First: yay dancing! I have a pinpoint blister on my right foot, but it was so worth it. It's possible I was steaming (literally) on my walk back to the El last night from Charlie's, after four hours of dancing. The songs were really fast, by and large, which was awesome. And I got waltzed by a rather cute boy (and danced with a few others besides). And have been strongly encouraged by several parties to go to their monday class/free dancing thing. Not this week, but soon.
Second: holy shit my family is crazy. They're driving to Milwaukee, and have a whole bunch of shit for me (movies, but no books; halloween costumes; a kickass lamp I left at home because it was heavy and fragile both--it's now known, evidently, as "The Bastard Snake Lamp," where formerly it was merely the snake lamp; and a shitton of paper I don't know about, it seems). They left DC at 1ish, and got stuck in traffic. And they're dropping this stuff off with me and then continuing on from here without stopping.
Their E.T.A.? 3-4 AM.
Holy shit. I'm so screwed. This will be hilarious.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
So, about that Part Three...
I got delayed by a week from hell. So. I'd just finished friday (the friday two? weeks ago, done friday before last).
New feature: professorial quote of the post. Professor Redish (Civ Pro): ‘In the case of Grant v. Lee, the Federal government won.’
Saturday, I got up and went to the 'after party' for the SFPIF (Students Fund for Public Interest Fellowship or something like that) 5k fun run--appropriately called The Paper Chase. We sang--the same things we had sung the night before--and Max showed up and got introduced around a bit. We left, had lunch, went shopping (I brought out my inner gay man and helped suit Max up. It was fun. Also got myself a nice shirt for $15), and went back to their hotel. I went home for a while, finished my (late) citation exercises, and at some point I was called and informed that if I wanted to, I too could go to that evening's period ball--the parade down Michigan started at 8.
So I got dressed up in my suit (yay for accidentally stealing from my mother a handkerchief such that i could have a pocket hankie in my suit for evening events) and a red shirt and my leopard tie, and went off in search of ladies and gentlemen of yesteryear (Rachel, Max, and I lowered the average age of the party significantly) in period dress walking down the street. I found them, and even had time to wait a few minutes in the brisk evening air admiring the costumes (holy shit the costumes, and the hats. Oh, and the feathers. Dear god the feathers--so many, so BIG. Think Texas in empire waists) before Max and Rachel came out. Miss Carroll was fantastic in her dress, and Max looked good in what we'd agreed he ought wear. When they did, I joined them in the parade which wound for a whole two blocks round to and down Michigan Avenue and back the same way--stopping traffic and gathering a crowd. Max got called out by one of the organizers for never having read Miss Austen's work--Thanks to Dessie, I've read much of P&P (I need to go back and reread it at some point. Like, actually finish it this time), so I could honestly say that I had indeed read the woman's work when I was interrogated next. Then we were back inside and it was too hot and we met Rachel's guardian angel who had arranged for her menfolk to join her at the ball. She was very cool, though I cannot recall her name, and we four spoke a great deal in between rounds of English Dancing (to them, it's merely country dancing--but we already know what that signifies to me). It's kinda like square dancing in that it's not partnered and it's called. So the remainder of the night passed that way, except for interludes such as being swept up by one of the instructor-ladies (most of which instructors, incidentally, were Fermilab physicist types, just to continue the trope of physicist-dancers) for a dance, or watching a charming gentleman propose to his lady-friend using phrases such as 'you pierce my soul' and watching the female crowd swoon in response.
Afterward, we retired for hanging out to their hotel, and there was consumption of leftovers from Rachel's lunch (mmmm... prosciutto on pizza). Finally, Max and I tried to get his CD burner to work as Changeling is a fucking huge file (it didn't, alas, and so I am still without), and Rachel changed into one of the bathrobes they so dearly wanted to steal--with jewelry still on. It was hilarious, and so thoroughly classy. So, that was saturday. I went home with various things, including a lovely little blue dragon curled around a stack of quarters and a card from many of the folks who read this (and an office-supply dragon courtesy of Miss Teagle). ::grin:: more things for me to get framed at some point--in the meantime, there will be more scattered dragons around the Eyrie.
Sunday started off with lunch--Max and I met at Borders (Bad Max. Making enter the den of won--I mean, iniquity. Making me buy shiny things), where I bought Poison Study (fantastic), and Ink (sequel to Vellum, and better, but both are still weird books. I like them, but they're more thought-provoking than they are good as far as plot/story/coherence go--the plots are there, but as overlaid and as hard to individually discern as strokes of oil paint on an impressionist canvas). That was my book budget for the Sept/Oct. So, yes. Books. Whee. Then we wandered around, and went through every store in the mall where we were to have lunch (slim pickings for those without huge amounts of disposable income and years more than we possibly had combined. Or children. There were stores fro children, too, in this mall). This all while waiting for Rachel to be done with her thing. She eventually showed, and we all proceeded into Baisi Thai for their lunch buffet that doesn't, evidently, run on Sundays. So we had their normal food. And Rachel told us about how she had met Mr. Darcy, or at least the actor who will be playing him in the upcoming musical of P&P. And evidently he's gorgeous and with a voice to match his appearance. And evidently I surprised Rachel's handler (she had made mention of how I was looking for my Mr. Darcy, and the handler asked 'surely she meant I was looking for my Lizzie', to which Rachel responded, no, he's looking for his Darcy. Oh.). I find this mildly hilarious. In any event, we got fed, it was good, and hilarious, and fun to have them around, and by doing so dragged me out of my previous week's funk, which was good. They got themselves out of their hotel, and drove me back to my place so I didn't have to walk through the rain umbrellaless, and that was the weekend (working doesn't make for good blogging, clearly).
