Fantastic Quotes, Performances, and Trips

My professors have said some fantastically quotable things in the past couple of weeks:

“Remember Marbury v. Madison: sign, sealed, delivered?” - Contracts professor, jogging our memory about the landmark case establishing judicial review, in which Madison failed to deliver a commission by President Adams appointing Marbury as Justice of the Peace in D.C.

“Whether the barn is being used for intimate purposes…” - Criminal Justice professor, on the open fields doctrine of Oliver v. United States (this statement elicited many snickers from my classmates)

“The house is haunted as a matter of law." - Property professor, on Stambovsky v. Ackley, an incredible case involving an exception to caveat emptor (buyer beware), because the seller of a haunted house had taken advantage of the buyer's ignorance about the otherwise publicly-known fact of the house being haunted

Oh, good times.

Last night, I went to the Kennedy Center with Tracie to see the Hilliard Ensemble, which is a British male vocal quartet that is world-renowned for singing early music (e.g., Medieval and Renaissance). They performed a selection of Renaissance-era Requiem Mass songs in Latin; specifically, "Orlando de Lassus's four-part Requiem Mass, interspersed with motets and antiphons by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina." I wasn't sure what to expect, but the Catholic nerd in me figured that I would enjoy it--and, I did! The program provided translations of the songs from Latin, but I tried to focus on the musicality of the performance. I enjoyed picking up random phrases that I recognized, such as "Kyrie eleison" (Lord, have mercy), "Hosanna in excelsis" (Hosanna in the highest), "Miserere mei Deus" (Have mercy upon me, O God), and "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi" (Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world).

The Kennedy Center has a great program for 17- to 25-year-olds called Attend, which offers steeply discounted tickets to students and young professionals. Fantastic seats to world-class performances for $10?! Brilliant. My friend Mike introduced me to the program a couple of weeks ago, when we went to hear the National Symphony Orchestra perform Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. I vow to take advantage of this program as often as possible while I'm in D.C., seeing as it costs the same amount as a movie, but is so much cooler.

Not to bury the lead, but I'm going to California this weekend! We get Monday and Tuesday off for Presidents' Day, so my parents offered to fly me out on their dime last-minute! I'm catching a flight out from Reagan at 6:35 tomorrow morning, and I'll be back in D.C. Tuesday evening. I'm so excited to visit my family. I don't think I'll have time to make it up to Berkeley, but, never fear, I will be back in the Bay Area in a few weeks for Spring Break.

Strolling Through the Garden

The weather has been so gorgeous in DC the past few days--in the 60s! I hadn't realized how much I would miss sunshine here. I don't think I have a seasonal affective disorder, per se, but going for walks in the sunshine has brought me a lot of otherwise inexplicable joy.

I went to the United States Botanical Garden on Friday on a whim. I think my favorite area was the Orchid House, though the Jungle was pretty neat, too. (I was sorely tempted by the hanging vines.) I'm curious to see what the outdoor garden looks like in full bloom; right now, it's pretty scraggly. Frankly, I like the UC Botanical Garden better, because it is almost entirely outdoors and has wildlife as well, but the gigantic U.S. Botanical Garden greenhouse is pretty cool in its own right.

I was working really hard last weekend, because Monday was the due date not only for the draft of my Legal Research and Writing Brief, but also for my Resident Fellow application. I hope I get an interview--I would really like to live in Gewirz again (the Georgetown Law dorm) next year as an RF (read: RA). We should find out about interviews by the end of the week! Wish I could say the same about my summer job search, though; still waiting to hear back from employers, and still applying to more jobs in the meantime. I'm looking forward to the upcoming five-day weekend... I think it'll be a little more sane than this past weekend. (Thank you, Presidents' Day and Georgetown Law staff retreat!)