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Day 865: Up the down staircase
Jan. 26th, 2010 09:03 amThat's my goal. To go up the down staircase. As it seems that this week is determined, already to march steadily downward. Or maybe I'm marching steadily downward and I know I need to go upward. It's like trying to run up the down escalator, perhaps.
Sunday was a good day, for the most part. Made it to church safely, got to see friends I haven't seen in a long time, talk to people I don't usually talk to (Med Student Stephen's roommate Alex, for example), and it was good times. As it turns out, Med Student Stephen is no longer my home teacher, so we said our farewells and he gave me a hug but he also asked for assurances that it would still be all right for him to come over and talk. He's never shown any such inclination to do so outside of home teaching, but I assured him he would still be welcome at my place, because he would be.
Also, I blame Jenny from Oregon but...I'm throwing myself into a new fandom. I will state right here and right now that I will not love it nearly as much as I love Merlin (Colin Morgan is a powerful weapon to wield, Shine BBC, so well-played), but Robin Hood is pretty awesome anyway. I'm not as charmed by Robin as I should be, I don't think (I've taken a shine to Will Scarlet and Jack, actually), but I'm enjoying the show all the same. Watched too much of it on Sunday (even though I got business done on Sunday, like writing letters and the rest).
Monday was a long day. It started off with one exciting intake call, i.e. some poor woman whose landlord shut off her utilities. The boss said we could call her landlord and be scary lawyers to make him turn her utilities back on (because that's constructive eviction in this state and she could be entitled to 3 months' rent plus reasonable attorneys' fees, and since he shut off her utilities one day after another, we could count that as five separate offenses instead of one, which would be much more expensive for him), but when we called the lady back her landlord had turned her utilities back on, and that was that. The day got progressively less exciting after that, as I spent an hour getting yelled at by an excitable legal activist woman who seems mostly interested in getting her credit straightened out (understandable in this economy) and hauling people into court.
I know the court has subpoena power and all, but really, if someone doesn't want to be forced into court, they won't go, and the people she's trying to challenge can afford a default judgment or two. Listening to her recount her small claims court battles in which she had all the evidence and opposing counsel had none makes me think she has things under control, but who knows. When one party is wealthy and assumes the opposing party is poor and has no counsel, the wealthy party's counsel is often woefully under-prepared and so buckles when the other side is prepared, which is arrogant and cruel (but I know that'll be my classmates some day), but hey. I think the lady just needed someone to listen, but she talked faster than Professor Watts on coffee and after a while I sorta gave up taking notes. I think I could adequately describe her problems if the Boss wanted to know, but in the meantime...yeah.
So I worked on Confiteor during Church & State because I'm a 3L and we do things like that, and then I went to lunch. And by went to lunch I mean I dashed down to the sidebar and attempted to wolf down a salad and read some webfic on my iPhone. Only Katie from Florida was telling me about her harrowing experiences driving in the snow (because she's from Florida and it's pretty harrowing for her), but after being yelled at for an hour I was in no mood to listen, so I mostly nodded and smiled a lot. All my life people have told me that I'm a chatterbox, but now I'm in law school and I keep meeting people who put me to shame. I thought I was on intake at the clinic, but I wasn't, so I filled out my time sheet and then set to reading the Landlord Tenant Act. I hung out in the study corner, and Alex from Section B (not to be confused with Med Student Stephen's roommate) was there. We sorta talked, but mostly we chilled in mutual silence. Ryan M. came by to say hello as well. Everyone says he's worse of a chatterbox than me, too. It's frightening to know people like that exist, but then Ryan's a nice guy and I like him. Also, he used to work at the clinic and has promised me tips when I need them, so that's kind of him. Also, he kept me company over the summer when I'd spend hours in the Corner reading BOEs, so I like him.
Class was interesting - we hashed out the ins and outs of the landlord tenant act and learned what dirty tricks and stupid things lawyers around here do when it comes to public housing. Also, we heard funny war stories from our Boss about surprising attorneys who thought her clients were unrepresented. Apparently someone from OHA complained to the university president to the effect of trying to get him to tell our Boss, "Stop winning, kthxbye." Who does that? Her response was great. "If I was in private practice, what would he have done, called my mother?" We laughed long and hard.
Afterwards I ran to the post office for stamps and then made it home in time to eat some food and catch an episode of Robin Hood.
Family Home Evening was awesome. Korina and I drove together because she is from Arizona and also finds driving in the snow a little harrowing. I regaled her with accounts of my terrible taste in Japanese music, and then I conducted because Josh P showed up late. Afterwards Levi and I were supposed to plan the month of February, but I got waylaid by Jordan, and, well, Jordan's cute. He asked for my help, and I figured since he was Institute president he wanted something church-like done, but instead he said he needed litigation help. Apparently he's in defense of criminal cases but will be playing the part of the prosecutor, and he has to do a pretrial motion to suppress. The professor's instructions were vague and Jordan really doesn't have much to work from, so I talked him through oral argument, through direct and cross (as much as I could in twenty minutes) and then smiled and tried to be encouraging.
I'm such a sucker for a pretty face.
