Busy

After moping around and being bored and depressed for the first week and a half, I found myself running around frantically trying to juggle classes, an internship, extracurriculars, and maybe, just maybe, my LIFE in a big ole spazzed out frenzy the last couple days. I mean, I was in class or meetings from 10:20 in the morning until 10 pm on Thursday. Is that normal?

Well, no. I am totally being Winey McWhiny. But 3L year is not going to be the languorous year of lore for me. Here's how it breaks down:

Classes:

- corporations, with a thin, squeaky-voiced prof who draws from Harry Potter, Dashiell Hammett, sports and movies for his examples of inherent agency power, apparent authority and express implied authority (LOVE it) (the prof's examples, not corporations)
- bankruptcy with a super socratic, kind of bitchy prof (yet despite the fear of being called upon, the time just flies by in that class)
- a one-credit reading group called "Personal Values and Professional Character" in which we practiced meditating for 10 minutes our first meeting
- a two-credit touchy-feely negotiation seminar on emotions in negotiations

Comment on classes: This is a case of too much of a good thing, the good thing being my stunning skills of persuasion with the Registrar's office. You see, I was on the waitlist for the corporations class and the negotiation seminar. Was I EVER on the waitlist -- #60 or so in corps, where the cap was 100 students; #12 in the seminar waitlist, were the cap was 15. I went to the corps prof -- he said he went by the registrar's waitlist. I went to the registrar, and the nice lady there said -- email the Registrar, he's the only one who can help you.

I was in a bit of mood that day, because this is what I wrote:

Dear [Registrar],

[Nice Lady] said I should contact you about my scheduling issue, as you are the only one who can help me (shades of Obi Wan Kenobi?).

I'm a 3L, and I realized over the summer that I liked securities work (a real shock to me, as I didn't know what securities were in May). Alas, both sec reg classes strongly recommend corporations, and as a headstrong young 2L, I neglected to take corporations. In the spring, I had signed up for a spring corporations class, but that won't help with the sec reg class in the winter.

You can see where this is heading. I went to [Squeaky Voiced Professor's] class this morning, which is heavily oversubscribed, in part because he explains things so beautifully and simply, without assuming you know anything about corporations. I am on the waitlist, but it's pretty dire (I tried getting on the waitlist earlier, but as I was signed up for [Pinko Commie Liberal Prof's] class in the spring, the system wouldn't let me, until I finally decided to drop my place in that class). Might there be any leniency or flexibility, because I'm a stupid 3L who didn't take corporations when I should have? The other two corporations classes this term meet during my admin class.

Thank you for reading through this, and for any help you might be able to give. I'm sorry for the bother in this busy time.

As I heard from Nice Lady later, the Registrar read this and told her, "I haven't laughed for three days, but I laughed when I read that email." And you know what? I got in the class.

(I wrote the Registrar back: "Thank you so much for helping me fulfill my securities
regulation work dreams.")

You gotta figure that the folks over at the Registrar's office must be sick of solemn young law students with an overinflated sense of their importance. That's my theory, anyway, in how I got into the class.

So that was good thing #1. But what tipped the balance over was the negotiation seminar. I went to the first class and liked it, but 45 people showed up for 15 spots. So I thought I had no chance. But I emailed the prof to express my interest. I went to the Registrar's office again, where the Nice Lady told me to come and see her again when she had more information. I went to see the prof, who said he had just capped the class at 22, so no dice. I cried on the inside a bit, but convinced myself that I was better off without the class, since I didn't want to be overloaded with credits and I could just read his damn book anyway. But -- what the hell, I went to see Nice Lady one more time, to tell her that I didn't need to be in the class, and guess what she said? "You're in." I expressed various forms of disbelief, gratitude, etc., and she said, "Well, I guess I negotiated for you to get into the class! I said you were the only one who came to see me every day about this seminar, and -- well, that's all you need to know. You're in!"

Dang! Either my personal negotiation skills are honed to a razor sharp edge, or the Registrar's office is in LURVE with me.

I guess it could be both.

But because the Registrar's office lurves me and wants all things to be mine, I am now the proud owner of 14 credits this term, because I also have a 3-credit clinical at the state anti-discrimination agency.

And I am co-leading Student Org #1.

And I am planning to do research for Employment Discrim Visiting Prof.

And I am interviewing this fall again (for some federal agencies and three NW firms).

And I had been planning to, like, have a life and stuff.

Yeah... so, um, who needs sleep, really?