Brief Stop in Annapolis

The DC summer is finally here. Gone are the predictable nice days with clear skies and highs in the 80's, and we have given a warm welcome to the insane and manic days of much intermittent storming and soup-like humidity. As I have functionally lived in a swamp since starting at William and Mary, this is not new to me and I have come to enjoy the extremes that may pop up on any given day. This past Thursday, for example, I experienced the loudest thunderclap of my life, followed by three minutes of torrential downpour, followed by sunshine, followed by a light drizzle.

I am relatively immune to the weather at my internship since I work in a room with no windows. My investigations are still a constant source of entertainment. This past week I found someone who I thought would be my first legitimate whistleblower case to refer to the official investigation division. I spoke on the phone with the complainant for an hour, verifying all of the information that he said he had and would send to me, before writing up my first case referral memo. The next day he sent me all of the promised documentation, and as it turned out it all evidenced information that was the exact opposite of what he had told me on the phone. I understand complainants misconstruing things to put themselves in a more favorable light, but when someone literally tells me that they have a document stating "A" and then they send me a document that says "B," I am just downright confused. I mean, I appreciate his help in closing his own case, I suppose.... Much of internship this week was taken up sitting on Scotusblog and waiting for the final opinions of the year to come down. I correctly predicted the dispositions of three of the big four cases (I did not see Fisher, the affirmative action case, being remanded- though I think the end result will still end up being what I had predicted).

For a date night Kels and I decided to get out of town and go see a musical in Annapolis, which is only about 40 minutes away from DC. We got free tickets to see [Title of Show] (that's the name of a musical, not a placeholder), and drove in on Thursday night. We were afraid that we might be a few minutes late due to an inability to find parking, so Kelsey called the theater and was told that an actor had just fallen and broken his leg so the show was canceled so... problem solved. They told us to come by anyway, and were very apologetic and nice and gave us free tickets to any of their shows in the future. They also gave us a tour of the theater and recommendations for dinner.

Downtown Annapolis reminded us of Williamsburg, with its very narrow streets and multitude of touristy businesses. 

On Friday I got foodtruck lunch with Jake and Alex and then I went out after work to celebrate with my friend Kacey (aka Kiki) due to her graduation from police academy. My smallest (yet fiercest) friend from college now carries a gun around DC and has the power to arrest people. I feel safer already. I was told that I could not bring her donuts on the job as that would be "frowned upon." 

Saturday we went to see "The Heat" with Emily Goo. Goo did not know that this movie was set in Boston, but when she realized that, it became her favorite movie ever. Kelsey and I thought it was very funny, too. Afterwards we met Jeff and Sara in Chinatown for some tapas. 

Today was another day of stormy-sunniness. Davia's birthday was this week, and since birthday brunches are the trend (I don't think I started that, as much as I would like to take credit) we had her birthday brunch today at Founding Farmer's!

Obligatory group photo.

After brunch, Kelsey and I walked around for the city a bit and went into one of the few remaining Smithsonians that we have not yet visited- the Renwick. This one had exhibits of American craftsmanship and was very well curated- we were captivated by a video showing all of the different ways wood can be joined together in furniture-making. 

I am an excellent alarm clock

I spent the first couple of weeks at internship reasonably underwhelmed with the work. All of the attorneys wanted me to help them with things, but I had to work with them very closely in order to do that. Sometimes I couldn't find anyone, so I just worked on revising a death seminar paper that I'm going to send out for fun (for publishing) in a month or so. This week, though, it appears that all of my demonstrations of semi-competence paid off as my bosses decided just to throw cases at me and let me go for it. My biggest accomplishment so far involved telling a woman that we were going to close her case and having her thank me for helping her. Thanks, negotiations class!

Also, while walking home from work on Friday I saw this truck, and thought it had a great slogan.

Geeks never have imaginary friends, because the geeks themselves were imaginary to begin with.

