Get the #@$! out of Pennsylvania!

But I think that much of my feelings about this place have to do with the fact that my ex made the decision to live here, despite the fact that I repeatedly said how unhappy I was.

It may well be that I was really nore unhappy with not having had a vote.

with everything I owned packed into a 1975 VW Beetle. But I made it safe & sound (eventually) and you can, too.

I know that this could have happened anywhere, but it happened here. To me.

The creek next to my parking lot flooded. No. FLOODED. The creek is only about 6 inches to a foot deep, and the creekbed is maybe four feet below the level of the parking lot.

A torrential downpour in the dead of night, and the creek crested at about 7 feet- or soaking the car under 3 or 4 feet of water. Such has been my life.

Just perusing the many, many, many hoops that the California Bar makes you jump through to enjoy the privilege of practicing my profession. First, I must “register as an applicant.” In other words, I must file a document that basically says “I am THINKING about taking your bar exam.” And, of course, pay them the $166 fee for thinking about it.

Then there is the 4 to 6 month long character investigation. I must submit an application for that to happen. Oh, and pay the $431 fee for that. It’s a good thing that I will probably pass that, because if I am denied on character grounds, it’s a $200-something fee to apply for reconsideration.

Then comes the bar exam itself- a three day intellectual Bataan death march of legal arcana. Unlike most people, I never sweated the exam itself (honestly, I was/am more worried about the character examination, so messed up was/is my credit). Most of my classmates studied 8 to 10 hours a day for about three months. I kinda studied a couple hours a day for about three weeks- and only the subjects I didn’t already know. Let’s just say that I passed with a comfortable margin.

So I go in and take the bar exam, make it my bitch. Assuming of course that I have scrounged up the $769 fee. If I were fresh out of law school, the fee for the exam would be $540-something. Of course, since I am already a practicing attorney, I must be getting rich, right?

Let’s put this in perspective- I can get admitted to Washington, DC right now, without taking the exam, for the comparatively meager sum of $400. In November ‘07, I can get admitted in New York for $400, or I could sit now for the exam itself for $250.

New York and the District of Columbia- is there a lot of law practiced there?

Makes you wonder….

I hate it here. Just friggin’ hate it. I moved here for the ex, and she was my only connection to this state. I have since made some very good friends here- people whom I love and would miss deeply- but I think they would all understand that I need to leave.

There are some career considerations- what is the legal job market like? What is the practice environment? That sort of thing. I know I want to live in a city, as opposed to the burbs or even (God forbid) a rural setting. I need the constant noise and energy of a vibrant scene, full of interesting and unusual things and people.

More interesting and unusual than the mall.

The short list so far is New York or Washington, DC on the east coast. I have always thought San Francisco would be an incredible city to live in. L.A. is in the mix, but only because I know some people there and because it’s always golf weather.

I have some time to sort it all out, having signed a one year lease, but I am going to have to sort it out.