Calm Before the Storm

Inauguration Countdown: Three Days

If you tired of inauguration coverage, you can just bear with me for a few more days. A lot of friends and family outside of DC have asked me about the occassion or to be their "own correspondent on the ground;" and of course I want my own record of being in DC for this event.

Today was eerily quiet. I am camping-out at Alex's apartment in Foggy Bottom, just a few blocks away from the White House and Mall. At first I was worried about metro'ing in with my bags but the metro was surprisingly emptier than most weekends. This might be a culmination of people not arriving yet, the increased number of trains, and decreased number of DC residents out, because it did seem like all the people I rode with were tourists. I think all of the media coverage about the millions of people coming in scared away all the tourist-phobic DC'ers into going out of town or just staying home all weekend.

Even though it was quieter than usual today, you can still feel the excitement and see inauguration stuff everywhere. Everyone is talking about which celebrities will be where ("Oprah's across the street at the Kennedy Center!") and which ball is where. The picture to the left is the line of people waiting just to buy the Obama commemorative SmarTrip card. [photo courtesy of DCist]

Tomorrow will be the real test of how many people are actually here. My friends and I are headed out the big We Are One Concert out at the Lincoln Memorial. Wish me luck with the crowds and cold (I packed thermals, wool socks and sweaters, snow boots and gloves, a beanie, and two jackets).

Brrr . . .

When my four year old cousin, Matthew, came to visit California from Minnesota for Christmas, he said something along the lines of "Did God create seasons so Minnesota has winter and it's Spring in California."

Well, from the weather map right now, it more looks like California has summer, and DC has weather only slightly warmer than Minnesota's blistering winters. While I was waiting for the bus this morning, weather.com said that it "felt like" -2 degrees, and I would not argue with the site.

I know that California is 3,000+ miles away, but how is it 70+ degrees warmer than here? I know that this is the weather I signed up for on the East Coast, but this is just ridiculous.

Long Weekend

Inauguration Countdown: Five Days
Weekend Count: Day one of my six day weekend.

Fun Facts: George Washington's first Inauguration Day was April 30. Then every President after that, until FDR, was sworn in on or around March 4. Could you imagine an even longer transition period than we have now? Abe & FDR had to wait four months to deal with the difficult situations that US was facing. It would make for a warmer inauguration though. But alas, the Twentieth Amendment had to change Inauguration Day to the twentieth of January.

I guess DC lucked out that this time around, January 20th falls on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. day. Symbolically appropriate and logistically terrific for a long weekend.

Thank you MLK Jr. & Barack Obama, but for more than just the days off from school.

Talk to the Learned Hand

If you ever want to make a law student smile, just say the name Learned Hand. Yes, that is a name of a real person.

Probably one of the most famous judges who never became a Supreme Court Justice, Judge Learned Hand is a favorite amongst law students. Yes, we love him because he has a fabulous name that elicits nerdy law school jokes (see title) and facebook groups. However, he also has some of the best opinions, insightful, reasonable, and actually easy to read. And for those of us who were actually good at math at some point in our lives, the liability formula = great.

Why do I write about him today? Because I learned that he actually had a cousin: Judge Augustus Noble Hand. My remedies book actually confused the book and had to publish a correction in the supplement.

Learned Hand, Nobel Hand . . . I wikipedia'ed these people to see if there were any cool family names, but did not find anything. Learned's parents were named Sam and Lydia. However, I did discover that his full name is actually Billings Learned Hand but he dropped "Billings" because he thought it was too "pretentious." Yes, Billings is much more pretentious than calling yourself Learned Hand.

And thus endeth the nerdy legal lesson of the day.

Inauguration Invasion

Inauguration Countdown: 1 Week
I always find it funny how much DC'ers hate tourists, considering that the vast majority of us are transplants and were probably once tourists here too. Yes, it's annoying when people stand on the left side of the escalator during rush hour traffic, but that's not really the fault of the tourists. (They really need to label the metro escalators, it would solve 90% of commuter aggression.) And didn't we all know we were moving to a tourist town? It's kind of part of the package.

I find it equally amusing how disgruntled people are getting about the inauguration- making last minute plans to escape the city. It's not like we just found out that this is going to be a popular event. It is a major inconvenience for a lot of people in this town, but it's just one long weekend that happens, at-most, every four years.

Maybe it's just because I am a political nerd and love Obama, but I am excited. I get to go to a ball and will try my best to make it out to the Mall for the huge concerts and main event. Even with the millions of people, it will be a unique experience to be in the middle of it all. I remember when I decided to go to school in DC, one of the first things I realized was that I would still be in school for the administration change. (little did I know then it would be a Democrat, let alone Barack Obama) And now it's finally here.

Fluffy Thoughts Cakes' Obama Cupcakes, Picture Courtesy of the Washingtonian

Last First Day

I said it before in August, but today was really my last first day of school. I still cannot believe how quickly law school has flown by and that I will be graduating in a few months. Coincidentally, my class today was in the same room as my first ever law school class. Oh, how things come first circle.

I would write more but I am already exhausted. Two hours of Business Associations + five hours working at the general counsel's office + 1 hour at the gym + 1 hour watching Gossip Girl + 3 hours reading Remedies (how do I have 4x as much reading, but am taking 1/2 the credits I did last semester?) all on less than my usual 8 hours of sleep because I stayed up until 1am to watch UCLA beat USC basketball in a close game = TIRED.

But I know that's what my BA professor would have wanted me to do. He used to be a baller, really. Prof. Wallace: First African American to play basketball in the SEC, Tennessee Hall of Fame inductee, 76'ers draftee, and engineering major. Like I said, baller.

Last Weekend of Freedom

Over the past few days, I enjoyed my last weekend before my last semester of law school. It is also the last weekend before the inauguration festivities brings in millions of visitors, closes dozens of streets, and basically shuts down the district for a huge party.

It's funny how everyone living here is preparing like it is a natural disaster. Stocking up on essentials, running all their errands, mapping out roads, setting up cots in their downtown offices because bridges from Virginia will be closed, or making their escape plan to other states. I do not blame people though, especially those living or working near The Mall. DC metros are already packed during rush hour, now I am imagining it 10x more crowded. It's going to be crazy; I cannot wait.

[Picture courtesy of Ronnie R. on DCist]