Monday, we didn't have rehearsal, which was nice--allowed me to get a free lunch with the democrats, and started a chain of events that led to last week's being sheer unadulterated hell (it's all democracy's fault, I've decided--incidentally, if you're in CA, vote no on Prop. 8. If you're not, and have spare disposable income, consider giving some money to noonprop8 orgs. It's important): I signed on to be a pollwatcher for Dan Seals' congressional campaign. After classes were over, I went looking for Michelle because we were going back to her place and she was going to introduce me to Brothers & Sisters. While doing so, I was delighted to find that there was free thai food in the atrium. It was delicious. And we watched B&S, and chatted, and it was good times. And then I went home and worked more. Went to sleep early.
Tuesday. Tuesday we found out that our lovely property professor had decided we when we were going to have our midterm--the following friday (ie. three days back--yet more of my week from hell). At three in the fucking afternoon. Who does that? Oh--and he knew about our crim midterm--in class, on the same day. Granted, the latter midterm was a group exercise and ungraded to boot, but even so. Cruel and unusual and not at all surprising from this man. Anyway... /rant. There was a debate party that evening, involving pizza (I was one of few to be there early enough to get pizza. Jade and I went back to her place to actually watch the debate. And completely failed to work, besides that (even though we'd planned to pretend to). She fed me naan and tomato soup, which were delicious.
Wednesday. The day shit started going wrong. Well, sorta. Anyway, after classes, went to the library t0 work, mainly because Matt and Josh were going to as well so we could all go to the pollwatcher training as a group. So we hung out and studied (mostly the latter, actually), and left when it was about time to do so, and went to get sandwiches because Josh had been raving about these chicken gyros things with honey mustard sauce rather than tzatziki. He lied about the honey mustard, and made us late by having gone to get them (clearly this makes it his fault, despite our all having bought food). Pollwatcher training was interesting, and made me glad I decided on a whim to do it. And on the way back, we took the bus. Instead of the Red Line. I regret this, because as I was turning around to sit down, the bus driver started quickly--as they are wont to do--and my bag did as objects tend to when made to by centripetal forces: it swung around me and slapped into a pole just right to (I later found out) crack my LCD screen in a progressively more problematic and Jackson Pollock-esque fashion. So I spent two hours on the phone to HP getting them to see what could be done. This night's work was completely ineffectual except that it seems to have made them decide that I was trying to pull some kind of fraud over on them, as I later found out they flagged my ticket--despite proving that I had bought their $300 I-can-jump-on-my-laptop-and-you'll-replace-it warranty--which meant a box simply wasn't gonna get shipped out to me to get this all fixed.
Thursday was good. I called Mimsi again, as wednesday had been her birthday and I'd been forced to merely leave her a message, and we talked on my way back from getting new ID (I'm now officially an Illinoisan, and am impressed by how efficient their DMV is). Evidently she'd been a pollwatcher, too, and my mother besides. And we chatted about other things, including her seeing Chicago at some point. She evidently hasn't been here in ages (this is less surprising to find out than that I had been to Chicago before my father ever had). I bought picture frames (more, yes, I know.), and went home to call the place Jimmy recommended me about a haircut. And was asked when--that day--I wanted it. So, at 4:00ish, I set out again to go get my ears lowered. It was interesting. The guy was old and genially cranky, and was an honest to god barber. I have now had the back of my neck and sideburns done by straight razor--which itself was worth the cost, aside from being a fairly good haircut (I needed to trim a few things here and there myself, but... I've survived and didn't fuck up enough as to cause any comments, so, yeah). The evening consisted of a massive load of laundry and the abandoning of my leaking bottle of detergent to the laundry room so it wouldn't turn more of my closet's carpet blue.
Friday was the school's celebration of National Coming Out Day (which was actually saturday, but since there were no classes... yeah), which meant there was a big gay table in the atrium with buttons and skittles (taste the rainbow, bitches) and pamphlets and the Ask A Gay Box (which, sadly, no one used throughout all of OUTLaw week). After classes, various of us hung out with Sue, who was (wo)manning the table. At one point, a couple people from my CLR class asked us (the assembled gays--probably 50% of the out people in the law school at one little table) whether gaydar worked. So, we explained that some people were better at noticing it than others (had better 'dar), and other people... At this point, Bergy walked up. In aviator glasses, with a white bandana tied around his head as a headband, and a women's leopard print jacket. And was so flaming that we all just stopped explaining gaydar and how it works because, well... Bergy said it all just by existing. And there was much laughter.
From here, we proceeded to gay up campus in preparation for OUTLaw week by putting up rainbow colored posters. Bergy and I worked well together, and I mastered the art of looping masking tape with one hand as fast as he could put up posters. It required skill, I must say. After we'd finished, we wandered out, ending up at his place because I wasn't quite starving yet and he was and was therefore going to cook himself a steak. With some kind of Irish whisky and soy sauce glaze steak sauce of his own creation which itself was quite tasty, and would probably be incredible on steak itself. We talked about video games, predominantly, as well as a variety of tangents relating vaguely thereto, and he showed me bits of Assassin's Creed, declaring that I must somehow find a way to play this game (I miss computer games. It means that my nonproductive time is more unproductive because it's spent on minesweeper and hearts and the like, which are significantly less satisfying). After I finished pulling a Des (not a full three hours, but near enough), I went home and ate. Eventually Jimmy poked at me, asking if I were interested in going out with him to Greektown to check out his uncle's bar. Yes, I was. So we met up in the Red Line (which was itself amusing, because I had to watch three trains pass before figure out which one he was on and managing to get us both back on it before the doors closed on us), and went out to the a Blue Line stop (Van Buren, which is significant in what will be another post), and we ended up at Spectrum. I met various of his sisters and his cousin and his aunt, and various other people connected thereto, and Jimmy got me a couple G&Ts for no price on my part (I'm not sure he paid, either, but my protests were silenced by more than just Jimmy). I was made to watch a video about the Hellenic Student's Association by one of his relations, which was kinda funny (and there was a really cute guy doing Greek dancing, which helped). We eventually went--Jimmy, one sister, one friend, and I--to a cafe where we had dessert and greek coffee-drinks. Quite tasty. Lots of chocolate. And then The four of us headed home--I parted ways with them at my stop, and they continued up to Jimmy's place.
