Daffnee

Just got back from the annual CSP check-in. All seem well, aside from Roly who is struggling under the weight of a sparkly rock on her left hand. Hopefully none blame me for suggesting a Frenchy place that I had only been to once before (first dinner w/ ex) and indulging in my Riesling fetish.

Off to Seattle tomorrow to celebrate the New Year w/ Jaimee, and then to train her in the ways of the tribe (i.e. the family) prior to her coming back to Vancouver w/ me and then to Whistler. I've got the chewable tablets ready for any potential motion sickness or lactose, have the cell and camera charging, and will pack toothbrush tomorrow...

...I really wish I travelled better. But happy new year! Hope your 2006 will be as filled with human drama as hygenically possible and blogworthy as 2005.

Being home is a lot like being a soldier, methinks. There's a lot of hurry-up-and-waiting. There's the mandatory toeing of the party line when in the company of strangers. There's constant debriefing and interrogation about past activities. And let's not forget the web of incomprehensible scheduling that makes little sense to us on the ground, but is -- we are assured -- in our best interests by our generals. If you can't tell, I spent almost the entire day dining in expensive Chinese restaurants with family and/or making small talk with friends of the family in Richmond (the Asian enclave of Vancouver, for those from out of town).

The upside: got to play with baby; grandparents were very happy to see far-flung grandchildren gathered together to eat abalone and shark-fin soup; and much family bonding in car, catalyzed by my motion sickness and debate over what Gravol-substitute would be most suitable for me.

The downside: lots and lots of cornstarch-coagulated MSG sauces coating every kind of edible meat leads to digestive difficulties. Not to mention my bum is sore from sitting in restaurants so much.

Need to get used to the sitting though, and not just because I've heard a leather bum is most useful when trying to make it as a first-year associate. I've finally got my "Vancouver rounds" scheduled in, and hopefully I'll manage to see most of the people I was meaning to make contact with again sometime in the next few days. If you are reading this and feel like you have been shafted, please alert me to your very worthwhile existence and I'll apologise profusely.

Yay, holidays! Now if only I had time to finish that moot court brief.

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

It took a few days to get used to having nothing to do, but my latest project is to make a nice album of edited photos from 2005 and show the world that life doesn't end after 3 megapixels. Life also doesn't end after lactose intolerance, thanks to the unlimited supply of Lacteeze at home and 5 flavours of ice cream residing in the freezer behind me.

It's very nice to be home.

Some colour after a blue post-exam day.

I'm done done done done done done done DONE

So now what?

Some things just catch your eye when you're walking home and it's exam time.

no more land use no more land use no more land use EVER

Or until I retire and become a meddlesome sixty-year-old Chinese woman, in which case I will be a vocal proponent of character-busting development until I die.

The madness that is take-home exams:

[19:20] manianosmia: dave and i are getting dumber
[19:21] LadyRegen: me too
[19:21] LadyRegen: but that's just b/c of WHISKEY
[19:21] LadyRegen: that's what i need to get me through con law
[19:21] LadyRegen: what he hell is due process anyway
[19:22] manianosmia: you are due some process
[19:22] LadyRegen: SERVE ME
[19:23] manianosmia: OK
[19:23] manianosmia: OK
[19:23] manianosmia: OK

The law school assured me I would get credit for an internship, so I headed down to ABC, had a rollicking time with the legal correspondent talking about JAG recruitment and Kelo v. New London, and happily rearranged my schedule (dropping Corporations with possibly my favourite professor at the law school) once they invited me back. I ask NYU how much credit I'll be getting, so that I know how much the 15 hours per week I'll be putting into legal research is worth. And then they tell me that although they'll be telling my employer that I will "get credit", it's not "academic credit" -- for the purposes of oh, I don't know, GRADUATING -- and that they're sorry if they gave me the wrong impression.

Rules of statutory interpretation. (1) If the plain meaning of the statute is clear, use the plain meaning. And then stop. Really.

OK, the man on the street would probably think that "get credit" means...I get credit! Academic credit? Well yes, seeing as I've never heard of any other kind. But no. There's fake credit too, which the law school uses to prevent the outside world from knowing that they try to keep their students from doing anything unorthodox, i.e. stuff besides preparing to be a legal automaton and work for X, Y & Z LLP for the next 6 years before total burnout, alcoholism and probably a failed marriage.

