The Finals Countdown

*cue the music*

Yep, folks, it's that time once again! FINALS!! I always tell people that finals are the victory lap after the big semester of learning. This semester, I'm very excited for my classes to end. I had one class where I didn't care for the subject (but was required to take it), a class where I didn't care for the professor, a class with a ton of assigned reading, and a lot of other things going on.

But now, the end is here! Classes ended last week, and I've been hunkered down in my apartment, doing my best to study. My first final is tomorrow (2:00 pm EDT, for those of you who pray/think nice thoughts/cross fingers). My second final is Friday morning. Then I have the weekend to prepare for my next final, on Tuesday, and then two days to prepare for my last final, Friday morning. Then I will be DONE with my first year of law school. I can't believe it! It feels like I have a lot to do before it's all done, so I'll still be pretty busy over the next few days. Both of my exams this week are closed book, which is rough for law school, and having the two of them right in a row is a bit overwhelming, but it'll be over in a few days!

I was just doing some reading when my textbook for the course with the exam tomorrow dove off my couch, into the trashcan. I think this is a sign. Time to stop studying. :) Or time to take out the trash. One or the other.

Law School Tidbit: Contracts II

We were reading a case in Contracts about the broken levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The plaintiffs in the case were suing their insurance companies, who refused to cover the losses because "flooding" was excluded. The reasoning is kind of long, so I won't bore you with it, but the bottom line is that the levy breaking counted as flooding, so the people lost the case.

Professor: What's your remedy? Well, it's not law; it's Brad Pitt. Life's not all bad.

Law School Tidbit: Criminal Law

Early in the semester, after having a student give the facts of a case, the professor notes what he thought was missing:


 “You left out the most important fact of the case: everyone was really drunk. For most of our cases, you can just take that as a given background fact.”

And that has turned out to be so true.

Law School Tidbit: Contracts

I'll be pretty busy for the next month preparing for and taking my finals for this semester. (Side note: yippee!! Almost done with these classes!)

I don't want to leave you all alone for that time, so I'll occasionally try to write something funny that I discover in my notes as I'm outlining in my exam prep. (In classes, I tend to write occasional funny things that happen or that my professors say down in my notes just along with the rest of the content. It makes for a delightful outlining process as I get to uncover all of these gems!)

Today's gem is from my Contracts professor, right at the beginning of the semester, when we were reviewing the midterm exam he gave us in December. After the professor finished the review, he said:

"Have I upset you? Have I been rude? Not sensitive enough? Of course I have. I’m all of those things and more."

We laughed really hard because he has a dark, dry sense of humor, but he is nowhere near being our rudest, most upsetting professor. (I won't be blogging about that one. You just don't need to experience that!)

More to come over the next few weeks, if I have time...

Well, Sure

I just saw a random commercial while I was eating dinner.

It was about some prescription medication...I don't remember what the purpose of the medication is, but in a discussion about side effects, the commercial mentioned that when taking the medication, you should use caution when "doing unsafe tasks."

Uh, shouldn't you ALWAYS use caution when doing unsafe tasks? And why are people out doing unsafe tasks? And where are their parents??

Weighty Matters

Since it's spring break next week, and since this break falls very, very close to the end of the semester (only seven days of class once we get back before it's time for finals), I needed to bring all of my textbooks home for the break. I am disinclined to go down to the school when I'm not in classes, and the building will be closed for most of the break, but I really do need to study, so I sadly determined that I would need to have all of my books at home for the break.

Holy cow, there is a reason I don't bring them home more often! Wednesday, I brought home a book for a class that was done for the week. Thursday, another book came home, and then Friday, I had to bring two more home. I was meeting company for lunch after school, and it was like walking to a restaurant carrying an elephant.

Looking forward to the end of this semester so I can try to sell all of these heavy, heavy books!

I'm also thinking that I have shrunk an inch or so carrying around all these books. It's not like I had an inch to spare, so it is a substantial loss.

Auction

My school, like many law schools, holds an auction each year to raise money for students who will be working unpaid in the public sector during the upcoming summer.

At my school, to get one of these stipends, you have to jump through a few hoops. One of the hoops I had to jump through this year was to help with the auction itself. I was assigned to work in the room with the actual goods that had been donated and then purchased during the course of the evening. Some of the items had been displayed on tables during the night, and then were brought down to the room where I was working to be checked off and then processed through to the winning bidder. I ended up working with the chair of the inventory committee (that's right--it's a whole committee--this shindig was HUGE) on keeping things running smoothly, primarily by making sure all items were present and accounted for by checking a large database on my laptop with what was physically present in the large room.

Each lot number was taped along the front of a table (in a series of many tables - hundreds of items here), and when the items were brought to the room, they had to be put in their appropriate lot. Some lots consisted of many items, like dinner gift certificates and Broadway tickets.

There were some items that I couldn't account for, and eventually, someone found a stack of items that hadn't been brought down with the rest of them. I was missing a few items from different lots, and I had people running around searching for them and reuniting them with their lots.

I sent a runner to find me a set of Broadway tickets for one lot where the rest of the items had already been located.

Her: What play?
Me: "Anything Goes"
Her: Okay.

And off she went. I continued to search, direct, and reunite lost goods with their rightful lots in time to be ready for the winning bidders to pick up. Five or ten minutes later, she returned.

Her: What is 508 missing again?
Me: Broadway tickets. "Anything Goes"
Her: Okay. But what play?
Me: "Anything Goes"
Her: (puzzled pause) But, just...anything? What?
Me: "Anything Goes" is the show. I need you to find the tickets to the show "Anything Goes."
Her: OH! I thought you just wanted to find me any Broadway tickets and I couldn't decide which ones you wanted.
Me: (suddenly concerned about what else we had Broadway tickets to that were rolling around still...and suddenly feeling like I had been in some sort of Abbot and Costello thing)

All in all, it was a very successful auction! We had many generous alumni and community members attend our auction to help us work in Public Interest jobs this summer. And I got home by 10, which is all I ask on a school night. (I know--I'm an old woman.)

So many of my friends will be working in a wide variety of public interest jobs this summer. Most of these organizations rely on help from law students, yet cannot afford to pay them at all, due to extremely limited funding. We're so blessed to be at a school that supports our ambitions and helps to fund us in working toward what really matters!

Don't Ask

As a courtesy to people everywhere, I wanted to publish this quick list of things that you shouldn't ask people.

• "So, do you have a job lined up yet?"
• "Are you dating anyone special?"
• (When someone is dating) "When are you two going to get married?"
• (When people are married) "When are you going to finally have a baby?"
• "How much does your job pay?"
• "How much does your apartment cost?"
• "What are your grades like?"

You guys have any other annoying questions to add to the list?

Busy Busy Busy

Things here have been pretty busy. My birthday came and went, lots of applying for internships, lots of planning for next year, lots and lots of reading, lots of studying, lots of organizing notes, lots of feeling tired, lots of needing a vacation...

But a vacation I will get! Next week is spring break, so I just have to survive one more week of classes and then I'll have a much-needed rest. After spring break, I only have a few days of classes left, and then it will be time for finals.

I can't believe my first year of law school is coming to an end. In some ways, if feels like I've been a law student forever. In other ways, it feels like I just started. But here I am--almost 1/3 done with law school! It has certainly been an adventure.

I've definitely turned into a nerd in new ways that I never thought possible. When I watch TV now, I see torts, I analyze defenses to crimes I watch people commit (both at common law and under the Model Penal Code, which makes me even nerdier), I consider constitutional questions, and all kinds of new nerdy things. I am more analytical in my arguing, more precise in my language, and more thorough in considering all positions in a conflict.

But fortunately, even though I'm nerdier, I haven't lost the fight that brought me to law school. Each new case isn't just a story--they're real people, and I still feel for each of them. This does make my case reading exhausting at times, but it's all part of the journey.

All in all, it has been a good year. It has been difficult, but good. I'm looking forward to this summer and then next year. I get to select my own courses in my 2L year, and I'm already considering what all I want to take. This is another area where I get to demonstrate my incredible nerdiness--the classes that I'm excited about taking are so, so nerdy. But I'm excited. It's going to be another great year.

Now to survive the next month...

Scary

I am in the process of outlining, which is where you sit for a long time, re-reading all of your notes and thoughts and distilling them into a shorter format for exam-taking purposes. In the case of the outline I'm working on right now, the exam is actually closed book, so I'm really creating it for memorization purposes in preparation for exam taking, but the process in the same.

I found a questionable line in my notes from early February: "Original jurisdiction is blah blah blah, appellate jurisdiction extends to all other cases."

Even scarier? I know exactly what that "blah blah blah" means. Apparently, I just take notes in code now.

Cool

One weird thing about being a law student is that you start to become really uncool. In conversations with my mom, for example, I've been known to say things like, "So I'm reading along, and then Justice Scalia quotes Justice Brennan and talks about how much he likes Brennan's decision, and my head exploded."

Not cool or interesting to anyone but law students...but that doesn't stop us. Here are some funny things that my professors have said this semester that probably aren't funny to you, just for more examples:

• The Framers, famous for their foresight, failed to plan for the invention of the airplane. Huge hole in the document…
• Wait, Mr. Justice, you’re a strict textualist!
• Mistake? A HUGE mistake! But not a legal mistake.
• You never have to guess. You can always read the statute! In this class, and in life.
• Unfortunately, you have to learn something every day you come to criminal law class, whether you like it or not.
• Of course, it was supposed to be a government of enumerated powers, but maybe that just didn't work out.
• Your client is going to be a man named Edward Scissorhands. And as you might guess from his name, he has scissor hands.

See? Not that funny to you. But we laugh and laugh and laugh.

We're all pretty lame.

I'm not sure I'll ever be cool again.

Then again, I wasn't really cool before, so it's not a huge loss.

