City of Sin

Have just been in Las Vegas for the past few days with Boyfriend's entire family -- his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

It was the first time I've been to LV. We walked around a whole lot in the Strip and looked at different hotels. On Thurdsay, Boyfriend and I drove around outside of the city in a national park that is very beautiful. Perhaps in a few days I'll post some photos.

I gambled quite a lot and left with a $90 net gain.

But have gotten nearly no work done in the past few days, and exams are only 5 days away! Need to buckle down now!

What My Days Are Like

Work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work work...

Need to take a practice exam now, and just trying to procrastinate.

Okay, time to get to work!

Studying

Studying all day and all night... Bleh...

Took a 8-hour crim exam yesterday, and finally understood how little I know after comparing my answers to the model answers. Have to buckle down now!

First Day of Break

Yesterday was the last day of class. I can't believe the semester is really over!

Our torts and civ pro professors all had words of wisdom for us. I experienced the appropriate amount of sorrow, relief, regret, wistfulness, and drunkeness.

And fatigue. I averaged about 5 hours per night in the past few days, due to various section celebrations and the annoying opne memo, which was due Friday. There were a lot of social events this week; I would go to them in the evening, then come back to my apartment around 11 and do my memo for 3-4 hours. Then sleep for a few hours, get up the next day around 8:30, and drink a ton of coffee. Not the healthiest way to live, I know. So Friday I walked around in a bit of a daze. Too horrible notes in class because I couldn't really focus very well. In this respect, I'm glad that the semester is over so I can get my sleep and concentrate on studying.

Ah, it's funny how classes sometimes get in the way of studying.

Some of my classmates walked around in a different kind of daze Friday. To celebrate HIS last day of class, S began drinking first thing in the morning. Before our 9:30 Am torts class, he drank 3 shots of vodka and a beer (this is after getting piss-drunk the previous night too). As fond I am of the guy, I found it disturbing and gross. During torts, his entire IM to me consists of reports on how drunk he felt, while I warned him not to throw up on me or my coat (we were both late to torts and back-benched, him sitting directly behind me). In civ pro, when he staggered into the classroom 10 minutes after class began, looking like hell, I couldn't suppress a snicker. He sits right in front of me during civ pro, so I could see his screen. He played battleship with AK, NP, and AHH during civ pro and took down 2 sentences of notes.

What a way to end the semester. This is when I realize how young many people in our section are. How much younger they are than me!

After our civ pro class, our section headed over to a bar near the law school for an extremely early "happy hour", where we celebrated the end of the semester. We talked and reminisced and asked each other about our holiday plans. Most of my classmates are leaving today for their respective homes. Moi, I'm going to be here 'til the 27th and then flying to Las Vegas to be with Boyfriend and his family for 3 days. Those will be the 3 days I am not doing any work.

Had dinner with AC, J, their SOs, and Boyfriend last night (Boyfriend finally drove up today! Yay!!!). It was the first time they met Boyfriend.

Today, woke up at 9:30, went to starbucks around 12:00, and spent the entire day working on my civ pro outline.

Courtroom Dramas

I watched Law and Order for the first time in a long time yesterday, because in crim law we have been talking a lot about criminal procedure and the 4th Amendment prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure and warrantless arrests and the 5th Amendment prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination, etc., etc. So I was suddenly curious and wanted to see whether Law and Order is accurate in its police procedures.

Well, it was. Watching Law and Order after you understand the law is awesome and kind of scary as well. I'm aware of how totally thrilled I am to hear the Miranda warning, or to see the police "knock and announce" before entering and searching, or the magic moment when there is enough probable cause upon which an arrest warrant can issue. I think it's safe to say that no TV-watching experience will ever be the same.

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In other news...

Boyfriend is not coming up until Friday of this week, and I'm actually kind of thankful for this, b/c my life is so busy and messy right now I literally wouldn't have time for him. I have about 20 people to email for my job, many, many cover letters to edit and write, and on top of that all 3 of my courses to study for. I have been outlining in spurts and have now finished crim and half-done the other two. I'm most worried about the torts exam b/c it's the only in-class exam and last year's exam looked just insane. (Think 12 pages of reading for ONE question. Think not enough time. Think panic and frantically writing incoherent sentences. Think C.)

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Last crim class today. Perhaps last crim class ever. Sad sad sad. Sniff.

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In other news, someone sent me a huge box of perfume set and lip gloss set from Victoria's Secret yesterday. It's lovely, but I can't figure out who it's from. I hope it's either from Boyfriend or Dickie.

Am working on my memo tonight, hoping to finish it and to go to sleep by 2. Have. So. Much. Work.

First Peek Back

Tonight is our section dinner. Next week is our last week of class. I can't believe the first semester of law school is almost over!

Well, not quite over. Exams loom large and the prospect of them is quite scary. But still, apparently we (at least most of us) will have learned all we need to know for crim law, torts, and civ pro by NEXT WEEK! We then have to study for two weeks and then face the music.

Gulp.

I am sad that the first semester is over. I've met some really great people here and made a bunch of good friends. Law school is very different from what I had imagined before I came (read: much better).

I know that next semester, when we are all taking different electives and only have two classes together, the atmosphere is probably going to be very different. We are probably not going to have the intense cohesion that we had in this first semester, when everything was brand new, when everyone is slightly scare and uncertain, and when we developed a closeness and bond that only people who experienced something intense and meaningful could.

Legal education, and especially the first year of it, with all its flaws, has been wonderful and eye-opening as well. It has been good to me. And for that, I'm very glad.

And Boyfriend has been wonderful as well. He gave me the space to experience the year to its fullest, while never wavering in his support. Yeah, I feel pretty lucky.

So far, no regrets on coming to law school. I hope exams won't change that. I hope nothing will change that

Narnia and Its Aftermath

No story about yesterday can begin without telling about the terrible storm. It wasn't so terrible, really, and didn't last very long. It was only memorable because right in the middle of the worst of it I had to walk home. The wind was very strong and blowing snow right into my face and my eyes, and I was pretty miserable for about 15 minutes before I got to my apartment.

What was strange about it was the thunder. I have never experienced a thunder snowstorm before, and it was quite startling.

Last night was the section movie event to Narnia that I "organized". By "organizing" I mean sending out an email announcing my intention to go and inviting anyone who's interested to come with me. Eleven people ended up coming, including S, A, ABS, R, JE, IH, (all the usual suspects, as you can see), and also a friend from Oxford, L, who's here in the States on break and visiting her parents.

Before the movie nine of us went out to dinner at a Korean'Japanese restaurant. We then took the subway to the theater. The movie itself was good but not as good as the Harry Potter movie. I did get somewhat upset when Aslan died though and was happy when he came back to life.

Afterwards, a bunch of people went home, and the rest of us who wanted to hang out some more (IH, S, RE, A, and L) called up J and her husband and we then hung out at a pub for a long time, long enough so the subway stopped running.

I never knew how hard it was to find a cab in this city. But then again I've never had the occasion of trying to get home on a cold Friday night after midnight when the entire town is out and about. It took us like 50 minutes to find L a cab to send her home.

The rest of us then proceeded to a club where J and I (and S! surprisingly) danced somewhat. The way S danced reminded me a little of my high school prom date JK.

Guys at the club were very aggressive. I was groped a half dozen times. One guy wouldn't let go of my hand. I had to yank it away from him.

The club closed at 2 AM, and extremely drunk people streamed out into the street looking for transportation home. It was not pretty. Since there were so many of us we had to find two cabs, which compounded the problem.

We finally found a cab and A, S, and I went back to C-Town. We wandered around some more in searching of ONE food establishment that was open and still serving food. By then it was close to three. There was none.

We did run into ABS and his queer friends eating at a pupular late-night Chinese place in the Square. They then walked home with us. By the time I got back to the apartment, it was after 4.

Woke up around 11:30 today and have been reading crim ever since. No hangovers, surprisingly.

Boyfriend, however, says he's feeling sick and is not coming up today. We IMed for a bit and I told him to drink hot soup and sleep a lot. Sniff.

Random Musing at 2 AM

I tend to have very obsessive and intense friendships, almost like a crush, but obviously minus the sexual aspects. I tend to become intensely fascinated by people and want to know everything about them. There are good things and bad things about such friendships, but for better and for worse I keep on having them.

I wonder if I'm in that position with some of the people in my section now, people I see day in and day out and have now become an integral part of my social life. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, except that, as with all addictions and obsessions, they tend to skew your perspective and also exclude other worthwhile things in life. So I should be careful.

But I really do like our section; and I really do love law school so far. I'm filled with sadness whenever I think about how the first semester is nearly over (only one week left!).

I have heard that once exams are taken and grades come out, we'll never have the same unfettered carefree interactions that we are having this semester. By then the school will have ranked and classified us, and all our social interactions will be colored by that knowledge of who's "better" and who's "worse". We'll have lost our innocence a little bit. I do not look forward to this. I want us to be one big happy family just like now...

Resumes, Job Searches, and Other Good Stuff

I finally finished correcting my resume last night, according to the Office of Public Interest standards. The whole experience reminded me a lot of subciting. There was a lot of agonizing over formatting minutae. ("should latin honors and distinction in the major be on the same line?" "Does this place really need a "the"?" "Should it be one space or two spaces after you put the date of your employment?")

After formatting it to specifications, my previously very precariously one-page resume was 1.3 pages. It took me another 1.5 hours (and ABS's help) to edit it down to one page again. Now, all I have to do are the cover letters...

Adding to the sense of panic is the rumor that some people have gotten jobs already, and other people have gotten interviews. Even though both the public interest office and the on-campus interview office keep on telling us that no one, in the history of my law school, has ever NOT gotten a job for 1L summer, there's always the possibility that I would be the first one...

I am now looking more at domestic jobs now, like the DOJ and the World Bank. I'm also looking into the army, as hard to believe as it is. Mainly because I want to hang out with cute guys in uniforms. Is that really crazy...?

Missed Torts this morning because I was way too tired from all this resume-editing. Had lunch in the Square with ABS, S, L, and AC, then rushed back to campus and had a meeting with my lawyering prof about my persuasive memo, which, not surprisingly, needs a lot of work.

After civ pro today, read in the lounge with AC, which meant that I basically got no work done. Came home and read civ pro for two hours. A and S then came over and we watched the Apprentice together. Then we went to the Commons where we met D and C and had many beers together. Came back just now and still have quite a lot of torts to read...

Tomorrow: I arranged for quite a few people in our section to go see Narnia together. Fun fun fun...

What I Want(ed) Is What I Get...

Well, I wanted tax, at least a few days ago...

And, I got tax.

The story is actually longer than that, however. In the meanwhile, I've looked into a number of other courses and revised my choice, (too complicated and not worthwhile to recount here) so tax actually ended up being my fourth choice and not my first choice. But, it looks like it didn't matter. I was going to get tax anyway.

I was a little disappointed, but will get over it soon. I guess I'll take "local government law" another time.

S and IH are in my class, the only ones in my section to share this very very special TAX experience with me...

Okay, need to go back to working now. I have cover letters to write, resumes to update, outlines to create, and tons and tons of civ pro reading to finish!

My Brain Is Numb

from researching for summer jobs. Have been at this last night and today

I had thought that I wanted to do international, but am rethinking this, since a lot of the international organizaton has very spotty feedback from student summer interns. Am currently considering the federal government as well. Yes, I have always been drawn to power... :)

In other news, went out with J and her husband and AC and her boyfriend for dim sum in Chinatown this morning, in spite of the snow. Was very yummy.

The Past Three Days

Had a crazy couple of days (in a very good way). Sadly, did not get any work done.

