Two Truths and a Lie

Today was the parting party for the criminal defense clinic. This semester I served at a chief counsel in the clinic, so I'm completely done now. No more clients until I graduate and no more fun times in the clinic. It's sad to say goodbye to it, but I will gladly take the memories.

The point of this post isn't to pontificate about my feelings about law and cool clinics. No, I intend to say a few things about the party that we had. First of all, I didn't have anything alcoholic to drink despite the fact others were buying. That's odd. I've got finals on my mind, so I don't want to hinder myself. Second, we sat at this long table. I think that most people know what happens when you get a lot of people and a long table: conversations get become separated into smaller groups. It's just like you have two or three separate tables. I ended up in the middle. This makes things even worse because you are on the outskirts of two conversations. I didn't really like that, so after thirty or so minutes I pulled up a chair with the group that I preferred.

All in all a fun little party.

This weekend I'll go ahead and reveal a couple of the posts this week, one lie and one truth. Recently there have been a few more lies because my life is currently boring.

Litter Bugs is a lie, well, technically a white lie. There was a litter bug running around the parking lot who threw a white styrofoam cup into the bushes. I'm not sure why he did this. What pisses me off is that it creates extra work for people who are working their asses off already. I don't like it when people treat janitors, gardeners, house cleaners, etc like scum. The gardeners job at this apartment complex isn't to pick up our shit. We have dumpsters to put our trash in. However, I didn't say anything to the guy when I walked over to pick up the trash he threw into the bushes. Instead I just stared him down when he walked by me.

Finding MILFS was a true post. There were actually two days that I got to play with my nephew and niece in the mall play zone. People often say that getting a puppy to take on walks or to the park is the best way to attract girls. This is wrong, it might be a good way, but I think that the best way is a little child. Girls seemed to love seeing a guy playing with two little kids. When you're playing with your little ones it isn't long before the other kids want to join. Soon you're playing with a group of kids and the mothers love you too.

The second day was even better because it was a weekday during the day. A lot of the women with children seemed to be nannies. Nannies are a good group too.

After a day of not doing anything all that productive, I decided that today I would get some work done. I slept in a little this morning and skipped my daily workout routine so that I could get my swerve on. I think that swerve means writing a paper for your death penalty class.

Footnoting a paper is not fun. If anyone ever tells you that footnotes are cool you should immediately punch them in the gut. They need to rethink their negative course in life. A good punch to the stomach will definitely change things for them.

I turned on the TV so that I could have some sports on in the background. A lot of people think that watching TV is a distraction. In my experience it is no different than listening to music in the background. Both of them are just white noise for me in the background that help me concentrate a little more on what I'm doing. I'm a little ADD with some things, so I need to have a little distraction.

I finished the paper and started work on my resume. I now have two different versions of my resume that are a little different depending on who I apply with. One is more conservative while the other is a little more liberal. Nothing is a lie in it...just the experiences change and the way I order things.

After that I read, and tried to memorize, ten pages of my consumer law outline. That's a little more fun for me than footnoting, but I'd still suckerpunch the fool who enjoys studying for law school finals.

After it got to be about ten p.m. I decided that it was time to watch a few episodes of Playmakers. I haven't seen any of it yet, so I decided to rent it from Blockbusters. My initial thoughts are that it's pretty out there. It's like they wanted a mixture of Any Given Sunday and Boston Public. I can understand why the NFL pressured ESPN to stop producing the show.

Now it's about time for me to head to bed. Tomorrow is going to be filled with more marathon studying.

I hope that everyone is having a good Thanksgiving weekend.

It's crunch time with law exams around the corner and I'm watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. How foolish.

This weekend my family was visiting me in town, so I was able to spend a lot of time with them. The visit made me happy because I will be unable to go home this Thanksgiving due to the stress of school. I have to write a paper, study for finals, and continue in my job search.

My mother and grandmother came from Wichita on Tuesday. For a couple of days they stayed in Fort Worth with relatives I had not met. My mom came to Dallas on Thursday to hang out with me, my sister, and my little nephew and niece. Then on Friday they went back to Fort Worth after a morning and lunch hanging out. My sister went back to her home in Killeen.

On Saturday I went out to Fort Worth to have an early Thanksgiving celebration with the extended family. I hadn't really met any of them before this week, so I was excited to be there. It was surprising how many friendly relatives I had who I didn't know. Not to mention, there were a lot of cute cousins that I had never met, so I'm glad to know they are family. A few of them live in Dallas, so I know to watch out for the distant cousins when I'm out at a bar. All in all, it was a lot of fun to meet them all. It made my grandmother really happy as she is quite proud of me.

If I don't get to go home for Thanksgiving, this made it better.

This evening when I was walking out to my car I noticed another vehicle driving into the parking lot. I decided to stall for a minute, because I didn't want that vehicle to take my prime parking spot right as I was leaving. I walked around for a minute and the driver circled off. Then I got into my car and shut the door so my light wouldn't be shining. The guy eventually parked and walked across the parking lot towards his apartment. He was drinking something from one of those white Styrofoam cups as he passed my truck. He didn't notice me sitting in the truck (mission accomplished), but I noticed him throw his trash into some nearby bushes.

I'm not a big fan of people who litter, in this case there was absolutely no excuse as he was twenty feet from his apartment, or of litter being left around. I decided to go and get the trash and possibly put that cup on in his windshield wiper so that he would see it the next day. I walked over and retrieved the empty cup and decided to take it over to the dumpster. At this point the guy walks back out of his apartment and sort of saw what I was doing. He went to another car (possibly his wife's car?) and got a bag from it. Then when he was trying to avoid any eye contact with me, I blurted out, "try not to throw that into the bushes." He looked over sort of sheepishly and walked back into his apartment.

I'm not sure why I get so confrontational about things. I'm not all that large of a person, I never lift weights or box or anything, so I'm pretty sure most people would destroy me in a fight. Strangely enough I'm constantly saying shit that I really don't need to say. In this situation, however, I would have kicked the guy's ass if he had tried anything.

A few members of my family came to visit me for the weekend. This included my mom, grandmother, sister, and my sisters boy and girl. The normal routine is that I will go and meet them, grab some dinner, and follow them around while they shop.

Today I got stuck on diaper duty with the my niece and nephew. While my mom and sister went shopping, they left me behind in some child play area in the mall. It was actually a cool area with these different breakfast items that the kids could play on. The floor and the structures were all soft enough that the falls wouldn't hurt anyone.

They played and I watched them running around. Oh, my niece is almost 2 and my nephew is almost 5, so it was all very cute. However, it wasn't long before I noticed all these hot women hanging out with their kids. Some of them were married but many weren't. Score!

Now I just need to figure out how to find a little kid to take to the mall with me on a regular basis.

I watched Monday Night Football at a bar yesterday with a group of my friends. We were upset because our Dallas Cowboys were feeling the pain. My frustration was only increased when a table near us switched from being Dallas fans to suddenly being fans of the Eagles. It didn't make any sense. At the beginning of the game they were yelling for the Cowboys. I guess that they didn't like cheering for the loser, so they decided to change their team in the middle of the game. Well, they got louder and more obnoxious as the game when on, so I eventually got louder too. They didn't like it when I let them know that if they didn't shut up on their own accord, I would help them do it. No. They actually seemed to be quite upset by this, but I had a few of my friends on my own side. While punches weren't thrown...there was a lot of yelling back and forth. Fun times.

I've been called on a few times by Dominos. First was last week on Tuesday when she called to see what I was up to. I felt a little bad that I had given up on her, or on us, so I said we should get together. She agreed, and we decided that we would get together on Saturday. I figured that I might as well use her persistence as a way to get some action, right?

I suggested that we go out to dinner and rent a movie. She agreed and told me to call her back with the specifics. I let her know that I had a presentation and studying for the MPRE examination, so I probably wouldn't be able to call her for awhile. Indeed, I forgot to call her on Wednesday and Thursday. I went out on Friday, so it wasn't until later that I saw I missed her call. I called her back that night (she was drunk), but she didn't pick up because she had passed out.

Come Saturday, we talk on the phone, and I cancel. I didn't want to deal with a last minute thing. Then she called me earlier today. I didn't answer the phone, because I had the ringer off. I still haven't called her back to let her know that I don't want to do anything right now. She wanted to come over for a "Shrek Marathon." I haven't seen either of the Shrek movies, so I wasn't really motivated to see them right now.

This whole situation is unfortunate. Why don't I just make her happy and take advantage of her?

Oh what a night. If only it were late Decemeber.

I don't have much to say about my own experience. I had a number of beers, sang aloud a lot, saw a few people I knew, and enjoyed the show. I do have some other extraneous observations.

A. We ignored first homeless guy and walked on.

B. Biggity didn't have to pay for his ticket; the girl waved him in.

C. Beer was fucking expensive. Almost four bucks a bottle.

D. Girl danced around like a maniac during the opening band. At times it seemed like a little deer prancing. She also had a scarf that she played around with. She looked alright.

E. The urinal holes were shaped like a penis. I'm starting to believe this was intentional.

F. The singer for the opening band (Duo of Threesome or Duo of Triplet or something stupid) tried to drink his beer a little too quickly which caused it to overflow. Not smooth.

G. Girl flashed me and friends by lower her tube top for us.

H. I think that she believed I owed her access to my ass. She grabbed it a few times through the rest of the night.

I. Two girls attempted to dance with me despite my total lack of interest.

J. Matt Nathanson kicked ass.

K. Second homeless guy was given a dollar by me.

That is all.

Today was the day that I had to give my presentation in Death Penalty Project. Overall, I think that I did a pretty good job. There were two groups (four presenters) who worked together to pull together a collective presentation. Each of us took about 20 minutes to discuss our issues. I noted a few things I should work on in presentations.

1. Memorize. I think it helps when you don't have to look at the slides, or notes, in order to discuss your subject. Maybe refer to them but just a starting point. Then discuss the gist of that and allow the people watching to read the slides.

2. Speak slower. I go really fast when I get nervous. This is different from my normal speech pattern. Normal speech pattern, for me, being ass backwards slow. Oh well.

3. Eye contact. It sort of goes with why I should memorize the material. It's nice to make eye contact with people.

That's really about everything I can think of improving. Like I said, I think that I did an alright job overall. I am glad to be done.

These past couple days I've been cooped up in my apartment trying to organize a paper and power point presentation. I simply am not able to do it. It isn't a matter of knowledge on the subject. Reading of articles has been non-stop, so I'm not concerned about that. I could talk to someone for hours about the subject, but I wouldn't want to because it's sort of boring. My problem is just organizing it into a neat little power point presentation.

How do you business people do it? I can't figure it out.

Anyhow, this should be going for another day or so, and then I'll do the presentation on Wednesday.

Yesterday evening I was innocently walking to where I start my daily run when I heard a couple deep voices arguing. I looked around and noticed a guy, who I suspect is a drug dealer, in his convertible yelling at one of my neighbors.

My neighbor, Ole Miss, is a really, really old retiree who walks around with his wife a lot. He walks pretty slow; I blame it on his cane. There have been a few situations where I was walking down the path to get my mail and wound up stuck behind Ole Miss and his wife, which resulted in a delay of a couple hours. The guy he was arguing with has a nice black Mercedes with a Kerry sticker and he looks like a bouncer or defensive lineman.

Even though I wouldn't be able to assist, I stuck around to see if the Ole Miss was about to get his ass kicked. I was doing my stretches while listening to the fight go on about where you should get your news. Ole Miss was saying that he likes Fox News because he's an old man and knows when he's being lied to. The Dealer was yelling that Fox News, ABC, all of that is biased and they lie to you. His contention was that to get a fair understanding of what's happening in politics you have to watch C-Span. Then he yelled about how the Wall Street Journal was where you can read about the news but not The Dallas Morning News or NY Times.

My confusion was why this fight was occurring at the time it was? I mean The Dealer had his car in the middle of the parking lot and was trying to leave. The Ole Miss had his hand on the car like that would stop it from leaving. They were both upset with one another but why did the fight even begin? The Dealer finally drove off in a fury. I'm sure Ole Miss was envious of his speed. Then I ran off.

On my run I noticed a little turtle on the sidewalk. It was no bigger than the size of a walnut, so I guess it just hatched from its egg. I picked it up and carried it down to the grass near a lake so it can have a good life instead of being stomped by a kid thinking it's a walnut. When I got back to my apartment the Ole Miss was still outside looking a little confused, so I went up to tell him about the Turtle. He got a big smile and said that he's always had a special place in his heart for turtles, because he would buy little baby turtles at the dime store as a child.

Ole Miss is blowing my mind. Fox News, fighting with The Dealer, and buying baby turtles...what a life.

When you go on runs do you hate it when you hit those little manhole covers? Seriously...

I think that there is a huge problem with having these things around because they go clang when you hit them. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much, but I always end up stepping on them during my runs. Then I hear this clang noise and want to run faster because I get scared. When I get scared the people running around me seem to get nervous.

Today I clanged and sort of darted off it. This girl who I just passed probably thought I was nuts. Very strange if you ask me, but I guess that this is just the way things go sometimes. You run over the manhole covers and make girls hate you.

Clang.

This evening I went with a few friends to a popular restaurant where we got food for half off and some beer for free. All of this was because one of the girls is married to the manager. It was nice to get the food half off. After the restaurant closed we got to stick around and drink some beer, talk to some of the waitresses, and just have a good time. I'm not sure why any of this is cool but it was fun. You ought to give it a try sometime. I wish that guys got free drinks more often.

This evening I was running around in circles as I tryed to network with as many people as I could, however, it was hampered by my drunken state. I was invited, by my summer employer, to a fund raising banquet for their organization. They are a great non-profit that outsources pro bono participation in a type of law I am interested in practicing.

I drove over to the art museum where this shin-dig was located and noticed that a bunch of valets were swarming around the museum. There is no way I'm going to let someone valet my sweet car. Oh, it is a sweet ass truck replete with manual lock doors and a clutch. I drove off to a lot where you could pay to park, threw my five bucks into the box, and ran across the street to find my friends.

Everyone was there! Friends from school who had nothing to do with this organization, friends who were there this summer, my co-workers, my arch-enemy from school, and a bunch of old people. That is right there were a ton of old people running around with their wine. I decided that I should follow there lead. The wine guy and I became fast friends.

After enough running around with glass after glass of wine I decided it was time to start networking. I told as many people as I could that I was already drunk and needed a summer job. For whatever reasons nobody made me an offer. Before long I decided that I had spent more than enough time with my arch-enemy and decided to go home. However, I stopped to grab a sandwich at Potbellys because they are awesome. Then I watched football with more alcohol.

To sum up the evening: Wine, arch enemies, networking for idiots, meatball sub, beer, and football.

Now I'll pass out.