"In vacant or in pensive mood..." I am: Bekah; 24; Law Student / Favorite Things: Carbs (so there!), Johnny Damon, Smiling at babies, Grilled cheese, Comfortable silence / Favorite Supreme Court Justice: Brennan / Favorite Wilson: Owen by an inch / Today's Special: Song: Elliott Smith, "Bled White"; Quote: "You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I'm pretty good with a bowstaff." Please love me: mmbekah@yahoo.com

 
It is disturbing when you begin to dream at the meta level. Two nights ago, I dreamed that I had a really strange dream. As in, while I was actually dreaming, I dreamed that I went to sleep and had another dream. And then, in my dream, I woke up from a dream and had to tell people about how weird that dream was (it involved wrapping myself in a sheet and driving my car into a bale of hay). If you're not following this, don't worry. I've already lost it myself. It kind of reminds me of a line from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe: "All we see and all we seem, is but a dream within a dream." So in my case, it's a dream within a dream within a dream. Probably to infinity. Whatever, all I know is my subconscious is a lot smarter than my conscious mind, seeing as when I'm sleeping I can think on all of these complex levels and everything. I think I should probably look into taking exams in my sleep...

A quick related note about dreaming: it seems to be a big topic of conversation among law schoolers during exams. I think it's because our days are so packed with studying that any residual thoughts/feelings get relegated to sleep time. So my friend Kate starts dreaming about law professors named after cases we've studied, and my friend LaCosta starts dreaming about being burned with cigarettes (yeah, don't know where that one came from). And anyone who doesn't have traumatic dreams has insomnia. Oh, a fun time is had by all.

posted by Bekah at 9:25 AM :: |

 
Mmyeah, I don't think my Con Law professor got the memo.

posted by Bekah at 9:11 AM :: |

 
Memo
To: Law professors
From: Your conscience (remember me?)
Re: Emulating Satan is not friendly

Dear Law professors:
I know you are not, for the most part, inherently evil individuals. My father is one of your kind, and he is a good man. But for the love of God, take one moment to look at yourselves. Look at what you've become. Are you a short man? If so, please don't take it out on your students. Do not attempt to be entertaining when writing exam questions. Do not use "silly" names (e.g., Kirk and Picard, har har) or the names of your students. Do not provide bizarre fact patterns with "amply bosomed" women or horse copulation patterns. Exams are not funny. Chances are, neither are you. Do not give 1000 multiple choice questions in 30 minutes. Do not write an impossibly difficult exam for the express purpose of making students feel so horrible about their performance that they'll be happy with whatever grade they receive and won't come complain to you. (I know some of you do this, my dad told on you). Do not minimize the horror, anguish, fear, self-loathing, or despair that some students feel during exams. Do not forget that good students can make mistakes and become paralyzed by the pressure of the exam situation. Try to understand the gravity of the fact that your exam is the one and only chance your students get to show you what they know. That's all. Now I must go prepare for an exam which will likely disregard everything I've requested or suggested.

posted by Bekah at 11:06 PM :: |

 
I was told before coming to law school that English and Philosophy were great preparatory majors. I will admit that both subjects teach you how to write and think critically and how to analyze what you read, etc. But while these skills are of course valuable in an abstract sense, it is a dirty lie to say they're the best prep for law school. I would say history, government, or business top the list. Hell, even chemistry or math. Something--anything--that will familiarize you with the ever-elusive "real world" where people buy goods, write wills, and work for corporations. The real world is not a place where people learn about iambic pentameter and contemplate brains in vats. Now when I tell other law students what I studied in college they act like I just lost a close relative. "Oh, ooh, English, huh? Sorry about that." Yeah, thanks. At least I have a soul!

I'm doing some final studying for my first exam right now, the girl at the table next to me sounds like she's hacking up a lung and maybe a few ribs. She needs to get that cough under control if she's going to be in a room filled with undernourished and overextended law students taking one exam representative of 4 months of hard labor. I'm going to pray for her. And for my own deliverance from Contracts II.

posted by Bekah at 10:50 AM :: |

 
Substantial Impairment

Ah, again, I have to write about some law school related things that will make absolutely no sense to normal people, so I apologize if you are in that class. (Class. That reminds me of a class action suit, which reminds me of the justiciability doctrine of mootness, which reminds me that I have to look in my Con Law book and remember what case that was, excuse me one moment...ah yes, Geraghty, with the guy on parole, which reminds me of the parol evidence rule at section 2-202 of the UCC, which reminds me of lawyer's professional duties as to real evidence, which reminds me of burying your client's gun in someone's backyard, which reminds me of trespass to land, which reminds me of adverse possession...). Law school has completely commandeered my thought processes. I can't function in the world. World, world...that sounds familiar. I'm pretty sure it's a place larger than the coffeehouse, but I think it has disappeared. Today I was listening to a cd, (Elliott, False Cathedrals, new obsession), and I swear I heard the line, "You are the perfect tender, for all the goods I render." What the hell! The Reasonable Man, nonconformities, unforseen supervening contingencies, natural and foreign substances (there was a piece of red yarn in my salad yesterday; Whole Foods better check themselves and their particular purpose), prima facie unconscionability...these things are all accosting me 24 hours a day. The Reasonable Man is being especially feisty lately. I think we need to have a chat, one on one. I'm going to advise him that he should lighten up a little. No one is reasonable ALL of the time. In fact, I think the Reasonable Man and I are going to go crack a Miller Light (yes, the one that's been chillin' in the fridge with the mustard since December) and watch a little TV.

I did have a momentary non-law school thought today. I remembered the opening lines of Wordsworth's Intimations Ode (ah, the fruits of a liberal arts education): "There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, the earth and every common sight to me did seem apparelled in celestial light, the glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore, turn wheresoer I may, by night or day, the things which I have seen, I now can see no more." I feel ya, Billy.

posted by Bekah at 8:23 PM :: |