Archive for September, 2009

Well orientation came and went. A few thoughts:

Hearing the various speakers got me really amped up to begin my study of the law. We heard form some very interesting, engaging, and outright brilliant minds. One Professor, Samaha, seems particularly outstanding and although I have heard he can be somewhat tough, I think I will enjoy class with him. Some other professors and faculty definitely also stood out as being just plain smart and this atmosphere of intellectual stimulation and rigor is really exciting. Or at least, it was for a while.

Ever since orientation, I’ve gotten in to some of the reading assignments that need to be completed by the first day of class (and some that need to be done by the second day of class, don’t call me a gunner) and I’ve been kind of let down. Sometimes its been the dull readings I’ve had to wade through. But more often, it’s been disappointment with myself in that I am having a tough time wrapping my head around some of the concepts, never mind the impossible grammar and sentence structure. Before, I was really excited to start this new kind of learning everyone keeps talking about where law school challenges you further than just being able to spit out the exact words and ideas a particular professor has just got done lecturing about. I was ready to take on the challenge of learning through thoughtful reading and learning for myself, as opposed to through a teacher’s strict guidance.

Now, I just can’t stop thinking about how I might fail. Everyone says that everybody thinks they’ll fail law school at some point or another or that the admissions committee made a mistake by letting them into a certain school. I certainly don’t think the admissions committee made a mistake, but I’m just not sure at this point if I’m going to be able to rise to the aforementioned challenge of this new mode of learning. And that scares me.

But, as I said, I haven’t even been to my first lecture yet. So I’m hoping this feeling will either be fleeting, or outweighed by some other emotion pushing me toward graduation, or getting good grades, or a prestigious job, or something.

As for other aspects of the orientation, the boat cruise was awesome! Just about everyone in the class went and piled onto a boat for a spin around the lake and up the Chicago River. Everyone had drinks (free) and this year the staff didn’t even bother trying to announce any kind of Architectural Tour-type script over the loudspeakers (as I understand they have done in previous years). Instead, we got the Top 40 hits and just enjoyed a sunset and night cruise with some newly-made friends/colleagues.

The food provided during the week was surprisingly good (except for the first day of sandwiches and wraps), which culminated in our formal dinner at the end of the night. Although I think I enjoyed the buffet lunch more, which was catered by local businesses. Those readers who might know the Hyde Park area can appreciate Greek/Mediterranean food from Cedar’s and some kind of delicious Chinese food from somewhere (I MUST find it).

Anyway, hoping the first day (Tuesday) goes better than does by incoherent stumbling through of the first day’s readings. Wish me luck!

Friday Night

I just got in from the greatest night ever.  I finally found some easygoing people who are so much fun.  Tonight, we went to a bar where we harassed the locals, danced like fools, and generally misbehaved.  I’m creeping in at 3AM and I have ZERO regrets…of course, I’m not entirely sobered up yet so that could change by morning.  Saturday and Sunday are going to be tough.  I have a lot of reading to do, a memo to write that is worth almost half of my grade, and am fighting the slipping, sinking feeling that everyone is progressing while I remain running in place.  Those are tomorrow’s battles, though.  Tonight, Friday night, was about looking and feeling beautiful, laughing as much as possible, toasting double-shots to random stuff, and poking fun at “the profession.”  The most beautiful moment was when we all paused, bemused at just what the hell our lives are becoming, and then laughed like lunatics.  Law school can feel tremendously repressive.  There’s this constant pressure to be genteel professionals.  Even though we’re all in jeans and t-shirts, we are wearing these imaginary suits and ties.  Well, the suits definitely came off tonight!  I’m forbidden to go into the dirtier details of our debauchery, however, because we all decided that wouldn’t sit very well with the powers that be.  In fact, if anyone ever asks, this night never really happened—but I loved every imaginary minute of it!

