Court, Toilet, Visitors

Oh wow,  I haven't updated for like, two weeks.

Okaaay, well. I finished my first two graded assignments today. One was the court paper I mentioned briefly  in a previous update. At that point in time, I hadn't gone to one yet. When I did, the first trial we went into was filing through defendants really quickly. When it was called to recess, we spoke to a police officer and asked him if it was a real trial. Wasn't clear on what it actually was, but the answer was "no". So we went to another one, but this one was really one-sided. Somebody was trying to put somebody in jail for two years for possession. But the defendant had already been to prison for two years for a worse drug addition and had since been successful in rehabilitation and had become an active public speaker against drug abuse. Also, what he was currently being charged for was possession of something unrelated to what he'd been in jail for previously, I don't even think the substance was illegal, he just had too much of it. Like a painkiller or something.

So everything leaned heavily in favour of the defendant. The real kicker was that the defendant wasn't even present. We were supposed to reflect on the emotions of the defendant.  Hard to do when he's not there.

So we went back and the second time around, it was a guy who denied taking a breath test after being stopped for speeding. The catch was that he offered to give a sample a few minutes later and the officer denied him. This was a closer case, and the defendant was present.

So I wrote a paper on that. The second assignment was a group presentation on a school philosophy book. I think I did alright on both of them.

My roommates left for the weekend. I went to the bathroom and saw that someone hadn't flushed the toilet. I flushed it, it overflowed, and it kept going. I looked for a plunger, found only a tiny one way more shallow than the bowl. With no other options I thrust my arm elbow-deep into the bowl and plunged with everything I had. No result. Figured it was the silly novelty plunger's fault and ran downstairs to find a real one. Found one, ran up, started plunging. No result. Top floor flooding. I call around, ask how to stop a toilet. There's a little nozzle at the base that shuts it off when you turn it. Didn't know that.

Now the top floor is ankle-deep in toilet water but at least the toilet stopped. I go downstairs and see that it is raining in the bottom floor. Couldn't be the water upstairs seeping, there's too much and it got trhough too fast. Call the landlord, landlord calls a plumber. I mop stuff up, the ceiling eventually stops raining. The plumber shows up, inspects the toilet, flushes it a few times, it works fine. Leaves without doing anything to it.

Later on, some people show up in the house. I expect they're friends of my roommates. I think they must have a copy of the key because they got in even though the door was locked. I chat with them, tell them the toilet story, share some laughs. Eventually they leave.

Next day, roommates come back. I tell them about the visitors and they flip. They hadn't invited anyone, no it's not normal for people to just walk in, and no, they didn't give anyone a copy of the key. Did I run into burglars and inadvertently talk them down?