I board the first of four flights tomorrow afternoon. It’s not a big plane, but at least it’s a short-ish flight and I’ll have a window seat (in the exit row, no less). The weather looks pretty promising, too, which is always nice.

I’ve managed to stay distracted over the last week—sitting for four finals will do that. But now finals are done, and I’m left working on my totally uninspired Space Law paper and, of course, thinking about airplanes.

My entire body is a ball of tension that starts with a knot in my stomach and branches out to every muscle. And of course thinking about feeling sick only makes it worse. The best solution I’ve found—and I know it sounds stupid—is to smile. I look at Samson, think the words “my dog is cute,” and force a smile. And it works! For a moment, I relax a little.

If only I could bring Sammy with me for cuteness support. Maybe I’ll load some pictures of him onto my phone, so I can be the weirdo apparently praying to my dog as the plane lifts off.

So that settles it—only funny podcasts for the plane ride. My current favorites are Jordan, Jesse, Go! and Stop Podcasting Yourself. I would bring some You Look Nice Today, but I’ve listened to every episode of that show so many times that I can almost recite them.

Wish me luck! Once I get through the first flight, the rest should be easier.

One of the first things I learned today at law school orientation is that there are 255 people in my entering class. I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but that’s a heck of a lot of people, especially when they’re all packed into an auditorium. It was a bit overwhelming, but fortunately we won’t convene in one room again until graduation, or so we were told.

The best thing about orientation was that after the introductory speeches they split us up into “mentor groups,” each consisting of about ten 1Ls, two upperclassmen, and a faculty advisor. A dozen new people at once? That I can handle. I think I might even remember the names of half the folks in my group, a feat I’m considering a win.

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