WonL

The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Pause

Sometimes we get so busy we forget to stop and take in the world around us. Yesterday, I was busy. Today, I am stopping to enjoy the world. The sun is shining bright today. Yesterday was rain and tomorrow will bring the rain back. Today, though...today is beautiful. The only clouds in the sky are those making the wispy marks to add a soft touch to the sharp blue palette. Today, I am lucky. I am sitting with my back up against a tree in Lafayette Park with a view of the White House. Across the street, taking advantage of a prime photo-op is a high school class. They are wearing matching black T-shirts and big smiles. Watching them being herded around by their leaders reminds me of my high school trip to Washington. This was a trip that, admittedly, shaped my future. I wonder if these kids have any idea what this trip will come to mean to them. As they all disperse, one girl remains. Her back is to the crowd and she stands alone and just stares at the beautiful house in front of her. I see myself years ago. I know that this child will appreciate the impact of this trip.

Approaching on my right is an older gentleman. I passed him a few blocks back. He is being helped along by his son who is probably about my father's age. The older gentleman has a painful look on his face. I can tell it is hard for him to get where he is going. He walks all the way to the center of the view of the White House and he stops. His pain is gone. His smile brightens the sky even more. That is all he wanted...to just stop and take it in. His son pulls him as if to tell him it is time to go. The father remains...standing, staring, smiling.

Behind me is a child just learning to walk. With daddy by her side, some of her first steps are toward the White House. She watches daddy put one foot in front of the other. He makes it look so easy. She doesn't notice the crowds or the cameras. She only notices the squirrel. For a while, her determination to reach the furry creature far outweighs her inability to maintain her balance. She falls. Then she gets right back up and keeps on chasing while daddy keeps beaming with pride.

I have been in DC for almost four years now. I made a promise to myself that from day one, I will never lose the awestruck feeling when in the presence of a DC landmark. That is sometimes hard. I realize today that I will always be in awe of the White House. However, watching the people that have come from all over to experience our Nation's Capital is what is bringing tears to my eyes right now. I want to always be that baby girl chasing her dreams. I want to be that high school student who has the ability to tune out the others and focus on what is important. I want to be that older person who still fights to enjoy the simple things.

I realized something important today: Right now, I am living the life I have always dreamed of. What makes me luckiest, though, is that I can realize this, I can pause, and I can just take it all in. What a glorious day.

UPDATE: My wonderful day was capped with the birth of the newest addition to my family. My niece, Jessie Elizabeth, was born around 6:00 pm this evening:-)

Busy Day

I am beginning to think that perhaps I am over-exerting myself. Things I did today:

Got up and got dressed (so far, so good)

Caught a ride with my roommate across town to her work because there was a printshop nearby I needed to go to. Being on the executive board of the Louisana State Society, every three months, I am in charge of getting the newsletter out...had to grab it from the printer.

Headed to school, grabbing coffee on the way, and went downstairs to read for class.

3:00ish - Began labeling newsletters. (By labeling, I mean putting on those sticky ones I printed up this morning.)

Class from 3:30-4:45.

Meeting at 5:00 for volunteers (including me) for GW Law Preview Day this Friday.

Little time to spare, finish labeling 300 LSS newsletters.

Class from 6-8pm.

Meeting at 8:10. This was my last SBA meeting as Senator. I have an interview tomorrow morning for another position.

10:30...finally out of Senate meeting, head down to library. See Mock Trial partner and decide to discuss the case for a minute or two.

11-something...get to Metro with a sixteen minute wait. Get newsletters back out and start putting 300 stamps on them.

Home a little after midnight, had dinner (two pretty Easter hard boiled eggs) and had to send emails out regarding Mock Trial witnesses, study group this weekend, Barbri Review sessions on Sat. and Sun. and Moot Court preparation with my coach.

1:15...hell, if I could fit all of that in to one day, I can at least throw a few words onto blogger.

Damn, I'm tired.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Bugs

After having only gotten a few hours of sleep last night, I am pretty tired today. This is not because I had an oral argument to prepare for, or a paper due, or even reading to catch up on. Nope, it was because I spent the better half of my evening yelling at and chasing around "the bug" in my room. This thing had sorry, HAS (since I never found him) lots of arms, probably around 50, and it was albino and it ran faster than a cheetah...not that I have ever had a cheetah in my room. If I did, though, this bug would have beat it! After losing the bug somewhere behind the bed, I decided to give up and go to sleep. Only problem is that since I never found him, I had to sleep with all of my lights on, one eye open, and the covers pulled up over my head. You may be thinking 'she is such a girl to be scared of some stupid bug.' I feel like I should defend myself and explain that my fear of bugs goes beyond being a girly thing. I assure you this is no "I am helpless and need a big strong man to kill the bug for me" moment. In fact, I have lived with and dated enough lazy guys in my life to know that is a lost cause. I blame my acute fear on some specific childhood memories that I would like to share with you:

First, there was the cockroach incident of the early 80's. Growing up in Southern Louisiana, I learned at an early age that cockroaches come in different shapes and sizes (big and huge) and that they do, in fact, fly. The house that I grew up in was in your typical suburban neighborhood. When we moved in, the neighborhood was fairly new and our neighbors were whatever critters were in the overgrown fields next door. One of the species of neighbor that often times invited themselves over were that huge flying cockroach breed. I recall fondly those times of sitting around watching TV as a family, only to look up and notice one of them crawling upside down across the white gabled acoustic ceiling. At that point, light switches were thrown, and dad ran to the kitchen to get the roach spray while we all piled on the sofa with mom hoping the roach would not lose his grip and fall. (Southern entertainment at it's best.) Dad would return and aim the extraordinarily long nozzle at the ceiling, which was a good 18 feet away. The moment the roach felt that first drop of Raid, he began flying around the room in a sporadic, presumably painful fit. Not sure what my brothers did at this point, but I sure remember screaming bloody murder.

No matter how often I came across those six inch cockroach monsters, I never got used to them. I think it went back further to when I was an even smaller Law-Rah. I am not sure how old I was, but I know that I was still so tiny that I had to climb up onto the toilet and upon taking my seat, my feet would dangle a foot or so off the ground. It was late one night (possibly 8:00 or so) and I think there was something going on at my house; perhaps dad's poker friends, or something of the sort. The kids had all been put to bed already, but I needed to go to the bathroom. Instead of going in the front of the house and risk being seen in my pink nightgown, I decided to use my parent's bathroom in the back of the house. While doing what I needed to do (quite proud that I was able to do this on my own now), I remember spotting the biggest meanest cockroach ever crawling toward me from about ten feet away. He was coming straight at me and I just started screaming. This did not stop him or scare him. I just screamed and screamed. Of course, no one could hear me because I was on the other side of the house and I was probably not as loud as I am now. I'm not sure of the outcome of that evening, I just remember somehow climbing up on top of the toilet seat and staying there for a while.

A few years later came the June bug incident. I was admittedly at the stage where bugs should not scare me anymore. I was in fifth grade and it was the middle of the summer. Growing up with boys can sometimes make life as the only girl a little difficult. My older brother and all of his friends had pitched a tent and gone camping in the backyard. Well, almost. They ended up coming inside to sleep. Of course, this meant my best friend and I had to make fun of the whimps. This served as a challenge. "You are girls, you could never do it." Ha, we would see about that. I think it was the next night that we decided to prove them wrong. Partially because I was a girl, and partially because I tend to overdo everything, our camping evening wasn't quite "roughing" it. We ran a few extension cords to the tent in the back yard. We had a radio, a miniature television, our caboodles for our makeup, and a box fan to cool things off on that hot summer Louisiana night. We had it ALL figured out. We positioned the box fan at the entrance of the tent and pulled the zipper down snug against the top of the fan. Apparently, we had not thought this all the way through. Although the fan placement kept the tent somewhat enclosed, neither of us thought of the fact that the fan was not solid and could be permeated by critters. The instant we flipped the fan to ON, we were showered with the June bugs that had been accumulating while we were getting situated. Tents back in the late 80's were not as large and spacious as they are now. This is especially true when you and your best friend have shoved half of your bedroom into suitcases and placed them inside a two person tent. After a whole lot of screaming and bugs in our mouths, we eventually got out and admitted defeat that night.

I think it was 1992 when our family took our last real family vacation together. (And for good reason, we can make the Griswald's look boring.) Ma and Pa decided to take us young'uns to Disney World. My older brother and I were in high school and my younger brother was probably about eleven. I guess my mom realized we had outgrown our fear of critters and decided to try to bring it all back. She purchased a small rubber cockroach that looked eerily realistic and spent her time at Disney World scaring people. We did Disney in December, so, it was pretty crowded. Standing in line for one of the rides, we were doing that thing where the line winds back and forth and you see the same people over and over. We were making some friends. Until, that is, mom got bored. My younger brother, probably going through his "too cool for the family" stage, was standing a few feet in front of the rest of the family in this one particular line. (Okay, maybe he was still mad at us for the night before when he took a thirty minute shower and came out completely dry, so someone made reference to his 'imaginary bathroom friend' and we all laughed at him all night.) Anyway, younger bro was drinking something red out of a cup with no lid. While the cup was innocently being held by his side, mom slipped in her little rubber roach friend. The next sip younger bro took ended with a scream and a dropping/throwing of the cup and red stuff splashing all over the guy in line in front of us. The worst part is when "not happy" guy turned around, my brother just stood there as the rest of us rolled around laughing behind him. (Perhaps that story doesn't say much as to why I am SCARED of bugs, but it was a bug story and I felt like laughing.)

There were a few other bug stories over time like when I begged my parents to behave when my date to the Senior Prom showed up because he was really shy and scared of parents. Mom promised...right before she found very real looking fake flies to sprinkle in his bootaneer. Thankfully, Mikey was so scared, he could not actually move to jump or scream upon finding them.

Anyway, now that you have had a glimpse into my somewhat disturbing childhood, everyone can understand where this bug fear in my life came from and why it stayed with me for so long. That being said, in order to get some good sleep tonight, I will probably crash on the sofa. (Until that albino 50 leg critter shows himself again.)

Sorry

Okay, to anyone who has me blogrolled or RSS feeded or any other weird tech stuff...I apologize for my blawg-crazies today. I lost my entire template and in an attempt to salvage some things, I posted and reposted about 925 times. I will continue with my BUGS story when blogger cools off a bit!

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Purposeless Thoughts 2nd Edition

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday (since I am sure you all eagerly await to read my purposeless thoughts:-) I did, however, have a valid excuse: I was busy celebrating the job offer I received yesterday from my most recent (and interesting) interview! This means I will not be needing that empty coffee cup for DC panhandling this summer.


In other good news, I rocked my oral argument this morning! One of the judges told me "you looked like you were having so much fun, I think every oral argument should be like this. Another judge said "you are extremely comfortable in front of people in a courtroom. In fact, you are way too comfortable for a 1L" whatever that means! Moot court, here I come.


Not only did this week mark the beginning of Spring, but it also marked the dreaded female period of "breaking in your feet for spring/summer sandals. I spent way too much money on Neosporin and blister band-aids this week. As a male classmate told me "Law-Rah, it's not like you are in Louisiana anymore and your feet are tough from walking around barefoot all day. Now that you are up here, they stay covered and dainty." Me? dainty? haha!


I wonder if people who speak English as a second language are graded differently than me. For instance, I get points off for mis-spellings or grammar mistakes (right Greg). I wonder if I am held to a higher standard because I am a native of America. If so, does this really help the situation? Isn't this unfair, not only to me, but to the non-native speaker who is not being corrected in an effort to better his grasp of the native language?


I admit to being one of the members of the class the other day who chuckled rolled on the ground laughing when a classmate kept accidentally referring to a certain tortious behavior as wonton (like the soup).


We all know my school thinks I am "average". Well, in your face, GW...I got a letter last week from the Egg Donor people who said due to my intelligence and edu-ma-cation, they are willing to pay me $2,000 EXTRA per egg. My "average" eggs seem pretty valuable to them. (By the way, this letter absolutely falls in line with our current discussions in Contracts regarding the unwanted handing out of my personal information to random people like egg collection agencies)


I found out this morning that one of my friends from college is being deployed to Iraq next week. Ryan, you are in my prayers.


I gave in and put on a coat this week. I refuse, however, to don a scarf or gloves. It's freaking April already!


MOST ANNOYING THING IN LAW SCHOOL...the bobblehead. Seriously, there is no need to nod your head in agreement to everything the professor says. We ALL know he is right. (That is probably why he is teaching the damn class.) And furthermore, we all know you agree with him. If you didn't, you would have a problem. Keep doing it, and I WILL put you on the hood of my car:-)


Random mis-spellings I have seen this week: "adequate notice before a person can be published for criminal behavior" and while referring to a drug dealer "known for selling pots on the beach"


You know that really obnoxious "farting" that Ad-Aware makes when it is complete? It's really funny when someone in Crim Law forgets to mute their computer and runs that program during class, only to find it let's one rip right as the professor is talking.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Long overdue Thank You post

Despite my low rank on that NCAA Tourney thing, my Technorati rank is skyrocketing. I jumped from being ranked in the 170,000s to the 156,000s (woo-hoo) and there are a few folks I feel the need to thank:


First off, I want to thank my readers. The fact that people (other than my mother) log on every day to read what I have to say warms my heart. When I began this blawg, I did it for myself. However, now that I know so many of you read WonL, it forces me to watch what I say, so thanks for keeping me in line.


Second, I want to thank everyone who has ever commented on WonL. I love comments, even if they are Anonymous.


I also want to thank everyone who has ever linked to me or added me to their blogroll. (Note to those who aren't up on the "lingo". A blogroll is my list on the right side of blogs I read. A blogroll can be used for many purposes, one of which is to recommend to my readers other blogs that I think they may be interested in since I obviously am.) I would like to take this opportunity not only to thank people, but also to elaborate on some of the blogs on my blogroll. These are in no particular order except that the first is the most important:


My biggest and most important Thank You goes to Evan over at Notes from the Legal Underground who has not only blogrolled me, but he selected me for his Weekly Law School Roundups #49, #50, and #52. (Apparently I was pretty boring during week 51...must have been that appellate brief.) A few notes on Evan: if there was a King of Blawging, he would wear that crown. Evan is like a father-figure, teacher, friend, up-to-date news source and dictionary all rolled into one. His readership goes way beyond law school students, as Legal Underground is frequently read by students, professors, practicing attorneys and frankly anyone interested in the law.


I have no clue how Evan has time to do all that he does. He is a practicing attorney and runs a firm with his wife (aka Senior Partner). They have 4 children that have made appearances on his site (even in audio form). He recently took a trip to Prague and blogged the whole thing, complete with photos. (I think there are 9 posts in all.) Evan has such regular spots on his site for: Wednesday Guest Posting, Law Related Things that Suck, Types of Lawyers (ex: one's that like shiny gadgets) and more. Evan does a fabulous job of keeping all his little ducklings in a row and helps us to understand each other while asking the question: Why are lawyers so stuffy? I encourage you to go check out Evan. If you are on a mission for specific info, scroll down to his categories on the right.


Second on my list is Todd over at Ambivalent Imbroglio. I first learned of Ambimb when I was reading my Student Lawyer magazine the ABA sends me like 5 times a week because I gave them $20 a year ago. Hey, it's good Metro reading. I was really excited to find there was a "famous" GW Blogger. After reading his site (and ignoring the extreme liberalism:-) he immediately became a Blidol (blog idol - phrase coined by grasshopper). Ambimb has a wealth of knowledge regarding politics, DC, public interest work, law school, etc. He's extremely approachable and extremely willing to help in any way with questions you have about school, summer work, study abroad, blogging, and more. If Ambimb cannot answer your question, he will actually get an answer for you. Wow...what a guy. I also encourage you to check out his Ambivalent Images. He posts a photo a day and many of them are around the DC area. (on a random funny note: I would consider Ambimb one of my friends. He goes to my school, he comments on my blog, and I on his, we have emailed before, and I look at his pictures. Yet...I have never met him! I had a close call today when I went to order my new GW Law gym bag and noticed he had signed up right before me. I was told he was already gone. I will continue to look for a guy walking around with a camera snapping random photos at school.)


Awwww, Idlegrasshopper, where to begin? IG is the reason I have a blog. IG is the cynic about Law School that I try not to be on this blog (hence my always linking to him and telling you to go read what he said about class last night.) IG goes into the category of "friend even before the blog". He's also a really good drinking buddy. IG also goes to my school, is in my section, is in my study group, may even be my long lost brother, who knows. Go read him!


Samer also goes into the friend not just on the internet category. I already wrote a whole post on him, so go read it...then read him:-) While he has slacked in blogging in the last few months, he still has some great posts. He is a "real beer" wealth of knowledge, as opposed to my Bud Lt. vs. Miller Lt. dillemma. He also has some great photography.