At this point, I think I'm going to close out (once again, only about 10 days behind!), and go downstairs to check out a reception I know to be going on. I leave you with a quote from my property textbook from a while back (concerning a hypothetical request from a hypothetical governmental entity to a hypothetical title investigator):
"Gentlemen:
I am in receipt of your letter of the fifth of this month inquiring as to the state of the title prior to the year 1803.
Please be advised that in the year 1803 the United States of America acquired the Territory of Louisiana from the Republic of France by purchase. The Republic of France previously acquired title from the Spanish Crown by conquest. Spain acquired title by virtue of the discoveries of one Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor who had been duly authorized to embark upon his voyage of discovery by Isabella, Queen of Spain. Before granting such authority, Isabella, a pious and cautious woman, obtained the sanction of His Holiness, the Pope. The Pope is the Vicar on earth of Jesus Christ, the only son and heir apparent of God. God made Louisiana."
New feature: professorial quote of the post. Professor Redish (Civ Pro): ‘In the case of Grant v. Lee, the Federal government won.’
Saturday, I got up and went to the 'after party' for the SFPIF (Students Fund for Public Interest Fellowship or something like that) 5k fun run--appropriately called The Paper Chase. We sang--the same things we had sung the night before--and Max showed up and got introduced around a bit. We left, had lunch, went shopping (I brought out my inner gay man and helped suit Max up. It was fun. Also got myself a nice shirt for $15), and went back to their hotel. I went home for a while, finished my (late) citation exercises, and at some point I was called and informed that if I wanted to, I too could go to that evening's period ball--the parade down Michigan started at 8.
So I got dressed up in my suit (yay for accidentally stealing from my mother a handkerchief such that i could have a pocket hankie in my suit for evening events) and a red shirt and my leopard tie, and went off in search of ladies and gentlemen of yesteryear (Rachel, Max, and I lowered the average age of the party significantly) in period dress walking down the street. I found them, and even had time to wait a few minutes in the brisk evening air admiring the costumes (holy shit the costumes, and the hats. Oh, and the feathers. Dear god the feathers--so many, so BIG. Think Texas in empire waists) before Max and Rachel came out. Miss Carroll was fantastic in her dress, and Max looked good in what we'd agreed he ought wear. When they did, I joined them in the parade which wound for a whole two blocks round to and down Michigan Avenue and back the same way--stopping traffic and gathering a crowd. Max got called out by one of the organizers for never having read Miss Austen's work--Thanks to Dessie, I've read much of P&P (I need to go back and reread it at some point. Like, actually finish it this time), so I could honestly say that I had indeed read the woman's work when I was interrogated next. Then we were back inside and it was too hot and we met Rachel's guardian angel who had arranged for her menfolk to join her at the ball. She was very cool, though I cannot recall her name, and we four spoke a great deal in between rounds of English Dancing (to them, it's merely country dancing--but we already know what that signifies to me). It's kinda like square dancing in that it's not partnered and it's called. So the remainder of the night passed that way, except for interludes such as being swept up by one of the instructor-ladies (most of which instructors, incidentally, were Fermilab physicist types, just to continue the trope of physicist-dancers) for a dance, or watching a charming gentleman propose to his lady-friend using phrases such as 'you pierce my soul' and watching the female crowd swoon in response.
Afterward, we retired for hanging out to their hotel, and there was consumption of leftovers from Rachel's lunch (mmmm... prosciutto on pizza). Finally, Max and I tried to get his CD burner to work as Changeling is a fucking huge file (it didn't, alas, and so I am still without), and Rachel changed into one of the bathrobes they so dearly wanted to steal--with jewelry still on. It was hilarious, and so thoroughly classy. So, that was saturday. I went home with various things, including a lovely little blue dragon curled around a stack of quarters and a card from many of the folks who read this (and an office-supply dragon courtesy of Miss Teagle). ::grin:: more things for me to get framed at some point--in the meantime, there will be more scattered dragons around the Eyrie.
Sunday started off with lunch--Max and I met at Borders (Bad Max. Making enter the den of won--I mean, iniquity. Making me buy shiny things), where I bought Poison Study (fantastic), and Ink (sequel to Vellum, and better, but both are still weird books. I like them, but they're more thought-provoking than they are good as far as plot/story/coherence go--the plots are there, but as overlaid and as hard to individually discern as strokes of oil paint on an impressionist canvas). That was my book budget for the Sept/Oct. So, yes. Books. Whee. Then we wandered around, and went through every store in the mall where we were to have lunch (slim pickings for those without huge amounts of disposable income and years more than we possibly had combined. Or children. There were stores fro children, too, in this mall). This all while waiting for Rachel to be done with her thing. She eventually showed, and we all proceeded into Baisi Thai for their lunch buffet that doesn't, evidently, run on Sundays. So we had their normal food. And Rachel told us about how she had met Mr. Darcy, or at least the actor who will be playing him in the upcoming musical of P&P. And evidently he's gorgeous and with a voice to match his appearance. And evidently I surprised Rachel's handler (she had made mention of how I was looking for my Mr. Darcy, and the handler asked 'surely she meant I was looking for my Lizzie', to which Rachel responded, no, he's looking for his Darcy. Oh.). I find this mildly hilarious. In any event, we got fed, it was good, and hilarious, and fun to have them around, and by doing so dragged me out of my previous week's funk, which was good. They got themselves out of their hotel, and drove me back to my place so I didn't have to walk through the rain umbrellaless, and that was the weekend (working doesn't make for good blogging, clearly).
