like a child misses its blanket

that's right, i went there. sometimes i get bored, lonely, and really miss the hell out of everyone back home. i'm also beginning to realize i'll have to get used to being broke again. that's alright; i don't miss work. but at the end of the day, what am i doing? spending time i do have and money i don't have on extensive training for some other job with the hope that some other job will be something i can live on that is worth doing. maybe even enjoyable. but i have absolutely no idea what that is. they must tell you after you're done with your first year, because all the upper level students seem to be having a great time, and they don't seem like they're all geared to work at [insert big firm here]. i couldn't even name you a law firm if you asked. probably won't matter for me anyway. still can't really think of anything that gets me real excited. well, nothing people pay for anyway. if anyone comes across a job listing for dicking around, getting fucked up and/or listening to music, please send word posthaste. i'm not afraid to admit that i've been avoiding "the real world" (both the concept and television show) for a long time, and i don't feel like changing that. for all of its bullshit hassles, said world also offers some access to comfortable life otherwise unavailable. what were my values again? i guess no one really sits down and makes a list, but i sure as hell don't know what i expect out of life, leading to profound difficulty in accomplishing it. jesus, what am i, 19? time to quit whining and act right.
there are better things to focus on. i still have two beers in the fridge. and some jalapeno chips my sister got me - isn't she the best? and blogger didn't ask for and reject my password like it has for weeks. i saw a bunch of apartments today. they were all doable with some minor annoyances. no closet in one. few that were bigger than i need with awkward space. gonna go see another one tomorrow too. everyone out here wants first and last months rent with a security deposit, and there is always some application fee, probably a pet fee, it just goes on and on. chi-towners, is it like that there? either way, i've had a tough time shaking the notion that i should have moved to chicago. wait, i was gonna quit whining. turns out drive-by truckers are fantastic, and i missed seeing them in philly by like a month. d'oh. they get "best use of three guitars" award. and i was even a little less late on the uptake with them. maybe in five years i too can be listening to the latest and the greatest. my view on all that right now is that such efforts require listening to vast amounts of absolute excrement and praising it endlessly, while the true gems just get lumped in with all the rest. i think i'll still prefer coming in late in the game rather than convince myself i like something. most of that has to be life contextual anyway. i find it interesting that i moved to a real big city and now a bunch of stuff i'm getting into has a sort of country feel to it. reactionary?
so i wrote the above yesterday and never finished. i went to go hang out with a couple of people from my section at school. they both seemed like good people and my suspicions were confirmed, and that's always a plus. spent most of the evening drinking super classy whiskey. not classy like rich and rare (c'mon, it's in a square bottle! of course it's classy!), but classy like glenphroaig and macallan. yeah. the dude had an amazing apartment in center city, and we all had a good time. went to nodding head for a little while and had the porter, very hoppy, reminds me of founders porter. delicious. then we were heading to another unspecified bar, and we went the wrong way entirely, wandered back around, and then it was almost closing time and they wanted a two dollar cover. we said fuck that and i waited like 20 minutes for my bus to show, but it came. and i rode on it. and some elderly veteran got on and also rode, and enlivened things by speaking at me in a rapid pace and difficult dialect. i think he was giving me a rundown on the various hospitals in the city, and then a lot about war. he looked like he knew what he was talking about. nice guy, but a random encounter nonetheless. had a separate random encounter on the way down to the middle of town as well while on the trolley. there was a young lady talking to the driver for like the first five minutes i was on, then she sat down by me and began a discussion. she was doing her masters in historical preservation at penn, seemed like a nice girl, pretty cute. heart of the conversation (her) "what are you headed to center city for?" "oh, just hangin' out with some buddies, gonna get some drinks and take it easy, how 'bout you?" "i'm headed to an A.A. meeting; they have them on campus but there aren't any tonight and i need to find a new community". so that's cool for her, i'm glad she has a grip on something that was a problem in her life. but i wasn't about to be like, hey, you should uh, ya know, fall off the wagon with us. i've had a couple strange and interesting encounters on public transit already, but what sticks out about this one is that i totally saw this girl today. someone was biking past me coming from the other way while i was walking (checking off block one hundred and thirteen for the day or so, we'll get to that) and this person was like "hello!" in a pleasant and earnest tone one typically reserves for people one is favorably acquainted with. i turned and offered a puzzled but friendly hey! back, and turned soon enough to see that, sure enough, girl from trolley yesterday. my sister and her man both say that's how west philly works (well, i haven't told them about this encounter, but they've mentioned it before). i guess you just see the same people, or at least notice the same people who lend themselves to noticing in some way. for an egregious example, there was this guy walking on penn campus with a HUGE ASS SNAKE wrapped around him and i did a double take, but ben was just like, oh yeah, that guy. yeah, he's around. and a snake is around him. i see...
