North Maple Rag

In the past couple weeks, I have:

• Taken my last test of law school
  
• Written (and, just a few minutes ago, turned in) my last paper of law school
• Attended my last class of law school

I have also:

• Bought plane tickets to fly back to SoDak for the summer.
• Registered to take the New York bar exam.
• Registered to take a bar exam prep course.
• Worried about what I'll do when my NYU health insurance ends later this summer.
• Started sorted through the mess that is my student loans.
  

Oh, and I turned 27.

The next week will bring a number of other great milestones: the last girls' night, my parents' first trip to NYC, graduation and my final move out of NYU housing.

And so, with all of that to take in, I've decided to add one more milestone to the list; this is my last post on North Maple Rag. I started this as a response to law school and now that that's ending, so is the blog. I've been working on a new blog to keep track of my summer adventures and those of you who know me will get a link to that once it actually has some posts.

So, best wishes and whatnot.

And yesterday, I took advantage of the sunshine and attended what was not only my first Mets game ever, but also my first baseball game of the spring. Afterward, my friends and I stopped to buy ice cream cones from an ice cream truck and we ate them as we walked the crowded streets of Manhattan home. It was, quite possibly, the perfect afternoon for an 8 year old and it was pretty darn close to perfect for this almost 27 year old. Alas, finals loom in the not-so-distant future and they placed a small cloud on the otherwise sunny afternoon.

I've spent virtually all of the rest of the weekend working* on my securities outline and at times, I've honestly thought that my eyes might start spraying blood. Luckily, I actually liked the class and I'm far enough along now that the end is in sight. So, I think I'll survive with my vision in tact. Anywho, it's warm and I'm wearing flip flops again. Not even shelf registration requirements can get entirely get me down.

*And, by "working," I of course mean "working sprinkled liberally with email, Facebook, online newspapers, and the occasional mystery novel.

I went searching for a really old email this afternoon and ended up finding one that I'd sent to a few college friends after my first day at NYU describing the day in numbers. Here it is, in its entirety:

It only took a 90-minute drive with my parents, 3 and 1/2 hours in the air, 1 and 1/2 hours in the Chicago airport, and a harrowing 30-minute cab ride to get me to Greenwich Village. Along the way, I read about 160 new movies that will be released this fall (thank you Entertainment Magazine). I also browsed 1 SkyMall catalog and listened to 1 cd. I have now made 2 trips to K-Mart and 1 trip to CVS in order to outfit my room. I filled out 4 forms and 1 survey and had 1 picture taken in order to check in. I have attended 1 reception where I received 1 free meal. All in all, it's been a long, but fairly painless day. I have met 1 person who didn't give me a weird look when I said I'm from South Dakota. He said, "Oh really, my uncle is the track coach at O'Gorman in Sioux Falls."

I really can't believe it's almost over.

I don't take enough advantage of the live music options available to me in New York. In fact, the South Dakotan in me is still surprised every time I learn that one of my favorite bands or musicians will be playing near me. I try to keep track of their schedules, but still end up missing out on a lot of great shows. Now, those days are gone (yes, I'm using infomercial voice)! This great program, iConcertCal, will install a concert calendar function in your iTunes that keeps track of when any of your iTunes artists will be performing in your city. Perhaps this is old news and I'm the last person to join the iConcertCal bandwagon, but it's amazing nonetheless.

UVA held its annual law school softball tournament this past weekend I played on one of NYU's teams. I wanted to go both of the past two years, but couldn't make it work until this year. And before I tell you the story of my massive bruise, let me just say that the tournament is fantastic. Tons of softball, tons of beer, tons of fun.

So, my bruise. Actually, the story's not all that interesting. I pitched this weekend and my first batter of the tournament hit a low, sharp line drive into my side. It hurt at the time, but I kept playing and assumed the sharp stinging would eventually subside into a dull ache. It did and I didn't think much more about it. Until that night. While changing my clothes, I discovered the hit had left me with an awesome bruise right above my hip. Perfectly round, exactly the size of a softball, and dark, dark purple. I'm so proud of it.

Also, I'm grateful. An inch lower and the line drive would've hit my hip bone. I also heard about a pitcher who took a line drive to his hand and broke several bones. Not to mention the other NYU student who had to get sticthes in his forehead.

So, in recap: great weekend, awesome bruise.