Looming in the Distance

Well, my appellate brief’s almost finished, miracle of miracles. Unless I have a major attack of last-minute second-guessing myself, I should have it completed this evening - I’ll leave it here over the weekend so I can’t plague myself with it for two days while I enjoy the time at home, hang with my sister, canoodle with the puppy and generally try to gear down before the exam panic sets in.

I can’t believe we’re back in Wisconsin. I know I keep saying that, but it seems as though the day arrived for use to depart and then boom, I blinked and we were on the plane and home again home again. How could we possibly have been there a week? The time just zipped past (no pun intended). The only upside of time passing is that the time is fast approaching for us to undertake major league poultry egg decorations. I thought maybe we should try blowing out a few so we can keep them beyond the rotten-egg timeline, but I can’t imagine the process would progress as smoothly as it does on Martha Stewart.

Boy, I really miss sitting in the lobby of the Grand Floridian, watching the insane golfers stagger out clutching coffee and attempting to pry their eyes open. Or sitting on a chair outside the Gasparilla, listening to the old-time music and gazing at Cinderella Castle. Did you know the Gasparilla was named for a famous pirate story? If you ask at the checkout line, they’ll loan you a copy of the myth to read. Just another example of Disney’s dazzling attention to detail.

If it appears as though I'm dancing around the subject of school, that's not a coincidence. The atmosphere is starting to hunker down under the weight of our impending ritualistic flagellations - oops, I mean our upcoming examinations. I looked at the schedule and I have Civil Procedure on the 2nd, Criminal Procedure on the 5th, Constitutional Law on the 9th, and Statutory Interpretation on the 12th. Thankfully, even though the first three are in the afternoon (ugh - I prefer the early ones), the last one is in the morning, so I won't have to drive home starting at 5 in the evening for The Big Jettison. Hmm. Just thinking about packing for the summer makes me tired. Ahh, well. I suppose I can always come home and then go back one more time the ensuing week to pick up anything I left behind.

No Sweat

After three days of harassing phone calls, I finally procured a date with the doc. I hate harassing secretaries (having endured many a night in the Dante’s Inferno of the box office) but I finally accomplished my objective. Unfortunately I’ll have to miss Intro to Advocacy on Friday, but when I went in this morning for my mandatory “conference” about my Appellate Brief, she said it’s only a question-and-answer session for the brief I intend to have done by Thursday evening, and there’s always the possibility that no one will have any questions and after ten minutes in class we’ll be released. So I think cognitive care is of considerable more importance at the moment.

American Idol last night had the scent of Templeton’s egg from Charlotte’s Web in terms of quality. What was with everybody picking awful songs that they couldn’t do justice anyway? And were the judges abnormally prickly, or was that just me? Good news, though, at least in my world - Gilmore Girls recommences their new episodes next week. Rah rah rah!

Civil Procedure this morning found me in the hot seat - I discussed two cases in class while miraculously managing to avoid looking like a complete idiot. The only question he asked to which I didn’t proffer a correct reply was why one case was filed in the District of Columbia rather than the plaintiff’s homeland Virginia - turns out the DoC is 65% black and the plaintiff was, too, so (compared to VA) the plaintiffs had a greater chance of procuring a sympathetic jury. But even the professor admitted he didn’t expect me to be able to rattle off such a seemingly insubstantial piece of trivia... so, all in all, a seeming success. And I didn't even drip sweat or shake like I did last semester.

Around the World, join hands....

Monty Python rears its head again! In Civil Procedure we’re discussing methods of alternative dispute resolution (arbitration & mediation). The Professor noted that the best example of mediation appears in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when John Cleese's knight storms into a wedding and starts killing guests in his quest to save the bride from a forced marriage. It turns out to be a misunderstanding (the SOS note came from a prince who wanted to sing and dance rather than rule his father’s kingdom) so he has to slink back into the big room and apologize. One lady in the bloodspattered crowd calls out, “He killed my auntie!” and Michael Palin's King Arthur replies, “Let’s not dwell on the past... what’s done is done, and it’s time to focus on the present...” or something to that effect. So! The Pythons serve me again.

Speaking of English imports, I really enjoyed my brief time in Epcot’s World Showcase. In particular, the United Kingdom was awesome. They replicated the cobblestone streets and short, stout pubs of England. You walk down a little street and there’s a stage on the road where British Invasion, a Beatles tribute band, plays almost constantly, alternating sets with the Lonely Hearts Club Band. I leaned against a storefront and stood there for four songs: “Yellow Submarine,” “Can't Buy Me Love,” “Eight Days a Week” and one I didn't recognize, something about when you wake up in the morning I'll be gone and you'll know I was the one, or something like that. (I would have stayed longer, but their latest set had expired.) Instead of a popcorn stand or something, they had a Fish and Chips stand, and a matching one for nothing but beer, stationed in front of an authentic English pub. Of course, all the college students were congregated here, hooting and squealing and whatnot.