so today i got up at a reasonable time to go see yet another apartment. it was really nice, actually a bi-level one bedroom, great location, affordable enough. nothing not to like. but for some reason i couldn't get excited about it. i still don't know why, it was perfectly fine in every respect. so i walked all the way back to where i'm staying, probably roughly 37 blocks. i flopped down on the couch, gave my sister the rundown on the place, and she was like, well, sounds perfect. in the end i had to admit she was right, but i sat around like a little bitch for a couple hours until she got me to get up and go with her to what she refers to as "the worst liquor store ever". i went along thinking it couldn't possibly be the worst one ever, but it is actually probably in the running. fuck that place. like many liquor stores, all of the merchandise is behind the counter, so you have to ask for what you would like. my sister: "i would like a fifth of stoli please" clerk: "huh?" sis: "stoli?" clerk "what?" sis: "bottle of stoli..." (there is one on display, it isn't like they don't have it) clerk: "bottle of who?" sis: "stoli..." clerk "stoliCHNAYA!? (with side-to-side head bob)" sis: "yes please" present clerk to clerk in storage area: "bottle of stoli" seriously, what the fuck? after all that, and besides, who ever calls it stolichnaya? or is it just stolichnaya if you're the customer and not the co-worker? are these the rules? the sequence is even better if you are aware that my sister took two years of russian and retained it pretty damn well for not having much practice opportunity, and i would be willing to bet the clerk has roughly two years fewer experience in russian language classes. going out on a limb, here. and before you judge my sister for buying vodka, know that it went to great use. she makes an incredible lemonade beverage which includes freshly squeezed lemon juice, fresh mint, and both regular and vanilla stoli. damn good.
anyway, this trip to the liquor store of doom was enough to get my juices flowing to inspire me to walk all the way back to turn in the rental app at the place i looked at today. i could have taken the trolley most of the way, but i'm running out of septa tokens and i'm cheap. so i walked down there. thought about calling to make sure the landlady was still gonna be there and so forth, but i just had a feeling things would be kosher. i felt she wanted to rent to me specifically. so i just went. nice stroll, really great weather for it. took about an hour or so, rang the doorbell, no response. called her phone, no answer. but then she walked up to the door so that she could tell me she had just rented the place. awesome. so i walked all the way back to west philly again. but then i got to go to a bbq with some nice penn grad students and ben. i think he and i were the only ones not fitting that bill, but no problem, there are some real solid folks in that bunch of whom i am very fond. as are the cats. i worry that they are cheating on me with greta and want her to be their owner. i already had to make sure she didn't walk off with them when she visited them last week.
speaking of the cats, when i came home one of them ran up to greet me and was extremely vocal. after properly greeting him and not seeing the other one i started to wonder, but i just figured he was asleep someplace under something. the one i had seen followed me around meowing incessantly, however, and i could hear the other one meowing as well, but didn't see him; he sounded kinda far off. i did some meowing of my own, expecting kitty #2 to show, but no luck. i heard some weird scratching and a somewhat despairing meow, at which point i decided to investigate. lo and behold there was a closed door in the apartment which he was behind and when i opened it he shot out like a bullet, only to turn around 20 feet later to rub on my leg. oh, los gatos. constant love and amusement.
let's see, in other news... uh... well, you know the other post where i talked about potato chip connoisseurship? i've pursued that. today i had the opportunity to partake of the incredibly intriguing philly cheesesteak chips. they were actually very unique and quite tasty. they didn't really taste like a cheesesteak, but what else could? on the other hand, they didn't not taste of cheesesteak. truly a unique flavor sensation. seek it out. i also had the unexpected and welcome opportunity to check out the 'old bay' flavor this evening, at the courtesy of my sister (see, she is good to me. for real. maybe someday i'll be a lawyer and she'll be an academic and i can show her a good time.) anyway, for those of you who aren't from the east coast (oh yeah, that would be anyone reading this), old bay is the seasoning that they put on everything out here. especially like seasoned fries and seafood. i guess the best way to describe it would be "it's a little bit spicy, but delicious". i don't know what all is in it, but i dig it. you can buy big ass shakers of it like any other spice out here, and i reckon that when i grow up and get a place i will get one of these shakers. but not one of the shakers proper. you know, shakers, like quakers. they have those here. or at least they used to? although after a googling of the issue i would like to check out these shakers too. and while we are on shakers, does anyone know if shakey's pizza from south park bears any relation to reality? for no good reason, i'm gonna skip that google and leave it up to you. and then you should tell me. please?
and now for some sad news that no one reading this cares about. clutch's next tour is all opening for coheed and cambria. what the fuck. that's a statement, not a question. what the fuck. i find it difficult to communicate how lame and off-base this truly is. if the world was not a fallen place clutch would only play tours with two sets and no opener. but to have THEM being the opener? that hasn't happened since the alternating headlining nights with COC if i'm not mistaken. good show though, in GR clutch was headlining. the c! finished summer tour yesterday in new york. i guess i theoretically could have gone. i have no one but myself to blame on that one. i haven't really begun to comprehend how close i am to that place yet. the concept intimidates the shit out of me. i haven't ever been, and i feel like i already know i couldn't handle that shit. i think that if one is unfamiliar with the experience of anxiety and agorophobia one must merely come from the midwest and then hang out in new york for a while. aw hell, i'm ramblin' again.
this one goes out to my mother, she made the sweetest facebook friend request denial ever the other day... well, a while ago. but it needs to be acknowledged in the blogosphere. yeah, i went there. i used that neologism. i do this. i be he. and law school. i do that too. but i don't be them.

