My New Home

Go Bears!

I'm leaving for Portland in about an hour and then tomorrow morning Ke, Alan, Liz and I are all heading to Seattle to see USC kick some Husky ass (and UDub is going to be wearing throwback uniforms tomorrow to celebrate their 1961 Rose Bowl team ... I am such a nerd that this fact has me even more excited for the game!). From the weather reports it is going to be in the high 40s/low 50s in Seattle tomorrow night with a chance of rain. Sweet.

But just to let you Bears fans know, it is POURING in Eugene right now. Since Autzen has turf it won't be muddy, but weather could definitely be a factor. It could get slippery tomorrow.

So now here is my plea ... PLEASE beat the Ducks tomorrow. The amount of Ducks talk going on around here in the last week has been nearly unbearable. They won't shut up. Yeah yeah, they probably have every right to ... they've looked pretty damn good this season so far. I think my hatred of the Ducks teams begins and ends with this man ...
I can't STAND Mike Bellotti. I think he's terribly overrated as a coach, a huge douchebag, a cheater, dirty recruiter and I think a Republican too. I have no idea about that last thing, but hell, I'm throwing it in there. I'm sad that I'm missing a HUGE game here at Autzen with Gameday showing up and most of my friends here planning on tailgating from about 5:30 a.m. But we've had the tickets to the Washington game for a while and I need to see the boys play badly or I might die. It could happen, you never know.

One last thing: I normally wear something USC on Fridays. Usually its just my black track jacket that I live in (I LOVE that thing) or a polo. Basically its the only time I wear gameday clothing. Today I wore my Berkeley shirt and got a LOT of shit for it. It was beautiful. Why do I love being so contrary and pissing people off so much? One guy was appalled, not that he hated Cal or anything, but he compared it to an Ohio State fan wearing a Michigan shirt. Close, but not quite. Hey, USC is #1 in my heart no doubt, and though there are few teams I want to beat more than Cal (teams from Westwood and South Bend come to mind) ... I gotta say Cal is my #2 team, even above where I'm attending law school.

Fight On!!! Beat the Huskies!!!
Go Bears!!! Beat the Ducks!!!

Nick v. Spider II: The Revenge

I have to tell this story because frankly, it scared the crap out of me.

Background: Eugene might be the spider capital of the world. I’m serious. Just about every place I’ve been to is infested like that house from Arachnophobia. Its actually insane. And as everyone knows I have a very acute and serious fear of spiders. They freak the hell out of me. So knowing that I live with spiders (I’ve seen too many to count in my apartment) and knowing that the new place I am moving to might actually be worse (we don’t go through the front door because the alleyway is COVERED with webs) gives me panic attacks. The only spider that I don’t hate is the one that lives right near my carport – I’ve named him Charlie and he’s huge and has been hanging out in the same place since the day I moved in. We’re cool.

My first run-in with the dreaded Hobo Spider was about three weeks ago. The Hobo Spider (the ugly MF at the top of this post) lives predominantly in the Northwest and is the third most poisonous spider in North America (behind the black widow and brown recluse). I was sitting on my bed, folding clothes when I felt a tickle around my wrist. I turned my forearm around to see what it was and that thing CRAWLED UP MY WARM WITH LIGHTNING SPEED. Ancient, guttural sounds came out of my mouth as I waved my arms frantically around, throwing him on the floor. I ran to the bathroom to grab tissues to kill the beast (for those who think its mean or wrong to kill the spider, well, I don’t care what you think). First I had to stare at the guy for a bit to lock his features into my brain so I could look up on Wikipedia later – you know, just to make sure he was in fact the Hobo I’d been warned about. It took me THREE attempts to kill him … he darted around like Reggie Bush against Fresno State until I finally got him. And that was the last time I saw a Hobo in my apartment …

Until yesterday morning. I had just gotten back from the gym and was going to make myself a protein shake. My blender was soaking in the sink from the shake made the day before, filled to the top with soapy water. As I reached my hand in to pull the blender out, I noticed ANOTHER Hobo Spider just hanging out in the sink. Actually, when I put my hand in he started running around – if he would have stayed still I might not have seen him (my eyesight is that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex apparently). But he did move, and I thought, well, I have a giant blender full of soapy water in my hand … I’m gonna drown the bastard. So I pour about half of the contents directly onto the spider and he curls into a ball, dead. I start to run the water to flush him down the drain and as his limp little body starts to head down the drain he POPS BACK UP AND STARTS TO RUN AWAY FROM THE DRAIN …

Do you understand what I’m dealing with here now? I’m dealing with a …

ZOMBIE HOBO SPIDER!!!!

He was DEAD I tell you. DEAD. But apparently spiders in Oregon have made some pact with Lucifer to not die when having 3 cups of water directly poured onto them. Immediately I spring into action – I turn on the garbage disposal, thus turning my sink into a de-facto Sarlacc pit, pour the rest of the water onto the spider and watch him slowly get pushed down the drain to his death. No zombie spider is going to survive that.

And I was right, he was dead this time. Well, at least he didn’t come back up after a minute (I waited).

So this is just a warning: if you ever decide to come to Oregon to visit, know that undead spiders may be roaming around attempting to eat your brain. It’s a fact.

Happy Birthday Pedro!!

Though I’m pretty much ripping this template off from Natalie, I really don’t care because I would like to take this chance to wish my little brother a happy birthday. Some great and interesting things about Peter:

• He doesn’t like mustard or ketchup. I have no idea how he eats hot dogs or hamburgers.
• He’s got a crazy sense of humor that thankfully matches my own almost to a T. I think I have laughed hardest in my life only when he is around.
• He cheats at Risk.
• He’s wicked smart. Like, for serious.
• There is nothing I could possibly do in my life that would make me prouder than I could be of him.
• He took his fashion sense from our father … but its getting better. Sorry Pete.
• I’ve probably been a crappy older brother sometimes, but he’s always been a great younger brother to me.
• He’s a clothes thief. Be warned.
• He has a sexy foot. There, I said it.
• He used to hate sports in general growing up and it was like pulling teeth to get him to watch anything. But now he’s pretty knowledgeable and its fun talking college football with him. Finally!!
• He’s wicked strong too. He’s been able to beat me up since he was 17. Its my great shame.
• Ok, I lied. He doesn’t cheat at Risk.
• He is, unequivocally and without hesitation, the best person I know or have ever known.
• Though this is not about him: I miss him terribly and love him a whole lot.

Happy Birthday Peter. I hope you get really fuckin’ drunk tonight.

Let's Paint!!

This guy is brilliant. He's on public access in LA. And he's a brilliant, brilliant man.

He paints.
While on a treadmill.
While blending drinks.
While taking calls from viewers.

Oh, he paints terribly.
And he's out of breath from the very beginning.
And the drinks are horrible.
And the calls from viewers are just gang members doing shout-outs. And cursing.

Trust me.

Gunners

For those who have not been to law school (and why the hell would you go), you probably haven’t heard of the term Gunner. This might apply to other grad schools (and maybe even undergrads, but I don’t remember the term), but since I’m not in grad school or med school, I can’t tell you for sure. Basically a Gunner is that douchebag in class who doesn’t stop raising his/her hand all the effing time and needs to either ask every question that pops into his/her head or answer every question posed by the professor, which in law school is A LOT. Through the first couple of classes I can understand raising your hand a lot, asking lots of questions. You want to make yourself known to the professor, maybe even impress other students in class. Well, now that we’re in the fifth week, we’re not impressed.

The Gunners in my class have already been identified. You can tell quite easily. There are 3 main ones and about 4-5 subsidiary Gunners. There are a couple who asked a lot at the beginning, but have reeled back because they realized they were douches. Good for them. You see, at Oregon you have your four main classes (torts, crim, civ pro, contract) with the same group of 65. This means that generally, the same douchies (I love the word and all of its derivatives) are talking in every freaking class. Can you tell I’m ranting? At some point you have to understand that we hate hearing your voice every single day in every single class asking the same annoying questions. Worse are the Gunners who preface questions with qualifiers like “I probably should ask about this in office hours, but …” or “Maybe I’m the only one who isn’t getting it, but …” Stop it, please. We all know that those would go before your question anyway, so we don’t need more class time taken up by it.

