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October 2009
M T W T F S S
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October 31st, 2009

Oprah for Halloween

I was Oprah for Halloween…a zombie Oprah circa 1988:

oprah

Here’s a video of us getting ready and immediately after the clubhouse:

October 30th, 2009

Law school is about free food

The law school can sense when I am cranky. I was sitting in the law school cafeteria when got an instant message from Jack. He was in class, and another chair had just collapsed.

This happened to me last year:

chair collapse

Fail.

I was going to write a post about the ridiculous spending patterns at the law school: we have a student lounge with a flat screen TV, pool table, and video game machines, but our classrooms smell1, the seats collapse, and the temperature control is underwhelming. A can of febreeze would do far more good than a pinball machine.

So, I started writing my cranky post when the administrator in charge of orientation2 came by my table and gave me a handwritten thank you note and Take 5 candy bar for serving as an orientation leader.

Then, on my way to class, the Lexis representative had a spread of (good) candy and muffins. She was busy and tired, so I didn’t even have to talk to her to get the food…although I did tell her how much I loved Best Authority.

Muffin and candy bar in hand, law school was suddenly awesome. Who care that that the class rooms smell like snot? They feed me!

I walk into my Conflicts class full of sugary goodwill and see Jill:

Me: “The Lexis lady has free muffins and candy bars!”
Jill: “WHAT?”
Me: “Free food! The Lexis lady is giving out muffins and candy. And you don’t even have to talk to her. It’s amazing.”
Jill: “You mean she’s giving away muffins ON THE DAY OF THE WLSA BREAST CANCER BAKE SALE?! That bitch!
Me: “I was just trying to spread the good word…”

Jill stifles a scream then storms out of the room.

Woops.


1 I suspect they don’t shampoo the carpet.
2 Aka, the “go to” lady who everyone loves.

October 30th, 2009

Sarah gets sick

Sarah sits two rows behind me in my Conflicts of Law class.

The seating situation of the classroom is important to explain the hot messitude, so here is a diagram:

diagram of class room

The blue rectangles are the tables. The seating is tiered.

I sit in seat A.

Sarah is in seat B.

Brenda is in seat C, and Bill is in seat D.

Jill is in seat E.

Because Sarah sits almost directly behind me, I cannot see her unless I fully turn around. I can easily see Bill and Brenda if I turn to the side. I can see Jill without turning.

So throughout Conflicts yesterday I kept hearing this nasty, mucusy coughing. It was the type of wet coughing that makes everyone who hears it visualize the gunk and puss sloshing around in the cougher’s throat.

Gross. I know.

The coughing was interrupted by that nasty “sucking my snot in” sound.

After a while it became distracting, so I turned slightly and looked at Bill and Brenda. Both looked horrified.

The second time I turned around, both Bill and Brenda had their faces covered with their jackets. Maybe someone farted?

The entire time I see Jill’s face becoming more and more distorted. She’s watching a train wreck.

I turn again and see that Brenda moved to the back row! Bill is shielding his face with his coat. Jill is beside herself.

I finally do an almost-discrete-but-not-quite turn and see the cause of the commotion: Sarah is disgustingly sick. Snot is streaming all over her face, and she was snorting, sniffing, and coughing away. H1N1 was flying around the room like dust  particles from an old pillow. We were all going to catch the plague, and die, and miss our finals.

After class Jill exchanges a frantic look with me and mouths: “THAT IS SO GROSS!”

In the hallway Jill explained:

Jill: “Oh my god, Sarah is so disgusting! She was wiping her snot with her FINGERS! WITH HER FINGERS!! Why would you come to school like that?”
Me: “Well, maybe she had an allergy attack or something… and Conflicts is sort of a hard class to miss.”
Jill: “That’s just unacceptable. Fail.”

Just then, Sarah comes out of the classroom. Jill yelps and practically jumps across the hall, almost knocking over some 1Ls in the process. I expected her to point and scream “PLAGUE!!! PLAGUE!!! SHE BE SPREADING THE PLAGUE!! BURN THE WITCH!”

We’ll see if Sarah shows up today.

And yes, I am bringing a baggie of Kleenex and a mini-hand-sanitizer bottle as a gift for Sarah just in case today’s class is a repeat of yesterday’s hot messitude.

October 29th, 2009

Sorry, what?

It’s flu season…even in Conlaw:

Professor L: “So Jill, what was the compelling interested claimed by the school board?”
(Jack coughs)
Jill: “Well the school board argued that…”
(Jack coughs louder)
Jill: “…and then said that…”
(Jack coughs)
Jill: “…but the court didn’t buy it.
Professor L: “Sorry Jill, I missed that because someone was coughing. Repeat!”
Jack (mouthing): “SORRY!”


Other Professor L posts:

October 29th, 2009

OTR: Sports overload & mass confusion

My tax professor has his priorities right:

Professor A: “I should have your midterms back, but I am going to three sporting events in the next three days instead of grading your papers…it’s a sports overload that my wife’s not very happy about…”

My employment law professor keeps warning us that the ERISA material is boring:

Professor I: “I guarantee you the ERISA preemption case is…uh…well, it’s not fun. Good luck with that! See you next week!”