beat it on down the line

today has gone well. i feel like i've hit that stride and slight feeling of comfort i was so desperately seeking regarding school. i've got all my classes now, like i mentioned, and torts and contracts are both really promising. the knowledge that not all of law school is as arcane as legal writing (what i thought would be the best) is a true boon. some talk of having some fun this weekend with a couple fellow students as well, perhaps watching some proper football, just on tv, but damn, it's been a while. and also even more talk of real bowling. i could go for some of that. come to think of it, i haven't even had a chance to watch lebowski since i moved. it will be high on the list when i finally nail down a place. i'm going to go look at something in an extremely promising location on friday morning, hopefully that will all be going down smooth. the hunt continues, however...
so i decided to download this show from the last waltz ensemble. as you may assume, they're a band tribute band. the chops are pretty good, especially on the keys, but the vocals are killin me. the harmonizing is good, but they don't do it enough, and the guy who takes the majority of the lead vocals is a little overbearing. that could owe to the recording more than anything though (tribute bands don't always have the wealthiest tapers present with the finest equipment, but the overall sound is good); i'd definitely check it out if they were around. i can never pass up a little night they drove old dixie down... 'til leter's calvary came and blew up the rails again? someone has got to offer the wolf and the don some internet access, they're probably the only people who would laugh at half this shit.
ahhh, back after a beer run. would that it were he who bears the namesake performing the task. this four 16 oz becks for 5 bucks is an inarguably square deal all things considered. i was gonna try the cheesesteak-flavored chips, but they didn't have them. i'll keep my eyes peeled though. for a bunch of these, damn, these guys have everything a potato chip connoisseur could covet. hell yeah, bacon and horseradish.
switched up the music to this uncle tupelo show i finally finished downloading yesterday. i've actually never heard those guys until now, and i really like it. i'm only like fourteen years late or something on this one, which beats my average by a healthy amount. well, whatever, music is at its best when one is in a position to enjoy it for what it is. this show already has me chuckling, jeff isn't even a lead singer yet and he's already running his mouth between songs. i can see why they had a dedicated following though, they would have been pretty bitchin (even more bitchin than the boat that bears the name - ask me about that one sometime) to see. wilco's sound on a.m. isn't too departed from what these guys were up to, and that makes since considering they made up most of uncle tupelo. it somehow seems so different with jeff front and center and he sounds a lot different when he does lead vox on a couple tupelo songs. they're doing new madrid right now, which is one of theirs i know from jeff's solo stuff, i do enjoy the way he does it solo, but this is a cool change of pace. the man knows how to arrange a song in multiple attractive ways (see outtasite or tapes with the shuffle/waltz version of box full of letters). now they're playing a song called 'sandusky' which is way sweeter than that region of ohio. gotta check out son volt now, i think i saw some of their stuff on etree. i'm also working on downloading a drive-by truckers show. anyone know anything about those guys? I've heard some stuff about them, but not any music yet; my curiosity is piqued.
sitting here with a beer is all fine and good, but i really feel like i should go to mulligan's. no luck on an analogue bar here, but i haven't done much in the way of searching just yet, but i have a contingent of 1l (yeah, i don't have to be a freshman or even a 'first year', they call us one ls) students with a similar mission. how hard can it be? plenty of bars line the streets in a city like this. and so help me if i have to go to fifty of em to find the place i'll do it. don't test me. i'll totally do it. good enough for now. "never let it be said that you can't communicate with a man in a rubber pig mask" - les claypool.

