Gone Fishing

Since my September has been very . . . pleasant . . . I am preparing for the worst in October. I do not foresee anything particular, but I have the feeling that my journal obligations will increase, the speed in my classes will pick up, and hopefully I will be busy with call-back interviews.

So as a last hurrah, I am going to Florida with Alex just for fun. Although I have a negative biases against the state, Alex's uncle and aunt live a little outside of Tampa. I have heard they live kind of out in the middle of nowhere, on a huge property with lots of rivers to fish, kayak, etc. Though I am not exactly nature girl, I look forward to the change in scenery.

Be back Monday.

Stress Stinks

Back home, I was always told that I had an "East Coast type of personality." That was people's nice way of telling me that I was a little neurotic, anal-retentive, prone to stress out, etc. I took no offense because I knew it was all true.

So imagine my surprise when I get to law school in DC, and I feel like I am one of the more mellow people here. In fact, my 1L students have actually commented on how I seemed far less stressed out than other people here. I wonder if the elevated levels of stress here is an East Coast phenomenon, law school thing, or combination of both. I suspect the last.

When I am relatively the laid-back person in an environment, that is probably not a good sign. There are seriously people around me who I worry that will self-combust. We all have stress, law school students and not, but some people here really do not know how to handle it. There are people who are worrying about everything under the sun, pulling all-nighters (I have no idea why), and double-fisting caffeine. Yesterday, one of my classmates reached the end of the rope with another student, stood-up, yelled a response, and left the room. We all sat there in shock. What is scary is that I go to the happy "kumbayah law school;" I do not know how it is at the unhappy competitive schools.

I do not pretend that law school is not stressful; I have had my fair share of anxiety (we call that first semester 1L year). I don't always deal with it the best way either. But some people here just really need to chill out. This is why lawyers are like twice as likely to have heart attacks.

First Amendment Docket

They say that when you go through law school, you start seeing lawsuits everywhere. As I take a class on the First Amendment, I really do feel like everywhere I turn, there is another freedom of speech issue popping up. Just among the many speech issues (some of them are not First Amendment issues per se, because is no government regulation) floating around right now are. . .

• President Ahmadinejad of Iran speaking at Columbia,
• A college newspaper editor under heat because of his editorial reading: Taser This. F*** Bush,
• Dispute over whether an anti-shirt can use the name of fallen soldiers,
• Academic Freedom, as highlighted by the Chemerisnky hiring debacle,
• Censorship of Kathy Griffin's Emmy Acceptance Speech
• Move-On's General Petraeus

Fittingly, people have a lot to say when it comes to speech issues. And you would think that I would have something to say about all of this but I do not, at least not for now. Perhaps I have enough First Amendment cases on my mind for class, perhaps I feel like I have nothing intelligent to add. But I'll document these current events in case I do feel like coming back to them and for your entertainment.

No Reservations

Since Greek is on sabbatical until January, I had to find a new show to get through Monday. Fortunately Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel show, No Reservations, is on. Although I find his writing much more entertaining, the show is still fun. The premise is simple: Anthony Bourdain gets to travel around the world eating the best and craziest food that a country has to offer.

I really could not think of a better job. Although I am not the craziest eater, I do not eat Fish Head casseroles or durian like my boyfriend, I would love to go around at explore different culture's cuisines. Whenever I go out to eat with my parents or Alex, it always seems like we gravitate towards another country. Going out to "American" food is just something we never do- except In-N-Out.

Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like had my parents never moved from Minnesota to California. Surely I still would have grown up eating Vietnamese and Chinese food- but what about the Mexican, Thai, Cuban, Indian, Peruvian, Malaysian, Persian, Ethiopian, Korean, and other food that was abundant in California. I am always shocked when a friend has Indian or Thai food for the first time, but then I remember that could have been me.

Since I do not have the funds or time to go wanderlusting around the world, I will start small. This weekend Alex and I are going to Florida to visit his aunt and uncle. First stop: cuban food.

Al-Anons

Al-Anon is an international organization with a membership of more than half a million people providing a Twelve Step program of recovery for friends and family members of alcoholics.

Today Alex and I went to my section's social at one of the professor's homes. We arrived a little early to set up, but since everything was done, we ended up chatting with two of the professors. We had a funny conversation about handling relationships during law school, and the professors gave Alex a pat on the back for surviving my first year of law school. As I joked that the significant others of my friends in law school talked about forming a support a group, the Professors said it would be like Al-Anon.

As the students trickled into the social, there were many other boyfriends and girlfriends of the law students. And the significant others did talk to each other with this shared bond of dating a law student. They all know what it's like to listen to us complain a lot, plan schedules around legal rhetoric memos, endure horribly nerdy law jokes, and not be able to watch Law & Order without us saying that we just learned that in class.

Sometimes I wonder if I would want to date myself during law school, particularly during my 1L year. So I give Alex much credit for having a tremendous amount of patience. Also to my family and friends. Hopefully in exchange, I can provide you some free (or discounted) legal advice in the future.