1 Down, 14 to go

That's what the flyers around school advertising a big law school party at a bar said. 1 down, 14 weeks to go. Well if we must count, we might as well start now :-)
Classes have finally started to ramp up and level off where the workload will not increase or decrease much over time. Not all of my classes as some are still slow and introductory, but we are starting to move quicker through material. I absolutely love everything so far which is a good thing. I'm also starting to think of ordinary everyday things in terms of what we are studying. AKA I am starting to think like a lawyer...scary! Well I think I'll be more detail oriented but big picture has helped get through the reading (knowing exactly what you are looking for to get out of the reading and identifying the main points early means you don't waste a bunch of time on more irrelevant stuff in the cases). Well what happened this week you ask?
Let's start with the schedule. That schedule I printed out of my weekly classes...let's just say it doesn't much apply anymore. Crandall changed our Contracts class from TWR 9-9:50 to Tuesday 8:45-10 and Thursday 9:30-11. Our Legal Research professor has rescheduled a few of our monday and thursday classes to Friday mornings at 9 (like today ugh!). The Torts mess sorted itself out as professor Northern is teaching classes each week on MTW or TWR (again, it changes from week to week and we just have to check the syllabus each week to know if we have class on certain days). Civ Pro and Crim Law are thankfully not changing, but everything else is a mess and will take getting used to. Just keep the syllabi close to know when I have class I guess. Torts is OK but prof Northern is my least favorite of the professors. Our new book rocks so far though, so much better than the book Chamallas had us in. Was not called on in class this week either, but it will happen eventually and I really don't care when as long as I am prepared for what we are talking about. So life is good in law school classes.
Figuring out what activities I will fill my spare time with, and I think it is narrowing nicely. Been to a lot of info sessions and still most interested in active participation this year in Law School Republicans and Christian Legal Society. Speaking of activities, met with Eric D. today (leader of my new bible study in XA) for lunch and we had a great discussion getting to know each other better. It should be a great year assuming our outreach to Steeb hall works. I'm excited about all of these activities this year and the issues I was working through a month ago are finally resolved. So we rock and roll on, poker get together and going out for a little drinking tonight. Fun times. Shep is coming with too since he's coming up and spending the night for tomorrow's PTQ.
Now the craziness. This weekend my old lease ends Saturday and the new lease begins Sunday. So Jon just showed up with friends and they will be moving out tomorrow morning (hopefully getting everything). Tom and Heather are starting to move in tomorrow, so this weekend will be crazy at the apartment. And Patrice has arranged for repair of our tub Monday or Tuesday...absolutely crazy times! So I'm getting the hell out since they all have friends and family coming up to help them move in and out. I don't want much to with this...get it done yourself! So going out tonight, PTQ in Columbus tomorrow, PTQ in Charleston Sunday. Avoiding all things moving!
So now I'm not lonely anymore. Hmmm...maybe I like being lonely.
Things between Kelley and I are working out for those who are curious. There are a lot of things I need to change about myself and I have big goals I am striving for personally. I might put them on here later, but right now I'm a little busy to go into much detail. We are reconnecting through conversation right now...and making sure we are on the same page and we know our goals and life plans. We literally need to reconnect and meet eacho ther all over again in some senses. Scary but I know we will grow through this no matter how it comes out. So keep us in your prayers...that we can find our common ground and hopefully go forward stronger. But as I said, this requires a lot of change from what I have been doing...I need to show how much I appreciate Kelley more than I do (because frankly I don't do it now). I am so crazy about her, so now it's time to prove that through the actions which speak louder than words.
So have a good weekend everyone, wish me luck at the PTQ's, and I'll catch up with everyone later.

Start of the first full week

Well things are still well at law school, although I did get frustrated with the stupid busy work Legal Research assignment e did yesterday and today. Both days were long but Monday was worse because we had none of our good classes, just useless seminars and homework. We had Torts cancelled Monday because our professor cannot teach this semester. So they combined us with Section 2 (we now have no small section, all our classes are with Section 2) and wonderful technicalities ensued. Stuff like schedule changes (torts is fit around our other classes now so we have it MTW some weeks and TWR other weeks. Just have to keep abreast of when we have class I guess. Professor Northern is using a different book, and the law school is footing the bill to buy all 40 of us new books (we can keep or sell back our other Torts book...thankfully I was one of 3-4 ppl in the class who did not write in it for the first assignment and I got my $110 back today). So a free book for our inconvenience, but we start plodding on as a big section together tomorrow. Professor Fairman has been animated in Civ Pro this week, talking about delaying a case to wait for the plaintiff to die so the case drops (he's done this) and his current situation about fighting a ticket for not having a front license plate (State law) on a technicality...morally we don't line up but he is funny about this stuff. He also played a clip of Legally Blonde Monday and showed us a specific part in the movie where he found huge errors (we all laughed at how obvious they were to first week law students who had discussed the case they bring up). Oh and Crandall is trying to get our Contracts class to meet twice a week instead of 3 times so my mornings may change significantly too. And they say they don't want us to put up with too much changing of schedules...they struck out on that one. No big deal, just have to look at syllabi and pay attention. I am finally getting used to briefing on paper and taking class notes on the laptop, so I'll probably use this system in all the classes except Contracts where I will probably hand-write my exam. Made another good friend today (ahman) by riding to school with him on the number 2 bus and then studying with him and Steve thisafternoon. Life is going about as well as can be planned in that area of life.
And now that I have that area of life under some control (and it will make me very busy as the assgnments get longer and longer over the next week or two...but a lot of it is enjoyable work), I have to work on my personal relationships. I could work over thw stuff my dad pissed me off about, but I'd rather sit on it and settle for a while. I am telling him at Christmas that Kelley does not feel welcome out there and I'll explain why that is mostly his fault for purposefully excluding her or not trying to accept her as a part of my life. Among other things, but this is the big one and I will not go on without saying something.
I need to try and be more considerate of Kelley and others like my Mom. I just don't keep in contact well with anyone except Kelley away from school...so I need to work on it. And Kelley and I have finally started putting some beef back into our conversations after a long stretch of just saying what we did that day and then essentially not talking for the next few minutes until we ended the convo. We talked about religion and Chi Alpha Monday, and we'll probably get back into it later this week (I was pretty brain dead or tired tonight and did not want to get into anything important). She gets bothered because I don't fit her dream vision of a lover who completely agrees with and follows her belief system. I on the other hand, have been raised in too many backgrounds to not respect the diverse views and so I have a pretty unique stance on stuff. Specifically we talked about Chi Alpha because let's face it, they wouldn't jive with St. Luke's Lutheran and vice versa. I choose to continue worship at XA at this time because of the community of friends I have built there (always important in your church) and the fact that they really seem to be moving for God on this campus. Never felt like we were doing anything but patting ourselves on the back for showing up to Campus Crusade worship...and the group was too big for real community in my opinion. I don't jive with maybe 30 percent of the beliefs XA subscrbes to, at least I have my own views which would not hold up to their interpretations. But I also have had disagreements with the Lutheran church and the Church of Christ and even Baptists. The big major problem is her being uncomfortable because a good number of people in XA believe fully in spiritual baptism and giftings, especially the fact that everyone can speak in tongues. I have seen and heard evidence that some people really do speak in a language which exists and that seems to match up with what the disciples did in old times, but I also think you cannot just say everyone can have it and I don't practice it because I don't believe that gift is meant for me. Essentially, I believe this gift exists and I'm comfortable with it, whereas this really bothers her that I even accept this thoery at all (because she is set in her beliefs [a good thing to be certain] that all these people are doing is babble and not what the disciples did). And she worries that our views are radically different on more than this, so we'll talk it out. I'm pretty curious myself, but I really do not think there is much I differ on from her considering how we live our lives. It is nice to have that serious conversation in our talks at night, but we cannot have it every night as we could go on forever and we both need to get sleep for school.
Thanks for all the thoughtful notes from when Kelley and I were fighting or disagreeing every night and I vented a little bit. It was a healthy release and we are working things through...I just feel like I'm the person always screwing up sometimes. I know that's not the case, but I am a glass half empty kind of guy most of the time. Well I gotta get some sleep because I am cutting it short to update on here tonight. Just haven't written a law related entry in a few days and wanted to keep you up to date.

