Aloha!

We got to the airport to leve for Hawaii pretty late. Then my ticket said Mara, so they wouldn't let me through security. United couldn't change my name, so I had to go through the entire security rigamarole. Oh my gosh! I had to go through the puffer machine that sniffs for drugs, and then they specially screened all my bags, rubbedthem down with those little cloth, and then emptied everthing out. At one point I told Stephanie I was a drug mule and the security guard said, "Hey, someone's gotta do it. It pays the rent." It's good he had a sense of humor about it. Anyway, by the time we got through to the gate, we were the last few people to get on the plane...but we made it!

Then, thanks in large part to Stephanie's ability to divide by two, I won the contest to guess what time we would reach the half-way point. Stephanie was a runner up. We cheered and the flight attendant congratulated us. I won three containers of macadamia nuts, which is much better than the time I won wine, but Stephanie thought I should have won a plane ticket. At any rate, we were both pretty proud of this little victory and repeated the story to my parents, who apparently didn't hear them call out names.

The last of the amusements for the day came when I got to call 411 for Snorkel Bob's number. The lady thought I said "Local Bombs" which caused me to completely crack up on the phone, and she joked back that she might have to call the cops, and then she put me through to Snorkel Bob. That was the funniest mis-hearing ever!

Stephanie saw her first whale breach. Out hotel has apparently been taken over by mongeese. They're everywhere. We have a beautiful view from our rooms, no doubt thanks to David, and even though Stephanie fell asleep at 8:30 Hawaii time, I think she's having fun. We'll see what adventures tomorrow brings.

I feel like I did on Day 3 of my first trip to Yosemite when I thought I might die if I continued to move, and I still have to assemble my bed and two book shelves, load all my stuff into the SUV and unload, at least 2 times. Ugh. Everything aches and I've got bruises from kneeling on the hardwood floors to assemble things. However, people have been quite helpful and other than the 3 1/2 foort high stack of enormous boxes in our living room from all the IKEA furniture, the house is shaping up to be quite cute and spatious. I'll have to take pics today.

It's official!

We're half way though law school, and this has most certainly been the tough half.
Hurray!

Ay yay yay!

So, the fax of the rental agreement didn't get faxed right last week, and now that dad has it all filled out, the notary lady who is always there in her office has disappeared and he is waiting for her to return so he can get the damn thing notarized and mailed so it can get to Faith, our odd but less irritating the more I talk to her agent by tomorrow, so we can go pick up our keys before tomorrow's final, so we can put together furniture, potentially in the dark, because I tried to get the electricity on via the internet which seems destined for failure. I also have to go to the bank and get a certified check for the rent. Oh, and I just spent 50 minutes, i kid you not, with SBC ATT guy to get my phone switched and DSL stuff sent to my parent's house, and then cross my fingers that the house actually has enough phone jacks and good faith to run wireless for PC's and Mac's at a reasonable speed. If everything actually happens on time the way it is supposed to, I'll be stunned. Now, I am off to finish cramming Constitutional law into my ever shrinking brain, and to plug in the battery pack for the cordless drill so it is ready to assemble our furniture tomorrow night, potentiall in the dark.

I bet you're jealous.

I am ready to move.

It's 1 am and the lawn sprinkler head outside of my apartment just broke and is shooting water onto my balcony. My glass door is wet. It's pretty loud, actually. I am hoping campus po can think of a remedy. I am sort of laughing at the absurdity of the situation, but I'd also like to be asleep. At least it isn't my neighbor watering her plants. Then I'd be mad.

More Advice

Mostly I am just amazed, so don't be angry with me. But now they have Christmas planet saving advice. Did you know it's actually better to buy a real tree than to buy a fake one becuase the chemicals in the fake one are so bad when they break down? Yikes! Plus you can recycle the tree by milching it after the holidays. (1-800-clean-up or earth911.com) And you can buy cards and wrapping paper made with 100% recycled paper. Decorating your tree with LED lights is 90% more eficient than traditional lights.

Ummmm.

I am watching Al Gore on Oprah and feeling terrified for our planet. Seriously, terrified. I had no idea how bad things are, nor how many sources of evidence there were that we are causing the problem. Polar bears are drwoning! We need an intervention! So, everyone should buy An Inconvenient Truth and if you can afford it over time, these five things:

1. compact florescent light bulbs (they last longer and you can get them cheaper at Costco)
If every American swapped out five regular light bulbs for five of these, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 millions cars off the highway.

2. solar outdoor lights (for those of you who know people who have yards and lights in them)

3. Programmable thermostats
reducing the temp in winter and raising it in summer by just 2 degrees when you're not in the house can lower home emissions of CO2 by 9% (This is not for you, Stephanie)

4. regularly chaging your air filter in you air conditioner can knowck of another 2%

5. Get a blanky for your water heater, and you'll cut CO2 emmissions by over 4% (weird)

6. Buy energy star appliances and save 3% on average

Total CO2 savings: 20%!!! Yeah!

Also, on yesterday's Oprah I learned about a cool new place you can donate money for gifts or for yourself. It's called the Grameen Foundation, and its founder just won the Nobel Peace Price. They make micro loans, mostly to women, and this allows them to get out of poverty and away from corrupted money lenders in thir countries. 58% of the people they've lent to have gotten out of poverty, and 100% of their children go to school. It's pretty amazing stuff.

Countdown!

My first final is in 4 1/2 hours. I slept quite well, but then, once I woke up a teensy weensy bit, the anxiety struck and so here I am about to cram anything else I can into my head in the time I have left. We did get our apt., for real, real this time. We will have 2 days next week to move our stuff, assemble our furniture, clean our old apartments, and pack for home and Hawaii. No pressure. But really, I just want to be home, sneesing and wheezing with allergies, petting kitties and riding the Fritatta. But that will come soon enough. Actually, 11 days from now. AND, I'll officially be half way through law school! Hurray!

Yeah for Starbucks!

We met an adorable boy yesterday at Starbucks. He looked like Michael Buble, only one that God designed especially for Stephanie. He might be a little dumb (we're not sure yet), but he is back in college at the age of 24, so he's willing to struggle if nothing else. We also spent four hours next to these hot medical students. At least I think they were hot. One was for sure, but I couldn't see the other two so I have to take Stephanie's word on it. All of this is good news because it means Stephanie is more willing to go back to Starbucks to study, and I love to study there. Her time there is being positively reinforced. Hurray! So if you know any other hot guys who snowboard or will single-handedly make enough in their future jobs to pay of their own debts and Stephanie's, tell them to go to Starbucks.

WORST MOVIE EVER!

Do NOT go see Borat. It was the biggest waste of $9.50, and when you leave the theatre you feel as though you've been violated. Like you've funded mean, racist, and nasty people who can't think of something better to do with their lives. I hope the frat boys and etiquette lady win their suit and take back my $9.50 because I feel cheated. And the frat boys WERE blitzed. The one guy couldn't even focus he was so drunk, and quite frankly, he was much less offensive than Borat. Plus, the credits did not say that no animals were harmed in the making of this film, so we're a little worried about the bear and the chicken. I'm not joking. Do NOT see this film.

One left!!!

I just finished outlining evidence. This means I have one Con Law class and then my Con Law outline to write before I can go home!!! Of course, this gonna take me two days...but I can't believe it's gonna be done by Thanksgiving. Holy cow! Thanks Stephanie and Rebecca for your notes. I'd have been totally screwed otherwise.

Mini Vacation

In honor of Rebecca's B-day, we took a mini vacation to the wine country today and had a marvelous time. We visited Sterling Winery, rode a gondola, tasted a variety wines, and learned why it is that wines get descriptions like "nutty, rich aroma, with hints of coffee and apricot." I still don't know how they got this one wine to taste and smell like peaches, though. Neither of us cared for anything red, and we prefer to believe it is because we have good taste (our taste buds aren't dead yet). Then we stopped for a delicious Italian dinner with chocolate moose for dessert. I am still full, and it's been 4 hours! We even made it back before the fog set in. Hurray! I feel like I have the strength to complete my last two outlines before heading home for the real vacation with Stephanie, Tiki, Gato, Pirate, and perhaps Bismark. I need a license plate that says THE ARK.

We're Moving!

Stephanie and I are really gonna get to move! Our place is available and Nancy has one of our places filled. One down, one to go! I am currently ignoring the possibility that she never fills my place. We can have Daisy and Topaz, and even though our other pets will still be contraband, they'll be a lot easier to hide. No morel neighbors. Our own washer and dryer. Soooo cool!

I'm Back!

But tired and snarky. Alas.

Bobby Kennedy on the Death of MLK Jr.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because...

I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.

For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.


My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

(Interrupted by applause)

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

(Interrupted by applause)

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Robert F. Kennedy - April 4, 1968

I miss air.

That's really all I wanted to say. Thanks for your time.

Coincidence? I think not.

If you type PCD into Google, you get the Pussy Cat Dolls and Prevent Chronic Disease. Interesting, isn't it.

It's Ugly

with a capital U, but it's done. Yeah! My Crim Pro outline is scary and...short, but it's "done" and that's what counts. Only 4 more to go. Man, I miss my notes.

