It’s this summer’s theme.

Elena Kagan is going to the supreme court.

Three women on the SCOTUS at one time and a black president? All I need is a 175 on the LSAT to complete the trifecta!

Spent the weekend curled up with hybrid logic games.  To answer your unasked question: Yes, it is this glamorous ‘round these parts all the time.  You’re welcome.

I dropped two points.

I think I may have said that I would own the LSAT, particularly the prep test I was scheduled to take last night. Yeah, not so much. It was a bloodbath. At least it felt like it. I haven’t gotten the score yet.

There were two game sections. One of which is unscored, but, I don’t know which one yet. It doesn’t matter, both were heinous. The whole test kicked off with an evil game section that left me so rattled that I couldn’t focus on the Logical Reasoning that followed. Then came another horrendous game section… Hybrids the likes of which I had never seen. By the 10 minute break I was silently hysterical. I BBM’d the Spousal Equivalent to scream via text message. He, of course, pretended that I wasn’t insane and tried to reason with me. He said things like:

“It’s just a practice. No one will ever know. You have plenty of time before the real test to improve…”

when I said things like:

“I’ll be lucky to get into an online law school! My eyes are screaming! I’m not sure I’m even breathing! I can’t, I can’t, I CANNOT!”

He’s really excited to being around me on the actual test day and all the days until we get our scores and most likely a few days after we get them. If I do poorly, he’ll be on constant suicide watch. If I do well, I’ll be unbearable. Lucky guy.

IMF loan forgiveness for Haiti.

I have no idea if that’s the correct way to say “summer school” en espanol. But, it’s a helluva lot better than “summer escuela” which is what I typed first. Lay off me, I’m taking Spanish this fall semester.

Anyhoo, the point of this post is:

REJOICE, my summer class is over!

It was a great course, taught by an enthusiastic professor who used the word brilliant once or twice in response to my papers (just sayin’). It isn’t so much that I’m glad it’s over, I’m just happy to cut back to two 18 hour days a week.

The course title was Law and Literature and we read three stories by Melville, The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. It was eye-opening. I had no idea Herman Melville was the son in law of Judge Lemuel Shaw, an iconic jurist in Massachusetts. Go check out his wiki… I’d tell you about him myself, but, I’m blogging from my bberry while waiting for the bus. You, are most likely at a computer, don’t be lazy, go look. I’ll be here when you get back. Cool, right? It really slams Melville into a certain context, especially considering how many of his stories are commentaries on justice and jurisprudence. More on that later.

The Reader, its more than just a movie that no one saw, its a book. A great book at that, written by a judge. But, one caveat: it is infinitely more enjoyable when read in context. I don’t want to give away the twist (although its pretty obvious early on) so all I will say is that Hanna’s (possible, you decide) mitigating circumstance would have been exceedingly uncommon and shameful in Germany. And here’s something else to Google: could the judges of Weimar Germany have prevented the Holocaust? I think so. More on that later, too.

So, what will I do with all of this free time??? Study for the LSAT. With a vengeance. Until I bleed from the eyes. You see, in our infinite dorkiness, the spousal equivalent and I have been studying on law school campuses around NYC. The last one visited, which shall remain nameless, instilled a renewed hunger in me. I am determined to own the LSAT.

Well, I just rang the bell on the bus… So, I’m going to sign off. Carry on.

Here’s a minor observation that I’ve made this 4th session at Prepco: some people seem to think that they can argue an incorrect answer into being a credited one. Look kids, we’re not in law school yet. This is not the time for hypos.

Let’s not waste 15 minutes of our commoditized class time on what you believe the question is really asking and how the LSAT administrators failed to see that there are two viable answers… depending on how you “experience” the question.

No. I’m sorry, I don’t think I was clear: NONONO.

We’re all trying to learn here. It’s like you’re holding up traffic to slow down and look at the car wreck. Honk, honk, keep it movin’; you’re giving me road rage.

This past week was an interesting one.  In this context, interesting means exhausting.  On Tuesday night after a hectic 9 hour work day with barely a minute for lunch, on about five hours of sleep and with about 2 hours warning, I took a surprise five section timed and proctored LSAT.  I got home at midnight, got to sleep at 1am woke up again at 6:40.  Wednesday and Thursday were of the rinse and repeat variety, except on Wednesday I had my regular law and literature class to contend with after work and on Thursday night was the second meeting of the prep class.  By Friday, I was up to a cup of coffee in the morning and 2 Red Bulls a day… welcome to age 30.

Why did I take a surprise LSAT?  Who in their right mind would take a proctored LSAT after a full work day, starting at 6:30pm on an empty stomach and with a full bladder?  Oh, that would be me.  Although, the “right mind” portion of that statement is probably not entirely accurate.  Moving on…

The other question to answer is the why.  The week before I had signed up and paid the deposit for my LSAT Prep Class, scheduled on Saturdays, with a certain popular prep company.  Let’s call them Prepco.  I had been planning to take the diagnostic test (which turned out to be the actual LSAT from Dec. 08) during the first meeting of the class on Saturday. 

But, that all changed when over the weekend I received an email from Prepco stating that they would probably cancel the Saturday class this due to a lack of interested students.  Apparently, I’m the only lunatic* who thought it would be a good idea to study logic games from 9-5 on a day traditionally set aside for hangovers.  Self-Reminder: I am a bit older than the average 0L.  And not everyone works 9-6 during the week. 

I got the call from Prepco on Tuesday afternoon that I could enroll in the Tuesday/Thursday class.  Sweet!  But the diagnostic takes place in two hours.  Boo!  I left the office at 6 on the dot, fought with the R train, and ran to the test center in Midtown. 

How’d I do?  Yeah, I’m too embarrassed to answer/wouldn’t want to insult anyone with a similar score who is not embarrassed by it.  Yes, I’m a little douchie.  Suffice it to say, I was way off of the 170 I wanted.  To be honest, I wanted a 180, but, as I said, I’m douchie not delusional.  Ok, a little delusional. 

The Fiance (who loves me in spite of my douchieness) talked me off the ledge.  He pointed out that sleep deprivation, a hectic day at the office, a near empty stomach, a full bladder and two hours notice to get myself a number two pencil are things that I will not likely have to contend with on the actual test day.  It was a practice test, it just provides a baseline against which I can mark my improvement.  Side note: Please, jebus, let there be improvement.

For the next couple of weeks, I’ll have law and lit on Mondays and Wednesdays and Prepco on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But, I get to sleep late on Saturdays, so, life is good!    

Pics Taken in P.R.