1st Day . . .

on the job was interesting. It started w/ a 2 hour orientation, got a badge & was then thrown out to the wolves. I'll be doing mostly employment law related matters which is great. Last summer I got to dabble in a little bit of everything which makes you a jack of all trades but a master of none so I'm glad I'm assigned to just one practice area.

I'll be the only law clerk in this particular area so that's rather intimidating. No one to commiserate with when assignments go awry. However, I was assigned a mentor who's only been practicing since 2006 & she's great. She took me around to say hi to everyone which was about 15 attorneys & lots of paralegals & secretaries. But the attorneys were great even though most of them are on the older side. I have an inside cubicle which means I have no view of downtown unlike last year but at least I don't get to share it. All the attorneys though have offices with great views since we're on the 25th floor. Parking is the only hiccup. It's expensive & I have to pay for it.

So here are some differences between working for the government & a law firm: one, the secretaries at the firm do a ton more work than the government ones. I never did any filing, copying, etc at the firm but it seems like this will be part of my job this summer since none of them was assigned to me. I love secretaries so this was a bummer. Two, I have to pay for my own parking this time around. Three, no more getting projects that are fairly meaningless - these are projects that an attorney has been putting off all year just waiting for the summers to come in & complete them. All the work that I'll be doing this summer will be used in some fashion for ongoing litigation. But by far the biggest upside to working for the government is I don't have to attend functions & mingle with people that I'd rather never talk to again. I can't tell you how much I hated those outings. Schmoozing is so overrated. All in all, this should be a great learning experience. It's the first job I've held & not hated the first day. So we're off to a good start.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Exams . . .

begin this afternoon & will go on till the middle of next week. This has been my most enjoyable semester to date - not working or interviewing, fabulous professors, & interesting slew of classes, all had something to do with it. The one thing though I didn't enjoy was the amount of writing I had to do which was due to bad foresight. I had a journal note to write (I didn't get published) & yet I signed up for 2 other classes that had a ton of writing requirements.

I went to the dentist last week & he asked me when I was graduating & I said "next year." No one has asked me that this year so all of last year's responses were "in 2009" or "in 2 years." How time flies. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter & brighter altho' I suspect I'll be one of the few who'll miss law school. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - still need to get these exams out of the way before a much needed summer break begins:

Rule of Law - Paper - turned in 3/15
Ethics - Paper - turned in 4/16
Civil Procedure II - 4/28
Human Rights - 5/2
Evidence - 5/5
Criminal Procedure - 5/7

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!

I am screaming. Quietly. But screaming all the same at the thought of Hillary winning Pennsylvania. I knew she was going to win but seeing her afterwards shrieking about how the tide was turning made me want to do something irrational. Like hurl something big & heavy at my barely paid for t.v. I seriously cannot handle another day - let alone years - of her cackling laugh & her obliterating of Iran talk. And the only people to blame for this more-than-a-nightmare-she-devil that refuses to go away are none other than Ohioans. Had she lost that primary it'd have been lights out for her. The focus would be on McGrandpa & why he refuses to release his medical records. Instead we're stuck with this b*tch till June - if we get lucky. Wouldn't surprise me if she was still hanging on by the threads of her pantsuit come the Denver convention in August. Would this then force Obama to put her on his ticket? Because voter animosity would be at an all time high to the point where the exclusion of one candidate would be to the detriment of the other? Wouldn't put it past her to be doing all this just to get to that point so she can screw him over by refusing to become V.P.

Straight Talk

Let me first say that I disagree with John McCain's stance on nearly all issues. He's pro-life, pro-war, pro-Bush, pro-gaffes, etc. That being said, he was on the Hardball College Tour w/ Chris Matthews today & I must tell you that it was refreshing listening to him talk. For once, a candidate who can give you straight answers without hedging his bets. He might have been pandering to his audience since he was in Villanova University but who cares? The Straight Talk Express delivered. He answered "yes" or "no" and then gave an explanation for his position instead of blathering on and on like his democratic opponents do with annoying regularity.

Q: Do you think Obama is an elitist? No. But I think that the comments he gave were . . .
Q: Will you call for an end to swift boat attack ads in the general election? Yes. Because . . .
Q: You are known as a maverick. Would you allow ex-PA Gov. Ridge (R) to be your V.P.? No. While I admire his service to this country, he is pro-choice and . . .
Q: Will you invade Iran? I don't know. Because . . .

He wasn't straight talking about Iran because we all know he'll invade it as soon as he takes the oath of office but . . . Tomorrow, Shrillary & Barack have yet another debate on ABC. Let's hope they put their bitterness (pun intended) behind them & start giving some straight talk. From what I saw today, if McCain goes up against Clinton, he'll win. Convincingly.

Update: The Democratic debate in Pennsylvania was AWFUL!!! Shame on ABC. Rev. Wright, flag pin, Obama flimsy connection w/ a 1960s radical guy, . . . Haven't we had enough rhetoric about this nonsense already? I want those 90 minutes of my life back!

Nothingness

Registered for my final year of classes (2008-09) today. How time flies. One more year & I'll be done. Yay! But truth be told I'm not all that eager to reenter the work force. School sucks but working sucks even more. If I don't feel like going to class, then I don't. If you don't feel like going in to work . . . well . . . you go in anyway or you'll be out of a job shortly. Speaking of which, my summer job starts on May 12th & lasts through mid-August. Can't wait to make some money. I think I'll enjoy this job way more than I did my job last summer altho' the pay difference will be drastic. But on the upside, I don't have to wear a suit every day this time around. So you win some, you lose some.

I told off one of my BFF's. Sometimes I say hi to her in the morning & she'll respond very cheerfully but other times she'll barely respond. So after letting this go on for a few weeks, I said to her one morning: "Why are you saying hi to me like you don't want to?" Then she had the nerve to respond: "Do you want me to talk to you at all?" and I responded: "WTF do you mean?" to which she said: "If you want me to talk to you then don't question the tone of my voice." Oh no she didn't!!!! Won't rehash what I said but the B* had it coming to her.

I have a new favorite past time these days. Listening to music online. I like Rhapsody although they only give you 25 free plays a month. Napster is also ok. But what I really like to do is rack my brain for songs I haven't heard in years & then google them if I can't remember the singers or the song names. Without fail, I always find what I'm looking for on You Tube which has a music video to go with every imagineable song you can think of. Good thing about music is I can do my school work & listen to it at the same time. Gotta love multi-tasking.

Exams start on April 28th. Should be interesting. I have a 20-page paper due for one of my classes next Thu. But I don't even sweat writing assignments anymore. All I need is one night to knock it out. I've gotten this skill down to a science & so far it's been working out fine. But I don't recommend it for the young & impressionable kids out there. Pacing yourself is the way to go.

And yes, my BFF has gotten over her psychotic ways. She is nothing but cheery these days. All she needed was some firm guidance and yours truly was happy to give it to her.

Funny & Not So Funny

Q: What will your kid want to dress up as this Halloween?
A: A superdelegate!

What Shrillary wouldn't give to find a few hundred of them stuffed in her christmas stocking. I'm so tired of the dems bickering amongst each that I'm almost ready for John McCain & 100 more years in Iraq. Rev. Wright this, Bosnia that, Florida & Michigan this and that . . . ENOUGH ALREADY!!! This op-ed on Shrillary's audacity of hopelessness is very apropos.

Saturday MPRE Exam

Got an email today from the MPRE folks that the exam has been cancelled due to inclement weather. 14" of snow is expected by Sat evening. I was planning on taking the bus but they start running at 9am on the weekends which is when the exam was scheduled to start. Would've ended up taking a cab so I'm happy I no longer have to. It's too treacherous to drive that early in the morning. The Columbus snow removal trucks seem to have a policy of sleeping in over the weekends. Now we can all enjoy!

Glad It's Over!

