Updates
So busy! With so much going on! And it is in the 60's and I feel like it is spring and it is wonderful. Highlights from the past few weeks include:
-Buying a new computer!! And going Mac. Which, seriously? WHY DID I NOT DO THIS BEFORE??? I mean, I realize that at this point
anything with a working space bar would be an improvement, but seriously, it's little and it's cute and totally functional and there are widgets and widgets? Are AWESOME. So I am blogging from home now, something I haven't been able to do in months. Happy mac. His name is Fred.
-Totally renewing my obsession with 24, getting my roommate obsessed with 24, perfecting a new 24 drinking game, and setting up a 24 Club at work. Actually, my boss told me to start the 24 Club. I know he adores 24 as much as I do, but I have a sneaking suspicion he feels that getting all of us together at once will actually consolidate the amount of time I spend traipsing from desk to desk talking about 24, which would free me up to do occaisional actual work on Tuesdays.
-Remembering the downside of 24, in that I hate every single other TV show on the air now, even the ones I used to like. Even, and I hate to admit this, Supernatural. Which... I loved. But then they broke for Christmas, and "Season Two" didn't start for 2 months, so there was a lot of free time. And it was annoying, because they ended on this great note with all this unresolved stuff. And lots of the fans on blogs and such had all these great theories and ideas, and then it came back! And I was sooo excited to see how they would handle all the angst and drama and craziness and Sam fucking
shooting Dean four times in the head, but.... All those unresolved things? Just... gone. It's like, THAT boat sailed a LONG, LONG time ago with all the posters and fanfic writers and the like, and the actual WB writers were all on the shore going, "Hey... where... where are you guys going?", and we're all yelling, "OVER HERE, THIS WAY LIES PLOT CONTINUITY", and they just ignored us. But it was still ok, because it was still a
decent show, and the boys are
So. Pretty. But then 24 started, and I realized it was all over 2 weeks ago when I was watching the new episode and woke Kate out by shrieking at the TV, "Oh for the LOVE of CHRIST guys, Jack would take care of that SO MUCH BETTER!!!", (and as added proof of Kate's wonderfulness, she responded by shouting back, "In the first five minutes of the episode!! Citycat? By the way, you're done."). So, yeah. I may still watch, but my heart belongs only to Kiefer.
-Purchasing a new cell phone, because I have secretly always hated my old one, and then it decided to die New Years day. And picked a ring out, which is a BIG deal for me because I am crazy neurotic about ring tones. And I decided on one and now it tells me every time it rings that "destiny is calling me", which amuses me to no end.
- Joining a gym, hiring a personal trainer, and actually working out, which... OW. I mean, OW. My workouts now contain more props than a damn broadway musical, and there is pain, but that is ok, because it is also kind of awesome.
- Going out more in the last few weeks than I was in the entirety of last semester, and making new friends and doing new and totally different things and seeing sides of DC which I would never normally see, and loving each and every second.
- Going to the ballet and seeing Swan Lake, falling in love with the Swan King, and contemplating a Nietzschian analysis of said Swan King to determine exactly what type of evil he was. Because S and I? Cannot go anywhere without a Nietzschian analysis.
-Figuring out what I want to do with my law degree, and thus, the rest of my life.
These are just a few highlights, because Kate is almost home and we will watch 24 and there will be shrieking.
But I leave y'all with a question, which I cannot figure out. I'm in international law now, and we keep having these discussions, and I just need to know: Is it possible to Godwin a conversation that is actually
about the Nuremberg trials?
In Which Law School Has An Identity Crisis
Um… ok. So, it’s January, and after a glorious 5 weeks of no classes, in which I traveled and celebrated holidays and saw friends and generally had a lovely time, it was time to go back to school. LAW school, because that is the school I am in. I did not opt to go to grad school. I did not opt to get an MFA. I
opted to go to law school, for a variety of reasons.
These reasons have been well borne out by actual attendance of law school. As I’ve said before, night school is great, and it’s certainly not the Paper Chase, but law school definitely has its own way of doing things. I mean, I have a Masters degree. I know how grad school works. Law school is different.
However, this semester? Law school
entirely failed to get the message about itself. Law school alternately thinks it is an International Relations Theory school or maybe an MFA program. At least according to my schedule.
Crim? Crim is… crim is fine, very “law school-y”, at least. However, the class
itself seems to be having an identity crisis, because most law schools have “criminal procedure” and “criminal law”, as two different classes, one being more “here are your 4th and 5th amendment rights (at least currently, until our esteemed President gets involved), and one being a little more macro, as in the concept of criminal law. My class? Criminal
Justice, which is already funny, in that it doesn’t
exist. And my Professor, the first day, is all “this is criminal procedure”, which, fine, that’s totally reasonable. But then the next time class met… well, someone asked a question regarding indigent defense, and it turns out he was a Public Defender, and things got weird, and then they got… dramatic, and the next thing we knew he was on a soapbox giving what was actually a very moving speech, just somewhat… unexpected. And I leaned over to A and mentioned that I kind of felt like there should be music playing in the background, and maybe someone should jump up on a chair and recite, “O Captain, My Captain,” but no one did and the speech went on and on and now I sort of feel like I have experienced this massive call to action, except…. I’m not sure what that action involves, because… well, the speech had nothing to do actually with criminal procedure, which the class purports to teach.
