I'm back

I start work tomorrow. Not doing anything tomorrow, just watching a trial. I did a practice drive to work today just to see how long the commute would be. I'm working at an office that is located North of the major metropolitan area closest to my parents house. This means in the morning all the traffic is southbound, while I am going northbound. It took me 20 minutes to get to work (20 miles) and nearly an hour to return home. I'm so glad that my normal return commute will not be that bad. Going against the flow of traffic rules. I'm mostly just excited to not be riding the bus anymore.

I've probably spent more time picking out my suit, shirt and tie combo than anyone should. I'm going plain white Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, with a DKNY tie and a cheap ass J. Ferrar suit from JC Penney with Stacey Adams shoes with a buckle on the side. That $110 suit has lasted me 3 years so far. I'm amazed it hasn't fallen apart. It doesn't fit exceptionally well, but its better than my Haggar suit from when I was fatter. For Thursday I will probably break out the blue suit with purple pin stripes, or my grey suit with tan pin stripes. Decided against cufflinks and a pocket square on the first day. Going to slowly build up so I don't set the bar too high in the beginning. Might even through in a tie bar as a final coups de grace.

I got an interview working for the a couple hours a week maintaining the brief bank for the state Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. I could use the 15-30 bucks a week. I got a grant for my internship and if I work the entire summer, 40 hours a week I will make $9.30 an hour. Every time I leave work early I get a pay raise.

Had some car trouble on the drive home. Middle of nowhere America at midnight my headlights stop working. Scared the piss out of me. Turned on my four way flashers and my headlights started flashing as well. Finally turned the car off and back on the the lights started working. Fortunately I was only a mile from a town with a hotel. Got to spend the night at world's finest Super 8. Took the car into the shop today to have it looked at (needed a couple other things done as well). $52 got me "We can't recreate the problem and everything looks fine. We can replace the light control stick for $340 plus labor." I declined. Time to make sure my AAA membership is up to date. Probably should put a flashlight in the car as well.

The drive took 2.5 days, including one 16 hour day when I drove 991 miles (average of 61 mph and I wasn't speeding). I don't want to even think about how much I spent on gas.

The last month of school was pretty brutal. I had a take home final in a class that I paid passing attention in at best. It wasn't taught by lawyers so some of the questions were difficult to answer. For example: "Which of the following was true of State v. Perry? (no citation given)" I don't know, which of the more than 3000 State v. Perry's returned by Lexis do you mean? I had some paper classes for the first time as well. I of course did no work on the papers during the semester. I was done with finals on Thursday and didn't finish my last paper until Thursday after finals had officially ended. Not optimistic about those grades (or any of my grades for this semester).

Things have gone really well with the latest girlfriend. I thought the whole divorced thing would be more of an issue. Hasn't really been a problem. I'm more worried about the long distance for the next 3 months. Long distance relationships suck. She comes to visit in less than a month though so that should help.

Viva Las Vegas

Any of my fellow bloggers going to this: http://www.publicdefenderretreat.com/index.html?

Rebound again

So I'm the rebound guy again, but this time the girl actually likes me and I actually like her. This to me means that it is going to end disastrously. The fact that she isn't just getting over a break up, but a divorce doesn't give me hope either. Entering into the relationship I thought it would be nice an casual and short. Thinks got really serious very quickly though. I'm cautiously optimistic about it though because she's a really nice girl.

I'm sure this is going to increase the number of visitors I get who search for "rebound guy." That is my second most common source of visitors from google, after those searching for "I hate law school."

I've been planning my class schedule for next year. I'm hoping that next semester I can do Trial Ad, a clinic of some kind, moot court and then only one legitimate class. It would be the best schedule ever. Three of my classes would be teaching me actual skills I may one day use as an attorney. Such a novel concept, law school teaching actual skills.

