Watkins Tournament

Due to the aforementioned Watkins Tournament I am laying in bed nursing my injuries. It was a gorgeous day to watch Rugby but it was too hot to play in. And the sun was ruthless. We had two games and didn't really show up for the second game because we were so exhausted. His took a bunch of pictures but, because of our horrid plays, there aren't many that make us look good.


This is the Albany Law Lady Misdemeanors:

Our scrums weren't very good this time, partially because the other teams were HUGE:

This is what we like to see with our lineouts:

However, yesterday this was more prevalent:

Lawyering, I'll appreciate you...eventually.

I too am done with lawyering classes, although I still have an oral argument left. This year was the final one for my lawering professor. I think she decided to retire before the year started but we may have encouraged that. Lawyering was the single most demanding class I have taken. It was a non-stop year long grammar lecture which, as you can tell from my writing, was a struggle. We were always assigned more reading, more writing exercises, and more busy work than any other sections. In fact, when people would hear who I had for lawyering the would offer their condolences. But alas, the final day came.

Our professor treated us to pizza. The class decided to bring the beverages. Because it was our last class on a Friday we thought beer would be appropriate. We had an hour break between property and lawyering and, without any conferring, 90% of my section ended up in the beer aisle at the local grocery store. Great minds think alike.

We bought a Bonsai tree for our professor because she has a thing for Japanese gardens and a six-pack of Guiness because she had mentioned it once in class. She loved the gifts and even partook in the happy hour with us. After all the stressful, demanding classes this was the perfect way to end the year.

Coincidence

Hmm, I will never have another Lawyering class again in my life and right now it's sunny and 70-degrees outside. I love it when the weather reflects my mood.

Never Again

I am now officially finished with my Intro. to Lawyering class. As we've said before, this class is the bane of every 1Ls' existence, so it's a good feeling to have it finished.



I presented my oral arguments to my professor and her two TAs this morning. It's a bit nerve racking when you begin because you've worked on your argument and presentation and you don't want to mess anything up or look bad in front of your professor or fellow students. As a result, I tried to keep my "road map" section outlining my argument as short as possible knowing that the "judges" would start asking questions at the completion of my road map. Once questions began, the whole thing got much easier. I was no longer presenting a case, but discussing the law and considering the research that has gone into the question this semester's issue, it was kind of nice to be able to discuss the issues and the law surrounding the case. Everyone, my co-counsel for the argument and the opposition, did a great job presenting their cases and it was a lot of fun. Considering the presentation is 15% of our grade, I hope that comes through in our grade.



In unrelated news, the pharmacy school with which we share a campus, is throwing a big spring party. I could smell the charcoal and lighter fluid on my way to oral arguments and I'm dying to grill something. Just one problem, we have no room for a grill. The pharmacy school also has music and a moon bounce over there. Unfortunately, I'm in a suit for my oral argument, so my chances of passing for a pharmacy student are pretty thin.

Finished Business

As of about 8:45 this morning, I am officially done writing legal briefs this semester. After a late night last night making sure everything was order, I printed one final case this morning and turned the whole thing. I never thought law school would be so physically demanding, but I've discovered that writing a legal brief can be back breaking work. And my reward for a job . . . well, a job done anyway? A two-hour Con Law class in perhaps the most miserable classroom at Albany Law: the Dean Alexander Moot Court Room, or DAMC (where, incidentally, I'll be spending at least eight hours every week next semester).



My usual post-brief afterglow is tempered by my exhaustion, but it should be at least a couple of days before I start wondering just how bad of a brief I turned in. By that time, I should be starting to study for finals, so I won't have a lot of time to dwell on the brief.



With the brief behind me, I have just two more Intro to Lawyering classes left before presenting an oral argument a week from Friday. Lawyering, although in theory the most practical first year course, is the bane of every 1Ls existence and I can't wait to have it behind me. From there it's just four finals and then I'm off to the other side of the world!



Unfortunately, Hers is still working diligently on her brief, which isn't due until the 18th. Friday we get to register for classes next year and soon as we're done with out, we're off to the airport to catch our flight to Texas. If we can just survive the next five weeks without completely failing out of law school, I'll be thankful.

And Not A Moment Too Soon

It's 12:30 in the morning and I've been working on my Appellate Brief for the last eleven and half hours (including the last couple of hours which were spent checking every comma in my citations and making sure the page numbers in my Table of Contents and Table of Authority matched the page numbers on my brief). I've discovered that I have to print out one ore case from Westlaw in the morning, but aside from that minor technacality, I am officially done and can now go to bed and sleep the sleep of the finished. At least for the next five and half hours before the alarm goes off.

There is no "plates" like Nebraska...

I make no apologies for that pun or the resulting poor subject-verb agreement.

I’ve lived in a few states and driven through most of them and I must say that Nebraska has the ugliest license pates around.

The state of Nebraska is noble in their efforts to capture the beautiful sunsets of the plains, however, the implementation in transcribing that beauty falls a little short. But there may be away around having to put those hideous things on your car.*
In Wooley v. Maynard the United States Supreme Court held a state can not force its citizens to advertise a state's message on their license plates against that citizen’s will. The Court rationalizes that the fundamental right of not speaking is just as important as the right to speak and a state motto on a license plate violates this right.
So theoretically Nebraska is forcing its citizens to advertise a sunset on their license plate; thus, violating its citizens rights to disassociate from speech. And don’t even get me started on the “good life”. Shame on you Nebraska for forcing your state mottos onto private property.

* This post is not legal advice. Please do not go to the DMV with a printout of this post in one hand and the Constitution in the other demanding your right not to associate with speech, no matter how ugly the plates are. There are a few differences with Wooley, that I have not stated in hopes of not boring you.

Thanks Mr. Pasteur

Thanks to Mr. Pasteur, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and for a time even Hep. A will bounce off our armored immune systems like bullets bouncing off of Ralph Hinkley (bonus points if anyone gets that reference without having to clink the link). The Upstate Infectious Disease Clinic injected us with several strands of live disease to prove the old axiom "What ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Right now, our bodies are busy fighting off the infection and in a couple of days, our immune systems will be fully prepared to fight off the disease should we encounter it in Africa. And, I got a bonus Tetanus shot too (jealous?).



Malaria is a different matter. No shots for that, we just have to remember to take pills. Luckily, it's not as bad we thought. Nairobi is rather high so there's no Malaria problem in Nairobi itself. We'll only have to take our Malaria meds the day before we go on safari, while we're on safari (hopefully we'll all be able to help each other remember), and for one week after we get back.



The shots themselves weren't bad, but I know I'm going to feel that Tetanus shot in the morning.