North Maple Rag

If all goes according to plan, South Dakota will soon be the home to the nation' s only town designed specifically for signing/deaf community. The land has been purchased and the town plans are complete (you can see them here). The town will be called Laurent, after Laurent Clerc who brought sign language to the US from France, and will be located between Sioux Falls and Mitchell. The town planners say the population could be around 2500 in just a few years.

What's fascinating to me aside the fact that the town will be use American Sign Language and English as its primary modes of communication, is that it's possible to just start a town. Most of the towns in South Dakota were started in the late 1800's when people where homesteading and, as far as I know, not many news ones have popped up in the last century. In fact, I think it's fair to say that a lot more small towns have actually disappeared. That said, according to the Laurent's website, South Dakota's a great place to start your own town. Here's their explanation:

Size does matter and South Dakota’s population is only 754,844. McCook County’s population is 5,832. Laurent’s planned population will be somewhere between 1,250 to 4,000 people. With these numbers, we can expect to have political influence and an economic impact at both the county and state levels. We will be one of the top 15 largest cities in the state. We can build next to the interstate 90. This location is central to the United States and easy to reach by auto or air. The climate provides four seasons and the area gets over 250 days of sunshine a year. South Dakota provides excellent low interest financing for first time homebuyers through the SDHDA program. In South Dakota, there is no corporate tax, no income tax, no personal property tax and no inheritance tax. In 1992, Money Magazine named Sioux Falls, which is approximately 35 miles east of Laurent’s location, as the #1 best place in America to live. This area is still a great place to live.

If you're as captivated by this as I am, the New York Times did a story on Laurent a few weeks ago. Click here (you might have to sign in).

Earlier this week, I turned in the first draft of my final Lawyering writing project. Today, I had a critique session with my professor and a classmate. Discussing my brief was so much fun! Really, it was. I love editing and I love smart discussions, so these critique sessions are kind of a hoot.

As I walked back to my apartment after the meeting, I thought about depth of my affection for editing and I was reminded of my college pottery class. Early in the semester, my professor told my class that he liked to leave his handprint on his pots so that he could remember the process he used to create them. When he’d reach the final step of glazing, he’d hold the pot in such a way that after it was fired, you could still see exactly where his fingers had gripped when he dunked the pot in the glaze. A lot of us chose to copy him and now, every time I go home and see my favorite bowl from that class sitting in my parent’s living room, I pick it up and place my fingers into the prints around its base. My professor was right, holding it like that helps me remember the choices I made in how to shape and color it.

I think I like editing for a similar reason. I'm usually hesitant to throw away drafts of things I’ve written that are marked up with edits. I generally prefer to edit by hand and I usually cover the paper with circles and arrows and new or changed sentences. Looking at those drafts is so much more satisfying that looking at the final product because the drafts show my process of working out just the right way to convey exactly what I meant to say. I’m a girl who’s often terrified of being misunderstood, so I love having tangible proof of that process.

This blog is one of the few things I write that I don't extensively edit, which is probably painfully obvious at times. That's fun, but I think editing is still my favorite thing about writing.

Well, that's enough geekiness for one day. Hans Brix just emailed me to suggest that we become "SuperLawyers" meaning lawyer superheroes. I think that's a nice idea. So now I'm imagining myself, caped, and flying through the air with one arm outstretched and the other grasping a briefcase. I'm also making up SuperLawyer names for my friends at various law schools, so they can join our SuperLawyer team. Huh, just can't turn off the geekiness, I guess.

I got a lot done today, although not quite as much as I would've liked. I completed some necessary errands, but forgot a few only slightly-less-necessary ones. I applied to a few clinics, but it took more time than I had planned. I went to a mandatory meeting about early interview week, but it was less helpful than I expected.

On the other hand, one clinic application that I thought would turn out kind of crappy, ended up being semi-respectable. I also finished some reading I'd been planning to put off until tomorrow. And, I discovered that the Union Square Whole Foods sells my favorite salmon salad sandwich (the Columbus Circle Whole Foods stopped making it a few months ago).

Also, it was beautiful day; warm enough that I put on flip-flops for a short time. Every trip outside was enjoyable (even walking to the copy store an hour ago only to confirm that they were already closed). Springtime in New York is making me a little sentimental (that' s probably not so special, lots of things make me sentimental); I visited the city for the first time almost two years ago and NYU Law one year ago. Both days were similar to today. Last year, especially, I spent all my time in New York trying to picture myself living here. As a midwesterner, I generally think the weather and the seasons are vitally important to my life, so today was really the first time since I moved here, that my life was, in those two ways, like what I imagined during those first visits.

Wow, that last sentence was rather oddly constructed. Anyway, in honor of that first trip to New York, I've included one of the few photos I took that day. While walking past the crowd outside The Today Show, a certain sign caught my eye. Patriotic dancing is so inspiring.

Someone found my blog by searching for "escort services sodak." Sorry! Other than rumors about this one hotel in my hometown, I really know nothing about that aspect of South Dakota culture.

Last night, after being accused of not being a grown-up, I decided to start using Outlook for email and scheduling (I had been using Outlook Express). The upgrade made perfect sense; the next few weeks are busy and I have a number of mandatory things that I can't let myself forget. I've been sort of hesitent about using the Outlook calendar because it used to rule my life. At my job, I used Outlook to schedule everything, including time-sensitive projects. Eventually, as my workload grew, the reminders about projects that were due (or overdue) popped up incessantly.

