So This is What Life is Supposed to Be Like...

Hey.  Hey.  Hey. Guess what?  No, seriously, guess.  No, come on.  Try harder.

Oh fine.  You're the worst.

LAW REVIEW IS OVER.  The (40 hour) cite-checking assignment (from hell) was completed last Sunday.  My article went into the box at 2:00 on Friday.  And let me say that when I actually FINISHED the article at 11:45 the night before, I felt physically lighter.  I took a deep breath and exhaled before I started the next step of work, and then I realized there was no more work.  That was the end of work.

I may have almost cried.

But that would have been cliche, so instead I danced around my apartment without any pants.  (Sorry LSBFF)

On Friday at 5:16, I left town with nothing more than a couple changes of clothes and some extra shoes. That's right.  No books.  No laptop.  No notepads.  I did not do ONE MINUTE of work.  It was the best weekend ever.  (Thanks, The Boy!)

Unfortunately, my jaw still thinks I'm stressed out and the muscles in it are SUPER tense and painful.  It will be a week or so before my body realizes that it can stop trying to kill me.

But on the plus side, I get to take tylenol pm every night without feeling like I'm abusing medication.  Oh, sleep, how I love you.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow!

Good morning!  It's the first day of the new semester!  (But only at DePaul.  Everybody else gets another week.)  I picked a 30 rock episode to watch at random this morning while I got ready, and lo and behold it was one of the ones where Liz decides to be better.  (Which might be every episode.)

"I've got everything I need to put my life in order...I'm going to become wonderful.  It's a new beginning!  Like a Phoenix rising--! [Liz gets hit by a bike messenger.] Or maybe this is going to be the worst day ever."

This is life, I think.  We promise ourselves that things are going to get better, and when they don't do so immediately, we give up almost immediately.

That having been said, things are going to get better!  I can feel it!  I woke up on time!  LSBFF even woke up early!  All my reading is done for the WHOLE WEEK!

And now I'm off to get hit by a bus and slapped in the face by the socratic method.

*In other news, it is the birthday of my good friend Baby B.

He is a whole year older and wiser.  He is also good-looking and single!  He tells bad jokes 80% of the time (but the other 1/5 jokes are hilarious) and sings songs about things like Evidence and Jimmy John's.  He is the best.  I need to find him something made of chocolate for his birthday.  Peanut m&ms are his favorite.  

I just realized I could make this into a dating website for law students everywhere.  Brings lawcest to a whole new level.  

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

I tried to get a good picture but he's crazy this morning

First, let me just say Congrats!  To you, and you, and you, and me, but most especially to the first years.  Way to survive!  And you know what, exams get easier from here on out.  They're still just as difficult substantively, but you know exactly what they look like now.  No scary surprises to be had.

And with that being said, I'm assuming you're all at home now with your families.  I've been here since Wednesday, and let me say I know I'm home, since my mom just uttered the words, "You do all the baking, and..."  Yep, I'm home.

Now, I don't know about you, but I still need to write an exam and get some serious work done on my article.  So I've got quite a bit of writing to do.  But there are also cookies to make and a big white lab to love on who just came in from his morning walk, with the drool around his mouth frozen into icicles.

I guess what I'm saying is, enjoy your holiday and get some relaxation in.  You need it.  I would also recommend getting a giant 100 pound lab puppy to keep from getting on the kitchen counters with a resounding chorus of "Loki, NO!"  It keeps everyone occupied.

Chi-Town, I Love You

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure New York is awesome, and San Francisco is a great place to wear flowers in your hair, but there's nothing like Chicago in the fall during this time of year.  The days are warm because of the sun, but the air is perfect sweater weather.  The scarves come out, and its the perfect time for a brisk walk to go get a bite to eat or a cup of coffee.

The other night, coming home from class I saw the Parks and Recreation trucks out.  What were they doing?  Putting the winter lights up in the trees.  When they're on, they light up my way home, twinkling the whole way.  When it gets colder out and starts to snow, the air literally sparkles as your breath steams in front of you in the air.

There aren't a ton of trees out in the city, but the ones I can see out the window right now are a cheery sort of yellow, and if you walk by Grant Park, it's riotous color.  The sun comes up later these days.  It's perfect to leave your curtains open, and let the sun help you wake up.  It reflects on the twisted metal buildings across the street and hits my pillow at exactly 7:08 am.  Good morning, Chicago.  It's time for another wonderful day.

Walking past the bakery every morning is a delight and a temptation.  Is there anything like the smell of warm, fresh-baked bread at 8 am?  Is there anything like being able to stand on the street corner, waiting for the light to change in the crisp air, drinking in that smell of goodness?  The sky's so blue it's blinding, even in October and the people are actually smiling because their commute won't be uncomfortable for the next few weeks.

The buildings are gorgeous, and there's always something unexpected around the corner.  I have the feeling sometimes that I'm right where I ought to be.

Chicago, I love you.

Even if you will have a distinct odor of hobos and french fries tomorrow.

I Feel Like I'm on a Jungle Safari!

Dear Readers:

I am currently in the same building as one Antonin Scalia.  Soon we will even be in the same library, separated by a mere floor of books.  I'm dressed appropriately to run into a SCOTUS justice of course, as one should be when presented with the opportunity to meet one.  He's also giving a lecture tonight at the Harold Washington library.  A lot of people aren't going, some of them because they don't agree with his opinions.

