Terrible dream last night

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

I dreamed that my husband was angry at the way I organized the DVDs and told me he wanted a divorce. He went so far as to challenge the equitable distribution of our property in defiance of state law. Later he calmed down and changed his mind, but when I woke up I was very disturbed. Later I dreamed that I was romantically involved with a man who looked like a cross between Ted Levine ("Stottlemyer" on "Monk") and my Property professor. What is wrong with me??

[Mabus]

1. Are you a 1L or 2L?

Law school seems to bring out the strangest things in people.

I had dreams of my torts professor following me around with Prosser for most of my first semester. It wouldn't have been so bad but in the dream I was trying to research the Rule Against Perpetuities. :shrug:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

2. I'm a 3L!!

Oh, God - the LAST thing you want to research is the Rule Against Perpetuities!

[Mabus]

6. Still having nightmares.

Third year, last semester? Hang in there. I think all it means is that you are working out some of the material in your sleep, probably with the subliminal anxieties of the encroaching bar exam.

In my third year I had some anxieties about finally getting out there and practicing. It kind of freaked me out when I realize that people would be relying on me after I had just spent three years waiting for someone from the Dean or admission's office coming up to me and saying, "oops, you shouldn't really be here." But that's just me and my low self-esteem issues.

[Worst Username Ever]

3. Threads like this make me nervous. I'll be 1L next fall. Not helping!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

4. You'll be dreaming about Property, I assure you

It's THE hardest class you'll have in law school (although the first semester of Civil Procedure was no picnic).

[Mabus]

7. Civ Pro

You have just entered the "Pennoyer v. Neff" zone.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

9. Shudder

I got called on for "International Shoe" on the 4th day of class. I was asked to frame an argument for SOMETHING - it's a blur. I can just now "frame an argument" - you expected me to do that the 4th day of law school???

[Mabus]

13. Frame an argument, lol

had enough trouble distinguishing between "stream of commerce" and "stream of consciousness"

Fortunately for me I had worked for an attorney before going to law school. I had gone to work there so I would get a better idea if it was something I wanted to devote my life to. I liked it and after a few months I started helping one of our law student employees doing research. That's when I began learning how to frame arguments.

[Worst Username Ever]

12. Wow that's great news.

:o

[Mabus]

14. Don't worry

For one thing, you won't be going through the "clueless" process on your own. You'll have a couple of hundred people in more or less the same boat.

One of the first things they do is assign you to a "small section." For me it was contracts. There were only 20 of us in the class so we developed some close friendships.

The best class, from my perspective, in your 1L year is research and writing. Just keep in mind that the Harvard Blue Book citations aren't the ones you'll be using in court. It is mostly for Law Review and other journals.

[Worst Username Ever]

15. Thanks! I read One L, the book, it was similar to what you

describe. I take comfort in not being the only one in my class who will be wearing a relative cloak of ignorance.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

16. Legal Writing is the most important class you'll take in law school

They'll change the way you wrote before. That's what law school does; they take out your brain, rearrange it and put it back in.

Read "Law School Confidential," too - lots of good tips. I've also heard good things about "Getting to Maybe," but haven't read that one. I'd avoid "Planet Law School" - too frightening and negative.

[Worst Username Ever]

19. I do own "getting to maybe" but have not read it yet.

I'll take note of "Law School Confidential," thanks! I have a couple others, "Acing your first year of Law School," or something, etc. Trying to prep myself as much as possible without actually learning anything specific on my own (if I tried to learn the basics of properites on my own now, I would undoubtedly confuse myself).

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

21. Don't go out and buy all the E&Es now, either

"Examples and Explanations." While valuable (especially for Civ Pro), you won't help yourself any by reading them now. Enjoy your spring and summer and don't start reading law books yet!

[Worst Username Ever]

22. Don't worry, I am trying to soak up as many novels as possible now

because I think I may be taking a three-year vacation from those :(

But god, I can't WAIT to start school. I am so damn excited to quit my job and rejoin academia and spend all day studying and learning. Hello life of student loans and scholarships, here I come. Thank you for your advice, I was thinking of making a post somewhere to have law students and lawyers check in, so I could get a buddy list going. Might be nice to have a resource of people on the internet.

Thanks again...

[Mabus]

27. The number one rule is

"no question is stupid." Really, it is that simple. Sometimes everything falls into place once once small nagging detail is explained.

