The Trough

Foxfields
Originally uploaded by Bolder Law.

I'm one of those people who wakes up at 7 a.m. the day before an exam, powers through an entire day of studying, and then hardly do anything the day of the exam. I find that I totally confuse myself if I try to "learn" stuff a couple hours before an exam. That's just a disclaimer for why I'm posting this completely unrelated blip about Foxfields a few hours before my last exam of my first year. Here we go...

As some of you have figured out, I went to college at the University of Virginia. In a word, UVa, is, uhm, preppie. I mean, really preppie. I have multiple friends who have worn multiple collars flipped up on multiple occasions. True.

The pen ultimate UVa event is Foxfields, which, oddly enough, was held this past weekend. Foxfields is a horse race, but no one actually watches the races. Everyone drives out in their SUV, parks in the middle of some field on the outskirts of Charlottesville, which is actually kinda similar to Boulder, and guys walk around in seersucker and linen suits. Girls wear sun dresses, big hats, and everyone stands out in the sun (or, like this year, rain) drinking bourbon on the infield of the horse track. Its something out of the Great Gatsby, I promise.

UVa has a lot of traditions. People wear dress shirts and ties to football games, and there's always a guy who "dives the trough" at Foxfields. The trough being the urinals in the middle of the horse track. Starting at 10 a.m. whenever you walk into the bathroom, you'll hear guys calling out bets: "$10 to dive the trough," "$50 to dive the trough!" and so on. Finally, some wasted idiot will get his buddy to pool all the other wasted idiots' money and dive the trough. Its unreal. Here's a video of this past year's "dive." If you're not totally grossed out by my description, its well worth the minute it takes to download.

After my first year of law school, I am no longer surprised at the stupidity of humanity. I think there's something to David Hill saying, "People are just dumb." Last semester, I jumped on the back of a pickup after celebrating our last exam with a few too many drinks. I was stupid. I'm hoping that the past year has made me if not a little smarter, at least a little wiser.....we'll see!