Yet worst of all are the Asshole Gunners (thanks Pete). These jokers LOVE to add more facts to hypotheticals, change facts in a case to just to see what would happen or maybe even ask how this term in torts class is sort of like the term we learned in civ pro (really, its not). I know you might want to take the professor down a long path about some obscure exception to the rule that has come up once in 87 years and will never be on any test, but hey, its not like I’m paying $30,000 a year, so take 15 minutes away from a class discussion I’m barely getting already. Don’t be that guy. What makes it all worse is that all of our tests are anonymous anyway … the professor isn’t going to grade your exam any different because you had a great question in mid-September about subject matter jurisdiction. So just shut the eff up. Please.

Anyway, despite all of that, I’ve decided I need to talk up in class more. This started foolishly in torts last Friday when I raised my hand to cover the facts and findings of our last case of the day. Doing this while extremely hung over and the little man in my heading pleading “WHY ARE YOU TALKING?!?!?!” isn’t probably the best plan, but oh well. I wanted to talk because I thought I understood the case well, and I pretty much did. I did the same thing again in crim today, though I was not hung over. Plus, the question I answered was in rebuttal to some bad reasoning by one of the Gunners … so making my correct point was all the much more satisfying. I promise not to turn into one of THEM any time soon. I just want to speak maybe once a class. Or more if I get to rebut kids who are really amped about joining the Federalist Society. Douches.

Other rants for today:
• Finally saw Transformers over the weekend. Dear God in heaven that blew giant robot dick. Wow. I really don’t know what to say … it felt like a 2 hour 30 minute trailer for a much better movie. I really have no idea what happened or if there was a plot. I think 10 scenes were cut that might have helped the narrative. I don’t know. But it wasn’t NEARLY as bad as …
• Halloween. I hate Rob Zombie. He’s getting worse but making more money. Maybe he’s what is wrong with America. Some my age say that Transformers and other movies made form TV shows from the 80s are raping our childhoods. For me, this “remake” of
• Knowing that I’m moving into a new, bigger, better place is making me start to resent the place I have now. I do like my apartment, but the grass is always greener I guess.
• Not a rant, but a BIG rave … its starting to feel like Fall here. Fall is by far my favorite time of year and has my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. The drive down to the law school once you’re on the UO campus is lined with giant trees that are starting to turn. Its beautiful. I will take pictures soon. Yay!

Via San Francisco ...

Dear God I miss San Francisco. I stopped reading for a second to check my mail, which inevitably turns to looking at other things on my computer. I guess subconsciously I don’t want to read about construction contracts. Subconsciously. Either way I started looking at some last-minute pictures I took of SF and, to be blunt, it rocked me. Damn I miss it. I miss just about everything about it. I miss how I would complain about it. I miss the horrid smell of the Haight when it was warm and how I wanted to shake each of the kids who would ask me for change REAL hard.

I find myself repping (is that a word?) SF much more than LA, basically because I feel a closer affinity to it right about now. Maybe its because I lived there for the last year and its memories are still much more fresh in my head. Maybe its because my last month in the city was amazing from top to bottom. True, it was basically a long and drawn out goodbye filled with parties, birthdays and the joy of promise and transition. Most months were not like that. People were celebrating me and everything that was happening to me (well, except for Katie’s birthday night – and even though that wasn’t about me, it goes up there as one of the best and most memorable nights during that time). I know that my final thoughts and visions of the city were tainted because of that – it was definitely the best of times when I left. But damn if it makes me miss it all the more.

I gave so much shit to the city for the longest time I admit. I complained about its liberal ways and its pretentious manner. I got mad about how much things cost and being alone sometimes. When I step away from it all though I realize that, more than anything, those would be complaints about myself. Its so cosmopolitan and damn if I wouldn’t pay $1000 (if I had that, which I don’t) to eat at Salt House or Luka’s. I won’t knock Eugene. It’s a nice city so far and the people have been very nice, and hell, I’ve only been here about a month so I have to give the place a chance. But so far its not like being dropped in Berkeley in the middle of nowhere. Its like being dropped in Cerritos. Maybe this character will come out when fall really hits and it gets cold. Its been in the mid-80s for almost the entire time I’ve been here and yes I am complaining about it. I want “Oregon weather” damnit!

