Law school'd

Well, it certainly has been an interesting first few days. I just finished my first day of law school! I'm on my way to being a lawyer! I have no idea what I'm doing!

The University of Texas actually uses this picture to promote their law library. Awesome.

This Saturday was the first get-together for our first year mentor group. In most law schools, the first year is divided into sections that take all the same classes. Because UT is such a large law school, they break up the sections into two societies and each society into two mentor groups, so we finally end up with a group of about 30 people that we'll see every day for the rest of our lives (or so it seems). Not surprisingly, each mentor group has a second year mentor, and we had out party on Saturday at our mentor, Danny's, house. Burgers, hot dogs, beer and 100-degree-plus heat. What more could you ask for? The party was good in the sense that we got to meet people before the first day of orientation.

Orientation, Day 1:
We go to the law school bright and early for probably the best breakfast spread I've ever seen and to pick up our orientation packets. After awkwardly mingling for 20 minutes or so, we head on over to the LBJ auditorium for a few hours' worth of professors and alumni about how great it is to be at UT, how great our professors are, how smart we are, etc. After free pizza for lunch in our mentor group, we had a career services presentation and - get this - we are basically guaranteed to pass and guaranteed to get a job after graduation. Sweet! As they kept telling us, Monday marked the first day of our legal career. So what do we do? After a BBQ dinner provided to us with free beer (!), we all went out and got drunk at Buffalo Billiards and played pool and darts. This is the future of our country.

Orientation, Day 2:
A few more speeches about how great we all are, that lawyers are not horrible people, despite the jokes and popular perception. According to a Gallup poll from last December, lawyers rank 18th in terms of people's perceptions of honorable and ethical careers, just barely above Congressmen and used car salesmen. In Russia, on the other hand, a recent poll of high school students shows that lawyers are considered the second most honorable profession, behind accountants. They also ranked contract killers and racketeering 16th out of 38. This was only technically half a day, so I managed to get home in time for Dr. Phil (very important).

Today:
First day of school! Today is a late day, so I didn't get up until around 9 (God, I would never wake up that early in undergrad), went to Criminal Law, had lunch and went to Contracts. Both professors seem good and nothing too hard for today. The work isn't too bad... yet. We'll talk in about a week.

The funny thing about law school is that everyone is very anxious to make time to blow off steam. Tomorrow, we have a society-sponsored happy hour at Scholz's Beer Garden, next Tuesday we have a boat party with free booze, and next Thursday is the Student Bar Association back to school party with free beer at Buffalo Billiards. I'm thinking with enough booze flowing in, it won't be too bad a year.

Austin for good!

As I write this, it is Sunday night, my parents are gone, and I am officially moved in to Austin! Tomorrow marks the first day of orientation for law school, which means getting up before noon. I don't know if I can handle this schedule.

Last night, we had a little "getting to know everyone in your first year section" party, hosted by our second year mentor. It was pretty good, and most of the people seem pretty nice and outgoing. There were the requisite hot dogs, burgers, and beer, and it would have been much more enjoyable had the temperature been under 90 degrees last evening. I would say the vast majority of people in my section are either from Houston or Dallas, so it's a bit of a change from ND. There's actually another Notre Dame kid in my section who also graduated 2005, but I had never met him before or even knew who it was. It was really funny because all night people were like, "Hey, Notre Dame, there's another guy here who went there!" It at least provided a good out for awkward conversations. "Oh, really? Well, I guess I should go find him."

Most of the first years are between 22 and 26, I think, but there are a few random 30- to 35-year-old people. I feel like I have absolutely nothing to talk about with them. At least that's how I feel right now. Maybe in a few weeks when we're all seeped in class-type stuff, we'll at least talk about that sort of thing.

It turns out that I can't illegaly connect my cable internet to my TV to get basic cable, so I guess I have to call Time Warner and "pay" for the service. Damn. For now I'm keeping myself entertained with the DVDs I brought. Which I've seen about 10 times each. Oh well, starting tomorrow I probably won't even have time for TV.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

...is a baritone player. He plays his euphonium around the apartment. Coincidence? I think not.

