Good news (and lots of it) to report! I got two raises at work, two days in a row! Here’s how it all went down.
Last month I went on an interview with a top personal injury firm. Anyhow, I decided to go to keep my interview skills sharp, because I get kinda nervous in interviews, and it is good to just practice when nothing is riding on it. And then last Wednesday morning they offered me a job.
During lunch on Wednesday I had made plans to go with L and M to look at an apartment. The top two rooms were effing awesome, but the bottom floor was shit, including the kitchen and the bottom bedroom…so we passed. Then I had to get back to work, but M and L went to go see another place on a whim, just to rule it out, basically. But I get a call that afternoon telling me that they took the place and M is turning in the paperwork the next morning. (Which, of course, meant that she would have to forge my signature on the lease, but that's another story for another time.)
Then, back at work on Wednesday afternoon, my bosses decide that they want do a performance review. They tell me how happy and overjoyed they are to have me and how much that they hope I’ll stay, and that they want to give me a raise. So, I decide that I HAVE to at least alert them to the possibility of another job at this point, so I tell them I that I interviewed awhile back, and that the guy was going to get back to me this week, but I’d let them know. I also let them know that I do really like it there.
So, I go home and talk to the family about it. We had a big family pow-wow. At one point my dad yelled at my sister about something, because we were talking apartment stuff AND job stuff, so stress was running high, but my dad WAS being a little unreasonable too. This upsets my sister so much that she decides she can’t live with me. So much for that idea anyhow. So M and I are back to square one on the apartment front. (On that note, I am going to see a place tomorrow, and we’ve got a few other places in mind, so it should all be okay.) L and I have discussed things since, and I’m not mad, and plus I thought she was going to back out because she’s just not at the living with me again point in her life. No hard feelings, I’m just disappointed, I guess. In the end, the pow-wow decides that I should see if my job can offer me the same.
The next morning I have class, and then an hour break, during which I go to work to discuss the second raise with them. One of my bosses isn’t there, so I tell the other one what I’m thinking, and tell her I’ll be back round 1pm (I was off that day due to class then a doctor’s appointment). I get back to work at 1pm and right away they tell me they’ll match it because they want to keep me so badly!! Pretty sweet!
Rounding out the week, on Friday I went on my lunch break with R to see the Art Institute’s Toulouse Lautrec exhibit, which was pretty cool. And then Friday night I went with N for ribs at Twin Anchors, which is supposed to be the best rib joint in the city (and it WAS pretty damn delicious) and which Frank Sinatra apparently frequented back in the day. So that was cool.

The court refers to Ludacris in it's dicta...

For all you law kids, you'll appreciate this: United States v. Murphy,
406 F.3d 857

So I started playing racquetball a few weeks ago...

A few months ago I ran into a friend on the El who I hadn't seen in about 2 years. We used to be friends in college and had lost touch. He had plans that night to enter the oyster eating contest at Shaws. I had nothing to do but sit on my ass and watch Friends for the rest of the night, so I decided to join him.

It was a blast. In fact, he ended up winning the contest that night (these were nightly pre-finals for the week before the finals night), and took home a well-stocked gift bag and a trip to the finals. I did not win, nor did I win the next night, but at least I can cross "oyster eating contest" off my life's to-do-list.

Well, the other day my friend was talking about racquetball, and I told him the last time I played was with my dad, maybe when I was 10. So, I invited him to teach me how to play again, as long as he promised not to laugh at me. He does laugh at me, but he was a good teacher, and we've been playing for the last few weeks.

But he kicks my ass EVERY TIME!

And this past time, when we played last night, I slammed my own racket into my knee, which has a nice goozle on it this morning, and the beginnings of a nasty bruise. I often also sit with one leg crossed under me (hmmm...perhaps I should just raise the height of the chair?) which had caused great pains in my knee every time I've stood up today.

I also somehow slammed my racket into the knuckle of my thumb, which isn't pleasant today either.

These injuries make me re-think getting those goggles everyone has recommended.

Hey kids! Guess who is done with finals?

Hey kids! Guess who is done with finals? On that same note, guess who is done with her first year of law school? Yeah, no more 1L for me, which also means only 2 weeks until I start summer school.
Why does the phrase "summer school" still make me feel like I was a bad kid and I have to re-take a class that I failed lest I be held back? Which is hopefully not the case, let me assure you. Or, at any rate, I am taking other classes this summer session, and won't be alerted if I've failed those until a later date. But at this point I'm just relieved that they're over.

Definitely not as much anxiety going into the finals this time around: don't fool yourself that I was more perpared for finals this semeszter, than last semster. I really do think that one's first semester finals in law school are enough to scare one shitless. I mean, last semester I was semi-sleepless for a few days surrounding finals, and when I was sleeping, I was dreming about problems concerning intentional torts - it was crazy to say the least. Perhaps I was more relaxed this semester simply because I knew how to go about taking a test that accounts for ones entire class grade. Hmmm....

In anycase, here's something shitty I felt like sharing: whilst taking a study break from Contrats last week, my study group left Caribou to go to the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. It is a good restaurant, and they make the rolls fresh for you there, and it's like 10.99 per person, so it's all good. (I bet you think this is going to turn into a sushi-gone-bad story, but it's not.) Anyhow, before we pack up our stuff to go, I notice that the top of my knee is sticky. I thought I'd dropped rice on it, and as I go to pick it off, I notice it is gum! Yuck! So, I grab some ice, ice the sucker and pick it off. And I'm thinking to myself, "really people, this place has paper napkins, and who sticks gum under tables these days anyhow?" Back at Caribou, I notice that the bottom of my knee also has gum it, for the love!!!!!!!!! I ice that sucker off too, but apparently I had not gotten it all, as about a half hour later I get up to go to the bathroom and notice that the underside of my other leg has about a 5 inch gum blob stuck to it! I must have crossed my legs right ontop of the gooey mass after it had stuck to my knee! So, if it isn't bad enough that I had to pick someone else's chewed gum off my knees, I had to do it three effing times!

On a funnier note, as I was returning to Caribou a few days later, there was this car backing up down almost an entire city block along Clark Street to grab the parking spot he passed up because he was driving too fast the first time. Anyhow, as he pulls into the spot, a meter cop is walking past, and he rolls down the window and asks her if she has a quarter for his meter! She just laughed in his face. As I walked by, I was thinking that anybody who asks the parking cop to feed his meter is the same type of asshole who leaves gum under the table. I bet it really was him.