Off to Chicago

The family reunion in Park City was super fun. Got to see lots of cousins, kids were running around. I'm thankful for Mikelle, Shannon, Ken, Kevin, and Jenny for spending their Saturday with me.

I'm also super thankful to have a family that loves one another so much.

Going back to Utah was kinda weird, I'll be real. First time in a year - I miss it. I think I was starting to be 'satisfied' with Texas, then I got back to Utah and realized that one doesn't have to breath super-humid air, and that there are mountains to climb (and descend!). I don't know if/when I'll make it back to Utah next, but it certainly has a special place in my heart.

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow - job interviews!

Family Reunion

I leave tomorrow for a family reunion up in Park City and come back on Sunday. It comes at a perfect time - I need a vacation.

68%

So this summer I've been busy. Like, 'no fun' busy. Frankly it stinks. I've been working all day, then doing the extra stuff at night so I can try and get ahead in the hunt for a job post-law school. For a few weeks this meant the law journal write on competition, which was no fun. For the past 6 weeks its meant studying for the U.S. Patent Bar exam. This is the test you need to complete to be able to represent others and submit things to the United States to get a patent.

Well, I took the test yesterday, after putting over 200 hours into studying, and needed 70% to pass. I got 68%. That's a hard thing. All that time and effort, just so I can take the test again sometime in the coming months. Fun.

Anyway, the results are 'unofficial', so I'll wait until the final results come in the mail before I sign up again.

Caddo Mills TX

Continuing my account of crappy little Texas towns comes Caddo Mills, TX. I was actually kind of excited to check out Caddo Mills because it's quite a bit bigger than the other towns I've gone through so far. Whereas Nevada and Josephine had basically no stores/businesses in town, Caddo Mills has a nice gas station, a subway, a grocery store, a used car dealership and a small little 'downtown.'

This is a sweet firetruck for sale at the car dealership. I didn't check on the price...

Unfortunately, once I began driving around a little, my hopes for this little town disappeared. This is a crappy little town. I would rather live in Josephine or Nevada. What makes this town crappy is two things.

1) A really trashy side of town, separated by the main road from a nice-er side of town. I wouldn't really call it nice. Decent maybe? Houses on both sides are run down, weeds growing everywhere, and everything needs a new coat of paint. What distinguishes the nicer side from the trashy side is the use of brick on the nice side. Wooden houses, or aluminum trailers, just don't hold up without constant care.

2) A dilapidated downtown. This was just gross and severly disappointing.

It looks OK from here. But once I got even with the buildings they were all closed and in severe disrepair.

So what did this little drive teach me? That having more people in your town doesn't make a lick of difference in the quality of the town. Some people make it a priority to take care of their town, some people don't.

Why we're broke

I don't usually have time to watch the Daily Show much lately. And by lately, I mean the past 3 or 4 years. But I still really enjoy it sometimes so I turned it on last night and Ted Koppel was on, talking about China.

I thought the comments a nice mix addressing multiple reasons for current and forthcoming economic problems in America. As far as Koppel goes, I think he screwed up by letting his opinions get in the way of his reporting, and paid a price - which is unfortunate.



The only thing I feel needs to be recognized is that Koppel and Stewart talk a little about the cost of the war, but make no mention of how much we spend on Social Security, Medicare, or U.S. Foreign Aid programs, all of which I'd be fine cutting out to pay for the war (not that I think they're totally bad, I just don't think government has any mandate to be involved in them. but that's another subject.)

Josephine, TX

So I continue to study for the Patent Bar. I take it the 19th, and basically it's making my life miserable. So in one of these miserable moods I decided it was high time to highlight another Texas town: Josephine. I figure any town named for some dude's daughter has to be alright in my book.

To start off the journey, since I wasn't in a real great mood, I decided I'd do better if I had my usual drink of choice. (By the way, if anyone from Sobe wants to sponsor me, I'll gladly do ANYTHING you want. )
Sure enough, I immediately felt better. I then proceeded down a dirt road for the Josephine Cemetery. I think you can kinda tell something about a town from the way they keep their cemetery... how a community chooses to remember its dead. Anyway, so I head out to the middle of nowhere to this cemetery,
almost hit a tractor, then get to the cemetery, which pretty much looks like this:
But you know, sometimes there's reasons you feel like going someplace you've never been.
I don't know who this dude was, but maybe someday I can find out. Anyway, there's nothing like being in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere to clear your mind. Absolutely beautiful out there.
I always feel bad when I come across an infant's plot. Anyway, back to Josephine.

Josephine is a better kept town than Nevada, TX (which I highlighted 2 weeks ago), tho it's actually about a hundred less people less. The lawns are all immaculate, they have a nice city park, multiple water towers, and I happen to know that for the 4th the police department was hosting a BBQ and stuff in the city park. I saw no signs of commerce, but I get the feeling that people who move to Josephine are looking for a quiet place where everybody knows everybody, where people will work hard to take care of their homes and their land. I give Josephine a thumbs up.

Last Place on Earth?

Just about the last place I think I could ever be found would be at a Jesus Rock concert. OK, so the actual name was Celebrate Freedom, but it was one of those big Baptist sing alongs, with much preaching and rock n' roll in between. We listened to some preacher talking about some woman that had an abortion, and we reveled in the amount of of merchandise that the money changers were swapping at a church event (that's a dig from the Bible ya'll!), but the highlight was the band - we only got to see one, Sanctus Real. They were actually very good.

p.s. I only went because of a girl.
p.p.s. Of course I put my hand up and waved a little with the crowd. You know, so I could get the spirit an' such.