Finding My Stride

I just found my stride in studying for final exams. I felt a little flutter of excitement in my stomach while reviewing my Tax Law notes just now. It was one of those "ah ha" moments where the reality of where I am and what I'm doing washes over me--wow, I'm in law school in Washington, D.C., only a year-and-a-half away from becoming a lawyer. Why do we grumble so much about final exams, when it is such a privilege to be here? As students, our job is to learn! We are so fortunate. I am reminded of the thrill that I get when I bring home new textbooks at the beginning of a semester. There is so much potential. It is important to harness that same energy and excitement at the end of the semester, to finish as strongly as I started.

It's snowing!

Good weather for studying with a mug of hot apple cider--which, incidentally, is good, as there is much studying to be done. Final exams on Wednesday (Tax), Friday (Corporations), and the following Monday (Professional Responsibility), plus a paper due on the 18th; keep me in your prayers.



Oh, and while we're on the topic of weather, I must share this with you: http://obama-weather.com/Obama/s/20001. Obama shows you how to dress for the week's weather! Hilarious, and makes checking the forecast so much less mundane.

Advent(ures)

Happy first Sunday of Advent! I love liturgical seasons, because they present opportunities to start anew. Advent, in particular, appeals to me because of the wonderful sense of anticipation. Everyone is looking forward to Christmas! Moving away from home has intensified this expectant feeling, as I am excited not only for Christmas, but also for the chance to go home. And, of course, all students eagerly await the conclusion of final exams. I pray that this season will be prayerful, productive, and joyful for all of us.

In the spirit of welcoming Christ into our lives and homes, Jess and I decorated our apartment! An impromptu visit to Target yielded wonderful results--stockings, lights, and even a little Christmas tree!

My favorite part is that we spelled out our names on the stockings using pipe cleaners. And, the lights look so gorgeous. Jess and I keep finding excuses to wander into the living room when we should be in our rooms, studying. The little tree is just right for us, too. (The tree skirt is one of Jess's scarves!) We are very pleased with the resulting atmosphere of our apartment.

The past couple of weeks, while fraught with another brand of anticipation in the form of final exams, have nonetheless been full of good moments. The weekend before last, of course, Cal kept the Axe! Jess and I had a good time watching the game at the Cal-Stanfurd D.C. alumni viewing party at Bar Louie in Chinatown. Go Bears!

I'm currently looking for a spring internship, to take advantage of all of the amazing opportunities for law students here in D.C., and last week was exciting because I had an interview with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless! We'll see what happens... I've applied to other places as well, and have an interview coming up with the Department of Health and Human Services Departmental Appeals Board this week. I am looking for an internship to complete my Pro Bono Pledge hours, which I think is a great idea. So, keep your fingers crossed that I find an internship that allows me to grow through service.

Jess and I both stayed in D.C. for the Thanksgiving holiday so that we could get work done, but that didn't stop us from having fun! We attended not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was on Wednesday, hosted by the President of Georgetown University in one of the dining halls on campus, and it was fantastic. We ate a ridiculous amount of food, including multiple desserts, and made some lovely new friends at our table. Oh, and there was live music! Very classy, Georgetown. There were lovely flowers as centerpieces that [Jess and I decided] were up for grabs, so now I even have some gorgeous chrysanthemums living in my room!

The second dinner was on the law school campus on Thanksgiving day, sponsored by our dean and organized by Sr. Dorinda, who led us in an interesting Native American prayer before the meal. This meal was even better than the one on main campus, in my opinion. I'm not usually a stuffing fan, but something about this stuffing made it delicious. And, the gravy was fantastic. The best part was that they provided plates and plastic wrap so that we could take home leftovers! Mm, still have a bit of turkey in the fridge.

Thanksgiving morning, Jess and I did some volunteer work with Food and Friends, an organization in D.C. that delivers food to home-bound cancer and AIDS patients. After a training session at their very organized facility, we were off, armed with three gigantic bags stuffed with full Thanksgiving dinners to feed families of four, including entire turkeys, multiple pies, and all of the fixings. We drove around Northwest D.C., dropping off the meals at our assigned locations. One old lady cracked us up by asking where our "menfolk" were, and seemed disappointed to learn that it was just us. Oh, goodness...

On Friday afternoon, Jess and I went to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform The Music Man, conducted by Marvin Hamlisch! We weren't sure exactly how they were going to do it, and were very surprised and delighted to see it performed on stage, right in front of the orchestra, featuring Shirley Jones, her son Patrick Cassidy, and Rebecca Luker. It was very entertaining, and a great way to take a break from our studies. (Though, admittedly, this break was not as productive as I had planned.) The best part was that we had fantastic seats in the orchestra for only $15, thanks to the Kennedy Center's Attend program for 17- to 25-year-olds. For goodness sake, parking cost more!

