A Year Ago...A Year From Now

Thanks to my High School Senior English class I have spent considerable portions of my life journaling. Before the internet and this "blog" thing I would sit down with paper and pen ( a nice pen... fountain pens were my favorite ) and fill the pages with comedic anecdotes of the present and past. Occasionally I would make suggestions of what the future might hold as well. But not predictions.

I would cryptically mark these passages with the phrase "a year ago a year from now" so that decades later when I revisited the journal I would be able to connect the dots of my life.

It's amazing that by taking a step back and looking at your life from the big picture perspective you can hear the melody and harmony of the music you make. When you are in the day to day moments all you seem to notice is the deep thumping of the drums and bass.

Of course I had neither the time or inclination to journal or blog for most of my law school "career." Not like now.

What follows are point in time snapshots of where I was, what I was doing, and who I was doing it with, with my then guess of where I would be a year later.

October 2002
I was managing (read: playing) three hotels in Estes Park Colorado. I was married to Gloria. I believe I thought I would be doing the same thing with the same people a year later, but law school was beginning to haunt my dreams.

October 2003
I was working in a very small solo law practice helping to close down the Scottsdale practice in anticipation of the firm moving to Tucson. I filed for divorce from Gloria that month. I was living with Nikki and her daughter Hailee and my parents had come to visit from Mexico. I was then four months into 1L (the first year of law school) and drank way too much beer at the Grapevine (karaoke bar). I knew that a year later I would be sitting for the "baby bar" exam in California (First Year Law Student Exam).

October 2004
I spent nearly the entire month in Alaska with Maxine doing my baby bar "boot camp" study session - three weeks of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week intensive review of torts, contracts and criminal law. I did get to see some old friends and wives: Jerome came over for dinner. I had dinner at the Food Factory with Becki. I even ran into Dave Totten, C.J., and Becki's aunt and uncle at the SIlver Spur. As the end of the month approached I returned to Scottsdale and then off I went to L.A. to take (and pass) the baby bar. I had recently moved back in with Nikki after a few months of being seperated. I had no concept of the past or the future at that point in time. My world was the baby bar. I did harbor hope that a year later I would have passed the exam of course.

October 2005
I was working at Phillips & Asociates in the personal injury litigation department. Nikki and I had moved into my condo in Arrowhead and I was spending a lot of time doing military simulation combat games (live action - not board games or video games. Real GI Joe shit!). Of course law school was progressing. I had passed the baby bar a year prior. I wasn't thinking about the future because I was actually content in my then existence.

October 2006
Nikki and I were still in the condo but I was beginning to question the relationship. She wanted marriage and I wasn't sure she would survive the bar exam beginning to appear on the horizon. I had escaped from Phillips & Associates and was working again where I am now. I had been to every national large scale military simulation event since the prior year and had met Valkyire at one such event that month. We would later spend a week together and that week would serve as context for a lot of changes that I would make in my life in the following years. Suffice it to say I had serious doubts that Nikki and I would be together a year later, as did she.

October 2007
Nikki and I were married but the lack of trust between both of us had already began to cut away at the already faulty foundation. We had moved out of Maxine's condo and my nephew Gavin was living with us for a year. I was in my last year of law school and the bar exam was coming. Margaritaville Glendale had opened and I spent some time taste testing those frozen concoctions that help me hang on. I had re-joined the Civil Air Patrol and was working with cadets. I didn't think about the fact that a year later I would be waiting for results of the bar exam.

October 2008
I was going to say I never saw it coming. But in revisiting the past six years I have to say I am not surprised that Nikki and I are no longer together. I am preparing the divorce documents and will be filing next month. Its civil and we have both acknowledged our respective contributions to the demise. I live with 3 male roommates in Peoria - that I never saw coming. I met someone a little more than a month ago and we really fit together. There are now 30 days until I find out the results of the bar exam. We are having a keg of Rock Bottom's finest and 100 or so of our closest friends over this coming Saturday.

October 2009
A year from now....
I would suggest that Daun and I will be thinking about, maybe talking about, a beach and a sunset and drinks at Coasters. Its likely I will be sworn in as an attorney. Holy freaking shit!!!! Sorry, its still a little wow for me. I don't know for sure what the future holds but I do know that it just keeps getting better and better, even if sometimes, in the middle of the turmoil, it seems like nothing is going right.

A year ago I would have been shocked to see where I am now. But I don't want to be anywhere else.