Playing Four Corners of Ohio

The latter half of my fall break was spent playing four corners with the state of Ohio. Let me explain.

Callback number 7 (Wood Herron Evans) was on Thursday in Cincinnati OH (CORNER ONE, the SW corner). The firm is a good sized boutique, rare in Ohio for sure. The personalities were interesting, and I got to meet a good mix of attorneys. I do not know if I want to end up in that city, but the firm was nice and I on this day realize I really want to work for a boutique or a firm that was a boutique but added a corporate practice just to keep up. So the Louisville firm has a serious knock in it now, but oh well. I drove down in the morning and drove back in the afternoon, was alone with Chip the new dog since Kelley was at choir until late and brought Zach up to our apartment to watch the dog over the weekend. A decent trip, and we will see what they will say.

Woke up dark and early (5:00 AM) on Friday to drive to Troy MI, a suburb north of Detroit for Callback #8 (Harness Dickey). I drove through Toledo OH, the NW and CORNER TWO of Ohio. This is another nice IP boutique, and they seem a little more uptight or professional than all the other firms I have visited. Even being 20 miles from downtown Detroit, the location is not the best. At least there is no BS commute into a high0rise of a big city though, so that’s a big plus. This firm sits in the middle of all my other firms I would not put at number 1, but I would accept a job offer from (and would be happy if they were my only offer). This firm seems a lot more dedicated toward a good summer experience, and I like that the firm goes out to lunch together every Friday.

Kelley got lost in northern suburbs shopping, so we went to the hotel and checked in at the Drury. Nice hotels, lots of extras like free bar drinks every evening and free popcorn and pop all afternoon and evening. We chilled in the hot tub and pool for an hour, then caught up on a little sleep before going out for the evening. We shopped for warm clothes and alcohol for tailgating the next day, went out to dinner at Outback, saw the area in general, then went down to Greektown Casino in downtown Detroit for a nightcap. We had never been to a real casino, so this was new for us. Table games are so expensive, so going to have to wait until I make bigger bucks to play in these casinos. The slots were plentiful and fun though, and we did play one table game I just had to try (War). What a simple silly game, but mildly entertaining anyways.

Saturday morning we started slowly and got on the road for East Lansing, about a 90-minute drive up the road. We get there and manage to find a parking garage not too busy (we just beat the rush). We bundle up, get our coke and rum ready, and go walking around to find the Buckeye Bob tailgate. Took us about a mile of walking some in the wrong direction and a hour, but we find the tailgate right when the fries and steak are coming off the burners…so yummy stuff not missed. Good sized group of us there, and Kelley and I downed a half bottle (BIG BOTTLE) of Bacardi and coke together in the course of an hour there and an hour back at the car. Finally stumble into the game around halftime, sit in the MSU band section while they are on the field, get kicked out up to our upper deck seats for the second half. A little chilly up there due to wind, but not crowded because a lot of MSU fans left at halftime since they were already down 24-0. I personally needed to get plastered in the middle of the law school term after being done with interviews and so on, so I am not sorry about missing what must have been a boring first half (barring Teddy’s punt return for TD). OSU goes on to win, I go on to get sober, and we hit the road for home again. We drove through Cleveland OH (The NE CORNER, or CORNER #3) on the way to Marietta.

Sunday I woke up around noon right before Kelley got home from church and watched TV with her stepfather for a while. We chilled in Marietta for a while (CORNER 4, the SE CORNER) on Sunday, then finally went back up to Columbus to do some grocery shopping and let Zach finally go home. Chip was happy to see us, and we were happy to see him except for him tearing up the blinds in our room. The end of a long but good relaxing weekend and fall break, and while I was not quite ready to go back to class…Monday calls.

The first day back in class was not too shabby. Shipman has had good lectures and good reading assignments…starting to feel like accounting is a good class. I’m totally just reading the nutshell guide and outlining the course at the end of the semester based on that and the HW problems. Tax was rather boring, but patent law was actually engaging for the first time since the first week of class (because we were doing sample exam or patent bar questions on the unit we just finished). Went out with Dan after class and caught up on fall break stuff (and there was some serious stuff). Seems like the job search for everybody other than Jonathan and I has slowed down and not many people are walking around with offers. I know I have the most callbacks to hear from in my group of friends, so I would hope my optimism that I will get 2-3 offers is not misplaced. Think I’m calling Dallas this afternoon to see if they held their meeting and to see where I stand since it has been quite some time. Going out to dinner at Quaker Steak tonight with brother-in-law and fiancée this evening, as it is wing night.

The ACC-Check does not look so bad this time around, a little shorter. Time to get back to that and perhaps revising my AA brief for oral argument season.
Oh one more note while I am thinking about it. I for the first time in six years, completely disagree with the President and I am very unhappy with his actions. Not about the war or anything like that, but the port security bill he signed into law last Friday which tries to kill online gambling for US citizens by blocking bank and credit card transfers from US banks to gambling websites. Now I know my site has already in place a work-around (UltimateBet), but how long before some goon in the US Attorney General’s office goes after these big boys? I have enough money on there that I do not have to reload anytime soon and so I should be able to keep playing casually…but sneaking this overbroad and ridiculous legislation in a security bill republicans in Congress and the President are forced to pass politically is WRONG. I have no problem if the government wants to regulate these online casinos like the offline ones, as I am one of millions of players willing to pay reasonable taxes on deposits…but to try and quash them completely is an impediment to freedom in this country. I know some of my readers will completely disagree with me here, but most of my readers will be happy to see me finally upset with Prez W over something.