Including those four? That gives us... four

Anyone who has ever been to the east coast knows that parking here is atrocious. An absolute, unequivocal nightmare. Most places don't have parking lots, so everyone parks on the street. Now, I have a confession to make.... I don't know how to parallel park. I did it once when I took my driving test and was so bad at it I never did it again. That's why I hate to drive here. I only like to drive if my destination includes a parking lot. Which isn't often.

Well, last night my friends and I decided we needed a break from studying. So we went to Andrews house to chill, and I offered to drive. So I picked up Michelle, and we headed down S. Lake. Lo! A parking spot! Almost directly across the street from Andrew's apt. But I would have to parallel park; my nerves were all a flutter.

I decided to give it a go, with Michelle encouraging me and giving me directions. It must have been the good karma because I managed to successfully parallel park on the first try. And my car wasn't even sticking out in the street or anything. I thought about taking a picture to document that life changing moment but decided that was weird. Anyway, I have now successfully parallel parked. You should all be very proud because I sure as hell am.

PS Happy Easter everyone! Someone roll an egg down the hill for me!

Did you just call me a 'loof'?

Today I did my first ever oral arguments. For my lawyering class, we've been working on this case all year, and the culmination is oral arguments in front of the "Court of Appeals" at the end of the second semester. My group went today. My Court of Appeals consisted of my professor, one of our TA's, and one of Pro. Queenans former TA's. But they all wore robes and we were in a court room; it all felt very official.

Now that it's over, I find I quite enjoyed myself. It's kind of like when I was a kid and we used to go cliff jumping. I always got really nervous before I jumped, but after I did it I couldn't wait to get back up and do it again. I think it's the adrenaline rush. It was the same thing today. I was very close to terrified before our arguments began. Oral arguments are basically an opportunity for the judges to clarify your argument. Each attorney gets up and presents their argument for the alloted time (we had 8 minutes). You have to have a presentation ready, but you never get through it all because the judges ask you questions almost immediately. That's what I was scared of. What if they asked me a question, and I didn't know the answer? Plus, I have a tendency to ramble when I get nervous... Anyway, all things considered, I thought me and my group did pretty damn well. And we all looked super snazzy in our suits.

Anyway, so now I've done an oral argument and found that I rather enjoyed the experience. Maybe I'll do moot court next year. My professor is the advisor for the appellate advocacy competition, and she's been harping on all of us all year to join next year. Maybe I'll take her up on it. It really was quite fun. And with that statement, I believe my transformation to law school nerd is complete.

"I can get you out of here." "How's that? The key's run off."

It's that time of year. Yes, registration (and finals, of course, but I'm pretending like those don't exist. It's better for my heart.) At Albany Law they randomly assign each student a registration time (No one wants the 4 o'clock time slot...) I got 10 o'clock, so not too shabby. I had this perfect schedule worked out, but alas, the third years get to register before us, and they took all the cool classes. Bastards.

Anyway, so I worked out a second schedule that has less cool classes but still covers some of my requirements, and I'm sure I'll learn a thing or two. In theory, anyway.

So next semester I'm taking evidence, fact investigation, business organizations, and legal profession. Woo!?... It'll be good. All 2Ls have to take evidence, and I've heard good things about my professor, so hopefully that'll be good. Fact investigation will be an interesting class, plus there's no exam. It's a "practice" class which means that instead of a written exam at the end of the semester you have some sort of simulation to see if you actually paid attention all semester. Meh. Better than the four exams I'm currently staring down. Help!

Business organizations. I don't know why, but I had this insane feeling that I should take that class, so I did. We'll see how it goes. The professor I wanted only teaches it in the spring, so hopefully the one I got will be just as good! Legal Profession is a class on ethics. Hopefully I can take that class and then do the MPRE (the ethics portion of the bar) and have done with it. One less thing to worry about it! I keep thinking my legal profession class shouldn't be too bad because, I mean, ethics are mostly common sense, yeah? I dunno though. Lawyers are really good at making up rules....

Anyway, I also waitlisted a class on the international law of war and crime. The waitlist was already 20 people long when I joined the group, so my hopes are not high. Still, it would be an interesting class. We'll see what happens. As it stands, next semester is going to be very... informative. In theory.