Quick Update: Google Voice

Greetings, all. I know that we haven't posted in a while, but August is right around the corner. We'll hit the ground running then. The bar exam studying is going well, and we're in the process of closing a sale on our house.

We received our Google Voice invite the other day, and we got a pretty sweet number. I'll try my best to contact all of you in August and get our new number out there. However, you can use the new number now by using the widget over here on the right of the screen. The process is quite simple:

1. Click on the "Call Me" button.
2. Input your name and number (you want your phone by you).
3. Click "Submit."
4. Your phone will ring. Pick it up.
5. Your phone will then ring our phones.
6. Hopefully we'll pick up. If not, feel free to leave a message!

That's it. Easy enough?

Blast from Someone Else's Past

The other night, I junked out on PBS (I love the News Hour). There's a local show about Cincinnati events. For some reason, the show played a long clip from Hamilton High School Class of 1956's 50th High School Reunion DVD. It looked like everyone was having a great time--particularly one lady (featured in the clip). The very beginning of the clip is from the dinner performance by The Avalons (here's their updated website). Nailed it.

I hope my 50th high school class reunion is just as magical to me as this lady's was to her. Bye, Y'all.

Blast from the Passed: Chanson des Voyageurs

I've played in several groups in my brief time on this planet. In recent years, I've played with The Prodigals and was a voice in The Rhubarbitones. After three years of law school and getting so close to the end of the law student chapter of our life, I realize how I sometimes miss making music on a daily basis. I was talking with my buddy Joel about his ever-growing music career, and I remembered how we used to sit in the computer lab at Samford or stand on various stages and work on creating music for hours and hours and hours. Will I miss it? Definitely, but I didn't go through law school without gigging a little. Let me introduce the greatest law school band that there ever was (look for me on the drum kit; we were "rebuilding"):

We only played together three times (though we're hoping to get some Franklin Pierce alumni meeting gigs). Our school has an annual show, and we served as the house band for all three years. Every year, we had a little different lineup in the group, but our core consisted of Dan "Flashy Fingers" Landau, Nate "The Meat" Harris, Gaelan "Pretty Mouth" Flannery, and Austin "Dry Spell" Padgett.

We made some great music together, and we had a strong following in the Greater Concord region (which includes Concord Heights). In fact, it would be safe to say that we were the best law school band in the South-Central New Hampshire area.

We were known as The Tortfeasors from the the beginning. Though we thought of other names (e.g., The Attractive Nuisances), we adopted the perfect band name. With any other name, we would have had to practice more than we did. We practiced as little as possible because the annual show was always scheduled right after midterm exams.

While we were known for the soul-searching lyrics, soaring vocals, and sparse textures in our music, we also had a reputation for wearing awesome "get-ups." In the picture above, we came out for our final set--after an evening of bow ties and corduroy jackets (with elbow patches)--wearing track suits. Man, we looked amazing. Historical/Editorial Note: The drum set pictured belonged to the school. Though we abused it (turning it over, etc.), it deserved a better fate than what the school gave it.

I will miss playing with these guys. My favorite days in law school were spent with an instrument in hand.

Final Note: I read this post to Anna, and she said that it sounded "sad." To be clear, I love what I'll be doing in law. It is actually a creative outlet, and I love helping people figure out how to best protect and get what they want out of their work.

Blast from the Passed: Choir Tour 2003

Before I begin the substantive portion of this post, I just wanted to remind everyone that the title of the post series--involving the word "passed"--is totally intentional. My upcoming career depends on people having faith in my ability to distinguish between the homophones "past" and "passed." As explained in the first entry of the series and somewhat in another post (referencing The Power of Positive Thinking), I'm trying to take little steps to convince myself that the bar exam is a done deal--that I've already "passed" the test. It's not as clever as I first intended it to be, but it's too late to jump ship . . . in more ways than you know.

Now, today's post is a series of photographs from Samford University A Capella Choir Tour in 2003 (the same week the U.S. started to bomb Iraq for their supposed weapons of mass destruction; remember that?). On our choir tour, we got the privilege of staying in people's homes (and eating most/all of their stored rations). Usually, this was a great experience, but there were some homes along the way that freaked us out. First picture:



In 2003, one of the homes we stayed at took in four guys: me, Greg (pictured below), Terrance (pictured above), and Brett. The family that took us in for the night had a great home, but, while touring us around, they showed us the son's room where Terrance would be sleeping--complete with a confederate naval flag hung above the bed. Next picture.To give the son some credit, he had a lot of various flags in his room. So, while we were a little creeped out (particularly at making Terrance sleep in that bed), it might have just been part of his collection. We soon found out that the kid also had a fairly expansive collection of sharp blades to go along with it. Next picture:

I've given the kid a happy face and some anonymity in case he grew up and changed. I wouldn't want his life to be ruined just because he retained his boyish face. After a while, the kid kept showing us a bunch of weird stuff, and we would take pictures and video of every minute of it. The next picture of the kid, the samurai sword, and Terrance's hilarious face is one of my favorite pictures ever.

The kid also had an extensive collection of various guns whether they were hanging on the wall or in a built-in-china-cabinet-turned-into-a-gun-rack. The weaponry just never stopped.

My next favorite picture comes from when we were hanging out with the entire family. The kid was needing some attention, and he really wanted to show us his favorite knife. He was so fascinated by Terrance and made sure that T saw every knife he brought out. It was just a weird night, but I always love having these experiences. They're like the choir boy version of war stories. There are tons of others. Perhaps I'll share more in some other post.

Blast from the Passed: Measure of a Man

What is the measure of a man? In the Padgett household, every man will be measured against a giant, wooden cutout of a Polar bear. If any man be less than a polar bear in his heart, he is not a Padgett.

This picture comes from the Cincinnati Zoo when my mom and brother came up circa 2004. The Cincinnati Zoo has a wide assortment of creatures. The polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are hilarious in their pool; they like to do backstrokes. I'm not joking. I've thought about trying to organize some sort of crude, pay-per-view race between Michael Phelps and a polar bear. It would be man versus bear in water. Of course, with an improper lane change, it turns into a mauling. It would probably be hard to get the financing for such an event considering the insurance costs. Oh well.

On another note: When I was researching my M.M. thesis, I came across a Cincinnati Zoo postcard that Elgar sent to his daughter (with some help from a librarian with the Elgar Society--shout out!). It had some sort of inside joke written on it that, like the Enigma Variations, still remains unsolved.

Blast from the Passed: Far and Away

I've been falling behind on the blog; I admit it. With the bar exam getting closer with each minute, I start to feel guilty when I'm not thinking about the exam. It sounds weird, I'm sure, but I know you've had something in your life like this.

With that said, the blog will slow down between now and August. I promise to kick it back into high gear after that. For now, I thought it would be fun to do some shorter posts since Anna and I have been going through old photographs. In a nod to positive vibes for the bar exam, we'll be calling this series "Blast from the Passed." Here's our first entry:

That's me and the then-future Mrs. Padgett in Russia circa 2001. We're standing outside Peter the Great's Palace in Peterhof. It is an amazing place, simply unbelievable. The gardens go on forever, and the fountains are very, very "tricky."

Potter Goes Hufflepuff

I promise this is the last look-a-like post for a while (see this post and this post for previous discussion). After my previous post, Nate reminded me of a providential encounter with a man at The Barley House.

Imagine walking into a room and realizing that you're looking at the darker side of yourself: your fears, your most evil, unrealized thoughts. That is exactly what happened to me a couple of summers ago (see picture). First clue--we were wearing the same shirt. Really, the only difference is the facial hair, a few extra pounds, chunkier glasses, and lack of a pretzel in hand. I congratulated the guy on his good looks, and he, mine. I don't want to go on about the encounter because it still spooks me.

Though it's already been written, it bears repeating: the encounter was like the Mirror, Mirror episode of Star Trek. Never have I felt more like Spock. I've needed some new glasses, so I'm thinking of going with the chunkier frames. Thoughts?