it's midnight and i have fourty (or is it 'forty'?) pages to read for my 9 o'clock tomorrow, not to mention my1130 or 2 o'clock. but i had a lovely, laughy night, so i'll take a little less sleep.

i got to talk on the phone with so many of my faves from rochester (AND BEYOND!) tonight as well as just had an all-around good day/night with people in this lovely city. And now, because weather.com says it's so, I want to stay up late to witness my first high-rise-apartment-thunderstorm.
speaking of thunderstorms, i'd say my number-five memory from this summer is also my last.

...Jill came over and we shared a (first of two) bottle of wine. it was a delicious zinfindel whose smokey, rich flavors went quite well with our cherry-flavored camels (because we're poor and nicotine is both cheaper and more user-friendly than complicated food pairings of braised duck and brie). But then, realizing we were hungry from a day of smoking and drinking wine and not eating much else, we went and got the only thing that goes better with good wine than cigarettes -- ranch-flavored pringles. we rode our bikes to walgreens, and it had been one of those ethereal, the-sky-is-going-to-break-open nights, picked up the spoils of our labor, and then started the trek home. By the time we had gotten to the first stoplight, the sky did, in fact, break open and it POURED. The wind was so strong and the rain was blowing sideways and we quickly became soaked, to our drunken core. We had switched all the way to our granny gear in a vain attempt to combat the wind and then realized we could barely see because the rain was stinging our eyes. But we ventured on, and spent the whole ride home, soaked, blind, slowly moving down the street shrieking and laughing louder than i had in a good, long, while.
When we got home, we had to change out of our clothes (no, this is not where the story turns into a porn movie, sorry CoCo, I know you'd love it) and since all my normal, not-nerd clothes were packed away for the seven-hours-from-now trip to NYC, we ended up spending the rest of the night sporting oversized swim team warmups from my freshman/sophomore year swim season, barefoot and still, somehow, soaking wet in my living room, drinking (now snazzy merlot!) and eating ranch pringles. It was classic.

And it was worth spending the next 13 hours of a car ride next to my little brother with the WORST HANGOVER KNOWN TO MANKIND.

so, maybe this thunderstorm tonight can't compare. but either anticipation, or crummy torts reading, will keep me up enough at least long enough to make that soon-to-be-obvious assertion.

when i woke up this morning, i said to myself, "I want to see an octopus kill a shark".

three short points.

*dude, i love this city.
long-story short, roommate & i went out last night and randomly met the most fun people & had an awesome time. and spent three dollars total, including a there-and-back cab to east village. high-five.

*this has got to be the funniest website i've seen in a long time.

*officially, two new bands/musicmakers i just started to listening to...
1. kimya dawson
2. belle & sebastian (courtesy of marie)

HAHAHA that was one big long run-on sentence.

tonight was so fun. i hung out with jacqueline, from rochester, and it was SO NICE. we had a fabo time. we hung out with three other guys who went to every law school in NYC (fordham, brooklyn, cornell, nyu & columbia were all represented in STYLE). there was an associate from a big, fancy law firm in NYC there and the entire night I was like "so, tell me MORE about fancy pants law firm."
and then i made it home alive. i walked a full 20 blocks alone and DIDN"T GET MURDERED. although some dude stopped me near the time warner center and was like "you look just like the girl from napolean dynamite" and then we talked about napolean dynamite for a while and then i was like "um, this was great and all, but i need to get home." and, apparently, no one smiles in NYC becuase on the way home three people stopped me and were like "damn, you have a nice smile." i refuse to let up on my chicago demeanor. Fine, if law school corrupts me and makes me realize that, no, I CAN NOT make a living being a civil liberties lawyer and I will therefore sell my sould to the corporate law devil, but I WILL NOT become a token jaded and angrypants new yorker. damn straight midwest.

man. today was fab-o. since i finally got the book for legal process i was able to actually be prepared for class (gasp). which made it so much easier. and so much more interesting. i participated and everything. but enough of baby law school, i want real law school to start. i remember when i took con law in undergrad and literally couldn't wait until i would get to class because it was so interesting and then, while in class, i couldn't wait to get out to do the next day's reading. even though i'm not taking con law 'til next semester, i feel a smidgem of the same feeling with these baby contracts/torts cases, which is a GOOD THING. but i want big kid law school to start NOW.

So, we had more pretend law school today and it went, actually, a lot better. Met some cool people with whom, finally, I could have a conversation beyond the scope of where they went to college/grew up and what section they were in. So, maybe as Sara made abundantly clear last night, 24 hours does not a social circle make, unless you lived on Hoeing 2 freshman year (note to remind self: did not actually have a conversation with Sara until WELL into first semester). Therefore, hope is not lost into becoming a anti-social hermit.
I skipped a seminar on Legal Ethics today. And, no, I didn't do it just because I saw the immense irony in it or because I thumb my nose at ethics. I needed to get a book for class (had been reading roommate's boook and, let's be honest, no one likes a mooch) and my F-ham ID, so that I can actually come and go in the law school as I please. With newfound freedom, I realized that (because it was a royal pain in the ass to get in and out of the building, and classes and room is connected by a tunnel, so i just stayed inside the last 24 hours) I needed to be outside like NO ONE's buisness. A little sunshine and fresh air did me more good (I think) than three hours in a classroom could have. I feel infinitely more grounded, happy and sane.
class is going well, I'm actually REALLY getting into my reading. I forgot how much I just really like law stuff. True, baby constitutional, criminal and first amendment college classes are no indication of law school (and neither is baby law school class we're taking right now), but, overall, there's something to be said about good, logical arguments. AND it's just so cool to look back at everything in your life with a different pair (read: law school-shaped) glasses on.
so, now back to drinking cold coffee and reading about how Dick Hunt screwed over 10 Gold this last semester and if ONLY i had been a lawyer at the time (becuase, clearly, I am a lawyer now) we could have at least gotten a little prorated rent back :)

oh dear. i've begun. for the longest time i've been reading other people's blogs, first angrily, hating on them for "selling out" to "the man" that is "blogspot." then i realized that yee olde blog is far more informative that away messages; cough, cough, 'i'm away from my computer.'" so, since everyone else is doing it ---
splash!

Alright. now what?

well, I went with Jill to the tatoo parlor yesterday where she got the long-awaited flame on her heart. I felt so naked there because everyone (including, after 20 minutes, Jill) had all this ink on them and I'm like "um, i had a nose ring for two years! does that count?" But, no, I did not get a penguin on my hip (which would be my tatoo of choice, if I had to get one) in some sort of peer pressure-induced haze. I came home and my mom was all spouting conspiracy theories about diseases in the tatoo ink and this and that. which i love, and i will miss, when i am in the NYC...

the day after tomorrow!!!!

And, about two months after that, I get to hit up Rochester for a little Meliora Weekend action. For all non-Rochestarians, it's essentially an alumni weekend and parents weekend all rolled into one fancy drunk package. Last year, Mel Weekened was capped off by chain smoking with J. Smith in the back room of pearl, her complaining about law school. attention law school-bound members of the delta gee: one of you damn well better pick up smoking so we can make it a yearly tradition, a la 'willing down.'