Monday, we didn't have rehearsal, which was nice--allowed me to get a free lunch with the democrats, and started a chain of events that led to last week's being sheer unadulterated hell (it's all democracy's fault, I've decided--incidentally, if you're in CA, vote no on Prop. 8. If you're not, and have spare disposable income, consider giving some money to noonprop8 orgs. It's important): I signed on to be a pollwatcher for Dan Seals' congressional campaign. After classes were over, I went looking for Michelle because we were going back to her place and she was going to introduce me to Brothers & Sisters. While doing so, I was delighted to find that there was free thai food in the atrium. It was delicious. And we watched B&S, and chatted, and it was good times. And then I went home and worked more. Went to sleep early.
Tuesday. Tuesday we found out that our lovely property professor had decided we when we were going to have our midterm--the following friday (ie. three days back--yet more of my week from hell). At three in the fucking afternoon. Who does that? Oh--and he knew about our crim midterm--in class, on the same day. Granted, the latter midterm was a group exercise and ungraded to boot, but even so. Cruel and unusual and not at all surprising from this man. Anyway... /rant. There was a debate party that evening, involving pizza (I was one of few to be there early enough to get pizza. Jade and I went back to her place to actually watch the debate. And completely failed to work, besides that (even though we'd planned to pretend to). She fed me naan and tomato soup, which were delicious.
Wednesday. The day shit started going wrong. Well, sorta. Anyway, after classes, went to the library t0 work, mainly because Matt and Josh were going to as well so we could all go to the pollwatcher training as a group. So we hung out and studied (mostly the latter, actually), and left when it was about time to do so, and went to get sandwiches because Josh had been raving about these chicken gyros things with honey mustard sauce rather than tzatziki. He lied about the honey mustard, and made us late by having gone to get them (clearly this makes it his fault, despite our all having bought food). Pollwatcher training was interesting, and made me glad I decided on a whim to do it. And on the way back, we took the bus. Instead of the Red Line. I regret this, because as I was turning around to sit down, the bus driver started quickly--as they are wont to do--and my bag did as objects tend to when made to by centripetal forces: it swung around me and slapped into a pole just right to (I later found out) crack my LCD screen in a progressively more problematic and Jackson Pollock-esque fashion. So I spent two hours on the phone to HP getting them to see what could be done. This night's work was completely ineffectual except that it seems to have made them decide that I was trying to pull some kind of fraud over on them, as I later found out they flagged my ticket--despite proving that I had bought their $300 I-can-jump-on-my-laptop-and-you'll-replace-it warranty--which meant a box simply wasn't gonna get shipped out to me to get this all fixed.
Thursday was good. I called Mimsi again, as wednesday had been her birthday and I'd been forced to merely leave her a message, and we talked on my way back from getting new ID (I'm now officially an Illinoisan, and am impressed by how efficient their DMV is). Evidently she'd been a pollwatcher, too, and my mother besides. And we chatted about other things, including her seeing Chicago at some point. She evidently hasn't been here in ages (this is less surprising to find out than that I had been to Chicago before my father ever had). I bought picture frames (more, yes, I know.), and went home to call the place Jimmy recommended me about a haircut. And was asked when--that day--I wanted it. So, at 4:00ish, I set out again to go get my ears lowered. It was interesting. The guy was old and genially cranky, and was an honest to god barber. I have now had the back of my neck and sideburns done by straight razor--which itself was worth the cost, aside from being a fairly good haircut (I needed to trim a few things here and there myself, but... I've survived and didn't fuck up enough as to cause any comments, so, yeah). The evening consisted of a massive load of laundry and the abandoning of my leaking bottle of detergent to the laundry room so it wouldn't turn more of my closet's carpet blue.
Friday was the school's celebration of National Coming Out Day (which was actually saturday, but since there were no classes... yeah), which meant there was a big gay table in the atrium with buttons and skittles (taste the rainbow, bitches) and pamphlets and the Ask A Gay Box (which, sadly, no one used throughout all of OUTLaw week). After classes, various of us hung out with Sue, who was (wo)manning the table. At one point, a couple people from my CLR class asked us (the assembled gays--probably 50% of the out people in the law school at one little table) whether gaydar worked. So, we explained that some people were better at noticing it than others (had better 'dar), and other people... At this point, Bergy walked up. In aviator glasses, with a white bandana tied around his head as a headband, and a women's leopard print jacket. And was so flaming that we all just stopped explaining gaydar and how it works because, well... Bergy said it all just by existing. And there was much laughter.