Today, as the reminders started popping up for the first time in about nine months, I found out that I still react to them with a feeling of dread. Not all of the reminders at my job were bad -- most were just meetings that I had to attend. The project reminders, however, were the worst and they're what caused the dread. My first thought was usually "Shit. This memo/statement/letter/press release needs to be done now, and it's crap." Luckily, most of my reminders this week are far less stressful, so I'm hoping I'll soon stop reacting with a feeling of alarm and an accelerated heartrate.

Also, this morning as I was walking out of CVS, I was sure I saw this guy who used to work in the Senate. Hans Brix and I used to see him everywhere. He's tall and lanky and has a staring problem. We called him "that weird guy from Nighthorse-Campbell's office" even though we never really knew who he worked for. I think someone just suggested Nighthorse-Campbell as an option and we went with it since we had no better name for him. Anyway, this guy was more than a little creepy (he's one of those DC guys who wears his Senate ID at all times) and I'm sure I saw him on Sixth Avenue today.

Finally, I've lost my phone. That's something I did at work all the time. It's been missing for 24 hours and I really, really miss it. My own forgetfulness amazes me sometimes. I have a really good memory for just about everything other than where I've put my stuff.* So that's the story of my day, lots of de ja vu. Now, I'm going to work through the evening which is also something I did too much of at my job.


* Hey, Katherine von Bora and Head Kid, I know what you've been saying about me. I have loyal sources.

My planner is full. I have no time to take on anything else this week. I'm nearly booked solid until Saturday and that space currently just says "Library." I think it's going to stay like this right up until the end of the semester. It seems like there are an endless number of meetings coming up about finding jobs for our 2L summers and registering for classes next year. We've also been forced to start thinking about and applying for clinics, moot court, and even journals. I'm also going out of town once or twice in the next few weeks. It's a little overwhelming, but I'm not complaining. I like my life to be busy, I'm just a little worried that my time-management skills have grown a little rusty. Case in point: Earlier today I though to myself, "Huh. I need to finish this clinic application ASAP, I wonder if there's any good tv to watch while I write the personal stament?"

Easter kind of snuck up on me and unfortunately, I don't have time to do anything special. Last Easter, I visited a friend in Richmond and we had brunch at this cool restaurant featuring a bathtub buffet and attended the city's "Easter on Parade," which was, in a word, bizarre. This year, I guess I'm replacing fancy Easter bonnets and Southern food with the Indian Child Welfare Act and lots of Torts ('cuz nothing says "spring" like contributory negligence).

I went to Mass this morning and I'm glad I did; I liked the church more than I like most. Among other more important factors, it's only a block away from my favorite coffee shop, Joe. Given the number of people who headed over there after Mass, I think Joe might be part of what's filling St. Joseph's seats.

If you, like me, are stuck inside today, take a minute to read this great justification of my sleeping habits from the New York Times. It's nice to know that my late-night productivity simply reflects my unique circadian rhythms (circadian: being, having, characterized by, or occurring in approximately 24-hour periods or cycles).

The brief's amost finished and it's just barely starting to feel like spring. Occasionally when the sun is shining, it's warm enough to go coatless and I noticed this morning that all the trees in the Vanderbilt courtyard have tiny buds on their branches. I've seen pictures of what Washington Square Park looks like in the early spring and I'm looking foward to it being abloom.

I just bought a ticket to DC for mid-April and I'm hoping that there will still be a few cherry blossoms left then. A friend of mine moved to DC earlier this week and this afternoon he told me that he'd spent the day exploring the city on foot. It's the same thing I did the first summer and it's really the best way to get to know the city. Anyway, my friend had originally called me to ask for a restaurant recommendation because he was in a part of the city with which he was unfamiliar and he was certain I'd know a good place "off the beaten path." I was flattered, but then I realized that I have a habit of collecting places. I kind of figure that the more favorite places I have, the more often I'll feel at home.

Here are a few of them:

The Watertown Courthouse.



"My" tree at college.



The view from Hillsity's backyard.



The Badlands.



The best part of my former commute (ignore the datestamp, I haven't figured out how to edit it out).



And, Harper's Ferry, WV (one of my more frequent road trip destinations).

I'd been working diligently for a few hours this evening when I decided to go out to dinner with a few friends. We went to this place and now, after good food (I even had fish in honor of Good Friday!) and a little wine, I'm all warm and sleepy. My original plan was to write a bit more of my brief this evening, but I'm a little afraid of what I'd write in my current hazy state (something like "we don't really care about the preliminary injunction, just do what you think is best," I expect).

Instead, I'm plotting out my outlines. Each class has a different structure and style, so the outlines have to, as well. Plus, in order to understand the big picture of a class, I need chart out the professor's "swoop" (I heard someone use that word last semester, and it made sense to me though I can't exactly explain why). So, that's as challenging as it's getting tonight: looking through my notes and old outlines.

Oh, I've also started to suspect that I'm a fast walker. It's probably annoying to people who walk with me, but it seems that I'm almost incapable of slowing down to match someone else's speed. Actually, I can do it, it's just sort of painful. Even after the food and the wine, I was walking at a nice clip.

This morning, I was thinking about the Super Walmart that's being built in my hometown. It's kind of a depressing story, but not a unique one; Walmart is abandoning a huge building that probably won't find another use, the dayworkers who are doing the construction on the new building are underpaid (although, last fall they were fighting back, so that's cool), and a lot of small business owners in town are worried about their futures. All that's interesting, and worthy of comment, but it's not the focus of this post.

