Juice Freaks Out About The Wiz's Sudden Fatness

Julie had a lovely party today for Zander's birthday, and all kinds of cool peeps were present. Among these cool peeps were several cat-owners who laughed snarkily when I mentioned that The Wiz has become quite chubby over the last few weeks. I also noticed that she hasn't been making those "in-heat" noises since the day she ran away. Oh, man. I don't know what to think. Is she knocked up? She doesn't seem fat enough to be prego. But she has definitely gotten fat. According to About.com, the average gestation period for cats is 63-64 days. Since she ran away August 27, if she was going to pop out some kittens, that should occur in the next few days, right? I don't know, man. I don't think she's quite fat enough to have kitties.... (?) I'm very nervous. Stay tuned.

So, I'm learning all about the ethical duties of lawyers, but here's what I really want to know: If one were to find clothing at Value Village or Savers that is perfect for a friend, but one wants to keep the clothing for oneself, what is the ethical thing to do? Here's what happened. At Julie's today, she showed me a shirt she had picked up at Savers that was just my size and that I totally love. She said she knew it was perfect for me and kind of wanted to give it to me, but had thought about taking it in so she could keep it for herself because it is super sweet. Then I admitted that I had picked up a dress that was perfect for her a few weeks ago, but I hadn't turned it over and was hogging it for myself, even though it was a bit too small and I'd have to take it out. See, neither of these pieces of clothing fit us, but we were having a hard time turning them over. We decided to swap, which kind of hurts both of us, but I think we are bound by a solemn ethical duty to turn over clothes that are perfect for a friend. I'm exploring the boundaries of this duty. I think it exists where (1) the thing is perfect for the friend; (2) the thing fits the friend, but you would have to put some work into it to make it fit you; and (3) you know from years of hanging out and shopping with the friend that said friend would love the clothing item. Hmmmm....maybe I'm just writing all this 'cuz I feel so guilty about bagging such a sweet shirt. Anyway, thanks Julie, I love it. I hope you'll love the dress, I'll bring it to CC on Thursday.

The Gnome was there today with adorable little baby Esther. I steered clear, because I'm still sick, but I am happy to report that she is super cute. She's got a photo on her blog--check it out.

Well, peeps. I have to study for those exams. Hasta luego!

Pink Furry Pen Dies, Survived by Loyal Master

I lost a dear and loyal friend when my pink furry pen died last night. She was eight months and five days old. She went out fighting, petering out in the middle of the word "mediation." It's a four-syllable word, and she just didn't have it in her anymore, bless her little Chinese heart. She died happy and validated, I think, having received a kind compliment from PR Professor mere hours before her untimely departure from this world.

As I mentioned, I've been pretty sick this week. Which is making me flaky. I missed a meeting with one of my professors yesterday, because when I scheduled the meeting Wednesday, I thought it was Thursday. I thought most of Wednesday was Thursday, in fact. So when we scheduled a meeting for "tomorrow" at 4:30, I put it on my outlook calendar for Friday. What a bonehead! So I missed the meeting, and he was like WTF? And I was like, Oh, sorry, I thought yesterday was today...uh...never mind.

Then I slipped in to clinic for a quick minute last night and received a call from my client. She had been evicted from her apartment and there was a whole debacle and host of issues surrounding her situation that required attention, and I ended up staying for almost five hours helping her sort it all out. We're still trying to find a shelter for the poor lady. What a snaky situation, man. Her husband usually paid the rent. When she filed an order for protection against him, she excluded him from the home and then he contacted the landlord to tell him he wasn't going to pay the rent. She doesn't have the money to pay it, so the landlord evicted her. To complicate matters, she has a teenage son, and many shelters that accept women and children won't accept teenaged males.

I have two major exams next week. I get the first exam on Monday, it's a mid-term for Criminal Procedure, and is worth 65% of the grade. Matt and Geoff came over today to study for it, but we got bored, so we quit. Crim Pro is really, really easy. A lot of the cases are fun and really fascinating to read, but it's pretty simp. (Hm. I should delete all that. Is there a better way to ensure that I get a D on the exam?) That's a take-home exam due next Friday.

The second exam is the multi-state professional responsibility exam. It's a required exam, also referred to informally as the Ethics Bar, I think. Unlike a Clif Bar, which is packed with carbohydrates, the Ethics Bar tests things like attorney-client privilege, conflicts-of-interest, attorney and judicial misconduct, etc. That exam is next Friday. I'm going to spend the rest of the day studying for it.

