Happenings
(Insert excuse for not blogging here)

Well, its been a while, AGAIN. Work has been work (I know you are probably tired of reading that). Nothing much changes around the office. I got cussed out for the first time. The guy was about 70 and he smelt bad. He was pissed that his landlord took his $200 security deposit and I won't go find him and beat him up. I just smiled as he stormed out the door. Oh well. I also had my first success in the courtroom this week. A lady that was being evicted had received improper notice so I drew up a motion to dismiss for improper procedure and the judge threw out the eviction. I felt good about that. She will still be evicted but atleast we bought her a little more time. It was even more gratifying because I have received numerous complaints from tenants about this same landlord and so I have been in contact with the landlord and he is a jerk. He likes to call and talk trash. I guess he thinks that because I am only an intern that I don't know what I am talking about but he is an idiot. I won this time, chump.

On Friday Lettie and I went up to Rigby, Idaho to go to a cookout which was really a family reunion for my Great Aunt Pat's family. Somehow we got invited. I got to see family that I had never seen and I met Annette. Annette is one of my Mom's cousins and evidently they were best friends growing up. Mom is always telling Annette stories so it was nice to finally get to meet her. She is a nice lady and she reminds me a lot of my Mom. After the cookout we went to Aunt Pat's house and visited with her, Annette, Annette's husband, and her daughter Ashley.

On Saturday on of Omar's friends was having a housing warming party/cookout so we went to that and then a place called Hooligan's (in downtown Pocatello) was having an anniversary party so that's where we ended the night.

Went to church on Sunday and then to ride horses at my cousin Rich's again. I like going to his place. His wife and kids are really nice and we have fun over there. Too bad they don't live back east.

So far this week I have been working and doing good deeds after work. I helped some guy move furniture and junk from his storage units to his new house and I helped Omar install a swamp cooler (its a Idaho/Utah thing, you wouldn't understand).

Last night Omar, his friend, and I went to see "Wedding Crashers". It is a hilarious movie. I know some of my family members won't watch it but if you a rated R watcher, you should definitely check it out. It is even funnier than "Old School" if you can believe that.


Cerebration

So I was selected to be on the Environmental Law Journal of NYU. I can't decide how I feel about that. My family already thinks I am a hippy but I plan on staying on and hopefully learning a lot.

It is kind of crazy how these things work out. I didn't really want ELJ as a journal but spending the summer in Idaho has made me more appreciative of the unspoiled wilderness (there is more of that out here than in NYC). Also, it hasn't been very long ago that I was talking to my mom about a population quota. I was telling her that if I was given the option to live on the earth under a population quota (if God only allowed a certain number of people on Earth at any given time) but had to wait a looooooooong time for my turn on Earth than I would do it. I feel like humans ruin the Earth in a lot of ways. Sometimes it isn't hard for me to see our species as a more of a parasite to the Earth than anything else. I mean nature heals itself in a lot of ways but once there are so many of us the balance gets all out of whack. I think it would be fun to live amongst more people and have more wilderness to roam but oh well. Maybe this journal will be good after all.

All of this leads me to another thought that maybe be too serious for some of you but get over it or stop reading. Up to this point in my life I feel like I have left a lot of things up to chance. In my own conceited way I have the feeling that my life is being guided. For instance, in high school I really wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. I went through the entire process, got nominated three times over but was then disqualified for something I will not discuss here. At the time I was really sad. Because I had planned on going to the AFA I had only applied to other schools that did not require essays (NC State and UNCG). I know I am lazy. I had received mail and invitations to apply to many other schools, including ivys, but I was sure the AFA was for me. Well once I was disqualified from there I decided not to apply for a waiver (because I was bitter) and I accepted a spot at NCSU instead. Looking back on it now, there are hundreds of reasons why I am happy I went to NCSU instead of the AFA. For one, I would probably be in Iraq right now and I would be really mad about that. In addition, the AFA has gotten bad press recently for their intolerance of other religions (including LDS folks) as well as their sexual harassment problems. Both of which I am glad I was not around for. At the time I thought being rejected from the AFA was terrible but now I see it has someone making sure that my life was lead in the right direction.

My law school selection kind of followed the same pattern. NYU wasn't at the top of my list but I am so very grateful that I ended up there. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Maybe this ELJ thing is the same kind of deal. Maybe I don't realize why I am supposed to be on that journal or what I am supposed to learn but in 5 years maybe I will know.