We're not the only law school blog being weened off the bottle right now. Mike and Russ over at Barely Legal: The Blog have also recently had a birthday. So around a year ago, two pairs of law students in different parts of the country thought, "Hey, let's start a blog." Big whup, right? I mean, 63% of law students have blogs these days. But Mike and Russ occupy a special place in our hearts, mostly because they are like our opposites. We like law school, and they... don't. Tonight's AC Birthday Week Bash post goes out in tribute to Mike and Russ, inspired by their People You Meet in Law School series.

People You Meet at UT Law

1. The Aggie. Although you would expect Aggies to sell their A&M ring before they would ever consider applying to any law school with the name "University of Texas" in it, UT has a surprising number of Aggies. The Aggie is easy to spot: he's usually the only one at a tailgate wearing maroon. Always up for a good party, The Aggie is outgoing, social, and a great friend to go drinking with (as long as you don't mind driving him home afterward). He loves everything Texas A&M, and uses his knowledge of Aggie sports to his advantage during firm receptions. After law school, The Aggie will go on to work for a Texas Big Law firm. After all, the hiring partner was also an Aggie.

2. The Orange-Bleeder. There are UT students, there are Longhorns, and then there are those that bleed orange. The Orange-Bleeder went to UT for undergrad, and believes the school is the best thing since free online porn. Not only did The Orange-Bleeder spend over a thousand dollars to go to the Rose Bowl, he also has a football signed by Mack Brown. Nothing makes him happier than purchasing the All Sports Pass when he registers for classes, and he can often be found in the Tom Clark Lounge, intently following Texas' recruitment progress. Although it seems counterintuitive, The Orange-Bleeder gets along well with The Aggie, who is usually the only person who will listen to The Orange-Bleeder go on and on about Texas sports (if only to argue with him about which team is better). The Orange-Bleeder will go on to someday be the hiring partner at a Texas Big Law firm, where he'll be able to afford season football tickets and brag to his colleagues that he still does keg stands with the law students at the tailgate parties.

3. The Bleeding Heart. You can spot The Bleeding Heart by the progressive-themed stickers on her locker and laptop. The Bleeding Heart jumps right into extracurricular activities, immediately joining Texas Law Fellowships, Public Interest Law Association, American Constitutional Society, Out Law, and National Lawyers Guild. She thought about joining Texas Law Democrats, but decided they weren't progressive-minded enough. The Bleeding Heart despises traditional the Socratic method classes and counts down the days until she can do public interest internships and as many clinics as the school will allow during a given semester. If you don't see The Bleeding Heart, she's probably at a march somewhere. Either that or it's OCI week. The Bleeding Heart wouldn't be caught dead at a Big Law firm. After graduation, she'll be happily toiling away at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, satisfied in her knowledge that she didn't sell out and that she's making the world a better place.

4. Assault & Flattery Guy. You can usually spot A&F Guy way before the show even starts auditioning. Look around your section and find the guy who has a group of students standing around him, laughing. If he's often the one who has group of students laughing, he's probably A&F Guy. He tends to be clever, relatively funny, and--now that you mention it--kinda loud and with a secret need to be the center of attention. A&F Guy was probably a Theatre major as an undergrad, but if not, he still found his way to the stage. His favorite activities include Karaoke Night, and watching Family Guy and Arrested Development and trying to work the best lines into this year's show. A&F Guy isn't really sure why he came to law school. After all, his dream was to write for Saturday Night Live, and writing for Law Review just isn't the same. After law school, A&F Guy will probably seek out a small to mid-size firm where the billable hours aren't outrageous, so he'll have plenty of free time to try to get his writing career off the ground.

5. Party Girl. Party Girl can be recognized soon after (although sometimes before) orientation. When someone on the Yahoo Group suggests that everyone goes downtown before school starts, she's the first one to respond. Arriving downtown fashionably late and with her entourage of mini-Party Girls in tow, Party Girl drinks a lot, flirts even more, and--if it's a good night--doesn't leave the bar without first having made out with one of her classmates. The guys think Party Girl is great; she can drink most of them under the table, and she's always so nice to them. Girls aren't really fans. They think Party Girl's kind of bitchy and a bit of a slut (although none of them would tell Party Girl to her face). Party Girl doesn't mind. They're just jealous that the guys pay more attention to her than to them. Although Party Girl has a fantastic time in law school, her intense social life doesn't really lend itself to high grades. And then there was that time she got totally smashed at that firm reception... Party Girl will probably still find a job, though, as long as the hiring partner is male.

6. Ruth. Ruth is one of those people that you can only spot if you know where to look. And because so many people couldn't care less about looking, they neither know Ruth exists, nor does her existence matter to them. Ruth is usually found in the lounge, laptop or textbook out, ears open in hopes of catching some witty conversation to blog about later. Ruth's friends all recognize her, as do a number of other students and professors. In fact, when meeting new people, Ruth always has to wonder whether they know or not. Some people genuinely like Ruth and feel like she's the life of the party. Others think Ruth is self-important and is only nice to people so that she blog about how many friends she has. Others still just wish they knew who she was, dammit! Ruth's tendency to exaggerate (when coupled with some people's belief that she can't be trusted with secrets because she'll blog about them) lead some people not to trust her. Although Ruth does reasonably well in school, she's fairly convinced that she won't have a job at all after graduation.

Are you like me and pissed off over your fall classes? Wanna drink your anger away? Grab a friend and play the AC Birthday Drinking Game. Or play alone. But if you do play alone, you might also want to call AA, because you may have a problem.

The AC Birthday Drinking Game: Official Rules

Start reading through the AC archives (don't forget our really old posts). You and your friend can take turns picking posts to drink for. Have both beer and your favorite hard liquor ready.

1. Take a swig of beer every time a footnote is used in a post.
2. If Ruth put any actions in asterisks (think: *sigh* or *headdesk*), take a shot.
3. Two shots for a post with smiley faces/emoticons.
4. Drink half a beer if Ruth embarrassed herself in the post (careful, you could get really drunk on this one).
5. If the post is a "Top #" list, take a shot for every item in the list.
6. If the post wasn't funny, chug a beer, because you clearly haven't been drinking enough.
7. If Antonin authored the post, drink the remainder of the liquor bottle.

To continue in our birthday week celebration, we bring you our ten favorite posts.

10. The Lachrymose Library: A favorite around exam time.

9. Superhero Liability. "Not only are you talking about superheroes, which is nerdy enough but still acceptable, but you are combining law with it. This takes it from nerdy to so nerdy it's funny."

8. Top Ten Questions Likely to be on Our Warren Court Exam. One of our first collaborative posts, but Antonin came up with most of these.

7. Ladies and Gentlemen of the UT Law Class of 2008. Eat free pizza.

6. The Ruth! The Ruth! The Ruth is on Fire!. Ah, Ruth.

5. Unresolved Sexual Tension. We thought it would be funny to be ambiguous about whether we'd ever hooked up. (For the record, we haven't and wouldn't. See "The Ruth is on Fire" for details.)

4. Ten Commandments of UT 1L Year. Complete with words like "thou" and "shalt."

3. Busy Sunday. "Study day up at the Tarlton."

2. Selling Out. Prerequisite: Watching Wayne's World.

1. ::facepalm::. The McDreamy Saga. Antonin wanted this to be number one because he hadn't "laughed this hard in ages!" Thanks for laughing at my pain, friend. I appreciate it.

Today, we turn a year old. Our blog is toddling around in a diaper and being weened off the bottle. Join us this week as we celebrate with drinking games, memories, nostalgia, and other silliness. For Day 1 of the AC Birthday Week Bash, we bring you our first post. We were so wide-eyed and innocent back then.

Also feel free to share with us your favorite AC memories, i.e. how you found us, when you started reading, your favorite post, how you wish Ruth would just go out with you already, etc. and so forth, as we'd like to compile some of the best (read: funniest) reader anecdotes later this week. Email your anecdotes to amicuscuriae.blog @ gmail.com (reminder: emailing us always makes us feel loved) (unless of course you send us hate email, and then we just make fun of you to ameliorate our hurt feelings).

Tune in Wednesday for a "Best of the AC" post.

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In non-birthday news, we could use another field reporter for today's Meet the Dean meeting from 3:00-3:30, as we both have class. You know the email; thanks in advance.