Saturday Morning

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window the leaves were fluttering down from the trees like butterflies.  Then the wind kicked up, and they swirled around like a flock of colorful birds darting after one another.  I live on the top floor of my small apartment building, which is like living in a treehouse because of the many tall, old trees on the property.  When I look out the window, I am usually looking at branches and squirrels or nesting birds.  Now that fall has arrived the views from my apartment are amazing.  It’s nice to pause and look out at the changing leaves when I need to turn my mind off for a few moments.

Unfortunately, with fall has come the flu.  Swine ’09 hit campus pretty hard the past couple of weeks, especially the law school.  One underclassman actually died because of pre-existing medical conditions that were complicated by the flu.  This prompted the law school to urge in earnest that anyone feeling sick STAY HOME and REST, and classes are now being videotaped until further notice.  Yet despite being able to attend class “virtually,” sick 1Ls—like the chick who hacks onto the back of my neck every day in Civ Pro—continue to come in person.  Meanwhile, the upper-Ls I know are thrilled that everything is taped, and only bother showing up to class about once every two weeks!  Apparently, class just isn’t the center of the universe for them the way it is for us.  Case-in-point, yesterday night I witnessed a fellow 1L whip out his Torts book and start studying AT THE BAR!  Talk about a buzz kill.  My new law school partners in crime and I quickly vacated to another bar, and proceeded to consume excess amounts of hard liquors to erase the image from our minds.  But I shall say no more.

I don’t know what my problem is. I have the attention span of a three year old. I woke up on Saturday at 8:30 in order to meet Dana at a local café to study. She’s taking an undergrad course in biochem in preparation for a master’s degree. We thought getting together would help us stay disciplined. We could act as enforcers to make sure the other one’s attention didn’t stray. Well that was an epic fail. I would say we were diligent for about 45 minutes before we spent the next two hours chatting.

I went home, read the cases for my memo, and took a four hour nap. It should’ve taken me two hours to bang out the outline (due Monday), but five hours later it still wasn’t finished. Rather than take personal responsibility, I blame Facebook. And Google Reader. And now Sporcle. (This last I discovered during contracts when the girl in front of me was playing cool-looking games on it during class.)

I suppose I could always try to study in the library. I haven’t set foot in there once since arriving at law school. My problem with that is they don’t let you bring in food or water, except in this library-sanctioned cup that’s too small to hold anything. I also hate the idea of unpacking all my study things, spreading them out, organizing them in my typical OCD-fashion and then having to put it all away and take it with me if I have to go to the bathroom or get a snack. (Campus police sent around an email the other day about someone coming into the law school and walking out with someone’s laptop and messenger bag so leaving my stuff unattended is not an option.) I like working at home because I like having access to my stuff and my bathroom and my food. And I can lounge around in not-suitable-for-the-outside-world comfy clothes.

But home is where all the distractions are. Even without a subscription to cable, I’m able to waste an insane amount of time on the Internet, Simpsons DVDs, various little home projects that suddenly take on an importance they don’t have when I don’t have homework…I’ve taken to spreading my reading out on the floor and doing it there. (I learned in undergrad that reading in my bed was a recipe for disaster. Took four years of getting no reading done, but feeling remarkably well-rested, for that message to sink in.) I figured there’d be no chance of nodding off on the floor, but I was wrong. And when I work at my desk, I can’t resist things like this.

So I haven’t quite worked out the best study arrangement yet.

Friday night I met a couple friends at my favorite bar in the city to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game. They left in the middle of the sixth inning, but I stuck around for the whole game. I met a guy who works as a bartender at a new place in Alphabet City and promised I’d bring a bunch of girls there next weekend.

