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Today's something new, courtesy of one of my loud-phone-talker officemates: When things aren't working quite as you like, and you need to make the best of it, you could offer some platitude about lemons and lemonade.
OR....you could offer (with quiet wisdom): "Well, Charley, sometimes you've got to take chicken poop and make chicken soup."
Best. Motto. Ever.
Also, never going to his house for dinner.
Coming home and being illicitly drunk in front of your family? Hilarious.
Waking up the next morning and being illicitly hung over in front of them? Horrendous.
Living at home is stellar. Woo.
Welcome, ladies and gents, to Law School Roundup #183. Without further ado, here's this week's selection of good posts from law students current, aspiring, and recovering:
@Barzam: The Twitterati on bar prep. (Butterflyfish)
Been There, Done That: Jansen's words of wisdom for law school orientation (No. 634)
Hike!: On the NFL's antitrust lawsuit (The Rising Jurist)
Day in the Life: Offer season just isn't the same for the 2Ls this year (Paragon to Pieces)
To Cram, or Not to Cram?: Last minute bar prep dilemma (Useless Dicta)
Inns of Court: The pros and cons (Law Ingenue)
Those People: Nobody likes a Harvard grad. (Magic Cookie)
One of those days: Everyone has them (Lipgloss & Law School)
That's all folks! Check back at Legal Underground in a week for Law School Roundup #184.
Kisses!
Nobody.
Over the course of the last few weeks, my sleepy college town has been invaded by stress-case maniacs.
In a town where cows usually outnumber people in the summer months, where there are more coffee shops than there are places to buy a pair of socks, there is not a single free seat to be found. I tried 4 different cafes before I found a free seat- and even this one is wedged between a despondent man deeply in need of a shave, and a girl who keeps cradling her head in her hands and whispering to herself. If it weren't for the proliferation of bright blue books and OCD-style highlighting everywhere, I would swear that we'd had an invasion of unusually academic homeless people at the local Peets.
They're not homeless. They've just been driven from their living rooms and home studies in a pique of "I just need a change of pace!" or else been summarily thrown out by roommates, friends, and significant others. They're everywhere, brows furrowed and glancing furtively at the fellow sufferers next to them, lest someone else understand wills and trusts just a little bit better than they do. Not much changes in the few months after graduation, it seems.
Watching them- the few, the proud, the law school graduates- I'm filled with a mixture of thankfulness ("this is not me!") and loathsome recognition ("oh, but it will be."). The bar is close enough that you can count the distance in hours instead of days, and there's a certain aura of Everything Depends On This that is hanging in the air like a pungent layer of smog over an otherwise perfectly lovely summer day.
Over the last few weeks, folks at the firm have been solicitously asking if I am worried about the bar exam. I wasn't, until they started asking, but sitting in this coffee shop, trying to type in the least annoying manner possible, I can finally appreciate that I may think that I am worried, but only because I don't know what it means to actually be stressed. This adds a certain amount of perspective to my inevitable fall angst- I will be reminding myself, come October, that it could be much, much worse.
From where I sit, these people have nothing to worry about. It is summer! You will pass! Everything will be fine! I have a feeling these sentiments won't resonant with my seatmates, and watching them, I feel the sympathy of a kindred spirit. Bar sufferers, my dearest condolences. Study up, and then move along. I liked this place better when it didn't reverberate with the fear of what's to come.
Updated to add: Let me be more explicit, my poor bar-studying friends: I am so very glad I am not you, and so very afraid of being in your shoes next year, when I will do Crazy Pre Bar in true Nobody form (read: the apeshit, neurotic way). In the meantime, your care packages are in the mail already (because hugs don't ship well). Hang in there. I hope you like gingersnaps...and if you're on the blogroll, and want to get added to the gingersnap list, you have until Monday to say so. Kisses!
The great part about turning your power off for the summer is that you get emails like this upon your return:
Nobody:
Visited the apartment today and learned:
1. you have a package and lots of mail,
2. I should have 2 packages but have none, and
3. when the smoke detectors need new batteries, they shriek and tell you...in english...every 30 seconds.
Also, if you don’t understand why, if they’re hard-wired in, they would need new batteries, and you try to investigate but get discouraged and sigh in frustration on them, they shriek in your face to warn you of the sudden presence of carbon monoxide.
I will be arriving sometime Friday afternoon or evening. You?
- Roommate
Ugh. It is Monday. It is 105 and rising. I have a meeting to discuss my use of commas this afternoon. Ugh.
I need a mai tai and some serious air conditioning.
Law School Roundup #182 is over at the Legal Underground.
Check here next week, same great place and time, for #183.
Update: Oof. Link is now fixed. My apologies.
6 o'clock on Friday, and the office is a wasteland. In fact, the only people left on the floor are chatting about the firm volleyball game and eating leftover cake from this afternoon's birthday party (obviously, Internet, I am there for the cake).
I would be concerned about my offer and the workload, except that the hiring partner just informed us that the firm had a record budget excess this year, and he "wants to cultivate a feeling of trust at the law schools." So, you know.
Today: sitting around at the office pool party (my abs and I thank you, FMF, for the many, many, hours of Getting Up Off My Ass that you've pushed us to), grading write-on submissions, getting sunburned.
Tomorrow: More lazing about with FMF.
I'm not trying to brag. I'm just trying to say: it is summertime, and the living is easy. Whoosh.
Welcome, ladies and gents, to Law School Roundup #181...but first, a shameless plug:
If you are an incoming 1L: Welcome to the support group the legal fraternity. In a few short years, you'll be sitting in the a proud member of the bar. Until then, you may find from time to time that you need a little help. Kel, over at A Woman In Law School is running a weekly give-away for 1L study aides. Head on over to her site and leave a comment each week on her drawing post, and you'll be entered into a drawing to win the study guide of the week. The rules are here, and the most recent contest post is here. Get thee to entering! And keep frequenting this site, and the links along the side, for advice on living as a law student.
Now then. Without further ado, here's this week's selection of good posts from law students current, aspiring, and recovering.
Ouch: On learning from experience, and wine. (Virgin in the Volcano)
Open Letter: To various Bar Exam personalities (Butterflyfish)
Crazy Ensues: If you're not yet studying for the bar, best to skip this one. Ignorance is bliss. (Attorney Work Product)
It is Illegal to Ban Me: Common sense isn't all that common on the interwebz (The Rising Jurist)
Human Capital: You really can be reduced a number, no matter what your mother said. (The Shark)
Family Law: Tidbits from a scintillating lecture. (Magic Cookie)
We'd All Be on Law Review: If law testing were like FEMA testing (Law Ingenue)
Shoes: The NYT and Ginsberg on women on the Court (That's Relevant)
But How Will I Play Text Twist? On laptops in the classroom (Legal Geekery)
Eulgoogly for a Ridiculously Good-looking blog: Finally, the blawgosphere lost one of its most charming, witty, and poignant voices this week. We will miss her terribly, and keep our fingers crossed for an undercover reincarnation. If you'd like to send your regards, links are at Butterflyfish and Attorney Work Product.
That's all folks! Check back at Legal Underground in a week for Law School Roundup #182.
Kisses!
Nobody.
Law School Roundup#180 is up at the Legal Underground.
Check back here next week, same great place and time, for Roundup #181.
I am cleaning out my email inbox today (instead of grading write ons, working, or doing laundry, obviously), and I came across the following one-liner from Darwin:
The elderly are out and about in. I see and hear them in the courtyard. I think they're conspiring against me.