This weekend we got to leave the city behind and head to Woodberry (for the first time in over a year) to go to Zibby's wedding. When talking abstractly about her wedding back in 2004 (before she even knew who she was going to marry), Zibby asked me if I would jump out of a cake playing bagpipes at her bachelorette party. While that specific plan did not work out due to jobs, logistics, and the absence of a big enough cake, I was able to do something that I felt was a reasonable substitute. 

On the morning of Zibby's wedding, at 8AM, her family secreted me into their house with my kilt and my pipes. We quietly went up the stairs and I stood directly outside her bedroom door. I filled up the pipes with air as silently as possible, and then, when her parents gave the signal, I started blasting Scotland the Brave. Now she'll never forget exactly when and how she woke up on the day of her wedding. 

We've matured so much in the past ten years, right?

The wedding itself was wonderful. It was held in Woodberry's chapel and presided over by Woodberry's headmaster. Hornady, who very kindly let me and Kelsey stay with him on Friday night, played the organ. I spent the night talking to many teachers and colleagues from my days as both a student and a teacher at Woodberry, and I was glad to have the opportunity to introduce them all to Kelsey as well. Highlights of the night included a bet between teachers as to who could steal Dr. Campbell's (very stylish) hat, nerding out over the Supreme Court with my former American History teacher, and dancing with Kelsey and Rachael Fine. The best part, though, was seeing my Zibster so happy with her now-husband Ryan, whom I have liked ever since I met four or so years ago. They make a great pair and hopefully I will get to see them more often in the coming years.

Congratulations, Zib!

Costco and Hirshhorn

I had another good week at work. So far I've only gotten to talk to people who have been happy to talk to me, though, and my experiences may change once I've been authorized to speak with more... hostile parties. 

It is a well known fact that at least once during exams I decide that I am incredibly interested in some completely irrational hobby (the more disconnected from the exam I SHOULD be studying for, the better). This past exam period, I decided that I was going to get a dehydrator and make my own beef jerky and dried fruits. This past weekend I was able to go to Costco to fetch some supplies to finally make use of my exam-induced purchase, for which I have been mercilessly mocked since exams ended.

Kelsey recruited Justine and Patrick to help keep me subdued in Costco. A monumental task, certainly.

I purchased four bunches of bananas and three pounds of lean meat specifically for dehydrating. I also attempted to get Jeff and Noah interested in a giant freezer chest via text-message, but that was unsuccessful. 

I also just bought a lot of food, as per usual.

The first batch of dehydrated things were very difficult to make and not altogether that good. I under-dried the bananas (though Kelsey swears she loved them) and over-dried the jerky (though it was a lot of fun to have something to chew for an hour at work). Normally, such initial failures would stop me from second attempts, but in this case my desire for cheap beef jerky has won out and I have another batch that is going in the dehydrator shortly after this post is published. 

This weekend, Kelsey took me to see a production of The Full Monty. It was also National Donut Day, so we went to Krispy Kreme for our free donuts.

The picture of mine is on Kelsey's blog. She won't share pictures with me anymore because I end up using all of hers and don't leave any unique pictures for her to use on her own blog.

The musical was very funny and had excellent production values. The theater is doing A Few Good Men in August and I'd like to go back and see that.

On Saturday, we met up with David and Shannon at our old crepe place from when we lived in Foggy Bottom last summer. Afterwards we went to the Hirshhorn. Even though I don't care for a majority of modern art, I love going to a museum where I have literally no idea what I'm going to see. Television static with tape over it, tubes dangling from the ceiling in a maze formation, a floor made of beeswax, snails eating cabbage (to symbolize the deterioration of the brain), a pitch-black walk-in room in which a hologram of a tiger occasionally bursts out and growls, etc.... There's always something new. And bizarre. 

Saturday's exhibit was relatively tame.

Except for a giant demonic Easter Bunny sculpture/statute/mixed media thing. That was terrifying. Or cute. I can't decide.

Today I played racquetball (with Noah) for the first time in a year and a half. Now that's a fun cardio workout.