The Deadman Night Rider

A forum for evening students of the SMU Dedman School of Law and other outlaws..

Friday, October 14, 2005

Still punching

Friday! There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep and a cup of coffee to put some juice back in the batteries—even though I’ve cut down to one cup a day since my blood pressure spiked from 134/57 up to 157/59 this week. I knew I was getting a little ragged around the edges, but I didn’t think it was that bad.

We’re still in there punching, though. I can honestly say this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time and if I’ve got to slog through some long days, then that’s just the cost of doing business. A lot of folks are starting to shed their jobs but I’m not sure I’m to that point yet. So far it looks like I can hack it.

It helps that the work at the law school is such a blast and that all the classes are so different. Civil procedure is like some hybrid between chess and poker—very zero-sum—while Contracts is the opposite—mostly about equitable outcomes. Both of them are really detail-oriented and narrow-scope. Then you get to Torts, which is wide-open. Moral imbalances, ancient doctrines, public policy, philosophy, you name it. Isn’t that just, well, cool? Sure, Legal Writing can be a little nerve-wracking, but that’s where you go from just studying thermodynamics to actually building the rocket.

I guess to sum it up you could say - a little tired, a little ragged, but still: kid, candy store. What we need this weekend is a little rest, a little library time, and a favorable nod from the writing gods. One way or another, we're going to make it through this deal.

3 Comments:

Blogger Andria said...

I'm sincerely glad that you're so excited about law school. Someone should be, but alas that someone is not me. When I read your blog - it is as if we are seeking entirely different degrees. What you find invigorating, I find mind-numbing. I wish that I enjoyed it as much as you. For now, I bitterly tolerate it as a means to an end. The only class that I find interesting is torts. I know that the others are obviously important or every law student in America wouldn't have to take them during the first year, but I (and I know that I am bordering on short-sighted here) fail to see how learning about future interests in property or proimssory estoppel is going to make me a better advocate for my clients or a more precise and thorough prosecutor down the road.

9:47 AM  
Blogger rattlerd said...

Come on, Diva! I know that's just the doldrums talking--if you had to, I know you could rattle off 20 reasons how learning about future interests and promissory estoppel will absolutely make you a better advocate/prosecutor down the road. People say life is short, but it's not--it's long, and almost anything can happen. Maybe in a perverse way I have an advantage, since I was bitterly tolerating life up til now for the last several years, so this just seems like one big payoff to me. In any case, we both paid (or will pay with compound interest) a pretty penny for this ticket, so we might as well enjoy the ride.

Keep up that right glove and let's see some jabs and flurries. It's not a fight if you don't punch back--it's a beating.

D.

10:55 AM  
Blogger rkellus said...

Yo, Andria:

Keep in mind that Dustin has been looking at spread sheets and messing with tax forms for the last decade. He has been in the dumps more frequently than Oscar the Grouch during the last 10 years. Comparing his CPA life to his legal studies is like a 16 year old boy comparing Catacism classes to Porn Films. Of course, he is going to think that later is swell. Law is indeed part ritual. However, I will take issue with something you said. If you "fail to see how learning about future interests in property or proimssory estoppel is going to make me {you) better advocate for (your) clients" imagine how much confidence your clients are going to have in you if you didn't even know what those terms meant?

As someone who has been out for 8 years, I can assure you that law school is about getting the "lay of the land." Practicing law is about farming a certain area of the land. Indeed, your clients may never need you to plow the plains of promissory estoppel. Buy you really don't know who your clients may someday be or what their needs will be. Alas, all of us lawyers need to have surveyed the big field.

As for your feelings right now I will quote the title of two Finn Brother's tunes that say it all: "It's only Natural" and "There is Nothing Wrong with You"

11:40 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home