Exams...Visit from the Folks...and a Word about the Upcoming Summer Movie Season

So exam time is almost upon me again, and I can already feel the noose tightening. The odd thing is that this is the first time I have approached exams without feeling the “legal writing burnout.” The next 3 weeks will be the usual test of endurance, but the end of my second year is in sight, and I am looking forward to it. I have selected my classes for the fall; they include Secured Transactions, Intellectual Property for Corporate Transactional Attorneys, and Legal Profession. I am also getting credits for serving as an editor for the DePaul Journal of Art, Technology, and Intellectual Property, and I only have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. That in itself is something to get excited about. My summer job will be starting the Monday after exams, and the firm has already been preparing me for it with various mailings.

The past weekend brought a wonderful visit from my parents. My brother picked them up from the airport on Friday morning, and he took them to the suburban hospital where he works (1/3 of the time). They made their way back downtown and were at the house by 3 PM. I then spent the rest of the evening with my family, sitting around eating pizza and having a pretty good time. We also watched “Casino Royale,” and I think that my parents really liked it. Of course, my Dad astutely pointed out some minor problems concerning the murkiness of Vesper’s motivations, and it took me a second to try to figure them out myself, but I think that I satisfied both my Dad and myself with my explanation. My Dad is sure perceptive when it comes to movies! The next day, we all went to Devon Street in Chicago. Devon is the Pakistani and Indian section of Chicago, and a buffet lunch at a local restaurant awaited us Saturday was also my Mom’s birthday, and Dad remarked how it had been ages since Mom had been with my brother and me for her birthday. We came back home after a busy day at Devon, and we all watched “The Departed.” The next morning, we talked over our morning coffee and then headed to the Northwest suburbs to the home of my brother’s girlfriend’s sister and brother-in-law. They had a full Indian feast waiting for us; it has been a LONG time since I last ate so much Indian food. My brother and I dropped my folks off at the airport, and I was struck by how sad I felt. It is much easier being the visitor rather than the host; when my folks left, there was a definite void. I ended up doing some reading for Monday’s class and then went to the gym.

On a completely different note, the summer movie season is upon us! During the summer, I will be pretty regular in updating the site with the latest movie reviews. Look for my Spider-Man 3 IMAX review on May 5.

The release list is as follows (and is by NO MEANS exhaustive):

Spider-Man 3 (in IMAX, too!) May 4

Shrek the Third May 18

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End May 25

Oceans 13 June 8

Fantastic Four 2 (ehh, maybe not) June 15

Evan Almighty June 22

Live Free or Die Hard June 27

Ratatouille June 29

Transformers July 4

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (IMAX) July 13

I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry July 20

The Simpsons July 27

The Bourne Ultimatum August 3

Fanboys August 17