Read for pleasure. I am pleased to say that I have indeed been reading, and not just court cases. I am currently reading several books on my own: Reading the OED by Ammon Shea, Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by Fr. James Martin. I am also participating in Still Thinking, the legendary virtual book club founded by CC this summer. We recently finished Machiavelli's The Prince, and are now starting Zadie Smith's On Beauty. (There is still time to join us for On Beauty!)
Begin to learn Spanish. I haven't been following the pace that I set for myself at the beginning of the summer, but I have completed six lessons, including greetings, restaurant basics, going places, and phone conversations. I want to go faster, but the lessons are several hours long each, and I am often not inclined to start one at the end of the day. I am also concerned about retention, so I don't want to go too fast. I will try harder to sit down and do lessons regularly.
Research and apply for fellowships and clerkships for after graduation. Working on it! There have been a few interesting opportunities so far... We'll see what happens.
Write On journal competition grading. I just finished judging my 20 case comments this evening, as the grades are due tomorrow. It was more work than I anticipated, but an interesting (and confidential) topic. Reading things written by 1Ls reminds me of how far I've come in my own legal writing this past year.
Spend quality time with friends, preferably on short Bay Area adventures. My most recent adventure was to Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco for Alissa's birthday tea party! I'm not a big tea drinker--coffee is my love--but this was delicious and delightful. I drank an entire pot of Earl Grey tea with cream and sugar, which I enjoyed with a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich, an asparagus hummus sandwich, coleslaw, organic spring greens, a scone with preserves and double Devon cream, and a shortbread cookie. Also this weekend, I went with my family to see the SF Orchestra play at the Shoreline with fireworks for the Fourth of July, which was lovely. There have been other adventures already chronicled in this blog this summer, and there are more to come, including seeing Paul McCartney play at AT&T park this coming weekend, and flying to Portland to see my dearest Morgan get married!
Visit my grandmother as often as possible. I've seen my Nana at least once a week this summer, which is great. She is always so encouraging and sweet to me.
So, overall, I'm doing pretty well on my summer goals, though I could pick up the pace on a couple of my endeavors. I'm already getting excited about the fall, because we got back our results from course registration for next year! I'm still sorting out what to add and drop, but here are some of the classes in my probable future for the fall: International Labor & Employment, the Law of War, the Practicing Lawyer & the Poor, and Public Interest Advocacy. I will also be receiving credit for my externship with the Arlington Immigration Court, and for the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute Fact-Finding Mission. Actually, I'm already doing work for the fact-finding mission this summer, soliciting information from knowledgeable folks about the safe repatriation of persons with mental disabilities. Busy busy busy, but that's how I like it. I'm very excited about being done with law school in a year, but I'm also trying to slow down and enjoy this final year of school before I take the bar and enter the "real world" on a full-time basis.