Ended up buying a 40" samsung tv this evening (after my bro-in-law gave it his blessing). I was tired of dithering around & the sale on the tv was ending. So off I went to the store but James, the salesman from yesterday, was nowhere to be found. Instead, the Sales Manager (his name tag said so) came up to me and asked if he could help me with something. So I told him that I came to buy the tv that James had convinced me to buy (had to give him props). To cut a really long story short, here's what I got in addition to the tv:

-free shipping & free home theater installation by Firedog ($199.99 value!)
-$100 voucher
-a Sony surround sound system (yup, I got roped into it). The price on it was $299.99 because it was an open box item. So the Manager asked me what I thought about it & I told him it was great but I wasn't interested. Then he said, "C'mon through out a number." So I said, "$100," thinking there was no way he'd go for it. Then he said, "Done! I'll have the installation guy set it up for you when he installs your tv." Crap. Now why didn't I say "$50?!"

On balance, I think I got a good deal altho' my bank account would really beg to differ. Enjoyed dealing with someone who could make things happen. As for warranty, I didn't get suckered into buying theirs. It's terribly rated. Will probably get one from Square Trade though since LCD technology is fairly new so something's bound to go wrong.

Now why has . . .

John Edwards pulled a Dick Cheney on us? Not a peep from him since his "secret" meeting with Obama a few weeks back. Hmm. At this point does it even really matter? Seems like he was waiting to endorse once there was a clear winner after the Ohio & Texas primaries but Ohioans and Texans had other ideas (edit: Obama technically won Texas because he netted a higher delegate count than Shrillary by kicking a$$ in the caucuses). I suggest he settles further into whatever little hole he's holed up in. It's better that way. The race is getting ridiculous as it is. By the fuzzy math of those drinking the Hillary Clinton Kool-Aid, they are in it to win it. Already talking about the dream ticket - and not with her as the V.P.! Now that's some good sh*t they're sippin' on.

Obama should rethink his strategy though. The kid gloves need to come off - throw a roundhouse punch & knock Hillary in the mouth one time. Stop being such a nice guy. At some point it'll start looking like he doesn't have the mojo to stand up against her and who wants a woose for a President? If she slings mud, right back at'cha!

An aside: Four days a week, my breakfast consists of yoghurt, a slice of bread w/ peanut butter, and half a can of coke. Religiously. Not because I enjoy it but because it's the only thing I can grab & go inside of 1 minute & head on out the door. So I was in Walmart this past weekend & noticed a lady pick a bunch of frozen blueberry pancakes. Figured there were there were some plain ones in the vicinity & grabbed myself a pack. Now: what does my breakfast consist of every morning? Pancakes w/ half a can of coke! They come individually packaged - about 3 in a pack - and they are delish. Only takes a minute to nuke them in the microwave & they're ready to go. Mmm good. In case you're wondering, I only drink half a can of coke because I don't have enough distance between my house & school to guzzle the whole thing down. Too much hustle trying to lag my books & an open can of coke once I get there so it gets left in the cup holder.

Looking for a tv is proving nightmarish. Can't seem to make up my mind. I went into Circuit City knowing exactly what I was going to buy until I got to talking to a sales guy for about 3 hours who ended up convincing me that if I bought a 32" I'd end up bringing it back. Left the store, sans tv, to rethink my battle plan. This was after the Sears guy had me convinced, the previous night, that a 32" would be perfect. To top it all off, these sales guys were super nice so who'll-get-my-sale thoughts have been swirling in my head. Will it be the commissioned Sears one or the non-commissioned Circuit City one? Both stores price match so saying I'll go where the cheaper tv is doesn't cut it. Beats me when this excursion went from simple tv shopping to psych 101! Must be the aspartame in the coke.

Obama Rally

Stood in the freezing cold (wind & snow) for an hour waiting in line before the doors opened so that we could get good seats . . . which we did. There was near hysteria when he came in. Crowd went bananas! He talked a good talk. The line that the crowd loved the most was when he said, "Columbus, there's one thing I know for sure you won't find on the ballot when you go to the polls on Tuesday - you'll not find George W. Bush on the ballot!"

He signed my copy of "Dreams of my Father" altho' it didn't go down as planned. As we were walking in, an Obama staffer approached me & asked if I was trying to get my book signed (it was in plain sight). Duh?! Told me to put my name on it & give it to him so he could take it back for Obama to sign because his secret service wouldn't let it happen if I tried to do it as he was greeting folks. Staffer said he always felt bad when people brought books but couldn't get them signed. He seemed nice enough so I gave it to him.

The level of his secret service is ridiculous. Couldn't even let a brotha shake hands with his supporters before he was whisked away. I was miffed. I had gotten used to the access after Hillary & Michelle. Oh, back to my book. About 30 minutes after the speech, some guy came out with our autographed books. Kind of anti-climatic because I had anticipated getting up close & personal to get it signed but such is life. At least he took the time to sign it.

Here's my crystal ball prediction for the March 4 primaries:
Ohio - Clinton 52% - Obama 48%
Texas - Obama 54% - Clinton 45%
Vermont & Rhode Island - Who cares?!

Patience Pays

We use LexisNexis and Westlaw for legal research. You earn points from using either one which can then be used to buy something from their respective rewards catalog. So anyways, after months of painstakingly trying to get Lexis points, I finally have enough to buy a digital camera! I have a nice film camera so I feel it's a waste of money to buy a digital one. Doing it this way absolves all the guilt. A grand total of 11,446 points. I will be ordering it tomorrow!

Westlaw makes it a pain to get points & their selection of rewards isn't that hot so I just spend them as I get them. Don't have patience to rack them up & buy something substantial. I just ordered a Ralph Lauren tote bag (3500 points). This is my second bag - the first one was a nice Samsonite tote which I use for my books.

Barack Obama rally is this Wednesday morning on campus. Will have to skip my morning classes but who cares?! I have "Dreams from my Father" and my sharpie ready to go.

Bar/Bri MPRE Prep Course

I will be taking the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) in about two weeks so I attended a review course today. I thought we were going to have a live person doing the lecture but it turned out to be taped. It was really good altho' sitting through it for 4 hours was exhausting. I can't imagine what studying for the Bar will be like since we'll be sitting through these lectures 8 hrs a day for many weeks (yay!).

I had a harrowing experience on my way home after the lecture. It had to do with: darkness, the freeway, snow, tires losing traction, oncoming traffic, & a steep embankment. Nuff said.

Nothingness

I've been pleasantly surprised that I do not miss having a tv at all. That's because my new mistress is the internet! I can aimlessly surf the web for hours on end and what's even better, I am catching up with all the shows that I didn't get a chance to watch. Case & point: Lost. I am currently watching Season 1 and I'm about 8 episodes in (out of about 20!). The new season airing is Season 4 so I have alot of catching up to do. It's a great show & I see now what all the hoopla is about. It's really great when you can just watch back to back to back episodes. Cliff hangers suck.

Watched Damages the same way. Only then I had to buy the season from itunes since FX doesn't offer free episodes online (that was over christmas break). It's a great drama & I hope it's picked up for season 2. I'm just glad '24' will not air until Jan '09 now that the writers' strike is over. Hopefully by then I'll have a nice new flat screen ready to go.

Got someone to tuneup my car from Craigslist for $35! Turned out to be this really young kid. I jumped into his truck to go buy parts with him since I figured I could take him down if he turned out to be an ax murderer. He was really nice & seemed to know what he was doing. My car is running like a champ now (knock on wood).

Michelle Obama

was on campus today & yours truly was at it again. She speaks very well & I liked what she had to say. Altho' she had a freudian slip when she said, "We're going to win Iowa - Ohio!" But the crowd laughed it off & she clarified that she meant to say "We're going to win Ohio just like we won Iowa." I got to shake her hand . . . twice! . . . but didn't have anything for her to sign (banners were prohibited). That's two for two on the whole shaking hand thing so I'm thinking I have a good shot with the main event - Barack Obama!

