Winter to Summer

When it is cold, rainy, and sleeting outside, like it was earlier this week, you just want to snuggle inside in bed instead of having to study.

When it is over ninety degrees, humid, and sunny outside, like it was today, you just want to go swimming and eat ice cream instead of having to study.

Conclusion after three years: there is no good weather to study for final exams.

Scalia Day

Today my law journal hosted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for our symposium on Chevron, a landmark administrative law case.

I realized just how good of writers he and his clerks must be, because the tone in his written opinions is exactly the same as when he speaks. The "voice" is dead on. Justice Scalia is just as snarky, funny, and blunt in person as the hundreds of opinions (mostly dissents) I have read during law school. As much as I love administrative law, it can be a pretty dry area of the law; yet Scalia still found a way to get riled up about things and keep us laughing.

This event seemed to be a very fitting close to my law school career. Not only was there a Supreme Court justice at my last major law school event, all the characters from my first year section managed to obtain some of the few seats open to general students. My Con Law professor who got Justice Scalia to speak also moderated the panel and called on people for questions, just like class. And just like first year, the two main gunners from our section asked their long questions while the leftist/fight-the-man activist protested in the back. Crazy as some of these people are, the event would not have been the same without them--especially since it was fun watching Scalia shoot down the gunners (no pun intended) knowing that Scalia was one himself in law school.

Now I have seen two justices speak in person, only seven more to go.

Perfect DC Night

Warm spring evening
Outdoor patio with good people watching
Savory French crepes
Frozen yogurt for dessert
Company of four best friends you have made in law school

Even with finals lurking around the corner, I am a happy, happy girl

The Guy Next Door

Everyone at school is talking about the Craigslist Killer story. While the juicy story is the headline story of most major newspapers and the general public is buzzing about it, I think that my friends and classmates have taken a particular interest in this story.

The fascinating and equally disturbing part of the Craigslist Killer saga is that the primary suspect, Philip Markoff, is just like one of us. Reading his description, I could think of dozens of people I know who fit his profile. He is only a year younger than me and is in professional school as well. He comes from a well-to-do family with doctors and lawyers like many people I know. He wears oxford shirts and khakis, pretty much the standard uniform for males at my school, and likes to play poker, the standard recreational activity. He does volunteer work, which is where he met his fiance, and they are registered at Pottery Barn, where I have shopped for my friends wedding gifts this year.

He could have been our classmate, our acquaintance, our colleague at work, our roommate. In fact, Alex just told me today that one of his employees was college roommates with Markoff for over a year. Small world.

To hear that Markoff allegedly attacked multiple women he corresponded with through Craigslist, brutally killed one of the women, and had plastic restraints, their panties, and a gun in his apartment is just bizarre. It sounds like it could be an epsidoe of Law and Order, and that is why we are so fascinated (90% of law students watch L&O and some were inspired to go to law school because of it . . . like me).

I think a lot of times people take comfort in thinking that people who perpetrate crime and violence are "other people." Foreign terrorists, people who live on the other side of town, people you would not socialize with. In fact, I have been reading a lot of about the myths about Columbine and how people do not want to accept that the two killers were not actually complete loners or members of the Trenchcoat mafia. But I feel like a current theme of the news lately is that it could be anyone. The med student, the kid who went to prom (the Columbine case), the dad in the nice suburban house who lost his job. That is what makes it equally fascinating and distrubing.

Crime Watch

Today I found out that one of my friends had been mugged over the weekend. Even though he was knocked unconscious, needed stitches, and lost his watch, everyone is grateful that he was not injured more seriously. I felt so angry when I heard the story too. He is also one of the nicest guys I know at law school and he looked so beat-up when I saw him today. All for a watch (he doesn't carry a wallet when he goes out and his friends found his blackberry in a bush nearby).

When people hear these stories, the first question always seems to be where it happened. And while it did happen in Adams Morgan, one of the rowdier places in DC, it really does happen everywhere inside and outside of DC. In the past month, two other males at my school have been mugged in separate incidents walking home by themselves, both in nicer parts of town.

I share this not to scare my parents (I promise to be safe!), but as a reminder to friends to take care of themselves--males and females. While I have noticed that most of my female friends will never go anywhere late by themselves or will take cabs directly to and from places, males often go solo thinking they can be fine on their own. But there really is something to that safety in numbers thing no matter what your gender.

Sigh, California

I love California and I absolutely plan on returning. But the more news I hear about the state, the more surprised I am that it just has not completely fallen off of the United States. I know that everyone is dealing with economic issues, but California seems to be deteriorating all around. Among being one of the states with the biggest debt and highest unemployment and foreclosure rates, it falls behinds states like Iowa in terms of gay rights. Iowa!

To put the nail in the coffin, Miss California gives this answer in response to gay marriage:


Hmm, opposite marriage? I feel like even if you did not believe in the right to gay marriage, there was a way to say it that was not so offensive. The sad part is that while Miss California is just one person, her answer is indicative of the state's current stance, as evidenced by the proposition banning gay marriage. That is what is more sad to me. Not just the honest answer of one person in a "scholarship" pageant.

In other California news, my Congressman, Buck McKeon's house was bulgarized by someone with Chicago license plates. In a letter to constiuents, the Congressman's wife stated that the bulgar was linked to Chicago, opposed Obama legislation saying it was right out of "Stalin's playbook" and part of Obama's "socialist agenda." Of course they deny that they were trying to link Obama to the bulgaries. Typical muckraking. And to think, this guy actually does represent California.

Smithsonians

Who would have ever thought that the Smithsonian Institution, which operates some of the most iconic American museums, was named after a British guy who had never been to the United States, established by an a bill penned by a socialist, and signed into law by President Polk in 1846. Thank you Wikipedia.

Since Alex's parents are in town, we took them to some Smithsonians: the American History Museum (my favorite), Natural History, Sculpture Garden, and Archives (not Smithsonian but in the area).

The Smithsonian museums are probably one of my favorite things in DC. I love the mix of history, politics, pop culture, interactive displays, and constantly rotating exhibits. And what is even better is that everything is free so you can keep coming back. Each Smithsonian is so full of fascinating and changing information that even after first coming to DC 11 years ago, I can come back to the same museums and be entertained.

My Favorite ALR Things

Tonight was my journal's end of the year banquet. Despite all the work, being on journal was one of the best parts of law school. Here is a song that my friend Vicki wrote and my friend Chris sang at the banquet. Pretty much captures all of the things I will miss.

My Favorite ALR Things

Food in the office with classmates and spading;

Deer park spring water and SWO grading;

Waiting all night for those 10:10 meetings;

These are a few of my ALR things.

Cream colored covers;

And crisp published pages;

Six hundred plus footnotes of Varona at all stages;

Doing the re-tabs when he added note thirteen;

These are a few of my ALR things

When Scalia comes;

Getting free hours;

Eating Dana’s baked goods;

I simply remember these ALR things and then it improves my mood!

Mixing up Vicki, Kristina, and Kim;

Choosing from Bluebook or TLRM;

Library of Congress for source gathering;

These are a few of my ALR things.

Italicizing See, e.g.,’s first comma;

Intra-office dating and ALR staff drama;

Bar application commiserating;

These are a few of my ALR things.

Getting Wagshalls;

Eating twinkies;

Shockley’s Marie Calendar;

We simply remember all of these things, and that’s why we loveeee ALR!