Miami to Minneapolis: Best Year Ever

So what happened in 2008?

I graduated from college. During my last semester I did everything from bowling…

…to exploring haunted missile bases/ insane asylums.

There were also trips to the clubhouse (South Beach, Little Havana, Wilton Manors, etc.)

I stayed on campus during the summer and worked in the dorms. The summer was tedious. I bummed around campus, the beach, Little Havana, and spent a lot of time reading the stereotypical classic law school books: Getting to Maybe, How to Succeed in Law School, One L, etc.

I also began reading a blawgs like Boy in Suit and Divine Angst.

The posts on my undergraduate blog became increasingly law school oriented, so I started blogging on No.634…

Summer finally ended and I left Miami on August 1st.

I moved into the Gamma Eta Gamma legal fraternity house and spent August hanging out with the housemates and exploring Minneapolis.

Orientation came and went. The best part of orientation was learning navigate the school and meeting my section. Some of the information session were pointless and redundant. We received the same “intro to the judicial system” lecture about five times. Trial court, appeals, supreme. We get it. Even the foreign LLMs wanted to scream after the 3rd lecture.

Also, if you start your session with, “This isn’t relevant until your second year but…” then you are actually saying, “This is a waste of your time but…”

We ended orientation with the Gamma house Disorientation party. Yes, there was Riverdance, thanks to some  crunk joyous Irish exchange students…

First semester was pure hilarium. The summer’s extensive blawg reading helped me avoid the common 1L stressers. After the first few weeks I stopped studying in the law school. I typically read for a few hours at a café in the morning, or went to an outside library after school. I had a revolving list of study spots to suit my mood.

This is at the River Road Cafe on campus. It is built in a former earth-mineral-research lab. The rusted metal balls from old experiments are now encased in the tables.

Stella at the Hennepin library. A favorite study spot.

I’d sit in a café, turn on my ipod, and tune out. It was just me and my book. I was consistent with my daily reading and generally a few days (if not a week) ahead. This allowed me to be spontaneous without falling behind. I never “had to” read if I didn’t feel like it. This made the semester stress-free, because if I wanted to go to the movies after school then I did…. and if Eric wanted to go to the clubhouse on a weeknight I was down…

(note the hair on the guy between Paige and Eric… that’s the Little Dutch boy… a very old man with a very bad weave. Yes, it is pee-yellow in real life, and yes, that’s the exposed seam of the weave.)

I avoided studying at the law school and never joined my classmates for drinks after class. This is how I skipped the communal 1L angst, drammy, and bitchfests. But this also why I didn’t develop any strong friendships with law students outside of the Gamma house. Having a life outside of the law school was definitely healthy, but not socializing with the classmates at all was probably a bad move…

Civil Procedure was my favorite class. The professor had a slide for every thought, question, and comment we could possibly have. A-mazing.

Torts was my least favorite class but was redeemed by constant awkwardness:
Professor T: Are we going to let the kid sue mom?
Jill: I can tell the answer’s no, but I’m not sure why…
Professor T: How can you tell the answer is no?
Jill: I can tell because of the tone your voice…
The most awkward moments were reserved for Constitutional Law:
Professor L: “Ms. Dennel? Demmel?”
Jill: “Her name was De-mal. Sarah Demal.”
Professor L: “Yes, so Ms. Dememel? Dennel? Oh forget it! I’ll just call you Ms. D!”
(Class laughs)
Professor L: “So Ms. D…”
Jill: “Actually, I’m Jill. Jill Smith.”
Professor L: “Huh? Where’s Ms. Demmel? Is Ms. Demmel, Dannel, Dennel not here today?”
Jill: “Sarah Demal sat in front of me. She actually dropped out the first week of class…”
Professor L: “OH! That explains things! I just had a note here that she wasn’t here the last time I called on her… hm.”
Jill: “…So do you want me to answer?”
Professor L: “No. I didn’t even want to call on you! Forget it!”
(Class laughs)
Professor L: “This is literally sound and fury signifying nothing…THERE! I got a Shakespeare quote in! ”
…
(later)
Professor L: “Okay, let me turn to…Ms. Chang…oh, she’s not here. She didn’t drop out too right?”
…and a few days later Eric and I saw Cazwell perform at the Saloon. His song “I seen Beyonce at Burger King” was in my head for the rest of the week.

October ended with the Gamma Halloween Party:

I drove about a dozen LLMs home that night… hilarity. This is my laundry room of horrors (where I DJed from):

October is also the month that “Jill became that girl”… Jill’s computer starts speaking during Professor L’s class: “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’VE WON!” The entire class laughs.
Professor L: “I won’t even try to exercise discipline, because the embarrassment is enough. HOW EMBARRASING!”
Jill: “Sorry…I had to buy these tickets…and…”
Professor L: “And apparently you’ve won something! I’m sure you’re not the only one who has done such a thing in class, you’re just the only one who has done it with the volume on!”
In November I got my first taste of Minnesota winter, networked, and prepped for finals. I still made time to get my boomkats on: Jamie and I saw Fedde le Grand and the Moon Goons at club Spin!

I did most of my finals studying at Jamie’s house while he was at work.

I ignored Jamie in the evenings as well, but we’d occasionally take breaks together for snowmen building, ice skating, and installing toilets.

My last final was on the 18th. To motivate myself I had to conjure some “special” study aids… 

After finals ended there was a week of festivities: bowling with Paige,  Mall of America with Stella, and adult games at Jean’s graduation party:

Shortly after my last final,  No634 was featured on Greta Van Susteren’s Gretawire blog, which was extremely exciting. This blog occasionally appears on the Legal Underground/But No Thanks round up, but Gretawire was No634’s first mainstream (ie non-blawg) feature. Yay!

I flew back to Miami and spent Christmas with madre:

I then came back and had a throwback New Year’s Eve with Jamie.

…and that was my year! Ta-da.