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.