Stressed?

Oh, just a tad.

Not only is my mother coming for a visit (yes, self-induced, I know), my father is planning a visit the SAME weekend. Has a business meeting in New York on April 3, and thought he'd drop by a few days earlier to hang out. Which I would normally love and drop all things to do, but -- see mother visiting. So I spend an hour on the phone this evening trying to plan things so I can see my father for the first of probably only two times this year, call my mother to see how she feels about seeing him, hyperventilate on the phone with life coach BC for half an hour, call my mother back to tell her the plan, wait for my father to call back from Korea so I can tell HIM the plan, and all's well that end's well, right?

Hey, maybe they'll realize that they're actually still in love and like, renew their vows and shit, and it'll be like a very special 7th Heaven episode!

Or maybe hell will freeze over and I can go ice skating this weekend.

And I STILL have a thousand and one pages of con law reading to do. Yes, it's really that boring. Yes, the textbook reads like a law review article on major crack, and why the HELL do these authors even bother with writing this "textbook" when it's really geared toward law professors who have the background, interest, and knowledge to debate issues like whether the 11th Amendment (state immunity from individual lawsuit brought by citizens) clashes with section 5 of the 14th Amendment (Congress' enforcement of the rights in the 14th Amd) and not at ALL geared toward law students who are trying to just get a handle on constitutional law for the FIRST TIME in their lives? To messieurs Stone, Seidman, Sunstein and Tushnet and M. Karlan: a big, sweet, smiley FUCK YOU from hk.

I do not have time to grapple with the intricacies of the limits on Congressional power to enforce Reconstruction amendments. I need to be taught the law. 'Cause you know, there are these things? Called students? By definition, they are here to be TAUGHT?

So, seriously. I cannot finish the reading. I need a strategy. Which probably means I skip the majority of "notes" following each case and depend on the lectures for clarification of the issues.

It seems so sad and counterintuitive that I am TRYING to do the reading, I am TRYING to understand and engage with the material, but time dictates that I CANNOT. I cannot go to my clinical twice a week and read 120 pages of con law and 100 pages of capital punishment each week and research and write my 25-page history research paper by May 17 and go to class and do the activities I enjoy and simultaneously keep my sanity. There is no way.

I am but a simple lass who likes to do what's assigned and try her best to keep up. I've no head for strategy and intrigue. I don't want to seek out the Golden Outline of past Sears Prize winners (the award for the highest grades, given each year) and I don't want to plot out the path of least resistance. In a way, it's the lazy way to approach school, I guess. I don't want to take classes based on the availability of good outlines (oh, you better believe that's the way some people do it) or because the prof is an easy grader. I want to take classes that sound interesting, with professors who have a good reputation as good teachers. And I want it to mean something that I've tried.

Yeah, I know. Too much to ask.