Another Pacific storm approacheth. I’ve already been to Trader Joe’s and have the important things like wine and beef stew ingredients for tomorrow and the car is in the garage. I figure, if it’s going to be crappy this weekend, I might as well pack it in and study. So Friday was spent running errands and now I’m done and in.

I’ve got plenty coming up this week. On top of the usual school stuff, there is a fundraiser for one of the pro bono groups on Monday evening I might try to get to. Dodgeball, including at least one team of profs, in a bar. Since most of the profs look like former lunch money victims, that seems almost compelling to witness. Yeah, I know, sounds a bit twisted but you know you’d want to see it to if you were a law student (and I really like almost all of my profs!).

On Monday and Wednesday, there are extra lectures by my Entertainment Law prof, after class, but I think I won’t go to those (they aren’t for the class but rather are on putting together Hollywood deals just for those who want to know how it works). Because of the dodgeball and long days I already have on M & W, the interest I have in the subject isn’t enough to get me to hang out, I don’t think. Oh, and there is a photo event on Wed. evening too, so I may go to that instead.

Finally, on Tuesday there is a mandatory meeting after my Trusts & Estates class (so at 5:30), about the pre-bar class I have to take in the fall. Whew.

In the school stuff realm, I have to get my outline together for ConLaw as I have a midterm in that class on the 15th. Two weeks… ugh.  For someone who gets complimented by the prof on my close reads, I really choke on the subtle linguistic specifics. Substantial interest versus compelling interest, intermediate scrutiny or strict scrutiny or rational basis or “hyper” rational basis…Due Process Clause and Substantive Due Process and Equal Protection Clause. Yoy.

I also have another presentation to do in two weeks–this for my Practicing Law: Successful Strategies course. Our topic this time is “Hiring Basics” and I’m going to do a bit on alternative interviewing methodologies (see Google’s interviews). Have to get my research done for that. I’d like to get that out of the way ahead of time so that I can study for the midterm… which I take the day before doing the presentation.

Really, I’m overworked. Between school and the biz, I’m doing too much and, well, that is likely to change in some ways in the near future. I had a nice meeting with the school-sponsored shrink today, since I’ve been feeling burned out; at one point she cocked her head and pointed out that I’m probably the only student who is trying to run a biz at the same time. Just the way she said it helped me to reframe all that I’m doing and trying to do. She gave me more to think about and subtly suggested letting some stuff go.

Something else I’m going to do over this stormy weekend.

Went to my one class today–Trusts & Estates. Definitely feeling better, even after that painful class (the girl from Deliverance asked 3 stupid questions today). Not 100% yet, but definitely better.

I’m glad, particularly because there is an opening at the Museum of Contemporary Arts tomorrow evening I want to go to. And I need to do a pretty big shopping trip to Trader Joe’s tomorrow, or else the cats will be out of food (me too).

Also, I have a ton of reading and prep to do for next week. I have an extra class (a make-up for a cancelled class) plus need to start prep for my ConLaw midterm (no idea what that will be like). And another presentation for Practicing Law: Successful Strategies is coming up. Lots of work ahead.

So it’s good that I’m feeling better.

I just finished my one break this term– a 5-day weekend for President’s Day. What joy! Except I was sick for almost all of it. Friday I spend cleaning and running errands so that day was spent “working.” I was feeling poorly Saturday, but it seemed to pass (I thought maybe it was allergies) and was well enough to spend Sunday evening with a visiting photog from Buffalo. We had a nice time in La Jolla–walking all over and playing tourist– and making dinner and chatting, but the next morning I woke up not feeling 100%. I sent him on his way (btw, just to be clear, NOT a romantic thing at all, just a friend who slept in the other room) when I had planned on showing him Cabrillo, the zoo, etc., in the 80º perfect weather. Good call on my part, since by that evening I was definitely ill. Low fever, snotty, feeling of 300lb man on my chest. Head cold, I guessed.

Christopher came by to check on me which was kind of him, but I felt terrible that I had to call on him. It rather sucks to have your ex still be your person to call in an emergency, but I don’t feel close enough to anyone else out here to call on any of them to help out in situations like this. I know that some of my school girlfriends would if I asked, but I also know they are completely swamped with classes, etc., and if I gave them my disease I’d never forgive myself. So C it was, and I appreciated the company.

