Note to self: if you turn in your bar application on Monday, don\u2019t wait until Saturday to post it on the blog. You\u2019d think that would be a pretty big accomplishment at the moment, wouldn\u2019t you? (Especially since I missed the deadline for the February exam, so at least I won\u2019t have to feel foolish for that particular mistake this time around\u2026)<\/p>\n
It probably wouldn\u2019t have taken more than an hour or two to jot down that I filled in the updated form that I didn\u2019t learn about until three days before the deadline, I used a digital picture of myself from Brent\u2019s wedding for the ID card, I put everything into a nice, big envelope and then dropped it all off at the Board of Law Examiners office in St. Paul. Woo hoo! Good stuff\u2026<\/p>\n
It was so good that I was planning on taking the rest of the day off to celebrate\u2026 didn\u2019t happen. When I got back home, Mom wanted to hook up her new desktop computer. She\u2019s using the old one for a couple specific things\u2014the IOGT National Triennial Session in Pennsylvania is coming up next week and she\u2019s got a bunch of files to play with on that hard drive. However, she\u2019s also eager to get the new one up and running. Thus, upon arriving home with wistful thoughts of relaxation and vegetation, she recruited me to put everything together. The manual part wasn\u2019t a big deal\u2014I could tell how to take all the cords out of the old one and plug them back in without any trouble. (And because I\u2019m a man, I didn\u2019t bother reading the instructions<\/i>! Ha ha ha!)<\/p>\n
But hooking up the new desktop to the monitor, printer, scanner, etc. was only the first part of the installation process: there were many, many<\/i> upgrades waiting on the Internet. Windows XP had files to download, Norton Security had files to download, Microsoft Office had files to download, QuickBooks Pro 2005 had files to download\u2026 I imagine that if I\u2019d plugged my ass into a USB port, I could have found some upgrades for that, too. (Firmer, tighter and more efficient!) So it was time to log onto the Web, put all that crap onto the computer one file at a time and I didn\u2019t bother reading the instructions<\/i>! Ha ha ha! \u2026Okay, that\u2019s a lie\u2014I had to accept all of the \u201cI have to give up my first-born son if I use one particular function of the program\u201d instructions before it would tell me what to do to get the upgrades. Then I\u2019d click the mouse a couple times and wait. And wait. And wait.<\/p>\n
Did I mention we have dial-up at the house? Woo hoo! Trust me, it\u2019s a blast, especially when you\u2019re downloading over 100MB of upgrades over the course of two days. Yep, two days<\/i>. Monday and Tuesday were essentially shot to hell because of all that stuff. It would have been real easy to say, \u201cYeah, start downloading stuff onto the computer, I\u2019m gonna go watch TV for a couple hours.\u201d God, I would have loved to do that\u2026 Unfortunately, if I left the computer only<\/i> downloading files like that, the server would disconnect after about fifteen minutes. Thus, I sat at the desk and occasionally clicked on a link to keep the connection going and the computer downloading\u2014aside from the call for the press release on Tuesday, it was two days down the toilet.<\/p>\n
Then came Wednesday and Thursday, during which time I helped Emily and George Spurrier pack their U-Haul to head down to Arkansas. Woo hoo! (Oh, wait\u2026 never mind.) Originally, that was only supposed to be on Wednesday, but it resembled Mom\u2019s desktop computer in that it took waaaay<\/i> longer to finish than anyone expected. And that\u2019s not just because Emmy and George have accumulated all sorts of shit over the last couple years.<\/p>\n
The adventure started on Wednesday when it took them\u2026 well, I\u2019m not sure how long it took them to get the U-Haul truck, but I\u2019d been waiting for an hour or two before getting a call to say, \u201cYeah, we\u2019re picking up the truck now, we\u2019ll give you a call when we get back to the apartment.\u201d By the time we all got there, I think it was about 4:30. That was significant primarily because I was leaving around 5:15 to head up to St. Paul for a WaZoo! script reading\u2014I told the group about the call for the press release and<\/i> brought a script to read. Woo hoo! So I only had time to help wrap up a couple mattresses in plastic before taking off.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, one other thing about my trip up to St. Paul. As I was driving back to help Emily and George again, I got a call on my cell from Dad. He had been watching Smallville on TV (Dad watching the WB? What is the world coming to?!) and decided I might want to hear the good news: he saw a promo for Beauty and the Geek. I didn\u2019t see it so I couldn\u2019t tell you who it was in the clip, but regardless, the show is starting to get more press than just random pages on the Internet. Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
