Bumping and Bumbling a Bit

Okay, again, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. How exciting, the first day of law school! I'm ready, my hair is combed, my readings are done, I've eaten a good breakfast. It's all set! Well, maybe I was a little too excited.

I find that when I am anxious about things, I shift into a higher gear. I have to admit that lately, I've been going in the highest gear I know. I like to call it, over function drive. Yes, over function drive is the force that propels you to rip up your front lawn and make a garden out of it, or grind the paint off your basement walls or start cleaning your house to the point that you are using a Q-tip. When you do these things, you know you have shifted gears in a serious way.

So, yesterday, the first day of law school, I found myself feeding the parking meter with coins I had brought in plastic ziplock bags (earlier that morning, I had painstakingly organized the dimes, quarters and nickels into separate ziplocks--and yes, they were recycled bags that I had washed, dried and saved). I knew it was a sign of OFD, but I chose to ignore it.

I got to the law school right on time, and found that the front lobby was already packed with students. I realized that I was not the only one suffering the effects of OFD. I found the registration table quickly, but I couldn't find my nametag. The table helpers couldn't find my nametag either. They sent for help. Soon I was introduced to Chase who also searched in vain for my nametag. He found that my packet of essential orientation materials was also absent. He told me that he would be back, to have some breakfast (sugar crusted donuts and urn coffee with creamer that is more powder than cream), and relax. The coffee was better than I expected, and the students were interesting specimens.

Most of the students had found their specified groups. There were head students holding small placards on sticks displaying different letters of the alphabet, and students gathered round. They were shaking hands, introducing themselves, asking where each other went to undergrad, and generally doing the busyness of breaking the ice. They all seemed to know where to be.

Chase found me and explained, "Since you already have a JD, and having gotten it from this school, you aren't required to attend any of the orientation." I knew then, that the person who I had called and inquired about that very question had given me misinformation. I decided to go with the motto, "it's all good". I smiled and said, "Well, I'll go to some of it, at least, since I've done all the readings." Chase also explained that I wasn't given a group to join because I wasn't included in the orientation.

So, I sat down, watching the specimens, until it was time to troop into the auditorium-like Supreme Court classroom for the "Welcoming Remarks." These were initiated by Carolyn Jones, the somewhat new dean of the law school. It had been 20 years since I had seen Dean Jones, and at that time, she was a mere visiting tax professor at Iowa. I remembered her class (a personal disaster for me) as a blur of words like "basis" and "firepot" and such things that made no more sense to me than "flibberdo" or "ziddomel". What I remembered about Dean Jones is that she struck me as being brilliant and eccentric in a heartwarming kind of way. This opinion was strengthened by her remarks (she has a great penchant for the Weather Channel), and I found that I liked her combination of warmth, intelligence and personal expression (did I perhaps see Justice Wiggins squirm just a tad when Dean Jones exhorted the students to engage in self-exploration?).

Each of the speakers comported themselves well, and it was time to be off to the Law and Legal Reasoning class. As the students filed out of the classroom, I approached Dean Jones with the request to sit in on her section of LLR. She regretfully replied in the negative, that my prior law experience would "blow away" the new law students. I realized that she was telling me to just go home. I was taken a little aback--it was like I was 5 years old again, and after the first day of kindergarten, they told me that I couldn't go for another year, that I was too little, and that I would just have to wait. . . . . I rallied, though, smiled, shook her hand, and trooped out.

By the time I made it to the car, I realized that I had been given the precious gift of an extra week, one that wasn't filled with "things to do" and that I would be a fool to waste it. My plan for the week includes, getting my hair done, getting massage and Reiki, having my car professionally detailed, and visiting my dear friends in Des Moines. Thank you, Iowa Law School, for the best gift out there, free time.

Oh, and by the way, sometime ask me about last week's computer class, it went about the same way as the first day of law school. . . . . But despite the bumps and trips, I'll make it there soon. I know I'm supposed to go to law school this fall--they've already sent me the bill for it.