No man is an island, but some men have islands named after them

Today I did some fun things and some less fun things. I suppose that's what finals studying time is all about. Actually, for many people, that is not at all what it is about, from what I hear. It is all about the less fun for them. Not me. I like finals studying time; I find it oddly fascinating in some perhaps masochistic? way and I also don't believe it is helpful to be an oozing ball of 24-hour-a-day studying stress. One should have diversions. Such as...

Playing softball! And even better is playing softball in a fun park on Roosevelt Island with people whom I've never met before tonight (except Brian) (and he hit a home run! yay him) and also with a cat who liked to slink through the overgrown grass in the outfield. That cat is awesome. It appeared to live in a little pile of who-knows-what waaaay back in what would be the nether regions of centerfield. But it emerged and slunk through right field, too. And it would look up when we would move around fielding a ball and it would pay a little attention and then it would resume its slinking. It so knew what was going on. It was totally The Cat Who Loved Baseball. Someone tell Lillian Jackson Braun.

I had never got off the F train on Roosevelt Island before. I've always ignored that stop. But tonight, that's where we went to play. And now I have a total crush on Roosevelt Island. Don't even act like you don't know what I mean. It is completely and totally possible to develop a crush on a place. Instantly, apparently. It was crush at first footsteps. It was so cool! It was right there, just hanging out in the river between Queens and Manhattan, and yet you didn't feel like you were in either place. In fact, it felt more like being on Catalina Island, when you're in L.A. County and you know that but also you are just so not in L.A. So, Roosevelt Island, in addition to its baseball field complete with cat, has many amenities, such as one street (seriously) and a tram to take you up and down said street, and a run/bike/walk type path along the water, and tennis courts and other athletic fields, and also a bar, luxury condos, a market or two, AND...wait for it...a Starbucks. Now, seriously, people. Have I found the place in New York where I need to live or what! I would never need to leave the island!

I am aware that Manhattan is an island also, of course. But you don't really think about that when you're on Manhattan. It really doesn't envelop you with that island feel, the way a Catalina (or a ROOSEVELT!) does. Neither does Long Island, which is the land of god-awful strip malls. Its god-awful strip mall-dom definitely trumps its island-dom.

Before and after playing softball I learned many things about Civ(il) Pro(cedure), and I also did appellate brief edits. Tomorrow the appellate briefs and Appellate Advocacy will take their places on the "done and done and so very done forever" shelf. That delights.

My other delight today was seeing that there is a new movie out, Diggers, which, weird! is about Long Island. But that's not the delightful part. The delightful part is Maura Tierney is in it! I like her! And not just because I think she might play me in the movie of my life. I think she is way underrated. I like it when she's in movies.

Also, Offside? Hello? Why didn't I get around to seeing that? Oh well. That's what Netflix is for, I suppose.

That's all for now.