Ruminations from a Hillary Rally!

I just came from a Hillary Clinton rally and loved every minute of it. She stumped at OSU this evening and spoke for about 40 minutes. Here's how it all went down:

My friend calls me up and asks me if I'd like to go hear Hillary speak. We were both half-assed about it because she is a staunch Obama backer & I am indifferent. But I was on campus and the rally venue was not too far off so I was convinced.

Rally was supposed to start at 6pm and we got there at about 5:30pm thinking we'd have a hard time finding a spot to stand. Not so. At the entrance, we were required to write down our personal info on a card which acted like an admission ticket. Handed it to a campaign worker as we got in. They use this info to contact you to volunteer for them so since we were having none of that, we gave them faux info. Then we were handed "Hillary Clinton for President" banners.

Venue was an old indoor arena with a podium set up in the middle. People were just kinda standing around. Lots of camera crew, police with canines, and secret service. Was surprised that we weren't required to go through a metal detector. So anyway, we found a spot where we had a good view of the podium but it was abit far off. It was also along some barriers that had been put up. All the good standing spots had been taken. Clear on the other side, you could tell that's where Hillary was supposed to come in through because the barriers had been decorated.

6pm. People still just sort of trickling in. I'd say there were about 3,000 people which was a much lower turnout than I had expected. It was freezing outside so maybe this had something to do with it (doubt it). A few hype-men came in to try & rally the crowd but the crowd wasn't really responding.

6:45pm. Now we were getting restless. Music was getting old. And people all around us were bashing Obama which added to the restlessness. They kept saying that his speeches were great but they lacked substance?! But at the heart of it all, these folks were left-wing liberals. There was lots of talk about not liking how Obama wants to work with the other side (GOP) to get things done. Screw the GOP was their mantra. We didn't add our $.02 in because we were in hostile territory but how do you expect to get your policies passed without some of the GOP members? Last I checked, the Dems do not have 60 senators - enough to overcome a filibuster. So until such a time, cooperation is the way to get things done. But I digress.

7:15pm. Still no Hillary. So I started looking at the demographics of those who attended. I'd say there were a sprinkle of black people here and there, some asians, but it was mainly an older caucasian crowd. In the 40-55 year range. Considering this was an event held on a campus that has about 52,000 kids, that was pretty interesting.

7:35. The Arrival. Hillary Clinton, Governor Ted Strickland, Senator John Glenn (yes the former astronaut), and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (was left wondering who from Ohio has endorsed Obama). Now take a wild guess on which side of the auditorium they decided to come in through? The side we were on! The side that did not have the decorated barriers! And guess what I got to do?? I GOT TO SHAKE HILLARY CLINTON'S HAND!!!! Ain't that some sh*t?? And my friend who initially was the one who wanted to come to the event wasn't able to because someone jumped in front of her. Boy was she pissed!

Speech was the usual type of stamp speech she usually gives. Crowd was very responsive. Yours truly included. Every time she said something I liked, my banner was up in the air waving from side to side. It was fantastic! She didn't mention Obama by name & didn't really talk about him except to throw a few jabs e.g. "we want specifics not rhetoric." Crowd ate it up. My friend though kept rolling her eyes. It was only when she threw the jabs that my banner didn't go up. Otherwise, my banner was flying high.

After the speech, we lined up again against the barrier hoping she'd exit the same way she came in. Not so lucky. She went around the other way. This time she slowly shook hands, took pictures with folks, and signed banners. I'd already shaken her hand so I didn't care but my friend wanted to see if she could get the chance to. Twenty minutes later & Hillary had barely moved an inch. So we started roaming around.

Long story short. Most everyone at our original position left after seeing Hillary wasn't coming back that way. So we went to stand there just to talk & watch the crowds follow her. Then lo & behold . . . Hillary completely left that side of the room & came right up to where we were - secret service and all!!! The crowds scrambled to get into position but yours truly & friend were front & center. And guess what?? She signed our banners!!! Then she asked us to please make sure we come out and vote for her on March 4th! Fabulosity itself! This banner with her autograph will be framed if she becomes the first female President of the United States. Talk about holding a piece of history in my hands!

I loved the whole experience & can't wait for Obama to come into town. I doubt though I'll get as lucky as I did with Hillary but I can't wait to try.

(I took the pictures below with my camera phone as she was signing my treasured banner!)

Now reading!

Watched Michael Clayton and didn't like it. C+. Big let down since critics had given it raving reviews.

"Yes We Can"

but I now wish we couldn't. Before Super Tuesday, I never thought Obama had any chance of securing the democratic nomination. Yes he had momentum but I thought people would change their minds once they got into the voting booth. However, he won more states than Hillary & the delegate count is pretty close despite her winning California. But even California was much closer than pundits thought it'd be (about a 10 pt spread).

So now that he seems to have a very good shot at becoming the dems nominee, I am now withdrawing my support for him. Why you ask? Because of all the problems that are plaguing this country. Don't get me wrong, I do think he's more than capable of handling them. It's just that as soon as he takes that oath on Jan. 20, 2009, everyone will forget that this mess was caused by W. and will instead start blaming Obama. Here's what the next president will face:

-the Iraq & Afghanistan wars
-the mortgage crisis
-the economy & it's ballooning deficit
-the healthcare crisis
-Immigration
-Congress

Having Obama as president will give me heartburn every time I read an op-ed article criticizing him on how he's handling W's mess. Because my health cannot take it, I say we leave this dirty job to Billary (Bill + Hillary). I will not bat an eyelash if & when she gets skewered in the media. Maybe I'll even relish it. She keeps harping on the fact that she's already been vetted by the republicans well maybe it's time for her to get vetted by the country. When she cleans up W's mess (she better!), then Obama can come in 2016 to pick up where she left off.

It was interesting that in their last debate when asked if they'd consider being on each others ticket, they didn't categorically refuse. I still don't like this idea but if Hillary gets the democratic nomination, she's going to have to find a way to get back the african-american vote. It's not that blacks will vote republican, it's just that they may choose not to vote at all because of the way the Clinton campaign has been going at Obama (he's a big boy & he can take it but not all voters see it that way).

Voter apathy will spell doom for the Dems and since the democratic party has to win at all costs, I'm not completely against a Clinton/Obama ticket. She's already got the latino vote in the bag so a person like Bill Richardson (a latino) will not help her get the black vote. I'd argue for Colin Powell if: he wasn't a republican; was never on W's cabinet; his wife didn't keep talk about him getting shot; and he hadn't gone before the UN to make the case for the Iraq invasion. So Obama it is.

However, if Obama wins the democratic nomination, Hillary should not be on his ticket. I don't see her helping him get elected. That's why Bill Richardson would be a good choice for Obama because he'd appeal to the latino voters & no one can market himself better than Richardson. I still remember what he's done for his state of New Mexico from watching him in the debates.

As for that idiot McCain. In the last GOP debate he was asked, "Senator, what makes you more qualified than Mitt Romney to manage this economy?" So I'm thinking he's going to talk about his stimulus package, what he's done for his state of Arizona, etc. But here's what the ding bat said in part, " Because I know how to lead. I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy and I did it out of patriotism. I have the vision and the knowledge to take on the biggest issue of the 21st century - radical islamic extremism. So the fact is, I have the qualifications and the judgment to handle our economy." Umm, what does radical islamic extremism have to do with the economy??? That's why I'm down for having Obama on Clinton's ticket if that's what it's going to take to ensure that a war-mongerer like McCain doesn't get his hands on the presidency. I'm sure his agenda for the first 100 days in office would contain just one thing: Annihilate Iran! No thanks. Clinton/Obama '08.

On a sad note, my television died on me last night! The picture became blurry in a very wierd way & a minute later, it made a popping sound & that was the last I heard from it. So I had my cable disconnected today because I can't afford to buy a tv anytime soon. Should be an interesting (read: miserable) few months. But such is the life of a student.

