End of week 1.

My goodness…I sure did change almost everything about my life.

Back in Washington, I would grind out my boring, slow 40 hours a week at my desk at work…but when those hours were over, the weekend was mine and I had absolutely nothing to stress or worry about (except the looming thought that I would have to be back at that desk come Monday morning). On the other hand, it’s already strikingly obvious that you’re pretty much a law student 24/7. Stress and anxiety are going to be a part of the picture a lot more often. Getting out of work for the day meant freedom…getting out of class for the day here is only the beginning.

I’m sufficiently intimidated by the academic aspect of this. I think I’m going to do well, but it’s going to be a ton of work; I’m competing for grades in a curved environment with a bunch of people who, make no mistake, are as smart or smarter than me. Not that they’re all necessarily as smart or smarter…but in general, to pull top grades, I’m going to have to beat out a ton of people who are intellectual peers. This means both working harder and working smarter, focusing on the right things.

Good sign.

The prof kept our morning class session 8 minutes past the scheduled end time today. I wasn’t even annoyed by it. In fact, as the scheduled end time had come, I was worried that we were going to end up quickly glossing over the case in question, which I found pretty interesting.

I compare this mentally to how I felt when the safety meetings (or whatever) at work began to run long, and…well, let’s just this is an encouraging sign about how good of a fit this law school thing might be.

Alright, I’m officially a law student now.

Class started yesterday, and now I’m through my second full day of it.

*Orientation was basically as brutally boring as expected yesterday…as far as 8 hour days go, it felt insanely long. I needed a nap afterward. With that said, the class part itself was something I liked. You could say that the professor picked on me the first day, but it wasn’t about the reading material we were supposed to have covered (I was prepared if he did). He was about to draw an example, and said, “I just have to pick on you because you have a Scandinavian name. Do you know what lutefisk is?” I said, “Ummm…well it’s a food, I’ve never had it.” “That’s pretty good,” he said (a pretty good answer, I guess?). Then he proceeded to ask me to basically be his example as he drew an analogy that had nothing to do with the initial question. I spent the next 90 minutes trying to figure out why the heck he asked me about lutefisk.

7/5/09: More notes on the eve of my return to the classroom.

*4th of July came and went without me seeing a firework. Rain and thunderstorms and a lack of desire to watch fireworks by myself meant I didn’t bother. It was the one bad day of weather we’ve had here since I’ve arrived (it was forecasted correctly), weather is back to being fine today and the 10 day forecast looks really good. Instead of seeing fireworks, I did head to the theater and watch The Hangover. I’m happy for any excuse to see Ed Helms (Andy Bernard on The Office) act in new material during the summer; Helms does a good job, the movie is pretty funny. It’s got an insanely high IMDb rating that I don’t quite understand, it was no classic comedy by any means, but it was worth watching once. I’d give it a 6/10.

*Seriously, driving myself around this town is painful at this point. The layout of the town is actually pretty logical and shouldn’t be confusing (even if the plethora of one-way streets is annoying), but it seems like the road lane lines are in need of a new paint job or better lighting or something, because driving home from the theater last night was downright treacherous; I couldn’t keep track of my lane for the life of me. I keep telling myself I’ll adjust and get used to it.

*Seeing the Mariners win a series off the Red Sox (hopefully sweep, they’re leading in the 7th right now) sure makes me wish I could be turning on the games. I was definitely planning on springing for the sports package in the fall so I could watch Pac-10 football, but I might just have to add Fox Sports Northwest to my package now if the M’s are really going to stay in the pennant race.

Notes from my first few days of living in Bloomington.

*The initial phase of the move-in process wasn’t that bad. The moving guys on this end were good guys, maybe not quite as fast as the Bellingham guys, but they helped me get my TV set up when I didn’t expect them to, and I definitely needed a second set of hands to get that done. I’m very pleased that 24 hours after I had moved in, I was entirely set up with working cable and internet (the AT&T guy was here the next day).

*Unpacking sucks. The big stuff is out, but I’m still not done. We’ve received our homework for the first day of class, and yesterday I found myself sitting and reading for that because it sounded like an enjoyable alternative to unpacking. I never thought I’d see the day when doing homework is procrastination.

*I’m navigationally challenged in a big way. On top of my GPS having more trouble in this town than it ever had in Washington, I’ve been trying to learn this downtown area on foot because I’m planning on doing a lot more walking than driving. It’s embarrassing how little intuition I have for this stuff. The other night, I set out on foot to go to a restaurant or bar (I truly had about 10 in mind and was just going to hit up the first one of those that jumped out at me)…these places were all within 1.5 miles of me. I didn’t find one for an hour.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 6

After a relaxing night of sleep, I rolled out of bed and headed back down to Houlihan’s, the restaurant I ate dinner at the night before. Naturally I was suckered in by the 10% off coupon, which makes no sense since everything was costing an arm and a leg in this city and 10% couldn’t possibly save me more than $2, but…I went there anyway. Turned out to be a good breakfast anyway, they had a nice buffet for $9.99, which seemed like an incredibly good deal for a restaurant along Wacker Drive.