From here, we proceeded to gay up campus in preparation for OUTLaw week by putting up rainbow colored posters. Bergy and I worked well together, and I mastered the art of looping masking tape with one hand as fast as he could put up posters. It required skill, I must say. After we'd finished, we wandered out, ending up at his place because I wasn't quite starving yet and he was and was therefore going to cook himself a steak. With some kind of Irish whisky and soy sauce glaze steak sauce of his own creation which itself was quite tasty, and would probably be incredible on steak itself. We talked about video games, predominantly, as well as a variety of tangents relating vaguely thereto, and he showed me bits of Assassin's Creed, declaring that I must somehow find a way to play this game (I miss computer games. It means that my nonproductive time is more unproductive because it's spent on minesweeper and hearts and the like, which are significantly less satisfying). After I finished pulling a Des (not a full three hours, but near enough), I went home and ate. Eventually Jimmy poked at me, asking if I were interested in going out with him to Greektown to check out his uncle's bar. Yes, I was. So we met up in the Red Line (which was itself amusing, because I had to watch three trains pass before figure out which one he was on and managing to get us both back on it before the doors closed on us), and went out to the a Blue Line stop (Van Buren, which is significant in what will be another post), and we ended up at Spectrum. I met various of his sisters and his cousin and his aunt, and various other people connected thereto, and Jimmy got me a couple G&Ts for no price on my part (I'm not sure he paid, either, but my protests were silenced by more than just Jimmy). I was made to watch a video about the Hellenic Student's Association by one of his relations, which was kinda funny (and there was a really cute guy doing Greek dancing, which helped). We eventually went--Jimmy, one sister, one friend, and I--to a cafe where we had dessert and greek coffee-drinks. Quite tasty. Lots of chocolate. And then The four of us headed home--I parted ways with them at my stop, and they continued up to Jimmy's place.
At this point, I think I'm going to close out (once again, only about 10 days behind!), and go downstairs to check out a reception I know to be going on. I leave you with a quote from my property textbook from a while back (concerning a hypothetical request from a hypothetical governmental entity to a hypothetical title investigator):
"Gentlemen:
I am in receipt of your letter of the fifth of this month inquiring as to the state of the title prior to the year 1803.
Please be advised that in the year 1803 the United States of America acquired the Territory of Louisiana from the Republic of France by purchase. The Republic of France previously acquired title from the Spanish Crown by conquest. Spain acquired title by virtue of the discoveries of one Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor who had been duly authorized to embark upon his voyage of discovery by Isabella, Queen of Spain. Before granting such authority, Isabella, a pious and cautious woman, obtained the sanction of His Holiness, the Pope. The Pope is the Vicar on earth of Jesus Christ, the only son and heir apparent of God. God made Louisiana."
Friday, October 10, 2008
Part Two (There could be a part three, but I might catch fully up in this post)
Monday (not this past one, the one before it--I'm a week behind, remember?) wasn't anything terribly special, that I recall. The most interesting bit about it was a sanity walk around town in the late evening, including--among other destinations--the end of Navy Pier (it was nicely cold, and there was a stiff breeze which was good, too). Probably two miles, maybe three, all told. Tuesday was similarly uneventful. Civ Pro was canceled because our prof--Redish, again--was "in New York to watch the ball drop" for the Jewish New Year. I started rereading The Lions of Al-Rassan, which was at least as excellent as I remembered it being. Wednesday, again no Civ Pro. Had lunch with Verity at Wow Bao (which, as Max said, serves bao--shock, I know--and is excellent). Met with Sam to go over our presentation for Crim (5-min between us for prosecution summational arguments of a case topical to the day's subject--Impossibility). Finished rereading Guy Gavriel Kay's abovementioned book.
Thursday was uneventful during the day--class. Whee. That evening, though, Habeas had its traditional 'Oh shit we've got a concert tomorrow' rehearsal. Three hours in Sarah Kalameris' apartment (which has awesome acoustics, and a really cute hyperactive mutt named Bisi), singing and drinking and horsing around with other members of Habeas. It was generally hilarious. I got Sarah to commit to arranging Li'l Red Riding Hood (for which solo I will definitely be auditioning, possibly with an edge due to my knowing the song rather well and having been the one to suggest its being arranged. After we finished--and got things sounding REALLY good, particularly given that one of our members had joined us for the first time that evening (we needed another tenor, and he picked shit up quite damn fast)--we watched the TiVo'd VP debate, playing Sarah Palin bingo. If the witch had said 'good guys', I would have won. Bisi kept trying to trample my bingo card. It was a good night.
Friday was Sam's and my presentation--Kathy and Steve Roman were on the defense. We all did quite well. I was terrified, but no one noticed, and I carried it off fairly well. The subject of the case was a man in jail in Mississippi attempting to murder the judge who put him there (for 40 years for armed robbery/drug possession) by way of a voodoo death hex. [I'll pause to let that sink in.] Kathy's defense (ridiculing voodoo for two minutes) was over-the-top and rather entertaining, if a bit less than perfectly effective. At the same time, it was my day to take notes for the class wiki. After classes, I went to lunch with OUTLaw alums, at CPK in the Water Tower Place, and midway through the meal I looked up, and out into the mall--our food hadn't come yet--and I saw a familiar bespectacled and bebarbed face wandering around confused-like. I hadn't expected to see him until later that evening, and started laughing. I got up and directed him to Wow Bao for lunch, and caught up with him once I'd finished my food (I bailed on OUTLaw). Afterward, we wandered slightly until I had to go home to do citation exercises (boo citation). This was, unfortunately for Max, rather boring--we talked about his mythologies and his theories of why magic sucks except when it affects only probability (he dislikes things that break the laws of thermodynamics, and objected when I allowed as how my magic systems actually paid attention to that, with corollary laws of thaumodynamics).
