crappy day and photos

Ugh, crappy day.

Mom's in the hospital. She was complaining of chest pain, and the doc decided she needed to go the E.R. She's okay, they think, but she's staying there over night.

I feel pretty bad, since the pain is most likely stress related, and my move was a big cause of stress for her. It also sucks that, of course, I'm not in FL. I'm never in FL when she goes to the hospital.

I was at Orientation events from 10-1, then I finally got around to depositing some checks and went home to nap. I set my phone, and it woke me up at 4, but the next thing I knew it was 5:00 and I was on the phone with my Mom's friend Donna, and she's telling me that my Mom's in the hospital. Except I don't remember falling back to sleep. I guess I must've, but I just don't remember it at all.

So that meant I missed the one thing I was interested in going to...the receptions for sections. I wanted to meet the people in my section, since I'll be spending the next year with them. Oh well. Tomorrow I'll at least meet my lawyering group.

I still haven't gotten my computer. Maybe tomorrow.

For some reason my fingernails are getting in the way when I type now. I really don't understand what I'm doing differently. They're the same length, but now typing is really uncomfortable. It doesn't make any sense, really. I wonder if it could have to do with the height of my desk or something. Let's see...it seems to be slightly better, but not gone, if I put it on my lap. Perhaps I'm just losing my mind.

Oh, I did take a very few boring pictures. The first one is the view from my window. Actually, a small portion of the view. I'll try to remember to take a more complete one.

The other one is my room. Thrilling, huh?

I think I'll be glad when Orientation is over and classes begin. Not that I'm really all that motivated to start working on stuff at the moment. I did my Torts homework (so far, can't get that book cheap), but I still have contracts and "Civ Pro" to do. Heh, I'm starting to learn the lingo.

I guess I should probably just order my Torts book on Amazon, but I'll wait until tomorrow to rule out any other students selling it. So far, they've all been selling other Torts books, including the guy who I can tell was "in my section" last year, that I'm buying my Contracts book from. They had a different Torts prof, though, as mine's a visiting from GT.

That ball of anxiety

So I'm having trouble sleeping.

The last time I suffered from a bout of insomnia, I had just finished my thesis and bacc and found myself momentarily with nothing to do.

I don't really think that's the problem this time. Although, if I had more to do, I'd probably be sleeping just fine.

I feel like a ball of anxiety. This is unusual for me. Stress is usual; anxiety, while a cousin to stress, is not a usual problem for me.

My life is very surreal. I look around my plush Manhattan apartment and wonder how the hell I ended up here. All the normal 'little things' that happen to push you into just this place at this time. I sold Arielle's loft today, and the guy that picked it up kept saying over and over again how nice the building was. Yup, I should not be living here. I should be living in a little Brooklyn walk-up, paying half this amount. But I'm here, which means I get to be anxious about money. I'm going to have to figure out how not to be anxious about money, because I could very well end up being anxious for the entirety of the semester, seeing as how I won't run out until the end. That's the problem with getting all your money in a lump sum at the beginning.

I wanted to finish my New College scrapbook before school started, but I'm not even halfway through, and I appear to have lost all motivation. I have only Friday and Saturday left as a free woman. I could possibly get two or three pages done, but that's probably about it. So maybe I'll just take it out on slow weekends and do a page here and there. But I really should try to finish it in the near future. I don't really want it as a project...I want it as a finished keepsake. Wow, that's so dorky. I am a sentimental dork.

Hmmm, I see that my cat has usurped my place on the bed. Silly kitty. Time to skooch him over.

The lonely concert

So tonight I went to a concert. Alone. Which I find to be a bizarre experience, although Marisa claims that going to concerts with people is bizarre for her. Go figure.

The concert was Better Than Ezra and Sister Hazel. I know Sister Hazel better (middle school fav), but like Better Than Ezra better. I keep typing Exra. Grr. Somehow my roommate ended up with a ticket, but she didn't want to go. So I went.

I didn't have much to do upon getting there, so I decided to drink beer. This made me enjoy the first half of the concert much more. Besides, even though a can of Amstel Light was $7, the ticket was free.

I talked to one of the SH guitarists after their half of the show. I thought I would be witty and interesting, but as it turns out, I had very little to say. He was excruciatingly nice. So was everyone else in the band. I'm serious. 3 of them were out there signing stuff and talking to people, and they hurried no one, yet got to everyone.

SH is from FL, and that made me homesick. Of course, I don't actually LIKE Florida, but I do miss a certain familiarity that I had there. After all, I lived in Sarasota longer than anywhere else but Mobile. And I lived in Mobile when I was tiny.

