changes afoot

i have done a substantial amount of thinking about my future these past few weeks. i have come to several conclusions.

first, i want to change the world. with God's help, i intend to do so.

for me, the manner and means to this goal is the practice of law. law is a mission in itself as it allows me to help change lives in individual cases. it is the means because it provides me experience and gives me the knowledge and the platform to seek systemic changes. and ultimately, it is the systems i want to see changed.

i have been the mentor, the pastor, the cheerleader, the coach, and the advisor to many oppressed individuals. and while it made a difference, i could not hope to solve the problems that worked together to cause oppression.

and so i have a dream--or maybe it's a plan. i am going to build a law practice. i don't know that it will be entirely conventional, but i see it as essential to my overall goals. i will never advocate change which i do not believe to be inherently practical and workable in real life. with the rest of my time i will develop my non-profit and pour out my life and energy challenging the systems that oppress, and challenging and mentoring the coming generations to use their tremendous wealth, knowledge, and abilities to see these changes made.

i don't know that it will work. it is a risk. but the idealism of youth has stuck with me, and i will not be satisfied with less. and so i'm quitting my job with the venerable courts of my state, and i will begin this idealistic, but perhaps not totally unrealistic journey toward justice.

a new year

happy new year! so i've clearly abandoned the blog, unfortunately. life has snowballed into an unmanageable amount of activities, and after writing for my job and editing papers, and working non-stop, i have not wanted to write often.

on November 21, 2007, i was sworn into the practice of law. i'm working too much. i work 40 hours a week at the courts, then teach a writing class, grade for another class, and now tutor bar exam preparation students... in my spare time, i'm still developing the non-profit organization that was formed this fall. i'll be recruiting interns for the summer and we hope to begin our first big research project within the next few months. so the days and nights are flying by. i'm hoping and praying that i'll be able to make a transition in my job to be able to work fewer hours and to have a more balanced life. i should know about that within the next month or two.

anyway, if i have any readers left out there, i hope you all are doing well, and that 2008 is another great year.

really delayed life update

i passed the bar exam... yay! last night i had a bonfire where i burned up all my old bar exam study materials. it was quite a sight to behold. there were a few times when i was afraid that some of the papers were going to blow away and start a forest on fire. it took at least 2 hours to burn all the paper. i had some great friends there to help me celebrate. so i'm done. i never have to go to school again. nice to know, though i'll probably study again eventually.

in other news, my heater's circuit board is shot. during the bar exam, you may recall that i was attempting to move and teach classes, etc. so as i was switching over my accounts, i signed up for an appliance service plan. you can't get out of it for a year. total rip-off.

or not. turns out for me, it will be quite a lot cheaper to pay the $20/month for 12 months than to pay for a service call on a Sunday & a new circuit board.

so my bar-exam stupor/stupidity has turned out to be a blessing, after all.

and tomorrow's Veteran's Day so i don't have to work. instead, i'll be meeting with a former professor attempting to get the non-profit's 501(c)(3) paperwork completed. one day at a time, i guess

belated life update...

so i finally joined the adult world, i think. i bought quicken and have worked out a budget, etc. i've never really had to do that before. actually, i started the budget and keeping track of spending earlier this month, but found that excel was not working for me. quicken is quite amazing--way more functions and features than i know what to do with. and it's not organized in a linear way--there's stuff all over the place. so it's going to take me a while to find everything and be able to get it down.

so... i'm trying to pay off my debts quickly. i think i could have all school loans and house paid off in 10 years. so that's going to be the goal, i think. we'll see how it goes.

and that, my friends, is all i have to report. i've been working like crazy at work, at teaching, and at forming the non-profit. i have the bylaws done, and need to get together the first board meeting. today i'm going to a local university to see a movie on justice & to try to network with students who are impassioned about justice. other than that, it's one day after another, passing by so quickly that it's all a blur.

unexpected blessings

today i believe that i am in exactly the right place at the right time. i found out last week that i will be able to write while i am at the courts after all-i thought i would have to wait until i no longer worked there.

then, today i found out that i will be allowed to use westlaw from school still to write law review articles because that relates to my job as an adjunct professor!l

so... i'm ready to get started...

adventures in home improvement

i want to preface this by saying that i did, in fact, get the closet rod installed in my closet...