Ten Songs

List ten songs that you are currently digging. It does not matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they are no good, but they must be songs you are really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they are listening to:
1. Holiday by Green Day
2. Doesn't Remind Me by Audioslave
3. Behind these Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson
4. This is the Night by Clay Aiken
5. Getting Away With Murder by Papa Roach
6. Re-Align by Godsmack
7. Don't Cha by Pussycat Dolls
8. This is How a Heart Breaks by Rob Thomas
9. Don't Phunk With My Heart by Black Eyed Peas
10. B.Y.O.B. by System of a Down
So I'm supposed to tag five other people. Well I only know 5 others on here regularly...so XX-Cemetary-XX, Almost There, somerandomguy, melissa, and anyone else who reads this at random!

Boring Weekend

I'm not happy. I was planning on playing FNM and since I got done with all my work, I was considering going home for the weekend to see Kelley. Well Kelley had a family get together in Charleston Saturday at 5 which was ok and I was just going to think about it anyways until Tom calls me Friday and tells me they are moving some stuff in this weekend. Let's just say apparently that did not happen as I had to call his ass today to ask him if/when he was coming over. He says "oh, I completely forgot." Well as much as I enjoyed playing poker online and relaxing all weekend (I did laundry too, so not a complete loss)...it would have been nice to know I could leave all along.
I guess it's my fault for not driving over there and dropping Berens' old key in their lap and saying go at it...but he asked for some help. Whatever, they are not getting my help next week when they do have to move in. And I don't know if I would've gone home to spend just Sunday with Kelley, but I would've liked to know earlier. Whatever...
It was a boring weekend, nothing to report except a loss in poker of about 25 dollars. Win some lose some I guess...I'm not worried about it.

