NaBloPoMo (overwhelmed procrastinator edition)

Is this why law students drink so much?

Right now I have the following concerns running through my head:
- I need to read, like, the entire textbook for Human Rights. I really should get on that.
- I've only outlined the first day of class for Crim Pro. Need to catch up. I really should get on that.
- What happened? I was doing good in Fed Courts but I'm so lost now, I can't make myself open the casebook. I really should get on that.
- I can't believe I didn't even know my ADR professor's name so I could get her exams from the library. I really should get on that.
- This fellowship ain't coming through. I need to start applying for jobs. I really should get on that.
- If I want to do deportation defense, I have to stop lurking around the offices of the clinic attorneys that I admire and actually initiate conversations. I really should get on that.
- Wasn't the State of Virginia trying to audit my taxes from 2005. I was supposed to follow up. I really should get on that.
- Running low on cash, but somehow I've gotta find some gas money so I can take my brother to Atlantic City on Friday. I really should get on that.
- Where are all my friends? It's been too long since I called my BFF and I feel like I never talk to anyone anymore. I really should get on that.
- I can't believe how many days I forgot to take my Prozac before remembering this morning. Plus, I don't have a doctor's appointment for when prescription refills run out. I really should get on that.

Man, I could use a drink. I really should get on that.

NaBloPoMo (Freaked-out 3L edition)

I just need an angel investor. Someone who will pay me a salary while I go around representing immigrants in deportation proceedings. I feel like a fool and an incompetent today. I've spent my whole legal career expecting that if I just want it enough I will find a way to get paid to do what I want. And now I see that it's either not likely or not recommended. I'm not supposed to go straight out and start practicing the law on my own. So I have to find an employer. None of the legal services organizations can afford to hire me. And I just got rejected for the fellowship I had the best chance of getting. So that leaves firm jobs. And that's okay. I'm not opposed on principle to working at a firm. It's just that if I had really expected to be applying to those places all along, maybe I would've put more effort into doing the things that make firm hiring attorneys want to hire you. And maybe I would've deigned to do OCI, or at least tried to get an interview. So now I'm just having a little freakout while my brother is here and I don't feel like I can get anything productive done about this mini-panic. I know this is going to take some focus, some elbow grease and some printer ink. And stamps. Lots of stamps. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

NaBloPoMo (bitchin' edition)

Things that drive me effing CRAZY:

- When my dude friends think that it's cool to make frat jokes because they're not in a frat. Newsflash: Nobody but you and your other dude friends (and maybe not even them) care about whether you think your best friend's sister is hot enough to have sex with. The girl who just walked by wearing a dress definitely does not care what you think about her appearance in said dress. And your insistence on referring to the attractiveness and/or "sluttiness" of every female public figure does in fact perpetuate the idea that women's value comes from their attractiveness and/or willingness to fit into the traditional female roles of madonna (pure mothering "good girl") and the whore (hot, sexy "bad girl") and not from their ideas, accomplishments and non-sexual skills. Quit calling yourself goddamn progressives when you're relying on the same damn concepts that have kept women as second class citizens for generations, the same damn concepts that continue to keep women in so many parts of the world as the property of their fathers and brothers and husbands. Just...don't. Or if you do, don't waste your breath telling me how "wrong" I am when I object to your fallacious flip ("women do it to us, too!"). And if you want to talk about how it's just "biology" so it's naive to get upset at your incessant chatter about the sex life or sexual value of this or that famous female, just stfu. And p.s. if you think you aren't getting manipulated by mass media into making sex the focal point of your evaluations of women, you are deluding yourself. And most of all, please don't bother speaking up about gay bullying when you are the first to comment on how slutty girls dress these days. You're only a few steps away from blaming the woman who dressed too provocatively for havin to pay for her rape kit.

p.s. I hope you all have daughters.

- Law students who think that because they're talking to another law student who (a) isn't at a Top 10 law school, (b) wasn't on law review and/or (c) hasn't got a job lined up in Big Law, they must be smarter, better and more deserving of their lot. It's bad enough that employers do this. I don't need it from some smug kid who hasn't even passed the bar yet. Not everyone places their priorities on the same things. It's about damn time law school recognized that.

NaBloPoMo (my brother's edition)

Well, I guess I'll catch up at some point in here...

My bro got here yesterday! When I got out of class at the ungodly hour of 9 p.m. and made my way back to the apartment, there he was, chillin with T and our friend A. They were squeezed into our little living room, gathered around the TV, which was playing a video loop of a fireplace. How cozy.

JC isn't sure if he's going to be staying on the East Coast or not, but I sure hope he does. To that end, I have managed to get him a little paid gig for next week! And by "get" it, I mean that I happened to come across an email last night from the law school, which was looking for people to videotape some training going on all next week. Since JC studied...videotaping (ha)... he's already got the job!

The best part of having him here is that I have another fun partner in crime to do things around the city with. He's generally up for whatever, whether it's kicking my butt in Bananagrams, going to karaoke or taking an impromptu trip to a casino. Hopefully, all three of these things will happen while he's here. He's only been to visit us in the Big City once before, and that was terrible and terribly brief timing. This time, he'll be here for about a week. Plenty of time to get into fun.

