A Day of Rest....NOT!!!

For my first night in a new apartment, I slept pretty well. I guess I can attribute that to the number of nights I spent away from home while in the employ of Bio-Rad. At last count, this year I had spent around 51 nights away from home by the end of July alone. When you travel as much as I had to, you get used to sleeping in hotel beds pretty quickly. I once joked to my Dad that when I arrived home for a visit, I half expected to have my miniature soap all wrapped up ready for me to use. I think that staying put will take some getting used to.

So, where was I? Oh, yes. So I hopped out of bed (well, dragged myself anyway) and went downstairs to have some food. Today was a training day with David, my trainer at the gym. I have learned to always have food on board before I train (especially when I train with David!). I gave myself a couple of hours and finished watching "Friday Night Lights", the movie based on one of my favorite books. If you have only seen the movie and not read this classic exploration of high school football in small town America, I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact, if you have not read it, you should stop reading this blog and go out and pick up the book. After I finished the movie, I made my way to the gym. There were not too many people in the gym, and I immediately went to warm up before meeting David.

I like working out with David (and I am not just saying this because he might be reading this). David is one of the first trainers I have worked with who listens to me and is working towards the same goal as I am. Of course, I think he gets a little too much enjoyment out of punishing me. I always learn a lot when I work out with David, and today was no exception. In the past, I had kept the pretty same routine. Like everything else in life, however, you run the risk of getting used to a workout routine, and the routine that used to keep you fit will no longer cut it. Enter David. He has introduced me to a number of different workout techniques and philosophies. We also crack wise about pro football and the world in general. Today, David took me through a chest workout from heck. On days that I lift with David, I don't have any energy for cardio, so after an hour, I was done.

I called Comcast to see what was up with my appointment. They said that they would get back to me in 20 minutes, so I decided to get some food for lunch and to go home. I called Comcast after an hour had gone by, and they informed me that someone would be out by 8 PM (!) Resigned to another day of waiting, I did some more unpacking and read a book on transitioning from college to law school. I found it extremely informative and feel a lot better about starting to break down cases into briefs this weekend. I was going to take a midday nap when I was jolted from my slumber by a call from.....da daaa! Comcast! They would be here in 20 minutes. Sure enough, 2 workers showed up and had me hooked up in no time. I spent the late afternoon setting up the high speed accounts and configuring my wireless router. You guessed it...I am writing this entry while hooked up to my wireless router!!! Success!

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. I have to wake up at 6 AM and get to Oak Park to pick up some furniture for the new place (thank you, bro!). I hope to get done well before noon, as the Air and Water Show will be going on in Chicago, and the roads will be packed. Following the morning activities, I plan to spend some time in my office and work out. I might head out for a while with Eric, but I hope that I can rest a little bit on Sunday. I am definitely coming down with a minor sore throat. When it rains......

Moving day

So after the high stress of starting school the last 2 days, I got to enjoy the relative low stress (Ha!) of moving to my new place today. As I mentioned in previous posts, I am always amazed by how much I have stored while living in a studio. I have come to the conclusion that most of the boxes contained old bills, check stubs, credit card receipts, etc. These are things that I don't want to part with because of the danger of identity theft. Now I know that you might be thinking "but Artful, that is why they make paper shredders". I happen to own a paper shredder. The darned thing is the size of a small elementary school trashcan (you remember those...the ones that come up to your knees and quickly fill with the snotrags of toddlers...but I digress..). The result of having such a small wastebin is that it fills rather rapidly with the volume of receipts, credit card offers, etc that I get on a daily basis. THis has made me lazy with regard to my shredding, resulting in a small forest being stored in tiny pieces within several large (and heavy) boxes. I know that one day, I will spend an afternoon looking through all of the boxes and shredding, but not today. Today I have to move!

