Cleaning House



I've spent the day cleaning out the stuff I've accumulated over the last two-and-a-half years. I was surprised at how many knick knack, old magazines, andother assorted junk I have. it certainly didn't seem like I ever had the free time to use any of it. School has taken up my entire life.



Someone said to me not too long ago that he'd like to bring himself from five years ago into the present to show him why law school is a bad dea. he then asked me if I'd do the same. I smirked. Law school would be the least of his worries.



1998 JAMIE: So I'll have to spend every waking minute doing this--and be hugely in debt?



2003 JAMIE: Yep.



1998 JAMIE: Well, at least I'll have Lenna for support.



2003 JAMIE: Actually, she married someone else and moved to Charleston.



1998 JAMIE: What? But things were going so well!



2003 JAMIE: You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. It wasn't love, kid. She just didn't want to hurt your feelings--until she found a guy she really liked, that is. Then you were inconvenient, and the charade ended.



1998 JAMIE: I guess I don't trust girls anymore, huh?



2003 JAMIE: Son, you don't trust anybody anymore. Everyone describes you as "aloof" and "distant" when they are being kind and "acerbic" when they're not.



1998 JAMIE: Have mercy. Well, how did I wind up in Virginia? I wanted to go to USC law.



2003 JAMIE: Rotten story. You don't want to hear it.



1998 JAMIE: Worse than Lenna?



2003 JAMIE: Indeed. Bureaucratic error, mixed up grades, a graduate assistant who didn't give a rat's behind whether you got the right grade or not. It was fun times.



1998 JAMIE: At least I'm getting a law degree. That promises a great career, doesn't it?



2003 JAMIE. Uphill battle. You spent most of 1999 getting every door of every bank and insurance company in Columbia slammed in your face. Employers weren't too eager to put you on their health insurance. You look too darn young, too.



1998 JAMIE: At least I kept my health.



2003 JAMIE: Actually, you had a detached retina in 2000. You lost a good portion of your vision.



1998 JAMIE: I never saw that coming.



2003 JAMIE: Oooh. Bad pun.



1998 JAMIE: Sorry. I've kept my sense of irony, at least. Well, I suppose I have a home to go back to if things don't pan out, too.



2003 JAMIE: Actually, you don't. You had to sell it.



1998 JAMIE: What do you mean *I* had to sell it. Where's Mother?



2003 JAMIE: Jamie, she's dead. Died last March. Things got...complicated..afterwards. She wasn't entirely honest about her life before she had you. It's best you find out for yourself the truth rather than me spill it here.



1998 JAMIE: Is anything going right for me?



2003 JAMIE: I don't know, but I'm not exactly setting the woods on fire at the moment.



1998 JAMIE: Am I really that far gone?



2003 JAMIE: Yes, I'm afraid you are.



(Seems like a good idea *not* to bring him to the future. Law school won't be the number one thing on his mind, no?)