Semester's End: Small Group & Social Stuff

[Note: I'm going to try to do a series of semester-end reflection posts...we'll see how that goes...]

We've come to the end of classes for the semester [like Cat, we also have exams in January, which at this point seems pretty distant - it's next YEAR], and I don't think I could be any happier. I am always really into the holidays, and although New Haven hasn't yet (but might tonight?) been blanketed in sparkly snow that sticks, there's a lot of cheer to go around.

On Monday, my small group (the 15 1Ls with whom I take all my classes, plus our two 3L TAs, and our professor) assembled at our professor's house to mark the end of the semester and our time together...after today, there likely won't be any case when all 15 of us are in the same class again. (Tear!) We had dinner & drinks and had many versions of the following conversation/question stream:

"When are you going home?"
"Where are you going for break?"
"What classes are you going to take next semester?"
"What're we gonna do the rest of the week [now that we can blow off the last few days of class]? Who's having a party?"
"What're we gonna do without each other?!?"

It's really amazing how close we've become in the past 3 1/2 months, so it was nice to see everyone in a relaxed social environment one last time before break. As our professor snapped candid photographs of everyone, a couple people surprised the rest of the group by announcing special "awards" - "Best use of Latin in class," "Best in-class 'save' when nobody knew what the professor was asking," "Best future governor," etc. There were lots of inside jokes, a couple cheap shots, and tons of laughter. We gave our TAs and our professor some "thanks for being awesome" booze, and they closed with some loving/awww-inspring warm & fuzzy thoughts.

We left our professor's house and went to one of our small group member's apartment for the after-party. There was lots of good wine, free-flowing conversation, and (as the wine began to flow freely) some bad jokes. We were also lucky enough to have our friend break out his guitar and serenade us for a while, after which it became a sing-along. All-in-all, a totally awesome night with some of my favorite people at YLS.

Last night, after most everyone was done with classes, there was a big joint birthday party for three of our classmates at the VIP room inside Toad's (generally, Toad's is kind of townie/sketchy, but the VIP room - Lilly's Pad - was surprisingly nice). [Earlier in the night, I'd gone to a smaller dinner party hosted in one of the birthday girls' honor...the food was fantastic, and the company was even better.] At the big party, people had baked cakes/cupcakes, and someone else played iPod DJ. While the atmosphere was really different than my small group's party on Monday, it was totally awesome - it was great to see a bunch of people before they left town, and people were generally in a fairly nostalgic "I love law school! I love you!" mood. We'll see if that holds up once exams roll around....

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