Randomness

I was in Kroger this evening & noticed there was a ticketmaster. So I asked the lady at the counter whether Lion King tickets had gone on sale (show coming this summer/fall). She proceeded to tell me that all the tickets for Fridays & Saturday were already sold out. Look, I've been around the block on this ticket thing so I knew she had to be mistaken.

Fastforward to ticketmaster's website. Sure enough, tickets hadn't even gone on sale to the public - will start Feb. 14. But there was a carrot ... if you had a promotion code, you could buy them immediately. What the heck is a promotion code? Ask google. Shortly & fast I was armed with the required promotion code.

Swoosh. Sound of my credit card being swiped for . . . drumroll please . . . 6 tickets!!!!! Two for myself and the rest for the lovely, gullible people of Columbus. Figured that between now & August, I would be able to ofload these tickets for at least double what I bought them for. Brilliant. Pay off my credit card & have some popcorn money! Talk about fiscal responsibility - spending money to make money.

Long live scalpers!

Super Bowl Perfection!

Giants over Patriots 17-14! Never thought I'd see the New England Patriots get beat if they made it to the big dance. This is the only superbowl that I've watched every minute of & was this close to switching channels when the Patriots scored a touchdown with 2:40 left in the game, which pulled them ahead 14-10. But I man'd up & watched it through the final harrowing minutes & it all paid off when Eli connected with Plaxico for the game winning touchdown! Couldn't have scripted this better. Go Giants!

The ads tonight - YAWN.

Tentative plans . . .

have been made for gainful employment this summer. Tentative because my offer for employment is conditioned upon passing an FBI background check, a financial check, and a check on my tax filing history. WTF?! Somebody's taking this way too seriously. Went down to get my fingerprints taken today & they said someone will notify me when my file is "complete." So technically, I could be out of a job without having ever worked a second of it.

The democratic debate tonight was great. Line of the night was when Obama told Clinton, "not only do you need to be READY on day one, you need to be RIGHT on day one!" He was referring to her vote to authorize the war in Iraq & used her mantra to knock her over the head with. Loved it. I am completely on the Obama band wagon!

Nothingness

My electric heater arrived today. Talk about fast shipping. It was free too. Came fully assembled so all I had to do was fire it up. It's warmed up my living room nicely & it's completely silent. The air doesn't dry up either since it uses oil. Will wait to give it two thumbs up after the electric bill comes in.

Got called on in two of my classes today. After you're done with the first year, teaching socratically should be outlawed. I'm sure I've ranted about this before so I won't rehash it. In one of my classes, the prof requires the back 4 rows to be empty. And there're 80 students in this class! Doesn't make any kind of sense being packed like sardines. The prof says the energy of the class is much better when we're seated so close. What?! I can just see the pillow talk at night, "Honey, guess what I had my subjects do today..."

I found a $3 car wash today. The kind where you drive your car through. There's an attendant who inserts the money for you into the machine & then another one who guides your car into the slot that rolls your tires forward. And then they have free vacuuming. Love it. But it's too cold to be vacuuming so . . .

My last day on the job was last Friday. Won't be looking for alternative gainful employment this semester. I have too many papers to write & classes to study for (read: need time to sleep). If I get too broke I'll look for some menial job at the school that doesn't require me to do any type of thinking.

Gas bill . . .

this month was a whopping $220! Yikes. The utility company reads the meter every other month. So last month, my bill was $40. But after they came out & read the meter a few days ago, this was the rude surprise I got. Either my apartment was unoccupied all of last year or the tenant did not turn on the heat - the usage for the entire last year was ridiculously low which is why I get a low bill every other month (estimated reading). So I have ordered a space heater off of Amazon. This better not result in a big jump on my electric bill.

How lazy have I become? So lazy that the only thing I go to the stores to buy is groceries. Everything else I order online. The convenience of shopping with the click of a mouse has become addictive. I blame it on the cold weather. Speaking of which, the high today is 7F. Just lovely.

One year from today, a Democrat will be inaugurated into office! Who that will be is still up in the air. The more I listen to Hillary though, the more I dislike her. This began when she talked about the president needed to be someone who could handle a terrorist attack from jump just like the British PM had to when there was some terrorist activity in his country soon after he took office. Sounds like W.'s politics of terror to me. Scaring Americans into voting for her smacks of shadiness. But whatever. So long as it's not Mitt Romney taking that oath one year from today, may the best guy or gal win.

Story of the Day

Its always upsetting when I see news stories where parents kill their kids for some random reason. So today, there was a story in the Houston Chronicle about a mother who dropped her 2 kids at the fire station and drove off. They had pissed her off & she'd had enough. While they were too old to be covered by Baby Moses' law, the mom won't be charged with any crime. And yes, she did finally go back to get them after she'd cooled off but CPS was eagerly awaiting. The kids though reportedly had a grand time at the fire station.

Now I just wish other parents would do the same instead of having to do this and this and this. Each of these parents should have a one-way ticket to life in prison. Forget due process . . . just throw them in the slammer & call it a day.

It's 5 am & I'm still up writing my Note draft that's due this Monday. When I picked my topic, I thought it was amazing. But now, not so much. There is just no research out there & there's no way to change your topic once the editors assign it to you (we had to write 3 topics & they chose 1 out of those three). So I need to figure something out very fast because the Mon 5pm deadline is looming very large. What's at stake you ask? 2 credits - which are only given to you if you meet the good faith effort, as is yet once again determined by the editors . . . but I digress.

I'm baaack...

back to school that is. I have 5 classes this semester:

International Human Rights
Evidence
Criminal Procedure
Professional Responsibility
Civil Procedure II

I also gave a 2 week notice to my job (by email no less). I'm quitting! Don't have the energy to juggle school, work, & journal this semester so something had to give. But my leaving was really precipitated by the hiring of a new boss lady who is starting to crack the whip. It was very laid back last semester but it's starting to feel like a real job now. So, hasta la vista.

The Human Rights prof is turning out to be the most boring person I've ever had the misery of listenening to, but the subject matter is interesting & he doesn't call on folks so I'll hang in there. The rest of the profs are fabulous!

Buckeyes lost again! I mean, how many chances can a team be given?

Until Next Year...

Done!

My final exam was a 24 hr take home which I began yesterday at 10am & got done this morning at 7am. Only 3 questions but it took me forever to knock them out. Off to bed!

Business Associations Exam

Part I: 65 minutes. 25 multiple choice questions. Tested how fast you could flip through the statute book to find the answer within the alloted time.

Part II. 70 minutes. Essay. 3 page fact pattern about a board of directors that was involved in a shady deal. Some shareholders wanted to bring suit because the value of their stock was going down. Discuss what claims, if any, they could bring against the Board.

Part III. 5o minutes. Essay. Horrendous!

The weather over the past few days has been something else. Thursday was in the 60s. Friday night into Saturday we got about 6" of snow which wasn't too bad. Ventured out to Starbucks and there was practically no one on the roads. Saturday night it rained like only Noah can relate to. Today the winds were gusting at 35-45m/h & the high was frigid 31F. Just lovely.

But even worse than the weather are the local t.v. weather forecasters in Columbus. Last I checked, this is the Midwest. Snow & freezing rain is just what happens around here. So why do they feel it necessary to keep cutting into regular programming to give updates on the extra inch of snow that has fallen?! Very aggravating.

Employment Discrimination Exam

3 questions. Essay. 3.5hrs.

Q.1. 90 minutes. Guy had bipolar disease which had been misdiagnosed as clinical depression. He was a technician that fixed a computers in peoples homes. He had a manic episode & ended up erasing the hard drive of the customer because he thought they were involved in terrorist shananigans. He was fired & now wants his old job back after he was correctly diagnosed as having bipolar. Company he used to work for seeks your advice on whether or not to rehire him.

Q.2. 45 minutes. Television station is implementing a grooming policy where all males are required to shave their beard & females must wear makeup before they can anchor a show. It's concerned about losing its customers. George is a black male anchor with a skin condition that causes the skin to get infected if the beard is shaved off. Condition affects 60% of african american males. Andrea is a 45 year old female anchor who hates wearing makeup because she believes it stereotypes women & better yet, she's allergic to cheap makeup. She breaks out in hives. This allergy is found in 10% of the women. Both will be demoted to reporters in two weeks if they don't get with the program. George & Andrea have come for your advice on how to proceed.

Q.3. 45 minutes. Female workers complain to their supervisor that they don't think it's in the christmas spirit when their male counterparts say "ho ho ho." Supervisor goes to his supervisor & reports to him what the females are saying. Tells his boss that they have a potential claim of sexual harassment if the males don't stop with the ho ho ho business. Next thing you know, the supervisor to the females doesn't receive a christmas bonus, receives a poor job evaluation, and doesn't get a raise the next year. Supervisor comes to you for advice.

Last day of classes

was today. Yay! But now it's time to hunker down for exams which start next week. I decided to continue with my current job next semester since I really enjoy it & I'm learning an awful lot. It was dicey there for a while since they require a minimum of eight hours & I had to find a way to tweak my schedule for next semester to try & fit these many hours in two chunks. But worked it out.

What are the chances of getting the soles of your boots come off as you trudge in the snow on the same day & at the same time?! 1 in 1 trillion. But that's what happened to me this evening. I'm leaving work headed to my car, which is quite a hike, & then I feel like something's dragging the bottom of my shoe. Look down & sure enough, the soles of BOTH my shoes are hanging on by a thread of glue. Keep in mind there's 5" of fresh snow on the ground so these soles have no choice but to make it to my car. So at this point, picture me walking like I have skis on (dragging my feet without lifting them off the ground). Swish swash. But my shoes were having none of that. With about a block to go, both soles came off!! $#&%. Lucky for me though the 'casing' of the shoes was leather & it wrapped around all the way around the bottom so my socks didn't end up getting soaked. Didn't feel like it though. Felt like I was trudging through the snow barefeet.

Go Bucks! The LSU Tigers await an a$$ whoopin' come Jan. 7!

1/2 Price Books

After 3 semesters of spending more than $1500 on textbooks, I began searching for a way to get brand new books for a cheaper price. I don't buy used books because I get very distracted having to grapple with someone else's writings or highlighting. Amazon & half.com have great prices on used books but a brand new book costs the same wherever you buy it from. Or so I thought.

So after registering for classes for Winter '08, I noticed that the booklist was already posted for all my classes. Off I went to amazon to see how much the books would cost me so I could be mentally prepared come January. Ended up finding all my books (brand new) for half the price!!! I have 6 classes next semester & ended up spending a whoppin' $200 for all of them. How super is that? I guess the key was buying books early instead of waiting for the after-new-year-rush when everyone is looking to buy books online.

Not so rockin'

Remember how I thought my appellate brief rocked & that it would save me from my dismal oral argument, well my adjunct just emailed us our briefs back with his comments & he skewered me yet again! He thought my analysis was conclusory and shallow. Wah! I give up. Seems I cannot win with this guy so let's keep it moving.

I truly enjoy my Gender & the Law class but for some reason I am unable to think critically on issues that the prof raises. This is like an undergraduate class where there's lots of theory & you just put your 'regular' thinking cap on to analyse feminists' take on different issues. Sounds easy enough but for me it's been a struggle. I much rather rules-based classes (most law classes are) where all I do is apply the rules to the matter at hand. Thank goodness it's a take-home exam. I'll need all the time I can get to get over my inability to think like I used to in undergrad. And here I was thinking I was getting smarter. Not so sure anymore.

5000 Calories

is the average number of calories that a person consumes over Thanksgiving. That would be me. I had a few friends over yesterday & we had a potluck thanksgiving so there was lots of good food, dessert, & wine. Dinner was about 6pm & from there we just relaxed & had a good ol' time. Since we were still up & chatting at 6am this morning, we decided to brave the crowds & hit the mall. The mall turned out to be rather empty which was surprising but appreciated. Mostly just browsed but we did buy a few things though I think the bargains will get better as christmas draws closer.

Plug for McDonalds: Their coffee is fantastic!

Week in Review

Went to church this morning with some friends. The singing was fab & so was the sermon. The parking though was autrocious but the church activities more than made up for it.

I had an interview this past Friday. My last interviewer was a total cynic. His boss was supposed to be the original interviewer but he had other things to do so he had this guy do it. He turned out to be the most interesting of all the people I interviewed with. It started out somewhat shaky since he had these 5 cookie cutter questions the office had given him to ask, "well let's get this crap out of the way & then we can start the real interview..." After that, we had about a 30 minute conversation on what we'd both done in the past. He'd been practicing law for about 30 years so he had alot of war stories to tell.

My oral argument for my appellate advocacy class was rough. We had 3 judges including my adjunct, who does appellate work in employment law & this was what my case was about. So anytime I answered a question, he'd have a ton of followup questions which I didn't seem to answer to his satisfaction, "...Counsel are you telling this Court that..." The rest of the judges just sat there & let him have at it. My opponent wasn't given as hard a time which I thought was unfair on very many levels. This oral part is 20% of the grade & the brief 80%. I thought my brief rocked so hopefully it'll save the day.

Go Bucks!

Rose Bowl here we come!

Update: Who needs the Rose Bowl when you can get the BCS Title game?!

No School Tomorrow....

thanks to Veterans Day. Got lots done around the house today. I took down some old vertical blinds in the kitchen & put up some drapes. Drapes in the kitchen you ask? Yup. They give the kitchen a very nice country feel to it. Then I went down to the basement & got out my christmas decorations. I usually put them up after Thanksgiving, but since I had all this time on my hands, I figured why the hell not. So got that done & everything looks lovely. Let's hope tomorrow will be just as productive to make up for all the non-studying today.

Ho Hum

This is straight off the Democratic Candidates Debate. Hillary Clinton gets on my nerves royally! She can't give a straight answer if her life depended on it. I love Dennis Kucinich & Joe Biden. Kucinich believes in UFO's & he cops to that. Ask Sen. Biden what he'd do with the toys coming from China & he says "as President I'll shut them down, all of them." No double talk just telling it how they see it. Seems straight answers only come from those who have no shot at winning.

Ask Hillary if the sky is blue & she'll answer "it depends." JUST ANSWER THE DOGGONE QUESTIONS! Enough politics already. Let us know where you stand instead of worrying about how the republicans will use your answers today to attack you tomorrow.

Goat Political Move of the Week

New York has passed a law that will give illegal immigrants drivers' licenses. This is all fine and dandy except that these licenses will be clearly marked to show that they are not valid federal IDs. In other words, everyone they show that D.L. to will know that they are illegal immigrants! This is where New Yorkers hard earned tax dollars are going towards: paying these politicians to pass idiotic laws that further put illegal immigrants in the cross-hairs of the police department ergo the BCIS. I think it'd be even more idiotic if an illegal immigrant went and got one of these driver's license. They can't show these when applying for a job because the employer will know they aren't authorized to work & if they get pulled over they can't show this license because the police will haul them to the nearest detention center faster than they can say hasta la vista. Way I see it, this is a conspiracy to get these folks out of the shadows & back to their countries. Literally.

Vigilant Neighbors

Friday morning, about 3am, I was at home watching episodes of Bionic Woman on the web. Then I heard a crashing sound. Wasn't very loud, just loud enough for me to turn off all the lights, run upstairs & look out the window to see if my car was getting broken into. No way I'd have heard it was I asleep. Anywayz, turns out I was looking out the wrong side of the house. I noticed a swirl of lights filtering in through my drapes on the front end of my house. So I ran to the window, peeked out & noticed about 3 police cars. So I threw on a jacket & went outside to see what was going on.

