Taking that Break

As "woe is me" as I am about how much I had to work over this break, I really did have some fun at home. On Wednesday, my mom and I do what we do best: go shopping. I also went to go eat sushi for the first time ever with my parents (more on that later). And I capped off the day by watching bad reality television with my mom (America's Next Top Model, The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll, Top Design).

I'm ending my break here in Syracuse with a trip to Niagara Falls, St. Patrick's Day, and of course watching March Madness. This also means I probably won't be writing in here for the next few days, just a warning so you all know that I'm still alive.

This might not be the Hawaii Spring Break that I got last year, but when you're in law school, I think you'll take any break that you can get.

March Madness

Let the madness begin. I remember my friend's law professor told his class that there is an inverse relation between the success of your undergrad's basketball team and your Spring semester grades.

As long as UCLA gives me wonderful memories like last year's Gonzaga's game, I guess I'll be willing to sacrifice my grades for them.

Go Bruins!

Passiveness & the Presidency

President Bush will probably not go down in history as a passive president. For better or worse, mostly worse, the President has greatly expanded the role of the Executive branch and has made the "Imperial Presidency" even more active. But if there's one area where the President is passive: his grammar.

In my legal rhetoric class, we learn how to use grammar as a persuasive tool. Active voice to emphasize, passive voice to deemphasize. Little did I know that I could look to our President and his cabinet for examples in this rhetoric technique:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday: Mistakes were made here.
President Bush today: Mistakes were made. And I'm frankly not happy about them.

Apparently the controversy over at the Justice Department regarding the US Attorney firings was not the first time this very language was used. Newsweek actually wrote an article about a month ago about how Bush stole this phrase from President Ronald Reagan. Speaking about the biggest disaster in his presidency (my opinion, not his), Bush said: Mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion.

Obviously this doesn't deflect all that much blame, people are still calling for Gonzales' resignation and people still hate Bush, but saying "mistakes were made" still does sound better than "I made mistakes." Isn't grammar fun?

In a Sensual State

California is such a tease. Of course when I come back it's 90 degrees and gorgeous outside. It's saying to me, "Why did you leave? Why did you decide to become a law school hermit in sloshy winter weater? You could have summer all year long. Come back home."

Since I obviously can't drop out of law schools, as much as I've thought about it this week, I'll just soak up all this state has to offer before heading to Syracuse.

Some of my favorite California senses:
Seeing sunsets unlike any other, the one good byproduct of smog...
Hearing Red Hot Chili Peppers on the radio and feeling like I'm back in high school (maybe because they sound pretty much the same)...
Tasting fresh mango salsa...
Feeling the sand in between my toes at the beach...
Smelling jasmine bushes blooming when I walk around at night...

This Is Your Brain On Drugs

See that stack of papers neatly color-tabbed and full of highlight markings to the left? That is what we law students do for fun. Okay, maybe fun is not the most appropriate word. But it was optional.

Who is crazy enough to do this all optionally? Law students. See, despite the fact that the test to get into law school is all about logic, we are not logical. Exhibit A: This write-on competition. We pour through hundreds of pages reading and write a 10 page paper, knowing that the changes that we'll "write-on" is fairly slim.

I at least take solace in the fact that even if I don't make it on to journal through this competition, 1) there's still a possibility that I can "grade-on" and 2) these cases that I'm reading now are extremely funny. Though I am not allowed to talk about this competition, I will just say that the Supreme Court and a "bong" are involved. This subject comes along, of course, after spending the weeks before this working on a prosecuting a fictional cocaine-dealer. I wonder if the law school people are trying to tell us something.

Anyway, I am going to go have a drug-free night* with my friends to get away from all of this. (*As if there was actually any question, I'd just like to clarify that the only drug in my life is caffeine supplied by my dealer, the coffee maker in my apartment lobby. You never know who's reading this thing.)

Opposites Attract

I had always been told, and always kind of knew, that I had more of an East Coast personality. Whereas Southern Californians are known to be more laid back, I am a workoholic, perfectionist, type-A personality who likes to wear polo shirts and pearls.

Yet, coming home for Spring Break made me realize that being in an environment that is slightly different than my own personality is good for me. While I'm on the East Coast, the bad weather and more fast-paced life work well when I need to buckle down to be a studious 1L. But I think that having a more pleasant and sunny environment will be good for me when I finally enter the working world and try to create a stable life.

Between the sun and being around normal people (aka my family and my pre-law school friends), it is difficult not to take a break. My favorite part of the weekend so far was eating tacos with my parents before going to see the sunset at the beach. Not to mention I got to wear my flip-flops (those are my toes in the picture!) and my sunglasses again! It's all very pleasant, which is a good way to describe life round these parts.

In Sex & the City, Carrie has a relationship with New York. I might be dabbling around on the East Coast, but my real relationship is with Southern California. And it's one of those opposite attracts relationships, which for me, seems to work out quite nicely.

(At San Clemente Beach today)