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January 2010
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Dennis Jansen

January 21st, 2010

Colbie Caillat, Uncle Kracker, and Dead Hamsters

Last night Joel and I went to the KS95 concert at the Varsity Theater. The concert’s headliners were Uncle Kracker and Colbie Cailatt.

Uncle Kracker’s performance was underwhelming. He just sat the entire time and had minimal crowd interaction. Colbie, whose name I can’t pronounce, was really pleasant to watch and listen to. She’s no Lady Gaga, Brit-Brit, or Beyonce…but she’s a little livelier than Nora Jones and a little less scandalous than Miley.

After the show, Joel and I went to Loring Pasta Bar for a little come-to-Jesus meeting, where Joel had Jesus lighting:

Joel

Which brings up a tangent I forgot to go on: the ridiculousness that is becoming “facebook official.”

Facebook official status seems like a casual, trivial thing, but it is actually like sending an engagement announcement to your 600 not-so-closest friends.

Then, after a few weeks or months (when the honeymoon heat fades) facebook-official status can create an awkward feeling of entrapment. Is the other person as serious as you are? Does someone want to break up? Is he a vampire? Are you willing to make that facebook change and take the aftermath?

It’s like calling off a wedding – no one ever believes that the bride and groom sat down calmly over coffee and mutually parted ways. No, everyone from your school dean to your mom will imagine some grand Revolutionary-Road style fight. There has to be screaming, shattered glass, a restraining order, a dead hamster… ie, drama.

None of that happened last night at the Pasta bar. It was more “Can you meet me half way?” than “Ring the Alarm” and there’s no break up or restraining order that I’m aware of. Now the hamster is another matter…

January 21st, 2010

Taking a stance by fleeing

I dropped my Housing Clinic before the first session ended.

Today’s class was a blitzkrieg of red flags which made it clear that the clinic would make me miserable. The directors spoke in terms of “amorphous grading,” last minute changes, and court times that force students to skip class.

They also hinted that housing cases move so fast that “good enough” would have to suffice for court preparation, and the student directors said that some of the hearings were so brief that they sometimes only had time to spurt out their first, best argument.

I need a break this semester. I want to snuggle up with the dogs and the tax code. Rushing around crazy and sleep deprived because I let some  irrelevant1 clinic play Godzilla to the Tokyo of my schedule is not going to happen. “Looks good on the resume” be damned.

So I am the newest member of the morning international tax course, and so grateful that I put my foot down, and fled.


1 Irrelevant to my career goals.