San Fransisco and Dahiell Hammett...

Dinah has a conference in San Francisco, and I didn't have anything going on. So, after looking at the weather report and seeing that tempratures that were in the double-digits, jumped at the chance to join her. Law school starts next week--this week is for fun and relaxation.

We came in on Tuesday and visited Chinatown that night. Wednesday we took a ferry from the Embermarcado to Sausalito, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz along the way. Then we went to Ghirdelli Square and the North Beach area. It's been a busy visit, but very good.

Thursday, however, Dinah's conference began and I was left to my own devices. It didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted to do. San Francisco, in my mind, is the city of The Maltese Falcon. And I wanted to see whatever I could that was a backdrop to the book and its author, Dashiell Hammett. And, lucky you, I'm gonna share some of the pictures I took.

The next pictures are from the building on 111 Sutter St., where Hammett put Detective Sam Spade's office in the book. It's a pretty nice building from what I could see. In the book, Spade's office is on the fifth floor. Checking the directory, I could see that Harvard University has some space up there now.

The following picture is of the Geary Theater, where Joel Cairo takes in a play. The building is still a functioning theater. I didn't get a chance to look inside the theater, as I would've liked, but the outside was very impressive. But I love old theaters.

The next three pictures are of the Monaco Hotel. When Hammett was writing The Maltese Falcon, it was called the Hotel Belvedere. It was here that Joel Cairo stayed during his trip to San Francisco. You can see from the pictures that I made my way inside. Obviously, the interior has changed since the time of the book, but I thought it was still the kind of sumptuous atmosphere that Cairo would likely be found in. I especially loved that wooden staircase. It was so beautiful.

The next two pictures are of the alley at Burritt and Bush, where Spade's partner was shot. Looking at the first picture does spoil the book and the movie, so turn away if you haven't read or watched. Also, if you haven't read or watched, you should. Both works are worthy of your attention.

When I first got to the area, I was sure I was in the wrong place. In the book, the area is described as being hilly (and everything in this San Francisco is hilly), and Archer's body went down the hill so far that Spade didn't want to go down and look at it. But, as you can tell, this area is not really all that hilly. But, there's the plaque, so I was in the right space. So my guess is either, it was hillier before the buildings were put up around it, or Hammett wasn't being that exact with his descriptions.

The following two pic are of the building on Dashiell Hammett way (see the first pic), where Hammett resided for some time to get away from his family so he could drink. After the holidays, I'm sure many of us can relate to that sentiment.

All in all, I was surprised at how close all of these places were to each other. In fact, it only took me a morning to look in on all of these places. And I walked the whole way.

Joe takes a picture...

The church across from William Mitchell, on my walk home tonight. I'm sure my camera phone doesn't do it justice, but it's a gorgeous church and the snow falling in the light was so serene.

Just thought I'd share.

First Semester in Review...

Well, I'm starting to get my assignments for next semester, which officially begins next Monday. But, I think it's important for me to look back and make sure I'm taking some things away from the semester that seems to have just ended. So, on to bullet points of things I learned...