Other than that, I've been focusing on my studies, what with my Tax Law exam only ten days away, yikes! Well, actually, I did do one other little fun thing over the Thanksgiving break--I read Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol. Jess bought it last week (and raced through the 500 pages in a day), so I couldn't help but do the same. Obviously, as an English major, I could critique the writing--I mean, no one needs to use the word "esoteric" that many times in one book--but I don't think that Brown is trying to write a meaningful masterpiece. No, he's trying to entertain, and he succeeded in that regard. I was especially interested in reading the book because it takes place in D.C., which made it a lot of fun to read his descriptions of the city and think, I know what he's talking about! He made a few minor errors (e.g., the seats on the Metro are not hard plastic), but I'll forgive him. I enjoyed the story, even if Jess and I both saw the big twist coming from a mile off. At any rate, I recommend it if you're looking for a quick, light read, and, if not, it'll make a for fun movie in a few years.

Weekend Adventures

The past two weekends, I've been playing the role of a D.C. tour guide. One of my new year's resolutions was to "get to know D.C. like a local," so hosting guests is a great opportunity to test out how far I've come along in that goal.

Carla's Visit

The weekend before last, Carla was in town. She got in fairly late on Friday night, as she and her friend were driving down from Buffalo after an exam, so we stayed in, sipping wine and catching up with one another, which was quite lovely.

On Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee, Jess, Carla and I started the day by visiting the Pentagon Memorial. Although I live two miles away from the Pentagon, I had yet to visit the site of the 9/11 attacks. It is a very mysterious memorial filled with symbolism representing each victim.

We then headed into D.C. to visit the Capitol. We took the Capitol Visitor Center tour, and, although it was my third time taking it, I nonetheless enjoyed seeing the rotunda. One of my favorite things to see are the statues from each state in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Each state has two statues in the Capitol, and they are allowed to replace the statues with different ones periodically. One of California's statues is Junipero Serra. Until recently, the other statue was Thomas Star King--yeah, I didn't know who he was, either--but, he was replaced this year by Ronald Reagan.

The most exciting part of our visit to the Capitol was that the House of Representatives happened to be in session all day to pass the health care bill! We were able to get tickets to go into the Visitor's Gallery of the House, which required waiting in line for an hour and going through multiple metal detectors. It was so worth it! When we sat down, a Democrat was giving a speech in support of the bill. Naturally, when he finished, the Democratic representatives applauded. However, when I joined in, I was swiftly reprimanded by the guard for clapping, which is expressly forbidden. I had read the back of the ticket, and knew this, but, but... I just got swept up in the moment! Oops.

We walked across the street to check out the Supreme Court (closed on the weekends, but still quite impressive from the outside) and the Library of Congress. I bragged without reserve about my Library of Congress researcher card, which gains me access to the Main Reading Room. My favorite part is Thomas Jefferson's Library, which is an exhibition of the books from Jefferson's personal collection, which he sold to the Library of Congress after the British burned down the Capitol. (Darn British!) The fascinating thing about the collection is that Jefferson had his own system of categorizing books--Memory, Reason, and Imagination. So intriguing.

After that, we strolled along the Mall, visiting the National Gallery Sculpture Garden (more on this below) and then regrouping at Starbucks. We decided to take the Metro back to Arlington to collect Jess's car, so that we could visit the Jefferson Memorial and F.D.R. Memorial, which are not easily accessible on foot. Jess and I agree that the F.D.R. Memorial is our favorite memorial in the city, and it is especially wonderful when lit up at night. We also checked out the White House, the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Jess took a very creative photo of us by using her 10-second delay function:


On Sunday morning, the three of us went to Mass at my dear law school's chapel, and then walked over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which had several fascinating exhibits. One featured American folk art, with art made from bottle caps, quilts, wood, and even tin foil. I also enjoyed the exhibition on 1934, which only had paintings from that year, capturing a wide variety of scenes from American life in that era. We concluded our time together by eating lunch outside at Busboys and Poets, taking in the beautiful sunshine. It was a joy to see Carla, not only because I missed her, but also because, with the three of us together, it felt like a little bit of ADX, which is a nice feeling.

Matthew's Visit

This past weekend, Matthew came down from MIT to visit. It was wonderful to catch up with him, as we hadn't seen one another since his semester in Berkeley. Matthew got in Friday afternoon; after we ate Chinese food in Chinatown, we walked to the Supreme Court to catch the last courtroom lecture of the day. There were a lot of high schoolers in the crowd asking obnoxious questions that demonstrated their complete misunderstanding of the judicial process. How is it possible for high school to offer only one semester of civics?! Not enough!

After that, we did a brief tour of the Library of Congress, and then walked around the city, stopping by the the National Gallery Sculpture Garden--well, until we got kicked out by a guard shortly after nightfall, when the garden closed. Boo. We saw most of the sculptures, though. My new favorite is a full-sized silver tree, which provides an interesting contrast to the surrounding real trees. We had dinner at La Tasca, a great tapas restaurant, which included very sweet duck, snow peas paired with Canadian bacon, delicious marinated beef, a green apple salad, and a bizarre deep-fried potato-and-chicken purée with a garlic dipping sauce (my least favorite dish).

On Saturday, Matthew and I strolled along the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, and then took a tour to the top of the Washington Monument. It was overcast (Ida was still affecting us), so visibility wasn't spectacular, but at 500 feet it nonetheless afforded us a great view of the city. I noted that our tickets abbreviated the monument as "WaMo," which I really hope catches on as a new nickname. You know, like MoMA!

Next, we headed over to the National Archives. In my mind, the exciting documents to see are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, but Matthew was amazed by the Magna Carta. In retrospect, I think he has a point... and, yet, the Magna Carta is treated as a mere side attraction. As Matthew put it, it seemed like it would be pretty easy to steal the Magna Carta without anyone noticing, whereas two guards flank the U.S. Constitution.

After a mediocre lunch at the Archives' cafe (which I do not recommend), we walked to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. We spent over three hours there, and only made it through about 70% of the exhibits. It's so huge! My favorite things there are Lincoln's hat, the original American flag, and the exhibit on American presidents. They had a new exhibit on The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington, which I loved. What fantastic photography, to tell such stories and capture such emotion.

We attempted to go to the Sign of the Whale (the official bar of the D.C. Cal Alumni Club) to watch the game against Arizona, but unfortunately Matthew couldn't get in without his passport to supplement his Australian ID. We were a bit bummed out at this, but then I took us over to Afterwords, one of my favorite restaurants, in DuPont. It's quirky... you have to walk through its bookshop to get to the restaurant, which really makes me happy for some reason. Anyhow, they often have amazing specials, and that night was no exception. Matthew and I both ordered the following:

Narragansett baked ½ lobster w/crabmeat
½ New England lobster
stuffed w/jumbo lump crabmeat
brushed w/sweet butter & fired under the broiler
w/puréed butternut squash & Café mac & cheese
corn & lima bean succotash; grilled fresh asparagus

It was amazing. Matthew and I were silent through most of the meal because we were too focused on the food to talk. Wow. The best part--it was only $20! Most of the entrées are around $15, so it wasn't much of a stretch. Neither one of us had ever ordered lobster before because it tends to be prohibitively expensive, so it was quite a treat. Lobster is good, but I still think I prefer crab because it has a more palatable texture. All of the sides were so good, too... They were all fairly buttery, which complemented the lobster perfectly. When I first read the description, I had assumed that those were our choices of sides--but, no, we got all of them! One of the best meals I've ever had, especially for the price.

After spending all day on our feet walking the Mall and shuffling through museums, we were pretty tired, so we headed back to my apartment and watched Rent. Such a great movie!

This morning, Matthew and I went to Mass at the Georgetown Law chapel, and I gave him a little tour of campus. Then, we had lunch (at Busboys and Poets, ha ha), and caught the Circulator bus toward Georgetown to visit the Dumbarton Oaks gardens. I had never heard of the place, but a friend of Matthew's recommended it, so we decided to check it out. It is so beautiful! It is humongous, with lots of little stone walking paths to meander. We explored the garden for an hour-and-a-half, which gives you an idea of the size. One of my favorite parts was the rose garden, which smelled lovely. Oh, and there was a lawn in front of a fancy brick house that looked like something out of a Jane Austen novel! I cannot wait to visit this gorgeous garden again in the spring, when everything is in bloom.

We took the bus back to Chinatown, and spent the balance of our time at the National Portrait Gallery before Matthew had to catch his flight home. Matthew was sweet enough to give me a novel called Dirt Music by Australian author Tim Winton as thanks for letting him sleep on our couch. Actually, I was amazed that Matthew, who is rather tall, fit on our couch. Then again, one of the reasons Jess and I chose that couch was specifically because we could think of tall people who might come visit. (And, Jess is quite tall, for that matter.) All in all, it was a lovely visit that made me feel like I was on vacation, too. I feel recharged and ready to study for final exams!

Window Watchers

Where is she going? I wondered, staring out the window of my living room as I ate my breakfast this morning. I don't usually have time to ponder the comings and goings of my neighbors in the mornings, but Thursdays are the exception, as I don't have class until the afternoon. So, I make myself some eggs over easy with a toasted English muffin, sip my hazelnut coffee, and stare out of our windows.

