Finding my groove

Law school isn't feeling so novel anymore. That's a nice feeling. Instead of waking up curious about how the day will go, I feel like I'm falling into a routine. Packing in four hours of studying on a Monday afternoon doesn't seem out of place. Running back to my apartment in between a morning Torts class and afternoon Contracts class for a quick nap and a bite of lunch doesn't feel hurried, it's a nice little break. Things are feeling smooth. That makes me happy.

In light of all that, I definitely had my "Welcome To Law School" moment today. In Contracts I raised my hand to answer a question about the Supreme Court which I thought would be a really brief, 20 word answer and the professor would move on. Not the case. Instead, McCoy grilled me for the next six or eight minutes on why the Supreme Court best fits the American Constitutional system, forcing me to call up all kinds of legal and historical reasoning to defend an answer I knew was correct. Unbeknownst to me, during my interrogation, 9:00 had passed and the rest of the class was ready to go. I'm busy digging for answers when the professor says, "You'd better get to it quickly, the rest of the class is ready to go, we're on their dime now," or something to that effect. My response was to stand up, close the lid of my laptop and tell the professor I was ready to go, also. It was a pretty comical moment but he didn't let me off the hook that easily. In a minute or two, someone else bailed me out and the class got to leave maybe four minutes late. But I held my own for about seven of the eight minutes. It was nerve-racking and challenging. I was getting nervous. But in some weird, twisted way, it was pretty fun...

Round two...

After officially surviving the first weekend of law school, it's back to the grind. I wasn't nearly as productive as I should have been over the weekend. I think that probably is due to the fact that during undergrad there were maybe five weekends in total when I felt the need to be productive. Here I am in law school and I felt that need the very first weekend. It's a strange mindset, folks...

The bad news for this week (and for last week for that matter) is that on Friday ALL FOUR of my classes are meeting. The good news is that they're meeting because Torts was cancelled today and again tomorrow (so these Fridays are the makeup days). That means I've been pretty productive for most of the afternoon, reading thrilling stuff from Constitutional Law and Torts. In a minute it's on to Contracts. I like this one-class-a-day thing.

So tonight it's a little bit of poker with the boys and then off to Flying Saucer to try to tack a few more brews onto my list from the U.F.O. Club (read this blog entry if you don't know what I'm talking about). Should be a nice reward for some hard work. Maybe I'll make some money at poker and drink for free. I like the sound of that...

One down, thirteen to go

Well, I've officially finished my first week of law school. For those of you keeping score at home, it's hard as all get out but fascinating. I'm having to make my mind work in ways it never has before just to keep up. The hours are long but the work is very fulfilling. The professors are doing a great job of making the course material feel relevant and applicable. And since yesterday wrapped up week one, there was definite need for celebration...

Things got kicked off with the Blackacre at the law school yesterday afternoon. Blackacre is code for "weekly keg at the law school with catered food." Yeah, they get us kegs every Friday afternoon. And yesterday wasn't just any Blackacre. It was the Fantasy Football Draft Blackacre. I started up a league with 12 of us 1L's and we had draft central over at the law school. Beer, fried chicken and football is a good combination. Things went pretty well for me... I'm not crazy about my wide receivers but I'm feeling really good about Edgerrin James, Carson Palmer and the New York Football Giants defense.

From the Blackacre a group of about ten of us went to dinner at a great place called Cabana. Fancy stuff. Like had to have reservations fancy stuff. Tasty stuff too. They have booths that have curtains on them so you can close them off and have your own private spot. A really cool concept for a restaurant.

So after we wrapped up dinner, all of us headed over to The Stage, the most packed and rowdy Honky Tonk you can imagine. I mean, we went all out. And had a BLAST. The musicians in the band were all incredible and they played every song just like the record. I may not go for slick Nashville country when I'm listening to music at the house (give me Waylon Jennings any day), live and in person, out on the dance floor that junk is fuuun. You know you had a good night when one of your friends is dancing onstage with the band for the last song of the night.