NaBloPoMo (the belated edition)

I meant to write something yesterday and never did. Probably because I was too busy creating To-Do lists with things like "watch 1 episode of Mad Men" and "print out Human Rights reading for tomorrow" (note: not "READ Human Rights reading for tomorrow"). In any case, I remembered about NaBloPoMo last night/this morning at around 2 a.m. when I couldn't fall asleep and was obsessively playing Texas Hold 'Em on my Blackberry while holding it under the covers so the light wouldn't keep T up. I decided to write this post in the AM and write a second NaBloPoMo in the afternoon/evening. I'm looking forward to today because my bro-bro gets into town for a visit! It's only the second time he's been to the Big City, but the first time he came was right before the start of Spring semester of my first year of school. I was not exactly the best hostess, on account of I was extremely sulky over having to go back to being scared to death. Ha! Memories...

Anyway, until this afternoon!

NaBloPoMo (having a drink with a friend)

A while ago I wrote about how my friend came out at our Halfway to JD party, in a drunken admission calculated to make the rest of us feel like we'd missed something obvious the whole time. Which of course, some of us had.

Anyway, I just got back from the bar where I had drinks with said law school friend and talked about trivial gossip. I regaled him with tales of this past weekend's Laguna Beach excursion. He told me about the people he's been seeing and the people he's been trying to avoid. I told him about my nascent plans to hang my own shingle after graduation. He regaled me with tales of his interviews with "the other side" (a.k.a. government immigration attorneys).

It was the kind of inconsequential chatter that I've been missing a lot of lately. And since this is NaBloPoMo and I am making a greater effort to document a bit from each day of my life for the next month, I'm happy to have this down on record: I do have friends, even if they are casual acquaintances. These kinds of evenings recharge my batteries and make me happy to come home and settle in with a casebook and a cup of tea. It's just nice to be around people.

NaBloPoMo, yo (spray tan edition)

Yep, I'm gonna do it. Or try at least. Na(tional)Blo(g)Po(st)Mo(nth), here I come!

So what should I talk about to get started? How about spray tanning! After all, it was #28 on my 30 Before 30 list...

Ten Tips and Fun Facts About Spray Tanning:
1. That sh*t is cold! You are basically signing up to have your bare body sprayed down with something that feels like liquid oxygen: smoky, freezing and damp. Just so you know.

2. Wear baggy, old clothes that cover up as much skin as possible. Why? Because there are two ways to really mess up a newly spray-tanned body: allowing skin to touch skin and allowing rain to touch skin. Both of these things can be avoided with "modest" clothing. Guess which of these two spray tan newbie errors happened to me? Both! You can figure out why I suggest baggy and old, right?

3. Invest in Dove or Ivory Original Formula soap bars. That's what the lady told me anyway, and since she has won many awards for her spray tan expertise (or at least that's what she told me several times), I trust her. According to Lady, any other kind of soap with smelly fragrances and special formulas can do "funny things" to your tan.

4. If you don't moisturize already (I don't), be prepared to start. Because spray tan gunk will dry that skin out! And apparently that skin gets blotchy faster if you don't moisturize on the regular.

5. You will look like Pig Pen from Peanuts for the first day or so. Until you are allowed to shower, you pretty much just look super dirty and shiny, as if you've been walking through a dust storm that has somehow caused your face to look ultra greasy. It goes away.

6. Droplets of rain that fall down your arm, touch the tops of your feet or drip across your chest will not go away. But they will fade. And look like stretch marks. See #2.

7. Day #2 is the Oompa-Loompiest day. I found myself looking the most orange on the first full day after my tan, once I had showered and the actual tan had started to "come in." On the plus side, my teeth appeared ultra-shiny white!

8. Day #4 is your best day. Which is why if you are getting tanned for a Saturday event, I recommend doing the tan on a Wednesday. On Saturday my skin was the color of perfectly golden toasted marshmallow. (Right down to the puffiness, but that's no fault of the spray tan.) I'll admit it: I looked pretty damn good!

9. You can get creative with tan lines. The first question my tanning lady asked me when we got into the room was whether I wanted to tan nude. That was her suggestion, but I decided against it, opting instead for a cute pair of undies that I never wear because they are...uncomfortable. However, they made for a great tan line, so I'm glad I've held on to them all these years! You could do the bikini thing if you're shy, but really, there are endless possibilities when it comes to the spray tan outfit. Have fun with it!

10. At $30-$50 per tan, it's probably not really worth doing on a regular basis, considering the upkeep and, well, cost. But would I do it again? For another fancy event in California? Sure! For most anything else, meh. Maybe if T is treating.

BOTTOM LINE: There's really nothing scary about a spray tan, and it's kind of fun and makes for a good story. Plus, you really don't come out looking all orange-y, like everyone warned me I would. If you're on the fence, I'd recommend trying it just once, if only for sh*ts and giggles!