Another last day of classes

“Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.” - Author Unknown

It is final exam time. My mind is very fuzzy right now and this isn’t good since I have a lot more of the day to go. Today I am attending my final day of classes and then I am off to a studying marathon. Usually I would try to get the most out of each last class so that get ideas of what the final exam is going to cover. I don’t think today will be that kind of day. I had a paper due for my immigration class today (in addition to my final I need to study for). So of course I was up all night trying to put together something that resembled a paper so that I could have something to turn in. Now I am dead tired and a zombie, but need to survive an entire day of class. The only thing keeping me going is that I know it is my last day of classes for the semester.

So here is my how things look from my end. I have 3 final exams, Business Associations, Evidence and Immigration along with 3 papers, Immigration, Negotiation, and American Legal History. I turn in my Immigration paper today, but I still have 5 outstanding classes. So many people have like one exam and one paper, I wish that was me. Christmas isn't too far off, but right now it seems very far away.

Both papers are due on the 21st of Dec, but I am hoping to get them both done by Friday so that I can get them out of the way and focus only in exams. My first exam is Dec 7th, then 11th, then 19th. It hurts just thinking about it. I have a lot of learning to do.

I still need to buy plane tickets for Christmas. I should do that soon.

I’m impressed how long some people can stay mad at you for. I guess anger can stay dormant, but when it is brought up, it comes out just as strong. I think I have trouble staying angry at people, maybe I just forget why I’m mad. I will note that I might not be angry anymore, but I do know how to hold a grudge. No anger, just principle. This is not a good thing, but it’s an honest thing. I hope I don't have anyone that is mad at me.

After each class today, the students clap for the professor. I saw this for the first time in the movie the Paper Chase and then in my classes as a 1L. When I came to Mason I found out that they do that at every law school. I think it is nice.

when the pain is so high you have no choice but to choose action

La Joya

“It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them
advice.” - Anne Tyler, Celestial Navigation, 1974

The Thanksgiving holidays are now over and it is time to become a super student. I hope I can get my motivation up to that level. Let me fill you in with a quick recap of my trip home to see Erika and my family. I hadn’t been home in a very long time for this day, but visiting Erika helped push me over the edge toward going.

I had an early flight on Tuesday. I am the worst at getting to the airport without any rush or drama. I had a taxi coming to pick me up at 4:30am, so I was going to wake up at 4:00am and shower and go. Well I decide to stay up and then to sleep and then to stay up, so I get to bed at 3:30am. It doesn’t feel stupid when you are doing it. I wake up at 4:35am when the Taxi calls to tell me he is outside. Well I made it, but I didn’t get the luxury of getting ready. When will I learn?

My father picked me up from the airport because everyone else was at work. I picked up some lunch and spent the day with my father catching up and shooting the bull. My mother got home from work and later Erika dropped by. Erika is the most thoughtful person ever. When I got to her house, she had three bags there waiting for me. They said B O C on them. Because I wasn't able to get the BOC in the wootoff, she made me my very own BOC. Very sweet. At night, I had dinner with Erika, Ana, and Eliza. From there we went to a bar, but the music was too loud. Maybe I am just getting old, but things always seem too loud for me. We then went to a bar at a bowling alley where I went off on drunk ramblings on politics. I can't help but have a lot of opinions.

Wednesday morning I picked up lunch at El Pato and then went home to see Abram who had arrived from San Marcos. No one was home, so I went with Erika to Walmart to buy some containers for some of the junk I brought home with me. Erika went to go and visit with her family and sister and I spent the day at home just visiting and relaxing. At night, Abram, Erika and I went to go and play pool. Rick met up with us too.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. We ate at my mothers house. Abram made one turkey and my nephew made the second one. I just tried to stay out of the kitchen. After lunch, I did the usual routine of watching the Cowboys game. They did great, which made it fun to watch. My grandmother came over later and I visited with her. She made me feel bad about not visiting my grandfather, but I hope to visit him when I go back down for Christmas. After spending the day with her family, Erika came over and spent the rest of the day with me. Bekkah and Jamie showed up later too and it was great seeing them. I was proud of Bekkah for fighting to spend time with her family. Jamie is so very tall now. I could not believe how grownup she was. Later at night, we all went to Ana’s house to watch Grey’s Anatomy. Such a good show. From there, we went to Rick’s house and played poker and hung out. I lost because I suck at poker, but still had a good time.

