Another semester bites it. I turned in my last paper earlier today.

Since I'm not travelling this year for the holiday, that means nothing but free time until next semester starts. Well, if you ignore the jury duty in January. And the script writing I need to do for Follies. And the fundraising for The Vagina Monologues. Anyway, I may get a computer game.

What else to report? Hmm, well, not having a lot of luck with the job hunt. Got rejected this morning for a fellowship I spent 6 months working on. That was disappointing. I guess add "job applications" to the list of things I'm doing over the break.

I've been on a few dates recently. Since classes ended I've been making an effort to get out there. If nothing else, I've met a few great people and had some fun nights out.

Oh, yeah, there was that whole South Africa trip. My first time off the continent! It was a great experience. We spent two days in Johannesburg and five days in Cape Town. Aside from the work we were doing for the clinic, we got to check out the Apartheid Museum on our first day and on our last two days we took a trip down the Cape of Good Hope and then to the top of Table Mountain. So many great memories.

Let's pretend I still keep a blog for a moment.

Things have been going well this semester. September is a hazy memory. The Intraschool Competition for Trial Ad that I helped run went off without a hitch.  

A few weeks ago, in mid-October, I got to compete in the St. John's hosted trial advocacy competition around civil rights. It was a disability rights case. We advanced to semi-finals. My awesome team should have won the last round, but such is life.

For Halloween I went as a slutty French maid. I was planning to go as a Cheerio (Glee cheerleader), but the outfit I picked out wouldn't fit once I added boobs.

(apropos of nothing, I submitted this photo to reddit and got homophobic comments and downvotes for my trouble.)

Which brings me to November. On Saturday I'm jumping on a plane and jetting off to South Africa. As part of my clinic in International Human Rights, I will be conducting field work related to our project. My group has been working all semester on policy reports related to decriminalization of sex work in South Africa as a human rights issue. Next week we get to visit with stakeholders in Johannesburg and Cape Town to get context and test our arguments.

I'm pretty excited. It's my first time outside the North American continent. My previous travels have taken me to Canada and Mexico briefly, but this will be my first trip to a country I can't reach by car.

So, anyway, it's unclear how much time I'll have on the internet next week, but if we have wi-fi in the hotels and if I'm not swamped with clinic work, I'll try and post pictures.

My 3L year begins on Monday (maybe). Assuming the subways are working on Monday, it will be my last first day of the school year.

This semester I'm registered to take Evidence, Labor Law, Psychology and the Civil Law, and a clinic in Women's Rights in Africa. In extracurriculars, I'm also, along with my co-editor Meghan, in charge of our intraschool trial advocacy competition for team placement in about 3 weeks; one of the directors of Follies; producing The Vagina Monologues; involved in the Worker's Rights Coalition and Stein Scholars; and will possibly stay in the Tortfeasors a capella choir. Yes, busy semester, but would you expect any less of me?

Since I last updated, I finished both my summer internship at the ACLU's LGBT project and my summer TA job with our class for incoming 1L students. They were both great experiences and I only wish I could have done more in the short time with them.

Most of my "free" time this month has been spent working on postgraduate fellowship proposals and the trial advocacy competition problem. It hasn't been all work, though. I've found some time to work on a few knitting projects and read. I've been reading the Song of Ice and Fire books this summer, and I'm on book 3. My goal is to finish it this weekend if the power goes out because I'm not going to have any time for pleasure reading after classes start.

I went to my sister Jeanne's wedding early this month. It was fun, but very brief. I only spent 2 nights at home. The nieces and nephews are getting so big. The reception was low-key compared to some my family has put on and the domestic drama managed to remain relatively humane... the usual passive-aggressive acts by the usual suspects, an occasional unnecessary insult, etc., but I came and left without ever bursting into tears (privately or publicly) and that's a big improvement over the last several visits.

Anyway, with school starting, if you don't hear from me again before December, it's probably not because Hurricane Irene swept me out to sea. I'm not even in an evacuation zone or high-rise building. In my neighborhood, I'm much more likely to be stabbed by looters.

First up, the introduction of the cocky first year students.

Then we have the rude awakening that the Socratic method and law school classes are hard.

This one is about the rivalry between “fake” and “real” night students – the students in our school’s evening program who have full-time jobs versus those who just have a part-time course load and all the time in the world to study. I’m in this one.

Then we have the last-minute panic of cramming for exams. This is the most complicated dance I’ve done in years. The concept is supposed to be like a flash mob-style dance.

In this one, two students reveal the terrible truth about the second year of law school – it’s so much work. So much work.

This number is about Early Interview Week and On-Campus Interviewing, an annual tradition of pain and humiliation where students beg for jobs. More of me dancing at the beginning.

This one is about the age-old rivalry between the school’s competition teams – the Moot Court team, the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center, and the Dispute Resolution Society. There’s really no chance for the groups to actually face off with each other in real life, so we have to fight it out in Follies.

This was my favorite number that I wasn’t in. It was a bunch of bitching about our registrar – the person in charge of classroom assignments and course registration and graduation requirements.

Finally, we have the traditional 3L farewell song.