(I actually think the ERISA regulations are interesting and get to read a lot of ERISA-cases at work.)

My Real Estate law class has gone from a dull review of property law to an ultra-complicated look at the secondary mortgage market and rights of the mortgagee upon non-payment

Professor E: “Let me just tell you where we are going to start on Monday because I feel like I did enough damage today...”

I think most of us are unspeakably confused in that class. Thank goodness employment law and conlaw II are still easy…

October 28th, 2009

Table of Authorities Time Saver

Writing a table of authorities for my moot court brief was something that I dreaded.

I mentioned this to one of my classmates and she directed me to Best Authority, which is a Word plugin that automatically builds table of authorities. Score, score, score!

You need a LexisNexis student account to use Best Authority for free.

October 27th, 2009

Busy, busy

After finishing the tax midterm I turned around and began fixing my brief for moot court.

I have been parked in my living room going on 10 hours, and Harley is not quite sure why I am home so much. He keeps shooting me glares like, “Bitch, where’s my biscuit?”

studying with dog

The ridiculousness ends tomorrow (until finals that is), thank goodness.

October 26th, 2009

Awkward and racist: Flem at the Coffeshop

My tax reading at Dunn Brothers (a coffee chain) was interrupted by some heavy drama.

First, I had the mildly annoying situation of my coffee gift card reading as if there is only 31 cents on it when the online balance is $49. The balance should be about $93 because I put $44 on it yesterday… anyway, that is NOT the drama keeping me from my tax reading…

The drama was Flem, the crazy, coughing man who was speaking REALLY LOUDLY on his phone and engaging in total overshare. Here are some gems:

Flem: “I cough, and I cough, and I cough. I live in a homeless shelter with about 40 other men and I am the loudest cougher in there.”

Flem: “Wait, I have another call coming in…yes sir. Yes. Yes sir. Well let me put you on my reject list…

Flem: “…and I was riding my bike, all 230 pounds of me, and I crashed on the sidewalk and cracked my rib…”

Flem: “I’m living with a bunch of negros. At the homeless shelter it’s all negros. And I’m not a fan of the blacks. And no, they can’t hear me – I’m on the white part of town.”

Flem: “Things are rough here in Minneapolis. I just sold my last food stamps for $30.”

Flem: “I am taking all my medications, I’m doing all the right things…I keep my pajamas and flipflops there, I have my own uh…”

Flem: “I keep thinking I’m dying of some incurable lung cancer because it hurts so much…”

So I am sitting here exchanging smirks with the people around me. I love that this man sold his last food stamps but had a working cellphone with a headset. One of the Baristas did not appreciate Flem’s black-comments and asked Flem to leave.

Barista: “Um, excuse me sir. Can you please leave? You are bothering customers.”
Flem: “Okay, I dig it. I dig it.”
Barista: “Uh, thank you.”

The Barista goes back behind the counter and Flem changes his mind and goes ape-shit:

Flem: “BUT WHAT ABOUT WHAT FREE SPEECH? IS THERE NO FUCKING FREE SPEECH AT DUNN BROTHERS?! HUH?”

Barista: “DUDE! Get out of here!”

Flem: “No! I will not get out of here! The police won’t come before I get here! Blacks are niggers! NIGGERS! I know because I live with them!”

Barista: “DUDE! Shut up and leave!”

Flem: “NO I WILL NOT LEAVE! I WILL STAND HERE! CRACK CULTURE SUCKS! BLACK CULTURE SUCKS! EVERYONE IN HERE IS WHITE!”

Flem apparently didn’t see the five Somalis, the Mexican dude, or me.

Flem turns up the volume. He’s throwing a full out fit. Everyone is gasping. The scene is charged and totally awkward.

This man is literally standing in the doorway head raised at the sky screaming like a toddler having a temper tantrum in Wal-Mart. This was ten types of crazy. Hello Minneapolis!

Flem eventually left. I am just glad I am by the back door so I can dash out when Flem comes back with a gun…

October 26th, 2009

Taxation Midterm on Capital Gains, aka what the hell?

What in the hell was that? This tax midterm has been a rabid monkey on my back for the past week. I was either studying for it or thinking about how I should be studying for it… and all that energy was a complete, and utter waste.

It’s time to get my 80′s headband out and sing:

That’s right.

The exam had two questions. The first question was a very basic capital gains problem, but the second part of the question was so poorly written ambiguous that the 5 classmates that I spoke to afterward each interpreted the question in a different way.

And the second question was a multi-part beast that several partnership-related facts. We did not cover partnerships in class at all, so I had to do some on-the-spot digging in the tax regulations. This is probably ripe with fail. Womp. Good thing this is only 15% of my grade…

Anyhoot. I am moving on, and going to Dunn Brothers to work on my moot court brief.

October 26th, 2009

FLSA, glazed over eyes

Today’s Employment Law class consisted of a lecture on the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Professor I. was underwhelmed by our engagement:

Professor I: “I’ve succeed in glazing over almost every eye in the room. That’s an accomplishment!”

Professor I: “See you tomorrow if you can overcome what I did to you today…”


See also: Socratic Preemption, and all “On the Record” posts.