First off, I forgot to mention on Monday I was going to see David Sedaris. *doh* I went with a friend and he was HILARIOUS! It was a little slow at first on the laughs, but there were some points I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face. Oh gosh. He read the funniest story about an experience at the airport, his partner's experience with medical care in France, his cousin's therapy miniature horse going to the school she teaches at, etc. He essentially strips the sugar coating off of certain things and slaps reality onto them. Of course, he does this in a funny manner that makes you laugh hysterically because you never thought to think of it that way. He's coming back next year and I'll be sure to see him because it was too funny.
I also got a book signed! Only took me 1.5 hours to see him (one of the fastest signings I've experienced!). He was eating sushi and asked what animal I wanted him to draw in my book. I, of course, said a horse. Then quickly added, "or a turtle." He says, "Oh...Thanks for the choice" with a glint in his eyes. I knew something weird was coming of it...As he's drawing he asked if I was a doctor (weird) and I said no and he asked what did I do. So I said I'm a grad student at UCSB. He asked in what, I said environmental science. Then he asked me about the oil spill and we said like 2 things on that and then he finished my horse-turtle. :P A horse head with a turtle's body. He said it's a horse stuck in a turtle's shell. LoL I laughed and said it was him. Then that was it!
Today (or Friday, that is) was the 2nd day of our Environmental Law and Policy (ESM 207) class. The average class time is 3 hours (some days it's 2 hours 45 mins and others 3 hours 15 mins) so it's a little intense, but it goes by surprisingly fast. Or, well, the first 2.5 hours do. Once noon rolled around, I was ready to leave, but we had 15 mins left. We do get a 10 minute break about midway through. It's amazing, though. He starts class on time and FINISHES on time. He almost stopped mid-sentence yesterday to get us out on time. It was totally amazing to us. LoL Our profs rarely end on the nose like that. He also wears slacks and a sports coat with a collared button-up shirt (I think that's the first professor I've ever had who dressed up so formally). So I occasionally have flashbacks to Legally Blonde since we also are in an amphitheater type seating arrangement and we randomly get called on to answer questions a lot. This prof is our temp, though. Our real prof had a personally crisis or something and won't make it till our Monday class. It's kind of a bummer because I'm enjoying this guy and switching will mean we have to get used to a new style all over again.
I am learning a lot about RCRA, CERCLA, Clean Water Act, etc. They're pretty interesting pieces of legislation, especially since they were all passed in the era of environmental law (70's and 80's). Now that we've had them for 30-40 years, it kind of makes you wonder why they weren't implemented sooner. On the other hand, they do have their issues. They are incredibly important to our health and environment, though. Our prof also said that he thinks the Clean Air Act is one of the most complicated pieces of legislation in the U.S. He thinks it's almost as complicated as the tax code. I never realized the CAA was so complicated! He also said the school he's at teaches a semester long introductory course to the CAA and we get it in 2 days or 6 hours. Joy! At least it'll be a good intro-introduction.
Not much to say about the class other than I haven't done this much reading for a class since high school English, I think. I feel like our lives are consumed by this class to keep up with the readings alone. I am definitely enjoying the class and wouldn't say no to taking more environmental law classes, but I definitely do not want to make this my profession. After 15 pages of reading legislation, I kind of want to put myself out of my misery. I also think legal writing has some requirement that sentences must be as long as possible with as many "or" statements in them while still being grammatically correct. I get lost in some sentences or forget completely by the end what the point of the sentence was. I have to go back and take out all the "or" or serial parts to figure out the actual "meat" of the sentence. I know legal writing has to be thorough, but that's just ridiculous! Anyway, this class will be good prep for next year too. I need to take Natural Resources Law and Policy and that's taught by this same professor. So that should be interesting.
Oh yeah. I saw the Young Victoria. It was a good film. It's missing something to make it great, but I think the acting is really good and it portrays an interesting life the young Queen had to endure. Nice dramatical history piece that's pretty laid back and not overly exciting or anything. It keeps to history semi-well. I'd give it a B/B+. B+ on acting more than the story or movie itself.
With that...Time to go to bed. I have class from 9-12:15...Is it next weekend?!
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