School was even busier than normal this last week, as we had a legal research memorandum due last Monday.  What was most unfortunate was that our memo was due the day after the Super Bowl.  I had organized a Super Bowl party, and was worried how the weekend was going to go.  Fortunately, God blessed me with an extraordinary productive time on Saturday, allowing me to enjoy the party and finish the paper, without sacrificing too much sleep.  So that was a very nice blessing

I’m about to interview like right now for a summer job with Legal Aid of Los Angeles.  They are a public interest group that works with the poor in all sorts of areas, consumer, employment, family and other areas of law.   It would nice to work for them this summer, it’s the kind of work I hope to eventually be doing full time in the future.  I am as a result wearing a suit and tie, something I find very uncomfortable.  It has been noted by many of my friends that if I do not like wearing a suit and tie, choosing to become a lawyer was not a smart choice.  It is a valid point.  I’m going to have to get used to dressing more nicely in the future. 

I got to see my old students at their “True Love Waits” ceremony – it was a real blessing to see them and my fellow teachers again.  I remember how choosing between teaching and law school was to choose between two good things; it was simply that I thought law school was a better fit (which is true), but if I had taught again this year, that would have been really cool as well.   I am saddened to hear how some of the boys I used to teach are struggling this year, but that does happen.  Still, I pray that these boys will pull out of it; the fact is that young men constitute by far the largest at risk group in the inner city; when it comes to teenage pregnancy, drugs, gangs, high school dropouts, and such – much of this can be traced to fact that so many young men in the inner city are stuck in a cycle that leads nowhere – God willing, Jesus will change this in the future through faithful men and women of God.

I saw the Super Bowl last Sunday, which was a disappointment – both teams played poorly and thus forced me to resort to making as many snarky comments as possible to keep myself interested.   The commercials were OK, with Bud Light’s magic refrigerator ad being very funny.   No football, No baseball, and NBA and college basketball don’t really matter yet.  This is the dead zone of sports, and I loathe it.  Winter Olympics coming up, but quite frankly, I don’t really care.

Plugging away, I am.  Doing well still, I am.  Talking like Yoda, I am.  Why, I know not. 

Later

It’s been a month since I have posted – things have been busy and I’ve been lazy about this, it’s a combination of both.  I’ll sum up what’s been happening

1. Exams

Exam period at the end of law school is like a scene from a movie where everything is blurry and the sound is distorted, in an attempt by the director to convey either complete confusion and/or someone being high.   The last week of law school exams is a big blur to me, I have no idea if anything significant at all happened in that time period.  Fortunately, I survived exams well, and ended up doing pretty well on my exams.  The day of my last exam, I came home, started watching TV, and pretty much decided to go to bed because staying up was too tiring.  

2. Home

I went home the day after, and for about one week literally only ate, slept, and watched TV.  I was useless.  Fortunately, the 2^nd week was much more productive, and I ended up spending a lot of quality time with my family, and then got to see some friends.  My mom is doing pretty well. Her health is gradually improving, and we spent a lot of really good time together.  I got to go to church with my mom, which was great.  I also spent some time with the Van Riesens and Matt Steiner, all of which was excellent.  All in all one of the best times I’ve spent at home ever, a blessing for which I am most grateful

3.    Starting law school again

I still am really enjoying law school, but that doesn’t change the fact I do not appreciate the way we have been swamped with work pretty much immediately once we got back.   We have a variety of writing assignments due, a serious amount of reading in all our classes, while also trying to look for summer jobs.  Yowza.  So far, no stress, though definitely a sense of annoyance at all this work, especially since now my friends and I at school pretty much talk shop all the time now.  Still, I no longer have my erratic criminal law teacher, and our two new teachers this semester are both high quality.  I’m hunting right now for a public interest job this summer, I am hopeful. 

One unfortunate thing however is that the people who annoyed me beyond reason last semester have actually gotten worse. Highlights have included one girl we have dubbed “Hillary Clinton” babbling on incessantly about a point in contracts that had NOTHING to do with the question our professor asked – however what happened was she answered the question incorrectly and rather just admit that she got it wrong, she tried to argue some other random point for 20 minutes.   Hilariously, one of my friends Steve actually muttered “Shut up!  What are you talking about?” loudly enough for most of our row to hear his comments, thus almost resulting in me cracking up.  Then this other guy in another class we nicknamed “Learned Hand” (law school students will understand this reference) try to argue with the professor that if the law will not result in justice, a judge should not apply the relevant statute and/or precedent.  This results in another 20 minute argument during which our professor goes “without the rule of law, we’d be basically a communist country” not something you want to hear your law professor actually feel the need to argue, and also resulting in me typing all sorts of snarky comments on my computer, nearly sending my friend Vince into fits of laughter even though I’m sitting maybe 3 seats away from the guy prattling on … but at that point I didn’t care anymore.   I pay lots of money to learn from law professors, not other students, especially not the ones who aren't super bright.  

4. NFL Playoffs

A bunch of watched the Pittsburgh v. Denver game last Sunday which was a fun game and lead to great moments during the game:

Denver returns a kick 50 yards, giving them great field position.

Me: Watch, Jake (the Denver QB) will screw this up somehow

First play, Jake throws an interception

Me: Damn, that was quicker than I thought

CBS shows a picture of Jake Plummer with an out of control beard

Sam: oh my god, what’s wrong with him!  Get that off the screen.

Jerome Bettis, a very heavy Pittsburgh player, has to keep pulling up his pants

Sam: why does he keep pulling up his pants?  If they fall down, I’m turning off the TV

(Denver has the ball) Me: Jake is going to get sacked

Jake gets sacked

Jed: you’re a prophet.

Me: predicting Jake Plummer’s failure does not make me a prophet; it means I have common sense.

Denver wide receiver Ashley Lelie makes a catch

Sam: His parents named him Ashley?

Ernie: and his last name is almost Leslie

Me: you knew this guy was either going to play football or end up a Marine – God knows what issues he has from childhood

Later, Lelie makes a great reception, at which we all start shouting.  Ernie, who was taking a shower at the time, runs out in his boxers alone.

Ernie: what happened?

We turn and start swearing

Me: Dude, what’s wrong with you! 

Sam:  Oh my god, this is terrible.

Ernie: come on, we’re all guys here.

Me: Not gay guys!  Put on some pants man!

Life is chugging along.  Very busy with work but enjoying what God is doing and I am most content, feeling very hopeful for what lies ahead.  Adios.   

Exam update

Well this is the time, exam time.  The glorious rite of passage for first year students that so many before have bemoaned and warned me about.  I am right preparing for my first test, Civil Procedure, on Thursday, the first of four exams.  The most unfortunate thing is that our two last exams are right on top of each other (the 19^th and the 21^st).  As a result, as we study for out more immediate exams, we still must spend significant amounts of time preparing for the ones coming at the end.  Bad scheduling, but oh well, life’s tough.  I will offer some observations about the things that are going on during this time

1) Library is out of control crowded.  People are sneaking into unlocked classrooms to study, because there are literally no desks available during the day at the library.  I get here usually around 9 – by 11 the library is pretty freaking packed and stays that way till around 8 or 9.  You see people on couches with their laptop in their lap, with books and papers strewn about everywhere. 

2) The school has an air of incredible stress and tension – people look ragged and tired all the time, and you see people knocked out on their desks at all times during the day taking power naps.  One of the funnier people I’ve seen had 6, count ‘em, 6 Red Bull cans in a row on her desk as she frantically typed away on her laptop.   I wish I could say that was unusual, but one person in my study group regularly mixes caffeine powder with his coffee; I didn’t even know there was a thing such as caffeine powder; another person I know says that if he doesn’t drink coffee or some energy drink every couple of hours, he starts getting headaches from caffeine withdrawal.  I didn’t even know that was possible, but considering the amount of coffee consumed here on campus, it makes sense.

3) Amusing note – as my friend was consuming one of those oh so generic energy drinks made of pure caffeine and god knows what else – I think its called No Mercy, heh, what a name – he noticed one of the warnings on the can.  It said “this product in no way is meant to diagnose or cure disease.”   Hmmm, since warnings are on products usually because of previous lawsuits, it makes you wonder if there was some very foolish person once upon a time who went… “Damn I have lung cancer. I know! I’ll drink lots of ‘No Mercy!’ that’ll make me feel better.”  People are stupid.

4) It is astonishing how quickly people can grow facial hair.  One guy who was clean shaven 2 weeks ago now has a full beard.  People are not getting haircuts, grooming, or in general showering.  I’m not one to criticize cleanliness, but if I’m noticing these things, people should be alarmed.  It’s so sad how some people clearly can grow hair much faster on their chins than their heads.  So sad.

5) Has anyone cracked yet?  Not yet, though there are signs this will happen in the near future.  Fortunately, I feel all right, and my friends are holding up so far.  God willing, we’ll hang in there to the end. 

OK, got to go back to studying.  Adios.

