Life in Moo Town
End of the Argument
Late start this morning involved gym clothes and rushing to class. Hair was a mess. Not that I really care in the morning. Went to the gym after perspectives. Got lots of weird looks walking around in the snow in shorts. I'm a freak, what can I say? Didn't have much time due to an exciting lunch lecture so I just did 20 minutes on the rowing machine and some hurried weights. Hurried home to take a shower before lunch but my roomate got in the shower just as i was heading for the bathroom. Punk. Waited 20 minutes but he didn't come out. Had to go to lunch nasty from the gym. And the food was all gone 'cause I got held up so long waiting. >< Very cross. It was a political panel including: former presidential advisor to JFK, Ted Sorenson; forrmer NY Mayor David Dinkins; Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman; Councilman David Yassky; and NY State AG candidate Charlie King. Good panel but torture to have to smell all the pizza with nothing to eat. Kind of annoying that people took way more pizza and cookies than they could eat and threw away the excess. That could have gone to hungry people in the back. So selfish. I went up afterwards and got a few business cards but I was rather embarrassed to talk to the ex-politicians while wearing sweats and all. Went home and got cleaned up. Had Indian for lunch since it was the only food left in my cupboard. Read my conlaw both for last friday and today. It was pretty short. Did the whole class thing and met with my moot court editor after. She was running late but we didn't have much to talk about anyway. Wachtell cancelled their reception due to inclement weather. Lame of them. That was my dinner plan. No food left. Came home and tried to find someone to get pizza with. No one wanted to go out in the blizzard. Finally found someone. Gorged at Koronets and shmoozed. Hit the liquor store on the way home 'cause he needed margarita mix. Visited some friends in Lenest on the way back too to retrieve his tequila stash. I went home and rather than work played 2 hours of poker. Need to work on self control. IM took up a lot of time too. Finally got caffeinated a bit on snapple and did my moot court. All done with it now I think. Time for bed soon.
1L Job Search
Someone requested I write up something on my job search. Sounds like a worthwhile endeavor so here we go. I guess it started way back in September or October applying for all the public interest scholarships. I spent a lot of hours writing essays and resumes and whatnot tailored to the individual grants. I also met with staff at the Public Service Law Center to have them look over my resume and materials. Got rejected from just about everything. Including the HRIP, which sucked because I really wanted to go to human rights or environmental law abroad this summer and the funding rejection essentially killed that possibility. I did get a Public Service Fellowship in the end, which was the grant I was least interested in, but it's better than nothing. I was pretty good about telling my friends about the funding and job opportunities going around and I won't say I wasn't slightly bitter when they would get interviews at places I was rejected from, since we are all competing for the same opportunities and I sort of shoot myself in the foot by increasing the competition for all the stuff I am trying to get. At the same time though, I couldn't live with myself if I was such a competitive bastard that I bogarted all the information and didn't share. That just wouldn't be in keeping with the sense of community I like to see fostered. But back to the job search. I had a legal pseudo-connection in San Jose. A partner at a small firm who gave me contact info for a guy at a big SF firm he said might hire me. Sent out a beautiful personalized letter right away. Didn't hear anything so I eventually called the guy. The phone call lasted about 30 seconds and he wasn't very nice. About a month later I got a rejection letter. So much for nepotism. I waited until after finals to send out mass mailings to law firms. I sent a letter to every firm in the San Francisco Bay Area listed on NALP. Also to all the IP boutiques I could find in DC and NY. Something like 150 letters. The NALP system and mailmerge sucked by the way. I had to essentially retype every letter's "to" information by hand. Took me approximately 3 days to write all the damn letters. I didn't get a single request for grades even. Just "we don't hire 1Ls" or "we have met our recruiting needs already". I assume my resume must have leprosy or something :-P Odd though, since career services reviewed my resume and cover letter multiple times and said it was all fine. My next resort was to start applying to all the opportunities coming out in weekly emails from career services. Some were public interest, some in house counsel, and a few firms. I only applied to things I thought I had a decent shot at or sounded really amazing. I got an interview with Equality Now, a non-profit women's rights group that sounded petty cool. Interview went well and they seemed interested. Thought it would be a great backup job. Then they rejected me a month later. Darn. I was gonna work for free too. Did some interviewing workshops and a mock interview, which my interviewer said went really well. Sent out an ap for the Skadden Fellowship but I don't think my letter of rec ever made it. Probly wouldn't have mattered, I got rejected a month later or so. Next resort was OCI, on campus interviews. I got a bid for a firm and did the whole 20 minute interview thing with them. No callback, though they did take a couple friends of mine. I got lucky one Sunday morning checking the bid site and got squeezed in slots at two other firms. Both firms then later cancelled their entire interview schedules and claimed they weren't hiring. So much for luck. I got past the first round of rejecting at a Chilean law firm I applied to a loooong time ago but they moved their interviews to next week and now I haven't heard back what's happening. I'm optimistic though. It's the only firm I have left. I also just got a call from a NJ branch of a biotech company that wants to interview me and I'm setting that up Monday so I'm not totally dry on resources yet. Next step will be sending a bunch of letters to any random CA based group I can find. If I'm gonna have to work for free, I may as well live at home and cut expenses. In short, my advice on job searching is this. Unless you have some major diversity to offer the firms (like you are an African-American lesbian from Mexico) or you have amazing grades, trying to get firm jobs is pretty hopeless. Also the job searh takes way more time and effort than it is probably worth. I'd recommend skipping the whole mess and just finding a judge who needs clerks. Seems like people had no trouble finding clerkships for the summer and then they got to focus on school rathering than employment. Also I go to almost all the firm receptions and occasionally drop a letter afterwards to a hiring partner but invariably the answer is that they aren't hiring 1Ls. Yeah, the job search sucks, avoid it at all costs. Go work on the beach selling sno cones or something. Probly pays better than 1L legal jobs anyway.
Late Night
I shall now relate yesterday's events, which I was far too tired to blog when I got home last night (this morning). I slept in until 11 yesterday, which was nice. Did some work on moot court and went to the gym with a friend in the afternoon who hadn't been in like a year. She did very well though. She takes ballet so she wasn't out of shape. I got in my 20 minutes on a stairmaster and did a moderate amount of weight and mat work. Got home and did more moot court. Still hadn't eaten yet. Was pretty hungry by about 5. Managed to hold out until 6 and then ordered a massive load of chinese. Used self restraint for about 3 minutes by working rather than eating it 'cause I wasn't done with moot court. Then I caved and I think there was an audible sound like a high powered shop vac as I inhaled fried rice in front of the TV. After recovering from the ensuing food coma it was about 7:30. Got a call from a Barnard friend wanting to go to dinner at this sushi bar. Obviously I was a little stuffed. But I agreed to go along anyway since I'd promised her we'd find time this weekend to catch up and hang out. She was famished when we got there 'cause I needed 30 minutes to make some phone calls and wrap up moot court so she got a huge sushi platter. I was still bloated so I went with just a glass of white zinfandel (not great). The place was called Tomo. We sat at the bar so we could watch the chefs work. Kinda cool to see the beautiful art they do with the sushi. Strangely though we had a good time, it was profoundly depressing. Weird. Totally lost track of the time and neglected to call some downtown friends at 9:30 like I promised. Whoops. After sushi we went for ice cream at Haagendaaz and then I had to head downtown on the subway to meet friends in the village. Got a tad lost finding the place as usual but we all met up and went to one of their apartments to chill. It's nice having a group of friends downtown to hang out with now. Makes it easy to get out of Morningside Heights. The Village is a much more colorful neighborhood. We ended up not going out, we all piled on the bed and ate a ton of junk food while watching "Love Actually". Good film. Stayed up until about 4:30 talking and whatnot and then had to make my way back home on the subway. I was really exhausted and waiting for the trains sucked. They come so infrequently at that hour. Finally got home at 5:15AM and crashed.
