Long time, no post

I didn't realize it had been as long as it has since my last post. Basically nothing changed for quite some time. I was volunteering at the public defender's office and playing some poker at the local casino. My bankroll was going up and down but I never was making enough to actually live off of so I was still applying to basically every opening that I saw. Then suddenly last week I got 3 job offers in like 3 days. I was offered to join a panel that does appellate work for indigent clients in San Diego, which means that I will get assigned to do appellate briefs in some sort of rotation. So I happily accepted that position and was assigned my first case last Thursday.

Then on Friday I was offered a paying position with the public defender's office. So I will begin that fulltime job a week from Monday.

To top it off I was also offered a prop position at the local cardroom, which I would have jumped at 2 weeks ago, but now would just be impossible to do with a full plate.

When it rains, it pours.

Anyhoo, the focus of this blog (if I stay on top of things) will very likely change back to my life as a renewly minted lawyer. I am nervous and excited to get back into the courtroom. I know for a fact that I will be busy. Hopefully I will do a decent job keeping my head above the water.

Poker, for the immediate future will be taking a back seat. But with the cardroom right across the street from our courthouse, I am sure I will still be playing quite a bit.

Recent Developments

I'm not sure how many people actually still read this blog, but for those that do I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Now that we are finally situated I feel like we are starting to get into a little bit of a groove again. I have applied to a couple of jobs here at the local district attorney's offices and the public defender's office but the job market is tight here and there are no openings so I am still sitting and waiting and crossing my fingers that something will open up. This week I also applied to become a member of a couple of appellate panels where if I were I accepted I would be appointed to handle the appeals of indigent clients here in California. I am worried that even though I have experience in appellate practice, it is not in the areas they are looking for, but I will keep my fingers crossed there as well.

In the meantime, I have started a internship/volunteership with the public defenders office so every Tuesday and Wednesday I go to the local court and help the assigned public defender with her misdemeanor calendar. She has a huge caseload and it is impressive to see her knock all of her cases out quickly and efficiently but also giving her clients quality representation in the minimal time she can spend with them. The courtroom is just one exit away from my wife's clinic, so we get to carpool and then the local cardroom is just across the street from the court so I have been playing some 20/40 limit on those afternoons.

Fresno has been bad to me in terms of poker profit, but hopefully things are turning around as I have had a couple of decent winning sessions lately. So the future plans are to keep the fingers crossed that I can get hired somewhere and to just keep on grinding until then.

Finally feeling settled

So the whirlwind summer is now basically over.

Sell the house in Sacramento, check;
move out of house in Sacramento and into new rental home in Fresno in 3 days, check;
drive down to Santa Barbara the day after moving in to Fresno house to drop our dog off with the in-laws since we were going to Guatemala, check;
drive down to L.A. to my folks' house that same day to catch flight to Guatemala, check;
spend a couple of weeks in Guatemala, check;
return from Guatemala and spend a week in Santa Barbara, check;
return to Fresno for four days and try and tidy the house up a bit and get cable and internet set up, check;
drive back to L.A. to spend ten days with my folks and my sister and her family who was making her yearly summer mecca to Balboa, check;
drop my wife off as she and her best friend fly to Spain for 2 weeks, check;
fly to Boise to celebrate my step-grandmother's 100th birthday, check;
drive back to Fresno and spend a week waterskiing and hanging out with 17 extended family members on King's River and have 12 of them stay at my house, check;
drive back to L.A. to pick my wife up from her Spain trip, check;
spend the next ten days with our respective families in Santa Barbara and L.A., check;
take my wife to the airport for her girl's weekend in Chicago with friends of hers from medical school, check;
drive back to Fresno for what should now be the last time for a while, check;
pick my wife up from the Fresno airport, check; wife begins new job here in Fresno, check;
we explore Fresno on our bikes and find a nearby farmer's market, check;
I update my resume and send it off with cover letters to four legal offices/firms, check;
I finally make it out to the local cardroom and play some live poker, check.

And... phew now that the summer whirlwind is over, the fall whirlwind will begin.

It's been a while...

So it's been a busy couple of months. My last post was me heading to Vegas for the WSOP. Unfortunately the Series was a huge bust for me this year, but I am still glad I went and gave myself one last shot.

Since then, we sold our house, moved out of of our Sacramento house, moved in to our Fresno house, my wife finished her residency, we went to Guatemala for a couple of weeks, we went to Santa Barbara for a week, and now we are now back in Fresno and are finishing the process of setting up our new house.

We still have a good month of vacationing left to do and will be spending that time between Fresno, L.A., Santa Barbara, Boise, Kings River, and Spain. After that, it will be time for me to start pounding the pavement and getting my resume out there in my quest to get back into practicing law again. Until then, I plan on enjoying my summer to the fullest.

In Vegas

I've made it to Vegas and have registered for the $1k event today at noon. I'm excited to be here and excited to start the grind again. I found a cheap apartment/hotel which is just off the strip. It's somewhat skeezy and right under the flightpath of the planes coming in, but the location is great, it has a bed, shower and tv, it's gated so I feel safe, it has this computer for me to use, and it is CHEAP!!

On the housing front, it looks like we have found a place to rent in Fresno. It seems to be in a decent neighborhood, is much bigger than our current place, and has a nice big backyard for Chula.

Adventures over Memorial Day

Most of the property management companies in Fresno shut down over the Memorial day weekend but we still wanted to at least look at the outside of some homes, so we drove down to Fresno on Saturday with the intention of looking at some homes and then meeting my L.A. family at a campsite in the mountains between Fresno and Bakersfield.

Of course, as usual, we got a late start, so by the time we got to Fresno we could only look at a couple of homes before we needed to head out so that we could actually set up our tent before it got dark. The campsite was a ways up in the mountains at like 5000 feet but to get there you had to pass elevations of over 7000 feet.

Long story, short - we got snowed on. Not rain, but honest to god snow. This freaked everyone out and in short order the dirt road which we took to get down to the campsite soon became a muddy mess with huge trenches from where people who did not have 4 wheel drive or know how to drive had been spinning their tires.

We decided to wait it out and see how the day progressed, and although it stayed cool the sun came out and the road got dry enough that we were confident we could get out. One of our group then went and talked with a ranger who said more snow was likely that night so we decided to pack it up and head back. All of us made it out with no problem, but when we passed the 7000 foot mark we were surprised to see at least 6 inches of snow, so we were also happy that we left when we did rather then risk it.

We then spent the night in Fresno, and yesterday we spent the day driving all throughout Fresno and looking at possible homes.

I am planning on going back to Fresno this Thursday and will be looking to set up as many showings as I can and hopefully find us a place to rent. I then will head off to Vegas and play some events before coming back to Sacramento for Charmian's graduation from residency.

WSOP bound

I finally got my money from PokerStars today and I have also received a decent amount of interest in people wanting action from the ad I put up on 2+2 so I am now definitely going to make my yearly mecca to Vegas....

And I have to say that I am getting pumped. I know my excitement always wanes when I get there, but since I haven't played tournaments since April 15th (Black Friday) I am excited to get back to my bread and butter. I am also excited to have the chance to go for a threepeat of WSOP final tables in 3 years.

Wish me luck....