BTE mentioned Mobile in a song about the Gulf Coast. I appreciated that. They're from New Orleans. All in all, BTE put on a better show than SH. Their front man is goofy and quite the entertainer. He looks about 22, although he must be closer to 35, seeing as how he said he played CBGBs in 1995. For the encore, he had the other band members come back and play: the triangle, woodblock, shaker thingy and tambourine. Then he had them solo on the shaker thingy and woodblock. It was quite amusing.

So, all in all, going to a concert alone was not a BAD experience, but I definitely prefer going with at least one other person.

Next time you should go with me!

Hungarian bridges

So I went to D.C. this weekend and hung out with Nicole. I completely failed in hanging out with anyone BUT Nicole, and we barely left the house. Instead, we watched the entire first season of Veronica Mars...which I've already seen. But, it was still awesome. Doing absolutely nothing with someone else is good fun.

Today I successfully rearranged my room! Woot...I am a spatial genius. I managed to fit all of the furniture into the room...which I didn't think could be done. I probably can't fold out the futon chair, but at least I still get to keep the futon chair. Which is awesome.

Other than that, I have nothing to report. Tomorrow I'm going to visit theNYU library and attempt to find my textbooks, so that I have something to use until I have money to buy textbooks. I'll also go to the bookstore and buy the 2 cheap books.

There you go...an incredibly boring blog entry. By the way, do you guys think that Hungary will really name a bridge after Stephen Colbert?

law school stuff

Interestingly, NYU does not go about haphazarding ripping its students off on textbook prices. At least, not the law students! For all of my textbooks, the NYU bookstore and Amazon had identical prices UNLESS Amazon was having a sale. Of course, the used textbooks are somewhat cheaper (on some, not at all), so I'll have to figure out whether the saved money - the cost of shipping is worth the hassles of used books. It's nice to not be ripped off, even if the prices for textbooks are way too much to begin with and probably half the 'new' editions I'm using are exactly like the old one.

In one class last year, I bought an old edition of a book for class. I realized that the new edition was IDENTICAL to mine, page for page, except that the font was bigger. But, since the pages were also bigger, everything was still on the same place. They just blew up the damn book and charged $50 more.

I now have my entire class schedule, which has led me to the understanding that law school scheduling (apparently not limited to NYU) is bizarre. I have classes that meet at 9 am on one day and 2 pm another day. Other classes meet for 2 hours twice a week, and 1 hour once a week. All in all, there's no easy memorizing of my schedule. But, I put it all into my google calendar, which has finally enabled SMS messaging for Verizon (yay!).

The Intriguing Hitman

I wonder what our (meaning, I suppose, American's) fascination with hitmen is. Lately (as in, the past two weeks or so), I've been coming across the theme of hitmen in movies, television, and the book I'm currently reading.

I suppose it's that for most people the idea of someone who can kill for a living, yet remain a functioning human being is bordering on impossible. In general, hitmen in stories are ridiculously polite or calm or 'nice'. Something to challenge our notion of what a killer would be like. I suppose there are actually hitmen in the world, but I somehow doubt that the romantic image found in movies and books is very accurate. But I do wonder what killing for a living does to a human being. I've never met a killer, as far as I know, so for me, as with most people, it is a mysterious sector of our society.

I seem to be having random, unexplained problems with spelling and/or typing sentences. Leaving out words, or suddenly being unable to remember how some word I know quite well is spelled. It's very weird. I hope it goes away soon. I hate my typing to be less-than perfectly comprehensible.

Jonah "tagged" me to answer the question 'if I could write a novel about any subject, what would it be?' I will answer this question, but I'm not going to tag 5 people as instructed. Mostly because I doubt that there are 5 people who read this blog.

I think it's interesting that the question specifies a novel. I think a generic 'book' would provide a more interesting question.

Like Jonah, I'm hardly capable of creating fantastic worlds in vivid detail. I think I am able to write realistic fiction based on my own experiences, and that is what any novel I wrote would be. I suppose a novel I wrote would explore some themes. I've considered exploring age issues, gay issues, and depression issues. I don't have anything to add on the middle, but the first could be interesting, I suppose. But probably only to me.

All in all, I find it unlikely that I would write fiction other than as an exercise for my own mental health. Possibly short stories. I think writing short stories is exceptionally hard, and impressed with people who can write meaningful short stories.

But if I was going to write a book, it'd probably be an extension of my thesis, and therefore not a novel at all, but a really boring non-fiction book. I like to think it has some pretty interesting parts, however.


I bought a MacBook today. Of course, since I *had* to custom order it, I won't get it for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. Which is too bad, because at most, I'll only have a day or two with it before classes start. At worst, I won't get it until after classes start.

