Don Imus

I love how Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton see themselves as the moral representatives of the black community.

A month

I have been a social worker for a month now. I have many reflections on my time so far, but, because this blog isn't anonymous, I can't share anything specific here. I can say that I really enjoy the feeling of knowing that I am helping people.

I am going to post the following quote in my office this week:

"We can do no great things; only small things with great love."
-Mother Teresa

That is my goal for this job.

Lately

Lately I have been busy. I have also been very happy.

Work has been going quite well. I don't want to get my hopes up too much yet, but I may have a promotion in the works (after only 3 weeks!). My new title would be policy analyst. We shall see what happens. In the meantime, I start actively managing a caseload on Monday, which I have been anxiously anticipating.

I have been reading Courting Justice, by David Boies, and Cesar's Way, by Cesar Millan. They are both excellent books that I highly suggest. A weird thing has happened to me, now that I don't have near as much free time, I don't enjoy watching tv near as much. I have been reading ALOT more. I have also been preparing better for law school since I got a job, weird huh?

Goodnight.

New Job, New Semester, New Year

I will be the first to admit that I entered 2007 depressed over the year's prospects. I believe that I am an eternal optimist, but months of failed job-searching and other personal problems plagued my spirit at the end of 2-0-0-6. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say that I had some trust, faith, or expectation that things would improve, because I was convinced that they wouldn't.

Thankfully things did change. I began working for a non-profit organization last Thursday. This is really a dream job for me. This non-profit, which I am not naming because I do not want any Google searches, etc to bring people to my personal blog, receives 95% of its funding from the federal governement. We operate under the auspices of a department of the federal government that is under the will of the president and congress.

The only down-side to 2007 for me so far is the departure of one of my best friends from my law school class. She will be missed from law school but I hope never missed from my life.

On one last note, I need to stop watching Home Makeover on ABC because it pulls my heart strings to an almost unbearable degree.

No More Torts

I remember back to my microeconomics classes. The key to just about every answer was to say something about "incentives" or "___________ maximation will occur where marginal cost equals marginal benefits."

In torts the two stock things to include seem to be "reasonable man" and "foreseeability."

I am working the rest of this week, then heading up to Waco on Saturday for a graduation. On Sunday I look forward to spending some long overdue quality time with my two women, Danae and Ellie (our dog).

Busy Lately

About three weeks ago I started a job waiting tables 4 days a week. It was an act of desperation due to my lack of gainful employment. The money is actually pretty decent and the job is somewhat fun.

This week I started working, on a temporary basis, for a floor of criminal law offices downtown. I worked 2 days this week and will work atleast 3 days next week. Sucks that I have all of this going on when my studying for torts should be going full-speed, but my situation is no different than any other part-timer. I am just happy to have some money rolling in and maybe some leads for full time employment in 2007.

On a different note, I am very proud of some people in my life and some of their recent accomplishments...

My brother, who is in the Army, began working at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C. a few months ago. He has since met John Kerry and Joe Lieberman while working with soldiers who returned wounded from Iraq. I will try to post the picture with Sen. Lieberman in the coming days. Josh is doing very honorable work and I couldn't be more proud of him.

My sister, who is 12, slept in a cardboard box on Dauphin Street in Mobile a week ago. Her and a few hundred other youth did so to raise awareness and money for homeless in Mobile. They braved 50 degree weather and didn't leave until 6am.

My fiancee, Danae, has almost completed her first semester as a high school teacher. She has been tireless in her effort to motivate and educate her students.

My step-dad, who is in the US Navy, has been living in Jacksonville, Florida on the Navy base, when he isn't at sea for long periods of time. He has done this for the last year and will do it for another year and half to ensure that my sisters are able to go to the good schools they are currently are at and the family doesn't have to sell the house in Alabama, etc.

One of the greatest thrills of life is to see your loved ones do extrordinary things.

Journey to UHLC

Let me take you back, back to a day a few years ago. It was a nice, spring day in Waco. One of those days that felt much more like summer than any spring day ever should. The Spring Semester of my sophomore year had just come to an end. I had earned my best GPA of college, 3.55 for 17 hours. (As it turns out, I never came close to beating that. My second highest was a 3.3). I was preparing to take dreaded community college classes all summer. Heavy Baylor semesters and classes every summer was the only way to get out of Baylor a semester early with the 130 hours I needed.

I was lounging around the apartment without a damned thing to do. My roommates were gone; it was to be my castle alone for the summer. I happened upon the LSAT website and found a practice test to take. I printed the whole test and took it over the next 3-4 hours. I didn't wake up that morning thinking it would be a day that would change my life, I woke up thinking it would be a day with a lot of time to kill. But, upon grading my test, I found a resurge in confidence that I might actually be able to go to law school. My GPA sucked, but maybe these good 'ole folks that make the LSAT might have thrown me a life-line.

The rest is history. I wasted no time to take the LSAT. I took it in October of my Junior year (that is the earliest I've ever heard of anyone taking theirs). The decision was purely practical in nature - I needed to know whether I would be going to law school so I could plan my remaining undergraduate classes towards it.

The LSAT came back solid. It wasn't exactly what I planned on, but good enough to offset my sorry grade point average (calculated by LSDAS as a 3.03 when I applied to law schools.)

SKIP FORWARD A YEAR AND A HALF

It was almost Valentine's Day in February, but my true love hadn't called or wrote yet. I was anxiously awaiting my letter from the Univ. of Houston Law Center. I had already received confirmation on their website that they had made a decision about me, however I didn't have an email like most that get accepted. I felt for sure that I had been turned down and sent on my merry way to some 2nd rate institution.

I walked out to my mailbox. It was one of those winter days that felt a lot more like spring than a winter day should. There it was - a thin standard sized envelope. Thoughts raced through my head and I hesitated to unseal the perforation. "You've been preparing for this day and you know what, everything is going to be okay. You will go to school X or Y and will do well there. Don't cry, you homo, and if you do I will kick you (me) in the ass personally."

The moment that followed was one of the best moments of my life, comparable to each of my siblings being born, when I thought that Al Gore won the presidency, when I read the exit polls and thought that John Kerry had won the presidency, and when I asked Danae to be my wife.

I opened the envelope and read the first line. I jumped up in the air, and I swear, I was flying. I was like Michael Jordan gliding to the basket from the free-throw line. I went inside my apartment and my roommate was asleep on the recliner. I threw the letter at him and exclaimed that I was accepted (with appropriate use of profanity).

I called my mom immediately and told her the good news. She, more than anyone else, always had this unwavering faith that I would get accepted. She visited the UHLC website probably more than me to check to see the class profiles, the way they judge applications, etc. She told me that all of her prayers must have paid off, and they certainly did.

In all actuality, it wasn't her prayers alone that made this happen. It was the sacrifices that she made for me for 22 years after my untimely birth when she was a youngster. It was here unfaltering work to ensure that her kids had a future filled with hope.

***This post was actually longer, but blogspot lost it, so I will rewrite the rest later today or tomorrow***