Neither do I.  Part of my research this semester is on textualism, and Scalia is a very important textualist.  I personally find this doctrine narrow, limiting, and defiant of actual legislative intent.  However, this doesn't mean I don't want to hear him speak.  First of all, it could be good for my research to hear his opinions on originalism and textualism.  Second of all (and more importantly), you don't have to agree with someone to learn from them.

Now, I don't like to get preachy when I write, (see random pictures of puppies and videos of 80s songs,) but I do believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion and you should listen to it.  You're never going to learn the weaknesses of your own argument if you don't listen to someone else's, regardless of how ridiculous you may think it is.*  Use someone else's viewpoints to sharpen your own.

And be humble when it turns out you're wrong.  It's okay to realize that maybe someone else's thoughts were better than yours.  Use that information.  Pick their brain, and let it lead you somewhere good or useful.

So while I don't agree with Scalia that all answers should be found in the "four corners" of a document, I'm excited to find out why he does believe that.  And while I don't believe all of his opinions are good ones, I'm excited to hear how he arrived at them.

After all, you don't get to be a Supreme Court Justice by being stupid.

_____________________
*See, "We don't even HAVE 7-11s on the South Side!"

She Works Hard For (No) Money

Oh, redesign. You look so modern. Or overly busy. I can't decide.

I like trains.

And with that having been said, I drafted my very first guardianship petition completely on my own. I've been doing them for a couple weeks now, but I've always had a model to work off of so that I just had to tailor to specific facts. But this week, I went to client meetings, took notes, did research, and drafted a completely new petition to file in court sometime next week after the client signs it.

And when I got it back from the attorney, it was all marked up in a good way. I didn't make "You forgot to say this" mistakes. The editing marks scoring the paper were all about making my language sound better. I forgot to cite to one statute, that I didn't even know to cite to. And one of the sections was in the wrong place. (Remember, Amanda, PUT THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT. Has LARC taught me nothing??) It was such a great feeling.

Beyond that, I've done all the documents for three of the hearings for grandparent guardianship day, helped write and edit a grant proposal, and gotten the paperwork and accounting ready for a fee request from a client trust. And the best part is? I know my work is GOING somewhere. I don't do busy work. There aren't enough hands to do the necessary work, so there isn't any time to LEARN what I'm supposed to be doing. There's just "Do the work and we'll deal with the mistakes when you're done."

The efficient, list-making, enjoy-being-busy side of me loves it. I can already see the result of the work I'm doing. Things is good. And my boss just decided last week that since I get things done so quickly, they're going to try to do ANOTHER day-long guardianship proceeding in a different county. Who gets to do all the work?

ME.

So. Excited.

It's A Quarter after [3], I'm All Alone (and I'm Thirsty and Can't Sleep)

It's getting harder and harder to make the song titles relevant.

So it's over. Sweet Jesus, so awesome, it's over. I was listening to the 1L song, though, and the lyrics that stuck in my head were, "They say it gets better, but the damage is done. I bleed reasonableness and jurisdiction." I think I make some sort of legal joke EVERY DAY. The only difference is that no one is going to get my (admittedly bad) jokes all summer long. I'm going home.

First of all, because there's a puppy there, and I hear puppies and kittens are good for relaxing. Actually, it's a 3 month-old 40 pound yellow lab puppy. So it's a big puppy. But since I discovered today that I have no idea how to relax, I think a big puppy is just what I need. I really don't know how to not do anything anymore. After the criminal law final on Friday, I immediately picked up my contracts final. I worked on it for nine hours straight for three days in a row, and after a final edit Tuesday morning, I turned it in. I came home, sat down and watched one episode of Full House and immediately started packing. I wasn't supposed to leave Chicago until Thursday, but by 5 pm, I had packed everything I own, and decided to just go home Wednesday. And then, because I STILL had time to kill I started cleaning the apartment. So you see I'm not kidding. I do not know how to relax anymore. I'm working on it.

The second reason I'm going home is that after much (okay, not really) searching*, that's where I found my job for the summer. I use the term "job" loosely, since it's actually an unpaid internship. I contacted the Volunteer Lawyers' Program of Northeast Indiana over Spring Break back in March. I finally heard back from them at the beginning of May, had a phone interview Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn, and had a job with them by noon. What will I be doing you ask? I have no idea. I think I'm supposed to spend half my time at the VLPNEI office doing things like intake interviews and whatnot, and then I spend the other half my time with two of their attorneys helping them with whatever they're doing. It's all very vague, but I have an orientation on the 21st.

I'm pretty excited. VLPNEI works with lower-income people who otherwise wouldn't have access to the judicial system. It mostly deals with things like family law and landlord/tenant law issues from what I understand, so I'm going to be doing good, down-to-earth work that has a real day-to-day effect. I'm sure it's going to be a challenge at times, and I'm going to make mistakes (hopefully just little ones), but it should be eye-opening at the very least. I'm happy that I get to put all these legal skills to use so they won't just collect dust this summer.

The best part, of course, is that for the first time in my whole life, my job is Monday-Friday, so I get weekends off. I will be spending my weekends at the lake, perpetratin' a tan.**

Anyway, goodbye ChiTown. I'll miss you, but I'll make sure to visit lots so you don't feel sad that I left you.

________________________

*Cut me some slack. By the time I realized I should be applying for things, a lot of application dates had passed.

**Yes, that was a "Gold digger" reference. Bonus points if you got it.