I find myself cozying up to my Civ Pro reading here on the eve of my substantive classes. I've graduated from "Introduction to Legal Studies, Writing and Analysis" to Contracts I, Criminal Law, Legal Studies, Civil Procedure I and Property I. I spent my Sunday finding the perfect balance between law school and real life: doing my reading while tanning at Moonlight beach. As I've said many times...if you have to go to law school, San Diego isn't a bad place to do it.
The one constant in my three-ish years of law school will be my search for balance between non-stop studying and having a happy, healthy outside life. To pull me back from the ledge as I teetered on the brink of insanity, Eli presented me with one of the most wonderful gifts I could've gotten right now (outside of winning the lotto...). During my freakout listing of the things I miss from home (my dogs, my bed, my family...) I exclaimed: "I hate being so alone at home! I need a fish or something!" No less than a day later as Eli was dropping things off upstairs, I came in my living room and found myself face to face with none other than my new room mate and charge: a beautiful blue beta fish! Someone to talk to, take care of, bounce ideas off of, argue with, tell jokes to and best of all...he's a captive audience! What more could I need? I aptly named him Chief Justice John Jay after our nation's first leader of the Supreme Court. They are supposed to last 3-5 years but I'm already trying to decide what I should name his replacement in the event that poor little Chief Justice John Jay falls victim to an overheated apartment or death by boredom. So far he is thrilled to join me on my law school journey and he happily waves to me whenever I come home...that is if he isn't napping. Chief Justice is very fabulous after all and we all need our beauty sleep.
This weekend I'll travel to the Pleasanton Highland Games for a much anticipated end-with-a-bang to this year's pipe band season with Prince Charles Pipe Band. I can't wait to see my friends, and maybe Nat and John! It will be a great competition; both Eli and I have solo competitions and I'll be competing with the band as well. Best of all, the hotel where we are staying is full of people I love and don't often get to see, so bagpipe music and beer will flow freely! Good times to be had by all, and a great departure (again) from the law school hustle and bustle.
Off I go to bed, dreaming of Kirksey v. Kirksey, consideration, the difference between a gift and a promise, and that's just tomorrow's Contracts discussion...a full review of my first three professors to follow shortly!
Goodnight from Iris and CCJJ!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
I miss my loud smelly hairy dogs
What an exciting day yesterday turned out to be. Our first oral arguments...well...mock oral arguments anyway. I've grown up knowing that I enjoyed arguing so the prospect of standing before a panel of student "judges" pleading a case and being asked questions sounded positively delightful.
I approached the podium, launched into my spiel, and not 20 seconds in I was interrupted for the first time. I expected this because we had been warned this was part of the experience, that judges don't have too much time to listen to fluff and if they need to ask a question they will ask it regardless of where your are in your sentence. The question was asked...and my mind turned to glue. It was awful. I'd sat there in class and watched this happen to 3 students before me and thought to myself "You idiot, how could you not know how to answer that question." Of course we know how to answer these questions but when your thought process is interrupted and the room is silent as the grave and you have a big group of judgmental strangers sending mental poison darts your way...it is a bit more difficult to do your job. This will take some getting used to. I eventually stumbled through my answer feeling like an idiot because, of course, what came out of my mouth was IN NO WAY what I'd originally meant to say but it was over before it started and I woke up back at my seat with my heart racing. How fun.
Thank goodness the day ended in non-law school related fun. I accompanied Eli on a date to the racetrack where he came out ahead $8 which paid for a third of one of our margaritas. I can't believe how much I appreciated having been able to leave my 5 block radius in the city and see people outside of law school. I was happy as a clam. However it also allowed me to really realize how much I miss those stupid dogs, miss my room mate Pilar, miss Stepanski and Nikko, miss my loud obnoxious sorority house, miss my family. All I have to keep me company in that cute little apartment are my two little cacti who I may neglect to the point of death anyway. I need to get a fish.
Spending the weekend in the Encinitas public library with a cup of coffee and my Contracts and Civ Pro homework. Off to the real law school I go on Monday! Week one: complete. Iris: alive.
I approached the podium, launched into my spiel, and not 20 seconds in I was interrupted for the first time. I expected this because we had been warned this was part of the experience, that judges don't have too much time to listen to fluff and if they need to ask a question they will ask it regardless of where your are in your sentence. The question was asked...and my mind turned to glue. It was awful. I'd sat there in class and watched this happen to 3 students before me and thought to myself "You idiot, how could you not know how to answer that question." Of course we know how to answer these questions but when your thought process is interrupted and the room is silent as the grave and you have a big group of judgmental strangers sending mental poison darts your way...it is a bit more difficult to do your job. This will take some getting used to. I eventually stumbled through my answer feeling like an idiot because, of course, what came out of my mouth was IN NO WAY what I'd originally meant to say but it was over before it started and I woke up back at my seat with my heart racing. How fun.
Thank goodness the day ended in non-law school related fun. I accompanied Eli on a date to the racetrack where he came out ahead $8 which paid for a third of one of our margaritas. I can't believe how much I appreciated having been able to leave my 5 block radius in the city and see people outside of law school. I was happy as a clam. However it also allowed me to really realize how much I miss those stupid dogs, miss my room mate Pilar, miss Stepanski and Nikko, miss my loud obnoxious sorority house, miss my family. All I have to keep me company in that cute little apartment are my two little cacti who I may neglect to the point of death anyway. I need to get a fish.
