Sweet Nonsense

I don't care what the haters say, American Idol makes me happy.

Especially this.

Day 1 - The Marathon Begins

Sign I am taking better care of myself this time around with strategic vegetable purchases. (Who has time for chopping? Not me, but that doesn't mean I won't get a well-rounded diet this time!)



Also, I plan to do this to my Con Law final:


That's a little move I picked up in Tae Kwon Do called kicking something down, to Chinatown.

(Ignore giant, genetically ugly foot)

Things I Have Been Called This Week, Of Which I Am Proud

• Stubborn woman
• Hotshot
• Hardass
• Crafty

Context, so not necessary...

The Return of the Study Bunker: 21 credits v. 21 credits

Yeah, I still haven't decorated. Blame law school. This is, however, the cleanest my table has been for months.

I should have this all in my brain by May 5th:

Last semester was so easy in comparison - look at those paltry piles!

New trick for getting through: plan out each day in 2-hour increments. I'm writing this post in the 5-minute break between "clean study bunker and organize" and "con law outline." Now on to 5 hours of outlining, followed by 2 hours of legal research exam, followed by 2 hours of homework for tomorrow. But I'm not complaining because tomorrow is my LAST DAY OF CLASSES!! I'm in a fantastic and chipper mood. This might be because the lady at Dunkin Donuts misheard me and gave me TWO coffees instead of one. And who am I to turn down an extra coffee?

I can't wait to see you all when these shenanigans are over!

Lists

Purveyor of all things list-like, list-related, and list-awesome: McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

My favorite McSweeney's List of late.

Things that are awesome/Things that are less awesome:

• Spring weather/Allergies
• Fun nights out on the town/Tequila hangovers plus constitutional law
  
• Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton
  
• Three weeks until D-Day (done)/Three weeks of finals
• Last semester's 12 credits' worth of finals/This semester's 21 credits' worth of finals
• Running/Falling down my stupid front stairs AGAIN, thus not being able to run for a couple days
• Kittens/Sharks (particularly those who attack)
• Lindsay is engaged!/no downside to this one, other than one less girlfriend with whom one can say: "men suck"
• American Idol, yes, that's right/Fellows who check blackberries on dates, don't call you back and/or are generally annoying and ambiguous and just not appreciative of one's awesomeness (Yeah, I know these aren't entirely related, but hear me out; if I had a fellow who didn't suck, maybe I wouldn't spend my evenings at home watching American Idol, and thus it would not make the list of Things That Are Awesome. Sheesh.)

Sign of the Times

POLL: Have I crossed the line? I just couldn't resist the little celebratory ribbon thing (it was 99 cents!).

Springy Springy

It's incredibly nice out and I got to watch the leaders of the Boston Marathon run by on a study break today. Also, someone has some very exciting news, which she will probably share soon on her blog; I don't want to give it away! (Congrats, lady!)

Flowers are blooming (my sinuses are exploding!), children are running about (remind me someday to blog about the overabundance of teenagers in Newton, it's sci-fi freaky), and I have 1/16th of one outline done. It's not much, but it's a start. I am even considering giving myself a break and going to a party this afternoon, instead of fruitless unproductive studying hours spent in my bed/desk/studio area.

AND, most exciting, I'm looking at another apartment on Wednesday! That's right, I might be moving again! I am officially stupid, yes I know, but I want a kitchen! I crave a bathtub! I YEARN for a porch! All of these things could be mine for the low, low price of $650 a month plus utilities (woooooo, cheaper rent!). Here's to hoping the prospective roommate is nice and normal and the prospective canine roommate doesn't scare me. It's craigslist, so I'm considering enlisting a large, male friend to join me, even though the person I'm meeting is named Jenny and has an old english sheepdog (OR SO SHE SAYS).

Things I have relearned after going over civ pro notes:

• TB = Too Bad (important legal term)
• Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the table = a lawyer filing a complaint with big damages
• Dancing around the table in the middle of the room = nothing other than my tuition dollars are paying the salary of a questionably sane man
• I take WAY TOO DETAILED notes. Like, why do I know that on 10/22/07, The Nutty Professor said "and then I filed that lawsuit, I filed that sucker, because boy oh boy, they deserved it. And then I had a bowl of chowdah." (NOT KIDDING)
  

And Some Photos

Procrastination Central

Welcome. You may have noticed I changed the colors, font and title of my blog. I did this because a) I am finding new and creative ways to ignore permissive and compulsory counterclaims, b) I decided that my somewhat sacreligious Nietzsche title was a little over the top, and c) the green had started to remind me of finger-paint for some reason, and it needed to go. I also have discovered that Windows 2007 (which uses Calibri as its default font) makes me nostalgic for Times New Roman; every time I open a document I switch back to TNR, my small way of pooh poohing Vista and Microsoft and their newfangled ways. I am sure I could set the default font to TNR and be done with it, but remember, it's all about the procrastination and, more importantly, the illogical and meaningless ways we trick our brains into thinking we're achieving something.

In other news, the Boston Marathon is tomorrow, and I plan to take my run somewhere near the course; that way, I'll FEEL like I achieved something monumental right alongside the people who are actually doing it. See? It works!

Justice O'Connor

Why couldn't you be as logically consistent as Scalia? I almost always agree with you, but only after having fits about your opinions... Is it easier to be logically consistent if you're evil?

Le sigh.

100th post!

I don't know if it's something to celebrate, or means that I have way too much skill at procrastinating, but this is my 100th post. This is probably the first non-facebook internet tool I haven't abandoned after a few uses (GoodReads, Flickr, my old blog, LiveJournal), which either means I'm truly narcissistic or this is a healthy outlet (let's pretend it's the latter). I also apologize to those of you who signed up for an RSS feed thinking you'd get lots of good tidbits and ended up with Emma's Journal Wherein She Mainly Complains.

Speaking of sticking to things, I've completed Week 1 of Couch to 5k, and I'm feeling great! Actually, I'm feeling a little sore, because I managed to get myself so utterly lost today that my 3 mile route magically became about 8, no joke. I was so confused and turned around, and since I don't wear my glasses when I run (they get all sweaty and slip off my nose), I would have to get right up to a sign before I could see what street it was. I finally asked a jogger for directions, which he gave me, at which point I realized he was blind - making me feel like even more of an idiot for getting lost in my own town.

Shoes, and Law Review, and It's Almost Summer, Oh My!

Bulleted list time of the semester!

• I got new shoes. They're amazing. The difference is incredible! It's like the difference between running flat-footed on a beach and wearing moon boots! I just ran/walked 3.0 miles and I feel nothing. I can't even compare if I'm improving over the first two runs, because it was a totally different experience. I will never run in broke-down tennis shoes again.
  
• It's sunny outside! Another reason I'm pumped full of adrenaline and feel like I could go out for another run. However, this leads me to my next realization:
• I should probably be wearing sunscreen during these runs! After a friend from undergrad developed skin cancer (most likely from too much sun during runs!) I've become extra paranoid about sun damage (and as one of the world's palest, I was already pretty darn paranoid).
• For the ladies: how obnoxious is it that we have to wear at least 2 undergarments just to lock down enough to be able to run? And my neck/shoulders STILL feel pulled if I go more than a snail's pace. I'm looking into an industrial strength contraption.
  
• We had our first meeting about law review; the writing competition looks to be way less awful than I had thought - it's closed, meaning we don't have to/can't do any outside research, so it will be based solely on our writing/citation skills (and despite my mediocre grades, I think I can write decently enough to give me a shot, especially since about 35% of those who attempt the problem get on one of the journals).
• After Friday, I will be officially done with 1 out of the 5 classes I have this semester (Legal Writing, I shall slay thee!). I'm excited! Last semester this felt like some new, crazy world, but now it just feels like -- another semester! And I realized that after this one, I only have four more! Law school is short! Life is short! Time goes by so quickly!
• Later this summer, I am planning to apply for 2L jobs in
• Minneapolis
• New York City
• Washington, D.C.
• So if you live in one of those cities, be prepared to be hit up for any and all contacts. I will repay you with baked goods and my eternal devotion. Forever and ever.

Adios, Amigos!!!

Week 1, Day 1 completed....

Determined - I need new shoes in which to run.

Also determined - it's way closer than I thought to the law school. I should walk more. (Although, this could have something to do with the amount of stuff I carry to school, it has always felt like a major hike getting there.)

Funny - people who stared at me like a mad person because I stopped to stretch my aching calves in front of Whole Foods. You're supposed to be healthy, you're buying QUINONA for goodness' sakes!

Two more days of Week 1 to go!

Library to 5k

Law school, American Idol's return to television, and free law firm pizza have combined to make me feel like this recently:


Not like this, at all:


Which is kind of sad, because I think that those shorts would definitely help my career prospects. To that end, and because I feel kind of gross and bloated from eating coffee and drinking soup for lunch and having free pizza for dinner every day, I've decided to do (again, but I hope with more success) this plan, that my friend Lindsay told me about:

THE PLAN

It's basically a 9-week walking-to-jogging-to-running plan that aims to get lazy, out of shape people (read: law students) up to running a 5k. That means I'll be forced to actually leave my house during the next two months (I am doing this on purpose - I don't want to end up like Powder).

Wish me luck and yell at me if I never post about this again because I've stopped doing it and am back to the library/American Idol grossitude.

hilarious

>>laughing hysterically<<

Background: Macalester parties often had funny themes (it's a 50's cocktail party -- complete with cocktail weenies and ironic Donna Reed dresses! it's a graffiti party where everyone tries to impress their crushes with witty one-liners to write on each other's shirts!), and almost everyone who goes their prides themselves on being ironic pretty much of all of the time. When I was there, it drove me nuts, but law school has made me kind of nostalgic for that level of self-awareness and humor.

The Funny: I was just on facebook, and saw an album of pictures from a party at an off-campus house near Macalester (some of my younger classmates are seniors now - which is crazy - and I see Mac goings-on in my news feed every once in a while). The album was called "who like to rock the party" and the theme was clearly some variant of "jock/frat/party school party." The kids were dressed in polos, popped collars, visors sideways, boxers sticking out, playing beer pong (NOBODY does this at Mac) and reading Sports Illustrated. The best thing about this album was that if it were anywhere but Macalester, the pictures would just be normal Friday night party pictures, yet I could just SMELL the irony with which these (let's be honest) nerds were playing frat boy. I don't know if it's the insomnia or the nostalgia, but I can't stop giggling. I miss those kids!