I also immensely enjoyed France. You walk into a Perfumerie, thinking you’re just entering a store, and when you exit on the other side you enter this amazing replica of a Paris street, complete with a Boulangerie and everything. It looks just like the opening of Beauty and the Beast, where Belle walks around collecting bread and fresh groceries for her father. They had a sweet-smelling bread shop, a wine shop, a cheese shop, etc. And it was all kind of sequestered behind other storefronts, so it felt tight and close as I imagine the real Europe does. In the perfumery, I was poking around looking for something to spray on as a souvenir of sorts and one of the ladies in a massive, bright pink gown came over and asked me in a thick French accent if I needed any help. I replied in broken French that no, I was just looking, and she began speaking very quickly in her native tongue. I had to interrupt that I only possessed the capabilities to engage a bit of the language (and poorly at that) but she said that she was impressed at my effort and that very few Americans even attempt to communicate. So, that was nice. They even had a little abandoned spot where you would imagine a starving artist on a bicycle had just stepped away from sketching a portrait of a passerby, which invoked a nice ambiance. This was, of course, situated between the Crepes stand and the Wine stand, both vended like popcorn or pretzels.

Morocco was just scary. I kept walking.

Canada, of course, featured a bunch of outdoors-type stuff, and all the employees were decked out like lumberjacks (which recalled Monty Python's famous Lumberjack sketch). They had a store devoted to Maple Syrup, with all sorts of syrup items, even chips and other such rarities.

Darkness had settled in by the time I arrived in Japan to procure some “Japan Sushi Rolls” which are basically California rolls in fancy packaging. I was disappointed at how Americanized the whole thing was - you would think they’d have a whole big sushi bar, what with it being the #1 exported social contribution and all, but they just sold the little trays like at Sendik’s. I had a tray of rolls and a Miso soup (which was surprisingly good, notwithstanding the large chunks of seaweed lulling about). The three restaurants in Japan were packed (not surprising, considering Morocco was just next door and that chicken smelled suspicious). They had an entire store devoted to sushi, with one whole wall devoted to chopsticks. I couldn’t decide which ones to get for my sister until I came across these fancy teal ones with cute little dogs carved into the top - when in doubt, stick to something fuzzy! I wish I had gone earlier, and spent more time there, but I guess now I know for next time.

Wow, this turned out to be wordy and long-winded... that's what happens when I start talking Disney.

Today in 2000, Disneyland employees were allowed to sport facial hair for the first time, lifting a ban imposed by Walt himself; then, in 1987, the first Disney Store opened, in California.

Eaten Alive

Boy, I’m doing really well. I know evenings are always hard, but sheesh. (a) I would kill to be back in Flordia. I really had a wonderful time. (b) I miss the little furry critter that sleeps in my bed and always greets me with an exuberant tail wag. (c) After spending a week in my family’s company almost nonstop, the loneliness here is almost palpable. I am now at Borders trying to work on my Appellate Brief to get it done. Unfortunately, this Borders is under construction - they’re redoing the café area - so I’m sitting on the floor to work on the paper. It’s far from ideal working conditions but I just can’t go back to my apartment yet. Just the thought of sitting there all evening, stagnating, makes me anxious. I’m going to try to stay here as long as possible to circumvent the chance of a panic attack this evening. But anxiety is just chewing at me from all sides. I forgot how potent it is, in my week of relaxation. I don't mean to complain, because I have a fantastic life and a wonderful place to live. My mind's just not quite up to snuff.

Of PDAs and Palm Trees

Well, I walked into my apartment last night to the exact same environment I departed eight days earlier. Nothing missing, burned down or otherwise out of place. The tingling feeling of disappointment in my chest that always plagues me when we return from the Sunshine State hit full force as soon as I walked in - I had previously lucked out with only little, manageable bouts of it. So I dumped all my stuff on the floor and took off to the library to try and keep my mind engaged on something else, then came home to clean my bathroom and vacuum my floor. (That kind of behavior is indicative that something in the old noggin isn’t quite functioning.)

I’m trying to slip back into my routine, but the pipes are a little rusty - this morning I progressed about five minutes before realizing I had forgotten my makeup bag and needed to turn around. This week isn’t going to be much fun, because we have the big final draft of our Appellate Brief due on Tuesday. My plan is to work on it every afternoon and have it finished by Friday so I can enjoy the weekend - but, “the best laid plans of mice and men” and whatnot... we'll see how those good intentions pan out.

Walking into school this morning, the birds were chirping - there’s hope... I can’t wait to tool around the suburbs this morning on scooters, go feed the fish, take the large rodent for a walk around the block....

