Summer Plans and Duke Basketball

Coach K Ball

I don't know what I did before Duke basketball. Like BYU football it has lodged itself in my DNA and I fear that it will never relinquish its hold. It may have been camping out for tickets, the excitement of seeing Gerald Henderson's head above the rim, or chanting "sweat Gary sweat" at Maryland coach Gary Williams. Whatever it was, I can't get enough. So the other day I went to this business law conference at the law school. There was a raffle for a basketball signed by Coach K. Since I haven't won anything since the night of my Senior party in High School I figured I had no chance of winning. I wasn't really paying attention when I realized that the lady had called my number. I double checked and then raised my arms high above my head. Seriously I don't think I stopped smiling for a week. It was so awesome. Go Devils!

Summer Plans

I have never had what I would call a "real" job. I have been a corrugate digger, a pipe mover, a swather driver, a corn picker, a missionary, a member of The Office (Well the BYU registration office), a Senate Intern, an MTC Bulgarian Teacher, a little kid face painter, and for two days I was even "the local bug guy, just in the area", but I have never had to determine if I wanted to do that forever, what constituted "enough" money, and where I wanted to raise my family. That made choosing where to intern this summer a somewhat difficult choice. Fortunately, I feel really happy about our decision, I think we will have a great time and I will finally learn what an actual lawyer does!

Phoenix
The first 9 weeks of the Summer we will spend at Lewis and Roca a large regional firm in Phoenix. The interviews I had there were awesome. The people are really positive, they love their jobs, and they felt like their jobs still allowed them to have a family life and be active in the community.

One of the biggest reasons to go to Phoenix was to enjoy the beautiful Arizona summer. Who doesn't want to spend the summer where it is 120 degrees all the time and where it doesn't even cool down at 10:00 at night? I think I will be ok with it mostly because I am looking so

much forward to spending time with Melanie's family. Its amazing how far away Durham feels. Even though we were still 3 hours away from Burley in Provo, and we have such wonderful friends here in Durham, it was so nice to go home for the weekend. We can't wait to spend tons of quality time with Mel's parent's, brothers and sisters, and of course nieces and nephews! I am hoping much of that quality time will be spent in a pool, but if not...actually I won't think about it, I am starting to sweat.

Newport Beach

The last three weeks of the summer we are going to spend in Newport Beach/Mission Viejo. I am going to work with a 30 lawyer firm named Call, Jensen, and Ferrell. The firm is fairly small in size but seems to have some incredibly exciting work and some really talented people. The guy I interviewed with was awesome, he took me back to the days of "Badger" dominance of BYU intramural football. Anyway, between his promise of an office overlooking the ocean, and of course the opportunity to spend some time with Danny, Shera Mae and their kids, we were easily sold on the opportunity. So off we go to California. I don't know how we will handle the traffic or the toll roads, but just thinking of swimming in the Pacific after those 9 weeks in the Arizona heat is refreshing!