Exploding toilets

I had class at 9:00 this morning for Contracts. When I got there, the school was a disaster area. Apparently, there was a "leak." However, when I walked in the entire floor was wet and they were still vacuuming it up. The air conditioning was also broken and our class was moved from the third floor to the first floor reading room where there weren't enough seats.

During our class, the fire alarm went off intermittently, the law school supplied us with mini water bottles, and one fan for 138 people. We melted and began dreading our second class of the day considering it was supposed to be 9 floors up and still no air conditioning. Our professor realized that we were too hot and too distracted by the fire alarm to continue and ended the class 15 minutes early. At that time, we were informed that our second class would be held in the same room again, so we didn't have to move.

During our break in between classes, my tablemates and I talked about various things, like our classes and the toilets that started geysering as one of us had just finished doing her business. We said, "The bathroom is a lawsuit waiting to happen!" I stepped out a moment later to get some fresh air and saw the dean of the law school talking with the maintenance guys. As I was walking by, the dean said sorry to me. I just remember how we never saw the president of Rutgers when we were in school.

At the start of our second class, we found out that the other first year section was trapped on the 9th floor because the elevators weren't working. The air conditioning started working while we were taking our grammar and punctuation test, which improved our moods until we marked our tests and found out that a good deal of us who thought we were good at grammar need a little help.

The dean got us pizza and soda after class becase he felt that we deserved it. The line was too long, so Josh and I just went to our lockers, picked up our stuff, and left.

Pizza for lunch on Friday and lockers.... Thousands of dollars spent, and I'm back in high school

Dizzy

I've finally experienced what will henceforth be known as "Hell Day" in my weekly schedule. On Wednesdays, I have Contracts 9:00-10:15 a.m., Civil Procedure 11:00-12:40 p.m., and Applied Analysis 4:00-5:15 p.m.

Yesterday, I went to Contracts and Civil Procedure and I'm not sure if I learned anything. I'm trying to adjust to the 95% class discussion format as opposed to the predominantly lecture format I was accustomed to in college. The night before, I had struggled for a few hours with the reading for CivPro only to find out that we didn't have time for it because the professor decided to discuss The Buffalo Creek Disaster instead!

During the break, I went to the library for a couple hours to finish the reading for my afternoon class. Of course, I didn't finish the reading by about 5 pages, but it didn't matter anyway. Well, perhaps it will because the professor is horrible and teaches straight from the reading. That final class for the day sucked because I don't like my professor and how devious and arrogant she is.

After class, I went to the library again for a few hours until about 8:30 p.m. I don't think I spent that much time in the library during the second half of my career at Rutgers. When I got home, I felt as though an entire week had passed during that one day and could have sworn that it was Friday and I didn't have class the next day.

But here I am again, in the library, during my 3-hour break between classes.

Real school

The first week of law school is over. It's almost shocking how different the experience is from Rutgers. Here, I'm working hard from the get-go and it's hard to break some very bad study habits perpetuated during my time at Rutgers. I've realized that I don't have time to watch my favorite show on TV anymore. I can no longer skim the texts that I need to read.

For example, my initial reading assignment for Torts was only 30 pages long, but it took me 4 1/2 hours to read it because I didn't want to be unprepared in any way. While I was sitting in class, the preparation really helped because I didn't experience that feeling I got when I was in class sometimes in college. I followed along and knew what the professor was talking about.

So this is what real studying - and real school are like.

Friday Five

1. What's the smallest amount of money you've ever had in your checking account? A big fat goose egg, but that's because I have a savings account as well.

2. What's one non-basic-need item (not things like toilet paper and deodorant) that you absolutely must have no matter how broke you are? Philosophy's Hope in a Jar. $35 seems like a lot, but it's the best moisturizer I've ever used.

3. What's your favorite cheap meal to make at home? A Fuji apple and some cheddar cheese

4. What's the first thing you treat yourself to on payday? I like to pay off my credit card debt bit by bit.

5. What are your favorite free activities to do when you're completely broke? Window shopping. . . No, I actually like going into the stores and touching everything I can't buy. Wait a second, I don't know if it's my favorite free activity if I'm tortured by the fact I can't have everything I like.

M&Ms

Is anyone else as disturbed as I am over the commercial for the M&Ms cookie bars? You know, the kid makes it look like the dog ate all the cookie bars and the kid tells his mom it was the dog's fault?

Ugh, it makes me sick! That's one messed up kid!

In other TV news, as I'm catching up on all my couch potato time on my "vacation" before school, I think I've become hooked on Nip/Tuck and VH1's "I Love the..." series. It's a bad thing to get addicted to TV shows when school's about to start. Who knows what'll happen when "South Park" and "The Apprentice" start up again?

Pedicure wanted

The good thing about living in New York City is the fact that you get lots of exercise walking to your destination. (Riding the subway all the time ain't cheap!) I did miss walking everyday like I did when I was still in college when I was working the past year and had to drive everywhere. However, hoofing it in the city in flip flops isn't the best for your feet and now I'm shopping for a pedicure (I normally take care of my toe nails myself, but I think I need professional help this time).

We're planning to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (in search of the best pizza ever at Grimaldi's) soon, so maybe I should wait until after that happens before I invest in a pedicure.

Hey big spender

I bought my textbooks today, and I think I'm depressed as a result of that shopping trip. First, the sheer amount of textbooks is daunting, and second, the total wasn't exactly anything to throw around. I don't think I've ever spent this much money on textbooks in one semester, and I think most years at Rutgers, I didn't spend $516 for my books for Fall and Spring semesters.

My purchase was so big, the store had to call Visa to get approval because I never spend that much money normally.

My wallet is hurtin'.