Bronx Family Court (For Real This Time)
Got up at 7 (sooo tired) and showered, shaved and suited up for court. Got on the train by 8:10 and made it to Bronx Family Court on time. First one there from the Court Advocacy Program in fact. Quite impressive I thought. I'm always late after all. It was a slow day in the courthouse so it took a few hours for me to get a case. But when I did it was a doozy. Makes me really wonder about humanity to see this stuff. This poor woman I was helping was 23. Just a year older than me. But she had two sons, one 6 and one 4 (can we say statutory rape?) and her kids' father (not her husband mind you) was in prison in Florida for illegal firearm and drug posession. Good thing too. He beat her for the last several years on a weekly basis, sometimes using pieces of broken furniture, metal weight lifting bars, shoes, etc. He even stabbed her once with a knife, chipping some bone as well as leaving a nasty scar and sending her to the hospital. The creep had violated previous protective orders and threatened to kill her and throw her kids off a roof. Lovely character. And the bad news was that rumor on the street had it he was getting out of prison and coming back to visit his kids. Yeah. Not good. So she needed a protective order. But it's hard to get one without a recent incident to base it on. Anyway, we played up the violent history and took the matter before a judge (it took until 4:30 to actually get into the court room, but I got a lunch break to eat at a sketchy diner across the street; had a burger and strawberry milkshake). So back to the courtroom. Got admitted and we sat down in front of the judge. That was the first mistake. We were informed we had to stand until the judge told us to sit. Whoops. The judge asked my Petitioner a few questions and then I got to speak up and address the court to try to get a later adjourn date. My first time speaking in court! Woohoo! I got a fairly late date, though not the months I asked for :-P (turns out you regularly get 3-4 weeks and we got 2 months, so pretty good). She got a good order of protection too saying the guy can't come near her, her kids, their school, her work, her house, no calls, no contact, etc. Solid. Good day's work. Took a cab back to Columbia, put on a kipah and went to services at Columbia Koach. It was nice to be back. I think of it as my regular community now for Fridays in spite of all my roaming. Shmoozed a bit after kiddush and then met some law student friends outside the business school to try to get in to a Business School shabbat dinner that none of us RSVPed for. We got turned away. Punks. Went to a middle eastern restaurant on the border of harlem instead. Had falafel. Pretty good. Then went to Hillel to see Jews from Uganda sing and tell the story of how their ancestors converted to Judaism in the early 1900's. They were very cool, though not quite as amazing as the Ethiopians. Their plug:
The Abayudaya are a group of 700 black Jews in Uganda who converted to Judaism in the early 1900s. They have maintained Jewish traditions in the face of religious persecution, disease, poverty, and they live in the third-world without running water or electricity.
Their musical group was Grammy nominated. Pretty neat. Had dessert and shmoozed after the performance. Perhaps I'll visit Jews in Africa some day. For now it's back to job search and moot court.
Late Day
Didn't have morning classes so I slept in. Threw my schedule off though. Didn't get to the gym. Very sad. Senate meeting at noon that dragged on forever. Caught the end of the Impact meeting and fortunately there was left over food so I had lunch. The fried bananas were pretty good. Read Con Law and got some transcript requests taken care of in the early afternoon and then did some job apps in the late afternoon. Some New Jersey biotech company wants to interview me so I need to set that up for next week. Worked on moot court, IMed, and otherwise procrastinated the rest of the day. Got a sandwich from Hamilton for dinner. Wasn't exceptional. Argued women's rights for 2 hours with an orthodox friend of a friend at Brandeis who happens to also be the roomate of my neighbor's girlfriend. Small Jewish world. Time for bed so I can get up at 7 to go to Family Court.
Surprise Interview
Didn't get a chance to read for perspectives but went to class anyway. Then the gym. 20 minutes on an ellyptical and a bit of lifting. Somewhat pressed for time due to lunch reservaton at noon. Went to Faculty House looking for O'Meleny's luncheon but couldn't find it. Accidentally ended up in some business school conference. Not that it mattered much. They still had good food and I did some networking with the MBA students. Sat through reg state, though it is borderline unbearable these days. Did the con law thing and came home to do some work. Played poker instead though. Got an IM from a friend informing me that an interview slot was open with Dickstein & Shapiro at 5:50 and that I should get suited up and take it. My chances are slim as usual but I ave it a shot. They only had 10 minutes for me. Doubt anything will come of it. Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw had a reception at Fez in the Time Warner Cafe at 6:30. The people there seemed pretty dull and the firm is not very appealing. The food was ok, but the decor was not wonderful (supposed to be Moroccan). The redeeming quality of the event was that the open bar included top shelf. After Glenlivet, Remy Martin, Chambourde, a chocolate martini, port, etc I figured I got enough calories to make up the eqivalent of dinner. Came home and played poker. Won 6/9 today. Not bad. Still need to work on kicking the habit though. Such a waste of time.
Note to the general public: If people continue to be jerks I will be forced to remove the anonymous posting option. I like for people to be able to speak their minds anonymously on occasion but if anonymous posting degenerates into a means of making cowardly personal attacks I'll be forced to do away with it. If you are an asshole, please go read someone else's blog, this is not for you. There are plenty of online forums where you can blow off steam by flaming people, you are not welcome to vent in this space.
Cage
Manhattan is a cage. A gilded cage of culture and society, but a cage nonetheless. I think that's one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan. It's an itty bitty island; water on all sides prevents leaving. Skyscrapers blocking out the sky. Concrete choking the ground. Nothing natural can grow here. No car for escape. The subway a poor substitute for open roads, underground, bereft of fresh air or sunlight. Tunnels fit for moles, not men.
Yale Law Loses Respect
I went to class this morning and then to the gym. Did my 20 minutes of running and some weights. Lunch described below with Ethiopians and lots of pizza. Did classes and reading then met with my moot court editor and hurriedly wrote my reg state paper before 6. Finished with 5 minutes to spare. Went to a reception at faculty house and drank lots of OJ. Practically none of the food was kosher so it sucked. I did find a philosophy phd who graduated Yale Law so I couldn't resist a bit of scholarly debate. His specialty was the mind/brain problem as was mine so we got right down to business. To make a long story short, he believes in dualism, in a very watered down form that is relatively meaningless. Furthermore I tore his position apart by pointing out his lack of any sort of theory as to how physical matter could interact with the non-physical. The bottom line is I wasn't impressed. Yaleys don't seem so superior anymore. Nice to put that nagging insecurity to rest. Went from there to my JGL meeting. Read the article quickly beforehand. It was on a contractual approach to the gay marriage problem. I liked it. No one else did. I seem to tend towards being in the minority every vote. Ate cheetos and oreos. That was my dinner. Played some poker after meeting to unwind. Did well. Went to coffee at 11:20 with some undergrads. Caffeine at that hour wasn't smart. Had fun though. Hung out until 1:30. Made a new friend. Had some laughs with old ones. Pretty productive day overall.
Hooray for Ethiopians!
