Fast Times on the Road Paved with Good Intentions...

It's been 9 days since my last post so I've got quite a bit to say. So I'll probably get halfway through this post and then bail for a minute to go hang out with Diddy. He's pretending not to be there, but I know better...

I got back from New England about an hour ago. I went up to visit my Yiayia and Papou. I flew JetBlue from JFK(NYC) to Logan(Boston) then took the bus up to Portsmouth, NH and got in about 9:15AM on Friday morning...

At about 9:30AM I called my dad to ask him if he was on his way to pick me up. He told me he would be a little late because he was taking Yiayia to the hospital. Not the best way to start out a weekend visit...

It turns out she had an infection related to a recent surgery. Thankfully she went to the hospital when she did because they were able to administer antibiotics to treat the infection. By the time I left earlier today she was doing a lot better...

It was really nice to be there with her. I spent most of my time there telling her stories about my recent activities in court and some of my clients. Mostly about how I went into court twice in the past week all on my own to represent clients...

OK I'm back While I was up there this weekend I went with my dad to a Greek Independence Day party at his cousin Chris' place up in Portland, Maine. I had a great time in part because one of the people I met at the party was a criminal defense attorney...

He helped reassure me that liking the area of law I choose should be an important deciding factor. Regardless of what type of law I practice, as long as I am willing to work long and hard, success will come to me...

I talked to my good friend Captain Rubber Legs tonight. He's doing well and has started to concrete plans for his wedding this summer in Maui, Hawaii. Thankfully I should be able to make it because I just received my winnings from this past years fantasy football season...

I talked to my brother last week for the first time in a few months. It was great to hear from him and hear that he is doing well. He has a good paying job and is living with the mother of his younger son. Most importantly he sounds happy for the first time in a long time...

I miss living close to family sometimes because geographical proximity means we see each other more often. But with family time and distance mean nothing. It goes the same for some of my closest friends too...

This past week I have been handling the caseload for my partner and I at the Criminal Justice Clinic. My partner's father was in the hospital having heart surgery. She spent most of the week at the hospital with her family. It is a decision that I fully support and I am glad to be able to give her one less thing to worry about at such a tough time...

I have been burning the candle at both ends lately, and I am looking forward to Spring Break more than I ever have in my life. I got my ticket last week a roundtrip ticket from NYC to Amsterdam for only $383. I could really use the time to relax and unwind...

As soon as I get back from Spring Break I will get over my PMS
Parked Motorcycle Syndrome

The Madness Has Begun...

watching Bradley upset Kansas in one of the last games of the day
That's right ladies and gents it's the most wonderful time of the year. It is time once again for the NCAA basketball tournament. For my money it is one of the greatest sporting events in the world. Perhaps only eclipsed by the World Cup...

64 teams get in to the tournament and 63 of them will end their season with a loss. There will be 48 games played this first weekend (Th-Sun) and only 16 teams will be left. It is one on the most fierce competitions you could ever witness. These kids leave everything on the floor...

For most of them this will be the last game of significance they ever play. There are only 2 rounds of the NBA draft and only 30 teams. When you consider international players, underclassmen, and teams that didn't make the tournament there are really only a few dozen places the graduating seniors can go...

You've never seen anyone try so hard for anything in their life. It can be inspirational and it's exciting as hell to watch. I've seen some incredible comebacks and buzzer-beaters over the years. I'm sure there will be many more to see, that's why I watch...

I've been looking back over my blog and I haven't had anything really good to say for almost a month. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression, I am doing great. Sometime I feel a little overwhelmed, but that's part of taking on a challenge...

I recently told a college student who is starting law school next year that there are 3 things to learn while going through law school. Number 1 is how to take an essay exam, I'm OK at it. Number 2 is how to pass the Bar Exam, which is what I'll learn at Bar-Bri after graduation. Number 3 is how to be a lawyer, which I really feel like I am learning this semester at the Criminal Justice Clinic...

It's a lot to do, and it's a lot of hard work. I am enjoying the whole experience and I really feel like I am learning. One of the most important things I am learning and will probably keep learning till the day I die is how to read people...

In an effort to lighten the content of my blog a little I'm including some pictures I found on The Smoking Gun. Even though I don't do this stuff like I used to, it still cracks me up. The biggest problem is that after the first one the rest would just be a vicious cycle...

3 Rastateers, Twixed, Munchy Way, Rasta Reese's, Keef Kat, Puff-A-Mint Pattie, Double Puff Oeo, Buddahfinger, and Tri-Chrome Crunch

Pot Tarts (talk about wake and bake)

Puffsi and Toka-Cola

Joint and Bongs

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

Have I told you lately how much I hate Hofstra Public Safety. This is the biggest bunch of police rejects and wannabes ever. I think this entire university may have it's head up it's ass. At least the administration does...

I spent 45 minutes today sitting in the parking lot again today. I would have walked to class, but immediately after class I have to drive to go see a client. Once again there were at least a dozen cars roaming the parking lot looking for a space and the dumb ass security officer was still letting people in...

Wouldn't it make sense that once the lot is full they should stop letting people in. When they let people in even if the lot is full you end up with people like me who patiently wait for a spot getting assed out by someone who got lucky and just pulled in. Worse yet is someone who cuts in front of me and takes a parking spot...

