I am not funemployed!

I was reading an article about 20 somethings who are "funemployed" and the blogger who is taking credit for coining that term.  And I got mad.  The funemployed are young professionals who were laid off and are using their savings and unemployment compensation to do things they "always" (how long can that be when you are 26?) wanted to.  Like going to Turkey, and taking pilates classes and getting massages.  The article even discusses one guy who bought himself a $3,000 road bike when he lost his job.  WTF?

I am not sure if I am mad because I am not receiving unemployment compensation and can't join them, or if their cavalier attitude about not working and taking money from the government is just rubbing me the wrong way.  The article talks about these people using unemployment to "find themselves." Isn't that what they were supposed to be doing in college? 

Even worse is that this phenomenon and the publicity surrounding it may take away from the plight of those without financial resources to withstand extended unemployment, or those without health insurance, or people whose student loan creditors won't take no for an answer.  We are still out here America.  Living in our sisters' basements!

P.S. I get that the term funemployment is meant to make being out of work less depressing, but taking it to the extremes mentioned above is just ridiculous!

I just wanted to ask a damn question!

Many times, as soon as the class ends, a bunch of students rush up to the professor with questions. Today, I had a question and decided to be proactive by letting the prof know (before class started) that I wanted to talk to her after class. I asked if I could avoid the crush of students and if I could "sign up" for the first slot and ask my question and get out of there. She agreed, and told me we would meet in another room as soon as she got packed up.

Then class ended and I stood there waiting for her to get "packed up" while a crush of students rushed up and asked their questions. What did being proactive get me? A 28 minute wait to ask a simple question.

I wasn't happy.

Then, got an email from a friend (someone who asked a question of the prof after class) "apologizing" for me having to wait, and saying that she heard I "was mad at those who rushed up to the prof." Now, the only people who heard me complain about the professor being tardy for her office hours were two people I would call acquaintances. And I never complained about students - only about the professor herself. Why would my classmates try to stir up fake drama like this? See, this is what I don't like about law school. It's not the work, it's bullshit like this. Let me tell you, it is not an isolated incident. People have so little contact with the real world, that their only topic of conversation is each other. I just wish they would leave me out of it. I am sick of hearing others' gossip and I don't want to be included in it either!

To avoid being the victim of gossip and dragged into drama created by a classmate's need for "excitement", I have been withdrawing from a lot of socializing with people at school. This goes against my natural personality, which is to want to be friendly and chatty. It's sad that I feel this way about my fellow classmates.

The secret life of a law school hippie radical

Don't tell anyone, but I am a much more hard-core deadhead than I would ever let on to my classmates at school. And its not just the Dead. Its a lot of jambands. I have been to more than 200 concerts (it could be 300 for all I know) and at least 25 music festivals. I even volunteered for a concert-based voter registration organization for 3 years.

Music is my life. I own 2,000 CDs of recorded concerts by my favorite bands. I have participated in an online Grateful Dead music forum since 2002. I have traveled all over the country and even to a few islands to see live music. My head may be immersed in law school, but my heart is always sitting in the 12th row, Phil side.

The thing about school is that these qualities are underappreciated. I think that it is this stuff (not the dumb resume stuff) that makes me great and interesting. That I feed my soul a steady diet of rock, blues, jazz, funk and even some old skool hip hop is a good thing. However, I feel like there aren't many students there like me. A lot of them walk around with ipods on, listening to whatever the rest of them think is cool. Some venture out to Milwaukee to check out bands, and it is those people (though our musical tastes differ) who I think are cool.



It still isn't the same. For the other Heads out there, you know what I mean. Musically and socially, we are just different. We are the crowd whose founders stopped the vietnam war with the strength of their convictions. We are the dreamers. We are the starry-eyed idealists, constantly in danger of having the hearts on our sleeves stepped on. And we wouldn't change a thing!

My law school hates poor people

That's the only explanation I can figure for why we haven't offered the Poverty Law or Consumer Law classes listed in the school catalog I received before I started here. Seems like they listed all these great classes to get me to accept admission, but once I got here, it was only patents, trademarks and 8 sections of legal writing taught by former 7th grade teachers.

Speaking of consumer law, does this sound like the familiar "bait and switch" sales tactic? I wonder if I can force the law school to honor its advertising....

Just stop typing and listen for once!

Question #1: When did it become OK to send a text message from your cell phone while someone is in an in-person conversation with you?
Answer #1: Never

Question #2: When did it become socially acceptable to show up at an event where someone is taking time from their busy day to give you advice and surf the net on your laptop the whole time?
Answer #2: Never

If you think that the correct answer to either of these was "sometimes or always" you should be beaten with a stick.

I have been dismayed lately that many law students seem to think that it is OK to use their electronic devices constantly. I know that you all spend most of your day on your laptop, but real human face-to-face interaction won't kill you. It is rude to pull out a laptop during the lunch hour career talk with lawyers. They don't have laptops in front of them - because they are communicating with you. Show these people some courtesy and just pay attention for 45 minutes!

According to American Airlines, we haven't come far at all

This post at the Consumerist blog shows us how American Airlines feels about providing service to female passengers. Apparently, we are not that smart, and all of us really like the color pink a lot.

American Airlines is hoping to attract more women travelers with a new website "for women". "We obviously have a vast interest in women," said Peggy Sterling, AMR vice president of safety, security and environmental. "There is an untapped resource." The new "women's" site mentions women friendly things like "girlfriends" and "book recommendations."
From the site:

Check the latest carry-on regulations, find advice on travel safety and wellness, and pick up tips for a stylish and efficient travel wardrobe.

