The meeting is taking place at the National Building Museum, next to which I can see dozens of flashing police cars, brigades of bicycle cops, and a series of mysterious white tents. Perhaps the tents are for parking? It is raining, after all, and we can't have our foreign heads of state getting wet. Or, maybe it is a makeshift security headquarters. The incessant sound of sirens isn't exactly conducive to studying, but the activity makes for an interesting view.
Last night, I was near Dupont Circle when, all of a sudden, a bunch of policemen swarmed the area, forming traffic blockades against all of the streets intersecting with Connecticut Ave. I was a bit bewildered, until I remembered that the summit was this weekend, and then I got excited, because I knew that it meant someone important would be driving by. Sure enough, a long motorcade passed by a few minutes later; I counted 8 motorcycle cops, 17 black SUVs, limos and sedans, 2 buses, 6 police vehicles, and 1 ambulance. One of the limos was sporting the Chinese flag, so it's very possible that it was President Hu Jintao! I mean, he's not exactly one of my favorite world leaders, but, still... D.C. is so exciting. (Alternately: I'm a nerd.)
EDIT, 1:10 PM: Ah ha! According to The New York Times, President Jintao headed a delegation of 100 people for the summit, which explains why his motorcade was so huge.
So, I wore a button-down shirt with three-quarters length sleeves today, and I only just noticed, at 10:20 at night, that I walked around all day with one of my sleeves completely unbuttoned. Lame. Ha ha, I wonder if strangers judged me, assuming me to be a pathetic law student driven to absent-mindedness on account of her studies.
I think autumn is here, though the weather has mostly oscillated between winter and spring, in my opinion. I am pleased by the beautiful colors of the trees across from Union Station. I cannot wait for all of the seasonal things that happen in DC, especially once we get closer to Christmas. But, nearer to Christmas also means nearer to finals, so it is a bittersweet anticipation. (Four weeks until finals?!)
Donna and I went on a tour of the Capitol Visitor Center on Saturday. "But, Amanda," I'm sure you're thinking, "according to the CVC website, the center isn't open yet! How on earth did you go on a tour?" Well, simply put, it was courtesy of my sweet Georgetown Law connections. Apparently, the CVC needs people upon which to practice their tours, and they invited the Georgetown Law community to participate in their "test and adjust" tours. Donna and I had a lot of critiques, to be frank. There was an intense 13-minute video about the history of Congress, which was uninformative to anyone who has graduated from high school. Also, they made us all wear headphones connected wirelessly to a microphone worn by our tour guide. It seemed like a good idea, if a bit odd, but they need to work out the technological kinks--i.e., very loud and obnoxious static. That being said, it was pretty neat to see the Capitol rotunda, which our guide told us is spacious enough to fit the Statue of Liberty with room to spare! Also, the Capitol has two statues from every state, so there are statues shoved everywhere. We only saw one of the California statues, of JunÃpero Serra. He was portrayed in brass, and was shown brandishing a cross in his right hand.
After our tour, Donna and I cruised over to Dupont to get lunch and do some studying together. We went to this awesome salad place about which Donna had been raving, called Chop't. It's like the Coldstone Creamery of salad! You pick out the lettuce and toppings that you would like, and they dump everything onto a counter and use a huge mezzaluna knife to chop up the ingredients, which has a curved blade for rocking action. Then, they dump everything into a big bowl, add dressing, and toss it for you. It is a bit pricey, but they give you enough salad to last two meals, which makes up for it. Donna and I decided that the place felt like Northern California.
We spent the remainder of the day studying at various cafes, which often broke down into people-watching, laughing uncontrollably, and general silliness. I studied for my Legal Research and Writing in-class exam, which is on Friday. (Yikes!) Actually, I feel pretty good about LRW... meticulous citation rules and grammatical nuances are kind of my thing. Nonetheless, this week will consist of much preparation. Andiamo! (That's for you, Chiara.)
In the spirit of NaBloPoMo, I thought I'd try to post more frequently this month. (All the coolkids are doing it, after all.) Perhaps, instead of writing one or two obnoxiously long posts per week, I'll write posts of a more manageable length. We shall see.
So, I am on a retreat this week, which has been quite a blessing. Georgetown Law's Office of Campus Ministry puts on a semi-annual Prayer in Daily Life Retreat, in which we meet with a spiritual director every day and are guided to pray with and reflect upon scripture. The retreat is coming at a good point in the semester, because it allows me to address the struggles that I've encountered spiritually so far in law school, while also preparing myself spiritually for finals, which start in a scant four-and-a-half weeks.
I have been deeply challenged by the lack of accountability here. Gone are the days of living in a community of Christian women, praying with Cindy and Carla, et al., each morning, attending two to three Bible studies each week, and spending more time at Newman than in my own house on some days. I miss it so deeply, and yet--not to frighten those of you in Berkeley, but--this is not how the rest of the world functions, I'm afraid to say. I am learning that, as much as I can seek out groups of Catholics my age for fellowship, I must find other ways to hold myself accountable to God's desire for faith, hope, and love.
As most of you know, I am something of a word nerd, and one manifestation of that is to compulsively look up words in dictionaries and thesauri. (I cannot begin to describe how much joy my Mac's dictionary/thesaurus widget has brought me.) Incidentally, as I was writing the previous paragraph, I looked up synonyms for "frighten," because I didn't like how the sentence read with "afraid" at the end. One of the synonyms listed is "put the fear of God into," and that makes me reconsider the context of the sentence. I take it back--I hope I do frighten you! Knowing that other synonyms for that phrase are to "be in awe of," "venerate," and "respect" God, I hope that you are in awe of the gifts that God has given you, and cherish the communities that you have. One often doesn't fully appreciate something until one feels its absence, and this is very true of my profound relationships with the Beta chapter of Alpha Delta Chi, and the campus ministry of Newman Hall Holy Spirit Parish. You guys realize that I think about you literally every Monday and Tuesday, respectively, right? You're in my prayers.
However, do not think that feeling the absence of these fellowships leads me to despair. No, I simply must learn other ways to work on my relationship with God. And, I have never turned away from an opportunity to learn. In the words of the seal of the University of California, and of Genesis 1:3, "Let there be light."
As I looked from face to face, the joy was universal. Perfect strangers grinned widely at me, and I grinned right back at them. Choruses of "O-BA-MA!" and "YES, WE CAN!" rang out along H Street, echoing off of the tall buildings that surrounded us. No one seemed to mind the steady drizzle of rain--nothing could dampen our spirits on this night.
The streets were packed with bands of people walking every which way, pouring in and out of bars and apartments, taxis and subways. Each red traffic light was an invitation to dance in the street, and dance we did to the rhythm of the chants, barely noticing the lines demarcating the crosswalks.
I clapped. I shouted. I debated universal health insurance. I laughed. I high-fived. I hugged. I stood in a bar, surrounded by students and professionals, men and women, blacks and whites (and everything in between), and I did not stand alone.
We stood and we watched the speech. The inspiration. The reassurance. The potential. We smiled at the thought of the Obama daughters' new puppy. We clapped for David Plouffe, and we admitted sheepishly that we were happy he would stop emailing us, now. We looked at the faces in the Chicago crowds, and we were moved, and maybe even shed a tear ourselves.
I walked home. My apartment was dark, quiet, calm. I breathed a sigh of relief as I snuggled into my bed, and prayed a little prayer of thanksgiving. I closed my eyes, and looked forward to tomorrow's dawn.
There are very few countries that live up to their creed, that live up to the documents of their founding, that all men are created equal. And, tonight, America has proven itself on a world stage as a show country, not a tell country. They have shown that we have lived up to our creed. That we are what we say we are. And there's not a lot of countries [...] that can say that. [...] America, tonight, lives up to its promise.
In tribute to SNL's parody of Keith Olbermann, I welcome you to The Countdown with Amanda Stempson. (N.B. Diction borrowed liberally from both the parody and from Olbermann himself.)
Edit: To see/hear an audio version of this blog, check out the YouTube video that I created:
5: Comedy or Commentary?
We turn now to our fifth story on The Countdown: the brilliant portrayal of Keith Olbermann by Ben Affleck on the Nov. 1 edition of Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey's parody of Sarah Palin notwithstanding. The in-character Affleck said, quote,
It is a fear, sir, and a tyranny up with which we dare no longer put.
This sketch is long overdue and is, by far, one of the best SNL pieces to come out of this season. Affleck's pompous verbosity, rapid enunciation, and gratuitous outrage were simply superb! I was particularly delighted by his refusal to end a sentence with a preposition, even when resulting in absurd sentence constructions (such as the above quote).
I find Olbermann's show entertaining, if uninformative, mostly because he is so ostentatious. So, to see a grandiloquent parody of The Countdown made my day. Should not, indeed, Stephen Colbert consider the hiring of a co-anchor to aid him in the Report's pursuit of truthiness?
4: Truants for Change
Number four on the Countdown tonight, the supportive efforts of Georgetown Law to enable students to be involved with the 2008 presidential election. The Student Bar Association, the student government of the law school, passed a resolution requesting that professors either cancel class on Nov. 4, or provide an audio recording of the class. The purpose? To allow students to more fully participate in the plethora of voter protection projects happening in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
As of last week, I discovered that my own classes for Election Day will be canceled. Although my availability was last-minute, I was able to sign up for homeless voter protection at a nearby polling place. My job will be to help homeless people who are denied their right to vote. I will do that all morning, and then walk to the Obama campaign headquarters to do some "last call for change" phone banking. I highly encourage anyone who has any spare time on Election Day to work for non-partisan voter protection or for the Obama campaign directly. And, for the love of America, VOTE!
3: Viva la Vida
Our number three story: Coldplay was in D.C. on Halloween night, playing to a sold-out Verizon Center. I had the good fortune of attending said concert with Donna, and was much impressed by Coldplay's high-energy performance, resplendent with over-the-top light effects.
Chris Martin, lead singer for the band, played the piano in a manner that one can only describe as the seeming efforts of a tortured genius. (That is not to say that Mr. Martin is a tortured genius, but rather that he is capable of portraying one on stage.)
I attended the concert technically dressed as a punk poseur. My initial thought was to attend the concert dressed as a punk, but, acknowledging that I wouldn't necessarily be able to pull this off authentically, I amended my costume conceptually. Some of my classmates argued that this was somewhat esoteric, and I concede that they had a point. Fortunately, Donna later helped me to improve my costume by rolling up my pant legs, applying copious amounts of eyeliner, and coaching me in facial expressions and attitudes that were categorically emo, to great effect.
2: World's Worst
And now, Countdown's Worst Person in the World! To: Michael Powell, New York Times reporter. Mr. Powell recently wrote an article that ostensibly jinxes the entirety of the Obama campaign and its supporters. Entitled "Obama Is Up, and Fans Fear That Jinxes It," Mr. Powell maintains that, quote
To talk with left-leaning Democrats in New Hope, San Francisco or Miami Beach, to drill deep into their id, is to stand at the intersection of Liberal and High Anxiety.
Well, Mr. Powell, if the Dems weren't thinking this before you wrote your pessimistic malediction, they certainly are now! Mr. Powell, you of all people must know of the enormous influence that the New York Times has on liberal thought. To write such inane blather, and then make this claim, is circular logic, indeed! This piece is little more than a self-fulfilling prophecy based on a cruel tautology that may cost Mr. Obama the election!
Mr. Powell, sir, if you yet retain any trace of honor, you must at once resign from the New York Times. Indeed, sir, justice and dignity demand you so to do!
1: ADR & HSM
Turning, now, to our number one story tonight: Disney's High School Musical has infiltrated the hallowed halls of Georgetown Law. In Civil Procedure on Friday, in a discussion of alternative dispute resolution, my professor was explaining the cooperative efforts of resolution as related to sociologist Talcott Parsons' four elements of therapy. Specifically, dispute resolution plays out as a sort of psychotherapy for all parties involved. My professor's way of succinctly encapsulating this point? Quote,
We're all in this together.
My professor acknowledged that he has a 12-year-old daughter, and has thus seen High School Musical on multiple occasions. He even went on to make sardonic comments about Sharpay. Quite simply, sir, it was one of the most surprising moments of your class to date.
And that's the Countdown for this: the six-hundred thirty-second day since Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States.
Last night, I was in the Situation Room! Well, sort of. I was in Hart Auditorium here on the Georgetown Law campus, but Wolf Blitzer declared that we were all in the Situation Room, implying, for all intents and purposes, that the Situation Room is wherever Blitzer happens to be at the time. I attended a symposium called "Decision 2008: November 4th and Beyond," which was moderated by Blitzer. So cool! The panelists were E.J. Dionne (Washington Post columnist, Georgetown Public Policy Institute professor), Charles Krauthammer (Pulitzer Prize winner, conservative syndicated columnist), Celinda Lake (pollster, Democratic political strategist), Clarence Page (Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist), and Byron York (National Review White House correspondent). It was a pretty interesting panel discussion, because of the diversity of opinions on issues such as whether McCain still has a chance, whether the Bradley effect exists, the effect of Sarah Palin, how negative campaigning affects credibility, and the ways in which the economy has impacted campaign messages. This is one of those events that reminds me of the awesome opportunities I have by being in D.C., and specifically by being at Georgetown Law.
Unfortunately, the symposium was scheduled at the same time as my small group Bible study, which crushed our attendance (i.e., no one came). Mike and I waited for fifteen minutes, and then decided to attend the symposium ourselves. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? Hopefully we'll have better attendance next week when we aren't competing with a popular head anchor of a major news network.