It is beautiful outside. But a little too chilly to study on the patio. Big bummer. I went over to my neighbor's house today to check out the renovations they've been doing. They have completely gutted the place, repainted the exterior, new windows, deck in the back, etc. It looks great, though they have much work to do. They're really nice, and have been taking care of the leaves in my front yard all fall. (Actually, this raises an issue. They've been putting them all out on the street, which I'm pretty sure is against city ordinance. I should go out there and bag them.) So I brought them a bunch of beer as a thank you and toured the home. They put a little balcony out of one of the upstairs bedrooms and I am uber jealous of it. A second-story balcony is pretty much all I want in this world. If I had a little perch like that to read and to sleep at night, I would die happy.

Student Breaks Down and Buys Cup of Goon Juice in Middle of Night

Oh, boy. I am c-r-a-b-b-y.

The longer I sit in the Law Journal office, the longer I think about committing homicide. If I ever meet the author of this article I'm checking, I swear to God, he is toast. Since I'm a pacifist, I'll have to resort to slipping a vial of poison in his drink.

The dude makes these wild claims in his article, then cites a whole damn book to support it. So it's up to me to leaf through the whole flippin' book to find the quote or whatever. Are you kidding me? Each cite is taking a hundred years to check. I did not sign up for this. I thought Law Journal would be all about martinis and polo tournaments?

Had to go on a field trip to the U of M biomedical library tonight to obtain some sources that were taking too long to get here. Was not too happy about that because I hate to deal with parking etc. at the U and walking through the zillion buildings over in the medical area confuses and annoys me. I was pretty crabby to begin with because I have a super bad cold, so the whole Journal debacle was getting to be a little too much to deal with, especially when the library didn't have one of the journals I needed even though their database said they had it. Since I was in the area, I decided to try to eat my feelings at The Village Wok, but that didn't really help either.

So, anyhoo, after slogging through my night class, I returned to the Journal office to seethe about these sources. Finally I sent an email to Summra calling for help. She dragged me out of the office and we went for a brisk little walk in which we passed two coffee shops that had closed at 11. We thought they were open until midnight.

This leads us to the headline. There are only two times when one would ever resort to buying Goon Juice. The first is when it is so late that all the coffee shops are closed. The second is when you can't keep your head up in class and there is absolutely no time to run to a coffee shop before the next class.

What is Goon Juice? You know, the crappy Nescafe coffee machine in the basement. You pay sixty cents and push the button that says "French Vanilla Cappuccino" and you end up with a cup of....powder? sugar?...don't think about what it is! Just drink it. There, there. OK.

Juice Kills Time During Class

Had nice lunch today with The Mess, who looked smashing in a Mary-Kay-Lady-Meets-1950s-Pinup-Model outfit. We watched Eliot Spitzer talk at my school, which was a great event.

Uber thanks to those of you who have purchased raffle tickets so far!

It is impossible for me to concentrate during my Tuesday evening class (International Human Rights). I prefer to just read the material on my own. I go to class anyway and surf the net while the instructor talks. It's a good time to catch up on blogs. A big favorite lately is Design Sponge. It's a good one to peek at during class, because I can just look at the pretty pictures & don't have to read.

We're dragging into hour 2 of class. Ugggggg... My buddy just turned to me to ask if I wanted to have a "stink-off." This is a game where we both take off our shoes & the first to crack due to the smell loses. I usually lose, so decided to pass.


Thanks to the Daily Kos, here's a sneak peek at some of the jokes in Al Franken's newest book The Truth (with Jokes), which was released today:

Iraq: They told us that when we invaded, we'd be greeted with sweets and flowers. They left out the crucial modifier: "exploding."

Gay marriage: George W. Bush wants to amend our Constitution to make it illegal for gays to marry. But evidently, he has no problem with terrorists getting married. America can't afford a president who is soft on terrorist marriage. Because unlike gays, terrorists can breed.

Bill Frist diagnosing Terri Schiavo from 800 miles away: The FristCam Act of 2005 would place a video camera in every one of America's Intensive Care Units. The FristCams would pan the ICUs, and the Senate Majority Leader would give each patient a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

Bush's 9/11 bait and switch: Bin Laden must have been furious. Here he had gone to all this trouble to murder thousands of Americans, and Saddam---Saddam, the infidel!---was getting all the credit! Who was the head of al Qaeda?! Who was funding al Qaeda?! Somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border there was a very angry terrorist mastermind.

Moral values: From what I understand, if you cut out all the passages in the Bible where Jesus talks about the poor, about helping out the least among us, you'd have the perfect container to smuggle Rush Limbaugh's drugs in.

The Social Security "crisis": The number Bush kept using, $11 trillion, represented the total shortfall from now until the year Infinity. If you think about it, $11 trillion over Infinity years is nothing. Over the first 11 trillion years, that's just one dollar a year. Easy. After that, it's over. You're done. What, exactly, is the problem?

Juice Shamelessly Peddles Raffle Tickets

I have raffle tickets for sale! You can win up to $1500 cash! They cost $1 each. It's a 50/50 raffle, so basically, we're awarding half our proceeds as the prize, and we've printed 3000 tickets. This is my Amnesty International group's fundraiser to help us put on our annual human rights banquet, among other awareness projects on campus, and also may be used to help fund the service trip we're planning for next spring.

The drawing will be held November 11.

If you want to help out my group & take a shot at winning a bunch of dough, you can mail me a check and I'll fill out the tickets for you. Send me an email and I will provide you with my mailing address and work out other details.

Dear Summra has offered a home-cooked Indian dinner for four to the person who sells the most tickets--so you know I'm shooting to win.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Fall Break Ends

Last night was good times at our place with mom & sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew. I made dinner, then Sarah entertained us with piano and guitar solos all night. Eventually we conscripted her into playing piano while we all sang. I daresay she was exasperated and embarassed by our passionate yet off-key rendition of Fast Car and not very receptive of our pleas to play the rest of the songs in my Tracy Chapman songbook. (Oy, who can blame her? We are pretty pathetic.)

I came down with a nasty cold this past week, which, needless to say, totally stinks! It is an unfair twist of fate to spend break sick in the head. I'm spending my last day of vacation doing homework and sniffling. Boo!

In other news, Big Time Attic's book was reviewed in this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly. Nice work, guys!

Juice Bags Super Sweet Reading Glasses at Ace Hardware of All Places

The neutral observer watching me edit an article at an urban coffee shop gets quite a show, I realized today. I needed to buckle down and work on editing a chapter for the prof I work for, so I went to Greg's headquarters (Dunn Bros by the river) where I somehow always manage to get good work done. The chapter was 50 pages, and he warned me that it was "a pretty rough draft." I worked on it for a solid 2-1/2 hours with my full attention. Toward the end, I was getting pretty irritable about several pages full of super long sentences with excessive legalese and complex introductory clauses all in passive voice. Suddenly, I snapped out of the zone I was in to picture what I looked like. I was muttering the words out loud as I followed each syllable with a pencil, making dramatic slashes and notations all over the paper; my face was scrunched in a sour and disapproving expression, and my knees were bouncing up and down super fast. I was getting waaaaaaaay too involved in the thing. I had to get out of there. I finished it up and made a run for it.

Yesterday was a great day. I got to hang out with my little sister Mary. My other sisters Sarah and Greta and my mom all headed up to Montreal for the weekend to check out a school that my brilliant and genius sister Sarah wants to attend next year. Mary is staying with other sister Kate, and I got her for the day. Anyhoo, Mary and I went to Sarah's house (not sister Sarah. This story is getting tricky, isn't it? This Sarah is my roommate from Nerd Camp) because Sarah was working in her yard and offered to give me some good shady plants that she was splitting. OMG, she gave me so many plants they filled up the back of the Subaru. A million hostas, seedum, peony, daylilies, and several other unidentified species. Back home, Mary helped me plop them in the ground.

Mom gave us an anniversary gift, and I was waiting for Shad because I thought he should open it with me. While we were planting, Mary kept bugging me to open it and I refused. Finally, when we were done with the planting, and it had gotten dark out, she convinced me to open the gift. Mom had given me a whole bunch of plant bulbs! Bahaaa! Tulips, crocus, hyacinthe, and iris. So we went out there and planted those, too, in the dark. Fun times. My mom likes to give traditional anniversary gifts. E.g. The traditional theme for the first anniversary is paper or clocks--she gave us a subscription to my hometown paper. Well, the four-year traditional anniversary gift is flowers or appliances. I'll bet my mother-in-law didn't realize she had followed tradition when she gave us that super sweet freezer. Needless to say, I'm super psyched about planting all those bulbs and watching the flowers come up in the spring. I've never planted bulbs before, I hope it works out. Next summer will be really fun, now that I have a bazillion flowers and plants expected to come up.

