Memorial Day (edited for content)

Memorial Day was a total mess. I managed to inflict an epic hangover on myself for the ride home. There is nothing quite like your body reversing one of its major processes in an attempt to reject the poison you put in it. I don’t know how you bulimics do it. Two days later and my vocal chords are still wrecked. Worth it though.

San Destin on Memorial Day is basically spring break for adults. The boys and I were probably the youngest group on the beach, or at least the most obnoxious. When we first got the beach we were surrounded by families, and I thought it might be that way all day long... I needn’t have worried. The ones that stayed moved their impressionable youngsters out of earshot. Upstanding young gentlemen we may be, but nobody wants their kid next to the guys who came to the beach with more coolers than towels.

No sunburn!!! Two trips to the beach, eight days in the sun, a preposterous number of beers, and barely a red mark. I rock. That’s gotta be some sort of a record for an Irishman.

JD and Whatnot

Ok, so the regular update thing failed to happen. There’s been so much going on lately that the blog got de-prioritized. So here goes… First of all, I got my sheepskin. I’m a doctor of jurisprudence. Pretty wild. We even got to wear those funny, stop sign shaped hats. Seven years of higher education, tens of thousands in student loans, and I get the privilege to take a three day test for the bar. This is of course an elaborate procedure that is supposed to ensure a limited number of lawyers enter the world, artificial supply control to ensure that we get to bill for outrageous sums. Wheee!!!! In any case, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m three months away from a regular paycheck.

This brings us to the second major life event that took place the week of graduation. I’m broke; a symptom rather than the actual event. The actual event being that I bought a house, a three bedroom ranch on the outskirts of Birmingham. Way too much going on around that particular occurrence to discuss everything. One thing that struck me though is the ridiculous amount of paperwork at closing. The idea that a layperson is going to make an informed decision after reading all that is ridiculous. There is a movement in the law away from legalese and toward plain English. However, translating esoteric language doesn’t make people more competent to make decisions regarding their legal rights. The formality of letting people sign the agreement just makes us feel better about it. It’s comparable to informed consent in medicine. Allowing patients make decisions is only realistic for a fantastically small percent of the population. Untrained people are completely unequipped to look out for themselves in legal or medical situations. For that matter, lots of lawyers and doctors are completely unequipped to fend for themselves in legal or medical situations. Anyway, people are stupid, experts are less stupid. I don’t know the intricacies of how a jet works, but I trust my life to them. I think it’s foolhardy to think that I should have a say in other situations that are beyond my ken.

Second point about the house, pride of ownership aside, moving the yard still blows.