Guess who was standing outside?! The ENTIRE neighborhood!! Don't these people have jobs to go to in the morning?! Turns out a drunk driver flipped his car & that was the crashing noise I heard. But I guess my neighbors are a little more proactive than I am. Me, I carefully assess the situation....from a distance....& then proceed with caution. Them, they jump into the fray & damn the consequences. Turns out as soon as they heard the noise, they went outside to help the drunken driver get out of his flipped car & called the police. Makes me all warm & fuzzy knowing that my neighbors don't sleep at night. Neighborhood Watch at its finest.

Update: Jim the appliance guy came out yesterday & fixed my washer. Turns out it was the door sensor and not the timer. Jim wanted to make sure that it was the timer before he went out & got one so he tested everything else he could think of & sure enough, the door sensor turned out to be the culprit. It ended up costing about $100 less than it would've cost had it been the timer. Gotta love Jim & craigslist.

Bitching & Moaning!

All things water are going wrong in my life right now. Sunday I loaded up my washer & went on about my business. Came back to put the laundry in the dryer & found my clothes still swimming in water. Fished them out hoping this would fix the drainage problem but that didn't help. So I went to craigslist & found Jim the appliance guy. Jim comes out to my place today (I've been lucky no one from craigslist has turned out to be an ax murderer) & diagnoses the problem to be a bad timer. Long story short, $150 for the timer + $50 for labor. Jim says to get back to him in the morning with a decision on whether he's going to be installing the new timer or whether I'll be ditching my washer & getting another one (used of course). Hmm.

School has become a mo fo. Journal stuff is due this coming Monday. I'll be spending my whole weekend (night & day) in the library poring over the most boring article I've ever read. Then an outline of my student note is due in a couple of weeks. I haven't began doing any type of research for that but I'm sure I can whip up something the night before. Unlike most of my fellow journal staff members, I am not trying to get published (but would be totally stoked if they picked my article for publishing). I'm just going to make a good faith effort to get the darn thing done so I don't get thrown off the Journal.

Then I'll be spending all of next week on my Appellate Advocacy brief that's due Nov. 3. I would have called in work this week & next if I didn't have my car & washer falling apart on me. Then we have to make oral arguments, in front of a panel of judges, after turning in the brief, the week of Nov. 6. We had practice arguments this week, with 3L's acting as judges. I thought I killed my opponent & happily surprised myself that I wasn't nervous at all. Let's hope that carries over for my real argument. Classes have kinda sorta taken a back seat since I have all this other stuff to get done. I read as much as I can over the weekend & what I can't get to...oh well. I'm thinking about dressing up as "Sleeping Beauty" for halloween. It falls on Wed next week so maybe I can sleep through all my classes. Think my professors will get it?

Then the weather is not helping out. It's been pouring for the past 3 days. Gloomy nasty weather. Can't wait for thanksgiving break. To give thanks & to catch some zzzzzzz!

Nothingness

Remember my quandry about getting the washers of my car working, well after some soul-searching, I decided to go with Tuffy. I took my car there for an oil change about a month ago (I had a great coupon) & loved the manager of the shop. Fast forward to today. They took my car back & after about 20 minutes, here goes the Manager: "Come on back & I'll show you what we're dealing with."

Turns out the mechanic I had originally taken my car to to try & figure out the washer problem, had cut the airbag wires & connected them to the wires running to the washers & I was lucky that the airbags hadn't deployed while I was driving. So Tuffy had to fix that mess before they could begin trying to figure out why the washers weren't working. What did this mean? $$$. So I gave them the go-ahead but only to fix the wiring problem. An hour later, the manager came back & I'm like oh snap here we go again. "Well I don't know how to explain this but my guy rewired your car back to how it should be & guess what, your washers are working! I can't explain how that happened but it did." So $135 later, my car is wired up properly & the washers are back in business. Good times.

I'm really enjoying my new job. My work mates are great & the one person I truly disliked quit last week. Doesn't get better than that. And the work is great too. It's fairly busy but when we have downtime, we can do our school work or surf the web. Not to mention we don't have to dress up. Like McDonald's I'm lovin' it.

Stephen Colbert will be on Meet the Press this Sunday. You have to catch that. It's bound to be hilarious now that he's in the running for the Presidency.

Public Service Announcement

Click here to see if your wireless phone service qualifies for a discount, either through your employer or through your school. I am an existing AT&T wireless subscriber & still got a 20% monthly discount through my school. Definitely worth checking into. Enjoy!

Fall Break

Yipee! School is out until Oct 15.

Quandry

My car's washer fluid is not coming out when I pull the lever to clean the windshield. So I went to a nearby mechanic at the local gas station (yeah I know....what was I thinking) & he told me he thought he knew what the problem was. $95 dollars & 4 hours later, he couldn't find the problem since he ran out of time but told me to bring the car back. So I asked the question that begged to be asked, " . . . are you going to charge me for additional labor to continue trying to figure out the problem?" Yup. Now what's a girl to do? Do I cut my losses & go to the dealer; do I ignore the problem since it doesn't affect the running of my car; or do I take it back to Dufus the mechanic since he said he was close to isolating the problem? Hmmm.

Call-Back Interview

Yesterday: It was about a 3 hour drive to where I was interviewing. Got to the hotel the firm put me up at & it was fabulous. Just lovely. The recruitment coordinator even got me a goodie bag full of little knick knacks about the city that I found sitting in the hotel room. Then had dinner with two attorneys & it was surprisingly nice after which they took me on a brief tour of the city.

Today: Interviewed with 10 attorneys in half hour intervals. I guess it was payback for the really nice hotel room they put me up in. They got their money back in spades. I would be surprised if I got an offer from this firm since the question I got asked constantly is why I was interested in the city. I got the feeling my answer was a little too flimsy for their taste. Firms want the 2L's for the most part to come back & work for them permanently after they graduate. They don't want to pay them beaucoup d'argent for the summer to never see them again. That would be me. The city was nice but I can't see myself there beyond one summer.

Why A's Continue to Elude Me

Bourne Ultimatum: Loved it. Highly recommend but you have to catch it at the theatres to get the full effect of all the non-stop action. It's too bad that's the end of the Bourne trilogy. Finally got to watch "The Lookout" which was good but it didn't quite live up to the hype.

Newport Harbor: Another MTV reality show. Had never seen it before until last Sat when I caught a marathon of past episodes. Good thing the season is just about over because I'm hooked.

Kid Nation: The CBS reality show about kids living unsupervised in the middle of nowhere premiered today. It was interesting to see how much more rational & thoughtful kids are compared to grown-ups. Not must-see tv but catch it if you can. We can all learn a few lessons from these little tykes.

Next Week: Fall season line-up begins! I caught a few episodes of Criminal Minds this summer & does that show take the cake for having the most realistic creeps or what?! Love the story lines but I watch all the murder scenes with my eyes closed. Way to vivid for my taste. But I'm afraid I have to add it to my ever-growing list of must-see tv which is (in no particular order):

-24
-House
-Criminal Minds
-Grey's Anatomy (might boycott since Preston Burke is no more but I've yet to decide)
-All the new dramas - have to watch them at least once. Hopefully I'll hate them all so I can have time to study.

Small Legal World

So I'm riding in the elevator in school today with this girl & we begin to chat. She tells me she's glad her classes are over for the week but she's bummed out that she has to work Thu & Fri. Here's our conversation:

Me: So where do you work?
Her: At XYZ.
Me: What?! (my big mouth continues) I had applied to work there & received an offer but I called & quit on my starting day.
Her: (with her eyes wide open) You must be ...... (insert my name here)!!! They had sent us all these emails about you starting, & to be nice to you, & to show you the ropes, & then they sent us an email saying were no longer coming.
Me: (thinking...why did I have to open my big mouth) OMG...I feel so bad. I didn't know they had made such a big deal about it.
Her: Oh yeah they did....it's a very formal work environment & be glad you quit. The industry is very complicated so the research is very hard & everyone is so proper that you cannot do anything without having to fill out forms, sending out emails..... (she's been working there since May).
Me: .....(we continued to gossip about the place). It's a small legal world indeed.