This is where I have to fight hard to hold back my anger. I want to get out and beat the shit out of them. I know that if I do chances are good that I would end up facing assault charges. The other urge I have to fight back is to come back to their car after parking and key their car and kick in their headlights...

The only problem with taking it out on their car is if I did it right I would do my best not to get caught, meaning they would not know who did it or why. So it would not achieve my desired result...

The suggestion I received from the public safety officer was to go to the Public Safety office if I have a complaint about the way they run things. That makes a lot of sense, go complain to people who have no ability to change anything...

There is actually a committee formed by law students that has formalized and delivered their complaints (same as mine) to the administration. They were told that Hofstra is working hard to resolve the situation and they should have it resolved in about 5-6 years...

They won't ever be able to fix it unless they get some brains. There are more students every year. To accommodate the new students they closed a faculty parking lot and put up a building. Because the faculty are the only ones who really matter they changed about 1/4 of south campus parking to a faculty lot...

Then after I finally found a parking spot I went over to the office of student accounts to pay my housing deposit for next year. But my credit card wouldn't work, so I was put in the position of having to call my mom to ask if it was OK to use her credit card. Thank god mom saved me once again...

Afterwards I called BofA to find out why I wasn't able to use my credit card. They informed me that there was suspicious activity on my card. Apparently using a credit card to buy gas is such an unusual transaction that every time I do it I will need to call BofA to let them know it was me or I won't be able to use my card again...

Just another frustrating day. It's all piling up and I need to let loose. When the aggravation gets to be so much that I can physically feel it in my chest, that's just too much. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!


I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.

One of those days...

When I just shouldn't have gotten out of bed...
listening to Bad Religion (you tell me how I feel)

Well I'm doing better than I was last week or even earlier this week for that matter. I started the week off by waiting 45 min for a parking spot, only to end up parking on the street because I was 5 min late for class. Guess what I found on my Jeep when I got out of class. That's riiiiiiiiiiiiiight a parking ticket...

Thankfully it was only $20 which is still $280 less than my speeding ticket I got in Texas. Speaking of that ticket I had to call the court the other day to ask why I hadn't received the paperwork needed to keep the ticket off my record. Guess what, it was returned as undeliverable...

This is not the first piece of important mail Hofstra has done this with. Luckily Annette (the court clerk) remembered me and is now sending out 2 copies of the paperwork. One is coming to me and the other is being sent to my dad's house. I'll get it eventually...

On the upside of things it looks like I'm gonna get to go to Holland for Spring Break. Apparently when my Grandma heard that I might not make it due to financial reasons she offered to help buy my ticket. I think it might be the first time since I was little that I can remember my Grandma wanting to see me...

Of course she's always been glad to see me, but it was always during her visits over here to see my mom. I remember being little and her being so proud of her grandson (me) when I would go visit. Maybe I'm something worth being proud of again...

What the hell is going on here...

OK this is going to be a short post because I am sitting in class. My teacher is telling great stories about real cases that prove truth is stranger than fiction...

I've been having a rough couple of days. Yesterday I was feeling depressed for no discernible reason. I am grateful that my Criminal Justice Clinic supervisor took some time out of her bust day to talk with me. Like I said as leaving her office, this too will pass...

Today I woke up feeling better, but it's been all downhill since then. I had to go to Queens to represent a client whom I had never met in person. His fiance was also supposed to meet me and my partner there...

Not everything went according to plan. My client showed up 1 1/2 hours late, but at least he showed up to the right court. His fiance on the other hand showed up to the wrong court. Which left me standing in front of the judge when our case was called trying to explain why I couldn't produce my client...

When he finally did show up I didn't have time to talk to him because our case got called again less than 2 minutes after he finally walked in. Then when I had to get the case recalled again and I spoke to the court clerk I was told my case would not be recalled. 2 minutes later I asked my female partner to repeat my request for a second call to the clerk. We were in front of the judge again 10 minutes later...

It just hasn't my day. Well maybe it is my day and things aren't going as smoothly as I would like. I guess I'd rather feel irritated like I do today than depressed like I did yesterday...

Spring Fling is tonight. It should be a nice time. Hopefully I will be able to get some R&R this weekend...

Idol chatter...

I don't have a lot worth talking about right now, so I'll prattle on for a minute about American Idol just to keep the diatribe going. My first introduction to American Idol was during the first season. I used to watch it over at Wendy, April, and Pam's place. I watched more for the car accident factor than anything else...

I have always claimed to be a people watcher. Some of the most interesting people to watch are not the talented or beautiful people. People with talent like dancers, musician, and singers are a pleasure to enjoy, but not as fascinating. Therefore I have always found the first rounds of American Idol to be the best...

For those of you not familiar with the show, I will explain briefly. 3 judges go around the country holding singing auditions. They then invite about 4 dozen of the best to Hollywood and send half of them home the following week. The remaining 24 are voted off in 1s and 2s every week by telephone voting open to the public...

This week will be the last week that I really watch until the end. Once they get down to the last dozen they all have a fair amount of talent but aren't good enough to blow me away and aren't bad enough to have car wreck value...

Still trying to pull things together for a Spring Break in Amsterdam...

Hofstra basketball lost to UNC Willmington in the CAA championship game tonight. This means our current record is 24-6 and we have an RPI ranking of 25. Given all of this we will have to wait till this weekend to see if it earns us an at large bid to the big dance...

Spring Fling is later this week...