HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Okay, so I know I am late, but not that late if you take into account Chinese New Year, which was only a week ago.

I celebrated each of the New Years as in true Bay Area fashion, while I stuck close to my roots on both occasions the evenings couldn't have been more different.
I was lucky to spend the Georgian New Year with friends in the Marina. While we did spend a little time out dancing and we watched the city's fireworks from the bay most of the evening was spent in preparation for going out. I don't know how we do this, but some how the production of hair, clothes and makeup takes longer than you spend actually dancing; and what is it for your in a dark room with strange lighting, it is probably 100 degrees with the humidity of the tropics. No one looks good five minutes after you walk in the door. In college it made a little more sense, before going out there was usually a parade of photos that were taken, not to mention a less sauna like location for the ubiquitous "pre-gaming." For some reason I still do it, which isn't even the crazy part.
The crazy part is that I like it. Far and away the most fun I had was getting ready and drinking Martini's with the girlfriend I was with. We have been friends since junior high, and while we were always close she was never my dearest friend. But in a strange "isn't it funny how things change" way we are living surrprisingly relatable lives. While she is married (something that still freaks me out to think about- it doesn't feel real to me. Contrary to every father everywhere in my head she and her husband are simply living in sin, this makes much more sense to me.) But other than the fact that she has a husband (and I SO don't) our lives are on similar tracts. She is a PhD student on the east coast, and while her program is only mildly related to law we share a common language. I is a wonderful treat to be able to talk to someone who knows your past but can also get where you are in the moment. It is a rare thing. My family is terribly supportive; thinking I am brilliant and capable. This is great, but when something that is exciting happens they don't understand the significance of it. It feels like "of course you did it because you are amazing!" So it was wonderful to talk to someone who got it. We could both talk about our accomplishments without feeling like we were gloating or competing (which is what it feels like with law school friends) and we still understood the magnitude of what we had been able to accomplish.

Plus it is really great to gossip about High School with a drink in your hand and a Diploma on the wall. 

I had much less fun on Chinese New Year...

My first year of college one of my roommates was Chinese and she still sends me updates every year at the lunar new year telling me how to best prepare myself for the year ahead (you can basically insert a slew of Berkeley stereotypes into the quad I lived in as a freshman- I know, I am sure I have mentioned others, but Berkeley has a stereotype for a reason.) This is the year of the Dragon, and I (along with much of the rest of of my graduating class) was born under the sign of the Dragon. While we are supposed to be the luckiest sign this isn't going to be a great year for us, my friend (through her grandmother) tells me that I need to be behave conservatively (spending another 40 grand on law school, voting for Obama, traveling to South East Asia- I think I have already failed that one.) Guard my head (she wasn't to clear on this one, but suggested with my tendency to fall down I might want to start wearing a helmet all the time.)

Okay so those aren't looking so good, so she advised what she advises every year (and I sometimes follow) to clean. You are supposed to clean you house and remove all of the bad luck from the previous year so that the good luck can flow in. I am not sure if it works, but it is nice to have an excuse to have a sparkly clean house. We actually moved the oven to get the grime out from under and around it. Also, because the entryway is the most important area because that is where luck enters, I was able to get my roommate to move some of her shoes to her bedroom- a major victory. 

So here is to a new year, hopefully eating beans and scrubbing floors will pay off and it will be a good one, (because I would be really pissed if the Mayans were right and the world ends a semester before I finish law school. )

In Between

I love Holidays (in theory and in part) and I love my family, and with exams being over you would think that going home for winter break would be a blissful three weeks. Unfortunately, going home for the holidays isn't easy, so much of it seems to emphasize the things that are difficult about being in my early to mid twenties. It places into sharp focus the fact that I am in limbo. I am some place between the family I grew up with and the family I will create, I am not a child my parents have to raise but I am not one of the grown-ups either. Most of the time it is easy to ignore, I am busy enough living two parallel lives that the places they blur together aren't so noticeable, but when I am home living as a daughter, all of the ways I have changed come into sharp (sometimes comedic ) relief.
This year was better than most, usually my dad and I get along wonderfully for about three days and then we spend the rest of my time at home at each other's throats. Most of this comes from my unwillingness to take (what the Irish and the polite person in me would call) blarney. After many occasions of, mostly good natured, teasing I would remind him that if he wanted a pushover he should have raised one. It used to be that my mom and little sister let him off the hook, so my coming home was the estrogen bomb that sent him running to his man cave. This year my little sister came home first, and she took her turn taking on my father. Which meant I either got to be "the good one" or I had a partner in crime. What I call a win win.