After, I headed back to my room, packed up and checked out. I left my bags with the bell desk and headed down a couple of blocks to one of the stops of the Chicago Trolley Tour. This tour was fun and informative; for one fee, it would take you around to 18 stops throughout town, and you could get off whenever you felt like it and there would always be another trolley coming along every 8-10 minutes. Some of the tour guides were hilarious, others were dull, but in general I enjoyed the rides. Some shots from the trolley:

Delay

It’ll take me a bit longer than expected to write up the final installment of my road trip. I’ve misplaced the USB cord that transfers pictures from my camera to my computer. I’m almost certain that cord will show up while I’m emptying my car into my new apartment tomorrow, but in the meantime the pics are stuck on the camera. I don’t really want to post a text-only report, so…it’ll be a bit.

Teaser: Chicago is excellent and I can’t wait to go back. I’m now in Indiana and will be in my new apartment within 12 hours.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 5

Alright, I’m beginning to get sick of driving. Just beginning to, though…still very much enjoying myself, and there’s only four more hours of driving to do once I leave Chicago anyway.

Here’s where I’ve been today.

I got up early as usual and was out of my room by 8:00. I’ve really been going non-stop throughout this trip. I’ve finally got the TV on in my hotel room here in Chicago while I write this, but up to this point I hadn’t as much as turned my TV on in any of the previous hotel rooms. I’ve been getting up early, driving or sightseeing all day long, getting into a hotel room, checking in on here, then sleeping for 5-6 hours and starting over again. It’s been a great time, but I owe myself a long night of sleep soon.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 4

I’m in Bloomington. No, not that Bloomington yet, just the one in Minnesota. It’s a suburb of Minneapolis. Dropping in on Minneapolis is like watching Jaws…it’s nothing that’s ever actually interested me, but I figured that as long as I was close, I may as well check it off the list. This is…umm…the 46th biggest city in America, after all. And besides that, it’s cheaper to get a hotel room in a big city where competition drives the price down.

(I still haven’t seen Jaws by the way, give me another decade or so to take care of that one.)

My route for the day.

I woke up after maybe six hours of sleep, and checked out of the Sunshine Inn in Wall. As an aside, that’s a mom and pop place that I’m glad I supported. They don’t even take reservations over the internet, you have to do the old-fashioned thing and call them, but they have the best reputation in Wall on TripAdvisor (particularly the friendly owner), and it was well-deserved. A no-frills place to be sure, you’re not going to get frills anywhere in Wall, but it was cheap and clean and did the job.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 3

Well, I’m no longer in Montana, so I suppose I should stop viewing the speed limit signs as mere suggestions. I’m in Wall, South Dakota. Population 818. Total area: 2 square miles. It reminds me of Wayne and Garth saying, “Hi, I’m in Delaware.” Seriously though, I’m looking forward to getting out and exploring tomorrow, even if much of it won’t be done within the Wall city limits. For now, I’m beat and getting ready for bed.

I hacked out this part of the map today.

I rolled out of bed after about five hours of sleep. This was the view I woke up to.

Not a bad view, honestly. I got ready, checked out and headed over to…you guessed it…

Their breakfast might be better than their very good dinner, and you can get out of there cheaper than you can get out of a Denny’s. After filling my tank, I headed off for my first destination, Devils Tower in Wyoming. I was on the road by 8:00.

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 2

At last, checking in from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Billings, MT. Here is the ground I covered today. My goal was to get on the road no later than 8, and I got on the road at 7:15. Then I was able to make really good time and turn a projected 10:30 arrival into a 9:15 arrival…and that was with some highway construction for about 20 miles of Montana. Yes, lots of driving, and most of it wasn’t new (I think only maybe the last two hours or so were completely new, but now it’s all new ground between here and Indiana), but it was still fine. I entertained myself with music and scenery, and Montana is awfully easy to drive through aside from the occasional mountain range.

As expected, I really don’t have much for pictures today. I snapped a couple of the surrounding landscape when I stopped at a rest area just short of Spokane…

Blaine to Bloomington Trip Report, Day 1

Well, the day of departure has arrived. I haven’t left the state yet, but I’ve caught what will be my last in-person glimpse of Whatcom County for almost six months.

It’ll always be home. I left my parents’ place at 10:30 a.m, did lunch with my friend Brandon then headed down the freeway.

