Frequent Citations

Deja Vu Again

I keep running into the same people, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident. They all have the same bleary-eyed and careworn look... yeah, former classmates.

I've run into them at coffee shops and on the bus, coming and going from class. And, of course, on a friend's patio where we gathered last night for drinks and commiseration. It's nice to keep seeing people for a little while before we scatter to the four corners.

We compare notes on bar exams, which states are covering which subjects, who's making flash cards, where people are studying. Sometimes we break out of the bar exam stranglehold on our lives and talk about clerkships and bar trips, or who's still looking for a place to live and have you sold your place yet? me neither.

We know each other so well in some ways, not at all in others.

Forsythia Blooms

The forsythia is in bloom, exploding all over the place.

Why does no one ever prune it properly? The right way to prune any shrub of that type, where long canes come up straight from the ground in clumps (think lilacs), is at ground level. Start at the bottom and you can prune away up to 1/3 of the shrub a year. Normally you would prune less than that, but if it's heavily overgrown you can hack off quite a bit.

If you butcher it by just cutting it back from the top (hedge clippers, anyone?) you'll end up with a boxy shrub that's more stick than wood, and with very few blooms. If you want those long, arching cascades of blossoms in the spring, prune from the bottom.

The park district is reseeding the Midway. I want to tell them that if they really want to keep the grass in good shape, they'll reseed twice a year instead of once, and more importantly they'll stop mowing it when it's soaking wet. Every summer I see them do it, send the mowing tractors out after heavy storms. All they leave behind are giant ruts and bent grass.

Sweet The Morning Air Of April

I walked through the Quad on my way to the gym this morning. The magnolia trees are blooming, the spring bulbs are flowering. In the early-morning stillness, the scent of the hyacinths floated through the air.

The law school needs magnolia trees. Right now all it has are big honey locusts, which are not exactly imposing (in which case I would be in their favor) and do nothing for the icy architecture, so they're the worst of both worlds. Low-growing, twisty magnolias would look charming and play up the building's exotic aspects (it does have a few).

Sometimes I remember that I am a gardener.

Shirts In The Dirt

It was a gorgeous day today, an honest-to-goodness spring day. People were out and about enjoying themselves or running errands or both.

I had to stop by the school to pick up some editing stuff. In theory I'm done, but in reality there's overlap. Anyway, as I was coming home I saw a guy carrying his drycleaning home. He holding his cell phone up to his ear with one hand, carrying the hangers in the other hand. But instead of slinging them over his shoulder he just held them by his side and let the bottoms of the drycleaning slide along on the sidewalk.

You would think it would occur to him that those bags are open on the bottom.

Maybe he just wanted an excuse to walk back to the drycleaners, but I can think of cheaper excuses for him to take a walk.

Springtime? Surely Not.

Today I saw a white iris in the garden across the midway from school. I was heading back to school from the gym and I nearly missed it. But there it was, blooming away. In October.

It must be one of the reblooming varieties, I suppose. I had heard of them, but never seen one. The flower was on the petite side for an iris, but to see it at all in October was amazing. (For the nongardeners out there: iris bloom in the spring, usually late May into June.)

Birdbrains

It was late in the evening when I was walking home and passed by a men's clothing store. There were fine quality suits on display in the usual manner on mannequins with shirts and ties. Yet it looked as though a flock of slightly odd Horus statues had landed in the windows and donned western suits--the mannequins had eagle heads.

Some Creatures Shouldn't Mix

I love dogs. It's very hard to find an ugly dog, in my opinion. But the other day I saw what has to be one of the world's ugliest dog. It was by far the ugliest dog I had ever seen, the result of an unfortunate encounter between a cocker spaniel and a very large bull dog.

I'm sure its owner loved it.

Winged Girl

I was walking to work the other morning when something glittery caught my eye. Across the street I saw a set of iridescent blue wings, spanning perhpas two feet. They were attached to the back of a girl's dress--not a little girl, probably someone in her late teens or early twenties.

I checked my mental calendar. Was it some sort of dress-up holiday that I'd missed? No. Apparently it just seemed like a good day to wear a set of wings.

In other news: I walked by a famous late-night tv host the other day. It's cheaper to get a manicure than to go to a movie. There was a parade today and they closed the entrance to the Park which made me pretty unhappy. I did not buy any shoes today. Yet.

The Pirate Look

The student government put on an end-of-the-year BBQ yesterday. For some reason they decided to go all out and had not just high-quality burgers and brats, but also salmon, tuna, and steaks. I think they were keeping the steaks for themselves and I don't blame them, and I was happy with my burger. Of course, I was hungry enough to eat almost anything.

Two of the guys doing the grilling were wearing very pretty earrings of the type you might see on a five year old girl: long, bright, and plastic. The third guy had them beat, though: he was sporting  a tiara. It was quite the look.

It was more fun to watch them than it was to look at my distressingly long and still incomplete Public Land and Resource case chart.

Even When They Aren't Nerds, They Are

You know you're at the university gym when you see someone on the weight bench ... reading. From time to time she would casually lift some weights, and then go back to her book. Heh. Woman after my own heart.

Recently some disturbing red signs have gone up in the dressing room: no picture taking is allowed with any electronic device, including cell phones. I shudder to think what made the powers that be think it necessary to put such signs up. Ick.