Back to San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. I will definitely say that I miss the East Bay as well, no doubt. I miss being able to drive around there, great places to eat, walk around, just be. SF though, is different. I want to get up on a Saturday morning, get coffee from Rockin’ Java, watch TV on the giant TV, make calls to my brother and friends on the East Coast and others like me who are up that early on a Saturday morning. I want to take the bus somewhere, anywhere, in SF and walk around. I want to meet friends for a late lunch, do some more walking. I want a round of calls to be made, everyone indecisive about what to do that night before finally settling on a bar we’ve been to 1000 times before. Or maybe come home from work (and yes I miss work too) after getting a beer around 5:30, meet a friend for dinner or bring it back home, sit around and watch a movie I’ve seen 15 times. That’s what I want to do RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

Things may change I know it. And I’d be willing to bet they will in many ways that I cannot predict. But tonight, Sept. 9, 2007, before my fourth week of law school, I’m saying that I’d like to go back home. I’m not dropping out by any means. I actually really like school. It just means that right now I will be looking for a job in SF when all is said and done. Well, if I still feel like I do at this moment. I want to take a cab to a restaurant I’ve never heard of but comes highly recommended and then to a bar around the corner. Or hit a show at a small venue followed by meeting friends at a house party. Or get breakfast with friends in Berkeley on a Sunday morning following a football Saturday. Or really anything. As long as its in San Francisco.

Fight On Penn State!

Moving

No, I’m not going to another law school. I’m just moving in with a friend of mine here. Yes, I move quickly. My friend Maria has a big house and she’s all alone and wanted a roommate so she’s not so scared at night ☺. I guess I’m the one to help. Its not much closer to campus than where I am right now, but it has a nice big kitchen (obviously a big plus for me), big backyard, big living room (for college football watching) and, oh yeah, a cool chica. Yes, I understand that I’m a glutton for punishment seeing as how I’ve lived with three women for the last year and am going right back into the fire, but hell … girls smell nice and are generally clean.

Three weeks in and I vacillate between knowing what I’m doing, thinking I’m going to kill the exams and finish top of my class … but then I come back to reality and realize that my professor has spoken for 40 minutes and I have no idea what he’s said. It definitely gets worse as the week progresses, so I guess its pretty great to have ThuNBaR. ThunNBar stands for Thursday Night Bar Review … which is just a big fancy word for law students taking over a bar and drinking so much that Torts on Friday morning is a blur. Awesome. And I’m leaving for the bar du jour in about 45 minutes I obviously have my reading and notes done for tomorrow. Clearly.

Other random observations, thoughts as I get ready:
• Damn, OSU sucks. I called it by the way.
• I got a Jack Spade laptop/messenger bag. I’m officially completely SF metro now. And I LOVE it – I got four compliments on it today.
• Yumm Café is the best eats in Eugene I’ve had so far. Its basically beans, rice, veggies and this great sauce in a bowl. Its only in Eugene and I would seriously contemplate attempting to get franchises in Berkeley and SF. This place would be HUGE among the college students, young professionals and healthy hippies. Its incredible and they would be CRAZY not to expand down the coast soon.
• I’m playing in a beer pong tourney this weekend with my new roomie. Our team name is Veni Vidi Vici and as anyone who saw me play pong at my going away party knows, it is going to be ugly. I hope she still wants me to move in afterwards. And yes, COLLEGE!!
• I drink soy milk protein shakes every morning. What the hell happened to me?
• In case you didn’t know, here in Oregon all gas stations are full service. You never get out of your car to pump gas – they just come up, take your card and fill it up for you. And most of the time they’ll clean your windows too. What a state!
• Oh, and no sales tax. Jealous?
• Most beers (and the selection would make some cry in a good way) are $3 a pint. Jealous now?

Until next time …

Gameday!!!

Our wait is finally over. Nearly eight months in purgatory has given way to the unabashed joy and celebration that is the college football season. There are few things better in this world I contend than spending the day tailgating with your closest friends, drinking beer, talking football, walking into the stadium, hearing the roar of the crowd, listening the band, feeling that electricity run through your body, watching the teams line up for the opening kickoff and spending the next 3-4 hours in heaven.

It’s a giant excuse to be closer to your friends, maybe even family. I can still vividly remember the first college football game I went to: USC v. Stanford, Homecoming 1991. USC lost that day 24-21 but I was hooked. The band, the stadium, the crowd, the colors … it was all bigger than me. This was a collective of people all cheering for the same thing and being together while they did it. My dad took us basically because I had gotten a ucla sweatshirt from Ralph’s sometime during the week and worn it around the house. Most of my friends were bRuin fans and well, I guess that made me one too. At that sight my dad realized that he had waited too long to show me real college football and got tickets for that Saturday’s game. He opened my eyes to a whole new world (dramatic, aren’t I?) and I was never the same.

Though I have an incredible time going to games with all my friends and look forward to them all off-season, I still love going to games with my dad. I’m also incredibly happy that two of my three fondest memories and happiest games I shared sitting next to my dad in the stands – 1996 v. Notre Dame to end the streak, where I leaped into my dad’s arms (I’m not a small guy, even at 17) and screamed “Its over!!” about 1700 times; and the 2004 Rose Bowl v. Michigan where USC captured its first National Title since 1978 and I hugged my dad for about 10 minutes after the final gun. I’ll admit it got a little dusty after each game and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Thanks dad … more than you could know.

There is a great line from the otherwise terrible movie Fever Pitch (and the original book about Arsenal is an all-time favorite) where Drew Barrymore’s character says its “romantic to give yourself over to something bigger than you, something you have no control over.” Or something like that – I didn’t look it up on imdb. She’s right. I like to think of myself as that kind of romantic. And I like to think of my friends like that too. Its more than just a game between kids. Its about cheering together. Arguing together. Sharing that passion together. Together.

But enough of this reflection … its gameday!!!

FIGHT ON!!! BEAT THE VANDALS!!!
GO BEARS!!! BEAT THE VOLS!!!

I'm a hypocrite

Anyone who has heard me talk about NPR knows that for the longest time I basically thought it was for uncool nerds. Yeah, I’d listen to it sometimes if I was driving in the morning and I hated Bay Area morning radio (it sucks) and wanted to hear the news. Sometimes I’d catch about 5 minutes on weekends if I as driving around, but then I’d put on my ipod and listen to whatever new band I’d “found” the previous week. For the last several years its been a near obsession of mine (I blame Chris really) to find the next band or sound or whatever. The more obscure the better. Hadn’t heard of it? Good. I had free time and money to get albums and search for them all day. It was fun. My friends ask me what new album I’m listening to, if I could burn them a CD … I felt like the gatekeeper to cool new music. I guess.

Well, over the last couple of months I haven’t had nearly as much free time and money. My searches are shorter and I rely on more crutches (free iTunes downloads, Pitchfork, The AV Club) in my search. I just haven’t had the time. Now I especially don’t have the time and I don’t see much time freeing up (well, at least for the next couple of months). I also realize that this notion of me being the “gatekeeper to cool new music” is absurd since I’m a huge nerd and dork and make no apologizes for it. But man, it was my thing to be cool about. That and possibly movies as well.

Anyway, back to why I’m a hypocrite. Of the six pre-programmed stations in my car in Eugene, two are NPR. (hey, I’ve noticed that about 5% of the time they have different programming and in different parts of town one comes in better than the other, so lay off … its not like Eugene has a great radio selection anyway. I’ve already been tricked into programming a Christian Rock station by accident because I heard a Nickelback song on the first time I heard it and thought it was the lame alternative station in town. Don’t worry, when I heard a commercial for Battle Cry I quickly changed that one to a classic rock station I’d missed. But I digress) And what do I mostly listen to when driving around Eugene, either to Target (for I think the 17th time) or class? NPR podcasts of Cartalk, Prairie Home Companion or Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.

So tell me I’m a hypocrite. Call someone who has seen the light. Call me an uncool nerd. But whatever you do, don’t tell me what Tom and Ray said on Saturday before I get to hit play on my ipod.

Horribly Innacurate Pac-10 Predictions

I know how many of you are just so desperate to know how I think this season will turn out, so here goes my completely unreasonable and not at all thought out predictions. And yes, I've predicted the final records for all 10 teams. What, you think I'm actually studying around here?