Ides

I know, I know: it's been a while. I've been busy. I may or may not catch you up on what I've been doing. We'll see. One of the things I've been busy doing is writing an appellate brief for my legal writing course. I would post the paper here in all its glory for you to read, but really, you probably wouldn't appreciate it. And it's long. So go ahead and just assume it was awesome. I'm sure that's what the professor decided to do with it as well.

I just wanted to take a moment to say a quick hello to my Grandma Seaver, who celebrates her birthday today. Not a day over 50, I'm sure.

Anyway, I am a poor student, so I didn't get my Grandma anything, but recently, she got me something, and I haven't had a chance to tell you all about it yet.

It's....

a......

CART! That's right, folks. A wonderful, wheeled cart that I can use to go to the grocery store, laundromat, or just take out for a walk because it's awesome. She even got me a little liner bag to go in it. It's pretty fantastic, and now I fit in with all of the other New Yorkers who are carting their goods from place to place.

A big thanks to my sweet grandma, and happy birthday!

Me Either

For some reason, some people out here think that Utah is in the midwest. It is not. It's in the West, people. Not too long ago, I was talking to someone from the midwest, and we were talking about the states there, and he was in total agreement about which states are midwestern...but then, he unveiled a category that I really haven't thought much about before. He said that Nebraska isn't in the mid-west; apparently, it's a plains state.

Later, I was talking to someone else about this funny distinction. She said that she thought of Nebraska and Kansas as being in the mid-west, but as she thought through it, she said she didn't think of Oklahoma as being in the midwest.

Me: So where do you put Oklahoma?

Her: I don't. I don't think about Oklahoma.

So true.

Well, There Is That

During a wonderful discussion with dear friend the other day, we were discussing how her ward (church congregation) has had some changes that make it more socially challenging to attend than ever before. These things happen in wards from time to time, and we talked about how it can be really difficult when a congregation goes through a phase where things don't click well.

Her comment: Ugh! It's like there isn't even a reason to go to church any more. (Pause) Except for Jesus, you know...

I laughed and laughed and laughed. It was fun to see an old, good friend out here in NYC. My floor is always open to anyone who wants to visit, especially if you can contribute gems like that!

Wisdom

The other day after class, I was sitting in the classroom to finish dealing with some emails, and although the classroom was mostly cleared out, a few students lingered, and I overheard a lot of conversation. One group of students engaged in a very interesting discussion about drinking.

I won't bore you with the details, but the gist of the conversation was that you're not an alcoholic unless you drink alone.

There was then some debate about what it meant to drink alone, but the ultimate result was that if you're home in your apartment drinking by yourself, then you're drinking alone. But if you go to a bar to drink, as long as there are other people there, even if you don't interact with them, that's not drinking alone.

That was the definition they all decided on.

Uh.....

Yeah, because alcoholics don't go to bars by themselves to drink...

A few minutes later, there was another conversation among some other students about weed. One of them remarked that although weed had bad psychological effects, it actually only had healthy effects on your body. He was adamant about it, further explaining that weed damages your brain cells, but doesn't actually harm your body. Everyone in the group was totally on board.

Yeah, because your brain isn't part of your body.

And also, it's not good for your body, but whatever...

Wow.

Just, wow.

Farewell, Bajio

Dear Bajio,

WHY?!??!? How could you do this to me?!?!?!?

I am left to mourn my loss from afar.

I ate there almost daily one semester. It was my to-go meal of choice. And even though I came less in later years, I still appreciated your goodness. Why sell yourself off as something so cheap and meaningless? You were worth so much more.

Sadly,

Burrito-less Bacon

P.S. Please, Cafe Rio, don't you quit on me, too!

Adventures in Grocery - The Meat Edition

A few days ago, I was shopping in one of my neighborhood grocery stores. Sometimes, it's hard to find what I'm looking for at stores here in the city. Other times, I come across things that I have never seen before, and that I kind of wish I could forget seeing.

Example:

I had two thoughts: wow, that's cheap; and SICK! Who eats that???

Then I thought, maybe I'm misjudging this. Maybe it is poorly named, and it's really a quality product (although the price indicates otherwise, but...)

So I flipped it over and checked the label to see what it was made of.

Not any better.

But they sell this in the store, so someone must eat it.

But who???

That Can't Be Good

My grocery delivery service sent me an email today advertising all of the things they think I should order from them for Valentine's Day. (Side note: no thanks, guys. If I want chocolate-covered strawberries, I'll dip my own, rather than paying $10 for 6 strawberries. Sheesh!)

One of the things they think I should order for delivery for Valentine's Day? Live lobster.

Uh...

When I order from them, things arrive in a box or in a bag. Neither of these seems like a good option for a live lobster.

Does it come in a tank? Maybe with a little castle in it?

Families are Different Here

This cracks me up at the store every time I see it...

Brunch?

Today, as I was walking past a diner, I looked through the window and saw someone eating a meal that looked to be eggs benedict with a side of french fries.

I thought two things:

1. That can't be right. I must've seen that wrong.
2. That sounds like a perfect meal.