Let the drinking commence!

It's Friday and there have been an extraordinary amount of alcohol-related events this week, so I thought I'd give you guys a little update.

Tuesday night the Chicano-Hispanic Law Student Association had a mixer with the Hispanic Bar Association. Part of something that CHLSA does is set up law students (I think mostly first years) with lawyers to "mentor", whatever that means. I met my mentor there, and he seems like a really cool guy. His name is Jesus and I believe he is a partner in an oil and gas firm. I think what we're going to do is to have me follow him around some day and go to discovery or a depostition to see what it's like. It's unclear what we're actually supposed to be doing with each other, other than drinking at mixers. I also met this really fun, sweet woman named Gloria, who gave me her business card and said to let her know if I needed anything.

Thursday night, we had an event with the Women's Law Caucus called Wine About Law School. It was held at this bar called Speakeasy in the Warehouse District, which is as trendy and tries as hard to be cool as it sounds. The bar itself was very cool, and there were some women lawyers there. I ran into Gloria there too, and we started talking about law school, etc. and she gave me the advice to just have a good time my first year and not get too caught up in a relationship when I really should be meeting people. At some point during this conversation, she said "You know, you really just need to fuck around, have a good time. I did, and I wish I had done it more." I tried to keep a very straight face, but I don't know how well it came off. A short while later, I excused myself in slight disbelief and got another drink... because I needed it.

Later on that night was Bar Review #2 for the year, held at Six, on 4th street (I believe). It was a pretty good time, and I may or may not have called Nips at 2:30 in the morning to tell him that nobody cares about Minnesota football. Only his voicemail holds the answer.

Also, I was called on today in Criminal Law. It figures that the time that I only read the case once and on the bus on the way home and show up practically hungover that I get called on. Other than a few technicalities, I got most of it right though, it wasn't too horrible of an experience. But right as I got called on, both Bryce and Philip started IM'ing me. In my panic, I couldn't respond and was afraid that somehow the prof would know that I had little IM windows on my screen and punish me for that too.

As for this weekend, I think I just need to sleep. And I got Crash on DVD today, so I will probably watch that at some point - and all of you should too. And then go hug a black person. And a person of every race in the world.

Rita is a ho

First of all, let me say that the main reason I haven't updated is because unless you are in law school, most of the stuff I'm doing is totally uninteresting. In fact, it's probably still uninteresting. Law-school semi-fun stuff I've done has mostly had to do with mentor group activities. Last Friday we had Race Judicata, or Society Olympics. The best competition was probably the Tug of War. I competed in the bat spin relay, and we came in second in that, but ultimately the McKormick Society came out victorious. At least we got to run around in 100-degree heat. Oh God, it's so miserable right now. It was 104 today and it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow - how is this even possible? This weekend we're supposed to have a "cool front" where it might dip down to the 80s.

The first Bar Review of the year was this Thursday, which was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know, Bar Review is not quite reviewing for the Bar Exam - the Student Bar Association scouts out bars and convinces them to give us drink specials on Thursday nights. We went to Blind Pig on 6th and then to Red Fez for a little while. Let me tell ya - there are a lot of sketch people around. But as long as you have a few token males to ward off the super-creeps, it's not too bad. At the chill places like Blind Pig, it's cool, but at Red Fez, which is more of a dance club, watch out. I also had my first high school sighting at a bar on Saturday night, which was pretty funny.

In other recent news, yes, my family evacuated Houston in the imminent doom of Hurricane Rita. We live in the northwest part of the city, but they didn't want to risk it. My parents left Thursday morning at 4 am, and didn't get into Austin until 3:30 pm. Let me remind you that the drive to Austin is usually 2 and a half hours - not 11 and a half. They made it in okay, though and thankfully the hurricane went down in intensity and pretty much side-tracked Houston. Part of our fence got blown down, but that's it. My parents stayed with friends here in Austin, which meant I got all the privledges of having my paernts in town without the inconveniences of having them stay with me. Lots of good meals out, a fridge stocked with food, and car usage for several days? Me gusta. They finally got back today.

Finally, last night's episode of Arrested Development was probably the craziest and most non-sensical episode ever. However, I was pretty excited about the family-wide chicken dancing. It never gets old! I love it. I can't wait until next week for some Scott Baio and Charlize Theron action on Arrested Development. They have the best guest stars ever on the show. I thought they couldn't top Carl Weathers. But Chachi? Brilliant.