i moved into my house shortly before the bar exam, so i just did the minimum tasks necessary to feel somewhat settled in & left the rest for later. well, later is now, so i spent today working around the house.

the big project of the day was to install a closet rod in my closet. for some reason, there wasn't one there. so i've just been storing my clothes in a spare bedroom (and on my floor, of course), and that's been working fine. but my friend's moved into that spare room, and i'm going to be working now so i'm actually going to need easy access to my nice clothes.

so anyway... today was closet day. and let me preface this by saying that i have plaster walls & that in my closet, i have one straight wall, and one wall that's on an angle. i wasn't sure how i was going to get that to work, but i had a couple of ideas.

first i had to go buy the closet rod & screws, etc. so i went to the local hardware store. i found some hardware to hold up the rod that was one circle thing, and one thing shaped like a U. the plan was to put the circle piece on the straight wall & the U shape on the crooked wall, angled so that the rod could rest on the U. so i bought those & a couple rods, and asked an employee about what to do to get screws to stick in plaster--he recommended pre-drilling & putting in anchors.

so i ended up buying a drill.

so i bring the drill home, and it has to charge for a couple of hours, of course, so i unpack the drill and start charging it, at which time i realize that the drill did not come with any drill bits.

so it's back to the hardware store, where the same guy helped me, asking "didn't i help you earlier today?" to which i replied, "yes... i didn't have any drill bits." "you didn't have any bits at all?" um... no. duh. so he hooked me up with some bits, and i was on my way for a second time.

so i got home & started going. i tried 3 different bits before i got the right size for the wall anchors. i had some trouble getting the anchors into the wood behind the plaster--the hammer just bounces off those little guys... i finally got the 3 anchors in, and screwed in the round hardware piece, flush against the wall, when i realized that it was too high--the other wall has a shelf at about the same height that i'd used. oops...

so i pulled everything out & tried to start over. but i had some trouble here. i couldn't get the anchors to get into the wood... and the plaster was falling, as i bounced the hammer off the anchors over & over again. i finally got them to work, a little bit, but it's not flush with the wall, and it doesn't look pretty. but it held, and seemed pretty secure.

i moved on then to the U-shaped hardware, and got that installed with no catastrophes, but it also is not flush against the wall. i have no idea if there's a way to get the anchors in all the way or not.

so... at the end of the day, the closet rod is put in, and all my clothes are hanging up, so i guess today's home improvement project was a success. it's a little bothersome that it's not in perfectly, flush against the wall and looking pretty, but at least it works. and i'm pretty sure it won't fall down. yipee...

in between

well, the bar exam is done & over, and i'm telling myself i passed because i'm not going to spend 4 months anxious about the results. since the test i've been relaxing at home and completely enjoying the lack of responsibility and stress in my life right now. it's been a much needed break.

i start my job on August 20, but before then i'm taking a trip to SCOTLAND!!! i leave on Monday and am so excited. i have some Scottish roots, but i've also read a lot of books about Scotland or set in Scotland, and it's a place that i've always wanted to visit. so... off i go. if i have computer access i may have time to tell stories or upload pictures... we'll see. otherwise i'll regale you with the stories later. until then, my friends...

one road ends

So 2 ½ years ago I started law school. It was a step of faith, and a huge one at that. Naturally I’m not much of a risk-taker, but I have taken very large risks at pivotal points in my life, where I’ve felt that was the right thing to do, where I’ve believed it is what God was leading me to do. And so on the recommendation of a friend, I took the LSAT, got a scholarship, quit my job, and came to law school. I really had nothing to go on but the hope that it was something that would be challenging enough that it could keep me interested for a number of years & something that I could actually practically use to change the world. I had no idea that I would finally grow into my personality in law school, or that I would learn to put words around the things that I have always known deep within my soul, or that in working my way through, I would create an organization that has the potential to allow me to be all of who I am at one time. I really believed that I would be a conflicted dichotomy for all time.

And so here I am, at the end of a road that I never saw myself getting on, looking toward a road with boundaries and destinations I can’t even begin to perceive. What a crazy journey this life is. There is such potential to do great things, to make great changes, to be of influence. And oh, how I long for my life to count for something—to be used by God, to bring justice to the oppressed, to bring healing to the hurting. So here’s hoping & trusting that that’s where this path is leading…