Then he went off somewhere and I went off to sing for alumni, which went quite well--except that no one could really hear due to there being a cocktail party going on all around us, with little focus brought to bear on us. It was fun, though. Immediately after, I bailed to go hang out with Max and Rachel--because social good, and I'd been rather in a funk all week. It was great to see them, and Rachel went off to some dinner thing, leaving me to find food with Max. We tried Gino's and Giordano's, except that--being friday at 8ish--they were way too long-lined. We tried a barbecue place--slightly better, but still half an hour. So we trekked all the way out to the brown line to find what I know to be (as they've got signs averring it in front) the best burgers in Chicago: Hop Haus. Great place. Max and I both had the wild burger trio (he had ostrich, boar, and I think kangaroo; I had kangaroo and 2x buffalo, because it's excellent). We wandered back to my apartment for more geek talk, with a lengthy discussion of New WoD Changeling, which seems frightfully interesting. Sadly, Max couldn't burn me a CD of the .pdf he'd pirated from... somewhere. We ended back up at the Ritz in their room (I was later amused to find out that Max had become Mr. Carroll for the duration of his stay), with hanging out and a people-pile on the bed. I went home with a National Geographic bag (borrowed) containing a pair of Minneapolis phone books (this was the response to my request for ~8" of hardcover or disused books to raise up my monitors on my desk so I can better survive the Blind Times in the Eyrie (I face west).
CLR's over now, so there will have to be a part three, as I've still got almost a week outstanding. I leave you all with a quote from today's pertinent court case (yay CT. Also, tomorrow's National Coming Out Day. OUTLaw's celebrating it today with a table with impractically small pins, skittles [taste the rainbow], and the 'Ask a Gay' box.):
"Like these once prevalent views, our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection. Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.
83 The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.84" ELIZABETH KERRIGAN ET AL. v. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH ET AL.
(SC 17716) (I know this isn't a formal cite. Get over it)
Thursday was uneventful during the day--class. Whee. That evening, though, Habeas had its traditional 'Oh shit we've got a concert tomorrow' rehearsal. Three hours in Sarah Kalameris' apartment (which has awesome acoustics, and a really cute hyperactive mutt named Bisi), singing and drinking and horsing around with other members of Habeas. It was generally hilarious. I got Sarah to commit to arranging Li'l Red Riding Hood (for which solo I will definitely be auditioning, possibly with an edge due to my knowing the song rather well and having been the one to suggest its being arranged. After we finished--and got things sounding REALLY good, particularly given that one of our members had joined us for the first time that evening (we needed another tenor, and he picked shit up quite damn fast)--we watched the TiVo'd VP debate, playing Sarah Palin bingo. If the witch had said 'good guys', I would have won. Bisi kept trying to trample my bingo card. It was a good night.
Friday was Sam's and my presentation--Kathy and Steve Roman were on the defense. We all did quite well. I was terrified, but no one noticed, and I carried it off fairly well. The subject of the case was a man in jail in Mississippi attempting to murder the judge who put him there (for 40 years for armed robbery/drug possession) by way of a voodoo death hex. [I'll pause to let that sink in.] Kathy's defense (ridiculing voodoo for two minutes) was over-the-top and rather entertaining, if a bit less than perfectly effective. At the same time, it was my day to take notes for the class wiki. After classes, I went to lunch with OUTLaw alums, at CPK in the Water Tower Place, and midway through the meal I looked up, and out into the mall--our food hadn't come yet--and I saw a familiar bespectacled and bebarbed face wandering around confused-like. I hadn't expected to see him until later that evening, and started laughing. I got up and directed him to Wow Bao for lunch, and caught up with him once I'd finished my food (I bailed on OUTLaw). Afterward, we wandered slightly until I had to go home to do citation exercises (boo citation). This was, unfortunately for Max, rather boring--we talked about his mythologies and his theories of why magic sucks except when it affects only probability (he dislikes things that break the laws of thermodynamics, and objected when I allowed as how my magic systems actually paid attention to that, with corollary laws of thaumodynamics).
Then he went off somewhere and I went off to sing for alumni, which went quite well--except that no one could really hear due to there being a cocktail party going on all around us, with little focus brought to bear on us. It was fun, though. Immediately after, I bailed to go hang out with Max and Rachel--because social good, and I'd been rather in a funk all week. It was great to see them, and Rachel went off to some dinner thing, leaving me to find food with Max. We tried Gino's and Giordano's, except that--being friday at 8ish--they were way too long-lined. We tried a barbecue place--slightly better, but still half an hour. So we trekked all the way out to the brown line to find what I know to be (as they've got signs averring it in front) the best burgers in Chicago: Hop Haus. Great place. Max and I both had the wild burger trio (he had ostrich, boar, and I think kangaroo; I had kangaroo and 2x buffalo, because it's excellent). We wandered back to my apartment for more geek talk, with a lengthy discussion of New WoD Changeling, which seems frightfully interesting. Sadly, Max couldn't burn me a CD of the .pdf he'd pirated from... somewhere. We ended back up at the Ritz in their room (I was later amused to find out that Max had become Mr. Carroll for the duration of his stay), with hanging out and a people-pile on the bed. I went home with a National Geographic bag (borrowed) containing a pair of Minneapolis phone books (this was the response to my request for ~8" of hardcover or disused books to raise up my monitors on my desk so I can better survive the Blind Times in the Eyrie (I face west).
CLR's over now, so there will have to be a part three, as I've still got almost a week outstanding. I leave you all with a quote from today's pertinent court case (yay CT. Also, tomorrow's National Coming Out Day. OUTLaw's celebrating it today with a table with impractically small pins, skittles [taste the rainbow], and the 'Ask a Gay' box.):
"Like these once prevalent views, our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection. Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.
83 The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.84" ELIZABETH KERRIGAN ET AL. v. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH ET AL.
(SC 17716) (I know this isn't a formal cite. Get over it)
Monday, October 6, 2008
Life no Longer on Hold (1 of 2, I think): Two Weeks Past
First things first: my story got updated. If you want to, go check it out (link on the sidebar). Two short sections, one long section, miscellaneous edits (feel free to keep those coming, those of you who do), and a bit of an order switch up now that I've figured out what my story's format (as far as sections are concerned) will be.
