i went back to my hometown for thanksgiving. i the trip home started with a trip to my friends' farm. i didn't take any pictures of the farmhouse, but this is what my car looked like after the gravel roads.
we went out for Indian food, coincidentally the same day Indian politics were once again turned upside down. i’ve been trying to follow this latest political crisis (anything is a good excuse for some MSNBC) but i don’t entirely understand how a seemingly perfect storm occurred.
the next day was thanksgiving. i had dinner with the fam as well as some much-needed quality mom time. i get antsy to see pictures. patience is not on top of my list.
then i went to the casino with some of my favorite people. i could watch blackjack all day. those places are amazing and creepy all at the same time. its warmish and there's free soda and you can't see outside or even get a glance at the door to remind you there is a world outside. ingenious marketing.
and even when the economy is in the tank, the casino was still packed. i suppose people will always have (or make available) at least a small amount of cash. and they will go gamble their problems away.
over the weekend i also went to a colleague's home for breakfast - mimosas and apple pancakes, yum. a beautiful turn-of-the-century home off grand. everywhere you turn in those places there's another little charm. not so with a turn-of-the-next-century condo. but i am taking suggestions on a new paint color for the great room..
i've been using blank notebooks a lot lately. since my conversion to the apple revolution, i had been doing most things electronically. but there is something revealing about taking the time to put a pencil to paper. i can type about as fast as i can think, but if i have to take the time to print out every letter, i actually have the time to reflect.
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i'm in a period of transition.
i'm theoretically graduating from law school. eighteen days, four exams, and one paper to go assuming i pass all the aforementioned tasks, i will have a doctoral level degree (yet not be addressed as doctor). i don't feel like i know enough to have ", J.D." after my name. apparently i do.
i know some people really enjoy law school. i don't. i think it's an awful, dehumanizing, three-year hazing process. the establishment could find much more simple, straightforward ways to efficiently educate lawyers. yet we choose not to. the lawyers of the past went through it, so the lawyers of tomorrow must as well. i call bullshit. but i did it anyway. and now i'm almost done.
the worst thing is that, while graduation may sound like a huge success and this exciting thing, it is just the first step in a three-step process which only gets worse.
phase two: the bar exam. a week or two after i finish law school, once we get through december 25 and 31, i will move on to preparing for the bar exam. i'll have class at least five days a week again for two months. and study most every moment i can tolerate those books. and study and study and study some more. then sit for an excruciating two-day exam. and then wait two months to find out whether i pass.
should i successfully complete phase two, we then move on to phase three: the job search. this step has already begun, but the level of unemployment is incomprehensible. its just nuts that so many young people have done everything the world says they should - get a quality higher education and then go on to receive a professional, post-graduate degree - and then find themselves unemployed with educational "good" debt over six digits. don't want that to happen.
but the market is so awful. just when i thought i would get away from the looming curse of st. thomas, alas it followed me to law school. now, i'm by no means an economist, nor would i ever pretend to understand that entire universe..
(i just trust suze to break it down for me) but i do understand the simple concept of supply and demand. minnesota barely had enough demand to employ lawyers from three law schools. then st. thomas, being st. thomas and with the blessing of the archdiocese, opened a fourth law school in the area. and that school now has the seemingly endless network of catholic names and checkbooks attached to it. and they made the market shit for all of us.
bartending school, anyone?
