Interesting...

So, I was skimming the Washington Post online tonight, and came across this interesting story: Two Elderly Women Jailed in Deadly Insurance Scam. These women developed a system in which they made friends with homeless men and took out life insurance policies on them. Then, the men were victims of hit-and-run accidents. The article speculates about whether the women were directly involved in the accidents or whether they had accomplices. They have made $2.2 million in the scam so far. They are currently in jail, facing charges of eight counts of mail fraud.

This is actually somewhat similar to a case that came before the judge I interned for last fall. You can read about it here. In this case, a former wrestler had taken out "key man" insurance policies on an alcoholic, disabled man that had occasionally done odd jobs for him--a man that was not eligible for this type of insurance. When the man turned up dead, the former wrestler got over $500,000 dollars. The jury found him guilty of four counts of mail fraud, and he was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

I think it's interesting that the main charges in both of these cases is mail fraud (although I guess if they find more evidence that the elderly women were directly involved with these homeless men's deaths they could be facing other charges as well). I guess it's true that at the very least, the years can certainly add up as the counts of mail fraud increase.

I had no idea that these types of scams were so popular.

Other than that, I wanted to share a few random pictures from the river trip we took the day after our last day of classes (Beth and Anne and I had a picture swap, so I now have some of these on my computer that I didn't have before). This is at the Guadalupe State Park, north of San Antonio. A pretty spot indeed :) We had a lot of fun.

The river.

Me, Mindy, and Lisa just before taking our tubing trip.

Katie, Erin, Mindy, Lisa, and Beth.

Lindy in the big, giant, tubie...thing. And my foot apparently made it in the picture too.

Graduation Weekend

Maybe it's a good thing I won't be living in Florida for law school. I don't want to be attacked by an alligator while I'm studying.

This past weekend was graduation weekend. Friday started off with Mom, Dad, and Kelsey coming in. We ended up meeting at Fort Sam Houston so that I could get a new military ID card and thus have that all-important thing they call health insurance for nine more months (at which point I turn 23). However, because the wait there was so long, Dad and I ended up heading over to Randolph Air Force Base--about 20 minutes away--in an attempt to speed up the process. This worked--it appears that the Air Force is much more efficient than the Army. Then, that evening, we attended the baccalaureate service, which was short and sweet, and all of our families ate dinner in our apartment.

Alicia, me, Beth, and Anne with the cake during our dinner party.

Commencement itself was on Saturday. It was a nice ceremony, even if it was a bit long. Our entire apartment graduated with summa cum laude honors, although we weren't the only set of roommates to do so. I think that the nerds tend to find each other and stick together, in general. Ha.

After the ceremony: Anne, Beth, and me with our new diploma covers. (No diplomas in them yet; those will be mailed this summer).

Alicia, Anne, me, and Beth.

The family.

The reception afterward was also nice. Because graduation lasted a little longer than we were told it would, some people had to leave fairly quickly because of lunch reservations. We did get to see a few choice professors, and I talked to some friends during this time. The food was a little fancy for my taste, but that made the Cheesecake Factory taste all the better a few hours later.

Katie and me at the reception.

After graduation and the reception, Mom, Dad, and I moved a few things out of the apartment and into the van, since we only have about two weeks left before the lease is up. It's going to be hard to leave! Then we went for an early dinner to the Cheesecake Factory, which I think everyone enjoyed for the most part. I certainly enjoyed it, at the very least.

The night of graduation was, of course, filled with various parties. But some of my friends and I just had fun getting together and talking, then taking a fairly late-night trip to Starbucks. I'm going to miss these times, but am enjoying them while they last for sure.

Some of us at Starbucks, brought to you by the self-timing function on Beth's camera.

The end is near--but so are more beginnings

Graduation is the day after tomorrow. When I was little, I used to think it was cool when I could think to myself, "Tomorrow, I can say 'Tomorrow is Christmas'" whenever something I was looking forward to was coming up. Well, right now, I can say: "Tomorrow, I can say 'Tomorrow is graduation.'" That's a crazy thought.

Yep, I was a weird child. Still am.

I turned in my last final on Tuesday, to the same professor that I took my first-ever college exam from. It was an interesting way to bring closure to the college experience. Now if only grades would be posted!

Looks like I'll be in Houston for the next three years. I went to Florida--stayed with my grandmother (Thanks again, Grandmamom! It was fun), and went down to Gainesville twice. I liked the Levin College of Law a lot, but I do not think that it is the place I should go when I can go to school in Texas tuition free. This summer, therefore, will be spent in Houston, finding a place to live and hopefully a job, so that I can, you know, eat, when school starts.

One day soon, I shall have to create a sappy, reflective post about my Trinity experience. It's been an amazing one.