Well...

other than the fact that i just spilled about a cup of green tea all over the keyboard of my laptop...yes, the one I murdered a week ago, I'm fine. Oh...and i am sick. Yes, but other than that I'm fine. Thanks for asking!

Hurray!!!

I have an interneship for Spring!!! This means I am about to have legal experience and will be more employable in the future. It also means that I am not always a horrible interviewee, or at least, my resume is able to overcome my weaknesses. Yeah! And Stephanie has been having a good two days as well, but you'll have to go to her blog to find out why, even though she hasn't written it there yet. She did just get electrocuted while trying to plug in her computer...but other than that...tons of good stuff going on!

So happy day for us! Now all we need is to get our place off campus.

Horrifying moment of the day...

We're watching a video about the first black students trying to integrate. One guy was just hit in the head with a brick. Then the army, there to make sure only the white kids got in, suggested that if they let the mob hang one of the kids, the others could go freely.

"Well, how will we pick one?"

"How about we draw straws?"

"I'll go get some"

So when Bill O'Reilly goes off about those people who think the US is fundamentally flawed, I can't help but wonder if he feels the federal government was doing the right thing then. And yet so many still carry their Confederate flags around and hang to the resentment about the end of slavery and segregation. I'd say that's a fundamental flaw.

And the Parent of the Year Award goes to.....

Patrice Seibert's 12-year-old son Johnathan had cerebral palsy, and when he died in his sleep she feared charges of neglect because of bedsores on his body. In her presence, two of her teenage sons and two of their friends devised a plan to conceal the facts surrounding Johnathan's death by incinerating his body in the course of burning the familiy's mobile home, in which they planned to leave Donald Rector, a mentally ill teenager living with the family, to avoid the appearance that Johnathan had been unattended. Seibert's son Darian and a friend set the fire, and Donald died.

2 down, ? to go

I had my second interview for Spring semester this morning at the State Attorney General's Office for Health, Education and Welfare. I am getting better at this. I think I managed not to say anything dumb, nor did I imply that my interviewer wasn't good enough to get hired in Santa Clara County or say that I protested against the person I now want to work for. All in all, then, it was a good effort. I'll know by Friday if they want me or not, so that's kind of cool. But it means I'll have to say yes before even being called by the other places I applied. But maybe I should just run with it. If they ask, say yes. It seems stupid to run around turning down perfectly good job opportunities, and it will abate my generalized anxiety about finding gainful employment and references.

Tonight I am going to meet the CA supreme court justices, whom I know nothing about, in the hopes that one of them will see me and instantly ask me if I want to clerk for them next year. Hey, it could happen. I better do some research between now and then so I have something thoughtful to say should they talk to me. Gee. I sure wish Stephanie was still going with me so I'd have some moral support. Hint. Hint.

Ouch

So, I did the worst thing to myself that a law student could do. I failed to back up my data and then set a refrigerator magnet on my computer, thereby murdering my hard drive and erasing all my data. All my notes, all my songs, the only only outline I had started, all gone. Dead. Finito. Kaput. El dia de los muertos computadoras. Estoy muy, muy triste. Ay caramba! Que lastima! Muy mal.
The moral of this story is: don't gamble on your hardrive, and don't stick refrigerator magnets on it either.

They weren't kidding

So, as you could tell my blog was getting all weird and moving the posts down the page, so I thought perhaps it was time for a new look. Now, the menu is way down the page. Right before I hit the button it said, "will lose all formatting." This seemed like a goo idea, but now...not so much. Hmmmm.

Goodbye

Cielito has a new mommy as of last night. Hurray! And Lisa and I can both breathe and sigh of relief that it's over, and I think we did a good job.

But I don't want a C!

I'm doing pretty crappy in Appellate and International Advocacy this semester, and I have no one to blame but myself. I hate that! I really don't want a C!!!! (whiney tantrum) I don't hold such high expectations for myself grade wise, I never have. But C's are damaging to my self-esteem, especially when I know it was my own screw-up that caused it. Not feeling ao good about being gone all weekend when I need at least a 75 on this paper. Did I mention I haven't started? Did I mntion I want to cry? I feel just like I'm a kid again, and I want my mommy!

Is it just me, or...

Apparently our president has approved a 700 mile fence for the boarder. It might be a good idea, but I can't seriously believe we're gonna find out that immigrants have been sucking us dry and using us for fre health insurance and taxes. Really, I imagine that we will learn just how many taxes they've been paying, and how cheap they've been making out food, and that they more than make up for what they cost us in education and medical care, which, quirte frankly, they've earned. Grr. But all of this is really just an excuse to show the picture that accompanied the artical that told me this, because it made me laugh...out loud.

Don't Let the Turkeys Get You Down!

So, my mentor heard I was feeling down and out, demoralized, incapable, and unemployable. She called to remind me that I can get a job, I will get a job, that even people who didn't get hired until a year after they graduated ended up happy. She gave a me a daily affirmation and made me repeat it several times. It helped. And she told me not to let the turkeys get me down. You know, those people who run around chattering about their latest interviews, their new jobs, how their papers are already finished, and then stare at you with a mixture of pitty and disbelief when you say you haven't even had an interview yet OR finished reading the sources for your paper. So gang, DON'T LET THE TURKEYS GET YOU DOWN!!!

Ironic

Ironic: characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is.

My mentee just e-mailed me to remind me to come to the meeting with his study group today. This is the mentee who didn't answer my first email, failed to show up at our first appointment, showed up at our second appt. only to say he couldn't stay, and then took 3 weeks to answer my next email to make this appointment. Hmm.

ALOOOOOOOOOOO-HA!

Hurray! The fam and Stephanie and I are going to Kona over break! Of course, they had their biggest earthquake in 20 years yesterday, but we're hoping that means reduced rates. And who really needs roads to drive on anyway? Now I have something to look forward to as a slog my way through the rest of the semester.

I Suck

People are disappointed with me because I have stopped blogging. I am now sitting here listening tot he most capable guy on earth, and he's only been out of law school for 3 years. I'd hire him. I bet he interviews really well, and doesn't even tell people they aren't good enough to get a job in Santa Clara County. Yes, I did that, but at least it was a mock interview. I need more experience. I get all nervous and turn into a quivering 12 year old. Not good. So he's making me feel even less adequate. I am starting to think that's what law school is about. Overcoming that feeling of adequacy that we start with. Actually, i think i'd marry this guy. He's adorable. Alas, already married, and far too capable for me. Why are law students so damn capable?!

So anyway, I'm not dead, I've just lost the will to blog. I am struggling to get to where I was at this time last year. I need a job. I need another reference so I can stop torturing Mike. He probably hate sme at this point. Oh well.

Resolution

I don't know if you can have a resolution on a Tuesday, or if it is desined to failure for lack of timing, but if it counts for anything, I had this resolution yesterday but couldn't post it because my computer only lets me on the internet every other day now...apparently.

Anyway, I hearby resolve to get all this week'shomework done before class, and to get my paper done by Friday at 10:30, and to go to all my Con Law classes from here on out. I also resolve to outline for one more class this week. I resolve to stop being little-miss-fix-it for a few days, and confine my good acts to making sure Stephanie doesn't starve to death or die of lonliness, although I'm sure she's say it's better that way. What all this means is that this is all I have time to write, and that's really fine because nothing interesting has been going on. We're all just nuts and busy and behind and confused, wishing it were Christmas break right now, wondering why we ever came to law school. Ugh.

CRACK!

I've decided to break my long silence to share with you that I just knocked my fortunately empty coffee mug to the floor, 5 feet below my table, where it landed with an unignorable CRACK! during a moment of silence in Evidence class. It was awesome. You should have been here.

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This post was brought to you by McGeorge School of Law.

Typical

I got hit on by this old guy in Long's just now. He lives across town. I said I live is Sacramento. He said he was having a birthday. I volunteered that I had just had one too. He asked how old I was. It was one of those, "would it be a felony if we slept together?" sort of moments. I made my escape from the isle. Later i realized he was one isle over because I could hear the distinctive sound of his cough. I clung to my parents. Then, when I was alone in an isle he stooped and stared at me, and then he said goodbye. At least he can take a hint.

Birthday: Part 2

Today was the celebration of my birthday for real, because we no longer had tons of work hangig over us and so we could laugh and have fun. My parents came down Friday night and we had dinner and laughed and talked about the dramas and tramas of trying to get into law review. We saw the 4 minutes of fire works the state fair puts on at night; literally 4, I'm not making this up. After they dropped me off for the night I watched TV for 2 hours because I was so excited that I had time to.

I was a little bitter when morning came, but seeing as how my parents got woken up by the hotel fire alarm when one of the employees burnt toast, I really had a pleasant wake up experience. I went and met them at the hotel, and we had a nice breakfast, then bought Stephanie a vegan brownie and vegan carrot muffin so she could enjoy dessert with us later at dinner. We picked her up and began wandering about, grabbbing for-sale flyers from homes in the cute neighborhood. Then we went to the park to see the birds, but we found this one duck with fishing line around its leg, and the leg was really swollen and cut where the line was, and the bird couls hardly walk, and clearly did feel good. Stephanie sacrificed some of her muffin to lure it closer, and mom and I tried hard to catch it, but it flew away and wouldn't come back, so we had to let it go. Sooooo sad.