the man in me

but oh, what a wonderful feeling. just to know that i've got beer. in the form of a quart bottle of yuengling, which is the perfect size. i need it to contend with the ridiculous login situation this google domination of blogger accounts has caused me. every time i try to log in, it tells me my password is wrong. so everyday i try the one i had previously put in, and it never works. so i try the original. no luck. so basically every time i want to post, i have to go through the whole password reset song and dance, which is lame. but i do it. and i do it for jews, dear reader. everything i do, i do it for jews. and also the school of law, which is demanding some serious reading.
the good news is that not all of the reading is so bad. the criminal law stuff is a little dry and its been back to this asshole named hart who dominated my philosophy of law class in undergrad; the haunting continues. and kant showed up AGAIN. that fucker. but my torts text is really interesting and the prof i have actually worked on the book. normally, i'm opposed to a prof teaching 'their' material, but that really isn't the case in this instance. it's not like wolterstorf having people read 'death of a son' or kelly clark having people read his bullshit and teaching it like the gospel. miraculously, my contracts book is imbued with a sense of humor. it's a nice change of pace. not only that, but the cases i've had are quite interesting. the first one i dealt with involved someone being held responsible (responcable?) for a deal they made when they claimed they were drunk. the implications are dire for someone like this girl and her mother's soul and brother's girlfriend's virginity. the case also included the phrase "high as a georgia pine". i'll have to remember that one. the other one in that book had to do with this ad that i remember in disturbing detail. anyone else recall the pepsi points promotion? there was this ad where it showed all this shit and listed the available items and requisite pepsi points. the idea was all these high school students lives became much cooler via pepsi gear (craved by those of the "pepsi generation"). at the very end the coolest kid flies in a harrier jet to school, and in keeping with the rest of the ad it says 'harrier jet - 7 000 000 pepsi points'. so of course some asshole tried to amass enough points to get said jet. one would have to consume more than 100 pepsis a day for like 100 years to get the points straight up, but there was an option to purchase pepsi points for 10 cents a piece. so of course this douche tried to buy a harrier jet for 700k and 15 pepsi points. of course, the court held that the advertisement did not constitute a legitimate agreement and the 23 million dollar fighter jet couldn't be purchased with pepsi points, and the jackass trying to buy it was not entitled to judgment by a jury of his 'pepsi generation peers'. summary judgment granted to defendant.
some other good news about law school is that the 'not on the rug, man' sticker on my laptop has received widespread recognition and some good quote bantering. a couple of folks have gone so far as to ascribe me dude status, which is a little generous on their behalf. although one guy noted that 'law school is verrrry un-dude'. i guess he is right. but he's a really cool guy himself, turns out motherfucker went to GVSU! Neither one of us could believe there was another gun rue representative out here. He's big on good beers (and once heckled insane theater at founders! those fuckin douches!) and the derb (big surprise, no silver derby website to link to - that'll be the fuckin day). he also worked in the jenison (baby baby ain't no zen, back in jenison) 7-11, which i got a good laugh out of, having consumed innumerable slurpees and cigars while a youngster from said establishment.
so presently i can here my sister's man making use of their newly purchased neti pot and it has been of disputed effectiveness, as is typical. i'm personally not sold on all that, but i would be interested in hearing anyone else's experiences. and yes, i've seen the video that the married to the sea/toothpase for dinner people did. if you haven't, check it out. it's actually fairly funny, unlike most of those vids. at least the comic is still pretty good. hit and miss with the 60's lookin stuff these days, i really prefer the 19th century type engravings they used to rely on. but i guess material runs thin after a while.
yesterday was indeed cheesesteak day, and it was crazy delicious. i ordered one with everything on it for the price, and it was pretty minimal, but no complaints. the lunch truck came recommended from a native, and it did not disappoint. first one i had with ketchup. good addition, really. more later, but time for sleep now. big ups to all those beyonnnnnnnnd the rio grandiooooooooooooo

