Finally, it's the weekend. I've got a little time to be a basket case on my own terms. This means I'll be baking a bundt cake and working on a three-part poem about different occasions when one gives or receives flowers. It might be really lame, but I have to write it. I've started it, I want to do it, it has to be done. I was going to try to throw in an anti-war message in one section--still might--but I'd like to read some war poetry before I do that. Any sugguestions?
Last week was tough. Apart from the very first week I was in Knoxville, it may have been the toughest yet. And my colleagues could tell something was making me unhappy. I'm no good at disguising how I really feel. It's a blessing and a curse. I think maybe tough weeks, self-doubt, and soul searching are components of the spring semester. Spring semesters are tough. They seem longer, attention spans seem shorter, the air is always tense (especially in graduates school) with thesis and job search anxiety. So much of our futures depends on what happens in the spring semester. I vote we change that; come April I won't be able to focus on much of anything besides warm weather, picnics, summer road trips. Never have been much of a student in the spring.
Last night I went to a party with a brilliant theme--Rat Pack/Brat Pack. I planned on rocking my denim ruffian, Judd Nelson-inspired look, but I couldn't find my Bon Jovi t-shirt. Yes, I have a Bon Jovi t-shirt. Instead I went out for calzones with some friends and wasn't going to go to the party. I was apprehensive, since it was hosted by a guy in the English grad program whose room mates are law students. I wasn't sure how a law-lit soiree would cohere. I went though, and I had an okay time. There was no law-lit cohesion. We English folks stuck together in the back room sipping light beers and talking about conferences, comprehensive exams, and Comp 2. The law kids were wild. Projectile vomiting occurred. And boy were they decked out in their Rat Pack finery--tuxedos, bow ties, monogrammed handkerchiefs and engraved flasks. It was fun to watch them. Some of them were really nice. But the whole time I listened to exchanges between them--their talk of case briefs and civil procedure--I thanked god I'm in lit, even if writing workshop can be soul-wrenching sometimes. I'd much rather discuss metaphors than torte reform. It makes me feel like I have a soul.
Thank god it's the weekend. Let loose, will ya?
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4 comments:
Most law students are obnoxious to hang out with. Oh, they might be decent people, but their lives are nothing but law school, and it's hard to converse with them. (The cool ones have lives outside of law school). I totally understand about hanging out with law students--and rarely do they cohere with anyone not a law student.
I guess times have changed. The lit/law folk used to be sort of a two-headed beast about twenty-something years ago, partying together all the time. What a shame.
Interesting party theme, though. Any good Judd Nelsons show up?
Oh Lord, yes, Monda! I saw about 4 different Judd Nelsons. One was an obnoxiously drunken red-haired boy who kept coming up to me to say "you're in English? That figures!" Come to find out, he wasn't even in school. He just knew some of the law students.
I don't know the disconnect between the English and law people. I guess we have souls and have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will never be rich. The law students, not so much.
I did feel my soul slipping away a little last semester. I agree that there is no lawlit cohesion. And I can explain the projectile vomit.
Rant commencing.
Law students are pushed so hard and so long every day that when they do get a chance to party a little, they have to make it like the seven parties a normal person would get to attend each semester.
Jenn Miller is right. Law school is life (at least for the first year). When there is a social occasion, we can't think of what to talk about because all we do is read briefs and make briefs.
As for the dress wear...well, law students are multitaskers. They can't relax and just have fun. They were trying to network or impress or intimidate, no doubt.
I actually caught myself tying my shoe as I had a pee the other day. I couldn't stand to waste time just sitting there relieving myself for 3 seconds.
Rant over.
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