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February 28th, 2010

BWE 6: A time to kill

Note: Best Week Ever (BWE) posts are a summary of the previous week.

I may kill my dogs. Life would be so much easier, and I could rock a fierce Rottweiler murse.

Rottweiler bag

But alas, that’s probably illegal. Wait, is it? I need to do some research…

The overarching theme of the past week has been my illness, which I blame on my dogs. What follows is the 5 step process of how my dogs blemished my week, and my face…and why I’m going to kill them for their fur:

Step 1: Harley gets sick.

I wake up because I sense my dog staring at me from the foot of my bed like a zombie in a horror movie. Then we have the following exchange:

Me: “Ugh. Sleep. I need it. What?”
Harley: “Deal or no deal?”
Me: “What?”
Harley: “I got the shits. I can go right here on this rug, or you can get your ass up and take me out RIGHT NOW. Deal or no deal?”
Me: “I hate you.”

Step 2: Exhaustion

Harley wakes me up every few hours to be let out. Gertrude, the Rottweiler, comes along. By the time I take them out, pick up the nast, and get them settled back down, I’ve lost a half hour.

So the next day in class, I’m as irritated and exhausted as my classmates with newborns at home. I’m unproductive, stressy, and everything takes way too much time to get done because I’m half-awake.

Step 3: I get sick

After a few days of being woken up by Harley’s emergencies, and getting stressed by my lack of productivity, I’m sick. Or rather, severely congested.

And it’s not a real sickness. This is one of those stupid, “your immune system is suppressed because of stress and lack of sleep and now you get to suffer” situations.

I feel like someone just stabbed me with a botox pen. But instead of getting a glossy face, I just have pathetic look of defeat and the need to blow my nose every few minutes. Fail.

Step 4: Harley is better, but now Gertrude is sick.

I get one full night of sleep and then the Rottweiler gets sick. I think she’s copying Harley for attention. Lack of sleep ensues due to more night time dog-diarrhea messitude…

Step 5: layer in class, court appearances, and dating

After high school no one ever believes you are sick. You can call in sick and cancel things, and people respect this out of some sense of professionalism…but no one really believes it.

It’s even worse when it’s not a dramatic illness but severe congestion. I was not contagious, but there was still an amazing amount of pain and sense that I was starring as the “before” person in an allergy commercial without the benefit of the Claritin Clearness afterwards.

So I got to be awkward congested guy in court, class, and on dates.

And just as the congestion subsides, I sprout a big, fat, juicy cold sore while at work on Saturday.

I’ve had cold sores since I was a little kid. I get cold sores after being sick, stressed, or exposed to citrus. They are gross and unsightly, but some people have real problems, and a 3-day blemish doesn’t count.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going strut into the clubhouse with a juicy sore on my lip. So Saturday night I stayed in, despite everyone wanting to hang out. Even my most antisocial friends were out on Saturday, but I wasn’t budging.

I coyly declined invitations, but for those who pressed on I had to engage in the overshare: “I HAVE A BIG FAT JUICY SORE ON MY LIP? YOU WANNA HANG? HMMMM? HMM? COOOTIES!!”

And surprise, surprise, that worked!

I’ve been rocking my $20 bottle of Abreva all day, but I think I’m still going to be pretty gross for tomorrow’s classes. I would just skip and heal at home, but again, my professors are not going to believe that I’m sick, and probably wouldn’t consider a disfigurement a good reason to miss class.

So I’m stuck. I blame the dogs, who will be slaughtered and used to make my new dog-leather Lady Gaga inspired face mask to cover my sore.

February 27th, 2010

Zombies, a lost blackberry, and the gushy stuff.

Last night I went on my third date with Judd.

We went to see “The Crazies” in Roseville because gory, apocalyptic zombies movies are totally appropriate for dates.

It’s like a gay club, minus the Abercrombie cologne.

There was a pack of ghettofied girls behind us in the theater, so we got the stereotypical commentary – “OH GIRL! HE CRAZY!”

Word.

After the sheer terror movie, we went to Dinkytown to Pagoda. Pagoda is a pan-Asian restaurant and an old haunt from 1L year.

