Make the most out of your criminal endeavors

Today is yet another fun conspiracy day in criminal law, which yes is a horrible thing to say, but lets move past that.

Really, if nothing else comes out of this legal adventure, I have learned some valuable information of how to do very bad, nasty, criminal things. Sadly, most of the time my reaction in criminal law is less of a practical "oh, so thats how I would defend my client" and more of a "so if I ever decide to kill someone, I should..." It's actually sad how often an example will come up in class, and my immediate reaction is "what a great idea!". Even worse is the fact that if the case is being used in law school, it couldn't have been that great as they obviously got caught, which is why we're looking at they're trial.

Anyways, here are a few handy hints for your future criminal endeavors. Odds are you'll get caught, so lets try and limit your sentence, ok?

• If planning to rob banks with friends (or acquaintances, or random people you met in a bar, or your church leaders, it really doesn't matter), be ambitious upfront - conspire for robbing lots and lots of banks, that way you can only be charged with one conspiracy
• If you would like to kill someone, don't think to much about it before hand, just do it right away in a fit of rage. That way its only manslaughter.
• If you do plan your killing, be sure an choose the right state to do it in - sentencing laws vary greatly.
• if you get your whole criminal group to tell consistent lies on the stand, make them at least somewhat varied. everyone testifying that someone "lithely and suppely jumped onto the truck, like a tiger" it may raise suspicions
• Don't graze against, touch, or even so much as sneeze at a federal officer while commiting a crime. Sentences for anything goes up when a Fed is involved - and pretty much anything can be interpreted as assault.
  

I'm firmly entrenched in law school land, so those may only be fun for those in the system, but at least I'm posting something.

I'm not sure I'll ever be that great of a lawyer, but I think I could be a halfway decent criminal. Thanks law school!

The Stage!

Every now and again when I things aren't going the best and I doubt my spur of the moment law school decision, I come up with crazy alternate careers. Most of these are ridiculous, like being a kindergarten teacher or an astronaut - things I don't really even want to really do, but at that moment I just like the idea of getting to play with glitter or float around and conveniently forget my child anxiety or scientific ineptitude.

But the one imaginary career I just can't quite let go of is acting. I loved drama, ever since I was a little kid. I love delving into a character, getting close with a cast, and there just isn't any greater rush than performing. I really, really loved it. But while I still like to think of myself as halfway decent, I don't think I ever seriously though of really pursuing. As BYU has such a competitive program, and poli sci was generally fun and interesting and intellectual, once I hit college I pretty much dropped drama out of my life.

By and large its not something I really think about, but recently it popped up again in my head. See, I'm a fairly decent writer (in school anyways, I'll let you judge the blog) , even with all the crazy new legal rules. I just seem to be able to really get into a certain perspective for how the paper should be written, and it just flows, like its not really me writing. For my current research paper, I have to do an appellate brief for a drug case. Its actually fun slipping into the mold of a hardened state attorney, doing all she can to keep the city safe, continually frustrated with scum getting set free on little technicalities. Maybe her sister was taken advantage of by a drug pusher. It's not really my views, but once I click with the right perspective it just flows. It's kind of fun. Really, I think my academic writing is just me acting again, slipping on a character and running with it. And it feels so much more real, more natural, than anything else I'm doing here.

Hey, its great that I can take a bit from what I love doing and use it for what I'm actually doing, but once I realized that I was filled with theater longing once again. I know really pursuing drama would have been wholly impractical, I doubt that I'm really that good, and even if I my delusions were accurate its still an insanely tough business. And I really love so many of the more poli sci things I've gotten to do, I would miss that part of me if I hadn't followed it. Granted, there is some excellent community theater in the world, that maybe I'll get to pursue someday, but for now I doubt I'll ever really get to do it again.

Even knowing that there is a one in a million chance I could have ever done anything real with it, let alone an actual career, and even knowing so many of the good things I might have missed out on, there are still so many times when I just ache for one more good show.

Spring Break

I think I realized today that glorious, responsibility free spring break will soon be drawing to a close. Being my first spring break since high school, as I now attend a place that doesn't care if I throng with college students in cheap hotel in warm places and wind up in a girls gone wild video. But there was no flashing or thronging for me this week, just quiet home time. I also avoided the torture of law review write on that my more ambitious peers are having tons of fun with this week. The idea of sacrificing my spring break to have the slight chance of being chosen for the privlidge of giving up lots of my free time next year to review stodgy articles I don't really care about just to minorly boost my resume just didn't really appeal. Since coming to law school I have learned just how little ambition I have. My spring break is quite grateful for that lack. Not that I've really been doing much with this opportunity...

Friday: I had a midterm that morning, and thus felt entirely justified in being a lump on the couch all day. Let the cycle of laziness begin.

Saturday: began with high hopes of a bright and beautiful week full of much goodness. Ok, it actually began with me being cranky and groggy, but once I stepped out into the sunshine I was basking in the glow of all things bright and beautiful. Zach and I initially went out to grab a few essentials from the grocery store a few blocks away. But it was so nice to just be out that we decided to walk up to the whole foods, which is about a 40 minute walk from where we live. It was a perfect day, warm but not to warm, sunny but not too sunny. We didn't do much, just walked up, got some fancy produce (its just so pretty at whole foods, I'm not a big organics person, but everything is so colorful there and smells amazing that its worth it every now and again to step up from the drab dying fruit at our local Giant), and just generally enjoyed being outside and free from any and all obligations.

Sunday: as it is written, this was a day of rest.

Monday: too lazy to get up at a decent hour, decide to postpone much needed Costco expedition in favor of . Changed into clean clothes at about 3pm. Clean clothes were comfy sweats/pj type things, but somehow count as "getting ready for the day."

Tuesday: Actually moving from the couch resulted in the much appreciated blessing of actually having a decent journey out to Costco. And yes, it does count as a journey. Between the bus ride to metro, 2 transfers, loading our loot onto suitcases and hauling it all back a Costco trip pretty much eats up the whole day. But this day we barely had any waiting for the next leg of our trip and the trains were even empty enough to be comfortable, but not empty enough to be scary. Plus no crazy people on the subway! Granted, I've only encountered two so far, but they sort of stick out. Anyways, Costco was as always a marvelous place full of giant food, our kitchen was replenished, and we felt justified in wasting the rest of the day. Horrah!

Wednesday: began as another couch lump day, but by about 5pm we couldn't stand it anymore. Conveniently, we also really didn't want to cook. Thai food looked good, so after a quick Google maps search we were off. Alas, the Google misled us and the place wasn't actually there anymore, but I remembered another dot on Google maps that didn't seem that far. So we walked. and walked. And ended up in Georgetown, which is not really all that close to where we live. Apparently two dots looking kind of close together on a map according to my fuzzy memory isn't really a good system of measurement. Eventually we found the place, and oh, it was well worth the wait. Not only is it nice to get out, but it is so nice to eat something other that the 5-10 dishes we constantly rotate. Plus, I finally got to eat some delicious beef. I know, not terribly exotic, but I get so sick of chicken. I know its cheap and versatile, and Zach likes it, but I'm a red meat girl. Anyways, it was a great dinner. The place was adorable and small. And very, very orange - but the paint was done in such a way that it looked like a beautiful sunrise. On the way we stopped by whole foods to grab some more delicious oranges and cake. I was craving something sweet and chocolatey, but was a good wife and compromised for healthy, boring, vegetabley carrot cake. I still kind of regret the cake compromise, but all in all a decent, couch lump free, evening.

Thursday: Not to much. Went shopping in an effort to get out, waste student loan money and hopefully find something wonderful. Semi-successful, and am now continuing my efforts online (Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic have a 30% off everything sale for the next two days, e-mail me if you want to coupon). Student loans feel far to much like monopoly money than can be financially wise.

I can't claim much in the way of productivity, so far I haven't accomplished any of my big goals. But after the last couple weeks of law school hell, it is so nice to just do nothing. And hey, so far only one real seizure this week, so the rest must have been needed, right? Anyways, time to rally for the next few days and get a head start, maybe keep my head above water for a few days at least. Yep, I'll definitely do that tomorrow.