old habits are hard to break

today i broke my one and only rule for internet use at school. while i was in the library, i went on people.com.

i don't know how it happened. well, actually, yes i do. so i have a small obsession with internet television. i mean, i don't have cable - and i need something to unwind to after a long hard day of briefing and general academic stress. fine. and so i really like awful television. i mean the worst of the worst. i figure i really have to scrape the bottom of the bowl if i want to really and truly tune my mind out of life's many stresses.

so i guess this all sort of culminates in my obsession with celebrity gossip. i mean all sorts of celebrity gossip. all those z list celebrity with their reality shows and what not - it truly is a good tool to use if you want to make your brain turn to mush. which, unfortunately, i often do.

also i just really love gossip.

anyways,

well taking what should have been a two second study break - i youtubed 'jon & kate plus 8' to see if the most recent episode had been put up. it wasn't, but something better was! "jon fired from tlc show". an eight minute video removed from youtube. immediately i thought this could not be true. i mean, no. it just could not be true.

so i really thought about it. i mean thought about it hard. can i wait to confirm this news until after 5pm? do i really need to know now? will it alter my life?

5 seconds later, i was on people.com. and low and behold ... jon was fired from his show.

how do i feel about this? the caving into vices at school thing that is. well i just feel fine about it. now i can truly focus on § 1391 (d) of civ pro all that much better.

library sitting, apple eating etiquette

i've been sitting in the same spot for roughly 5.5 hours.

why?

i did nothing this weekend. i took the weekend as a 'unofficial' holiday weekend. i got a shitty haircut, drank hard cider, watched a mindless amount of tv, and threw my textbooks out the way side.

and where did this leave me?

sitting in the library for 5.5 hours trying to catch up.

now i've been doing a pretty good job. i've revised a couple class outlines, reviewed all my class notes for an exam i have friday, and finished all my readings for tomorrow & some i have for wednesday.

my conundrum is this: how to properly eat an apple in the quiet section of the library? ever since i have arrived at law school, i've discovered something beautiful about the law library... there are no security guards patrolling the stacks, searching for "bad behavior". no one tapping me and showing a sign of "ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD OR DRINKS. ALL STUDENTS MUST SUFFER FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS". so, obviously, i have taken this new found freedom to heart. every day after morning class i scurry off to the library. eagerly anticipating my class readings over a nice bag full of almonds. but then i come to my apple portion of the day. and this is where i am stumped. i mean, i've seen other people eat apples in the library before, its not like i'm the first rebel here. but, is it just me or am i exceptionally loud when i eat? the chomping, the slurping, the sheer noise of it all! as a temporary remedy to the noise i have decided only to take one bite every five minutes. i'm not sure if this is the best idea. instead of condensing the noise, making it last only as long as possible, i'm extending my ridiculous apple ritual over a period of an hour!

maybe i should consider pears.

first assignment, printed.

our first big, important, life altering assignment is due tomorrow morning at 830am for our legal writing class. i hope mine is legible.

i honestly have never really edited. during highschool i wouldn't even re-read my writing to see if i had managed to string together coherent sentences. in undergrad i pathetically attempted editing. by this i mean i would re-read my papers to see if i had those green & red squiggle lines, and possibly i would check to see if my paragraphs were in the right order.

law schools is an entirely different ball game. i went to see a tutor, i printed, re printed, re printed - killed trees left and right in the process - my draft countless times. triple checked citations, and sentence structure. i did all of this to the point where i have entirely forgotten what i wrote about.

so i guess its not that much different from undergrad?

my brain is entirely mush right now - much like my vegan split pea soup, with added chili flakes & paprika. working upwards of 12 hours a day is very draining.

i think i am picking up the material, but then i attend a TA session and i have NO IDEA what is going on. everyone is in a flurry about finals, and our first one isn't until december 7th. our one professor - my favorite - for contracts is very particular about his exams. you have to cite specific case names, courts & citation numbers. all of this in a three hour span, while spewing out some sort of legible and persuasive argument.

my gosh.

gotta go watch some glee

it must be the weather swings

i wake up in the morning and it is 5 degrees outside.

i walk to the bus and it is approaching 8

i get to school and walk across campus and the temperature is a cool 12 degrees.

i sit in class. the classroom is approximately 32 degrees. the teacher is sweating. she is making quick hand movements and talking about strict liability. my eyes are closing . . .

i have to pee.

leave class to go to the library, i'm starting to get a pressure headache. its a cool -1 degrees in the stacks. i eat my lunch at 1030 am. a cookie n' cream protein bar. the wrapper crinkles loudly, people stare.

its noon and i'm done skimming my readings. i go outside to the courtyard and find an empty table. its a warm 32 degrees in the sun. my head is pounding. i eat a plum and throw the pit down a drain pipe. i look around quickly to make sure no one saw me ...

back inside, in class. the professor is mocking a student who does not know the answer - does silence imply agreement of a contract? of course not. 10 degrees, and i'm wearing my scarf as a blanket.

class finishes. i shuffle to the locker room and organize my books. and scramble to leave the building before i am trampled by the impending crowd.

25 degrees

all the freshmen have arrived. they are moving into their shitty new dorms with boxes full of fans, cheap condoms, and high hopes.

i'm on the bus on the way home, the window is open, and there is a nice breeze. the bus is called the breeze, oddly enough.

menstruation woahs. grammatical lows.

just another day of my 1L career, I wander the halls in between classes before i settle in a very comfortable chair to check my e-mail. to my surprise, my legal writing teacher has sent me an e-mail! oh joy! the fun of it all! she says my legal argument structure is great! no complaints! oh but wait, my grammar skills are way behind everyone else? i need to go to a punctuation seminar? and see a tutor? now i truly feel blue, like i haven't got a clue.

why do public schools in ontario neglect to have proper grammar lessons? why is it that i am the only one who managed to get to law school without knowing what a pro verb is or how to use a semi colon? i've got nothing.

more to my list of grievances ... when i used to get my period in undergrad, no big deal! i'd take the day off, maybe two. lay in bed with a warm cup of tea and a bag full of chocolate and watch gilmore girls all day. in law school? i feel guilty for repeating this habit. i watched three episodes of gilmore girls today, and i'm currently preparing for a fourth. but wait! i have a punctuation quiz tomorrow which i am sure to fail. and it DOES matter because there are only 20 people in my class, and my teacher is aware of my "special" status. so where are the super strength liquid gels when you need them?

get me out of this bed!

law school in america.

why i hate americans, or more specifically, why i hate the bros that talk to me in class.

1. they cheer under their breath when people talk of any sort of sport or drinking game

2. they mention patron at least once a day

3. they talk about how america rules the world

4. they scoff at meters, and Celsius. Even though EVERYONE else is on the sane train.

5. they ask what i did on the weekend, just to tell me about how they watched the football game.

6. they ask if i live in an igloo in canada.

7. they are christian

the social side of the law

So here I am, sitting in the 'commons' at my law school. This is the third week of school, so obviously I should be surrounded by all my friends, laughing, and enjoying a good ol' lunch break. Well I am laughing, at how seriously pathetic my attempts at making friends have been.

To start, the only friend I have managed to make so far [and I am measuring friend on the frequency that I talk to a person] is Mr. D. Let me tell you a little about Mr. D... He is 53, and smacks his lips when he finds cases extremely interesting. He likes the color beige, and drinks a lot of diet soda.

Today a girl in my class was *actually* going to say hello to me, but instead she walked into a door, I laughed at her and promptly walked away. I'm really on the fast track to be known as the nice quiet girl.

I find my self alone outside the school building, sitting in the grass with all the ants and trying to construct a grass ring to give to my new & possible bestie. whats this you say? i have reverted back to my grade school self? an impossibly awkward, not so closeted loner, with an unshaking love of nature? I suppose all of this is true.

I have even constructed the 'popular' table in my head. Oh, you know the table. The one with all the young attractive people who are constantly laughing. Why are they laughing? What is soooo funny? My grass ring I suppose

Anyways I guess i shouldn't be too concerned about all of this, I am here to learn .... right?