petitioning Archives - Memos and Mirth

A voice inside

June 2, 2009

Today I made some delicious smoked pork hocks. I gave the bones and the fatty parts to the dog, and then sat down at my dining room table.

My dining room table was littered with petition crap: outlined cases, notes, the bluebook and copies of the bluebook exercise… pens, highlighters, coffee mugs…

I sat there , staring blankly at the petition mess when I heard a little voice inside me say:

Little voice: “Fuck, this, shit.”

I then spent the next ten minutes chewing pork and thinking about what this¹ meant:

Me: “Is this a fail whale situation? What does this say about my wherewithal? My priorities? Does this make the past week a huge waste of time? Can I just stick it out for the next few days?”

Little voice: “No. I’m quite serious. Fuck this shit.”

Me: “But what about all this time I invested in this?”

Little voice: “Is that how we make economic decisions? Time invested is not a reason to keep on with a bad decision. We are not GNC okay?”

Me: “But …what about my priorities?”

Little voice: “Exactly, asshole. What about your priorities? Since when was petitioning one of them? What about project x, y, and z? Hm? “Oh we will get to that during summer” you said. Well, it’s summer, and you’re petitioning. What about all those other things you wanted to do? Hm? Is being on a journal more important? (Mimicking Jillian Michaels) NO IT IS NOT! Fuck this shit.”

Me: “Well…but…”

Little voice: “But nothing. You have other things to work on. You even took off work to do this petition. That’s unacceptable. Fuck this shit. Say it with me now! Now go get started on those neglected-projects. NOW.”

Ugh. So I finished my pork, tossed my petition, and started my summer.²

¹ “This” being the decision to stop petitioning, not the fact that I was having an inner monologue…way past questioning that.

² Quitting something unimportant doesn’t feel like quitting at all…

1L Summer Summaries / Law School – 1L

Best Summer Ever: Weeks 1 & 2

May 31, 2009

I sort of stumbled into summer, and it was messy…

My civil procedure exam variance smudged the line between spring semester and the first week of summer. The finals period ended on Friday the 15th but I had my last exam on Monday the 18th. I moved some more things into the apartment Monday and Tuesday, and spent the rest of the week working 10 hour days.

The rest of that week went like this: walk dog, iron, work for 10 hours, walk dog again, bed.

I also picked up my petition packet that Friday.¹

Last Sunday I moved the rest of my things out of the gamma house, which created an organizational nightmare – boxes and shitkram cluttered my apartment – even the dog gave me the “this is some bullshit” look… so I spent the beginning of week 2 cleaning and unpacking. The rest of the week consisted of work, hanging out ² with friends, and ignoring the periodic bitch-slaps from the petition-monkey latched to my back.

Two of my coworkers – Cheryl³ and Nadine – have kept tabs on my non-progress on the petition. Cheryl is mortified and amused. Nadine takes a more gung-ho approach since she is also petitioning at her law school:
Nadine: “I don’t understand those people who pick up petition packets and don’t finish them. I mean, there’s no such thing as not getting it done – even if I have to pull a few all-nighters – it will get done. It just has to.”
Amen.

I decided today that finishing the petition is a win-win situation because I’ll either get on a journal or have the satisfaction of showing out by completing the petition. So I spent today outlining my note. I will write it tomorrow. The petition is due Friday, and summer classes start tomorrow.⁴We’ll see how this goes…

1L summer

964 pages…

May 22, 2009

I had a dream last night about petitioning.

I am at work and Jill walks in. Jill looks extremely tired and distraught. She plops her bag down and sits in the cubicle next to mine:
Jill: “Did you start petitioning yet?”
Me: “I pick my packet up tomorrow. How is it going?”
Jill: “I just finished reading all of the materials.”
Me: “How long did it take you?”
Jill: “Two days.”
Me: “Eek, how long is the petition?”
Jill: “964 pages.”
I woke up, walked the dog, and decided that if the petition was under 964 pages then it wouldn’t be that bad – and I was right – the petition is a third of that length…