It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature

It's a good thing I typically enjoy being busy, because that's what I've been and I see very little end of that in sight.  

First off, I would like to say how lucky I am that I really enjoy American history.  My Conlaw professor (who is a really really big deal and is aware of that fact) likes to ask people questions that are just outside the range of what someone would be able to answer only having read the material once.  This has resulted in a lot of "maybe your neighbor can help..." transitions in class.  On Wednesday it was my turn, as he looked up into the seats and said "you in the blue shirt."  

I looked around.  I was surrounded by a group of people wearing blue shirts.  We were all looking at each other.  

"The Georgetown Law shirt," he added.  I looked down.  I was wearing a Georgetown Law shirt.  "Yes?" I said.  Then he started asking a series of questions from the reading.  The reading that I had only skimmed over because I had over a hundred pages of reading for Wednesday that I did in just a couple of hours on Tuesday.  Fortunately, the reading was about the First Bank of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.  What I knew about that came mostly from my reading of a biography of Andrew Jackson (the charter renewal for the SECOND bank of the United States was a major source of contention) but it covered the general idea well enough that I could fish back into my mind for answers as to "What would James Madison say in reply to Hamilton's assertion that the Constitution clearly didn't allow for the incorporation of a bank?"  So... hooray for lucking out.

I forget entirely everything that happened on Thursday.  This is why I should write posts more often.  I know I had a meeting with my team from the Innocence Project and we wrote our client a letter.  Oh, and I met with Tim, a friend of David's who works for the FTC.  He was awesome and we both shared great stories about David in addition to talking about what it's like being a real lawyer and having cases instead of classes.  

On Friday I wrote and memorized a five minute opening statement for Mock Trial tryouts.  My biggest challenge was not talking like Rod Serling and not appending "... in the Twilight Zone" to the end of every paragraph.  This wasn't my intentional doing- it's just the way these things have to be written (or so I've been told).  Examples:

Were it not for the medical attention he received, Paul Tu would be dead....  in the Twilight Zone.

...once you see the overwhelming evidence you will have no doubt that Ms. Richardson is guilty.... in the Twilight Zone.

After that she threatened that she would make him pay... in the Twilight Zone.

...as he closed the door the defendant fired the gun, delivering what would have been a fatal wound... in the Twilight Zone.   

My speech came in at exactly 4:59, and I pretended as though that was on purpose.  It was just lucky.

My direct examination portion of the tryouts did not go so well.  It is difficult not to ask leading questions when you know exactly what the other person knows and you're just trying to get them to say it in the correct order.  I'm not going to make the team, certainly, as there are many people who I'm sure prepared to the point that they actually knew what they were doing, but it was a lot of fun just trying out.

Friday evening was another delightful Emily Goo cast party.  As always I expressed shock and awe that she had appetizers set out on real serving plates.  Very fancy.  Highlights included getting to spend time with Kelsey, who came up from Williamsburg for the weekend, and trying to convince Noah, who plays Hamlet in R&G, that I didn't hate him (which he thought because apparently he has been talking to me once or twice and I have walked away, in his mind, mid-conversation.  I don't remember it going that way, but I'll take his word on it).  

Saturday I went on a run and to the American History Museum with Kelsey, then got lunch with Ben "how about we talk about the reasons I'm awesome" Leatham.   In the afternoon I had two interviews: one with a place in Miami and the other with a place in Philly.  I would prefer to stay in DC, but neither of those would suck, certainly, so I tried to interview well.  

My first interview, Miami, went well because my interviewer had originally gone to school for music education.  So we talked about music.  Score.  

My second interviewer broke one of the cardinal rules (I think it is, at least) by asking me, immediately after I sat down, to tell a joke.  "Jokes" are extremely context-based and the choice of joke depends highly on the personality of the person sitting across from you.  I went with the following:

*Smiling, jovial face*- "Alright- so a duck and a penguin walk into a bar.  The bartender looks at them and says: 'What is this, a joke?'" *SUPER SERIOUS FACE*

It's not a very good joke, but the delivery got a sustained laugh.  I liked the interviewer, because her followup question was an incredulous: "why do you want to work for poor people?"   

I walked back most of the way from the GW campus (where the interviews were held) to my apartment because it was such a nice day.

Today I built more cubes for the show.  I also learned from Steph and Trevor that there had been another very fun game of Beertrek at Josh's place (wish I could have gone- was way too tired).  Also, Eric, the director of Curtains, was in town and helping the paint crew.  After I arrived he asked a question about musical theater and I said "I thought we were done with trivia," to which he responded "welcome back... to hell."  I missed him.

The set crew came up with a number of slogans and sayings.

"Is it 'ish'?" - as in "Is this exactly 24 inches?"  "Ish."  "Close enough."

"It's a paint problem." - as in "paint crew, you can fix this, right?" 

"It's not a bug, it's a feature!"  - as in "This door overlaps the top of the box by a few inches."  "Well they need a handle if they're trying to open it from the outside." Thanks, Trevor.  

What a great set crew.  And a great weekend.  Okay, back to work.