But honestly, so far crim has been the ONLY bastion of sanity in this semester, as things got stranger as time went on. Because Monday I had International Law, and THAT class clearly thinks it is a grad school class. THAT class involved a couple hundred pages of reading a week, which first of all- not normal for law school, since we tend to need to read things rather in depth. Secondly, the Prof is sweet, and no doubt qualified, but she appears to have gotten a degree in Saying Things With A Plethora Of Unnecessary Words and a minor in Repeating Oneself, which… heh. And then her review of the class, which was fine, but… “So, I found out today that you all need a password to get into the computer system, so I am guessing you didn’t do the reading.” Which, no, we did not, seeing as how we had no idea what the assignment was, but it just got worse, because…
“Oh, well do all 400 pages for next week, then.”
“Oh wait? Is that a lot of reading??”
“I’m sorry. Just
skim the reading. Get a general idea of the topic. We’ll discuss details in class.”
“Cases? Oh NO, don’t be silly. I won’t ask you to know holdings of cases or anything.”
Followed by a rousing discussion of the Theory of International Law.
So… Skim a fair amount of material on a certain subject to ascertain the key areas of contention, and then discuss in general the overarching theories? Ignore cases and holdings? Hi, Grad School! I… missed you? Um, have you seen Law School anywhere, because I could have sworn I was with him now…
Which would have been ok, since my con law class started out kind of like that and turned out pretty great, except last night convinced me that no, I actually had lost my damn mind, and was not so much in law school AT ALL, because last night I spent an hour and a half in class analyzing poetry.
…..
Analyzing. Poetry.
Y’all? I love poetry. And I love Robert Frost, and I love Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. Miles to go before I sleep? Hell yeah. But… I spent a class period discussing things like meter, and rhyme scheme, and choice of words, and how do you
feel about the poem, and….
And I am Confused.
Of course, I shouldn’t let any class where the professor both staunchly declares “Now I don’t want you to let anything
substantive distract you from this class”, and ALSO brings his wire hair daschund to class surprise me.
So that is my semester of law school, and I am sort of just going to hang on for the ride and hope I learn something law related, because in the last two days I have been asked to Play Lawyer twice, and I really sort of need Law School to get over its bad breakup/midlife crisis/lithium imbalance
issues and do its damn job.
More soon, especially because I am anticipating a Friday purchase that is long in coming and will totally make my life a TON easier.
Back, Briefly
Sorry! It has been a long time since I have written, or at least since I have written anything publicly, and honestly, it has nothing to do with me suddenly disliking my internet friends. Love you, Internet Friends! See, I even capitalized you! No, there has just been so much going on and work has been crazy and my computer at home is still broken and I started law school again and all of a sudden my boss took an unusual interest in blogs. He’s all, “Do you know about blogging? Do
you have a blog? So I could search for your blog?” And while I think he generally means well, (and most likely could not search and find my blog, since I have definitely never said “Citycat”), and even if he did would probably just be amused, but it still made me a bit nervous updating at work.
Anyway.
Things are great and I still have absolutely no mind, as evidenced by the following conversation I had with Peanut last weekend.
Phone: “Ring!”
Me: “Hello? Peanut? Why are you not here yet?”
Peanut: “I am stopped. On the GW Parkway. There is no movement, no movement at ALL.
Me: “Ok. I should just warn you… My hair and I are….”
Peanut: “Fighting?”
Me: “Well, it hasn’t escalated into an all out fight yet… it’s more like artistic differences.”
Peanut: “Artistic… differences?”
Me: “Yes. See, I thought that maybe tonight I would wear my hair curly. Which I interpret as being kind of spirally loose curls. You know.”
Peanut: “Yeah.”
Me: “My hair… My hair seems to want to interpret “curly” more as… “fluffy.”
Peanut: “Hee!”
Me: “Shut up. I think it is tamed, but… remember, my hair tonight is in more of an “experimental” stage.
Peanut: “Well, ok. But… Hey! I see the problem!”
Me: “What? An accident?”
Peanut: “Nope. A tree.”
Me: “A tree?”
Peanut: “Yep. Driving under a tree now. All is better. Be there soon.”
Me: “Good. Because this hair situation… It could get ugly. And I need a martini.”
So yes, I went out with experimental fluffy hair, which actually kind of worked for me, not that I’ll be doing THAT again anytime soon. But it was a fun night, except for the part where for no apparent reason the tall people swarmed Peanut. Now, Peanut is not a tall girl. Even in really high heels, Peanut is not tall. I’m not sure what it was, but suddenly and without warning the 4 or 5 tallest people in the bar just… closed in on her. You couldn’t see her AT ALL. Which I found hysterical, and simply leaned up against the bar and laughed at her, instead of, you know,
helping or anything. But we survived.
Anyway, I will write more soon (promise) on the newest installation of Law School, which already includes a Professor that looks exactly like the monopoly man, a class from hell, and many, many references to “getting the band back together”. Plus, this weekend is somehow a mess of stuff to do, so there should be fun stories from that.
Later!