Kim

Sorry to put a damper on a usually lighthearted/meaningless blog, but this is something I feel I need to write about.

I got my cat Kim as a birthday present when I was 10 years old. My parents took me to the Citizens for Animal Protection near my house and I got to pick her out. Through the years, she's been a great cat, playful but not violently ripping up the furniture and/or people (like some people's cats that I know). She just turned 12 years old last week, and seemed to still be doing really well for an older cat. No worries, until this week. Last week, we took Kim to the vet because they sent us a postcard saying she was due for a physical checkup. As of last Wednesday, she seemed perfectly healthy and even doing very well for a cat her age. This weekend, we noticed that she wasn't eating, so we took her to the vet yesterday. They said early prognosis was dehydration and they wanted to keep her to put her on an IV and rehydrate her, it was probably some sort of kidney infection. Today the vet called and said that her kidneys are failing and is down to less than half of a kidney working properly. They want to continue the fluid treatment, and if her blood test levels (whatever that means) come down to normal in a few days, she might be able to recover relatively well and carry on for a few years. But, if no improvement shows, then the best thing to do would be to put her to sleep. I don't know why I'm so upset about an animal, but the news is incredibly unexpected. I know it seems silly to pray for an animal when so many other things are going on, but I really am praying for her. I am not looking forward to leaving to Austin on Friday.

Spam-tastic

Somehow my comments exploded in popularity. Turns out they were just comment spammers who somehow found my blog. Sorry to have to do this to you faithful commenters (mostly Eliz and Phil), but I'm putting up that "read this word and type it in" thing before you comment to detract the spammers.

In movie reviews, this weekend I went and saw Wedding Crashers and March of the Penguins. I know, I'm a little late on both, but you'll get my opinion anyway. Wedding Crashers was top-notch. Not just good for a Frat Pack movie, but hilarious in its own right. Hopefully I'll find my own Wilson Brothers/Wes Anderson group at Texas and latch on to them for prosperity's sake. I'll be swimming in big sacks of money by the time I'm 35, just like Scrooge McDuck. Quality quoting from this movie.

Secondly, I'd like to comment on March of the Penguins. First of all, I'd like to point to the "article" by Michael Bay on this week's The Onion. Now, on to the movie. It was pretty much what you would expect from a glorified documentary, many amusing shots of penguins being really cute. My complaint is that apparantly penguins die all the time. Pretty much everything they do puts them at risk of imminent death. And I know it's a documentary so it's supposed to be "real" and all, but it's a rated G movie for little kids! Could you not put the dying penguins in so many scenes? Honestly.

Hopefully this week I'll get to 40 Year Old Virgin and Red Eye, so I can report back. This is it, folks, once law school starts next Monday, I'll probably just talk about class. How sad.

Notre Dame, I miss thee

Sunday night I went over to Philip's house to say good-bye. It's pretty weird to think that he's going back along with Katie J and Erin, while I'm still here, waiting for another two weeks for school to start. I am pretty excited that I'll be starting law school, but not heading up to Notre Dame feels very odd to me. Saturday night I got together with Sarah, Sonal and Anglee, and we all agreed that graduating sucks. But, that meeting did help me see that there is life beyond ND and being at home isn't all bad.

I ordered my books online on Sunday. Correction - $600 for four classes - technically three classes and a once a week seminar. Thanks, law school, for putting me into bankruptcy. Once my student loans come through (not for another week or so), I can finally pay off my parents and the tuition and stuff I owe, plus hopefully I can start paying rent and utilities without dipping into my savings account.

In other news , I am very seriously considering going to Notre Dame for the USC game, October 15th. It should be at a time where things aren't too hectic, and the next weekend is my birthday so my parents will probably want me to hang out with them, or some crap like that, so that really looks like the best option. Now I just need tickets and a place to stay! So, to all you out there that read this - start looking. (And, if you don't live in South Bend anymore, but are an alumni that is considering going back for a football game - go back for USC so I can see you!)