Took a break from my studying today for lunch at Matt's new house. As per usual, the meal ended with the three of us arguing vehemently about political and economic ideologies (among other things). As usual, Geoff is the unapologetically capitalist champ, while Matt and I argue for some breed of socialism/Marxism/communism. I don't know how we get along, what with that and their incredible love of guns.

Oh, and today's headline? I stopped in at an Ace Hardware on the way to Matt's house to pick up lawn&leaf bags and duct tape, and found a random display of actually cool reading glasses on sale for $2.99. My reading glasses prescription is a pathetic +1.00, which is basically nothing, so I usually can't find any on the little displays you see at Walgreens or whatever (which usually start at +1.50 or 1.25 if I'm lucky). Anyhoo, I lost my old ones, and though I read fine without them, it takes some pressure off my eyes to have them. Yay for Ace Hardware!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Minneapolis Woman Held Captive by Book

Oh, man. My nose is stuck in a book tonight. I've been trying to pull myself away to finish laundry, but it's been impossible. I've been getting up to pee and get beer out of the fridge (normally would drink coffee, but it tastes like blood when reading this book), and that's about it. The book is Bitter Grounds, by Sandra Benitez. Julie loaned it to me a few months ago, and I am hooked. ...What? No! Of course I haven't been bawling my head off while I'm reading it. No way. Not me. Sheesh, what kind of a sniveling sissy-baby do you take me for? Nothing but dry eyes here. Yupper dupper.

Obscure Little CD Shows Up at Minneapolis Public Library!

I forgive the library for their hostile return policies. I marched myself down there and wrote them a check for the whole thirty bucks. I did not even try to bargain them down. I just paid it.

Why this change of heart, you ask?

Because after years of (admittedly half-assed) searching, I located an obscure little folk album that I used to listen to constantly and that somehow disappeared. It's by a college/indy band called Pimentos for Gus that broke up several years ago. [Just to prove how half-assed my search was, I just googled the band and found lots of places where I could purchase their albums. Jeeze, what a freak.] Anyhoo, the library has SIX copies of the album I was looking for (17-Minute Workout). SIX! They didn't even have that many copies of the Beastie Boys.

Juice in Dog House Again With Librarians

Tbe Minneapolis Public Library system won't let me request any materials because of outstanding library fines. I don't know why they have to treat me like this. I'm one of their best customers. My fees--when I pay them--probably keep the Webber-Camden branch open, for Pete's sake.

I owe them thirty bucks.

You'd think they could wait until I owed more like fifty or a hundred.

I'm bummed because I'm burning a bunch of my CDs onto iTunes, and I noticed that a few of my favorites are missing. Then I decided I could just get them from the library and burn them onto my computer (that's not illegal, is it?). One CD that I'm missing is Natalie Merchant's Ophelia. This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and I love it so much I replace it every time I lose it, which has happened three times. So I thought this time I could just get it from the library. Guess not. Sheesh.

Torture Provides Endless Hours of Fun for all Ages!

Is the question of whether torture is acceptable really still up for debate? Really? Didn't we resolve that as a global society back in the 1600s or so? Or at least by the time of the Geneva Conventions?

I understand that there is no dearth of polically controversial issues that are still up for debate. Abortion. Death penalty. Taxation and spending. Foreign policy. But...torture? That's just fundamental. Apparently with the shenanigans of the Bush Administration, we get to start all over from square one. Suddenly "Pro-Torture" is a legitimate political stance. Forget basic human rights. Forget that torture provides unreliable information. Forget that you just don't do that to people. Just connect this electrical thingy to your left nipple and let's go on with the show.

The Federalist Society has invited celebrated torture king and loony-toon neocon John Yoo to speak at our school. The guy's claim to fame is authoring what have become known as "the torture memos," and is credited with removing legal obstacles that would prohibit torture during the war on terror. He argued basically that since Afghanistan has no formal government to speak of, neither the Geneva Conventions nor any other laws of war apply. This breaks a fifty-year U.S. military tradition of upholding those rules, rules that we adopted because we expect them to be applied to us. Despite the major legal flaws in the memo, Bush approved it, which ultimately led to the use of torture in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, and other Iraqi prisons.

