I must be completely into the swing of things. School has picked up its pace, and where I thought I was ready, I was wrong. At some point between the Tuesdays, an assignment built up on me, consumed me and my time, and I still couldn't get it together until the minute of class it was due. Ridiculous.

In my Legal Rhetoric course, which is essentially "How to read and write, legally," we have been given several assignments which are meant to eat up all of our time.

There are Quizzes/Exercises on how to "cite" the law. (The law, by the way, consists of statutes and cases and everything else that governs that special way we interact with each other. There is an amazing system of 'citing' all these different places that laws come from, based on state, the reporter its in, how many balloons were released after the case, very important distinctions that lead up to a complicated method that requires a book with tables at your side at all times.)

There is, of course, reading out of the "how to write legally textbook". Actually, there are two textbooks that explain how to write. We are supposed to read both of them. Then, when the time comes, they tell us what was written in the book by giving us a large incomprehensible, impossible to follow along, and truly boring lecture on a Monday morning at 9 complete with powerpoint presentations that have slides of pictures of various websites that we'll be doing the majority of our legal research on. These slides are of course meant to show us how to navigate the sites, and search using proper terms and what not; realistically it's a lot like taking pictures of a large deserted island, complete with a jungle and some water features, then showing these pictures to a group of people explaining that there is treasure underneath a particular tree in one of the pictures, and then telling them to go find it. But, before you do that, you also take pictures of another deserted island, with a slightly different jungle, and a slightly different water feature (you know, a larger waterfall or something cool), telling the group that the same treasure, or potentially the same treasure, is under a different tree that looks like the one you just saw but on a different island. Then you tell those people, who want the treasure, truly do want to be able to find it, to go get it ... and no, there's no map--only the pictures of the islands. ... Have fun.

The work to be done is an "Office Memo". Apparently I didn't get it. It took forever. I don't want to go into great detail about it...still a little sensitive. Just know that I'm trying to learn how to write in legal language, and form. It's not easy. It took a lot of time last weekend. It was my first draft. This week is the next draft. I haven't gotten feedback yet, but I'm pretty sure i need to overhaul the paper. Which means it'll take a lot of time this weekend as well. Ugh.

It's okay though. Thanks to the Jewish Religion I have a three day holiday. Ah, Yom Kippur. Thanks.

On that note, I'm headed off to the library. I took most of Friday off from studies and am going to hit the books today!

Law Pal

I am what I am, and that's all that I am...

Man...am I ashamed? Maybe. Am I embarrassed? A little. Today, somehow, I became that kid who ruins it for everybody. Inadvertently of course, but the homework did say there was a handout....Well, that kid who is up front and really, really, really wants to do the homework. All of it. Yeah, I was the one to ask about the "handout" on the syllabus.

On the other hand, I'm also the kid who went ahead and yelled, "YES! Thank You!" After this cool guy in the back made the point that I'd been waiting to make. (I came to find out later that I wasn't the only one who felt that way; just the only one to say something about it.) In any was, it was a decent Contracts class. Except for all the wasted time. That part was less fun. OH, and all those times where I really don't fully understand the key terms-'cause their meaning and importance seems to change every class.

On that note, I'd like to file an official (maybe unofficial) complaint about a little something.

Let me tell you how I feel about all this "Promissory Estoppel" business.

Well...actually I'll tell you some other time. You can try to figure out for now, and I'll complain after this coming week. I think that theoretically it should be somewhat explained; the problem is, as far as I can tell, it's just something that the courts created in order to make some injustices in the law that they had established, magically disappear.

At least I'll stand out in the professor's mind.

Law Pal

Nice Shirt

Had to make a little note. So, I started on Tuesday.

Today I wore the shirt that the school gave me. That's right, the school was quite willing to give out a "free" t-shirt at teh beginning of the year. The first day I got it, I was stoked, but wanted to wait it out. And I did.

Days passed. Now weeks. It's been nearly a month. Running low on shirts, and it still being warm out, I figured today is the day.

Grabbed my shirt. Threw it on. Picked up a long-sleeve to go over it. Layering will never get old after all. Feelin' good, biked to school just like every other day of the week. Sweet. Nothing too serious.

Got on the elevator, Hah, figured that the first person Id see would have the same shirt. Oh well, as ridiculous as it was, those were the odds.

Hit the locker, passed a few people from my class, ran into the chill Matthew McCauno..i already forgot how to spell it. Well, he had the free Washington College of law shirt on too. On a roll.

...

...

There were 11 out of 80 of us in class wearing our free WCL T-shirts.

We were lookin' good.

Sometimes you want to go....

where everybody knows your naaaame....