My "trick" in property classes was to try to find an everyday analogies to the cases I read to help remember some of the rulings. For example, I remember Pierson v. Post to this day (I think it is an 1805 case) because it reminds me of what happens everyday in parking lots.

The rule in Pierson v. Post is basically that pursuit alone vests no property or right in the huntsman unless the animal is actually taken. In otherwords, being the first to spot an empty parking stall doesn't guarantee that you will end up parking in it. If someone else gets to it first it becomes their "property" to the exclusion of all others.

As for the "dreaded" Rule Against Perpetuities (no interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after the death of some life in being at the creation of the interest) and its various conditions (contigent remainders, executory interests, etc.) by watching old movies. You know the ones involving plots with inheritances and its conditions. VIVA TCM! Okay, it was an excuse to goof off but, with my imagination, it was easier to remember when thinking up my own contrived "old movie plots" while studying.

But then, I'm a little different. :silly:

[Worst Username Ever]

29. That is good, I am a question asker and used to drive my TAs crazy

Good to know that is a useful skill in law school, I'm good at it :P

I assume when a text states, "no interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after the death of some life in being at the creation of the interest," once can find somewhere an explanation in layman's terms?

[Mabus]

30. You'll understand it by the end of semester

You also have a resource that I didn't have, the internet:

http://dictionary.law.com/default2.asp?typed=rule+against+perpetuities&type=1&submit1.x=0&submit1.y=0&submit1=Look+up

ule against perpetuities
n. the legal prohibition against tying up property so that it cannot be transferred or vest title in another forever, for several future generations, or for a period of centuries. The maximum period in which real property title may be held without allowing title to vest in another is "lives in being plus 21 years." Therefore, a provision in a deed or will which reads, "Title shall be held by David Smith and, upon his death, title may only be held by his descendants until the year 2200, when it shall vest in the Trinity Episcopal Church," is invalid, but a provision that "the property will be held by my son George for his life, and thereafter by his son, Thomas, and for 20 years by his future children, before it may be conveyed (transferred) " is acceptable under the rule.

[fit4life]

5. Strange.

I had a dream last week were Chandler from "Friends" pushed me off a cliff. My fiance's sister was involved somehow too. When I climbed back up (even with a badly broken foot!) and asked him why he did it, he said it was because I "know everything!"...

[Mabus]

10. LOL

The only time I "know everything" seems to be in my dreams too.

[Ravenseye]

8. I don't know...

...how were you organizing the DVD's? If my wife organized my DVD's in a weird way i might ask for a divorce too. :)

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

11. I know where it came from

He was visiting over the weekend (he's in Dallas, I'm in Pittsburgh), and he was "tsk-tsk"-ing about the number of DVDs I have purchased while we've been apart. It's okay for HIM to buy things, but when I do it, it's a waste of money. Most of the DVDs I got for $5-$14, which I consider pretty darn good!

[Ravenseye]

17. My Mom went to Pitt Law

You're in law school in Pittsburgh. I'm assuming you're at Pitt right?

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

18. Yes, I am! When did she graduate?

[Ravenseye]

20. Um....

...good question. Early Nineties? Maybe like '92. She went back to school as an old fogie after her kids fled the nest.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

23. Good for her! I'm an old fogey myself

Started law school the day before I turned 40 (I'll be 42 when I graduate). I have a classmate who's in her 60s; she's a social worker who decided to get a master's in law and then went for the JD. She's never missed a day of classes. I think she and I are the only ones who actually LOVE law school!

Is your mother practicing in Pittsburgh?

[Ravenseye]

25. Naw

They moved, ironically enough, to Dallas right after she graduated. She passed the bar there and practiced for a while. She's semi-retired now, just does pro-bono work etc.

[Mabus]

28. Same here

I was in my mid-thirties when I started and late-thirties when I finished. It's incredible that three short years can move you from a "mid" to a "late."

At our first small section party a conversation got started about music. It turned into a discussion of the first "record" each of us had purchased. At my age I was thinking vinyl while everyone else was talking CDs. Thankfully, I have/had my immaturity to fall back on to help fit in. They all had a good laugh at my description of my "Mickey Mouse" phonograph that I used to play "The Doors" album on. The needle was in Mickey's glove. I "bought" the album from my older brother for a quarter (because he had two).

[noonwitch]

24. Ted Levine also played "Buffalo Bill", so he's always creepy in my book

"It puts the lotion on it's skin, or else it gets the hose again".

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

26. Yes - that movie is very scary!

Think he's a terrific actor, though. I just don't know why I dreamed about him!