• Law school is hard. I know, not exactly an earth-shaking proposition, and probably something I knew in the abstract before entering law school. But, I was not fully prepared for the way in which it is hard. It's, of course, academically challenging, but it's also challenging just to keep up. I'm lucky that I didn't get sick or have something else go wrong that would put me behind, because I cannot imagine having to play catch up.
• Law school is hard, part II. The amount of effort, angst, and worry that go into every assignment and every class is phenomenal. I am kind of a worrier anyway, but when you add to my normal penchant with a competitive environment, a ton of work, and a demand for a high level of precision? Well, you have a recipe for me being a very hard person to be around. I certainly don't like being around me when I'm wallowing in the doubt.
• The curve sucks, but I found the less I worried about it, the better I felt about how I did. Now, I don't have my grades back from first semester finals*, but I think I did well. I at least did the best I could. I know I didn't spend the night in the library, or read (and re-read) non-stop for days, in preparation for finals. I didn't edit my papers four or five times. I know that others did do these things in order to secure better grades than the rest of us, and it bothers me that I don't have the drive to do that. But I don't. Which brings me to:
• I'm not ever going to be a clerk for the Supreme Court or anything so elite. I don't have the raw intelligence, the fine skill, nor the drive required for that. I know going into law school, this was a goal of mine. But, fact is, I don't have what it takes. It sucks to say that, but honestly, this is not why I went to law school. I went to law school, because I want to help people. I've got some idea about how I want to do that, but I'm not sure about anything now. And that's fine. I may get good grades or I may get average grades, I don't know. But the important thing--the thing I hope I keep in mind if the grades don't come back the way I want--is that I'm on my way to doing something that helps the community and the people who live in it. And really, I want to spend time with my wife at the end of my days. I need balance between work and life--it's was one big reason why I didn't want to attend law school and become an attorney in Chicago.
• In law school going slow is better. It's always better to do something right the first time, but it's never been more true for me than when reading and preparing for class. If something has to take 4 hours to get before showing up to class, it's better to spend the time in the beginning than sitting there in class and feel like an idiot because you don't quite follow things. Or worse, get called on to explain something it turns out you don't understand. Luckily, there were only a couple of classes where I was lost and they were in the beginning of the semester. But that fear was good. It made me slow down and try to really understand everything.
• Fear is okay. Fear of failure. Fear of letting down the loved-ones who are sacrificing so much to put me through law school. Fear of looking like a jerk. These are all good motivators, but I found they all ate away at me after a while. There's only so long that fear can push me before I start to need more. Fear pushes me away from places I don't want to go, but the problem is that it doesn't necessarily push me somewhere I do want to go. So, next semester, I'm still going to be afraid, but I'm going to try to get myself moving somewhere I want to be.
• Law school is hard, part III. Law school is a professional school. Ultimately there are two goals: first, to learn to be an attorney (hopefully a good one), and second, to get a job (another thing I worry about). During all the classes, reading, and assignments, I'm supposed to be moving toward these goals. But measuring my progress is hard, unless I put a lot of faith in grades. And while I don't doubt that the grades are meaningful, I don't know if they are measuring my progress in regards to these two goals. The grades may influence my ability to reach these goals, I know, but that's not the same thing.
• It's hard to feel like you're on the road you want to be as a 1L. The whole year is planned out. No choice in classes or professors. The only choice you get is what extra-curriculars to join, and, for my part, I was afraid to over-commit myself, so I didn't join too many last semester. This semester, I think that's going to change. A little. I'm in two groups and do some volunteering on the weekends, but I think I can join another group and volunteer a little more without sacrificing too much of my time. That will be nice.
• Law school is lonely. This is what I'm dreading most about going back to school. It's not just time I have to spend away from my wife and friends (though that does suck), but it's also other things. Over the holidays, I spent time with my father (Thanksgiving) and with my mother (Christmas), and neither of them really know how to handle me going to law school. It's like they think I'm a different person because I'm learning about the law. I am sure it has to do with feelings of regret/inferiority they have, and that neither of them want to make me feel marooned from them. But, it kind of sucks. And it's hard to explain to them that I'm not a different person. Especially because:
• Law school makes you a (slightly) different person. Not really a completely different person, and I'm sure it's different for everyone, but it's there. The whole mantra of the 1L year (at least thus far) is that 'we're teaching you to think like a lawyer.' And when you're thinking like a lawyer, that means you're not thinking like you used to, at least in part. It hasn't changed my beliefs, or how I view the world, but I do find myself questioning things a little more. And (though you probably can't tell from this post), I find I have a little more confidence in dealing with people.
• I've spent a bunch of time during break trying to get things together so I can get a legal job this summer. Wish me luck.
• I can do this. I know this post can be read as a downer, but I am starting to look forward to the next semester. Now that I know I can get through a semester and I have some ideas about how to do it better**, I feel like everything is going to be okay. I do know that more is probably going to be expected of me this semester, but that's okay. I can do more. I will do more.

*Note 1. UGH. I don't want to think about it, but it's all I think about at night.

**Note 2. Outlining from the beginning of the semester. I'm telling you, this is going to decrease the end of the semester insanity by a good 20%.

1st Semester is Done...

Wow. It's over. Tomorrow I can sleep in.
You know, before I start working on getting a clerkship for the summer. Oh, and I have a little over three weeks to get myself ready to do this again. But still. It's done. And I'm still sane, which is a nice bonus.
Feeling good.

