Wrapping up 2L

Just one more week of classes and then it's exam-time. My exam period is going to be a bit different from previous semesters because my finals consist of:

One real exam
One self-scheduled exam
One portfolio (Street Law)
One non writing requirement (20 page) paper
One writing requirement (40 page) paper
and
One trial (for trial practice)

My high school students somehow realized that, even though they have school until June, I will be leaving them at the end of this week. At the end of class today they presented me with a card. Jessica, my amazing cooperating teacher at the school, assures me that she had nothing to do with it. It was very, very sweet of them. I have to get back to researching for my non writing requirement paper (only 20 pages? Sounds like non-writing to me!) but I figured I would post the card because some of the notes on it are hilarious. I especially like "I never took you but you seem cool." from a "Jacob" who, indeed, I did not teach this year.

Birthday Week

I had a very good week. First, on Wednesday one of my student groups won the final round of the citywide mock trial tournament. The judge, who had been judging this tournament for the past 25 years, said that this was one of the best matches he had seen. The students on the team were so very excited. My most uptight student attack-hugged me from behind as I was leaving the courtroom. This was an especially uplifting win because they were down one team-member due to a family emergency. As we were walking in, one of the students on the team turned to me and said "we're just going to use this to come together as a team and win and then you're going to give us all A's and not make us take the final." As it turns out.... accurate. Overall my teams ended up within a just few places of one another, so hooray for consistency.

This week was also great because of Trial by Jury. Will Munoz recalled the time I tricked him into joining GG&SS last year and returned the favor by tricking me into agreeing to be a spotlight operator for Trial by Jury. I was glad to do it, since I wasn't able to find time in my schedule to do the show this semester (note to future self: 5:45-7:45PM classes are bad). Coincidentally, spotlighting a show is one of the very few things that I have never done for a production. I have acted, directed, music directed, tech directed, stage managed, assistant stage managed, choreographed*, run the curtain, house managed, and a few other things that I have forgotten... but never have I operated a spotlight. They're fun! I was constantly overwhelmed with the feeling of trivial power that, during moments that were blackout except for my light, I could unilaterally plunge the performers into darkness if I so chose. I would probably never do that, of course. Like I said... trivial power.

They all did so well! It was a very fun show.

Steph R. as Plaintiff's Attorney, Justine as the Plaintiff, Jeff as the Judge, and Noah as the Defendant

Thursday was my birthday, and I had classes without breaks between 10AM til 7:45PM, so yay! At 8 I ran the spotlight for the show, and afterwards we had the Thursday night cast party at our house. Jeff refused to listen to my pleas to just ignore the fact that it was my birthday and brought out a cake with candles on it in the middle of the party. Everyone sang and most people even knew my name for the "happy birthday dear _____" part, which was nice since I wasn't in the show and there was no reason for a good number of people at the party to actually know my name. After the party I went downstairs to find birthday mail from family and friends. 

On Saturday, Kelsey had arranged for a birthday brunch at one of my favorite new eating spots, The Big Board. Apparently, by the time she was through arranging everything, she was on a first-name basis with everyone in the restaurant. They gave us the entire upstairs of the restaurant for as long as we wanted, because Kelsey is a very assertive party-arranger. She had also arranged for one of her co-workers to make me a cookie-cake, which was one of the best surprises ever. The cake came undecorated and we put out tubes of icing for people to play with. Selena went up first and used her artistic skills to write a very nice message and draw some hearts.

Very impressive.

Then everyone else went. I particularly appreciate the addition of the word "usually" to "We love you Mike!"

Cheers, Sladky! In this picture he is toasting me for having won a March Madness Bracket. 

We all know how knowledgable I am about sports.

Kels deserves lots of praise for putting everything together.

Saturday, after the final show, there was a GG&SS 40th anniversary gala. Kels and I got to go as Davia and Noah's "dates" (the members of the cast all got complimentary +1's). The event featured lots of good food and an open bar and provided an excuse to dress up. I even let Kelsey put gel in my hair.

And after all that effort to get ready, this is the least-blurry and/or light-distorted picture that was taken of us all night.

So, to sum up, 26 started out very well and I am excited to finish out the semester strong over the next few weeks.

*Until I let Kay take over. And by "let" I mean there was a mutiny against my choreography.

Hold Tight and Pretend it's a Plan

Saturday I had to take a standardized test called the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). You have to take it to be a lawyer. I took it this year because I did a professional responsibility class last semester and I don't want to have to worry about it next year. Since I'm on the Journal of Legal Ethics it will look especially bad if I fail it. So I hope I did not fail. 

All of this is to say that I had every intention of studying for the MPRE on Friday. Every intention. Then I looked on facebook and saw that my friend Kirk, owner of Captain Cookie DC, had sent out a request for help for the afternoon. Well, I've always wanted to work on a DC food truck and as luck would have it, I had all afternoon free (to study for the MPRE). I texted Kirk on the off-chance that someone else hadn't already lept to his aid. I received a text back within a few minutes that told me to come to Virginia and 20th NW whenever I could. I took that as a sign that I shouldn't worry about the MPRE (I can always retake it next year). 