Friday morning I visited with my mother and grandmother and then went to Rick’s house to watch the UT game. They lost and I was glad I didn’t bet money on the game. Then I went with Erika to her school for a high school football game. I had not been to a game since high school. She is the dance teacher at the school and was taking the dance team. It was a long trip, but I got to sit on the field and watch a good game. I had a dinner of Nachos and frito pie, which brought back memories. On the way home, I learned that girls can be very loud, but it wasn’t too bad. I had a nice time and was glad to spend more time with Erika.

Saturday had come and my trip was now at an end. The time went by very fast. Erika dropped me off at the airport. She even stayed and waited with me while I was in line. Nobody likes to say goodbye. I got questioned by the border patrol, and now I’m two for two. When I got back into DC, I watched the Notre Dame game and they too lost. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Now it is time to transition, I don’t think I’m ready. I am in my last week of class. I have a paper due on Wednesday for one class, two more papers and 3 finals. I hope next semester isn’t this hard. Well from here on out you will probably be hearing about school.

always sleepy

Absentminded

"Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself." - Ausonius

I was watching the news this morning and they were talking about people who might announce they are running for president. It seems really really, but it got me thinking, I am going to support Hillary Clinton for president. I know people say she can’t win, but I think bringing back the Clinton era can only be a good thing. She is the first woman to be set up to be president and I think it would go a long way towards forwarding women’s rights as well. I’m unhappy that she is trying to cater to conservatives instead of just taking a hard line on what is right. So I’m not happy she plays the politics game, but the winner always seems to play the game well, so I guess I can’t blame her. I hope she can make her stance clear on all the issues so that the only thing that can be used against her is personal attacks and not policy disagreements. Republicans say they want her to run because they they will be assured victory, but I think it's a battle worth having.


I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving. I leave tomorrow for Texas. The trip felt like it snuck up on me and came really quickly. Like always, I have a lot of packing to do. I was hoping to take some stuff home to slowly start moving stuff home before the big move next June. I have no clue what to take. I have one long day of class today and then I come back with one week of class and then finals. It is end game time and I'm going to need to change gears. I hope I have it in me.

I have such an addictive personality, but I don't say that to excuse myself. My problem is that I do things in what would best be referred to as binges. I don’t drink, but when I do, I drink a lot. When I exercise and eat right, I do it in binges. Same with food and the exact opposite. I can watch a TV series on DVD for an entire weekend doing nothing else. In high school I had this stage when I could think about was chess and would play whenever I could. Same with reading a book, I'll stay up all night. This blog is also a great example. There are times I write daily and binge in keeping this updated and then I give up and the page goes un-updated for months. When I was working on my credit report, I was obsessed with it. I spent countless hours on forums and all I could think of was ways to use my time to work on that. Last week I was obsessed over Woot and the BOC and I spent almost two days checking out that website for something I was not even able to get. The list keeps going, I was on this audiobook binge two years ago where I tried to get every audiobook I could and listen to them all. I spent every moment listening to audiobooks from learning Spanish to all kinds of random things. Now to my latest and ongoing binge, poker. I enjoy it a lot and I want to get good at it, but I feel so rushed, I know I’m treating it like a binge. I try to play as much as possible whenever possible. I’m reading about it when I’m not playing and its all that seems to fill most of my thoughts. And within poker I have more binges. From sit and goes to limit holdem to rebuy tournaments. Different topic, same syndrome. I'm just starting to really see the parallels. Why do I feel this rush in my life? It is like when you are little and your parents tell you that you are going to the store to buy a toy you want. It is all you can think about, you become obsessive about it and you just can’t wait. I don’t think this is healthy, but I don't know how to classify it. I feel like it is some form of escapism. Yet, I’m proud of my dedication to something, I am worried that it doesn’t last for the long run. I’ll never forget when my football coach told me that my problem was that I lacked dedication. That threw me because I always thought of myself as the most dedicated type of person, but he was right. Oh another example, I had a summer binge in college when I worked out and got in shape for football and then halfway through the season, I just quit working out and slowly got worse and worse. I did lack dedication. It is like I have this all or nothing mentality. No patience, no slow and steady wins the race. I want things now and then I burn out when I can't keep up the pace. I don’t notice that I burn out because I can’t think of myself that way. I’m not a person that burns out…but I'm starting to see that I am. So I have this vague understanding of something about myself that isn’t stellar, so what do I do now? So should I not try as hard, I mean how do I change something so that I don’t suffer from burn out and just keep jumping from tree to tree.