The only logical conclusion for a night like that is an early morning pool party. So we did. If the guy living on the first floor right next to the pool is reading this, sorry we woke you up, you were really cool about asking us to quiet down nicely. Thanks, man. You didn't cramp our style at all. We kept on rocking like champs. Swimming pools at 4 a.m. are cool.

What a week. What a night. I think I'm gonna like law school.

Wow

Long story short - law school is hard as crap and I love it.

I've done more work in the first two-and-a-half days of class as I did in entire semesters of undergrad. The going rate right now is about ten pages of reading per hour. If you can hit that mark, you're doing well. One of my classes is assigning 25 pages of material per class period. You do the math. Add time spent briefing cases, reviewing class notes and procrastinating on Facebook and you're easily looking at four to five hours of work per class for that one course. And I've got four of 'em.

That said, this stuff is incredible. Everything is interesting so far and I've never been around people so intelligent. I find myself constantly saying to myself, "Wow, why didn't I think of that?" All of the thinking is abstract. It's not like there are concrete rules or there are formulas for finding out the answers to these problems. It's about making your mind work in bizarre and creative ways to get the maximum results. And I really like that challenge.

I'm gonna sign off now because I literally have hours of reading ahead of me. But that's okay. Because I like it. Call me a masochist, but this stuff is pretty cool.

Oh, and for what it's worth, this semester my classes are: Torts, Legal Writing, Constitutional Law and Contracts.

Everybody's working for the weekend

It's been a very collegiate, Nashville-y weekend for me. A great mix of all kinds of stuff. Played some poker, music, golf and beer pong (in that order). Slacked off on reading for the first day of class that should be done by now (instead I'm blogging). The parents came through town for a quick dinner (they were on their way back from moving my sister in at Indiana University). A nice, relaxing time with lots of good people. Felt a lot like undergrad. I'm okay with that.

Best line of the weekend, surprisingly enough, actually came from a little place called Two Rivers Baptist Church. Another 1L and I made it up for the (gasp!) 9:30 service this morning and drove out to said place of worship. Everything was going along just fine until the preacher said, verbatim, "If you love Jesus, you'll watch Fox News." He was only half kidding. He lost me for the rest of the message. He followed that line with a 45-second diatribe lambasting anyone who blames President Bush for how Katrina was handled. Don't know what it had to do with the sermon. It definitely stood out though. Something tells me I might not go back to Two Rivers. Very friendly place, though. The people were very friendly and welcoming...

So tomorrow is my first day of class. Only two on the day, one in the morning, one early afternoon. Shouldn't be too bad. Except for the fact that I haven't done my reading yet. So I should probably wrap up this blog, pronto.

Baby Boomers love me

I'm officially orientated. I've got my Vanderbilt Student ID. I've bought my textbooks. I have a Vanderbilt sticker on my car. I think I'm pretty much official. Yeah. I'm a 1L.

Two more days of freedom until classes kick off. And the freedom is already a little limited - we've got assigned reading for our classes on Day One. Who has heard of homework before school starts? They don't play games here.

Orientation has been great. Just meeting tons and tons of people and trying to find my spot in the school and the student body. It's been amazing to me how comfortable it has all felt the entire time. The social atmosphere is so welcoming and everybody is anxious and excited to dive right in. It really makes you feel at home.

Last night was my first Bar Review as a 1L and things were wild and crazy, as planned. It was at this great bar/pool hall called Buffalo Billiards downtown and it was packed with law students. It's nice to see everybody really letting loose before things get rolling. I pre-gamed with some friends at their apartment and headed for the party and the night just rocked right along from there. Finally got into bed around 3:30. Got up at 7:30. That wakeup call was ugly.

