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Day 741: Death By Litigation
Mar. 26th, 2009 08:41 amI saw a book titled "Death By Chocolate" once. Never read it, which was odd, given that when I was a child I read anything I could get my hands on, including a cereal box. But right about now, Death by Chocolate sounds pretty awesome. As yesterday it was death by litigation. Kim and I had our second trial, which was a crazy lot of work for not much fun. The team was good. The guy's opening was stronger than mine, but I think we did pretty darn good as far as actual witness examination went. We biffed one piece of evidence with our expert (Ryan testified for us) but other than that it was well right. And then afterwards I testified at two other trials. I was really only scheduled for one, but I ended up testifying in two. So I was at school for eleven hours. Seriously. Eleven hours of school, and it was nonstop - homework in the morning, meeting at lunch, class after lunch, trials all evening. I was hoping that this first round was single elimination, but it's not - it's just to eliminate the bottom six teams to bring us down to sixteen teams, and starting on Friday it's single elimination. That's right - Friday is tomorrow. And the chances of Kim and I being cut as one of those six teams are pretty slim. I admire my fellow law students and friends, but some of the trials I saw really weren't very promising, and that was four teams right there. Still, I did my best for my friends - I was crazy obnoxious on cross for the first trial. For the second trial, opposing counsel tried to voir dire me on foundation and I shut him down hard. He had the gall to hit on me before trial. And he wasn't even drunk this time. I tried to be nice while we talked, but it left me feeling unsettled to say the least. I'm mostly hoping he's like that with every girl and not just me, and then I can ignore it, but I was annoyed enough that I let him have it, on voir dire and then again on cross.
After that I went home and ate food. I called Seirra to wish her happy birthday because I'd missed it - it was Tuesday. But then I was at school for a good ten hours on Tuesday prepping for tonight's trial. If I don't write birthdays in my magical planner, I forget them. I missed Niichan's too, which made me very sad.
Last night I watched Criminal Minds. It made me feel bad for Garcia a lot, and while Hotch was crazy sweet to her at the end, he looks tired too. Seeing Garcia and Reid get on the geek defensive was pretty awesome, though.
I was asleep by ten p.m. Seriously.
And I'm still tired.
But I'm alive.
ETA: (later, in the evening...) Surprising how a not-victory can really turn my day around. Night. There was something surreal about coming home in the evening, dressed in a smart dark suit, feet aching from high heels, carrying a leather case full of evidence, depositions, witness examinations, and arguments. In a few years, that won't be for pretend - it'll be real.
But tonight it was pretend. This was my first all-out full blown trial. For the competition we just have entries of appearance, housekeeping matters, and then we dive right into openings. Tonight we had motions in limine (semi-lost one, won one), voir dire (jury selection), stipulations read into the record, and openings. I rocked my opening - practiced it all afternoon while I cleaned my apartment in preparation for having a guest crash at my place tomorrow night. We actually approached the bench to handle objections, and there were recesses, and I absolutely loved it. It was, oddly enough, a lot less tense than the competition. But then it was like real life - we could have notes, the judge genuinely controlled the pace, and I had a good time. I was tired and maybe a little off my game and missed some objections, but it was all right. The professor was pleased by my spiff-ified trial notebook (all done up with stickies to mark different documents) and then I got to come home. Ryan and Angela were absolutely fabulous witnesses (Angela giggled a little on the stand over an inside joke; Ryan claims his testimony is in payment for Petey the Crocheted Penguin). When I got home, I called my father to welcome him home (he's back Stateside now) and to talk to my mom while I opened my first exam gift. Which was a fake hedgehog. I've been wanting a pet for a while, and now I have one - Henry the Hedgehog. And I am sad enough that I might make him a little bed out of a box and newspaper I have lying around.
That's one exam down. From here on out I'm a crazy juror. Kim and I did advance in the competition, so we compete tomorrow, but I've lost my vicious edge.
I did manage to keep up on my homework, though. And I talked to a girl named Jenny from China who's thinking of coming to law school in America. We talked over Skype so everyone thought I was nuts, talking to my laptop like a freak job. It was good times, though. She seems cool. And I'm down with mentoring people.
I should eat - because I totally forgot to - and sleep.
one exam down:
After that I went home and ate food. I called Seirra to wish her happy birthday because I'd missed it - it was Tuesday. But then I was at school for a good ten hours on Tuesday prepping for tonight's trial. If I don't write birthdays in my magical planner, I forget them. I missed Niichan's too, which made me very sad.
Last night I watched Criminal Minds. It made me feel bad for Garcia a lot, and while Hotch was crazy sweet to her at the end, he looks tired too. Seeing Garcia and Reid get on the geek defensive was pretty awesome, though.
I was asleep by ten p.m. Seriously.
And I'm still tired.
But I'm alive.
ETA: (later, in the evening...) Surprising how a not-victory can really turn my day around. Night. There was something surreal about coming home in the evening, dressed in a smart dark suit, feet aching from high heels, carrying a leather case full of evidence, depositions, witness examinations, and arguments. In a few years, that won't be for pretend - it'll be real.
But tonight it was pretend. This was my first all-out full blown trial. For the competition we just have entries of appearance, housekeeping matters, and then we dive right into openings. Tonight we had motions in limine (semi-lost one, won one), voir dire (jury selection), stipulations read into the record, and openings. I rocked my opening - practiced it all afternoon while I cleaned my apartment in preparation for having a guest crash at my place tomorrow night. We actually approached the bench to handle objections, and there were recesses, and I absolutely loved it. It was, oddly enough, a lot less tense than the competition. But then it was like real life - we could have notes, the judge genuinely controlled the pace, and I had a good time. I was tired and maybe a little off my game and missed some objections, but it was all right. The professor was pleased by my spiff-ified trial notebook (all done up with stickies to mark different documents) and then I got to come home. Ryan and Angela were absolutely fabulous witnesses (Angela giggled a little on the stand over an inside joke; Ryan claims his testimony is in payment for Petey the Crocheted Penguin). When I got home, I called my father to welcome him home (he's back Stateside now) and to talk to my mom while I opened my first exam gift. Which was a fake hedgehog. I've been wanting a pet for a while, and now I have one - Henry the Hedgehog. And I am sad enough that I might make him a little bed out of a box and newspaper I have lying around.
That's one exam down. From here on out I'm a crazy juror. Kim and I did advance in the competition, so we compete tomorrow, but I've lost my vicious edge.
I did manage to keep up on my homework, though. And I talked to a girl named Jenny from China who's thinking of coming to law school in America. We talked over Skype so everyone thought I was nuts, talking to my laptop like a freak job. It was good times, though. She seems cool. And I'm down with mentoring people.
I should eat - because I totally forgot to - and sleep.
one exam down:
