Confessions of A Working Girl

I had  never been a huge fan of John Grisham–although I suppose I shouldn’t say that since the actual truth is, until recently, I had never read one of his books. Now I’m thinking I may want to try reading one…

Anyway, for my American Judicial Process class, we had to read The Innocent Man, by John Grisham. Less than a chapter into the book, and I was already horrified by how the case had been handled. Having just finished the book, I can only say that I am almost completely appalled by the criminal justice system.

For people who haven’t read the book, it is a story of two men who were wrongfully convicted of murder. It wasn’t just that they claimed they were innocent–they were innocent! They had alibis for the night of the murder, and there was zero evidence connecting them to the murder. One of the men had never even met the victim!

The murder occurred in 1982. The two men weren’t arrested until 1987, and then they spent the next twelve years in jail. Despite numerous requests for new trials, the two weren’t exonerated of the crime until 1999!

After reading that book, I just had to stop and think for a minute. If our criminal justice system can make huge mistakes like that–and this is no where near being an isolated case–then what confidence can we put into the system?

Having done ride-alongs with the police, and knowing people that are police, I can say that the police are not always the people in the wrong. Most of them are simply trying to do their duty of protecting the citizens of their town.

That said, there are still way too many things in the system that are corrupt.  Unless and until we fix that, incidents like this are going to remain a relatively common occurrence. Wasn’t the theory America founded on “Innocent until proven guilty”? Although that statement itself brings about problems…

Anyway, I guess my point is simply this: why do we let the criminal justice system stay twisted enough that sometimes it can be argued that we should call it the criminal injustice system?

…ok that wasn’t worded very well, but I think you get my point.

This semester is so busy! I know I’ve already complained about it before…

Running around getting field experience done, surveys done for my Research class, trying to finish my application to study abroad in Japan…

I know it’s not true, but I feel like I have so little free time! Maybe it’s because an hour or two here and there is not a really long time, and some things that I may want to do, I end up not because it feels like such a short time frame.

So…I’m thinking they (whoever they are) need to add about 6 or 7 more hours to the day. Who’s with me?

2 Comments » java:

March 11th, 2010 @ 7:25 pm I’m with you sister!

Where have the last two and half months gone??

I’d love either a few hours a day extra or an 8 day week!

Dad:

March 12th, 2010 @ 11:09 pm Sorry…but on March 14th you’re going to lose another hour.

And in this case, when I say technology, I mean cars. Today when I got into my car to drive to school, I had one of those tape things–the things that go into the tape player of the car, but connect to your cd player or mp3 player so that’s what you’re listening to.

I don’t know if it was just my car or what…but it would. not. work. I got so mad! It would only let me listen to about five seconds of a song before it skipped, and/or stopped working.

I hurt my hand a little, hitting it, but on the bright side, the speaker that hadn’t been working started working again for a little while.

10. You’re eating mushed up pears and you think, “Wow, this flavor…it’s so pear-like!”

9. You say something…five minutes later, you say what you think is something else, but your roommate says “You said that already.”

8. You look at your to-do list…half of the items are crossed off, but you don’t remember doing them.

7. You decide to pretend that your work isn’t there and go to bed at 9:00pm

6. You remember all your favorite quotes, but not who said them.

5. When a yawn gets passed around the room, you’re the one who started it.

4.  You look at the coffee mug you just drank from and think “aw, I’ll just put coffee in it tomorrow anyway.”

3.  You’re on the highway, heading home…but you miss the exit.

2. In the morning, you know that you’re going to hit the snooze button at least five times.

1. You’re driving down the street and you think to yourself “Where the hell did I put my keys?”

Because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, at Girlscouts we had a little Valentine’s Day party. I knew that the girls were going to be making Valentine’s Day cards, so I decided that I wanted to as well.

I crocheted little flowers for them. Since I didn’t really pay attention to time, I had to crochet about 7 of them last night. (It took at least 3/4 of the 1st Disc of the third season of the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle)

Today at the party, one of the girls had to leave early, so I gave her the little crocheted flower. She looked at it, then ran at me in a hug! I was surprised–she’s usually one of the quieter, not-as-showy kids. But that, and a comment from one of the other girls when I gave her her crocheted flower later (”I’m going to put this on my Christmas tree every year.”) made me think that the time I spent crocheting those little flowers was definitely not time lost.

It was time well spent. And if something as small as a crocheted flower can make someone happy, then, well…I think everyone should learn how to crochet flowers.

flower

1 Comment » Mrs. A.:

February 24th, 2010 @ 10:57 am You sound like a real Girl Scout Leader!! I am so proud of you!!

Last night, Vivien and I went to bed a little late because we were talking. So by the time we actually went to bed, it was around 1:00. Which isn’t too bad…except for the fact that around 3:15am we were woken by a loud noise and a flashing light. It was the fire alarm.

This is the second time I’ve been in the building when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. (The first time was last year) It is not fun. In fact, it can be miserable.

When the alarm goes off, because of the flashing light, it is nearly impossible to see anything in a dark room. I grabbed my keys, my id, and my shoes, then ran out. Vivien grabbed her cell phone, her id, her keys (which were attached to her id) and her coat.  Vivien’s pajamas consisted of long pants and a t-shirt. My pajamas consisted of at-shirt that fell to my knees. All I can say is that it was really really cold outside.

We had to stand outside for about a half hour. One of my suitemates saw me, and offered me part of her jacket, since it was two parts. (That, I thought was really nice of her, especially since I don’t talk to my suitemates nearly as much as I should, and don’t know them very well.) The zipper on her coat got stuck though, and as she was trying to get it undone, everyone moved into the dorm building next door. Despite the fact that, after looking around, I realized I was least dressed for the weather, everyone was cold.

All throughout this, Vivien and I both felt sick. I’m not sure if anyone else felt the same way, but there’s something about being pulled from a deep sleep that makes your stomach roll. It happened to me last year too…I remember because while going down the stairs with the alarm sounding, I had to be careful not to fall, I was so dizzy.We stayed in the lobby of the next door building for another half hour or so. When we were finally allowed to go back into the building and up to our room, it was a little after 4.

The moral? Leave your coat where it’s easily grabbable.

Have you ever noticed that the more careful you are not to lose something, the easier it gets lost?

Confession 3: I do that all the time. I’ll put something (in this particular case, my laundry quarters) somewhere where I am sure that I will not lose them. Then, when I need them and go to look for them, they can’t be found!

It’s the lost sock in the dryer phenomenon, I think. And it’s a pain.

My grandfather’s back at his house now. From what I heard, he’s much better. I even talked to him on the phone today, and he sounded fine. 

The busy part I mentioned is my schedule. It’s a lot busier than any other semester so far. I know it doesn’t look terribly busy, but try doing it! And I still need to fill out the study abroad forms and find a program for Japan…the teacher said she’d help me with that on Thursday. I have an idea of what program I want (It would let me stay in Japan from Jan 2011 to July 2011) but I’ve never heard of it before so I wonder if the teacher has… it’s  Japanese Language School - Study Abroad in Japan - Japanese Language Studies at KCP International Japanese Language School –Tokyo - Japan

And I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned, but the program I’m using to go to Spain is

http://www.studiesabroad.com/

According to my aunt, dad, and grandma, my grandfather’s better. The test was postponed until tomorrow though.

Yesterday there was a girlscout meeting. Most of the girls didn’t say much about me coming back after break, but one of them was like “You’re back!”

Also, I found out that cookie orders weren’t neccessarily due yet, since we’re getting the cookies from a cookie cupboard–something new, I guess.

I don’t have any updates on my grandpa.

A few minutes ago, Paige called. Apparently she was walking to a party or something, and decided to call me while she walked. She’s done that a few times between this year and last, and it always makes me smile.