don't you touch hard liquor, just a cup of cold coffee

gotta get up in the morning and go. to class that is. things get rolling at like 845 so i hope to leave here by like 8ish, should be about a 25 minute commute. my concern is the the transfer from the trolley to the subway. there is a veritable labyrinth of public transport beneath city hall complete with the requisite heat and reek of piss (i challenge someone to find me a piss-free subway station anywhere in the world). it can't be that tricky though, can it? i'm thinking not so much, just like law school in general, lots of people do this all the time. they also get up at reasonable hours in the morning which i still have to accept as reasonable, however. sleeping til noon today probably won't help me go to bed and get a good night's rest or anything but that's just how i roll.
sleeping til noon today came about as a product of yesterday for the most part. dear readers, you missed nothing in my non-post from yesterday. all i know is that i was drunk and having trouble logging into the blog (more on that later) and my intent was to post the lyrics to motley crue's 'kick start my heart' (we'll limit it to
When we started this band
All we needed, needed was a laugh
Years gone by...i'd say we've kicked some ass
(fuck you!)
When i'm enraged
Or hittin' the stage
Adrenalin rushing
Through my veins
And i'd say we're still kickin' all that mother fuckin' ass
(fuck you!))
. i'm not sure why that was, but i know that it was. i've always wondered exactly what the words are at that part, or perhaps it had something to do with the metal stuff on tv. saw some heaven and hell, the project with ronnie james dio, geezer butler and tony iommi (and some random dude on drums). they've still got it, but i wanna know how dio makes it look like he's not 5'4". i was proud of myself for calling that there was definitely some keyboard work going on despite the lack of a keyboardist on the stage. credits confirmed this. as ozzy once referred to his keyboardist: "the man you never see, but he's always there". i guess it's just not metal to have a keyboard player on your stage. not that there aren't exceptions, but that seems to be a theme.
so i just had to reset my alarm clock after plugging it back in, and it was actually really close to midnight, the automatic reset time. nice when the little things fall into place. now for the big thing to work itself out, a place to stay. i'm sure tomorrow a perfect apartment will walk up to me and ask me to rent it. if not, it's back to the persistent craigslist watch. the availability for practical places is pretty concentrated in the university city/west philly area where i am currently staying with my sister. i really like the neighborhood, so we'll see how that commute treats me. i actually ran into a former temple law student while walking around yesterday and had a nice conversation with him in which he noted the commute was totally tolerable from the area. but that's just like, his opinion, man. i'll see soon enough. he told me to live by the art museum, which is of course what i've wanted to do all along; just tough to find a place there both in the price range and not prejudiced against my pretty kitties. those people are probably jealous of the cats' good looks.
tonight was quizzo night for my sister and her people; i went and had a good time. quizzo, for those of you deprived of the experience, is a team trivia bar activity where tables of people get together to play as a team. a dj sort of guy reads off questions and people confer and write their answer down. it goes in rounds of like 7 questions or so covering a lot of different categories. there is also some wheel spinning, bonus question kinda stuff, and some other fun aspects. the best part is that all the competition is in the name of free goods from host bar, most notably beer. this particular place also offers chickens of wine, which i believe are only five dollars during quizzo, and pitchers of yuengling definitely are. these wine chickens are just what they sound like: ceramic chicken carafe-like structures. the crest goes up high to cover the large upper opening, and the wine pours from the chicken's beak. something like this, but even sillier, a little taller and slimmer and cheesier. anyway, it went alright, we didn't win this time (we did last time i played), and only the the stella tap was working so no $5 pitchers of yuengling, but it was still fun. one round is just identifying like 15 pictures of various persons, and this asshole showed up tonight. if current trends continue the phillies stand as good of a chance as the tigers do for the playoffs. even so, it's still tigers for me. AL ball is better, just ask chuck.
just typing 'philly' right now has me thinking cheesesteak, which i have not have since officially moving here. maybe tomorrow will be the day. i passed up purchasing some cheesesteak flavored kettle cooked potato chips today. but their time will come, i'm too curious not to check that out. how bad could they be? they're probably delicious. maybe i should check with this guy. big fan of that one. this food talk is too much, i need to go to bed anyway or i'll eat a bunch of stuff. i have these spicy pistachios... no. goodnight.

who wants to go to d's diner?

