I'll spare everyone the always exciting minutiae of the mental marathon that is studying for law school exams and get on to with what I have been distracting myself. Considering that very realistic picture, though, this blog will be short.

First, the end of classes was great. My last class, Constitutional Law, was wrapped up awesomely. I left it honestly feeling whole and complete. To paraphrase one of the last things Professor Adler said to us: The law tries to boil life down, make it abstract, and pretend that it--the law--operates in a perfect world. One of your best tools as a lawyer is fearlessness in the face of such abstraction. Keep an eye on the real world...a world that is not abstract or perfect.

Secondly, my first Seder dinner at the law school was great. See Wen's (second) blog--"Passover Seder" on the whole experience. I think she does a great job of describing it from the point of view of someone not Jewish at their first Seder. Also, I similarly learned that I don't dig gefilte fish.

Lastly, I spent part of this weekend at a rally in front of the $7.5 million dollar home of the President of Northeastern University. The Justice for Janitor's Coalition rallied with students, student groups, janitors, faculty, local members of state congress, the media, and the public to protest the wages and lack of healthcare under which many of the employees of our facility services must work. The rally went strong all weekend, through rain and sunshine, and collected nearly 900 letters of support from the community for the cause. And the fight continues. Go here to see a Northeastern University TV (NUTV) two-part documentary about it: Part One, and Part Two.

If you click on any of the other links provided in that paragraph you should see some great press coverage of this weekend's rally.

Best of luck to my fellow law students--at Northeastern and other law schools--

The title to this blog really paints the portrait, but the picture is admittedly incomplete for you non-law school readers who haven't been on this two week journey. So, let me take you there.

Last I wrote, I had two exams left: Criminal Law and Contracts. They both went, and I hope they went well. Crim was a bit of a frustration, because the professor determined that we did not need the full four hours typically allotted for law school exams at NUSL. Instead, s/he made the decision that we would do fine with two-and-a-half. There are pros and cons to this, of course. Presumably, if the time is cut almost in half the tested subject matter would also be cut in half. Presumably. The morning of the exam, moments before starting, we were informed that the Professor made a last minute decision (i.e., right before we arrived) that we may in fact need a full three hours for the exams.

After completing the exam, rich in byzantine hypotheticals where the characters arguably commit over ten crimes on one another and we're asked to explain how they should be charged, I am unsure if anything about the exam was truly changed to reflect the shortened timespan. Perhaps the professor's mind just changed.

Contracts, in all honestly, is kind of a blur. It was half multiple choice and half essay and, as I mentioned in my last blog, spanned four-and-a-half hours. I certainly practiced doing multiple choice questions for Contracts, and it seemed very foreign. As an English major in undergrad., who also studied History, Anthropology and foreign languages, I had not taken a multiple choice exam in a long time. Well, other than the LSAT. And my memory on that too was kind of a blur.

Since exams I've had a wonderful Summer break, now soon coming to a close. I spent part of it in D.C.--where I had a wonderful and relaxing time--and in North Carolina--where I visited family. Friday, very early in the a.m., I drive southwest towards Phoenix. Next Tuesday I start my internship at the Supreme Court, and I am really excited. The drive will be one long haul without any time to stop and smell the scenic roses. There will be plenty of that once I get to my post in Arizona.

The relaxing time in between exams and my internship in the offing hasn't totally been law-free. Firstly, I'm not sure if anything is really law free. Except maybe anarchy. Maybe. Secondly, the US Supreme Court has come down with some really exciting decisions in the past week and a half, not least to mention the (hopefully) monumental decision out of California on same-sex marriage.

More to come next week after my first day at the AZ Supreme Court. I hope all the best for everyone's summers too--wherever you are.