BLM over at In Limine is another to thank. I am especially thankful that I gave him my password to go into my blogger template and fix something and he did not do anything retarded like turn the text sideways or make everything show up in another language. Oops, gotta go change that password. BLM is a 1L over at Georgetown and is having a fairly similar experience to mine at GW (except that he isn't eating meat;-)


Spicoli...hahaha...Spicoli of Law School Insider. He's my favorite miserable Michigonian. I came across Spicoli when he made a nasty remark about Bush and I left him a nasty comment. We've been friends ever since. Spicoli is at a second tier law school in a freezing climate trying to transfer to California where he's from. I love reading his stories about the O.C., which he calls home. I must admit that he has annoyed me lately with his countdown to finals. Dude...you are stressing me out!


Jack and Coke recently blogrolled me, and has commented here too. Thanks Jack! He's a long-winded interesting 1L at my school who doubles as a drunkard blogger. Although Jack has had his blog for a while, he is just recently begun to really find his niche in the blogging world and I am interested (and scared) to see where this goes:-)


Energy Spatula at Will Work For Favorable Dicta recently added me to her blog list. I have referenced E. Spat a few times here, as I love her writing style and cynicicm when talking about her life experiences. Interestingly enough, she recently did an audio blog with Ambimb and sounds like the cutest sweetest little thing!


Thanks to Jeremy Ritchey who also added me to his list. Jeremy is a WELL-VERSED conservative who is often the only one knowledgable enough to take on the liberal blogging world.


So, thanks again to everyone who reads, comments, writes, or just plain cares! sniff sniff.


UPDATE: Thanks also to Dwayne over at Enraged Baboon. (Waiting for the cartwheels:-) Yay for my first International link!!! Dwayne is a lazy Australian journalist turned law student who says "Apart from being far smarter and funnier, I think I am an average law student." Small world note: I think Dwayne actually attends the same "Uni" in Australia that my ex attends. Dwayne, if you come across a random American that tried to sue the Med. school last year, please do not hold it against me that I dated him:-)

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Growing up

Difficult children will make difficult adults. My brother and his wife better watch out for that young'un of theirs, lest she grow up just like me. Case-in-point:

I called my brother's house the other day to speak to his daughter. My niece (AM) is the cutest most wonderful two year old alive, but she sure is fiesty. You may be wondering how I can let a two year old get to me. Well, I will tell ya. Due to my schedule, it is sometimes difficult to find time to sit and have a phone conversation. There are not too many people I have the luxury of making time for, but I would always set aside time to talk to the little angel. AM has a new little sister on the way very soon and I wanted to talk to her about it. Well, she was watching Scooby-Do and decided that Aunt Law-Rah was not worth pausing the TV for. The little brat would not talk to me!

I told my mom this story this morning and she laughed. Soooo not funny mom! She compared it to a July day years ago when she gave birth to my younger brother. Still in the hospital, and presumably pretty tired, she picked up the phone to call home. My grandparents were watching my older brother and I. After speaking to my brother, she wanted to talk to her little girl and tell me about my new little brother. I apparently told my grandparents to tell her I could not come to the phone because I was reading. (I was three years old at the time.) When she inquired as to what I was reading, she was told the phone book. (Awww, what a little angel I was:-)

Seriously, difficult children will make difficult adults.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

To the moron who hit my car this evening,

While I appreciate the gesture, it is usually customary to leave a NOTE on someone's windshield, not to leave their liscense plate on their windshield. Thanks, though.

Law-Rah

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Okay, done with basketball. It sure didn't take long for ALL. THREE of YOU to disappoint me. I will admit that I am very proud to say that I now stand firmly LAST PLACE on my tournament bracket thing. This means I could win $10 (the very amount I paid to enter) which goes to show this whole thing was pretty pointless for an SEC football fan.

Oh well, back to Crim. Law

Friday, March 18, 2005

Purposeless Thoughts of the Week - Edition 1

Every week, thoughts pop into my head that I want to blog about. Often times, I go as far as to begin writing about them but something always stops me from posting. Usually, its because I dont feel the topic itself warrants a unique blog post. Maybe its not humorous, or it doesnt offer advice or basically has absolutely no purpose at all. I have tons of saved but not posted blog posts that I need to get rid of. Soooo...I decided to implement Purposeless Thoughts of the Week

Since my head is full of Purposeless Thoughts, I will try to make this a weekly occurrence. Maybe this can be my "thing" since everyone else in the blogosphere seems to have a "thing". We shall see. This is what I have: