Practice exam

So I took a practice exam last week. It wasn't graded. My entire law school experience isn't graded, so of course this isn't. That's great in some ways - students here are less competitive with each other than at other schools, from what I can tell.

But it is incredibly unsatisfying. We have about 221 1Ls. Approximately 7 people got check+, meaning they are doing very well. Approximately 7 people got check-, meaning they are required to attend weekly academic support workshops that are optional to the rest of us. Everyone else got a check.

A check tells me nothing. I'm not awful, great. I'm not top of the class, oh well. What have I learned in the last seven weeks? Most people had a few words on their paper, but I didn't even have that. Ugh. I've never wanted feedback on a paper more in my life.

OPENING NIGHT

Well, I've only been waiting for this day for months. Celtics home opener, against some team from Florida, and I'm in Boston for it! Unfortunately the FL team is the Miami Heat, including the "talents" of LeBron James, so while that's a coup for NBA ticket sales, it priced me out of the market. I held out hope that I'd be able to get a scalped ticket, but by the time I got there, people were asking me if I had tickets to sell. Even though I didn't make it into the Garden, it still was a great night.

It started off with a GW Alum in Boston Happy Hour. I tried to convince a few friends to come, but everyone backed out. I wasn't about to turn down 2 free drinks and food and exploring more of Boston, so I went solo. It was at Ned Devine's, part of Fanuil Hall, and I ran into Crobb, who played GW rugby for the men's team, so there was at least one friendly face.

Then I headed over to the Garden, just a few blocks north. After failing to procure a ticket, I joined BrandonB and friends at a nearby bar and we had a great time cheering on the Celtics win.

I had a bit of a Lost on Boston crisis on the way home, but otherwise this was a great night and I loved being downtown.

Finally, fall!

Over the last eight years, I've been in Boston during: January, March, June, July, August, and December. I've always missed fall, which is supposed to be New England's most beautiful season. Well, now I am finally able to enjoy it!

Last Sunday I reffed a rugby game at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, so I had a little over a 2 hour drive roundtrip. This weekend I went to New Haven to visit Anita, and spent 5.5 hours in the car. I don't mind the driving, especially when it is incredibly beautiful out!

Plus, the last two weekends have been somewhat temperate- almost t-shirt weather, as long as you're moving around. We toured around Yale's campus today and crossed off a few items on Anita's Intern Scavenger Hunt, visiting Skull & Bones Society, the Rare Books Library, hiking through East Rock Park, and enjoying a delicious coffee drink from Claire's Corner Copia.

I'm sure I'll be whining about the cold in a few days, but for right now, fall is great.

Lost in Boston: Where is 90?

I missed the on ramp to 90. See the awkward turn? In my defense, it was dark and I've never gotten onto 90 from Mass Ave, so I missed the exit amid all the parked cars.

40 minutes later I finally got on the Mass Pike (aka 90) somewhere in Watertown. Kind of a disaster, and I still had a 2.5 hr drive to New Haven to go. At least I had my trusty (borrowed) map.

POW 10/20

My pizza-making dropped off for a few weeks. It's just not as fun solo. But this Pizza Wednesday, Dan came over and we had bbq chicken and broccoli. That's becoming a standby since it seems sort of healthy with all the green stuff on it. It was great to see Dan and finally have him over to the apartment. In the meantime, I'm still keeping an eye out for other places and considering moving if I find the right place that makes me feel safer.

I also made pumpkin bread last night. It turned out...okay. It's a little heavier than I'd like, which is the same thing that happened when my sister made it last week, so perhaps it's the recipe we both used. It's delicious with Nutella, though :)

Undefeated and it feels so good

Beantown's DIII team just swept the division going 5-0 with a win over North Shore!!

It has been such a fun season. And, I finally started having a social life - I went out with teammates on Thursday to Queeroke (queer + karaoke) at a fun bar in my neighborhood, and Saturday to a team party to celebrate after our win.

Rugby and drinking...aka Justin visits

Justin flew in at 8pm on Friday night. It turned out my rugby match was at 8:30pm in Boston (Friday night matches are very unusual), so luckily one of my teammates picked him up at Logan while I was warming up and he made it to the game. We had a great match in a stadium under the lights, defeating Charles River. All of Beantown came out for the DivIII game and gave amazing and loud support throughout the game. It was so cool to play in a stadium!

Saturday we went to his family's house to watch the Bruins, and then headed back to Boston to watch Northeastern men's rugby take on Army, with former GW rugger Rizzo playing #9 for NEU.

That's the rugby half of the weekend. Then the drinking began. We visited Rock Bottom and Beantown pub with friends. Sunday we went to Sunset Grill & Tap and Deep Ellum, beer meccas that Justin has been waiting to go to for years. Sunset had amazing food, too; we split pumpkin ravioli and swordfish skewers. Monday we finally made it to Sam Adams R&D Brewery which is just a few blocks away from me. We enjoyed a tour, the tasting room, and a post-tour trip to Doyle's for free pint glasses. It was a great weekend, but Justin's visits always end too soon :(

What law school is like

I sent my mom an email with details about what I'm actually doing in law school, and realized it might be interesting to other people. And if you're already bored, just skip over this post.

My three core classes are property, torts, and civ pro, and I prefer them in that order.

Elliff, dealing with property and oil well blowup http://lawschool.courtroomview.com/acf_cases/8958-elliff-v-texon-drilling-co-

Hymowitz, which I read tonight for torts, dealing with combining multiple drug company defendants who marketed DES before it was known to cause birth defects http://www.4lawnotes.com/showthread.php?t=1018 (easy to read brief, not a case)

Daynard, which I covered in civ pro (civil procedure, having to do with the proper way of filing a case, making motions) is really neat. Basically a NUSL professor was one of the top advisers during the 90's to a lot of suits against tobacco companies. When the suits were finished, they didn't pay him his cut which had been agreed to with a handshake and not a signed contract. He sued and won. It's a lot more complicated but that's a quick version. With some of the money he established a visiting scholar program and one is at school this week.
http://www.ecasebriefs.com/blog/law/civil-procedure/civil-procedure-keyed-to-subrin/complexity-it-all-comes-together/daynard-v-ness-motley-loadholdt-richardson-poole-p-a/
http://www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/faculty/directory/daynard.html

Break-in

My apartment was broken into on Oct 1. I realized it when I got home from school around 4pm. Izzy was in her crate and is fine, but was a little jumpy. They took my laptop, camera, and a few other things. I'm kind of a mess about it so don't feel like going into more details.