Well, it's late on a saturday. Okay, not too late, only 9, but it's late for dinner and I haven't eaten yet. It's been a long short week. The four days of class seemed to pass slower than the usual five days. Oh well.

Its been a rough week as I said. Why? Simply put, nothing happened. I went to class. I went to the library. I've been going through the motions just like everybody else, and in reality this is the slowest it's been. Part of the problem, I believe, is that as a result of better understanding in our classes, they are becoming more difficult to grasp. There is nothing straight forward. There are no rules to study, guidelines to follow, or histories to study that make the lessons clear. Instead, there are constantly changing cases, constantly changing supreme court justice decisions (on what seem to be the same subject), and more and more frustration from a lack of understanding in the class.

On a short note, as this will have to be because I'm pretty tired and don't have too much fun and exciting things to tell you about, it's pretty nice going to school. Having class with the same 80 people every day makes every one feel like part of the crowd...or at least me and some other guys seem like part of the crowd. This is important because soon when the real hard stuff starts to settle in, everyone is going to need help. It's nice to establish these basic acquaintance relationships, in addition to the cool friendships, so that you can go and find the smart guys and girls from the class and make a solid study group. At least, that would be the theory.

Already I think that there are some expectations for myself and for a few of the other people in the class. Yeah, yeah, I know. Really though, you can see the recognition and the general sense that people have about you when you talk to them. And when you drink with them.

Again there was a going out on the town trip with the kids from the section. Mr. B and I hit up this other little bar first, $6 cover to get in, free drinks from 9:30-10:30. Good situation. After that Mr B., Buckley, and some of Mr. B's lady friends and I all hit up the bar where the party was at. Thank goodness we didn't show up at the start, jello shots had been given, taken, and the more had been given out again. After the first bar I focused on water, thankfully, and ended up making it quite a late night. Took the metro home, hung out with a buddy for about an hour more; very relaxed southern california kind of guy, he has a pet hedgehog, he's cool. In any case, it wasn't too bad, but it's a strange feeling going out to a bar, seeing a tone of people you know, and having to make the rounds. It's kind of fun. You hear, 'there he is', or a, 'where ya been?' or even just, 'hey man'. Finally, I understand that 'Cheers' theme song.

Even with all this fun. Studying is definitely taking it's toll. So many words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and sentences have just been absorbed. Also, I may have created a slight addiction to coffee and caffeine. It's nothing serious, but last Friday I was definitely moving a little slower in the morning. I didn't have my coffee, or my orange juice. It was pretty rough.

Law

PS. Hopefully when this coming week is over, I'll get out during the daytime. Hopefully.

I FEEEEL GOOD! an' i knew that I would now...

Well boys and girls, week 2 has come and gone. Well, week 2 of schoolin'. As a result of my new found education, I have discovered many new found things, about people, about the law, and even about myself.

It's been a week, and in the past week I've been noticing a lot more about people here in Law School. Yeah, yeah, I'm coming back to that old high school analogy, but it only serves to remind me that very few people have any idea as to what they're doing here. Yes we all have a common goal, graduate with a legal degree. Yes we all accept that we will take different paths to get there. Most importantly though, Yes, we are as eager as possible to go out and drink with as many acquaintances as possible while badmouthing the village idiot [and NO, he is not an idiot savant], and sweet talking/commending the varied assets of the opposite sex...many of whom really are quite smart.

Yes, the characters in the classroom have been well established, the groups have been very nearly formed, but there was a lot of camaraderie between everyone after "Bar Review".

Bar Review is a very cleverly named attempt at allowing the 1Ls (that's the 400 people who just started at AU) a means of going out to a bar and getting reasonably priced drinks and reasonably drunk. [As I'm studying law, I've realized/learned that many aspects of the law boil down to being reasonable. Whether someone was reasonable in making some particular choice is the difference between...well, everything.] And, as it stands that we few hundred legal students have hit up the bar in hopes to become better friends with the other few hundred people we haven't met yet, tend to jump from reasonable, to rakish, to rubbish. And, we all do it as a team!

The next morning of course, everybody was in high spirits. No wait, they were high spirited. No, that's not it either. Everyone had the spirit...and the beer, seeping out of their pores as we spent an entire class discussing the 'efficient breach theory' and the 'efficient theft theory'. Yes, two full classes spent learning the efficient breach theory, one that basically says 'person A should breach a contract with person B, if person C offers them enough cash to make a profit even after paying the expected difference in money that they owe to B'. Long story shorter, if nobody loses anything, and at least one person gains something, it's a good deal, an efficient deal. 2 days. one idea. Transaction costs, we'll talk about those later. 2 days. 1 idea. efficiency.

