A typical day - pre New York Bar Exam

Brooklyn, New York

It’s another late start in the Hawketc household. The alarm on my phone is going off on the floor beside the bed, beeping incessantly, just out of arms reach. I give up and collapse back into my pillow and close my eyes, attempting to get just one more minute of sleep. I’m still so tired, and my mouth feels furry, unusual as I didn’t have anything to drink last night. I haven’t had a sweet delicious sip of beer for over a month now. I try to swallow, but the feeling doesn’t go away, it gets worse. I open my eyes, the harsh light making me instantly regret the decision, and sit up. The white sheets are covered in fur, my pillow is covered in fur, my tongue is covered in fur. There is cat fur everywhere. Missy must have somehow got into my room during the night. I see her then curled up, peacefully sleeping on the floor near the door, the closed door. I must have accidentally shut her in my room when I went to bed. I guess as she couldn’t get out, she’s probably shat somewhere in here too. I’ll worry about that later.

I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and turn off my alarm. I look to where the pile of clothes I use to show off my excellent fashion sense usually resides. A damp towel, a little too short to be acceptable to change out of boardies at a beach, is all that I see. It’ll have to do. I wrap it around me, the towel stopping half a foot above the knee, and patter over to the bathroom to splash water on myself to wake up. I look at my reflection in the mirror, and consider shaving. I decide against it after realizing that I won’t meet anyone today whose opinion I care enough about.

I wander downstairs and into the dining room, currently cluttered with New York Law textbooks, empty diet Pepsi cans and discarded Bagel-World wrappers. Hawkins mustn’t be up yet, but it’s not surprising, it is only quarter past noon. In the kitchen I find the coffee pot half full, the remains from last night’s midnight study session. There’s no clean mugs in the cupboard, but there’s plenty of dirty wet mugs in the sink. I grab one and clean it out with a tea towel and pour what’s left of the coffee pot into it. Thirty seconds later the microwave beeps and breakfast is served. The coffee is still a little cold, but it’ll do.

Instinctively sipping my coffee, even though it couldn’t possibly burn me, I go in search of clothes. I’d put some in the washing machine last night and asked Hawkins to put them in the dryer when they were done. Clean clothes. I get a little excited at the thought. There’s nothing in the dryer, and so I open up the washing machine. There are my clothes, clumped together in a soggy mess at the bottom of the machine. I drop the lid with a clang and go back into the dining room. I’m not really surprised, just disappointed.

I sit down at the dining table and pull over one of the text books, opening it up to where’d I gotten last night. “Rules of Usury: New York Exceptions to the Federal Rules”. I take another sip of my coffee and begin reading. I’ve got a long fun-filled day of study ahead of me.