Naturally, our Amnesty International group is repulsed that he has been invited to our school. We are reacting by bringing in as many human rights speakers as we can in the weeks before the event, by launching a 2-week public information campaign prior to the event, and by approaching the Federalists to request that we be allowed to find a debate opponent for when Yoo comes. As it turns out, two of the leading human rights scholars in the city have already turned down the offer to debate the guy, saying they won't dignify him by sharing a platform with him. We have been dancing around the issue of a formal protest the day of the event.

The Federalists are nervous. The president of their group asked to meet with me today, and he was like, so...ahhh...what are you guys going to do? I told him we were planning to chain ourselves to the railings, paint blood on ourselves, assume torture positions, and shout "Ow!" at intervals while whipping each other with cat-o-nine-tails or whatever they're called. OK, I'm just kidding. But the guy is totally kidding himself if he thinks the thing will go off without protest. People protest Yoo wherever he goes. Students at Berkeley demanded his resignation. Isn't that what makes our country great? Wasn't America founded on protest and dissent and has it not grown from that? All of a sudden, protesting is "unpatriotic" and "rude." That's crazy. We're not going to ruin his event, but we certainly have a right--probably a duty--to dissent. He says, yes, I'll admit the guy is controversial. Controversial? The guy is a total nut-job! He classifies my anti-torture views as "radical" and "leftist." Which I guess means that real republicans are now pro-torture? Any republican readers out there? How do you feel about that?

Anyway, the purpose of this little rant is that I just don't understand why the topic of torture is even up for debate anymore. Would it have been considered acceptable five years ago? Has our world changed so much since 9/11? Have we all become so blind?

For more info, here's a video of a debate with the guy last April. (Click "Watch it here.") It's pretty long--you can get the gist of the counter-point's argument at minutes 16-19.

Google is Great Oracle of Our Time

Go to Google and search for "failure." Check out the first result. Just so you know, a search for "miserable failure" produces the same result.

Juice Learns all Kinds of Hippie Hoo Ha

I am going to call the Kick Ass Law Firm tomorrow to accept the offer. That should give me the juice I need to write the paper that's due at 5 p.m. tomorrow. I haven't been able to convince myself to start it yet. I was going to get working on it tonight, but decided to go out for a couple of drinks with Matt & Buster instead. Then of course when I returned to school I was totally useless, and decided to stop putzing around and just go to bed.

Today, this lady from Lite Spa came in to talk to my clinic practice group about relaxation techniques and how to deal with stress. It was a really neat experience. I learned all kinds of new agey hoo ha re: chakras & meridians etc. The other funny thing is that she was talking about this beverage called calm. It's part of a line of beverages that have vitamins in them (others are radiant, immune, and slender). Anyway, she was really raving about calm, and she poured some for all of us to taste. It's sort of an answer to Red Bull, if you will. She was telling us about how great it is and said that she had had FOUR of them already that day. (It was only 1:30 p.m.). What? I just loved picturing that: "I'm stressed!" *Gulp* "Still stressed!" *gulp gulp!* "Ack! Hyperventilating! I have too much going on!" *gluggggggg* .... She was telling us about her drinking regimen with these beverages, and it sounds like she drinks about 8 a day. As many calms as it takes to destress, a radiant to improve her skin, an immune before she goes to bed, etc. Hilarious.

But let me share with you all a technique I learned that I plan to use to help me get to sleep at night.

If any of you are like me, when you go to bed at night, you start thinking about (1) everything you have to do tomorrow; or (2) everything you did not get done today. Because of this, I never sleep very well and often have a hard time getting up in the morning. So, her suggestion is that when you go to bed at night, instead think about something that happened that day that you are grateful for. Then, think of another thing you are grateful for. Ideally, you will think of three things, ruminate on those things, and go to sleep thinking about those things. This puts you in a calm, restful state, and moves the stressful things out of your mind. (She also suggested spraying some Lite Spa lavendar spray mist on your pillow, which you can purchase at her store for a mere $14.99). She suggested you make a deal with yourself, that if you starting thinking of things that you have to do, you will just get up and do them. So instead, think of things you are grateful for.

So, I'm going to bed now...and I have so many things to be grateful for, I might still be listing them when my alarm goes off.

Tumbleweeds Blow Through Blog Town

Sorry for the relative silence, dudes. I've had a tough week. Some crap going down and I was feeling bummed out. But I'm looking to the future. I have school all day tomorrow, have to complete a midterm paper that is due Friday, and then I'm on "break." Woo hoo!

