house of the living dead

Simply put, this week was rough....

Pre-rough-week stories:

Last week, after the first week of classes, ended in a perfect fashion. First, I met my next door neighbor, Matt, before Criminal Law Friday afternoon. Both of our apartments got buzzed, we opened our doors at the same time and walked over to the front entrance to figure out what was going on. Turns out it was a police officer responding to a call that someone's apartment was broken into (their window was open, someone they didn't know entered through that window, but apparently nothing was stolen). Fyi, we have additional security locks on our windows, at least on the ground/garden level, so that we can have our windows half way open, but then still have locks preventing someone from opening the window all the way open and entering illegally. I feel completely safe despite that little debacle. Plus, Matt is 6'6", so it's like having a body guard across the hall. We now say that "the law brought us together," in more ways than one.

Friday night, I went to the Cooley Honors Society's "Welcome Back to School" party at a local bar. Got to meet tons of cool 1Ls (first years), hang out at a fun VIP table, and dance to my heart's content. It was an incredibly fun night.

Saturday morning (9/12), Matt and I went furniture shopping for my apartment and I found the most beautiful desk, my second piece of furniture (woo hoo!). Later that day, Matt and I met up with our new friend, Jenn (who we call Jenn-Brittany or JB because of her deep longing as a child to be called Brittany), for dinner at the best dining venue of all time, Taco Bell, and then we went to a movie. We saw 500 Days of Summer and it was fantastic, so well done. Loved it.

Story time:

Then, we got back from the movie only to find that the ceiling in my dining nook was gushing water from a crack. There was water flowing onto the top of my fridge and then all over my precious hard wood floors. The water continued to geyser from the ceiling - panic ensued. I immediately called emergency maintenance while Matt and Jenn graciously mopped up my floor that had nearly become a kiddy pool. Thankfully the water tapered off and we waited for maintenance to arrive.

So because of an old pipe giving out above my apartment, the landlord instigated an overhaul of the aged plumbing. There was construction (tearing walls and ceilings apart) in both mine and Matt's apartment starting Tuesday morning and not ending til Firday night. It...was...miserable. Not only was the tearing apart of my apartment and turning off my water all day long for construction a huge imposition to me (I had become accustomed to doing all my homework in the comfort of my apartment), but they unexpectedly had to do work in Matt's apartment (my safe haven) too.

Fun fact: Our apartment building is really old and has lead-based paint under layers of new paint. When they sawed off pieces of wall, guess what was getting blown all over the apartment...lead paint dust particles. Certain things in my apartment were COVERED in this dust (including kitchen appliances). That stuff gets everywhere. I'm now officially paranoid that this fact will somehow be the death of me - death by lead poisoning (it may be irrational, but that's just how I roll).

Anyways, needless to say, neither of us were happy with the whole situation. We were also paying for the fact that we had chosen to have fun all weekend long before the week of classes. Construction + choice to have fun during the weekend = lack of sleep and overall grumpiness. Matt deemed us as the living dead.

By Friday (9/18), it was amazing we were still functioning enough to go to class. The silver lining in all this is that fact that Matt allowed me to invade his slightly more functional apartment for the duration. I was over there for everything except sleeping. I couldn't even shower at my own apartment. *Thanks, Matt, for letting me become your roommate for the week*

Now:

The construction is DONE! Hopefully, nothing else busts and I don't die of lead poisoning.

I'm feeling much more human after getting many, many hours of needed sleep last night.

And bonus, I just got the rest of my financial aid money directly deposited into my checking account, which means I can go buy more furniture for my place.

Side note - Two countdowns there are regularly taking place in my head are...

New Moon theatrical release: 62 days from today

Thanksgiving with family: 68 days from today

"skull full of mush"

Today, I had my first Contracts class and I was called on. Standing up in front of the whole class wasn't too scary. I just had to give my thoughts on a hypothetical in our book. So far this first week of classes has been smooth sailing. I'm 3 down, 1 to go. Tomorrow, I have Criminal Law. I'm really happy with the professors so far, and tomorrow should be any different. My "ambassador" from Cooley tells me good things about the prof I have for Crim Law.

Before I went to Contracts this afternoon, I couldn't help but to think of The Paper Chase. Thankfully, my class wasn't quite the same. The movie, made in the 70's, is about a first year student at Harvard Law. It particularly focuses on his Contracts class with the greatly feared Kingsfield. Not sure how many of you would enjoy it, but it's a classic and I found it to be entertaining and frightening. In honor of my Contracts class, I present you with a link for a clip from the movie.