Only 2 and a half weeks until I head to Notre Dame for the ND-USC game!

Nerd!

Yeah, I'm a nerd:

YOU ARE RULE 20(a)!

You are Rule 20, an important part of the Federal
Rules' policy of permissive joinder. You are
designed specifically to allow as many parties
in an action as can be tried efficiently, and
you'll include someone as long as there is some
factual overlap between a claim involving them
and the rest of the case at hand. You are
popular, out-going, and are never far from
friends. However, your overly gregarious
nature and magnanimous approach do make things
a bit crowded--you're the reason that lawsuits
are often cluttered with innumerable parties
and even more numberous claims for relief.
Still, despite the crowds that you attract, you
can't argue with the efficiency of getting
everything done at once!


Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Law school = high school

I've found a lot of similarities between high school and this institution of higher learning that supposedly is preparing us to be the leaders of the free world. According to all the orientation seminars, we'll basically be running the country in three short years.

Anyway, one of the main similarities to high school is the reintroduction of lockers. Now don't get me wrong, without my locker I would be carrying a combined 50 lbs of books every day back and forth from here and home, but it definitely makes you feel like you're back in the good old days of hanging out by the lockers and figuring out which locker your crush has and just happening to hang out near it because your friend Sheila's locker is there. For someone who is supposed to be intellectually superior than the rest of you puny minds out there (or so we were told at orientation), I had the hardest time with my combination lock. Not only are the lockers a little condescending, I also bring my lunch every day. In a lunchbox! Right now our cafeteria/lounge is being remodeled, so it's either that or spend way too much on some stale sandwich from a poser coffee shop on the corner near the law school. Needless to say, I feel super cool carrying my big red lunchbox around campus.

Secondly, I take the bus to school. If that doesn't drudge up bad memories of people demanding that the bus driver put the radio on the hip-hop station and random knife-fights, I don't know what does.

Finally, the cliques here are probably even worse than in high school. Except in high school, your clique was based on a) how cool you were or b) what activities you were in. Here, it's just based on what section you happened to be placed in. I met a girl here in April over Prospective Students' Weekend, and we wanted to meet up sometime. After 3 weeks here, I finally ran into her on Wednesday. If you're not in the same classes as someone, you literally never see them.

There are some major exceptions, of course. For example, right now, I'm heading to my Contracts professor's house for a keg party. Drinking before 5pm with a professor? I like it.

The free stuff

As anyone who has applied to law school knows, there are lots of fees involved. And trust me, it doesn't get any cheaper when you start law school. Want to join the Women's Law Caucus? That'll be $35. How about the Intellectual Property Law journal? That'll be another $30.

However, there are some perks. As of now, I've received 2 Nalgene bottles, 3 coffee mugs, 6 days' worth of free breakfasts, and at least six social events with free alcohol.

In other news, I want a foosball table. Maybe the law school will pay for that too.

Our Contracts professor invited us over to his house on Thursday for a keg party. That's right, a keg party. Basically the point of law school is to get us to study hard, and drink lots of alcohol from complimentary Westlaw and Lexis mugs. Not too shabby.

Too soon?

Yes, I know it is definitely too soon to be making hurricane jokes. But, The Onion beat me to it, and this short article is pretty funny in its startingly accurate account of Houston (except the food really does rock).

Refugees Moved From Sewage-Contaminated Superdome To Hellhole Of Houston

HOUSTON—Evacuees from the overheated, filth-encrusted wreckage of the New Orleans Superdome were bussed to the humid, 110-degree August heat and polluted air of Houston last week, in a move that many are resisting. "Please, God, not Houston. Anyplace but Houston," said one woman, taking shelter under an overpass. "The food there is awful, and the weather is miserable. And the traffic—it's like some engineer was making a sick joke." Authorities apologized for transporting survivors to a city "barely better in any respect," but said the blistering-hot, oil-soaked Texas city was in fact slightly better, and that casualties due to gunfire would be no worse.

I still want my black shirt back. Jerks.

We get national holidays off??

That is so foreign to me. I'm in Houston, enjoying the Labor Day weekend and putting off all the tons of reading I have to do for next week. Last night, I met up with Dixie, who is in Houston for a while after getting the hell out of New Orleans. We watched the ND-Pitt game at Champps with the alumni club of Houston, so it was great to get to see her and see a very solid Irish victory.

