Driving Across America: 2010 Edition

We're doing it again. It's time for the 2nd Annual Drive Across America blog! Because we have less time for interesting stops, this go 'round is going to be more of a photojournalistic interpretation of the journey, complete with meaningless candid photos of just about everything we do...as long as the camera is on hand. But enough about that - let's get going.

The plan is to hit the road Wednesday morning and be in beautiful Santa Fe, NM by Wednesday night. All we need to do is get packed up Tuesday after we finish our last exams, wake up Wednesday and do the inevitable last-minute car prep, and we're off. Except we barely did anything Tuesday night, we spent 4 hours Wednesday getting ready, and we didn't hit the road until 12:45pm. But the car was stuffed to capacity.

Car is stuffed.

And this is me frustrated for how long it took us to leave...


I had my blood checked at Fischer (most of you are probably unfamiliar with my Fischer Sports experiences, but that's not a story for this blog) and found out that my proteins are now digesting perfectly, and my blood is well-balanced.

First stop, sell back all of the text books that have been the banes of our existences for the past year or two. We figure to pull in a cool $100 toward the trip with the 15 books we had collected. College Bookstore on Rural actually ended up giving us $238 for maybe 8 or 9 of them, and now the rest are weighing down the car.

Baller.

At this point, it's about 1:15.

After Melissa had spent the morning cooking literally every piece of food left in the refrigerator to fill our cooler with snacks and save money, we decided we were not in the mood for any of it. So, one final In n Out trip was in order! Kicking the trip off right = good idea.
Nom nom nom.

By 2pm, we were actually on the road to Maryland by Santa Fe-Manhattan, KS-Chicago.

Obligatory pre-trip odometer shot.

The trip itself has been completely uneventful. Sadly, the scenery hardly changed. There were no swamp rats, no driving all night for sunrises, no almost running out of gas. We did stop twice for someone to use the bathroom...decided to get gas one of those times.

2:20pm
Entering Tonto National Forest, which actually doesn't have any trees. It's a cactus-ridden stretch of barren desert. But the cacti are in bloom, so that's kind of nice.

2:45pm
Outside of Payson, I was attacked (strangely, for the second time this week) by a bee! It dive-bombed be through the sunroof, made a bee-line (haaa....) for my right ear, and promptly exploded against my earlobe going 80 mph.I'm okay, no permanent damage.

3:30pm
Our first stop.

5:30pm
Our second stop, this time for gas as well. No picture, but this was a "Navajo Travel Center" off Interstate 40. As far as I can tell, the rampant use of "Travel Center" in this region refers to "gas stations with tacky souvenirs."


Random shot of highway scenery.

New Mexico
We weren't ready for the welcome sign - guess whose job it was to know the sign was coming and catch the photo - but we kind of got it in a mad rush.

More and more uneventful driving. This is probably going to be one of the least interesting blog posts I ever write. We listened to music. Talked some. We had an emergency re-routing procedure when we decided Santa Fe might not be the smartest choice of Wednesday night destinations. I guess this is what happens when you throw together a trip route without really thinking about anything but getting to Chicago by Friday.

A quasi-last-minute panic set in for Melissa, who became entirely unsure of our path with no notice. A quick phone call to her mom, and she was on her way to remapping our entire trip. This was due partly to the Armageddon sweeping the heartlands - tornadoes everywhere, flooding, and larger-than-softball-sized hail.

On to Albuquerque! We know virtually nothing about this city. The University of New Mexico is here. It's hard to spell. And we think it's a pretty big city.

9:05pm
We got our first glimpse of real city lights as we came upon the 'Burque (the local name for Albuquerque, because clearly it's easier to say and spell...but it neglects the middle 'quer').

Melissa's Navi-notes: I'm so excited because I was just starting to get really bored, especially after hearing "Forever" by Drake for the 7th or 8th time today. We are definitely stopping!

Unfortunately, navigating a city the size of 'Burque is not easy at night, with no previous knowledge, when you want to find a good, inexpensive hotel near a late night, quality, inexpensive eatery.

Melissa's Navi-notes: Lesson learned. Don't follow big green shiny objects, they'll draw you to the wrong side of the tracks.