Good bye Seattle, Hello Lansing

I made it! I can't believe I'm actually in Michigan FOR law school. I never could have imagined what God had in store for my life. His plans are always greater than our own. Never, would I have imagined myself going to Michigan to pursue my dream of law school. But now that I'm here, everything seems to have clicked right into place. I have a wonderful apartment across from a lovely park with a fountain that sparkles pretty colors at night, and I really like the school's facility and the way they've taken care of the incoming students during orientation. Now, I just need some more furniture. I have literally been living on my sole piece of furniture, my bed. It's where I sleep, eat, study, and attempt to talk on the phone (spotty service in my bedroom).

The road to Lansing:

I wanted to blog along our journey from WA to MI, but internet service wasn't readily available, plus I was completely beat whenever we called it quits for the day. I never thought sitting in the same confined space for 10 hours a day could be so physically painful and exhausting. BUT, I had the time of my life, and that's because my best friend and sister, Jenna agreed to tag along and share in the driving duties. I'd already done the drive with her from CA to WA twice, so I guess she sort of owed me. Although this roadtrip was a beast compared to that drive. We entertained ourselves as we always do on our roadtrips together....make videos that are ridiculous and funny (probably only to us).

Day 1 we drove from Puyallup, WA to Butte, MT ("That's BUTT with an E").

my car was completely packed!

Day 2 (Jenna's 20th Birthday!) we drove from Butte, with a pit stop in Billings, MT to have some Red Robin for lunch...a sad excuse for a birthday celebration, through Wyoming, and stopped in Rapid City, SD (20 miles outside of Keystone, SD/Mt. Rushmore). Man! Montana was the state that just wouldn't end.

*fabulous coffee suggestion from Noel: iced, non-fat, toffee nut latte, with caramel drizzle*

we hit a Starbucks at least once a day, in almost every state we passed through

Day 3 we started with a morning visit to Mt. Rushmore. This day was BY FAR my favorite day (and Jen's too). From Rapid City to Keystone you drive on Highway 16 and it is a strip of Roadtrip USA things to do. We wished we had the time to stop and visit all of the interesting attractions: Reptile Gardens, Petting Farm, Cosmos (mystery area...so mysterious, we didn't know what it even was), Bear Country USA, 99 cent Cowboy pancakes, etc. It all looked like so much fun! We quickly popped into a store called Christmas Village and got some Mt. Rushmore Christmas ornaments. And then, before driving the last stretch of highway to Mt. Rushmore, we stopped in Keystone. Cool town. I felt like we were in the Frontierland section of Disneyland. Very cowboys and indians. Jenna got her first pair of Minnetonka moccassins. We also made an obligatory purchase of $3 trucker hats with ridiculous captions. When in SD...... Mt. Rushmore was amazing! I'm so glad that we got to stop there. Hard to believe what was made out of the side of some mountains. After reluctantly hitting the road, we made our way through the rest of SD and we PUSHED through Minnesota before finally stopping in La Cross, WI (Right at the MN/WI border on the Mississippi River). I couldn't believe we were able to cross all of MN in the course of an evening.

trucker chic

Mt. Rushmore!

Avenue of Flags at Mt. Rushmore

Day 4 we drove the FINAL miles to Lansing, MI. Driving through WI was beautiful. Finally, some different terrain other than flat lands consisting of agriculture and very little civilization. We also drove through Chicago (note to self: never drive to Chicago again, instead take the train), hit a million tolls in IL, and unexpectedly spent an hour or so crossing northern Indiana. Arriving at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing, where I had stayed during my visit for orientation in June, was like reaching an oasis. Guaranteed amazing beds, familiar surroundings, no more thousands of miles to drive...we were in heaven. End of roadtrip.

The next day, I moved into my apartment at 9 am. The rest of the day was spent unpacking, shopping for supplies, showing Jen the bits of Lansing I knew how to navigate to, and dinner+movie on my living room floor. Jenna: "It's like we're newlyweds on our first night in our new apartment."---Thanks, Jen (Bale). You made this whole experience wonderfully memorable.

Now:

I've been living in my new apartment for one and a half weeks. I got to have dinner at the parents' house of my new friend, Sarah, which was fabulous. I attended two more afternoons of orientation. Thursday (9/3) was convocation where we took an oath, before a judge, to not "lie, cheat, steal, or plagiarize," nor tolerate "anyone who lies, cheats, steals, or plagiarizes." Friday (9/4) was a State Bar of Michigan event where we discussed professional problems in small groups with our fellow students and local lawyers and judges. Tonight, I just finished my first set of case briefs on Property Law for my first day of class (Tuesday, 9/8). I still have three classes' cases I need to read and brief for my first week. Thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday, although I won't have classes on Mondays this term anyways :) I can't wait to see what classes are like.