So I spent my whole Friday afternoon selling cookies and ice cream out of Kirk's cookie truck. It was awesome. I felt connected with DC (we are famous for our food trucks) and everyone was smiling at me all day, which is a stark difference from how I imagine everyone will be looking at me whenever I become a lawyer. 

The view from inside Captain Cookie's truck. I even got a special hat.

Having studied up as an expert in DC Food Trucking, I took my ethics exam on Saturday morning. It's a good thing it was multiple choice or I might have said "just give the client a cookie" as an answer to every ethical dilemma. Unfortunately, actual legal ethics rules are an even mixture of common sense and archaic traditions that make no sense at all (sure, you can call yourself a "Proctor in Admiralty"if you practice maritime law, but don't you dare suggest that you are a specialist in murder cases unless a random ABA accredited group has given you an award that says you're a specialist in murder cases). 

The rest of Saturday was spent shopping at Trader Joe's, where I bought everything because I love Trader Joe's almost as much as I love Costco, which is a lot. Mainly, I realize that I appreciate stores that remove brands and just give me one option for each type of thing to be bought.

Sunday was a very nice day so we decided to go on a run to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. Kels and I ran from my house to the Thomas Jefferson memorial in about half an hour. Pete met up with us there to share in the festivities. Though few trees had actually blossomed, this turned the afternoon into a find-the-BEST-tree scavenger hunt. 

No good ones over here, but an artsy shot of TJ (and all the tourists) is always good.

Then, far away in a corner, we found the perfect cherry blossoms.

I told them to pose like they were in a high-school yearbook.

Pete was much better at staying in character.

But she got it eventually.

Though Pete and I really nailed it, I think.

Obligatory.

Look at them! How majestic they are!

Look, you don't spend an hour walking around trying to find the ONE cherry blossom tree that actually looks decent and then NOT take pictures like this.

After looking at trees we went to the American History Museum. I always thought this museum was just okay, but that was because I had no idea there was a bottom floor filled with gigantic and awesome exhibits, including one about electricity (featuring giant early 20th century pistons and generators).

Also, a valuable lesson learned. In any great endeavor, step 5 is always "Consequences."

We're about to get to step 5 of the semester. Exams are less than a month away and so many of my classes are winding down and/or up as dictated by format. That's okay. It's all part of the plan.

We're Going to Finals

Very proud of my students today. I found out in an e-mail that TWO of my teams are going to the street law mock trial finals. Now, this is supposed to be an impossibility because typically there are only two teams IN the finals and they don't allow teams from the same school to compete against one another, but this year they decided to have four teams in the finals due to a tie between the top scorers.

So they all get A's. A's for everyone.

Also, I had a great Easter weekend. I was working throughout most of it but got to take a break on Saturday and have brunch with Mom and Nanny as they stopped by DC on their way down from Maryland to North Carolina. We went to Lavagna, one of the best brunch places in the city. Other than that and a nice dinner on Sunday that Sara spearheaded I've just been doing a lot of work. Good work, though. Reasonably fun.

Medieval Times and More

Last Thursday was the first mock trial competition for my high school students, and they did very well. Out of four teams, we won 3.5 of the trials (we technically lost on one of the two issues in the fourth trial, but we won on the important thing and the judge only awarded the other side attorneys' fees). Not that it matters, since a mock trial is like Whose Line Is It Anyway in that the judge's decision doesn't actually matter at all in terms of scoring. Still, it was great to be in one courtroom and hear the judge (when awarding the win to my kids) say "both sides did very well, but it seems as though the facts in this case were stacked towards the plaintiff (my team)" and then run to the courtroom across the way to hear the judge say (when awarding the win to my kids) "both sides did very well, but the plaintiff really has to PROVE their case and I don't think the facts were there in this packet so, on balance, I believe that the defense (my team) wins." They get to do it one more time tomorrow, and we have been working on advanced techniques and small improvements on the work they had already done. It's good, too, because I'm actually starting to get to the point (for a few of my top students) where I don't know how I would improve on their questions or their delivery all that much. 

Over the weekend we had Sara's golden birthday (she turned 24 on the 24th) and she wanted to go to Medieval Times, so that's what we did. We cheered on the white and black knight, who was the first to lose in glorious battle (of course), so then we switched allegiances to the red knight, who seemed to be doing well until he was offed by the blue knight, who no one liked. I was not expecting to enjoy Medieval Times as much as I did, but it was a very well done production.

The crowns were free, but you don't want to know how much Dan's beer cost.

This week has been exciting in DC for more manic weather, including a random snowstorm.

It was practically t-shirt weather later this day.

It has also been exciting in DC because the Supreme Court handed down a decision for a case that I had used to teach my kids about the 4th Amendment (Florida v. Jardines) and managed to come to the one conclusion that has almost nothing to do with what I taught my kids about the 4th Amendment (basically, that the case could be decided based on the idea of trespass as opposed to the idea of privacy). Thanks, Scalia. On the plus side, it had three very well-written opinions. It's a case about a dog sniff that detected a marijuana growing operation in a house, and on the first page Justice Scalia refers to the police officers monitoring the house as a "joint surveillance task force." See, even the Supreme Court can have a sense of humor.

In addition to handing down that case, the Court is hearing two cases that will probably be the most important of the term- Hollingsworth (Prop 8) and Windsor (DOMA). Or, as you may understand from media reports, the Gay Marriage cases. I'm actually going to a post-argument discussion today after Windsor that will feature several of the people who worked on the briefs for both sides. My personal favorite moment from the arguments yesterday was when Justice Scalia asked something like "at what point did banning gay marriage become unconstitutional?" and the lawyer responded "at what point did banning interracial marriage become unconstitutional?" You aren't supposed to ever respond to a Justice's question with another question, but I thought that was well played.

P.S. You Should Blog

Spring Break was last week, and by Spring Break I mean the school was nice enough to give me a week to write a 21 page research paper tentatively titled Fifteen Years and Death: Double Jeopardy's Multiple Punishment Implications of Extended Stays on Death Row. It's a real page-turner. I'm hoping to use it as a jumping-off point to get people interested in my next paper with the working title: Uncertainty Principle: Legal Approaches to Non-damaging Cybercrime. I know, I know. It practically writes itself.

In the brief moments when I could tear myself away from my riveting research, we did the beach as we normally do it. Nine people representing friendships from most of the eras of my life were able to come down and spend some time. Some had been many times before, and for some this was the first time, but the program did not change: reading, movie-watching, beach-walking, game playing, and grilling while drinking firefly. As usual, we felt that our grilling this year was superior to our grilling every year before (with the exception of the corn, which was not in season). Brian prepped, Kay and I grilled, Jeff turned the golf cart into a speaker with a weird machine that turns solid objects into speakers. Since I had forgotten to bring down my own stereo as I usually do, this kept the continuity. 

We did do one new thing (well, aside from playing some of the 500 new board games that Josh brought): we went to Brookgreen Gardens. Every year, for the past five or six years, someone would say something about going to Brookgreen, but we never did until this year. It was pretty great.

They had a zoo of sorts, and Kelsey decided she was the horse-whisperer. I think at one point she actually whispered "I'm the horse-whisperer" and then a horse came right up to her.

Jeff is a priceless work of art, too.

Everyone's favorite was a giant cage filled with birds in the middle of a swamp.

We went back a second time a couple of days later because we heard about a labyrinth and wanted to walk it. Unfortunately I thought labyrinth meant hedge maze. You would think that as a law student I would have learned to figure out the differences in meanings of words by now.

In spite of all the time I spent working, I had a great time at the beach and came back ready to finish the semester. My street law students have their mock trial next Thursday and then the Thursday after that, so that will be my big project over the next couple of weeks. We had a practice mock trial the other day during which I got to scare them a little and they got to scare me a little. Most of them will do well. I hope.

The Oscar Goes to....

Who says DC doesn't have culture and a sense of humor? This encapsulates the very hipster quality of the H Street neighborhood near where I live.

Kelsey had work Saturday morning, and after that we headed down to Williamsburg. This was my first weekend in over a month that has been even a little "free" (which means I still had to work, but I could do it from my computer) so I was very happy to get out of town. Absi and Zan were very kind to host us, and we had a wonderful time. We had dinner at La Tolteca (where Absi and I spent many a lunch/dinner our senior year) followed by bowling. Absi also gave me a really awesome Houdini coffee cup (he disappears when you put hot liquid in the cup) and a trivial pursuit game designed for geeks. Truly, she knows me well. 

The next day Kels had her half marathon. I dropped her off and then Absi, Zan, and I went to have a nice brunch. As I was enjoying my meatloaf panini sandwich I said "hey guys, let's not tell Kels that we were doing this while she was running her *checks watch* fourth mile," because I'm nice.

Two hours went by quickly for me and I picked Kels up at the finish line looking none the worse for wear. I almost wished that I had signed up to run the half marathon as well. Almost. That night we had an Oscars party. Meimei was in town so she came over and we all dressed up. We filled out ballots and spent the entire night basking in glory whenever we correctly predicted that a movie we knew nothing about would win an oscar for something like best on-set catering. We also had grand plans for making cocktails that went along with each best picture nominee, but we stopped after the Life of Pi Key-Lime Pie cocktail because it was very good and there was nowhere to go but down after that.

The next day was Monday and I had to get back to school so we left in the morning. We did have time for Kels to get an oil change, and while that was going on I went to get my hair cut. It was pretty much the best hair cut place ever- they cut it well, the shampoo process involved a hot towel on my face, and the chair had a built-in back massager. It was also super cheap. Why can't we have nice things like that in DC? 

The trip back up was uneventful, and, as is now tradition, I worked on my assignments as Rupert tried his best to distract me.