These are pictures of the area around the Kitty Kat Club.
The Kitty Kat Club is on the edge of Dinkytown, which is the college village where UMN’s legal fraternity (Gamma Eta Gamma) is located. I lived in the neighborhood most of 1L year.
These are pictures of the area around the Kitty Kat Club.
The Kitty Kat Club is on the edge of Dinkytown, which is the college village where UMN’s legal fraternity (Gamma Eta Gamma) is located. I lived in the neighborhood most of 1L year.
I spent the past two weeks packing my big-honking golf umbrella, printing out offensive amounts of paper in the library, and screaming along to “Big Fun” in my car.
Week #10 was a lopsided week because my Thursday-Friday class was moved to Tuesday and Wednesday. This meant that on that Wednesday I had all of my classes1 including legal writing.
For Wednesday, we had abnormally large reading assignments for CivPro and Corporations, and of course, that was the day that spring briefs were due.
So most of the class spoke in grunts and scowled at anyone who was insufferably cheery. Grr.2
I was up most of Tuesday evening and went to bed immediately after school on Wednesday. I pretty sure I flew home. I slept for about 15 hours. It was amazing. I smile every time I think about it.
I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at work, making up hours that I didn’t put in at the beginning of the week.
That weekend Stella and I went to the 90’s and watched the drag shows. Nina D’Angelo came out in a fat suit and gave a Cher performance. Stella and I were seated in the audience. Obese Cher got off the stage and sat on our laps. Yes, it was a hot mess. And yes, there’s video footage.
When Stella and I got home we saw that some of our housemates had trashed the living room and kitchen:
We were NOT amused.3 Lets forget that happened. Ugh.
Week #11 started with my first oral argument. My opponent and I had the same concept of the assignment, so there was no bloodletting or surprises. It was a fun experience, although I somehow managed to wear a blue-black suit top with my very-black slacks. This is how I get my reputation for keeping it classy…4
Last Monday’s oral argument was our “practice” argument. The real one is next week, and my suit will match. I promise.
This past week was somewhat unproductive because I violated the sanctity of my sleep schedule. If I miss even a few hours of sleep, I get into a zombie-like state after 5pm. Lack of sleep is a self-perpetuating thing because when I am tired I am more likely to stay up unnecessarily instead of going to bed…which means I’m tired the next day and…yeah.
I reconciled with my bed this weekend. A full 8-hours is non-negotiable for the next few weeks.
1 8am – Legal Writing, 9am Civpro, 11am Corps, 1:25 Crimlaw, 2:20 Property. 4pm – a comfort McFlurry then bed time.
2Crabby to put it mildly. Half of us couldn’t make eye contact with the obnoxious guy from Crimlaw. I’m surprised that no one raised their hand and ask for a gag order: “CAN WE JUST HAVE HIM NOT TALK FOR ONE CLASS PERIOD?”
3 The mess wasn’t completely cleaned up for a few days. This was the topic of much griping around the house. It was an interesting social study too. Turns out that mostly the minorities and women in the house were pissed off about it. Some of us noted that…
4 If that wasn’t bad enough, the suit jacket and pants had two different types of pinstripes! My room wasn’t well lit enough for me to catch the mistake before I got to school. (Yes. I literally got dressed in the dark…)It was one of those fashion mistakes that wasn’t glaring, but really irks everyone who notices it. But given how many students have no concept of appropriate formal wear, it wasn’t a big deal.
4 Yes, I know I just said “when I’m tired, I stay up.” That may sound stupid, but it’s true. I stay up so late because I’m vegging in front of a computer or book…
The legal fraternity went out for pizza at Punch:
Today is the third day of Minneapolis’s 40 degree heat wave.
40 degrees means that the ice from the sidewalk now blankets the entire lawn and half of the street in a misguided attempt at melting.
Everything is so slick and disgusting that most people walk in the middle of the road. We’ll take our chances with the cars.
Getting to the front door of the house feels like a real-life version of Mario Kart’s ice world, minus the cool little car and Donkey Kong of course…
Yesterday was my breaking point: I almost took a nose dive into the slush in front of our house, so I decided to take out the pick and start hacking some ice:
THAT took an incredible amount of effort. When I saw how much I had left I decided to leave it to the housemates (hint hint!)
Several of my housemates have started busing home because of the cold.
I walked home for lunch, but decided to try the bus-thing after school..
After 5 minutes on the bus I had an epiphany: The University of Minnesota has campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The campus connector bus probably connects the campuses…
I looked out the window and realized the bus was on the expressway to St. Paul. Doh.
Next time I take the campus shuttle...
I eventually get back to Minneapolis and buy a McFlurry from McDonald’s. The nice thing about -8 is that McFlurrys don’t melt on the way home…
30 minutes later I’m in the living room watching TV with some housemates. The doorbell rings.
It’s a woman smoking a cigarette, holding a 12-pack of beer and a pitbull-lab mix on a leash.
Woman: “I got in a fight with my boyfriend. I’m going to stay at a hotel tonight or something…Can I wait in your foyer while I wait for the cab? I gave them your address…”
So we had a pitbull running around the living room while three of us were looking up dog-friendly hotels…
***update… my housemate just walked out with a bat in a box… I guess another bat got in the house…
Housemate #1: “Aww! The bat looked so cute! It was so small!”
Housemate #2: “What? No! I was gonna go bat-shit on that bat!”
Housemate #1: “Oh look, my humidifier just came! I’m gonna go humidify myself!
Things are too weird right now. I’m going to bed.
The Gamma house president has been looking for his wallet for four days. He’s ripped both couches in the living room apart, checked with local stores…
Someone saw a wallet in the couch, but we quickly determined that I had left (and found) my wallet in the couch that day.
I was at Jamie’s this weekend. I came back today and started cleaning my room.
As I’m folding laundry I feel something in the back of a pair of shorts. I wore these shorts around the house Thursday night…I shake the shorts…and out falls the president’s wallet.
Oops. I guess I found two wallets that day.
I read the New York Times every morning in undergrad. The Times was available for free at the University of Miami dining halls.
The Gamma house has a Times subscription, but this winter the unread papers are amassing in the foyer. I breakfast with network news now.
We received this email today:
University Police are re-issuing to campus the following crime alert from the Minneapolis Police Department. Over the weekend there were four robberies of person in southeast Minneapolis. In three of those cases, University of Minnesota students were victims. These are Minneapolis investigations, however University Police in cooperation with Minneapolis are directing patrol resources into those neighborhoods.
*Minneapolis Police Department Crime Alert:*
*Facts:*
Over the weekend, the 2nd Precinct had six armed robberies. The
victims have been females who have had their purse or possessions
taken. They occurred at:
. 14th Ave NE and 3rd St NE — 11/15/2008 7:55 p.m.
. 20th Ave NE and 4th St NE — 11/16/2008 1:15 a.m.
. 2500 block of University Ave SE — 11/16/2008 2:53 a.m.
. 12 Ave SE and 7th St SE — 11/16/2008 3:07 a.m.
. 10 Ave SE and 7th St SE — 11/16/2008 9:25 p.m.
. 12 Ave SE and 4th St SE — 11/17/2008 12:52 a.m.
And no, the University of Minnesota isn’t some decrepit, dangerous place. The main campus is less than a mile from downtown. The list essentially includes all the muggings that happened in downtown Minneapolis and surrounding neighborhoods this weekend. It’s a city. People get mugged.
The University of Minnesota also has over 50,000 students. So if a 20-something gets robbed in Minneapolis there’s a fair chance she goes to the U…especially if she’s skipping around the streets from 1-3am on a weekend in 30 degree weather.
I spend a lot of time studying in the business school and the surrounding cafes. That part of campus is overshadowed by multicolored project towers that we affectionately call the Stacks.
I live in a different neighborhood, on other side of the river from the Stacks.
Law students make jokes about the Stacks and the supposedly seedy neighborhood that surrounds them…but the irony is that the last location on crime email’s mugging list is literally one street from the Gamma house.
The mugging didn’t happen by the Stacks, but in cutesy-little “oh so collegiate” Dinkytown, where all the Fraternities, Sororities, dorms and student orgs are.
Dinkytown is a pretty high crime area because it’s essentially a student-town (read: easy targets). Our fraternity house was already broken into this semester, and a housemate’s car has been robbed twice.
And yet we make fun of the Stacks.
I haven’t convinced the housemates to let me get a pitbull yet, but one more robbery might do the trick…
The past two weeks couldn’t have been more different.
Week 8 was the most academically engaging week so far because of a contracts midterm and a legal writing memo.
