continuously sore this week

So I haven't blogged as of late. Guess I've been a bit busy. In fact, I know I've been a bit busy. I'm so glad it's the weekend and I can attempt to catch up on stuff! Actually, I don't have class until 3:00 on Monday either, so I can use it as a catch-up day as well. In fact, I only have to get up at 9 am on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that ain't bad at all.

I'm writing this entry on my brand new MacBook! Okay, so technically it's not MINE...it's my new loaner. Which is a brand new black one...not shabby at all. Theoretically, I may receive mine one day. If not, I plan on keeping this one indefinitely ;) I was pretty shocked that they gave me a black one. I'm definitely going to miss the blackness when I get mine. I kept imagining it in black anyway, and had to remind myself that it's going to be white, because I couldn't justify spending $150 extra for a color.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I've been exhausted most of the week. I was horribly sore after playing flag football in the pouring rain for two hours last week, and then I ended up with "outer ear" infections in both ears. It's just been that kinda week ;) Plus, Damy is here, so we have our apartment search to contend with as well.

I really just want a weeklong break. So maybe I haven't been in classes that long...doesn't meet I couldn't use a break! too bad NYU doesn't have a fall break. That was really nice.

Grrrrr....Apple...

Hmmm, it appears to be somewhat yucky outside today. I am running out of long-sleeve clothes to wear; I hope Mom sends some my way soon.

I am so frustrated with Apple. It's been 4+ weeks since I ordered my computer, and they're currently estimating shipping for late next week...putting me at 7 weeks since ordering the damn thing. I think I'm going to go in today or tomorrow and just buy a standard config one from the Apple store in SoHo and forget this nonsense. I'm just waiting to see if Apple will get back to me about terms.

But I just really need a computer. I just don't think I'm prepared to wait another 2 1/2 or 3 weeks for one. It's making all of my work take longer, and I'm sick of trying to use the computers in the lab. (Which are frequently all occupied, btw.) I want a damn computer, already.

Welcome to law school, folks!

Could I BE sicker of group work? My lawyering prof is group-work obsessed. I think it is directly related to her peppiness. We had a group presentation due last Wednesday and today, and a group writing assignment due this Wednesday. I think group writing assignments are worse than group presentations AND worse than solo writing assignments.

I haven't written much the last week...I've been busy and tired. Tonight I'm finally relaxing. I finished all my Contracts homework for tomorrow during break, and I did my Civ Pro homework last week. I should go back and type out my Civ Pro briefs...they're kinda weak. I should re-read the 10 pages of opinions of the Supreme Court. They annoyed me so much last Thursday that I ended up just skimming the last half and not getting a good idea of how the four opinions varied.

I've realized this past week that law school is an exercise in ridiculousness. The Supreme Court case I'm talking about is a divorce case where the husband contested jurisdiction. He didn't win, as California had jurisdiction based on a well-settled common law principle. We're talking...uncontested for over 100 years. Despite this fact, the Supreme Court decides to take a cert on the case. For no particular reason, as they're not going to overturn it. They just do it so that they can write 10+ pages about why this well-established doctrine should remain exactly the same. Except with 4 separate opinions. I KNOW the Supreme Court has better things to be doing.

In addition, here's a selection of recent cases I've had to read: a woman sues the 5-yr-old who pulled a chair out from underneath her while she was sitting down; a woman sues a 4-yr-old who ran into her while riding his tricycle; a man sues another man for purposely blowing smoke in his face; the owners of the WTC sued fertilizer manufacturers as their products may have been used in building the 1993 bomb. There are many, many more. Welcome to law school, folks!

Heh, I'm playing flag football this Friday! I'm excited ;)

It was chilly today. So nice, being a Floridian. I've realized that I really don't own closed-toed shoes other than tennis shoes. In FL we always wear sandals, even when we have coats on. I need to go shoe shopping. I don't actually have any money yet (stupid NYU!), but in theory, I'm definitely getting it tomorrow. (Uh huh. Just like I was going to get my computer in 2 weeks or less. It's now been a month and still no word. Damn you Apple! Damn you! I also blame NYU, since Schuy ordered a Macbook the day before me direct, and he's got his. I think NYU hates me.)