I have been really absentminded. So here is my story from the morning. I got a package. When I went to the door to get them, Koki and Mia ran into the porch and hid under the couch. I was upset and I yelled at them to get inside since it was cold in there. They just ignored me. (Yeah imagine that, cats ignoring me.) So I closed the door to threaten them. Then I opened the door to give them a chance to run in, but they didn’t move. So I closed the door and went inside to give them sometime to think about it. Then I totally forgot I locked them in there. It was like when I forgot I had eggs boiling. I felt so bad when later I see their sad cold faces at the door asking me to let them in. I hope they learned their lesson, but am kind of up upset that I was so absentminded that I forgot about their punishment. It is like I have been spaced out for the last few months. I need to regain some focus.

happy

Goodbye Frames

"The trick is to stop thinking of it as 'your' money." -IRS auditor

I'm working on changing my blogger look a bit. I'm hoping to add more links. I've removed the frames. I don't know I'm if happy with that yet, but time will tell. I know it looks the same for the most part, but I'm very limited on what i can change right now. I've been inspired by Erika's new blog. Let me know if you have any advice on how to make it better or at least not worse.

Maria has started a new blog as well. http://mariasmorales.blogspot.com She already writes a lot more than I do. I'm really excited about people I know are writing blogs. It gives me something to read as well. Check it out. I'll have it listed in my links section as well.

Lost is now over until Feb. Can you believe that? Now Tues and Weds has nothing good for me to see. I guess less TV watching can't be a bad thing. I still have a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy and The Office to keep me sane.

Today I participated in a woot off. Yeah, I won't explain it, but so far I haven't purchased anything. I actually bought one thing and then canceled my order. It was a terrible impluse buy and I had instant buyers remorse. Sometimes you see a deal and think, man that is such a great savings, I should get it...but you seem to forget it is something you don't even want. It has been a tiring experience. The extremes people go through to not think about important things.

This is my last week of work before next semester. Also means my last paycheck. I hope I can really buckle down now and become the amazing student I've imagined in my head. The commute is hard, but it is still worth it. Next semester is going to have a lot of hours of work, so I'd better be ready.

I heard this really cool thing on Bill Mahr the other day. He said that any woman would rather be called sexy than smart. I've thought about that a lot. I've known a lot of smart girls (for some reason I don't have much patience for dumb girls), but all of them seemed to focus more on the sexy part than the smart part. I don't know how to explain it, they were proud they were smart, but I wonder if they would trade that in to be hotter?

This cracks me up daily, I just had to share:

don't know

The 12th

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." - Dale Carnegie

Erika has started up a blog. It is always nice to have someone else you know writing. It will give me another interesting thing to read while I’m in class. I think she is trying it out right now to see how she likes it, but I hope she keeps it up. If you want to check it out, it’s at: http://erikaksilva.blogspot.com

Friday I picked classes for my final semester. It is sad that my motivating factor is when the classes are rather than if I need the class to help me on the bar. I still am not sure exactly what my semester is going to look like, but I know that I will be glad to finally get past this one.

This weekend was a poker weekend. Saturday night, Mark and I went to play poker at a poker club in Baltimore. It was a trip. It was the first time I was able to test my skills. The game was going to be 2/5 NL, but we ended up playing 1/2 NL which was more along the lines of what I was wanting. It was a slow night, but we had a full table. I sat down with $300.00 and at the end of the night went home with $299.00. I was up over $100, but lost it late in the night. There was on fish there and he lost all his money, but the one time I got him all in, he sucked out on me. I was ok with him, but was wishing to go up against him again, but didn’t get my shot before he went broke. We start around 7:30pm and ended at about 1am (well we left then, the game went on). A lot the players were good and experienced. One guy won over $700 and just played superbly. He did get pocket Aces 5 times, but that aside, he made some amazing reads. He laid down a set against my nut flush late in the night. I was more than impressed because he asked me a question to get a read on me. I got nervous and didn’t know how to act, mainly b/c all I could think of was what he could have and if there was a way I could be beat. I was just caught off guard. The place had free food and drinks which was nice.

Sunday I played a lot of sit and gos and won about 100 dollars a day over the weekend, for a $300 profit. I’m starting to get better at those, but I have to admit I am getting lucky. It is hard thinking about the long run when you lose a tournament. I just finished reading the Zen of Poker. Not a great book for strategy, but it does give some good advice about how to think about the game. I didn’t agree with some parts, but over all, I think I will one day become one with folding.

School is nearing the end. This means I have a lot of papers coming up. I hope to get them all started this weekend. That is my goal. Let’s see how it goes. This is also my last week of work. I’ll be working next semester, do I have kept delaying my goodbye.