The contracts midterm was an opportunity for me to outline my contracts class and synthesize my notes.
So I opened the exam feeling prepared and read the instructions. There are three parts to the exam. I breeze through the short answer questions, have a lot of fun on the long issue spotter…and then get to the last question:
Some doctrines of contract law are best characterized as standards, whereas others are better characterized as rules. Identify one doctrine of contract law that is closer to a rule than a standard, but that you feel ought to be closer to a standard than a rule. Explain. Then, identify one doctrine of contract law that is closer to a standard than a rule, but that you feel ought to be closer to a rule than a standard. Again, explain you reasoning. (Please do not use the doctrine of restitution in answering this question).
I stopped. Reread the question, exhaled, and then silently thought, “What. The. Fuck.”
Doctrines of contract law? Huh? What?
I scribbled a random, (probably incoherent) answer, and then printed the exam out. I decided there was no point in worrying about my (butchering) of the last question since this was only a practice exam…but needless to say that my subsequent class notes always have a “THIS IS A POLICY/RULE VS. STANDARD ARGUMENT!!!! MEMBA DIS FOR THE EXAM!” section.
Researching for the legal writing memo was a lot of fun. I did most of the work at cafes downtown. I love walking downtown from the law school because it’s a nice walk (and break) before I start work. Downtown Minneapolis is gorgeous too…
Studying off campus is also super-efficient. The nice thing about being the unshaven guy in the corner of the café, (intensely staring at his computer, mumbling to himself…) is that people assume you’re crazy and leave you alone.
Whereas in the law school the harder you concentrate the more likely you are to be approached by a classmate… “Hey! How about that one case…” And you know it’s true. We all become that distracting person at least a few times a week…
Apparently my work on the memo paid off – I met with my legal writing instructors to review my memo and they said,
“Your open memo was so thoroughly researched and bluebooked! Good job! We were pleasantly surprised because your closed memo was so terrible! What changed? Really…what happened!?”
Gulp.
I didn’t know whether to be happy or not. I didn’t think my closed memo was THAT bad… Hmmf.
The open memo was a lot easier to write because I was able to refer to statutes, restatements, and cases from other jurisdictions to get an idea of what I needed to write about. During the closed memo we could only use the excerpts from the 5 or so cases we were given…
Basically – with the open memo I could research myself into competence instead of scratching around a few select cases.
The contracts outline, midterm, and open memo created an unique time pressure for week 8. I loved it. I think that’s why it was the most academically rewarding week of the semester…
I also added a new study spot to my (sprawling) list during week 8: The Hennepin Public Library!
It’s like Ikea: the Library. Brand new and amazing.
Week 9 was Halloween week – and therefore “The Week of the Boomkats.”
The Week of the Boomkats ended on Saturday when we went to the 19 Bar and Saloon. The 19 Bar is a laid back place in Loring Park with a semi-awkward crowd, whereas Saloon was strangely annoying on Saturday. Hm.
November is the beginning of finals season which is exciting. I hope to knock out one class outline per week (and of course, add this month’s material towards the end.) We’ll see how it goes…
Last night the Gamma House threw a party, and I promised pictures:
Before the fiasco in St. Paul – most of the Gamma house went to trivia night at Burrito Loco. Pictures!
We two-stepped. People stared. It was hilarious. This is what we do.
Tonight at the Gamma house we are watching the debate, and playing Michelle Malkin’s debate drinking game. Every time we hear these words we take a sip of Captain Morgan:
Law students at lesbian night. You know it was special.
So Erik and I were having issues with a portly woman, who kept invading our space on the dance floor. The consensus was that while gay guys may be incredibly bitchy, some ladies are just rude.
But Erik and I colluded and set up Miss P. on a blind date with Erik’s ladyfriend. It’s in 2 hours. We are chaperoning. Oh my. There will be pictures…
Last night:
Housemate #1 and I are sitting in the living room, watching late night TV.
Housemate #2 is sleeping on the Lazy Boy, but then suddenly wakes up.
Me: Good morning sunshine!
Housemate #2 says nothing, gets up, and then walks towards the foyer.
I then hear water.
Me: “OH MY GOD HE IS TOTALLY TAKING A PISS!”
Housemate #1: “WH-WHAT?!”
Housemate #2 comes out of the foyer and walks off into the kitchen area.
Housemate #1 and I go inspect the foyer. Sure enough #2 took a leak inside the house.
I’m so shocked that I can’t stop saying “wow…wow…” but housemate #1 is livid and writes a “wtf is wrong with you?! Don’t you EVER EVER EVER EVER EVA do that again!” email.
And since, #2 is never going to believe that he did such a thing… here’s the proof.
We had a Gamma potluck. Pictures!
Housemate #1 stumbles in, screams “Wee!” and collapses onto the couch.
Housemate #1: “I’m going to f-up everyone in this house. I’m going to kill everyone and use their skin for my book covers. I like book covers…especially when they are made of people’s skin. Can I kill you now?
She then goes upstairs. A few minutes later another housemate comes down…
Housemate #2: Apparently we need to lock our doors tonight because [housemate #1] is on a murderous rampage. Especially you guys. You have balls.
So I completely forgot to write about the robbery – the gamma house was robbed Friday morning.
I came downstairs around 4am to make breakfast and one of the 3L’s was watching TV.
We had the “Oh shit you’re still up? Oh shit you’re all ready up?” conversation and then he went to bed.
I made breakfast, watched the news, then left for the library around 5am.
Sometime between 5am and 7:30am (when the others woke up) someone ripped open our screen, opened the window, and slid into the house.
The burglar stole the 3L’s backpack and one of the 1L’s bikes.
Now 5am is a weird time, even for a crackhead, to break into a house.
The 3L thinks the robber was outside for a while and waited for the TV to turn off. Which means that the burglar was looming around and watched me leave. Eek.
Police reports were filed, the 3L already has a new backpack, and we triple-check the windows every night.
Yes, the law fraternity has parties.
I played DJ.
The best part of the night was when the Irish exchange students walked up to me, fists balled, and screamed “RIVERDANCE!”
And they did, indeed Riverdance.
“RIVERDANNNNCE!”
It’s 7am and I’m vacuuming the keyhole of my front door.
A neighbor walks by and avoids eye contact, for surely, I must have caught the crazy.
Yeah. I’m that guy.
But let me take a step back (as a certain prof would say) and talk about Wednesday.
Wednesday I had four classes. I arrived at the law school around 6:30am and read until my 8am legal writing class.
Our legal writing sections are in classes of 10 or so students. Each legal writing class is taught by a practicing lawyer and a 2 or 3L .
They brought bagels and it was awesome.
Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Torts followed.
Civil Procedure seems like a crucial course, but it also appears significantly more technical than any of my other courses. CivPro will be a challenge, but my professor uses powerpoints that make things infinitely clearer.
My classes ended around 3:30pm. I biked home and went to bed around 4pm.
Today I woke up around 2am, ate, and then went to the law library. I arrived around 3am.
The library was absolutely abandoned, and amazing. No flip flops smacking, panicked students whispering, or 3Ls glaring.
Around 6:30am biked back across the river to take a break at home.
When I got home I unlocked the door, walked the bike in, and then took my key out of the door…or rather, half of my key…
My key broke in the door.
Half of the key was stuck inside, and I attempted to get it out for about 40 minutes. Knives, paperclips, vacuums… nothing worked.
So, in defeat, I call a locksmith. They tell me that they’ll show up at 8:30.
Con Law was at 9:05.
After a quick expletive or four I decided to email my professor.
“Hi, I’m Jansen, and I can’t come to our first class today because I’m a space cadet who is unable to unlock his own front door without assistance.”
Well, I didn’t actually write that, but that was the gist of the letter.
Then, around 8:30 one of my housemates, a 2L, comes down. I told her of my key dilemma. She tells me that she’s going to study downstairs until 10:30 and didn’t mind waiting around for the key guy – aka, she completely saved my ass from missing the first day of Con Law.
I get to school, sit in the wrong room (the schedule they handed out at orientation had the wrong room number), but I eventually found Conlaw. And of course I had to walk up to the teacher before class, “Hi… I’m that klutz, please disregard that email.”
In class we discussed the DC gun ban and two of my classmates and I continued the discussion after class.
I then went to Contracts early and wondered, along with six other people, where the hell everyone else was.
Hm. Mandatory Lexis Nexis training maybe?
This is what we learned after the class poured in. Oops.
CivPro then Torts, then the grocery store for food and flowers for my attendance-saving housemate.
Some RNC on TV and now, back to bed. This is all.