I usually loathe dinner dates. I fear being stuck at a table with awkward silence or even more awkward conversation. There is also the possibility that the guy will drop a deal breaker early on and make the rest of the dinner uncomfortable.

On our first date, we ate at the bar area of a Granite City, and the only awkward part was that one of my friends1 just so happened to be at that very restaurant, at the bar, snickering.

There were no cameos last night and the conversation wasn’t forced or awkward. We lingered. At one point, I wanted to look someone up on google images and noticed that I didn’t have my blackberry. It was probably in my car…

There was also a wild bachelorette party going on in the back room of the restaurant, so our conversation had brief pauses for the random cheering, laughing, and singing coming from the walls.

We eventually left Pagoda and I noticed that my blackberry wasn’t in my car.

I left Judd in the car and went back to the restaurant. The blackberry wasn’t there. It wasn’t on the sidewalk…or in the car… this was strange, and a giant date-swagger fail.

After another fruitless search of the car, I went into the Jimmy John’s near the car:

Me: “Hi, I lost my blackberry outside. Did someone happen to turn it in?”
JJ Deliveryman: “Pfft. A blackberry? I would have pawned that shit already.”
Me: “Heh. Lovely. Have a good night.”

I drove Judd to his house, and he helped me to search the car one last time.

So of course the phone had fallen in between the seat and the center console, and it was still plugged into the charger. Epic fail. Judd is dating a bald blonde. You can call me Amber Rose.


1Aka, the only law student with whom I discussed my upcoming date. He swears this was a coincidence. Right. And Alesha Dixon coincidentally looks like Beyonce.

February 26th, 2010

The Freighthouse

My favorite Dunn Brothers cafe in Minneapolis is the Freighthouse. It is built in an old freighthouse and has a great upstairs loft.

Dunn Brothers Freighthouse

Dunn Brothers Freighthouse

Dunn Brothers Freighthouse

Dunn Brothers Freighthouse

It is also close enough to school that I can pop over during lunch, but far enough that I don’t have to worry about running into other law students.

I study at the Freighthouse often, and the hot baristas have nothing to do with this. Really.

February 25th, 2010

Price Gouging

I hand a bottle of Vicks 44 to a cashier at a campus convenience store. She rings the medicine up and gasps.

Cashier: “What?!”
Me: “Pardon?”
Cashier: “Is it really this much? This can’t be right.”
Me: “It’s like $9 isn’t it?”
Cashier: “$9.19! For this? Really? Is it really that price?”
Me: “You’d know better than me.”

Last week’s cold went, but the sinus pressure stayed. I was so stuffy and irritated that abandoned my tax law preparation and left the Hanson Hall Starbucks early to get the nearly-$10 bottle of medicine:

Vick's 44 cold medicine

I knew that buying anything on campus is like going to a movie theater concession stand. But $10? Yikes. It feels like price gouging.

Edit: According to the CVS website, CVS sells this for $7.49, so the markup was actually not that bad.

February 24th, 2010

Not Quite Overshare: Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook

Explaining social media tools to someone who doesn’t use them is always awkward, but I’ll try anyway.

Social Media

I use social media tools to make my life easier. This is how that works:

The blog:

  • Getting connected: The blog is a quick and easy way to introduce myself to peers, coworkers, others in the Twin Cities, and worldwide.
  • Staying connected: The blog allows friends and family to catch up on my life on their time. It is less jarring and harassing than a phone call or the pain of “scheduling coffee” with people who I don’t see as often. The blog also cuts the mundane, preliminary “what’s going on with you lately?” portion of conversations and allows us to jump into deeper topics…sort of like doing the reading before class.
  • A resource: Blogs are the new autobiographies and how-to books. I had very few surprises during my first year of law school because I read law school student blogs  (such as this one, this one, and this one) and their advice was far more valuable than any “how to” book on law school that I wasted my money on. The experiences I write about help others considering going to law school, becoming a resident assistant, dog owner, blog author, etc.
  • PR & Journaling: The blog allows me to chronicle my experience and curtail rumors about major events by allowing people to read my account of a situation and form their own opinion. It’s like a constant interactive press conference, minus the vicious reporters and “oh shit” looks.