The first two days of law school

Welcome to law school. Time to buckle down and get to work...thank God. Wednesday afternoon I worked on the reading for my four classes Thursday. Civil Procedure and Contracts only had a short intro and a case, so both were only an hour because I was going slow to digest everything. After about 20 pages for those two classes combined, Criminal Law's 47 pages was no picnic. It was at least interesting but it was just a lot of discussions on the reasons for punishment. Good to apply for the rest of our criminal law semester, but thick for our first day. Well not much to report for Wednesday night, just wanted to relax and get enough sleep for the next day.
Thursday morning comes, and I trudge up to the bus stop around 8:30. I am going to give riding the Columbus buses a try instead of parking 4 blocks away from Moritz and wasting money on gas and/or a parking pass. The only thing I hate is waiting to come back from Moritz in the afternoons, but Friday I got lucky in that regard. Contracts with Crandall was our first class and it was ok. We lost the whole period on introduction and Crandall telling stories. He co-wrote the casebook we are using with an OSU law professor who recently retired and he is this year's visiting professor from another school, so it is pretty clear he's a good prof. Then we went to Michael's Criminal Law class. He starts the class by asking us to quiet down and listen as he read a news story about a criminal case for us to consider. He immediately put a couple students on the spot to articulate the case and answer questions as the defendant's lawyer and the DA. Essentially using what we read, the questions were answered pretty well and once that was all done Michaels did the introductory stuff to fill the rest of the period. He worked for the MLB players union and clerked for the US supreme court...so let's just say he seems good as well. Grabbed lunch at Flying pizza and it was weird not going with Berens like the last couple years. Civil Procedure with Fairman in the early afternoon was ok. I don't think this class will be great, but the professor tries hard and makes good powerpoint presentations to help us along. My final class was Legal Research with Hall, and ugh. Thankfully this class is only 6 weeks long and ends at fall break, but I don't like the droning professor or the crappy class. Seems like my new friends Steve and Daniel agree, but we'll just have to enjoy it together. So the first day went well and I did like 3 of my 4 classes. It is good to be back at school.
Hey random sidenote...survivor guatamamla starts on my birthday September 15. Hooray.
Thursday afternoon I fixed the problems with my electric and phone bills, so hopefully everything will be in my name and no more problems. XA was fun that evening...Joepo was sharing again since Pastor Jeff does most of the work during the school year and he's not great but he'll find his stride. Jeff revealed the four small group leadership teams (guys and girls) and the four dorms we will focus on first. My prayers were answered about this whole issue, as my group lost a member and gained a new one who was willing to take leadership from me while I ensure I don't overextend this year. I also get along with Eric really well so I'm happy to have him instead of Drew the cynical engineer. We still have the other David but I'm sure we'll get to be friends this year. My other hope was a south campus dorm since I spend all my time at Moritz and we are doing Steeb...literally right across the street from Moritz and closer than the Ohio Union if you know the area. Can't be more thrilled, and the girls group paired with us seems good too. Anyways, it was good to see KCarp and LB, close friends who just got back in town.
Friday was so damn busy...unbeliveable. Hopped on the bus for my 11 class and Derek (the old guy from my section who has a doctorate in something and a masters in something else...the typical academic guy hooked to school) was on there so we talked about the first day. Found out he's from Clintonville which is just north of where I live and explains why he rides the bus. Well Michaels class was decent as we consdered the first part of that beastly reading we did for Thursday. After class Derek and Steve wanted to grab some lunch so we did and then they talked me into working on our Torts and Civ Pro reading for monday. This took hours but we got it done and we're done for the weekend which is nice...Derek and I went out to catch the bus and it was there pretty quickly. A good thing because I got home and changed into nice clothes and grabbed my magic cards, turned right back around and drove back to Moritz for the reception for first year students. Nice appetizers and good talking to staff people and professors, but nothing too exciting. Did not leave until about 15 till 7, so had to race across town to get to Guardtower for the start of FNM. I won, la dee dah. Took a break to call Kelley and then afterwards all the guys playtested and chatted some more. It was a good relaxing evening for how busy the day had been.
Today I woke up and did laundry, then here I am. Enjoying the afternoon, watching Tiger Woods dominate the NEC championship in Ohio...because nothing else is on! We'll see what I get into for the rest of the weekend. Poor Kelley has to go to Charleston today for a baby shower for some distant relative...you can imagine she's not thrilled about it. I think I would hate the ride there and back with the dad and grandparents worse...but we'll see how she's doing tonight.

Orientation 2

Well here we are, finally finished with Orientation. What a beast. I feel mentally drained as the talking heads just kept blabbing at us for 2 days with mostly common sense and reassurances. It is reassuring that unlike schools like Uc-Berkeley (where they fail out 30 percent of their 1L class every year...essentially they accept more than they want and make you earn it to stick around), Moritz is not all that competitive and doesn't have a quota to fail out. They picked 230 people and are sticking with almost all of them hopefully through 3 years. I respect that and despite my numbers being in the upper quartile of our class...I am beginning to be more proud of being accepted there considering how small our class is compared to number of applicants (admit maybe 10 percent or less). Found out over the last two days our law school is cutting edge in the Criminal Law and Dispute Resolution fields. If I like Criminal Law (1L's have to have the basic course in their first semester) then I might look into it more with my intellectual property classes as well. So much time to decide.Tomorrow I will do all the first day assignments for Thursday's classes. sounds like a fun time, but at least I only have assignments in 3 of my 4 classes. Tonight the social event is at a new downtwon upscale bar called Spice Bar. Free food and half off drinks, so I'm going of course. One last party before we have to get down to business this semester.Bowling last night was fun, once I found the place. Gahanna is not the easiest place to get around if you do not know where you are going. Got a group of 6 guys together to bowl some 3 vs. 3. It was Steve Schmitt and Bobby on my team while Sam Adams (no shit, that's his name) took Nate and the other Steve. We won 2 out of the 3 games as a team and bragging rights as I beat Sam all three games (not by much lol) individually for the top score. It was fun and I bet we downed 6 pitchers of beer between us. I did not have that much though and we bowled for a long time, so I was OK to drive back to campus where we all went out to 4 Kegs again. Decent night, we had 8 guys and the others bought a group of 7 girls some shots to celebrate one's 21st birthday. Most of them were from OU or OSU, but I only talked to a couple of them because I'm not interested and we guys were having good discussions to ourselves on the side anyways. Did not get home till around 2 and ate some Jimmy Johns I picked up on the way home because I was starving. Wait...I'd have to not eat for a month to actually be starving but whatever. Hard wake up for Orientation this morning. Couldn't find a single spot in any student lot on south campus, and this is off season for undergrads. OSU Trans and Parking had the gall to sell parking passes to us today at lunch. I don't think so, there's free parking on many streets near campus if you don't mind walking 3-4 blocks. The morning couldn't have been duller with a speech on Honor Code (I'll sum this half hour up for you simply: Students, don't cheat and play nice with fellow classmates.) and Professional Responsibility. Then we split into sections for the first time and had a couple icebreakers yay! I'm totally the only engineer in my section. Cat from Dension (mentioned earlier) was a math major, but nothing else in those 35 people even resembles technical background. Guess that's good news for my future in IP classes. but I still wanted a fellow engineer in my section. Lunch was fantastic and we had a law student activity fair also around this time. I signed up for 15 groups listservs, but obviously I will not be joining most of them. Just seeing what they have to offer, and most don't let first years do much anyways. My most hopefuls were Christian Law Society, Law College Republicans, and Intellectual Property Society. Also signed up for stuff like Law College Democrats (I may not support them but I am interested in seeing the good speakers they bring to campus every year...plus I got to have a fascinating convo with a lefty at the info table) and ACLU which are not neccessarily my bag but worth looking into. The only things I really want to do is work on one of the journals during my last 2 years, so I have to get good grades to apply for those spots. To be honest though, the grades don't bother me at all (except for law journal) because OSU will not kick you out as I said before. Each of our classes is set to a 25% A, 45% B, 26% C, and 4% D for the first year and after that they do a similar system which only changes based on GPA's of people in the class (so a hard course taken only by A-level students will offer a curve of almost all A's and B's) You cannot be kicked out unless you have below a 2.0, which should only apply to maybe 2-3 our of 230. So while I know I will be stressed over the workload, I'm just concerned with doing my best and whatever that is...I'm not going to worry about it. We had a keynote type speaker in Chief Justice Moyer in the afternoon and then wrapped it up with an evaluation. boy does OSU love their evaluations. So a day off tomorrow and class on thursday. Law school, here we come.4 classes thursday. Chances of me being called on (Socratic method)...pretty good. I hope I make it through the first time...that will take the anxiety of this system away I think. Better hit the books hard tomorrow just in case.