She tells me that, as I suspected, I left a black, stretchy Gap t-shirt in Florida and someone has it. To you, I say, quit holding my t-shirt ransom. I want it back. I have never even worn it.

I think I need to make up for all the sleep I'm not going to get all semester this weekend. So... zzzzzzzzzz....

Law school'd

Well, it certainly has been an interesting first few days. I just finished my first day of law school! I'm on my way to being a lawyer! I have no idea what I'm doing!

The University of Texas actually uses this picture to promote their law library. Awesome.

This Saturday was the first get-together for our first year mentor group. In most law schools, the first year is divided into sections that take all the same classes. Because UT is such a large law school, they break up the sections into two societies and each society into two mentor groups, so we finally end up with a group of about 30 people that we'll see every day for the rest of our lives (or so it seems). Not surprisingly, each mentor group has a second year mentor, and we had out party on Saturday at our mentor, Danny's, house. Burgers, hot dogs, beer and 100-degree-plus heat. What more could you ask for? The party was good in the sense that we got to meet people before the first day of orientation.

Orientation, Day 1:
We go to the law school bright and early for probably the best breakfast spread I've ever seen and to pick up our orientation packets. After awkwardly mingling for 20 minutes or so, we head on over to the LBJ auditorium for a few hours' worth of professors and alumni about how great it is to be at UT, how great our professors are, how smart we are, etc. After free pizza for lunch in our mentor group, we had a career services presentation and - get this - we are basically guaranteed to pass and guaranteed to get a job after graduation. Sweet! As they kept telling us, Monday marked the first day of our legal career. So what do we do? After a BBQ dinner provided to us with free beer (!), we all went out and got drunk at Buffalo Billiards and played pool and darts. This is the future of our country.

Orientation, Day 2:
A few more speeches about how great we all are, that lawyers are not horrible people, despite the jokes and popular perception. According to a Gallup poll from last December, lawyers rank 18th in terms of people's perceptions of honorable and ethical careers, just barely above Congressmen and used car salesmen. In Russia, on the other hand, a recent poll of high school students shows that lawyers are considered the second most honorable profession, behind accountants. They also ranked contract killers and racketeering 16th out of 38. This was only technically half a day, so I managed to get home in time for Dr. Phil (very important).

Today:
First day of school! Today is a late day, so I didn't get up until around 9 (God, I would never wake up that early in undergrad), went to Criminal Law, had lunch and went to Contracts. Both professors seem good and nothing too hard for today. The work isn't too bad... yet. We'll talk in about a week.

The funny thing about law school is that everyone is very anxious to make time to blow off steam. Tomorrow, we have a society-sponsored happy hour at Scholz's Beer Garden, next Tuesday we have a boat party with free booze, and next Thursday is the Student Bar Association back to school party with free beer at Buffalo Billiards. I'm thinking with enough booze flowing in, it won't be too bad a year.

Austin for good!

As I write this, it is Sunday night, my parents are gone, and I am officially moved in to Austin! Tomorrow marks the first day of orientation for law school, which means getting up before noon. I don't know if I can handle this schedule.

Last night, we had a little "getting to know everyone in your first year section" party, hosted by our second year mentor. It was pretty good, and most of the people seem pretty nice and outgoing. There were the requisite hot dogs, burgers, and beer, and it would have been much more enjoyable had the temperature been under 90 degrees last evening. I would say the vast majority of people in my section are either from Houston or Dallas, so it's a bit of a change from ND. There's actually another Notre Dame kid in my section who also graduated 2005, but I had never met him before or even knew who it was. It was really funny because all night people were like, "Hey, Notre Dame, there's another guy here who went there!" It at least provided a good out for awkward conversations. "Oh, really? Well, I guess I should go find him."

Most of the first years are between 22 and 26, I think, but there are a few random 30- to 35-year-old people. I feel like I have absolutely nothing to talk about with them. At least that's how I feel right now. Maybe in a few weeks when we're all seeped in class-type stuff, we'll at least talk about that sort of thing.