I also will be receiving a free (after mail-in rebate) ipod nano. I pretty much plan on selling it on eBay, unless someone I know desperately wants it.

I wandered into an NYU library on my walk around Washington Square Park today. Didn't notice it yesterday. It appeared to be a 'general' library, so it's probably the main one. I was interested to see if they had a fiction section. They had a small 'leisure' reading section, but I didn't see anything that particularly piqued my interest. But I know it's there now, and right next to the law school, pretty much.

3 of my classes were posted today: Contracts, Procedure, and Torts. Only Torts has the syllabus and first assignment posted. I assume the others will have at least the syllabus soon, so I can get the books. I really don't entirely know what Procedure is. I guess it's where you learn how things like suing someone work. I don't know if it covers Criminal or Civil procedure or both. I'm not looking forward to Contracts. My brief introduction to Contracts taught me that it is a bizarre section of law that makes less than adequate sense. My New College professor said it was the only area he had issues with in law school, so apparently I'm not alone. Isaac didn't think it made sense either. Of course, who the hell knows? I might love contracts--I don't know enough about it to know, I suppose.

Okay, I'm off to try to finish up the last of my book. Maybe I'll be able to sleep at a reasonable hour. (Ha.)

Computer shopping

I've spent a decent chunk of time over the past few days trying to decide what computer I want and how to pay for it.

I've pretty much decided that I want to buy a MacBook. There are 2 major issues with this: (1) the law school requires a PC, so I'll have to maintain my current laptop or buy another and (2) at 6 lbs (including power adapter), it's a pretty heavy computer compared to something like a ThinkPad. (Which would be my second choice).

But I think I just need to bite the bullet and get the MacBook. I really want it! I spent quite a while playing around on one today at the computer store, and it was quite nice. The black ones are suave, but for $150 extra--no way. ($200 price difference, minus the $50 hardware upgrade).

Overall, I had a fairly productive day today. I faxed the last form I needed to take care of, got my NYU ID (not a totally horrid picture, either), and went to the computer store. In between the ID place and the computer store I got completely lost and ended up in the West Village. This is highly amusing because I was Northeast of the computer store, which is one the Northeast corner of Washington Square park. I ended up Southwest of the Park without ever seeing it! I was actually doing fine with directions until I tried to turn West on 8th St. All the streets started going wonky--no longer any right angles--and all the sudden I had no clue where I was. Oh well. It was a nice tour of the West Village, I suppose. Tomorrow I will go to the computer store from the subway, so hopefully there's no need to get lost. I also got my last check from work (for some reason they didn't direct deposit it), and I found out there's a Wachovia in the city after all. It's on the same line as the computer store, so I'll go there too.

Berck, Sean, and Dad have all requested photos of New York, so I'll try to remember to take some tomorrow and post them.

I would really like a tiny compass. Preferably one built into a cell phone. Screw that stupid GPS shit. I want to know what direction is North! That would solve most of my directional issues. And I wouldn't have to concentrate so hard everytime I get off the subway ("okay, the train is going North, so I'm walking West, now South, now West again...").

Okay, time to read. I'm on my 6 book in 3 weeks. Of course, I didn't read in the middle week. 3 books in Montreal, and I'm on my third since I got here. Soon I will have to borrow books from Marisa. I think she has a decent library.

for the love of cats and fear of youth

There are few things more beautiful than the absolute trust of an animal. I was just laying and petting Killer, who was laid sprawled out on his back, his belly up and eyes closed. His paws were stretched back and forward as much as possible, and he let me sit and rub his belly and chin. I felt very loved.

Everytime I glance at myself in a mirror these days, I absent-mindedly wonder what I look like to a stranger, particularly to an incoming JD student at NYU Law School. I always think--when I stop to actually register the thought--that they're going to realize that I'm young and I don't belong. I have to remind myself that I'm NOT young, I'm not hiding anything, and I'm completely qualified to be there. I suppose I'm so accustomed to be the youngest in a group that I've internalized it. Even when I wasn't the youngest at New College, I had internalized that I hadn't done things in the proper order, and didn't have the proper backgroud. But that's not the case here. I may be on the younger end of students, but there are others who are 21, and I probably have more life experience than them anyway. Possibly.

Some of these people seem so...sophisticated. Or something. They all play sports and travel to Europe. It's weird.

When I was at NYU for admitted students day, I felt everyone looking at me, or when I talked, realizing that I was the young one. I probably need to slowly break this mental mode, preferably before classes start. I must remember that they are just as disoriented as me, even if some of them are a bit older.

I feel silly.