Orientation 1

Well I wake up with something important to do for the first time in a while...feels good. Drive down to Moritz and since my pass is good until September (i'm still not planning to buy a new one) I decided to park on campus. I got the second closest C (student) spot to Moritz and moseyed into the building probably looking like everyone else unsure of what they will find inside. Pick up a namebadge and folder of great info...then grab a little contenental breakfast while waiting on stuff to start. Only notable thing was the Dean of the College of Law being the first to make conversation with me while I waited and then finally the Upper Arlington kids showed up, Sam and Cat and another UA guy I did not know yet from last week's get togethers. Cat went to Kenyon in Ohio for undergrad and I told her I had a high school classmate named Aaron go there...she totally hooked up with him when she was there. Small schools I tell ya. Well we finally get moving into the auditorium where to sit together as a group of 5, we had to sit in the front row. Our associate dean introduced us to Moritz first by giving us perspective on what makes up our class, and we come from varied backgrounds and big achievements a plenty. She also gave us the numbers for this year, 25th to 75th percentile for LSAT was 158-164 (I was 164) and GPA was 3.3-3.75. Yawn...what a shocker, the numbers have continued to go up as more people try to get in. We are a class of about 230 I would guess, so 3 of my classes will be around 75 people and 2 of them will be 35 or so. About the same as what I am used to in mech eng. Other morning activities included a talk on surviving law school, a talk on our library and computer lab and building security from the head of that department, and a faculty panel where the only thing of note was how everybody recommends just finding out how you take notes and study best. They give us an outline to follow (make case briefs on the reading before class, take supplementary notes in class, then later reflect on these in the big picture and make a course outlne to study for exams), but they do say just fnd what works for you. Most of the faculty seemed very approachable and I hope that will hold true for professors I really have this semester.
We met with our co-counsels then around lunchtime, split into groups of 10-12 with 2 upperclassmen peers called co-counsels. Anybody who went to undergrad at OSU or similar probably had the same thing there. Just a couple people you can contact for any questions you might have, but not worth much else. We ate lunch outside and chattedmostly about outlines, study habits, and campus parking. Stephen S. was in my group and he is one of the people I have been hanging out with a lot at social events because he is a cool guy in section 1 with me. So we spent most of the time chatting anyways.
The afternoon session was a bit more engaging. On a sidenote, the room was absolutely freezing...I have a high body temp and like it cold but everybody was complaining it was so cold in that auditorium. Better than hot if you ask me. The big afternoon thing was a presentation from Global Lead, a company who sends people out into professional settings to fix teamwork problems in the workplace and talk about diversity and inclusion. So we did a lot of hands on participation stuff talking about diversity/inclusion and different types of brain personalities when we become stressed. Hopefully we gain a little perspective from it and study groups or projects might flow more smoothly if we keep these things in mind. The speakers were very humorous and entertaining, so it was actually a good time. After a short break and checking out my locker (that felt like high school...lol), went to the last activity of the day. A professor lectured us on note taking and he was fairly entertaining with his advice but he did not say anything that was not already intuitive or said before by others.
One interesting thing from today, found out that the bowling league at Moritz is the big time shit. Like 130-150 of the 700 students bowl weekly on Wednesday nights. I believe I will be joining them most likely...but we are bowling tonight as a social event as well. I do hope I can get into bowling again as it is something I miss from high school (I league bowled for 4 years). At least midweek I can blow off some steam that way.
If Kelley were up here, I'd be dragging her to the student panel before bowling tonight. Free dinner and they are talking about life in law school with a partner. I know a couple people going and they are bringing their partner...so I'm not going for 2 reasons. 1. I do not want to be one of the only ones without my partner there. 2. I think the information is probably like all other Orientation info, important but not much more than common sense. I want to relax as well before bowling. Another full day of activity tomorrow with what looks like boring stuff before lunch, student activity fair during lunch, and an afternoon speech from Thomas Moyer the cheif justice of the ohio supreme court. Typical orientation stuff...but hey might as well let you all know what's going on. Have a good evening.

