Ducks & Torts

Courtney and I went to the gym this morning only to find it doesn't open until noon. So we decided to go feed the ducks instead. On Notre Dame's campus are two lakes with lots of ducks who like to eat our bread. And, as it turns out, HUUUUGE fish who like to scare the crap out of us and eat our bread. The people walking around us must have gotten a kick out of the two girls who kept jumping and screaming whenever they saw a fish head break the surface.

Now I'm home reading torts, and I have to say, everytime I do the reading for this class I count my lucky stars that I've never been sued for anything. Seriously, half these cases I read I'm like: 'Oh! I did that once!' Thank god I'm broke and no one could gain anything by taking me to court.

Well hell

Turns out the rules that apply to Courtney's sexual behaviors also apply to mine. Damn.

Exact Wording: [from the Graduate student handbook, mind you, not the undergrad]
"Because a genuine and complete expression of love through sex requires a commitment to a total living and sharing together of two persons in marriage, the University believes that sexual union should occur only in marriage. Students found in violation of this policy shall be subject to disciplinary suspension or permanent dismissal."

So far, so good!

Thus far into law school (which is to say 2 days), I like it a lot!!!! I seem to have lucked out when it comes to my professors, I have yet to hear bad things about any one of them. Either the person I'm talking too hasn't ever had the prof, or if they have, they liked him a lot. I say him because I only have one female prof - for legal writing. No one I've met has ever had her, but everyone says legal writing sucks as a class no matter what just because it's so much work. But she seems fine thus far, and interestingly enough I found out that the same priest who married her and her husband married my parents. So maybe my "in" will get me an A. We'll see. So, knock on wood, law school ain't that bad afterall.

Last night as an Unofficial Law Student

Tomorrow morning classes start and I am *officially* a law student. I'm a tad nervous, but I'm more nervous that I'm not that nervous. How's that for nonsensical. Most of the time I think I'll be fine, it won't be that big of a deal to be in law school and then I get nervous that I'm too confident. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

But in other news, every where I turn I found a married or engaged classmate. Certainly all the good looking males that I start to develop an interest in have a ring on their finger or have a gal out there somewhere with their ring on her finger. I have NO desire to be married, but I do have a desire to not be the only single girl. I'm wondering if this is a midwestern thing... In my class at Dartmouth of 1000, I only knew of like 2 people who were married, 1 who was engaged, and 1 who had a baby, and of those four, I only knew 1 personally. I'm sure the actual statistics were a bit higher, but nonetheless given that I've already met 2 married people and 4 engaged people in my class of 200 at Notre Dame, I wonder if geography has something to do with it. Certainly there's something to be said of the different demographics of the class (like one of the kids who is married is 26), but I still wonder what a single gal in the Midwest is to do.

Oh well, at least I'm not as bad off as Courtney. If she gets caught having sex out of marriage, she can get expelled. No wonder these Catholic kids are all getting married at the first opportunity. What a change from Dartmouth, where last spring there was a campaign to get people in the quiet, nerdy dorms to stop having sex so loudly so as not to disturb the studies of others.

Bert

So I have arrived and my new apartment is gorgeous. Well, at least my new room is, the rest of the apartment is still rather bare.

Pix of the new room and my new betta fish Bert:

Fred & Milty

Tonight, in a round about way, I discovered this girl's blog which is incredibly touching and heartwrenching to say the least:

Abbie's Kenya Blog

She went to Kenya to help Fred & Milty build a clinic in their home village. Milty and especially Fred were good friends from Dartmouth who started work on this clinic shortly after both their parents died of AIDS. I've known about their clinic for a couple of years now, and have had the link up to its website all summer. But this girl describes Kenya and her experiences in a way that Fred & Milty were always too humble and upbeat to use. She had me in tears more than once tonight, and she really made me ashamed that I never tried to learn more about Fred & Milty's project. Not to mention the fact that the inspiring work that she and Fred & Milty have done all summer really makes me embarassed that I wrote I wanted to abandon my morals to make money. I hope y'all find this blog as inspiring as I do.

(the picture has been one of my all-time favorites since I saw it hanging on Fred's wall my freshman year at Dartmouth - It's Fred and Milton when they were younger, obviously. Updated picture of Fred below - with Angeles and I at homecoming.)

End of Summer

Summer's almost over - I leave for Notre Dame in 11 days. Naturally, all that's on my mind is the coming school year. Contributing to this obsession is the following blog, currently being written by a guy who went to Notre Dame in the late nineties.

I thought it would be good to come up with some goals for myself, just so I can come back to them in a year and laugh at myself and how naive I am. So here goes, my goals for myself for the next three years:

1. Law Review - I would really REALLY like to make law review. The top 10-15% of every Notre Dame class makes it on to law review based on their grades alone. The rest of the positions are fought for in a writing competition. If I were really on top of my game and where I wanted to be at the end of my 1L year, I would get a position on law review based on grades alone.

2. Husband - the other day, I asked Miss Kitty when she saw me getting married. Her answer? June of 2010 (apparently she had put some thought into this). That's the year after I graduate law school, so in order to stay on track, the fella will probably have to be someone I meet in law school. However, my goal is NOT to meet my husband but to beat my mom's goal for me and graduate without a fiance. Currently, I'm in the "I like being single" phase of my life and want a chance to get out in the world and make lots of money and enjoy it by myself before I have to share it.

3. Graduation - I would like to graduate Notre Dame feeling more accomplished than I did when I graduated from Dartmouth. That means I want to have 1 of 2 things (but preferrably both): some sort of "cum laude" behind my name in the graduation program and a high paying job. I've decided that in light of my 150,000 dollars worth of debt I'll have at the end of 3 years, morals are going to sit on the back shelf and I'm going to work for money immediately after graduation. Not that I'll be a corporate lawyer - YUCK! But, a private firm with my own office and a hefty paycheck is the aim here.

4. Niece - I would be one hell of an aunt. This is given. Now I expect my sisters to recognize my superior favorite-aunt-capacity and reward it with a niece of my very own. Then I'll be set.

So those are my goals for the next three years. I wonder how unrealistic I'm being... I also wonder how stupid I'm being by publishing these goals for my sisters (ahem, COLLE!) to read and hold me accountable for....