Oh Boy

Normally,  Marquette Law slams you with reading and assignments that are due the very first day of class.  So as I start my final year tomorrow,  I was excited that two classes, per their class page,  had neither assignments nor textbooks to purchase (some classes rely on handouts or the web). And . . . then came the emails today from two profs saying the school was in error.  $400 of textbooks later,  I now have chapters of law text to wade through by tomorrow afternoon. Yay Marquette!

 Grades for fall were finally posted at 5pm today. I am pleased with the results.

I'm Bitter

The spring semester starts today. I'm so sick of law school I could vomit. I wish I had the funds to quit work,  go full time,  and finish this already.  But I don't.  So I will once again go sit among millennials who complain about the rigor of their largely parental-supported existence,  and bide my time.

I just finished a ten question, three and a half hour tax exam. I had never, in my life, dreaded a test more, but it wasn't quite as horrible as I feared. The curve may be helped by the fact that it was the last class for many graduates, and no less than four told me they did just enough to pass and no more. As for my own grade, I'll take what I get, as long as I pass. C's get degrees too.

 Yesterday, in addition to oversleeping my first class and being pulled over by the cops, I came home to find a bottle of siracha sauce left out. Annoyed, I grabbed the full bottle and my Neanderthal strength caused it to shoot directly into my eye. It was, I imagine, like being sprayed in the face with pepper spray.

 Just got back from Marquette, where I was all but called a thief by not one but three office workers who couldn't find records of a past transaction and wanted me to pay again. I stood my ground, called out the office manager for implying I was lying, and lo and behold the paperwork was found and i was proven right. It's tiring to live in a world where your options are to roll over or go full as$hole.

 I'm sitting three blocks from the law school trying to dredge up the gumption to make the walk on an aching hip. I'm not having a good day so far, but there are 16 hours left to change that.

My Student ID

My student ID broke, costing me $10 (b/c the tuition isn't enough for Marquette to eat the cost) and a trip to the Marquette Union with Olivia Slap. I'd say my new photo is a big improvement.

 Spring semester of law school has begun.

The Semester is Done

The last final of the semester is now complete. It was brutal, despite the prior assurances from the Professor that it would be mild and comforting. Bah. I fall back on the old reliable: I'm never *the* dumbest person in the room, and The  Curve Shall Set Me Free.

A Beef

 I can't put into words how annoyed I am that one of my classes insists on us briefing cases when they are, at best, merely illustrative of the black letter law. This isn't Constitutional Law, where there's eloquence and historical importance. Who gives a bleep what the tax court wrote, when it's all solidified into cut and dry regulations a page later? Quit wasting my time, I have Words with Friends to play.

Parking at Marquette Sucks

Currently sitting in a parking spot four blocks from the law school debating if I want to make the hike on a hip that's acted up since Saturday. Thank you Marquette, for not only making a tiny parking garage that fills quickly, but for blocking off a heap of parking spots around the school so your window cleaners can entice even more birds to their bitter death.

Apparently, *not* a teachable moment

This morning's class did not go well. When two people stumbled answering questions, the Professor got angry and walked out of the room. I've never seen that before. Well, literally once before, in 1st Grade when Sr Virginia flipped a desk and was dragged from the room by Sr Kathleen.

A Tax Exam

This morning I had a four hour taxation exam that I did not fail. Whether or not I did well is another question. I now get to enjoy a whole three weeks of summer before the semester begins.

How not to take a 4 hour law school final

How not to take a 4 hour law school final:

1. Pick up your new glasses first, making reading twenty pages of questions just a hoot

2. Use a laptop with a power port issue, leaving you three hours of juice for a four hour exam.

3. Ditch said laptop and grab bluebooks like it's 1995. Make sure your writing is illegible.

4. After the exam, email your professor about Judge Posner's recent comments, unintentionally pi*sing on said professor's idol

Sigh. It's a wonder I manage to cross the street without assistance.

I feel soon bad for you. . . not

My professor was a . . . jerk for the first hour of class. He was short tempered, dismissive, condescending, and visibly agitated . He then stopped class for a moment and apologized to us all, saying he'd had insomnia and was going on only a few hours of sleep. Assuming that "few" meant more than two, that was at least one more hour than I'd gotten. #ButThatsNoneOfMyBusiness

A Painting at School

 A painting on the 3rd floor of the law school. 

Spring Grades

Grades were posted for the spring semester, and one (a C+) is both a shock and the lowest grade I've earned since I suffered through a mandatory statistics class back in the '90's. I was fairly confident after the be-all-end-all final. That confidence, it seems, was misplaced.

A Shining Moment

I've been quiet but attentive in class all week, because a) I'm exhausted & b) conservatives learn it's best to remain mute in collegiate settings. But yesterday with 20 minutes left in class the Professor asked us to analyze a case. Everyone looked blank, and I knew he was going to spend the rest of class breaking it down bit by bit. So I raised my hand and gave my analysis, and as I did so he got visibly excited. I don't remember the *order* of the words he used in reply, but they included "Brilliant. Wonderful analysis. Very well put. Well articulated. Excellent!" He was so exuberant that the whole class erupted into laughter. Certainly a great moment in my law school career, and best of all, I usurped his class plan and he dismissed us early. #DoubleWin

Summer School

My "summer vacation" ended today as classes resumed. This is the first time I've ever repeated a professor. I like him, but his Socratic method revealed a disturbing mindset among my classmates. All but one argued strongly for ruling against a litigant based on his political beliefs, a position one guy maintained even after admitting he'd excuse those verbatim beliefs if they were espoused by a minority. Not only is that un-American and legislating from the bench, it's hypocritical and morally wrong.