I’m looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving. I have a feeling it is going to go by very quickly. It should hopefully be a lot better than last year. Too bad the Texas game won’t be as meaningful now that they have thrown their season away to such a weak team. I was lobbying like crazy for them to get a chance to defend their title, saying that McCoy was a different man from the Ohio State game and that now they were the best in the country. They proved me wrong. Yes, there were many chance mistakes that Kansas scored on, but nevertheless, a championship team doesn’t give a team that many chances to beat them.

she is very thoughtful

Control of Congress

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." - Bill Vaughan

I went to vote when I got out of work. The line wasn't too bad. I asked for a paper ballot, but I was told I had to vote on the computer. I voted democratic of course. I walked out hoping to participate in an exit poll, but no one cared about what I thought. Once I got home, I turned on the TV to watch election results and watched late into the night.

The Democrats won back the House, this I am excited about, but I was hoping it would be a larger margin. Maybe I just can't understand why anyone would vote for Republicans. The Senate is still up for grabs and the VA race is very close. Right now Web is up by a few thousand votes (my vote counted) and we are on our way to a recount it seems. This will probably take a long time, but I wish it could be over sooner. I am very excited, but won't celebrate until we find out about Virginia. I always seem to be late to the area of contention, but this year I was right in the middle of it.

Update: Democrats won the Senate! Now we have the tools for real change.

Rumsfeld stepped down! Finally! This news really made my day. It looks like the tide is changing. I almost don't mind that Bush lied to us about not firing him. Of all the lies, that one I'm willing to take. I am actually just tired from all the watching of news. I want investigations, I want names, I want a better planf or Iraq. Minimum wage, man I hope they get that done quickly.

Tonight is the season finale of Lost. I am still addicted to that show. I'm looking forward to it, but once it is over, I'm going to feel like I am missing something.

it hurts more when a person is ambivalent and doesn't care than when they are mad at you

Pumy, Esq.

"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough. " - Bede Jarrett The House of Gold

I'm writing this the morning the of the election. I have yet to vote. What should of happened was that I should of woken up early and gone to vote before work. Instead I was up until 3am and didn't get up early enough. I plan to go right after work, which will probably mean standing in a longer line. I am concerned about the electronic voting machines, I mean RFK Jr's article on the presidential election in Ohio makes you wonder if everything is really legit. All you can do is hope things will be ok and in the future fight for getting some sort of paper ballot print out they can use to compare against the machine results.

So I have great news. My good friend Rick passed the Texas Bar Exam. He is now officially a lawyer (plus or minus some dues and swearing in procedures). I think that is amazing. You see someone who has worked their entire life for this goal and it is amazing to see that they have achieved it. I feel like I get this false sense of security, considering that everyone I have ever known personally has passed the bar (don't know many who have taken it), but all have talked about how terrible studying was. I have to remember I still have a school year to get through and then the summer of studying fun. I can't wait to be over with all this, but I still have a lot of dues to pay.

Here is my concern, I get really excited about things and then I get tired of them and move on. For example, I have about 5-6 books where I have read 30-60 pages of and just stopped and started another book. I like finishing things I do, but I'll start it and then just want to see if the other book I have waiting there is better. Then I think about all the reading I have to do and it feels more like a chore than enjoyment. Is this just some sort of common instant gratification symptom or am I dealing with a larger issue? I've looked online, and some people do the same thing. The other problem is that when I start them again, I don't know if I should just start over or pick up where I left off.

I am not a fan of the BCS, at least not how it is currently set up. I understand why a playoff is unrealistic, but I don't understand why a top 4 playoff can't be done. You keep the BCS as it is, and just pick the top 4 teams to play until you have a champion. It seems every year there is one team that deserves to be there and then at least 2 teams saying they deserve the#2 spot. This year there should at least be 3. It costs one extra game (and they added an extra bowl this year anyway) and I don't think it will take away from any of the other bowl games. I mean, the Holiday bowl is the Holiday bowl not the Championship game, and we all know that. I think an Ohio State Texas repeat would be a great Championship game. But with a 1 loss Michigan (assuming they lose to Ohio State), 1 loss Notre Dame, and undefeated Louisville, I think you could have a nice 4 team playoff.