I digress: I received a call for a call-back interview scheduled for next week! Woo hoo! This is a firm I interviewed with at one of the job fairs I attended. Will share all the gory details after the fact.

6 Years Later....

71,720-78,296 Iraqi Civilians Killed

27,767 American Troops Injured

3,774 American Troops Killed

298 Coalition Troops Killed

2,974 Killed on 9/11

OBL...Still at Large

Raw Deal

As we enjoy the game of football every Sunday, let's not forget what a violent sport this is. Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills will probably never walk again after receiving a catastrophic neck injury due to a head-on collision with another player yesterday. Even though these men assume the risk that comes with playing this sport, it's still saddening when an event such as this happens. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

Things Annoying Me Today

1. Why did Dell install Adobe Reader 7 on my desktop knowing that it did not support Vista? I've been trying to open pdf files for the past two weeks unsuccessfully & it wasn't until I pulled up Adobe on wiki when I found out what the problem was. Had to download Adobe 8 which only took a few minutes but it's the fact that Dell knew (I know they did) but still installed an incompatible version. I'll be shooting them an email of disgust shortly.

2. Why is it that my lights go off or flicker every hour on the hour when it rains? I love my new place but this is driving me nuts!! When I went outside to investigate, I noticed that the power lines sag & seem lower to the ground than they are supposed to be. Why not call the electric company to come fix the problem, you ask? Well, the lights do not stay out long enough for me to call them so until that happens, I'm stuck resetting my radio, stove, & microwave clocks as well as rebooting the cable box everytime it rains. Ugh.

3. Why is it I cannot seem to get going on my appellate brief? A draft is due this Wednesday but it's proving tougher than I thought it would. My group has been given a case that is pending before the Supreme Court. We are to write a brief supporting the petitioner's side, Fedex, which was sued in 2002 by plaintiffs alleging the company was discriminating against them on the basis of age, in violation of the ADEA. The 2nd Circuit Ct of Appeals ruled against them & we are appealing to the Supreme Court to resolve the key issue in this case - whether an "intake questionnaire" (i.q.) suffices as a formal charge of discrimination. I got the raw deal on this one because I have to write a brief supporting Fedex which is arguing that the i.q. does not suffice as a formal charge. I think it does but what do I know?! It's going to be a long week.

On a happier note: Disney on Broadway's "The Lion King" is making a stop right here in Columbus! Finally. So when will Mufasa grace us with his presence: Aug 28-Sep 28, 2008!!!! WTF?!

A couple of years ago, my cousin was killed by a drunk driver who jumped a light at a crossroad. Since then, on Labor Day weekend, the whole family has been getting together for family reunions to celebrate life. So this weekend, I was in Indiana & had a great time. I missed the last reunion & hadn't seen folks for a while so it was great to see them all again. For some reason, there were no crowds at the airport which was surprising. On my way there, I got to the airport a couple of hours early thinking there were going to be massive lines at the security checkpoint but there was hardly anyone. I guess people hit the road this time around.

I've been trying for the past 3 weeks or so to get a copy of "The Lookout" from Blockbuster but my efforts have proven futile. They only have about 6 copies & it seems to be the most popular movie in stock. Even the guys that work there do not understand why such a good movie (from reviews) would have such few copies in stock. I check in about twice a week but so far, nothing. I will try again tomorrow at 2 different locations & if I don't get lucky, then I'll wait for about a month & see if I can get it then.

I start my new job next week & it should be interesting. I actually get to interact with "clients" (who are really just OSU students) & follow their cases through to the end like a "true" lawyer would which is very different from a firm where all you get to do is research for clients whom for the most part you never get to see.

The NFL kicks off the new season tomorrow! My crystal ball predicts a Super Bowl showdown between Chicago Bears v. San Diego Chargers. You heard it here first!!!

I quit...

my work study job before it even began! It was going to be too much of a hassle to dress up & catch the bus to downtown 3 times a week & earn a measly paycheck from the gov't. So bright & early Wed morning, I called one of the attorney's & told them I quit. They were very nice about it but I'm sure they were seething on the inside. Whatever. All I wanted was for them to pay for my parking & allow me to wear jeans to work. But since they weren't having that, hasta la vista baby!

So the search continues. I interviewed this morning for another job but this one's going to be on-campus. Jeans are allowed & it's within walking distance. Now that's more like it.

This & That

My favorite new single is "Be with you" by Elisabeth Withers.

I accepted the work-study offer. I had to fax them an acceptance letter which is just adding to my level of incredulity on how seriously these folks are taking all of this. I was thinking about shooting them a quick email but they called me this past Friday asking me if I'd made a decision (yet their offer letter stated I had until Monday to decide!). So I said I was fixing to accept & that's when they told me to fax them a letter stating so. Seriously. They said it was so they could begin setting up my office....mmhh....I have a sneaky suspicion that they have difficulty getting/retaining law clerks for some reason which I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.

I got another paycheck from my summer job this past Friday!!! Based on my calculations, they had paid me in full a couple of weeks ago but I guess I was wrong. I officially forgave them for not making me an offer to come back next summer.

Update: Today, I got a call from my summer job's Accounting department telling me they had mistakenly put money into my account & that they were going to reverse the deposit. sob sob sob.

I was in Kentucky this weekend. It's only a couple of hours away so my friend agreed to drive us there. Had a good time & got back just in time to get caught up in a tornado. Long story short....made it out in one piece. The weather lately has been crazy: flooding, intense heat, & more flooding.

Can the boys on MTV's Making the Band 4 sing or what! The ballad version of their single "Exclusive" was amazing. It aired on the live season finale.

As previously mentioned, I signed up for a Federal Income Tax class & it was quite the experience. The prof was terrible....he would talk & then loose his train of thought....look around the class as if he expected us to jog his memory & then picked up where he left off. Then when he was looking for statutes in the case book, "....uhh....where is that statute?....I know it's around here somewhere....uhh....oh there it is. Now what was I saying....?" Putting up with that for 14 weeks was not gonna happen. Dropped it like a very hot potato. So here are some of the classes I'll be taking: Gender and the Law, Business Associations, Appellate Advocacy.

The Gender & the Law prof is so passionate about the stuff she's talking about it's almost like having a baptist minister at the pulpit. Love it. For App. Ad. we get to write a brief and then argue it in front of a panel of judges, profs, or upper class students. Everyone says it's the most time consuming class ever but it's mandatory so I'll just have to deal. The work study interview went fine. I'm sick & tired of interviewing so for now I'm done. Oh wait....I'll be out of town for a job fair this weekend. Let me rephrase: after this weekend, I am done interviewing. Now that I think about it, doing nothing next summer is sounding more & more appealing. Bumming. Has a nice ring to it don't you think?!

In the midst of all this, I managed to watch "The Shooter." Thoroughly enjoyed it. I found this $5 blockbuster gift card when I was unpacking things into my new apartment. So off I went to Blockbuster & at checkout....bam....I broke out the gift card. Turned out it only had a $.68 balance! I guess I had used it before & since the balance was so little, I had discarded it...but not in the trash. Knew it was too good to be true.

Update: I got an offer from my work study interview. I have until 8/28 to accept or decline it.

Nothingness

School is back in session this Monday. I had to shell out $540 for books today which is rather depressing. I'm still having a hard time trying to decide what classes to take. I want to take Fed Taxation but tax is the most BORING & convoluted topic there is but I remember practically all my projects this summer had some form of tax issue. And since I want to do transactional work, I need to have a clue about tax matters. Then I'd like to take Employment Discrimination but it's offered at the same time as the Tax class so it's going to have to be one or the other. Then I want to take a class which has a take home exam which is proving to be a rather difficult task trying to decipher what type of exam each class has.

