(Excerpted from a letter to Chuck.)

It's me again! New address, but same old David. I obviously decided to go to Syracuse Law, and here I am. I've finished my first full week (the last week consisted of only two days.) Yeah. Once again I'll apologize for not writing you sooner, but things take many months to happen in my life, and in between those times I'm afraid very little goes on. I think this will be the last time I apologize for that, I'm sure you feel the same way, or at least can sympathize with my pathetic existence. And of course, not all of us have the muse as our continuously companion. But, lucky for you, I think it's here with me now. Hopefully, you haven't gone and moved or done something crazy, and this letter will reach me so you can respond and tell me how your nighttime prowlings go.

I guess I'll start with my last couple of months in the DC area. They were very exciting. I worked, went to karate, swam and read trash fantasy novels. That about covers those months. I did eventually get to my purple belt (the Jhoon Rhee TKD system goes: White, Gold, Green, Purple, Blue, Red, Brown and Black), which I guess is halfway. I'm no Bruce Lee, but I can do some rudimentary techniques, and my sparring is a little above average (compared to those shorter, and more skilled people I've sparred with.) Looking back at the overall experience, I have to admit that it was mostly positive. I learned what it was like to work in the real world (something I do not want to repeat any time soon.) I also became a lot more independent, reflective, and (dare I say it) mature. Not that I frown upon Beavis and Butthead (God forbid!), I'm just more realistic about life, and my place in it: of which I still have not a clue.

On August 19th I made the torturous trip from Virginia to Syracuse. I had originally planned to rent a U-Haul trailer to attach to my car, but my car was giving me troubles. (It is now on its last legs. I have to coax it every morning to get it started, as well as throw it into neutral at every light to stop it from conking out. Sigh. I definitely need a new one, but of course that actually costs money, of which I have almost none, but we'll get to that later.) So instead of renting the trailer, I rented a small truck, and attached my car to the back of it. Scary picture, huh? It was a long, and uneventful ride, although I did almost eat a small red civic for lunch when I failed to see it when changing lanes (I heard with a little salt they are quite tasty.) Of course the torturous part was the actual packing and unpacking. My mother luckily came up to help me (or it obviously never would have been done.) I don't care to relive those torturous episodes. Suffice to say, I plan on never moving again. I'm going to permanently live at this address (at least until I can afford professional packers/movers. Which will be in about...err four of five years.)

My new apartment is a little less expensive (as well as a little less nice) than my last one. It is a one bedroom apartment, fully carpeted with a nice kitchen (complete with the essential dishwasher and garbage disposal.) My furniture fits nicely in here, and I have plenty of room. The elevators in the place are probably the oldest, slowest relics I've ever ridden in. But, for $497/month + utilities, it's not bad.

Orientation for law school was very crappy. It involved two full days of boring, tedious lectures and "group sessions." I didn't bother attending most of the second days activities. The $427 worth of textbooks was a very welcome surprise as well. Of course, this all ties in with my finances, or lack thereof. It seems, that during my 10 month hiatus in DC I only managed to amass about $3000. If you do the math, that's not a very large percent of my salary. Of the $3000 I barely have $2000 of it left now. My tuition is fully paid through scholarship, but that leaves me with housing, food, books, etc. to pay for. I've applied for a $10k loan for the first year, but that has not gone through yet. Since I of course procrastinated in sending out my loan application (the application was finally completed, oh let's see...yesterday?) I probably will not see any of that money for a couple of months. With rent, and food, I don't know if I'll last a couple of months. Therefore, we must pray that my car makes it that far, or at least that my credit card does not max-out till then. Sigh. (Sorry for all the numbers in this paragraph, I know how much they scare you English-type people. You can just skip them if they get a little beyond you.)

Of course I must have my paragraph dedicated to the enduring memory of Shannon. I've seen him a couple of times since I've gotten here. He is now truly an asshole. Not an asshole in the sense of being any different from what he was in college (personality-wise), but in his appearance to those who don't know him. His hair is a little beyond his shoulders now, he wear a pair of small oval sunglasses, he just bought an ankle length oil skin jacket (like the ones seen on Highlander: The Series, or Renegade--not that you'll have seen these shows, but just imagine.) and he's planning on getting both his ears pierced and two gold hoop earrings. Now, imagine Shannon walking down the street (remember size and shape of said subject) with these objects about his body. Asshole. He's very excited about starting his second year at Medical School (anyway...) His studying habits have truly declined, but he did manage to pass every class last year (the grading system is: honors, pass, fail, or something there about.) As for Scott (I know I'm including him in the Shannon-dedication paragraph, please forgive me), I'm afraid I haven't heard from him since I came up here to look for my apartment in the beginning of June. I just tried to call his old number, but it has been disconnected. So, hopefully the bum will call Shannon, or someone so we can get back in touch with him. Shannon also ran into Michael and Kristin in Binghamton. He said that Michael was kind of cold to him. I guess seeing Shannon got him to reminisce about what life could have been.

Now, on to my first week of Law School. The first couple of days were very interesting. The classes were all discussions, and the discussions were about interesting and controversial subjects. My first impression of the girls within my class was not a very good one. Although, I have reevaluated this appraisal, and it seems there are actually a couple of cute girls in almost everyone of my classes. One of my TA's is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. She's a 3Y, but oh-my-god is she gorgeous. My friends and I just sit in class at an appropriate angle to view her perfection, instead of listen to class. Sigh. But back to academic matters. As I see it now, the school does not seem to be too difficult. The reading material is a lot, but not unbearable, and none of it is too complicated for me to understand or decipher. Another plus is that a certain percentage of most of my classes seem to be completely clueless about everything (that percentage by my estimates is around 80%.) This all, of course, works in my favor. But, we'll see. It's only the first week of classes, and we have many weeks left. The fact that we are only given a final exam to test our work for the semester doesn't exactly warm my heart, but by then I should know where I stand. I've also looked into working on my MS in CS. I got the ball rolling yesterday, so we'll see where that goes.

My friends from Brooklyn and I went to a Renaissance Faire in PA my last couple of weeks in DC. We had a decent time, and got to go Amish hunting. I'm telling you this not to prove that I can actually do fun things or that I actually have friends from high school, but because of one of the weird notions they told me on the trip. They both decided that I was going to marry an Asian woman. Although I had dated one Asian woman, neither of them knew that. I just thought it was very weird. Not something I would have thought of about me, nor is it something that I think is true. But, I haven't asked the little window in my head, so for all I know, perhaps it is true' I just thought of the Asian-Lust-Monkey when they told me that.

I have finally added Braveheart to my video movie collection. I have definitely noticed a theme: all my movies have swords in them. Weird, huh' I'm still looking to buy the ultimate sword. The Renaissance Faire had a large collection, but none of them jumped out at me. When one does, I'm definitely going to get it. So, if you're willing to part with your wooden sword, please feel free to mail it along with your response to my letter here.

I think my pitiful life is drawing to a close. Not that I'm thinking of taking my head, just that I'm running out of things to tell you. I hope this letter finds you rich, happy and with a lovely Asian woman in your arms. Regrettably, this letter leaves me poor, unhappy and lacking any woman in my arms. Write back so I can once again vicariously live the life of a bloodsucking nightcrawler.

"What's the difference between a lawyer and a dead rat? The rat's dead." --Who knows, and who cares