Busy Scoplaw = Bad Blawger

Bad Blawger, Bad

Whew.  That was a whirlwind.  Monday to Saturday was just a blur.  A Fast Moving blur.  While I was gone the Scoplaw blog crested over 40k hits, which is pretty cool.

I begin the recollection on Monday.  It featured our final for Property, in which I believe I was punked.   I never have felt a greater disjunction between the material that I knew (as a percentage of the overall knowledge in the class) and what I was able to apply on the test.  I will be living off the curve on this one.  Given that we all know that testing/exams is/are a complete waste of time, I’ve not much to say, beyond again registering my disappointment that GULC still buys into the typical law school bullshit by not coming up with a) a fair way to measure the knowledge of any given student, b) a useful structure to provide feedback which traces student progress, c) a method of assessment that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a student.   This 20th century testing structure is simply chickenshit. 

After the exam I went out to Buffalo Billiards and said farewell (for the moment) to a lot of departing 3peeps.  I’m glad to know that many of them will be in town over the summer, which should pass fairly quickly.  I know I’ll be wrapped up in my summer job (after the write-on –ugh!- which I still haven’t committed to doing.  Tick tock.).

On Tuesday morning, Sister School and I got up at 6am to catch the 7am bus to Hartford.  Unfortunately, we got stuck next to that guy who thinks a bus trip is one big family outing, that everyone will be interested in responding to his random comments and observations.  We had a hour hold over in NYC, so we did a zip tour.  SS had been in NUC for a few hours to check out Columbia and hadn’t seen much of the place.  I showed her Grand Central, the Library, Times square.  Not much you can do in an hour bounded on both ends by Port Authority.  When we got to Hartford we had to wait an hour or so for Youngest Brother to pick us up.  So we went to the Capitol and watched the House of Representatives, which was in session.  An old classmate of mine is a state rep but, alas, he was not in when we were there.  We swung by the Wadsworth, which was closed, but we did get to see the Museum of Oddities and Natural Curiosities in the attic of the old state house.  We met YB and zipped off to my home town, where we had dinner at a small Italian place.  I had the prima vera which was excellent.  Then, to H’s house, where we worked on the Scopmobile, which has been sitting in H’s driveway since Columbus day.  We bought some parts (and some treats), and also prepped most of my moving/storage boxes.  After that we chilled with H, played late night wine-drinking Scrabble, and Trombone Player called (on tour) from Geneva - “It’s full of little cars!!” 

After crashing, we got up early on Wednesday and spent the entire day working on the car.  The entire day.  For one of the side trips I went to PhotoGal’s house and picked up my jack and stands.  When I was there I saw both HouseJ, who looks good, and my cat, Ganymede, whom I love dearly.  (Photogal and I got her when we were living in Athens together, and I hope that G-mede will join me in DC before the end of the summer.)  Toward the end of the day, after replacing the battery, draining the gas tank, cleaning the electricals, replacing the plugs, wires, distributor/rotor, and lubing the engine with new oil, we had traced the problem to one of the little cube like relays (Volvo owners know what I’m talking about).  Unfortunately, no one carried the part.  So I called my secret Volvo guy (SVG), who owns a small parts shop somewhere in New England.  You can buy parts from him because he has a license, but if you leave for a coffee and the parts just seem to end up on your car and become much more expensive, well, it’s probably best not to ask.  SVG is a legend in the underground Volvo community.  Yes.  There really is such a thing in Southern New England.  In this case, I just bought the parts from him since the Scopmobile is non-operational.  On the way back with the cube, we tried to stop into the Bidwell, but due to the UCONN graduation it was packed, absolutely packed.  So we (H, SS, and I) decided to go to one of the local diners, get some food (it was very late at this point) and meet up with Elegante, which we did.  Elegante is chronically late.  When I lived in Providence and she lived in Hartford, I’d routinely make plans with her then show up an hour late, knowing that I’d still be early and have to wait.  As we were eating H said, “So, I guess it’s possible that E already showed up and then left?”  Then she started laughing hysterically at the look on my face.  E eventually showed up and decided to relocate us all to the Half-Door in Hartford, which we chilled at for the rest of the evening before returning and crashing out.