i do!! they totally serve their franks on gormet buns. not your average ma and pa for sure. les claypool said it best when he introduced bob wier as eddie van halen. interesting note for anyone who knows who the hell jeff chimenti is: dude totally had his start (with jay lane, ratdog's drummer) with the first-ever lineup of primus. had a case for today that tangentially involved a diner. this guy had his friend start his (the original guy's) car on fire behind a diner. a couple of dudes tried to put it out and the other guys got in a fight with them. the guy who set the car on fire had it repoed a few days earlier and had gotten it back and immediately fell behind in his payments once again. this guy said he wasn't paying because he felt the dealership owed him a second set of hubcaps, and that the other guys set his car on fire and fought him while he was trying to put it out. the jury was not persuaded. there was more to it, but that was really the part i found interesting. that and the fact that the case constantly referred to the diner, which was entirely incidental.
more class today including a lengthy discussion on car burning dude whose appeal on arson and conspiracy to commit arson was denied. whoa, lost a couple hours there. tonight was good, i have a friend here now, which is very comforting. finally
and that is where my post left off when i was trying to write it last night. good news for all my fans out there in the six one six: i am still the pass-out king. i really wished i had had a camera over the last couple of days so you could see the construction preventing me from leaving the law school the other day, or the apartment i have already moved out of, or maybe the wonderful neighborhood around the apartment. and so many other things.
so what i think i was trying to convey about yesterday is that there was a reception and oath ceremony at the national constitution center. it's like the disneyland of the constitution, which given its limited subject material is somewhat smaller but it had its good points. they let us check out the place for a couple hours before the ceremony, and there was some fun interactive stuff like a stand you could go up to and be sworn in as president with like tv feeds showing you in front of all the other political folks alongside the stand, like the broadcast is when that happens. lots of historical stuff, really good focus on issues that you don't hear enough about in high schools like mine like civil rights and labor issues. i was disappointed to see that the national disaster known as prohibition relegated to a couple of items and a small blurb in a nook between two big glass display cases. the funny thing was in all those nooks there was audio you could only hear if you were standing there so i got to hear a temperance song which was a takeoff on "onward christian soldiers". the "freedom rising" dramatic exhibition which we saw at the beginning was super slick and well put together if a little over the top. the theater it was in was called the richard and helen devos theater, which felt like a real taste of home with that name slapped on something.
the ceremony type thing itself was alright, especially owing to the free beer and hot wings. that's right folks, it happened to me. free beer and hot wings. that morning show like all others may continue to suck, but its laudable namesake was gloriously manifested in my life. it was an odd event to be serving wings at, but they were delicious. funny to see all these super dressed up young people try and eat an ultra messy food while standing up with one free hand. but back to the beer. not only was it free, but they had yard's pale ale (which was actually interesting and unique, something i can't usually say for pales. will have to stop in at their place not to far from school) and victory hopdevil, which is readily available back home but just seems even better this close to the brewery. we had a temple law grad who has been a federal judge for like 40 years or something speak and he was really good, shame i can't recollect his name at the moment. all in all, it was an alright thing to do for an evening.
but then it got even better. like i was trying to type last night i believe, i have at least one person i've met who i wouldn't hesitate to refer to as a friend as opposed to an acquaintance. definitely on the same page as i am with a lot of stuff. she and i went down to nodding head brewery in center city rather than go with everyone else to some fancy expensive bullshit in old city, and i must say they have some pretty damn fine and moreover unique brews for a place that doesn't bottle. i had a berliner weiss (good luck finding one of those in gun rue) and a single hop double ipa. apparently i blew it by not moving out here sooner because its the fifth one in a series, they're just going through the big delicious hops and using only one type per batch, this one was brewer's gold and it rocked my socks. i tried a little of her "monkey knife fight" which is like a blonde flavored with lemongrass and ginger. i was a little wary given how far a little ginger can go but it really seemed like the lemongrass got a front seat. totally delicious and refreshing.
all of those good times were necessary to balance out today. not that today was bad, but not quite as much fun and a lot more had to happen. i was going to move on saturday, but when i went home from school on thursday, there were signs on every damn light post proclaiming that the street would be closed from 830 am to 830 pm on saturday august 25, aka the day i was going to move. so we did it today, which was a hassle, but much more so for my sister and the mason, once again much is owed to them. poor ben was sick too, so he really went above and beyond. but i'm getting ahead of myself.
the day begins with me waking up a little hung over and heading straight to lexis and westlaw training. it wasn't so much training (sort of because i wasn't paying attention) as it was a demonstration of some of the really sweet things both databases can do if you know what you're doing and aren't as intuitive as the basics and a time to hand out emblazoned goods. i got a coffee mug, and a laptop bag, and some books, and some handy guides, and all sorts of good shit. the thing that surprised me was that neither one of the reps tried too hard to promote their product at the other's expense. both seem to have a couple of small advantages. after doing research the old fashioned way with those books in the library i really grasp the enormity of what lexis and westlaw do. it is pretty freakin unbelievable. i could feel my life improve as my registration took effect.
then we had a seminar on the book we all had to read on gideon v wainwright, the case granting impoverished defendants the right to counsel. it's a great story and an important precedent, but it turned out i probably didn't need to listen to some of my fellow students ramble on about it. really wasn't that helpful. there were three profs working the thing, and they were all awesome, but it was kind of intimidating. the ones who spent the most time in the courtroom are sharper than razors; they hear something, make an accepting response and then fire back a question that totally reveals the shortcomings of the previous statement while at the same time illuminating a better path. amazing to listen to, really. but better in other contexts.
they gave us lunch which was nice, and i had to go straight home to get everything i had ever unpacked repacked in anticipation of my sister getting there with the uhaul. got everything together and packed into the truck including the kitties, who were really pretty well behaved. made it to her place and hauled most of my shit up to the third floor. fortunately for the actual residents of this apartment, a fellow student of my sister's generously offered to let me keep some shit in her basement. only problem was after we got everything out of the moving truck and onto the porch, the key to the apartment didn't work and this person was in another state. after some finagling and a phone call my sister got the door open and so all ended well, for now at least. i'm glad to have this fallback that got me out of the hood, but i really can't wait to get my own place together and get everything set up. i just feel like i can't hit my stride until that happens; its like i have no base of operations. but i'm getting by for now. a couple of good apartment leads to call on tomorrow. until then, you should probably get some rest too if you've read all this.

