I promise, just this once

I'm not going to be a political blogger. But this blows my mind.

Supreme Court decides public school desegregation plan not allowed, cites Brown v. BoE

Ugh. This is why I hate the law sometimes. Pick and choose your precedents, whee!

This is why I want to study legal history. It matters, goddamnit. It matters to schoolkids in Seattle right now. So don't tell me how nice it is that I'm "going to be a teacher" or that I'm
"wasting [my] time with a history PhD".

Schtuff

Man, things are flying around here. Big news all around...so a brief update, in order of occurence. Blather to follow.

• I went to LA last weekend to see Lauren, a friend from history-nerd-land, in a much-anticipated and long-planned weekend of frivolity. I plan to update with pictures and more details later, but suffice it to say I had a great time in civilization, having much-needed stereotypical girl time, and flying first class (only frequent flier tickets available...but free wine!)
• THE BIG NEWS: Aaron was accepted to the University of Michigan Law School!! I don't know if I'm really supposed to tell people, but oh well, I am. I'm really proud of him. His work this year as a VISTA really paid off, I think, because after he sent in a letter listing all his accomplishments that occurred after he submitted his application, he got a call from the dean of admissions offering him a spot for this fall. So, he'll be in Ann Arbor and I'll be in New Haven, but we'll both be at our top choice schools. He really wants to do the Urban Communities clinic, which will give him great experience in non-profit law. Bonus: I'll get to go to a few more football games.
• A friend is looking at an apartment in New Haven today for me. Although the landlord has not been entirely helpful in this whole process (finding an apartment across the country), it seems like a pretty good deal. I just need room for my bikes, books, and bass, and this one has a spare study as well as one bedroom. The whole thing has made me a nervous wreck, though. There are fewer and fewer one bedrooms available on craigslist, other properties are filled up, and I've heard horror stories about having to rent overpriced shacks in bad areas, so I want to rent. an. apartment. now. Apparently, these people don't have the same sense of urgency. I talked to them yesterday about them faxing me an application before my friend visits so I can act quickly. Four phone calls later and they still haven't faxed it. On the last call, she even said that she had no intention of faxing it right away as they didn't see the big deal. Funny, because somehow I thought faxing was pretty easy and you usually do it after a phone conversation so that you can immediately confirm that the technology worked properly with a return phone call. Oh well. I'm just on edge waiting.
• Immunizations: who knew? Apparently Connecticut law says I have to have had two MMR vaccines...just like my elementary school, high school, and college required. Fine and dandy. Except that I can't find any documentation of my first dose. When I started at Michigan, they apparently just overlooked the fact that on the record I gave them I only had the second dose listed. I'm sure I got it, and worst case I get it again for a fee, but just goes to show you - for once in my life I actually found the necessary documents filed in my little filing cabinet in the proper place....and it's still not right. I think this is a sure vote against organization. It's all futile!
• My presentation to the board got cancelled at the last minute last night as they didn't have a quorum present to approve anything. Wah. I'll present at the July meeting, I guess.
• I ran the other day. I haven't run since the summer of junior year. Been too into biking, I guess, and then there was that whole back thing last year where when I ran I had jolts of pain down my spine and legs and then I renched my back right before Katie's wedding and the physical therapist told me I could never run again because of my legs/back. Well, after reading Pain Free and deciding that the real cause of my back and other problems is my imbalanced, tight hip muscles, I figured running would be fine as long as it didn't hurt. So, I ran. It didn't hurt. It's nice to be able to exercise in a half-hour again.
• But then yesterday my quads killed me. And when my legs are sore, what do I do? BIKE! I went for a 25 miler with some medium hills. Averaged above 15 mph with a killer wind and some city riding, so I feel pretty good about that. My quads hurt even more, though, so I might take today off or do a little hiking. Aaron feels all prepared to ride up Mary's Peak since he's been on Bike Virginia, biking 40-80 miles a day for a week...but I am not ready. Yet.

Anyhow, I should work.

Take this love and take it down: Our current obsessions

Obsession 1: Aaron's been practicing his guitar. He really likes Landslide. You should hear our duet. We rock. We rocked out with me on bass, too. Getting our groooooove on.

Obsession 2: We've been reading a lot. Like, that's all we did this weekend. I've read quite a few books lately, including One Perfect Day by Rebecca Meads, The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian, and The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden. I read The Children's Hospital in one weekend - it's 600 pages, and I recommend that you read it all at once. Not that you should read it, though it is pretty good; it's a lot of book that somehow makes more sense if consumed in as few gulps as possible. Aaron felt it dragged, but he read it over a few weeks.

I also ordered five books today off Amazon. Two were for school (!) as I got an email today with my summer reading list for the first day of class. The other three were "fun" books about things I'm interested in. Aaron spent a long time sending me various links to books from university presses. It's a bad habit.

Obsession #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU

I've got a crush on Obama. I've been singing it for days. It's so catchy. People seem to think it's raunchy and sex-filled and denigrating to his campaign. I think it's hilarious and apparently, some people haven't ever seen a music video. And, they don't know a great parody when they see it. I live for parody!

Obsession #4: Blogs about law and feminism. We both hate Ann Althouse. I love reading the brouhaha about autoadmit.com (see here, here, and here). Basically, this law school admission discussion board (which Aaron read occasionally as he applied) is home to nasty, nasty people who discuss various matters in racist, sexist, and disgusting fashion. Normally, this is all fine and good -I believe people should be able to have a forum to talk about whatever they want. That line gets crossed when individual women get harrassed and threatened by name, have their pictures posted against their will, and the owners of the board refuse to shut down the threads. See their legal complaint here (I'll admit, it reads a little awkwardly - but the whole thing makes me. so. mad.) We've talked about this ad nauseum.

Like: feministing (feminist); lawsandletters (woman law student); Feminist Law Profs (just what it sounds like)

Obsession #5: lolcats. Enough said.

Obsession #6: Loratadine. Linn County is the grass seed capital of the world. My eyes itch just thinking about it. Aaron sneezed about 100 times today. It sucks.

Obsession #7: The weather. We want it to get hot. Or, we want to go some place where we can do this: