The Great Indoors

Soundtrack for this post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXy5go054FY (skip to 1:06, J May talks for a while before he plays)

Faithful readers (both of you): I must apologize.  I have not written in a while, because, honestly, I haven't been doing anything exciting.  I have been stuck in my apartment in front of my computer for most of the time since my last post.  I have plenty of good excuses reasons for this though:

1. Overachieving Overcommitting: Even though I've been relishing my 3L status, I still can't but sign myself up for too many activities.  Sidenote: one of these was just published! If you haven't seen it, it's here.

I've been very busy planning next year's sports law symposium at UVA, which means I have been basically stalking sports law figures, to find a way to contact them.  This process is more time-consuming than one would think!  The event is shaping up pretty well, and I am excited to get back to Charlottesville next semester and continue planning.  Email meetings with my co-planners are much less exciting than actual meetings.  It will be on March 8, 2013 and I guarantee to be annoying to all of you about attending then.

I agreed to edit papers for one of my professors. She has some non-native English speakers for authors and they need some cleaning up both in grammar and citations.  I have just received my first paper for that, but the process of getting cleared to work by the school has taken some time.

I also signed up to do some pro bono work with a D.C. group, that requires me researching international agreements (timely, since everything else I deal with nowadays is international) and compiling a document for that.  It took me some time to get used to the international sources, but hopefully I am doing the right amount of depth in my research.  I sent in my work from the last two weeks on Monday so I expect to get some input on that soon.

Add to all of this the usual amount of reading (even though it is much less here), three tests next week, a paper I just finished for one class, and some writing projects I am considering.  It makes for a busy girl! I just can't help myself, I guess.

2. The temperature: Guys, I don't mean to complain, but it's really cold here.  Even in my apartment, it's really cold.  The other day I checked the weather forecast and at 1 pm it was a full 10 degrees colder than Philadelphia at 7 am.  I know that it's going to get worse, but it doesn't help me get outside now, especially when getting out from under the covers is a challenge.  I finally turned my heat on to the lowest level, but after this summer's A/C catastrophe, I don't want to get my energy bill up past the level accounted for in my rent.  I am layering like crazy, and hope to woman up about it soon.

EDIT: After I wrote this, I realized it was 56 outside, which is basically summer weather.  Serves me right.

3. Sleep/American culture: These go hand-in-hand, into a vicious cycle.  I cannot manage to fully extricate myself from home.  Although I'm glad I don't have to watch election ads on TV, I still want to hear from twitter/facebook/google reader how the debates went.  I still really enjoy watching my favorite shows.  And I still want to follow my UNC sports.  The last point is one of contention, after I canceled (sort of) my Watch ESPN account after they had terrible customer service following a lack of Late Night with Roy coverage.  If you want my rant about this, I will go into detail, but let's just say they broke all the rules of customer service.

Sometimes this means I don't go to bed until well after midnight (video gchat also might lead to that but I refuse to stop that), and then want to sleep in to recapture the missed hours.

Besides just things keeping me up late, I have had problems falling asleep sometimes.  I have been working out pretty regularly, stretching, not having caffeine late, etc, but sometimes the sleep just doesn't come.  This caused me to miss not one, but two separate day trips the school planned for us.  For one, I just pushed snooze literally one too many times and got the bus station no more than 3 minutes late.  The second, I woke up, started getting ready, and logically thought about how terrible/unproductive my day would be after the tour if I went (as much as one logically thinks on three hours of sleep).  I texted a friend to not let them wait for me, and went back to sleep for a few more hours.

On the bright side, there are many things to celebrate:
1. Did I mention I got published?

2. My favorite Pennsylvania lawyer passed the bar!

3. Future trips: After all these tests, the school is taking a study trip to Berlin and Potsdam.  It will be my second trip to Berlin, of course, but we will go more into depth in some places, and visit Potsdam as well.

I think some people are going to Amsterdam directly after that trip.  I found some cheap transportation, I just need to make sure people are on-board before buying.

When my parents come in November (exciting in itself!) we have trips to Prague, Munich, Austria, and someplace in Scandinavia TBD planned.

All of these trips will definitely get me out of the apartment and enjoying Europe again!! If anyone has tips for conquering the above problems opportunities for staying indoors, please pass them along.  Now, back to studying :(