about, and I make plans for the whole five day break. This year, we’ll be spending the holiday with the Angsts, including Brother-in-law Angst, his wife, their new baby, and her family. I am actually really, really excited about it. Her family is fun, I enjoy my in-laws quite a bit, and babies are always wonderful.
Thanksgiving is really important to me. My sophomore year in college was the year that really drove home the importance, too, of treating Thanksgiving like a true holiday. It was a strange year in many ways—financially, my family was spread a little thin, so I couldn’t afford to fly home, my social life at school was…if not bad, sort of marginal. I was having problems with my roommate which extended to problems with my whole social circle. My semester was going OK, but it just wasn’t a great year. And I couldn’t go home for Thanksgiving.
I knew well in advance of the holiday that I’d be staying on campus. So when I realized my Geology research paper was due the day before Thanksgiving, I asked for an extension. I’d had trouble getting my topic in order (and in retrospect, I chose a really shitty topic), and I had trouble with journals that I relied on getting moved around in the library. (NB: every problem I’ve ever had with a library was less related to other patron’s misuse of library resources and more related to the library’s inability to properly shelve or track items that I desparately needed.)
So there I was, the day before Thanksgiving, working on my Geology paper, watching my friends take off to visit their families or friends, and realizing that the dining hall would be closed until at least Friday night. I didn’t have a car, so I knew I was restricted to campus. But I tried to be optimistic about it, thinking I’d get so much work done on my paper, thinking I could watch a lot of movies I’d missed over the semester, thinking it would be a nice stretch of solitude.
I don’t do well with solitude, by the way.
For Thanksgiving dinner, I did have plans, of course. There was an “orphans” dinner on campus, cooked by a friend of mine–who happened to be a vegetarian, but every year made sure all the people on campus had a place to have dinner. So I went to that. And it was fine. There were several other students, mostly international students, a couple of faculty (one who was British and brand new), and two swimmers who had a meet that weekend so couldn’t go home. Their parents (they were brothers) were there also, and very sweet. Dinner was actually quite nice.
No, the problem wasn’t where to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It was what to do after Thanksgiving dinner.
The international students all scattered off to the corners of campus, the swimmers and their parents went and did family stuff, and the faculty went back to their homes. I, though, went from Thanksgiving dinner to the only open computer lab on campus and kept working on my Geology paper. That was Thanksgiving for me; dinner with a rag-tag group of (mostly) strangers, and schoolwork.
The day after Thanksgiving, I got up, had a granola bar (remember, the dining hall wasn’t open), and went back to the computer lab to finish my paper. I turned it in at noon, and that was when the worst part of spending Thanksgiving on campus hit me.
I had nothing to do and no one to do it with for the rest of the weekend.
So I watched movies. The library was open, so I checked out a bunch of stuff that sounded OK, including Somewhere in Time, Gone WIth the Wind, and Steel Magnolias. I cried for three days. I had a miserable weekend and it really affected the tenor of the rest of the semester for me.
Ever since then, I have been determined that Thanksgiving will be a time spent with family, enjoying them, relaxing, and just being with other people. I know not everyone feels the same way–that day after Thanksgiving in The Year I Didn’t Go Home, when I turned in my paper, my Geology prof was in his office, working. But that’s not me. I need the time to break from reality and be loved by family.
I hope everyone else will be doing the same thing this year–spending the holiday with people who love you. If you can’t be with your family, I hope everyone can find people to be with for more than just Thanksgiving dinner. It’s important.
The elevator smelled like Band-Aids today.
I had ice cream for dinner last night.
It’s finally cold enough that my apartment feels good again.
We have two burned-out lights at home.
Picking classes for next semester is harder than it seems.
Seriously, I want to post more, but I just can’t think of anything right now except school stuff. I think I’ve written enough boring stuff about law school over the last three or so months, so I’ll spare y’all the repetition of writing more of it.
So I think I’d like to make this a request week. Basically, I just want some ideas. Suggestions. Something that might poke some holes in the writer’s block.
It hardly seems possible that we are nearly at the end of the semester. I’m astonished that the law school believes I know enough about, for instance, Civil Procedure, to let me not take it anymore. Surely there are a thousand things I don’t know about Civ Pro? And surely what little I do know is not enough?
But no. They think I know enough (or have had adequate time to learn enough) and, in just a little more than a week and a half, I will be done with Civ Pro. And Contracts, and Criminal Law. A few more days after that and I’ll be done with Torts.
Prof. Civ Pro said it best–even though he said it weeks ago. Someone asked a personal jurisdiction question and he turned it right back on them: “Well, how would you analyze that situation?” The student replied that he just wanted to know what the courts would say. Prof. Civ Pro replied, “You can answer that question as well as anyone; you’ve read all the important, seminal cases on personal jurisdiction out there. So what do you think?”
