Time Keeps on Slippin’
'His golden locks time hath to silver turned;
O time too swift! O swiftness never ceasing!
His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned,'
But spurned in vain; youth waneth by encreasing.
-George Peele
Quotes are an easy, unimaginative tool to begin writing, but it seems an appropriate summation given the marked changes that have occurred since my last writing so many months ago. When I last wrote, I was hanging on to my last remnants of childhood and college. I occupied my days at the pool, working for a beach-ready body, and watching movies in-between my passive attempts at studying for the bar. Jump to the middle of October and I am officially a lawyer. I took the bar, went to Europe with my wife, tried out for American Idol, started a job with the Kansas Attorney General, bought a house, moved, and most importantly went to a Willie Nelson concert. I think I grew up somewhere along the way, which is why the aforementioned quote seemed appropriate. So many of my recent events perhaps warrant some writing exploration, but I've decided to settle for a few brief thoughts on each.
The bar exam was brutal, but mostly what I expected. Friends, family and mere acquaintances have always been congratulatory about attending law school and completing law school. Both were challenging feats of which I am proud, but two events were much more daunting in my mind. First was actually getting into law school. That process was oppressive—a process topped only by the bar exam. The first day was 16 essay questions in six hours. Day two was 200 multiple choice questions in six hours. It was draining and difficult to switch from commercial paper to criminal law in mere minutes. The event had me fried by the end , but dropping everything for a flight to Europe the next day certainly made things easier. The process was much more palatable in hindsight after I received my passing-notice in early September. As bad as the test was at the conclusion, I would happily trade my lackadaisical summer of "studying" for the suffering of a few more examinations.
Europe was unbelievable. Tara and I took the ugly American route by whirl-winding through Europe to see as much as we could see. I spent a month in England and a month in Australia during undergrad. It is certainly preferable to immerse yourself in a new culture for longer than a brief trip, but I think we made the right decision with our latest European agenda. We decided it was necessary to see all that we could see since it's difficult to predict when we'll be able to return. We flew to Frankfurt, drove to Paris, then wine-country, the Riviera, Turin, Bern, Munich, and Eisenach—hooray Protestantism. I have so many thoughts and stories, but most center on the observation that history, and appreciation for that history, simply permeated from every stop we made. The beauty, food, drink, and company surpassed everything I could desire. Bern, Switzerland rocked my face off, and the only partial-disappointment was perhaps the Riviera. Gotta love the speedo. I would scarcely change a thing from our trip. Quick tip: rent the car and drive next time you hit Europe. We saw so much more and tasted a bit of real Europe by leaving the beaten-path. It was an adventure that was truly worthwhile.
The Monday after we returned home, I received a job offer from the Kansas Attorney General. That is the exact job I wanted and I can't tell you what a blessing the offer was. For months I had been praying that God would give me a job when I finished the bar. Oddly, I was mostly without worry during the wait; I expected it to work out and it did. I now represent the State of Kansas in the Attorney General's Office. My title is Assistant Solicitor General , and I work exclusively in appeals. On October 24, I will argue in front of the Kansas Supreme Court trying to keep a murderer in jail. This is just what I signed up for when I started my law school aspirations. For those of you still enjoying my lengthy rambling, I will be sure to let you know how the arguments proceed.
American Idol was a trip. If you have ever seen the movie "Animal House", you've witnessed the scene where the tool is sitting on the stairs surrounded by fawning girls as he strums "The Riddle Song." This clip culminates with John Belushi smashing the tool's guitar. Good scene. Every single "that-guy" descended upon Omaha, Nebraska to sing. You couldn't walk fifteen feet without someone singing their song while on the verge of jazz-hands. I left KC at 5:00 am on Thursday morning and arrived in Omaha just in time to walk to the front of a non-existent line so I could sing the next day. Katie and I showed up at Qwest Center at 5:30 am on Friday and were already behind thousands of other wannabes. Finally at 8:30, we finally made our way inside. It was a long day of waiting and watching. I occupied some of my time by singing in the Garnier Fructis Karaoke Contest. I won a bag with shampoo and a towel. Only a few people won, so that was mildly affirming since I did not advance. I sang at 3:30 and the judge said "you had nice vocals, but you're not what we're looking for." Such is life; America will just have to do without its darling singing-lawyer.
The same week we returned from Europe, Tara and I started actively looking for a hose that would help my commute to Topeka. We decided on Shawnee, KS, which has proven to be a great location. For the voyeurs in the audience, feel free to see the pics of our house in the photo section. For the non-voyeurs, our house is suburbia-tan and is crazy-better than renting.
That's pretty much me over the past few months. Tan and relaxed grad student to buttoned-down lawyer and homeowner. Perhaps that's not the widest spectrum, but it is two ends of a spectrum. Adulthood is such an interesting phenomenon. Still, if the past four months took me from youth to maturity, it's been quite the way to go— just so long as my golden locks haven't yet turned to gray.
