Spooky Scary Halloween

Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm a little late on my expectations. It's been a few weeks and I've been pretty busy. What with the fun at the whole school and all. Actually, some of that fun of law school went away with the excitement of doing something new.Imagine if you suddenly went and jumped out of a plane. You're excited, you're heart is pumping, and you've never really done anything like it before. The thrill is there as the plane takes off, and you're up in a rickety plane, and the lead jumper is giving you all the information you need. What to do with your body when you leave the plane, how to look around and enjoy the scenery, and what to count to before pulling the chute's cord, are all explained in great detail. It's scary, but exhilarating. You jump. The plane is flying away. You're falling and screaming. You're looking around and taking in the gorgeous scenery. You realize then that you're count to ten has come up, and you pull your cord. The chute opens and when that anvil comes out you realize that all of you're excitement is that fleeting sense of silly security. The jump transformed into an exercise in survival.

When you're tired of trying to keep your head above water, sometimes the only thing left to do is give in and take a drink. So, thank goodness Halloween came around. Let me tell you, everyone hit up this little house party. Pop-eye and Olive Oyl, a dinosaur, Snoopy (me), and there were witches, and soldiers, Sarah Palin, republicans, frat boys, skeletons, and of course swine flu. Some strong points were the ninja turtles, and the D*** in a Box boys, and the "Bridges".

Yeah, there were a ton of great costumes and photos. But just wanted to highlight some of my favorites. So yeah, this is what's been going on. Outside of that, I've been going to school, taking my classes, getting lost in all of the information, wrote a memo, and oh yeah, got a group of students in my section together to grow mustaches for the month of Movember.

What's 'Movember'? you ask. Well, it's essentially a month long effort of men across the States and the world, growing mustaches for a good cause. Yes, you've heard correctly, I'm growing a mustache, or a 'Mo', for those in the know. Yes, it's a little silly and a little obscene, but it's to raise a few dollars to help prostate and testicular cancer research and awareness. So, Section 3's Legal Man-Mos (because, similar to most of our new ventures into writing legal memos, we're embarking onto a mustache venture). So, please, check me out, or check us out, and donate a few dollars to the research and to the cause. us.movember.com/donate (you can look up our team name "legal man-mos" if you'd like to donate).

...

fine, here.

That's not my name....

Every once in a great while everybody gets called the wrong name. It happens from a friend, from a family member, from your coworker. There are times when it's acceptable, and there are times when it's even funny. The sort of 'laugh with you' funny, instead of 'laugh at you' funny. Then of course there are those times when someone gets your name wrong. Period. As if, making the extra-effort to learn your name is too much work for them.

The Italian professor that teaches the Torts class for my section, has an accent. It shows. It's no big deal, sometimes things come out funny, "pleasure me", "little boys shouldn't play with their balls in the pool", and other juvenile phrases as such. Sometimes she mispronounces names: Evan becomes Even; Asheesh becomes Ashesh; and Lawrence becomes Christopher.

What? Christopher? Yeah.

I started classes 7 weeks ago. I'm not silent. We used to have a name tag bit, so that professors would know our names, and we have since moved past that. I'll admit, there are 80 students in the class. I don't know all of their names. Most of them, yes. Not all of them though. Just the same, the students' names that I don't know, don't speak. They don't say anything unless they absolutely must. I, however, am fairly vocal. I speak on a regular basis, and have spoken on a regular basis for the past 7 weeks. In those past seven weeks, I've been called several things: Christopher, Christian, Christopher, Michael, and Christopher. Apparently, because i sit near a guy named Christopher, I'm a Christopher by association. It's fairly ridiculous, and become more of a joke than anything else. Everyone knows my predicament, and everyone laughs all together about it.

Last week however, the light shone through. After 6 weeks of classes, mistake after mistake, after mistake, My professor finally got it right! I was shocked, visibly shocked. She called me by my rightful name, and I was dazed for a moment. After that point however, I spoke, gave my point, and it was a decent one. Score one for Lawrence, finally.