Psssst. Women like clothes. Mention that on the site. This is awesome. They're totally going to fly our airline now. Make the search box pink, and get rid of all those "tools," women hate tools.—MEGHANN MARCO

To check out the site for yourself, click on the American Airlines for Women page. I am normally not some rabid feminist, but this truly is offensive to me on quite a few levels. Mostly though, I am amused that they think this will work to get more women to fly American.

I am a female law student, but I am no Elle Woods!

Are you a feminist?

Are the days when the word "feminist" was considered repugnant over? Do we still need feminism? Why?

I was searching for online freebies (a hobby for poor law students like me) and came across the NOW website. I have only looked at it once before. Perhaps because feminism is no longer popular. I am not sure. Anyway, I was saying "hell yeah" to all lot of the t-shirts and stuff in their store, and wondering about whether I consider myself a feminist (I do) and whether anyone else still does (if they do, they aren't saying so).

Do we still need NOW? I think that some people I know do. I know some women who seem to have given up all their "power" in relationships with men. I see others for whom the glass ceiling isn't a social or institutional construct - it's of their own making.

Hopefully, some of my readers will respond and we can get some discussion going.

In the midst of my first law school all nighter

Let's face it. I like to think that I am pretty on top of stuff, but sometimes, I screw up. I sure did this weekend. For some reason, I thought that the argument section of my trial level brief was due on Wednesday. No biggie.

I went out for drinks on Friday with a girl who was visiting for admitted students weekend.
I went out for drinks on Saturday (and dinner) with my sister and her husband and drank a lot of wine.

This morning, I woke up at 10 am (11 am really because of daylight savings time) and had a leisurely morning of coffee drinking, hangover nursing, and internet surfing.

Got to school at about 4:20 and realized that my argument section is due tomorrow. At noon.

Shit!

I had a basic idea of the issue, but arguing it is another story. I began furiously paging through our legal writing text for some info on how to write this damn thing, and found none. I then stormed over to the stacks and found some legal writing "how to" books and browsed through those for an hour or two. Then I started re-reading cases so I could develop a coherent argument. I finally started typing at around 9 pm.

It's now 12:40 am and I am still working on this damn thing. I have no idea why. The argument section is technically non-graded. It only counts toward our participation grade (10 % of the total). I seriously don't care anymore. Whether I work for another 2 hours or 7 hours, the end result of my efforts is sure to be a B.

OK, back to work. I have exactly 6 hours before I have to be awake for my Property class tomorrow.

I am seriously too old for this crap

I think that it would have been a lot easier if I had gone to law school 10 years ago. I can deal with the workload and the stress of the job hunt, but the rest of it drives me nuts. I don't think that I am a typical non-traditional student, but I still don't always fit in. I don't know about who is dating who unless I find out by accident. I don't get invited to parties very frequently. People make a whole set of assumptions about me yet I continually fight myself to not make assumptions about them.

Despite being treated like an old lady socially, I don't get any credit for having years and years of professional management experience or years of volunteer leadership experience when it comes to dealing with people on regarding classes, clubs and other stuff I do all week. They think that since they've been in law school for a year or two more than me, that I am supposed to "look up to" them somehow. That my experience outside of law school is not valuable. I don't think I act like the "traditional" non-trad. I am assertive though, and people tend to act more passive-aggressive in law school than straightforwardly assertive.

I seriously don't know what to do about any of this. I have tried listening more and talking less. I have tried just not attempting to have friends at school. I have tried to be myself. I have tried being super nice and super friendly. (That gave me a "super" headache)

Maybe I should just give up. I will go to class, and study and hang with my non-law school friends, and that will be it. No law school organizations. No attempt at friendships. Nothing.

Go out and make the world a better place kids

Oh wait, you can't afford to do that. You have student loans and lots of them. This education isn't free kiddo. Yep, we lured you here with high-minded ideas about truth and justice, but we didn't want you to go out and actually help those poor people! We do an annual clothing drive for them, and the 10 sweaters law students donate is enough charity, isn't it? Those clinics happen to focus on social justice issues, but the real purpose is to prepare you to get jobs working at Wal Mart corporate HQ.

You want to work at Legal Aid now? Oh no! You can't do that. See, we made sure that you've got $100,000 in debt. Those Legal Aid people will only pay you $28,000. Do the math bleeding heart liberal - you can't pay back that monstrous debt with $28,000 per year! The joke's on you do-gooder. When we talk about public interest law, we are talking about wanting to help the underprivileged - we don't actually want you to take a job doing that! Wake up and smell the poverty 1L. It's time to sell out.

Why the heck did you take that summer job at Legal Services? They aren't paying you a dime. While your classmates are good little boys and girls and took firm jobs that pay $2,500 a week, we are going to have to give you a $2,500 grant for the whole summer so you can at least pay your rent, you pitiful slacker.

After you graduate, if you keep this up, we will try and make the world think that we give a damn with our lousy LRAP. The year after you are done with this place, we are gonna kick in $978.00 toward your student loans so that the rest of the world thinks we care about you and what you are doing. Don't be fooled we don't. After that, you are on your own. I know that we recruited you saying we wanted our students to be compassionate and go out and make the world a better place, but we didn't mean it. Now buck up and get your ass over to Dewey, Cheatem and Howe and get a real job!

Signed,

Your Law School

Is it just me?

Is it just me, or should my significant other be able to reheat a pizza without my help? I thought so! I know that I might be a little Type-A and stuff, but expecting that someone should be able to turn on an oven, put the pizza in it, and not start a small fire isn't asking too much!