Happy Hour Capital

Someone once told me that DC had the highest concentration of bars in the United States. I don't know if that's true, but I wouldn't doubt it. If anything, DC has to be the Happy Hour Capital of the country because of its demographics of people who drink from 5-7pm: politicians, lobbyists, a million lawyers, overworked and underpaid government employees, businessmen, tons of grad students, etc.

Probably the best part of my senior year were the happy hours. Margarita Mondays with Ms. Vega, Meng, and Stacy. Brew Co Thursdays with Alex, CoCo, and others. Sonny McLean's with the roommies. I might sound like an alcoholic but that's hardly the case (if you've ever been out with me, you know you'll be lucky if you get me to have more than one drink). Rather, happy hour was a great place to hang out with friends. It was laid back, it was cheap, you don't dress up, and I love bar music when it's not blaring.

While I'll go out to a bar at night every once in a while, it's just not the same...especially when your boyfriend is a few hundred miles away. It's loud, dark, and more full of intoxicated people on the prowl. It can be fun, but I'll have to be really in the mood to make that effort to go out.

Going to happy hour yesterday with my roommate and some of her section-mates was a lot of fun and made me really anxious for summer when I will actually be able to do this every once in a while (I'm getting class credit, not an income). Less than 2.5 months away. I'll be working downtown, have tons of friends also working in the area, get off of work at normal hours, and won't have tons of reading/memo writing to take up my nights. Oh freedom, so close yet so far.

First Fishy Friday

Although Lent started on Wednesday, today was the big day. My first fishy Friday. Not only did I eat fish once today, I ate it twice!

At lunch I started off easy with some fish and chips to ease myself back into eating fish. I was also out with an old political friend for lunch in the city so my options were limited but it was quite good.

And for dinner, I prepared some fresh tilapia that I bought at the grocery store for very cheap this week (I love how grocery stores and eateries cater to Catholics during Lent...Filet-O-Fish Fridays are no coincidence my friends). Fortunately the tilapia I bought was boned, fileted, and not smelly so preparing it didn't freak me out too much. I seasoned it with some cajun spice and baked the fish, cooked up some sweet potatoes and peas, and voila! Have to admit that it tasted pretty good (as they say: just like chicken).

I could have started eating fish again at any time of the year, but it's kind of fun that it's one of my Lent resolutions. It works out perfectly because Catholics aren't supposed to eat meat on Fridays anyway.

Also, I've realized that goals set at Lent are much more likely to be kept because (1) the shorter time period of Lent makes goals seem much more managable then, say a New Year's resolution where it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and (2) the religious aspect does motivate you a little more. I've only ever kept one New Year's resolution, which happens to be writing in this blog, but I've never broken a Lenten promise even though I make my promises gradually more difficult every year.

Even if you're not Catholic, you can still try it anyway. It's a very good challenge in self-discipline and sacrifice that my boyfriend (giving up beer), roommate (cutting back to checking facebook once a day), and many other friends who are not Catholic and/or Christian are also doing. C'mon, all the cool kids are doing it.

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!

I had a really fun day today, inspite (or maybe because) I spent 13 hours at my law school. See, there's this little secret about law school: they reward you for all your hard work and insanely high tuition with a lot of fun and interesting events. That or it's the only way they can keep us sane.

The first event I went to today was a panel entitled "Who is the Decider? Congressional Oversight of Presidential War Powers." It was moderated by my own Con Law Professor, who also was general counsel for Carter, Clinton, the 9/11 commission, and was Associate Attorney General. With former Department of Justice attorneys citing a lot of cases we do in our reading, and talking about issues that I'll be researching this summer with my externship at the Constitution Project, it was really cool (in the nerdy type of way) to see how everything ties together. I was also happy to see the huge turnout for this event.

Then tonight, I went to an auction for public interest scholarships. I can't remember the last time I went to a live auction but it was really fun and very well done. Giving competitive law students, who have no concept of money because their debt is so large, some drink tickets for alcohol is a good way to raise money through an auction. They had a lot of creative and hot ticket items. Some of the notable ones were:

• An icecream social with my favorite professor & 14 of your friends (wanted to bid on it but it went for $275, far above my planned bid)
• A Louisiana-style 5 course gourmet dinner for you and your friends cooked by one of the professors who also agreed to donate $250 to any Katrina charity of your choice (went for $900!)
• 2 VIP tickets to ESPN's Pardon the Interruption where you got to meet the hosts (went for $675)
• Dinner & Poker Night for you and your friends with an alum who argues infront of Supreme Court. (went for $700)
  
• Have a sandwich designed and named after you for a year at Wagshals, the sandwich shop right by the law school (went for $350, which was once again, far more than I could pay. But if I could...a Doanie Bologna Sandwich for sure!)

There were a lot more interesting things, like VIP passes to the Colbert Report and a 5 on 5 challenge against some of the law school's favorite professors. My roommate and I left though because we were tired of being on campus all day and she has class tomorrow. I'm really glad I went though. It's really fun to see our law school, from faculty to students, all come together. Perhaps some law students will regret dishing over hundreds of dollars they can't afford now, but at least it's all going to a good cause.

