Daily Misogyny in Law School

Overheard in the interaction area while awaiting the library to open:

"Dude, is Joe not coming golfing with us?"
"Yeah, he just called. He says he's got studying and stuff to do."

"You know what he has? A vagina."

Foiled by That Banana There.

But..what about durian?

“The Banana: The Atheist Nightmare”

Note that the banana…

1. is shaped for the human hand.

2. has a non-slip surface.

3. Has outward indicators of it’s inward contents. Green - too early, yellow - just right, black - too late.

4. Has a tab for removal of it’s wrapper.

5. Is perforated on wrapper.

6. Has a bio-degradable wrapper.

7. Is shaped for the human mouth.

8. Has a point at the top for ease of entry.

9. Is pleasing to the taste buds.

10. Is curved towards the face to make the eating process easy.

To write that the banana happened by accident is even more unintelligent than to write that no one designed the Coca Cola can.

http://www.venganza.org/category/hate-mail/

There is still a Light that Shines on Me, Shine on 'til Tomorrow

I spent some of my teen years in Puerto Rico. One of the activities I was involved in was singing in beachside restaurants on the weekends. This was always one of my favorite songs from our set. I was deeply lonely and unsure and as we sang it, I would look out the restaurant windows onto the beach below, with the moon reflecting over the water and palms. It was my heartcry and for that brief moment, I felt better about where I was, who I was.
Over the holiday, I saw the movie "Across the Universe" with this same song was performed. Sad yet hopeful.

Back to Peaceful Sleep

I woke up last night worried about grades. So worried that I couldn't fall back asleep. I wondered how I would find the ability to cope with the new stresses placed on me.
It occurred to me that I should look back at my life and see where exactly I found strength in the past. So, I started with my early childhood to the present and came to a few surprising conclusions:

1. My life, since early childhood, has always been quite difficult. But I got through it, lived every day of it.
2. My teen years were equally kind of horrible. Really horrific. And yet, I dug in, clung to my vision of myself, and held on.
3. Times in my life when I thought I was going through the blackest of days, in retrospect, weren't so bad. I now realize the awful consequences that would most likely have arisen had I been given that thing I most wanted at the time.
4. I don't really plan very much or research very much and that's hurt me in life.
5. These past five years with my husband have been the best and easiest of my life, which has made me forget how I strong I am.

After taking two hours to do this mental review in the middle of the night, my acedemic career suddenly seemed like something I could do. Perhaps not easily, perhaps not without casualties. But I knew then that I have made it through much worse and I would be ok.

And then I fell back asleep.

Message to You

I'm working on it. I miss u.

T Minus 4 Weeks

Over coffee this morning, I was telling my husband how excited I am that in four weeks I will no longer be a first year law student. I have been planning for years to go to law school and most of those years of worry, preparation and anticipation were focused on getting through my first year. I heard (correctly) that it is the hardest year of school (bingo!) and maybe even the hardest year of your life (bingo again!)
But this term I have prepared better than last: I kept up with my notes, I went over the day's materials each evening, I did practice exams. Maybe I won't get the grades I desire but I sure cannot be angry at myself for not trying. I gave it my all.
As I type this, I am looking out my second floor bedroom windows onto the walkway below. I love living on campus, being surrounded by coffee shops, other students, trees that are just starting to sproud leaves. It is all so conducive to study, so peaceful and purposeful.
We get to live here another two years. Two more years in a place we could never, ever afford if I weren't in school. Our campus is a bit different than most as it was built on "borrowed" Aboriginal native land right at the time when Vancouver was just starting to build up into a slightly larger city (1920s-30s). It is built on the mouth of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded on each side by snow-capped mountains. It is so beautiful here that millionaires and other rich folk have negotiated with the university to build high rise condos amoung the faculty buildings. One is being built about twenty yards from our law school, unfortunately, and is nowhere near completion.
In the winter of 2010, the Olympics are hosting some events just a few yards up from our place and we are contemplating volunteering for those (I heard you get a niffy Olympics polo if you help out).
Once I graduate, we are thinking of moving to the North Shore but that's still a few years away.

The Crown Respectfully Submits...

I wanted to go over my Constitutional Law notes tonight after class but instead spent the evening preparing for oral arguments. I have my first moot court next week and am trying to hide my thrill at being allowed to address the court as "My Lords and My Ladies" and my opposing council as "My Learned Friend."

When I watch period films, I have always secretly lusted after their use of language, how formal and stately and beautiful it was. And I just knew I could never, ever get away with using such high-minded language in my own life (my husband, for one thing, would put a quick stop to it). But next week, not only am I allowed to get all seventeeth century on everyone's ass, it's actually expected. Oh joy, oh joy!

My First Hosting Event

Today is International Womens' Day and on Thursday I co-hosted UBC Law's 32nd Annual Women and the Law Dinner. It was held downtown at the Inns of Court and the view was spectacular. Also spectacular was meeting so many viable and notable women working in the legal field. I met the first Aboriginal woman named to the bench in Saskatchewan (also a Cambridge and Harvard Law grad) and we discussed the Hillary campaign. I was surprised at myself for getting over my nerves so easily and debating the merits of the campaign with this nationally recognized judge.

Hosting duties went smoothly and I'm so looking forward to planning this dinner next year. I also met the woman who started the dinner when she was a young law student. We discussed modern feminism and the surprising backlash we've experienced in the media of late against feminism. We are making plans to get together for coffee soon.

Leaving that dinner, for the very first time since I began law school I started to believe I have a place in the legal profession.

Sad but Lovely

This poem concerns something I think about from time to time: what it will feel like when I'm old and I look back over my life. Growing up believing I would never grow up, grow old, I do enjoy the fact that there is a good possibility that I will and I try to save things, remember things, do things for that day when I look back.


When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;


How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;


And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.


-- William Butler Yeats

A Little Bit of Awesomeness...from Fox News

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My First Courtroom Appearance

So, I may be going to court next month for a speak to sentencing. Some of my classmates have already done them and I'm excited to get in there myself and speak to the judge. Also, it's the day after our moot court exercise, so I'm hoping I'll have picked up a few pointers by then.

It's a Beautiful Day...and I'm Spending it in the Library. Again.

I wish I was at a museum and then strolling around downtown with my husband, smoothie in one hand. I wish weekends still meant something to me. Something fun, I mean. As of right now, they mean I have a lot of work to do and God D%#m it, why aren't I getting these legal concepts easier?

I hope that second year will be different, that I'll have more fun and spend less time in the library and more time exploring Vancouver hand in hand with my husband.