Everyone went home for Thanksgiving, and I’m bored.  I have so much work to do, but can’t really get myself to work for more than a few hours at a time.

Also, I bought The West Wing box set on Amazon last night for $75!  It’s my “you survived finals” gift to myself, and it should be waiting for me in Friendswood when I get back.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?  I went to my friend Nick’s house, where he and another 1L tried to drink five liters of Franzia in one day.  They started at 9:30, and when I arrived they were each about 3L in.  The results were not good.  Turns out trying to drink that much wine is a horrible, horrible idea.  Nick spent a good portion of the day hugging the toilet, while me and another student cooked all the food and watched the Longhorns embarrass Texas A&M.  I had to get back to studying, so we only stayed for the game, but it was more fun that I planned on having when the day began.

Okay, I think I’ve wasted enough time.  Back to my Crim outline.

Happy (Day After) Slapsgiving!  If you don’t get that reference, do yourself a favor and watch How I Met Your Mother.

Rain in LA!  It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!

(My blog is slowly becoming the functional equivalent of a Twitter account; afraid you’ll have to get used to that for the next few weeks.)

memo done.

memo.

I’m almost a month away from my last final, and the mood at school is noticeably changing.  People aren’t talking to either other as much, and everyone runs for the library after class.  As if finishing three detailed course outlines was not enough, we also have our graded memo due in a week.  Oh, and the same amount of course work as any other week.

In times like these, you have to prioritize.  If you’ve been keeping up on your outlines (which I haven’t), you are free to devote all of your time to the memo (and school work).  I have decided to put class readings on the back burner, and focus on the memo as much as possible.  When I can’t think about the memo any more, I switch to outlining.

I’ll try to post more on the outlining process in the future (read: after the memo), but I just wanted to write a quick note about the atmosphere at school with less than a month to go.

I took a study break tonight to get cookies with three classmates, and we spent some time talking about the law school experience so far. The topic that stuck out the most was how isolating law school can be. I probably spend 70% of my time by myself, and the majority of that time is spent reading cases and taking notes. Despite being surrounded by law students, I forget that everyone else is going through the same thing. Even the biggest slacker spends hours a day studying the law.

My friends talked about some 1Ls who have discussed dropping out of law school, and I realized that I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. I’ve been in my little bubble, unaware that some people that I talk to on a daily basis were struggling with the basic idea of law school. It’s not that I don’t care about my classmates; it’s just the nature of law school. You’re put in a classroom with thirty people as intelligent and capable as yourself, and told to read thousands of pages of dense material in four months. It’s extremely hard to make time for a life outside of school. I’m in a very close-knit section, yet we almost always talk about school. There are exceptions, usually bar reviews, but those have been few and far between. I haven’t had time to explore Los Angeles, let alone go on a date or meet people outside of school.

It was nice to take an hour out of my evening to actually talk about law school, without talking about the law. It wasn’t about gossip, or weekend plans; it was about us, and how this experience is changing us each in different ways. That probably sound terribly corny, but “Wonder Years” sentimentality is all I can muster at the moment. I don’t think I’ve really taken much time to digest what’s going on in my life. I have the feeling that things are changing in a major way, possibly unlike anything I’ve gone through before. I never thought anything could be more transformative than Brussels, but I think law school is going to change me in a fundamental way. I still haven’t figured out if that’s good or bad. Perhaps that’s what winter break is for.

School is getting ridiculous. Spent all weekend studying, and felt like I got nothing done.  Spent six hours checking cites for Entertainment Law Review today. Hope to catch up on Crim Law outlining over the next 9 days.  Final (graded) memo due in two weeks.  Don’t be surprised if you lose track of me until Thanksgiving.

In good news, my camera magically fixed itself, so I can get back to taking pictures of the day. Oh yeah, my camera broke two weeks ago.

This week is going to be horrible. Horrible.

Vote. This kid did it four years ago. Back when all we worried about was Arabs and Gays.

I’ve been staying on top of my work the past two days, so I can take off the entire evening tomorrow to watch election coverage.  I’ll be switching between CNN and MSNBC, with a dash of FNC for good measure.  The election should be over before the polls even close here, since all of the important swings states are on PST.  That won’t deter me, however, because I’m almost as excited for the Congressional races (Bachman, Franken, Stevens, Dole).  I hope the GOP can hold on to at least 41 seats, because I fear a Democratic Supermajority, but it’s going to be close.  If only Elizabeth Dole hadn’t portrayed atheists as second-class citizens.

Most importantly, however, I’ll be up late into the night  for the results on Prop 8.  At that point I’ll either be drunk with joy, or drunk with shame.  I bought a (Joe) six-pack of Shiner yesterday in preparation for either result.

I should be online all afternoon, and anxious to talk about all things political. AIM/Skype/call me!

Update: For those who care, my prediction is Obama 338, McCain 200. Obama by 5% nationally. I think the Senate will be 58-42, but that’s largely based on bullshit. Also, let’s go nuts and say the Dems will pick up 32 seats in the House. Who knows how many voters. 135 million? Sure, sounds good.

Also, this will be my first election ever where I vote on Election Day. Pretty exciting stuff!

Update 2: Fox News has already called the election for McCain, and it’s not even midnight on the “Left Coast”.