Campus Safety

During the past few weeks at work, I have been working on campus safety issues. I attended meetings with the police chief, I listened to a two hours seminar about how campuses need to report crimes and issue timely warnings during emergencies, and I wrote a memorandum analyzing American's compliance with the Clery Act. Campus safety has been on the brain.

And then Thursday came. Another campus shooting. The graduate student killed five people at Northern Illinois University. It was a chilling feeling. As a person, I was saddened for everyone involved. As a student, I thought about what it must be like to have this happen on one's campus, one's home. And for the first time, I thought about what it must be like as a campus administrator. A feeling of helplessness because there was little they could have done this time. Unlike Virginia Tech and other school shootings, there were no 'red flags,' there were no mistakes in alerting the campus.

Alex and I were also talking tonight about how there had been such a lack of coverage of this shooting. I do not think that we have simply become immune to these tragedies. But I think that the media has not picked up on this story, like they did with Columbine or Virginia Tech, because this story makes people more uncomfortable. This is not the story about 'social outcasts.' About kids who listen to Marilyn Manson or a Korean immigrant who wrote disturbing essays. Those were people who society could easily paint as troubled and mentally disturbed. People who are different than us.

This time it was a graduate student who was well liked. Yes, he wrote about "dark" subjects like self-injury in the prison system. But he won awards and tutored other students. And this act was shocking to people who knew him. The only explanation of how this could have happened was that he had stopped taking his medication lately. But really, there were really no warning signs. I think this scares people, I know this scares me.

Top Chef Boyfriend

I try to avoid sappy, boyfriend-filled posts. However, I am breaking my own rules for a post-Valentine's Day entry in order to recognize Alex's valiant culinary endeavor.

Instead of going out to a fancy restaurant and paying twice as much as any other night (see yesterday's post about people profiting off of Valentine's Day), Alex surprised me with a five course meal:

• Asian Avocado
• Saltimbocca of Zucchini (play off of Veal Saltimbocca)
• Salad
• Parmesan Puffs
• Filet Mignon with a Balsamic Glaze
• Accompanied by red wine (thank you Charles Shaw)

It was supposed to be six course meal but he did not have time to make the roasted asparagus dish, which was fine because I was stuffed. And no dessert because of my Lenten sweet-abstention. Overall it was a lovely dinner and Alex even covered the apartment in red balloons, which his cats loved.

Now that I have preserved this memory in blog form since I did not have a camera to capture the moment, and now that I have sufficiently embarrassed Alex by revealing his romantic side, I will lay off the lovey-dovey posts for a few months.

Happy Valentine's Day

Someone on Yelp posted a Valentine's Day event where everyone would be decorating shoe boxes to put Valentine's Day cards inside. [See picture below, from the event invitation.] Oh, elementary school nostalgia. I loved decorating those shoe boxes and getting cheesy and pun-filled cards from everyone in my class. I think my favorite cards I ever gave out had Ziggy on them.

In high school and college, mandatory cards to all your classmates were replaced by buying candy-grams through ASB, embarrassing someone with a singing telegram via the show-choir, sending a rose or can of "Crush" anonymously through a fraternity or sorority, etc. Clearly Hallmark is not the only one to learn how to profit off of this day.

And now in the final phase of my educational career, we at my Kumbaya law school celebrate Valentine's Day with the Vagina Monologues and a Chocolate Bash to support public interest fellowships (curse giving up sweets for Lent!) And we might even heed the advice of our professors...

Feb. 14th is Valentine's Day and if you have been abandoning your significant other because of law school all year, the 14th is probably a good day to put the books to one side (even if your significant other is named Rex or Fido or in fact are the characters from The Office sitcom, they too need your affection)." --Professor Rosser

Happy Valentine's Day to my family, friends, and of course, Alex.

Kristina's Day Off

Whenever I was home sick as a kid, I would always watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I thought it was appropriate for the occasion and it was one of the few movies that I never got sick of.

If I had the movie with me here in DC, I would have watched it today. You see, in DC, we are not really prepared for winter weather even though it comes...well...every year. So when I woke up this morning and saw that there was icy rain, I cold my law school's weather hotline. "Classes will begin at 11am today." Yes, that meant that my 9am Wills, Trusts & Estates class was canceled and I could curl back into my warm bed.

Since my only class of the day was canceled, I enjoyed a lovely day off. No crazy shenanigans like Ferris, just sleeping in, a morning at the gym, a lot of laundry, and a Project Runway marathon as I researched for my seminar paper. Leisure does rule.

Guilty TV Pleasures

I admit it. Right now I am watching Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo. On Sunday I watched Platinum Weddings on WE after watching Extreme Home Makeover.

After reading dense Administrative Law cases, I need mindless television. And after reading about about people dying and disinheriting their children in Wills, Trusts & Estates, I need feel-good shows about love and community.

These are the shows that a lot of people do not like to admit watching. Maybe as progressive and independent women, we feel as though we should not like these sappy programming. But my roommate and I love these shows, which are actually more interesting and 'deeper' than the commercials make them out to be. Don't judge until you watch for yourselves.

Moreover, I am woefully optimistic and am a total sap for the happy endings. My roommate and I were thrilled when we discovered that one of our favorite couples, Patrick and Lola, who met through Millionaire Matchmaker are now getting married.

And you know we are not alone. These shows are still on tv, someone has to be watching them.

Icebox

Mom: It's c... *inaudible word*
Me: I know, it is getting really cold here too!
Mom: No, I said it is close. The election is really close. Not cold, it is 70 degrees here.
Me: I hate you.

I almost forgot that DC had winters until the cold front came in last night. We had had such great weather- even hitting the 70s last week. As my friend Jessie said, "it was so nice that I was wearing flip flops and eating icecream!" Then bam, cold. Goodbye icecream, hello ice storms.

At least I am no longer going to Minnesota for Spring Break. 40 degrees below zero? How did I ever live there.

Free Exercise & Free Speech

There is never a dull or quiet day in DC, especially when there are so many places to demonstrate. I have seen people protesting in front of the White House, Chinese Embassy, World Bank, on the Mall, and more. However, today was the first time that I have seen people protest in front of the founding Church of Scientology at Dupont Circle.

I know that a lot of people think that Scientology is a cult that swindles money away from people and that it is banned in some European countries, but I am not sure how it kills. I would have asked the crowd but one of the protesters asked me if I was a handler- clearly indicating that I looked like 'the man' and that they did not trust me. Moreover, the protesters were dressed up as aliens or wore surgical masks, which made them seem as odd as the people they were protesting.

Thank you First Amendment.