Sunday, Coffee Sunday.

Sitting at Panera with two law school buddies, partaking of the free wireless and ample table space:

"Ok, so if the wife dies, and then the husband remarries a woman who was born after the wife died, and then they have a baby, and then the husband dies, and then the baby dies, who gets the house?"

"I think I need another croissant."

"Can I have a future possessory interest in your croissant?"

"Is that an offer?"

"There's no consideration! Even if you accepted, it wouldn't be binding."

"This conversation is intentionally inflicting emotional distress on me right now."

"I think I need another croissant."

Semi-Finals, Baby!

Oh yeah! Down to 8 teams out of 90! This is nuts!

Excuse me while I start my homework at 11:32 p.m.

PS: My partner and I have dubbed ourselves "The Hairy Germans" Please root for us on Tuesday.

PPS: There is a backstory, I am not going to put it on the internet. =)

Negotiatrix.

For the past few weeks, I've been participating in a negotiation competition; basically, it's like debate or moot court, but simulates various negotiating scenarios that lawyers face (forming contracts, out-of-court settlements, divorces). My partner and I made it through to the third round tonight! We were up against some really good people and were pleasantly surprised. I am also shocked at how much I enjoy using my "killer instinct" to go after the opposition's weak points. The best part is I do it all in my friendly LegalEagle voice and smile like a banshee. It seems to work! It's all about being prepared and reading between the lines to infer your opponent's secrets, and it's really really fun!

Anyway, just thought I'd share a non-aggravating experience!

Driving in Boston

Driving here is an art form, and not a nice one. I have always been one of those rather annoying, mostly law-abiding people who tried to drive according to the rules. In Boston, the rules are that there are no rules other than "Go faster" and "Merge or die." Sometimes it's almost fun, but most of the time it's exhausting and pretty scary. I really don't understand why otherwise sane people get in their cars and lose all (or most) reason and logic. Ex., if there are two lanes of traffic merging into one, neither having the right of way, logically you'd take turns, one by one, merging into the lane. Here? Whoever pushes the nose of their car far enough out in front of you that you'd hit them if you continued - they win. And if you don't follow this strategy, but instead wait for someone to let you out, or a light to change, a break in the traffic, etc., you get honked at! And not just "tap, tap" kind of honking. A driver in front of me actually honked his horn for almost half a mile because the driver in front of him didn't react quickly enough to a light change for his tastes.

Word of the day: HARRUMPH.

I though DanceFest deserved its own post.

Because I don't think I make a fool of myself in public enough...

Random weekend tidbits.

Things I did this weekend that I haven't done for a long time/ever and that make me happy:

Tailgating at a football game.

Dressing up in matching dorky fan t-shirts with 3 new friends.

Getting a little sunburn on my nose.

Walking almost all the way around main campus and discovering several new and ever-uglier Eagle statues.

Having an argument in which I ended up defending Jews for Jesus and the existence of Santa Claus, all in one car ride.

Eating popsicles and getting sticky and disgusting and not really caring.

Enjoying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (This is officially the weirdest item on my list.)

Deciding that I should always refer to the Federal Rules of Evidence as "Fred" in my notes.

Spending a significant chunk of time in which I should have been doing homework dancing around my teensy apartment in my sports bra, while enjoying the sounds of Ricky Martin. (And realizing DanceFests should probably include closing the curtains.)

Considering the mixture of 4 kinds dried fruits into one large ziploc bag "cooking."

Considering moving my pile of dirty clothes from one side of the room to another "cleaning."

Considering said DanceFest "exercise."

Realizing when you can take you pants off without unbuttoning, it's definitely time to get new pants.

I shall be...

persistently optimistic.

Do you think you can choose to be a glass-half-full person, or are you just born that way?

And if you ARE born that way, then life beats it out of you, can you get it back?

This asketh the girl who is apparently enjoying law school way too much.

I lied. Grammar is dead.

Sentence from my to-be-turned-in-tomorrow Memorandum:

The Garrett court held that those activities were not typically done in the home, and thus the parking garage did not function as a room in the home; the basement is clearly used for activities typically done in a home, and thus functions as a room in the home, and a court would likely conclude that the facts in this case meet the requirement for this element of establishing a dwelling house.

Excuse me while I take my writing style out back and shoot it. And eat some peanut butter from a jar while I weep over the loss of FLAVA* in my life.

FLAVA: writing that catches your imagination. Example: from my poem, Fried, about the ambience in Mac's cafeteria: "Taste the easy, breezy, fried up air"

That's right. A poet AND a law student.

You can't have heirs until you die.

So tomorrow is the big negotiation competition, first round, and then Friday our first paper (Memorandum) is due for legal writing. Saturday is the BC football game, which I plan to attend in true SuperFan style with my friends and I in matching gold and maroon t-shirts.

I got a spot at a Public Interest Retreat next weekend, where alumni come back to tell us, no, you don't HAVE to work at a firm and sell your soul (yay!) and we get free food and drink and nature-communing time (more yay!).

The weekend after that I am heading to NY for a big college friend reunion!

The weekend after that some friends from home may visit!

Notice how I'm focusing on the weekends here?

The semester is going so fast! It's slipping away!

Pictures from Boston...

Check out some pictures from Boston

FiOS!

WARNING: This post has a high dork factor.

I got my internet installed this morning! I've been testing it out by running streaming videos, music, AIM, etc., all at once; so far it's pretty awesome!

Luckily, the person who lived here before me already had Verizon, so it took all of 20 minutes for the guy to get it set up (they had warned it might take 4 hours, so I was pleasantly surprised!)

Time for me to stop playing, and get back to work (today is Rosh Hashana, so we have the day off, and I'm trying to get some big chunks of work done before Susan gets here tomorrow).

Happy New Year!

Mobile blog post: from the library!

Before I get kicked off this carrel, which is supposedly for people using the CD-ROM COLLECTION SYSTEM (??), I wanted to quickly post for today.

This is for my parents: that land on the other side of the fence that is technically within your property line? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's Tom's land now. Sorry about that. Adverse possession*, baby!

So this weekend while the mother is visiting, we have two goals. One, eat yummy Boston food and do fun city things. Two, buy Emma a suit. I am officially a law school tool already, and it's only the first month!

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

*In common law, adverse possession is the process by which title to another's real property is acquired without compensation, by, as the name suggests, holding the property in a manner that conflicts with the true owner's rights for a specified period of time. (from Wikipedia - pretty accurate I think!)

The British are coming!!

Ok, not the British. And according to my duck tour guide, that poem is inaccurate, since Paul Revere WAS British, he would have said "The Redcoats are coming!" But I digress.

My mom is coming to visit this weekend! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! Surprise mom visit + FiOS internet = BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

That's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it.

Realized I'm 75 pages ahead in Civil Procedure, due to my obsessive tendencies and fear of being unprepared. Booyah!

Also, realized that I signed up for a negotiation competition, meaning I have to start negotiating before judges, oh, on WEDNESDAY.

Eeeeek.

Sunday, part deux

First, I thought it was very rhythmic traffic. Then, perhaps, a subwoofer. Only after careful listening have I discerned that my upstairs neighbor, we'll call him Pierre, has an incredibly loud, incredibly persistent snoring problem. It's not that tragic for me, but I do feel bad for his roommate; I can't imagine what it sounds like from the same apartment!

Note: there is something wrong with the timing on this blog. It's actually 1:06 a.m., but when I post, it gives the impression that I'm blogging at a much earlier, more civilized time. Do not be fooled. I have bad sleep habits, just like all the other law students.

Dunkin Donuts

There is a Dunkin Donuts on just about every block here, including mine. It has become my Sunday morning tradition (I know it's only been three weeks!) to go to Dunkin Donuts for some coffee (and maybe a donut or bagel) before I settle into homework for the day. This morning, as I was picking out my bagel, a police officer came into the store, walked behind the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee. It startled me, so I looked at him, and when he noticed me staring he said "How ahh ya?" to which I responded (in my pre-coffee state, remember) "Uh, fine... you?" He then said "How about the Sox, eh?" and turned around to leave.

I officially live in Boston.

Socrates, squared.

I think I've officially passed the "you're not going to fail out/have a nervous breakdown in the first week" test, which is a big relief. What my grades will be remains to be seen of course (and my awesome 2L mentor has suggested some study tips which I plan to spend the weekend implementing), but I've gotten over the hump of learning how to brief a case and answer the Socratic method-type questions. In fact, I got called on not once, but twice this week in two separate classes!! What that means is basically the professor randomly chooses a student to talk about a certain case, and then comes back to that student again and again with questions about the facts, hypothetical scenarios and analyses. In my case (both times!) we pretty much only covered one case in the class, which meant I spent an hour plus on call and answering questions both today and yesterday. The chances of randomly getting chosen are only 1/90, so I really didn't count on it happening twice within two weeks, but it was honestly nice to get it over with (and kind of exhilarating!). Now I know I can do it! And I know I probably won't get called on again in those two classes! It takes a lot of pressure off.

Still, there are grades to think about (based on exams mainly), homework, student groups (I've already joined three, I know it's a bit much!) and of course the utterly important social life. Tonight I actually dragged my antisocial self to a party of the first year class, only to have it broken up by the POLICE within an hour! Imagine the scene: 100 law students, five cops and a keg. I don't think I need say any more.

So, I'm a bit busy and my studio is a bit messy, but it's the weekend! The perfect time to rectify that and also get my self organized so NEXT time I get called on I'll have an even better answer!

Pictures, part II

My kitty asleep in a sea of law books. Note the tv antenna in the upper-right (free tv!!).



Where's Waldo? I miss Waldo!

Some pics, part I

My first gourmet meal in the tiny kitchen (I'm the new Rachel Ray!):
How I spent Labor Day:

tempora mutantur, nos et mutamu in illis

That means (roughly) the times are changing, and we are changing with them. A judge (who later became a Supreme Court justice), argued in 1805 in a dissenting opinion, that despite the lack of precedent, a rule/law should be established that addressed a particular problem (in this case a fox hunting dispute!).

POLL:

Do you think that critics would call this judicial activism?

Did you ever think a fox hunting case from 1805 could immediately make you think of Bob Dylan?

Do you think the fact that I'm tempted to pull a Wayne's World and do the "Foxy Lady" in property class for emphasis of points I raise about said fox hunting dispute means I should really not be in law school?

Do you think my blog will be getting more and more cryptic as the semester progresses?

Discuss.

Labor Day

I get the feeling I will spend the next 9 months without the satisfying feeling of being "done." Every time I finish my homework, I skim back over it and realize there are about ten levels of deeper analysis I'm missing. And then I realize it's 11:30 and time for this old lady to go to bed!

Byegones, it will all come out ok in the end. (I hope!)