Spring Training

Today I went to a nondemoninational Ash Wednesday service on campus (the Pastor made a joke about how if you could make a law classroom holy, you could make anywhere holy...the Pastor used to be a lawyer). Despite the awkward setting and out of tune singing, it was a really good service.

During the homily, the Pastor made an analogy about Lent to spring training in baseball. It really made me miss having a college priest with homilies that speak to a younger generation. I thought the other interesting thing he talked about was the irony between the fact that we publicly wear ashes today but how the sacrifices, fasting, alms giving, and prayers that we make as Christians are supposed to be private. Not secretive, but just not flaunted or "preached on a corner" to make ourselves feel holier than others or to get attention. A good reminder.

Finally, although I'm not for prosthetizing or indoctrination either, I'm a big proponent about education (especially since I like learning about other religions). Since Lent is the time of the year when I get the most questions about Christians and Catholicism, I'll be happy to try to answer them, or look for an answer. It's actually a good way for me to brush up on my own faith. So Happy Lent!

Emotional Immunity

Today for criminal law, I read the following cases:

• An eight year old boy died after his father punched him. The autopsy showed that the boy was malnourished, underdeveloped, and had experienced abuse for an extended period of time. The boy's sister testified that the father once beat up the boy after drinking 2 quarters of whiskey, and had often choked the boy.
  
• A two year old died after being attacked by a neighbor's pitbull. The neighbor had a treadmill to train his dog, and manuals about increasing its biting strength. Though the neighbor leashed the dog, he did not put him behind a fence like he told the boy's mother he did.
• A man died after being stabbed 51 times. The man who stabbed him claimed "self defense" after the two men were in an argument about the authenticity of a item purchased.
  
• A terminally ill man died after his son shot him point blank in the head 4 times in his hospital room because the son didn't want his dad to suffer anymore.

Lawyers get the reputation as cold-hearted people. But sometimes you have to wonder if all the hard cases that you read in law school teaches you to put up a guard. So you don't get emotionally attached, so you look at the facts, so you zealously advocate for your client.

I honestly think that if I didn't distance myself from some of the cases I read, I would be far too emotionally drained and have too many nightmares. And it's not just the extreme murder and criminal cases that are hard. It's writing child-support and divorce memos in Legal Rhetoric and reading deportation cases in Public Law, inequity in housing in Property, discrimination cases in Constitutional Law, and torts cases- so many sad tort cases.

I'm all for showing empathy to people, especially your clients, but you can't wear your heart on your sleeve as a lawyer. I'm sure people who work at hospitals have to do the same. People might think that it's unnatural not to react to some of these cases; I think its unnatural not to form a defense mechanism after reading so many of them. And on that note, I'm going to go read something fun (Newsweek cartoons?) before I go to bed.

B is for the Best Boyfriend

Some highlights of the best weekend in Syracuse, brought to you by the letter "B"...

• Belated Valentine's Day. I was sent on a "Supermarket Sweep" style scavenger hunt around Alex's apartment when I arrived at like 1am, finding cute and useful presents (like a jar opener because Alex isn't there to open jars, and vanilla chai tea) until I was led to a candle-lit indoor picnic. *awww*
• Blankets of snow! I haven't seen this much snow since I lived in Minnesota; and I probably looked like a little kid bundled up with gloves, waddling through the snow. I wasn't that cold, but I was wearing long-johns, gloves, a wool sweater, hat, and down jacket most of the weekend.
• Bruins Basketball at the bar, with buffalo wings and beer. Considering I don't even get most of the UCLA games out here, I don't normally eat like this. Even if most of the people in the bar were watching other games, it was still fun to be out with other sports fans. And we won!
• Basketball marathon. Watching the ASU beat USC (wohoo!) and the NBA All-Star weekend. Seriously, if basketball was all 3-point shootouts, slam dunk contests, and Charles Barkley racing 67-year old referee, Dick Bavetta, I would totally watch more often.
• Bowling! I haven't been bowling for years, and it took me a good game to warm up, but I had a lot of fun "Rock 'n Bowling" with Alex's co-worker and his fiance, who both went to ASU. It was a fun night of reminscing about the west coast, observing people with mullets who hang out at bowling alleys, and laughing at the guys try to assert their manliness by knocking down pins.
• Bring Your Girlfriend to Work Day. In addition to spending half a day at Alex's office, I also went with his staff to go see a play in Rochester. Seriously, the longest, most painful play that we've sat through ever. It was so bad that we can only laugh now about it.
• Bumming Around. The best part of the weekend was probably just getting the chance to relax. Just like old times...watching Law & Order, meandering around the mall, cooking dinner together, etc.
  

Though I've crashed back into reality, it's nice knowing that Spring Break and another trip up to Syracuse are only a few more weeks away.