This is Thanksgiving weekend. I am spending it studying. Seriously. Yesterday was all contracts, all day, and that is one of my better courses. Today I’m working on CivPro and plan on doing some Crim too.

But I take breaks. C and I did go for a walk in LaJolla yesterday and then stopped in at a neighbor’s for a party (me only briefly–C stayed longer). Still, my life and dreams are filled with thoughts of coursework, readings, and (most annoyingly) issue spotting. This, luckily, seems to be a normal thing, though. There is a group on Facebook that has posted “You know you are in law school if…” comments and they pretty much all apply to me. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• You can’t remember if you decided to come to law school because you wanted to help people and make a difference in the world or because you hate yourself.
• You think whoever first introduced the Socratic method into the law school curriculum should have his face lit on fire and then beaten out with a rake.
• You can’t think of any legitimate reason why a law student would need access to certain public records, but you can think of a whole lot of illegitimate ones.
• When someone is expressing their frustration or anger about something that is in any way related to the law, you can’t be sympathetic because you’re too busy figuring out in your head if they have a cause of action.

The last one is particularly true. I think I am becoming loathsome company.

[For some reason, my posts aren't getting posted but are ending up as drafts. This was meant to be posted on Monday]

So, with the exception of reading the assignment for Property for today, my entire weekend was spent working on Crim. I didn’t even brief the cases for Property–just read ‘em. Instead, I worked on my Crim outline and made flashcards of all the topics and most of the cases. And I read the assignment for class this afternoon. I spent hours and hours on Crim. I hardly watched football (it was on in the background while I made some flashcards) and I didn’t even look at the NYTimes I bought. 

I worked my butt off, studying criminal law.

My morning today started with Property. Guess who got called on to present one of the cases. Poo!

Okay, could have been worse. After the initial panic, I remembered enough of the case to acquit myself without total humiliation. I knew the big points–that it was about whether an MBA is property when a couple divorces–the court (CO) said it wasn’t transferrable, died with the “owner,” etc., so it wasn’t.

But damn…talk about lousy luck. The one time I didn’t actually brief the cases, I get nailed.

On my walk home from the bust stop today I was buzzed by a butterfly, then I saw a happy yellow/orange dandelion in someone’s yard.

After I got home, Christopher and I went to Mission Valley for me to get new running shoes, since I’ve been trying to jog (I’m pathetic, but this site says that’s okay) and my shoes are crap and DSW was having a big sale. I got a pair of $80+ shoes for $20, yea! We stopped off for some evil In-n-Out Burger for dinner.

All with the top down. 

We haven’t lit the furnaces yet. It’s chilly at night, but only in the 50s…good sleeping temps. 

Today Columbus, OH had a high of 32ºF.

I feel guilty. 

Okay, not terribly, but it does still wig me out to see dandelions in November.

*****

I’ve got big plans for my weekend. I have a ton of reading to do for classes Monday and Tuesday, but I also plan on getting a bunch of flashcards made. I’ve been working on them for Crim, which is where I feel like I really need to spend some effort. Then CivPro. Then Contracts and finally Property. That’s reverse order of “concern” about the exams (I actually feel pretty solid in Property, which I’m fairly sure means I’m deranged). 

My T-Day holiday will be spent in the books, too. I want to get the plans for my studying done this weekend so that I can attack on the holiday break. 

And keep up the jogging. Considering how my chocolate consumption has turned into something close to obscene, I need it.

Do you realize that next week is Thanksgiving? That means I have class this week, next Monday and Tuesday, then the week following, then the Monday after that, then two “reading days,” then I have my first final! Holy crap…I am sooooo not ready!!! I swear it was just mid-trimester like a week ago, and now there is precious little time to learn all the stuff I’ve yet to learn. 

Like Crim. Criminal law is not something I am particularly interested in. I mean, I’m not completely disinterested, but given the choice between doing future interests in Property and writing up flashcards about implied malice and homicide, give me the future interests. So, my outline for that course isn’t where it should be and now it’s going to bite me in the ass.

I’m hitting full-on panic mode about exams. I know I know a lot of the material, but I feel the extra force of having to do better than “pass”–I have to excel to keep the full scholarship. I know there are lots of smart people in this class so that’s a high bar.

So don’t mind me if I’m occasionally in a corner, talking to myself and not communicating with any of you.

I know that many of you will hate me for complaining, but it is too damn hot and sunny here. We’ve got Santa Anas, again, and you’ve probably noticed the fires in the LA area and Orange County. So far, none here, but you can’t help but expect it at any moment. It’s about 90º here, and so dry my skin feels like it is peeling off my face and arms. 

It’s mid-November, football is on, and we haven’t even lit our furnaces yet this year. It’s just wrong. It’s even wrong for the natives who admit that it is hotter and drier than usual. The fire people are hoping the long-term forecasts of rain next year will be right. 

Yes, the sky is an almost unreal blue, but you can only stand to be out in the sun for about 15 seconds before you feel your body desiccating. And the pool is too cold to even think of getting in it. At least in the shade it’s not miserable, but I won’t enjoy walking to/from the bus tomorrow if this keeps up. Ugh.

(I meant to post this weeks ago, but it ended up in my Drafts for some reason…)

Reading for Property class (about the history of estates and land holding from the medieval times) and on page 179 of my text is the following:

One of the persistent themes of English and American legal history is the continuing efforts of the rich to avoid taxes.

I got up this morning and tried to run, again (I tried last weekend to do this too–figuring it would be good for me, even though I suck at running and breathing at the same time). I got up, put on my shoes, and took a very short jog. I didn’t have much time, but I thought something was better than nothing. 

As usual, my lungs hated me pretty quickly. I know I don’t breathe right when I try to jog and I have to learn how to release the tension in my shoulders, but this felt a little different. I got home and, in fairly short order, had a bit of a coughing fit. The same kind of cough I usually get at the end of a cold/flu. And I felt a bit like I had a fat man sitting on my chest which is also how I tend to feel at the end of my colds. Now, I haven’t been sick-sick, but I haven’t been 100% lately. I thought it was just stress/school exhaustion…maybe it was something more?

And so I went to school. Somewhere near the end of my Property tutoring class my head started to throb a bit. Then I got the chills. Crap…I’m sick.

I made it through Contracts, but then came home after that–skipping CivPro, unfortunately. I’m not terribly sick, but I do have a head that feels like it’s full of mercury, I could hardly follow what happened in Contracts, and I’m just tired. I’ve been flopped on the couch since. Achy joints, burning eyes, headache, but no fever according to the thermometer. 

Now this particularly sucks because I’m supposed to go to a study session tomorrow morning and then tomorrow evening is game night with “the girls” from school–something I am so looking forward to! But, I will not go if I think I’m even vaguely ill–I don’t want to get anyone else sick!

We’re getting down to the end of the trimester, so illness now is not good. That’s part of why I left early today–because I thought it was better to rest now and heal sooner than to push it and miss lots of school. I’m thinking that if I stay “down” this weekend, I can get better and be ready to go Monday morning again.

In the meanwhile, it sucks.