I was selected to compete in another interschool competition with our school’s trial advocacy team this semester. The Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center helps students compete in mock trial competitions, learning skills such as introducing evidence at trial, examining witnesses, persuading juries, making objections and motions during the course of a trial.

Last semester my first competition team, the “Vannies” went into semi-final rounds of the regional ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law’s Law Student Trial Advocacy Competition. This semester, my team won the national cup at the Capitol City Challenge Mock Trial Competition hosted by Washington Law School (American University).

In our four person team, my partner and I played prosecution. The problem was a marijuana case against a college student on the way home from Spring Break. Getting ready for the competition was often frustrating and difficult and tense, but we ended up having a lot of fun. The trip to DC was brief and fun, but it came at the tail end of our Spring Break, so we missed out on an actual vacation.

After the contest, we had selections for next year’s board. I was made Intraschool Competitions Editor, which means that along with my partner Meghan, we run the contests this summer and at the beginning of the fall semester to select new students for the team. It’s a good role because I’ll mostly be done with my difficult duties before they would interfere with any other school work next year.

This year was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of opportunities to take center stage. I was the stage manager for the show and I helped write about half a dozen songs. I played the dean, again, which was fun. I also got some plum parts like one of three bar preparation company reps in a parody of “Fugue For Tinhorns” from Guys and Dolls and lead parts in songs based on “Populism Yea Yea” from Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and “Skid Row” from Little Shop of Horrors. They also let me dance this year (last year I mostly did a lot of bopping in place) but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. So far, the only number from this year we have on line (with me in it, anyway) is this one…

I’m sure we’ll have more footage from the show online soon. On the other hand, we did three promo videos this year (directed by me). The “Libraria” number was from last year’s show and got a Dishonorable Mention in the online contest for these things. The “Not Going to Georgetown” video, which was an original written specifically for promotional purposes and features way too much of me singing, got an Honorable Mention.

We had a bit of extra adventure this year. The undergraduate theatre department was staging a production of The Good Person of Szechwan that involved piling up a bunch of ugly shipping pallets on the stage we use to put on the show. This meant we had to build a stage on top of their shitty-ass platforms. We learned about this on Monday of tech week. We ended up having some fun with this and designating this the year of “Follies Extreme!!”

I’ll definitely be doing something with the show again next year. In fact, I’m already starting to write some songs and make plans for videos. I’m going to miss these little shows after I’m done with law school.

We held a couple events leading up to the show including social nights, a sex ed trivia contest, and a panel on women and violence. Throughout it all, we were raising funds for the V-Day spotlight charity – the women and children of Haiti – as well as our local charity – Safe Horizon, which assists victims of domestic violence. Ultimately, we raised over $20,000 for the charities.

We had a fantastic cast involving student from all class years, a member of the law school staff, and a student from the graduate social work program. I’ll be helping again next year, but in the producer’s role instead of director, which means fewer late night rehearsal and more coordinating the big details.

Anyway, here’s our promo video and pictures.

I’m still waiting to hear back on one grade, but the semester is over. I’ve got about two weeks of downtime before my summer position at the ACLU begins.

What a semester it has been. I’m about to publish several blogs in a row hitting some of the highlights. I’m not promising that I’m going to get back into regular blogging, but we’ll see what the summer brings.

Academically, this semester has been interesting. I took a class on worker’s rights in the changing economy that was interesting and had me working on a project with the Freelancers Union. I had a class in Sexuality and the Law that should have been better than it was, but at least it wasn’t challenging if it wasn’t going to be educational. Mostly because of a scheduling problem, I also took a course in Income Tax law (hated it).

I got accepted into a clinic for next year dealing with women’s rights in Africa. Class registration is still a few weeks away, but I’m hoping to take Evidence, Labor Law and a writing course in the fall. I don’t have quite so many extracurriculars next fall, so I think I’m not over-extending myself.

Outside of law school, not a lot has been going on. There has been quite a bit of karaoke this semester. Also, a lot of flaky guys who set up dates and then cancel at the last minute. Fucking flaky New York gays.

I have been doing a better job at seeing shows. At the end of last semester I saw Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and American Idiot. This semester I saw The Normal Heart, which has a special place in my heart because it was my first show with the Nevada Repertory Company at my alma mater.

I haven’t seen many movies, but I did go to Thor last week and I’m looking forward to Green Lantern and Captain America this summer.

My only upcoming travel plans are pretty much limited to flying back to Salt Lake City for my sister’s wedding in August. Now that Jeanne is getting hitched, only the Keys boys remain single. That’s a lot of pressure. I repeat: Fucking. Flaky. New. York. Gays.

So, wow, according to the Lawyerometer™, I’m half-way done.

I’m on a flight home to Utah tomorrow. I’ll be there until the first week of January. I’m definitely ready for some time with my family. This might also mean some time for general blogging.

As I watch the Prop 8 hearing in the 9th Circuit, and after reading about a study finding LGBT youth are likely to receive harsher and stricter punishment from school and legal authorities, I thought I’d share our Fordham OUTLaws “It Gets Better” video for Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project. I shot the footage for this several weeks ago and finished editing the footage into a single video late, late last night.

Studying for finals is going fine, if half-heartedly. I don’t really care about my grade in one of the classes I have a final for and feel rather confident about the other.

ETA: Yay! We’re famoso!