Twitter: Twitter lets me instantly connect with friends, professionals, and others. Twitter is less harassing and time consuming than an IM conversation, and a great way to meet new people, especially other law students and lawyers.

There is a lot of noise on twitter that I don’t subscribe to. I don’t follow people who only retweet news stories, stock prices, quotes, or “deals” that no one cares about. It’s like subscribing to junk mail. And to that I say, Bitch, boo, bye.”

Twitter, is not (for me at least) a popularity contest to find the most followers. The important part about twitter is connecting with real people. And if I also happen to get a coupon from a local pizza place then that’s just an amazing bonus…

Foursquare: The ultimate way to connect with locals. Foursquare uses my phone’s GPS to locate me and attaches that location to my tweets.

Foursquare also tells me who else is at my location and has allowed me to connect with coworkers and neighbors who I would otherwise not have met. There has been a recent stink over privacy concerns, but it’s simple to give the address of a nearby park or public place when you’re at a friend’s house or at home.

If someone was really going to rob you or stalk you, they would (and could) do it without the assistance of Foursquare. This is why the new Taser X3 is super affordable and comes in cute “fashion colors.”

Facebook: Where it all comes together. Chances are that you are reading this post on facebook, or have become my facebook friend after running into me on Foursquare or Twitter.

My facebook account is constantly updated with posts from my blog, Foursquare, and Twitter. This is incredibly convenient because people just have to look at my facebook page to see where I am, and what I’m up to.

Giving my friends this information makes my life easier because my friends know when I am available. The running-updated schedule makes people more likely to respect my time and less likely to pester me when I’m busy. The updates are also conversation starters and invitations for my neighbors to join me at local cafes and bars if they are in the area.

My social media connectivity never feels like a “big brother” or exhibitionist situation because all of these applications require an affirmative action to update. This makes a true, unintended, overshare uncommon. Which is why you won’t know if I’m constipated at a rat-infested 7-Eleven restroom unless I post it (which I won’t, don’t worry.)

My life is made easier by sharing more information rather than less. I got used to living in the proverbial fishbowl as a resident assistant in undergrad, and living in the fishbowl is rather comfortable.

I share what I want to, and I find that perpetual connection with others is far better to being out of the loop.

February 23rd, 2010

Geyser

This is why I usually have a coffee tumbler:

spilled coffee

I’ve been a coffee-soaked law student for over a year now, so I just shake off the dark roast from my copy of the tax code and I’m ready to go.

February 22nd, 2010

Pummeler

I think she’s being dramatic.

Harley’s unimpressed.

February 21st, 2010

BWE 4-5: Dance-offs, dating, and misc. mess

Note: Best Week Ever posts are a summary of the previous week(s).

My weeks are too unusual and packed to cover two weeks in a “best week ever” summary post, so here are five snippets of the chaos…

Scene 1: The getaway driver.

I am in court observing a bail hearing. A scraggly woman approaches the stand and the judge sentences her to four years in prison. She was the getaway driver for her godson’s bank robbing spree and could have been sentenced to 20 years. She thanks the judge for the 4-year sentence, and gets hauled to the next county for sentencing on another robbery.

It is hard to complain about much after volunteering at the public defender’s office. My time in court is always a nice reminder that some people have real problems.

Scene 2: dance-off at Lush.

1 a.m. on Saturday. A group of us are near the dance floor at Lush Bar in Northeast Minneapolis. Adam Lambert’s queeny little brother, Glambert, is on the floor. Glambert points dramatically, flips his hair, and challenges a sassy, break-dancing lesbian to a dance-off.

Hot messitude ensues.

Glambert flails around, points, and flips his hair like Jeffree Star without the tattoos, or personality. Glambert goes on for a long time until his friend grabs him and tells him to stop being ignorant.

That is when the sassy lesbian leaves her group of annoyed-looking butch girls. Sassy slides onto the dance floor and launches into into a dramatic, stunt-filled break dance routine.

Glambert got served, but instead of clapping and going on with his life, Glambert proceeds to drop to the floor, open his legs…and… well, my friend Pechman described the scene the best: “That’s just embarrassing.”

