One month in

I've got one month of law school under my belt. There is a lot to report, but there's also so little.

Constitutional Law
Prof's ties are ridiculously short. He likes to call on me when I blink my eyes hard, trying to align my contacts, which are typically a little off kilter in the morning.

Torts
Prof's ties are inappropriately long. He likes to call on me when I itch my nose.
Classmate immediately to my left is overeager, throwing her hand in the air at every opportunity. She sighs with disgust when other classmates arguments are not up to her exacting standards. She desecrates her books with a grotesque rainbow highlighting method that I don't quite understand. I am nice to her because I am scared of her.

Contracts
Prof is writing the textbook as we go. She likes to call on me when I accidentally make eye contact with her.

Civil Procedure
Prof is a cute schoolmarm type. She likes to thank me for my nods of agreement. I do not nod in agreement; rather, classmate immediately to my right bounces his leg so much that he makes our connected chairs bounce, which makes it look like I'm giving my professor silent nods of approval.

Legal Writing
Instructor duo consists of one area attorney and one 3L. They are nice. It is a Pass/Fail class. Brother instructed me to do "P" work, not "A" work. Wish he'd given me that tip before I spent 8 hours on a memo assignment. Lesson learned.

Job Status
I am technically scheduled 20 hours a week with my employer. I do these "20 hours" from home in 14 hours. Recently, some asshole from another team threatened a class action suit against my employer, which ultimately ended up in everyone on my team getting a demotion from an annual salary to an hourly-wage. My boss says, "You'll need to log 20 hours a week now. Your goals won't change." I say, "Do you want me to work slower or do you want me to lie?" He says, "I trust you'll make the right decision for the business."

Time Management
I am learning how to manage my time to get all the reading in and log my work hours. It's difficult. I don't breathe much. If I go out or spend time with friends, I fall behind. I'm making it work.

Stress Management
Emotions are hibernating. I cried it out this weekend. I'll probably schedule a once-a-month cry-out. I may hire someone to punch me in the face for this purpose.

Extracurricular
I auditioned for the law school musical last night. In a tutu.

In at the U!

I got in at Minnesota. Now I'm having a difficult time deciding between U Minnesota and St Thomas.

U Minnesota: $20,000/yr tuition; ranked 20ish; competitive environment; excellent post-graduate opportunity

St Thomas: $5,000/yr tuition; not ranked; nurturing environment; indeterminate post-graduate opportunity

St Thomas Scholarship

My $75,000 scholarship might sway me into considering St Thomas over U of M. $90,000 (full tuition) would make it a very difficult decision.

Application at the U is still "In Review."

Hurry up and wait!!!

My letters of reference were completed January 8, 2008. I applied on January 11. That seems like a lifetime ago.

On January 30, St Thomas moved my application "into review." University of Minnesota is still "processing" my application, which apparently is the wrinkle in time between application and when adcomm bothers throwing me into a pile based on my index score.

I'm pretty confident I will get a $90,000 scholarship at St Thomas. The U will likely throw a few pennies my way, but I'm not getting my hopes up there.

I scoped out places to live near the U this weekend and picked out my favorite. It's a late 1800s house with two very nice sisters, a guy who is reputed to be an excellent dresser, and myself. The house is located 0.5 miles from the law school, but is in the heart of the undergraduate college community (or as I prefer to describe it "two blocks from the Library," a student watering hole.) The house is situated among some sororities and is really quite charming. Now all I need is for the U to let me in so I can sign a lease!