Dia De Juicio

February marches on, Feb Club marches on, firm receptions marches on, and my continual streak of unending work marches on. I am not complaining, though, because this semester’s schedule is a carefully orchestrated plan designed to get all my work out of the way before my dear sweat wife makes her triumphant return to the US of A in a week or so in her most daring mission to date American Eagle II: Judgment Day (or AE:II, for those of you who prefer speaking in the often confusing language of acronyms). This hastily created and entirely unimagitive title, which sounds like the name of a horrible Hollywood sequel, refers to Theresa’s Visa interview that is scheduled this very Thursday. The preparations are (barely) complete, and our stalwart heroine is ready to make the cross-country flight to Montreal (where the only consulate that processes immigrant visas is located), stay overnight, brave the mean streets of Canada’s second-largest and first-most-hip city, and face down the consulate officer in a battle of the wits (only to have to fly all the way home because of the office’s strict policy of mailing the Visa to one’s home). Everyone wish her luck, although our case is straightforward enough that there should be no problem securing her permanent residency.

As for me, and returning to my previously mentioned semester plan, Thursday just happens to be the very last day of my rewarding yet arduous Genetics and the Law course, and on Friday the bulk of this semester’s only Legal Research and Writing assignment is due, leaving me with a much reduced course-load for the half of the semester that Theresa will actually be here for. The bonus, if anything is needed to sweeten the pot, is that I will only have three, count ‘em, three exams this term. So, to recap: now I have an above average workload and a markedly below average love life—soon I’ll have a below-average workload and a markedly above average love life. A pretty good setup if you ask me.

This weekend was particularly busy since I decided to participate in the Dillard Fellow (read: Legal Research and Writing Teacher Assistant) tryouts, which consisted of editing a student memo that was so incredibly badly written that I am sure that if the author was an actual student, he would have had to have used some extremely sophisticated method to hack in to LSAC and change his grades enough to get himself accepted into any law school, let alone UVa. The tryout also required a statement of intent. Below is reprinted an portion of my actual statement:

“I am a grammar geek. I have a favorite punctuation mark: it’s the full colon. I can spot a comma splice from fifty yards away. My pet peeve is people who say “quote” when they really mean “quotation.” I attempt to write 500 word sentences—grammatically correct ones, of course—just for fun. I have a special green pen that I use exclusively for editing (red sends too much of a negative message). I formatted my blog’s softball write-up like a legal memo. And I would love to be a Dillard Fellow. I have wanted to be one since my first day of Legal Research and Writing, and I truly hope that I am offered the position.”