As the soundtrack to Avenue Q so eloquently states - "I wish I could go back to college"

Blabbity blah

Once upon a time, a blog used to be a place for incoherent ramblings and the deepest, darkest secrets of one's soul. I think I may be placing too much emphasis on the "what I did today" aspect and less on the "incoherent rambling" aspect, so here you have it, some useless stuff to think about.

1) How come Sam Waterson has stayed on as assistant D.A. for several years on Law and Order, while his female counterpart seems to change like a revolving door of hussies in the New York District Attorney's office? Also, what is Fred Thompson's real job on Law and Order? All I ever see him do is grumble some sage advice for about thirty seconds an episode. If only I could be paid the big bucks for grumbling advice for 30 seconds.

2) The point I wish to make here is more clearly articulated in Michael Ian Black's article for McSweeny's magazine. The only funny person on I Love the 80's other than Hal Sparks has done it again. If you enjoy McSweeny's, you would love A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. It's basically an autobiography of how his parents died when he was in college and how he raised his little brother and started this hilarious magazine and now he's uber-rich. But it's funny and comes with drawings, so I likes it. Anyway, back to the main issue: Have you ever eaten a baby?

3) Have any of you seen those commercials for Pillsbury biscuits where you just use two at a time? In order to come up with this genius idea, the Pillsbury doughboy goes undercover to discover that - suprise! - people tend to pair up. Only, the Pillsbury doughboy's undercover work means spying on couples at their most intimate times. It's really quite disturbing, and I frankly believe that he should be put away for being a peeping tom.

4) Last year, The Onion came out with a review of dollar-store food that caused massive wetting due to laughing. It seems to have become an annual review, and let me tell ya, this year's doesn't dissapoint. Some of the "scariest ingredients" will be with me till I die.

5) My optometrist says that they're discontinuing my brand of contacts. I don't like my new ones.

Computey

I am typing this from my brand new computer, a lappy for law school. It's... uh... a Toshiba... and... it's friggin' sweet is alls I know. Actually, it's a Toshiba Satellite and I'm pretty sure it's more powerful than my desktop. No more being tied down by my giant desktop! I can update from anywhere, suckers!

It's official

Whether I like it or not, I am officially starting law school August 31. Well, technically there's orientation for two days before, but who's counting. Besides me. Who is anxiously counting until that day. I'm signed up for three classes (Civil Procedure, Criminal Law I, and Contracts) and one Legal Research and Legal Writing seminar. Overall, it's not a bad schedule, except my Civil Procedure class is Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:30 to 10:20, so those will probably be brutal.

This weekend, I went to Austin to move furniture and things into my apartment. In the process, I came out with about fifty mosquito bites from moving the washer and dryer (apparantly Austin is now a swamp?) and a number of scrapes and bruises from assembling my desk. Between the almost getting hit by lightening in Houston and the multiple injuries in Austin, I think God is trying to tell me to get out of Texas.

Speaking of getting out of Texas, now that I know I don't have any afternoon classes on Friday, I'm considering going to a football game this season. Anyone know which games they'll be heading to South Bend for? Let me know!

Tejas

What is it about Texas that makes all of its residents so crazy about it? Sure, we're pretty friggin' huge and there's a lot of good, unique things about Texas, but what could it be that makes everyone so maniacally devoted to the Lone Star state?

When I was in high school, I was really into punk and ska for some reason, and when going to see The Suspects, a local ska band, one of the opening bands was Bowling for Soup. Now they're famous for their catchy pop-punk songs, such as the one where they list all those things from 1985. Man, that's hilarious! Anyway, Bowling for Soup has recently added a song to the collection of songs about Texas, and - you guessed it - it lists all sorts of things from Texas. Booya!

Come back to Texas
Its just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
and forget all about the Lone Star State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

Troy Aikmen wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
and the Bush twins want you back
and Pantera wants you back
and Blue Bell wants you back