I like to think of myself as a good narrator, but as at least most of my audience is local, I can’t possibly turn a drive down I-5 into a compelling story. I’ve made this drive many times; there’s nothing fun or exciting about it, it just is what it is. Traffic was cooperative enough, and I made the drive in less than three hours.

Hitting the road tomorrow.

The relaxation time at my folks’ place has been good, but there really isn’t much to do, so I can’t help but feel pretty restless right now…I’m excited to get going on my trip. I leave tomorrow morning. If you’re interested in my trip reports, I’ll try to update my blog each night (pretty sure I have wireless internet at each place that I’m staying)…but as I’ve set out on a really ambitious road trip, I probably won’t be getting into each hotel much earlier than 10 or 11 local time. So, the posts won’t come up until later in the evening, even though my time zone will be jumping me a few hours ahead of you by the end of the week.

Tomorrow’s relatively quick jaunt down I-5 (2.5 hours or so) will kick off a trip that will span 2800 miles and 36 hours of driving over the course of the next week.

Well, the first moving day was pretty painless.

Getting things packed up to move was a lot bigger pain than the actual moving day was. If you’re in Whatcom County, DeMann Movers are a really good choice. They were quick, efficient, and handled my fragile items with care. I’m cautiously optimistic that my plasma TV will make it across the country just fine. They also came in way under the estimated price (it cost me less than half of the quote).

Obviously my nearly empty apartment means that I’ve slept in it for the last time, my bed being in a moving truck now and all. I’ll be crashing at my folks’ place for the next few days. Still have to throw out some more stuff from my apartment and obviously clean it up, but the majority of the moving out is done.

I had a silk ficus tree that I just needed to offload by the time I check out of my apartment for good, so I put it on craigslist for free, just saying “if you can haul it, you can have it”…sheesh, a lot of people must surf that “free stuff” section. I got probably 20 offers just in the course of 5-6 hours. Maybe I could’ve gotten some money for it, but I needed to have it gone within a few days, so I played it safe and just gave it away.

It was a fun weekend, largely spent with friends and family, and now happily unemployed (today is the first normal work day that I have the privilege of not being there for), I get to do a bit of relaxing before taking off.

I wish I hadn’t already packed all of my Blu-rays up.

I really felt like watching The Shawshank Redemption last night. There’s never any shortage of reasons to watch that masterpiece, but a piece of narration from Red late in the movie had particularly come to mind. From his journey across the border to see Andy…

I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

The bolded part is what came to mind. The uncertainty is definitely a source of excitement, not to mention fear and whatever else. While I was pleased to leave my job for the last time yesterday, I did feel the gravity of throwing away my security blanket as I walked to my car. I mean, I have a financial aid check coming soon, but my next actual paycheck will come from…where? I have no idea.

For better or for worse, the next few years of my life will not be predictable. That’s a good thing.

Thoughts from my last day.

I admit it. I had a twinge and thought, “I’m going to miss this place” as I left.

Not my job, of course. Bob’s Burgers and Brew. That chain doesn’t extend past northwest Washington, let alone all the way to the Midwest. Best burgers in Whatcom County, without hesitation (I’m not including the Ferndale or Lynden locations in this compliment, by the way; those are inferior).

As to my job, I’ve obviously made it clear that I couldn’t wait to get away.

The most pointless exit interview ever.

Yesterday, I drove in to my contract company and went through the single most useless exit interview in the history of the workforce. The thing is, I work for BP. I’ve worked this same job at the same desk for four years. The first year I worked through a temp agency, and after that I jumped to another contractor for better terms/benefits…but all that really changed is that I started faxing my timesheet in to a different number. The job remained the exact same. I knew that this exit interview couldn’t possibly be productive in any way, but when they asked me to drive into the main office in Bellingham to do it during the work day, I didn’t mind…it was a way to break up one of these slow final days here, and I could bill my company for the 60+ minutes I’d miss.

It draws nearer.

Well, it’s the last week of work, and I’m 10 days away from leaving town. It’s really getting close now.

Packing is a pain. Moving is a pain. No two ways about it. I’m not done yet, but I’ll have to be by next Monday, when my stuff gets loaded onto the moving truck and starts heading east for Bloomington. I’ll leave three days later.

My feelings right now?

This one feels different.

At an old job, I was on two week notice and mentioned to my boss that I had four days left. He said, “Nah…you’ve just got three days and a wake-up.” He was right, the last day was little more than a wake-up, I did nothing all day on that last day; I basically just socialized and slacked.

Closing your job out with a wake-up is fun. Closing your job out with 100 wake-ups is excruciatingly boring.

You’ll have to forgive my lack of updates.

I can’t think of a thing to write about, and I always try to not just put in filler for the sake of it. Believe me, I wish I had good ideas to write about, because the amount of downtime I have at work during these final two weeks is staggering. 66 hours to go…