such stuff as dreams are made on

bendystrawz @ 2007-04-18T17:14:00

2007-04-19T00:22:55Z

So Hastings was evacuated today. The FBI came into my afternoon class and informed us that a copycat threat had been directed at Hastings, and they were closing down the campus. They didn't tell us anything more than that, which obviously leads to a lot of guessing... But there was no violence, only a threat, though SFPD was everywhere. Classes are supposed to resume tomorrow - whether or not I go I have yet to decide. See bytheriver05's most recent post for sentiments about recent tragedies - I second what she said, and she said it better than I ever could. Anyway, just be careful, everyone. Now, instead of reading civil procedure, I think I will go watch Pride and Prejudice, where everything is happy and the only thing to fear is that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy won't get together after all. (But of course they do. Hence my love for Jane Austen. No, I'm not an escapist. What are you talking about?)

bendystrawz @ 2007-04-17T21:10:00

2007-04-18T04:14:13Z

So, while it took what felt like a bazillion years to register for classes (the online registration system officially sucks), I finally wound up with some classes I'm pretty excited about. And they are:
Constitutional Law 1
Evidence (these first two are bar courses - but I'm definitely excited about Con Law)
Immigration Law
Labor Law
Legal History: Immigrants in the US (seminar)

Yes, I realize that my course schedule looks like an advertisement for Bleeding-Hearts-R-Us, but I like it that way. Go me.
:D

Tee-hee...

2007-04-13T18:31:07Z

Go to maps.google.com.
Click on "get directions."
Type from London to New York.
Read Step 37.

bendystrawz @ 2007-04-09T11:04:00

2007-04-09T18:37:39Z

Hello, everyone. It's been forever since I've posted here, and I make no promises regarding future posting regularity. But I wanted to say "hi," and give everyone a little update.
#1: Chris and Jess are moving, so things in all of our worlds will be changing quite a lot. I still anticipate many weekends in Santa Cruz, but it won't be as many, and it won't be the same. Chris is (temporarily) moving into his parents' house, which should be interesting, considering that his mother... well... let's just say that I don't really feel the love. So that will take a little getting used to. But (and maybe this is easier for me, considering that I'm not the one moving) I'm sort of looking at this as an adventure - maybe we were all stagnating a little, and we needed a bit of a nasty poke to move forward. I think it'll be a good thing, in the long run. And I'm not worried about my friendship with Jess suffering from not-so-frequent contact - we've been friends since freshman year of high school, and our friendship has survived almost 9 (did I count that right?) years of moving, changing, losing touch, and everything in between. So Jess, I think we're good. : ) I think Chris and I'll survive this, too - it'll be weird, it'll be hard, it'll be interesting, but, like I said, I'm pretty sure it's a good thing. (Did you hear that, everyone? I - me - Ashley - just said Change Is Good. Pick your jaw up off the floor now.)
#2: School, about which I've been pretty low-key all semester, just got scary again. I found out this morning that my property exam is closed-book, closed-note, which is TERRIFYING. For all of you out there who would argue that that's how exams should be, let me remind you that this is law school, and the standard here is to give extremely brutal exams, but allow students to bring in their notes. And I'm not exactly confident that my property professor will make the exam any easier in exchange for banning notes - he's a great guy, but sort of a stickler. High expectations. Harvard Law-professor bowtie. The works. So hopefully I'll survive that exam. I also discovered this morning that my civil procedure exam will be 50% multiple choice, 50% essay, which is pretty much the Worst Thing Ever. Well, okay, maybe the Absolute Worst Thing Ever would be a 100% multiple choice exam, but this is bad enough. Again, to those of you who say that multiple choice is easy, I say, with much scorn, "this is law school, and that means NOTHING is easy." And multiple choice questions, especially those written by this professor, are confusing, misleading, and leave no room for error. To give you an example, multiple choice was a small part of last semester's civil procedure exam, and the questions were extremely specific - and the highest grade was around a 50%. Oh, and I should mention that the multiple choice portion is also closed-note. The essay portion saved my civil procedure-hating ass, but just barely. So I hardly need mention that increasing the multiple choice portion isn't exactly calculated to make my life easier.
#3: I'm in the market for summer funding. My summer job, which I expect to be fantastic, is of the non-paying variety, so I have to apply for outside funding to pay my $1,000/month rent. There's a fair amount out there, but finding the time to apply for it, and actually receiving it, are sort of difficult. I've applied for one grant of $2,000, so I need all of you out there keeping your fingers crossed/hoping/praying/using voodoo dolls/whatever you will that I get it. PLEASE.
#4: My dad and stepmom may have to get rid of one of our cats - they have a brand-new house, and Alani has decided (for the first time in her otherwise extremely well-behaved life) to pee on the carpet. We're not sure why, and if they can't make her stop, she might need a new home. I realize that peeing on the carpet isn't a great advertisement for a cat, but really, she's a wonderful cat, and this is entirely out of character. She's super-affectionate, and never scratches the furniture or anything. Plus, she's spayed and has had all her shots. I'd love to take her, but our lease won't allow pets, and plus, Chris is allergic to cats (which sucks). So... anybody want a kitty?
That's all, for now. Now, property/contracts/civil procedure/environmental law homework calls. Yippee. I love you all!
PS - The upside is that I'll be done with school on May 11! It's the earliest (by about a month) that I've EVER gotten out for summer vacation! And my job doesn't start until the first week of June, so I've got three weeks to kick around in (thank GOD). I thought I'd spend some time in Sac, some time in Santa Cruz, and some time in Ojai - that is, assuming that everyone who lives in those respective locations is willing to have me...

bendystrawz @ 2007-02-11T21:51:00

2007-02-12T05:51:47Z

Weekend Knitting kicks so much ass. It arrived in the mail yesterday, and I've just finished a thorough going-over. It's totally my style - lots of great projects, plus little indulgent tips, like how to take make decadent French hot cocoa from scratch or how to give yourself a hand massage. I can't wait to try the pattern for argyle slippers! I can't say who I'm going to make them for, because I'm never sure exactly who reads this blog, but if you're the lucky person, then congratulations! I also want to try this gorgeous scarf/hat pattern (Jess and Lil, it's the same thing as that guy's sweater that I was trying to figure out a few weeks ago - it's called brioche stitch) and these super cute finger puppets. I <3 Weekend Knitting!
In other news, today has been quite productive, and I got to eat Felicity's famous pumpkin risotto and meet a friend I've been hearing a lot about. And I got to see Felicity and her new apartment, of course. Her roommate has cats! And lots of kitchen appliances! I <3 Felicity's new house. Plus it's lots easier to get to from my house, which is very nice. :)
Well, property homework (and sleep) calls, so enough for now. Oh! I should remember to give Felicity credit for my user icon picture - it's from an anti-war demonstration in Trafalgar Square, in London. Isn't it fantastic?

Quick post...

2007-02-11T04:57:02Z

I'm starving and exhausted, and thus don't really want to post a whole ton, but I thought I'd put the word out there that Public Interest/Public Sector day went very well - keep your fingers crossed that I get an offer from the ACLU! But either way, one of the other employers I interviewed with said they'd almost certainly offer me a job, so that's really good. :) Exciting. And now Renee is back with take-out Thai, so I'm going to don jammies, eat Thai fried rice, and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oooo - with a finale of Ben and Jerry's. :)

bendystrawz @ 2007-02-08T16:22:00

2007-02-09T00:22:43Z

Academic exhilaration gone. I have an outline of the argument portion of my moot court brief due in 20 minutes, and I have exactly 2 headings. Which I don't even think are particularly good. And I've spent the last 4 hours working on this. I'm so amazingly frustrated. I know I can write. I was a freakin' lit major. I'm articulate, and smart, and I can analyze the pants off of you (tee-hee - funny visual). But I cannot write for law school. The formats they want us to use are incredibly counter-intuitive for me, and I can't seem to make my writing conform to them. I'm basically having to unlearn everything I've learned about writing in the last 8 years. On top of that, the side I'm supposed to be arguing for has essentially no case law support. Okay, it's got to be out there somewhere, or they wouldn't have assigned this thing, but I can't find it, and my BS-generator seems to be out of order. This sucks. A lot. Now I have to go suffer humiliation for not understanding how to do this.

bendystrawz @ 2007-02-08T10:01:00

2007-02-08T18:01:34Z

So I'm feeling a little better today. Though I didn't sleep well last night and it took me like 30 minutes to get my butt out of bed this morning. But I just totally rocked my property class! I've been too intimidated to talk in here up till now, but this morning I volunteered an answer to a question that a couple of other people had screwed up, and I got it right! And I asked an intelligent question. : ) Pretty dang excited at this moment, I must say. Plus, the fact that I volunteered an answer minimizes my chances of getting cold-called - thank god. I don't mind answering as long as I get to chose the question!
Long day ahead of me, though. Lots of homework, lots of frantic Moot Court research... And hopefully a Grey's Anatomy viewing this evening. But I don't know about that one yet. We'll see. I miss you, Felicity!! Crap I just realized I'm going out of town next Thursday night, so I'll miss next week, too! Bummer. But I'm leaving to go get a baby fix, so really, I'll sacrifice the Grey's Anatomy. Anyway. More later. Maybe.
Oh! In the spirit of the magnificent Lily, I'm leaving you with my new favorite dinner recipe.

Polenta with Cajun Red Pepper Sauce

1 red bell pepper, chopped
As many mushrooms as you like (though I made mine without mushrooms and it was still super tasty)
1 Tbsp butter/margarine (I used olive oil instead)
2 tsp flour
1 tsp cajun seasoning (I just used chili pepper and garlic powder)
2/3 Cup skim milk
Parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)
Polenta (I used the Trader Joe's polenta sliced and grilled on my George Foreman Grill, maybe 4-5 slices)
Saute chopped red pepper and mushrooms in butter/marg/olive oil until sort of soft.
Add flour, cajun seasoning, cook 1 minute.
Stir in milk and Parmesan cheese.
Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened. Sauce will still be sort of thin, so after maybe 5 minutes, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Pour sauce over the grilled polenta. Goes nicely with garlicky green beans.

Lifeboat, please?

2007-02-07T22:55:13Z

Oh. My. God. I'm drowning. If I thought last semester was a lot of work, well, then, I didn't know what a lot of work is. I was sick for a couple of days last week, which put me a little behind (not much, THANK GOD, but enough), and this week my professors have gone absolutely nuts. Because of a scheduling thing, I have 3 (count 'em, THREE) extra hours of property class this week; unfortunately, my property professor, while amusing in lecture, is a sadist when it comes to homework. So three extra hours of class translates to like 7 extra hours of homework. And this homework is HARD. On top of that, financial aid stuff is due in a week, so I have to find the time to do my taxes and file FAFSA between now and then. And I have interviews. I was supposed to have a mock interview on Monday, so I spent forever getting ready and came to school in a suit, and then my interviewer was sick and didn't call to let me know. But that's a side-gripe. The point is, I now have another mock interview scheduled for Friday, and I have a Public Interest Job Fair all day on Saturday. Plus I promised I'd try to make it down to Santa Cruz this weekend, but I just don't see how that's possible...
I'm just struggling to keep my head above water. S.O.S.

A deep breath

2007-01-30T02:44:47Z

So there's really nothing like the combination of caffeine (to which I'm allergic, I think), low blood sugar, not enough sleep, a long, crowded bus ride where everyone seems to smell like cigarettes or icky perfume, and a 20-minute wait at the post office to put me in a really fabulous mood. I was a right cheerful little thing when I arrived home this afternoon. But home is neat and clean and quiet and welcoming, and comes complete with a rooftop balcony. I took a blanket up there a little bit before sunset, and laid on my back and found the shapes in the clouds. The weather was beautiful - just a bit chilly, with just a tiny little breeze. Spring is coming.* And it was so nice to be outdoors and feel the air nip at my cheeks, and to be alone, and quiet. The weight of friend-stress and school-stress and loneliness and inadequacy got a little bit lighter, and maybe, just maybe, if I spend a little time with the clouds everyday, it'll go away completely.
That's my hope, anyway.

*To all you nay-sayers out there, not one word about how it's still January and this is probably a false spring. Not one word.

bendystrawz @ 2007-01-24T09:49:00

2007-01-24T17:49:38Z

So I know I haven't posted in a long time, and some of you have been bugging me (ahem, Christi :P) about it. So here's something for all of you who just can't get enough Ashley...

My property professor is really entertaining. Which is good, because apparently I don't care that much about property law. He's big and tall and white-haired and wears a bow-tie, and looks, I swear, like a Paper Chase-esque figure of intimidation. But he's really funny. For example, this very minute, he's staring at the whole class with a humorously incredulous expression on his face, because he's just asked us to begin class after returning from break and no one is listening. And I think he inspires the rest of us to be pretty funny as well. Here's a couple of little tidbits from today.

Prof: Can he (Student #1) sell himself to me?
Student #2: Well, yeah, in the right marketplace.
Prof: Where's that marketplace?
Student #2: Maybe Bangkok?

Prof: Are you a physician?
Student: Nooooooooo...
Prof: You say that with some hesitation.
Student: Well, I watch a lot of House.

And now he's talking about being able to make himself a male prostitute in Amsterdam.
Stay tuned for more installments...

Monsters under the bed have nothing on me - I dream about law school exams.

2006-12-03T17:17:36Z

So, I have baby stories to tell and baby pictures to post (my nephew really is the cutest thing on the planet), but that's going to have to wait until I have time to transfer my pictures to my computer and figure out how to post them on this thing. In the meantime, I feel compelled to tell you about the TERRIBLE dream I had last night.
I'm sitting in my contracts exam (which, in real life, is my first exam - next Tuesday) with Lily, who in the dream is in my contracts class, and I realize I don't fully understand how to calculate expectancy damages. So before the exams are handed out, I'm frantically looking through my book for the formula, kind of freaking out, and I don't have time to find it before I have to put my book away. Which is bad enough. When I open my exam questions, I realize that NONE of the questions are about anything I've studied. Like, there's a fact pattern, and then, one of the follow-up questions is "what if the promisee and the promisor were friends?" Which is awful. But my dream self is thinking, "it's okay, I must be dreaming. This can't be the exam. This is probably a dream." But after the exam, my dream self talks to Lily about it, and she's answered the same questions I have, and so I know that the exam can't be a dream because Lily has taken it too.
It was horrible. And now I'm too anxious to make my contracts flashcards. And I feel a little bit compelled to make one for "what if the promisee and the promisor were friends?"

Why Grownups Don't Like Christmas: in which our heroine battles (and vanquishes) a Christmas tree

2006-11-28T17:25:01Z

I bought my first Christmas tree. My first, honest-to-goodness, all-mine Christmas tree. And, Sunday night, I was so excited to decorate it; I lit a fire in the fireplace, poured a glass of eggnog, and hauled out the bag of lights I bought at Walgreen's. And then spent four hours fighting the Christmas tree. After I finally got the thing standing upright in the stand (which involved, for a time, having my face stuck in the branches as I used my body to support the tree), I still had to reckon with the lights. Did any of you know that manufacturers of Christmas tree lights are evil sadists? The end of the strand of flashing colored lights nicely covered all but the bottom four branches of the tree. So I had to re-wind the whole strand, in a desperate attempt to get a few more useable feet out of it. Next followed a similar struggle with the white lights. Now the thing is successfully standing (albeit slightly crookedly) in the corner of the living room, with the barest branches mostly facing the wall. A happy ending, you say? Not so fast. I got to enjoy the lights for a couple of hours yesterday morning, but then, of course, as soon as I returned home from school yesterday afternoon, a fuse in the living room blew, so there's no power anywhere but the bedrooms and the bathroom. And the Christmas tree stands as a dark mockery of holiday cheer.
My dog Max and I will shortly be descending to Whoville to teach those Whos a lesson about Christmas trees. And hopefully in the process regain some Christmas spirit.

A (brief) reprieve

2006-11-20T03:46:17Z

What a lovely afternoon. I set my books aside, donned real clothes, and walked to the DeYoung museum in Golden Gate Park. I was running late, so it was quite an aerobic walk, but the late afternoon autumn sunshine was beautiful, and the happy dogs and rollerblading children in the park were very entertaining. I met Felicity at the museum, and in the 45 minutes or so we spent there, we saw a Mark Rothko, an Edward Hopper, a Georgia O'Keefe, and a Diego Rivera. Quite satisfying. Then, since very few happy afternoons are complete without good food, we stuffed ourselves with sushi from a neighborhood restaurant, and finished our outing at the best gelato place ever. Remind me to take you there sometime - in addition to some of the most amazing flavors of gelato ever (I had cinnamon), they also sell pop culture memorabilia, tons and tons of tea, and awesome chocolates. Happiness.
But now, back to work. At least I have Dar Williams to help me make it through the evening.
PS - Thanks to Lianna for being my study buddy!

goodness

2006-11-19T04:12:30Z

After spending an entire day sitting on my bed surrounded by notes, textbooks, supplements, and my computer, I realized that I was effectively accomplishing nothing. So I did what any intelligent law school student would do - I distracted myself with food. I've been living on popcorn all day (which is another story - remind me to tell you), because I have no food in the house, so I took a walk down to the little organic food store a few blocks away. And I got the most amazing bag of treats. It included:
tangerines
2 bars of Dagoba dark chocolate (the lime one and the spicy one)
a bottle of good pinot grigio
smoked gouda
roasted garlic and herb water crackers
annie's mac and cheese (I bought the kind shaped the cartoon character Arthur)
annie's canned cheese ravioli in tomato sauce (sort of like chef boyardee, except, you know, organic)
green olives
It's happiness in a paper bag. So now I'm going to try to work until 9:30, at which point I will abandon my books, make some couscous for dinner, drink a glass of wine, watch The American President, and paint my toenails. Wish me luck.
PS - I feel as though the "mellow" icon doesn't really capture the essence of mellowness, perhaps because it is bouncing around. And wearing sunglasses, for some reason. But I do, in fact, feel very mellow. Which is a nice change.
PPS - "While Roving on a Winter's Night" is quite possibly the best song ever. Seriously. Thanks to Lily for sending it to me, and remind me to play it for you sometime.

So THAT'S why I wanted to be a lawyer...

2006-11-17T22:28:17Z

Every Friday morning, I volunteer for a couple of hours at an organization called General Assistance Advocacy Project (GAAP), which helps homeless and marginally housed clients navigate the public benefits system. It's run by law student volunteers, plus our executive director, who's an attorney. Our clients come in with problems ranging from eviction to discontinuation of welfare benefits to help with applying for food stamps. And a lot of the time, since I don't know that much yet, I spend the morning handing out vouchers for clothes at a local charity and (sometimes) getting yelled at by drunk people. That last part isn't that fun. But this morning, I really got to help some people. I called around and faxed paperwork for a guy who needed to keep his housing benefits, and helped a woman who was trying to get her new husband added to her lease. The system is really complicated, and requires people to meet deadlines and requirements and to fill out millions of forms, and that's incredibly difficult for our clients, a lot of whom are homeless and/or marginally literate. And a lot of social workers are much more likely to return a call from GAAP on behalf of a client than to return calls from the clients themselves. Working there reminds me of what I'm doing here, why I'm willing to be (for now) continually on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The system isn't fair, and even when people do everything right, the benefits available just aren't enough. Anything I can do to help level the playing field is fine by me.
I needed the reality check.

Thoughts

2006-11-16T22:31:12Z

Today feels like a blue day. The color blue. Like if I walk outside, everything will be tinged with blue. Not blue in the sense of "I'm feeling blue" - just blue. I'm not sure quite why. Maybe it's just my mood. You know, sometimes your mood says that it's a spaghetti-for-dinner kind of day, or that it's a get-dressed-up-and-feel-pretty kind of day. Today my mood says that it's a blue day. Could have something to do with the cloudy weather. Anyway.
I realized yesterday that Thanksgiving is in a week, and for the first time that I can remember, I'm totally dreading it. Law school wisdom says that the outlines for your classes (basically a synthesis of all your notes and reading and everything) should be done by Thanksgiving, because exams start only a couple of weeks later. Perhaps I should mention that each outline is a massive undertaking, and can take up to 30 hours to complete. Now multiply that by four classes. And add to that normal assignments, taking into account that as the semester nears its end, professors are steadily increasing our daily reading assignments. The result? Well, you can take your pick of panic/depression/anxiety/discouragement/exhaustion/inadequacy/increasing sentiments of "fuck everything." Which is great fun. I don't think I'm in terrible shape, but I'm certainly nowhere near the finish line. My contracts outline is 75% done, torts is somewhere around 40% finished, criminal law is at about 10%, and civil procedure is, as yet, nonexistent. In short, this should be a fun weekend. Still, I've been much more productive yesterday and today than I was at the beginning of the week, so I'm rewarding myself with a Grey's Anatomy viewing party at Felicity's. It's not so much a party as an excuse to squeal like little girls over the scandals in the show and consume massive amounts of popcorn, but still. Much fun.
In other news. for civil procedure today we read a case about Diana Ross. As in, THE Diana Ross. My professor cracked a joke about how the case should have been tried in the "Supreme" Court, and everybody laughed. Except for this girl Janet. Because, as it turns out, she might be the one person in the Western Hemisphere who's never heard of Diana Ross and the Supremes. I didn't think that was possible :)

angst

2006-11-15T17:04:58Z

I'm irritated. No, more like incensed.
I'm reading about rape law right now, and, I swear, this is why I want to do legislative work. Because we need some non-white, non-male people making laws. Especially the laws that affect mostly women. I knew that rape laws were unfair, and made by men, and all that jazz, but I had no idea it's as bad as it is. First of all, in a lot of places, of course, it's not rape if your husband attacks you. Because if you're married, then it's presumed that you've consented to have sex with him. That's according to the Model Penal Code, which was created like in the 30s to make a uniform criminal code for all states, and is actually usually progressive; not all states have adopted it, but lots have adopted parts of it. And this isn't an uncommon provision. Anyway, know how many women contributed to the creation of the Model Penal Code? Of 57 people, ONE was female. ONE. So the marriage exception is all about men who feel justified in having sex with their wives anytime, regardless of her wishes. Which just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
There's more that really, really bothers me, but the above is what I'm reading about at this very moment. However, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel: Justice Holmes (quite an influential person) was quoted in a 1984 decision declaring the New York marriage exception unconstitutional, saying, "It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past."
Something needs to change. NOW.

PS: Felicity made this icon, too. :)

bendystrawz @ 2006-11-15T07:19:00

2006-11-15T15:19:02Z

Here is the promised "100 Things" list. It was actually a lot of fun to think about some of the random (and not so random) stuff that I love. You should try it. :)

- The people who make me happiest.
- Popcorn with fresh-grated parmesan cheese.
- Meteor showers.
- Laying on a raft in the middle of a swimming pool with a book.
- Fireplaces with crackling fires.
- The yearly unveiling of the mice.
- Colorful socks.
- Understated jewelry… with occasionally something shocking.
- My Nalgene bottle.
- Musical (and other) theater.
- LONDON.
- Flip-flops.
- The smell of redwood bark in the sun.
- Things made of wrought iron.
- Shelves and shelves of books.
- Cuddling.
- My truck.
- The little pink hearts (and the little pink tongue) on Google chat.
- Sushi. And more sushi..
- Bendy straws.
- Ice cream.
- Watching episodes.
- Watching fog move in and out of the treetops.
- Tea.
- My computer.
- Taking pictures.
- Van Gogh. And Cézanne. And Monet.
- Knitting.
- The Victoria and Albert Museum.
- Rainbow-colored envelopes and note pads from Paperchase. Actually, anything from Paperchase.
- Jewel tones. Especially ruby red.
- Baby socks.
- Silence. The kind that only exists far, far away from civilization.
- Really good, really dark chocolate. None of that Hershey’s junk for me.
- Bells.
- Heidelberg at Christmas.
- White wine.
- Bedtime. I’m serious.
- Late-night showers.
- My George Foreman Grill.
- Popcorn jelly bellies.
- Office supplies: multi-colored highlighters, sticky notes, wonderful pens… You get the picture.
- Daffodils.
- Hooded sweatshirts.
- Books-to-read lists.
- Quote collecting.
- Shakespeare. And Tennyson. And Austen. And Dickens. Basically all things written in England.
- Writing and receiving letters.
- Yarn shops.
- Hot chocolate.
- Jeans.
- Salt.
- Scarves.
- Driving a long way down a pretty highway with the window down, singing along loudly to my favorite cheesy music.
- Making my own stationary and cards.
- Glitter. Don’t laugh. I think it’s something I was born with.
- Really big, really perfect words. Like sesquipedalian.
- Cheese.
- California produce and farmer’s markets.
- Incense.
- That feeling when you really, really have to pee and then you finally get to go.
- Yosemite.
- Laying awake talking to someone in the middle of the night.
- Colored glass.
- Baseball movies.
- Painted toenails.
- Pad thai.
- Wineglass charms.
- Watching clouds chase each other across the sky.
- Sunsets.
- Hardwood floors and old, quirky houses.
- Birch trees. And aspens.
- Playing the piano.
- Road trips.
- My comfort zone.
- Board games.
- Historical fiction.
- Dancing.
- Christmas lights. Christmas trees. Actually, anything Christmas.
- Enchiladas.
- Mellow music.
- Navigating around a big city, just me and my map.
- Eating out.
- The first blossoms of spring.
- The first colorful leaves of fall.
- Bubbles.
- Understanding obscure literary references.
- Pasta.
- The smell of old books.
- Herbs, especially sage, basil, and rosemary.
- Lip balm.
- Candlelight.
- The view of San Francisco as you drive over the Bay Bridge. Especially at night.
- Wandering, entangled streets and unexpected cobblestone alleyways.
- Cheesy, happy-ending movies.
- Loaning and borrowing favorite books.
- Historical war movies.
- Camping and backpacking.
- Getting pajamas every year on Christmas Eve.
- A boy who wears glasses.

PS - Felicity made my icon!! She's my new hero. :) Ooo - and ten points for anyone who can tell me what the quote's from - WITHOUT googling it! :)

bendystrawz @ 2006-11-14T19:48:00

2006-11-14T19:48:33Z

I'm sort of wondering if anybody else in my class is paying as little attention as I am. I look around and I see pages of notes on about half of the screens in sight, and oo! a personals web page on the screen of the guy in front of me. Nothing else quite as interesting as that - mostly just AIM conversations. I probably should try to pay attention, especially since we're talking about an interesting case--Hansberry v. Lee is about the legality of a racially restrictive covenant in a Chicago neighborhood; plus, the Hansberry's daughter, Lorraine, grew up to write A Raisin in the Sun, which is about the same thing as the case. But that's not going to happen. I CANNOT pay attention to anything important lately. Since Friday, I've probably done about 5 total hours of homework, which is about how much (or less than) I should finish in a day. It just doesn't want to happen. So I've sort of decided that I can't force it. I mean, I'm going to try to do as much work as I can, but I will try not to freak out too much when nothing's goin' on upstairs. Wish me luck with that one. I'm sort of hoping that this weekend will give me a chance to get back on the ball... the trick is going to be keeping myself from falling farther behind before then. I say again, wish me luck with that one. Also, I will try not to tell anybody else about my temporary disability, in order to avoid the silently crushing condemnation that will inevitably ensue. But I think I sound more despondent than I actually am. Mostly I just REALLY don't want to be in class right now. Okay, okay, mostly I just really want it to be winter break. But still. It's a sunny, crisp fall day in San Francisco, and that can't be too bad, can it? Plus, this morning I used the Starbucks giftcard that Sonya stuck in my birthday card and got my first-of-the-season gingerbread latte. Which, by the way, I highly recommend. And my room is CLEAN, for the first time in over a month, and I have a beautiful new bookshelf, and my room is all rearranged. And (thank god) I'm not on-call this week, because I think that would drive me absolutely crazy. So here I am, (trying to be) in the moment. And to continue not paying attention in class, I will take a leaf out of Christi's book and compile a list, in no particular order, of 100 things I love. Stay tuned...

I have succumbed to the inevitable...

2006-11-14T16:33:27Z

I have created a livejournal account. Which, since you're reading this, you obviously already know. Basically, this is just one more way for me to procrastinate - last night it was rearranging my bedroom, today it's posting on my lj. But I thought that this would also be a good way to at least sort of stay in touch with, you know, other human beings. Because at least for the last few months, it seems like all I've talked to are my books. Is that weird?
Anyway, I went through my quote book to find something that I could call my journal, and the above is the best I came up with. So I'm taking submissions! Any ideas?
Now I have to read about discovery. Which is so much less interesting than it sounds, which kind of bugs me. The word "discovery" brings to mind thoughts of Robert Louis Stevenson and Christopher Columbus and maybe Pirates of the Caribbean, and then you open the 4 lb. textbook and read about how to make your opponent give you information before a trial. Wahoo.
But I'll be back later. Probably in class. Ooops. ;)

PS - I'm really excited about the list of moods to chose from - I can't wait until I'm feeling quixotic. :)