Our apartment complex isn't the most action-packed scene, but I've gotten to know the cadence of our little community over the past couple of months. The various dog-walkers are the most common players on our grassy stage--and, how exciting when more than one dog enters a scene, barking, sniffing, pulling along their masters with the vigor of a squirrel-chase!

Children and their parents are another common scene. When the weather was warmer, there were two little girls who would drag out an elaborate collection of bubble-blowing devices, running across our lawn to generate as many bubbles as possible, then giggling madly as they proceeded to destroy their creations. Some of the bubbles survived the massacre, floating serenely to the height of my third-story vantage point.

I learned that plumes of smoke billowing in front of my windows were not to be a cause of alarm, but rather indicated that the man with the little Weber barbecue pit was out again. During the warmer weather, he was out there at least twice a week! I contemplated sneaking out there to roast marshmallows when he went inside to eat his steaks, but I was never so bold.


It is more difficult to peek into the windows of our neighboring buildings, as most people pull down their blinds, to my dismay. When the blinds are up at night, I can mostly make out the ever-changing illumination of television sets. My apartment doesn't have a television--perhaps one of the reasons that I stare out of the window.

In the dorms last year, my view was of I-395, which sounds boring, but actually offered some interesting scenes. Most memorable was the time that I was awakened at 2 a.m. to the sound of a car crash. It appeared that the two cars knew each other, as the people from one car all quickly emptied the contents of their trunk and piled into the other, speeding off, abandoning not only the car that had been rendered immobile, but also one of the passengers! He ran after the car for a little while, then gave up, instead being forced to deal with the police, who showed up a few minute later. Shady, indeed.

The most common view was that of backed-up traffic jams in the evenings, but there were other, more curious sights as well. There was the man who screamed about salvation into his bullhorn. When the Barnum & Bailey circus was in town, I watched elephants parade on 3rd Street after a show. During the G-20 summit, I saw many motorcades. Being on the 8th floor, I had a great view of many storms. Perhaps my favorite view was the day of the Inauguration, when they shut down the freeway for pedestrian traffic, which was a very bizarre sight to behold:


This post was prompted by an article in today's New York Times, Window Watchers in a City of Strangers. I agree with the premise of the article, that, in staring out of my window, I feel more connected to my community. What do you think? Are you a window watcher? What have you witnessed?

Keen in Study

Oh, goodness, final exams are in six weeks. As always, the semester has flown by with remarkable speed. I feel pretty good about this semester, academically. I'm up-to-date on all of my reading, and I understand the topics that we've covered. I'm a bit nervous about my Transnational Law seminar paper, though, because our first draft is due in two weeks and I still have a lot more research to do, let alone writing 6,000 words. All in due time, I suppose.

The summer job hunt has been fairly productive the past few days. I attended the Equal Justice Works career fair on Saturday, and conducted a great screening interview with Bay Area Legal Aid. This afternoon, I had a second interview with the National Housing Law Project, which went well. I need to keep applying, though... It is so easy to ignore applications in light of all of the other work that I have to do, but the economy has made the 2L job hunt very competitive for all of us, so I must stay on top of things. Anyone want some accountability in their job search? We could call each other to check in on our progress each week. Just a thought.

Earlier in the month, I raised the question of how to establish a more consistent prayer life. Chris suggested that I pray a novena. I've never prayed one before, but my basic understanding is that you devote yourself to daily prayers for nine consecutive days, modeled after the disciples' prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost. Well, Chris has piqued my interest, so I'm going to try one starting tomorrow. There are tons of novenas out there, but I immediately felt called to focus on St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers, because his biography always encourages me, especially during challenging points in my legal education. Indeed, the name of my blog is taken from a prayer written by More, which you can read in the right-hand column of my blog. A quick Google search yielded this novena, which resonated with me as I read it over. So, please keep me in your prayers over the next nine days, and I'll let you know how the novena goes!

Wow

Today at Mass, there was a little girl, maybe 3 years old. She was oblivious to the custom of silence observed by everyone else during the Liturgy of the Word, chattering rather audibly to the chagrin of her mother during the readings. Although I found her to be a bit distracting while I was lectoring, I must admit that I enjoyed watching her attempt to sing the Gloria. She studied her hymnbook with aplomb and--although it was evident that she could not read--sang nonsense words with a gusto that praised God in her own little way.

The best part, however, came during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Fr. Alexei said the words of institution: "Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you." He then elevated the host for us all to see, at which point the little girl remarked in a stage whisper, "Wow!" As I inclined my head to bow, I caught the eyes of some of my peers, and we all shared a smile at the sincere wonderment that had been expressed upon observing transubstantiation. "Amen," I thought to myself, my mind jumping to Luke 18:

People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them, and when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. Jesus, however, called the children to himself and said, "Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

Ah, that we all might cultivate such childlike wonder.