Fail.

Scene 3: snot and authorities.

I was sick. It felt like someone filled my sinuses with bleach, but I was going to finish this moot court brief, headache and bleach be-damned.

I camped out at Wilde Roast and worked for close to five hours on revisions. Randy made a cameo and gave me a study break, but I eventually finished my brief and then raced to a copy shop for a blue brief cover.

I felt ridiculous paying for parking and trudging through the snow for a single colored copy of the cover of a pretend legal brief.

But whatever. If the Moot Rules of Appellate Procedure say blue cover, then they’ll get a blue cover. I’ve stop trying to make sense of my school’s requirements.

These past two weeks were full of trips to the Spyhouse, Starbucks, and Caffetto. I blame moot court and the tax code.

Scene 4: vogue!

I had a vogue battle with a Somali in St. Paul. Hilarity. That story is here.

Scene 5: the gumption.

The problem with dating in Minnesota is easily summed up: Pussyfooters.

Most guys simply drop equivocal hints that they want to go out on a date:

Pussyfooter: “I might want to get coffee. Someplace…somewhere…over the rainbow perhaps? You like coffee right? I like coffee…possibly, maybe…sometime…”

Pussyfooter: “I might be at this bar tonight. Possibly. Maybe. With friends. I’m not sure yet. Haven’t decided. Are you going out tonight? I might be…”

Pussyfooter: “I’m so bored. Thinking about doing something! Going out, maybe? Something. I mean, I may leave the house tonight… not having any plans or a life or anything makes this easy... So I might be up for something! With someone! Possibly! Maybe! What are you up to?”

They want me to ask them out. I have to make the plans because their fear of rejection limits them to pestering guys online.

And I refuse to go out with these guys beacuse I cannot be bothered to waste my time on self-conscious, timid guys. I’m not Dr. Phil, and don’t have the time to build a would-be suitor’s self esteem.

So how shocked was I when someone finally asked me out on a date? I had at least a dozen pussyfooters bothering me at the time, and this guy bowled them over and got the point.

He wasn’t quite my type based on his pictures, so of course he was attractive and interesting in person (seems to be a rule.) The date went well, and I am impressed.

I think Minnesota men might have redeemed themselves. Possibly, maybe.

February 20th, 2010

Icy

Things like this don’t amuse the natives anymore:

Minneapolis Ice
Here are some closeups. These should link to larger files. If not, click here.


And yes, the dogs and I totally play fetch with the icicles.

February 20th, 2010

For the 0Ls (Prospective Law Students)

It’s that time of year again. Law school acceptance letters have gone out and the future victims students are trolling the student blogs.

My advice? Run.

If you’re not going to run, then consider these 5 tips:

  1. Do not go to law school just because your humanities major did not give you any marketable job skills. That’s like signing up for the military because you won’t condescend to work retail as a B.A. The legal job market collapsed last year. If you were looking for riches and employment, then try Starbucks or business school…or the military. At least they’ll pay for school if you survive.
  2. When considering schools outside of the top 10 (or maybe top 20) focus on the schools in the state/market you want to practice in. Your New Mexico JD isn’t as powerful in Maine, even if the New Mexico school is ranked slightly higher than Maine’s Bumble School of Law.
  3. If you are choosing between a well-ranked school and a scholarship at a less prestigious school, ask whether the scholarship is contingent on your GPA or class rank. Most students at these schools will lose their scholarships because of the curve. And yes, your competition is as smart and motivated to keep their scholarship as you are.
  4. Much of the prep during the summer before law school is a waste of time. Your time is best spent working, because your scholarship or loan money may not come in until classes start. Working out also won’t hurt, because law school is the land of coffee and pizza.
  5. If you really want to know what law school is like then read law student blogs. An outline of my 1L fall semester is here, and an outline of 1L spring is here. There more blogs are linked on the left-hand column of dennis-jansen.com.

Again, I recommended that you run, so don’t batter me with nasty messages this fall about how I ruined your life because this blog convinced you that law school is all sunshine and lollipops. It is not. Run.

Tweet any questions to @dennisjansen.