Next, I showed them where I will be keeping my horse, and then we wandered about the countryside, until dad stopped for gas and Stephanie and I raided the huge AM/PM Mini Mart. We had a blast, and with some additional items from my dad, we spent 16 dollars. Two blocks later we stopped so I could check out the local tack store, and Stephanie and I decided we have to move out so we can take Daisy.

Eventually, we ended up in PetsMart on the other side of town, looking for a rat cage, but it was too big for the car, so we decided to buy Manky two mice instead. On the way home we tried to put them in their new cage, but discovered that they could fit right through the bars. Boy was that exciting! Then we laughed so hard we cried, and the phone rang, anf it was Manky who was mad becuase she thought we'd abandoned her even though she set the whole day aside for me, but really we just couldn't go get her because the car was full and we didn't want her to know my parents were here so she'd skip out on dinner. Sorry Manky! The mice turned into a nice apploogy though.

We had a great dinner at PF Changs, with a cute waiter, yummy drinks, and good conversation. My mom had an diet coke, two mixed drinks, hot green tea, and a glass of wine. When the waiter asked her how she was she said, "I'm drunk!" It was cute. Then my parents said goodbye (sad), and we headed off to trade vehicles to go back to the pet store before we made it to the movie. Manky saw her new children, and Stephanie bought a hamster named Pirate. She's the bestest hamster ever! I bought my cage, and Brian helped us carry all our stuff. It's good to have a boy around.

The movie, Little Miss Sunshine, was hysterical, and sad, and wacky, and fun, and just what I was in the mood for, but I think it scared Manky. I really did try to get us to the Illusionist, but apparently it hasn't been released in Sacramento yet.

Before bed I put Gato in her new home, which is three times as big as her old home, if I'm calculating the area correctly. She definately has room for a sister, so hopefull I'll go get her either today or tomorrow. Stephanie and I have started imagining what it will be l;ike to head hme for thanksgiving, us hauling Amadeus with Daisy, Di Di, Gato, Bismark, Pirate, and the new rat all piled into the car with us. We''ll be like an animal transport service.

So it was a great day that more than made up for my shitty week. Thanks everybody!!!

Aaaaaack!

That was the worst paper writing experience of my life. That was like my first year of teaching, I don' know what I am doing, I can't get through this day, no matter what I do this isn't coming out well, sort of day. You know how sometimes, even when things don't go as well as you'd like, you can at least say you did your best? Well, I can't say that right now. That wasn't my best. That was bad. Bad, procrastinating Mira. All I can say is that at least I didn't quit, becuase I really, really, really wanted to give up all day long. And now I've missed two classes, one of which I was supposed to be called on in, so now I have to make up the reading becuase she won't have finished it and I didn't get called on, so I'm bound to be first. The good news is, I only have a week to get some cover letters together so I can apply for a job I won't get. Hurray! I'm going to the pet store.

Not MY Boyfriend

Today in class I overheard this guy tell his friend he was leaving class early. His friend asked why. He said the fantasy football draft pick was at 2:15. I will never date smeone who leaves class early to draft his fanatsy football team. Nope. Uh-uh.

Expression of the Day

Apparently a Braid of Horribles is synonomous with a Slippery Slope. Who knew?

Clearly I need an IV drip of coffee because the two cups I have already drunk aren't working.

Sleepy Panic

Well, I did have a nice birthday, but now I've had about 5 hours of sleep, haven't finished any of my homework, and managed to spend a good 30 minutes this morning reading the wrong case from Crim Pro. I rock! I am in a coma and this lady is recapping Marbury v Madison, that we already spent 90 minutes on, and presumably aren't done with. Grrrr. But all this is to say, thatnks for the cool B-day. If it weren't for you guys, I'd be all depressed and bored, but instead I am happy and exhausted, better prepared to work after my nap this afternoon. I hope I have time for one.

Bad idea....right?

So I was standing outside of the security ofice ooking for parking permit slips because I lost mine, and I noticed the wall covered in apartment and home rental listings, and this really bad idea crossed my mind, only it seemed really good. There was this townhome thingy with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, it's own washer and dryer, and pets allowed, all for only $1250 a month. Suddenly I could see it. All of us living on 5th Ave with our cat(s) and Daisy dog, coking dinners and cracking up. It's double the size of Manky's and my apartments. True, we'd have to wiggle out of our leases, move all our shit, and redecorate, but we'd have a little family and cheap rent, plus pets and we'd still be close to campus.

Go ahead. Tell me it's a bad idea. I know. And I am sure it's already rented, but I just thought...you know...

Long Time, No See!

I haven't posted in a while because I have been busy and haven't really had anything to say. I thought I should say hi........... Hi.

Wouza!

So tonight, desperate for food, we wound up at this totally crazy restaurant. It was like Buca de Bippo on steroids. We should have known better than to eat there when the mummy with an erection greeted us at the door, but we ventured on. The waitresses, all three of them asian, had a lot of trouble understanding what the hell we wanted and we got many a puzzled stare. One had a permanently fowl expression on her face, and another smiled all the time but clearly had no idea what we were saying. When we asked for a box to take my chicken away in, they took it and then never came back. When the third Asian lady came up, we told her about the chicken, and she ended up giving us a whole new piece because the other had been thrown away. Shocking! At any rate, the high point of the experience was the bathroom, which I knew would be something else. Mostly it was colorful and gaudy, but above the sink was a wall paper strip of many pictures of satan having explicit sex with a naked woman. XXX. No joke. My dad had to take a trip to check it out, and even after I had prepped him he was still amazed. Clearly they all the Puritans did end up in America after all.

This photo, completely unrelated, came today from Sven, because I had forwarded him an article I found on Yahoo. He returned with this photo, amoung others. I think its like a marketing ploy, now that he's single. Of course, I already know he's hot, so it's sort of amusing. I'm not sure the picture does his face justice, but I don't think it was intended to be the focus anyway. Enjoy!

We're not in Oxford anymore, Toto

OMG. When I got in the shower this morning I was so surprised by all the water pressure and space, I thought I'd never get out. We saw Mary Poppins last night, and it was soooooo good. Then we had delicious Indian food, made by actual Indians no less. It was delightful. It would have been better if I could have tasted my rose flavored ice cream, but it just tasted like sugar-water because of my cold. Still, I am exstatic to be free of that place!!! More later. We're off to tea.

Charlotte

My screenless room is not such a good place for arachnaphobics lately. I see them crawlng around the window, sometines inside on the sill, but we are all peace with each other. Then two nights ago I was talking to Lisa and felt something on my foot. I looked and a spider had just jumped off me onto the carpet. The phone doesn't reach very far and I didn't have any container to help me relocate it, so I just chased it until it was heading far away from me. It climbed the wall. It walked across the ceiling, and there it has been in one place or another for the past two days, until today, that is. I was about to dry my hair and stood up to get something, and there just an inch or two from my face was Charlotte, rapelling down from the ceiling. I lept out the way and then chased her to the ceiling again, and kept a close eye on her as I dried my hair. Another spider rapelled down from the window and I had to chase it away too. Then, as I finished I looked up and she was gone. Totally. Vanished. Not on the ceiling, which means she must have made a dash for the floor...or my hair. There was much shaking out of my hair after much blowing with the dryer to make sure she wasn't there. I don't know where she went, but she blends in well on the carpet, so she is probably just biding her time until tonight when she can come from me. She's small though. I think I can take her.

F*@#in' Virus

Yeah, that's really all I had to say.

Gosh Dangit!

Last night when we went to our formal dnner I could tell something was wrong with m throat, but it was more scratchy than sore, and so I figured it was allergies...or somthing. Then I had a bunch on drinks and went out to a bar afterwards, drank some more, and then went to bed at 2. SCU drunks are crazy, by the way. When we left Lisa with two strange men she was having trouble focusing on anything and said goodbe to the ground instead of me. I looked at the two guys she was with in case I needed to draw a police sketch later and then left here there since I don't really know her and the other people seemed to imply this was pretty normal for her. Cool.

So this morning when I woke up my voice was GONE! Completely, and my throat hurt really bad, and it was all scratcgy and gross, and while alcohol never does it any good, it was clear something worse was going on. I took an airborne and went back to bed for 2 hours. I thought I might have had a hangover evn though I did the two advil and two glasses of water thing, or maybe I was just tired. I did feel better when I woke up, but I didnt much want to see anyone, so I read some more for my tutorial tomorrow, and then went to the library and photocopied the chart I needed so I woudn't do as shitt a job on this weeks paper as last week.

Then I took the longest way possible to the luggage store to buy a new carry on bag (sort of an accident), got a sandwich, and came home. I took another airborne and went to bed for another hour. Now, I have finished most of my reading and taken another airborne, but I definately feel like I have a fever, and I haven't even gotten to where I am ready to start my paper. I am supposed to pack tonight so I could go to London tomorrow night to see my mom, but now that I am sick I am thinking she is the last person I should be seeing. Grrrrr. And now I have to go sit in that stuffy office and here how my piece-of-crap, fever-written paper is all wrong before coming back here and hoping I at least get well fast enough to spend the day with my parents and go see our show on Thursday night.

WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?