The Witherspoon separation, I felt bad for, but this new Britney K-Fed divorce, it has to make you laugh. That marriage was like the republican party, you could tell it was falling apart, but the more ridiculous it got, the more you wondered if maybe you where the one not in touch with reality.

she break's up with him, she breaks up with you

Vogue

"The richness of life lies in the memories we have forgotten."- Cesare Pavese

The election is a day away. I still haven't figured out where my polling place is, but I'm going to vote either before or after work. I'm voting strictly democratic and am hoping that they can take control over Congress. I don't think they fight strong enough or call Republican's on their bullshit, but maybe some control will embolden them. Democrats will raise your taxes they say....I mean I can't believe people really buy these 1980s talking points. Today in class our professor told us that voting is irrational (probably tongue in cheek). Your vote can't change the election, so why vote? I need to read more about that economic argument, but I still buy the voting is important propaganda.

It was great seeing Erika this weekend. It sucks not getting to see your girlfriend daily, but I feel like we talk a lot more than if we did live close. She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up at Reagan airport. We had lunch and then went to my place. I had set up a poker night, and it ended up with a good turnout. We played poker for hours, but I didn't do too well. I am not very patient when it comes to live games. We finally called it quits at 11, but the game went on past midnight without Erika and me. I packed for NYC and then tried to get a few hours of sleep. We never really got a moment where we could relax for a long period of time.

Friday, we woke up at 5am and got ready. We got to the bus station for our 7am bus. My ticket was $35 roundtrip. Such a deal. The taxi cost me more than the bus. We were tired, so we both slept most of the trip, which made it go by faster. I'm still not a big fan of the bus, but you just can't beat it.

We arrived in NYC and met with Erika's sister Lana for lunch. She works at Teen Vogue. In that building, there is GQ, Vogue, and a lot of other magazines I can't remember right now. We had lunch in a cafeteria that Lana said comes out in the devil wears prada. The first thing I noticed there was the fashion. Everyone there was dressed fashionably and though some people looked nice, some people just looked silly. There they just looked unique because everyone was dressed differently, but you put them in the normal world and people would think they were weird. I do admit, some stuff was nice but it was like some sort of fashion contest. After lunch, Lana gave us a quick tour of Teen Vogue and Erika got to see the closet. I don't know much about the fashion magazine business, but it was still interesting. Erika really enjoyed it and it was probably nice to have a visual of where her sister has been working.

After lunch, Erika and I went to see the movie Borat. I enjoyed the movie very much. It is definately worth seeing. Once we were done laughing, we headed down to Chinatown to purchase some purses for Erika's mom's friends. That went well and didn't take too long. We then made our way to the Bronx to meet up with Juan Carlos. I was proud of our ability to get there on our own. He let us stay at his house for the weekend. For dinner Juan took us to a Dominican restaurant which had really good food. At night, I didn't have any plans, and we met up with Lana to go out with and her friends. Well some not very efficient decisions were made, and I didn't get my hands on a beer until 1:20am. It was fustrating, but the night did get better.

Saturday morning, we had plans to go to the Bronx zoo. Erika met up with her sister (the reason she came to NYC) to go shopping and spend some time together. I hung out with Juan, though I probably should of joined them. By the time we all met up again, it was too late for the zoo, so now we have something to do next time. I haven't been to the zoo since I was in elemetary. Juan's brother arrived from out of town and drove us to visit Jorge's new apartment. We hung out and then went to dinner at Dallas BBQ. It was very good food, of course not Texas. We then headed to a house party thrown by one of Jorge's friends. The party had a lot of alcohol, but being NYC, it was just too small to make for a really good party. It had a hallway feeling to it and there was nowhere to sit. There was a funny moment when Jorge mixed up everyone's shoes. We left the party early to meet up with Erika's sister at a bar. The place looked really nice, but just wasn't my type of place. It had a lounge feel to it, but was more of a bar. The music was too loud so you couldn't talk and there was no dance floor, so it wasn't a dance place. All you can do is drink, but I don't know, I did not like the place. My friends didn't seem too excited about it either. After a while, my friends called it a night and we headed home, which was probably good since we had to be awake so early.

Erika had an early flight, so we got up at about 5am, or I at least tried to. All I remember is that she packed, and Juan drove her to the airport and left me at the subway. I found my way from the Bronx to Port Authority and then on to a bus. I was like a zombie, but at some point I ended up in DC, so it all worked out. Once I was home, I just slept and missed the Dallas v. DC game where the Cowboys lost.

There was a funny screen saver I read today. "God is Santa Clause for Adults." I'm not anti-God, which I seem to come off, but I am anti-people that express their belief in stupid ways. God is not an excuse for ignorance, faith not a substitute for thinking and rethoric a substitute for actions.

good friends