Introduction: Blogospheric Reentry

I thought I was done…I was wrong…

Now…I’m back…

I’m writing another blog!

Hello, everyone!  If you’re reading this, you’re either really interested in my life or completely lost because you somehow stumbled onto this page while scrolling through conspiracy theories or porn.  If you are in the first camp: welcome, friends!  I hope this blog will give you a sweet fix of Ben-adryl whenever you need it.  If you are from the second camp, I should probably introduce myself and give some backstory:

My name is Dr. Benjamin David Fischberg, B.A., J.D., Esq., but you can call me Ben (or Q…or Admiral…or Dr. Fischberg III; I have several nicknames).  I’m twenty-six, I live in Salem, Oregon, and, as of now, I have been a lawyer for just over two weeks.  Six years ago, I was a pipsqueak college student who spent a semester abroad in Greater London.  I was young, foolish, and excited, but I was also somewhat daunted by the prospect of being in an entirely different country for an extended period of time.  To cope, I decided to write a travel blog, Fisch and Chips, where I recorded my adventures for three months.  What adventures they were: I traveled to Tyburn, wandered through Whitechapel, beheld a murder trial at the Old Bailey, and saw many other sights as part of my criminal justice-themed pilgrimage.  On less gruesome notes, I also watched Macbeth at the Globe, became a pescatarian at the Tower of London’s ice rink, was hassled by Parisian transit cops, was solicited by prostitutes in De Wallen, rode the London Eye, and had all kinds of amazing experiences across Western Europe.  If you want to read more details, here is the URL for the first entry: http://benfinlondon.blogspot.com/2013/08/theresa-half-packed-suitcase-in-my.html.  Blogging was a great experience in and of itself, so I decided to consider it for future adventures.

Less than a year later, I scored an internship with the Public Defender of Marion County.  Working there required that I live by myself in Salem, Oregon all summer.  Feeling a familiar combination of excitement and dread, I poured my heart into a second blog: Ben Around the Block.  While not quite as flashy as my English adventures, my adventures from that summer saw me develop cooking as a hobby, watch four criminal trials, tour the Oregon State Capitol, flirt with a thief, and have similar fun times across the Pacific Northwest.  Again, here’s a URL for the first entry if that sounds intriguing to you: http://benfinsalem.blogspot.com/2014/04/here-we-go-again.html.  When I finished this second blog, I doubted that I would ever find adventures worthy of recording again.

…This brings us to the present.  Since my last blog, I have graduated from college, taken a gap year, endured three years of law school, and survived the Oregon Bar Examination.  Shortly after being sworn in as an attorney, I accepted a job in Tillamook, Oregon with the Tillamook County Defense Consortium.  The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur—between locking down housing, buying a car, and packing up everything in my apartment, it can sometimes be hard to keep track of what day it is!  In November, I will be officially opening up my own law office for solo legal practice (though it will be a while before I get any criminal cases assigned by the state and even more of a while before I get paid)!  I’m moving to a new place by myself, relearning to drive, opening my own law firm, and starting a promising legal career as a criminal defense attorney—I think all of that’s worthy of a blog!

A few things to note: first, this blog will NOT cover most aspects of my job.  Working with clients requires confidentiality, and I don’t want to jeopardize that through my snarky writing.  If my job will come up in this blog, it will only be in a general sense regarding broad aspects of my work.  Second, because of how busy I plan to be, I don’t know how often I’ll be posting.  I mostly plan to write entries when something new and exciting happens.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay on top of things!

All in all, I’m about to start a truly exciting time in my life.  I hope that y’all will enjoy this journey with me—I’ll do my best to share every major step!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some packing to finish up.