Somthin' Fishy Goin' On Here

So you all know that I have this lovely view out the fron of the building from my room. Plus, my room is dark and sad without the curtains open, so when it isn't sweltering I keep the curtains open. And my eyes work, as do my deduction skills. Combine all this with normal human curiosity and you can see that I can't help but be a spy on my fellow SCUers. Other than being drunk outside my window or smelling the hallway up with marijuana, they've been pretty uninteresting actually. But James has changed all that. The other day on the bus back from London he mentioned that he had this girlfriend (technicall ex-girlfirend) who was French but worked here, and they had broken up because her visa to come to the US had fallen through. Cool. I understand this.

Friday evening was the croquet match, and I saw him walking around holding hands with a black haired girl. Presumably French girl because that morning at breakfast he had shared that they spent the night watching the Break-Up with Jennifer Aniston and what's-his-face, and wondering why they had broken up. Cool. This makes sense.


Cut to Saturday. In the late morning I saw his walking some blond chick out of the gate. They weren't holding hands but it did seem a little fishy. Does he have some visiting friend? And then he returned about 20 minutes later girl-less, so it looked a bit like a one-nighter followed by the walk home. I actually considered that French girl might have bleached her hair, but it had been after 9:00 the night before when I saw her with black hair so this seemed unlikely.

Cut to Saturday night. Black-haired girl returns, and she and James sit on the lawn wearning his two nearly identical sweaters, drinking wne and chatting. No cuddling, but they had held hands the night before and she definately had not dyed her hair. WTF?

And just now...I saw him walking a reddish haired girl out the gate, holding hands!!! It MIGHT have been the blond from yesterday, but the hair definately looked redder. Either way, James seems to be workin' the system pretty good of late. He is actually a bit of a shmuck. I wonder what black haired girl would think if she knew he was all sad to be broken up with her, if indeed she is the French ex, only to be shacking up with various other girls only hours after hanging out with her. What a Collin.

CALLING THE 90 lb. ELBOW!!!

I thought maybe if I yelled it out you might check here faster. Anyway, are we still on for Petroglyphing when I get back? I was thinking Thursday the 10th would be good. I get my hair done at 1:00 and then, presumably around 3:00 I could be in Los Gatos. We could have Pizza my heart afterwards. Mmmmm. Ooo, and you can tell me all about your sister's wedding. Tina was so nice, just like you, and yet totally different somehow. I can tell you guys have cool parents.

And to all, Mom is getting out of the hospital today. Apparently they couldn't figure out what the infection was because of the one antibiotic my dad gave her when they got off the plane. It was so strong that it got rid of all the traces of the bacteria they might have tested. It was the results from her CA test on Monday that finally came in that told them what was going on. Anyway, she'll be on 50million anti-biotics and when she gets home, home, they want to put her one some chronic anti-biotics to kick this thing's butt once and for all. It's funny because I could swear she spent 3 months on injectible antibiotics already, but hey, what do I know? As far as I know the trip is not cancelled.

In the mean time I am trying to get all my materials sorted out on paper and in my brain for my exam tomorrow. And then we have a dinner, and then my paper is due Wednesday. When am I going to read for it? Well that is a great question. I have no idea. Oh well.

I'm Going to Denmark!

Apparently Disneyland has been replaced and Denmark is now the happiest place on earth. I have decided to move there because I am having trouble maintaning my serotonin levels here. Don't worry, red means happy on this map, not republican.

Triple Ugh!

So mumsy and popsicle headed off to Florida yesterday, only by the time they got there she had a temp of 104 and bad chills. Terrific. So they got to go to the hospital instead of the hotel, and when dad called me at 2:30 in the morning they had gotten her temp down but had now clue what was causing it. Her kidney hurts, but no bacteria showed up. I might mention that she had a fever on Monday, but it was gone by the time she made it to see the doc, who also found no trace of bacteria, and sent her home with enough antibiotics to make it through her trip if the fever came back. It did. So now they have admitted her because they want to find out what's wrong. They did a crappy CT and can see a spot on her liver which could be just about a million things given the wonderment of the radiologists report as he searched for organs she no longer has and tried to figure out the landscape. Now they need to do an MRI, but that has been postponed, so it'll be a while, and then a while longer before we know what it says. And then, does she continue on her journey or do she and my dad head back home and leave me here to rot away for another 4 days by myself? To know that, my friends, you'll just have to check back in and see.

Mental Flexibility

I seem to be lacking it these days. Mental flexibility, that is. Maybe its that I had a horrifying 2+ hour tutorial today and learned that my whole paper was wrong, or maybe it was the irritating class afterwards where everyone went on and on about how the EU was a ticking time bomb, or like girlfriends who be come roomates and then grow to hate each other. Or maybe its the humid, unrelenting heat. But when I read the email that said my Wills and Trusts teacher had retired and my section was cancelled, I just sat there in shock. I had to choose between taking four classes on Wednesdays, the three hour evening version, no doubt with Kwami, or a new class altogether. But I don't wanna change my schedule! I like my schedule! My schedule is my friend! After much fretting I opted for the evening version, and then, after changing it over I realized that it would interfere with the appointment I made to get the Fritatta's feet done in Galt, especially once I added in a brief vet appointment to get his teeth done. Argh! So I thought seriously about changing the class again, but I decided it would be better to be late to one class than to take a whole different one just to accomodate my appointment. Still, I feel disgruntled. What the hell is wrong with me these days? I'm such a cranky pants. I even turned down a play with Ben because I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to leave the building and have fun. He called me to make sure, and he was all cute and sympathetic, but I held firm. I will not have fun, damn it! I was only slightly comforted by the beautiful tall, dark, handsome man who made me my sandwich and iced latte for dinner. Sigh. Oh, and Skye has diabetes, so that's why she went blind, has chronic ear infections, the never ending skin condition, and pees on the floor all the time. Doggy MMP, I'd say, but then, I'm just a law student.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Well, the good news is that my mom's fever is gone and she has antibiotics in case it returns. The bad is that it may return.

The good news is that Germaan finally gets to retire and play in the pasture. The bad news is that this is because he is officially, permanently broken.

The good news is that our vet got into see a doc quickly and get a scan done. The bad news is that he really does have a spot on his lung. Oh, and his neck still isn't doing very well from the time he fell playing polo and landed on his head and passed out.

The good news is that Skye didn't have a stroke. The bad news is that she is almost completely blind from cataracts that finally finished closing in on her vision. She can see the difference between light and dark when its 6 inches from her face. The ugly part is that, since she is also almost completely deaf, she is pretty much screwed. Dad is optimistic, but I am imagining many a tragic accident involving the deaf, blind dog who wanders the property filled with ditches, tractors, and rattle snakes. I am imagining pool access. I am imagining coyotes. My imagination is very ugly.

The bad news is that my mom's good friend from childhood has a spot on her lung too, which might explain why she has been coughing and hacking and miserable for the past year or two. As she has been a smoker all her life, the odds that it is just some abberation on the scan are low. However, since she is too poor to afford health insurance, she won't be going in to find out more any time soon. There really was no good to that part of the story. Sorry.

It has been a pretty weird week all around. Oh, and its still hot and I still want to go home. I hate essays. I hate exams, and I hate not really working full time while not really having time to play. I am in summer vacation pergatory.

Field Trip

Yesterday we all went to visit the Court of Justice in London. We got to sit in on a case and see the judges laugh at the barrister, and we also laughed at their silly wigs. I swear one of the judges was playing solitaire on his lap top. Then some other appellate judge sat and answered our questions in his AIR CONDITIONED chambers. It was fabulously cold, and he was a pretty impressive guy, too. He has actually argued cases before the European Court of Justice, and drug his whole family there to watch a case. I want to go, too! Then two SCU students competed against two English barristers in a moot court competition, and I could hear parts of it over the traffic noise from outside. I didn't feel like asking people to shut the windoes given the stiffling heat in the room, so from what I could tell, they did a good job. Next we went to have dinner at one of the four Inns of Court, and it was all formal and English, and no one at out table knew what they were doing, so it was sort of silly too. I met some nice girls working on becoming barristers, and we talked about teaching, rude teenagers, and basketball. I'm afraid I wasn't much help on the last one though. Finally, we ended the night with a visit to the pub next door. We were only there an hour but most were sufficiently drunk when we got on the bus to come home, so it was a roudy, loud, and odd ride home. I got to talk to James a bit, and the I fell asleep. I'm such a party animal. Today I slep in until 11:00 and then took a nap before my class at 3:00. Ha ha. Oh, and Ben looks ADOREABLE with a beard, and you know how I feel about guys and facial hair. Hate it. But sooooooooo cute! Stephanie and he are going to have the cutest children if they ever meet.

I just got back from checking the mail for my paper. Yeah! I got a 67. It's my highest grade so far. Sure, it sounds like a D, but it is actually a B+ (I think). The system is weird here, but at least I know that all my work won't be for naught. I have also played sodoku, called my mom, and changed the background on my screen-saver 4 times. I don't want to work anymore. I quit. Of course I am kidding, bu seriously, my vacation is wearing me out and I don't feel nearly so enthused about going back to law school in a few weeks as I thought I would.

On the more distressing side, my Mom has a fever and is supposed to leave for Florida and then here in two days. Also, Skye apparently had a stroke yesterday. She's all disoriented and having trouble seeing, or something. I guess she is eating and drinking, but it's not so good. She is 13, so it's not all that shocking, but she was doing so well. It'll be so sad if she has to live out her last days all blind, deaf, and disoriented. Worse yet if we have to put her down soon. Sigh. I guess this is just the way life goes.