Court was fine on Monday. We got a guardian ad litem appointed for the children, and the judge continued the case to early November so the guardian ad litem could investigate the situation. This will give the respondent (the alleged abusive husband/father) time to retain an attorney. So, the next time we show up in court, we can expect to have opposing counsel, rather than a pro se litigant who barely speaks English. Though it seems a little scary to be up against someone who actually knows what they are doing, I feel relieved. It felt strange to be in court on Monday--our client was represented by two student attorneys, our supervising attorney, and two advocates from the women's shelter. So she had this huge support structure, and the respondent was alone. It was unsettling to see those dynamics. I felt like he was getting ganged up on and should at least have some representation. (Would I want to represent the guy who beat up his wife and kids? No. But someone should.) So, he'll find a lawyer. The other good thing about having a lawyer on the other side is that we may be able to negotiate with him or her and reach some sort of agreement rather than go through a big evidentiary hearing on the matter. My favorite part of that case? The police report:

Q: Did you strike [your daughter] in the face?
A: Well, I held up my hand, and she walked into it.

This morning, I went to court for the whole speeding ticket debacle. Remember that? Well, I sat in court for two hours, and finally was able to speak to the city prosecutor. He agreed to suspend prosecution, which basically means that the speeding ticket won't go on my record as long as I do not commit the same or similar offense in the next year. I paid a $200 prosecution fee, but didn't have to pay the $142 ticket. I'll be saving money on insurance for sure.

I gave my car some attention this week. I left the lights on Monday, but Elissa called to tell me about it right away, so no battery problems. Tuesday after I parked and walked into school, I started to feel itchy like something wasn't right, so I decided to go back to the ramp and check on my lights. Sure enough, they were on. I shut them off in time so again no battery problems. Today, I shut the lights off while I was still two blocks away from the ramp, and checked them about ten times before and after I parked. I also put air in my tires (thanks, -s, G, and M for alerting me to this situation), changed my oil (for the first time in about a year, I swear), and even put the license tabs on the Subaru (that was for you, Greg). I asked the shop about my tire pressure problem and they suggested that I get new tires pronto. I guess it's been about four years since I got new tires, still it seems like they'd last longer. But the treads are totally worn away on the front tires. *sigh* When I get work done on my car, I feel kind of relieved, like I had just gone to the spa...but I'd still rather spend that money on new clothes or something.

I got my grade back from the great books seminar (a.k.a. Nerd Camp). I got an A on that piece of crap paper that I wrote. Who knows what that was all about? I thought they'd be offended by the paper, which was basically an indictment of the whole group as pathetic conformists who watch reality tv, drive too far to work, care too much about their stupid corporate jobs, and live in beige townhomes in Chanhassen...but whatever. I got a lower grade in class participation which I thought was weird, but I probably deserve it for having such a bad attitude and being supercilious. Sarah, my brilliant philosophy-major roommate, also got a lower grade in participation, so we've hatched a conspiracy theory that the profs marked down the students who challenged their views on suspicion that we are commies.

Welcome back from Ireland, mother-in-law!

Juice Returns

I'm back, all rested and refreshed. Much sleep was had, studying done, good food and wine consumed, shooting stars counted. Geoff's parents are so great for letting us crash their place all weekend. What fun.

Fall break snuck up on me. I get a break the week after next. Of course, there is much to be done. I plan to put my new craft studio together, visit my family, do some sewing, finish proofing two chapters of the treatise Prof. is working on, and catch up on lots of homework. I suspect the week will pass very quickly.

Esther Meets World

Finally, some news from The Gnome!

Little Esther has finally been born. She is sure a cutie-pie, and mom and dad look great in the photos, which can be found here.

SUPER CONGRATS, LA & Steve!

Juice Disappears to Posh Study Retreat

Oh, man.

I can't even begin to explain what a sweet weekend I am having.

Geoff invited us up to his "cabin," which is in northern MN, near Mille Lacs. This place is P-O-S-H. I nearly peed my pants when I saw the huge gourmet kitchen --granite counter-tops etc. Dreamy. The "cabin" is huge, with six bedrooms, huge wooden beams, giant windows facing the lake, big teak rocking chairs on the deck, etc. The house is wired for sound, and I was in heaven with a glass of red wine, listening to Norah Jones, cooking in that big kitchen with my buddies. I have a full menu planned for the weekend. These guys indulged me and let me make whatever I want, and we picked up all of the ingredients on the way up.