For lunch Koleinu, BLSA, JLSA, and a few SIPA orgs sponsored Israel at Heart. It's a program where regular Israeli people go running around the world and act as ambassadors of Israel to give people a different perspective on "normal" Israeli life. We got a contingency of Ethiopian Jewish Lawyers. They didn't have the greatest English and got attacked by the Palestinian students of course, but I think they did pretty well. I have a special place in my heart personally for the Ethiopian Jewish population and it's such a rare pleasure to get to speak with them. I haven't seen any since my last trip to Israel when I visited an absorption center. I also actually got the special treat of seeing traditional Ethiopian Shoulder Dancing in Jerusalem at a leadership conference. Shoulder dancing is quite amazing to see by the way, I'd highly recommend it as a cultural experience. There are only about 100,000 (out of 6 million Jews in Israel) so black Jews are pretty hard to come by. But they are SO COOL! And have such pretty eyes. And such a beautiful language, Amharic. One of the visiting lawyers spoke for me in Amharic and it made my day. I'm just such a fan of diversity and it's wonderful to have black Jews to round out the middle eastern sephardic population and the european ashkenazi. It's a shame that most people only think of Jews as white/europeans based on the makeup of the American Jewish community. In Israel the population is split about 50/50 between sephardim and ashkenazim. Actually Los Angeles has a sizable Persian Jewish population and there are other pockets, but mostly American Jews are white. I wish there were more diversity here in the US, but at the same time I'm glad there is such a mix in Israel and I wouldn't want to take away from that to diversify America. Oh, also Eitan Schwartz, the winner of the ISraeli reality TV show "The Ambassador" was there. Got to shake his hand. Check another celebrity off the list ;-)
Admit Cocktail Party
Forgot to blog fully yesterday. Briefly I shall fill in the holes. Went to Perspectives and then made oatmeal for breakfast. Took it slow and read a bit of con law. Went to the gym and got kicked off the track by some sports team. Used the rowin machine instead but really wasn't into it. Only spent 10 minutes. Did some weights and then went home to get ready for con law. After class I went to a cocktail party for admitted students. There weren't many attending and they were kind of square. Mostly Harvard Alums (not to imply Harvard people are square ;-)). There was a decent Muscato and chicken so it was worth my time. Was going to go back to give the Gates a second shot with an acquaintance from NYU but she canceled since she was in Brooklyn. Spent the evening doing moot court, IM, and online poker. Played way more poker than I intended and not very well. Broke even and crashed at 2AM.
She who has a million lolly pops had better also have a good dental policy.
We reach for the stars, but if we actually ever grasped one, a scorched hand is all we would receive for our troubles. The reward is in the process, not the end.
Wasted Day
I completely mutilated my Sunday. I was gonna do moot court. I was gonna do reg state. I was gonna study. In fact, all I did was play online poker and chat on AIM. Oy. I started recording my record just to see how I was doing. Turns out I'm not bad. out of 11 tournaments I placed first 3 times and second twice. Since it's 11 points to play each time, I made out pretty well winning 210. To help the mathematically challenged, 210-111=99 net winnings. Not too shabby. I feel terribly guilty though about having nothing to show for a day of slacking. Tomorrow I'll try to kick myself into gear again. Gym in the morning and work in the afternoon. Yeah. That's the ticket.
Gates and West Village II
Woke up to a friend banging on my door and telling me to come downstairs to a luncheon. I'm not one to refuse an invitation to food so I got dressed up and down I went. Had a nice luncheon with my downstairs neighbors and company then went for a walk with a few of them in Central Park to see the gates. Large, orange flag toting monstrosities that cost some fool 21 million dollars. If you want pictures, just ask. Came home and tried to do some work but became quickly distracted by a friend at NYU who was bored. Finally we made plans to get dinner so around 9PM I headed down to the village. I ended up walking down the wrong street and having to backtrack/run in circes, etc. I suck at getting anywhere as soon as the streets stop involving letters and numbers. Finally found her place and off we went. At my request we went to Lombardis in Little Italy. I'd heard from a friend that it is arguably the best pizza in NY. He may be right. They use fresh mozarella and everything. Great crust too. I must say it's the best pizza I've had so far in NY. Not cheap like Koronets though. And quite a shlep. But I'll keep it in mind for when I'm down in the village. Anyway, it was about a 20 minute walk and we took in many of the sights and smells of the village and Little Italy on the way. After dinner we went hopping through bakeries looking for the perfect Canoli, or at least something exciting enough to settle on for dessert. The Italian places didn't satisfy us so we went to Cosi's, a trendy little place not too far from NYU. The cool thing about it was they had s'mores. They came unassembled in a wood tray with a little brasier and two wooden skewers to roast the marshmellows with. Very cute. They also had both graham crackers and giant Oreos (with no filling, just the cookie part). Quite a tasty little treat. Had a lot of fun. Dropped her off at her place and marched to the subway. It was getting pretty chilly, about 27 degrees. Spent the subway ride text messaging and watching drama unfold between some lady and a saxophone player. He was playing terribly and she was berrating him for it and trying to make him stop. She was quite abusive and he finally cracked and started threatening to kill her kid (for the record, he claims he's not a crackhead; he takes LSD). They finally got separated and then some old black lady started in on how Jews and foreigners run the city. I was about to take offense and speak up when I looked around and realized that out of 40 people on the car I was the only white guy. I figured not only was discretion the better part of valor, but that she was right anyway. Really it's a compliment. I missed my subway stop due to all the distraction and ended up in Harlem. I think this is the second time I've done this. I noticed the only other white guy in the station was about the right age to be a college student and sure enough he was a guy visiting Columbia from Wharton who made the same error as me. His name was Josh Shanker and he knew my Barnard friends from Philly so we decided to walk back together. Got all twisted about but finally made it back to campus. Saw lots of giant rats on the way rooting through the garbage. Lovely scene in Harlem at night. Climbed the stairs up Morningside Park and landed safe and sound back at my apartment. That's enough walking for one day I think :-)
Kehilat Hadar
Didn't set my alarm for 8:30 so I woke up at 11. I fully intended to skip crim so no big deal. Went to the gym. 20 minutes on a rowing machine and some weight lifting got my high on. Hurried home to shower and get into business casual garb for lunch at Skadden. They are located in Times Square with most of the big firms and they have a beautiful building. Lots of natural light and good taste in artwork. Too bad the main course for lunch was chicken wrapped in bacon. I filled up on greek salad. No traif for me. Decent presentation. When I got home I hung around my apartment straightening up a bit. At 5 it was time to meet my shabbat crew at the corner to walk downtown. We went to Kehilat Hadar. Pretty far, 25 minute walk maybe. And it was cold. The wind picked up and it got brutal. Even without windchill the temperature was in the teens. The service was interesting but I don't know if I'll go back. It's very loud, people sing at the top of their voices, which I like. The problem is the crowd. It's all young married couples, some with babies. I'm not quite old enough to fit in with that set yet. I'm closer to Hillel. Professor Primus showed up and we gave him a seat next to us. Kinda cool to have a prof at services. He didn't stay for dinner. The food was very good. Except the chicken, which was terrible. Dessert was a highlight. Chocolate trifle. Peach trifle. Fruit pie, brownies, cake, hamentashen, fruit, tons of goodies. Also a tasty dessert wine. And everything tasted amazing. Definitely a nice dinner. Walked home after and had to stop at every Duane and Reade on the way to warm up. Brutally cold. Hung out at Lerner for a while and shmoozed in the lobby chairs on the way back to drag out the journey further. We split up at the edge of campus but I ran into other friends in the one block trip from campus to my apartment. They convinced me to come drink with them at Amsterdam Cafe, so I did. There was a Latin band playing there and a dancer, which was cool. We had Long Island Ice Teas and chatted (shouted, it was loud) at the bar for a few hours. Finally just got home. I'm exhausted. Time for bed.
"The Incredibles"
A trend is forming. Someone ust barely beat me to the shower. I think this morning it was my roomate's girl friend. In any case, no time to shower so I put on work out clothes and went straight to class. I thought I was 15 minutes late. Turned out I was like an hour late. The class started at 9:10 instead of 9:45 today. Whoops. No loss though so far as I can tell. Went to the gym after class. I left my ID in a Barnard dorm last night but a friend loaned me hers so I could swipe into the gym. Nice of her.
I used an exercise bike for 20 minutes and did abs and shoulders. The high was much briefer and less fulfilling this time. Stationary bikes just don't do it for me. And the bikes on the lower floor of the gym face a blank white wall. Not very scenic. If I go again I should bring a book. Dunno that I will go again though. I think I'll switch back to running. See how long I can coast on the runner's high. The more endorphins I can pump into my system the better right now. Maybe some heavy lifting will have a similar effect. Just gotta do enough tissue damage and the chemicals start flowing.
No lunch plans so I nuked Indian. Nothing terribly exciting.
Returned the ID in reg state and half listened/half played poker. Crammed some con law during the break and was thoroughly distracted by a friend on IM during class. No notes for today as a result. Very sad. I'll read a hornbook I guess. Right. That'll be the day :-P
Wrote up a protocol for use of a prototype student senate message board. Attended a web committee meeting at 4:15. The guy who called the meeting didn't show. Odd. But I still got a lot done. Hopefully the project will be moved along on the administration side.
Played online poker until 6:30. Went to the NHK (Japanese Legal Society) dinner in celebration of New Year (just a tad late). The food was ok. Hard to find vegetarian stuff at their events. Went from their to Le Monde (which I am thoroughly sick of) for Weil Gotshal's reception. It was the worst event there yet. Had a few drinks to get the taste of the beer out of my mouth from dinner. I guess my total for the night was 4. Not great but not unreasonable. Picked up my ID at Barnard dorms on my way back to campus. Went to see "The Incredibles" at Lerner Cinema (on campus like chem 194 at Davis). Turned out a bunch of my undergrad friends and one of my law friends were there too. We all sat together in the back. Good film. Made me laugh a little. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who liked Monsters Inc. or Ice Age.
Came home to do laundry. Still doing said laundry. I'm on load 3. Dunno how so much piled up. I think too much in the cold basement when I fold laundry...
I wouldn't be so hard on myself if it hadn't been such a stupid thing to do. One bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. I had nothing to gain and everything to lose and I lost. Of course, I was only getting what I deserved. But it's very hard to pick ones self up after making a mistake like that. I'll probably get over it some day. Maybe it will be too late by the time that happens. Maybe it won't matter. Maybe everything will be perfect.
A Break in the Storm
Odd beginning to a good day. My roomate was in the shower until 9:38. No way I could get through my usual routine and still go to class. Instead of skipping class I skipped my shower. Went out in shorts, a t-shirt, and a thug cap (to hide the unsightly tangle on my head). Perspectives was something of a bore sadly. After class I went to the gym and ran for 20 minutes. Felt pretty good. My legs didn't want to stop. However I had a lunch appointment at noon and it was 7 till. Did some pullups and went home to shower. Got to the Paul Hastings lunch 30 minutes late. Not a big deal. The food was pretty good. I loaded up on veggies and salad and water. Good for post workout. They gave out USB disks, which was nice. Left early to make it to reg state. Somewhat paid attention because it was all about the FDA and pharmaceuticals. I may end up working on that stuff seriously in the future so I figured it would behoove me to pay half-attention. Studied some crim law in the bookstore after classes. It was raining out, but I felt like walking in it anyway. I feel pretty good after working out and rain is nice. I was going to visit a friend but couldn't reach her so I went walking around campus when I finished reading. The rain had stopped. The sky was a bright royal blue. There were a few clouds left and the setting sun cast them in shades of pink and red. The air smelled fresh, a rarity in NY. The moon was barely visible shining behind the clouds. And I felt a strange feeling that I last felt June 7, 2004. Contentment. I went by Uris hall, the business school to see if my friend was there and I took a look at the library. It wasn't to my taste, too modern and busy. When I came back out night was beginning to fall. Walking up towards the law school I paused at the bridge over Amsterdam Ave. Downtown, the buildings were framed by the last rays of sunset. Uptown, blue clouds sailed North on a field of navy. The city can be truly beautiful sometimes. I met a friend for dinner at Strokos. Had a salad again. Talked about nothing in particular. Went to a seminar on Science, Sexuality, and Human Rights. The speakers were all very good, but there was little science. Mostly sociology and anthropology. I was familiar with their arguments already and it wasn't what I was looking for so I left halfway through. Went down to Amsterdam Cafe where a friend said there was a firm reception. Turned out to be for the MBAs so I left. Went to Lenfest and visited a friend instead. Had some chocolate and candy and discussed life. Also taught her how to sing the blessings over the torah. It was a nice time. I was supposed to meet a friend for drinks at 9 but she was busy so I went home and sent emails to more employers. Read the times too. At around 10:45 my friend finished her work so I went to collect her. Gave her roomate a hug 'cause she was having a rough time. She wanted Italian wine so we went to Cafe Pertutti. I didn't like the place last time but it was better tonight. I ordered the tiramisu and a glass of something red and Italian. It wasn't great, not much complexity, but the tiramisu was quite good. So was just relaxing and listening to another human being without being pressured about anything. Good atmosphere in the cafe. Can almost forget you are in NY if you don't look out the front windows. Walked her home and myself home, though it was getting chilly as the wind picked up again. Talked on IM for an hour and a half with assorted and sundry others. Now it's just about bed time.
Worst Lunch Yet
I don't remember much from this morning. It's been a long day. I believe I went to crim and played poker. Lunch was with Fried Frank and it was an outrage. They said they would present first and then we could eat. They went from noon to 1:20 before stopping. Most of us had class at 1:20 or even before. Jerks. Furthermore, the presentation was boring an the seats weren't arranged well for it since we were in circles and had to crane our necks. They broke the cardinal rule of lunch receptions, do NOT get between hungry people and their lunches. Totally inconsiderate of our needs. I skipped the first half of reg state in order to eat because I didn't have breakfast either. After reg state I read con law and did that class, then wasted the afternoon playing poker. Went to Sonnenschein's event at Faculty House at 6:30. It was a very small affair but it was ok. From there went to JGL. Then played more poker. Need to break this habit. Wasting all my time. I've been exhausted all day though. I'll do some reading for perspectives and call it a night.
Vagina Monologues
I realized walking home in the rain at midnight from turning in my moot court rough draft why I'm not suicidal. I mean I should be if I were rational. The emotion I experience most is misery and I consider good days to be those that I feel nothing at all. So why not end it all? Maximize happiness and minimize pain as utilitarianism dictates? Because I know deep down that I am the cause of all my suffering and I could end it whenever I want. I could satisfice. I could stop being such a stubborn bastard. I could stop pushing myself so hard for goals that are meaningless and bring nothing but more misery. I could lead a happy, peaceful, quiet life if I wanted. And sure I'm driven and warped to the point that I choose the life of misery. And I could blame others I suppose. Genes and environment. Could blame parents for sending me down the wrong path or expecting too much. Could blame friends for not being more supportive or offering wiser counsel. But really if you dissociate all that from "I" you are left with nothing. If an individual is created by an interplay of genes and environment and you dissociate the latter from personal responsibility or selfness, a half-thing is left. No. It's all my own doing. All the flaws and driving forces in the system are part of me too and I accept that.
Anywayz, on to my day. Stayed up late last night reading Magna Carta so as not to sound dumb in class if I got called on. Didn't get called on for once. Fortunate. Anyway, when I tried to get up in the morning my roomate beat me to the shower. That causes a 20 minute delay every time. Somehow I still managed to get cleaned up and into a suit before class at 9:45. Hard to pay attention though. Need more sleep. A lot more. Printed out resumes and writing samples and references for the interview after class. I don't think it went terribly well. Everyone that interviewed with Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman had the same feeling. They aren't really hiring 1Ls, just trying to gain name recognition. If they don't hire 1 of the 20 of us that interviewed there I'll be pissed. Went to hear the democratic candidate for NYC mayor speak at lunch and to get free pizza. He was ok. Nothing special. Tried to get work done for con law afterwards. Didn't finish. The reading must be getting longer. Or the reader slower. Couldn't concentrate much in con law anyway. Not enough sleep. I did notice professor Thomas in the back of the room though. Odd. He teaches another con section. Perhaps he wants to know why so many of his students sit in the back of Primus' class :-P Got a rejection from Equality Now in my email when I got home. Lovely. That was my best shot for the summer. I told them I would work free and I had tons of relevant experience. I wonder what the problem was. So much for women's rights. Worked on moot court until it was time to go to the Vagina Monologues at 8. My friends all canceled on me so I went alone. It was an interesting performance, though rather disturbing. They handed out Luna bars at intermission and they were surprisingly tasty. It rained all day. My single friends were all depressed. Valentine's day really can be pretty crappy.
Chinese New Year
Went to brunch at Lenfest. Nice way to start the day. Good bagels from H&H. Chocolate Babka and Rugelach. And best of all lots of friends and stimulating conversation :-) Renewed a library book on my way home and called lots of people to see if anyone wanted to go to Chinatown. No one was free. Everyone was writing moot court briefs or doing other hw. I should have been doing the same of course. Finally a friend who had previously been unavailable changed his mind and we headed down. There were lots of firecracker sorts of things that shot confetti all over the streets and little parachutes would come down that people would try to catch for good luck. It was very colorful. The streets were lined with confetti and all the stores had bright red accoutrements. Lots of lanterns and streamers. I had promised dim sum so we went pushing through the crowds for several blocks trying to find a suitable restaurant. Found a good one but there was a line out the door so we moved on. The streets were a total mob scene. We saw drummers and dragons and martial artists and floats go by. Eventually we got into another dim sum house and were seated. We got a ridiculously cheap meal but it turned out they wouldn't serve us dim sum. I can't understand why. They served other people. It was weird. We had regular Chinese food instead. It took us so long to get food that I think the parade may have ended by the time we emerged to the street. The whole area was too mobbed to really see anything anyway. Maybe next year I'll plan better and see all the performances and whatnot. It was an experience in any case. Took the subway back uptown and attempted to do work. Too many IMs though. I only have 3 pgs of my moot court brief done. I guess I'll have to do it tomorrow before the deadline. Time to go read the Magna Carta before bed.
Hangin' Round
Got up at 10 and cleaned the bathtub. It was gross. No one else here ever cleans up after themselves. Worked on moot court for a while and had cheerios for brunch. Got an IM from a friend who wanted to go study in Butler. I said I'd have to take a shower first. Kept him waiting 40 minutes. I'm a bastard like that. Showering quickly just doesn't happen in my world. Spent the afternoon researching in the library. It closed at 6 so we figured it was time to find dinner anyway. I wanted a turkey burger but my buddy convinced me to go to Cafe Swish. Didn't take to much time to twist my arm. Ran into a friend's boyfriend on the way over and invited him along. The restaurant has one big table in the middle so we were seated next to two strangers. One was a Harvard alum bartending at the West End to make ends meet until her screenplays sell. The other I wasn't quite clear on but she had a masters from Columbia in something or other and went to Washington and Lee undergrad. Not very exciting stuff to remember about people you have dinner with I suppose. I had some chicken ginger thing that was pretty good, my buddy had sushi, and the boyfriend had an avocado salad (he's so obviously Israeli). He had to run out early to meet the girlfriend but the rest of us stuck around and chatted. Got an offer of free beer at the West End (as if I don't get enough of that as it is), but maybe I'll drop by at some point. Came home and watched The Apostle because my friend insisted. It was rather disturbing. I'm not a fan of religious fanaticism in any form. Damn cults. Wasted a bunch of time online rather than going back to moot court. Now it's 10. Guess I should get down to business.
NYU Excursion
Oddly I went to crim this morning. Odd because I woke up late, around 9:15. I didn't think I would go. I didn't want to go. But the bathroom was occupied and I couldn't take a shower anyway so I figured I might as well throw some clothes on and get cleaned up after class. Perhaps I was also prompted by the recollection of how much money I'm paying for the stupid class. In any case, I showed up (wearing Tevas in spite of the freezing weather) and proceeded to waste the hour playing online poker. Went home after class and took my shower. Much better. I'm never awake until bathe. Shaved and put on a suit in anticipation of afternoon interviews. Went to Simpson Thatcher for lunch on the East side. There were about 20 of us. The firm sent Lincoln Towncars to pick us up, which was nice. It's a pain to get to the East side by subway and all. The food was ok, no better or worse than previous lunches. The building was pretty nice, but to a large extent, an office is an office. Big place though. 700 attorneys. Add support staff and there were probably more people in the one building than in my undergraduate graduating class. The attorney's talked about themselves as usual, pretty boring but it's the price of lunch. I had an interview scheduled at 3:06 at NYU so I skipped out of the firm when they tried to start a tour at 2:45 and went across the street to Grand Central Station. It looked like a cool place but I had no time to enjoy it. Caught the 6 line to the West Village and speed walked to NYU Law School. Bumped into a fellow Clumbian on the way who saved me precious minutes by pointing me to the right building for registration. It was 3:03. Luckily my interview was in the same building as registration. Arrived 2 minutes early. Incredible. The interview was with the New York City Campaign Finance Board. They oversee election fundraising and try to keep an even playing field. I think the interview went ok. The guy talked too much and didn't ask enough questions but I got him straightened out a bit towards the end. Not a very exciting sounding job anyway. Ran into more Columbians and cruised over to the law school for drop in interviews. I talked with representatives from the Brennan Center for Justice and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The latter seemed interesting. The former did not. Grabbed some baked goods from the symposium and went for a walk in Washington Square Park with a friend. Kicked around for a while taking in the village and then headed to the Bronfman Center on E. 10th. It's NYU's Hillel house. Met a professor from Berkeley in the lobby who asked me to go look at a painting she did on the 2nd floor. Even gave me her contact info to tell her what I thought. Guess I'll send her a note tomorrow. Also met the Koach co-chair and talked with her and some Kesher board members until services started. Also some girl named Dawn from Fordham. Turns out they don't have Hillel there, I didn't realize it was a religious school (can't remember if it was Lutheran or Jesuit). Met tons more people as they flowed in and then went to the 2nd floor for conservative services. Pretty normal, nice prayer books with big text. My eyes are so tired by that point in the day that it's nice to have big text. Went to dinner at one of the dorms with a mix of Jewish students, seemed like a lot of orthodox, but some of everything. Accidentally ended up at a table full of freshman. Not wonderful, so I left after a quick and fairly low quality dinner (Columbia gets better food) and went back to the Bronfman center to hang out with the more Reform crowd. There was a busload of students from Muhlenberg, a small liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, as well as the NYU folk. They seemed nice but must be crazy to drive 6 hours round trip for a 3 hour dinner. Still, cool to make more contacts at another locale. Had dessert and listened to the NYU Jewish acapella group. Sadly, I must admit they blew Pizmon out of the water. Amazing voices. Hung out until about 11:30 when the Koach co-chair did me a favor and walked me back to the subway. Long ride homw. The trains all stop at every stop at that time of night and they get packed with people going home from parties. Lots of drunkeness. It was a good day overall though. Met lots of new people. Saw new places. Made new contacts. Now if only I could get my moot court brief done this weekend would be pretty sweet. More on that tomorrow.
Met Jim Tierney
Yeah, so I didn't go to crim law this morning. Not realy surprising is it? No. It isn't. I'm very tired right now. Long week. I got up at a reasonable hour anyway because I had a 1 on 1 meeting scheduled with Jim Tierney. He was the Attorney General of Michigan and now he is a consultant to all the AGs and coordinates interstate AG conferences. We discussed political careers and he tried to talk me out of running for office. He failed to convince me. He said he'll set me up with a job at the California AG's office but I'm skeptical. I mean it would be cool if he does, but I don't trust the abilities of connections anymore after being let down once. Went to a CJAN meeting to hear about alternative spring breaks and get pizza for lunch. Then went up to the 8th floor for a Koleinu meeting. Got guilted into helping plan a movie night. Ate lots of M&Ms too. Went to reg state for once but spent the hour playing online poker. Went down to the upper west side to buy a friend a birthday present. Took a while because the trains were running slow so I was late to professor Greenawalt's panel on his new book. It was a very good panel, discussing the place of religion in public schools and in the government. I sat next to professor Fergusson without realizing it, but then we passed some notes during the question and answer period. It's so nice to hear how liberal all the professors are. Warms my heart in these conservative times. Had wine and cheese after and discussed various first ammendment issues with Greenawalt. Tried to catch Dean Kavros but he raced out early. I need him to give me a check for sweatshirts. From the panel I went to the West End for a grad student Hillel get together. Had a beer and shmoozed for a while. Then went to the Terrace in the Sky for Dewey Ballantine's firm reception. It was ok, but rather than make an ass of myself as I intended, I actually hit it off with a few associates and got names and numbers. I highly doubt it will get me anywhere, but I'll send the firm a resume. Can't hurt I suppose. Left the reception to go to Singled Out in Drapkin lounge, sponsored by the student senate. More free beer and dessert platters. It was a pretty good event, people seemsed to have a good time. Came home and played poker/IMed/Emailed. I'm soooo tired. I've stayed up the last few nights until 2 or 3 playing poker. I need to give it a rest tonight. I'll stay up researching for my interview tomorrow instead.
Mock Interview
Was woken up at 8 by a phone call giving me a quote on sweatshirts for the 1L class. The pains of office. I got us a really good deal though. $11 per hooded sweatshirt, with lettering. I'm really excited. Comparable sweatshirts at the bookstore are 40-50 bucks. Used my extra morning awake time to skim the law review article we were assigned for perspectives. Class was ok. Went to a speaker on the ICJ and the Israeli Security Fence for lunch and got a slice of pizza. It's been a long time since I had pizza. I missed it. Still crappy, but it was nice to have it anyway. The speaker was dissappointingly dull so I left half way through and had lunch with Kronish. They had a good looking spread, salmon and eclairs and whatnot, but it actually didn't taste that good. The firm people were nice but a little strange. They clapped a lot and pretended it was all of their birthdays. A bit childish. They also gave out free hats but I dunno what I'll do with it. I don't wear baseball caps. Went home to read for con law rather than attending reg state. Fell asleep halfway through. It's been a long week. Got cold called in con law so it's a good thing I at least attempted the reading. I muddled through but was riddiculed for not knowing the etymology of "sherriff" or "common law". No one else knew either but they still laughed at me. No biggee. I can handle that. Met with my moot court editor after class. Apparently I need to go do a bunch more research and write a rough draft this weekend. Gonna be busy. After that I came home and tried to research but I was just too tired. Played a bit of poker then put on a suit and went to my mock interview at the business school. It went well and I seemed to hit it off with the Weil Gotshal parter I was talking to. We talked a lot about biotech and she said she'll ask around about the market for me. From there I went to the Lion's Head Tavern to hang out with the senate exec board for half an hour. Shmoozed a bit and then headed over to Bryan Cave's reception at Bistro Ten 18. I realy like that place. Hadn't been back since lunch with Professor Greenawalt months ago. Good food but the beef was tough. Had a great conversation with an associate from San Diego. Too bad the firm doesn't hire 1Ls. Had a scotch and soda, then a very nice port. Also a shot of ketel 1 on my way out with the senate exec board (they just popped in for a few quickies). Went to the senate budget meeting and after got the other 1L and LLM senators on board for my sweatshirt idea. Such a ridiculously good deal we got. Loving it. Dropped follow up emails to some firm people I met lately when I got home. MAybe I'll sleep soon...probably not though.
Gym and Cite Checking
Woke up at the usual time but the bathroom was occupied. By the time it was free there was no possibility of being on time and also getting a shower. For once I chose crim law over hygiene. Lucky choice. Turns out it was my day to be on call. Getting to class early gave me just enough time to find a friend to bail me out with an outline of the days cases. It saved my butt. I don't think the prof could tell I haven't read or been to class in some time. I was in shorts and a T-shirt already so I went to the gym after class. Pretty wimpy workout. Not getting to the gym ever really causes some physical deterioration. Went to lunch with Torys. Standard affair. They won't hire me. Maybe I'll drop them a letter and beg anyway. Reg state was the usual drag and unfortunately con law wasn't doing it for me either today. I probly should have gotten more sleep. Played some online poker in the afternoon until Sullivan & Cromwell's cocktail party at Le Monde. Nothing special. Had a couple drinks and some food then went to my JGL articles meeting. Cite checked statutes with the team for half an hour then went to the library to go through law reviews for another 2 hours. Got home tired. Played more poker and IMed. Got asked out by a girl that I really like as a friend but could never really go out with due to religious differences. Felt terrible turning her down. She seemed hurt but I really hope we can still be friends. If she ends up hating me things could be very messy. Too bad it had to happen this way. Tomorrow will be very long, I better crash.
Alan Dershowitz
Made it to class on time, even having done half the Justinian reading. Enabled me to sound halfway intelligent in class. I dunno why Fergusson always calls on me, but he did it again. Rough life in the aisle seat. Had cheerios for lunch at 11 since I elected to skip the Domestic Violence Project free pizza lunch to go hear Alan Dershowitz speak at Lerner. No food. Quite a sacrifice I made. I dunno why either, I've heard him before and he has nothing to say of interest to me really. Still, he is amazing on his feet and it was nice to get a bit of intellectual debate (maybe not too terribly intellectual). He did a good job making the protesters look like idiots and that was enough for me today. Somebody's gotta do it. Darn antisemites. Was late to my reg state TA review also because the Q&A went overtime (it always does). Got hand outs and talked to the TA, who is really cool, and then scrambled to get con law reading done before class. Didn't finish but also didn't get called on so I was saved the embarrassment. It does make class harder to follow though. Got home and ate a ton of cookies and chips with guacamole because I didn't feel like finding real food and cheerios just aren't enough to survive on. Had a donut too. terribly unhealthy day. And it gets worse. Aside from turning in my moot court outline and getting my sources for JGL tomorrow, I did nothing productive all day. Just played a lot of online poker. Terrible. I'm getting better though. Won about half the tournaments I played in. Need to break all my bad habits though. Start eating salads, going to the gym, and doing my homework. Would that really be so tough? My life would be much more meaningful I suspect. I also found out an old friend got engaged. Haven't seen her since highschool. Very cute couple. Can't help but be bit glum though. I thought only girls were supposed to feel this way. Bah. The downside of metrosexuality. Feelings. Why can't I just not care about anything but beer and sex? My life would be much simpler. Hope I don't get called on in crim...I'm gonna crash.
Super Bowl
After waking up late I went straight for the online poker. Great. A new addiction. Checked email and did some research for moot court at the same time. Printed more stuff to the free library printers. Yay for no page limits. I do feel bad printing 200+ page documents though. Trees and all that. Went to lunch with a friend at Strokos and shmoozed (can you call it shmoozing when it's with a South Carolinan?). I had a salad. He had chicken and baked ziti. Fairly stereotypical for both of us I guess. The Californian and the Southerner. He was bored so he came with me to collect my rainforest worth of moot court documents in the library. I spent a few hours highlighting and outlining. Then it was superbowl time. Headed over to Kraft center early. THe place was already mobbed anyway. And it got much worse. There must have been 200 people there by the time the food arrived. And there was still enough. Quite a credit to Hillel. Unfortunately it was too crowded and noisy to enjoy the game or commercials. So I left with 3 other law students for a neighbors apartment. Watched the rest of the first half there. Somehow people disappeared so I went with the last remaining law student to his apartment on 100th. Missed most of the halftime show and 3rd quarter trekking over. Met some accountants and financial analysts at his place who were already having a party and watched the rest of the game there. I had 1 penny on the Patriots winning so I'm ever so slightly richer now. It wasn't a great game though and the commercials weren't wonderful. Drank lots of water to drown out the salt from Dougies (the Hillel catered food). The game ended at 10. I'm not used to such late superbowls. It's an afternoon thing in California. Walked back home and ate some leftover desserts and more water. Got back to moot court (and of course IM). I think my outline is mostly done, I'll go over it again tomorrow, it isn't due until midnight. Now I might read another book of Justinian so I'm prepared tomorrow morning. Or I might crash. Probably the latter.
Eternal Luncheon
Woke up at 8:30 but didn't rise until 11 or so. Took care of some email and whatnot and showered and shaved. Not a slow morning though. Had to keep on track so as not to be late for lunch at 1. Went by a friend's place since she was going to the same lunch. I had to get flowers and she needed a veggie platter so we went to the flower shop and then De Agostino. She wasn't ready to leave at 12:45 like we had planned though. By the time we got to the lunch it was 2. Oops. Still, good company and good food make up for little things like tardiness. Ate 'till we were stuffed and then sat around chatting. And laughing. And chatting. And laughing. Didn't end up leaving until 6:30. Long lunch. But well worth neglecting moot court. It's so rare that I laugh anymore, I try to hang on to such moments as long as possible. Laughing is good exercise, raises endorphin levels, prolongs life, etc...I really need to work on laughing more if possible. Life is too short to be so serious. I did hit the moot court research when I got home though. Then got an IM from a friend doing the same thing in the law school, an empty classroom on the 5th floor. I joined him and before long another friend showed up too. My research didn't get very far but the company was nice. I'll collect my printouts sometime tomorrow when the library is open. Had some frozen enchilada box for dinner. Not very satisfying. They make the portion sizes for elves. So I followed it up with a bowl of cheerios. I'd feel bad eating such a crappy meal but I think lunch balances it out. I'll see if I can get some more work done tonight to maximize superbowl watching time tomorrow.
Blast From the Past
I was surfing the web and ran a google search on my name just for kicks. The only fun thing I found was an open letter I wrote in an attempt to stem the tide of anti-Israel and antisemitic events at UC Davis. The bad face shot seems to have been cut from a larger picture from a Chabad reception. It looks funny without the people standing next to me.
http://www.jfgsj.org/jcn/04_2004/kevinfrankel.html
Ah the memories. Took two more letters and a year before the matter ever got settled. The professor in question isn't allowed to speak on the issue anymore on behalf of UCSF and he was sanctioned. Too bad they didn't fire him. So hard to bump off professors, they have too much power.
I also discovered that if I don't put quotes around my name I find half the medical centers and large law firms in America. Go figure.
White & Case International Law Lunch
Decided to skip Crim again in order to do some more job mailings. Futile though they are. My shower is really getting scummy. The water won't drain. Desperate action will be required soon. I don't think anyone wanted to know that. Back to other matters. Paid some gambling debts and $4 I owed a guy for Nyquil he got me when I was sick. Answered a bunch of email and then went to a luncheon talk on international law at White & Case's office. 40th floor of some big building in Times Square. Ok office, nice but a little fake. The lunch was pretty good. Catered NY deli fare. Great view. The talk was informative but dull. I was among the first to leave. I missed Reg State of course since it conflicted with lunch. Yeah. Went to no classes today. My dry cleaner called to say they couldn't deliver my clothes during the White & Case meeing. I wasn't surprised. I told them to forget it and I picked them up myself on the way home. Awful service. Bah. Visited friends in Lenfest for a couple hours then went to catch kiddush at Hillel. It's nice to make an appearance and say hi to friends even if you miss services :-P Brought a friend who never goes and introduced her around. Took her to the grad student dinner after in Sulzberger Parlor. The food was ok, the company was better than last time, and I knew half the people when I walked in. Didn't meet many new ones due to time constraints and chatting with people I already knew but oh well, there's always next time. Hope I cheered up my friend a bit, she seemed down. A friend from Barnard brought me cake and I swiped some cookies on my way out so I have breakfast tomorrow. I have lunch plans with another Jew crowd. I must remember to bring flowers. The conversation at dinner was very good, and though I didn't make new friends I think I became much closer with a few cool people I haven't been able to spend as much time with as I would like. We made plans to all get together for shabbat again in two weeks at Keheilat Hadar. Emailed some job apps when I got home. I think I'll crash soon. Long week of drinking and wheeling and dealing. I better buckle down and work this weekend. But there is the superbowl...
Why Drinking and Poker Don't Mix
Accidentally slept through my Crim class this morning. No, really. It was an accident this time. I intended to go. I swear! I'm not sure how it happened yet. Either my alarm didn't go off, or it did but I didn't hear it. It's on the other side of the room, I couldn't have turned it off without getting up (strategery). So I woke up at 11 and was shocked. Got myself together and went to the firm lunch. Had just sat down to eat when I got a phone call. It was a friend asking where the senate meeting was. Oops! I had completely forgotten that too. Took my lunch and went to the meeting. Things went as usual. Skipped Reg State to do Con Law reading because it was long today. Con Law was interesting. 3 more phone calls later the dry cleaner sent someone to pick up my clothes. Ridiculously bad service. I hear the rest are even worse. Went by cab to the Hudson Hotel for drinks with Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The hotel was very nice, our reception was in the library. They were supposed to reimburse our cab fare, but that involved sending us checks in the mail. Not impressed. Such a hassle. I had 6 cocktails and was quite buzzed. The bartender was good. A brandy alexander, a grasshopper, hurricane, a blue hawaii, a b52, and a mango something or other that was the house specialty. Cabbed back home and played poker with the dowstairs guys until 12:30. Lost 20 bucks. I deserved it for playing after 6 drinks. Considering I'm lucky to break even playing on water, this was less than brilliant. I should really at least read up and memorize probabilities if I'm going to be stupid. Bummer.
Damn Dry Cleaning Pick Up
Got up early expecting the cleaners to come pick up my dry cleaning. Huriedly took a shower, afraid they would come while I was in the bathroom. Waited until I absolutely had to go to class. They never showed. Nor did my roomates see any sign of them. After class polished off the last leftover Italian and Chinese. Was still hungry but there was nothing I felt like eatin so I stopped. Went by Kent for transcripts but they didn't have my grades yet. Bitched at the Law School office and they said they would fix the problem by tomorrow. Did my Con Law reading and sat through class, then chatted for over an hour with people in the lecture hall until I went to clean up and answer email before the night's festivities. A couple undergrads were joining my friends and me for the reception since it was at Terrace in the Sky, a restaurant they were dying to go to. They were going to be running a little late but said they would be around at 7. We didn't end up leaving until 7:45. They still weren't ready. I'd also been waiting for the dry cleaning pick up to come during the nightshift. They didn't. I called. No answer and no machine. Conclusion: Ye Old Cleaners is flakey. Too bad they are still better than the competition on Broadway. Guess I'm screwed and will have to walk the clothes over myself. The undergrads met us at the bar at 8. I was starved after not eating anything since 11AM and the food was terrible there and sparse to boot. Threw down a manhattan and a martini in about 5 minutes. Went straight to my head. I was still ok though. Had an Almaretto Sour, very tasty. The bar ran out of almaretto so people were covetting my drink. It was very very tasty. The view was amazing too. You could see the whole city, bridges, empire state building, chrysler building, everything. The restaraunt was in a greenhouse style enclosure on top of a highrise on 119th and Morningside. The event ended not too long after we got there but 3 stiff drinks was quite enough to make me tipsy with no food in me to speak of. My associates were for the most part outright drunk. We were hungry so we decided to go to the state of the union address party in Lenfest Cafe. Partly for the free pizza and beer and partly to mock Republicans and heckle. Unfortunately the pizza was all gone. Furthermore one of my friends (who happened to be Republican) was so drunk he was being a bit obnoxious and I had to escort him out to save us all embarrassment. No heckling took place. Though my friends did swipe a lot of beer. Of course, I found it less than enticing. Talked for a while with the senate treasurer while trying to keep my very drunk friend out of trouble. The rest of the party emerged after a while and we decided on Koronets for some pizza. Stopped by my place on the way back to return some tupperware I had borrowed. There may have been some scandal on my couch apparently but I have a don't ask, don't tell policy. I tried to rehydrate people since I was the sobberist of the lot and also attempted to keep people from wandering into my roomates space. Eventually we made our way down for pizza and after shmoozing a while we went our separate ways. Felt rather depressed again when the buzz wore off. Drinking definitely doesn't improve my mood for long. Played spades and kvetched rather than doing work. I need to get my act together already. This is getting ridiculous. Depression and misery are just so counter to being motivated.
What I was thinking to myself this morning:
Identities
Knowledge is Power- if this is so then a biconditional holds and it should also be true that Power is Knowledge. This is obviously not the case so the whole saying is false. Powerful people aren't always knowledgeable (read GW Bush). But we can do better...
Money is Power- this seems pretty true. Money buys whatever one desires and this is the essence of power. Power is capable of supplying one with currency as well. Relatively valid biconditional. A further test...
Time is Money- time is compensated with money and money can be used to buy time to a point, both directions are limited but viable. Now the extension...if time is money and power is money than is time power? If there is no mistake above it must be true. It is a stretch imaginatively but I find it plausible. Time may be spent furthering interests and thereby exerting influence and power. Power can be used to buy time by having assistants and other loyal servants do one's work. Just fun stuff to play around with to keep the symbolic logic fresh.
Thought of the Day:
Sometimes doing the classy thing makes you feel like someone slashed your eyes with a rusty dagger, tore out your guts with a rake, and then dropped a marble slab on your heart. Yeah. Good times.
What I Learned From Dubbya
1) You don't have to be smart to make it to the top.
2) You don't have to be capable either.
3) Or even work hard.
4) If you are lacking in all measurable virtues, it doesn't really matter if you get to the top; no matter how high you rise, people won't respect you.
My current favorite bumper sticker: Somewhere in Texas there is a village missing its idiot.
Jean Luc with Blank & Rome Plus Other Thoughts
Couldn't get out of bed this morning after staying up to some ungodly hour playing spades. I need to stop that. It's a total waste of time. Finally got up and brushed my teeth, then realized I had 10 min to be in class. I had to forgo my morning shower. Postpone really. I had taken one before bed last night so I was still clean anyway and too much washing dries out my skin so it's all for the best. Though I got lotion today with my groceries so maybe I can prevent dryness with and still take multiple showers a day, we'll see (fresh direct delived this afternoon). Tossed on whatever clothes were handy and went to class totally mismatched. Who cares anyway? Not like I'm interviewing. Crim we are still treading water so having only done half the reading wasn't a problem. Did some work/IMing/spades and showered before lunch. Lunch was with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. At Faculty House of course. Boxed lunches, about the same as usual. From there went to Reg State (which I attended, God only knows why) and did my Con Law reading between classes. After Con Law I chatted with friends and went home to eat some leftover chinese food (I tend to order 3 meals at a time, it's more cost effective). Waited for the groceries and caught up on current events. Arranged for my dry cleaning to be picked up tomorrow. After doing a bit more emailing and work it was time for a cocktail party. Went down to 85th and Columbus to Jean Luc for Blank & Rome's reception. Picked up two friends I ran into on the way. Had port again to figure out which I had liked better. Turns out Tawny is better than Ruby but I'm getting bored with both. Then I had a scotch on the rocks (Glenfidditch). The appetizers were nothing special. I spent the whole time talking with some partners from the firm and got the impression that the place and people are exactly the same as everywhere else. Surprise surprise. Also they don't do any biotech and have no California offices. Yeah, so not interested. Left at 10 to 8 for JGL and missed the train, making me late. Ok, to be honest I wouldn't have made it on time anyway. Oops. The article I read was accepted, for which I am glad. ow on to some more general topics.
I was relatively happy today and I think I realize why. I tend to be happy in either of two environments. When I get little sleep and a lot of intellectual stimulation (as lately) or when I have little to worry about, plenty of free time, and host multitudes of dinner parties. Law firm life may be ideal for me since it seems to involve the former of the two scenarios. Plus I'll be able to make lots of money to boot. If I end up in politics later, hopefully I can switch gears and move into the second situation. We'll see.
And now for something completely different :-)
I have been collecting a lot of junk from firms and am trying to calculate how much money they are wasting on me. If I count correctly, they've already bought me 7 lunches and 10 open bars. That must add up to at least $250 even on the conservative side. Probably over $400 the way I've been running up bar tabs. And it's only the 3rd week. Plus all the junk I get. I have so many pens and highlighters that I won't need to buy any for at least the rest of law school. I got a compass, a frisbee, a giant paper clip, a hacki sak, a puzzle, a plastic penguin, a nice CD case, a mug, and even a blanket among other garbage. Though the blanket doesn't bode well. Does it mean associates at their office don't get to go home to sleep? In any case, a heart "thank you" goes out to the firms, who I will never work for but who spend lots of money on me anyway. Such a dumb recruiting system.