Oh, and Sven's girlfrend broke up with him. I have mixed feelings about this, but I guess it could be a good thing. It might just be sad. Or it might just be news and nothing more. Hmmm.

Re-birth Announcement

Today we welcome Mira's life long love of horses and riding dressage back into the world.

I HAVE A PONYYYYYYYYYY!

Unfortnately I have no still photos to share, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Oxford, Day 1094

I feel like I have been gone forever. What was I thinking opting for a 6-week program? Perhaps I thought I'd have time for weekend get-a-ways and people to go on them with. Alas, neither has turned out to be true. I also didn't think at all about how un-airconditioned everything would be. I know this is a record breaking summer for Oxford, but as Lisa points out, they really do need to start preparing for global warming. My room has just cooled to 79, but now that I own a fan I have some small refuge. The weather has actually been cool, and by cool I mean neat, today. I woke up at 6:30 because it started pouring outside and my windows were open. There was thunder and lightening. It was great. I called the parental units and we chatted for a while. We actually searched online for dishes for our new beach house. It was sort of cute.

Me: "Hey, go to casual dining, page four and look at the green leaf plates."

Mom and Dad: "ooo, those are nice."

We're a wacky family, I realize, but it works. Then it was all sunny and clear when I went out to get lunch at 1:00. But within 2 more hours it was pouring harder than ever and the sky looked all scary. I had to close my windows because all the crap I have sitting on my sill was getting soaked. I decided it was a good photo-op, so I went out onto our front stoop and took pictures while the thunder and lightening show continued. I do love a good storm. The spiders all appeared a bit concerned, however, and so they crawled this way and that to escape the wind and rain.

Amadeus is coming home today, and so I feel, more than usual, that I want to be going home too. I have exatly 14 days left, and then I'll be on a plane. Yipeee! And then I have a million things to do to get ready for school. Like an idiot I forgot my book and help sheets on how to write good cover letters, and to be quite honest, I haven't really figured out where I want to apply other than Orrick anyway. Perhaps I'll be irresponsible and only apply there. I feel like I have become a little less responsible this summer, but I am sure Jesse and Stephanie would call it a weak attempt. I never did read Sven's paper. Oops. That'll teach him for not giving me a deadline. I need pressure. But not too much, come to think of it. I really hate that all my tutorial papers get written the night and morning before they're due. Apparently I have a B+ or something, but I don't think I have written anything good enough to be a writing sample, which was one of my goals, and now I only have two more tries left. Ug. Good thing I bought myself a jar of nutella to console me.

I have one week left of lectures, and then a weekend to study for my three hour essay exam. I don't know how 5 weeks of class can yield enough info to fill 3 hours, but apparently it is possible. I also have two essay to write in the next 10 days. Great. Just great. I better get my butt in gear and start reading.

If nothing else, the Oxford tutorial method is teaching me how to write a 7 page essay in 7 hours. It's hard to say if the essays are any good, however. They sound OK when I am 30 minutes late emailing them to the professor, but that could just be the optimisim of a procrastinator finally out of time. My professor did write on my first paper that it was "quite good for my first try." Depending on how you look at it, that's either a complement or a statement that there was plenty of room for improvement. Maybe it was both. I haven't gotten my second paper back, which is a little odd. I am thinking it is lining my tutor's bird's cage. Does he have a bird? Perhaps he has a puppy needing to be potty trained.

Anyway, I don't have that sick feeling I had prior to writing my last two papers, and really had no anxiety about the fact that I had more reading to do than could ever be done even a few hours ago. So it took me 3 hours to read the case I am evaluating. Meh. There's plenty of time to write a mediocre paper before 11:00 am.

The more I talk to Mark, the less I like him. I have always tried to tell myself that I can be friends with republicans, but it turns out this is only true if we never talk about politics. Plus, he is a bit of a homophobe, even though he knows and might associate with one or two (I think it might actually be a cousin). We were having the nature/nurture debate about homosexuality and that's when I learned he isn't really a big fan of the scientific method unless it is saying what he wants to hear, and the reason he gives for his skepticism is that "those studies tend to just find what the researcher was looking to find." No, the irony was not lost on me. He spent 8 years in the military, and is all macho and weird in the way officers can be. He has to bring up that he isn't gay everytime he goes out with a bunch of us girls, and particularly when we have tea. I guess all Englishmen are gay because they drink tea everyday, AND talk to girls. And he thinks NPR is a liberal radio station, and mocked me because I called it balanced, and when I pointed out that people had actually done research into the different news stations, he simply remarked that there was absolutely no way for a news source not to be biased. Um, ok. Besides, it always scares me when people talk about how liberal NPR is because it indicates just how conservative they are. I guess NPR is waaaay to the left of him anyway. But my favorite political argument we've had was during the world cup final when he commented that he would never buy a Cuban cigar (which actually did come up in context), and I asked why because I knew what the answer would be and I was in the mood to be difficult. After we finished, he made some comment about how strange it was how I got all into it, like someone had programmed me to say it. Um, yeah. And then today we got in this argument about homeless people, athough I tried really hard not to say anything and just let him make all these typically republican remarks about how they're all hooked on drugs and alcohol, and deserve to be homeless. Grrrr. So Mark and I need to be physically separated I think, because I am starting to resent the fact that he is using up perfectly good oxygen that might be spent on more clear-thinking people.

I know you're all laughing, all two of you that is, because I know I sound just like me, all argumentative and difficult. Seriously though, if you listened to him, you might be smart enough not to argue with him, but you'd still be disturbed. You know I'm right. I mean left.

PS: does anyone who uses blogspot understand why all my punctuation has gone funky? It just happened one day, and now I look like I am typing with a foreign keyboard even though I am not. Werid.

I realize that lately I have only been posting about boys, my stalker, and Rachna's chicken pox, and that you'd no doubt like to hear something fabulous about England. Unfortunately, though, I have been working my tail off so that I can write bad papers because I don't have enough time or motivation to do a better job. Just so that you can sympathize, which you probably shouldn't because all of you are also working exceptionally hard, I have included my reading list for my tutorial due Friday. I have to get as much read today so that I can write tomorrow. We'll see. All the things with numbers and/or C's in front are cases. No case books here either, so we get to read the unabridged versions.

1. DIRECT EFFECT

Articles 249 and 253-256 EC

P. Craig and G. de Búrca, EU Law, ch. 4
T. Hartley, Foundations of European Community Law, ch. 7
S. Weatherill and P. Beaumont, EU Law, 392-423
S. Weatherill, Law and Integration in the European Union, ch. 4
D. Wyatt and A. Dashwood, European Union Law, ch. 4
B. de Witte, “Direct Effect, Supremacy and the Nature of the Legal Order”, in P. Craig and G. de Búrca (eds.), The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford, 1999), ch. 5
26/62 Van Gend en Loos above
43/75 Defrenne v. Sabena [1976] ECR 455
41/74 Van Duyn [1974] ECR 1337
148/78 Ratti [1979] ECR 1629
104/81 Kupferberg [1982] ECR 3641
152/84 Marshall [1986] ECR 723
C-188/89 Foster v. British Gas [1990] ECR I-3313

Rejection of the horizontal direct effect of Directives confirmed, but incidental effect accepted (and lately extended):

C-91/92 Faccini Dori v. Recreb [1994] ECR I-3325 (contrast AG's opinion with that of the Court)
2. INDIRECT EFFECT

80/86 Kolpinghuis [1987] ECR 3969
C-106/89 Marleasing SA v. CIA [1990] ECR I-4135
C-456/98 Centrosteel v. Adipol [2000] ECR I-6007 (contrast para. 17 and the ruling proper)
C-397/01 to C-403/01 Pfeiffer etc., Judgment of 5 October 2004

3. INCIDENTAL DIRECT EFFECT

C-194/94 CIA Security International SA v. Signalson SA and Securitel SPRL [1996] ECR I-2201
C-226/97 Criminal proceedings against Johannes Martinus Lemmens [1998] ECR I-3711
C-201/94 R. v. The Medicines Control Agency, ex parte Smith & Nephew Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Primecrown Ltd v. The Medicine Control Agency [1996] ECR I-5819
C- 443/98 Unilever Italia v. Central Food [2000] ECR I-7535 (read also the Advocate General’s opinion – do you prefer the view of the Court or of the Advocate General?)
C-159/2000 Sapod Audic v. Eco-Emballages SA [2002] ECR I-5031
C-201/02 Wells [2004] ECR I -723

