That's right, I'm back and I can really shake it down... or recieve credit from University of Washington Law School in my quest to recieve a J.D., pass the bar and become a practicing attorney.
I'll admit, some of the autumnal excitement other similarly situated students are experiencing is diminished by my summer school sojourn. I don't get all excited saying "I'm a 3L!!!" because I've already said that all summer, and it really was true. Technically we were all 3L's as soon as we turned in our last exams last year, but that was more of a potential state that was only potentiated upon active participation in the credit seeking process. It's somehow just a different level of excitement ot be a practicing 3L, is what I'm saying. But, although I may not be nearly as excited about experiencing my "last first day of school" (since "first" has less meaning when you just finished a quarter a little while ago and feel entrenched in your third year and whatnot), I am experiencing some novelty from the whole "I wear a suit and work in the courthouse." In essence, I'm not really going to school this quarter. I'm working and journaling about my working, and attending a seminar about how I'm working and otherwise not taking tests or attending actual classes. Oh I love you externship program and your exposure to practical skills and work experience. I admit I would love you more if my supervisor from this summer had finished filling out and submitted my supervisor evaluation on time and thus I would already have those credits from my summer externships stamped on my transcript (she had a medical emergency and I should still get those credits, but I would have preferred a smoother transition involving all of that as I barrell towards Bar prep insanity and want to have quarters with fewer credits).
This quarter I am "working" (i.e. "paying to provide free labor") at the King County Prosecutor's Office, Civil Division. It's a nice long name for a nice multifaceted job. I am basically working at what could constitute as in house counsel for Seattle. And actually it's quite a similar position as I had in my internship with PeaceHealth's in house counsel - quite a lot of researching on quite a variety of topics, handed to me by an assortment of different attorneys, etc. The office is a little less cushy, as I get a view of an enormous pile of file boxes instead of a window, but otherwise the space itself is even somewhat similar. I know that that the "research a bunch of stuff for a bunch of people" position is ultimately a grunt job for interns and volunteers (and big firm associates), but it is one of my favorite positions. So, so far, so good.
In the afternoon I do still have to go to school in order to work in a completely quote-free way for the UW mediation clinic - the program I went through last year. My job there is very similar to the services I performed at the ADR program this summer, except I don't get to actually conduct any mediations, myself. Mostly I talk to people who want to have mediation done and then try to help them get all the way through that pesky convening process, which is surprisingly harder than you'd imagine. I really think there are more negotiations involved in getting to the table than anything that happens once people are there. At least with these community cases and at least with the ones I've handled (maybe I'm doing it wrong!)
Speaking of suits, I own some now. A small menagerie. In addition to my prized costs-more-than-me Nordstrom's suit, I have acquired two hand-me-down suits involving skirts, and two on-sale-at-Macy's suits. Now, the skirt suits are hard for me to convince myself to wear because I walk to work and doing so involves wearing my gauchely enormous new walking (ok "toning") shoes and they do not really match the skirt so well. Funny thing about my on-sale-at-Macy's suits is that they're twins separated by about a year and a half of purchasing. Re-united at last! Yes, this was an error on my part, since my first Macy's suit was bought for my summer at PeaceHealth and then it seemed so nice that I never once sullied it by taking it out of the bag, leaving it in pristine and invisible condition in the back of my closet for quite some time. The more peculiar thing is that the pants to the suit I bought and left in the bag were sixes, while the pants I bought this summer are eights. Not too peculiar a thing to wear differently sized pants, but this is literally the exact same CK suit cut, material and brand, down to the cute little decorative button on the side. I'm intrigued to find an example of reverse vanity sizing occuring. But perhaps this new suit was made earlier than my previous suit and has spent years in a warehouse. I'm really not sure. Goes to show the complete arbitrariness of women's sizing once again, I suppose. If anyone ever asks my pant size again (and it happens from time to time from the creepy contexts of some random internet skulker trying to interfere with my okcupid test taking to the less creepy but still disturbing contexts of having a faux-personal-shopper at fancy department stores), I am going to say that I am a size polka-dot-banana.
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