So. Stuff. Classes are proceeding apace--still only one scheduled midterm, even though I know there will be three. We've finished Pleadings, in Civ Pro, and are embroiled in Chain of Title problems in property (I've decided that I need someday to live in MA so I can create in my property a fee tail, just to be a pain in everyone else's ass). Crim goes in its meandering fashion--we're dealing with attempts and impossibility (at least, we were most of last week, and will continue a bit this week), and Contracts has moved on to acceptance. CLR (legal writing, for those of you who don't know), continues to suck as much as it can--I'll be doing a group research project on something involving the Fair Use doctrine, and spend this coming weekend rewriting a memo. I hate citations; the feeling is mutual. We use pseudonyms for our papers so that grading can be blind and we can still get our papers back--the first set were from the X-Files, and the current set are from the Wire. I had to wikipedia the names I chose based on phonetic aesthetics in order to figure out that I landed a villain each time.
So. Starting the Wednesday before last, because that's when events seemed significant. Michelle and I went down by bus to see Dave VDL (a guy in Habeas and my CLR section) sing at the M Lounge. He's an excellent singer, and his (three-piece: keyboard, bass, voice) band's alternate name is hilarious: Jazzhands Across America. He did a variety of Sinatra, my opinion of whom you all likely know; he also did excellent renditions of The Way and So It Goes. Much fun was had, even though cider was cheaper than water at the little bar. We ignored the two-drink minimum, and no fuss was made. Several of us bussed back up, chatting all the way--topics included, and were largely limited to, school, Habeas, and boys.
Thursday had Ethiopian food. A large group of us, headed up by Bergy and Michelle (there were seven of us in all) and her cousin (also Michelle), went North on the Red Line to not-quite hell and gone, because Bergy declared about a week prior that he wanted Ethiopian. I had never before experienced Ethiopian, but more or less managed to disguise my ignorance. First, it was delicious. Second, the honey-wine was like a poor man's Dolce (my uncle's dessert wine), but less reminiscent of raisins, and a bit thicker. Third, the meal itself was an adventure, as a) we ate with our hands (as is done), aided by the spongey, rolled-up bread (think a cross between pita and sourdough, the color of wet public-bathroom paper towels), b) the food was unidentified, and varied in spiciness from tame to mouth-burning, and c) there were bones in select portions. Michelle had to finally rip apart the baked chicken before people started going after it. Conversation and company were animated and lively. Bergy and Dan split off to head to bar review, which evidently was less than stellar, and the rest of us got off the El at our relative locations (I walked Michelle's cousin back to her hotel, with a minor detour to get lost because I am not yet a native, with interesting and useful conversation the whole way). A good night.
Friday was somewhat of a wash. I had to get up early in order to get a tetanus shot over at the hospital, conveniently two doors down from the law school because my old doctor didn't have the last one on record. Surprisingly, it was the least painful shot I had ever had (at least, the injection portion of it was... being tetanus, it started to suck shortly thereafter). Better yet, because I was a student, they decided to decline to charge me. I got the record faxed in and thereby avoided being charged $100 for lack of documented vaccinations. Dicked around after classes before going up to Joe's for a little hangout with other OUTLaw members before going over to Sidetrack for the LaGBAC (Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago) Meet the Bar event (yes. Law has lots of bar puns). I skipped out of that a bit early--handing Morgan my extra drink ticket, for which he was vocally grateful--in order to go to Michelle's debate party. I found out, only after having left, that she'd cancelled due to a few people bailing and a cranky husband. So I went home and wrote and watched the debate on my own. That marked the second time I have turned on my television.
Saturday consisted mostly of work (I think. As you might gather, my memory these days seems limited to what needs to be done soon, what necessary things were done earlier, and what significant events happened. Reading, studying, cleaning, procrastinating... none of these are significant events unless they somehow otherwise affect my life beyond preparation for class and sleep deprivation). Verity had a get together at her place, for which Kathy and I met up and walked most of the way there. We were not the first to arrive, but only one person had come before us. Thus, we got to have the bulk of her delicious food--particularly the Risotto balls (stuffed with some sort of creamy cheese--possibly something camembert-y). She also fed us chicken satay (which recipe I need), and homemade pizza. Dessert was a meringue and whipped cream concoction with strawberries involved, and was incredible. Josh and Tim showed up later, as well as a few other LLM-types. For some reason, the main topic of conversation kept coming back (aside from all the necessary talk of school) to eating disorders and bulemia. Much horrendous fun ensued. Afterward, Josh went off to some thing he didn't particularly want to go to, and Tim, Kathy, and I made our way home by the El. The U-Pass is possibly the greatest thing ever ($90 at the beginning of the term--mandatory--for a card that makes all public transportation free for the year. I will so be getting [my] money's worth out of this).
Sunday was rather quite low-key. I talked to my dear darling wife for tax purposes over in Botswana, and learned that Cara is, in fact, still alive--and now even has housing. I went over in the early afternoon to borrow a movie from Bergy, which turned into lunch as well. A good time. Came back, read for forever, and then watched the movie once I forced my computer(s) to bow to my will. The movie in question was 'The Bad and the Beautiful', an old B&W flick in three parts, each of which painted part of an increasingly full picture of a producer. The movie was well done, and interesting, and a brilliant character portrait. A bit melancholy, but thought-provoking. Still undecided on whether or not I liked the movie itself. And now I have to go get my books for Civ Pro, so I'll leave off here, only a week behind.
Professor Redish on Compulsory Counterclaims: 'What're they going to do if you don't file the compulsory counterclaim? Hmm? Shoot you? What'll they do? Make you listen to Sarah Palin's voice all day?'
So. Stuff. Classes are proceeding apace--still only one scheduled midterm, even though I know there will be three. We've finished Pleadings, in Civ Pro, and are embroiled in Chain of Title problems in property (I've decided that I need someday to live in MA so I can create in my property a fee tail, just to be a pain in everyone else's ass). Crim goes in its meandering fashion--we're dealing with attempts and impossibility (at least, we were most of last week, and will continue a bit this week), and Contracts has moved on to acceptance. CLR (legal writing, for those of you who don't know), continues to suck as much as it can--I'll be doing a group research project on something involving the Fair Use doctrine, and spend this coming weekend rewriting a memo. I hate citations; the feeling is mutual. We use pseudonyms for our papers so that grading can be blind and we can still get our papers back--the first set were from the X-Files, and the current set are from the Wire. I had to wikipedia the names I chose based on phonetic aesthetics in order to figure out that I landed a villain each time.
So. Starting the Wednesday before last, because that's when events seemed significant. Michelle and I went down by bus to see Dave VDL (a guy in Habeas and my CLR section) sing at the M Lounge. He's an excellent singer, and his (three-piece: keyboard, bass, voice) band's alternate name is hilarious: Jazzhands Across America. He did a variety of Sinatra, my opinion of whom you all likely know; he also did excellent renditions of The Way and So It Goes. Much fun was had, even though cider was cheaper than water at the little bar. We ignored the two-drink minimum, and no fuss was made. Several of us bussed back up, chatting all the way--topics included, and were largely limited to, school, Habeas, and boys.
Thursday had Ethiopian food. A large group of us, headed up by Bergy and Michelle (there were seven of us in all) and her cousin (also Michelle), went North on the Red Line to not-quite hell and gone, because Bergy declared about a week prior that he wanted Ethiopian. I had never before experienced Ethiopian, but more or less managed to disguise my ignorance. First, it was delicious. Second, the honey-wine was like a poor man's Dolce (my uncle's dessert wine), but less reminiscent of raisins, and a bit thicker. Third, the meal itself was an adventure, as a) we ate with our hands (as is done), aided by the spongey, rolled-up bread (think a cross between pita and sourdough, the color of wet public-bathroom paper towels), b) the food was unidentified, and varied in spiciness from tame to mouth-burning, and c) there were bones in select portions. Michelle had to finally rip apart the baked chicken before people started going after it. Conversation and company were animated and lively. Bergy and Dan split off to head to bar review, which evidently was less than stellar, and the rest of us got off the El at our relative locations (I walked Michelle's cousin back to her hotel, with a minor detour to get lost because I am not yet a native, with interesting and useful conversation the whole way). A good night.
Friday was somewhat of a wash. I had to get up early in order to get a tetanus shot over at the hospital, conveniently two doors down from the law school because my old doctor didn't have the last one on record. Surprisingly, it was the least painful shot I had ever had (at least, the injection portion of it was... being tetanus, it started to suck shortly thereafter). Better yet, because I was a student, they decided to decline to charge me. I got the record faxed in and thereby avoided being charged $100 for lack of documented vaccinations. Dicked around after classes before going up to Joe's for a little hangout with other OUTLaw members before going over to Sidetrack for the LaGBAC (Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago) Meet the Bar event (yes. Law has lots of bar puns). I skipped out of that a bit early--handing Morgan my extra drink ticket, for which he was vocally grateful--in order to go to Michelle's debate party. I found out, only after having left, that she'd cancelled due to a few people bailing and a cranky husband. So I went home and wrote and watched the debate on my own. That marked the second time I have turned on my television.
Saturday consisted mostly of work (I think. As you might gather, my memory these days seems limited to what needs to be done soon, what necessary things were done earlier, and what significant events happened. Reading, studying, cleaning, procrastinating... none of these are significant events unless they somehow otherwise affect my life beyond preparation for class and sleep deprivation). Verity had a get together at her place, for which Kathy and I met up and walked most of the way there. We were not the first to arrive, but only one person had come before us. Thus, we got to have the bulk of her delicious food--particularly the Risotto balls (stuffed with some sort of creamy cheese--possibly something camembert-y). She also fed us chicken satay (which recipe I need), and homemade pizza. Dessert was a meringue and whipped cream concoction with strawberries involved, and was incredible. Josh and Tim showed up later, as well as a few other LLM-types. For some reason, the main topic of conversation kept coming back (aside from all the necessary talk of school) to eating disorders and bulemia. Much horrendous fun ensued. Afterward, Josh went off to some thing he didn't particularly want to go to, and Tim, Kathy, and I made our way home by the El. The U-Pass is possibly the greatest thing ever ($90 at the beginning of the term--mandatory--for a card that makes all public transportation free for the year. I will so be getting [my] money's worth out of this).
Sunday was rather quite low-key. I talked to my dear darling wife for tax purposes over in Botswana, and learned that Cara is, in fact, still alive--and now even has housing. I went over in the early afternoon to borrow a movie from Bergy, which turned into lunch as well. A good time. Came back, read for forever, and then watched the movie once I forced my computer(s) to bow to my will. The movie in question was 'The Bad and the Beautiful', an old B&W flick in three parts, each of which painted part of an increasingly full picture of a producer. The movie was well done, and interesting, and a brilliant character portrait. A bit melancholy, but thought-provoking. Still undecided on whether or not I liked the movie itself. And now I have to go get my books for Civ Pro, so I'll leave off here, only a week behind.
Professor Redish on Compulsory Counterclaims: 'What're they going to do if you don't file the compulsory counterclaim? Hmm? Shoot you? What'll they do? Make you listen to Sarah Palin's voice all day?'
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