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I know I haven't had a post for some time, so I thought I would write a small update.
I have been extraordinarily busy as the semester has drawn to a close. I am wrapping up classes, I wrote and turned in the first 40 pages of my law review article, and, of course, there was other assorted work to be done.
Unfortunately, I have had no good news to post in the summer employment arena. I had hoped to secure a summer job by break, so I would have good news to tell all my relatives at Christmastime, and so I wouldn't have to worry about it over break and next semester. Though I do have some interviews in the works, I have no news to tell.
The good news is, as of December 19, I will be exactly halfway through law school! I can't believe how fast it has gone by.
I am beginning work on my class outlines, and it is a daunting task. I will post memorable quotes from my professors in a few days, when I have gone through my notes. Other than that, wish me well on finals, and I hope to see everyone over break!
Yesterday we had a night on the town with the law folks, which turned out to be a pretty interesting and informative time.
We met up at school and headed over to the restaurant, Take Five, which was pretty tasty. But even tastier was what we did after Take Five, which was take a stroll over to the Julius Meinl at Addison and Southport. Julius Meinl is a Viennese coffee distributor who happens to have a location in Chicago. Julius Meinl is also the most magical place on earth.
I know that I have declared previous "most magical places on earth," which included Disney World, Baskin Robbins-Dunkin Donuts, and the M & M Museum in Las Vegas. This one well deserves a title in the winner's circle of magical places.
For example, here's what I ate at Julius Meinl. I found it in the pastry counter and had to have it. It's called chiboust, and if there was a winner's circle of most magical substances on earth, chiboust would be the heavyweight. It's chocolate whipped filling inside a chocolate tart, then topped with chocolate powder, a piece of chocolate, and a raspberry. Mmm...
I think I'm going to start having to go to cafes more often. The combination of pastry and hot chocolate agrees with me, and just might be the solution to a semester full of blues. Also, it helped that the little cafe reminded me a bit of Europe, which of course I love.
Well, after chiboust, nothing compares. But, we still had another location to visit after stuffing ourselves full of pastry and hot drinks: The Italian Stallion at the Music Box.
Now, we're all pretty shameless people. We had a great time poking fun at this ridiculous movie. It is clear that it has been edited down, as many have pointed out, to the point where there is no semblance of plot or even of sex. Sure, they're naked, but they're pretty much just rolling around on top of each other. As we said later, each scene was waaaaaay too long.
However, even we were disturbed at some points, and we're a pretty jaded set of law students. For example, when "Stud," Stallone's character, beat the crap out of his girlfriend with a belt. Or when he punched some glass and his hand was covered in "blood," and his girlfriend licked it off. Eww. In the end, though, aside from some equally disturbing patrons, the movie on the whole was a very entertaining venture.
And now I'm off to teach some crochet classes this weekend, and write (hopefully) 7-10 pages of quality law review material. Wish me luck...
A friend sent me an interesting article from the Vanderbilt Law Review about the well-being and happiness of lawyers (or lack thereof).
"If one looks hard enough, though, one can scratch up some information about the health and happiness of attorneys. And this information—although rather sparse and, in some cases, of limited value—strongly suggests that lawyers are in remarkably poor health and quite unhappy."
"Lawyers seem to be among the most depressed people in America."
"A study of law students and practicing lawyers in Arizona discovered that when students enter law school, they suffer from depression at approximately the same rate as the general population. However, by the spring of the first year of law school, 32% of law students suffer from depression, and by the spring of the third year of law school, the figure escalates to an astonishing 40%."
Wonderful.
This year for Halloween, Dave and I recycled some costumes from two years ago, but they still turned out awesome.
We ended up going to 3+ Halloween parties this weekend, including one after party involving cake.
When we visited Andy and Jo's apartment, we watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Garfield's Halloween Adventure. Those movies are as much a part of my childhood as trick or treating, or carving pumpkins. I watch them every year!
Actually, that same night we also watched the original House on Haunted Hill. It was sufficiently creepy, particularly with Vincent Price and his eerie ways. I always enjoy getting into the spirit of Halloween.
(And so does Andy! Check out THAT awesome costume!)
All in all it was a good Halloween - we had a good haul of candy, though certainly nothing compared to the five pounds I'd garner as a child going house to house. Ahh, for the good old care-free days, when candy from the Great Pumpkin wouldn't make me gain five pounds on my hips... ;o)
In the true spirit of Halloween, our LexisNexis representative at DePaul provided us with a case searching exercise to have fun and win points. I had a great time with this, finding cases such as United States v. Vampire Nation, as well as another where a man set himself on fire in a sheep costume, not to mention reliving the wonderful Stambovsky v. Ackley, a favorite from our contracts class.
In Stambovsky, a man bought a house, then tried to undo the sale because it was inhabited by poltergeists. (The original owner posted it for sale as "a riverfront Victrian (with ghost).") The colorful language of the judge included many puns, which we greatly enjoyed.
Another case that I found on the "scavenger hunt" that I had not previously heard of was United States ex rel. Mayo v. Satan and his Staff. Yes, that is an actual case, and apparently it is not a joke.
In that case, the plaintiff alleged under numerous federal civil rights acts that "Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of the plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall."
"Plaintiff alleges that by reason of these acts Satan has deprived him of his constitutional rights."
The best part is where the court starts talking about being unable to serve process on Satan, or "whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district," because Satan had never maintained a residence in Pennsylvania, nor had he appeared as a defendant in any other case.
This evening we carved pumpkins to get into the true spirit of Halloween!
I have been feeling down lately, as the job search has not been going very well for yours truly. However, carving pumpkins was a much-needed trip down memory lane!
They say that smell is the sense most linked to memory, and I always believe it at times like these. As soon as I popped the top off my pumpkin, I felt I could have been carving pumpkins with my parents at their house.
I think, every now and then, I need a nice, normal activity to bring me out of law school mode and back to real life. And it helps if that activity and I have strong emotional ties dating back years and years!
Oh, and note in the picture above that there are two pumpkins to represent Dave and I - then two little pumpkins to represent the bunnies!
The upside to all this is also that I'm going to make roasted pumpkin seeds tonight! Mmm...
Also to get into the Halloween spirit, we went to Woodfield to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D! Though the glasses took some getting used to, it was worth it to see one of my favorite movies as I'd never seen it before! (I had seen it when it was out in theaters originally, but you forget how crisp and clear everything is on the big screen, especially in 3-D.)
So far, fall is looking up! (Now if I could only get a job.)
When I was a kid, I don't remember ever finding our rabbits asleep. Ever. You could go to their cage at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 a.m. - always the same. Always awake, alert, and interested.
Well, not this bunny...
Seriously, this bunny looks dead. This picture was taken Friday, when she moseyed up to me in a very tired fashion, so I tipped her over and she fell asleep at my feet as I studied.
As you can see, when Zelda falls asleep, her head tilts up, she starts twitching, and her eyes open a little bit - pretty creepy. There have actually been times
when she stopped twitching and I had to wake her up to make sure she wasn't actually dead.
Halloween is coming up soon - maybe I should consider taking this zombie bunny around trick or treating with me.
