Happy New Year

Let's face it everyone. There's nothing better than my entries concerning moot court competition weekends. But alas, I've heard from many quarters many times over that it is just time to move on. So where to start...lots of fun in two months to report. After finishing up moot court duties, it was time to turn right into exam preparations. I had fallen behind in reading in some classes which is the first time that it had happened in law school, so I did not know how cramming would go. Spent about 8 hours preparing an outline for the back of my Sales supplement, and really could not see wasting more time on the exam. I have been brutally honest on professor evaluations ever since I got sick of them third year of engineering at OSU (the law ones are the same), but I've never written anything so mean as I did to Creola Johnson. To reflect my true feelings on the class, I wrote "taking this class makes me wish I left learning Sales to Bar/Bri." I could not sum up my feelings better. Although I still kind of dislike Professor Crandall for quitting on his class and giving us an unfair final exam, I have to give him credit for teaching us the UCC way more than a normal contracts professor. Sales ended up being a waste of time in part thanks to him. The Sales exam was a 75 question multiple choice test, with an extra essay question "optional." It was not very optional as I think everybody but one person in the class took the essay. Professor Johnson only reads your essay if you are borderline A/B or B/C or if you've failed...but everything in law is a gray area so you never really know how well you will do on a multiple choice test. She says she tests this way to prepare you for the bar (a portion of which is multiple choice), but I just call it lazy. Not only is the teaching in the class simply reading the answers to textbook problems, but then exams are not even graded by her...it makes me question what she gets paid for on some level. I know she's probably great in Consumer Protection law, but for Sales it's just bad. I got through 73 of the 75 questions on the multiple choice, which was farther than most people I talked to. I figured I would do OK in there, but it really could be anything from a high A to a C.

The next exam on deck was Securities a week later. I worked the two days following the Sales exam because money around Christmas-time was a little tight (and to get away from exam stress), which left me only 4 days to prep for the exam. It does not make sense to me how we learn probably more than 10 times as much information in one 3 credit hour class (Securities) as we do in another 3 credit hour class (Sales). I had another study break on the Saturday before the exam for my first Magic tournament since Regionals 2007 in June. The format was Lorwyn limited and the PTQ was for a Pro Tour in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, which would've been awesome because I could have seen family over there. Still, I did not really study the format and the Marietta boys (Shep, Joey, etc.) had been going to a few PTQ's before this one and knew the format much better. Still, I managed to start 4-0 before running into a couple of buzzsaw decks that my mediocre card pile could not hold up to. The highlight was my first ever feature match against the 2006 Ohio state champ and 2007 state runner-up in Round 1, who I bashed 2-0. I played two people who ended up in the Top 8, so it was a better than expected performance and a nice study break. I left after 6 rounds instead of playing it out to drive home in the foot of snow that had fallen in 2-3 hours that afternoon and study some more. Aaron, Derek, Dom, and I got together for a little study group on Sunday, but it only lasted a couple hours since Derek and I needed to outline the second half of the class still. I spent the rest of Sunday doing just that. The exam was about as expected with a few in-depth essay questions touching on some major themes in the course. Professor Rose's policy question I did not really get into, so I figured that would sabotage my grade...he said he values consistency over 3 goods answers and one incomplete answer (which is exactly what I delivered...sigh).

I had one day to prep for International IP law, but that did not seem problematic as we covered even less than we did in Trademark and Copyright, and I know how to study for a Lee exam quickly. Everything seemed straightforward, and doing a lot of practical international patent work at WHE helped during the semester to reinforce what we learned. The exam was typical Lee, some short answers that were very easy and an essay which was long, involved, and tough to finish for a methodical thinker/slow typer. I had a great answer outlined in my head, but just like Securities, I could not quite get it all out before time was up. I figured I did OK, but no better than Copyright and Trademark (both low A's). At least exams were over, and only one more semester to go. Worked for another couple of days and on Saturday, it was off to Iowa for Christmas.

Another interesting thing during finals was getting new phones. We shopped around at T-Mobile and Verizon before settling on staying with AT&T. Kelley got her Blackberry Pearl she's been coveting and I got a Blackberry Pearl. It's really not much bigger than the Pearl, and it has a full QWERTY keyboard to make texting easier. I highly recommend it even after a month, and the Blackberry internet service was a life-saver in the internet wasteland that is visiting our families at Christmas. Yes, there are people not connected to the internet...and we're related to them.