But like I was saying, I got back to their place sometime around 8:15, at which time any progress they\u2019d made didn\u2019t look like a whole lot. It\u2019s possible that they cleaned out both bedrooms and the bathroom, which would have covered up any open space created by moving stuff out of the living room, but I couldn\u2019t say for sure. All I knew is that it was going to take a lot more than just me, George, Emily and her mother to get it all done. Yep, it was time to call home and recruit the parents.<\/p>\n
Bless their hearts, they did just that\u2014drop everything and come help load the truck. Dad was heading up to Canada the next morning and took a break from getting organized, Mom came with him to do her part and we all worked together\u2026 to no avail. There was still plenty of stuff to take care of by the end of the night, so we ended up driving the truck over to their garage at the apartment and unload everything we\u2019d just packed.<\/p>\n
While driving through the parking lot to the garage, we noticed that the right taillight was out, which had apparently been repaired as Emily and George were picking up the truck. With all the stuff we\u2019d packed and all the stuff we had yet to pack, it was a given that we needed something much larger to haul the load, so that light seemed like a pretty good excuse to bring it back and ask for a replacement. (It was going to cost more, of course, but that was a better alternative to leaving a bunch of crap on the lawn before getting into the truck and heading down south.)<\/p>\n
They would have liked to return the truck as soon as we accepted the inevitable and started unloading, but like I said, it was the end of the night\u2014there was no way there\u2019d be a U-Haul place open to make the switch. Thus, when Thursday morning came around, it was time to crank up the engine and take that baby back to its home. Except the engine didn\u2019t crank. We\u2019re guessing that it had something to do with the taillight, but for whatever reason, they needed a jump start to get the truck rolling again.<\/p>\n
Eventually, they got the new truck, they re-recruited me to help load everything back up and help out with all the stuff still inside the apartment. It was a loooong<\/i> day. But they also fed me some Chicken McNuggets and a sub from Subway during that time. Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
While we were still working in the garage, my cell phone rang. Mind you, that\u2019s a pretty unusual event. If it\u2019s not someone returning a call\u2026 I\u2019m just not important enough for people to call. Woo hoo! Hey, wait a sec\u2026 But this was a special<\/i> phone call. From L.A. To tell me that Beauty and the Geek will be premiering on June 1st. And that there might be a premiere party sometime around May 25th to the 27th. In L.A. Free ride back to the coast for a big celebration! Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
At that point, I made a couple phone calls to family and friends to let them know. Mom was the only family member who answered the phone, so she was the only one who knew right away that it was time to celebrate. Unfortunately, I was committed to helping out Emmy and George, so each time Mom called to ask if I was coming home, if I could meet her for dinner or to grab some dessert afterwards, I had to tell her we still had a bunch of packing to do.<\/p>\n
I finally got home sometime around 10:30 and I still cut out a little early\u2014there were still a couple boxes in the living room, a car to load onto the trailer for towing and a very temperamental infant to care for. Hey, it was late\u2014even I<\/i> felt like screaming and crying a couple times\u2026 So I arrived home, walked the dog (since Dad was up in Canada) and ate some frozen yogurt with Mom to celebrate the good news. Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
Since then? Well, there\u2019s more to tell, but my fingers and back are getting tired and that\u2019s from typing on my laptop (God knows what it\u2019ll feel like during the bar exam in a couple months). Suffice it to say that things have been interesting during the last few days. If I\u2019m lucky, that trend will continue for a while and I\u2019ll stretch that fifteen minutes of fame as loooong<\/i> as I can make it. Woo hoo!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Note to self: if you turn in your bar application on Monday, don\u2019t wait until Saturday to post it on the blog. You\u2019d think that would be a pretty big accomplishment at the moment, wouldn\u2019t you? (Especially since I missed the deadline for the February exam, so at least I won\u2019t have to feel foolish … <\/p>\n