Frequent Citations

It's Good To Be Back

I feel back where I belong: at a table piled high with books in multiple languages, an on-line Latin dictionary open at all times, the spell-checker going crazy with all the Latin words. It would be so easy to put everything into just this one class and do nothing else.

That would be bad.

I have to turn the Comment (could this one please be the last draft?) in on Monday, when cite-check begins. I have to write that paper. I have three other classes. I have to leave now, to go have a nice dinner with TFL to celebrate our anniversary and his birthday. Better (very) late than never, right? Right?

Just a few more lines about those ever-practical Romans...

Romans And Rhetoric

This quarter was supposed to be easier than last quarter. It's really not shaping up that way, not at all. On the other hand, the classes are fantastic. Four professors, each of them Big Name Tops in Their Field--which doesn't necessarily mean squat, but here they are all also excellent teachers. The two hour seminar just flew by in a heartbeat, and those usually really drag.

It is indescribably thrilling to have a law school class in which the professor suggests that the judges were not writing economic theory but were instead writing for the people who appointed them to their positions. It just makes me want to give a little round of applause. And when another professor points out that in spite of  having absolutely no legal theory the Romans nearly always got the rule exactly right--well, I nearly giggle I'm so tickled. And then he talks about the importance of nuance in language and the dangers of overly precise translation and he gets it all (I have to say it) exactly right.

Well he would, of course, because that British physicist aside this guy's probably the smartest person on the planet, but still. (Actually, he might be smarter. No one's really sure. But they're in different fields, so we'll never know.) And I also love the fact that everyone acknowledges that he is a) brilliant in a way we don't even understand, b) stark mad about many issues, but c) often absolutely right anyway. Even if he's not right, you'll never win an argument against him. Heh.

So brutal schedule, impossible assignments, phenomenal professors. Par.

And When I'm Not Studying . . .

Yesterday we had to turn in our applications for Law Review Board. True to our gunnerific year, pretty much everyone applied. Most years, only a few people don't make it because not many more apply than there are positions. This year, there will be blood on the floor. Probably mine. But if I don't make Board I'll have time to do crazy stuff such as study or watch movies--not an all-bad result.

And today, it's another clerkship meeting. On the one hand, it's amazing to get these opportunities to clerk, to be told we have pretty decent shots at appellate clerkships if our grades are good. On the other hand, it's just another form of pressure. Are you going to clerk? Where are you applying? Who are you getting recommendations from? And on, and on.

But refreshingly, there are still people who would rather cut off their left arm than clerk. They would also be the people who are only going to law school in order to make the money to pursue their real goals.

To celebrate a friend's birthday and being done with the Board Application, for better or worse, we hit the Pub last night. Mid-week celebration! It was great. Once in a while, I do know how to relax!

Whoa . . . Day 2, And Behind Already

How can this happen? It's only the second day of the quarter and I'm behind in Every Single Class. And I really thought I'd be able to have the time to read this quarter, too.

Dagnabbit.

In other news: working on the Ed Board application, heaven help me, and trying not to check my grades every five seconds. But mostly scrambling for Bankruptcy--the Gunner Extraordinaire is already doing his thing and the really scary part is that it's a new one this quarter. Don't think the old ones have gone away, either.

*whimper*

The Quarterly Schedule Dance

I had a gorgeous schedule with two seminars and no class on Fridays. But there's this class, that everyone raves about, and I went to check it out today. That was a mistake, because now I have to take it, because it is indeed fabulous. Any class that starts out by the professor telling you that legal theory is useless for the class is going to be fantastic, don't you think? Yes.

I found out that I survived Commercial Transactions, and did better than I had on Secured Transactions when I spent a lot more time on it. So there you go: don't bother to read the cases. Erm, well, or something. Of course, it would have been hard to do worse . . .

Anybody want to write two pages for me about why I should be on the Editorial Board? No? How about a little 30-page paper? A few article reviews? Sigh.

First day of the quarter. I'll be here late, trying to catch up.

GirlChild starts her new job today, and that's about all the exciting news that there is around here.

It's a quiet spring break, I guess. The day has turned mildly sunny, my student loan check is ready to be picked up, and I have to pack for the weekend.

I've been avoiding working on either my Comment or my paper and instead have been working through the first assigment for Bankruptcy. And maybe knitting a little, and blanching around the house. But I'm afraid I really, really have to get that Comment done. Again.

Are you getting sick of reading about it? I'm getting sick of working on it! I keep reminding myself, it's a good problem to have.

Obligations & Delicts, Anyone?

The UPS man delivered most of next quarter's books today. Considering how much reading I've got to do, you'd think the box would have been bigger. (It was pretty heavy.) It also had a few little goodies other than law books.

And once again, classicists are freakishly expensive. This book is a wee little paperback. Worse than legal texts, they are. Ah well, they're better too. Whee! Obligations and delicts! Doesn't that sound like the title of a novel or something? Delicts.

A Syllabus A Day

On the one hand, I much prefer to have an overview of a course before it starts, so that I can enjoy the delusion of having some control over my studies. On the other hand, I wish I could enjoy a few days of spring break without getting the syllabi for upcoming classes. The instant I get them, I have to start working on them...

One thing I've learned works well for me is to take the syllabus and turn it into a skeleton outline immediately. I have my format that I like to use, with headings and whatnot. Then I go through and put in all the briefs I can, so even if I don't understand the cases I at least have a few lines for facts and rule and holding. I can get a class done in a day or two, depending on how case-heavy it is.

As the quarter progresses, I drop in notes from class and black-letter law drawn from commercial outlines or wherever--rarely from class or cases, of course. So by the end of the quarter I have a massive outline done. It's long but super-comprehensive. Then I condense it once or twice or thrice...

Anyway. I have Bankruptcy and Land Use done. Roman Law, I think, will be syllabusless. And the Hammer never hands out a syllabus, as far as I know. I have not, however, done diddly-squat on paper or Comment. I'm going to be in soooo much trouble.

Ready To Work? Not So Much.

I got up this morning--late, but with the best of intentions to crank out lots of research for my paper, and hammer out some of what I need for my Comment version 7.4, and so on and so forth.

It hasn't quite worked out that way. In part I blame allergies--there's nothing like a completely fogged-in head to make you less than fully functional. But I think mainly, I'm just not quite ready to hit the books again. I'd much rather knit, or walk around on this gorgeous day, or just sit and stare at a wall.

Yep. Still in pitiful mode. Tomorrow is a day for replacing my vanished driver's license, and getting sufficient clothes to get through the weekend in Firm City, and best of all having lunch with a friend. Then maybe I'll get some work done.

Oh, The Insanity

I don't know how well I learned 3 classes in 9 days, but I did well enough to pass. After finishing my last exam I came home, thinking that I could crash for the evening before packing and leaving town, but no. Urgent Things Had To Be Done, and internets were required, and ours were out, so I had to go back to school for hours. Argh.

But I did manage to straggle out of town on Wednesday, collapsing in a heap at my brother's house for a night before heading to warmer climes with a couple of sisters-in-law. It was fabulous, we were silly, I was forcibly removed from the computer for days... lovely.

Now I'm back and guess what? I have TONS of work to do already! But I will be wearing some truly adorable earrings, so that will make everything all better.

And how are all of you?