Which leads me onto a terrible tangent, especially considering I need to be in the clinic in fifteen minutes.
( tangent time )
( law-related rant )
Sunday was a good day, for the most part. Made it to church safely, got to see friends I haven't seen in a long time, talk to people I don't usually talk to (Med Student Stephen's roommate Alex, for example), and it was good times. As it turns out, Med Student Stephen is no longer my home teacher, so we said our farewells and he gave me a hug but he also asked for assurances that it would still be all right for him to come over and talk. He's never shown any such inclination to do so outside of home teaching, but I assured him he would still be welcome at my place, because he would be.
Also, I blame Jenny from Oregon but...I'm throwing myself into a new fandom. I will state right here and right now that I will not love it nearly as much as I love Merlin (Colin Morgan is a powerful weapon to wield, Shine BBC, so well-played), but Robin Hood is pretty awesome anyway. I'm not as charmed by Robin as I should be, I don't think (I've taken a shine to Will Scarlet and Jack, actually), but I'm enjoying the show all the same. Watched too much of it on Sunday (even though I got business done on Sunday, like writing letters and the rest).
Monday was a long day. It started off with one exciting intake call, i.e. some poor woman whose landlord shut off her utilities. The boss said we could call her landlord and be scary lawyers to make him turn her utilities back on (because that's constructive eviction in this state and she could be entitled to 3 months' rent plus reasonable attorneys' fees, and since he shut off her utilities one day after another, we could count that as five separate offenses instead of one, which would be much more expensive for him), but when we called the lady back her landlord had turned her utilities back on, and that was that. The day got progressively less exciting after that, as I spent an hour getting yelled at by an excitable legal activist woman who seems mostly interested in getting her credit straightened out (understandable in this economy) and hauling people into court.
I know the court has subpoena power and all, but really, if someone doesn't want to be forced into court, they won't go, and the people she's trying to challenge can afford a default judgment or two. Listening to her recount her small claims court battles in which she had all the evidence and opposing counsel had none makes me think she has things under control, but who knows. When one party is wealthy and assumes the opposing party is poor and has no counsel, the wealthy party's counsel is often woefully under-prepared and so buckles when the other side is prepared, which is arrogant and cruel (but I know that'll be my classmates some day), but hey. I think the lady just needed someone to listen, but she talked faster than Professor Watts on coffee and after a while I sorta gave up taking notes. I think I could adequately describe her problems if the Boss wanted to know, but in the meantime...yeah.
So I worked on Confiteor during Church & State because I'm a 3L and we do things like that, and then I went to lunch. And by went to lunch I mean I dashed down to the sidebar and attempted to wolf down a salad and read some webfic on my iPhone. Only Katie from Florida was telling me about her harrowing experiences driving in the snow (because she's from Florida and it's pretty harrowing for her), but after being yelled at for an hour I was in no mood to listen, so I mostly nodded and smiled a lot. All my life people have told me that I'm a chatterbox, but now I'm in law school and I keep meeting people who put me to shame. I thought I was on intake at the clinic, but I wasn't, so I filled out my time sheet and then set to reading the Landlord Tenant Act. I hung out in the study corner, and Alex from Section B (not to be confused with Med Student Stephen's roommate) was there. We sorta talked, but mostly we chilled in mutual silence. Ryan M. came by to say hello as well. Everyone says he's worse of a chatterbox than me, too. It's frightening to know people like that exist, but then Ryan's a nice guy and I like him. Also, he used to work at the clinic and has promised me tips when I need them, so that's kind of him. Also, he kept me company over the summer when I'd spend hours in the Corner reading BOEs, so I like him.
Class was interesting - we hashed out the ins and outs of the landlord tenant act and learned what dirty tricks and stupid things lawyers around here do when it comes to public housing. Also, we heard funny war stories from our Boss about surprising attorneys who thought her clients were unrepresented. Apparently someone from OHA complained to the university president to the effect of trying to get him to tell our Boss, "Stop winning, kthxbye." Who does that? Her response was great. "If I was in private practice, what would he have done, called my mother?" We laughed long and hard.
Afterwards I ran to the post office for stamps and then made it home in time to eat some food and catch an episode of Robin Hood.
Family Home Evening was awesome. Korina and I drove together because she is from Arizona and also finds driving in the snow a little harrowing. I regaled her with accounts of my terrible taste in Japanese music, and then I conducted because Josh P showed up late. Afterwards Levi and I were supposed to plan the month of February, but I got waylaid by Jordan, and, well, Jordan's cute. He asked for my help, and I figured since he was Institute president he wanted something church-like done, but instead he said he needed litigation help. Apparently he's in defense of criminal cases but will be playing the part of the prosecutor, and he has to do a pretrial motion to suppress. The professor's instructions were vague and Jordan really doesn't have much to work from, so I talked him through oral argument, through direct and cross (as much as I could in twenty minutes) and then smiled and tried to be encouraging.
I'm such a sucker for a pretty face.
Which leads me onto a terrible tangent, especially considering I need to be in the clinic in fifteen minutes.
( tangent time )
( law-related rant )