We spent the majority of our morning in small groups doing community service projects. There were about eight or nine of us per group and my crew was assigned to the Fannie Battle Center, a reduced-rate daycare for under priveliged children. They had us doing anything you can imagine... scrubbing the kitchen floors, playing exterminator as we helped out with their cockroach problem, washing a school bus, you name it. The hightlight of it all was the fifty-something, rotund black woman who kept hitting on me while I was working, saying things like, "Ooh child, you so talll, you got them pretty legs and them soft lips. Mmmm MMM!!!" Glad to know I still got it.

Off to play some poker then hit some parties tonight. Gonna play 18 with some other 1Ls tomorrow. Should be a great weekend.

A delayed shout out

Amanda and The Balla drove all the way to the casinos in Tunica on Saturday to come and play. And I forgot to mention it in the blog. Just for that, they get their own entry.

School teachers rock.

Here goes nuthin'

In about two hours, I'll be a law school student. I don't know what the heck to think. I'm definitely excited. A little anxious. Not afraid but I guess you might say I've got a bit of fearful curiosity about the workload. Unquestionably optimistic.

Day one of Orientation looks like it's gonna be a lot of down time, actually. I've got a break from 12:00-2:30 and from 5:00-5:30. Then there's a cookout to wrap up the day. I've been told that we don't have to play ice breaker games. I guess that's good that since we're all college grads they trust we can make friends without semi-awkward, entirely forced interactions. Still, deep down, the Orientation Leader in me really wants to play The Question Game...

Last night was really enjoyable. On Monday night at Flying Saucer, I started passing word around about meeting up for dinner and drinks at this cool place called Mafiaoza's. Long story short, so many people showed up that we had to relocate to San Antonio Taco Co. (a.k.a. SATCo). A real good time sitting out on the patio there, eating tacos and drinking beer. A fine way to prepare for the long day of Orientation ahead. After that, I went to a place called The Sportsman, which a Nashville friend tells me is the favorite hangout of MJ from The Real World. I don't know who he is, but apparently lots of people do. A cool place with really nice, tournament sized pool tables. The little things in life make me happy. It was a laid back, fun night.

And now I'm off to law school. I feel like my mom should be here to take my picture as I'm waiting for the big yellow cheese or something...

Area 51

It's official. I'm a member of the U.F.O. club. 3 beers down, 197 to go. I've got my "Beer Knurd" t-shirt, my U.F.O. card and at least three years to rack up the brews and get my name on one of those elusive plates. Everyone needs an inspiration in life. Mine for now just happens to be beer. Is that bad? I'm pretty sure it's par for the course for law school...

Last night was really fun. Headed over to Sam's, a little sports bar in the Village, with my roommate for their Monday night poker game. I got busted out of the free game really quickly but picked up a quick $15 in a side game (which later paid my entry fee for the U.F.O. club), so the evening was off to a solid start. I'm really digging being able to walk to all these great spots. I walked to the Post Office yesterday. The freakin' post office. In Athens it took me at least half an hour to drive all the way to the PO, take care of stuff, and drive back. Here it's 10 minutes if I walk. I like.

After poker, I went over to a classmate's apartment at a great complex called 20 & Grand. Really fancy place. There were probably 20 1L's over there and we hung around for about an hour before heading to The Flying Saucer where we made it all the way to last call. Quite a night. Met tons of 1L's and everyone was playing the "Where are you from, where'd you go undergrad, what's your phone number?" game all night. It was great.

Tonight we're headed to this great pizza place called Mafioaza's. Should be a blast. Details to follow.

Less than 24 hours before my first official law school function. Wow.

You gotta know when to hold 'em...

I've always heard people talking about casinos as some sort of bizarre time-warping, mind-bending thrill ride, but I never understood it before. Now I do. I got back yesterday afternoon from Tunica, Mississippi and all of its gambling glory. It all makes sense now. Strange, twisted sense. A friend of mine was having his bachelor party weekend at the casinos and I got invited along for the ride so I jumped at the chance. It's truly wild how the bright lights and dollar signs can mess with your logic. All of the sudden it seems totally logical to bet $20 on something you have absolutely no way of predicting. But damn it's fun. Moral of the story is, if you get a chance to hit casinos, do it. Just don't lose your shirt doing it.

