Digging In

Since my Contracts exam on Thursday, I have done many things. Very few of them have involved studying for the Civ Pro and Torts exams I still have to take. Yesterday I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with mocha buttercream. They are delicious and almost too rich to eat. I've also done two loads of laundry and two loads of dishes, and this morning I swept my kitchen floor for the first time in weeks. I've gotten within two letters of solving both yesterday's and today's New York Times crossword, and I completely solved a Sunday Times crossword, none of which would have been impressive a couple of years ago when I was a crossword-solving madwoman, but all of which are encouraging to me now since I've let my skills lapse recently. I made a to-do list, which does not contain any Torts- or Civ-Pro-related items. I tried to psych myself up for next semester by reading the past course evaluations of the professors I'm going to have. I listened for the first time to the copy of The Juliet Letters that I bought in a fit of Elvis Costello craving last month (My Aim Is True, on the other hand, has been in my car CD player approximately 90% of the time since I bought it), and also bought albums by Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt and Ben Folds Five from iTunes. I went through many of my books of knitting patterns and decided which sweater to start next (I finished two while studying for Contracts). I considered writing a treatise on how to brew great coffee at home. I figured out how to update the firmware for my old, crummy wireless router, but then chickened out when it came time to actually do it because I thought about how hard it would be to study for exams with no internet if I messed it up. I concocted a grand plan for avoiding this kind of pain next semester (though something tells me that nearly all law students concoct such grand plans every semester). Finally, I bit the bullet and started rereading the Emanuel outline keyed to my Civ Pro casebook, and after I post this, procrastination possibilities practically exhausted, I'm going to outline.

Let me just say that, while not having anything due all semester was nice while it lasted, having my grade for an entire course rest on my performance on a single three- to four-hour exam is not nice. Especially not when central Virginia has been graced with a week of 60-ish-degree days and perfect blue skies, and I'm pondering the vagaries of personal jurisdiction over corporations. It's times like this when I have to remind myself that alternatively, I could be back at the bank, wearing heels and filling out forms all day in a stuffy, yet simultaneously freezing cold building where the windows don't open. And there's no Elvis Costello. Or chocolate cupcakes.