Sick

Yep, it's the day after a day off, and I'm sick.  Staying home from work today.  Actually, my child and wife are both also sick.  Before anyone starts shunning us based on a swine flu scare, let me assure you that our symptoms don't necessarily fit into that category.  Gwen has had some mad diarrhea for the last several days, but seems to be getting better.  I've got a rather traditional "every muscle in my body aches" type thing going on, complete with a fever (albeit a low one).  Kerry is puking, but then again...it's morning.

Did I mention that Kerry is pregnant?  That's right folks!  I'm gonna be a daddy again!  The baby is due in early December, which means that if it's early like Gwen was, it'll probably be born in November.  We'll see.  Either way, it's gonna be a Benson Baby!  Not sure if that's where it will be born, but that's where it will live.

Graduation was surreal, and it passed in a blur.  I have no idea about anything that the speakers said, because I seriously could not pay attention.  It was 2 1/2 hours that felt like 10 minutes.  I now have a J.D.  Woot!

Work really sucks these days, and I have a feeling that people are going to be on my case for missing today.  My boss left work sick on Friday with a freakin' skip in her step and a smile on her face, though, so whatever.

Last week was rather hellish, with my ridiculous schedule.  Not sure if I mentioned it already, but I went to work at 7:00 am, stayed for one hour, took off for BarBri in St. Paul from 9:00 to 3:00 pm, and then drove back to work from 3:30 to 5:45.  That constitutes working a half day.  Not fun.

This weekend we went to the parents' lake cabin, and we had a good time...mostly.  I have three very obnoxious cousins that suck a lot of time and energy out of my parents, so it's hard to really spend any time with them while said cousins (ages 3, 5, and 8) are there.  Luckily we had arrived fairly early on Friday night, and they didn't get there until Saturday afternoon.

While I was at Target the other day, I scored the Karate Kid trilogy for $13.  That was a deal I couldn't pass on.  The third movie sucks liquid monkey butt, but the other two are icons of my youth.  I watched the first last night.  It was fun.

This week (aside from today) the schedule has returned to something resembling normal.  I'll be going to bar review during the nights and gettin' hassled by the man during the day.

Whoa

So, last night I went to my last final ever, for Juvenile Justice. It went pretty uneventfully, and before I knew it the prof had come back into the room and told all of us that we had one more minute to wrap everything up. So, I did, turned in my exam, and that was it. No fanfare of trumpets or rush of doves, no thunderclaps or flashing lightning or mules or laser beams.

Heck, there wasn't even a whimper. Just kind of a sigh. I walked out of the room and into the hallway, and I was done with law school. It still hasn't really hit me yet, I feel like I've still got studying to do this weekend. Perhaps that feeling comes from the fact that I have a bar review class starting immediately on Monday. But that's totally different, and doesn't even take place at William Mitchell.

Kristian and I went out to the bar afterward. It was a place called Dixie's on Grand Ave, and I'd never been there before. It was pretty nice, but now that I don't have any reason to be on Grand Ave anymore, I doubt I'll go back. I didn't stay very long, because I had a 7:00 AM meeting this morning (a meeting that I ended up not having to go to).

I walked back from Dixie's and realized that it was on the same block as the Grotto lot. This needs a bit of back story. The Grotto lot is a parking lot near (read: several blocks from) William Mitchell, where the first-year law students are allowed to park. I parked there for much of my first year, and walked from there to school.

Well, last night I decided to complete the circle. I walked through the Grotto lot as if I had parked there, and walked back down a dark Summit Avenue toward the bright lights of William Mitchell, where my car was waiting. I drank in the building with my eyes and breathed heavily. I know that a lot of Mitchell students hide their school pride, but to quote Kristian, "We've had to eat bucket after bucket of [poop]." I'm very proud of my time in law school -- I've got a massive sense of accomplishment to bolster my already obnoxious ego.

Now there's just a bar exam. Here I come, biznatches!

I accidentally the whole computer

So yeah, I somehow destroyed my computer at work and made it a repeated BSOD mess. That was fun. It was probably a failed hard drive -- either that or I downloaded 400,000 viruses. Either way is possible, I suppose, but it was an old machine.

So I basically went ahead and lost everything that I'd been working on, but what can ya do. My machine was reimaged and I'm back on the attack, cuz inside out is wiggity wiggity wiggity whack.

Everything is coming to a head in the life of Ben. Tonight, I get to go pick up my cap and gown, because I freakin' graduate this weekend! Holy heck! Before that, of couse, I have one more final to tackle. It just happens to be the only in-class final of this semester, and also the lamest. The prof grades harshly, and I haven't had enough time to study. I wanted to take this afternoon off, but unfortunatly it appears that I'm fresh out of vacation, so that blows.

So, after the cap / gown pickup tonight, I've got to hit the books hard again. Blech. After the final, it's time to party down. WAIT. Aww crap. I've recently been informed that I have a 7:00 a.m. meeting on Friday. Seriously, that kind of thing is just lame. Ahh well. I'm counting down the months.

Eh, I guess I don't have a lot to talk about, but it feels like I've got a crapload going on. It's all been mentioned before, though.

Ben is a Bad Blogger!!!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything -- quite possibly the longest lag between posts in the history of this Stupid Ostrich. There are a number of factors that have contributed to that. I'll try to touch on each in turn.

Work has been crazy. If you look at things like mortgage rates, you'll note that they're very very low. This has caused an avalanche of people who think that now is a great time to refinance. For the most part, they're absolutely correct. However, there are things that they'll have to keep in mind: It's gonna take a while. Seriously, if you apply now, you probably won't get a call back for at least two weeks. Refinances are the mortgage world's bottom-of-the-barrell, and the fact of the matter is that everything else (namely purchase) comes first. Crappy customer service on the part of mortgage lenders? Probably. But it's the best we can do in this situation.

Everyone in my department is working overtime, and most are working Saturdays as well. I haven't yet come in on a Saturday -- it's just not something that I can do. Why? Because of the second reason for not blogging: School.

WOW! I had my LAST CLASS of law school EVER. I'm currently in the midst of my last finals week. EVER! It's a very surreal feeling. Every time I get back to the building, I feel the last four years of my life. Although it often seems like I'm one of the very few, I'm actually quite proud of my school and the trial-by-fire that I went through to walk its hallowed halls over almost half a decade. Stop calculating that. Four years of law school plus a bunch of orientation and school visits before that equates to almost a half of a decade.

My last final is next Thursday, and that's it...until the following Monday when I start my bar review course. That's gonna be a bear. Due to the work mess I've had to rearrange my schedule considerably, because this so-called "night" class meets during the day on nine separate occasions, including the entire first week. Therefore, I get to...drum roll...come in at 7:00 AM every day, work for one hour, come back to work after class at 3:30, and work until 6:15. That counts as a half day of work. Believe me, it's tempting to just not come in. 'Course, in the incredibly unlikely event that they fired me, I'd have to disclose that on my bar application, and yeah. I don't wanna.

Still trying to sell the house. Anyone want a house? I love my house, but it's time to leave it and move on to bigger and better things.

I'll try to be a better blogger. I'm sure life will be full of zaniness over the course of the next few months, and my diligent (all four of you) readers will be chomping at the bit to read all about it.