It turns out that I can't illegaly connect my cable internet to my TV to get basic cable, so I guess I have to call Time Warner and "pay" for the service. Damn. For now I'm keeping myself entertained with the DVDs I brought. Which I've seen about 10 times each. Oh well, starting tomorrow I probably won't even have time for TV.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

...is a baritone player. He plays his euphonium around the apartment. Coincidence? I think not.

Kim

Sorry to put a damper on a usually lighthearted/meaningless blog, but this is something I feel I need to write about.

I got my cat Kim as a birthday present when I was 10 years old. My parents took me to the Citizens for Animal Protection near my house and I got to pick her out. Through the years, she's been a great cat, playful but not violently ripping up the furniture and/or people (like some people's cats that I know). She just turned 12 years old last week, and seemed to still be doing really well for an older cat. No worries, until this week. Last week, we took Kim to the vet because they sent us a postcard saying she was due for a physical checkup. As of last Wednesday, she seemed perfectly healthy and even doing very well for a cat her age. This weekend, we noticed that she wasn't eating, so we took her to the vet yesterday. They said early prognosis was dehydration and they wanted to keep her to put her on an IV and rehydrate her, it was probably some sort of kidney infection. Today the vet called and said that her kidneys are failing and is down to less than half of a kidney working properly. They want to continue the fluid treatment, and if her blood test levels (whatever that means) come down to normal in a few days, she might be able to recover relatively well and carry on for a few years. But, if no improvement shows, then the best thing to do would be to put her to sleep. I don't know why I'm so upset about an animal, but the news is incredibly unexpected. I know it seems silly to pray for an animal when so many other things are going on, but I really am praying for her. I am not looking forward to leaving to Austin on Friday.

Spam-tastic

Somehow my comments exploded in popularity. Turns out they were just comment spammers who somehow found my blog. Sorry to have to do this to you faithful commenters (mostly Eliz and Phil), but I'm putting up that "read this word and type it in" thing before you comment to detract the spammers.

In movie reviews, this weekend I went and saw Wedding Crashers and March of the Penguins. I know, I'm a little late on both, but you'll get my opinion anyway. Wedding Crashers was top-notch. Not just good for a Frat Pack movie, but hilarious in its own right. Hopefully I'll find my own Wilson Brothers/Wes Anderson group at Texas and latch on to them for prosperity's sake. I'll be swimming in big sacks of money by the time I'm 35, just like Scrooge McDuck. Quality quoting from this movie.

Secondly, I'd like to comment on March of the Penguins. First of all, I'd like to point to the "article" by Michael Bay on this week's The Onion. Now, on to the movie. It was pretty much what you would expect from a glorified documentary, many amusing shots of penguins being really cute. My complaint is that apparantly penguins die all the time. Pretty much everything they do puts them at risk of imminent death. And I know it's a documentary so it's supposed to be "real" and all, but it's a rated G movie for little kids! Could you not put the dying penguins in so many scenes? Honestly.

Hopefully this week I'll get to 40 Year Old Virgin and Red Eye, so I can report back. This is it, folks, once law school starts next Monday, I'll probably just talk about class. How sad.

Notre Dame, I miss thee

Sunday night I went over to Philip's house to say good-bye. It's pretty weird to think that he's going back along with Katie J and Erin, while I'm still here, waiting for another two weeks for school to start. I am pretty excited that I'll be starting law school, but not heading up to Notre Dame feels very odd to me. Saturday night I got together with Sarah, Sonal and Anglee, and we all agreed that graduating sucks. But, that meeting did help me see that there is life beyond ND and being at home isn't all bad.

I ordered my books online on Sunday. Correction - $600 for four classes - technically three classes and a once a week seminar. Thanks, law school, for putting me into bankruptcy. Once my student loans come through (not for another week or so), I can finally pay off my parents and the tuition and stuff I owe, plus hopefully I can start paying rent and utilities without dipping into my savings account.

In other news , I am very seriously considering going to Notre Dame for the USC game, October 15th. It should be at a time where things aren't too hectic, and the next weekend is my birthday so my parents will probably want me to hang out with them, or some crap like that, so that really looks like the best option. Now I just need tickets and a place to stay! So, to all you out there that read this - start looking. (And, if you don't live in South Bend anymore, but are an alumni that is considering going back for a football game - go back for USC so I can see you!)

As the soundtrack to Avenue Q so eloquently states - "I wish I could go back to college"

Blabbity blah

Once upon a time, a blog used to be a place for incoherent ramblings and the deepest, darkest secrets of one's soul. I think I may be placing too much emphasis on the "what I did today" aspect and less on the "incoherent rambling" aspect, so here you have it, some useless stuff to think about.

1) How come Sam Waterson has stayed on as assistant D.A. for several years on Law and Order, while his female counterpart seems to change like a revolving door of hussies in the New York District Attorney's office? Also, what is Fred Thompson's real job on Law and Order? All I ever see him do is grumble some sage advice for about thirty seconds an episode. If only I could be paid the big bucks for grumbling advice for 30 seconds.

2) The point I wish to make here is more clearly articulated in Michael Ian Black's article for McSweeny's magazine. The only funny person on I Love the 80's other than Hal Sparks has done it again. If you enjoy McSweeny's, you would love A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. It's basically an autobiography of how his parents died when he was in college and how he raised his little brother and started this hilarious magazine and now he's uber-rich. But it's funny and comes with drawings, so I likes it. Anyway, back to the main issue: Have you ever eaten a baby?

3) Have any of you seen those commercials for Pillsbury biscuits where you just use two at a time? In order to come up with this genius idea, the Pillsbury doughboy goes undercover to discover that - suprise! - people tend to pair up. Only, the Pillsbury doughboy's undercover work means spying on couples at their most intimate times. It's really quite disturbing, and I frankly believe that he should be put away for being a peeping tom.

4) Last year, The Onion came out with a review of dollar-store food that caused massive wetting due to laughing. It seems to have become an annual review, and let me tell ya, this year's doesn't dissapoint. Some of the "scariest ingredients" will be with me till I die.

5) My optometrist says that they're discontinuing my brand of contacts. I don't like my new ones.

Computey

I am typing this from my brand new computer, a lappy for law school. It's... uh... a Toshiba... and... it's friggin' sweet is alls I know. Actually, it's a Toshiba Satellite and I'm pretty sure it's more powerful than my desktop. No more being tied down by my giant desktop! I can update from anywhere, suckers!

It's official

Whether I like it or not, I am officially starting law school August 31. Well, technically there's orientation for two days before, but who's counting. Besides me. Who is anxiously counting until that day. I'm signed up for three classes (Civil Procedure, Criminal Law I, and Contracts) and one Legal Research and Legal Writing seminar. Overall, it's not a bad schedule, except my Civil Procedure class is Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:30 to 10:20, so those will probably be brutal.

This weekend, I went to Austin to move furniture and things into my apartment. In the process, I came out with about fifty mosquito bites from moving the washer and dryer (apparantly Austin is now a swamp?) and a number of scrapes and bruises from assembling my desk. Between the almost getting hit by lightening in Houston and the multiple injuries in Austin, I think God is trying to tell me to get out of Texas.

Speaking of getting out of Texas, now that I know I don't have any afternoon classes on Friday, I'm considering going to a football game this season. Anyone know which games they'll be heading to South Bend for? Let me know!

Tejas

What is it about Texas that makes all of its residents so crazy about it? Sure, we're pretty friggin' huge and there's a lot of good, unique things about Texas, but what could it be that makes everyone so maniacally devoted to the Lone Star state?

When I was in high school, I was really into punk and ska for some reason, and when going to see The Suspects, a local ska band, one of the opening bands was Bowling for Soup. Now they're famous for their catchy pop-punk songs, such as the one where they list all those things from 1985. Man, that's hilarious! Anyway, Bowling for Soup has recently added a song to the collection of songs about Texas, and - you guessed it - it lists all sorts of things from Texas. Booya!

Come back to Texas
Its just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
and forget all about the Lone Star State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

Troy Aikmen wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
and the Bush twins want you back
and Pantera wants you back
and Blue Bell wants you back

A little breather

Here it is, folks, the wrap-up from my trip to Washington DC and New York! I don't want to bore you to death, so here are the highlights.

DC
Without a doubt, the International Spy Museum is one of the greatest museums, nay, the greatest attraction in Washington, D.C. It just makes you feel like James Bond. Unfortunately, we were in DC just in time for the Boy Scout's annual Jamboree so there were huge groups of awkward teenagers who knew they looked silly in their Boy Scout uniforms all over the place. Also, Ford's Theatre was pretty cool because I learned that John Wilkes Booth was considered one of the most attractive and best known actors of his time. Sort of like if Johnny Depp were to pop a cap into Dubya. Oh yeah, I went there. Also, the first night we went to an Astros-Nationals game, which was cool because I got to see Roger Clemens pitch. And we creamed the Nationals.

