Last First Day

Tomorrow is likely to be my last first day of school ever. That seems pretty crazy to me. 19th grade, here I come. It's been a long time since kindergarten's first day. Actually, there I started two weeks late because I had the chicken pox (now a cured disease, come on!) and really did not want to go to school on the first day. I was so afraid. Now I still don't want to go, but I am anything but afraid. Honestly, I am bored. It's a grind, and I am looking forward to a new routine. But I am also somewhat excited. First year of law school was...awful. Second year was...moderately bad. This year I do not have high expectations and I certainly am not going to fall in love with my school, but I know the drill and I feel like have mastered it to some extent. There is some security in the third year. I can't say I'm bored yet ("the third year they bore you to death"), but just you wait. So here's to beginnings and ends.

It is good to be back in DC. I was away longer than I wanted to be. JetBlue was nice and let me get back before Hurricane Irene struck. I mean "struck." The "hurricane" was just a lot of rain and more wind than we are used to. I think some leaves were affected the most. Maybe a couple of magazine racks. I learned to play Settler of Catan with Kerry, Alena, and Ed. Then we pretended that the weather was bad by turning out the lights. We lit candles because otherwise they just seemed like a waste. "Mmm hmm, there's gonna be weather." Maybe not as much as anticipated here. But it didn't stop a Trader Joe's mob on Saturday morning apparently. I got there later in the morning mostly because I needed to buy food, having not been here for a couple of weeks. The store was an interesting me of 1) regular shoppers, like me, 2) people freaking out and buying nonperishable food and looking like maniacs, and 3) people stocking up on alcohol. The wine section was easily getting emptied the quickest. I approved.

Ok, back to school for a second. Being smart, I still haven't bought two of my textbooks. It doesn't help that one casts $160 and there are no used versions because it's a new edition. What a pain in the butt. What do I want more, my Evidence textbook (to be used during my 8:50 am class three times per week) or a nice, new futon? Happily, the choice is not plainly one or another, but you see where I'm going with this. That's just...more money than I want to pay for this crap.
Other classes I am taking: Professional Responsibility (lawyer ethics - they do teach us ethics!), Antitrust (topical), and Public Interest Lawyering (co-requisite for my internship. I will pass/fail this class and nearly fail it). This is mostly a semester of fulfilling requirements. Next semester I will live it up.

I get The Great Roommate Change of '11 this week. It should be interesting. Soon a new soul (my friend Ryan) will share the pain of my neighbor's incessant coughing. Some night I'm just going to call an ambulance for my neighbor. Maybe the police will show up with the ambulance. I wouldn't be shocked if they came across a decent amount of illegal substances (which are probably the reason that he coughs so damn much. Stop smoking and shut the hell up!). But I am excited to live with Ryan. I have a feeling that this could decrease my productivity at home a good deal. And maybe increase me in-house beer consumption. Uh oh. Whatever, it's 3L, right?

Hurricane playlist mandatory songs:
Bob Dylan - Hurricane (duh!)
Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind
The Doors - Riders on the Storm
The Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
Blind Melon - No Rain

The Little League World Series just wrapped up. The Yankees tried to enter the tournament just to stroke their ego, but were rejected. No beating up on 12-year olds for you!