limeblawg

BREAKING NEWS, only a month or so late.

So much has happened, and I've been meaning to update this thing. I've started a couple of rambling posts but never finished them because I got busy. So here's the deal:

1. LIME HAS TRANSFERRED FROM SOUTHWESTERN TO LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL! This is a long story by itself. The nutshell version: I'd considered it, then applied at the last minute, and I got in at the last minute. It was my first choice school, and my only transfer application. I'm very, very happy to be where I wanted to be all along.
2. Not only has Lime transferred, but Lime managed to get himself into Loyola's day program, which means despite being an evening student his first year, he still has a good chance of graduating in May 2007!
3. I'm stoked, grateful, blessed, a little overwhelmed. Couldn't do it without the support of my wife.
4. I've been busy as hell with Con Law, Evidence, Remedies, Civ Pro and Property; the law review write-on competition; and OCI.
5. I like all of my classes and all of my professors. The reading is heavier, and the upper division material is more intense. I'm in the library all the damn time. My schedule is SWEET. My earliest class is at 1:10 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays; and 3:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have evening classes, but I'm out by 7:15 or 7:30. No class on Fridays, so three day weekends every weekend. But like I said, it's a crapload of work and I'm in the library all the damn time. I spend Fridays and one weekend day studying too.
6. The write-on competition didn't go so well. It was a struggle just to get it done. I was up until 5am every night/morning for a week straight, and I pulled an all-nighter the day before it was due. I'm actually proud of the mere fact that I turned it in. My paper was logical and decently creative, but I just took way too long deciding what to argue. As a result, the paper was technically a total wreck; I'm sure I made all kinds of citing errors, which was at least as important to the competition as what I actually wrote. Whatever -- I tried like hell, didn't make it, but hey, it's a miracle I'm at Loyola, so I ain't complaining.
7. OCI (On Campus Interviews) has been rough, but surprisingly has turned out OK. For those unfamiliar, before school starts, students submit bids for interviews with firms that come onto campus to recruit their summer associates for the following summer. Well, I was admitted to Loyola after that bidding deadline, so unfortunately I really had no chance of getting interviews through OCI. I tried a mass e-mailing with cover letters tailored to each firm that explained my situation, but everybody knows that that mass mailing shite doesn't work. I just didn't know what else to do, and felt the need to do something. Firms starting coming last week, and I watched them come and go. BUT, this past week, I got smarter, got proactive, got my hustle on. I hit up the attorneys who were actually conducting the interviews, and managed to get four of them to take pity on me. All the interviews went pretty well, and I've even gotten one callback already! That means I've been invited by one firm to come for a series of interviews at their office. I've set that up for next week. Hope I get more callbacks, and wish I had been this smart last week, but again, I'm a lucky bastard, and I'm not complaining.
8. Oh by the way, the summer externship went well.
9. I'm playing in a golf tournament this Sunday, put on to benefit the Cancer Legal Resource Center at Loyola Law School. Mostly Loyola alumni in the tourney, and they reserved some spots for students to play at no cost, so me and a friend and some of his friends are in as a team. Free golf, plus some networking, good.
10. Lime turns 31 in 10 days.

Well there it is. I'm happy. More later.

other thoughts.

In the fall I wrote about a good guy who had to postpone law school. Well this fall he'll be back, with a commute that doesn't involve airports. He blogs here. Way to go, Evan.

Law school is tough. I know, this observation may be too profound for this blog... I'm thinking of those who had a first year that left them wondering if the end justifies the anguish and sacrifice, or if the end is something they ever really wanted. That reality -- knowing some people who face that reality -- has had a surprisingly intense effect on me. It's galvanizing, I guess. It also makes me want to reach out to those people. I think that's a pretty natural thing to want to do. But I also kind of think it would be arrogant and a little selfish to do it, especially unsolicited. Fortunately, the people I know who find themselves in that awful situation are good people. In the end, it always works out for the good guy. So their decisions will take them to exactly where they need to be.

grades, rant, books.

Grades turned out to be OK. No flashes of brilliance and no disasters. Basically I held serve, although I scuffed a little off the overall GPA. Hopefully I held serve with respect to class rank; I will find that out probably in another week.

I'm less than thrilled with my school right now. I've had to deal with the school administration on two matters, and both were handled poorly. This of course means I didn't get my way, and I'm still reeling and whiny about it. But I can assure you that my positions were on firm ground and my requests were extremely reasonable and fair. Perhaps these interactions were messages, telling me I should be somewhere else.

I've read two compelling books lately: Blue Like Jazz, and Into Thin Air. The first is about a Christian's search and discovery of an honest, meaningful relationship with God. The second is a writer's account of his perilous ascent of Mt. Everest, and the aftermath. I highly recommend both.