On Thursday, the plan was to get up early, get a rental car, move my shit from H’s (who has flooding issues) to my Dad’s (who does not).  However, there was a brief moment of excitement when the Scopmobile turned over and idled for 30 seconds before dying.   I decided to get the rental car anyway, since the Scopmobile could have easily died on the 7 hour drive south.  Youngest brother (who has been a brick) will be looking after her while I am gone, and hopefully a local mechanic will be able to get her going without any trouble.  If that’s the case I will simply pick her up at some point later on in the summer.  So, after getting the rental, we moved the boxes to my dad’s, packed up the car and hit the road.  One of the mission points was to pick up a couple of road bike frames so I could build SS a bike over the summer.  That alone was worth the trip – I spent less on all the trip costs, food, and parts for the Scopmobile (much was under warrantee) than I would have if I bought SS a low end road bike (new).  It’s about break even if you weigh a used bike against the costs, but I got to see, YB, H, Elegante, my dad, and pick up a bunch of books, clothing and whatnots from storage.  Ideally I’d have driven the Scopmobile south and used her to move, but (excellent!) some of SS’s friends showed up, including Forrester Queen, the Farmer, and Wildflower who all were good enough to help me move with the assistance of their vehicles.  But I get ahead of myself.  The tail end of Thursday was driving down to DC (where we missed the Jude Walker and the Rockstar’s most recent gig – alas!) and meeting up with SS’s friends – it was a late late night.

On Friday, I got up, moved some things with the rental car, dropped it off, then moved all my shit (all day) with the aid of the aforementioned gals.  When I finally checked out of the dorm (ack! Dorm! ack!) at 10pm, I felt so good to finally be free of the place.  It was good enough, but I’m too old to deal with much of the dorm bullshit.  We all had a Thai dinner and the went out for drinks at Capitol City Brewery, followed by dessert at the Dubliner, where we ran into Scott Scheule, who was his usual gregarious self. 

On Saturday, I woke up in the new summer sub-let digs in Pentagon City – drank coffee, slept, unpacked a few things, rode up to mount pleasant on an errand, met the gals for lunch after their Farmer’s market excursion (the place is now full of good things to eat, courtesy friends of the Farmer, who sometimes works the farmer’s market there.  On the ride back I found a small liquor store in Georgetown who sells Becherovka, so I bought a bottle for the gals.  After unpacking, taking a first run at the write-on (which I still am undecided about doing), I will make use of the sauna in the building, chill with the gals, organize all my bills and new place things (mail forwarding, etc.), and get ready for the week.  On Thurs, I start with a local public defender’s office for my summer interning gig.  Should be an eye-opener.  I also have a ton of personal stuff to take care of, much of which is mitigated by the errands I’ve squirreled in (unblogged) during the week and the tail end of finals.

I’m finally coming down off my exam high of constant work/study, although I haven’t slept for more than 7 hours a day since Monday.  Many nights have only been 4 hours or so.  The ride today really made me feel less like a doughball with legs, and my legs are stronger for the break (it’s been a week since I’ve been on the bike, even for groceries/errands).  I should be ready to start my summer work by Thurs. (and I’m quite excited for it.)  I have to hand deliver some things on Monday, one way or the other.  Man.  It never ends. 

Tomorrow SS is flying off to Atlanta, which means I’ll have the place to myself.  Which means much work will be done.  It’ll be nice to cook something as well, without measuring it against the clock.  I’ve been very efficient lately, but there’s always a cost, a price for that.  I need to give myself a night of nothing but wine, writing (poetry), and something simmering softly in 2 pans.   Perhaps I’ll make a leisurely start on Sister School’s new bike. 

(I love building bikes for people who will ride them. So soothing to do hand/body work and just let the mind wander as it wills.  As a bonus, I may be able to get most of a second road bike out of all my parts for a 3 peep who will be spending her summer in Venezuela.  I ran into her today and regret not spending more time with her during the semester – she’s quite cool.   But there’s a chance I’ll go bowling with her and some other 3peeps before she jets off, which would be most excellent.  Regardless, I hope to have one built for her by late August.)

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Scoplaw moves the Farmer as part of the relocation project.