Weekend No. 1

This past weekend was great. We ended up heading to the family house in North Jersey where we feted ourselves like Irish kings on non-alcoholic beer and cannolis. Not too shabby for an Irish-American family in an Italian neighborhood, but what can I say that's just how we grew up I guess. (though usually there'd be plenty of alcoholic brew as well, just not so much this past weekend due to my...uh, "condition"). Anyway, we had a great weekend hanging out with the family, and if I were to have a brain tumor removed then this is probably one of the better times during which to have it done. I am young and healthy, the semester just started, my classes are all pretty flexible at this point (with wonderfully accommodating professors, I might add), my dad is retired, and my sister is unemployed and waiting for her semester to begin. Brilliant!

I would also like to add that today was the official start of my Spring semester, and that I am signed up for a full load. It really was nice getting back into the swing of things at Penn Law, and everyone seemed happy to see me. Yes yes, I know-it's only been 10 days since brain surgery but really, it's amazing how fast one's health insurance will have you back on your feet these days :) (BTW, just kidding).

My schedule is an official full load (10 credits) and includes Corporate Tax, Trail Advocacy, Death Penalty/Habeus Corpus, 1 Journal credit (no comment this semester!), two "banked" moot court competition credits from last semester (for which we will be travelling this semester to compete), and finally a 1 credit intra-PennLaw "Keedy Cup" competition for which my brief is due in mid-February. For this I feel I've got an advantage, even without part of my brain, and for which I can spend a bit more time pursuing all of the arguments which I perceive to be relevant. All in all, a very light semester (no disrespect to my classes though!) and one for which I am very excited. I also have to say that my messed up brain has really helped me to see past a lot of the ridiculousness at law school generally, and my take on the whole journal participation quotient has taken a serious dive. I do realize that many view it is an important part of developing themselves as able and adept future attorneys, but I'm really not sure that half-assing a journal comment is self-edifying at all. Hopefully I am not just being emotional due to the steroids or something but, I really don't think so.

So up in New Jersey we took advantage of the nice weather and travelled around a bit. We went up to the Watchung "Mountains" to walk the dog and hang out at the Trailside Nature Center, where we were blessed o take in the beautiful scenery and some wonderful shots of local cardinals. We also were able to see a bunch of Canada Geese (a real problem in New Jersey-soon to be food) and dogs running around the local park with our own pooch, Rebound. (I will post a picture soon, I promise)

Here's a bit of a description posted at Trailside about the Northern Cardinal. Apparently they're native to the area and will mate with their "loved one" for their entire lives. Pretty neat, huh?

Apart from hanging out at Trailside Nature Center and generally soaking up the love from the family, we went up to Montclair to watch "Crazy Heart" (with Jeff Bridges-I highly highly recommend it!). Afterwards we hung out at the home with extended family to cruise and eat Italian cookies until we passed out and then left for Philly. I should also point out that the weekend was not all cake and roses though. There were some ups and downs (emotionally), but to be honest I really do think that's mostly the result of the medicine that I'm on-steroids that is. My overall perspective has been amazing recently, and my relationship both with God and Amanda/family has improved and strengthened dramatically. I couldn't imagine being the kind of person to just walk down a street one day and be shot through the head-that just seems like such an inglorious way to go. Now I have got the time. I have some years to go before I go (hopefully), and that's just perfect-it really does give me time to contemplate eternity and what it really means for me and my faith. The sermon at church on Sunday was perfect, and I can't really say that I've ever really experienced this level of being emotionally plugged in before. I feel...very blessed overall and I'm really not sure I'd change it for the world (again, this could be the steroids talking but please give me some benefit of the doubt here ;) Oh yeah, and the JETS lost to the Colts. That sucked big time. But it sure didn't affect my faith in any kind of profoundly negative way. In fact, I didn't even really care all that much since I'm not even a football fan-just a simple person who watches these things, enjoys them for a spell, and then lets them slide. Kind of like life really-only life has a way of really making one smile. Football is really just football, no matter what anybody else says.