Heading Back To The Strip

It’s been over three years since Johnny Law and I packed up our covered wagon (my parents suburban, may she rest in peace) and headed west. What we were in pursuit of, I still don’t really know. I would say “the meaning of life”, but if this is it then I want my money back. At the time all we were looking for was a law degree and somewhere new to call home for a while. We certainly got more than we bargained for. Sure, Johnny Law’s happy to be speeding away from law school, anxious to leave the studying and pressure in his rear-view mirror, and quite frankly, so am I. But I have to say, we’ve had a lot of things happen while we’ve been hanging out trying to figure our lives out, and we’ve met some great people along the way.

The first friends Tom made in Eugene

Since moving here we’ve got a marriage, a law degree, and about a thousand other great experiences under our belts. Time has flown by. I’m very thankful for the amazing people I’ve been able to work with, who I now count as good friends, and the many friends who I will dearly miss seeing on a regular basis. I can’t speak for Johnny Law, but I’ll go out on a limb and say he’ll miss playing in the Legal Ballers Association and solving the worlds problems at Tuesday Afternoon Drinking Club most of all.

My first tie dye sighting

I’ve learned that things often turn out the opposite of what you’ve planned, but they happen for a reason..often a good one.

I’ve discovered it is possible for a Coug to survive in Duckville..but I can’t tell you how happy I’ll be to not have to see green and yellow EVERYWHERE.

After three years, I am finally able to go for a run or ride my bike in the rain and not complain the whole time…and I have a feeling that since we’re moving somewhere where it doesn’t rain nearly as much, I might actually miss it.

What we'll be getting now during wintertime instead of rain

I love alcoholic cider and the fact it can be poured from a tap at Max’s, and I appreciate really good beer.

And most of all I’ve learned that sometimes you just have to roll the dice and do what you think is right, and it will all work out in the end.

That’s pretty much what we’re doing. Even though Spokane isn’t Johnny Law’s home, its where we first met, and the smallest town he’s ever going to get me to agree to settle down in, so our move feels like a homecoming of sorts. We’re really looking forward to spending some more time with the family and friends we didn’t get to see as much of over the past three years.

..and unfortunately you’re all stuck with us now.

So, what’s next. Well, I’ve taken a job up in Spokane, so Johnny Law will just have to do the same. If not, I’m sure he can fill his days hanging out with my family (if that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is..especially since many of them are retired and now have a lot of extra time on their hands).

Bar Exam Update- Johnny Law’s still got a couple weeks to wait for results– so I’m hopeful the move will serve as a nice distraction.

I’m also blogging for “real” about social media and marketing over at The Social Media Notepad. If you’re interested in that blog, or if you just have time to kill, join the Facebook page and please, please let me know what you think and what you want to see.

In the meantime- Go hard or go home. And thanks for reading!

Aloha!

Anxiety Dreams

Life post-bar exam has continued to entertain me. I enjoy having Johnny Law “back”, and we’ve actually been hanging out during the week and enjoying each others company (I know, pretty hard to believe).

As the weeks have gone on however, he’s begun to get even more anxiety around learning his bar exam results. I think part of it has to do with the fact that Oregon test takers get their results this Friday. If you know anyone who took this bar, please, please, just leave them alone on results day. Most I know are planning to hibernate to play it safe in the event that results aren’t optimal. Do NOT tell them you’re sure they’ll pass, or that everyone says it’s harder than it really is. That is NOT what they want to hear.

I think our friends’ anxiety has rubbed off on us. When I woke up this morning the first thing Johnny Law told me (well the only thing…and usually he doesn’t tell me anything at that hour) was that he had a series of anxiety dreams where he found out he didn’t pass the bar. The first was him realizing he didn’t pass, the next one was him having a dream that he didn’t pass…you get the idea. The man has gone crazy!

Worst of all, I then realized that I also had a TERRIBLE dream..the same anxiety dream I always have- that I have a child. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has this dream from time to time. It wasn’t my usual dream where I think I’m in labor and don’t really know who the father is. I think I might actually be more troubled because in this dream I had a child and was just hanging out and enjoying it (don’t recall if it was a boy or a girl).

Either way, we’ve now both gone mad. No more late night snacking for us.

A Look Into Johnny Law’s Stay-At-Home Life

I love stay-at-home mom’s. I don’t particularly like stay-at-home Johnny Law.

As much as I long to be back on the beach in Hawaii or out at the lake each morning when I ride my bike to work, I really would be bored to death after a week of just sitting in my own house. That’s what I’ve been reminding myself now that Johnny Law’s finished up three weeks as a stay-at-home unemployed person.

We got some new upstairs neighbors a few weeks ago (an occupational hazard of living in our dungeon), and they have a little bit of a different schedule than we do. Their schedule is, come home drunk/play the guitar at 1 in the morning. It only took two nights of this for Johnny Law to go up and have a talkin’ with them. Ya know, tell them that people down here have to get up and go to work ( really only a slight exaggeration). Since they’re passed out during his days home alone, Johnny fills them with other things, namely job hunting/resume sending/pleading/begging for a job, and catching spiders (another occupational hazard of the dungeon).

For some reason the deep cleaning/gourmet chef Johnny Law hasn’t emerged yet. I’m not going to hold my breath on that one. On the bright side, I have an eager companion who is willing to drive on any road trip I’m willing to embark on, or let me pick the movie we go to if I’m willing to go out on a school night.

And I come home to things like this…

This is the first thing I saw when I got home from work today..I swear he had pants on..not that it really makes a difference at this point.

And when I go to get photos off of my camera I find things like this…

Apparently we needed photo evidence of his bar exam rally beard before he shaved it off

Heaven help us

Gluttony Is Good

That’s right, I’ll admit it. I have been a complete piece of junk since Johnny Law took the bar and we’ve been excessively eating and drinking our way through the month of August (and ignoring my responsibility to my 3 readers by not posting anything to this blog). I won’t call Johnny Law a piece of junk, but I will blame him for encouraging me to skip the gym and all other productive activities after work so I can come play with him.It’s amazing how much more fun a person is when they don’t hate what they’re doing everyday.

After Johnny Law finished the bar we spent a week in Hawaii. I know that this now makes it impossible for me to complain about anything for at least a couple more months…but who are we kidding, I’ll find something to complain about.

Check out more photos here

After Hawaii we successfully crammed a summer’s worth of weekend road-trips into the month of August. This weekend we’re having a heck of a finale with a wedding (Congrats Chad & Mary!), a baby shower, and a 4-year old’s b-day party (which includes a squirt gun fight). No complaints here.

Today also marks an historical occasion. A new batch of students are starting law school, and today, for the first time since I’ve met him, Johnny Law is not a student. I won’t tell you how many years that’s been, ok I will, I’ve witnessed four years of Johnny Law starting school when I’ve been working.  I think it goes without saying, neither one of us was upset he didn’t get to buy school supplies this year. Instead, he’s at home scouring the interwebz for any possibility of a patent attorney/patent agent/(insert anything remotely related here) job here so he gets to stop being my personal slave and do all the fun things like argue with the Post Office over undelivered mail, and do all the dishes.

I’ve been trying to get him to come on the blog to do a recap of the test and offer his own perspective, but I don’t think he’s quite bored enough yet (don’t worry, he will be soon).  In the meantime, I hope you’re all having a safe, and happy summer. Thanks for reading, and for all the well-wishes.

4 Sleeps Til Test Day and an Einstein T-shirt

Whoever counts down by days is crazy- at my house we count by sleeps. Counting by days is confusing to me. Do you count today, and if you do, do you count the first test day? Or do you count in 24 hour increments and then round up to days so you’re really precise?.. Then again, I’m not a law school grad. I’m just one of the serfs in the lower class who doesn’t know anything..

The test takers are on edge and all their nerves are in shreds. Its just time to get this damn thing over with.

Not to mention I’m running out of topics to write about.

While I’ve enjoyed watching many of my friends lose their souls and the will to go on via Facebook status updates, I’m ready to move on. I’m tired of Johnny Law having “an out” for not doing dishes, laundry, or anything else useful to me besides turning on the barbecue.

One the way home for school last week he stopped at Safeway for some comfort food. Chicken nuggets and a roll of chocolate chip cookie dough. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that eating cookie dough like that is something I’ve only heard of women doing..

This week I’ve been a supportive wife by trying to contaminate him with a wicked summer cold I picked up somewhere. Before I took up permanent residence on our couch I did do my good deed for the week by washing Johnny Law’s luck t-shirt.

He got this Einstein t-shirt sometime in elementary school and wore it for every final through last year. Needless to say, it got a little snug. Lucky for him, his sister saw the exact same t-shirt in a museum and picked up a brand new one for him to wear for the bar….if this doesn’t do the trick I don’t know what will..

Are You Smarter Than A Lawyer

Short answer..yes.

Ok, maybe that isn’t true in every case. But let’s see if it is. At Johnny Law’s graduation I received this book..

Johnny Law’s been reading it over is bowl of cereal each morning and I’ve been surprised at some of the questions included so I thought I’d give all my loyal readers a chance to test their legal IQ.

Note to those taking the bar next week: Don’t take the results too seriously! You guys are already on so many pins and needles I actually thought twice about posting because I was afraid of causing unnecessary text anxiety. If you’re on the edge, just wait a a week until taking this one.

Click here to take the quiz.

Good luck!

Eugene 2.0

A couple months ago I wrote a post about the local culture to give my family a sneak peek of Eugene. My cubicle neighbor at work was shocked at the murals I posted photos of that were a block away from our office (I swear its because we just get used to the unexpected/downright weird down here) so I decided to walk a block in the other direction and post photos to round things out.

I’ll say this about Eugene, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I love the creepy old guy in the top left window. He greets me each morning.

This garden isn't usually obstructed by machinery. Its usually doing its best to hide a huge pit in the middle of downtown.

I also dug up some old photos from the first year we moved here to add to the bunch. Johnny Law and I still come home some days and say, “You’re never gonna believe what I saw when I was coming home from work/school today.”- but of course we always believe it.

Gathering cans for a big payday

Its easy making new friends with Coors Light

Yep, that's tie dye all right

Day and Night

What inspired today’s post? Well, after abandoning Johnny Law for a week I told him I’d take him out on a date to do whatever he wanted as a reward for all of his hard work. The exchange went something like this.

Me: “My treat- where do you want to go…I’ll take you out to do anything you want.”

Johnny Law: “Well, I was thinking…maybe we could go see Toy Story?”

Me: “That’s really all you wanna do, I’ll take you to do anything and you pick an animated movie…but ok, Toy Story it is.”

Johnny Law: “Can we see it in 3D?”

Me: “Sure, we can splurge for 3D. Maybe I’ll even sneak some snacks in for you and your 5-year-old friends.”

So we did, and it was awesome. In fact, just like all the other animated movies coming out these days we almost shed some tears. In true Pixar style there was a great short animated movie before Toy Story called Day and Night. Here’s a sneak peek:

As I was uploading some photos from the past month I noticed that I’ve been riding the fun bus while Johnny Law’s daily highlight has been his thermos of black coffee each morning. Pretty sad- pretty much like night and day.

In my defense, I’m really trying to get out of the house/out of the city limits as much as possible as to not distract Johnny Law any more than necessary. Four years of my working and him being a student has proven that even if I’m minding my own business, as soon as he catches my scent back in our house I’m a distraction.

And now, a photo montage..

Drinking buckets of booze with JP in Denver...my version of fun

Hanging out with a Storm Trooper...Johnny Law's version of fun.

And this is why I usually don’t post photos of ourselves..we look like idiots.

Attempt #1- Johnny Law looks creepy/drunk even though he's only creepy. I look a little high.

#2- We really tried for creepy this time. I lost as usual.

#3- Johnny Law hangs me out to dry by posing nicely.

The end.

Bar Exam Vocab Test

Get out your paper and pencils children

..well I won’t go quite that far.

Today I thought I’d share a few of the new terms that have been introduced into our household. No no no, these aren’t legal terms that actually mean something once you figure them out, they’re gibberish that I’m almost ashamed to admit are used by us on a regular basis.

Even though I work with “normal” non-bar taking people every day, it didn’t occur to me that I’d adapted this geek-speak until coming home after being out of town for a week.

WAG’s: Wives and girlfriends of people taking the bar. I didn’t make this one up; it came from one of our friends who successfully used it in a sentence on the 4^th of July. We were commiserating over how depressed our significant others had become and how we needed to ban together!

Bromance: This isn’t unique to the bar exam. It’s the term I affectionately use for the relationship Johnny Law has formed with another one of his fellow test takers. This particular bromance includes meeting up every morning (even at 9am on weekends) to do practice essays, as well as playing pickup basketball outside of the law school during the 10 minute breaks between lectures..I don’t think I need to worry about it blossoming into anything more than this—but then again I guess you never know.

Since I stole this definition from pop culture, I’ve also included the urban dictionary definition here:

A non-sexual relationship between two straight men that are unusually close.

Bar-brained: What Johnny Law is when I get home at night and he starts rambling about a combination of subjects covered that day and real life. Neither of them makes sense, and these conversations typically end once Johnny Law realizes I’ve left the room completely or have just tuned out. Also see bar-fried, bar-buzzed…I could go on all day, but I won’t.

By my best calculations, it looks like Johnny Law’s only got 22 days left until this whole mess is over…if only I had a deloreon.

How Does Skymall Stay In Business?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever purchased something from Sky Mall.

For those of you who haven’t flown in a while, its that flimsy in-flight magazine that sells the CHEESIEST gadgets ever. I haven’t actually looked through this magazine in years, but I finished my book with a half hour left in my flight back home so I resorted to browsing through it. If you can top any of these stupid inventions I’ll give you $5.

When did it become acceptable for dogs to lie on the couch, let alone have their own staircase?

Hate to break it to you, but for $180 I'm thinking you should NOT order more inventory.

My question, what good is an Underwater Pogo Stick if you can't hold your breath for longer than a minute?

And the reason I was prompted to write this post- thanks to Sky Mall I can buy a board game to help Johnny Law pass the bar!

Passing The Bar Game- Help prepare your law student with these questions from real live and television..really?

Product Details:

The perfect gift for law studentsA great gift for law students, both throughout law school and to help prepare them for the Bar Examination. With “Passing the Bar” flashcards, your favorite law student will spend more time studying, in an enjoyable, fun setting. Fun for lawyers too! The game includes 350 Mulitstate Bar Examination (“MBE”) Cards (featuring legal questions modeled after the MBE), and 100 Justice Cards (featuring celebrity run-ins with the law, movie quotes from notorious and gripping courtroom dramas, outrageous verdicts and alike). Additional game cards (sold separately) includes 450 questions from previous Bar Examinations, released by the NCBE.