The idea that any of us are qualified to make judgments about this stuff is laughable. That I could be trusted to decide a legal question is ludicrous. And yet.
This week, I’m helping a friend out with a mediation scenario. I’m his client, he’s my advocate, and tomorrow, he’ll represent me in a mock mediation. As we ran through my case and my objectives, and as he analyzed my chances for recovery, I was amazed at how in touch I felt with what was going on. I understood the basis for the process. I was comfortable with the language. I couldn’t do what he’s doing–not now, at least–but I understood it. So maybe I’m not so unqualified to pass from my first semester to my second.
Our professors haven’t, as yet, begun framing their questions or comments to us “as lawyers.” And I’m glad; I don’t really feel like a lawyer right now. But if they started doing so today, it probably wouldn’t faze me. I’m still not convinced I’m thinking like a lawyer, but at least I think I know what that means.
Do not study for and then take practice Criminal Law exam right before bed. You will not sleep well. Especially if the night is clear and the almost-full-moon is also shining into the bedroom between the slats in the venetian blinds.
That is all.
Just in time, the weather is changing. Just in time for what? For studying, that’s what.
I think I’ve been pretty good all semester, getting my reading done before class, going to class, staying on track if not ahead. But today I just feel tired of the whole thing. I don’t want to read. I don’t want to study. I don’t want to take the practice exam due to my TA tomorrow. I just don’t wanna.
So the change in the weather is probably a good thing. Not that I’ve been generally distracted by the weather this semester. But I’m hoping the cold will keep me on track. Keep me on campus to study and keep me focused. Encourage me to maximize my efficiency, travel faster, get my reading done earlier so I don’t have to walk in the cold AND the dark. I hope.
I’m sitting here with Contracts open, my collection of pens and highlighters to my right, listening to the wind and watching ESPN with Mr. Angst, and I’m hoping I can muster up the drive to make it through the semester. I don’t know from where I’m supposed to pull that energy, but I know it’s in there somewhere.
We’ve been really lucky, weather-wise. Frankly, the temperatures around here have been delightful. The lows in the city haven’t dipped below freezing, and the highs have been in the 50’s or higher. Today didn’t hit 60 degrees (according to my weather widget) but I went out wearing nothing heavier than a fluffy shawl-collar sweater, and felt GREAT.
The weather luck, though, is about to run out. By Tuesday, the highs will be hovering just above freezing and snow is likely some time next week. Suddenly it’s hitting me–we live where winter happens! It gets COLD here! And it’s going to get cold here NEXT WEEK.
And dammit, my hot new boots are going to arrive RIGHT when it gets cold and snowy! I won’t even get to wear them right away. I guess it’s time for me to start wearing one pair of shoes and carrying another.
So I’m going through some of my archives, and seeing all this talk about “thinking like a lawyer” and how I’ll find myself doing so by the end of the semester, if not sooner.
I don’t think I’m thinking like a lawyer yet.
This means one of three things:
1) I am not thinking like a lawyer yet, or
2) I was already thinking like a lawyer before law school, or
3) I am thinking like a lawyer now, but I haven’t realized it (and neither has Mr. Angst)
(For the record, I did ask Mr. Angst if he thought I was thinking/acting like a lawyer, and he said, “Not really. Or not excessively.” I’ll take that to mean “No.”)
So when does it happen? I think this “thinking like a lawyer” thing must be like a magical transformative moment, where you’re reading and thinking, “Boy, that judge makes no sense!” and yet, in the next moment, you realize, “I see that the judge has completely failed to address the issue of consideration, and has automatically assumed that promissory estoppel will be sufficient to show the plaintiff can recover.”
For the record, the plaintiff can recover under promissory estoppel only in certain jurisdictions.
Does my knowing that mean that I’ve begun thinking like a lawyer? Or does it simply mean that I’ve grasped a legal concept (that, by the way, is a major bitch to wrap one’s mind around) and can take note of when that concept may or may not govern?
in other words, is thinking like a lawyer different from thinking like someone who knows how to apply certain legal concepts to certain combinations of circumstances? And if it isn’t, why do we make it sound so scary, “learning to think like a lawyer”? If they are the same, law is no more scary than any other discipline where you have to learn rules or definitions and apply the rules or definitions to questions on an exam or for a paper.
I’m a little worried, though, that the mere fact that I wrote the above paragraph means that I’ve already crossed the magical line and AM thinking like a lawyer, such that I can no longer imagine that students of other disciplines DON’T consider their studies in the same way.
Man. On rereading, I think I must have crossed the line. Because none of that stuff makes any sense.
Mr. Angst: They have twelve dollar frozen pizzas at [grocery store].
Me: Twelve dollars??
Mr. Angst: Yes, twelve dollars.
Me: Why wouldn’t you just order pizza?