So, the movers arrived at 8:30 AM. They worked rather quickly and were done by 1 PM, which is a very good thing because I had to take my brother to the airport (another long story for another time). The place is still a shambles, but I have been picking my way through the mess. At least I was able to set up my office space, the most important part as I will be spending most of Saturday and Sunday preparing for the week's law classes. I am excited about my study space. It is entirely geared towards scholarly endeavors (i.e., no TV or video games to distract me, and the desk faces the wall instead of the window (no daydreaming while watching the world go by). I am ready to get started. I also spent most of the afternoon and evening waiting for the high-speed internet installer who never showed. Now, I can understand if the installer was busy. I had an appointment for between 3 and 5 pm. What I do not understand is that it is now 10:07 and I haven't heard from Comcast. I have called them several times and have spoken to their customer service representatives(who is already having a heck of a week with the scandal in Chicago-if you are curious, go to the Chicago Tribune website), but no one could give me an answer as to when they would show up. In the meantime, I waited here the entire day. ARRRGH!!!!

At least I had my unpacking to keep me busy. I am slowly beginning to realize that the electrical costs for this place will be pretty high. For this reason, I think that I will invest in a window air conditioning unit for my bedroom. If I kept the central air on constantly, I can see electric bills of $400 + dollars in my future.

Tomorrow will be a little more relaxing. I will go to the gym and then wait all day for the electric company to read the meter. Eric, my new roommate, is having the electricity billed to him and I am having the Comcast services billed to me. We will then split the difference so that we are paying the same amount. It is a good arrangement.

Well, it's late, and I am hot and tired. I am going to hit the showers and go to bed. Tomorrow it begins again!

Orientation or dis-orientation?

Day 2 of law school started a little later than I thought...7:30. I rolled out of bed and had a quick workout and quick breakfast before hopping on the "L" to the Law School (yes, I showered first!!). The first class of the day was legal writing. Now remember that I was stressing over the missing books from the reading list. It turns out that they were just recommended reading (whew). I can catch up on it from the library copies. I am planning on getting acquainted with the library this weekend. Anyway, the legal writing class was a blast. I learned how to brief a case. It looks like something that I will have to practice over and over again, but I am looking forward to it. For those of you who might not be familiar with case briefings, think back to those reading comprehension sections on your achievement tests/MCATs/LSATs, etc. This is exactly what briefing a case is like. Our first assignment is to brief a case, and I am actually excited aboutit! We have a pretty good professor, so I am looking forward to the rest of the semester. The only downside to the class so far has been the "eager beavers". I am all for class participation and discussion, but most of their questions took us pretty far off course. It was like people were jockeying to be noticed. I made a mental note to only speak when I can add something to the discussion or when called upon. I intend to be ready for my 2 classes on Monday.

Following an information session on Bar admission (where I found out that I will be put through more scrutiny than if I were applying to the NSA) and lunch (Potbelly's, the best subs on the PLANET!!), we had 2 afternoon sessions. The first was on lawyering skills, presented by Dean Rubin. Professor Rubin was a very dynamic speaker who teaches Criminal Trial Law at DePaul. He was great! He almost made me want to try my hand as a criminal defense or prosecuting attorney. I really like him and hope to have him as a professor in the future. The final session was on study skills, and this was more interesting than I thought it would be. There are so many things at our disposal fo studying that it is difficult trying to figure out what to use. The professor gave us some good ideas (study groups, hornbooks, published outlines, case notes, etc) and then we were done. I was exhausted. I skipped the welcome party to get home and do some packing. I am moving tomorrow morning, and I think that I am very close to being ready. I just want the move to be over. I am looking forward to unpacking and setting up tomorrow. Hopefully, my high speed internet connection will be up tomorrow and I will be able to update you all on how the move went.

The Madness Begins!

Well, today was the day....the first day of law school orientation and the first day of my next 3 years. I woke up bright and early at 5:30 AM and trudged to the gym. I wanted to get the academic year off to a good start. After a hard 30 minutes of cardio, I returned to my apartment, got ready for school, and was on my merry way. Orientation was held at the Harold Washington Public Library located a block from DePaul in the Chicago Loop. The orientation breakfast was disorienting to say the least. There were not enough seats for the 180+ people who showed up, and I ended up finding a place on the floor. I tried not to size up my classmates, but something did stand out. They were YOUNG...still wet behind the ears from college.

