Sundays seem to be the day for this...

I give up on work for tonight. I've not been productive since... midafternoon. I'm done with tomorrow's reading, and even though I have a meeting and a rehearsal tomorrow, and possibly an evening out (details on all that to follow), I can't get any farther ahead than I already am. I am hopelessly languishing in a delightful food coma brought on by a trip as the token anglo to Chinatown for the Moon Festival, and have now experienced significantly-more-authentic-than-usual Chinese food, which was delicious, and--more importantly--had some Moon Cake, which even through tea-scalded taste buds, was excellent. And really fucking dense. Once I'm done here, I'm going to waddle off to bed because I ate WAY too much.

Background: Jade published on facebook to a whole bunch of us that, owing to the festival (which actually happened, we think, yesterday, but due to rain of record-breaking proportions in Chicago yesterday no one really went out for it) we should go get Chinese food and Moon Cakes in Chinatown. The clear goal was really just Chinese food with friends and a break from studying, but any excuse becomes valid once you put enough wishful-thinking behind it, right? So we went, eight of us--and despite the broad invitation, I was the only non-Asian of the group, and was definitely ribbed a bit for it in gentle and hilarious fashion (which I brought largely on myself by broaching the subject).

As far as the weekend went, it rained. Lots. Rain still isn't pretty from 26 floors up even when you're getting an inch an hour or so. It's just an interposition between me and my usual scenery done in shades of grey and greyer. So I read. Lots. Property will become the bane of my existence as far as reading goes, but at least Marx is easier to read than Hegel (to my prof's benefit, he did come into class on Wednesday armed with quotes concerning how awful Hegel is to read, and how nonsensical-seeming).

Saturday Tim had a get-together in his apartment a block and change over, inviting several of his undergrad friends (Northwesterners, some of whom are in graduate school at that other major school in town, though none for law) as well as a number of law students over to his place for beer (I brought my own cider) and conversation. Much fun was had, including meeting Kathy's not-boy whom we've all been hearing about for quite some time, and seeing Kathy be a lightweight which was cute and loud and entertaining. His apartment, too, has significantly more character than McClurg residences do--exposed beams and brick done tastefully, and pipes besides. It looked really cool, but would only work in an old building like that with much higher ceilings than we get here. On the other hand, he had four-fifths walls delineating his spaces, so there are trade-offs.

Friday night I went to what I thought was going to be a LaGBAC (Lesbian and Gay Bar Association [of] Chicago) event--it was affiliated, but it was actually a presentation/recruitment meet and greet for minorities w.r.t. the Illinois State's Attorney's Office. So met a few people there, listened to the speeches, and got rained on coming back (and had a small amount of free food). Came home afterward and dicked around, wasting an entire evening by chatting on gmail and being in denial that I was about to start working on a Friday night (and doing it so effectively that I went to bed never having worked on anything, which was probably stupid on my part, but never mind that).

Friday proper, Crim was cancelled because our prof was off at a conference somewhere. Thinking I would be productive with my free time, I slept in an hour and a half. And got myself up in time to actually be warmed up (yay for serious shower-singing) so I could audition for Habeas Chorus--Northwestern's Law a capella (I may have to refer to it from here on in as lawcapella) group. So I got there at 11:15, sure I was in the right place and five minutes early for my audition, and... I got fucking stood up. No one was there. I waited until fifteen minutes after the audition ought to have ended, and no one was there yet, even then. So I wrote a curious e-mail to the group and went to CLR. Get a thoroughly apologetic e-mail from one of the members during CLR (I got my memo back, Matt, and it seems that my writing is fairly good, but I was a bit light on facts--I haven't actually looked thoroughly at the keyed comments, but *shrug*) apologizing and saying that she'd be there with other members after my class if I wanted to go audition, still. So I went, and I did, and I sang the first verse or so (we didn't have to prepare a full song, just a little bit) of Li'l Red Riding Hood, and sucked it up (as expected) on the sight reading of Don't Stop Believing, which has an oddly complex bass part, particularly compared to the really simple SAT lines. They thanked me and said they'd send out an e-mail at some point over the weekend, as the first rehearsal (one hour weekly, on Mondays during lunch) is tomorrow and the first concert's in the beginning of October.

I got the e-mail yesterday, and I'm evidently either one half or one third of the bass section, with a group of 18. This may be the most laid-back a capella group I've ever been in. It'll be a trip.

Thursday night was Bar Review, to which I actually went this time, because Michelle and I went to dinner beforehand (her turn to pay), and then wandered around in Barnes & Noble until the drink specials kicked in (free SKYY vodka drinks from 7-8 is why Michelle was going and I was dragged along). The place was called Elm Street Liquors, and was a weird little place--all one room, long and thin to the back, about a third of whose width was taken up by the bar, and about a quarter further taken up by recessed wall-seating. Dark, no real decor, and crappy hip-hop in the background. I chatted with a few people, got poked into swing dancing with Jade while the very back of the place was still clear of people, and then wandered off when the press of people and the heat from the same became too much for me to give a shit about appearances. Josh, among others, was surprised I came out at all--he seems to have this notion of me as a thorough recluse, which I delight in fucking with, despite it's near-accuracy in cause if not result. Left early, as I said, and had an hour and change talk with Matt B. concerning law school and life and jobs and shit. It was good to talk to him.

Nothing seems to be coming to mind for Monday through Wednesday, so clearly nothing of note happened during those days. I want my various Amazon orders (camera battery charger, SD reader drive--so I can get people their graduation pictures, among other things--picture frames) to arrive. I need to find someplace with cheap, classy frames, if such things really exist. I don't have quite enough on my walls, and many surfaces are taken up by unframed 8.5x11 papers (various drawn dragons and some of my pictures I printed out at Kinko's a couple weeks back, all arranged as they'll eventually be on the walls) and a couple 4x6 pictures Kyle gave me as an afterthought at one point.

As for the coming week, I've got another memo to write (don't know when the revisions on my first one are due, but nevermind that), this time with 70 pages of cases to draw from rather than three. That's due in a week so it's not worth freaking out about yet--I'll print off the cases (along with Twombly, which I have to read for Civ Pro) tomorrow in the library sometime. An aside: I need to break myself of the habit of calling the Library the Libe--I'm getting odd looks whenever I do it. Tomorrow could be dinner and exploration with Liz, who's in town (or if her plans aren't working in my favor, we'll be having lunch on Tuesday), or it could be more reading. Clearly I'm hoping for the former. Tomorrow is also the first general membership meeting of OUTLaw (guess what that organization represents, ladies and gentlemen), as well as my first rehearsal with Habeas, as well as returning to Property Hell. I'm so glad I bought some pork buns to nuke for lunch tomorrow. I won't have quite enough time to come back and do anything more than that (read: even a sammich might take too long).

One of these days, I swear, I'm going to take some time and type up the short-sections I finished writing before arriving in Chicago and get them all posted, along with the comments Sophie and Marion have kindly provided me (if the rest of youse are bored and wanna read my story and comment, I'd love you all the more for it. There's a link on the right, here), and ship that off to Matt for updating at his leisure.

I think that's all, now that I'm over an hour past when I ought to have gone to bed to be reasonably up for Contracts tomorrow.

'There was no reason for the Civil War, because there was no need. We should have let them go. It would have raised the average IQ enormously!' --my Civ Pro Prof. Context not remembered (why yes, I do take down amusing things said in class as a section of my notes).