Jansen’s Minneapolis

A few weeks ago I was asked, “Aren’t you scared of law school? I mean, isn’t it supposed to be a grueling three years?”

The thought hadn’t occurred to me.

It seemed like a silly question and I still don’t understand it. I couldn’t be successful at a career if I didn’t have the nerve to go through the training.

Am I going to walk into law school and find the casebooks quick and thrilling as a James Patterson novel? Am I going to draft amazing essays with ease, know the answer every time the professor calls on me, and be in bed by 10pm every night that I’m not at the clubhouse?

No. Of course not.

Some of my casebooks will be tedious. Some of the assignments are going to be overbearing, and I’ll probably look like a fool in class more than once.

Duh.

If I wanted to do something easy and predictable, I would have majored in elementary education. I expect law school to be at least as challenging as the career that it prepares me for.

Otherwise, what would be the point?

What I am worrying about is qualifying for loans and finding an apartment. If I have a wealthy parent who is eager to write a check for my dream condo, then my mother has been horribly misinformed and is owed some serious back child support.

The school promised to send “housing and financial aid information” in June. This seems ridiculously late to me, but I assume they know what’s going on. Is that dangerous?

I’m tempted to blame my current housing problem on my decision to forgo the full scholarship at Macalester and go to the local safety school, which offered me slightly more money.

I could have done this whole move-to-Minneapolis deal as a freshman, right?

Although, if I went to Macalester, I would probably bitch about my decision to not go to SuchandSuch University so I could already be in SuchandSuchtown. I applied to colleges in 12 different cities. There’s a lot of “what if” potential right there.

My mother and I are going to make the trek up to Minneapolis sometime this summer. She and her pissed-off colleagues are still waiting to get their complete summer schedule. There are multiple family vacations on hold at her firm. Everyone is annoyed.

She was in Orlando all of last week. She “thinks” she may be in Atlanta for an entire week in July but doesn’t know anything for sure.

Aside from trolling around rent.com and compulsively checking my email for the “financial aid and housing information,” I can’t really dwell on things that are pending, except of course, tonight’s event.

Cross posted at No. 634.

Well, there was a bowling alley. Last week (or the week before?) Matt and I dropped about $70 at a boutique bowling alley – which, for college students, is unacceptable.

$42 for one hour. $5 (x2) for cover (yes, the bowling alley charged a cover), $10 for soda. $4.50 (x2) for shoes.

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Memorial Day Weekend in Miami: Rain. And not that nice London rain either, but that explosive “the world is pouring down” Brazilian-rainforest type of rain.

 

If Miami had mountains there’d be mudslides. Für sure.

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Went to Little Havana and got some food from Mom’s.

 

“When you need a refill just call me a day in advance.” – Mom’s the business. I love going back to the neighborhood. People’s cars chink and clank just like mine. There are fruit carts, Botanicas, grandpas drinking on stoops, and chickens in the road. It’s a nice break from the sterile streets that surround school.

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Visited a few old haunts in South Beach and South Dade…There’s a definitely a few Edie Sedgwick complexes going around. (And by-the-bye Community College does not mean you’re Indie.)
 

South Beach and Downtown are beginning to resemble something from lastnightsparty.com. I’m going to leave it alone for a while and stay in the Gables.

I’m finally in the new dorm!

The first word I heard today was Coño. It was 8am. The construction workers around my dorm were working, and swearing apparently. The drilling woke me up every hour until noon. Pfft.

Today? I went to Friday’s. 

I saw Iron Man.

I bought the new John Grisham and a new James Patterson. Both hardcover.

I attended a 4-hour training session that felt much longer.

I bought fish. Tattooed balloon mollies (Which I’m quite sure are/should be illegal), guppies, black Oscars.

I moved some more.

Etc.

And while being bored out of my mind by the Iron Man movie I had one of those little epiphanies about the future.

Quick outline of things (to be fleshed-out later)

• Housing closed. The freshmen are gone.
• Mother’s day in the neighborhood.
• Dropped big money at the bowling alley.
• Richter has been closed, so I couldn’t scan anything for the other blog.

Tomorrow

• 8:30am Marching over to the gym-house to pay for summer membership.
• More RA stuff (“cleaning tasks”) 9:30pm-5:30pm
• The RA Dinner

And then, more work.

UMN Law is my first choice. I was accepted and I’m attending. This is old news.

The first deposit is already in. This is happening. I want this.
I’m excited. I really really am.

But declining all these other schools, especially those that gave me full rides, feels like burning my security blanket.

Looks like a duck…

…but Quacks like UMiami.

I graduated today. Well, sort of.

My last final-exam was today. I’m not going to commencement, so, for undergrad. That’s it.

I’m sure Angela Lansbury will forgive me for skipping out on her speech.

“No, Taco Bell will be gross by the time I get back to campus. Chipotle is too expensive…Let’s do Qdoba.”

Ten minutes later.

“Fuck Qdoba. There’s no parking in South Miami. Everyone is taking the meters up for the clubhouse and these restaurants. Ugh. Chipotle then.”

Five minutes later

“Where am I? Taco Bell. I’ll be DAMNED if I’ll wait in that 30 person line at Chipotle. It’s not that serious.”

I woke up at exactly 7:46pm and thought “Apfelkorn!”

I know this because Fox news was on.

There was a countdown to the O’Reilly Factor plastered on the screen and it said 14 minutes. Part II of the Hilary Clinton interview would air at 8pm…So if this countdown said 14 minutes then it was 7:46. I’m a math genius.

I really, really wanted to see the O’Reilly interview, but I also wanted liquor. I haven’t had any hard liquor at home since I ran out of Apfelkorn four months ago. I’m not a much of a drinker and the liquor stores around campus keep odd hours.

I took too long to think about it because I got to the store at 7:59, just in time to see the security guard slap the “CLOSED” sign on the door.

Fudge.

So I went to Publix and bought yogurt.

I have to practice buying my own food because Charties closes for the summer in about a week. I bought the usual (for me) – cheese, generic yogurt, tortillas, etc.

But I still wanted liquor. The Publix by campus doesn’t have a liquor license so they only sell beer and wine. The alcohol section is in this little hidden isle at the edge of the store. I think this is so alcohol buyers feel like the dude sneaking out of the more unsavory sections of the porn store.

I picked up a liter of Mississippi Mud and went on my merry-shopping-way, ignoring the filthy look from the guy at the deli. Mississippi Mud may not be classy, but the grocery store is a judge free zone. So there.

Now considering that I had to go to the hidden isle to get the beer, you would think the rest of the store is family-friendly and alcohol-free. Wrong.

There is actually wine in every single isle of the store. Every. Last. One.

And it’s in the most random places too: there’s Saki by the tortillas, white wines by the organic food, and there’s even blood-red wine by the pretzels. What the hey?

Wine is sprinkled around Publix like the impulse-buy items by the checkout counter. If I had little children I would be terrified that they’d send bottles flying. Kidswreak havoc in the cereal isle. The bebe’s kids throw around the Chex boxes, so why shiny red bottles?

Needless to say the marketing ploy works. Before I left I had a bottle of Saki and a bottle of Fünf.

Yogurt, Milk, Cheese, Tortilla, wine, Saki, Mississippi Mud… The cashier looked at me like I was a lush.

I’ve never had wine before – and I still haven’t. Apparently you need a cork screw. Oops.

I’ll get it together eventually. The Mud will do for tonight.

Plans for tonight: I’m finishing Red Dragon with the bucket of Mud.