My Dad called early in the week to ask if we could drive out on Friday instead of Saturday since Iowa was under a winter storm warning for Saturday. Unlike Ohio, in Iowa a winter storm warning is a big deal. We could not change the plans, so we drove on Saturday and hit nothing but clouds and rain until a few miles into Iowa. It literally turned from rain to snow in a little under a minute of driving, and the effect was dramatic. We stopped for dinner and new wiper blades at Coralville mall just outside Iowa City, and in the hour we were stopped...the roads went from clear to nearly impassable. I drove the rest of the way to my Dad's, and it took forever due to the road conditions. It snowed all night so we likely made it just in time. The next day we were supposed to go to Grandpa Norm's, but the snow was blowing with the steady 30 MPH winds and drifitng over the roads quicker than it could be dealt with...so the family gathering and church was cancelled the next day. Kelley and I ended up staying just at Dad's the entire 3 days we were there with the exception of one escape to Wal-mart and Half Price Books for cold medicine. The siblings are doing well, and they absolutely LOVED the Wii. Kelley and I are thinking we'll try to get Dad and Patti to go in with us on a Wii gift for the siblings next year. Nevertheless, it was fun watching them play Warioware and Guitar Hero. The roads were finally clear enough on Christmas Day and the plans to have people over to my Dad's got the whole family out for games and a big dinner. Nothing special to speak of, but it's always good to see the Iowa family and sit around the Fitzgerald game table. That reminds me, we need to track down a copy of Tribond. As for Christmas, we got the usual gift cards from the Iowa family. Moving on...

Cleaning out the Cavalier was fun thanks to the snow. Those 30 MPH winds I was referring to, completely packed the car with snow so that I had to dig the wheels out from the undercarriage and opened the hood to find no engine, just a bed of packed snow with an engine hidden somewhere inside. Still, we got on the road to Ohio the day after Christmas to continue our busy week. We started at Kathy's place (mother-in-law), and had a fun evening with the 4 dogs all trying to find purchase on one little full sized bed with Kelley and I. Thank God for the nighttime cold medicine to knock us out. Kathy and Bruce always get tools for me for Christmas, and this year was no exception. Got myself a power drill and a craftsman jack and jack stands for a car. Kelley also got me a nifty four bottle liquor shot dispenser that will go well in the future bar. Next it was my grandparents in New Matamoras, and we had a nice afternoon with some snacks and discussion with them. Left with some more stuff from the auctions/sales they go to all the time as well as our Christmas present (hand-made placemats). Then it was off to Kelley's Dad's and grandparents' house. Got the usual lot of nice house stuff from them, the big present being a wine cooler that now resides downstairs in our apartment as a shortcut to going upstairs :-) The final stop on our whirlwind tour was my Mom's place, which was more fun than last year when the weddings abd fallout were still a raw wound. Mom and Steve seem to be doing well, and it was nice to see my old cat Muffin again...I swear Siamese cats refuse to die for like 20 years. Muffin was one day from being put down at the vet's this year, but is now recovered. My Mom actually gets us some fun gifts which is a nice alternative after getting house stuff and tools and gift cards all week (balance is good). The truck was stuffed full to the brim when we made our trek back to Columbus a week after starting for Iowa.

It was nice to be home, and I decided to take the whole next week off from work to relax and detox from life basically. We had a small New Year's get together where we played non-poker games such as Dirty Minds, Trivial Pursuit, and Apples to Apples. Also hammered through the last of the final reads for JDR Issue 1 (way overdue, but oh well). Then it was time to go back to the routine of school 3 days a week, work 2 days a week, and weekend days. We had another small party for the OSU-LSU game, which obviously was about as exciting as last year's National Title game. What I find funny is how people have lost perspective and forget how awful it was to lost to Michigan basically every year and almost every bowl game under John Cooper. Now we get 5 BCS bowls (3 title games) and a 6-1 record in 7 years against Michigan, and sportswriters and other Columbus geniuses want to run Tressel out for not being good enough to win the big one. I've never seen so much whining about losing a game we really should not have been in, but in this crazy season a rebuilding Buckeye squad was just as good as most teams. LSU was just better, and thanks to all the juniors coming back the Bucks will have another good chance in 2008. That September road trip to LA against USC will be titanic!

Also went to see the basketball Buckeyes with Mom and Steve, and they are doing decent for how young they are. The Northwestern game we went to was a joke, as the Buckeyes played like crap all game and still had so much more talent than Northwestern to win by 11. We'll see if the basketball Buckeyes can continue the Big Ten title streaks the football and basketball teams have put up lately. It's a great time to be a Buckeye, even if we cannot win national title games against SEC teams. Oh, and for the record, anybody who thinks the SEC is faster than the Big Ten...please put the tape in of the LSU game and watch Beanie Wells burn the whole LSU defense in the first quarter. Now if Tressel can get Terrelle Pryor away from Rich Rod and UM, we'll be set for years.

