No Sleep for the Wicked
For the second night in a row, I'm up until 2:30 AM working on my moot court brief. I can't say I'm displeased with the result--the argument isn't totally full of holes, unlike much of my recent blogging [1]--but it's been a very tiring road. Furthermore, the case is one of those annoying stories of nastiness on the part of one man (who isn't being sued); suffering on the part of another (who is suing); and laziness, defensiveness, and bureaucratic inertia on the part of the third (who's got the deep pockets, and is thus my defendant). Ideally, I'd like the plaintiff to have acted responsibly, the defendant to then have settled things reasonably, and this never to have gotten to court.
I'm enjoying it. It's a creative exercise, and when I'm not fighting a persistent writer's block--there's a reason I've been blogging so much, it gives me a good hour to 90 minutes of memo writing before my brian seizes up again--I'm loving this odd struggle with precedent and trying to figure out how to subtly say that a given was wrong. Distinguishing between fact situations that are slightly different in limited but critical ways is turning out to be a real pleasure.
But I'm not sleeping. Heck, I'm writing this, and my last entry, because after finishing the brief, it'll take my head another hour to wind down and relax to the point I can shut my eyes. I'm going to look like a train wreck again tomorrow. If I'm unlucky, Prof. Con Law will report me to the Dean on the grounds that the only thing that can explain my current unhealthy demeanor is longstanding substance abuse.
[1]: Never let it be said I can't joke at my own expense, eh?
Comments
no sleep for the rest of us, either. :-)
Getting grilled once, for 75 minutes, is sharp motivation to never let that sort of embarassment happen again.
However, it means staying up late and getting up early.
hope you'll be able to get some sleep tonight.
nmftrrPosted by: Katherine | February 18, 2004 12:39 PM
Heh, I'd never even so much as smoked a cig or drank a beer in high school, but was widely rumored/believed to be a druggie, as I was nearly always tired and had red eyes from staying up all night reading, programming or fooling around online (in the 80's).
Didn't realize until YEARS later that I'd been unwittingly doing various kinds of meditation and other non-chemical mild altering things, so in a sense they were right, while being totally wrong.
But in a law student, I'd just assume that they are sleep deprived by default!
mkybwdjPosted by: David Mercer | February 18, 2004 07:23 PM
Ahh, but the substance problems go so nicely with law school. I'm a liter and half of Pepsi One, 5 Dunhills, and a beer into my own trial breif hell.
Posted by: Bob | February 19, 2004 03:59 AM
Ugh, while others may criticize the Dunhills and the brew, I'm trying to figure out how you can stomach Pepsi One. That stuff is like Diet Pepsi gone wrong. I think even the lab rats won't drink it.
rmwdPosted by: MattP | February 19, 2004 11:04 PM
Yeah, the fact that Tom Green was their big sponsor ought to have raised all kinds of alarm flags...
Interesting to hear your take on the brief writing--I work in an appellate environment and I've found myself quite interested in that very same process (of taking a fact set & either fitting it to a precedent or distinguishing it from another).
Good luck with it!
Posted by: Toluca Jim/Visible Hand | February 20, 2004 04:06 PM
I wouldn't say that I LIKE Pepsi One...but I used to have it around as an undergrad because it was half the price of regular pepsi, and noone would steal it from my fridge.
So, when the local Meijer's had it on sale for $0.50/ 2L last week, I bought it for old times sake.
aakoimPosted by: Bob | February 23, 2004 09:03 PM