Divided Sky, the Wind Blows High

really? really?!

2011-11-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

So, I woke up a little late today to head to work and as I am riding my bike down 14th Street to work, I get to 14th and Church Street then BOOM! Car turns left to go down Church and runs right the fuck into me. I don't remember where he hit me, exactly how he hit me, how I fell, nothing. The only thing I remember is as I was falling I made sure not to hit a girl who was crossing the street in front of me because inevitably I would have crushed her. The guy stopped and was old as shit. I pulled a cop over and tried to get a report but apparently when there's not injuries immediately after a car hits a bike they don't do a report. Well, I wasn't in pain or anything right after it happened but by 11:30 I was in a great deal of pain. So, I ended up spending from 11:30 or so until about 5:15 at the GW Hospital. They did tests and took x-rays and a CT scan of my hip. Thankfully nothing was broken but man am I in a good deal of pain. The percocet they gave me helped a great deal but I'm still hella sore and just tired now.

Thankfully, Stephanie decided against going to work today after I told her I got hit by a car and she spent the entire day in the hospital with me. She really is awesome. Everything is sore and I hope nothing pops up later. I called the police officer who was on the scene to file a report since I was in fact injured so that I can start the ball rolling on getting the guy's insurance to take care of everything instead of mine. I have to take my bike to get checked out and repaired if anything is damaged on it. Hopefully everything will be alright but I am definitely having him pay for everything that happened because I am in a great deal of pain.

As for other things, I went and saw moe. at the 9:30 Club last Friday and Saturday and it was awesome. Now, for today's song considering the accident this morning, I am choosing "Cars, Trucks and Buses" from Billy Breathes.

back, jack, and do it again

2011-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

Alright, slight change from the last post regarding the bar exam. The fact that I didn't pass isn't the change but I have decided to take Maryland in February instead of New York. I had lofty goals of passing New York and being pretty much set for the rest of my life no matter where I wanted to live but now I am going to think on the micro level instead of the macro and I am going to simply take a bar that I should be able to pass no problem after putting in the study time. I just need to get barred somewhere and I can make decisions after that about whether or not I take New York again in the future. I want to beat that test, I really do. But alas it may not come to be.

I really just want this bar exam business behind me forever, and hopefully come this spring it will be. Onto more pleasant news. Girl I'm seeing is good, that whole situation is going well, I'm certainly enjoying myself. Hockey is going pretty well, that's also nice, it's fun to get out there and skate. The bar exam was nothing but a minor setback and I will overcome, even though it felt like the biggest deal in the world.

Studying again, though, becomes a weight on me that I didn't want to have to bear again but I can also deal with that and rise above. So, since it is a somewhat obnoxious burden I have to carry with me for the time being, today's song will be "Heavy Things", because I think it is appropriate.

balls

2011-11-02T11:49:00.001-07:00

Failed the bar. Sad. Get to go back up to NY in February to do it all over again. At least this time I have 4 months to prepare for it instead of trying to cram my brain full of all that information in just 2. I was close, but not close enough.

good gravy it's been a while

2011-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

So, let's just say a lot has happened in the past 6 months or so since I last posted on here. First, Bin Laden was killed, that was kind of a big one. Then, I went to New Orleans for a week to work with the Orleans Parish Public Defender's office. That was definitely cool but also resulted in me drinking for 13 straight days (one shy of the 14 day club but I thought I might come home with cyrrhosis if I kept going). I graduated from law school and then spent the next 2 months studying for the bar. Which was as awful if not worse than what everyone had said. My life in terms of the ladies has taken a number of twists and turns in the last 6 months. And quite honestly has been a bit ridiculous to say the least, but that's for another time. The bar was awful, it was the worst two days of my life and I am certain I failed it and will be taking it again come February. I really hope I don't have to, but if I were a betting man I would put money on it that I'll be back in freaking Buffalo at the end of February.

I started back to work at L&G in September and apparently, according to payroll, my new title is Staff Attorney. I don't really know what that means exactly but I'm getting paid double what I was as a law student law clerk but that's still jack compared to what I should be making now that I'm graduated. But, you know what, I can't really complain because a lot of my friends have no job and whether I like mine or not it's sad but having a job period is somewhat of a luxury. Anyway, at least I will be able to pay my rent, pay my student loans (slowly) and hopefully get myself a car. That's the plan right now anyway.

So I know that summing up 6 months in a few short paragraphs is a bit difficult to do at times. I've done a few things in that time, but most of the time was spent studying for or taking the bar, so this really is pretty much all I did for half of those 6 months. Went to 3 Phish shows, that was pretty awesome and I put in my ticket request for the December 30 and December 31 shows in NYC at MSG, so we'll see if I get one. I'll go on my own if I have to.

Cougar Patrol summer hockey season came and went, we went 10-1 and lost in the championship game. I was not pleased. Winter season has started already and we are 1-1 currently. Fun group of people to play with at least and we're tentatively planning to play in the Vegas tourney next May and kick it up a notch from the AC tourney this year.

Going back to concerts, I get to see Keller Williams on Saturday at the 9:30 Club and then next month i will be seeing moe. on back to back nights at the 9:30 Club. Awesome. I saw Yeasayer there in June and then just went with a buddy from law school to see a metal show there a couple weeks ago, definitely not my wheelhouse of a show, but still fun.

I think I will end this with a short discussion of how the lady situation has progressed from April on. So, I went to the birthday party and then ended up in Bethesda. I was definitely into that girl but she moved back to Boston and has a boyfriend and that just didn't happen. Sadness abounded. Then in June I was busy going after 3 girls at once. That was expensive and exhausting. On a side note, the one girl was in NOLA with me and was nice and a 1L at Catholic and apparently thought we were dating or something according to what I was told by someone else who was on the NOLA trip with us and all I could think of was the HIMYM episode with Katy Perry where she would say something and everyone just wanted to say "Oh, honey..." Anyway, that ended at the end of June and then I convinved a girl (by a text message from another girl's bed) that it would be a good idea for her to drive out from Cleveland for the 4th of July. Yeah, that happened. Then the third girl was the one whose bed I was in sending the text message, and that just, well, that's its own whole backstory that I won't get into but long story short that ended when we went out one night and I tried to make sure she didn't drink too much and pass out like she had done before and I ended up getting too drunk to monitor anything anymore. Oh well.

Now I'm on to a girl I went to law school with who I was actually interested in for more than just the casual hookup thing. Except, the first night we really hung out when I was trying to get my plan into action, we went back to my place and went to town. Which was fine except I, for once, actually liked the girl and was interested in more. Boy was that silly. Stupid feelings and crap like that. So much easier to be cold and unfeeling about, you know, everything. But she and I have had a talk about our situation and apparently we are not seeing/sleeping with anyone else because we would each be jealous if that was going on so we determined (and this was my terminology) that we are in a monogamous, sexually symbiotic friendship, or MSSF for short, because putting a label on things frightens her. My kind of girl. Oh, and she calls me Rosie after the robot from the Jetson's because I have traditionally been dead on the inside like a robot. Also, I am going out as the Toto to her Dorothy for Halloween. Should be a good time.

Anyway, that's enough for now, hopefully I'll actually do this more often than once every 6 months. Work is terrible but I'm glad to have a paycheck coming in every 2 weeks.

Song for right now will be, hmm, how about "Back On the Train" since I am getting back on that dating train.

that's all folks

2011-04-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

And that about wraps up my time in law school classes as today was the very last day I had to sit through one. I can't believe it. Not a terrible lot has happened in the past week of note other than finishing classes though I would like to point out that I had the greatest food known to man on Sunday morning before Giff and I went golfing. Candied bacon. It is the most amazing, magical, delicious thing I have ever eaten in my life. It is all the best parts of bacon, namely the bacon itself, and more. Because it's candied. Lay some bacon out on a sheet pan, cover it in brown sugar, and cook in an oven. Boom, candied bacon. My heart actually hurt after I ate it, but it was so damn worth it I can't even put it into words.

Anyway, enough about the candied bacon, I could probably talk about that for another 2000-3000 words, and most of them would consist of me saying how delicious it was. So since last Thursday, I tried to go golfing with Giff on Friday but it rained. I was not happy. Not only did it rain, but it rained a lot. Eventually it stopped raining so I was able to go out later with Giff and Nehmer, but then Nehmer got all drunk and slappy like he does and lost his credit card like an idiot. I realize there is a huge disconnect there between going out and him losing the credit card, but nothing special happened in between, we hit up a couple lame bars and then settled on the Front Page in Dupont where, inexplicably, some random drunk girl came up to me and told me I look like Joel McHale. Now, I didn't really know how to react to that other than to say "Thank you? I wish I had his money." Now, I wasn't sure whether this was some new fangled pickup line people are using these days or what, but as I've been out of the game for a minute, is this something the ladies are using to pick up guys now? Should I have fallen for her line about Joel McHale? I wasn't sure. So, instead, I drank beer.

Anyway, so that happened. Then as I decided to walk home I thought I could make it without stopping in the bathroom beforehand (which in the end I did) but realized this was a very, very bad idea as I was walking up New Hampshire. I always think I live closer to Dupont than I actually do. It took me 30 minutes or so to walk home, all the while thinking my entire abdomen was going to explode. It was bad news bears. Thankfully I made it and didn't have to pee in either the dog park or Meridian Hill Park. Neither place would have been terribly pleasant.

So Saturday was spent doing, well, a lot of nothing. Sitting around, relaxing and preparing to go over to Giff's later in the evening for the stew cooking battle between him and another buddy of his. I was just the recipient of some awesome beef and fish stews. Beef was definitely better than the fish, though both were pretty damn good. Not to mention there was playoff hockey on TV to watch whilst eating stew which made it that much better. And let me just say, there is no playoffs better than hockey playoffs. Whether it be the Frozen Four or the NHL playoffs which are obviously most prevalent here, there is nothing better. March Madness for the basketball may be bigger and better televised, but hockey is a better sport. And the NBA playoffs pale in comparison to the amazingness that is NHL playoffs. I mean come on, there have been 4 game 7's out of the 8 first round series. Awesome. I love hockey, but I digress.

Apparently I am not a Bruins fan, which I am ok with as long as it means that the girl I am interested in is willing to actually sit there and watch hockey with me. I don't really have a dog in the playoffs fight since the Avalanche are out and I am just a casual Capitals fan. But if she digs the Bruins, I will absolutely dig the Bruins and every damn game they play. Not to mention that Carter Camper who played with my brother growing up and whose parents live right by mine went to Miami and is now going to be playing for the Bruins, so I can handle cheering for them

Anyway, we went out after the stew to Star and Shamrock over on H because my buddy Nick has a waitress there who is apparently smitten with him and brought us drinks at reasonable prices (read free drinks) as well as tacos (read tacos). She legitimately left the bar to get tacos and brought them back to us. We didn't want tacos, but we took them and ate them and told her they were delicious so we could continue to get our disgusting free whiskey shots and beers. Gross. After we went through a few of those, we went back to Giff and Nick's place and ate more stew. I didn't want more stew, but damn if it wasn't amazing then as well.

When I woke up on the couch sweating like a stuck pig, I awoke to the smell of bacon being candied. I already recounted the candied bacon, so I will spare the details again. Anyway, after the breakfast of eggs and candied bacon, Giff and I went golfing. Awesome. I was so happy to be out on the course hitting the ball. I wasn't very good with the putting but in almost 27 years, I have never been good at it, so I wasn't expecting much. But yeah, it was great to get out there and golf for the first time this season. Very happy I had the chance.

Since Sunday, not much has happened. A couple days of work, my last two days of school and the first round of the NFL draft in which the Browns took Phil Taylor from Baylor. Apparently he's a DT which is something we need so I'm happy, in Holmgren I trust. I just want to see a damn winner. Man. Tomorrow is my last day of work until September, my boss reneged on paying for my bar class which kind of pisses me off but I'm glad I saved money from my loans so I could cover it if this happened. It's a good thing I'm skeptical of, well, everyone.

Anyway, it is time for me to hit the sack as I have to work tomorrow and don't want to be exhausted for my last day for 4 months. I got a date with the new girl set up for 2 weeks from tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it. I was told (on her birthday by her sister as I am coming to remember and then again tonight) that she may have a boy in Boston or something but that is not of my concern. I am going to flaunt my wares and if she decides to buy, I'm game. I like her and she's awesome, so we'll see what happens. I mean, I have been interested for 3 damn years of law school, so why can't something good come of it? Why can't I get something good, no? Anyway, as for tonight's song, let's see here. How about we go with "Free" from Billy Breathes, because let's be honest, I'm done with law school classes and other than taking finals next week, I am free. Free in life. I have no commitments other than to myself and my family. It's a good time to be alive.

Cougar Patrol, grrrrrr

2011-04-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

So, April 12, 2011 officially began the Washington Cougar Patrol hockey team era when we met at Cabin John for our first practice and scrimmage against some other team. Needless to say, we looked pretty good and torched the other team. It was pretty nice. Then, Wednesday afternoon I went to lunch with the chair of the hiring committee at Hogan Lovells and had a good lunch and talk with him, gotta keep those paths of communication open. I wouldn't mind working there, long hours and lots of work but a pretty sizable paycheck at the end of the year.

Wednesday night came the last broomball game I will probably play in for the DC league because I'm tired of how the commissioner guy runs things. Really pisses me off a lot, shitty attitude and all. Thursday was kind of a throw away day, I didn't really do anything, had a hockey game that night that I skipped so I could rest up for the weekend, which was a good idea since last weekend was legen - wait for it - dary.

Last Friday was when Cougar Patrol officially took Atlantic City by storm. Got up there in the early afternoon for our 6:40 game which we ended up tying 4 - 4 and this tie became very valuable at the end of the tournament which I will explain later. We played pretty well, should have gotten the win but our goalie let in a couple softies which is kind of annoying. We did look good in terms of our jerseys though, that was for damn sure. Anyway, the hockey was important last weekend, obviously, but we were really up there to just have an absolutely ridiculous time, which we did.

After our game was over, we went back, showered up, got dinner and then it was on like Donkey Kong. Now, I will preface this whole recap with this caveat: there is definitely a point in the evening where I have absolutely no recollection of what I did. There is a $55.00 charge on my credit card from some bar that I certainly do not remember paying, but, it's there and it's hard to dispute a charge with your only dispute being "I was too drunk to remember doing it."

So, we started with dinner and drinks in our own hotel and then decided to head down the boardwalk to the Tropicana. Now, the Hilton was nice enough, and was fairly inexpensive in the long run. FULL of old people. Old people absolutely everywhere with their stupid old people wheelchairs and shit. The Tropicana on the other hand, full of hot girls. Everywhere. It was like a veritable cornucopia of hotness. Which surprised me since we were in New Jersey. Everyone kept asking me why I had us stay at the Hilton instead of hottie central and at least the answer was easy, it was half the price.

So we get to the Tropicana and start our night off at Ri Ra, it's like we're in freaking Bethesda. Anyway, after a car bomb, a few beers and a disgusting tequila shot, the movements of the night become a bit hazy but I do know that at some point we walked around the casino drinking and Giff and I won $10 on roulette which we were going to keep but were too drunk and decided to play it again which we promptly lost. Worth it.

Then, from the last recollection I have of Friday, we were at some sports bar drinking 40s. Yes, 40s. It was awesome. We were all sloppy and having a great time and then the rest of the night is lost on me. Streng got some cookies or something I think and the two things that will stick with me the most from that night are the fact that Ed boned a fat girl in the stairwell of the Tropicana, for a long time. Apparently it was no quick in and out and leave, it was a while. To which she send him a BBM on Saturday morning to something of the effect of "It was nice to meet you last night (smiley face), you broke my lady part". Wow, just wow.

The other thing that sticks with me is that after Saturday's game (which I will recap that debacle momentarily), I get back to the hotel and think to myself "self, I wonder if you sent anyone any text messages after getting back to the hotel last night." Well, in fact I had. The awesome girl whose birthday I went out for who I am going to take on a date when she gets back to DC was the one who I sent a text to, at 4:52 am. I was that guy. It was nothing bad or inappropriate, in fact it was nice I think at least what I wrote. Sending it at 5 am, yeah, not the best idea I've ever had. At least she said she thought it was adorable and I wasn't just a creep. Oh well, it was a ridiculous night to say the least.

As for Saturday's game, at noon, Streng and I were awoken at about 11 am for our game at which point I had two thoughts: 1) how the fuck is it already 11 am, and 2) I am still hammered. So, we get up, get our shit together and head to the rink. I got dressed, got on the ice and promptly missed the first slap shot I tried to take during warmups. Yeah, it was going to be that kind of game. The game was sloppy, I was sloppy, a lot of the other players were sloppy. It really was an ugly game that we ended up losing like 5 - 2 I believe. I mean, really sloppy. I got 2 penalties, legit ones, but 2 nonetheless. There's a video on facebook of me covering a guy in the front of our net and I am harassing the shit out of him. He ends up scoring a goal and running into me in the process, so naturally I went after him after the play. He wasn't a tiny guy but it's funny seeing me push him and him stumble back and then me not move as he tries to push back. Ah, good times. Then his stupid chin pubes friend tried to get involved and chin pubes tried to rip my facemask off at which point his fat ass was escorted off the ice by the refs. Finally, during my second penalty after I absolutely crushed a guy in open ice, I GOT AN OREO IN THE PENALTY BOX. That was the greatest thing that could have happened during that game.

After that game was done, we went back to the hotel and I showered and was waiting for people in order to get food and I passed out. For like 4 hours, then woke up and got some awesome noodle soup thing from the Asian place in the hotel. It was like hangover curing magic soup. After the soup we went back to the room to prepare for the evenings festivities. We suited up to go out and look classy as shit as we were wandering around various casinos. We went out Saturday night to a bar in the Tropicana called Red Square that served, what else, vodka drinks. They were alright, a little pricey for just being vodka, but not bad. Then Trout and I went to the wine store next door to buy bottles of prosecco to just stand around and slug. Which we did right by the fountain in the Tropicana. Reed threw a shoe into the fountain that somehow someone had lost while walking by. Who throws a shoe? Anyway, the night ended again at the bar with the 40s but this time we were more in control, or at least I thought. No one had sex with any fat girls and I remember the evening, which I kind of wish I forgot since we decided it would be a great idea to go in the ocean on the walk home. Yeah, the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean. I mean, it's cool, it's a story to tell, but I swear to God I though I was going to lose my toes after getting out. And I'm pretty sure there's still sand and sea water in my suit. Oh well, again, worth it. Oh, and this time I sent the girl a text message at 2:30 am, which I, at the time, thought was better than 5 am. Why, why would I do it again? Oh well.

As for Sunday, we had a game at 7:40 am. Yeah. I was somehow more awake and ready to go for that one than the noon game the day before which was surprising. Well, we lost that one also 6 - 3 to take us to 0 - 2 - 1. And we needed the game after ours to end with the one team scoring 8 or more for us to stay and play in the championship, which they did. So, somehow, we ended up in the championship after having just tied a game, which is why I said the tie was necessary at the beginning. We were in the championship against the team we lost to in the morning. Well, we lost again, but this time only 4 - 3. We looked pretty good out there which was nice, I caused a penalty shot which our goalie saved so that was awesome. Best part about the whole thing in the end, we still got trophies. That's right, trophies. It's like I'm 6 but I am pumped and it is in my window sill right now.

So that was pretty much the entire weekend with some of the less awesome details omitted. The past few days I feel like I've still been nursing a hangover from the weekend, that's how awesome it was. And as previously mentioned, the girl I texted at terrible hours still agreed to go on a date with me so I am really excited about that, now I just need to wait for her to get back to DC after traveling all freaking over. I am thinking, and thank you Sara for the suggestions, that we will go to Hank's Oyster Bar in Dupont followed by Mr. Yogato. That sound like a good first date? Nothing terribly fancy and it's not a movie where we don't get to talk to each other for 2 hours.

Anyway, I will try and post again after this weekend or something, and not wait another 10 days. Happy hour to hit up tonight and then who knows what. Seven days of law school left, thank God. As for an appropriate song, let's go with "Fluff's Travels" since this entry was pretty much all about my travels up to Atlantic City last weekend.

46 days and the coal ran out

2011-04-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

So it's officially 46 days until I graduate. I couldn't get "46 Days" by Phish out of my head all weekend thinking that I could make a reference to it on here. Pathetic, I know. Anyway, the end of my law school career is drawing ever nearer and I am ready, I think. Not so much for finals, but definitely for graduation and the great beyond. My fish Vercingetorix seems to still be clinging to life somehow even though I think I mortally wounded him somehow last week. How long are betta fish supposed to live anyway? I've had him for 3 years now, God only knows how long he was in that pet store too. He has been a trusted friend and confidant though and I appreciate his company, even though he's a fish.

Anyway, I had a nice chat with my boss today about job security after I leave for the summer in a couple weeks. Short answer, there is none. There's a whole background to the situation that I will not bore any of the apparently 41 viewers of this little creation of mine with the details. I am going to lunch on Wednesday at Chef Geoff's with the chair of the hiring committee at a big firm's DC office though, hopefully I can network the living shit out of that lunch. Gotta look respectable too, damn dressing up.

Catching up on the weekend that was since last Thursday's post, it was pretty good. Went out Friday with people from my hockey team and their friends, had a good time, sang karaoke. Crushed the two songs I sang. And those two songs were "Hakuna Matata" and "Under the Sea". Now, I did "Under the Sea "because the bar area we were in at Cafe Japone looked exactly like we were sitting in a damn coral reef, so it was only natural that I would get up there and bust out a little Sebastian the crab. As for "Hakuna Matata", can anyone really tell me that song is not awesome? I pose that challenge to all of you, fair readers, prove to me that "Hakuna Matata" is not a great song. (Caveat - if you are older than I'd say about 30 or under like 23, you have no say because that song is probably before or after your time and your opinion is thus rendered irrelevant) Definitely got the people in the bar into it though like only a meerkat and a warthog singing can do.

Saturday was a blast as well. Went out for a birthday party in Georgetown, spent WAY too much money but had a damn good time doing so. We ended up at L2 Lounge in Georgetown which, normally I would never get into because it's for ritzy people and all that business, but we had a table and went to town on a bottle of Belvedere and Patron. However, before we even got to the table, as we were hanging out right in the entrance waiting for our table to clear up, in walks David Beckham. They had played the United earlier in the night and apparently he decided it would be a good club to hit up wearing his silly little sweater tied around his neck. I had many questions I wanted to ask him and I also wanted to give him a piece of my mind. Question #1 would have been "So, what is it like to have sex with Posh Spice?" First piece of my mind out have been "Hey, so you remember when you sucked balls for AC Milan?" But I digress. Point is, unlike my "I was at a bar with Charles Barkley" from a couple years ago when I didn't actually see him because the back patio area was closed off, I actually saw Becks walk right by my with his wallet chain hanging off his waist like he was too cool for school.

Anyway, I ended my night going up to Bethesda and then woke up on a couch and got a bagel from Bethesda Bagels which was awesome because I had not had a delicious bagel in far too long and then I came home and slept for like 5 hours. After which I woke up in time for my hockey game last night that we won. I have seen full benches before, but my God, we had like 20 people show up for the game. Unbelievable. Tonight I get to relax, make some dinner to soak up the 4 cups of coffee and no lunch I had today and then put laundry and stuff away and prepare myself for the week that will be rather busy. Between school, work and extracurriculars, I have something going on just about every day and night this week through the Atlantic City weekend coming up beginning on Friday. On a total side note, it's 80+ degrees right now at 7:30 at night and that is awesome. I cannot wait for the good weather to stay so I can go golf.

Definitely getting to crunch time for starting my studying for finals, I have to finish my pot paper for journal and then I leave for New Orleans in a little over a month. From this week until August I am going to be pretty busy. Won't have much time to think about or worry about much of anything but bar prep and maybe an occasional hockey or softball game to keep myself form going crazy and burning myself out with bar prep. As for the girlfriend/ex-girlfriend, whatever I am to call her now, got a response to my e-mail of last week. Very succinct, but I guess that is fine. I said my peace and if she wants things to change it's up to her. As I believe I've mentioned before, it's not like my life is going to change in any positive way like she seems to want it to until August. Ah well, such is life. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade and put some Pimms in it because it tastes awesome.

So, as I mentioned at the outset, the song for today will be "46 Days" by Phish. It's not an awesome song in my opinion, but things really have kind of gone downhill for their albums in my view since Farmhouse in 2000. So, I'll give some love to Round Room and that will be tonight's song. Catch you on the flip side.

interesting week

2011-04-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

So let me start this off by saying, 18 page views? Seriously? Who is actually looking at this page? Are people searching the name of the song and accidentally ending up here? I'm not that interesting people, but thank you if you MEANT to come read this, and I apologize for not being too lively and interesting.

Anyway, as the title hints, this has been kind of a crazy week. It started off Monday with my girlfriend having a freakout and telling me that she can't handle being second place to me finishing law school and taking the bar and all that business. I can respect that, but I would have imagined she would have come to this decision before I was one month away from graduating. Whatever, she's entitled to feel how she feels, whether I think it's silly or not. If she wants to get back together, I'm open to that, if she doesn't, such is life. I still have to graduate and take the bar this summer, it's not like that will have magically disappeared since Monday.

Beyond that, this week has been interesting for the most part. Specifically today where I got to go watch my first hearing for work to see how a hearing on a Motion to Dismiss (Demurrer in crazy, backwards ass Virginia) is handled. I got my ass out of bed at 6 am. SIX AM. I don't do mornings. But I met Lisa, the attorney from my office who was arguing for the demurrer, at the Pentagon City Metro stop at 7:30 and we headed off in her sporty little Mercedes SLK out to Washington, VA in Rappahannock County. Now, I believe the only thing Washington, VA is known for would be the Inn at Little Washington. Google it, it's fantastic. We did not go there, however, because apparently they a: do not serve lunch and b: it would be hard to bill a client for a $200/plate lunch even if they did. Though that would be awesome.

Back to the trip. It wasn't terrible, except my knees fell asleep on the ride out and back from sitting in the car. Sporty, not comfortable. When we got there, I realized that I was a bit overdressed in my Brooks Brothers suit with Brooks Brothers French-cuffed shirt and Vineyard Vines tie with the Capitol dome and cherry blossoms on it. Needless to say, I knew I would feel out of place to begin with but that definitely reinforced it. So, we got to the court early and sat in the waiting room that smelled like public restroom. Yeah, it was less than awesome. Not to mention the bathroom that was right off the room's toilet was clogged the whole time we were there. Is there no plumber even in Washington, VA? Could they not go a block away to the Inn and ask for a maintenance person to come and fix it? Whatever.

So as we sat there for about an hour, the one bailiff was talking to us. This is where the story really begins to be awesome. I don't know what the very first comment he made to us was, but the first one I remember him making was "There are no black people that live in Rappahannock County." Wow. I knew from that point on, it was going to be an experience. Let me back up momentarily to describe the monument I saw when we first were walking up to the courthouse. It was a Civil War monument. To the confederacy. Good one. So back to the bailiff. This is his 40th year in law enforcement, he retired 2 years ago but still works for the health insurance, he once had to tackle a drunk in the magistrate's office where they rolled around on the floor, which was not quite as shiny back then as it is now he told us, and then he took the drunk to the jail where he proceeded to "play with himself." I kid you not, this guy was just offering up as much info to us as we could handle.

I tried to stop paying attention to him but eventually he got to talking about slavery. He was talking about how our founding fathers had slaves and then he went on to tell us about how freed black slaves owned other slaves and how it was originally "blacks in Africa" selling people into slavery. I can't make this stuff up. This was all before he started talking about the drugs (presumably meth) in the county and the lone trailer park and then about the gangs in the county one over. Absolutely absurd.

Finally the 10 am docket came up and we went upstairs to where the actual court room was and I sat there while Lisa tore apart the defense attorney's arguments and won the demurrer. Then we went to Applebee's. Classy, I know. It's no Chili's, but we made due. After we returned to civilization, I came home and watched the last half inning of the Indians game and now I have the Masters on. I have class tonight that I really don't want to go to but I have to.

I guess I should really rename the title "interesting two days" since the rest of the week hasn't really been anything special. School and work. Woo. I did realize today though that I am 21 days until the end of classes, 35 days until the end of finals and 50 days form graduation. It cannot come soon enough.

I will close this long ass entry by saying that I am looking forward to being done with school, moving on, taking the bar and just being done with this ridiculous decision I made. So, as an homage to the silly life decision I made to pay $100,000.00+ for law school, my song of the day will be "Chalk Dust Torture." Law school = pointless.

lasagna and such

2011-04-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking as I was watching Chopped All Stars earlier that I might want to add on here how I made the lasagna and garlic bread for dinner then the chocolate sauce I made for dessert with ice cream last night.

Well, first off, I made some of my own ricotta to go into the lasagna and that was pretty easy, actually. You need whole milk, heavy cream, buttermilk and some salt. That's it. It doesn't make a ton but it really is delicious.

3/4 cup of buttermilk
4 cups of whole milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 tablespoon of sea salt

All you have to do is mix all of that together in a sauce pan and then cook it on medium/medium high until it starts to curdle around 190-200 degrees. As soon as it starts to do that, I let it sit for about 10 seconds and then took it off of the heat and immediately strained it through cheese cloth. Now, I poured it into the cheesecloth that was in a colander but I think if you put it through a strainer it would work better and wouldn't lose any of the ricotta itself through the cheesecloth or the slots in the colander. Just let it cool down and then try to get a little bit more of the liquid out but don't make it dry or anything.

As for the lasagna, that was pretty easy as well. To start, I made my own pasta sauce by putting a bit of olive oil in the bottom of a sauce pan and then put garlic into it to get some of the flavor into it before I added ground turkey and then both sweet and hot chicken sausage to cook it up a little before I would add it to the lasagna. After I browned the meat a bit I put in 2 large cans of tomato puree along with Italian seasoning, onion powder, parsley, some salt and pepper. It's pretty easy and since I don't actually like onions or chunks of tomatoes in my sauce I like to make my own. So while this was still warm on the stove, I cooked up the pasta and then it was time to build.

First layer was 3 lasagna noodles, then meat and sauce followed by spinach topped off with my ricotta (mixed with store bought since it didn't make a ton when I made it) mixed with parmesan and other cheeses and one egg to make the cheese filling portion. This was the same process until the top when I put more sauce on the top with parmesan and more cheese on top to brown it up and look good. It was good and turned out very well. Cooked it for half an hour at 375 covered in foil and then another 15 with it uncovered to brown it up. The garlic bread was simple, just a french load cut into 4 with butter and garlic melted together and spread on top followed by cheese. See, simple. Cooked that for like 5 minutes at 375 also to melt it up.

Finally, for the chocolate sauce, literally all it was is butter with chocolate chips melted in a pan with a touch of skim milk to smooth it out. No double boiler or anything, just put it all into the sauce pan and melt it together. It was good.

So yeah, it was a pretty damn good dinner, really easy and made a ton for leftovers. So that's it, I am done with all this business for today. Hope the lasagna and whatnot sounds good, because it was.

weekend wrap up

2011-04-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

So 9 page views? Who in their right mind is actually reading what I put on here? Anyway, a little wrap up of all happenings since last I wrote on Wednesday. Thursday was a good time, went to the Nationals Opening Day game where I promptly froze behind home plate and watched the Nats lose 2-0 to the Braves. Old man Livan Hernandez actually pitched pretty well, only gave up a couple hits, but the Nats were awful. Not to mention how awful Vince Gray was with his "Play ball." He was booed, rightfully so, and I am somewhat surprised no one threw anything at him, if they had, security would have most likely shaken the person's hand rather than arresting him. But that is beside the point. I tried to convince Tommy that it would be a good time staying in the city to go to the Capitals game with me instead of going home, but alas, he was too drunk and went home with Diane who I was told was none too pleased with him. Ah well, it was funny. On a side note, Tommy and Diane are married friends of mine from Miami and I went to the baseball game with Tommy and his neighbor Evan.

I came home after the game with every intention of going to class, however, I got home late and passed out. Set my watch alarm to get up and meet people from school for No Excuses Thursday happy hour, and then fell back asleep almost immediately after my alarm went off. Oh well, such is life.

On Friday, I went to work, had a boringly boring day, went and dropped a paper off at school and then went to meet up with Tommy and Jared for the Cavaliers basketball game against the Wizards. It was awful. Talk about the pillow fight of the season, it was a battle of futility. Anyway, even worse than the play on the floor by both teams was the heckling on behalf of the Wizards fans. I mean come on, learn to at least give a good heckle. Talk to your Orioles brethren, we got heckled like champs last summer as we were sitting in the stands heckling Nick Markakis. But he deserved it, just because he has such a good heckling name.

Anyway, the game was crap and I just went home afterward. Saturday was pretty relaxing. Made lasagna and went out for a little bit then went to bed early. I definitely needed a nice weekend of not going out and destroying my liver and to just relax a little bit. It was fantastic.

As for today, today was nice and relaxing as well. Went to Lauriol Plaza for lunch and then threw a softball around in Meridian Hill Park for a while before walking down to my office to pick up my bike. Apparently it is supposed to be 80 degrees or so out tomorrow, so I am definitely going to be riding my bike to and from work. I'm supposed to have a hockey game tonight but my normal ride is out of town and I'm not about to pay for a Zipcar in order to get to the game. Spring season isn't that important and it will be nice to rest a bit with the big old lump I have on my shin from last week.

Looking forward to this week, should be a good one. I have class Tuesday and Thursday as normal, a broomball game Wednesday night, I am going to a hearing down in Rappahannock County Virginia for a hearing on Thursday which I am excited for and then I have a cooking class I'm taking Friday after work and I have a birthday to celebrate on Saturday. Now, unfortunately I don't remember whose birthday it is that I am celebrating, but I am confident I will remember or figure it out by Saturday. Then, I have a hockey game next Sunday night. There will obviously be updates during the week, however, I figured I would throw out my plans for the week. I don't know why, maybe so I have a place other than my calendar to check what I am doing this week should I forget?

Oh, and the biggest thing of all that I did last week was on Friday. I officially filled out and paid for the application to take the New York bar exam in July. It definitely became all too real once I paid for the exam. Not to mention Bank of America called and e-mailed immediately after I entered my info because apparently it was an odd charge. Yeah, it definitely was an odd charge, paying to take the bar exam. Good God.

Well, that is the end for tonight, I am going to go grab dinner and watch some television before I start reading my Federal Income Taxation Examples and Explanations so I can try and figure out what the hell I have been supposed to be learning this whole semester in that class before it is too late. So, I think the song for tonight will be "Lawn Boy" off the album of the same name, simply because it is a relaxing song and that was all that this weekend was about. Relaxing. So, peace out cub scouts.

so it looks like i have a cankle

2011-03-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

After having taken 3-4 slap shots off the area between where my shin guards end and my hockey skates begin, I took a broomball off the very same spot tonight. Needless to say, it was a bit tender before and now it just plain hurts. As I walked around my apartment tonight it definitely felt like there was a bubble full of fluid firmly secured to the inside of my left shin. What. The. Hell. At 26, I sometimes feel like an old man but then again, I am able to get up and keep going and pushing through like I always have. The occasional aches and creaks I feel now are not any more than they were 10 years ago, they just seem to be more often. I really just need to get back out and do more physical, but man if there's not enough time in the day.

Anyway, I am glad that I have been able to once again start playing hockey and broomball in the DC area after having not played either since graduating from Miami. It really gives me a great outlet that I appreciate, even if I go home with a freaking lump on my shin. Having gotten the chance to go to USA Broomball Nationals in Duluth a couple weeks ago, I really gained a greater appreciation both for growing up in an area that was heavy on ice sports and having never had to spend more than a weekend in northern Minnesota. Don't do it, it's awful. I know people make fun of Cleveland, and I will openly mock Pittsburgh and Detroit at every chance I get, but man was downtown Duluth ever a cesspool of city and human waste. Good god. The walleye and broomball were pretty good, but the bitter cold and relatively high percentage of trashy people to not trashy people really made me glad I got to come home on Sunday.

I am definitely looking forward to going away for another tournament in a couple weekends, but that is for hockey in Atlantic City. I am sure it will be the Mecca of trashy America, but man if it's not going to be a good time. The team we have put together is going to make waves I hope, and AC better watch out for the Washington Cougar Patrol. Oh yeah, it's that kind of cougar. I went with the team I am on right now, the Admirals, to a tournament up in Hershey back in September, shortly after having gone to the Ohio Broomfest back in Oxford. It is nice to be able to get our and travel around, I am afraid I won't quite have that luxury once school is finished.

Speaking of the end of school, only about 57 days until graduation. Nervous? Nah, not nervous. Petrified is more like it. Graduation means that I will be entering the realm of bar preparation. Kill me. Three months of absolute hell. Come April 29, I will be done with work from that day until the September. All the while studying for the bar and simultaneously wishing I was dead. It will be worth it in the end when I can be a barred attorney, but damn if it's not going to be a miserable path to get to that point. The light at the end of the bar tunnel though in the immediate sense will be a nice trip to Jamaica for a week to relax and just not think about law school, the bar, work or America.

I feel like I am all over the place tonight with this. It's 12:30, I am icing my leg because it's throbbing and apparently full of fluid, I'm tired and I am watching Chopped All-Stars on Food Network. What a fantastic night. I will say this, I watched the DVRed finale of Top Chef All-Stars and I want to send a shout out and congratulations to Richard Blais, you were my horse for the whole season and I'm glad I hung my hat on the eventual winner. I wish I could cook even half as well as he, or quite honestly any of the Top Chef contestants (except for Jamie because she was awful) because I'd be awesome. So well done, Blais, you can relax now.

Here is a little tangent I need to go on right now, why the hell is it 30 degrees and raining cold, cold rain in DC at the end of March? Why? I left Cleveland and Ohio more generally to get the hell away from the cold. Last year we have snowpocalypse and snowmaggedon and this year we have thundersnow. I mean come on. Granted, Cleveland did get like 3 inches of snow today, but still, this is ridiculous. Global warming my ass. The globe may be warming but every damn place I live specifically certainly is not. Man.

I am going to close here by talking about my plans for tomorrow and beyond. Well, I am going to the Nationals Opening Day game against the Braves, so that should be fun. Quite honestly couldn't care if they win or not, but it will be nice to sit outside (even though it is going to be -120 degrees outside) and drink so beer, or hot chocolate so I do not freeze. Song for tonight will be "Lengthwise" off Rift. Because damn if I won't be sleeping "diagonal in my bed."

June 11, 1984

2011-03-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

The day was 9,787 days ago. The People magazine cover story was "The Search for John Belushi." Time magazine's cover story was "Why Pain Hurts." Joe Montana turned 28 years old. And, most importantly, I popped my little red-blonde mop out into the world and thus embarked upon the journey that is my life.

From what I remember, it was an unpleasant day involving a lot of poking and snipping and general nastiness that I would not wish upon anyone who was cognizant of what was going on to them. Although, let's be honest, I probably had it pretty good considering I had come out just in time to see the Soviets and some other countries boycott the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Who needs them anyway?

Now, I didn't start this little blogventure (see what I did there, combined blog and adventure to make one word, crafty) to recount my whole life story. It's pretty interesting I must say, but you don't want to read it and quite frankly I don't want to sit here and write it all out. That would be silly. On a side note, why is it blog? Was it really that hard to continue saying weblog? Honestly, this country and world has become really lazy and just makes up new, fake words to suit their needs (though mine above is awesome).

I don't really plan to use this to wax philosophic or rant politically or any of that business, because in my opinion, that makes for a very boring read. I know I will not change your viewpoints on anything by this time in life because most have been pretty well entrenched either by your family, your own experiences or for 90% of the country, by CNN or Fox. Ok, maybe one little jab at the silliness that is the state of our country today.

I decided to start this one day because I was bored. Bored in a way that can only be set upon you at the end of March of your third year of law school. Bored that can be rivaled only by your senior year of, well, quite honestly, anything. Bored in a way that I haven't experienced in years and I will most likely experience again because I really won't be able to stay away from education for too long. I don't know why, I just enjoy learning. I will never need another degree after I graduate with a J.D., but I will probably get one anyway, just to do it. Totally out of left field here, but my Cavs just beat Le-whine and the Heat, so I'm pretty happy right now. But I digress.

Over the next few days, weeks, months, hell even years, I will try to fill this bad boy up with words of wisdom, words of nonsense and many other words to form sentences that form paragraphs and so on and so forth. Observations about life, music, sports, the world, but again I will try to refrain from doing anything too "controversial" (I am a fan of the totally unnecessary quotation marks) touching on politics and the like because unless I go back to work on the Hill someday, or run for office, no one gives a flying monkey sack what I have to say about it.

So here, I know this is deep into the first post already, but I will give my first bit of insight into whatever it is I want, that truly is the glory of having your own blog, is it not? And my first bit of insight is: I have incredible willpower to be able to have a full, unopened box of thin mints sitting on my desk next to my computer and not have ripped them open already and ravaged the box like the whore of Babylon. The thing I keep telling myself is that they are better from the freezer, which is absolutely true, but I must wait until there is actual freezer space available with which to turn those cookies into the magical Girl Scout crack they truly can become.

In closing, for those of you who may want to know why I chose this name as the blog, it's quite simple. All the other Phish song names I wanted to use were taken beside "Scent of a Mule" and would you really want to continue going to a website called scentofamule.blogspot.com? Who wants someone to randomly find THAT in their history? Let's say song of the moment in honor of the start of this new blogventure we are all on will be "The Divided Sky" by Phish, first released back in 1986 on what is now referred to as The White Tape. Take a listen some time.