Work has been about normal, with more international appeal briefs and office action responses. Also got to supervise a meeting with opposing counsel in a document review for a litigation, so it was nice to do that. I defnitely get most of my work from my mentor now, so I'll probably get really good at bedding systems and mechanical processes to make storage systems. I realize why they brought in 5 new associates last year and at least Jim and I this year...they promoted 4 associates to partner this year at the Holiday party. In a firm of 45 attorneys, that's a big swing. All the new associates passed the bar exam, so hopefully Jim and I will have the same success this year.

The new class schedule is nice a breezy-easy. Most of my friends seem to be loaded up, but then they did not all do the full-on moot court and journal together run that got me 10 credit hours. I only need 9 more credit hours, so I managed to only take 3 classes: Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure II (both with Greenbaum), and Wills (B. Johnson). Both professors are pretty entertaining, and both go methodically through the material. Not too much reading to do, and the subject material in the classes is not too bad. Should give me plenty of time to do JDR stuff to finally get some issues published and also time to relax that will not exist this summer thank to the bar exam. Signed up for Bar/Bri with the DVD upgrade last week, and starting to look at the Ohio bar exam application to take the exam (not to be confused with the ridiculous character and fitness application). So I'm planning on working 5 weeks after Hooding and then taking 8 weeks off. 6 to study for the bar, 1 for the bar exam itself, and 1 for vacation with the in-laws in North Carolina to unwind from the bar on the beach with beer and sunshine. There might be a little overlap from BarBri and the last couple weeks of work, so I'll have the DVD's just in case. It should be a real fun couple of months. But for now, the classes are easy.

Got grades finally this week, and ended up about exactly on my average for the semester. Managed somehow to get low A's in Securities and Sales, so I kept the "no-C" streak going. The seminar grade was no surprise, and I did get a pleasant surprise in International IP by getting a CALI. This is my fourth CALI (Legal Writing, App Ad, and Federal Income Tax being the others), and finally I get a super grade in my practice area! All in all, another successful semester at Moritz, made even sweeter by the fact that it all does not matter anymore. I guess I'll have a chance at top 5-10% at graduation, which would be cool. Law school is definitely a hard challenge academically, but our class is finally within breathing range of being done with it. That will be a sweet feeling.

Finished up the publishing files for Issue 1 this weekend for JDR, and that feels like a big accomplishment. It hopefully will be all downhill from here as nothing could be as bad as symposium articles. Plus, Issue 2 has my own Note in it...so I have a little special motivation to make that issue a good clean one. About a month from now we'll finally have replacements picked from the staff for next year, and then I can share how much fun it is to be exec ed with a poor 2L! Also went to a Magic pre-release this past weekend with Shep to play some 2HG team Magic...Villa and Burton (also retired from the game) also played, and we all stunk it up but had fun doing it. Got home in time to watch both NFL conference championship games go opposite how I wanted them to...damn you New York Giants!

Bowling started this past week, and MFR (now called Well Hung Jury) will make one more grab for the title. We started with a solid 2-1 against Aaron and Chad's team...and we may have a lump or two in the coming weeks due to minor sandbagging at best. I've averaged over 150 with the new bowling ball which actually hooks, and it looks like I'll be able to be more successful without throwing my arm out of whack like I did with the old ball.

Well now comes the juicy part of my entry...there are three things more I'd like to write about but the fun one where I bitch out things in the world I hate (Al Sharpton, Global Warming, and the WGA strike included) will have to wait for another entry if ever.

So first we'll have the bad news. Finally figured out why Tom and Heather basically cut all their friends off from contact including us since September. Turns out Tom cheated on Heather and there are some tough consequences he has to face. It's really unbelievable, but he's really remorseful and I don't think he'll make the same fuck-up again...whether Heather stays with him or they move on to other people. It makes me happy to be in such a stable relationship where I don't have to deal with life ruining crap like that. He'll make it, but it's a tough time. He also finally quit Magic and I'm selling his cards on ebay for him. but that's enough of the bad news...

The good news is absolutely awesome. I'm sure it will take some of you by surprise, and others may already have guessed what it is. Kelley and I found out this past weekend that we will be parents in about September 2008. Kelley has had baby fever for years, so it's a very exciting time. It's almost perfect timing as well since a month and a half after the bar exam gives us some leeway for early deliveries without me having to miss it for the bar exam or something crazy like that. So in the course of 2008, I will go from student and newly married to working man and father. It should be a great and interesting year with all the changes.

That's all I got for you for now. I need to get the six hours of sleep I've left myself to function on a Tuesday at Moritz. We'll see you around, and I promise more frequent entries with all this time I have. After all, one cannot look at JDR articles all day!