One of the things I meant to say last evening was that, as I begin to feel slightly more relaxed about my MBE score, I am now majorly stressing over whether I have overpracticed on it at the expense of my essay score, ESPECIALLY on the subjects not "double tested" on the MBE. But even on the subjects tested on the MBE, I'm worried, 'cause the answer's not right in front of you, so you have no defense (like, 1 in 4 chance) if you don't know the answer.

Well, today I feel like there's some remote good news: All hope is not lost. Now, by that, I don't mean I'm ready to sit down and take the bar today (although, if offered the chance to end this hell early, I'm not sure I could bring myself to say no), but I mean that if I were forced to, I think I'd have a fighting chance of not completely buying the farm (or, for those of you who know what this means, having a yard sale) on questions. I've got a LOT of work to do in the next * days (this is at the request of a poster who asked that I not point out how many are left today, since we're all pretty well aware), but it may, MAY, may be manageable.

I have to go back to PC tonight for a school board meeting tomorrow. Also to take care of little odds and ends. I'll be glad when I finally get the O.C. in my rearview mirror for the last time before the test, not because I don't love it (I do), but because it'll be nice to have sustained, uninterrupted time here.

And, Anonymous, I'm really, really sorry. Not that I won't get to be there, but that you're stuck with it. No, seriously. I am.

In any case, this should put an end to any talk you haven't suffered enough.

I tried today to schedule the MRB 2005 Summer Tour. This was more vexing than I expected. I'm planning to go to my brother's in Las Vegas for a few days and then on to my grandpa's in the Palm Beach area for a few days. (My purposes are slightly different; first, I'm going to need to get the hell out of Dodge; I've never been to Las Vegas and really want to visit, and my brother leaves August 31; then when I get to my grandpa's I want to sit by his swimming pool and read books for five straight days. That's it.) I'd figured out I could basically accomplish this all for around 300 to 350 bucks.

Here's the problem: There appears to be no way a human being not possessed of his own air fleet can get from Las Vegas to West Palm in under seven hours. (I don't mind changing flights, but for the love of God, people, I could fly from Detroit to, I dunno, London by then?) This is bad enough, but the Las Vegas Airport must apparently open at 7:00 AM, close at 8:00 AM, and then reopen from midnight 'til 2, 'cause those are the only departing flight times I can find out of there. (And it's not that they're sold out...these are about the ONLY FLIGHTS ONE CAN FIND, EVER.)

On the other hand, I shouldn't complain, I'll leave Las Vegas to go to Palm Beach and that is not exactly the hardest of lots in life. But, especially for someone who hasn't been around human beings much, seven hours of air travel does not sound like a riproaring good time.

Oh, yes. And this morning, I got a 5 AM wakeup call from the Hound from Hell, who lives across the street. From late April 'till early June, he would start barking on cue between 5 and 5:30 without fail. I usually would move out to the couch and go back to sleep, but it was still not appreciated. In any case, in early June, I called the police, and said Hound stopped barking. Well, the past two weeks, we haven't been as fortunate. So I signed on at 6:00. At 6:20, I got a comment from Eve, which was lovely of her, except EVE LIVES IN CALIFORNIA WHERE IT WAS 3:20 IN THE MORNING AND ANY BAR EXAMINEE SHOULD BE ASLEEP AT THAT HOUR.

Across the bar blogosphere, examinees are apparently running into all sorts of difficulties, which, thus far, I have not yet encountered. *knocks on wood* I'm hearing tales of blood, rats, and problems with significant others. If you are encountering S.O. problems, please advise them that the United States Supreme Court has held that it's impermissible to mandate the death penalty as an automatic sentence for any crime except that of putting someone who is studying for the bar on the market within two weeks of the bar exam, or putting them in reasonable apprehension thereof.

All right. Enough ranting. I'm going to do two more essays, then start to think of heading home.

This'll be the last time I leave here and go home overnight. Next time, I'll be moving out of here. Whoa.