Weekend Update

Hey all, it's been a while. School. Vacation. Snow. The crazy things that can come in the way of posting on my blog. I guess I need to set my priorities straight! Anyway, this post comes at the expense of my Legal Rhetoric writing assignment that's due on Tuesday. I'll give a brief overview of the things I've been meaning to write about for the past week and a half...

Last Thursday, 1/13: I had two "Washington moments:" A Washington moment is tough to explain. There's no rhyme or reason as to when or why I have them, but in the course of my daily activities, I take a second and realize "wow, I'm in Washington, DC, and I'm in law school." I know you're thinking "Alex, how much money are you paying in tuition for you to take five months to realize that?" but it's more of this overwhelming feeling that just overtakes me. I really am lucky to be where I am and so happy the way things worked out and my excitement just kind of surfaces from time to time. Anyway, the two Washington moments:

The day before, I went to a workshop on alternative dispute resolution with Debra at the Department of Interior. It was just kinda cool and it was the first time I ventured downtown in a while.

Then on Thursday, two Supreme Court Justices came and held a debate at WCL. There's a link to the Washington Post article about it here. Unfortunately, I had to work on Thursday because I would not be able to work over the weekend due to travel plans. The event was broadcast live on C-SPAN and they also had a live webcast of it, so I was able to watch most of it. It was very cool having to Justices visit our campus (once again... only in Washington does something like that happen) but it was amazing listen to them speak and debate. Reading a decision is important and interesting because it gives you insight into each Justice's philosophies. I had a good idea what each Justice would say about the particular subject of debate, which was the relevance of foreign jurisprudence in U.S. Constitutional decisions. But listening to them interact and engage in dialogue and debate was just unreal. It was the words of their decisions coming alive. It was legal debate at its highest level, and perhaps it was a glimpse as to how the Justices actually deliberate on decisions. Of course, there are only nine people in the world who know how they actually know what that process is like, but it's interesting to wonder.

My favorite part was when Scalia talked about Breyer referencing Zimbabwe in a decision. It reminded me of the old Saturday Night Live skit where Dana Carvey played Tom Brokaw giving the reports of Gerald Ford's death. One of them was if the U.S. was invaded by Zimbabwe. Comedy at its best!

Friday, 1/14-Monday, 1/17: Alli's birthday was on Monday and I surprised her with a trip to New York for the weekend. I had the idea in October of having a surprise party for her in New York, and it actually came to fruition! I told her about an hour before we left that we were going away for the weekend and not to forget her ice skates. She knew exactly where we were going. On Saturday afternoon, we saw a matinee of Chicago. Saturday night was the surprise party itself. Eric and Debi picked a restaurant in the East village. Alli thought it would only be Eric, Debi, she, and I... but she was more than a little shocked when her friend Dana from VA showed up at the restaurant and even more shocked when Beth from AZ showed up with her boyfriend, Sky. We went to a bar near NYU after dinnerand just had a good time. The surprise was complete and I have never been so gratified to plan something like that in my life!

Sunday afternoon we went ice skating in Central Park and Monday we came back to DC. Then, off to an abbreviated week...

Wednesday, 1/19: On the day before the inauguration, I had to go downtown to observe a court in action, which turned out to be very cool, with the presiding Judge being a WCL alum. The coolest part, however, was the snowstorm I walked through to get to court. For those of you keeping tabs, this was the first snowstorm I had ever been in. 23 years is a pretty good streak! Too bad it had to be broken. So far, I am one of the few odd people who likes snow. The quiet that blanketed the city along with the snow was pretty amazing and not what I expected. I doubt I'll "like" snow very much longer, but for right now, it's still novel.