One Month Down

I finished the bar one month ago today. About this time, I had a few premium Japanese beers in me (Kirin) and was just picking up the final installment in the Harry Potter series. What have I been up to since then? A whirlwind of activities.

To start off, I skipped church (sinner!) and played in a poker tournament with my twin brother's father-in-law. I placed ninth and netted 7 bucks. The clone placed third and won a handsome sum (you really expect me to remember how much he won? This was like a month ago!). After that I departed for Dallas.

Rest assured, my transportation to Dallas was not too fun. See, while studying for the bar I had forgotten to book my airfare. So, I logged on Southwest and booked my flight in about two minutes. Little did I know what I was in store for.

I flew out of Ontario and had "the hottest flight crew this side of the Mississippi" or so the attractive blond flight attendant informed me. She was right. They were quite attractive and very funny. Ontario to Dallas should be a direct flight, right? Wrong. Ontario to Phoenix (where I met an interesting guy who was bitter about a divorce from his wife and knocked over his beer, breaking the glass, and then running from the bar before paying the tab...something tells me he didn't make it onto his flight) Phoenix to Austin! (Yes, Austin!), and finally Austin to Dallas. While in line in Phoenix I wasn't paying attention (I assumed they announced the flight's destination). While on the plane I learned the plane was headed to Austin, not Dallas--my destination. I pressed the stewardess call button, not once, not twice, but three times. She quickly confirmed my worst fears that yes, I was on the correct flight, and yes, there would be a stop in Austin. Fan-freakin-tastic.

So, Austin to Dallas and I'm finally at my destination. I spent two days in Dallas (really only like 1 and a half). The highlight was the trip to Deely Plaza where JFK was assassinated.

More of my trip to come later...I'm tired now.

Game Time

Taking the Bar tomorrow which is not only arguably the hardest Bar in any state, but also the hardest professional licensing exam in the country. No CPAs, yours is not even close. Try three whole days of testing. I know you might complain about Sarbanes-Oxley but two things: 1.) You brought that upon yourself by not self-regulating 2.) we are tested on Sarbanes-Oxley as well. However, we have so much more information that we have to cover, Sarbanes-Oxley will at the most be one sentence out of the thousands that I will write over the next three days.


Tuesday - Essays then Performance Test. Wednesday 100 Multiple Choice questions in the morning, and 100 in the afternoon. Thursday - Essays then one more Performance Test.

It's game time.

Currently listening to: You're the Best from Karate Kid.

CA Bar in a Nutshell

This is it. As of tonight I now am responsible for every subject that will be tested on the CA bar. Do I know them? No. But BarBri has given me constructive knowledge of them (constructive because I sat through a lecture and played fill in the blanks while a professor from a school I didn't go to read me the law). So what have I learned? I give you the CA bar in a nutshell.

1. If a husband's name starts with H and a wife's name starts with W, there's a 100% chance they will get divorced.
2. Don't name your child with a name that starts with V or D. Danny or Danielle always criminally wrong Victor or Vicky...most likely resulting in the latter's death within a year from the date of the incident (Vince Vaughn is doubly screwed).
   
3. Law is Murphy's law on steroids. As the question is being read, if bar applicant thinks, even for the slightest second, "Okay, I know what happens as long as the contract isn't breached," the rest of the question is magically rewritten so that the contract is breached.
4. The government encourages marriage not only by tax benefits, but by giving married people all sorts of awesome privileges. You get spousal immunity and absolute privilege to defame your neighbors all you want.
5. Adverse Possession is not the sexiest idea in Property law...that title belongs to slayer or killer statutes.
6. If someone enters an installment contract for the purchase of land, they will never EVER complete the contract and own the land.
   
7. Corollary to 2: If someone tries to kill someone and the name does not start with V, the bullet will magically miss the intended target and strike Vicky or Vince.
8. The police always forget to read Miranda.
9. Contracts are never in writing when they should be.
10. Corollary: Contracts are always in writing when they need not be.
11. If a tree falls and injures someone, the person whose name starts with D always takes a chainsaw and cuts down the tree a week later.
12. Bears, Apes, Monkeys, and other fantastic beasts are always really tame and don't pose a threat to anyone.
13. Corollary to 4: If someone is an eyewitness to a crime you committed, pray they are a member of the opposite sex and then marry them.
    
14. Corollary to 1: If H and W get on a plane, drive in a car, or take an exotic trip, they will die simultaneously in a fantastic fireball.
    
15. That old family Bible saying when you were born is given more weight than your testimony saying what your birthday is.
16. A seller of real property always has amnesia resulting in multiple sales of the same piece of property a few months or years apart.
17. Mudflaps will always come in two flavors: straight and curved.
18. A house built close to the boundary line of another lot will always encroach.
19. A juror will always be excused because of their race and/or gender.
20. All garbage dumps will always be limited to that city or state's garbage.
21. A legislator will always defame someone on the Congressional or state floor.
22. If a leasee assigns or subleases, the assignee or subleasee? will never pay rent.
23. A person playing a sport will always be subject to a battery or other intentional tort.

That's all for now. Add more to the comments. I'll also be adding to this list as I accumulate more knowledge.

Stanley Cup!

That's right. The Stanley Cup was at Anaheim Stadium prior to the Angels baseball game this evening.


That's a photo pulled from the Reuters website. I'm in the yellow shirt on the left. Here's the photo I was taking at the time.

That made this evening definitely worth it.

CA Bar

Yep. The bad boy I am tackling this year is the California bar. Previous victims of this beast include Antionio Villagrosa (current mayor of Los Angeles)--failed four times, never passed. Former California Governor Jerry Brown--failed once and passed on his second time. Former Governor Pete Wilson passed on his fourth attempt. Former Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan, prominent constitutional lawyer who has argued cases in front of the US Supreme Court and is licensed to practice law in two other states failed on her first attempt.

For those of you reading this who are not my law friends--welcome. And thanks for sticking with me for the past three years (I know it's been a bumpy ride and I apologize). But let me fill you in on some background. Each state regulates the practice of law in that state. I want to practice law in California, and so I have to take the California bar. The California bar is tough. It is three full days of testing (compared to two or two-and-a-half days of other lesser state bars). Out of all the takers (both current lawyers from other states and aspiring lawyers), the bar passage rate is under half meaning more than one out of two people will fail.

The California bar consists of three days. Days are broken up into morning and afternoon. Day 1 Morning is three essays in three hours. Day 1 Afternoon is a performance test. Day 2 morning is 100 Multiple Choice Questions. Day 2 Afternoon is 100 more. Day 3 is a repeat of Day 1.

The bar tests 13 subjects. Multiple Choice questions or (MBE) subjects are:

1. Torts
2. Constitutional Law
3. Contracts
4. Real property
5. Evidence (Federal Rules)
   
6. Criminal Procedure/Law

The California Essay subjects can come from either the MBE subjects above or these below:

1. Civil Procedure (Fed and CA--new for Summer 2007!)
2. California Evidence (in addition to the above--also new for Summer 2007!)
3. Wills
4. Trusts
5. Business Associations
   
6. Agency
7. California Community Property
8. and others I'm forgetting.

So, this is why my posts will be sporadic, moody, and stressful until this is over.

BarBri Evidence "Update" or Malpractice?

After sitting through eight hours of lecutre, doing over a hundred evidence questions, and assorted evidence essays, I received an email from BarBri today informing me of an Evidence Update.

I clicked on the email from them with the subject "Evidence Update" and expected to hear that CA had just changed the law earlier today. That was not the case. Rather, BarBri has simply decided to relay to us new information because the information it had provided us in the printed materials (which are CA specific) AND the lectures (which are CA specific) are wrong.

Now, I'm a fairly laidback, guy who is quite flexible. I consider myself quite "above average," perhaps even "superior" when it comes to being able to adapt to a new change. But when BarBri sends us nine changes to the printed materials it sends us, I am not happy.

Let's see what substantive changes BarBri has us making.

First off, the "update" says that both Federal Rules of Evidence and California Rules of Evidence will be tested on the bar on the essay portion of the exam. Isn't this something that should have been told to us at the beginning of the lecture? It's not as if the California Bar (which I'm sure has already printed our exams) just decided to change this rule. This is an error on BarBri's part and a huge one at that.

Second, apparently withdrawn guilty pleas and offers to plead guilty are exempt from Proposition 8. How long ago was Proposition 8 passed? Unless BarBri can point to a recent case that came down on this point, again, this is BarBri's fault for not checking this earlier. How difficult would it be to get a lecturer with experience in CA evidentiary law? How big is this state? How many people practice in CA courts and use these rules on an every day basis?

To spare you from my ranting, I'll summarize the rest: BarBri sets out to explain various hearsay exceptions and differences in expert testimony. My question to them...why wasn't this covered in the lecture? If I were BarBri's client, this would be malpractice. I'm not a client, so this is just a poor level of service offered by BarBri.

I digress....

TB Guy

For those who haven't heard, here's a quick recap. Stupid attorney contracts super deadly virus of TB. CDC says don't fly anywhere. Stupid attorney goes, gee I think I'll fly to Italy, get married, and then fly back. Here's his quote:

"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the newspaper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."

Okay, currently it's debatable if you are well-educated (because you can't follow directions, you won't beb successful for much longer because you will be dead, and you aren't intelligent because you purposely endangered the lives of everyone on that plane, your wife, everyone at your wedding, and who knows how many people in Italy.

That's the worst logic ever. This guy is why attorneys have bad names. And then, the article talks about how he might be able to sue the government because he's in quarantine. Ummm...stupid news article, how about a little thing called compelling state interest? Additionally, stupid attorney should be worried about being sued by anyone who contracts TB because of his failure to heed doctor's advice. A jury would be mighty unsympathetic to his cause.

What I learned in Torts I

The following is my to do list after attending tonight's BarBri lecture (this will likely only be funny if you are in BarBri):

• Get a spouse so I can defame other people and use spousal immunity
• Have Barry Bonds sue me for my defamatory statements about his steroid use and then use truth as a defense
• Expose the mayor for being a nudist (because I can expose his two dual spheres to each other with no repercussions under any privacy torts)
  

And so it goes....

My days of freedom end today. From now until July 26, I will be BarBri's slave. They will control every free minute I have and will fill it with multiple choice questions, essays, performance tests, or perusing outlines.

Class will be four hours a day from 6pm-10pm, 5-6 days a week. If my blog updates and infrequent and short during this period, it is because I am doing absolutely nothing exciting with my life. However, I will be going to Europe soon, and that will be fun. So, yes reader, you can look forward to that.

Graduation

With my hood.


That's it. Starting Wednesday, I "fly solo" according to Uncle Ken (pictured above).

The End

The road trip is over. I've survived. I finished updating the map. I may add pictures at some subsequent point in time. And here it is, the culmination of my seven day travel extravaganza.

I will post more pictures here over the next few days.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

That's right. It's the end of the second day of our road trip. I'm still updating the map. Today we started in Arizona...drove through New Mexico and ended up in Texas. My thoughts--New Mexico is dry and arid. Arizona's desert is cooler. Texas is alot more green that I originally suspected. I also didn't think I'd really see cowboy boots and wide brim hats, but alas. It's true. Where are the dude ranches? (a la Hey Dude?) We're in San Antonio for the night near Sea World. Tomorrow's plan is a trip to the Alamo, Riverwalk, and then Dbacks v. Houston game.

Google Maps for Trip

Google Maps has an awesome feature that will allow me to coordinate the map with pictures and text. To follow along on our trip just click here. I've already updated the first day.

Road Trip kick off with the Tonight Show!

That's right! A long time ago, I signed up for tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We were placed on the wait list. Well, it turns out we're going. It should be fun. The studio is in Burbank.

After that, my roommate and I leave bright and early for our Road Trip (Malibu to Philadelphia).

Our plan is very flexible, but these are the five baseball games we will be seeing:

Wednesday, May 9 - Angels v. Diamondbacks in Phoenix, Arizona
Friday, May 11 - Diamondbacks v. Astros in Houston, Texas
Saturday, May 12 - Angels v. Rangers in Arlington, Texas
Monday, May 14 - Marlins v. Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Tuesday, May 15 - Brewers v. Phillies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

And then fly back from Philadelphia on May 16th for graduation on May 18th. What a nice way to say goodbye to law school (which stands in stark contrast to the way I was introduced to law school....see post on first year below).

A Discourse on Legal Education

As I sit here mere weeks from graduation, a review of the educational process up to this point is in order. The most accurate description of law school is that it is a besieged city--those on the outside want to get in, and those on the inside want to get out. Here in a nutshell is my legal education.

First year
I have drawn many analogies in addition to the besieged city mentioned above. Law school is a dungeon/battlefield/purgatory/self-deprivation exercise, but there is a more accurate one to describe the first year experience. During the first year of law school, it becomes quite clear that this is more like high school than any sort of pedagogical exercise. I get a schedule which i share with ninety other students. Then I go buy lots of books from the bookstore. Then I put my books in my locker. During lunch, I go to the cafeteria where I stand in line to order my food and then stand in line again to pay for my food. As if that wasn't enough, there's law school prom (aka Barrister's Ball). Law school is like high school without the fun.

During first year of law school, it appears my class was subject to some sort of scientific experiment called "The Socratic Method." The experiment appears to be a hybrid of sleep deprivation and stress testing. The procedure involved is this: give the student a large amount of work. If the student has done the work, he will be operating of 3-4 hours of sleep. If the student has chosen not to do the work, the student will only be able to sleep 3-4 hours as he tosses and turns worrying about whether in tomorrow's game of Russian Roulette he'll be a winner or loser.

During class time, the mad scientist's professor's instrument is the seating chart. The seating chart contains some sort of cryptic formula. Law students have thrown large sums of money to researches at MIT and other similar technical institutions in hopes to crack the algorithm. It is unknown how, but the professor will "snipe" students one by one throughout the class.

The pattern is entirely random. Some days the Russian Roulette gun will go off two, three, or even four times in the same day. Usually the fourth time the student is called on, the only thing coming from the mouth of the student are spit bubbles and a gurgling. Rumor has it that same professors follow a pattern or even place the student's on notice that they will be selected for the experiment the following class. These rumors were investigated and busted on a Mythbusters episode that aired earlier last fall. Rest assured if these professors do exist, they are not teaching at a law school conducting research via the Scientific Method.

Regardless of the methodology, the result is that students crack. During orientation at most schools, the Dean or another professor will say "look to your right, look to your left. Either you or the people sitting next to you will not graduate." My school didn't have to say that. One simply had to look at the size of the first year class and the size of the third year class to get the message.

A few weeks into the semester it happened. We lost our first one. I remember it as if it were yesterday. The cryptic Socratic method wheel had spun leaving her as the prey. The professor moved closer smelling the fear. Her name was called. "Ms. Rodeghero, give us the facts of ." Silence. Eery silence. The room stilled. The professor repeated his order. I looked at the clock. The second died forever on the 4. It was eery silence. "Where is she." There was no upward inflection at the end of the question. It was a statement. A poor, unfortunate soul answered, "She dropped out." The professor's eyes narrowed into slits (we speculate it's so we couldn't see his eyes glow red like burning coal). That was the day the first one left.

This process was then repeated over and over again throughout the semester. I was truly awed by the power of this cruel experiment when I witnessed it firsthand. It was during my first final. It was contracts. I saw the victim rise from his chair. From his body language, I knew something was wrong. He slowly tromped down the stairs to the front of the room. Words were exchanged, and it was over. Without even hearing the words, I could see it in his body language. As he walked the long path back to his seat to pack up his belongings it was gone--the hope that we had. The hope that we all clung to during our first year. The hope that this was all a bad dream, and we would wake up to realize that we were still in college, or that we had chosen a different profession. During that first year, there were many left behind on the Socratic battlefield.

During that first year, law school was like high school because it was a battle. In high school the name of the game was to not get picked on or draw unnecessary attention to yourself. In law school the professor WILL pick on you. Your goal becomes to not get bullied around too much (a la Paper Chase). In high school, you study History, Math, and English. Here's the rundown of the classes I took first year and a brief description about them (note these descriptions inspired by James D. Gordon, III, How Not to Succeed in Law School)

• Civil Procedure-learn about the paper wars of litigation. Note: this is the class that I learned that the phrase "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets it wings" is actually a twist on the age old classic, "Every time a case is filed, another forest is expired."
  
• Torts-the study of a compensation system where the question quickly becomes who foots the bill for the plaintiff being stupid? Is it the plaintiff? (innocent, unknowing first year that I was thought this was the answer) Generally the answer is the business who last touched whatever it was that injured the plaintiff. This class should be renamed "hot potato" because when multiple defendants are sued, they each point the figure and toss the blame to the other ones.
  
• Real Property-the class which is allegedly about land property spends the first six weeks teaching you about animals, water, and the discovery of America. This course also teaches the money lawyers that they could make much more money as a property developer or real estate mogul. Also, with today's technology, should title issues be a thing of the past? Sigh. But I digress.
  
• Contracts-the study of rules based on a model of two-fisted negotiators with equal bargaining power who dicker freely, voluntarily agree on all terms, and reduce their understanding to a writing intended to embody their full agreement. The law student then learns that the last contract fitting this model was in 1879.
  
• Criminal Law-study of common law crimes that haven't been the law anywhere for over one hundred years. Then learn about the Model Penal Code which isn't the law in any of the 50 states.
  
• Criminal Procedure-Learn about the exclusionary rule and the rationale behind it so you can defend the profession at cocktail parties.
  
• Legal Research and Writing-the study of legal citations from a book named after a color. Also write memos on ridiculous scenarios that will never occur in real life (a haunted house?)

That was my first year. I won't even begin to describe the two week trials and tribulations of finals (that happen twice a year).

I spend my summer after my first year in London. It was incredible. It is surprising that it took a 3000 mile change of environment and a terrorist attack for me to get my best grade in law school.

Second Year
Second Year brings about a wonderful change. It feels much less like high school. This is because not all the same students are in all your classes. This is when you discover that there are other students in the class who you have not met yet and quickly learn you were fortunate not to have class with them the previous year. With different people in each class, it became much harder to win in one class period of Bad Word Bingo. I think this is why some classes are lengthened to an hour and a half or even two hours.

How horrible of me! I haven't introduced you properly to Bad Word Bingo. It is not actually called Bad Word Bingo. There's a word you can't on television in the place of "Bad Word" so I'll call it Bad Word Bingo (afterall, Grandma reads my blog). Bad Word Bingo is played like this. You create a five by five grid with people's names in your class. There are certain people in your class who fight for "air time" and thrive on interacting with the professor. This lasts until the end of the semester. Then grades come out, and they stop talking.

Okay, we would always play bingo in contracts. Our version is different than others. We had twenty-five people. Our "center square" was always the same. We had our power diagonals (where we put the people who talked the most) and our sleeper picks (someone who hadn't been called on or talked in a while who we thought would talk that day). Bingo brought me many fond memories. The best memory was when I came from behind to defeat my now roommate who sat next to me. I nervously peered over and saw that he only needed one more person. I still needed two. It was as if God heard my cry for help. The next person that talked was my fourth person! We were tied! But then trouble hit. My roommate's fifth person shot their hand up in answer to a question. I looked to see who I still needed. My hopes were dashed--this person would never volunteer and raise their hand. The professor then turned to the board and begin to jot something down. I was doomed. But all of a sudden, he turned around and sniped my fifth person. My come-from-behind victory in Bingo is still told on Law School tours to this day (some two and a half years after it happened).

So, besides Bad Word Bingo becoming more difficult, second year also allowed you to pick your own classes. Some are still required (I'll note which ones were required). Also, I am enrolled in a certificate program and have to take my electives with alot of those. Classes I took and their appropriate descriptions are below:

• Evidence (Required) - Learn that an out of court statement offered for the truth of the matter asserted is hearsay. Learn that there are 4,542 different exceptions to the hearsay rule. Memorize said exceptions.
  
• Administrative Law - When you deal with the government, you should probably have a lawyer. When you deal with a school, you should probably have a lawyer. When you deal with your employer, you should probably have a lawyer. This class and torts leads me to believe that everyone should only leave their house (or interact with objects) only when their lawyer is present. Lucky for me, I can now be my own lawyer (not that you couldn't do that, I'm just much better trained now).
  
• Trial Practice - This was my favorite law class. Sixteen people total. The best part of this class was when I used my Evidence skills (developed above) to keep out key evidence in a trial (which happened to be my final exam). So, as my final exam grade for this pass/not pass skyrocketed, my opponents at the other side of the counsel table saw their hopes for a P + (Pass +) vanish.
  
• Corporations (Required) - Learn how to abuse creditors, shareholders, employees, consumers, the IRS, the environment for fun and profit. Mosly profit.
  
• Con Law Individual Rights (Required) - learn about how many different ways we've discriminated against people in the past. Learn you have the right to navigate interstate waters.
  
• Federal Income tax (Required) - Learn how to save money on your taxes! And that drug dealers and women of the night need to pay taxes on that hard earned income. Teaches you how to be a tax lawyer. A tax lawyer is someone good with numbers but lacks enough personality to be an accountant.
  
• Cyberspace - Surprise surprise! The law still applies in cyberspace!
• Criminal Pretrial Practice Seminar - Legal Career Day and conducting preliminary hearings. Another pass / not pass class that I rocked.
  

Third Year
Third year is the most fun out of law school. You've learned how the game is played, the Socratic Method experiment is, for the most part, over (because all your classes are with your classmated or second years who still are jittery and shaken up from first year). Classes taken included:

• Remedies (Required) - Learn what choices you have to get back at someone when they've been mean to you. My favorite weapon of choice is the Ex parte TRO (temporary restraining order).
  
• Wills & Trusts (Required) - aka Gifts and Stiffs. Such a depressing class. Do NOT take concurrently with Community Property! Every hypo in this class starts with a death. Every hypo in Community Property starts with a divorce.
  
• Ethics (Required) - Learn about why there are so many lawyer jokes.
  
• Financing for High Tech Startups - Learn how to make money by starting a company and having other people work for you. My plan is to start a company, acquire an ownership interest in return for my legal services and then kick back and watch.
• Community Property - Learn not to get married in California or any other community property state. Also, if you do, sign a prenup. And you have to give it to her prior to the wedding day.
  
• Intellectual Property Survey - learn how to steal other people's thoughts and ideas and exploit them as your own.
• Con Law Fed State - Learn how the federal government raised the drinking age to 21 by holding a carrot in the form of federal highway funding out in front of the states.
• Business Planning - Learn how many clients you add when you take on a firm.

Also you take the MPRE either your second or third year. So let me get this straight, you answer ethics questiosn on a separate test, and then ethics are still tested on the Bar. So what's the point of the MPRE? Yeah, I thought as much. I'd like to think of this as a practice filling in bubbles test for the MBE section of the Bar.

So that's it. I'm tired. There will be more thoughts and musings in the future. I've been in a very contemplative mood these past few days.

DISCLAIMER: In all honesty, law school is not that bad. It's easy to poke fun of and is a good way to address the things I did not like that much about law school. I couldn't have picked a better school to go to. It was an excellent fit for me. And if you asked me if I'd do it again, I'd probably say yes. Just don't ask me until I'm a few months out. =)

Remember to take care of yourselves....and each other.

3 Sporting Events in 5 days

Here's Game 1 - Ducks Wild Playoff Game. Ducks won 2-1.



Here's me happy because I'm at a Ducks Game.
Here's the action from our seats.
Here's the Boston state Capital.
Here's Boston Common (Kevin - "This is basically Boston's version of Central Park in New York")

A street in Beacon Hill (an affluent area).




Kevin and I enjoying a beer at the Cheers pub.

Samuel Adam, signer of the Declaration of Independence and more importantly, associated with the wonderful array of producs offered by the Samuel Adams brewery.
This is a statue in front of Old City Hall of Boston. At the head of the ass is a plaque in the ground.

If you look closely you can see two elephants. That's all I'll say. Yes, that's all I say. It's just too ripe to make a joke. It's far too expected.

That's me (with a ski hat on) in front of the TD BankNorth Garden.

Where the Celtics play.

More to be posted soon.

Stories to come:

We want Odom!
Matt's Grave Problem
Beers at Cheers
Top of the Hub (Or Morning)

Trips Trips Trips....

I promise I'll post more later but there are some exciting things coming up soon. For spring break, I'm going to Vegas (yet again). In April I'm going to Boston and in May, Philadelphia. It's going to be an action packed last two and a half months. I'm very excited about Boston's trip which will include a trip to the largest casino in the world as well as a stop at Fenway Park.

More later.

Birthday, Big Bear, and Bourgeoisie

With the coming of January came my "relaxed" semester. I have two classes, Monday and Wednesday, along with a bar review seminar Wednesday night. Compared to the past two and a half years of my life, it's nice to finally have time to read a book.

Because of the wonderful Martin Luther King holiday, my first weekend of the semester was six long days. I decided to join about 20 other friends and head to Big Bear for snow fun.


But, I digress. It's been a while since I updated. Last time I updated (a real substantive update), was during the weekend between finals when I looked like this. You know it's me by the few days of stubble on the face, the chili cheese fries.

Note: It appears that my hair landed in the chili cheese fries. Let's hope I've washed my hair since then.

So finals ended. My last final was when? Take a guess people. My last final was on my birthday. How crappy is that? So, after my final, we proceeded to Gaslite for ultimate karaoke.

Prior to gaslite, I met for pizza and poker at my friend's place (which is why I brought the poker belt). Sadly, there was no poker. But I did retain my belt (I later lost it for failing to defend it in Big Bear...Bloodsport was on and it looked tight). But yes. It's my birthday, the belt was on my head, and I was running on very little sleep. So, I show up, consume lots of pizza. On the way to Trey's, my mom called to wish me happy birthday. After informing her of my plans to sing karaoke songs, my mom said, "Jeff, at of all my sons you probably have the best voice [and are my favorite son in general], but why do you have to scream?" (Note: bracketed information was added but implied from speaker's tone) Yes, courtesy of Twin, my mom and dad both got to see my karaoke performances. Fantastic huh? Thanks for the confidence mom.

But alas, it was time for Gaslite goodness, and I came out with voice at full volume. With three other law school chaps, we belted out: "Do they know it's Christmas."



Scott, Andrew, and Birthday Boy number 2--Trey Taylor. Good times were had. Lots of people came out. Did they come out for my birthday? Probably not. It was also the day many people were done with finals, so many ended up coming out just to celebrate that.

One of my friends from London, Stephanie (the red head) came as well. You might remember her from such London incidents as "It's Pimm's O'clock," "Help I've been stung by a Bee!" and "I'm deathly ill and I hate London." Stephanie gave me the best card I've ever received....


Yes. It's a kick ass birthday card. Thanks Stephanie.

Can we say Deer in headlights look? Not my favorite look. I prefer my "Blue Steel" a la Zoolander.



Also there was a guest appearance by my roommate from first year of law school, Brent. Interesting story about Brent. Brent and I were on a mock trial team at UCSD in undergrad. Brent walks into my room during move-in day. I go what are you doing here? He goes, I live here. And sure enough, by a complete random draw of the housing lottery, I end up with a friend from undergrad. It was good. Not only has Brent been a good friend throughout law school, he also externed with me at the district attorney's office. We worked alternate days but were still able to talk about the job. It was fantastic. Trey and John are in the picture, but they always show up, so no biggie.

And what would by birthday be without a visit from Santa Sadiq. With perhaps the best performance of the night, Sadiq rocked the Gaslite.

So how about the Bourgeoisie? Well, with an abundance of time on my hands, I am running several fantasy sports teams. Fantasy Hockey, 2 Fantasy Basketball Teams, a Fantasy Moguls team (basically, you pick a slate of movies that you think will do well and compete against other teams in the league based on various categories like box office figures, imdb review rating, per theater sales average, etc.), and----wait for it----wait for it----Fantasy Congress. Yes that's right, I've decided to put my intimate knowledge of Capitol Hill to work for me. I am in a league of Fantasy Congress. Filled with both Republicans and Democrats from all around the United States, we're in for the long haul (our season ends in August after the summer session), and sadly, I'm losing to library girl at this current moment. But, with a bang of lineup with such super stars (gag me) as Dianne Feinstein, Barney Frank, and Ike Skelton, I should fare quite well. Well, that's it for now. Expect more updates as time goes on. I still need to report on the Rose Parade, and I'm headed to Vegas this weekend for the little brother's 21st birthday. So, there should be plenty to report on. Oh yeah. I need to talk about Big Bear too. Next post...I promise.

That's it for now. You stay classy, San Diego.