it's not every day the Devil makes my life better

Jacob's bad luck: Is it . . . Satan?
Bedeviled: His business deals have been delayed, keeping him from fully funding his campaign

This was one of the above the fold stories in today’s Salt Lake Tribune. Rep. Chris Cannon from Utah’s deeply Republican congressional Third District is facing a difficult primary challenge this year from local businessman John Jacobs. This election has essentially become a referendum on President Bush’s election policy with Rep. Cannon supporting the guest worker program and Jacobs essentially advocating mass deportation of all illegal aliens. Jacobs has raised a strong challenge by capitalizing on the jingoistic (dare I say racist?) tendencies of rural Utahns.

Additionally, one of my friends is employed by the Jacobs campaign. Now despite the fact that we’re friends, there are few things I enjoy more than watching this guy twist in the wind… and today his boss delivered a great little gift to me in the form of this article in which he rants that the Devil is actively opposing his bid for Congress. Apparently Jacobs presence in Congress would so confound Satan’s work that the Prince of Darkness is causing the businesses owned by Jacobs to suffer. It couldn’t be that this guy is simply out of his league and is reaping the consequences of his overreaching.

I love it. Now to work out exactly the right vehicle to torment my campaign working friend… hee hee hee.

Terror comes with a 39 cent stamp

Yikes! Talk about your frightening surprises. I just retrieved my mail and included with my Netflix selections for today was a little envelope from the Utah State Bar. It contained the month-to-go-before-the-exam instructions. It lists where to go and what to do for the test and gave a brief overview of the testing procedures. Admittedly it didn’t contain much I didn’t already know, but it was still a frightening reality check. The worst test of my life is just a month away! Is it too late to call the whole thing off and become a doctor?

There was one bright spot to the whole letter though that made it worth reading:

"Although the building is air conditioned, 100-degree weather, the large numbers of applicants, and the heat generated by laptop computers results in the test rooms becoming unavoidably warm as the day progresses... You will find the test room cool in the morning, but increasingly warm as the day progresses. Please dress accordingly."

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this test only administered to people who have finished at least four years of college and three years of law school? Shouldn't you expect that such people would be intelligent enough to reason out that it's hot in Salt Lake City at the end of July? Maybe I should take comfort in the fact that the bar examiners think we're dumb enough not to understand basic concepts like weather and so will test us with similarly low expectations on our comprehension of legal concepts? I can always hope...

Home and dry

Another fabulous day at the taco factory is behind me.  It was a pretty good day today, and people were in a good mood in general, leading to pretty decent tips today.  Woo-hoo!  Of course my joy at a productive and profitable day is tempered by the fact that when I came home from work I discovered that the water in my condo had been turned off as part of some routine maintenance.  So now I’m sitting in my underwear, smelling of tacos, and hoping that the maintenance workers finish up soon so that I can degrease myself.  Exciting, no?

Career? What career?

Well some time has passed since my last post so allow me to summarize the events of the last few months. I finished up law school. Actually managed to graduate! I even passed my bankruptcy final. Whoda thunk it?

Since then I’ve begun the painful and humiliating process of bar exam preparation. I’m enrolled in a commercial bar review course and it’s about as painful as I imagine the trip to the dentist I’ve been avoiding will be. Actually the review course is probably worse. They pack us in like sardines to the review course and force us to listen to hours and hours of lectures on the subjects covered by the state bar examiners. It’s actually a pretty slick system but my bad attitude keeps me from really appreciating it. Well… my bad attitude and my inveterate slackerishness.

Meanwhile, the job hunt continues. I’m really not all that crazy to be a practicing lawyer. I’ve mostly enjoyed the work experiences I’ve had, especially with Lisa’s firm I can’t say I’ve been inspired. When I look back over my life, I find that the time I spent working in Washington was some of the most inspiring. My fabulous, anthrax filled days working as an intern were some of the few times I really felt like I was part of something larger than myself and that I was working for something good. I had to leave DC because I was interning there in between my junior and senior years of college. Now that I’ve finished college and (amazingly) law school, I can’t help but wonder if it’s time to try again. I am a little bit torn at this point because I’m in a position now where I could take a really excellent job here in Salt Lake and enter the practice of law, or I could chance it all and move to DC and hope I find something really love.

So for now I’m just concentrating on taking the bar exam. Although I keep hoping that some fabulous job in DC opens up that I’m forced to take immediately and therefore must regrettably refrain from taking the bar. Since that’s not likely to happen right away I guess I’m in for the long haul here. Speaking of which, it’s probably time I turn off my DVD review of the Simpsons (season 5) and get back to Conflicts of Law…