I got awarded federal work study money so I have to find a job for the 2007-2008 school year. To that end, I am interviewing this coming week for a job with a state government agency. The contact lady told me that I'll be interviewing with 3 attorneys for about an hour and a half! That's a little excessive. I don't plan on working for more than 10 hours/week & will probably make about $100/week. The job is not that serious!! But I'll humor them.....hit them with my Big Law interview skills & all.

The Windy City

was fab. My cabbie was a great tour guide since it was about a 15 mile ride to where I was going. Pointed out all the sites & sounds & even gave me his cell phone number for the next time I was in town so he could take me around....now that was a little creepy. The interviews went well but more so met alot of really nice people. In one of my interviews, all we spoke about was the Michael Vick dog-fighting situation and whether he should be going to jail or not. Didn't know what to make of that.

I flew Southwest Airlines for the first time & wasn't impressed. Their terminals are so tiny and their gates so close together, it seems like people are standing on top of each other. Not to mention the whole unassigned sitting thing. Wild wild mid-west. Then my flight was cancelled in the morning & trying to get on the next flight took standing in line for a couple of hours. On my return flight, they refused to let me on an earlier flight, even though there were plenty of empty seats, without paying a $60 upgrade fee. It's too bad they have the cheapest ticket prices to Chicago so I'll just have to deal.

756...

I've been following the Barry Bonds home run chase since he hit 754 by watching all the Giants games hoping to see history happen. That was before I moved to my new diggs on Saturday and Time Warner Cable decided their guys couldn't come out before Wed. And sure enough, Barry hit #755 on Sun & #756 on Tue. Ugh!

On to even more devastating news. The firm I worked for this summer has declined to make me an offer to come back next summer. Wah....cry me a river. Something to do with the attorneys felt they didn't get to know me well enough. Nothing I can do about it but I left the partner who called me a very nice voicemail thanking the firm for affording me such an amazing opportunity. The legal world is a very small community so I figured there was no need to go postal. Funny story: my interviewer today worked at my firm for a few years before she quit last year & joined a competitor firm. She didn't sling any mud but she made it clear how much nicer her new firm was. Ha.

Journal orientation was horrendous. The editor-in-chief is an arrogant S.O.B. who spoke to us like we were 5th graders. Why I signed up for this mess is beyond me. Here's the assignment: we all got articles written by professors or students that have been chosen for publication. Each article has about 50-90 footnotes and our job is to get a HARD COPY of every journal, newspaper, book, etc, that has been cited in the footnotes and making sure they have cited accurately and conform to bluebook rules. Traipsing through libraries in Columbus searching for these articles is not not what I had in mind when I signed up to join a journal.

On to better news. My new computer came & it is stupendous (if that's a word). I absolutely love it. Installation was pretty simple & it seems like all my software is compatible with Vista so that's a plus. The cable guys came out today and got the internet up & running so I cannot wait to test out the system.

Dell Purchase

Ordered a new desktop today. J, my technical advisor, is probably thoroughly disgusted wherever she is, because it's unfathomable to her that someone would buy a desktop in 2007. I heard her but I'm a firm believer that desktops have a very long shelf-life compared to their laptop counterparts. Take my current - almost obsolete - desktop. Had it for about 7 years (originally it had Windows ME before installing a bootleg version of XP) & it's still going strong. Then take my 15-month old laptop that had all 4 USB ports go out a few months ago for no apparent reason. Not hardy at all. We all need a trustworthy companion & my desktop is it for me. What's great about this one is that it's going to have a wireless network card so I won't have to run cable wires into my study room. Hook up the modem & the desktop should be able to connect to the internet from anywhere in the house. Love it!

Aug & Sep is when we job hunt for next Summer. Just found out that I'll receive 6 on-campus interviews (OCI). Here's how the process works in a nutshell: All the participating firms are listed on one website so you upload your resume, cover-letter, transcripts, and writing sample & apply to whatever firms you want & then those firms select those they want to interview. While it's great I got the interviews, only about 15% of the people get jobs through OCI so while technically, though unlikely, I could be part of the 15%, I'm just looking at this as an opportunity to polish up my interview skills. Then I'm going to Chicago for a job fair sometime in Aug where I have some more interviews scheduled. I've only applied to big firms thus far (since they have early recruiting dates) so I still have to target the small to medium sized firms & government jobs. It's going to be a long 2-3 months.

S.C.O.O.

Today I filed my first petition with the Supreme Court of Ohio. One of the attorney's sent an email asking if someone had an extra hour to do a project. I responded & it turned out it was to file the petition with the court which was about a 15 minute brisk walk away. After going through an x-ray machine, the security guard scanned my ID, laminated a copy & had me wear it on my lapel. Thought it was a little much but..... The building though was absolutely magnificent. Mostly marble with a Greek type of interior decor.

Journal & Other News

Remember my post about Journals at Moritz, well, I'm going to be on the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution! I am totally stoked about this although I have to be back in school Aug 5 for orientation & 2 weeks of journal assignments.

I signed my new lease today. The landlord will be out of town for the next couple of weeks so he had me sign the lease & get the keys today even though I'm not going to be moving in until Aug. I'm going to love having a washer & dryer since hauling laundry in the middle of winter is no joke. The landlord was nice enough to spray the basement to prevent critters from setting up shop. Since I had mentioned to him my fear of creepy crawly animals, I guess he figured he'd better take care of it now instead of waiting to get frantic calls from your truly.

3 Weeks & Counting....

down till my summer job comes to an end. I'm actually liking it much more than I did at the beginning so I'm not really looking forward to going back to school. But the remaining weeks will be hectic since I bit off more than I could chew. This is how it works: When we (summer clerks) get low on projects to do, we either walk around the office with a legal pad & pen asking attorneys for work to do or send them emails. Response is better if you walk around but lazy ol' me decided to send emails to about 4 attorneys (this was a few weeks ago) and last week they all decided to respond & assigned me projects. So instead of having a lazy few weeks to end the summer, I'm up to my eyeballs in mundane projects that have to get done before I leave. Initiative is overrated!

My BFF has been stalking me. Seriously. She wants to hang out all the time & since she's the only one willing to go with me on my firm outings, I have to be nice & indulge her. So Friday night, she had me bar-hopping even though I was dead tired after a hard week's work & the kicker was I had to drive. Sheesh! Saturday night though, I went out with my other girls & had an AMAZING time that shall not be rehashed - now that this blog is rated.....

Nothingness

I got my first Amazon seller feedback rating from a buyer this week. 5 stars . For some reason, buyers don't leave me any feedback even though I sell stuff all the time on Amazon & my products are always in great condition & I ship priority even when they pay for standard shipping. But try shipping something late & see the negative feedback assail you.

I found out today that I am now an Ohio resident for tuition purposes!!!! The process is tedious since you have to account for your whereabouts for the past 12 months. Leaving Ohio for more than three weeks during the entire school year disqualifies you & the only way to prove you were in the Buckeye state is through a year's worth of bank statements, pay stubs, leases, & other FBI type shenanigans. Well worth it though.

I was on a flight last week & the Columbus Destroyers (arena football) were on board. Didn't know who they were until the flight attendant announced them as we were fixing to land but I knew they had to be on some team since they all had on white polos & were bigger in stature than the average American male. The paparazzi in me almost pulled the camera out but since I didn't want to seem like the local groupie, I held back.

Red White & Boom

Gotta love 4th of July celebrations. Thanks to the festivities going on in downtown, we get to leave work at noon tomorrow so that we don't get caught up in all the fireworks madness. I was leaving work this evening & traffic was already a nightmare since lots of roads have been closed to prepare for the number of folks who'll be milling around. Yours truly is probably going to be joining the fray. My friends want to go out for dinner & drinks and then hike about 2 miles into downtown to watch the fireworks display so it should be good fun. Happy 4th of July!