Lots of chain stores and restaurants have moved to Watertown in the last few years and as I was thinking depressing thoughts about Super Walmart, I tried to also come up with a list of some of the great locally-owned businesses. There's Angelina's, which is new and fantastic (the garlic ciabatta bread drew me in twice over spring break) and my favorite coffeehouse, Past Times. Watertown is also home to Blessings, a great used book store. And this is the point in my list, when I thought of Zesto. Technically, Zesto is a chain, or at least it used to be. There are six left in South Dakota but they're all now independently owned and operated. In Watertown, Zesto is the alternative to Dairy Queen for ice cream on a hot summer night. In my family, getting Zesto was pretty much a weekly event during the summer. I couldn't find a picture of the one in Watertown, so this one in Pierre will have to suffice.

Once I found the linke to the one in Pierre, I noticed that it was part of a great website called Plains Folk and that's when I found a home away from home on the internet. Among other things, the site has links to Great Plains research and scholarship. For instance, you can learn all about my German-Russian ancestors here. The website's a bit North Dakota-centric, but you can find a short listing of South Dakota's "Oases on the Great American Desert" here. Including, Scotty's, where my parents liked to stop to buy chicken gizzards when we would drive through Aberdeen on the way to my mom's hometown. They also have a link to this chain, but I'd encourage you to not eat there. I ate at one in Nebraska on New Year's Day and found a really long hair embedded in my runza and ew, ew, ew.

Anyway, those of you who share my love of the Great Plains should take a few minutes to explore a website that celebrates our quirkiness. It's pretty rare to find recipes for chokecherry jam, lefse, kuchen, fleishkeuchle, and rhubarb bars all in one place.

I woke up around 7:30 this morning, less than five hours after I finally gave up on finishing my Torts reading and decided to cancel my 8:10 doctor's appointment. Getting up, getting ready and walking to the NYU Health Center just wasn't going to happen. So I snoozed for a while and half-heartedly read more Torts.

After class, I decided to go listen to Congressman Anthony Weiner talk about New York's budget problems. More and more, I'm getting interested in NYC politics, if only because it's so completely different than anything I've ever witnessed/experienced. Politicians are different here (Rep. Weiner is a good speaker, but I think South Dakotans would call him "flashy") and I know absolutely nothing about the city's big issues. Amazingly enough, funding for rural hospitals and schools and farm subsidies don't appear to be that important in the NYC mayoral race. Real estate is important . . . and baffling.

Admin was pretty fun and after, a few classmates and I went out for coffee with our professor. Actually, all us students ordered food once she said it was allowed, so it kind of turned into dinner. Hey, we're poor. I haven't had much to ask her about outside of class, so I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with her a little about my ongoing interest in administrative law. Now, she won't be surprised when I show up at her office asking for schedule advice later in the semester. Also, it's always nice to find someone who's eyes don't glaze over at the mention of the Federal Register or C-SPAN. Even within the legal profession, it seems that administrative law's not too popular.

And now, I'm ending the day back where I started: Torts. We've got a make-up class tomorrow afternoon and I've yet to start the reading. Poor planning? Yes, but there was a new O.C. tonight. A girl's gotta have priorities.

I've spent most of the afternoon trying to complete the first draft of the brief I have due for Lawyering next Monday. It's been sort of fun . . . Actually, I'll go so far as to say it's been a lot of fun. I love this kind of writing. I'm not sure it's my favorite kind, but it's definitely comfortable. It reminds me a lot of the writing I did for my Senate job. At least, I'm finding that it has a lot of the same challenges. How can I keep the writing interesting while staying within a rather formal format? How do I bolster my credibility, sincerity and persuasiveness in that format? When is humor appropriate? When is effective? What is the best way of playing on the reader's emotion without sounding schmaltzy? When does humor or emotion detract from the legal argument? Also, at my job, I had to break down and write persuasively about Congressional action (or inaction), so writing the section of my brief about the Congressional intent behind the Indian Child Welfare Act feels like home.

I just retooled my preliminary statement and I think I've maybe gone a bit overboard. I believe it, but I'm not sure I would if I was an unbiased reader. Maybe I need to think about that credibility question a little longer. To be fair, it's not all happiness and sunshine here in brief-writing land. I'm having a hard time finding a way to discuss the importance of the supremacy clause without sounding patronizing and there's this public policy argument that I've been tinkering with too long. I can't decide if it's really cool and something no one else will argue or really stupid and just an excuse for me to research the stuff I enjoy.

In class today, we discussed our upcoming oral arguments. There's an uneven number of people in our section, so I volunteered to do the oral arguments twice. I'm kind of nervous about it, but that's really the point: my public speaking skills are getting too rusty. It's not that I was ever fantastic speaker, but I was relaxed. Last spring, I had to give a brief speech at a Hill event and I was nervous for several days leading up to it. I hate, hate, hate that feeling. So, I'm doing the argument thing twice. Hopefully, I'll be especially good on the second shot.

All in all, I'm probably spending too much time on this project, we're not even graded on it. But, I managed to get by with the bare minimum on the last few projects, so I think this just evens things out. Also, by my estimates, I'll likely get bored with it tomorrow and focus my attention elsewhere.

Congratulations are in order (actually, they were due last week, but my internet access was spotty) because The Head Kid and Ruprecht both got jobs, Hans Brix found a fun summer job, and Midwestablished was accepted to a seminary. Yay! Just goes to show that I'm only friends with successful people. Also, all the jobs except Hans Brix's are relatively close to New York me and the seminary's right here in Manhattan! Good work friends! Those of you who haven't found ways to move closer to me, you need to start looking 'cuz it looks like the fun's following me.

I guess my summer job is now official: I got a binder full of employment forms to fill out today. It also has a Personnel Policy Manual inside, which would be interesting if I was a regular employee and not a temporary one. No sick leave or paid holidays for me! Oh well, they are paying me. Right now, that's a good thing because it means I can ignore all of emails and mandatory meetings about NYU summer funding for unpaid public interest jobs. It really is great that they provide funding for everyone who needs it, but there are a lot of strings attached and I'm glad I don't have to deal with them.

I'm trying very hard to have a productive evening, but all sorts of things have been distracting me. A book that I ordered online arrived yesterday. I need to buy new shoes. My room is messy. And, Nicole's Blog has all sorts of new pictures on it (if you look around, you might just find a few featuring me).

Also, I've sort of been sick for the last week. Not super-sick, but sick enough that I felt justified in sleeping a lot and not doing too much work. I've almost entirely recovered (all that remains is a slightly sore throat and a cough) but I still keep thinking "I'm sick, I don't have to study." Oh, look at that, an email with out finals schedule. Well, that's lovely. Maybe I'm not sick at all. Outlines, here I come!

1. The Whole Foods at Union Square. Good produce within walking distance of my apartment!

2. Trident Tropical Twist gum. I usually stick exclusively to spearmint/wintergreen flavors, but this stuff is sooo tasty.

3. Independence Air. Cheap, cheap airfare to DC (especially for students).

But, that would've been boring and I don't really hate it, I just generally find airports and airtravel to be excessively annoying. Long story short: today's trek from SoDak to NYC involved a lot of running follwed by a lot of sitting. Ick. I shouldn't complain, though. United got me and my luggage back to New York in one piece (well, technically, four pieces). I'm just relieved it's over.

I'm not particularly excited to be back. It's always hard to leave the comfort of family and old friends, but this time was especially disheartening. The rest of the semester's kind of lackluster. So, I guess the word for me right now is . . . resolved. Yeah, resolved to kick the studying and whatnot into high gear for the next 7 weeks or so. All sorts of fun and adventure await me once finals are over, so at least I have something to look forward to.

All in all, the trip home was just what I needed. I've been kind of angsty lately and the downtime helped me sort out at least a few of the things that have been bothering me. Also, it was good to see my friends. Everyone's leaving! It's great, I'm very excited for the job and school plans that everyone has, but it means that going home's not going to be nearly as much fun from now on. Well, with the notable exception of an upcoming wedding; I guess that'll be the last hurrah.

Luckily, the friends who are getting married also recently bought a house in Sioux Falls, so they can hold down the fort until the rest of us become disillusioned and move back. I saw the house last night and am a little jealous of it. It has pretty hard wood floors, big windows, a yard, and a cool den. I'm not yet ready to give up my transient lifestyle, but I'd kind of like a house of my own, somewhere. I don't think that's an unreasonable desire.

I guess I should unpack now. I'd planned to go grocery shopping this evening, but right now the thought of walking anywhere farther than the pop machine downstairs makes me want to cry. I think I've got some microwave popcorn around here. I'll be fine until morning.

It was a fairly quick, but productive trip to my grandma's. We spent a big chunk of the afternoon and evening digging through boxes of old pictures. I love, love, love old photographs, even ones of people I don't know. When I was in college, I interned at a history museum and was assigned the job of archiving hundreds of photos that a recently-retired photographer had donated. I sorted and labeled decades of weddings, graduations, and anniversaries. It was awesome. Anyway, our goal yesterday was to find a couple of pictures of my grandparents from early in their marriage.

We found 'em, and quite a few other fun things along the way. For instance, I found a daily diary that my grandfather kept for six months in 1966. Most of his entries were pretty mundane -- chores, trips to town, and lots of bowling. In one entry, he described taking my mom and her siblings skating and sledding at a nearby lake. The last thing he noted was that my mom had hurt her finger. So, I looked up and asked, "hey Mom, do you remember huring your finger?" Without any explanation from me, she not only said yes, but also showed me the scar and explained how the injury was her brother's fault. It's neat to have a conversation with my mom that my dead grandpa started.

We also found a picture of my great-grandmother and her cousin when they were about my age. My first thought was that they looked like girls I'd be friends with. Both were smirking at the camera in a way that still says "we know a secret you don't and whatever it is, it's good." Right after seeing it my mom pointed to a picture of me, age 1, sitting on the same great-grandmother's lap. Connecting the old lady I remember to the smart and sassy young woman in the picture was a good moment.

We drove home this morning and played the "let's drive through a South Dakota town we've never been to game." Today's town was Crandall and here's a picture of the most interesting thing there.

I just found a gift box in the refrigerator. It's purple and has a bow printed on it. In one corner it says, in fancy font, "Especially for you." In another corner, in much smaller font, it says, "String Cheese." I opened it and there are, in fact, 24 individually wrapped sticks of string cheese. Who markets string cheese gift boxes? And, more importantly, who gives one to my mom?

Some might say I'm easily distracted. I'd say that only happens with things worth of my attention, like good books and photographs. This book caught my attention a few hours ago and I finally gave in and paged through all of it. It's fantastic. It's probably worth it's price and it's absolutely worth a trip to the library.

Some of its photos are displayed here. In the "Awwww" competition, this is my favorite. And in the "simple pictures can be awesome" category, this one.