Following breakfast, we gathered in the library's auditorium and settled in for a morning of introductory remarks from a number of individuals within the administration. I found out that average age was 23 years old....meaning that most of these people were 10 when I reached legal drinking age...Oy! The morning seemed to drag on, and every speaker seemed to emphasize one facet of the first year of law school...it's HARD! I think that they mean to really scare us, but I am not intimidated yet. I didn't get a chance to speak to too many of my classmates, but I have a feeling that I will get to know my section pretty well. My section consists of one-third of the entering class. After today, we will not gather as an entire class until graduation.

After a catered lunch, the members of my section and I gathered for our first Legal Writing Class. Most of the members in my section seem to be in the IP (or intellectual property-meaning patents, copyrights, and trademarks), and our professor is a current IP attorney practicing in Illinois. We learned about the organization of the American legal system (state versus federal jurisdictions) and we learned about what was expected of us for the coming year. We also received our syllabus for the course, and I was dismayed to find that one of the texts for our first reading assignment was still on backorder at the bookstore and the other text for this weeks reading was the previous edition. I am thinking that the professor might not be aware that the new edition is out and will be sure to address the issue tomorrow. Although the previous edition is on reserve in the library, I don't want to fight tooth and nail against the others in my section just to get my assigned reading done every week.

After legal writing, I went on a tour of the school (lead by an upperclassman) and signed up for a few organizations at the organization fair (IP, Law and Science, and the South Asia Law Students Association). I also signed up to be on the e-mail lists for the ABA and the Illinois Bar Association. While my classmates finished the day by chowing down on pizza, I raced home. I knew that my new computer would be arriving today, and sure enough, it was waiting for me. An Alienware 7700. A laptop with a Pentium 4 processor, dual slot loading DVD-R/CD RW drives, and 2 60 GB hard drives. I was expecting an awesome machine, but what I wasn't expecting was the size of this behemoth! It is a desktop replacement, not thin and mobile by any stretch of the imagination. I do love it, though. BTW, if there are any typos, it's because of me getting used to a new keyboard configuration.....

As much as I wanted to unpack the computer and play with it, I had more pressing matters...namely packing. How I accrued so much stuff in so short a time in a studio apartment is something that begs future examination. Tonight's objective was to pack up my kitchen and the second of 2 large closets (the first having been packed up last night). Finally, with my goals reached, I was able to settle in with my new toy.

Boy, am I tired. I am looking forward to Friday, when I will be moved in and (hopefully) close to completely unpacked.

And so the first week begins...

In my infinite wisdom, I am scheduled to move on Thursday after 2 days of law school orientation. The next 3 days should be dedicated to packing my apartment up, but there are so many details to take care of that I feel a bit ovewhelmed. I guess the end result will be all right. After all, with school starting this week and my move, I am handling all of my stressors at once. So far, the day has been pretty easy. I woke up at 8 am, packed up a few boxes, and went to the gym. I returned from the gym all ready to get some packing done. It hasn't been as bad as I fear. My current apartment is a studio in Old Town, right next to Second City. As I live in a studio, the amount of amassed "stuff" (thank-you, George Carlin) is far less that it could have been. I have fallen into the habit of moving some packed boxes from place to place without ever unpacking them. One of these days, I will have to go through them!

Where was !? Oh, yes..I returned from the gym and chatted with my Dad for a while. I intended to get right to packing, but I made the mistake of turning on the TV. Wouldn't you know that STARZ EDGE is showing First Blood, that famous 80's movie starring the red haired Caruso from CSI Miami and some guy named Stallone. This kills 2 hours. I start to do some packing and then realize that I still need to change my cell phone billing. My former company, Bio-Rad, generously allowed me to keep my cell phone number after I resigned to start law school, but getting Cingular to actually port the number has been a nightmare. After spending 2 hours on the phone with Cingular trying to get this resolved, the salesperson gets irritated with Cingular Corporate (I actually lost my cool with them), the salesperson has been extremely nice and promises to call me tomorrow about my plan. I start packing again with the Simpsons playing in the background.

I am starting to get a little nervous about tomorrow. Orientation begins at 9:30 sharp and continues until 6. I will definitely have some info posted tomorrow. Hopefully, I will get better at this blog stuff.