I finally came across the relatively knew PD blog preaching to the choir. Some quality ranting going on there. Only 2 months before I will get to do my own PD ranting again. So excited.

dating post with a little law talk

So after the last complete pile of trash that I dated I've been essentially off the market. This is a combination of choice and lack of supply. I went on a date with Internet girl and then she moved far away eight days later. It was a proof of concept thing for me. Internet dating is not as bad as I thought it would be. Unfortunately she was the only person on the website I'm using that seemed worthwhile. Surprisingly she was much better looking in person than her pictures led me to believe.

I've taken a liken to a fellow 2L since then. Friends confirm that she is in fact sane, nice and good looking. Now because she is a nice worthwhile girl I will completely and totally screw up any chances I might have with her. I really am trying to remain optimistic but if I get too optimistic I'm just setting myself up for a big let down. It is a precarious balancing test and now I'm thinking about it way too much. I'm a disaster with women.

My client from over the summer would have had oral arguments today if his real attorney hadn't waived. I was hoping he would have oral arguments so when his conviction is affirmed I could blame it on the attorney's poor oral advocacy and not my brief. Now if/when his conviction is affirmed I have to blame it on his actually being guilty or the court's utter disregard for the law.

I started caclulating how much it will cost for me to drive home this summer if gas prices stay the same. Currently looking at around $350 if I get decent gas mileage. I've purchased plane tickets for less. Plus I have to get a hotel at least once, probably twice.

And now for my exciting Friday night plans: Laundry.

Law school is boring, thus I have nothing to write about

It has been more than a month since I last wrote anything. I have very little to add that I haven't said before. I still dislike law school. Mostly now I'm just bored. I really should have followed through with my plan to try and intern with the PD office. But I so enjoy having a three day weekend that I stand by the decision.

A prosecutor came and spoke in one of my classes awhile ago. He was nice until the end when he felt the need to remind everyone that he represented the "People of the Great State of ________." It made me think of Saucy Vixon's post http://saucyvixen.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-i-do-what-i-do.html and Audacity's comment to her post, where she said "I also represent the people, one person at a time."

I've decided that preying on the 1Ls is no longer worth my while. I have now descended to the hell that is internet dating. One girl seems interesting, we've sent messages back and forth a little bit, we'll see if anything comes of it. I'm not holding out much hope.

Job shadow

I went to shadow a PD this week. I was to watch a trial. I woke up at 7AM for the first time in a month, put on my suit and rolled the minivan out to middle of nowhere courthouse. Watched some pleas (which was fairly interesting) and then the defendant showed up. The jail people screwed up and hadn't dressed him in civilian clothes. The defendant was a larger man so he needed his own clothes. Because of this his case was continued. I got to watch all of an hour of court.

The pleas were interesting. I remember from one of my crim pro classes that in order to accept a guilty plea there has to be a factual basis for the plea. Our professor never really explained where this factual basis came from. The judge I watched would read the elements of the crime to the defendant, ask the defendant if he understood all the rights he was waiving and if he remembered signing the plea agreement. After doing that she would take a minute to review the police report and inevitable say "I find the police report contains facts sufficient to support the plea."

I got an email from one of the attorneys I worked with over the summer. The appeal I wrote for her is going up for a motion on the merits on March 14th. Not looking good for my client. In the email she said "I suspect you will have the jurors eating out of your hand." That inflated my ego a little bit.

I continue improving

Grades came out awhile ago. I had one class where I did the reading beforehand everyday, created an outline, studied with my group extensively, took numerous practice exams and got my lowest grade. I had another class that I showed up for only because attendance was taken. I did not do the reading, I will be able to sell that book as "Like New" on half.com. I didn't even pay attention during class. Two days before I took some practice exams. I did better in that class than I did in the class I actually tried at (although it was my second lowest grade). At least for the first time ever the final I walked out of thinking "I kicked that tests ass" was my highest grade. Overall I did well in two classes and not as well as I would have liked, but well enough in the other two.