I had a blast with Mom yesterday. I wore her out. I think she found Manhattan and the Village slightly overwhelming. It's a lot different from hanging out in Midtown. She took the subway to the airport this morning all by herself. I had to get up to walk her to the station and get her on the train (at 5:30!) but she took the subway and transferred to the air train and all that. Yay!

I think I need to start planning attendance at cheap(er) cultural events. Plays, shows, etc. I'm just overwhelmed with the options. Between school activities, school groups, non-law-school-school stuff, museums, nightly shows, other shows...whew. Too many choices!

Beautiful and grotesque

Ani DiFranco has a song where she describes someone as "beautiful and grotesque" ("and all the rest of that bug stuff"), and that's how I feel about Manhattan, particularly in the late night/early morning. Tonight I had the pleasure of waiting for the J Shuttle in what has got to be one of the absolute ugliest of the Manhattan subway stations--Chambers Street. There's a lot of Chambers Street Stations (not all connected). The Chambers Street (A/C) and World Trade Center (E) stop is kinda nice...although it has these freaky mosaic eyes. But this isn't that one. This one is falling apart. Perhaps the freakiest things about Subway stations at night is the absolute quietness, which you never get during the day. I could hear water dripping; people tapping their feet. I was wondering if I was completely ridiculous to wait for a train to go one station over, but I know I always get lost when I try to walk. (I seriously need to buy a compass). Besides, it was 2 a.m. As it turned out, half the people waiting with me got off at the same station.

Tonight, while waiting for a friend to meet me outside of a Subway stop, an MTA employee asked me for 2 dollar bills in exchange for her 8 quarters. I'm thinking "this COULDN'T be to get to work, could it?" Sure enough, it was. They have to PAY to go to work? There's something pretty sick about that.

Why is it that junk food/fast food tastes and smells absolutely amazing after midnight, particularly when alcohol has been consumed? I never want McDonalds, and I was going crazy at the smell tonight. So now I'm eating 'Pizza Rolls' (I think that's what they're called), which also happen to taste amazing.

So I met my friend (Justin Clarke-Doane) in SoHo, and we went to two bars on the lower east side. The first was fairly empty when we got there, not as cheap as we expected, and showed bad 80s porn. The second was 3-stories. The bottom level had a band ("Afro Punk"--which, while Afro, was not at all Punk); the middle story had a DJ and a lot of people ghetto-booty dancing; the top floor open-aired, and had a place where you could both drink and smoke at one time--a real rarity in NYC. We moved down to the middle level after they kicked as out of the top level. Justin convinced me that I should dance with him. Ha! At this point all the good, black dancers on this level had moved out and been replaced by less-than-good white dancers. As I told Justin, I sometimes do things just because they make a good story. That's why I danced for a few songs. It was fun though. It was totally just like being at a Wall. Pretending I could dance while being surrounded by people who weren't much better. Awesome. Plus, ghetto booty music: the one type of music I can sorta/kinda dance to.

All-in-all, it was a pretty good night. I feel much better about starting my second week of law school.

law school photos

Okay, putting multiple pics on here without editing the html is proving to be a bitch. Grrr. I think I'll just leave them like this.

The Law School consists of two buildings (Vanderbilt Hall and Furman Hall), connected (mostly underground) by the library. I have half my classes in Vandy, and half in Furman.

So, here we go...top is Furman Hall (it's taller, although I think there's nothing relevant to me on the top floors). Next is the front entrance of Vandy. Next to bottom is the Vandy Courtyard, and bottom is the front of Furman.

So there you have it. It gives absolutely no flavor of New York, but whatever. Maybe another day I'll actually take a photo of Washington Square park, which is much cooler. You can probably find a photo of my apartment building by googleing '2 Gold St'--you can also find a lot of articles about the building of it.

So, I've made it through my first week of law school, and I'm beginning to reclaim my sanity. Thank goodness for a 3 day weekend (sorta four...we had only one class yesterday). Today is also the first day since last Friday that we've had nice weather. There's actually pretty blue skies showing today, and it's in the low 70s out. Friday night and early Saturday we got Ernesto fallout. It was cold (low 60s) with gusty winds (up to 25 mph) and lots of rain (3ish inches). Glad that's over. Although it was really fun to wear sweaters and jackets! I like long-sleeved clothes.

I apologize for the layout of this entry--I give up!