One of the photo descriptions from photographer Stuart Franklin provides an apt explanation for why I enjoy maintaining this blog:

The other day I asked Billy, now ten, what he remembered fo the circumstances around the picture taken here, with his aunt Brigid's dog, Phoebe, and he said: "I don't remember any of my childhood. All I remember is blurred looking around . . . and then I was nine."

I generally feel a sense of "blurred looking around" and it's nice to have a place to record some of the details. Actually, other than this blog, the only consistent record I've kept is with my photographs. So, you might just see a few more of them posted around here.

I've sort of claimed a table as my own here at the library. It's the only one close enough to an outlet for me to plug in the laptop. Also, it's by a window. It's mine. Yesterday, about the time that the high school let out for the day, a sullen young man intent on downloading music took a seat by me and glared until I packed up my stuff to go. Don't worry, I didn't let him intimidate me, I was leaving then anyway.

I went out to dinner with my brother and his girlfriend last night. She seems very nice, a bit shy, but nice. Actually, she may not be shy at all. She's 19 and this was her first trip to her boyfriend's hometown; she had good cause to be nervous. My big exciting plans for tonight are to read ahead in Property and finish up some Indian Child Welfare Act research. I'm headed to my grandma's house tomorrow, so this is probably my last significant chunk of study time. Oh, I'll watch Gilmore Girls, too. Of course.

Katherine Von Bora graciously pasted her recipe for chicken enchiladas in the comments of a previous post, but I'm also going to paste it in here since they were so popular. Plus, yesterday's post featured a poem, so a recipe today seems appropriate. I think in honor of Spring Break every post this week will have such a bonus.

By the way, if you're looking for a good mellow song, track down We're All In This Together by Old Crow Medicine Show. I love it a little more each time I hear it.


Chicken Enchiladas - Gringo Style
1 small chicken, boiled and shredded (chicken breasts or tenders will do, as will broiling)
16 oz. carton sour cream (I use low fat)
1 large bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 can Cream of Chicken soup (low fat/low salt)
1 can Cream of Celery soup (low fat/ low salt)
1 small can diced green chilies, drained (use jalapenos if you want it
hot...I did)
18 - 24 corn tortillas (important!) Don't use thin, flour tortillas.
16 oz. Monterey Jack cheese
16 oz. Longhorn Colby cheese
(Tip for the super-lazy: buy cojack shredd in 32 oz. bag)

Mix sour creme, soup, chilies, and 2/3 of the onion.
Set aside 1/3 of this mixture for topping.
Spread some of the mixture in a 9X13 cake pan (1/4" layer)

If your tortillas are soft enought, you can skip this part. Quickly heat a corn tortilla in oil over medium heat. Use tongs, lay tortilla in oil, turn once, and remove when tortilla is limp. Drain excess oil on paper towels. DO NOT overcook or they won't roll easily.

Put small spoonful of sour creme mixture, some cheese, and some of the shredded chicken on the edge of a tortilla (or mix it all together in a bowl first and glop it on together). Roll the tortilla up and lay it in the baking dish. Continue to heat, fill, and roll tortillas until you:
1. run out of room in the dish
2. run out of tortillas
3. run out of patience!

Spread the reserved sour cream mixture on top of the rolled tortillas, cover with leftover cheese, and sprinkle with remaining onion.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. Should be bubbly, hot. Cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

These can be frozen before baking for use at a later time, also.

"Eat these often enough and I'll guarantee you'll become 'muy gordo' in no time!"

~ My gringo-second-cousin-once-removed and his not-so-gringo wife

The local library has wireless internet! Now all I need is a free printer to print my Westlaw research. The library's nice. I'm sitting by a big window and it's been snowing lightly most of the morning. There's no wind, so the snow wobbles around in the air for a while before hitting the ground. I'm one of the younger patrons this morning. In fact, the bulk of the library visitors on a Monday morning seem to be elderly. One of the librarians just stopped by to verify that I'm home for Spring Break. I'm well known at the library; most of the librarians have been here forever and I've been a pretty consistent patron since I got my library card in first grade. It's nice, I like working here.

Okay, that was bizarre. There's an older gentleman sitting about 15 feet away who's been reading National Geographic and intermittently falling asleep. He just came over to say that he "couldn't help noticing" that I've got a nice computer and was wondering if I'm a student at the local community college. Turns out he recently finished his degree there and once I told him I'm actually in law school, he was interested to find out what kind of grades that requires. Now he's reading again; his cowboy boots are propped up on ottoman and it looks like sleep might not be too far off.

My brother's coming to town in a few hours. I wasn't sure he'd be able to make a trip home this week, so I'm glad he'll be here tonight. He's also bringing his girlfriend along. I think the three of us are going our for dinner. It should be fun; he seems to like this girlfriend more than any of the others he's had.

Last night, I was digging through the piles of books that I've left around my parents' house and I found a journal that I used during my senior year of college. I started a lot of journals over the years, but never wrote in the consistently. The one I found last night only had a handful of real entries. The rest was filled primarily with an odd assortment of quotes and passages from books. There were also several book lists (books I'd read and wanted to read). And, I guess I used it as scratch paper when I was preparing for the LSAT because a few pages were filled with logic puzzle diagrams. Immediately following that is what was probably one of my first lists of potential law schools. The list contained 19 possibilities. Of them, I actually applied to six (and six not on the list). NYU wasn't on it.

I'd also jotted down in there a poem that I read somewhere and liked a lot. Unlike a lot of the quotes in the journal, I still like it. Here it is:

One Art
Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

The practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Yes, yes I do. Before I left New York, I read some advice written for people visiting the upper midwest. Basically, it encouraged visitors to begin every sentence with, "so" and end with "then." Last night, I caught that particular oddity in both my speech pattern and those of my friends. We are products of our geography, it seems.

