I'm on call today!

The weariness of the end of the week has really set in, but the weariness is tempered by my knowledge that I only have 2 more classes to get through. That’s the good news. The bad…well…worrisome news is that I am on call today in Torts class. Being on-call means that you have to be ready to answer questions on any of the assigned questions. The system works differently in each class. For Civil Procedure and Contracts, we are always on call. Professor Greenberger in Civil Procedure usually chooses 2 or three students and calls on them for the entire class. Every class has a different set of students. Professor Taylor in Contracts calls on everyone at anytime, but she usually asks one question at a time. Even though I am a bit nervous about the always on-call thing, I still think that Contracts is my favorite class. Professor Roberts takes volunteers until someone doesn’t volunteer. He will then call on people directly. This is fair, but we end up hearing from the same people (myself included) every single class. I don’t raise my hand in Con Law anymore because I didn’t want people to get sick of hearing me. Professor Weber is, by far, the most fair when it comes to being on-call. He goes by the alphabet (last names). Now, at the beginning of the semester, I organized an Excel spreadsheet with contact info for everyone in the class. Thanks to the alphabetical sort function, I have been able to pinpoint when I will be called on. There is only one name ahead of me for today, so I know that I am up. Professor Weber’s system really is a double-edged sword. I can relax most days because I know that I am not on call. The problem is that, since I know I am going to be on-call, I had better be fully prepared. I think that I prepped pretty well in this class, but things can change under the penetrating glare of the law professor.

The last 2 days have gone pretty well. I have gone home to study instead of studying at the library. I have a dining room table that is in this little breakfast area in the kitchen. I can spread out there and not seem very isolated. When I want to be isolated, I use the desk upstairs. The classes have been good as well, and the days seem to pass by in a blur. There always seems to be work to be done, and I realized with a shock that I only have 2 months until final exams. Yikes! It’s time to work on those outlines. It has also started to get cooler in Chicago. This is perfect because it will allow me to save a bit on my heating and cooling bill. The Chicago Winter seems to be lurking right around the corner. Here comes the snow and the frozen Lake Michigan!