It's crazy to think that this election is finally coming to a close. I can remember when I first took notice of then-Senate-hopeful Obama during his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, and got goosebumps from his vision for a unified America. I remember when I first considered Obama as a viable presidential candidate, upon reading a Time magazine cover story in 2006 on why he could be the next president. I wondered to myself whether the United States would even be willing to elect an African-American as president, yet I found within myself a burgeoning hope that America had reached that point. I have followed Obama's campaign for nearly 22 months with ever-increasing attentiveness since he declared his candidacy in February of 2007. I fell in love with Obama's rhetoric and charisma when I attended a huge rally for him in Oakland with Cindy on St. Patrick's Day last year, delighting in green t-shirts supporting "O'Bama." I have watched the debates, I have followed the controversies, I have read dozens upon dozens of articles about the campaign. Quite frankly, Obama has been an integral part of my fascination with politics for years, and I wonder how things will be on November 5. Hold onto your seats, folks.
I received in the mail today my District of Columbia Voter's Guide, which was exciting. I absolutely adore the graphic that the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics put on the front cover of the guide:
It is so delightfully saccharine. "You complete us." I love it.
I've been sick all week. What started out as a terrible cold quickly progressed into a sinus infection. I have never experienced a sinus infection, so the fever, headache, nausea and difficulty sleeping bewildered me. I described my ailments to my mom, and she diagnosed me from 3,000 miles away, urging me to go to the doctor. Reluctantly, I made an appointment, and the doctor confirmed that I had a sinus infection. What is it about moms that gives them the ability to be right about stuff like this? Crazy.
Wednesday evening was when I could no longer stay in denial as to how sick I was. I came home from class around 3:30 pm, and had plans of taking care of a few things and baking some cookies for my Small Group Bible study, which was scheduled to meet at 7:30 pm. Well, I woke up at 7:50 pm, twenty minutes into my Bible study, as Mike tried to call me on my cell phone. Panicking, I grabbed my Bible and papers, attempted to sprint up two flights of stairs, and apologized profusely for my tardiness (and lack of cookies). Argh! Showing up late to things is one of my worst fears... I've seriously had nightmares about being late to important events. Regardless, the small group went very well. People came, we had a lively and honest conversation about several passages (Mark 2:1-12, Luke 19:1-10, and Luke 24:13-32), and I have hopes that even more people will be coming next week. I'm excited to see what this semester will bring for this group.
I've been living as an invalid for the past few days, albeit still attending class. In my Civil Procedure class, if you're unable to participate in class for an exceptional reason (such as illness), you are supposed to leave a note explaining your situation before class on the professor's desk at the front of the lecture hall. I did this on Thursday, and my professor had the greatest reaction. He arrived right as class is about to start, putting down his books and picking up my note. He read the note silently, and then a look of panic mixed with irritation fell across his face as he dropped the note quickly back onto the desk. He looked up at the class, announcing something to the effect of "If you think you are sick, do not leave a contaminated note for me to try to infect me, too! Write me an email before class!" He then proceeded to use the end of his pen to push the note as far away from himself as physically possible, a look of disgust on his face.
The class laughed, myself included, because it was pretty clear that he was just trying to lighten the atmosphere, as we had taken an intense practice exam last week. I spoke with the professor after class, assuring him that I had washed my hands before writing the note, and he confirmed that he was just kidding around. Actually, he was really nice to me, encouraging me to try to come to class even if I feel terrible, and wishing me a quick recovery. He also told me to sit in the back row the next day in class (as opposed to my assigned seat), so that my classmates would have a lessened chance of being infected. A bunch of my classmates were curious and concerned as to why I was sitting in the back, and a couple of people even walked to the back to "visit" me, which was really nice. (I also had some people thank me for trying to get the professor sick, somewhat to my chagrin.)
Outside of class, I have been spending all of my time confined to my room in pajamas. Being sick is so boring. I don't have enough energy or concentration to work, so I've been watching videos, reading articles, playing Tetris, and sleeping. I cannot believe how much I've been sleeping! I keep taking multiple lengthy naps during the day, and then sleeping for 10 hours at night. It is really strange, considering that I dislike taking naps, and usually subsist on 7 hours of sleep per night (if that).
Hopefully, my energy will come back soon, so that I can be productive. I want to get as much work done this weekend as possible, so that I have time to hang out with Erin while she's in D.C. this week!
The meeting is taking place at the National Building Museum, next to which I can see dozens of flashing police cars, brigades of bicycle cops, and a series of mysterious white tents. Perhaps the tents are for parking? It is raining, after all, and we can't have our foreign heads of state getting wet. Or, maybe it is a makeshift security headquarters. The incessant sound of sirens isn't exactly conducive to studying, but the activity makes for an interesting view.