Alas, our time in DC was short, and soon we were off on the sketchy China Town bus to New York. Our first night there, we met up with the infamous Gregory Bonsignore of TAAS: The Musical Revue fame and go to dinner in his neighborhood of Little Italy, followed by the most bizarre dessert idea ever - a shop dedicated purely to rice pudding. You can even order it online by the pound. We think the owners intended to put in an ice cream place, but spent all their money on decorating it like an Apple store, and somehow stumbled across a literal ton of rice in the basement which then led to the rice pudding idea.


The next day was our Yankee Stadium tour. All I can say is: flippin' sweet. We got to go into Monument Park, walk across the field, hang out in the dugout and then go up to the pressbox. AND we got a free key chain! I'm pretty sure I'm sitting where Derek Jeter usually sits. In the following days, we saw Rent on Broadway, which was very good except that the guy who played Mark was hell-bent on being original in his interpretation, and it ended up being the wrong interpretation. But other than him, it was pretty awesome. Times Square, a Yankee game on Thursday, and for the big finale, a trip to the Museum of Television and Radio. It's pretty much the greatest idea in the world for a museum. They have a few special screenings each day, and when we went they had a special on how teenagers are portrayed on television throughout history, and, more importantly, a showing of Are You Afraid of the Dark? The answer to that my friends, is hells yes, it's still pretty scary. The best part, however, is going to the media library and searching from hundreds of episodes of TV they have stored away to select four episodes of any show you want to watch. I picked a Very Special Doogie Howser, M.D. where Doogie loses his virginity. It was... pretty awkward. I also saw an episode of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, the pilot for The Wonder Years and an episode of Degrassi where Spike learns that she's preggers. Just don't tell Anglee I said that because she hates the word preggers.

Alas, the fun in the city had to come to an end. We took the sketchy China Town bus back to DC (never again will I take a China Town bus... anything I write right now would not do justice to the heinousness of the situation). But just trust me on that. And this morning, at an ungodly hour, we were back at Reagan airport - just to give you an idea, we were in Houston by 10am, and we had a stopover.

What's next on the agenda? Apartment shopping, hopefully having a few Tejas falto bashes in Austin before everyone heads out and getting used to being back in the south. Oh, and watching Degrassi every possible moment.

Back in the States

I have just returned from a 3-week vacation to visit family and generally laze around Monterrey, Mexico. In addition to some quality music, including the new Shakira single, which I heard approximately 57,826 times, Mexico has a lot going for it. Like the food. Oh, baby. I'm glad I don't live in Mexico for the sole reason that I would weigh about 400 pounds. Then again, I may be able to shake my bootay, Shakira-style from seeing that video so often.

While seeing such quality movies in theatres like War of the Worlds and Fantastic Four, I also saw some quality movies on TV such as Karate Kid and Bossa Nova. When you have no mode of transportation, you get kind of desperate for entertainment. It looks like we left just in time before Hurricane Emily destroyed Mexico. See ya later, Mexico!

Now I am back in Houston for about 2 days before I head off to Washington, DC and New York City. In some cruel twist of irony, Greg Bonsignore will be in Houston for half of the week that we are in New York. We still get to see him for a couple of days, but COME ON.

After that, it's off to Austin and decorating my apartment! Weeee.

Adios, amigos

Tomorrow my family and I take off on another "vacation" to Mexico, which will as always be one big realtive-fest. My grandmother is throwing my parents a 25th wedding anniversary party, and it will be a Very Big Deal, so up until that is over, I think it will be a very stressful time for me. Because naturally, if my mom is stressed, she expects me to help her out while my brother watches Mexican TV and eats candy like he's eight years old.

Looks like from here on out, I'll be travelling around like crazy.

Mexico dates: June 23 - July 16 or so
Moving in (Austin): July 18-20th-ish
DC/New York: July 22(ish) - August 1(ish)

And sometime after that, I hope to have many visitors in Austin, as it is the setting of this years' Real World and overall the best place in Texas to visit.

Try not to miss me too much when I'm gone, and feel free to e-mail me, since they actually have that intra-net thing at my relatives' house.