Andrea (Matt's wife) and Jessica (Geoff's gf) arrived after dinner (shrimp pad thai), and Geoff's parents and little sister arrived near midnight with news that the northern lights were out. We jumped in the car and drove to an open field, where we saw the most amazing display and a brazilian stars in the clear night sky. It was awesome.

Today is homework day. Geoff's dad woke us up with blueberry and banana pancakes for breakfast before they left. Matt and Geoff went grouse-hunting (maybe we'll have some fresh wild game for dinner?), and we ladies sat around drinking fancy hot chocolate before settling in to our homework.

We are surrounded by fall colors. The sky is clear today, and the water is so blue. This is such an awesome retreat. I plan to invite myself up here more often.

In other news, Shad and I celebrated our four-year anniversary on Wednesday! He surprised me by showing up to my class with a bouquet of flowers. He dragged me away from school for a few hours, and we had a delicious and relaxing dinner at Loring Pasta Bar. Sure wish he could be here with me this weekend. Next time.

Thursday night was an excellent craft conspiracy meeting at Julie's house. Lots of photos are available on the craft conspiracy web site. I walked away with an excellent owl t-shirt and a congratulations gift for The Gnome, who finally had her baby! I haven't seen mama & little Esther yet. Hopefully we can drop by when I get back.

Also, I am trying a case on Monday! I'll be seeking an order for protection on behalf of a female domestic abuse victim and her three children at 9:45 a.m. Monday. Wish me luck!

Must return to my homework now. Ta-ta!

Geoff's Dad Sends Silly Joke

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing.

He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH, NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands, crying quietly.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "Just how many is a brazillion?"

Law Student Intimidated by Seventh Grade Language Arts Class

Geoff and I decided to start volunteering at a local middle school. The school is nearby, and it's just an hour a week. Today was our first day. When we got to class, the teacher handed us some pages with Aesop's Fables printed on them. The class read one of the fables aloud, then the teacher asked the students what it meant. Geoff and I exchanged a quick glance. I had NO IDEA what it meant. I slouched down in my seat--don't call on me, don't call on me, don't call on me! Yikes. Luckily that section was just ending and some younger students came in. Phwew. Sixth graders. This, I think I can handle.

The kids are great, and it was fun to meet them. We did some one-on-one tutoring to assess their reading fluency. But this is an urban school, and there are some unique things incident to that. For example, Geoff was working with one student, and found out that he had just moved here from Milwaukee. "When did you move here?" Geoff asked. "After my brother got shot," answered the kid. "He's dead."

I got stranded at Chipotle this evening, when I thought I could pop in for a quick din-din, and a huge downpour ensued while I was stuffing my face with burrito love. I wasn't about to walk back to school through those buckets of rain (didn't want to ruin my nice blazer), so called Matt the second he emerged from Evidence and he came and picked me up and drove me the block-and-a-half to school. What a pal.

Student Wiped Out After Five Hours of Interviewing at Kick Ass Law Firm

Today was interview at Kick Ass Law Firm day. I love them and want to accept the position right now...but will wait to see what other interview(s) scare(s) up. The offer is open until December 1.

The first thing that was said to me when I walked into the office was: "Wow, it sure is refreshing to see someone who isn't wearing a blue or black suit!"

BWAAAAHHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the Twin Cities Marathon. I jumped in to run part of it with Tonya. I ran about 2.5 miles before The Great Banana GU Debacle put me completely out of commission for about an hour. What happened was I met Tonya at the half and ran along with her all hunky-dory-like, and she gave me her packet of GU (energy gel) to hold in my pocket. At some point she asked for a tissue that I had in my pocket, and *apparently* when I put the tissue back, the GU fell out unbenownst to me. Some time later, she asked for the GU, and lo and behold, it was not there. I immediately turned around and raced backward at a dead sprint, desperately searching for the GU. I found it, amazingly, about a quarter-or half-mile back. I turned around and began sprinting back. I had run probably a mile or more at this dead sprint and could see Tonya in the distance and was on the verge of death when I saw, like an angel from Heaven, a friend of hers on bike. I gasped..."GU!"...and pointed toward Tonya, did the hand-off, and the friend effected the delivery. Yikes. My heart was beating about 1000 beats per minute as I slowly walked back to my car. I went to the store and reloaded on water, and then met up with Tonya again to run with her up the wicked hills on the back side of the river and a mile or so up Summit. She ran a great marathon.