Thanksgiving Update

Well life has been very full and I have every intention of enjoying a day soon full of food, friends, and football before I begin the month of hell that is so very rapidly approaching.  Here’s what has been happening:

1) Law School – finals, finals, finals.  You can feel the approaching storm coming on campus, there’s this air of quiet tension that is increasing slowly day by day.   Our sections exam schedule is a little curious, since we are pretty back loaded, with our two most important exams hitting in a 3 day window at the end of the testing period.  Our professors are pretty regularly warning us to study hard and make sure to prepare as early as possible for finals, advice that while stress-inducing, I have taken to heart.  My friends and I are meeting pretty regularly to go over outlines, take practice exams, and figure out how we are going to attack finals.  Oh jeez, there is this really annoying woman talking nearby right now who is talking about USC football even though it is pretty evident she has no idea what she is talking about.  Ugh, be quiet and go read “Football for Dummies.”  Anyways, right now my stress level is still pretty low, feeling relatively calm and confident about what finals has in store.  The most aggravating thing about class these days in that all our professors are trying to ram through the material they need to cover as quickly as possible, which results in me having many notes about things I don’t completely get yet.  I have been backing up law school stuff very regularly from my computer, and right now my folder for law school notes, outlines, and such is a little short of 50 MB.   The vast majority of these are word documents, which tells you how much material we have covered this semester. 

Still, even though things are much crazier on campus, I am still having a blast being in law school.  God has really blessed me in my time here, as I have found the material to be on the whole uniformly interesting, even my Property class which I didn’t enjoy very much earlier.  The last several weeks we have gone over landlord-tenant law, an issue that is personally applicable and also very relevant for ministry in the inner city.   I very much hope that I can obtain a public interest job for next summer to really get into the practicalities of how to serve the poor and oppressed in the city.  I am so excited for what the future holds, what God hopefully wants me to do to serve Him.  My friend Chris told me he has never met anyone who has enjoyed the first year of law school as much as I am.  Considering that I am not exactly Mr. Happy Happy Joy Joy, that was a good sign

2) Hanging with People – so somehow it ended up last week that I spent time being relational pretty much everyday last week.  Normally this would result in me going mad and locking myself in my room, but fortunately I had some time on Saturday to be alone and read, so I feel pretty good.  I got to spend some time with Jean on Sunday, and share about what is going on in our lives.  One of my former LAUP team members, Jackie, came up from San Diego, so I got to hang with her and Rosa for a while.  Jackie is a great girl who became a Christian about two years ago, and now is on staff with Intervarsity!  I saw Alyce off to Boston on Thursday, and then out of the blue, Mike Cho, my good friend who is on Med School in Chicago, happened to be in town for interviews, and thus I got to spend some time with him on Saturday.  He was in town with his charming fiancée Alice, reminding me that all things are possible through God.  Here’s a couple of funny moments from that conversation:

Mike: are you dating?
Me:  (suspiciously) No, why?
Mike:  so the thing is Alice has these friends who are like really faithful and they are also really hot… hey honey do you mind me saying this?
Alice: No, it’s fine
Mike: Yeah, so anyways, they’re like really hot and I don’t know what is wrong with the men in Illinois, they must be castrated or something, because these girls are single.  (turning to Alice and making a very funny lovey dovey face) Of course Alice makes all these girls look butt ugly.  (turning back to me)  But they love God and they’re hot!  I mean, come on Andrew, how rare is that?
Me:  You realize you sound like a pimp right now?

Cho: If I work out here, I’ll take care of you if you get sick.
Me:  If I wake up in a hospital and I see you hovering over me, I’ll just reach over and pull the plug on myself.  Same result, less pain and suffering, and my parents can’t sue you.

Me:  Whenever we talk about medical malpractice in class, for some reason your face constantly pops into my head

Though I pound on Cho, he’s a really good friend who I’ve known now for almost a decade.  It was great spending time with folks – Friends are a huge blessing and I really appreciate everyone.

3) Harry Potter – this last Friday some of us caught “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”  That was an excellent movie.  They did a really good job of talking a pretty long book and cutting it down to its essentials.  The actors playing the big three did a great job, keeping me laughing with great regularity through the film.   The scene of the first task, with the dragon, was awesomely done, and the last fifteen minutes of the film were really intense and moving.  I give a strong recommendation to all those of you who haven’t seen the film yet.   On another note, the trailer for “Superman Returns” was in front of the film, thrilling me enormously.   Superman I and II are two of my favorite films from childhood.  I remember when I was five, I drew a Superman symbol on my closet door with crayon and marker, resulting in my ass getting severely beat, but oh well, it was worth it.  I can’t wait for next summer.

4) Fantasy Football – I suffered a humiliating lost to the Boy Genius last week, but it looks like I can pull out a victory against Jeff, giving me a decent chance of pulling this out somehow.  However, I got to get past Eric and Warren the next two weeks, and Big Lips didn’t help matters by losing to Pale Face this week, leaving Terry in control of his destiny going into the final stretch of the season.  Ugh, Terry can’t win, I’ll never hear the end of it.  Of course, Gideon looks strong again and convinced all sorts of people to make trades which made me want to fly to China just to curse Gid out.

Though there are plenty more things to talk about, my lunch time is about done and I need to go to class and then outline.  Until next time

Here’s an update on what has happened in my life the last 2 weeks or so… it’s hard for me to update weekly now, things are getting quite busy

1) School – I got back my midterm in Torts and got a pretty good grade.  I was satisfied as this was the first academic test I had taken since taking the LSAT way back in June 2003.  It’s amazing how suddenly you notice the stress level going up as we passed from October to November, and suddenly finals start looming on the horizon.  We have 4 finals spread over a 2 week period; the problem is that our two most significant classes, Torts and Criminal Law, come within 3 days of one another at the end of the testing period.  As a result, I am working my butt off to start preparing for exams.  My outlines are almost completely updated, and my study group has plans to begin taking practice exams beginning next week.  Though the atmosphere on campus has definitely gotten more intense and stressful, I don’t think I really feel it all too much.  Quite frankly, I think after teaching for several years I find this kind of stress to be a pleasant relief from the barrage of issues that strike everyday as a teacher.  I am grateful to all my mentors and leaders over the years who worked so hard to get me to give up academic idolatry; their patience and effort has given me a much more enjoyable law school experience.  Though people are slowly acting more and more crazy, I am determined to keep to my goals and expectations of my time at law school; namely that I work hard and be an excellent student, but also give myself fully to the other things that matter in life.  Of course, we’ll see if I can keep my word during finals time. 

 2) Fantasy Football – this goes up higher on the list not because of any significance it has for me in the scheme of things, but because I want a chance to gloat.   I have defeated my old friends Anthony and Mike back to back weeks, helping to enlarge my head to even greater galactic proportions.  I am right now riding the Shawn Alexander/Steve Smith train and am 4^th out of 12 in the standings.  I am closing in on Pale Face’s team, and have left Big Lip’s team trailing in the dust.  I am hopeful that my team can go on a hot streak, with several big match-ups looming in the future, one with Eric’s team in 2 weeks, and with Gideon’s the last week of the season.  Fantasy Football has become my major recreational activity, now that I no longer watch TV and barely play video games.  I don’t want competitive feelings to run amuck in real life, like at law school, so I channel them with great vigor into FF.  My biggest worry is that somehow Warren, America’s laziest man, has somehow managed to end up in first place, thus continuing his streak of achieving great success in perplexing and unfathomable ways.   Oh lazy one, I am hunting you down.

 3) Chris Lee came to visit – My fellow planetoid sized head friend Chris Lee came into town 2 weeks ago.  He came to visit his girlfriend Alyce, but managed to pull himself away from the object of his desire for one night, and hung with Pale Face, Big Lips, and myself.   That’s funny, the program said Alyce’s name was spelled wrong, to which we go duh!  Anyways, we spent the evening eating Tofu and talking incessantly.  We shared, and shouted at one another over a variety of topics.  Then Chris and I spent some time at Border’s the next day, grabbing some excellent Thai, and then proceeding to engage in a  duel of great wits over a football video game.  I proceeded to crush him twice, as it shows that being at Harvard may make you better at the law, but not so good at more manly things.  Chris appears to remain the very faithful, nice guy whom we all knew and loved, though it appears he no longer attempts to steal men’s souls.  Best moment of the evening occurs when everyone jumps into Terry’s Titanic sized bed, resulting in him calling us every synonym for homosexuals he could think of.   Good time that weekend.  (Not because of the bed jumping….heh)

 4) Mom update – so my Mom continues to grow in her faith, she is now participating in 2 Bible Studies.  Every week we talk I simply marvel at what the Spirit has done in her life.  She has an excellent attitude toward her struggles through Menopause, and is making greater efforts to ask about my life.   My faith has grown enormously through what God is doing, and I am very grateful    

 5) Dating – hah! You thought there was anything to talk about?  There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing.  This reminds me of Mike’s classic line several years ago when asked to describe his dating life

“My dating life is like a barren desert… every once in a while there’s a tumbleweed which rolls through and then is gone.”

Since he’s going to get married next year, this should give us all hope

OK back to studying and outlining I go