4. REMEDIES IN THE NATIONAL COURTS

P. Craig and G. de Búrca, EU Law, ch. 5
S. Weatherill and P. Beaumont, EU Law, 423-432
T. Hartley, Foundations of European Community Law, 220-232
D. Wyatt and A. Dashwood, European Union Law, ch. 5
R. Crawford Smith, “Remedies for Breaches of EU Law in National Courts: Legal Variation and Selection”, in P. Craig and G. de Búrca (eds.), The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford, 1999), 308
33/76 Rewe-Zentralfinanz [1976] ECR 1989
45/76 Comet [1976] ECR 2043
14/83 Von Colson [1984] ECR 1891
222/86 UNECTEF v. Heylens [1987] ECR 4097
C-213/89 Factortame (No. 1) [1990] ECR 1-2433
C-143/88 and 92/89 Zuckerfabrik Suderdithmarschen [1991] ECR I-415
C-465/93 Atlanta [1995] ECR I-3761
C-66/95 Sutton [1997] ECR I-2163
C-326/96 Levez [1998] ECR I-7835
C-473/2000 Cofidis [2002] ECR I-10875
C-453/99 Courage Ltd. v. Crehan [2001] ECR I-6297
C-255/00 Grundig Italiana [2002] ECR I-8003
5. ACTIONS FOR DAMAGES AGAINST MEMBER STATES FOR BREACH OF COMMUNITY LAW
6/90 and 9/90 Francovich [1991] ECR I-5357
C-48/93 Factortame (No. 3) [1996] ECR I-1029
C-392/93 R. v. H. M. Treasury ex parte British Telecom [1996] ECR I-1631
C-224/01 Köbler [2003] ECR I-10239 (state liability for judicial error)
C. Harlow, “Francovich and the Problem of the Disobedient State”, (1996) 2 ELJ 199

6. FRANCOVICH IN THE NATIONAL COURTS

Factortame [1999] 3 CMLR 597, [1999] 4 All ER 906; [2001] 1 CMLR 47
Brasserie du Pêcheur [1997] 1 CMLR 971

ESSAY QUESTION:

Was Köbler rightly decided?

I don't actually believe Stephanie and Jesse are reading my blog anymore, but I have pics to show now.

Here's Ben:



You can see he next to me here, with James across the table, the second guy with the blue shirt and pink tie. Ha ha.



And here is James (in the England jersey) again, with Eric, out coordinator.



Oh, and I ran into my stalker again today. He was pretty pushy again, but ess so, and I just said no in the friendliest way I could. See, I'm getting better!

Rachna has chicken pox. Weird.

OK. Ben is totally adorable and if Stephanie doesn't get out here to claim him, I might just have to snatch him away.

If you are looking for an interesting experience and aren't starving, the McDonald's in Oxford is great. Being one of the few food places open at 9:00, Rachna and I decided to stop in. I thought it would feel bit like home, like Starbucks does no matter what country you're in. I was wrong. Inside were at least 25 teenagers from who knows what countries,and they were all in line ahead of us. Behind the counter there were people of assorted ethnicities, all being led by one guy who yelled, maybe in English but who knows, whenever one of them had a problem. After about 10 minutes (no joke), we made it to the front of the incredibly slow moving line. Rachna went first, ordering a veggie melt sandwich from the deli menu. She asked if it was spicy, at which point the man had to leave so he could ask someone else, but he didn't really understand the answer, so the second guy came to help. They asked her if she wanted white or brown bread, to which she said wheat. Long pause...White or brown bread, came the same question. I said brown from the back and we moved on. Then she asked them if the sauce was spicy again, and the second guy said no but they could add chili sauce. She asked if it was vegetarian since she is a vegetarian. He said it was chili sauce. She asked if it had meat in it, and he said it had chili in it. finally, she gave up and paid for her sandwich with chili sauce, which I assured her was like thai chili sauce, and thus vegetarian.

Next, I ordered my chicken tikka sandwich. I was pretty excited they had this, but the guy didn't seem to know what it was, so he just repeated back a chicken sandwich. I said chicken tikka, with a bit more enunciation, and then I pointed at the sign. he turned to look. Some other guy walked by and said yes gruffly, as if to assure the other that they did really have such a thing. He typed it in and then said white or brown bread. I was ready so it was uneventful, but when he went to enter in my garden salad, he had to stop and stare in confusion at the screen. After a while he went to get help...........When he returned he told me they were running out, which I guess meant they were out, so I did not get a salad.

Rachna and I were shuffled off to the side to wait, and after a few minutes her sandwhich arrived, labeled both as a veggie melt and as chicken tikka. We opened it, but phew, it was in fact vegetarian. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. We waited for the guy to return from India carrying my chicken tikka sandwich. Meanwhile, we watched all the people behind the counter and realized that they all spoke differet languages, none of them English so far as we could tell. They couldn't read the signs, and when they asked each other for help they didn't understand the answers they got. We decided the problem was that we were speaking in accents from other places besided the UK, and so they didn't even have the comfort of the language they were trying to learn (the British can hardly understand us, actually).Then some guy wanted his money back (shockingly), which caused the guy behind the counter to call out to the manager for help, to which the manager responded by yelling at all of them in some other language. Meanwhile, the rest of the people in line stood there completely at peace with the situation, which did cause me to wonder about the general level of efficiency in Europe. If this had been America people would have been freaking out, complaining to their neighbors in line, some leaving in a huff of exhasperation. But no, everyont was OK.

At long last my sandwich arrived, and it turned out to be quite tasty. It even had yogurt sauce. Rachna and I had a good laugh recounting the whole thing as we walked home. I don't think I'll go there again, but it sure was fun.

I told everyone there would be thunder storms but no one believed me. Bet they feel silly now. Of course, we'd probably all be enjoying it more if it wasn't 5:30 in the morning. I've only had 4 hurs of sleep and the alarm is going to go off in less than an hour. Might as well just give up and then take a nap after class. I am turning the after class nap into an artform. Yesterday, I slept for 3 hours. It was marvelous. Ooo. that one was only 2 miles away!

Today I woke up and got ready for the pub crawl. I thought it got this name because you drink so much you have to crawl home, but I was wrong. It's because they make you walk really far in the blazing hot sun, admittedly over beautiful country, and by the time you get home you can only crawl. I had a very nice time though. I got to spend a lot of time with both Ben and James, and also Santino and Jon. All the guys here are at least reasonably good looking, so it's hard to find a reason to complain. Santino is the hotest, but I suppose that's why he is off my radar.I decided that Ben is perfect for Stephanie. And James, although I absolutely cannot say why, is still my favorite. He is an enigma, and he doesn't talk to me much, but we walked a long ways side by side, silently, and I thought it was nice. I didn't really have anything to say today anyway. He did ask me about my yoga ring, and then he started talking about the Hari Krishnas and this case he clerked for this summer. Does this mean he thinks I am a Hari Krishna? I had him explain to me what he learned about them, but we didn't get far. He commented on my neckless the other day, so I am going to need to get more jewelry that explains who I am so he can keep asking. Ah boys. I don't really plan on getting one for myself, but I sure do enjoy window shopping. He did program his number into Ann's phone today, so I think a little less of him for that. I don't like her at all. Annie, her best friend, with equally bleached blond hair and over tanned skin is better, but not much. They are everything I fear in girls. Two faced and fake. Shallow and mean. Smart, but not beyond the walls of the classroom. So that is James' flaw. Oh and he smokes. Yah, I know. I just learned that today. Damn him. And he lives in Oregon. OK, he has lots of flaws, but I like him anyway.

I don't think God really wants me to be OK with meeting new people. Either that or he doesn't want me to date. I can't decide.

Today I went to get a sandwich for dinner down the road, only 200-300 feet down the road actually, but that was far enough. One my way out, the same Indian looking guy that I passed on the way there stopped me and asked me to help him fill out a job application because his English isn't very good. He was about 5 feet tall, and looked sort of nervous, so I didn't know to be afraid. I said OK, but then we couldn't go back to the place I bought my sandwhich because he had applied there too. He suggested a park, which admittedly should have stopped me, but no, I thought I could take him if he tried anything so I said OK. We ended up in the back area of one of the colleges on this bench, and I did my best to help him, but I didn't really understand what he wanted me to do, and he couldn't really spell in English either, and he kept screwing up on the form, in pen, so I took the paper, filled it out, and told him he'd need to get another copy because he had mispelled Starbucks, among other things.

THEN, he got all weird and wanted to date me, and it took me about 20 minutes to shake him lose. He wanted to call me, or come over and "hold me". NO JOKE! He was 22, but it was OK that I was 28, he said. He could come visit me in America and I could visit in Austria. Did I mention that he lives in Austria? Guess I can't ever go there now, because with my luck I would definately run into him. I told him I wouldn't promise that I would email him, but I would try, and he really, REALLY wanted me to promise, and he wanted to know exactly when I was going to email him. And he wanted to meet at the same scary bench tomorrow at 8. People were staring as he tried to get me to commit to anything at all on the corner, and I thought that this was probably not helping their view of Bangledeshians. He said the English are racist. I think they might just have better intuition than me. Seriously. Any guy I meet is either taken, uninterested, or a stalker.

On to better subjects. I have decided that my tutorial instructor has given myself and Jon more to read than anyone else's professors. I can't even believe how much crap I have to do so I can write my 4000 word essay for Tuesday and the start all over again for my essay due on Friday. Vacation? What Vacation? I was also a bit, what would you call it, chatty today in class. I kept rasing my hand, admittedly because no one else had anything to say, but I am pretty sure all the Florida State people think I am a total freak. But I figure since I am taking two versions of the same class, I have an advantage, and they're all frustrated by the work load and not getting their reading done. One girl, Marina, told me she was relieved that someone had something to say, and she just hid in her book. I like Marina. But seriously, I'll be quieter on Monday.

