Long absence

Sorry about the long absence. (I'm going to cheat and retroactively fill in stuff from the last 10 days gradually.) Double M was in town doing research last week, and I had and have a shitload of work coming at me from all sides -- it's crazy, and I feel like I'm drowning under all the reading and demands from various quarters.

Today, I skipped one class because I hadn't read for it (I was in training for advanced mediation skills over the weekend), and realized the horror: 109 pages over two days. I realize this may not sound like a lot to other grad school disciplines, but consider this: it typically takes me an hour to read 10 pages of any given assignment.

Reading an opinion in preparation for discussion in class is not like reading a history article (which I've read several of for my history class this semester). Getting the general gist is not sufficient. You have to understand the logic leading up to the end point, which requires careful reading. Supreme Court opinions are the worst, because in the kind of cases we're reading for capital punishment, there's often 2-6 different opinions, all responding to each other (often snarkily, which is entertaining), focusing on different things, and using past cases and opinions in different ways to support their arguments. I took 3 pages of notes on one case I read tonight, and that's not really that rare.

If I had enough time to read this shit and think about it and place it in a framework with all the other cases, maybe I'd find it enjoyable. But I don't have nearly enough time. If I spent every spare minute reading until the end of the semester, I still wouldn't finish.

Sigh. I need a strategy, instead of blindly reading everything so carefully. I made the mistake of taking "thinky" classes (read: the final will reward creativity and brilliance) instead of black letter law classes (read: the final will reward you if you can apply the law you learned), and I'm paying for it.

I'm also paying for the 2 days a week I don't read at all (except on the subway to and fro) because I'm at my employment law clinical, which has its own demands and stresses.

Plus, there's drinking to be done! And Destroyers to mess with!

Ack.