In my quest to preserve my back and reacquire proper posture I transferred all my daily supplies to one bag - I had previously toted one backpack for my laptop and a bag for all my class folders, etc. Now I’m all discombobulated - I can’t find a thing.

So I thought I had prepared and planned before leaving for Spring Break so my PDA wouldn’t lose its mind in my absence. I attached it to an outlet in my room and planned to let it stay in the charger for the entire week, thus ensuring against data loss. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the fact that, when you turn off the lights in my room, all the outlets cease functioning. Thus, I came home to a completely crashed PDA. I’m going to have to reboot the whole thing and reenter every single piece of data I ever put into it. So much for technology. But I can’t bring myself to trade it in for a paper version - it’s such a suave little contraption.

I can’t believe we’re home already. I wish I had spent more time leading up to our vacation researching Disney and counting down and packing ahead of time and all those goofy things I did in the past, because now I’m back and inspired to read about everything Disney, and there’s no point because I have an entire year to my next visit. Argh. I was just so absorbed in my Appellate Brief and dealing with school that I didn’t take the time to be a goofy twelve year old antecedent to our departure. But I am immensely thankful that we went - without realizing it, between poking around at the parks and hanging out with the family I managed to recharge my batteries (though I’m still running a deficit of sleep) and I’m approaching the remaining weeks of school relatively rejuvenated and much more motivated than a week ago... but I miss sitting in the lobby in the morning, or outside the Gasparilla listening to the old-time music and gazing at the Cinderella Castle.

Spring Has Sprung

Strange how change creeps up on its prey with such masterful stealth that one day it seems to pounce with breathtaking force. I realized this morning, while driving to school, that the majority of the grass has upgraded itself from its traditional exhausted dust color to a dark emerald shade, and an assortment of tulips and other wildflowers have emerged from the frozen tundra in proud little pops of Kelly green. The climate is still stubbornly clinging to its familiar thirty-something-degree cloak, but the sun is flashing brilliantly and the plants are responding.

I walked into school behind the Dean. She was clipping along with one hand on her rolling suitcase and the other clutching the all-important cell phone, into which she enthusiastically yammered in her crisp, concurrently friendly and authoritative tones. I was quite a bit behind her, but I jogged up to pass her and hold the door open. She scooped the receiver from her mouth to flash that megawatt, patented Law School Dean smile and whisper “Thank you,” And so went my brush with fame this afternoon.

American Idol last night finally started to get intersting - I love when the singers have to tackle songs they don't really want to, based on a theme (here, Stevie Wonder). I love “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and was (ashamedly) surprised to find out he had penned and recorded it. Wonder what he'll perform tonight?

T-2 days and counting with enthusiasm...

Off the Hook

In my continuing quest to conquer insomnia, I decided to get ready for bed last night as soon as Mom called. About fifteen minutes into the conversation, I had everything turned off and lay in bed for the remaining time, on the inference that I’m always so calm and relaxed afterward that removing the agitation of shutting everything down would ease my path into slumber. Around 9:40 I could feel myself relaxing, and wondered why the one night I was truly tired was the one night everyone seemed to have a story to relay or a comment to make. Flash forward to about two-thirty in the morning, when I sat up in bed to the soundtrack of an irritating, high-pitched beep. After about two minutes of staring stupidly into the darkness, I found the phone off the hook and returned it to its hoister so it wouldn’t run out of juice and automatically delegate all potential callers to the voice mail. Flash to a five o’clock phone call from Mom saying I fell asleep on them and scared the poop out of everyone. I am very, very thankful the police weren’t involved. I’m not sure I would have survived the mortification.

I spoke to my professor about skiving off class on Friday morning and she said, quote, "If you feel it is in your best intersts to leave school early, I certainly can't stop you from doing so." Yeesh!

Other than that, nothing really going on at the moment. T-4 and counting!

Journal

I attended a meeting for the Law Review this afternoon. Talk about intimidating! The day after final exams, we will receive the topic for a paper we need to prepare and submit to be judged by a constellation of upperclassmen. We have a month from the end of exams to the due date to prepare the twenty-page paper, which they emphasized must be flawless in execution and brilliant in insight. But, no pressure! Apparently there’s three different journals at the school that you might make it on to, Obviously, everyone wants to join the Law Review, but there’s also the Elder Law Review Journal, and one related to technology. Unfortunately, that has no discernible effect on our chances of procuring admission to the journal.

I am so tired. Yoga last night knocked me out, but then I woke up around 3 and tossed and turned for the remainder of the evening. Ermph. I wish I could hear the rain through my roof.

Well, it’s a Monday... funny how they have a habit of sneaking around and pouncing on you when you’re innocently plugging along.

I’m going to try some Instant Tan this week, so I won’t be at the mercy of the sun in Florida. This oughta be good. Hopefully, I will manage to wake up and not look like I fell in a vat of orange paint.