People are pretty interesting, except when some of those people slow down the efforts of the class's educational flow. Classes have been crazy. It's been 2 weeks, I've had four classes. Two classes are 2 hours a day and 2 days a week. One class is 1.5 hours a day and meets 3 days a week. The last is 2 hours on Tuesday. So, according to my calculations, and my experiences in class, I've spent approximately 2.42 eternities in class. The past 2 weeks have been crazy. Most classes I'm sitting, listening to a lecture, understanding half of what's being said for about half the class and spending the other half the time trying really, really, really hard to figure out the complicated legal language being used. I admit, that's a bit of an exaggeration, sometimes the class slows way down, then I'm working really hard to resist the urge to check facebook, or utilize my resources to find out what the 23rd president's middle name was. Well, all that aside, these classes have presented lots of information, lots of new challenges of language and people, and a feeling that I haven't felt in awhile.

I. am. excited. It's been straight crazy these past two weeks. Sitting all around me are people who're after the top spot. The top spot isn't just about reading the words, or reciting the analysis; you need to commit. I've spent hours, upon hours, studying at the library. Me. Law Pal, at the library in weeks one and two of school. What's more? I want to be there, I'm excited to hit the books. I'm so excited about everything at school. The entire experience is currently overwhelming. It's hit a point where the difficulty of what I've enrolled in, and paid $40,000 to participate in, is currently way over my head.

This feeling is being thrown into a river for the first time. You know it's water, but everything is new. The floor is made of pebbles, or sand, or bugs, or fish. The water is freezing, you have to catch your breath and slow your heart. That first time though, you know that you're underwater, taking a deep breath, playing the normal game doesn't work. As the current flows by your body at different speeds, so do the questions of what's touching you and swimming by you and grazing your thigh and your chest. Suddenly all this information is just too much, five of your six senses are pulling in massive amounts of new information. Fresh water that's seeped into your mouth tastes cool and clean. Your touch has been heightened as every part of your body is connected to something tangible. You open your eyes to rays of sunlight pouring into the water around you, and the clouds of dust and sediment that explode from each touch on the river floor. The silence in your ears is broken by occasional gusts of flowing water. This overload of info quickly kicks your psychic self into overdrive. The visions of real and unreal possibilities all strike at once. Float to the top? Swim to the bank? Crawl on the ground? Turn into a fish? Jump to a tree? Drink all of the water? Drown?...

Here, here's where you have to make your choice. And when thinking about the choice you make, you find out more about yourself. What is it that scares and motivates you? Do you freeze up? Some would probably go for the bank, get out and take a look at what just happened. For me, I love it. Being completely overwhelmed offers me a challenge that I can't even imagine how to get over it. But putting aside all these possibilities of course the first thing to do is kick your legs, move your arms a bit, and peek your head out for some fresh air. Then, once breathing, I think plainly, "I don't know how yet. I don't know what I'm doing. I do know that there is a way; my way of navigating this water. I'll use the flow, make my own way, and come out on top."

I'm intimidated. I'm scared.

I haven't been this excited about what I'm doing in a long time, if ever.

As a kid you're excited to do whatever strikes your fancy; not so much as an adult. As an adult though, instead of being innocent excitement; it's packed with fears and experiences that children can't appreciate. Having an appreciation of this feeling magnifies the feeling twofold. I may not be ready, but then again, I don't mind being thrown in.

Everyone reading this,

Thank you. You've helped me get here, some more than others. But knowing those out there that are reading this, I really want to say, "Thank You".

I appreciate all of your love and help that got me here.

Law Pal

PS. Some post feel-good stories.

On the way home from 'the Container Store' where i purchased a small clothes rack for my closet, I crossed the street and had to walk around this little red sedan with its flashers on sitting in the crosswalk. This incredibly frail, 374 year-old second generation gypsy woman got out of the back seat with her cane and bag in hand. I think she might've been a gypsy, or Italian, she had an accent, but not strong enough to be misunderstood. Instead, the aged larynx made her tough to understand. Well, I walked by about 3 steps and waited to see if someone was going to get out of the car to help her. Nobody else got out. I was in a small hurry, it was 11:45, I was about 5 minutes from the house, and I wanted to be home by noon, but didn't have to be. Well, walked up and she took my arm. She was headed into the bank right there on the corner. So I walked her in. Then I waited for 20 minutes as she ever so elderly got cash from the banker. So finally having finished her transaction I helped her out of the bank to locate that small red sedan again. Luckily it was parked about 4 car-lengths down the road. So we gingerly made it to the car, her using my arm as balance. just before getting there, her grand-daughter got out and took her from me. And for the record, she was very sweet, and very appreciative. Sometimes, when thinking about the negative view people have of other people and the state of affairs in general, it is nice to play a role on the side for good.

Have you done your good deed today?