North Maple Rag

Still in SoDak and still moseying my way through a quiet break. I spent most of yesterday and today in Sioux Falls with college friends. Among other things, we sampled Hopluia, Nebraska's finest beer. Well, to be fair, I haven't actually tried any other Nebraska beers, but this one was pretty good. And, possibly more importantly, it's fun to say. Try it: Hop-loo-ya!

Anywho, I've still got a week to go before I fly back to NYC. Yay! I've also got a nice, long paper to finish, so I think I'll be settling down with that for a bit tomorrow and all next week. And, that's all I have to report. Seriously -- I'm considering going to see Cheaper By The Dozen 2 tonight, that's how quiet things are around here.

I ended up not sleeping before my 4:30am ride to the airport picked me up on Monday and subsequently spent the rest of the day in a delirious, sleep-deprived stupor. All in all, the trip home was fine -- the iPod is invaluable in airports. When we arrived in Minneapolis the pilot announced the temperature was 2 degrees below zero, so I was pleasantly surprised when South Dakota was a balmy 18 above.

I've spent most of the past two days working on my last final, which I finished up tonight. Woo! Tomorrow, I'm headed north to see my grandma. Friday night I'll be back home and I'm planning to go out with high school friends. My brother will be home on Saturday and I assume my family's Christmas rituals will start soon after. Other than spending time with family and friends, I'm planning to spend most of my time reading. So, if you've read a good book recently, email me.

Let's see, the big news so far is that my hometown now has both an Office Max and an Applebees (ew). It seems that Super WalMart is bringing all sorts of chain stores with it. That's all there is to report so far. South Dakota is delightfully dull.

that I occasionally watch a little E! True Hollywood Story. In fact I caught a few minutes of the American Idol epsiode this afternoon and learned that Carrie Underwood used to work at Sam and Ella's Chicken Palace. Sam and Ella's Chicken Palace. Say it out loud. Would you eat there? Ew.

My parents met Captain 11 today. How cool is that?

Well, I turned in two take-exams today. Woooooo! That means I've just got one left. I'm hoping I'll have a respectable draft of it finished by the time I leave for the airport roughly 48 hours from now. That would mean I could spend a good part of next week lounging on my parents' couch and putzing around my hometown (and by "putzing," I mean going to cheap movies and drinking too much cheap beer).

I know I've already said this, but I can't wait to go home. There are a lot of reasons why I'm ready for a break from law school and NYC, but the main one is that this semester has been exhausting. The prospect of taking a couple weeks off from the work and the decision-making to spend time with my family and old friends is positively enchanting. Just 48 hours to go . . . I think I can, I think I can.

Despite still being in the thick of finals, my life actually resembled a life today. I slept late. I ate two real meals. I fixed some problems I'd been having with my credit card company. I got a basket of Christmasy foods from one of my law firms and a present from a friend! I went to the gym. I even wrote what I think is a not awful draft of my take home portion of my corporations exam. All in all, not a bad day. I can keep this up for another week.

I had my first final this afternoon, sort of. I actually had the first part of my first final. The total test includes both the 1-hour in-class part that happened earlier today and a take-home essayish thing that I'm working on right now. Last year, when I finished my finals, I felt such a rush of achievement. Conveying a semester's worth of knowledge in three or four hours is no easy task and there was that understanding that I never had to look at the books and outlines for that class again. None of those feelings were present today. The hour flew by and test was difficult but it was only six short-answer questions. There wasn't enough room or time to really show off the work I've done for this class. So, at the end of the hour, instead of looking around with an "Alright, that's done!" look, my classmates and I just gave each other sheepish "um, okay, what's next?" looks.

Anywho, the rest of my finals are self-scheduled so my life isn't as hectic now, just more . . . guilt-filled. It's not going to be very exciting, but I'll keep you posted.

As I was eating dinner tonight, I started to count the empty Diet Coke cans, Diet Dr. Pepper bottles and Starbucks cups and I was grossed out. I'm living on caffeine. Hopefully, I'll be able to break my addiction after finals, but for now I'm a slave awful headaches that pop up everytime I go more than a couple hours without coffee or pop. The good news is that I've joined the cult of the Gingerbread Latte. Love it. Oddly enough, I don't like gingerbread at all.

I'm kind of hating my life right now, but that's to be expected. The rest of New York is holiday shopping while I'm stuck in a study room reviewing proxy rules. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I chose this. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck. Thursday was a good day. In the last five minutes of my last class of the semester, I learned that I have about an extra month to finish a twenty-five page paper that I thought was due next Thursday. Yay! Among other things, this means that when I arrive home next Monday, I won't be completely crazy.

Aside from the permission to procrastinate, the best thing about finals is the promise of going home in a week. South Dakota's going to be really, really cold and possibly a little boring, but I can't wait.

South Dakota was attacked by a blizzard this week and in true "golly, there's a lot of snow" fashion, my mom felt compelled to share it with me. South Dakotans, as I've mentioned before, are pretty nonchalant about blizzards, but this most recent was a little worse than usual. If I'm not mistaken, some people are still without power and shelters have popped up around the state. My dad also reports that they've been getting a couple extra inches of snow every couple days since the blizzard. Fun.

Anywho, here's our backyard:


If my mom was writing this post, she'd be quick to point out that the tree in the corner of our yard was only a two or three feet tall when she and my dad moved into the house about 27 years ago. I think, however, what's most amazing about that is that my parents have lived in the same house for longer than I've been alive. I've moved ten times since college and pictures like this remind me that I can't let my parents ever move.

with a cozy little living room and a big cozy couch. Years ago, my mom searched and searched for an artificial Christmas tree that would fit that room. This is what she found:


Yes, our Christmas tree could use a sandwich. That said, I miss it. You can see the corner of one of my brother's Christmas stocking on the wall. We used to check our stockings every morning before school because Santa inexplicably felt it was okay to make several trips to our house. Christmas at my house is comprised of traditions. One of them is my mom's decorations. She always puts them up the weekend after Thanksgiving and she always goes all out. Here's her Christmas village and part of the angel collection (please note that I made at least one of them):


Anyway, I miss it and I'd much rather be there than here. Although, I'm feeling a little bit better since I noticed that Folgers is still airing that commercial where the big brother comes home early in the morning at Christmas and only his little sister is awake. They make a pot of coffee. The mom is awoken by smell, comes downstairs, sees her son, and says, "Peter!" They embrace.

Love it. Now all I need is that awful (but awesome) "Feliz Navidad" commercial from Taco John's and the season will be complete.

All semester long, I've been pleasantly surprised by Corporations. It's so much more interesting than I had suspected -- it actually reminds me quite a bit of college government classes. Yet now, with a mere nine days until the final, I've realized the truth: I cannot memorize all of this.

In other news . . . well, there is no other news. My life these days can be summarized in a few short words: corporations, natural resources, international trade, and, of course, "B paper." Although, I really shouldn't be complaining, things could definitely be worse. I could, in short, be a 1L. Oh, all those feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt. Hmm . . . goodtimes.

Actually, my stress level right now is a mere fraction of what it was last year. So, I'm going to stop the complaining and continue reviewing proxy rules. Did you know that the SEC will edit passive voice out of your proxy statements? Kinda cool, right?