Last night I went to the sherry party and then dinner withe SCU. There were large periods of time where I just sood there by myself holding my glass of sherry, but people did eventually take pity on me and come to talk. I spent a lot of time talking to this guy Mark. He goes to law school in New Hampshire, spent years in the military, is a Republican, and is dating a professor at his school. We actually found quite a bit to talk about, so I was happy to have a friend. Then at dinner I met James (the cute one), Robert, who is one of those guys who is going to be a married politician with 3 kids before he figures out he is gay, and Ben, who today became my second crush for the trip. He says he always wants to be poor so he never becomes a Republican. He absolutely loves the kabob truck here, but wants his first restaurant experience to be at Aziz's, supposedly the best Indian restaurant here. He's eaten dog (we think, but he might have been kidding), tongue of cow, black pudding, and drank alcohol with cobra blood in it and a cobra in the bottle. Oddly, all of this just made him seem interesting rather than scary and carnivorous.

Today we all went to the pub to watch the footbal game, and I mostly went because I couldn't do any more work until I took a break, and because I knew James would be there. Never really saw James, but I spent a long time talking to Mark (republican guy) and this girl Jasmine who strck up a conversation with us. I like Jasmine. She isn't at all like the other blonds in the program. On the way back I was about 50 feet behind the "popular group" and then suddenly Ben was there and he was waving for me to catch up. So cute. He talked to me about how good the Mexican food is from Taco trucks. He really likes food. I told him I didn't think I had ever seen a taco truck, so he told me where two are near SCU. I thought about that case in North Carolina, but I decided not to share. He has dated two vegans, which he thinks helps make up for his meat eating ways, and a Mexican girl for 4 years, which is why he thinks American Mexican food is not so great (except of course from the taco trucks). Later, I was taking pictures of the building when he walked out with Josh, and he asked if I had had dinner yet. Unfortunately, I had, which is how I met the stalker, so I didn't get to go to dinner with Ben and Josh. *sigh* So I have decided that Ben is kinda cool, and he's cute and adventurous, albeit most notably with his food choices, but I have decided I must get to know him better.

And that was my day. Oh, and I still sort of stare when the guy who told me all about Oxford walks buy. He's a cute, scrawny English guy, and he is definately cute. Clearly, my body thinks it's Spring, because I am all twiterpated.

Sat across from my new crush at dinner tonight. Quite cute and mysterious in a way I can't quite put my finger on. He's cute too, but I mea, there's mre to his being cute than just his looks. Google found no pica, so I can't show you. Alas.

Also, is anyone interested in meeting in Amsterdam the weekend of the 15th-16th? I say this in part because I have always wanted to see Amsterdam and partly because James is organizing the trip and you know I'll never go unless I know someone I am traveling with. I need a chaperone!

Today in class I saw why it is that the rest of the world thinks Americans are obnoxious and superior. While most of us were either silent or optimitic, attemting to understand what the EU actually is and how it works, others were busy concluding that it is badly made and destined to end in a war. A war! One kid even stayed after class to tell the teacher how useless the European Court of Justice is based on what she told us. It felt just like Dale was there with us. *sigh*

I am feeling a little lame for deciding to take a lecture course with my tutorial, especially since they are both on he same topic and the reading for both is brutal, but today I started to see the overlap and that made me feel better. So it takes me an hour to read one case. That's no biggy. I didn't want to do anything fun anyway. If I don't get a job where I get to use this knowledge I am aquiring, I'm gonna be bitter. This is no cake-walk summer course. Grrr.


In an attempt to procrastinate a bit, I started reading the label on my juice bottle. It is called Innocent Juicy Water, and the little face has a halo. The back provides "an innocent promise" that "anything innocent will alwas taste good and do you good. We promise that we'll never use concentrates, preservatives, stabalizers or any weird stuff in our drinks. And if we do you can tell our Mums." The ingredients say that my drink has 89 crushed cranberries and 13 crushed rasberries, some natural sugar and half a freshly squeezed lemon. It may be a sign of how bored I am, but I find this label very amusing. Sadly, this very small botle has 621 calories in it, so it may turn out to be more decorative than nutritious. Good thing the label is intresting, eh?

Right. Well then, I must go study.

I am eating nutella out of the plastic jar with my new plastic spoon. I have heartburn, and my theory is that I have it because I have gone two days without clotted cream and scones. I think the Nutella will help. Today was a busy day, and filled with practicalities. I got up and met Silvia (my new American friend from Mondova). We walked to the breakfast hall and chatted with some new people. We then went and had a two hour lecture with this super important guy here, and it was interesing, but I got all tired and my Lyrica kicked in and my vision got so blurry I couldn't focus on the notes I was taking to keep myself awake. There was no one in front of me, so I did everything I couldn to keep from looking like I was falling asleep. Then, after about 20 minutes my brain waves returned to normal and all was well. I think it was my first ever waking nap. Next we walked to this huge library and swore indivudual oaths that we would not bring fire into the library, or smoke there. Seriously. An oath. They gave us our ID's and sent us on our way without even showing us the part of the building where Harry Potter was filmed. This library is one of only two shared libraries at Oxford, and we're not allowd to use the one here at Magdelen because it only has room for the 13 law students that attend here full time. Weird. So anyway, this library is HUGE, and fills several buildings because the guy that built it arranged with the publishers back in 16-hundred and somthing to have them donate every book published in the UK from then on. ALL of them. They have over 8 million volumes! It also happens to be across the street from the biggest book store ever. It looks quite unassuming from the street, but it is 4 or five stories, several of which are underground. The bottom floor is like one floor of a B and N, but thn parts of it are sunk deeper to hold more books. There were more law books there than in the book store at McGeorge! I wanted to stay forever but I was tired and I had planned to meet up with Silvia after our tutorial meetings. The onl reason I abandoned her was because my professor scared me so bad I felt complled to buy books right then. I have a nutshell on the EU and my partner thinks I am
high strung and crazy. I don't feel stressed, but I can tell we have disappointed the professor, so I am trying to make up for it i guess. My partner is way into pubs and pints. I think he said today his goal was to find the cheapest pint in Oxford. How noble. So back to meeting up with Silvia. I got into m room, and about 20 seconds later she knocked at the door, so we headed of to find some things she needed. We went back to Blackwells Bookstore, but it, like so many stores here, closed at six. Alas. We also found a Blackwells Music and a Blackwells Videos. It seems to be the Tower Records of Oxford. Then we went and got sandwiches from the place that gave us directions to the grocery store earlier in the day. The guy at the counter was from Mongolia, and works there now because he ran out of money for school. He was adorable, but didn't look at all like he was from Mongolia (adorable like small and bubbly, not like a hotty). We took the sandwiches to Starbucks to get drinks and then ate in the back. It flt like home, only bigger. Then we walked home and I took my weary, blistered feet to my room where I planned to stay until a few minutes later someone knocked at the door. It was Rachne, who I had talked to for a few minutes earlier, and she wanted to go for a walk. So what the hell. I went for a walk. At least it had stopped drizzling. i wish it would just rain already. I fell like a dork under my umbrella, but fairly damp without it. Oxford has indecisive weather, and you know how I am about indecisive. Not OK. Tomorrow we have another library tour, and another lecture, and then we start working. I hope that I get to walk a little less until my body gets a chance to recover. I need to lay still for a few days I think. But everthing is so pretty and so close. My life is hard, I know. Mmmm. Nutella.

The Dining Hall

Captain’s Log: Stardate 25.6.06 (Ignore that other date up there)

Spaceship nearly ran over a bicyclist and then nearly hit same with the side door a she rode by slowly to yell. As I was not at the helm, I take no responsibility, but clearly, we need a new pilot before or next voyage. I, myself, arrived in Oxford Galaxy, a place with historic beauty around every corner. My quarters are respectable, although they do smell like mothballs. With the windows open it was a breezy 79 degrees at 6:00 pm. Nice. Cooler now. Local beings quite enthusiastic tonight because of something called “football”. Met the other student in my tutorial, Tim. He then ran off to watch football. Met Silvia, from some place that sounds like Montana but that used to be part to Romania. She and I explored the town, found two drug stores and shopped for necessaries, and then returned to unpack. Brought my new travel alarm clock to life, with thermometer. Later we went for a walk and had Indian food at a place we will most likely not return to, but it was decent. Food is very expensive here. Ug. Tomorrow we must find grocery stores to stock our little fridges with easy meals that require no heat to prepare. Went for another walk to the other end of the campuses. Feet quite tired, but I am pretty sure I burned off at least some of my calories. Talked to some ducks. Said hi to the deer in the deer park. Must photograph EVERYTHING while I am here. Soooooo beautiful. And now I must read more of my scary book so that I can have weird dreams in my new bed with my wussy pillow. I heart scary books. More tomorrow when the internet is actually working. That’s right. This is just a word file because I couldn’t wait to write to you until then.

London Update: Day 6

It's morning on our 6th day here and we're about to go have a lovely English Breakfast at Richoux's. The rest of the day looks hazy, except for a stop at Boots (like Long's or Wallgreens) to get me a hair dryer and curling iron.