She is now 2-for-2 choosing exits that take us straight to the hood (see: The Ozaka Incident). We were afraid to slow down enough to even turn around at one point, so this was an interesting little stretch. We made it back to the highway, found a Best Western, and slipped in to the Albuquerque Bar and Grille (the Zia Lounge, Melissa thinks, was the name of the room where the restaurant was).

My order of Tres Amigos tacos was pretty good, her man-sized Fajita Salad was delicious. The celebratory margaritas were very sugary and sour with not a lot of tequila.
But there was a special on Bud Light ($2) so we ordered the personal maximum (2 each) after we ate and took them upstairs to relax in front of the TV.

The internet in the Best Western Rio Grande Inn (they have so many names for this building) is shoddy at best, and the rest of the pictures will not upload. Hopefully, I can get them up tonight.

Today's plan:
Head to either Springfield, MO or Kansas City, MO, depending on which route best avoids the raging apocalypse in America's heartlands. Severe tornado warnings throughout most of Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas, including flash flood warnings, are threatening our trip. If we make it through, we will be heroes. We spent about 30 minutes last night watching videos of the tornadoes in Oklahoma this week. Probably not a good idea for a worrier like Melissa. But we will be fine. We're mapping the route according to the storm's path.

It's about 8:15am right now. Time to shower up and hit the road! Hopefully, we'll be in Kansas City in about 13 hours.

Grizzly Adams...?

...did have a beard.

I decided almost two weeks ago to grow a finals beard. I've never had a beard before. And at the ripe old age of 25, I still can't grow a full beard (the force is strong, but it's a little sparse and patchy in random spots). But it's...growing on me. Get it?

It goes through phases. The first couple days were fine. That slightly overgrown stubble works for most people. But the severely awkward in between stages that come after stubble, but before it's clear that you are trying to grow a beard...that's when it's embarrassing to leave the house.

I made sure my intentions were clear to everyone that saw me. Before they could think to themselves, "Yikes, he should shave until he can actually grow a full man's beard," I pointed out my superstitious ploy not to shave until after finals. Now that it's become a part of me, I'm wondering if I'm going to be okay with shaving it on Tuesday. It was a rough week of itchy awkwardness that I don't expect to want to repeat.

Then again, my sister is getting married in less than a week, and she would probably appreciate me looking a little cleaner since I'm standing up in the wedding. And no one in my family likes facial hair (my paternal grandmother particularly hated it). My brother has experimented with it, but is, as far as I know, clean-shaven these days.

Melissa was against it at first, but has begun to come around.

I even recruited the other two guys I've been studying with to grow beards with me. Fun times. I may even post a picture Tuesday before shaving it off so that everyone can see what I look like with the best beard I have to offer. Who knows, if I do well on my finals, I may make this a semesterly tradition.

Retro-active happy birthday wishes to my mom, who celebrated her day on Saturday (theoretically for me, it's still Saturday since I haven't yet gone to bed, so I'm not late in publicly wishing you well).

Finals

It took me about 30 seconds to realize I was in over my head, so to speak, during my civil procedure midterm. Before you jump to conclusions, I'll explain.

I spent the week leading up to the exam learning everything I could learn about civil procedure. All the things I didn't understand or learn or apply during the semester (which, as a result of my stubbornness and the style of teaching my professor employed, was just about everything) I taught myself. Actually, the more I think about it, the more impressive it is that I even went into the test with any confidence at all. How many people could learn civil procedure in a week?

So why was the test so far outside my scope of understanding? Glad you asked. The simple answer is, we weren't tested on civil procedure. No, the 24 page outline I created as a study guide with every single piece of relevant information, the separate outline indexing each of the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and each of the relevant statutes in Title 28 of the U.S.C., was not even the slightest bit helpful on this exam.

You would think the professor who said class attendance was voluntary (I only missed one class all semester not counting the one I missed while I was in Annapolis) would test in a way that didn't involve classroom discussion heavily. Or, maybe he would make the first three questions, comprising one hour of the two and half allotted, on legal philosophies and our views on the effects of legal decisions on their respective fields, on the confusion of statutory language, and on the idiomatic references to federal common law, requiring that our views on these topics reflect only classroom examples. That would probably do a much better job of testing us on our knowledge of civil procedure. I hope that's what he did. Oh wait, that is what he did.

