Random Bouts of Being a Moron

Law exams have the tendency to make people a little crazy. Add to exam time the "thrill" of trying to get an issue of Journal to the presses and crazy turns into downright...insane.

For example: My editor-in-chief (EIC) and I have spent countless days and nights at the office working on the final proofs to the articles being sent to the printer. Being our first issue, the last month or so has been an exercise in patience working with the authors, editors and 2Ls who are all integral to finalizing and perfecting the articles that are going to print. EIC and I have tweaked things somewhat from last year's process. For example, by the time article come to us, there is a certain expectation that there will be minimal errors since each article has gone through multiple edits, has been seen by NUMEROUS people, and has been read and re-read (theoretically) by people at least 4 times. Changes should be minimal. This year, EIC and I have decided that if the work that has been done below is incorrect/incomplete, we will send it back down to the 2Ls/editors to fix within 24 hours. That's worked well. What we did not expect was for articles to come to us in a state of such disrepair that we would be spending multiple hours re-bluebooking the citations, highlighting the sources, and editing/adding footnotes to the text. As a result of this, EIC and I have gone a little nutty and now have the "who has found the most egregious mistake" game that keeps us amused for hours. So far, I'm ahead, having found a citation within the text that had been overlooked by at least 4 sets of eyes, and a short form of the citation as that (I recognize this is not going to make sense to most readers. But trust me, it's bad). What used to be annoyance on EIC's part and mine has now turned to absolute hilarity scaring editors and 2Ls in the office whenever we come across one of these...slip-ups.

Another fun result of exam time is the pervasive feeling of being pulled in 67 directions at once (and with all the journal fun from above, it's more like 89 directions), while trying to make sure that everything is being paid on time, studied completely, noted diligently, and generally taken care of. I had the lovely reminder that this is not as easy as I would like to believe when I emailed my landlord this afternoon making sure my rent check had arrived safely--I was concerned since it has not been deposited as of this afternoon. Here's our exchange:

Hi L, I wanted to touch base and make sure you received my rent that was sent on Friday, November 30, 2007 since I had not seen it deposited. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, DLS.

Response: Hi DLS--I did receive the check (Oops!!! Sorry for not letting you know!!!) but have not deposited it yet because you neglected to sign it.

Right. Awesome. My new morning checklist will now go something like this:
Laptop, check. Power cord, check. Keys, wallet, cellphone, check. Ability to fill out 4 lines on a check that is no larger than 3x7 inches so I can continue to inhabit my lovely apartment? Let's f*cking hope so.

At least the Starbucks folks have started giving me my free daily exam-time coffee to help counteract my moments of idiocy...I'll let you know if it helps..