Got up Tuesday morning and thought I was doing better– no fever, but really tired. Stayed down mostly, and got through the last of my reading for school, planning on going to class today, of course. But later in the afternoon I got the chills and, by early evening, my fever spiked (around 100º for me is really high). I got nervous and Christopher came down again. By 9:30 or so, the fever had broken, but I was weak as a newborn kitten.

Slept better last night than I had in previous nights, but in the morning today I knew I wasn’t going to class. I was exhausted just feeding the cats, but at least no fever. There was no way I was going to be effective in class, forget about being able to haul around my 40-pound bag. So, back to bed for another couple hours of sleep, and once I did get up for the day, I was still wiped out. Now I’m flopped on the couch, watching olympic curling and keeping hydrated.

I love curling. Seriously. Yesterday they had curling on one channel and biathlon on another. The “last” button on the remote got a lot of work.

Anyway, I really hate missing classes today. Lots. But it’s the right thing to do to stay down if only to keep from infecting others. I’m pretty sure I got this bug from my fellow students who have been hacking up lungs in classes lately–none of them stay home when they’re sick, I swear.

If I had to get sick, I guess this was the time to do it. I’ll miss fewer classes than I would have in a normal week. The other sort of good thing to come from this is that, since I’ve been off my food, I’ve lost a few pounds. Woot!

So, here’s hoping I’m on the mend. Today down, tomorrow I have one class, late. Then the weekend again. Lots of time to get back to 100%.

So, as I’m sure you all know now, my grades were fine and I’m still a Trustees’ Scholar here at CWSL. But now it seems I may graduate from a different law school. CWSL is in merger talks with the University of California-San Diego. The merger probably will not happen before I graduate, actually, but if it does, I’ll get a retro-active UCSD diploma, it appears. That’s a big deal for many of the students here. It’s more prestigious to have the UC name attached, but for me, I’ve really appreciated going to a small school and will be more than a bit wistful when (if?) it happens.

In other news, I hate having class at 4:05, and I do 4 days a week this term. My brain shuts off somewhere about now (3pm), I think. I’m definitely, definitely a morning person, especially when it comes to learning.

Two of those days I have Entertainment Law which is interesting but moderately depressing for the sleezy factor. People who will do anything for a buck seem to rule the roost in that arena. Ick. But I’m learning lots about contracts that are related to the kinds my clients will have and need, and judicial interpretations of contracts, so it’s been a good class for that.

The other two days I have Trusts & Estates. Now, I kind of like that class because it’s almost mathematical. There are a gazillion rules, but they are mostly logical. The trouble with that class is that the professor will not ever give an answer–instead forcing the students to think through the problems and justify their responses. As most of these kids want to be spoon-fed, this results in a sort of war of attrition: the prof won’t answer and the kids won’t try. It’s starting to get a bit better, but there is a second fly in the ointment: idiots.

Sometimes I encounter a student in a class who makes me wonder how s/he ever made it past first year. This term, it is a mouthbreather (literally, I’m sad to say) who looks like a nouveau riche former Deliverance cast member. Someone in her family had to have known someone in her family. Anyway, the class will work through a question, with the prof asking, repeatedly, “are we all okay to this point?” and then, after we’ve finished the multi-step problem dealing with whether a spouse gets something when the will is imperfect (for example), she sill raise her hand and say something like “I don’t understand who the ‘spouse’ is in the statute.”

It’s all I can do not to face-desk in those moments.

And lucky me, she is in both Entertainment Law and T&E!  And, it gets better: she sits next to me in Ent. Law. It really is a wonder I haven’t turned to her and asked “Are you kidding me? You did not just ask that!” Harsh, yeah, I guess so, but she is wasting my time in class.

As I get closer to the finish line I’m getting a feeling of “Get the hell outa my way, slowpokes! I’ve got lots of learning to do and not much time to do it!” Students like her are the minivan rolling with a fake spare tire in the fast lane.