Day and Week Before Law School

Tuesday went with my mom and Kelley to see Phantom of the Opera. Very cool for my first broadway type show, but some of the lyrics and/or dialogue were hard to make out from where we were sitting (I just don't have a trained ear for it yet). Had a nice applebee's meal afterwards, yada yada yada.
Monday through Thursday morning is kind of a blur, just spent time with Kel. I am seriously going to start counting the days till she graduates and can move in. I'm so tired of long distance and not being there every time I should be. One more year...we made it through 2 and a half...we can do one more. And when I go visit her she has her own apartment. Thank you Jesus. Not being able to take a shower (at least most of the time I avoided it) and living in absurdly small quarters done with for her. I'll be happy to see her new place when she moves in early next month. Her loan money and financial aid is not slated to come to her till end of September though, so that seriously sucks for her first month unless something changes. But it was OK spending time together...I just wish we hadn't fought again during and right after the last week we got to pend significant time together. As I said in my other entry though, I'm happier that we are trying to fix all of our problems now instead of letting them become even worse.
Thursday had the choice between poker and XA as I mentioned in my only entry this week. Well I went over to Gateway apartments to play poker because XA is just going to have to take a backseat to my social life in law school. Yeah sorry Jesus see you in 3 years - well you know what I mean. On a sidenote, half our 1L class lives in the Gateway buildings which are brand new this year after 4 years of nothing being there (which stretches back to when even I lived down there for 2 years!). Really nice joints, but absurd on prices. Like 300 more a month than what I spend. I live on the cheap but seriously.... So poker was fun and we had 16 players and quite a few other local Gateway resdents drop by to say hello. Decided to do top 3 payout. I got fourth, seems appropriate. The guys who took 1st and 2nd were decent players, maybe even as good as me but it takes time to read that. 3rd place was a noob, but poker does involve luck :-) It was a nice time chatting over cards and then we went to 4 Kegs. As you might remember the last time I went to 4 Kegs we all got super messed up. Well I had some liquid dope, but it was dollar draft night and I would just rather save money. Besides, there were about 20 law students there and 1 med student (who knows why but whatever Jason is a nice guy) and I wanted to meet all of them appropriately. It is such a blast and I really think I'll have some great friends through these 3 years by the looks of it. We were out until 2 when they kicked us out and then we went back to Gateway to Laura's apartment and watched some TV over some rum and coke. And by rum and coke, I mean rum and rum and rum and coke. Like what my future stepfather-in-law gave my fiancee's best friend for her 21st birthday ;-) Good rum though, and we all finally broke it off around 3:30.
Friday I woke up late surprise surprise, rode the bus downtown to pick up my truck (amen to the foresight of parking on Summit Thursday night where the parking was free and not city permit). Played some xbox and got ready for Friday Night Magic. Now I had been bringing home some subpar performances in these easy tournaments whenever we played standard back in April May, so I decided to run a different deck and just build it right before I left. Well top 3 got prizes and I got 4th on tiebreakers. Seems like a pattern. We drafted afterwards and had fun, I got smashed but everyone agreed I had the best deck and just got unlucky. I don't care as long as I have fun.
Saturday was relaxing. And then I started calling people. 3 hours later...well anyways, Berens and I had not caught up on summer stuff like his new job in NC and my frustrations with my parents (and his with his). Called him and Jon and Heather to tell all my future and past roommates what they owe me by the end of the month when the new lease starts and Tom and Heather move in. Tom decided to stay 4 more days until this Friday instead of coming back Monday. Is this guy made of money...honestly his parents have got to stop paying his rent. And who knows if he's complicated the situation with the girl out there or dropped it, I hope for his sake he dropped it like he said he had to do. It's not like they had anything other than drinks and conversation, they did not do anything stupid. But Tom is prone to this. Oh well not my problem yet. Jon is living it up with his parents and friends down south, so whatever. He is bringing up friends and a pickup or two to take all his big stuff, but not until the 26th (leaving the 27th AKA the last day of our lease). And he said a friend is interestedin the couch, so I cannot get rid of it this week sometime. I'm not hauling it anywhere but outside on the 27th and his friend better come pick that crap up or it's going to the dumpster. I got new furniture coming in the form of Tom and Heather, and his crap is not being stored or moved by me. Unless I have time (which I don't that weekend) and got paid handsomely...we're talking gas AND time invested. No free rides here in Fitzville. Then to top my day off I called Patrice and got ahold of her to fix the caulking around my tub. Tired of water coming off the kitchen ceiling from a shoddy caulking job. So she said they would fix it sometime in the next 2 weeks...get on it. So now you understand 3 hours later.
Mom called that night, got to chat for a while. Then Kelley called and we talked for darn near 2 hours, but we had a lot to discuss. Then Sunday came and I tried to sort out the mess that my Magic cards become over every PTQ season and did not get it all done. Then off to the statehouse for kickball. Yeah the Ohio Statehouse lawn on high street. We played kickball on it, and 60 people showed up. I did stellar just like my childhood. Dropped the only catch I had a chance at and only got on base one out of 3 times I kicked (and got stranded on second of course). We lost the game but not by much, seems like athletic talent in games like kickball is pretty even and bad overall. After an hour we had had our fill and the 2L's running these social events got about half of us to go to Panini's on campus. Nice bar on south but had never been in there (did not care about that scene before I was 21 and that wasn't that long ago). They bought us all kinds of appetizers and I had a buffalo chicken sandwich which was amazing. So much better than BK, hard to believe. Watched the Reds choke a tied game in the eighth to the Brew Crew ending their big win streak, but had many mroe good conversations and starting to gel with the social group a little better. We broke it off around 5:30 after deciding about 7 of us were going to a movie at 7. Well 2 in the group hadn't seen Wedding Crashers and everyone seemed to want to go see it except one guy who wanted to see 4 Brothers. I actually did not really want to see Wedding Crashers again either (great movie but if I'm payin premium price I want to see new stuff) so I joined him for 4 Brothers. Great guy flick, a fair amount of gunfights, violence, and Detroit life. Oh and lots of revenge and murder mystery...good stuff for guys. Mark (the guy who went with me) told me he was really grateful I had came along because he hates going to movies alone...I completely understand because that usually sucks. No brainer, did not want him to feel left out and wanted to see that movie. Then I'm back here just about to call Kelley and catch her up on all this jazz.
Orientation tomorrow...and just like first day of class don't really know what I should wear. Oh well. I'll let you know how it all goes down hopefully tomorrow night after we go out bowling. That's a little more natural social event for me.
On a completely unrelated side note, got offered 2 positions to write a weekly or bi-weekly article this week. One for a major Magic website and another for a college sports site I frequent a lot. turned them both down (only Magic one would've paid well) just because I'd rather focus on something else. Nice to know people would hire me on as a writer, guess I don't suck too badly :-)
Have a great Monday...whatever that means!

Decisions Decisions

Sorry I have not updated yet, Kelley's been up and we've been spending every bit of time together we can since when she leaves this afternoon that's it except for weekends until Christmas. Anyways just wanted to say hello and tell everybody about my decision.
Yesterday someone on my Moritz law yahoo group says "hey I'm going to run a poker game Thursday at 8, who's coming?" And he gets like 8 replies including me saying I'm interested but not sure. Hmmm, I'm wanting to run a monthly poker night this year if we have a solid group of guys so why pass it down? Oh that's right The Law Firm is on tonight at 8. And Chi Alpha worship as usual at 8 on Thursday night. What should I do...
Yeah, I'm playing poker and taping Law Firm for later. I'm a dirty sinner, whatever :-)
PS - There's a link right by this entry I'm writing for Catholic dating, find catholic single people. Wow, is it that hard to find one on any of the major dating sites? Do we need a Catholic only one...does that make it better? I don't understand the internet...

The Cost of Law School

Went shopping today. Well, I have a quick story for you...
First semester law books, some used - $520
Gilbert Law Summaries for each subject and Law Dictionary - $130
Other Supplies like legal pads and planner - $20
State Tax - $45
Total Cost charged to my Visa in one hit - $711.20
The look on my face at the total - PRICELESS
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's my Visa.
God bless law school. I think. Now admittedly, I could've scoured online websites and probably saved 100-150 on the textbooks, but who knows what condition they will show up in? I have the highest recommendations to use Gilbert's summaries, so I figure the 100 dollars will be worth it if it keeps my sanity (and I've looked at them already and they seem to make things make sense better). But still, $711.20? JEEZ! They gave me a big box to carry everythng out to my truck. A box, not bags like usual. Well, my law library has started...

The New Room

Well I worked all day to do it, but I got the room rearranged and everything organized! It's good to work and not sit on my butt all day after all! I hope Kelley likes the way I put the room. The setup from last year was probably the best I could do for things like seeing the TV and stereo everywhere and keeping the bed as far from the staircase as possible (did I mention I have NO DOOR...yeah Tom and Berens have walked in on us at a moment). Now the bed is on the other side of the room, but I built up a bookcase and solid stack of boxes to hide the bed from view until you reach the bottom of the steps, which is technicallly like before except now you see the whole bed. It only matters for that, so I think I can convince Tom and Heather to stay upstairs...maybe I need a signal or something. Anyways, I moved my desk and a bookshelf in the back corner of my room where the bed used to be, so I have a nice seperate study area. No TV will keep me from my studies this year! After my desk area there is a small cheap bookcase with my collection of Hard Rock Cafe bears on it (finally organized and in one place together!)...I have 17 HRC bears in all, from all kinds of places. Then the TV and entertainment center, then the bookshelf and pile of plastic storage boxes seperating the stairway from the room. On the storage side of the room I just cleaned it up a little, getting all of Kelley's stuff back together so she can have it at school when she moves in September. Storage boxes, sports equipment, laundry supplies, suitcases, etc can be found along this wall. To continue the virtual tour, along the other long wall opposite the stairs we have the two alcohol bookcases (where Kel and I keep the bar), then then futon, then some storage boxes acting as bedstand/sidetable, my bed, my two chest of drawers, and then my stand-alone closet is in the corner by the big door out to the backyard. Well that completes our tour!It is nicer because all my clothes are in one place finally, my desk is seperate from the rest of the room, and the living room area (futon and entertainment center) is bigger. I think that's worth giving up the extra second of privacy on the bed location and giving up TV at my desk. Well anyways...Went to Chi Alpha tonight. They have a nice summer setup at JoePo's place. Pastor Jeff revealed the plan for XA's outreach this year (which I was privy to a week ago in our meeting) which is completely different but looks more effective. Instead of doing big group outreaches on the middle of campus, he is changing the small group bible studies to be the main outlet for outreach. Essentially he is doubling the number of small groups to 12-16 (half of them guys groups, half of them girls groups). Then each guys group is paired with a girls group and they choose a freshman dorm to target with outreach all year. All we will do is focus on outreach instead of heavy duty study, which means participation in the small groups will not be as time consuming as last year (thank God!). The other big change is while there will be a small group leader who is responsible for the group, the leadership duties will be shared among the 3 guys or girls who make up the initial small group. So they start with 3 solid Chi Alpha people, join 3 more of the opposite gender, and let there be outreach. Sounds great, but we'll see how it goes. I'm very happy I do not have to lead a group on my own because I told Jeff I would not. He expected this due to my starting grad school and not having as much time (one of the many reasons the small groups have changed like this).My only problem? They have already sketched out groups they think will work together because of diverse personalities or whatnot...and I am currently tabbed to be in a group with two guys named Drew and David. Now this could be worse as there are a few people in XA I just wouldn't work with, but this is not exactly the best 3-some I could dream up. I'm good friends with Drew because he is a fellow engineering student and he will be starting grad school in January, but this guy has the social sense of a rock most of the time. David makes up for this by being the outgoing person in our threesome, but he doesn't buy into the baptized in the spirit business. So we have a social rock, an outgoing person who doesn't seem to care for what XA stands for, and me (who buys into things like spirit baptism but I don't practice it because I really don't care and think my giftings are elsewhere). So who's the leader assuming I don't take it and who's the teacher when we do lead bible studies? LOTS of questions, but of course if we focus mostly on outreach then not much of this matter as I am sure David, Drew, and I can do it. Besides, that's where I want to work in the church...outreach. So an exciting new direction, but I'm keeping wary of the situation I put myself in discussed earlier (not being true to myself, but it's all good with Jeff now). It was nice to worship with them again...as much as we could butt heads, they are my church for now at OSU. Goal 1 for this year: stay away from Jesus-freaks like Ken who don't understand real life and cannot handle the fact that I like drinking from time to time and I am in a sexual relationship. I mean Jeff was Ok with it and Pastor Steve was REALLY ok with it (explaining that 100% of his pre-marital counseling couples he has ever had have not been abstinent before marriage...and he thinks it is ok in a committed relationship like an engaged couple). I love my pastors...at least they understand. Enough serious talk for the evening though.Got my Seafarers of Catan and 5-6 player expansions for Settlers and Seafarers in the mail today, call it a birthday present for my sanity. soemtimes I am going to have to take a break from school and socialize, so hopefully I can get some Seafarers in from time to time. Going book shopping tomorrow, looking to drop over 500 on all my books for the semester and some outlines/guides to help me understand the material better. Then tomorrow night I have a choice between FNM and beer. Hooray beer!