On Thursday, after class I read in the library with J for a while, then went to meet AC, G (this gay guy from our section who is AC's best friend), S, and ABS for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant that has become my obsession.

After that, S and I went to a firm reception for 1Ls at a Mexican restaurant, where we were provided with lots and lots of free alcohol and food, which made me regret eating before that.

The firm, C & P, is a moderately large firm with offices in NYC, DC, LA, and Houston, and a bunch of European countries. I have never heard of them before, but Boyfriend said that he has.

A lot of 1Ls from our section is there, like A and SW (this girl in our section who is famous for partying and getting drunk), and we mingled with each other and with the attorneys. I spoke to a woman in litigation from the DC office for a while, then spoke to another woman who does finance and who is a partner although she worked part-time with kids.

After that, S, A, and I decided to go back to campus to watch the Apprentice. On the way there, we went to a convenience store and bought some beer. I bought some sweet and seltzery vodka drink that comes in little glass bottles that look very girly.

We went to the dorm lounge of A's dorm, which I didn't like because it's extremely smelly. The entire place smell like a bad hotel on a rainy day, clammy and stale and slightly rotten.

S, who has already had quite a few beers and margaritas at that point, downed at least 3 more Sam Adam's, and began, as he always does when he's drunk, to say everything at the top of his lungs. It was amusing. After the Apprentice, we (inexplicably) walked to another liquor store in the area, where S bought more beer and a bottle of wine. We then went to his dorm (because I strongly objected to the smelliness of A's dorm lounge) and hung out in his room.

A showed me his photos from his days as a history PhD candidate at a prominent East Coast Ivy League university. He weighed 240 lbs back then and looked quite different. I was shocked, but hope that I didn't betray that in my expressions.

S, who is really wasted by that point, kept on knocking things over everywhere. He's accident-prone even when he's sober, and now made messes both in the common area of his dorm (spilled lager all over the table) and in his own room (spilled lager on A's coat.)

Around midnight, A and I left S's room. S, at that time, was wearing his military jacket and babbling at the top of his lungs.

Came home and was about to go to sleep when I started chatting with ABS. Yes, the IM is really the bane of my existence. But we had a very interesting discussion about utilitarianism and law. Went to sleep feeling connected and happy.

I actually made it to torts on Friday morning. I'm very proud of myself for that. Neither S nor A made it in spite of the fact that they probably went to sleep 2 hours earlier than me.

S later claimed that he remembers very few events that happened after the Apprentice from that evening.

Friday afternoon, I had a meeting with the public interest office's adviser, who had some good advice and encouraging words for me. I then went to the cafeteria where ABS, JE, S, a 1L from another section named V, and I had a scheduled appointment to play the game Twilight Imperium.

The game lasted way longer than last time, and didn't end until nearly 8:30. Originally, we had planned to have dinner at a Malaysian restaurant that I have become obsessed with in the Square, but decided instead to go straight to IH's party. IH is this guy in our section who is a good friend of me and S, and who is celebrating his 23rd birthday that evening.

The party was pretty great and involved a lot of screwdrivers for me and IH beating the pinata, which contains candies, lots of little bottles of alcohol, and condoms.

A lot of people from our section showed up. J and her husband also made it a little later to the party. Around 11:00, we went out to a bar nearby and hung out there until about 2:00. We decided to leave when S began throwing up outside the bar (yes, it wasn't pretty).

By that point, there was only a few of us left -- IH (the birthday boy), AK, S, N, and some other people that I didn't know as well. We went back to the apartment briefly, then took a cab back to campus where I went home. It was around 3:30 that I went to sleep.

Got up around 9:30 today; had a pleasant lunch with S in the Malaysian restaurant in the Square that we were supposed to have gone to last night, and then went with him to a game store where he bought a game called Illumnati.

Then walked back to campus with him and went to the library and read for an hour, came home, read some more, took a 2-hour nap. Boyfriend came back in the evening. I have been reading crim and trying to figure out the summer job situation tonight.