Last night's discussion took a fun turn when we started telling stories from our "troubled" youths. It turns out my responsible, over-achieverish friends all have some mischief in their pasts. I laughed so hard that by the end of the night my throat hurt. We ate and drank and gossiped and laughed. The hostess made some great chicken enchiladas and it was a lovely homecoming.

This morning, three of the friends drove me the 100 miles to my hometown. My mom and I went shopping and then made pad thai for dinner. I tried to make that one of the other times I was home, but found out it's impossible to buy rice noodles around here. This time, I planned ahead and brought them from NY. I'm messy cook and don't really care much for recipes. My mom's the opposite, she's tidy and follows the directions exactly. We fight. It's fun.

I've been thinking that my growing appreciation for homecooked food might be a sign that I'm an adult, Lately, I've just really enjoyed the process of making food and having a friend or family member cook for me is a great treat. Maybe it's only a sign that I need to cut back on the take-out.

So (see, I told you), I've arrived home in in the midst of South Dakota's version of March Madness. This weekend is the state girls' high school basketball tournaments and boys' are next weekend. High school basketball's a pretty big deal here. When I was in high school, I was even less of a sports fan than I am now and yet I made special trips to state basketball tournaments. My senior year, my three best friends and I made the cross-state trip to the boys' basketball tournament in Rapid City. It was a great weekend and I'm having a hard time believing it happened seven years ago.

Oh, it's also soooo quiet here. Just quiet. It's great.

Tonight was the the law school's annual Spring Fling (a semi-formal dance featuring free beer and wine). The good news is that it was very fun. The bad news is that my ride to the airport will be here in about four hours. Stay up, or go to sleep? I'm not sure there's a right answer to that question, but I'm leaning toward sleep.

Right now, I'm exhausted and I have a long day ahead of me. I'll arrive in SoDak around 2pm and I'm spending the rest of the day with friends. One of them's even having a little party tomorrow night. Also, I generally have a hard time sleeping on airplanes, so I might as well get in a couple hours now.

No one here seems to believe that I'm truly excited to be spending my Spring Break in South Dakota. But I am. This semester has been a ton of fun, but I've been feeling a bit unsettled lately and going home's always been a good gut check. As I get ready to go, here are a few thoughts from Kathleen Norris's Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.

Both plains and monastery are places where distractions are at a minimum and you must rely on your own resources, only to find yourself utterly dependent on forces beyond your control; where time seems to stand still, as it does in the liturgy

I am conscious of carrying a Plains silence within me into cities and of carrying my city experiences back to the Plains so that they may be absorbed again back into silence.

The best description I know of the Dakota sky came from a little girl at an elementary school on the Minot Air Force Base, a shy black girl who had recently moved from Louisiana and seemed overwhelmed by her new environment. She wrote, "The sky is full of blue/and full of the mind of God."

UPDATE: My two hours of sleep may have hurt more than they helped. Oh well, at least I don't have a hangover. The only thing that makes this bone-crushing sleepiness tolerable is the thought that a headache and queasy stomach would make it much, much worse.

And, since I'm still only thinking about going home on Friday, I'm posting the picture here, too. There's a second picture, as well. I included it for good luck, or something. I took them both in western South Dakota during my Great American Road Trip last summer.

Yup, just 40 hours until my ride to the airport arrives. I think they're going to go slowly. I had to leave the library about 30 minutes ago because I was falling asleep (not just tired, actually falling asleep). Unfortunately, the frigid New York wind woke me up, so now I can't fall asleep as planned. I guess I could pack. Yah, that's what I'll do. If my mom is reading this, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to find out that I'm planning to bring home an extra suitcase full of stuff that I don't want to mail home at the end of the year.

Studying today has been a struggle. I keep thinking about stuff that I want/need to do while I'm home. There are friends, a grandma, hairdressers, and restaurants to visit. I'm also planning to read Blink and finally finish A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I stopped reading for some unknown reason last summer. Anyone reading this in SoDak should let me know if there are new or exciting things for me to check out in the Sioux Falls, Watertown, or Aberdeen areas while I'm there.

Did you know that Anna Deveare Smith teaches at the law school? Maybe you did, I actually remember reading that in one of the NYU booklets last year, but I didn't really believe it until this morning when she followed me into Golding Lounge and surveyed with dismay the food available for purchase. Natrually, my first thought was "Nancy McNally!" but I chose not to share that with her. (Remember that part of The Catcher in the Rye where Holden gets upset because of his class where the students had to yell "Digression!" whenever a fellow student digressed during a speech? Well you should be yelling that at me now. Although maybe, like Holden, you thought this was the most interesting part.)

So, I'm now down to 39 and 3/4 hours. I was right, it's going waaaaay too slow.

One of the law firms was giving these out last night. Best. Highlighter. Ever.

I've been giving some additional thought to my geography-related job worries. I fully acknowledge that my interest in California is based primarily on the fact that I think it might be a better personality match for me than the other places I've lived (namely, NYC). That said, I also have to own up to the fact that I kind of like living in places that are a little more conservative. In South Dakota, I disagree with a lot of the state's leaders and that's frustrating, but it's also motivating. I have well thought-out opinions on about the policies I think SoDak needs to enact and as a resident, I was frequently willing to actively promote those ideas and candidates who supported them. I felt a similar motivation living and working in Republican-controlled DC. Also, in both places, my own beliefs were challenged on a regular basis. I frequently met smart people who disagreed with me and forced me to think about my own opinions (on a lot more than just public policy) in a very critical way.

