I know, it’s been a while.

I’m busier on a consistent basis than I’ve ever been, I think. Full disclosure: within “busy,” I’m including social time, which obviously isn’t an actual obligation when you’re single. Regardless, I’m sort of doing something all the time, and extended moments when I’m at a computer with nothing in particular to do (the usual conditions for blogging) are at a minimum.

But, it’s Sunday night, on the eve of returning to the classroom, and I can’t get myself in gear to do more schoolwork.

End of week 1.

My goodness…I sure did change almost everything about my life.

Back in Washington, I would grind out my boring, slow 40 hours a week at my desk at work…but when those hours were over, the weekend was mine and I had absolutely nothing to stress or worry about (except the looming thought that I would have to be back at that desk come Monday morning). On the other hand, it’s already strikingly obvious that you’re pretty much a law student 24/7. Stress and anxiety are going to be a part of the picture a lot more often. Getting out of work for the day meant freedom…getting out of class for the day here is only the beginning.

I’m sufficiently intimidated by the academic aspect of this. I think I’m going to do well, but it’s going to be a ton of work; I’m competing for grades in a curved environment with a bunch of people who, make no mistake, are as smart or smarter than me. Not that they’re all necessarily as smart or smarter…but in general, to pull top grades, I’m going to have to beat out a ton of people who are intellectual peers. This means both working harder and working smarter, focusing on the right things.

Good sign.

The prof kept our morning class session 8 minutes past the scheduled end time today. I wasn’t even annoyed by it. In fact, as the scheduled end time had come, I was worried that we were going to end up quickly glossing over the case in question, which I found pretty interesting.

I compare this mentally to how I felt when the safety meetings (or whatever) at work began to run long, and…well, let’s just this is an encouraging sign about how good of a fit this law school thing might be.

Alright, I’m officially a law student now.

Class started yesterday, and now I’m through my second full day of it.

*Orientation was basically as brutally boring as expected yesterday…as far as 8 hour days go, it felt insanely long. I needed a nap afterward. With that said, the class part itself was something I liked. You could say that the professor picked on me the first day, but it wasn’t about the reading material we were supposed to have covered (I was prepared if he did). He was about to draw an example, and said, “I just have to pick on you because you have a Scandinavian name. Do you know what lutefisk is?” I said, “Ummm…well it’s a food, I’ve never had it.” “That’s pretty good,” he said (a pretty good answer, I guess?). Then he proceeded to ask me to basically be his example as he drew an analogy that had nothing to do with the initial question. I spent the next 90 minutes trying to figure out why the heck he asked me about lutefisk.

7/5/09: More notes on the eve of my return to the classroom.

*4th of July came and went without me seeing a firework. Rain and thunderstorms and a lack of desire to watch fireworks by myself meant I didn’t bother. It was the one bad day of weather we’ve had here since I’ve arrived (it was forecasted correctly), weather is back to being fine today and the 10 day forecast looks really good. Instead of seeing fireworks, I did head to the theater and watch The Hangover. I’m happy for any excuse to see Ed Helms (Andy Bernard on The Office) act in new material during the summer; Helms does a good job, the movie is pretty funny. It’s got an insanely high IMDb rating that I don’t quite understand, it was no classic comedy by any means, but it was worth watching once. I’d give it a 6/10.

*Seriously, driving myself around this town is painful at this point. The layout of the town is actually pretty logical and shouldn’t be confusing (even if the plethora of one-way streets is annoying), but it seems like the road lane lines are in need of a new paint job or better lighting or something, because driving home from the theater last night was downright treacherous; I couldn’t keep track of my lane for the life of me. I keep telling myself I’ll adjust and get used to it.

*Seeing the Mariners win a series off the Red Sox (hopefully sweep, they’re leading in the 7th right now) sure makes me wish I could be turning on the games. I was definitely planning on springing for the sports package in the fall so I could watch Pac-10 football, but I might just have to add Fox Sports Northwest to my package now if the M’s are really going to stay in the pennant race.

Notes from my first few days of living in Bloomington.

*The initial phase of the move-in process wasn’t that bad. The moving guys on this end were good guys, maybe not quite as fast as the Bellingham guys, but they helped me get my TV set up when I didn’t expect them to, and I definitely needed a second set of hands to get that done. I’m very pleased that 24 hours after I had moved in, I was entirely set up with working cable and internet (the AT&T guy was here the next day).

*Unpacking sucks. The big stuff is out, but I’m still not done. We’ve received our homework for the first day of class, and yesterday I found myself sitting and reading for that because it sounded like an enjoyable alternative to unpacking. I never thought I’d see the day when doing homework is procrastination.

*I’m navigationally challenged in a big way. On top of my GPS having more trouble in this town than it ever had in Washington, I’ve been trying to learn this downtown area on foot because I’m planning on doing a lot more walking than driving. It’s embarrassing how little intuition I have for this stuff. The other night, I set out on foot to go to a restaurant or bar (I truly had about 10 in mind and was just going to hit up the first one of those that jumped out at me)…these places were all within 1.5 miles of me. I didn’t find one for an hour.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 6

After a relaxing night of sleep, I rolled out of bed and headed back down to Houlihan’s, the restaurant I ate dinner at the night before. Naturally I was suckered in by the 10% off coupon, which makes no sense since everything was costing an arm and a leg in this city and 10% couldn’t possibly save me more than $2, but…I went there anyway. Turned out to be a good breakfast anyway, they had a nice buffet for $9.99, which seemed like an incredibly good deal for a restaurant along Wacker Drive.

After, I headed back to my room, packed up and checked out. I left my bags with the bell desk and headed down a couple of blocks to one of the stops of the Chicago Trolley Tour. This tour was fun and informative; for one fee, it would take you around to 18 stops throughout town, and you could get off whenever you felt like it and there would always be another trolley coming along every 8-10 minutes. Some of the tour guides were hilarious, others were dull, but in general I enjoyed the rides. Some shots from the trolley: