Boston Legal

I watched Season One of Boston Legal in its entirety today. An absurd show, that I found absolutely hilarious. I only hope that I can use my internship with the PD office as a springboard to becoming the next Denny Crane. Denny Crane.

Season One ended with an episode about the death penalty. Now most of my audience gets to blog about ethical concerns that come up with real clients. I get to blog about ethical concerns that come up from watching TV shows like Boston Legal. Lame, but deal with it. Anyway that episode really pissed me off. I realize most of Boston Legal is just absurd satire on firm life, but this episode was slightly different. I would not be surprised for a second if the facts of the death penalty case from the show were taken from real life. It was a Texas case where an African American man with an IQ of 80 was accused of murdering a gas station clerk. DNA evidence placed someone else at the scene. The defendant confessed after 16 hours of interrogation and had no memory of actually committing the murder. His trial attorney gave no opening statement and failed to cross almost all of the prosecution witnesses and failed to investigate important leads. He also admitted to being on cocaine. The court couldn't care less. That pisses me off.

I don't know why I wanted to write about this episode. I've always been against the death penalty. Death penalty cases always piss me off. I don't know why an episode of Boston Legal pissed me off so much. Maybe because it was after a 12 hours marathon of television (which I realize is a luxury I will not have much longer) but that episode moved me more than John Grisham's book "The Innocent Man" or anything else I've read. It pissed me off more than the movie "The Life of David Gale." It struck a cord with me for some reason.

God I hate the death penalty.

Life is good

Today I ate pizza for dinner and forth meal (thank you taco bell). It is 5:12AM and I have not yet gone to bed. I am really enjoying having no responsibilities. I'm sure the backlash will begin soon and boredom will set in, but right now after the stress and drama of law school a simple life of watching TV and eating lots of pizza while consuming adult beverages is perfect. I wish I had an XBOX 360 or a Wii.

On Thursday I'm going to do interviews for a documentary a friend is making. The camera will be on the subject and I'll be the voice you hear from off screen asking the questions. I really think it will be a good line on the resume and will allow me to break into the acting world. Good bye public defense, hello Hollywood. I might even get to run the camera a bit so I can put actor/director on my resume. Yeah things are looking up for me.

In two weeks I will meet up with Super/Senior Intern and go visit the office where I interned. I'm excited. I've missed everyone at the office and Senior Intern a lot. A couple days after that I'm going to shadow someone at the office where I will be next summer. I predict that next semester there will be a lot of posts of me whining about how awesome the job shadow was and how badly I want to be in court doing what I saw. I know its going to happen and I apologize in advance.

Show the Rodneys some love:

Heading home

I don't feel the sick, scared distraught in my stomach that I felt after finals as a 1L. I know now that how I think I did on a test means essentially nothing. I'm not going to worry about it at all during the break. Short of a family member or close friend dying nothing is going to ruin the next 28 days. A full lunar month of freedom.

I partied too much to take part in my normal post finals routine of staring at the ceiling for an hour or so. Your mind is unable to do anything but zone out. There is nothing to distract your thoughts from just wondering. It usually ends with me falling asleep and taking a little nap.

Finals shouldn't suck this much

I'm a 2L. Finals are supposed to be less scary. I'm more scared this semester than I was last year. I think not caring all semester might have something to do with my increased feelings of woe. I've studied about the same amount but I felt like I was playing catch up for a lot of it. I console myself by remembering that the curve is easier this year and everyone else cares even less.

I may require a liver transplant once I am done.

Talked to my PD office a couple days ago. During the Holiday break I'm going to going observe for a day. I'm excited for 2 reasons. 1. I get to meet future coworkers and see the type of work I will be doing and 2. I get to suit up. I got a new french cuff shirt with a spread collar. I'm going to wear an awesome pair of cufflinks and tie an obnoxiously big Windsor knot. I'll probably wear my faux-Gucci shoes as well. Long story sort I'm gonna look good.

I also recently discovered that my blog is the number 1 google result for the search "fake pocket square." Not really my target audience, but awesome nonetheless.

Things are weird

I know I'm being used. I know there is no emotional attachment. I know that this girl is nuts. She hears, "I can't believe you are dating him" and thinks, wow people think Petition is really lucky for dating me. That same person then says to me, "Petition, what the fuck are you doing?"

I've had numerous people approach me and let me know that I should be wary. People looking out for me to make sure I'm aware of the fact that I'm being used. I feel good since I know I have friends who care enough about me to make sure I don't make such poor decisions obliviously.

I am going back to Super City for the Holiday Break. I will be gone for roughly 25 days. I think after 3 days, if that long, this girl will find someone new. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already picked her new puppy and is just waiting for me to become boring/unavailable.

I'm not sure what I am

I think I was a little hasty in declaring myself a rebound guy. I think more accurately I should be termed a mistake. I think to appease her guilt she wants to date for awhile so it isn't just an awkward slept together situation, but a "we dated and it didn't work out" situation. She says she likes me but I get the impression in talking with her that she doesn't really know me. I also get the impression that she isn't interested in someone who's career goals involve a job with a starting salary only $7,000 more than my tuition.

I'm investing as little of my self into this emotionally as possible right now. If it weren't finals week I would be far more serious about things and see how serious things are. As it is I don't want to get attached at all because I don't want any difficulty with my studies should things go south.

I think things are going to get weird really quickly. I just don't care. During finals week food has no calories, actions have no consequences and drinking is acceptable any day of the week.

I'm the rebound guy

I have a history of dating crazy girls. When I say crazy I mean bat shit, should be heavily medicated or living in a home, crazy. The first 1L I dated was a close second to the craziest girl I ever dated. I stayed with her because once I'm in a relationship I don't want to leave. Sure it may suck but at least I have someone. This usually means that the relationship goes on entirely too long and ends disastrously.

I also have a history of girls using me as a girlfriend. This essentially means I get to become one of the girls and hear all about all the guys they want to sleep with or all the problems they have with their boyfriends. Sometimes we even cuddle, but no kissing, no sex, just frustration and information that men are not supposed to know.

I think this is the result of my coming off as gay to a lot of girls when they first meet me. I'm so nonthreatening and I don't make a move.

Yesterday an interesting, and not seen before, phenomenon of being a "girlfriend" occurred. One of the girls just got out of a bad relationship and "needed" a rebound guy. She apparently didn't want to look far and I didn't put up much of a fight.

Now I know the healthy thing for me to do now is run for my life. Am I going to? No. I'm going to stick it out because of some very stupid reasons. 1. She's hot, like the hottest girl I've had. 2. Actually I can't think of another reason. Did I mention she's really hot.

I swear I'm not a pig. I just make poor decisions sometimes. (For any employers reading this, I make poor decisions regarding romantic relationships on occasion, my decisions on the professional level I assure you are always well reasoned and logical.)

So moral of the story is that most of the time I don't just want to be friends but I fail to make a move for so long that I fall hopelessly into the just friends pit of doom.