Sibling Rivalry

My sister is competing with me, apparently. Yesterday she pointed out that she's doing her undergrad in three years, has a better GPA than I did, is more involved in the campus community than I was, and speaks another language. She's gearing up to take the LSAT and is looking at a number of programs, including UCLA.

I've jested that she can't go to law school because I'm going to be the attorney in the family, and that she needs to go to med school instead. She said she hasn't taken enough chemistry.

More seriously, while I enjoy law school for the most part and continue without a second thought, I can't decide whether I recommend it to fellow human beings. All my advice has been, "If you decide you want to go to law school, then..."

Now With Access To A Flamethrower

Professor Osler said I can borrow his flamethrower. I don't think I've ever needed a flamethrower before, but now that I earned that level of trust, I want to put it to use. I suddenly feel a need to undertake some task that requires a flamethrower. Does anyone have any suggestions?

A Leisurely 17 Credit Hour Quarter (So Far)

I am enrolled in 17 credit hours this quarter. It's only 2 credit hours more than I took in the spring, and I don't have a moot court competition that will divert my attention from classes throughout the quarter. I'm more than capable of handling it.

This last week my teachers canceled five classes between them, and there are a few more next week. When you're planning to deal with 17 hours and end up with just 12, it leaves you with some spare time. That will end as professors hold make up sessions, though. When that happens, things will range from somewhat to substantially more frantic than I planned on. That is annoying, but then that is life.

With my unexpected spare time I started watching Lost from the beginning. Television isn't a priority for me, so I missed the show when it was such a phenomenon. Now that I waited until my second year of law school to see it, I find myself thinking things like, "You can't just let Charlie gun down Ethan in the jungle, even if Ethan is apparently a badguy."

That violates due process, I would think.

The Shower Disguised As A Fiesta

This evening was Bethany and Dustin's "couple's shower." My invitation just said "fiesta." I told Bethany if I knew it was a "shower" I'd've reconsidered coming. She made an unattractive face at me, but I think we both know I would've been there anyway.

The "shower" was co-hosted by Amy Bolline, Trisha Dixon, and Lauren Braddy, who did a marvelous job. I had a good time, despite it being a "shower."

There was also some important wedding planning going on at this meeting. Namely, we established that I will be Tricia's dance partner.

[edit: Sterling has philosophical problems too.]

New Student Orientation

I served as a small group leader at orientation today. It is a cinematic conclusion to my first 12 months (53 weeks, to be exact) in law school to now be the experienced student called to answer questions at orientation when a year ago I was the new student asking them. I started by sharing the advice a friend of mine suggested: Go buy a Wii and Mario Kart.

That seemed to break the ice a bit, and I did tell them that was obviously bad advice (not that it wasn't immediately apparent, but just in case). I did my best to answer their questions, and I hope it will be helpful to them. They've scaled down orientation from a year ago, so I'll have to see if I hear anything about how prepared this group is. It occurs to me now that maybe I should've told them about the Supreme Court of New York...

[edit: The friend who suggested that advice has now jokingly taken issue with my characterization of it. I'm not saying it's obviously bad advice to buy a Wii and Mario Kart inherently, just that it's obviously bad advice for starting law school students to do so.]

Grandma's 90th Birthday

Some of my extended family gathered in Dallas last weekend to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. Some of them I haven't seen in years, and it was good to catch up. I even heard a few old family stories I hadn't heard before.

Friday night, my cousin Josh vetoed pineapple as a pizza topping by saying fruit doesn't go well on pizza. I explained that since tomato is a fruit, every pizza he's ever eaten has had fruit sauce on it. He made a comment about how I really was going to be a lawyer, and then I still didn't get Hawaiian pizza.

While I was in Dallas I also bought a pair of brown dress shoes to go with my navy blue suit. Since I don't have a navy blue suit, the next step will be to buy one to go along with my shoes.

Best Brief

John Hardage, my moot court partner, and I got our moot court brief back from Professor Ryan yesterday. We won best brief (We're co-winners with the fall starter team of Brian Garrett and Stephen Pocsik), and I think it's the first award I've won that comes with a cash prize. I knew we were in the running when we had a couple of people tell us they were going to use our arguments in the competition, but there are so many smart people around...

The paper still looks like it's bleeding red ink from all the comments, and our paper will be used as the example for the next LARC III class, so even though I'm just finishing a set of finals, it's back to work.