This week things really get started. Orientation is Wendesday through Friday and classes start on Monday. I can't believe it's all here. This summer has been the fastest (and one of the greatest) of my life. The social calendar is filling up nicely for the week and it looks like I'll be hanging out with brand new folks pretty much from here on out... and that's really exciting. Last night I met up with a a friend of a friend (as well as one of her friends) for dinner and drinks and had a great time.

I'm really loving all the cool spots locals are showing me. After dinner at Jackson's, a great little restaurant here in Hillsboro Village, we went to a really cool bar called The Flying Saucer where they have more than 200 beers to choose from. I'm thinking about joining the U.F.O. Club where if you drink more than 200 different brews you get your name on a big gold plate on the wall. I think I can manage that in three years. I just need to start thinking about what I want my plate to say; most of the plates have a name and a tag line (e.g. Sam Holt - A cold beer is a good friend.) It's gotta be catchy but not cheesy. Any ideas out there? Anyway, It was great to try a coupla new flavors and play darts with my in-the-know Nashville friends. I also introduced them to Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, in my opinion Athens' finest brew, and they both were very impressed. Converting folks one at a time...

So until Monday, I'll just be enjoying my last little taste of freedom. Looks like some poker and bar-hopping is on the schedule for tonight. Should be great. Life is good, people.

Viva Nash-vegas

So after five days in this city, it's become pretty apparent to me that I'm going to love it here. Nashville feels big and small at the same time and I'm meandering around, exploring different shops, restaurants and bars, meeting folks and getting to know the city. So far, so good. My apartment is just about a tenth of a mile from the heart of Hillsboro Village, a really trendy area of Nashville that's booming. Great places to eat and hang out, cool book stores and music stores are all within about a two minute walk. That includes MacDougal's - a place that's like Zaxby's but has more chicken options plus great local beers on tap.

The highlight of the day today was driving 20 minutes and being at the Gibson Factory Showcase, the most phenomenal display of new Gibson instruments you've ever seen in your life. If you know me at all, you know that I'm in my element in a place like that. I got them to do a little bit of work on my new guitar I got from my folks for graduation. So cool to have the Gibson factory right around the corner...

But as much as I'm loving the city, I'll be passing on Cashville for the weekend and heading to Tunica, Mississippi to hit the casinos. A friend of mine who goes to Belmont has been kind enough to invite me along on his bachelor party weekend and several of us (mostly UGA grads) will be headed to the riverside to lose all our money this weekend. Can't wait. Always wanted to do some serious gambling. Should be great.

If you're in Athens and reading this, I miss you lots. That said, you should come and visit. This city will make you feel right at home.

Home sweet home?

Well, here I am.

I'm typing from 2135 Acklen Avenue, Apartment 5, Nashville, TN. Yup, it's my new apartment. Crap is everywhere but it's where I live. Things are coming together nicely if you don't count the recent discovery that the apartment has a flea problem. Yeah, like a dog would have. There were apparently fleas all over the place when my roommate moved in last night but we seem to have the problem under control now that we've used Raid on about 80% of the place. And it doesn't even smell bad... how delightful.

Yesterday was one of the toughest days of my life, saying goodbye to so many people I love and leaving Athens as a resident for the very last time. I drove down Sanford Drive and had my time alone with the school. It was terribly upsetting but incredibly cathartic at the same time. I have so much time and love invested in UGA and its people that I can't imagine what it would have been like to leave without a proper goodbye. Don't worry, Classic City. I'll be back. Soon. Specifically September 23, 2006. Colorado at Georgia. It's on.

And now it's about time for me to go to sleep for the very first time in my new city. Man, this feels weird. And exciting. And terrifying. Soon this will feel like home. For now it feels like a familiar hotel room.