Status Quo

Time for a happy blog update!

Well, not happy, but, maybe less dramatic?

Anyway, so, it's Monday again and I'm taking a small breather before going balls out with my contract notes and outlines. And criminal law, too. And...yeah, you catch the drift.

I start out my days by getting up at 7:30 with the iHome blaring "Me and Bobby McGee" or "Morning Mood". I'm out of the house by 7:55 and at the bus stop ten minutes later.

Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen, well, Mondays I start out with CivPro.

First day, I got back home and was like, 'Hey, this stuff's pretty interesting."

Next day, I was like, "MY MIND IS FULL OF FUCK"

I'm going to have to really buckle down if I'm going to come close to getting something resembling a grasp on the subject.

CivPro flows into Torts I, which is basically civil law suits. It's a tough class but manageable if you're always several cases ahead, but God help you if you say "I'm confused." That shit don't fly. It's fun, though. The professor is very challenging but very approachable, too.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have LRW. LRW sort of complements CivPro in the sense that they form the frijoles and tortillas of what we'll be doing as lawyers eventually...but CivPro is 4 credits and Legal Research and Writing is 2 credits. Don't know why that is.

Then the other two classes, on Tuesday and Thursday, are Criminal Law and Contracts. Both are taught by very passionate professors that know how to get the class laughing...and studying.

The classes are hard, though. I can easily say I've worked more in two weeks than I have in three years of an undergraduate. I originally thought, well...I did come from a liberal arts background so it would be a given, but then I realized that some of my peers who came from science and business fields were saying the same thing. Law school's proving to be the great equalizer.

As far as my brain goes...I come home from class and I'm as tired as I was when I pulled my 12-hour school/work shifts at UTB/TSC, and I only have, at most, three classes a day! :O There's just sooooo much learning to be done. It's almost as if I have a headache going on every time I come back home, but it doesn't hurt, but it's an odd feeling. I feel the mechanisms in my head retooling themselves as the legal education begins to set in.

I feel that I have to look at words more carefully. Even simple words like "promise" have different meanings that could fill up three or four pages. When I go out and stuff, I think in law school terms and I'm sure my classmates do the same thing. Just the other day my friend called me up to ask me for help moving a couch, the question was phrased not as "Hey, what're you doing Friday? I need some help." but as something like..."Would you be willing to forbear your legal right to free time after school on Friday in exchange for a free meal?"

I might start sounding like that, too. I am now even more aware about the things I say and the things I write. One word can make all the difference.

Going back to school stuff, I really like my colleagues (can't call them classmates). They're from all walks of life and all parts of the state and country. I think I've mentioned that before. Cliques have formed but I'm shying away from them. Yeah, I have people I hang out with, but class cliques...bleh, not my style. I'm polite and respectful to everyone (stop laughing, I am!) that I encounter because, well, you just never know.

Though, funny thing, some of my law school buddies, a few days after we began bonding, we were studying and then we decided to tell each other what each other's first impressions of the other were. Two of them agreed that I was some rich, arrogant, Mexican boy because of the way I confidently spoke and carried myself in class.

Two pet peeves, though:

1. NO ONE SAYS SAN JACINTO LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SAID. It's been like four or five times already that I get on the bus and the following conversation takes place:

Me: Hi, San Jacinto and Polk, please.
Bus Driver: Where?
Me: San Jacinto and Polk.
Bus Driver: Where, again?
Me: San Jacinto street, you know, downtown? Next to Fannin?
Bus Driver: OH! Sin Ja-seen-toe!
Me: yeah.

2. People really don't respect pedestrians in downtown. I mean, seriously, you guys. THE WHITE MONITO MEANS I HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE THE CROSSWALK AND YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS INVADING IT.

I've met one celebrity already, too. Sister Helen Prejean. She is the author of 'Dead Man Walking' and a very talented speaker...even if she spent a little too much time plugging her new play. I saw her speak during an n inter-faith (or rather, inter-Christian and one rabbi) conference at Hobby Center that I was helping usher in. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh, and another thing, people seem to be very nice here. The other day I was at a bar, and someone accidentally bumped into me. They said sorry, and excuse me right after that. And then when I bumped into someone a bit later in another bar, they said, excuse me, too. You don't get that kind of civility back home at certain establishments. If you go to say, the bar, and you're trying to move through the crowd, you're invisible to everyone else. By invisible I mean that people will try and walk through you, and then suddenly become very temporarily aware that there is another slob of matter in front of them. Then they just push past the obstruction without so much as a glance.

To close, I'd like to say I've had a lot of fun in Houston and MMMM SKYSCRAPER I LOVE YOU.

Now, on to sleep...