After that, it was smooth sailing for the class. Filled out some evaluation forms, that she read and acted upon. No, i didn't complain about my name; just other issues such as telling people when they're wrong, and that participation would probably increase with cold-calling, instead of strictly voluntary. It was sweet.

Last Tuesday, we worked through a hypothetical situation. In this situation, it was stated that CA had a statute that drivers can't talk on their cell phones while driving. Mary Nobody was driving at night when she saw someone was following her, and she decided to call 911. While calling 911, she hit John Doe, another driver who had his infant son in the front seat because the child was sick and John was in a hurry to get to the hospital. Sections of the class taking the plaintiff's side, and defendant's side. It was interesting, and somewhat useful to try and work through the arguments of both sides in the situations. We were working through them, arguing back and forth, argument, point, argument, point, and as things got a little off track, I was going to settle it down, and try to bring it back to the original hypo by focusing on a couple of arguments by the other team. The hand went high, and a very confident professor called out, "Christopher."

"DAMN!" loud enough for everyone in the class to hear.

For the record, after that I went ahead and tore up the other arguments. At least, I thought I did. The professor seemed more convinced with what I had said. Though, I think it may have been more persuasion and confidence in the speech than actual points; my team had already made the key points, they just needed to be driven home. (Oh, I'm so funny.)

PS. I don't see how she can get my name wrong after that...everybody else knows who I am at this point.

What Happened?

So it's been two weeks. And it's been a whirlwind. Well, that's not entirely true. It's really just been crazy and study-filled. Well, not-so-much study-filled, as it has been work filled. Pretty crazy actually. Had to write this memo, for the 4th time. Nothing says hard work like trying to write the same paper/ideas down 4 times, and turning in an assignment that i have no confidence in.

oh.

well.

For the record. The only thing anybody missed last week was this...

the AU campus has had some 120+ cases of swine flu, and 5 have been at WCL. Naturally this would leave me to be less inclined to hit the library...if I didn't have to be there to study. Oh well. I suppose a little swine flu scare won't keep me away. Besides, it happens all over the place, and the moment any person gets sick, as we're instructed every opportunity a professor has a chance, we should just stay home. Do have one particular instructor who must be at the forefront of WCL Swine Flu defense. So naturally, a slight scare, a deft sneeze, a reported student with the potential to have swine flu (which usually involved hitting the health center; being told they can't really test for swine flu at the health center...so they assume you have it; work off of that), all leads to a reminder of the proper procedure. When this person has found out they have swine flu, they need to stay home. Period. Stay home, don't worry about classes, they can be recorded/taped. We can watch them on our time.

So, if I ever miss class, I won't really be missing it. Ever.

Back to the library. Been studying there, but the reasons to stop going pile on, as there was an incident recently. First, I wasn't involved in any way. I didn't know the person, nor the witness. That being said, here's the great e-mail I, and everyone else received:

TO ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY & STAFF

INCIDENT REPORT

Incident:

On Monday, September 28, at approximately 11:00 pm, a male visitor to the Pence Library exposed himself to a WCL female student while in the quiet reading room of the library. The male then ran out of the library and although chased by WCL students across Mass Ave was able to avoid getting caught. During the chase he dropped a bag containing personal papers possible indicating his name but no address. This information is being processed by the AU Public Safety and the Metropolitan Police Department for investigation and further action to a possible apprehension.

The following was reported to WCL and to Public Safety:

A WCL female student observed a male sitting two carrels next to her with his pants open gratifying himself while watching the student. When the male noticed her he got up and started running towards the library exit. The student ran after him telling and yelling to stop him. As they ran by the Security desk, a WCL Security Officer chased the male offender across Mass Ave in the direction of 49^th Street where the male offender was able to get way.

Yeah. There's nothing else to be said. Period.

I'm a little tired, but I'm thinking i'll put up something a little more pleasant next time.