Hello world, it's been a while

I just got done with the most stressful and horrifying test imaginable; the bar exam. I still won't know how I did for a couple weeks, but I am glad that is over! While it was stressful and difficult, I felt prepared (knock on wood), but we will just have to wait and see.

Now on to the job hunt! I have a couple interviews, and have been networking a lot. Both to get to know people in the field and to learn more about the field. I talked to an estate planning and business attorney today and it was very helpful and interesting.

Oh, right. Another reason I havnt blogged in a while is that my wife and I were in a terrible car accident. In eastern Oregon, our car was blown off the road by wind, and the car rolled. My wife broke two vertebrae in her neck and underwent emergency surgery to fuse them after being flown to a hostipal with the right specialists. It was a very frightening time, but she had recovered very well considering it was less than 5 months ago! There is still pain ligering, but we are hoping that will go away; the Dr said it was going to be there for 6 months or so. She just finished her last rehab appointment, and, when not in too much pain, is looking forward to moving on and back into normal life. Whatever "normal" is.

We saw Connie and Carla last night, and the commentary by Nia Vardalos was hilarious! She mentions how she hates the word "normal", and I'd have to agree.

Career? What's that?

So lately Ive been focusing on what I am going to do... you know... as a living. I have also been trying to improve my skills in many respects so that once I get there I will be valuable. I am taking classes that will be directly applicable to my career choice as a business and estate planning attorney, but that also makes for a very difficult last semester. In addition, I dont want to close any doors on the business side of things since I may also jump at a chance to get into certain accounting or finance jobs, like financial analyst or some auditing jobs. I have heard many times over that it is generally a better plan to do law first and then move into business if you are unsure what you want to do. I think I would be happy in either field, but the right legal position would probably be best.

I am also improving my skills to dress well. I know that I need to look professional, but I dont own a suit, just sports jackets for the most part. My nice pants are also slowly destroying themselves (I swear I had nothing to do with it). Today I went to a "Dress for Success" law school event at Nordstrom, and I learned a bit about fashion, but I still dont own anything fantastic. I think this weekend I will go get a suit. That is the first thing so I can look professional in interviews.

Oh, and I went to a few career fairs last weekend too. An MBA Career fair and a public interest career fair. They were both pretty helpful in finding more possibilities, but I would really like to narrow the choices down a bit... But I suppose as I have been and will continue to apply for jobs, the choices will narrow themselves down as I get rejections! Until BAM perfect career. right?

Hello world! Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Happy Holidays, etc!

Xmas was great this year! We had all the family over except for Sarah who has been in Ghana for a few weeks and I believe is there for another week still. You can see her blog here: http://sarahbearinghana.blogspot.com/ Here is a picture of everyone at xmas including Sarah (via satellite):

It was lots of fun! The fam-damnly cooked yummy pies!

We also took a FREEZING walk down by the river, but sadly, the carousel was closed.

It was serious fun hanging out with everyone! We had a great xmas (which we held on the 23rd since people had to work on the 24th and 25th). Then on the 26th, Molly, Alexia, Katy and I all went to Edgefield. Unfortunately I have no pictures from this trip, but it was simply a great time with lots of great seasonal beers and pizza and such.

Happy New Years to you all! Dont forget to give yourself a new year resolution, otherwise you will not have anything to break later in the year. Honestly though, the best most of us can hope for is to keep out reolutions throughout most of the year. Hell, even 3 months would probably be a long time to keep promises to ourselves!