Go Bruins! Go Buckeyes!

Among the many reasons why fall is my favorite season is because of college football. I worked all day yesterday in preparation for today: Cal (#23) v. Maryland, UCLA v. BYU (#18), Michigan v. Notre Dame, and USC (#1) v. OSU (#5). So many good games, it's like Christmas.

In addition to cheering for the Bruins, I'm cheering for Ohio State. A lot of people, mainly those who did not go to UCLA, think that we should be cheering for USC because they are a fellow California, Pac-10 team. However, here are the reasons why any self-respecting UCLA fan would never cheer for USC:

• Even though USC is in the Pac-10, the nation does not look at them as a Pac-10 team. As much as it pains me to say it: USC has been a national powerhouse for the past few seasons. Their wins and losses are not a reflection on our conference, but rather just a reflection on the record of a team that is supposed to win.
  
• OJ Simpson, Cindy McCain, 'nuff said.
• Most USC fans, the majority of whom are bandwagon fans, are obnoxious. After going to four UCLA v. USC games during college and seeing students tailgating out of limos, having them tell me that their dad's taxes pays for my education (um, ok?), hearing their racial epithets, and being flipped off by a Trojan fan infront of her grandkids, I have no desire to allow these fans any more reason to gloat.
• The USC fight song is the worst tune ever, and the less they score, the less they play it.
  
• California is a blue state, not red.
  
• USC is UCLA's rival. Rivalries mean that you are allowed to dislike the other team irrationally and unconditionally.

Clinically Speaking

This semester I am in the clinical program at my school which means I get real clients--people who often can not afford legal services and have been lost in the system. My partner and I talked to our first client over the phone yesterday and had our first in-person meeting today.

Our meeting today went really well, but the whole case just broke my heart. It was already a sad situation but meeting the client and his mother in person made it even heart-wrenching. I have been thinking about it all day. There is such a difference between reading about a client in a book or in a case file, and seeing a client. I cannot go into the details of the case but there is just so much I want to do to help them, but do not know how much we can deliver.

I remember debating for a long time about whether I should apply for the Executive Board of my journal or do clinic. I am glad I listened to my supervisor at the General Counsel's office who told me to do clinic (and Editorial Board rather than Exec).

Although these cases are hard, I could not imagine graduating from law school without these experiences that you cannot get in classes or even summer jobs. It would be like letting a med student become a doctor without ever seeing a client. That's a scary thought.

Love is . . .

Sharing a falalfel on a warm, late summer evening.

Crazy Bag Lady

Some females love jewelry. Others have shoe fetishes. I have my bag obsession. They're not particularly trendy or designer bags, but I have a ton. Canvas totes, leather purses, microfiber computer bags, and now a cute neoprene lunch bag (left).

Today I had a late publication meeting so I had to lug all my regular school stuff, lunch, dinner, and 1000+ pages of graded papers for my meeting in 3 separate bags.

Since my roommate and I missed the elevator--which made us miss the bus, which led us to be yelled by a woman in a fuschia sports coat charging down the escalator--we took the school shuttle. Being the oh so cool 3L that I am with all my bags, I fell into a 1L while I was putting down my bags and the shuttle started to move. Not a good start to the day.

Love my bags, but I think I might need a sherpa to carry them all around.

Silent Majority

Over the past two days, I put together panels for first year students. I overhead some students complaining about the food, the timing, and other non-complainable things. I just wanted ask them how ungrateful they could be. If you don't like the free food we give you, don't take it! Talk about biting the hand who feeds them.

However, after talking to some 1Ls today and having so many thank us after the panel, I have to remember that while there may be a few especially obnoxious students, they are a vocal minority. The majority of the 1Ls are perfectly nice people.

The same principle applies when judging all groups of people; but I often forget and let one person unfairly represent an entire group. During this election cycle, I am trying to remind myself that the conservative (and liberal) commentary that bothers me the most come from the extreme ends. They don't represent whawt most people think, they just shout the loudest.

Legal News

Just in case you were wondering, I am ethical. At least the National Conference of Bar Examiners says so.

In other news . . .

Authorities say they've arrested a man who broke into the home of two California farmworkers, stole money, rubbed one with spices and whacked the other with a sausage before fleeing.

Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Ian Burrimond says 22-year-old Antonio Vasquez was found hiding in a field wearing only a T-shirt, boxers and socks after the Saturday morning attack.

He says deputies arrested Vasquez after finding a wallet containing his ID in the ransacked house.

The farmworkers told deputies the suspect woke them Saturday morning by rubbing spices on one of them and smacking the other with an 8-inch sausage.

Burrimond says money allegedly stolen was recovered. --SF Gate

Men Behaving Badly

Although our country has made a lot of progress in women's rights with females running for President and VP and presiding over Congress, I still wait for the day when women can walk down a street or go out with her friends without fear of being objectified.

On Friday I had to go get a park permit across town. As I wandered around aimlessly trying to find the DC Park and Rec Office, I passed be all these men who just sat on stoops ogling females who walked by. Although I never felt in physical danger because it was during the day and busy in the neighborhood with many police around, and although these things are easy to ignore in theory, dealing with catcalls was just something I did not want to deal with while lost on a sweltering hot day.

Just a day later, I went out with my roommate to Adam's Morgan, which is usually not my "scene" but we were out to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was disturbing to see men lined around the walls just staring at women half their age dance. They didn't even try to hide it, they just stared. While we were walking down the stairs, this guy grabbed this female's butt and then hid behind me. The woman thought my roommate and I grabbed her butt while the creep behind me just chuckled. Even if you're drunk, why would you do that?

It reminds me a lot of the serial assaults that happen around college campuses. When I was at UCLA, there was the "boob grabber," who would run up behind female students and grab their breasts, then ran away. They never caught him even though he did this a dozen times during the day. Maybe he transferred to American and changed his MO, because over the past year, there have been incidents of a man coming up behind women and grabbing their butts, and then running away.

I think this is why the "VPILF" comments bother me so much. The ogling and catcalling does not just come from construction workers. This kind of attitude towards women comes from men across the country (and world), from all races, and up and down the economic spectrum. Pardon me if I sound like a "feminazi," but how are women supposed to achieve equal opportunity in education, the workplace, or in the home when men still see women as sexual objects?