In other news, living above a restaurant sucks. I know, shocker of the year. Usually I’m not home midnight on a Saturday, but I have a feeling it’s only the first of many, this being law school and all. So not only do I have to deal with the kitchen workers blasting their Spanish techno at 6AM every day, but also the extra decibels no doubt justified by the fact that it’s Saturday. The bass reverberates throughout my floors and I don’t know what to do. It’s still relatively early on a Saturday night (or, I guess Sunday morning is more accurate) so I don’t know how unreasonable I would be to request that they turn it down a bit. Also, it’s not really worth getting dressed to run down there and yell right now. Eventually, when it reaches the I Just Can’t Take It Anymore point, I’ll go down there in a bathrobe, shower cap, and shake a rolling pin at the unruly brats in true old lady fashion.

I had a pretty low-key weekend that consisted mostly of reading for class. In Civil Procedure, we’re behind in the syllabus so (like any normal person) I allowed myself to fall behind in the reading and made sure I only read as much as we were likely to discuss in a given class period. But on Thursday the professor threatened to catch us up in the syllabus this week so I wanted to make sure I had it all done.

Friday I had dinner in Union Square with my friend Jaye. She and I went to college together but didn’t really become friends until after graduation since she was the only person I knew who stayed in Boston; I convinced her to move to New York last year. After dinner, I ventured out to Brooklyn to see her new place in Cobble Hill (Sidebar: I’m in love with Cobble Hill.) and meet her new cat. We saw District 9 finally (loved it), got some Tasti, and parted ways. Saturday was devoted exclusively to Civ Pro reading. I went to bed fairly early and was up by 7AM on Sunday due to the musical stylings of Daddy Yankee reverberating throughout my apartment. (I suspect the kitchen workers from the restaurant I live above are to blame, but no proof as of yet.) I spent Sunday with Rachel, one of my best friends from undergrad who recently moved out to NYC from LA, studying in a coffee shop. We spent 7 hours and $22 there and I managed to get through all my torts and contracts reading. Admittedly, our studying was constantly being interrupted by bouts of conversation and catching each other up on all the various dramas recently experienced. But still, a productive day.

Exciting things going on around school this week include no Contracts for the rest of the week (!!), Legal Research being added to my schedule, the first TA session (Civ Pro) of the semester, a public interest social event, and a review session for the Legal Methods final exam. This last is on Friday at 5:10PM, an inherently hostile move on the part of the professor, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that having the session at such a heinous time came down to room reservation issues and not some personal hatred for us. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be there any more than we do at that hour. But the Legal Methods final is next Friday and as a result, Thursday and Friday classes are canceled next week so we can study. I can’t believe it’s already that time.

I must confess I haven’t gotten into the habit of attending club events and lunchtime presentations (with the requisite free pizza). I tend to keep my participation in non-class engagements restricted to those that bear the word MANDATORY in the email subject line. But I was excited about a public interest fair going on last week. I thought it might be fun to get involved in a pro bono project and start chipping away at my 40 hours requirement as soon as possible. To my dismay, the ONE organization I was interested in was the only organization that didn’t show. I wasted some time in the computer lab and checked in again, but she still hadn’t arrived so I got her contact information from an administrator and went home. After thinking about it some more, I figured there’s no chance in hell I’m getting a paying job this summer so it’s more than likely I’ll knock out those 40 hours within one week of starting whatever internship I manage to get. So I might as well not make things any more difficult for myself by starting a volunteer project this semester.

I’m officially not allowed to start thinking about the summer until November 1, but unofficially, I would ideally like to work for a judge. Unfortunately, working for a judge doesn’t qualify for the public interest summer stipend CLS offers so unless there’s some other funding out there I don’t know about (anyone??), that leaves me stretching my financial aid award into lasting 12 months as opposed to the 9 months the financial aid powers-that-be say it is to last. I just don’t know if that’s feasible. It’s hard to tell at this point what, if any, amount is left over after my monthly expenses since it’s still relatively early and I had some startup costs to deal with so September isn’t really a representative month. But I think ultimately I’m going to have to find an internship that qualifies for CLS public interest funding.

But it’s way too soon to be concerned with that. There are more important things going on right now…like the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother. Until next time…