USC 12-0 9-0 (BCS)
California 10-2 7-2 (Rose)
Oregon 9-3 7-2 (Holiday)
Arizona State 8-4 5-4 (Las Vegas)
Oregon State 8-4 5-4 (Armed Forces)
UCLA 7-5 4-5 (??? - Pac-10 doesn't have enough bowl ties)
Arizona 5-7 3-6
Stanford 4-8 2-7
Washington 3-9 2-7
Washington State 3-9 1-7

Yup, with USC headed to New Orleans for the title game (hopefully against LSU), I'm sending the Bears to Pasadena. I guess if you can't go in through the front door just sneak in through the back. Oh, and Cal's other loss is to ASU. Harbaugh works miracles at Stanford - enough for two conference wins. Arizona once again fails to live up to expectations and thus cans Mike Stoops at the end of the season. Poor Ty Willingham takes another step back.

POY - John David Booty
DPOY - Antoine Cason
COY - Jeff Tedford
Newcomer - Joe McKnight

The Paper Chase

One week in and so far I’m not behind on my reading. Knowing myself that’s actually pretty good. And trust me, there is enough reading for me to be behind already. For those interested, I’m taking Contracts, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Torts and LRW (Legal Research and Writing). And if you thought (like myself) that I’d be ahead in most of the classes (especially Civ Pro) because I’ve been working at two big civil lit firms the last five years … well, you’d be wrong. At least so far. Yeah, maybe I have some terminology down and am not shocked when I hear Latin terms for legal concepts, but other than that I’m basically Joe Schmoe.

Been here two weeks and I think I’m pretty settled in alright. Having Target, Costco and Trader Joe’s all within 10 minutes drives has helped a lot (though its killed my budget). I have a one-bedroom loft that’s fairly small but gets the job done. Its quiet and right next to a golf course though I don’t think I’ll be getting any tee shots into my back window any time soon. Its about a 10 minute drive to campus via two bridges and a couple of left turns so I’m not that far. I wish I would have found a place closer to campus so I could actually walk to class, but to be honest my place is really well set up for studying so I can’t complain too much. I’ve put my embarrassingly small TV in my bedroom and downstairs only has my desk and couch so I’m not tempted to watch TV instead of read. Its works.

I don’t have a great sense of the city yet though its easy enough to maneuver. Haven’t found the great late-night eating place, though I did go to Pita Pit on Friday night … I wish I could give a review, but I don’t remember what I ordered or that I actually ate anything. I knew I ate something because I had a strange taste in my mouth the next morning and called my new friend Joe (Oregon State grad) to ask if we had indeed eaten. “Oh, I’m guessing you weren’t the only person to not remember going there last night … and anyway, most people don’t remember their first time there.” Good times. I’d like to thank the law school for throwing a welcome party at the school with 8 kegs and people stumbling down drunk in the middle of the commons around midnight. Yes, they get drunk at school here in Eugene.

I wrap up this first (and terrible) post with a couple of things I’ve learned about Oregon, Eugene, the school and the fans.
- They really REALLY love those yellow uniforms. Actually, they love everything about all of their uniforms and are insulted that someone could think otherwise.
- Don’t make fun of Joey Harrington unless you want to fight someone.
- What do they love even more than those uniforms? That “O”. I’m not joking, its on EVERYTHING. Its on the window of every dorm room in alternating yellow and green. And driving around Eugene its on more cars than you could imagine. There are more “O”s around than there are “SC”s on cars on gamedays at the Coliseum.
- Prefontaine … learn to love him. Part folk hero, part running god, don’t knock him.
- Though I haven’t stepped into one, the people of Eugene DEMAND Hawaiian plate lunch restaurants. Its no joke – I’ve seen at least five of them.
- Going to Ikea in Portland was like going to Disneyland on a Saturday in late June. These people were NUTS about the Scandinavian modular furniture. One girl told me they had been waiting “for years” to get one … wow.
- I’m truly in the Mecca of great beer. Not Eugene per se, but Oregon and the Northwest in general. Its going to be hard to drink every night.

I’ll write more interesting and funny things later. Future topics to include: fifty-cent movie night in Springtucky; the benefits of all-you-can-drink-night at a single A baseball game; a discussion on SEC v. Pac-10 with a cool guy from Appalachia; why its great to make friends with a guy who has been a pharmacist the last 7 years before going to law school; and how to spend hours on end customizing every single part of your new MacBook Pro. Until then.