I also caught the other friends I had set out to cheer for. Greg kicked some serious butt, finishing in under four hours. Anna finished under 4-1/2, which is awesome for a first-timer, and Dave (friend that I ran a few miles with last year) was looking great both times I saw him, but didn't get his finishing time. I never really cared much about the marathon before I ran it, but now I love to watch for my friends and wait around to cheer in the 5- and 6- hour runners.

Last night, Geoff had us over for a great dinner at his place in St. Paul. (Yes, I crossed the river TWICE in one day!) He made a really tasty baked ziti with spicy chicken sausage and caesar salad. Matt and Andrea brought a delicious vegetarian lasagna with tons of basil. Summra brought some ice cream cannoli dessert. I made a wacky little recipe swiped from Lynne Rosetta Casper's Italian Country Table cookbook. It was cantelope tossed with salt and fresh cracked pepper, olive oil, and white wine vinegar, then topped with chives and scallions. I also wrapped some of the cantelope in pruscuitto, a snazzy little recipe I swiped from Gene a few years ago. We had a great time and killed several bottles of red wine.

Nearly got hosed in Crim Pro today, as M, G, and I were on panel and hadn't read the material. Here was the email exchange that occurred between us last night after I asked Matt to refresh my recollection about where we were in the reading:

(Matt): On Wednesday we were just finishing up Chimel v. California. P. 217. The assigned reading for us is 208-258. I suspect he will make it all the way down our row to me for sure, and probably petosker, and I wouldn't bet against Geoff. I am not sure what the pace will be, but I would concentrate on a few cases after Chimel. Good Luck. IF I get it briefed, I will send it all your way.

(Anna): do you think we should read past 258?

(Matt): NO.

I was an hour late to class, owing to excessively long interviews at Kick Ass Firm, and when I showed up at class, I discovered that we were already on page 260 and Matt was on deck to get called on. The three of us were totally sweating. Time for some stalling tactics. We were discussing probable cause and warrantless searches. So Matt throws up his hand and asks if cops should be able to pull over suburban white people in North Minneapolis, because the only reason they would be in my neighborhood is to buy drugs. This gave me the opportunity to cry out in protest and refuse to invite him over for future dinner parties, which gave Geoff the chance to inform everyone that he saw a drug deal go down a block away the last time he left my house and Matt concurred that he had the same experience. Then everyone got fired up and huge class-wide discussion/argument ensued for several minutes. This took so much time that I never got called on. (But Matt did. Ha!) So, some love to Matt for that, but he needn't have trashed my 'hood. Seriously.

Free Music Keeps Student Happy

Here are some great free MP3s from Amazon.com that I've discovered lately:

Michael Penn, Walter Reed and Long Way Down.

Carbon Leaf, Toy Soldiers.

Sarah Severson, Breathe (Acoustic).

I was totally psyched to discover that Spoon's I Turn My Camera On has crept up to Amazon's #2 Free MP3 download. This song has some history. I just love it for some reason, and last year, David (the other clerk at my old firm) and I used to play it on top volume after 5 p.m. and totally rock out to reenergize for a night of brief-writing. I play it every now and then when studying with Matt and Geoff, and Matt will throw a complete fit because he hates it so much. I'm not quite sure what Geoff's view on the song is...I think he just enjoys watching Matt flip out. The song makes me smile and is on regular rotation on my ipod. So if you get a minute, give it a listen & let me know what you think. If you don't like it the first time, try it again...and again...

Student Once Again Falls Victim to Friday Night Bogey-Man

Yesterday, Jason, the library guy, said good-bye to me or something, and I turned around to wave at him, and while I was turned, I ran into one of those tall security thingys that beep if you try to take books without checking them out. I most ungracefully smacked into the thing and then tried to pull myself together real quick, and so far as I can tell only one 1-L saw the debacle. I tell you, trying to pass myself off as a normal person and not the biggest damn klutz in the world is probably harder than any other thing in law school.

Last night we had plans to go to Rhonda's birthday party, but once again I fell victim to the Friday night Bogey-man. I sat on the bed to do some homework at about 7 p.m., and the next thing I knew, it was midnight, and Shad was pulling me off my laptop, taking out my ipod earplugs, and getting me ready for bed. I am so useless at the end of the week!

This weekend I am working on a take-home midterm for International Human Rights. I better get back to it. Ciao!