Prepping for School and PTQ

Well did not expect where today went, but hey whatever. woke up and watched some Star Trek (totally binging before law school). Once I caught up on email and chatted with Dad on AIM, I checked the mail and had an interesting situation. Our power company did not shift the account into my name in time, so I get a bill for my old roommate's account for 30 cents for 2 days of electric. 30 cents....I have to put a stamp on that and send in a check, totally not worth it. And they also wanted me to drive all the way across town to pay a security deposit of 120 dollars on my new account because I have no credit history. What? So I call them up and sort it out so that I can send in one check for both and save the drive across town and the hassle of writing a check for 30 cents. Called Shep and working with him to see if he wants to come up this weekend to hang out before we go to the Pro Tour qualifier in Cleveland on Sunday. Totally the next to last PTQ this season for me...there's at least one local every other weekend till the end of August, but I'm only going to the Columbus one after this because I really don't care as much. they moved the date of the Pro Tour off my fall break from law school, so it would be really hard to go now. I'm totally playing a new deck that is good but I;ve never really played...let's go luck! Got ahold of Heather and arranged to go over there and pick up my cards that Tom forgot to give back before he left for Germany again this week.
Went book shopping, found out 2 of the 4 bookstores OSU recommends for law don't carry law textbooks. Thanks OSU. Another one is in the middle of moving and will not be open again for a week, so that leaves one store. Wow, what choices. If I buy all the guide/outlines as well as the books it will be a pretty penny, but I figure I might as well try to start right. They did not have all the books in (still getting boxes of used books today through the end of the week for us), so I'll go book shopping for real Friday. I went to Goodwill and Target looking for a coffee table, no luck. Then Burton calls and invites me out to Guardtower to playtest with Mike and another guy. I decide to go because it is free fun and socializing and I can always rearrange my room tomorrow. So that's been pushed back. Fun times tonight, much better than sitting at home being lonely. considering Kelley has not called or messaged me for 3 days I am indeed feeling a bit lonely. I cannot wait until next year when she can hopefully move in with me and we can finally not be apart for a whole year anymore.
Well gotta eat dinner. At midnight...so healthy! Probably outta get used to it.

Random Nothingness

See my last two entries for some real stuff, but just thought I'd update on this wonderful day. Started re-doing my room and will be organizing everything from CD's to game systems to clothes. I really did not do much today because I just planned it out for real and figured out if everything will work where it is. Kelley expressed doubt when I first mentioned it to her, but I think she will like it. If she realy hates it I will be able to move a couple of big items to get the bed back where it was and everything would be OK I am certain. But it's no big deal...like I said, I think we'll both like the change. I'm the only person who has to live in it...and I just want to feel a little different.
OK so went over to Pastor Jeff's house tonight after his kids went to bed (like 8 PM so early) and played cards with Adam and ESM and him. ESM and I have really hit it off and I seem to have another friend now who could be a really good friend. He's not a Jesus freak either, which some people in Chi Alpha are. Sorry to put it that way, but that's what it is. Anyways, we played poker (some dealer's choice then switched to all HoldEm) and I got second to a guy who absolutely killed me despite my good play. Some nights the cards don't like you lol. The first time the flop came up 4-4-Q and I have 4-J. Yay for the three of a kind with a high kicker...I bet heavy, Adam calls. Two rags come up and I'm still betting somewhat heavy, almost putting him all in and me 60-65% in...he beat me with 4-A. OK fine. Then the final hand he has me outnumbered in chips about 8-1 still, and I have 7-K. Flop comes up K-J-2. I go all in to protect my high pair, he calls and has K-J. Whatever....beginner's luck. He folded A-K suited against me pre-flop when I bet heavy with pocket 6-6...I'm sure he will learn but he definitely had the unbeatable cards tonight. We played some Euchre and Jeff and I smoked Adam and ESM, then it was time to go home. Which brings me to now. So maybe I go shower and watch some TNG and have a snack or two before I pass out. Tomorrow, I change my room. Talk to you later!

Upcoming Moritz Stuff

Interesting day as far as school year is going. Final Orientation schedule and social events posted last week. We have been discussing everything under the sun (first year OSU students) at a yahoo group, so at least some of us are networking already. Today they posted our class schedule...let's see if we cant get it...
Well since I cannot figure out pictures on here, guess we will have to settle for this:
All classes are 50 minutes long except Torts which is 1:10 long
MONDAY: Legal Research at 10, Civil Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
TUESDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civ Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
WEDNESDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civil Procedure at 1, Torts at 2
THURSDAY: Contracts at 9, Criminal Law at 11, Civil Procedure at 1, Legal Research at 2
FRIDAY: Criminal Law at 11
Not too bad, but 4 classes on 3 straight days is pretty killer. At least there are sanity breaks (or lunch breaks) there on every day. And no BS of classes before 9 or after 5 either...very nice. The class is split into 6 equal sections (guessing 35-40 ppl per section) which take classes together. For our section 1, Torts and Legal Research is just our section, but we take Civ Pro, Crim Law, and Contracts with Section 2 in a bigger class setting. Shouldn't be too far off what I was used to in mechanical engineering, so I'm happy to hear that. Also got fees squared away (no overpriced OSU insurance thanks...got my own) and hopefully my loan money shows up soon so they are not billing me late fees for not paying on time. Everything else is pretty mundane, but this is a start. Also got a book list, so maybe I'll go check those out tomorrow. Today, I think I'm going to rearrange my room. Kind of like re-moving in but this also motivates me to reorganize a lot of stuff like clothes which never get reorganized. Please leave a note...let me know you're all still alive out there.
As always, looking forward to that first awkward moment of being called on in law school,