On the other hand, if you want to be one of Professor B's twenty-TA-strong Con Law minions, you can elect to have half your credit load eliminated or get paid much moolah. If you want to yell at a bunch of dudes who want to serve their country because you think they're homophobes by virtue of their desire to put on a uniform and ensure that "military justice" isn't a joke, we'll bring you the finest fruit and bagels in the land to make sure you're comfortable. And if you want to tell some of your fellow classmates that they suck, we'll do you the great service of forwarding your letter to ensure that everyone who (we also think) sucks gets it.

That's enlightened.

Everyone who said it would change my life was right.

Someone has a job...all hail Lt. Kate!

I have spent 2 straight days wearing a canvas, bag-like summer dress w/ an oversized teal wrap sweater rescued from the Salvation Army. The thought that I might have to change this routine tomorrow disturbs me.

I tutor at a parochial school in the West Village on Saturdays -- I started earlier in October when I was having a fit of existential crises (e.g. why do firms hate me, why am I stupid, why am I wearing hose, etc.) and figured I didn't have much of a Friday nightlife anyway. The kids are all underperforming public school students from around NYC, and don't seem to resent being there on a Saturday morning at all; the Grade 5 girl I tutor wakes up at 7 AM on Staten Island so she can be at St. Luke's by 9:30 AM.

Makes me feel a bit guilty for never being on time for Land Use or Trademarks. Man, do I lack perspective sometimes.

Saw an interesting WSJ review for Seoul Train. Made me wonder why I've never seen a rubber bracelet with "North Korea" on it.

I sprained my bum.

Further nuances of the tax code:
- You can trade a bull for a stallion without paying tax, but not a cow for a bull.
- You can trade a computer for a printer without paying tax, but not a truck for a hatchback.
- You can get a deduction if your husband accidentally flushes your diamond ring down the toilet, but not if your house gets washed away by a torrential downpour that isn't a "hurricane".
- Truck-pulling is an income-generating activity, but mud-racing is not.

It may not come through in the above, but I'm on B- territory right now and I don't see any sign of that changing...

That said, I got some Foley love in the mail yesterday. Too bad it was in the form of barely-baked, butter-icing holiday cookies -- but I'll leave them at the altar of Roommate and hopefully I'll still get karma for that.

I also interviewed w/ ABC's Law and Justice Unit yesterday, which seems like a much more fun place to work than all law firms that are not Foley. Hopefully they like me. It'd be a much easier 3 or 4 credits than Environmental Law has been, the soul-sucking demon it is.

It's exam time...

"What's it to you?" Antonin Scalia, in The Doctrine of Standing as an Essential Element of Separation of Powers, 17 Suffolk Univ. L. Rev. 881, 882 (1983)).

Now that's the kind of back-to-basics legal philosophy I approve of.

An Ode to Low Blood Pressure.

Low blood pressure is no fun when it makes you a slow bleeder. I tried to be a helpful soul by donating blood for the first time, only to give less than a pint after 25 minutes and a lightheaded sensation. It did give me a chance to compare Canadian versus American blood donation campaigns, though. US: "80% of people will need blood at some point in their lives! Only 3% give!" Canada: "Blood...it's in you to give. **soft lighting and violin**" I also met a volunteer whose 6' daughter curates an art gallery in Georgetown, and I'm supposed to pop in at some point and say I met her mother at a bloodletting. Apparently Newt Gingrich shops there.

Low blood pressure also makes you black out -- embarassingly -- during strenous physical activity that is more complicated than running/swimming in a straight line. I gave martial arts a second attempt yesterday, after abandoning my blackout-inducing, telephone-book punching, knuckle-pushup training karate training of my teens. I figured it was time to see where the BF was disappearing to 8 hours a week, and why I was dispensing advice on how to get sweat stains and mold (!) out of white canvas on a weekly basis. Kenpo -- well, kickboxing -- turned out to be slightly more humane than old-school Shotokan; with gloves, I can hit things without losing all sensation in my hands and having to explain to my piano teacher why my double-octave skills suddenly suck. That said, I still black out. The joy of smacking things without hurting myself might make up for some of that, though.

I wonder if vampires have low blood pressure.