Anecdotes

I had an interview this past Friday for a prosecutorial position Baltimore. I enjoyed taking the MARC train up, and I was very pleased to discover that Baltimore had a free bus system that ran past Penn Station and went to exactly where I needed to go. Given the weather conditions, this was ideal.

On the bus, one of the other riders stated to no one in particular: "I'm trying to get to (location). Does anyone know what's the next bus I need to catch?" I have not seen this happen in D.C.

Then another rider responded: "Oh yes, I'm going out that direction myself, I'll show you the stop." I have also not seen this happen in D.C. I looked around the rest of the bus to see if anyone else was displaying any sort of sign that this interaction was unusual. I saw nothing. I decided that Baltimore was a generally friendlier place than D.C. and that I would relate this specific anecdote in my meeting if asked why I wanted to work in Baltimore.

After a few minutes, I was at my stop and got off the bus. I started walking towards the appropriate building where I would be having my interview. A woman behind me started screaming that someone had stolen her purse. I turned around to see someone run into the alley being pursued by two presumably helpful Baltimorians. Since it was more of a mixed anecdote, I decided not to tell that particular story during my interview.

The interview itself went well, though it was very different from any other interview that I have ever had. Apparently in prosecutor's offices they actually care whether or not you know the law and aren't content to talk about music or TV shows for the duration of the interview. I'm okay with that. I have a second round interview in a couple of weeks, so at least a couple of my answers must have been legally sound.

On Friday night Kels and I went to the Tempest cast party at Josh/Steph/Dan's place. Steph made ALL the food, as usual, including some new blue mousse stuff made with white chocolate that was excellent. We then played Two Rooms and a Boom, which is a card-game variant on mafia.

On Saturday night we went into Alexandria to celebrate David and Shannan's engagement at Tim's place. I spent most of that evening heckling David, because that's just what we do. Then we watched Hangover II, which was relevant because David and Shannan are going to have one of their weddings (it's complicated) in Thailand.

On Sunday I helped judge a college mock trial tournament. My co-judge was a guy who had been practicing in New York for the past twenty years and he liked to talk a lot, so I was the Teller to his Penn. The college students were a lot better at a lot of mock trial than me, but I was a lot better at pretending I was better at mock trial than they were so they listened to what I said.

Next week is the GGSS performance of The Tempest, directed by Ben and Sara and starring Josh and Dan and Justine and Xander and many of our other favorite people. Also, we have been invited to a party this Sunday for some sort of sporting event. And food. I'm in for the food.