I’m always amazed how high tags are in Minneapolis.
The university may have financial issues, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t money for a swank new building:
My schedule is a disaster.
I scheduled afternoon classes so I could exercise and work in the mornings. That plan feels ridiculous now.
The problem is that my professors love scheduling and re-scheduling things for the 12:15-1pm time slot, which makes the 30 minute drive to the office not worth it if I wake up after 7am. (Which happens a lot.)
I also underestimated the amount and type of work I signed up for. Sure, I only have 12 credits, but my schedule is beholden to weekly assignments and “special projects.” I am constantly in the library cursing the decrepit computers and lack of staples.
The odd weekday schedule meant that my weekend consisted of marathon days at work. I’d walk the dogs, spend 8-10 hours at work, come back, walk the dogs, and veg out on trashy reality TV. Hardly the relaxed 3L schedule I imagined.
Despite the odd schedule, I still made time to make an appearance at Lush bar with a gaggle of law students, and I also attended Classafrass, the drag show at the Townhouse bar:
Some weirdness went down at that show – one of the drag queens who looks like Tila Tequila decided to perform Madonna’s “Erotic.” Tila’s performance was… well, true to the song.
And then comes a barefoot old man with the old-man shakes. Tila makes him part of the show. It’s unspeakably awkward. Pictures after the jump.
It’s noticeably cooler now. The days are shorter, but I still make time to take the dogs to the lakes.
The Minnesota Veterans’ Home has been on my “to see” list for a while now. I’m a sucker for historic buildings.
The buildings were nice, but more impressive from a distance.
I read for my federal tax law procedure class at the Freighthouse Dunn Brothers, which is one of the cutest cafes in Minneapolis (pictures here).
Things got real bad on Friday night.
I come back from work around 10pm and find Mark, who lives on the second floor, waiting by the building door. Mark tells me that his sink kitchen clogged, so I call the emergency plumber.
The plumber dredges Mark’s sink while Alesus and I skip over to the Showplace ICON theater and watch the new Resident Evil1 movie.
We come back to my apartment, watch Jersey Shore, and go to bed around 2am.
I hear a knock on my at 4am. It’s Heidi, the tenant who lives under Mark. Her kitchen is completely flooded with stinky black water that is shooting from her kitchen sink. Heidi’s bathroom ceiling is also leaking.
I’m a PC user, but I can still appreciate the cool design of the Uptown Minneapolis Apple store.
Law school orientation dominated the past week.
I was an orientation leader and spent the majority of my week convincing 1Ls that they can survive their first year of law school without being crazy. I also squeezed in some hours at the office, a movie, and even went to the Minnesota State Fair with Alesus.
It was my first time at the fair. I went primarily because the state fair is the only place I can buy Shoe MGK cleaner for my tacky white Aldo shoes. I also wanted to try camel on a stick.
Apparently the camel-sellers left the fair early, but I managed to buy the shoe cleaner, which was a life changing experience.
The Minnesota State Fair was surprisingly fun and great people watching.
There were cows:
Crowds:
Fancy kiosks with enormous light bills:
“You got served” style dance-offs:
Yesterday was the last day of orientation. It was only a half-day and the 1Ls were very grateful.
During the last session with our 1L section, we made sure to drive home the three main rules for law school:
…and hopefully some of those stick. I think they are ready for this Jelly.
The 1Ls were stuck in lecture sessions for most of the morning, so the orientation leaders just sat around, chatted, and stared at the Mondalelisa, which is the glamor shot of Walter Mondale in the law school entrance.
Mondale always seems to stare right at you, and his smile becomes a sneer after a while.
Creepy.
After orientation I went to work, and ended the night watching Machete with Alesus.
The second day of orientation was epic. The 1Ls shuffled in at 8am, and left for the bar across the street around 5.
One of the most important things that happened today was the introduction to legal writing. Look at all those gleaming packets of knowledge:
Snazzy.
While the 1Ls were in hours (and hours) of sessions, I worked on less glamorous projects like stacking chairs:
Orientation leaders are flight attendants with manual labor duties: we smile, answer questions, give directions, mingle, smile some more, answer more questions, give peppy speeches, and haul tables and chairs throughout the law school.
At least the 1Ls aren’t crazy this year, so there were no Steven Slater moments so far.
I started the day as a greeter, and several of my 1L twitter followers and blog readers introduced themselves – which is always great when they don’t pelt me with oranges.
Although I don’t really know what the etiquette is for those conversations:
Alesus and I decided to take a nature-tour with the krakens. Of course the path near the river was flooded and the dogs had to charge right through the middle of the muck:
Every…freaking…time…
And I, being ever so prepared, decided to wear flipflops.
Good thing the dog harnesses made it super easy to throw the dogs in the river to torture clean them off.
And yes, the back seat of my car is a hot mess.
Today was the second day of orientation training. Orientation starts tomorrow, and I’ll be posted at the front doors greeting the new 1Ls at 7:30am.
And I think I’m getting sick. Bahumbug.
The most amusing part of orientation training is that we have to febreeze the classrooms:
