Minute after Minute, Law School Creeps on.

Happy Holidays everyone.

One of the things I love most about the holiday season is finals. The aromatic scent of freshly printed outlines. The warm, gentle sting of paper cuts. The clickity-clack of frantic typing. The familiar, homey tenseness in my neck, back, and shoulders. Nightmares. Continuous Nauseousness. Complete self-loathing. Let's not forget the weeks of self-absorption when I get to forget about economic meltdown, layoffs, church, family, and hygiene. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Oh, but there is hope. In three weeks, it will all be over--for a few more months. By the way, I only have one more semester after this. Maybe I will celebrate Christmas in April.

Of course I am only about 85% serious about all the finals horrors and pessimism. The other 15% of me is very greatful for all I have been blessed with. Law school has been a great opportunity, and has opened a lot of doors for me. We are also loving our new-ish home. Most importantly, I have realized in the last few weeks that I have an unusually large number of good friends. I also have a large number of unusual friends. Which seems is unusual for a largely normal person.

My car stinks, and now it lurches some times. The mechanics told us that there is nothing wrong because the engine light doesn't come on. Hmmm.

Minute after Minute after a long time.

So many minutes have passed since my last posting. Mostly, life has been busy.

School is boring, for the most part. Thankfully, it is my last year. I lifted my proverbial eyes a few days ago and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. It was very dim, but the green like money.

Speaking of money, Elizabeth and I have a lot less, because we bought a house. We kept reading in the paper about the turbulent economy and rampant foreclosures and decided to get in while the gettin's good. We will post some pics of our new place as soon as Elizabeth updates our family blog.

I am still deciding on my post-law-school plans. It looks like I will have some options: more to come as things crystalize. I feeling more confident that I won't be one of those starving, homeless lawyers. Worst case scenario, I know a guy who can get me a job at McD's--more local, less corporate.

My car smells. My dog smells sometimes, too. But they smell different.

Last Minute of Oral Argument

I finished my summer internship with the Utah Supreme Court on Friday. I'm happy Utah law is still largely functional and in pretty much the same shape as how the Utah Legislature crafted it (sometimes it is hard to tell what that shape is; I'm thinking dodecahedron). At this internship, I learned one important lesson: it is better to draft a short, bad document than a long, bad document. There is a caveat to this lesson that only applies if you get paid by the word.

Tomorrow (Monday), I start a new job as a clerk for a small law firm. At this job, I am told I will be paid with money. That means someone will expect a worthwhile output for the monetary input. I am nervous.

I have been sailing every Wednesday night for the past few weeks. I am still learning, and learning has taught me all sorts of good things. I can now tie a bowline, pull a line, figure out which direction is clockwise, and not fall in the water. I also know to duck when we tack. Most importantly, I learned new, sailor words like "tack," "bowline," and "duck." I'm almost a sailor.

Elizabeth thinks it is almost time to get a new car. She wants a Lexus that smells like leather. That is hardly a smell at all.

An Eduvacational Minute

Vacation is over.

Elizabeth and I visited friends and family in the Mid-Atlantic states. We had a lot of fun, but learned even more. Here are a few gems of knowledge from my vacation:

1. On the East Coast, water falls from the sky, sometimes. In liquid form! They call it rain.
2. 55 mph is an acceptable freeway speed.
3. The Atlantic ocean is just as cold as the Pacific. Small world.
4. Dogs in Richmond roam freely off the leash and all look like pit bulls.
5. Crab cakes in Baltimore taste like crab cakes in Utah. Smaller world.
6. Delaware is not as bad as it sounds.

As educational as our vacations sounds, it was actually quite fun. (See thefunseeleys.blogspot.com to see what we really did).

I had to go back to work when it was all over. Work was educational and not fun. I contemplated a career change for the first couple of days, then realized I don't have a career.

I also came home to discover I still drive the same car I drove when I left. Our rental car was far from fancy, but it spoiled me nonetheless.

480 Minutes To and From Moab

I had a crippling allergy attack last week. I ate bee pollen all winter in the hopes of self-inoculating myself. I bought the pollen from a local bee guy, and had to listen to him tell me how honey can cure cancer, aids, burns, in-grown toenails, insomnia, and gout, but cannot cure motor-mouth. Actually, the pollen seems to have helped, but not as much as I had hoped. I just found out that the bee keepers in Utah ship all their bees off to California all summer. I was eating California pollen. That loquacious bee rancher lied about his pollen. Now I am tainted. This is what happens when you try to be holistic.

I also spent the weekend in Moab with Elizabeth and some of her family. I probably shouldn't say anything snide or sarcastic about my in-laws.

Moab was gorgeous. Perfect hiking weather. Lots of rocks. A few little lizards (or Geico's as my mother-in-law calls them). I discovered, as I climbed on a rock that I once climbed when young and spry, that I am wiser, more-well rounded, and intelligent (or as my sister-in-law would say: older, fatter, and more cowardly) than I once was. (See thefunseeley.blogspot.com for real details of the trip (coming soon)).

The mechanic looked my car over. I spent $90 to find out that it will cost $250 more to fix the a/c. My car stinks.

Every Minute Counts When You're 29.

Finals are over. I have finished 4 of 6 Semesters. Probably successfully. Before you know it, I will be legally educated.

I also turned 29, this week. I've never felt better--except for that nagging feeling that I'm getting older. Somebody said something to me about 30, this week, too. I am, surprisingly, not worried about it. Afterall, I'm still closer to 20 than I am to 40.

Elizabeth took me to a baseball game to celebrate. The Bees won in the 10th inning. Very exciting. I did not put on sun block. My right half is red, my left is white. Go Utes! Too bad I'm an Aggie. Elizabeth also got me a great gift: sailing gloves. That puts me one step closer to captain-hood, and I won't feel like as much of a poser when I go to regattas.

My car smells, rattles, and the AC is gone, too. Maybe it just turned the car equivalent of 30.

120 Minutes of Finals Remaining

I only have one final left this semester: Trusts. After that, I'm off for the summer. Hopefully, it will just be for summer, but we will have to wait for grades. I won't get started on forced-curve grading because this is only supposed to last a minute, but #%@!&#%*#$!

I will be interning with Justice Jill Parrish of the Utah Supreme Court during May. If all goes well, I will pick up a few credits and lighten my load during the upcoming year. If things go poorly, I will get fired and Utah's laws will never be the same again.

I will spend the rest of the summer clerking for a small, litigation firm in Salt Lake City. For this one, I will actually be getting paid. I am excited to be a bread winner, again. Elizabeth will hopefully start thinking of me as a man again, too.

I have been swamped at school, because I was foolish enough to accept a management position with one of the journals. I take office in the fall. I expected to put in a lot of time next year, but did not anticipate how much time I would have to put in as a manager-elect. I am trying to recruit for senior editor positions for next year, but I can't find enough stupid people who can edit. (You would have to be stupid to accept). On the upshot, next year, I will have tremendous power to corrupt the academic credibility of BYU's law school.

My car makes funny smells, and now it makes funny sounds--no longer silent but deadly.