Nothing kills studying confidence and momentum like walking in the door knowing you're going to do well and walking out feeling like it's time to let go of your ankles (sorry parents for the graphic reference, I can't think of a more colorful way to explain it) and in the meantime finding out within 30 seconds of receiving your first final as a law student that even your best attempts at BS-ing won't do.

The only positive is that everyone says my professor doesn't ever fail anyone on anything. And my midterm grade in there (worth 30%) is very solid, top 10 in the class.

Regardless, I have Torts tomorrow. This is the test everyone warned us would be the doozy. So, if Civ. Pro. was the easy one (it was open note, while Torts is closed note), I'm really excited to find out what a difficult exam is like. At least this test is mostly multiple choice. Even if I'm clueless, I'm statistically required to get some points.

I'm still feeling good about Contracts on Tuesday, despite not having looked at my notes once for that test since classes ended. I did extremely well on the last midterm, which is being weighted pretty significantly (63/67.5), which was actually a 14/15 on multiple choice. Makes it so I have a little more wiggle room on the final.

Back to the frigid east coast in six days.

Sports, Briefly

I know most of you hate when I blog about sports, but I have to throw a couple comments in about the things that happened this weekend.

First of all, huge amount of pride in VT for winning the ACC Championship. We're heading to the Orange Bowl for the second consecutive year (very big deal, to those of you who aren't familiar with the process). With the way this team played for most of the season, it's a miracle we made a bowl game. But we won when it counted most, which is more than you can say about every other team in the ACC. We survived one of the most bizarre conference seasons in history, but it turned out to be somewhat historic. A conference record 10 teams are going to bowl games. We have a league-best .771 win percentage over out of conference teams. The only problem with the league is that it doesn't have any stars.

As for the Redskins, I can't begin to describe my disappointment. I wish the Redskins brass would realize Jason Campbell is not the answer. He's awful. He doesn't belong in the NFL. I was against the team drafting him in the first round. I've been against him starting ever since he took over for Mark Brunell. While they're getting rid of him, they could ship Carlos Rogers off, too. The two of them were first round picks out of Auburn. Their senior year, the Tigers went undefeated in the SEC and didn't get an opportunity to play in the National Championship. I think they've had a loser's mentality ever since.

Virginia Tech basketball is showing signs of life. Sure, we trailed Navy at the half, but we scored 51 points in the second half to pull out a big W on the road. Yay, Hokies.

T-minus 2 days until Civil Procedure exam.

What we're really learning here

ASU law student fights off burglar, holds him until the police arrive.

This kid is a 1L. I don't know him personally, but he is a friend of friends. I heard about this last night and found the news article. Pretty crazy stuff. From what I hear, the student is about 270 lbs, and the poor burglar was maybe half that.

Good for him though. That's the kind of thing all guys hope they'll have the cojones to do if the situation arises. Under similar circumstances, I like to think I'd have the same success. Hope we never find out.

Notable Quotables

Trying to enjoy a little contracts reading...

Complexities are fun to talk about, but, when it comes to action, simplicities are often more effective. - P.J. O'Rourke

A Midterm's Eve

Tomorrow constitutes my first real test--literally and figuratively--as a law student. I guess. One could argue that moving out here with no ties to the state of Arizona, no friends, and no knowledge of the area was my first figurative test. In fact, all sorts of figurative tests could be applied to my experiences since August 15th. But just because I'm studying to become a lawyer, doesn't mean I need to argue this with you.

So for argument forbearance's sake, let's say this midterm is my first test as a law student. Like that? I'm using real live legal terms. Get used to it.

I have kept up with all my reading all semester and attended every class thus far, which is more than I can say for my eight undergraduate semesters (sorry Mom). It's not quite to the point where I'm inspired by learning, but I am motivated to make the best of the money I am spending here. I have matured enough since undergrad to realize I'm here for my own betterment, and I should act accordingly.

The last week or so, I have started to review information and draft outlines after compiling all my class notes and reading notes, as well as some of the notes of my classmates. I know everyone has different styles of learning. Unfortunately, mine is not conducive to classrooms, lecturing, or reading text books. The only way I learn things is by interactively applying the information. If I can have one conversation about a topic with someone who knows what they're saying (or maybe even knows a little bit about what they're saying), I can usually shelve the information for later retrieval.

I'm rambling. Must be my guilt for neglecting the ol' blog recently.

So I have spent time "synthesizing my facts" as they say here, and now (hopefully) have complete outlines for both of my midterms (Contracts Thursday morning; Civil Procedure Friday afternoon). But all the while, I have felt like I'm not putting in the effort that the other law kids are. I feel like I've done all the outlining I can. I've gone over the example questions. I did well on those. But I have been bored with nothing more to do while everyone else plugs away, stressed and overwhelmed. Maybe I'm too disconnected from academia to be stressed yet. I just hope I don't get a rude awakening after the midterms.

But, I'll give it my best shot in the morning. I can't see how hard it could be. I'm familiar with the concepts, theories, and terms. And both midterms are open note. What could go wrong?

Wish me luck.

Life in Tempe, as requested

I've been getting several requests to stop writing about sports and start writing about life in general. People want to hear about Tempe.

I guess everything here seems really ordinary to me. I don't want to disappoint anyone with boring anecdotes about the hours I spend in class and at home studying. On the other hand, I feel guilty that I don't have more work to do. I see all these people around me complaining endlessly about the amount of reading they have. Even people in my group are tired of the work load. But it's not getting to me. There is plenty of reading, but it's not nearly to the extent that I expected law school to assault me with.

As I write this, I am finished with all my reading through Monday, and most of Tuesday's reading as well. I have about 20 pages of Civil Procedure due Tuesday, but we are so far behind the syllabus that I am actually about 30 pages ahead of class. I have 16 pages of Legal Method and Writing to read for Tuesday, and I will probably at least read over the material for our first office memo assignment that is due in two weeks. I have briefed every single case that I have come across, so I'm not slacking there. I don't feel like I'm a genius, leaving everyone behind me, either. I have not been participating in class much, feeling a little lost at times. It's an unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling, so this week I vowed to change that. Yesterday, I felt confident that I could have participated, but did not for whatever reason raise my hand. Today, however, I raised my hand, was called on, and engaged in a discussion with my Torts teacher. A classmate told me after class they appreciated a comment that was actually relevant and intelligent. So that was a good start. I will press onwards to more participation. Healthy discussion leads to a better understanding of the material, without a doubt.

As for the non-law school related happenings in Tempe, I'm afraid I don't have much to say. Melissa is coming tomorrow night through early Monday morning. We are both very excited about the visit.

I am getting cable and internet installed (fiiiiiinalllllyy) just in time for the Redskins NFL opener tomorrow afternoon (night, for you poor Eastern Time saps).

ASU football hosts Stanford this weekend, so we will most likely go to at least part of the game. Melissa has never experienced a big time college football game. I'd much rather bring her to Blacksburg for this experience, but you have to take what you can get. As for football and Blacksburg, I am looking forward to the start of the season this Saturday against Furman. Yep, start of the season. First game. No other games have been played yet, as far as I can recollect.

Settling in has sort of plateaued. I don't feel at home yet. It's the tiniest things that make me feel like a stranger in a new place still. I couldn't find a legitimate post office today to get stamps. I found one that was so ghetto it didn't have a stamp vending machine, and the 20-person queue looked like an unemployment office line. I don't know where to go to buy stamps. How sad is that?

I'm heading to the gym, which has been one great thing I started here. Feels really good to be working out. It's the only real activity we get here, what with each class being 2 hours long, and having hours of reading to do every day.

Hope this satisfied your curiosities. I will try to be more broad in my range of topics in the future.

Still a Bit Tempe-orary

It's a play on words...get it? Temporary...in Tempe.

So I bought season tickets for football and basketball yesterday after we (the roommates and I) had put it off for awhile. It was $104 for football and men's basketball combo. Lots of people had talked about getting them. My roommates, as with most other things, forgot to call and now the ticket office is sold out.

So, I spent $104 and have no other friends with tickets. I guess I'll try to find people who got them, but for now I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

I still don't feel like I live here for good. It's a sad feeling to think it, but I guess exciting, too. I miss so many things back home, but I'm really enjoying what Tempe has to offer so far. It's all new and exciting.

We got a gym membership last night at LA Fitness and plan on using it for the first time tonight. The sales guy that gave us the tour, etc., was very explicit in telling us that, unlike other gyms, LA Fitness had the lowest possible prices and could not negotiate under any circumstances. We finished the tour and sat down at his desk to talk pricing. It was $200 to enroll and $40 a month per person, which was significantly more than any other gym we looked at. By the time we left, he had waived the registration fee entirely and knocked our monthly fee down to $25, so we bought it. It's a month-to-month, so if we don't like the gym we can leave any time (with 30 days notice).

I am finished with all of my reading and homework until Tuesday, and I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with myself. I want to get really far ahead in my reading, but just don't feel like it. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends here to distract me, and we don't have a TV with cable. I'm going to go to the gym in a bit, once Carl finishes his reading for Torts (civil wrongs, committed by one individual--the tortfeasor--against another individual).

When we get back, maybe I'll feel like reading a little to get ahead. We might do Dos Gringos again tomorrow night for 50 cent Coronas. Then, the ASU Bar Review (clever name for the group that organizes weekly law student happy hours) is having the weekly meeting at RA, where we went last Friday. If I didn't talk about it already, it was great. Half price sushi and appetizers, and it's really good quality food. Drinks, as they are in every other bar we have been to, were criminally cheap.

ASU opens the season this Saturday at home against Northern Arizona. Virginia Tech opens in Charlotte against ECU at 9am Arizona time. ASU should be a walk through. The Hokies may struggle some, but should come out on top, barring some horrible play on our part, or fantastic play on the Pirates' part.

First Class Assignments

I am already displeased with the workload. While all the other groups had a maximum of 20-30 pages for any given class, if even that, I was assigned 53 pages of reading for today's civil procedure class. In that reading, there were nine cases to brief.

Case brief: documents created by students when studying case law.

The cases we deal with are all found in the Appellate Courts (Court of Appeals, for the less-than-law-savvy readers). We are given the cases in the form of a judge's discourse. He or she will lay out the case with all the details and necessary references, then describe the decision.

Our job is to pull out the procedural history (what stages the case has gone through, including where it was filed first, who appealed and to which court, what decisions were made, etc.). It is basically the timeline of the case. We need to pull out all the key facts. This is harder than it sounds, because each case can be interpreted in different ways, and depending on your interpretation, different facts could be key. Then, we find the issue. That is, the question being asked of the court. Next is the holding, which is the answer to that question. Finally, the judgment--whether the appeal was affirmed, reversed, dismissed, etc.--and the reasoning--obviously, the reason for the judgment.

Finally, we are supposed to give our own ideas when applicable. So a full case brief usually ends up being about a page of extrapolated information from these cases, which are often only a page or two long themselves.

Couple case briefing with the rest of the information in the text book that needs to be absorbed, noted, applied, etc., and 53 pages can take hours. And by can, I mean it did. I will get the hang of this soon, and it will be like second nature, but for the first go round, this was painfully tedious.

I already found it getting easier as I went along, and so the future looks bright, indeed.

On a side note, the library is the worst place to study. I was more distracted there then anywhere else. All of the other 1Ls are giddy with social excitement and won't leave anyone alone. I sat in the library for about five hours yesterday and had so many people coming by and chatting that I only covered 10 pages of text. It's frustrating and pathetic. But once everyone settles in (I don't know how many times I say this), things should get much easier.

Progress and Productivity

After an overwhelmingly depressing first day of orientation, things are on the up and up. I'm meeting people and settling in a little bit. First day jitters put thoughts of quitting in my mind, but obviously that's not an option. I think I'm home sick, which is strange for me. I don't remember ever feeling this way in Blacksburg, but maybe I repressed the sentiment.

A plethora of tasks to complete this week is slowly turning in to a short "To Do List", so I have filed this week (and this post) under progress and productivity. I have my student ID (Sun Card) and a bus pass (free for all students on all public transportation in Tempe). I have not yet gotten a parking permit, but I plan to ($280 for the year). However, we met our savior today. Kirill and I decided to sit at a table with a few 1L girls for lunch at the Max (the student center; think Squires, Hokies). By the time lunch was over, we were best friends. All three are ASU graduates, and one offered to drive us all over town to run our various errands (bookstore, commuter services, library for laptop configuration) and then take us home. While running around town (ignore the fact that she drove us on the wrong side of a median in to oncoming traffic), she offered--without prompting--to give us a ride to and from school every day. She has the parking pass for the Rural Rd. structure, which is across the street from the law building. She also plans to keep a similar schedule to me (9-5 every day, maybe a little earlier on one or two days, which fits my early Tuesdays perfectly). Jackpot.

In other news, her husband is from northern Virginia and played football at Robinson, so we probably have a lot of the same friends. He is a huge Redskins fan, so I now I have a Redskins buddy (as soon as I meet him). And they have four season tickets to Cardinals games that they can never pawn off on people. The two of them go but never have friends to join them, so they offered us tickets.

We were invited to happy hour on Friday and she also offered to show us all the best restaurants and grocery stores, etc. around town over the course of the semester.

I'd say we really lucked out sitting next to them.

In other news, I completed my first chapter of assigned reading yesterday and took detailed notes (on the laptop) in outline form. I have one more section to read for that assignment, but it isn't due until Monday. I have reading due Friday, but the book hasn't arrived yet. It has been on back order for weeks. I hope it shows up tomorrow, but it will ruin my happy hour plans tomorrow if I have to read the assignment while everyone else is out.

I registered my clicker (no idea what it does yet). It's a remote control with a keypad on it, and it allegedly takes roll in class and allows you to participate in some way. I also registered for LexisNexis and WestLaw after getting a tour of the law library.

This all, no doubt, sounds dreadfully boring. But when it's new and it's productive and I've been pretty bored, my mind makes it exciting. So be excited, okay?

We did some more grocery shopping today. Our kitchen finally looks decently stocked. We still need dishes and pots and pans. We got a set of really ghetto kitchenware at Target, but I deemed it 'worth it' after a detailed cost-benefit analysis.

Tomorrow, I plan to buy season football and basketball tickets because it's only $100 for the package deal. Coming from VT, I am baffled. We payed $350 for football and somewhere in the low $100's for basketball if I remember correctly.

It's getting late. I'm going to do a little more reading, proactively, so that I can enjoy the weekend.

I also was invited to join the Donkey Bowl, another fantasy keeper league. I bought a franchise that recently came on the market. Hopefully, I will draft for this league a little better than I did for the AEPi Alumni League. I'll post about that in a minute. Separate topics.

Motivation to Write=Good

I've been wanting to write in here a lot recently, and I'm hoping that this translates to my brain functioning again. I haven't had to do much of anything that required deep thought for awhile. I'll take it as a good sign.

As you can probably deduce, a lot has been happening recently. Here's a brief recap.

The water coming out of the faucets and the showers at our condo is hot. Not just like warm because it's been sitting in the pipes under the sun for a little bit. Hot. Piping hot. It have to run the shower for five minutes before the water gets to lukewarm, and that's about as cold as it goes. I took cold showers in Maryland when the weather is reasonable. I definitely want cold showers here where the heat is unreasonable. And brushing my teeth with hot water is a little gross,too. We are hoping the landlords can get this problem sorted out soon.

We bought a TV today from a guy I found on Craigslist. It's a 50" Samsung and we got it for $650. I wish we had spent less, but I kind of felt sorry for the guy. Kind of. His brother was in jail and needed bail money, so they were selling all his stuff. Televisions, XBox360, laptop, all sorts of electronics. We don't have cable set up yet, so it's just sitting in the living room. This week hopefully we can remedy that.

I met up with Joe and Diane today at Loco Patron in Ahwatukee to retrieve my books and car keys and to have a drink with them. As usual, they were very nice. We chatted over Corona's for about 45 minutes or so. We parted ways with vague plans to do it again sometime.

I don't have any music on my computer because, despite valiant efforts, Max has been unable to fix my old computer with everything I've ever had on it. He is still trying, though I don't know what kind of progress has been made because he doesn't return my calls. So, I've been listening to iTunes radio, which is actually really nice. While doing all my readings, I rediscovered that music with lyrics is extremely distracting. So I've been listening to and falling asleep to classical music all day. It's actually pretty nice. With no TV, it's kind of eerie trying to sleep. I always have ambient noise in the background. It's interesting that I actually recognize a lot of the songs that have come on (though I couldn't name the composer if you wanted me to).

Melissa bought tickets to come visit for a few days in the beginning of September. We're both very excited. I'm going to ask my professors not to assign any reading that weekend so that we can enjoy the couple days, stress free. I'm sure they'll understand.

Orientation starts in the morning. We have to be there by 8, and we have a 30 minute bus commute (ugh), so I'm getting up at 6. That means I need to go to bed right about...now.

Pre-Orientation

We've been assigned about 40 pages of required reading for orientation. Yes, orientation. Not class. Not being graded. Just required reading to be prepared for the lectures we are going to have during orientation. In my new, optimistic mindset, I have decided to view this as a great opportunity to begin to re-train my brain for academia. The readings will, no doubt, help me get better acquainted with the legal world - a world in which I have very little knowledge and experience.

I've gone through three of the five required readings and one suggested reading. I have two short ones left to go. So far, it's all pretty basic. They go over the hierarchy of the courts, the methods for writing briefs, legal writing in general, some important terminology, and some advice on how to best approach legal studies.

"The more you learn about the world of law, the better your reading of cases becomes. The better your reading of cases becomes, the more you will understand class discussion. The more you understand about what's being discussed at multiple levels in class, the better your reading of future cases will become. Eventually, through this cyclical process, you will find that you have become immersed in the language and culture of the law and this once-foreign land will start to feel like home."

-excerpt from "Basic Briefing"

One can only hope.

Last night, the roommates and I met up with some other 1Ls at an apartment. Everyone seemed pretty nice and well put together. I'm still waiting for all the weirdos to come out of the woodwork. I presume tomorrow will be full of just that. I met my first Rubix Cube savant. The kid who hosted the gathering can finish the cube in under a minute and a half. I've seen it. He told me it was really simple, that you just had to understand the algorithms on each level of the cube. Right? Like I said...savant.

On the cab ride back from Scottsdale, I decided I will never take a cab ride back from Scottsdale. The cabbie got lost and tried to charge us the full fare, even though he took us to Mesa by accident. So, $30 later, we made it back safely. He was asking for more than that, but we just handed him the money and got out after a quick argument. I think once we argued, he was just happy to get anything, so he accepted the money and said "Ok."

Some CostCo shopping is on order today I think. We need to fill the house with food so I don't keep having to eat out. I also have to get my text books and car keys from Diane.

But I'm tired and unmotivated already. On the bright side, I won the coin toss and get to start out in the master bedroom. We plan on rotating rooms throughout the year. I'm hoping everyone will become content where they are and we can just stay like this.

Tempe: It's Oh-fish-al

Things are getting to be real all of a sudden. I am leaving in about two weeks, give or take. I still haven't nailed down a departure date. Looking like I'm going to ship my car and fly out the week of the 10th sometime.

So, updates.

I found a place to live, finally. I have two roommates, both first year law students. We're getting a furnished condo at The Lakes in Tempe. Place looks great. Three bedrooms, about 1500 sq ft. Right by the water (lake) and the community pool. The neighborhood is a planned community.



It's two and a half miles from campus, right on the bus route. I'll have more pictures once I get out there.

I have my class schedule locked in as well. Taking five classes, nothing later than 3:30. I start at 8:30 on Tuesdays, which is my worst day. Friday I only have one class, from 1:30-3:30. Every other day starts at 10:30. Not so bad. Taking torts, contracts, legal writing and methods, civil procedure, and a special topics course with the dean. Couldn't sound more exciting, right?

I'm a Sun Devil

I got a rejection from UCLA today, which was equal parts expected and disappointing. I think it's for the best. Phoenix looks like it would be a much better fit for me, whether UCLA is a better school or not. I was never sure if I was ready for the LA lifestyle. I'm confident I could have fit in fine, but it would have taken a serious learning curve. Phoenix is going to be different, too, but fortunately I'll be in Tempe, which is sort of part of Phoenix, but isn't quite in the city, which makes it smaller and easier to handle. I grew up in Annapolis, and have only lived in Blacksburg aside from here, so I'm not exactly a big city fish.

Now I have to get my head in to the Arizona State mindset.

Things to do:
1. Dislike Arizona Wildcats.
2. Try to gain for respect Pac-10 football while disliking its other member schools.
3. Become Arizona Cardinals fan (don't worry, the Redskins will always be my team).
4. Dislike the remainder of the NFC West. This includes the Seahawks (sorry Darryl Tapp), the 49ers (sorry Josh Morgan), and the Rams (sorry Vince and Josh Hyman). I'll still cheer for you all individually, but you need to leave me and my Matt Leinart alone.
5. Become a Diamondbacks fan.
6. Become a Suns fan.
7. Find a place to live.
8. Learn about all the great things Phoenix and the surrounding area has to offer.
9. Force all of my friends and family to come visit once I get settled in.
10. Attend class/earn Juris Doctor.
11. Get out of debt.
12. Build my empire.

I'm going to miss a lot of things on the East Coast. Particularly all my friends and family. I'm going to miss the birth of my first nephew/niece. I'll be back for Matt's wedding and for my sister's. I'll miss being a part of the Flag Monkeys. I'll miss Blacksburg being a drive away. I'll miss Annapolis as a whole, and being on the water. Camping in Shenandoah. Sailing on the Bay. Spring nights in the hammock on the back deck, sipping homemade Mojitos. Cool weather. My current house, and the homes I grew up in. Knowing that my best friends (most of them) are right around the corner (and maybe down the highway, some further than others). Floods downtown, and the occasional snowfall. Green trees everywhere. Ocean City, New York, DC, Baltimore, Philly, and Boston all being a drive away. Summers in Nantucket.

I don't want or expect the things to come to outweigh or outnumber the things I'll miss. But they had better be worth the trip.

I uprooted myself completely to go to Virginia Tech and it was probably the best decision I ever made. Sure, the Hokies will be endlessly frustrating in the sports world. We may never get over the hump and win a National Championship in football. Or in basketball, for that matter, though I think we have a shot. We are dominating in the non-revenue sports right now, but who really cares about that? But, the point is, I picked up and left everything I knew to go to Blacksburg. I made a new life for myself and loved (almost) every minute of it. I can only hope I have a similar experience in Tempe, only more schooling, and more on the line.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see. For now, I want to enjoy my last summer as a free man. Anyone who wants to join me, I'm up for anything. Throw some ideas my way, and if it's worth it, I'm there. This will be my summer of spontaneity (job permitting).

The Fine Line Between Excited and Bragging.

I'd like to read (well, write) the copy of a letter I received in the mail today.

Dear Mr. Renaut:

Congratulations! We are thrilled to offer you a place in the Class of 2011 at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Your application demonstrates that you will be a valuable addition to our academic community, and we look forward to your joining this select group of future attorneys.

There is a bunch of informative jargon that follows. But the key component of this letter is at the bottom, tucked neatly in to a corner of the paper's margin.

Handwritten in ink:

Sam,

I applaud your commitment to maintaining the highest professional standards and representing the legal profession well. We would love to have you at ASU this fall. Phoenix is a great city for someone with your background in sports.

Sincerely,
Shelli Soto
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

Out celebrating!

That's What's Good in the Streets?

Unfortunately, my writer's block seems to have returned lately. I haven't been inspired to bloggerate much in the last week or two. But I'm forcing this one out with what will hopefully be as fun as it is informational. Emphasis on informational, 'cause it's tough to turn basic news in to funny anecdotes.

First things first, my unemployment is nearing its end. And it couldn't be too soon at this point. I start training at Carpaccio on Tuesday. Apparently, the staff there is an all-star team of employees put together from the other three restaurants owned by the same management group. I seem to have fallen in to a good thing almost by accident. But we'll see where it takes me. I've met lots of the staff already and enjoy their company so far.

Next...I got my first law school acceptance letter yesterday. So, no matter what, I'm going to be in law school in the fall. It's a huge weight off my shoulders to know that I got in somewhere. As of now, Villanova is officially an option. Hooray, me!

And finally, it's March Madness. My first round picks were phenomenal. I went 28/32, and two of my botches went to overtime. So I feel like they were good picks either way. Saturday, I didn't do so well. I lost a bunch of teams, but no one that was advancing much further in to the tournament, so no real damage there. Then UCLA took the court against Texas A&M and almost gave me a heart attack. It took a last second shot for my champions to reach the Sweet 16. Nooooot gooooooooood. But for the time being, I'm in 1st or close to it in all three of my pools.

Happy Easter! My family got together at my sister's house for brunch today. It was nice, food was good. My Dad brought lots of candy for everyone, which I'm currently nomming contentedly.

Looking forward to...

UAB at Virginia Tech Monday night.

Orlando/Gainesville for Ross' wedding. Flight leaves first thing Thursday morning out of Dulles.

Earning an income.

That is all.