Yesterday Mom and I didn't really get out the hotel util 2:00. Clearly we lack motivation when Dad is not here to drive us. We then went to a Jewelry store where we wasted a great deal of time before going to two more to waste the rest of it. We met Dad at 5:30 (did I mention he had to work yesterday?) and headed off to have dinner at Covent Gardens before our scary little play, The Woman in Black. It was scary, especially because the theatre was filled with teenagers who all screamed at the top of heir lungs (bos too) after anything scary happened. It was...shall we say...exhilerating.

On Wednesday we ent to see Hampton Court, built by Cardinal Woolsey who then had to give it Henry VIII because it was fancier than his place. Oops. Henry did qite a bit to make it even grander. Later, William and Mary moved in and added a new wing and some other modifications. All of this contributed to making it the biggest damn place you've even seen. The gardens were beautiful, but I was pooped by the time we got inside. I walked the queen's chambers, but at the king's out. What a party pooper I am. I blame the shoes.

Later we had dinner at an Italianrestaurant where one guy had the job of serving up briscetta with the bread by wheeling his little cart over and carving the meet right off this large, extended pig's leg that seemed to point the way for him. I was seriously disturbed, but remained quiet because I knew mom would demand we leave if she saw it, and fortunately, she had her back to it all night. It was NASTY! Stephanie, you would have fainted for sure.

I haven't downloaded everything yet, but here are some pictures to entertain you.

My trip to London: Days One and Two

We arrived at the San Francisico International Airport at a lovely 5:30 pm, and I was somewhat pleased when they upgraded me to economy plus. This meant that I was not quite in steerage anymore. Once on the plane, I found a very attractive man sitting in the window seat next to my seat. AND, he turned out to be talkative and friendly, that is, until they came and upgraded him to business class and he left. Meanwhile, the guy in front of me was freaking out because his seat and the one next to it had no power of any kind. "This is rediculous for a 12 hour flight!!!" He wanted an upgrade to first or something big, and they all looked concerned as they told him they couldn't do that. Then they upgraded some other guy, and so they gave Cranky Pants an isle seat a few rows up. This caused the guy across the isle from me to start plotting to get that seat so he could put this mother next to her daughter. The mother had a crappy middle seat in one of those five people rows, so nobody wanted her spot, including me. The flight attendants all came over and heard the story, explained to the guy how the seat had no power, none, nada, zip, zilch, zero, and that this meant it didn't even have a light. He was still willing, but alas, the seat had since been assigned to some other poor unsuspecting fool who had most likely also just gotten "upgraded" from steerage class. When he arrived, the flight attendants tried hard to persuade him that his seat was so powerless that amiddle seat (the mom's) was better, but he was so tired from the struggle to get his seat anyway, and his whole family was also split up, and he just didn't want to move. Then the attendant told him this meant there wasn't even a light (which apparently the gy didn't infer out of the long no-power explanation, and then he started to look very troubled. At this point it occured to me that the kid next to me now was actually related to this guy, and so I offered to switch with him, take the broken seat, and have some peace. The flight attendant asked me if I was sure and explained to me in detail how broken and miserable that seat was, but I assured him it was ok, and we made the switch. This made the dad and son happy. I felt a little bad for the mom and daughter, but figured that was the other guys problem and he could take her center seat if he really felt bad, which he apparently didn't. My new neighbor turned out to be nice, quiet, helpful, and we chatted just a little bit, which was perfect. I slept through most of the time the plane was dark, and then we opened the blinds a crack and read for the last hour or two.

Phew! We made it! London is maaavelous daaaling. I love it here, and am glad I brought so many shoes (I think 12 pair), because none of them were meant for doing serious walking in and I can only wear them one day each. I am on my third pair. Today I thought I would do my feet a delicioud favor and where my flip flops, the only whoes I own with no heels. But on the way out of my room I managed to ram the 500lb. door into my toe. OUCH!

So far we have had delicious food, seen the British Museum, and visited Hyde Park and St. James Park. I have taken millions of pictures of assorted wild fowl, and a few of actual British things, or more accurately, things the British stole from other people in the name of science...or something. Mom was fairly uninterested in Buckingham palace so we lingered there for a whole 2 minutes. Today, we're having tea and then who knows what.

Today I got my legs waxed for the first time in my life. I'm not quite sure what inspired me, but I decided I should do it. It wasn't so bad, so my mom decided to get her's done too. She wasn't very happy with me afterwards. Apparently I have very fine hair and so it's less painful for me. Oops. But now we have smooth legs and I am less afraid of waxing. I really am a girl! My only regret is that I didn't come out with amazing legs like this chick. Maybe next time.

Hurray for family team voting!!!

I filled out my parents' absentee ballots today, as I read the candidate's paragraphs to them and sought advice. I find the whole process of local elections silly because you have to decide based on teeny paragraphs. Worse still, many candidates don't have paragraphs at all, and so you have to make a decision based arbitrary factors.

A sample:

Me: OK, these three guys are running for Superior Court Judge in the county and they were all lawyers.
Dad: What types of law did they practice?
Me: "Attorney", "lawyer in Santa Clara County", and "attorney at law".
Dad: Um...
Me: Yeah, and none of them are women or minorites, and they list no party affiliations either.
Me: How about we each just vote for one?
Dad: Sounds good!

Sample 2:

Me: Uh oh. What do we do? They are both democrats, both women, and both named the same thing.
Me: Wait, their names are spelled different.
Dad: Spell them.
Me: Deborah and Debra.
Dad: Pick Deborah. Debra sounds lazy.
Me: OK, but let's read their paragraphs first.
Me: Uh-oh. Deborah helped write prop 82 (evil prop that would tax the rich an additional 1.7% annually to send other fairly rich kids to public pre-school with standaradized testing.)
Dad: No way, then. Vote for Debra.

We had to vote for prop 81, the bond measure to raise money for libraries because the con argument said a no vote will force the spend-happy legislators in Sacramento to stop wasting $9 billion on welfare for illegal immigrants if they want to pay for the libraries. Need I say more?

My favorite part though, is that my mom is still a registered Republican because we wanted her to be able to vote for McCain in the primaries back in 2000, so we wouldn't have to pick between Bush and Gore. As a result, in the primaries she always has to vote for the republicans. I discovered it is very hard to pick a favorite republican. It's really more about picking our least favorite Republican. One guy stands out in my mind, because he wanted to help stop illegal immigration because it would save us billions in prison costs for rapists, murderers and sex-offenders. Nice, huh?

This is why I can't go into politics.

Summer update:

So far this summer I have met with a criminal defense attorney, a superior court judge from Santa Clara County, A partner from a large law firm, and a deputy DA. Each meeting has caused me to reconsider my career path, and I think I have come to the realization that I don't want to go into politics anymore. Yes, I know, this seems odd, but I just can't live in Sacramento for years and years, and I don't want to move all the way to DC. I love the Bay Area. The people here are reasonable and moderate. The weather is perfect. I am an hour from the beach, Gurudev, my parents, and some of my best friends all live here. Furthermore, I just get too into political things. My mind gets all agitated and stressed, and everything feels so monumentally important. I need a job that is less absorbing than that. I think I want to go to work for a firm for a few years, and if I feel the need to move on I can become a deputy DA. Those in Santa Clara County are the best paid in the state, they only work 40 hours a weeks when not in trial, and they are civil servant, so that can't be fired just because a new DA is elected. It's perfect really.

Last week I decided to sell Ce Ce, the little Peruvian Paso that we got for my mom but no one rides. I have been out at the barn everyday since, grooming, lunging, etc. and I feel so happy. I don't spend all day on the couch, and subsequently eat a lot less. This caused me to start thinking about getting a horse I could do some dressage on while in law school. I was thinking quarter horse or haflinger, and then Lisa said I should get a haflinger and she knew one that is for sale. So, last Thursday I road a horse for the first time since I don't know when, and it was soooooooo nice. My whole body was tired for the rest of the day, and my shoulders and thighs were killing me the next day, but I have spent every moment since then thinking about whether I could pull it off and still do law school. I miss riding so much, and even thought it hurts, I am getting worse just from all the sitting I do in law school. So why not hurt and get to ride instead? My mother has decided it is a good idea for my mental health and so she has started to work on dad. I am out of it now, and just trying to get everything done before I head out for England on the 17th.


On Friday I went to the sprint car races for the first time in years. It was dusty and loud and so fun to be there again. Rick, and old friend of sorts happened to sit one row behind me, so we chatted for a bit. Then Lisa and I cursed BK, our favorite driver, she wanted someone to flip, and I wanted them to flip over the wall, and then BK did. I try and rationalize it as his karma for steering into the guy who made BK get a false start. Bad, BK, bad. At any rate, it was a very exciting flip, and BK was OK, and he has another car, so I think it all worked out in the end.


Raven tried to kill Daisy the other day, and Phoebe got involved, and Bailey was barking them on. I pried all the dogs off and they went along for about 200 more feet, but Daisy continued to bite a raven's ankles, and so the fight renewed. It was awful. Again, I pried them off, handed crazy Phoebe off to my dad, and took Raven to get a leash. We've decided that Daisy officially needs another home. She is so great, but she is also absolutely fixated on Raven. She has had two years to adjust, but things are as violent as ever. She could hardly walk that night, poor thing. So the search is on for a family with no other dogs, so that Daisy can be happy and Raven can have some peace.