On homework:

Orientation Leaders: “You’ll get your assignments on Friday, don’t worry about them now.”

10 minutes later:

Professor: “Read pages 1-5, 7-20, 30-36. Read EVERY [...]]]> Today was a slightly shorter day of orientation. The 1Ls are still good troopers, but it was a personally frustrating day for some orientation leaders because we were constantly undermined by presenters:

On homework:

Orientation Leaders: “You’ll get your assignments on Friday, don’t worry about them now.”

10 minutes later:

Professor: “Read pages 1-5, 7-20, 30-36. Read EVERY WORD of the first case. It’s mostly Latin…”

On Professors:

1L: “I read on Rate My Professor that Professor Palsgraff is a horrible person who can’t teach and tortures bunnies. Is that true?!”
Orientation Leaders: “Well, everyone has different learning styles and everyone’s favorite professor is someone else’s least favorite. And although Professor Palsgraff may not be the most energetic speaker, she is at the top of her field, dedicated to her students, and surely only kicks the bunnies who deserve it.”

10 minutes later:

Student Speaker: “Oh and I heard you had Palsgraff for one of your classes! HAH! Lemme tell ya – you won’t learn SQUAT from Palsgraff, she’s a horrible teacher and wrings bunnies’ necks till the light leaves their eyes…”

On employment:

Orientation Leaders: “And don’t worry too much about jobs right now, you can’t even contact the career center until late in the semester…”

10 minutes later:

Career Center Speaker: “Hi, we are a resource here for you! We can’t contact you until the fall, and employers even later, but let me give you a 10 minute spiel about employment stuff so you freak out. Oh, and there’s an online system called Symplicity and although you don’t have access to it …jobs, jobs, ra-ah-ah, jobs jobs, o la, la…

Oh and “like” us on facebook!”

Life/Work balance:

Orientation Leaders: “You can successfully balance school and life! Just remember to be efficient in your studies and you’ll have free time…”

10 minutes later:

Speaker: “…and although you all will be TERRIBLY STRESSED AND OVERLOADED and wallowing in your deep pit of despair…”

Well crap.

After orientation, I made a brief trip to the office and spent the rest of the evening with Alesus, flanked by dogs, watching Rachael Zoe.

Alesus moved to my neighborhood yesterday, so this will probably become a common occurrence, much to Gertrude’s annoyance. No one puts THAT baby in a corner…

Only one more day of orientation left, and then a weekend of work!

I will finish my outline for Wednesday’s corporate tax law exam tonight and see if I need more than one day to prepare. I think I just need to force myself to [...]]]> Stella and I are holed up at Starbucks studying for finals.
My international tax law exam is self-scheduled. I may take it tomorrow. Possibly, maybe.

I will finish my outline for Wednesday’s corporate tax law exam tonight and see if I need more than one day to prepare. I think I just need to force myself to take these self-scheduled exams early lest I focus on too many irrelevant/obscure things. I think 80% of finals prep is a waste of time, so I am trying (desperately) to be more efficient.

…and crazy “reads aloud in foreign languages” hobo is here. He’s usually at the Purple Onion but decided to make a guest appearance at Starbucks to distract us. He was reading in Arabic, now he’s reading aloud in Italian, and we are pretty sure he doesn’t speak either language. I don’t know what’s going on, but after a few more hours in the treasury regulations I might start speaking in tongues too…

Oh, and Starbucks had “happy hour” today, which meant half-priced beverages and a line that stretched outside of the door for the better part of 2 hours:

The undergrads couldn’t chase me down for snickering and taking their picture because they didn’t want to lose their place in line. Hah! This happy-hour promotion goes all week, so I will have a captive audience for when I snap and start reading tax regs aloud. Buhaha…

Here are some random shots: Facebook/RSS readers: click here if the gallery does not display properly. ]]> Strolling around campus with my camera makes me notice things that I’d otherwise miss, like the awesome details on the east bank buildings:

Here are some random shots:

Facebook/RSS readers: click here if the gallery does not display properly.

“Something is always happening, even on the quietest days and deep into the night, if you stand a while and look.”

Although it’s probably creepy when you’re the one being looked at.

See also: Story of a rush-hour traffic jam. ]]> This reminds me of a line from Don DeLillo’s The Falling Man:

“Something is always happening, even on the quietest days and deep into the night, if you stand a while and look.”

Although it’s probably creepy when you’re the one being looked at.

See also: Story of a rush-hour traffic jam.

RSS/Facebook readers: click here to view the gallery. Although it is possible to drive down to the tracks, I recommend parking at a meter because scrambling back to the car when you see a park ranger is slightly awkward…

I encourage the 1Ls to blog, especially when they are busy. “The busy times are when it is most important to blog!” I say. “You’ll thank yourself for writing!”

So of course I don’t condescend to blog when I get busy. Do as I say, not as I do right? I [...]]]> Oh, I am a terrible hypocrite!

I encourage the 1Ls to blog, especially when they are busy. “The busy times are when it is most important to blog!” I say. “You’ll thank yourself for writing!”

So of course I don’t condescend to blog when I get busy. Do as I say, not as I do right? I feel like a governor…

Luckily the free-for-all that is “discussion time” in my family law class is the perfect time to blog! I am so not slacking at this…

So, what happened last week?

Well, the most exciting thing about last week was the heat! I think it got to 80 degrees one day, but maybe I’m exaggerating… maybe it was 90 degrees, or 100…

Regardless, it was warm, and the grass came out:

The undergrads now lounge-about outside, and the scandalous daisy dukes have arrived. Hopefully this also means an end to the leggings epidemic that hit campus this winter! (Leggings are still not pants by the way…)

The great thaw is also exciting because Minnesotan drivers don’t do well with melting snow:


I’ve seen more car wrecks in the past few weeks than during the worst snowfall. Although this may have something to do with the amount of cars hidden in snow-filled ditches…I think the situation will improve now that the roads are dry and ice-free, but I’m probably wrong.

Other than the car wrecks and heat, last week was also the week of the work-out. I made to the gym about 4 times and constantly walked the dogs around the lakes.

My apartment building has also resumed its craziness. There are constantly drunks lounging in the stairway, people passed out in the hallway, mystery smells, and one of my neighbors must have given up walking her dog because there are little nuggets of joy waiting for me on the back stairs most mornings. Delicious.

And I would be remiss for not mentioning the boyfriend, but it’s hard to describe a new relationship without a fatty serving of cheese, so, let’s just say he’s so smoking hot that sometimes he looks like his pants caught fire:

That’s from Pechmans recreational fire…and no, Judd didn’t actually catch fire… I think…

So…my family law class has graduated to a new level of ridiculous. Some of my classmates think it is appropriate to tell a 100-person room of their peers the intimate details of their parents’ “loveless marriage” and the resulting emotional issues they now face.

I blame this overshare on the professor, who solicited it. The looks of disgust are hilarious…but this does not make it easy to focus on blogging.

Damn it class! You’re getting in the way of my writing time! Ugh. Luckily this disaster is ending for today, and I will keep with my blogging duties from now on…and provide more coherent “best week ever” posts…at least more coherent than this…possibly, maybe…

See also: Minnesota Fog, Hoar Frost. ]]> The Mississippi river is finally thawing and video-game-style ice chunks are a-flowing.

I wonder if anyone has taken a canoe to the water and played “avoid the ice”… I’m sure that’s dangerous, but it sounds like fun.

See also: Minnesota Fog, Hoar Frost.