What Happened in July

Good question...let's see if I can remember...
Came back to Columbus after Florida trip. Origins was OK, but a fight with Kelley (1. I was inconsiderate during an event at Origins...wow what a shocker AND 2. we are over it and so don't worry about it) and a terrible set of exhibitors this year made it less satisfying than usual. Highlights included making Dealer's Choice poker tournament semifinals for the fourth consecutive year and top-4 in a 2 Headed Giant event with Shep. Found a great new game called Palabra, and if you like Scrabble or poker at all (or not really) you should go check out this game. Also bought Settlers of Catan which I am now addicted to, if only I could find others to play with lol.
Next up was the Iowa trip. Not much to speak of here as overall it was an OK trip. Having Yvonne there this summer while she waits to go home to Malaysia in August was great, as more people our age is always a good thing. We founnd the only adult shops in CR and there are only 2 small ones owned by the same family. I hear it is something about the "not in our backyard" people. C'mon, it's just porn. Get a grip people. Anyways, biggest news from the family was my new cousin Lucas Nelson. I am so happy for my closest aunt and uncle as they have been waiting a long time on the adoption list for this opportunity, and it is nice to have another boy in the family (the grand total is now 6 girls and 3 boys...much improved from the 5-1 ratio from 5 years ago). The second biggest news was my only older cousin Jackie going back to college, serving up her husband with divorce papers, and moving on with life. This is really good news for everyone who knows her. Got to go out on the boat with Kelley and my grandparents one day as well. I caught my first fish since early high school, but I haven't been trying all that much to be honest. And just when the trip seemed to be coming to an acceptable close, there comes the last two days which ruin the whole trip. Let's start with the family talk. My Dad and stepmom want to sit down and discuss co-signing a loan for next year at law school (they are the only relatives who have the credit and can do it for me). Let's just say I got grilled not only on the loan, but also on life insurance, our life plan (including kids and careers and retirement), the wedding (why did you pick the date? 2007 doesn't make sense. The wedding is too big. Don't expect help from your grandfather, etc.), and everything else which came to mind. They are so psycho, they are taking out a life insurance policy on me for the amount of loan they are co-signing on. We are only talking 18,000 total over the next 3 years. The life plan and wedding was the worst though, because Kelley is sitting on the couch not 15 feet from this discussion and is apparently not welcome to join in. Well sorry Dad, but you have to come to terms with the fact that Kelley and I are a unit now. A package deal. He did not say it to me, but I figured this all out after Kelley and I talked to my Mom about the situation the next week. My Dad is like the rest of my family in that they are really adept at alienating in-laws. I mean there is a serious pattern of this. But anyways, the discussion did not go well as I felt lambasted for things I should not be criticized for and Kelley was just cast aside in a discussion that obviosuly should involve her. PARENTS ARGH! But they did agree to co-sign the loan, so I guess there's one plus.
The next day my Dad went over the top as well. Before the kids had swimming I decided to play a game with them as I really had not done a lot with them over the two weeks due to busy schedules of theirs (not my fault). We decide to play Horseopoly and the kids ask Kelley to come play as well. My Dad says, "No this is sibling time, Kelley is going to play a game with us (meaning Yvonne and him)." Ummm thanks for asking her opinion there champ. So we play the games. Then off to Rick and Mary's for one final game night before we leave town. We play Rage. Then Dad insists on playing communal deck Magic, which would be fun for 4 of us but hell for Yvonne and Kelley. To put it shortly, my Dad completely steamrolled Yvonne and Kelley into playing this game instead of listening to the fact that they both hated the game and had no interest in playing. Anyways, I decide to help Kelley and she ends up winning the table over my Dad once it gets down to 2, so I took a little vindictive pleasure in that. Did not make Kelley feel any better of course but how could she feel good about that situation. Well, Dad is just totally going to have to accept that we come as a package now and my life doesn't revolve around spending time with my siblings playing games anymore. I had more fun going to CR bars for the first time with Yvonne and Kelley than I did with my siblings. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with them but I don't want it forced on me with a guilt trip if I don't.
So came back to my Mom's for a week and spent half my time there, half my time at Kelley's grandparents. Nice relaxing week. Kelley is really enjoying tennis and so we finally have a lifetime sport (bowling doesn't count) we can play together. It is a lot of fun even though she gets angry about not playing well. It took me 2 years of dedicated playing to just get decent, so I understand her frsutrations but tell her to be patient all the same. Kelley also got junior standing in school and will graduate this upcoming year, so that is great news for us. Don't know if she will be living with me next year but I hope so. We had a gaming night at Shep's when Kelley had band practice and I got the guys hooked on Settlers lol. Came back up to Columbus for a PTQ that weekend. Started 4-0 and choked, finishing 4-1-2. Third straight PTQ I missed top 8 despite being in contention in the final round...very frsutrating. I also got disqualified from the event for bribery/cheating in the last round, but it did not matter as we both got knocked out by our draw anyways. Rib fesitval in Columbus made me feel a lot better afterwards, and two nights of gaming at Villa's house was cool that weekend too. A couple guys in the group bought me a couple beers to get over the DQ and everything at the PTQ...thanks for your consideration guys. Kelley came up after church on Sunday and we spent the whole last week of July relaxing in C-Bus. Wednesday we went out to 4 Kegs with Tom and we all got trashed on Liquid Dope. This stuff comes by the personal pitcher (I'm guessing 60-80 ounces) and contains Gin, Vodka, Clear Rum, Cherry Brandy, Blueberry Brandy, Peach Brandy, 2 other kinds of liqour, topped with a little bit or Grenadine and a slightly larger amount of OJ. One makes you drunk, two makes you sick. Well we all had 2. I hold liquor pretty well so I did not get sick but I know Kelley did. I unfortunately caught a fever the next day and have been sick (mostly just stuffy sinuses since Friday) ever since. Lucky me. Kelley went home Friday and is at band camp this week. Which means I am all by myself. Hello Xbox...missed your time-wasting goodness. Well that's July.