Progress Report

Two papers and one exam down. Two papers, one take-home, and one in-class exam to go.

Monday afternoon was the deadline for the IDR project. I went to the computer lab at 1 p.m. to print the paper and give it one final proofreading before the 2 p.m. class. So, of course, that was when the computer lab had to have some sort of meltdown. I don't know exactly what the problem was, but people were waiting more than 30 minutes for their items to print out. My first attempt didn't go through for whatever reason, so I had to send it again. That's when things went downhill. One of the printers broke. Then some sort of alarm went off, which the lab tech couldn't shut off. And one of the users had some problem or another with the computer and needed the lab tech's assistance. It was getting pretty silly.

So I started going behind the desk (ooooo, forbidden area!) and taking the printouts from the printers and laying them out on the pick-up desk for people to come and get while the lab tech scurried around trying to get things under control. Eventually, one of the IT "supervisors" came in to "help".

And what a typical manager he was.

Cheap khakis and polyester tie and the attitude that he was the hottest shiz-nit around. He paced back and forth in front of the printers, watching the printouts stack up-- but couldn't be bothered to pick them up and walk the 20 feet to the printout table to distribute them. Then he barked a few orders at the poor lab tech, who was more than occupied with other problems. The tech asked him to please try and fix the broken printer so that they could clear the backlog in the queue, but instead the manager told him to just go in and delete all the large jobs from the queue.

Excuse me? It's the end of the semester. Almost all of the jobs are "large"-- people are printing out term papers and notes. Are you going to delete some person's term paper instead of DOING YOUR JOB and fixing the printer??

Having satisfied his need to prove how "manly" he is, he came over to the print out table-- not carrying any of the stacked up print outs waiting to be distributed to the gaggle of students standing around waiting for important documents to take to class, mind you-- and started fussing at the papers sitting on it, making sure that they were neatly lined up in perfect rows. Did I mention that it was 2:15 and I was now very late for class?

A few more minutes of pacing go by and he decides that he might as well deign to give us our print jobs. But first, he comes over and informs me that my bags are taking up too much room. I refused to move, letting him know in no uncertain terms that I would remove them in exchange for getting the papers that I had printed out almost an hour earlier and for no other reason. He puffed up and started yelling in the snottiest voice ever:

"I advise you not to underestimate the usage of the lab in the future. Don't blame me if you can't be bothered to allow enough time..."

I jumped right on that, advising him that an hour and a half should be sufficient time and that if he could be bothered to do his job, maybe none of this would be a problem for any of us. I thought I would smack the pencil moustache right off of his supercilious face right then and there. Luckily for both of us, my prints were the next on the stack. I ripped them out of his hand, barely suppressed a hearty "F.U.", and tore down the hall to the law school, where I crashed right into the room just in time for the second half of class and gave a 10 minute presentation on my paper with no time to prepare.

Then I sat around in the public interest office, waiting for one of the grant recipients to show up to claim a check for an additional amount of money-- significantly more than the original grant, mind you. And of course, for the third time, she didn't show. This burns my buscuits because she lied on her grant application, taking credit for work that I did-- and I couldn't prove it, so she got the grant anyway. I was furious.

My adoption law paper was due at 5 p.m. and I finished making corrections while I waited, then I dashed up to the law library where I paid to use the printers and print out my paper, knowing that I didn't have time to deal with the mess in the free lab next door. And the printer didn't work. So I got to run to the IT office and beg for help, which is always an adventure, since the techs are usually angry that you're interrupting their gaming or IMing or general websurfing and try to give you the ol' blow off. I got it printed after much sturm und drang and slid it under the door at 5:06 p.m. Hopefully there won't be a detriment to the grade for that.

Yesterday was my "study" day for EU law, but I was upset by a financial crisis and didn't get a lot accomplished.

Tomorrow I think I'll have to start the memo for Prof. Marbury. I just picked up my last memo and it got a much better grade than I expected. His one comment was "I'm a little confused about who the direct infringer is" and I'm all like "Yeah, you and me both!" So, that's good. Here's hoping that this stupid memo is very leniently graded so that I might actually pull off a good grade in the course.

The only debate is whether I will do Family Law on Tues. or Wed. next week. I'm really dreading it.

Friday I take the Spanish exam, which I don't think I'll actually study for, seeing as it's OPEN BOOK! What the heck is the point if I can just look it up in my Spanish-English dictionary?

And at some point, I have to write an essay for Swedish as well. I'm allowed a little leeway with the deadline on it because I don't actually get a grade, just comments.

May 6th is circled in red on my mental calendar. Then I will be 66% lawyer. And 100% done for the summer.