Contracts, an ordeal

Today was the day of my contracts final. This was the final I was most worried about, because my professor has the reputation of writing up a vicious exam. It's multiple choice, but with choices that are generally a through f, (some actually went to i) and you're looking for the most correct answer. So, you have to really pay attention to nuance and detail. And some of the questions have more than one correct answer, but they can be completely inconsistent depending on which rules you apply to the situation. In short, it sucks. Hard.
But, the ordeal that was this test stated much earlier. On Friday I had my Civ Pro final, which gave me Saturday and Sunday to study for Contracts, which felt like it would be enough time. I had already finished my outline, so I just needed to plug the gaps in my understanding, get some sleep and try to stay in a good mindset. It all seemed very possible.
But, then, this weekend, St. Paul got somewhere between 15 and 20 inches of snow. It started slowly on Saturday morning. The contracts professor had scheduled a Q & A session Saturday morning, which I knew I really wanted to attend. There were probably only 5 inches on the ground by the time I set out, but the wind was squeeling quickly by me, whipping the snow around like a wet towel. As I entered the building I had a fear that it'd just be me and the professor, but I saw 6 other people. The Q & A went well, questions were asked, answers were given and I felt better about some things I hadn't quite understood. I had planned on spending the day at Mitchell studying, but the snow was coming down hard, so I headed home. I was content that I would have to work on a couple things, but that I was in good shape. This test was going to be hard, but I could do it, I thought.
And then I took her practice tests. I had planned to take these to get familiar with the format of her exams. I had heard the rumors about her exams, but I figured they were a little over-blown. I was wrong. Her exams are evil. EVIL. They're set up so you have to look up every little thing about every possible answer. Yes, there are some possibilities that are clearly wrong, but some of them are meant to look clearly wrong when they are not.
So, I ended up spending most of Saturday afternoon trying to talk myself into not failing out of law school. And, of course watching the snow pile up around our house. And pile up it did. Like I said, over two feet of snow. I watched as one of our neighbors tried to get her car into her parking space a couple spots over from ours, before she just gave up and left it half-way out. There was just nothing she could do, I guess.
Sunday was better. The snow had stopped. And I decided that I had to just go with it on the contracts final. I used the tests from yesterday to pinpoint a couple problems and spent a good chunk of the day re-reading a couple chapters (1 and 4), as well as checking over my briefs on a couple cases. And I decided I was just going to have to be meticulous and methodical and just concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.
I also spent some time shoveling out our car so that Dinah could go to work on Monday. We shoveled a lot, eventually clearing a path from our spot to the alley. It was a pretty decent acheivement, and I can say whole-heartedly that between changing my phone to a local number and shoveling out my car on a day when temps maxed out at 7, I am a Minnesotan.
And the shovelling was good. It tired me out, so that by the time I headed to bed, around 9, I went to sleep immediately.
I was awoken by the sound of a snowblower between our building and the one next to ours. After the last snow, our landlord had the walks cleared at aroudn 5 am, so when I awoke, I assumed it was around 5. I picked up my phone and was shocked to learn it was 1:30 am. 1:30 AM! I was pretty livid. The guy was out there for about an hour, working his way most of the way around the building, which forced me to switch rooms looking for a quiet spot so I could sleep. I tried to keep calm, but it was hard to let go of the fact that I was taking a nasty test in the morning and I needed a good night's sleep. After switching to the guest bedroom, I eventually got back to sleep without any further problems.
So, now it's Monday morning, and Dinah wakes me up. I get up and as I'm getting my cereal together, she tells me that the neighbor who had left her car half-way out of her space had moved her car sometime in the night. She had left and apparently come back and parked her car behind ours, blocking us in. Some of you living in a warm-weather climate might not know this, but this is a huge foul. If someone puts in the work to get their car out, and they don't block you in the process, then you cannot impeded them. And Dinah was angry. I guess she had noticed this last night and tried to hope this person would move her car on her own, before she needed to leave. But now, it was getting to time for Dinah to go to work and this woman had blocked her in. To make matters worth, we didn't know which building she lived in. So. Suck.
As I took a peak out the window, I noticed the parking lights were now on, and I mentioned that, and Dinah shot out. I have made my wife angry before, but this was not good. So, I did what any good husband would do. I got my cereal and went to the window to watch and see if I would need to call the police or an ambulance. Luckily, there was no real incident. The woman had left a note for Dinah to call her (which mitigates the problem, but doesn't make it okay), and Dinah was very civil about the situation.
And then I was left to get ready for my test. And really the rest of it is a blur. I did my morning ritual and suddenly I was there, sitting in the room taking the test.
I think it went well. Well, I don't know how it went, really. But I went slow and I took my time and I did the best I could. So, we'll see.
Now, it's on to Property. The last test standing. Two days of prep for this and the test Thursday afternoon. And then I get to start the new Denis Lehane book that Dinah got me for my birthday. I can't wait. It's been a good semester. Rough at times, but for the most part, I have enjoyed law school. And I think I'm getting the hang of things. Next semester is rumored to be harder, but I'm hoping it's harder in a different way. I'm hoping there will be less adjusting how I work and that any heightened challenge comes working on my skills. We'll see.

First exam done...

As I'm sure you'll gather from the title, I just finished my first exam. It was in Torts, and I think it went well. It's hard to tell for sure, especially when the curve is taken into account, but I feel good about it. And that's about all I can do, so good.
Now, tonight I celebrate turning 33 without dying. And tomorrow it's on to Civil Procedure.
Suck.

Classes are over...

A feeling of hope washed over me after my last Civ Pro class. I can survive a semester of this without making a complete ass of myself in class and without going completely insane. This is good, I tought. I can do this.
Of course that feeling was just a momentarly lapse from the anxiety I've been feeling lately. Finals.
Finals in less than a week. Torts, then Civ Pro. Then Contracts and Property. 2 weeks of studying and preparing.
Yup.