I went to recruiting event tonight featuring a bunch of lawyers from California law firms. More and more, I'm confident that I don't want to stay in New York after I graduate. It's exciting and dynamic and all sorts of other wonderful adjectives, but it's not me. I've lived here for almost six months and it's not even close to feeling like home. After just a couple of months in DC, I achieved the "at home" feeling. You know, the point where the town starts to feel comfy and you're willing to deal with its inconveniences and hassles without too much griping or anger. I like New York, but it feels just as temporary now as it did in August.

So, I'm viewing this summer as a test run for California. If I like it and if at any point it starts to feel homey, I'll seriously consider it for my 2L summer, as well. I am, however, worried about Early Interview Week. I have to make my priority list for interviews before I leave for California. Should I put down a bunch of Bay Area firms just because I'm pretty sure I'll like it there? What about Southern California? Some of the firms I'm interested in only have offices there, but I've never been south of Palo Alto. Do I apply anyway? Will they take me seriously as a candidate if I've only lived in Northern California? I'm planning to make at least one trip each to L.A. and San Diego, but that seems kind of weak. Also, I'm afraid moving to CA would make me a cliche. Progressive midwesterners who are sick of cold winters all move to CA, right? Ugh. I hate making these kinds of decisions.

Usually, my approach to job searches is to find a couple of jobs that I'm qualified for and really want. Then I just focus all of my attention on convincing the employer that they can't live without me. The problem is that I don't know enough right now to do that kind of thing with firms. I guess I'll apply to a bunch of DC firms and a variety in CA. Oh, I also like Chicago, so some there, too. Reasonable?

The most annoying thing is that I'm still awfully unsure about working for a firm at all. Thing is, I've heard from several public interest sources recently that working for a firm is great training.

So, uh, this post has been kind of whiny. Sorry about that. What's upbeat? Spring Break! Three days, three days, three days! Yay!

This map is nothing new, in fact it's over 30 years old, but I saw it for the first time today via a link from South Dakota Magazine. I'll admit to having had fun discussions about dividing up America up into two countries, one Democrat and one Republican (my plan didn't follow strict Blue State/Red State guidelines -- Democrats just got to keep all the fun places), but this map, developed by C. Etzel Pearcy, a geography professor at California State University, Los Angeles is just hilarious.

The most amusing thing about it is that C. Etzel opted to rename the states. According to his plan, my driver's license would say "Dakota," I'd be going to school in "Hudson" and spending the upcoming summer in "El Dorado." Even Hawaii, which would be the only state to retain its current boundaries, would have to switch to "Kilauea." Fun stuff.

I set a rather formidable reading goal for myself this morning and have just now finished it. I'm rather proud of myself, it's the first time in a while I've actually accomplished as much as I planned on a weekend day. The consequence, however, is that everything's now a little blurry and I pretty much burnt out on reading. Luckily, tomorrow I get to switch from casebook reading to Westlaw research. Woo.

Despite all the homework, my weekend was pretty fun. I went out with a couple of friends on Friday night and we succeeded in getting a lot of free drinks and meeting a wide variety of, um, interesting people. Last night, another NYU friend invited me and a couple others to Brooklyn to explore his neighborhood and have dinner at his apartment. The trip contributed to my fast-growing affection for Brooklyn and the dinner and corresponding conversation were both highly enjoyable.

Today it's been just me and my books and I think that's how it's going to stay for the next few days. There's only one week of classes before Spring Break (Yay!). Even better, it's a short week since I fly out Friday morning. Four days of all-law-school-all-the-time won't be so bad. Plus, it'll hopefully mean that I won't have to spend too much of my break reading or resarching. Wish me luck!

A few months ago I wrote about my love of handwritten notes and letters. Now, according to the New York Times it seems that my ownership and use of the stationery in my stationery box makes me kind of cutting edge.

South Dakotans like to reminisce about bad weather, especially blizzards. Newspapers and stations often report on the anniversaries of big storms. Usually, the story starts "On this day, a really long time ago . . . " I realized today that I'm now old enough to remember some of the "really long time ago" events. My hometown newspaper had a story in yesterday's paper entitled, "Blizzard remembered 20 years later."

The "Arctic Hurricane of 1985" deposited 17.2 inches of snow on my town. As you know, blizzards combine a lot of snow with strong winds, so that foot and a half of snow resulted in five foot snowdrifts. It was the first time in 98 years that my hometown newspaper skipped a day of publishing, but more significantly, it's the first severe weather event I remember. Here's a visual (yeah, yeah, I know I've used this picture in a post before, but it's the only one I've got).




Huge snowdrifts are a lot of fun when you're four years old. I'm pretty sure my dad dug out a snow cave for me and I thought that was the coolest. Anyway, my town's other big blizzards were during the 1930's, 1960's, and 1971, so this is really the first time I've been able to participate in the reminiscing. I feel like I should go sit in a diner and chomp on a cigar while I bore youngsters with tales of the "Big One." Ehh, maybe I'll just go back to my homework.

I went to the Target in Jersey City today. It's a real Target with wide aisles and big carts and a parking lot and cheap groceries; it was awesome. There's also a Target in Brooklyn that's basically in a mall. It's on two floors and has an escalator in the middle. It's interesting, but not a real Target experience. The Jersey City Target, however, is just like being at home. We went around lunchtime and the store was nearly empty. I stocked up on all sorts of random necessities and the bag of groceries I bought (it was actually a Target Greatland) cost about half what it would've at my neighborhood market. On top of all that wonderfulness, it was a quick trip, just two stops on the PATH train. And, the roundtrip price was a dollar less than taking the subway to Brooklyn. Mind-boggling, I know.