Spending the weekend in the Encinitas public library with a cup of coffee and my Contracts and Civ Pro homework. Off to the real law school I go on Monday! Week one: complete. Iris: alive.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
What I've been fated to pursue since before I was born...
Well here I am, hot as blazes sitting at my cute little desk in my cute little apartment in my cute little San Diego neighborhood with my ugly huge books and my ugly huge homework assignments and my ugly huge financial aid notifications. According to my "Plain English for Lawyers" textbook that sentence is rife with stylistic flaws...
I've just finished my second day of pseudo class in my first year of law school. The last two days have been split between "Intro to Legal Studies: Writing" and "Intro to Legal Studies: Analysis." I'm so grateful to begin my legal study this way. Classically your first year in law school is characterized by the terrifying experience of being made to stand in front of your peers and be forced to brief a case about something you do not understand for a professor who is very very scary, and by your terribly expensive books and your starving student fancy microwave dinners. This will not be me in my first year at Cal Western School of Law. Instead, very much to my liking, we spend our entire first week split into small groups of about 20 terrified first years learning the very basic skills we will need to be successful in our first year: how to read a case, how to brief it, how to study and make outlines, how not to listen to our fellow students who are neurotic and brag about being "a week ahead in the reading for civ pro" but are actually lying to make themselves feel better. I've just finished briefing my third case and to be honest, I feel just peachy.
I've met a few cool people in my section who I will be with for the next three years of school. To my pleasant surprise people have come from all over the country to attend school here in San Diego! I've met people from Columbia University, University of Colorado, Washington D.C., Connecticut, and allegedly there is even someone in my class from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada! How aboot that, eh? So far that is one of the better parts of this experience: knowing that no matter how nervous I may be about succeeding in this endeavor there are 334 other students in my first year class, many of whom very well may be more terrified and clueless than I. And let me tell you...THAT is a comforting thought. We are all in it together. My class schedule is exciting and my mountain of books is looming ahead in the distance, I can't wait to tackle this obstacle!
My happy little apartment is a slice of heaven to come home to. It gets quiet (aside from the airplanes flying overhead) as I'm here on my own so I bought two little cacti to talk to about my day. (Side note: it doesn't bode well that I'm hardly two days in and am already speaking to plants...I need to get out...). I've gotten along fine here snacking on snap peas and starting to develop what by the end of these three years will be the recipe for the MOST FABULOUS peanut butter and jelly sandwich you will ever try. My neighbors are nice, my bus mates are nice (a bit smelly as it is a public bus, but just as nice as the next person) and I am very happy.
I hope to keep this account of all three years in school so that one day, while I'm sitting in my cushy leather chair in my corner office suite relaxing after a long day of ordering file clerks around, I can look back with a smile on my time at Cal Western. I'm ready and rearing to go and can't wait to dive in!
I've just finished my second day of pseudo class in my first year of law school. The last two days have been split between "Intro to Legal Studies: Writing" and "Intro to Legal Studies: Analysis." I'm so grateful to begin my legal study this way. Classically your first year in law school is characterized by the terrifying experience of being made to stand in front of your peers and be forced to brief a case about something you do not understand for a professor who is very very scary, and by your terribly expensive books and your starving student fancy microwave dinners. This will not be me in my first year at Cal Western School of Law. Instead, very much to my liking, we spend our entire first week split into small groups of about 20 terrified first years learning the very basic skills we will need to be successful in our first year: how to read a case, how to brief it, how to study and make outlines, how not to listen to our fellow students who are neurotic and brag about being "a week ahead in the reading for civ pro" but are actually lying to make themselves feel better. I've just finished briefing my third case and to be honest, I feel just peachy.
I've met a few cool people in my section who I will be with for the next three years of school. To my pleasant surprise people have come from all over the country to attend school here in San Diego! I've met people from Columbia University, University of Colorado, Washington D.C., Connecticut, and allegedly there is even someone in my class from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada! How aboot that, eh? So far that is one of the better parts of this experience: knowing that no matter how nervous I may be about succeeding in this endeavor there are 334 other students in my first year class, many of whom very well may be more terrified and clueless than I. And let me tell you...THAT is a comforting thought. We are all in it together. My class schedule is exciting and my mountain of books is looming ahead in the distance, I can't wait to tackle this obstacle!
My happy little apartment is a slice of heaven to come home to. It gets quiet (aside from the airplanes flying overhead) as I'm here on my own so I bought two little cacti to talk to about my day. (Side note: it doesn't bode well that I'm hardly two days in and am already speaking to plants...I need to get out...). I've gotten along fine here snacking on snap peas and starting to develop what by the end of these three years will be the recipe for the MOST FABULOUS peanut butter and jelly sandwich you will ever try. My neighbors are nice, my bus mates are nice (a bit smelly as it is a public bus, but just as nice as the next person) and I am very happy.
I hope to keep this account of all three years in school so that one day, while I'm sitting in my cushy leather chair in my corner office suite relaxing after a long day of ordering file clerks around, I can look back with a smile on my time at Cal Western. I'm ready and rearing to go and can't wait to dive in!
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