child of the city

professor on the toadstool convene your class... things haven't gotten that surreal just yet, but at times they seemed about as cryptic. the good news is this was only before my goodhearted legal research and writing prof photocopied the majority of the book the bookstore STILL doesn't have for me and few others. mostly i'm still trying to convince myself that this is totally doable. and in all honesty i know that must be the case given the host of people who do it every year.
got my first crack at the library today. at first it was really intimidating but once again the stuff from that book made a world of difference. as it turns out, law libraries are fuckin sweet. they have the most logical organization i have ever seen for so much information. the subtleties are few and far between: this huge ass bookcase is taken up by this long series of the same shit which is super navigable with these couple of handy-dandy index volumes. as always the stacks will be another story. i really like that they're referred to almost universally as 'the stacks'. it just sounds industrial, depressing, and odorous, which is precisely the case. oooo, gunshot in the distance. looking forward to that move. i can't say enough about the guy i was going to be renting from, he's been really understanding and helpful. ditto for my sis (and her man). thinking about moving into her neighborhood in university city/west philly, going to try and gauge the commute while i'm holed up at her place. all i know is that i dig her area in many respects on its own and it is reasonably convenient to the host of amazing things center city philly has to offer.
i would like to take an opportunity to send a shout out to the wolf. right now i'm listening to jgb play van morrison's 'and it stoned me'. last time i heard this song with wolf he inquired whether or not this was a traditional song. ik houd van jou wolf. je weet het erg wel. i miss you and gino's. deliver the pie AND the fuckin kidney. good luck haulin' items for the mob, hope those boys can be more copacetic. so i tried spelling that word three times and it rejected all three. so i resorted to another lyrical search for spelling, which yielded one of the ones that didn't work. i figured, of course those fuckin deadheads got it wrong. so i checked the merriam-webster website, and that listed all three i had tried as main and variants. fuck a spell check. should have had more faith in the deadheads. i typed it again just to make sure the spell check didn't mark it. maybe spellcheck is ok after all; it lets 'deadhead' slide and objects to both 'ok' and 'spellcheck' when it's one word. i've discovered that my irrational obsession with linguistic nuances and general wordsmithery (see, i made it up and played it off just like that) will serve me well in law school and what lies beyond. the whole thing is like a giant policy debate topicality argument. dig it.
speaking of what lies beyond, the obligatory student organizations fair was today. it was in a too small a room which was consequently uncomfortably crowded and hot as hell. the interesting thing was the two options for people working the various booths: silent and smiling or smiling and selling. the funny thing was that the demeanor usually comported with the organization. and then there were some that probably didn't feel like wasting their time on me for obvious reasons, i.e. SALSA (south asian law student association... now seriously, what's with the acronym?). i was curious if the beard would prompt any inquiry from the muslim group. not so much. i mostly wondered after stories from fileta (no idea on that spelling, can't think of any published songs with lyrics about him... where's that six time losers archive?) about inquiries into his beard. then again he sort of has that egyptian thing going on. anyway, i got a t-shirt that won't fit unless i go back to the peanut butter sandwich a day diet, a flimsy folder, and a very interesting 'disorientation handbook' from the national lawyers guild. to quote the biggest douche i've met at school so far 'corporate practice is unfulfilling? the iraq war is illegal? these nlg folks sound like a bunch of BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS! does any one want this? because it's going in the trash'. and then he threw it into the trash next to the recycle bin for paper. that kind of says it all. the good news is that this guy sticks out like he never could have at my high school. definitely (HAH! spelled it right!) the exception and not the rule. enough of all that. bedtime...

i had to move

REALLY had to move. sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. the neighborhood just isn't gonna cut it. so i'm gonna cut the neighborhood from my team. they're all on your team now, that's right, you. enjoy. so is charity. in fact, if facebook had a team-assigning function i'd totally join. one person on anyone's team... the good ones would be long gone.
class is ok. didn't kill me at any rate, and i'll go again in the all-to-near morning time. hit and miss with the two profs so far it seems, not naming names, but they're about polar opposites it seems. the workload is bearable this far. met some dude from grand valley of all places, really cracked us both up. nice to have someone who knows the home front other than my fantastic sister who is really being awesome on the really had to move issue, in fact it couldn't have happened without her for a bunch of reasons and i really owe her one. and that's cool. makes me feel somewhat better about choosing philly because she was a definite factor (still spelled definite wrong the first time, definately first time). also she took me to dinner at a totally badass place tonight.
missing people back home is starting for me, which is not a shock nor totally unwelcome. let's me know that people were worth the time i spent with them, not that there was any doubt. just good to know i wasn't really wasting my time before now. it's just that now i get loans to go to school instead of work, and that's cool.
so now as much as law school is intimidating, crazy, etc. i really need to find a new place. we'll see how all that goes, got a feeler out on a super cool place in south philly. if the north sucks, the south should be the opposite, right? naw, it's pretty straight down there for sure i hear. close to some other law schoolers as well... man, i'm so tired i don't have anything worth writing and i already had to fix a spelling error on like every one of the last dozen words. but tria rocks, know that. beer + cheese = wisconson, but classy-like. mmmmm.

run for the roses

at least it's not a rat race. but i hope it isn't really a horse race. hopefully something more along these lines. all good things in all good time. definitely seems like it will be a long haul. however, the quote of the day from all lengthy orientation proceedings was "law school isn't sadistic anymore". and i honestly believe that is the case. our culture has entered an age where such conduct wouldn't be tolerated. no, the people who inflict pain on law students like so many others in this world are all of us ourselves. rather than contend with an obvious adversary we navigate ourselves through the resultant mixed signals, innuendo, hypocrisy, guilt trips and other manipulations as best we can until we become so anxious the paranoia eventually takes over and we cannot be certain of anything. so law school isn't so much sadistic as it is masochistic these days. i wonder what foucault has to say here. or zizek. and no, i'm not going to figure out how to get his letter things right either. wouldn't be fair after yesterday's post.
confession: the second sentence of this post contains the arch-nemesis of my spelling ability, "definitely". i still can't believe there's no a in that shit. ridiculous. i hereby declare "definately" the proper spelling, and you linguistic fascists had better not tell me i can't do it. here's the real problem with that word: the spelling i used above and always seem to use is so far off that the spellcheck won't even suggest it. i wasn't sure if i would be able to dig it up on a dictionary web site browsing or not, and my internet connection is still sort of touch and go, so i came up with a quick two page solution: googling lyrics for steve miller's "jungle love". it totally worked. just like the three colons that somehow made it into this paragraph.
wanna know what doesn't work? my damn neighborhood. let's just say the location is less than ideal in some respects and some of the itinerant concerns have manifested themselves. actually, let's not just say that. let's be specific. my walk to school this morning included at least a half dozen passed out homeless people. nothing against the homeless, they have it rough enough, but it says something about the area. like the corner store not even having fucking camels. i'm pretty sure they don't even have yuengling. they might, but i must have missed it through the somewhat opaque two inch bulletproof glass separating all merchandise from the narrow viewing area. i was awoken by a whole lot of shouting prominently featuring that old classic "MUTHAFUCKA" and some ruckus in the middle of the night last night. and the walk just is not as short as i thought it was. overall, i would say that security is somewhat of a concern, as is viable entertainment. which presents a rather difficult situation. the logistics of somehow moving are intimidating but not insurmountable. kind of like law school. except that law school thing was sort of supposed to be my immediate insurmountable issue for a while (we all need one to keep going.) such is life.
life living like a fucking refugee still, tom. guffaw that man. and such a lifestyle has limited my music to my computer which has me finally listening to all those longass shows i torrented. some good stuff in there, getting me by for now, but i have a serious vinyl jones going on. *labels post with "scooters vacation"* maybe i'll get hits from people looking for segway tours? we saw one of those going on the other day and damn it looked funny. kinda like this. well, it's more adventures in the brave new world of legal study for me tomorrow, but with only real class and no preliminary stuff. should be alright. but it will be better if i get some sleep.

it's on senor...

i wasn't about to figure out how to get the tilde over the n. and now it's doing something odd with the fonts and i am not going to bother with that either. well, here i am, with something to write about again i guess. law school orientation starts tomorrow, and for some reason i totally feel like high school starts tomorrow, like a nervous child. but how bad can it be, really? as long is there is no around-the-room name/origin/"something interesting about yourself" rigmarole. as you may have inferred from the quotation marks, it's that third one i really take exception to. what they really mean is "please say something very lame and awkward on the spur of the moment that people can use to make a snap judgment about you, confirming any assumptions anyone may already have". maybe i just take it too seriously. i just don't feel like i have that one go-to thing so many people do. "my brother is an olympic swimmer" "i almost died this one time" "i juggle live weasels" (on a side note my impending departure from gun rue left me without time to attend an experimental juggling exhibition with some of the world's most innovative artists in such arenas which was heavily promoted to me by a major fan at kendall). but really, i've got the orientation week schedule, and it looks alright. they get us started with just two classes right away, which seems like a good idea.
but i guess we'll see how all that goes when it does, no sense in speculating anymore now. the prosecution intends to prove that i am a reasonably capable and intelligent individual who can manage this ordeal. in blog news, they made me sign up for a google account, but nothing is different except the way i log in. i'm sure most of you went through this months ago, but it still strikes me as really strange. on the other hand you probably all already had google accounts like real people do. i'll make it there someday, i swear. also, this little bar below my typing space is new. it encourages people to include "labels for this post, e.g. scooters, vacation, fall". so i think i am going to label every post from now on. and the labels will be one or more of those three in some arrangement every time. however, i will make sure to avoid writing about scooters, vacation or fall, the act thereof, the season, or the biblical notion. i am curious if using those labels would dramatically increase traffic, and if so, how many people would be frustrated versus intrigued that the labels they seek to find kindred spirits yield such dissonant results. as is obvious, i am also now attempting to blog again. supposed to have some wireless internet business. and i do, pretty much. but it doesn't work quite as well as the free ones back in g-r-usalem. it will get better when i receive my (cue angelic choir) wiiiiireless modem, wireless modem, wiiiiirellessss modemmmmm. you know, like the hallelujah chorus. yeah. if i knew how to blog right i would link up that
so i have all my shit in my apartment and all that, but i am not really moved in as such. see, my apartment is completely remodeled brand new and a couple of things are getting finished next week, most notably, the carpet will be installed. this means i cannot set up anything in my meager living space that i could not on short notice completely shove into the even more minuscule kitchen area. so while that aspect is frustrating and has me living sort of living like a refugee (sorry tom petty, i really kind of do, for like a couple days, and no, it's not because i was tied up taken away and held for ransom, despite that being the obvious choice. that's just how it is tom.) honestly though the new apartment thing is nice, and certainly a novel experience to me with all my experience with what could be affectionately (and accurately) described as lived-in spaces. bonuses like a small washer/dryer unit in my own little studio are much welcome. more on all this good stuff later, but the hour is getting late and i have something to get up and do in the morning all of a sudden.