The Bar Exam... Or An Eight Foot Tiger Shark

Okay, okay… I’ll admit it. I’m guilty of some pretty severe blog-neglect these last few weeks. I've thought of posting several times, but I could never bring myself to do it. I chalk it up to post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m coming up on three weeks since the bar and I’m just now beginning to decompress. Kind of surprising considering I've been tromping around Europe for almost two weeks now.

Actually, kicking back in Switzerland has done wonders for me, but every once in awhile the muscles in my back freeze up and I begin to panic thinking that instead of whatever I’m doing, I should really be brushing up on what Virginia's statute of limitations for defamation is or whether a bona fide purchaser of real estate takes property subject to a prior owner's unrecorded mortgage (Just typing that made me queasy). As my wife will attest, it’s not a pretty sight.

The good news is that I survived. That doesn’t mean I necessarily passed (won’t know that until mid-October), but I did manage to make it through both days of that miserable exam with my sanity intact (for the most part). And that’s actually saying a lot considering I had to spend two days in Roanoke wearing a suit.

In hindsight, I feel alright about my performance. There were a couple of afternoon essays on the first day, however, that really threw me for a loop. An email from my wife that night helped to put everything in perspective though:

“I know you're miserable, my love, but it could be worse... This is James' brother!”

Yup… you heard it right (that is if you actually clicked on the link). My brother-in-law’s brother was bit by a freaking shark last month. Unbelievably, he escaped "relatively" unscathed. Outside of a pretty nasty bite on his leg, he’s actually alright. He’s expected to walk again and has one helluva' war story to tell to the grandkids one day.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that my brother-in-law’s brother is also a lawyer, so he probably had it coming. It happens to be a timely red flag for me. The wife and I are heading to Italian Riviera next week, so I now plan on being extra careful since I’m not sure whether sharks distinguish between lawyers who have passed the bar and those who haven’t (For you naysayers, the Mediterranean does indeed have its fair share of sharks).

I’m getting ahead of myself though. The human psyche is an odd thing when you think about it… sometimes just being reminded that you could be a whole lot worse off helps you feel a whole lot better about a crappy situation. My wife and her opportune email hit the spot and put an end to my post-day-one obsessing. All things considered, you gotta’ admit that being sharkbait tops taking the bar exam on pretty much every list of crappy things a person could go through. I guess if I really want to know definitively, however, I'm gonna' to need to ask my brother-in-law’s brother (I guess I should probably thank him too).

Anyway, in addition to the article above, here’s a CNN news clip as well as a few post-surgery pics’ courtesy of my sister-in-law (view at your own risk here and here).

For those of you concerned by my lengthy blog-silence, rest assured that I’m alive and well and hope to keep posting regularly. I've put the bar exam behind me (for now) and haven’t been eaten by any sharks… yet.