The only drawback about the trip was that I fell again. I think there's only one icy patch in all of New York today and my right food managed to find it. I fell on the injured knee, of course. My solution for the pain? A nice long nap. For three lovely hours I drifted in and out of sleep. I dreamt, but the dreams were so mundane I awoke not entirely sure they hadn't actually happened. It was a good way to start the weekend.

If last week was law school's easiest week, then this week may have been one of the most daunting. I received my appellate brief assignment the same day I received the packet for the moot court writing competiton. Both are due at the end of the month. Plus, we're kind of at the point in the semester where review isn't just a nice idea but kind of a necessity. It's alright, though. I've had a lot of fun during the past two months; I'm rested and ready to take on the next two more difficult months.

The appellate brief background reading is surprising pleasant. It's fairly interesting, but what I like most about it is that it's almost all legislative history and agency regulations -- I know how to read that! Plus, the next thing in the packet is a statement from Senator James Abourezk from South Dakota (the Senate's first Arab-American senator), so I get to feel a little home state pride.

Speaking of home, I watched The O.C. tonight and was suprised to have a high school flashback. Harbor High School and its students don't much resemble my own WHS or my classmates, so I don't really watch the show to reminsce. Tonight's episode, however, featured the song, Champagne Supernova, a song I will forever associate with 10th grade debate. Granted, on the show it was a band called matt pond PA, not Oasis, but it still took me back to Room 104. The only other song that does that is Deep Blue Something's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which my debate coach played nonstop for about two weeks.

There's now enough distance between me and high school for me to successfully block out all the things that were awkward and difficult and just remember the fun. So I spent a commerical break thinking about evenings spent researching the U.S.'s foreign policy regarding China and the afternoons we filled with dumb card games once the debate season was over. Yeah, I was a geek, but it was fun. I might even stop by the high school while I'm home next week to check in on the current team. Or maybe not, it was just a song.

I've been thinking a lot about confidence this morning. Today's lawyering class included a de-briefing on our recent mediation exercise. It was an interesting discussion. A few of the groups found themselves in tricky situations involving mediators who were less than stellar. In retrospect, they wished they'd followed their instincts and been more agressive in making sure their mediations stayed on track and followed certain protocol. My mediation was pretty painless and I wondered what I would've done if confronted by a situation similar to theirs. I doubt that I would've done much better in standing up to a bad mediator. Thing is, law school's done a pretty effective job of convincing us 1Ls that we're dumb.

It's funny because I'm pretty sure most of us were confident creatures in our pre-law school lives. Across the board, my classmates have the kinds of academic and professional accomplishments that don't come from being meek. Yet, here we are, six months into our legal careers, doubting our every move. I blame finals. And Westlaw (legal research is daunting). Mostly though, I blame us. We've managed to forget that the intelligence that got us into law school is a big part of what's also going to make us good lawyers.

Don't get me wrong, we absolutely should not be allowed to defend someone in court, to file briefs, or to do a lot of the things practicing lawyers do. We've got a lot to learn, but that caveat doesn't mean our opinions and analysis aren't valid and it shouldn't prevent us from trusting ourselves.

I was surprised to find that I'm genuinely excited about starting our final lawyering project. We're writing appellate briefs and it involves pretty complicated research and analysis. Mainly, I'm hoping the project will show me and my classmates just how much we've learned this year. I'm hoping the others are as excited as me and that we'll have thoughtful arguments during the upcoming classes.

Also, the preliminary work has placed me back in my comfort zone of legislative research. I love piecing together the background on a statute. It's often confusing and almost always frustrating, but I can do it with confidence and it's good to have that feeling back. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm ready to not be at the beginning of law school. It's time for the middle -- that's when you continue to learn and grow, but also have the skills and knowledge to be taken seriously.

1. My property professor cancelled next Friday's class (last class before spring break). I'd already been planning to miss it in order to get to LaGuardia in time for my flight.

2. I found a dollar.

3. Right when I really needed some coffee, I found a Starbucks gift card in my coat pocket that had $5 on it.


Yeah, it was a slow day.

I had a free lunch, free dinner and many free drinks yesterday. Actually, I don't feel very moochy about the first meal; a few friends and I signed up last week to have lunch with one of our professors and NYU provides the funding (which, of course, means I provided the funding). I'm glad we signed up; the professor was friendly and engaging and willing to answer our seemingly endless questions about law school and about becoming lawyers. We ate at the Cordelia Street Cafe and the food was good. It turns out Cordelia Street is just a hop, skip and a jump from the law school and my apartment, yet I'd never been there.

Last night, I decided to attend another law firm reception. I couldn't remember if I'd signed up for it and a group of friends were headed over at the same time, so I went along. I arrived and found out I hadn't signed up (which was no problem, just meant my nametag wasn't pre-printed). The event was held at Butter and the food was fantastic (better than I remembered from Restaurant Week). The drinks were also very good, and plentiful. I left happy (I'd had at least five drinks) and full. And, most of the lawyers I talked to were down-to-earth and seemingly content with their jobs and lives. Actually, I'll probably sign up to interview with them during next summer's Early Interview Week, so I don't feel too moochy about their free food and drinks, either. Just ingnore my title, I've talked myself out of it.