Me and my Mom, making fun of my Dad at Fort Point
Under the Golden Gate Bridge 

While I had hoped my little sister's active social life and snark while at home would suck up my Dad's attention it seemed to shine it back on me, as if we both needed to be held to an eighteen year-old's level of scrutiny. Although it has been many years since I have allowed him to control my social life, while I am at home I do understand that my parents have a right to know where I am going. This also frequently means I get my dad's commentary about things like skirt length (you're sure you don't want to cover your legs?) tight warmth (with all those holes your legs must get cold, why don't you put on pants?) driving routes (don't take the freeway it will be crazy the frontage road is better.) Not to mention a general proclivity for asking questions he doesn't wan't to know the answer to- trust me dad what you are looking for is not in the pink bag, you DON'T want to go in there. Although much of this impasse was defeated when he realized that I could embarrass him more (with the contents of said pink bag)  than he could embarrass me (because anything that embarrassing I wouldn't bring home).
It was a tougher year for my Mom and I, we are very close and other that a few disagreements, generally about my clothing budget and reluctance to disclose my love life (mostly because it doesn't exist) we get along really well. This year there was an undercurrent of tension between us, I think because we both realize that Holidays at home may be coming to an end and will certainly get shorter. I can't be sure, but the whole year had a sense of change to it. So while I am still in between I don't know if it will be for long or what it will mean on the other side.
It was still a magical Christmas, with weather most people could only dream of. So thank you, Babette for taking the heat off me, Mom for caring enough to worry about change, Dad for my thick skin and unwillingness to take crap, and my whole family for a wonderful holiday season!

When did I become this person?

Confession...

I started this posting some time during the winter exam period last year and it has languished in my draft folder for that time with many paragraphs added and deleted. But it originally started with an exclamation over the fact that I found myself writing sentences like: "Whereby an operation of law you have merged liability..." and how quickly law school shaped my brain and enabled me to "think like a lawyer."

Now it isn't so much about academic changes but a mi a culpa in the form of astonishment that I somehow left behind my posting schedule and haven’t updated in months. This change is not about the way my brain works but instead astonishment at the way this life has swallowed me whole.

It certainly wasn’t a bad semester, being busy allowed me to focus my time better and cut away the things that I don’t get value from, but I never intended to fall of the face of the virtual world. It wasn’t that I didn’t write, there are a number of similarly half-finished postings waiting to be finished.

So here is to 2012, hopefully I will get back on the ball. Big things are coming I will keep you posted.

Presidential Fitness Test

When I was ten or eleven (I know it was spring of fifth grade, I am not sure which side of my birthday it was situated on) my class had to take the "Presidential Fitness Test." While for many kids this is an excuse to get out of the classroom and expend some energy, for my over-tall, gangly, be-speckled self having to not only run but do push up and a bent arm hang was nothing short of torture. Add to that the fact that my fifth grade teacher (a man who exemplified the axiom those who cannot do teach) forgot to tell us when the date of the test. For this reason I was wearing a dress, one of my favorites with polka-dots and a tulle under-skirt. While I may have run faster if I had worn athletic shoes, and I was furious with being made to lay on the ground to do sit ups, it is the memory of struggling to pull my body up over a bar on the playground, my entire body straining to reach above the bar my entire class watching me (I am sure flashing my knickers to all of them) that stuck with me. I cannot think of the "Presidential Fitness Test" without a bolt of fear and shame running through me.
So what does this have to do with anything?
I have decided that we need a new "Presidential Fitness Test," not to test the upper-body  of preteens but instead a measure of fitness of presidential candidates.
Earlier this week Herman Cain said that if elected president he would "sign a constitutional amendment banning abortion." Regardless of your feelings on abortion this statement should raise eyebrows, because under Article 5 of the Constitution the president does not sign constitutional amendments. While there is plenty of room for debate about Roe and its progeny, and questioning their validity shouldn't make a person intelligible to be president not knowing how the foundational law of our republic should, or at very least should open you up to the sort of ridicule and embarrassment that fifth graders face on the school yard when they take the Presidential Fitness Test.     
Discussing this with my roommate we came up with quite a list of questions that should be asked. We agreed that the questions should be simple questions with obvious right and wrong answers, that they shouldn't have room for opinions, or academic analysis and that they should avoid political slant. The list we developed included things like:

• What powers are the president explicitly granted in the constitution?
• How does a bill become a law?
• What rights does the bill of rights grant?
• What are the cabinet level agencies? Or maybe just what is the order of succession to the presidency through some number of cabinet secritaries. 
• What are the branches of the federal government?
• Who are the members of NATO?
• Who are the Members of the G8 and the G20?
• Name the 50 states and territories of the US?
• Who is the leader of Canada? of Mexico?
• What is the price of a gallon of gas? of milk?
• What is the corporate tax  rate?
• What is the salary an individual working full time at federal minimum wage?
• What are legal sources of funds for a corporation?

I am sure that there are others, and that some of these could be removed and, I will admit that I don't know the answers to all of these questions off the top of my head, but shouldn't the president? I don't think that knowledge should be the only factor taken into account, I think President Obama's struggles stem from lack of management experience which can't be codified in a test like this. But why aren't people demanding a basic knowledge, why aren't people embarrassed not to know these things.
In the case of Herman Cain he is running in part on the desire to shrink the federal government, encourage the states to take greater control of areas that the federal government has usurped. It seems to me that running on that platform you should be aware of what a massive undertaking it is to amend the constitution, that this is a legitimate limit on the federal government powers, that amending the constitution was intended to be difficult. If you don't recognize those things then your claim of government overreach is nothing more than political opportunism and that you are willing to overlook it when it suits your agenda. 
The problem is most voters nod and ignore, they refuse to see that ignorance won't serve them well. This is why failing my test wouldn't result in disqualification from office but some sort of visual shame, a funny hat? a miss-tailored suit? Ari Gould style super soaking? Something to get people to understand that this is a problem for efficiency and it is embarrassing.
Basically if children have to risk embarrassment to enter law school there should be a chin-up equivalent for becoming president.

Visiting Washington DC

It has been a couple of weeks since my mom visited me. I was so glad to have her visit, although the visit had a few missteps. Most notably my aunt who came down from New Jersey to spend the weekend with us got ill, and the weather was less than perfect but it was a nice visit none the less.
My Dad comes to DC frequently for work but this was the first time my mom had visited, in fact it was the first time I had ever been her hostess in any capacity an it was a nice experience. (I always lived in a dorm or my sorority house in college so there wasn't much of an opportunity.) I like hosting people and DC is a great place to have people visit me in, there is plenty to do, it is easy to get around and I know the city well enough that I can integrate a visit into my hectic life with [relative] ease. Sometimes I think that if the whole law school thing doesn't work out I will open a bed and breakfast, so I can bake scones and have visitors every day. (And then I realize that I would never have my house to myself and that dream dies.)  Generally visits are very different depending on who is coming to visit and why:
Business Trip: (usually my dad) generally he has a rental car and at least a few nice meals I can tag along on. Basically this is my opportunity to eat and live like I did before loans. Generally includes trips to home depot and target.
Tourist Visit: Someone who is excited to see me but also excited to have a tour guide. These trips involve a lot of walking and eating usually at place off the beaten path. Typically I get about a week behind in my work (which is entirely my fault, I will use any excuse not to read.) These trips offer an opportunity to see the sights I never see in my day to day life. Although I refuse to go to the Air and Space Museum, seriously you can't pay me.
My mom's visit didn't really fit into either of these categories. It was closer to a "here is a window into my real life." We made pizza and watched West Wing reruns, we went on a grocery run, and spent some time with my DC family. She helped me get my house a little more together. It was the perfect visit, and now I can look around my house and see little pieces of her. Thanks for visiting mom.

Like running on a treadmill whose speed you can't control.

I realize that I am a bit of a failure at this whole "regular updating" thing. But I do feel like I am jogging at an "eleven."
Life is a little insane this semester (and I understand that there isn't a person on the planet whose life isn't busy, but then I tell people what I have gotten myself into and they are like okay yea, you are busy.) This semester the following activities feel entitled to take up my time:

• Classes: Trademark 3 units, First Amendment 3 Units, Business Associations aka Corporations 4 units, Criminal Procedure 3 Units, Media Law 2 Units, Copyright Clearance 2 units.
• Job: Fifteen hours a week in Virginia. (In order to save time commuting I am totally imposing on my DC family and staying in their guest room one night many weeks.) Note to anyone choosing law schools if you go to school in an area where there are lots of intern opportunities the school year it means you have to be an intern during the school year. 
• Extended research paper of publishable (when did this happen?) quality.
• Intellectual Property Brief: One (short) article a month.
• IP symposium planning committee

And those are just the things that I have some pressure to actually go to. It doesn't include job applications, volunteer work and networking (all of which need to happen if I ever want to find a paying job.) It also doesn't include things like eating, sleeping, getting exercise, keeping the dog happy and cleaning the house.

Now I don't begrudge any of it, while I would like  a little more time to myself wouldn't we all and I signed up for it so I really can't complain. It isn't like I am in this boat alone, this is the life of a 2L, at least those of us who hope to be employable. 

So to answer my mother's questions: No I am not whining or complaining, but I am making excuses.  

An Act of God Clause

The last week has been a little interesting when it comes to natural events, I wish I could blame the earthquake or the hurricane on my lack of posting but really it is just the state of my life (between moving back to DC, school starting, ending one job and starting another, trying to maintain relationships and my sanity. Plus what seems to take more energy (especially emotional) than all else, applying for real jobs you know the kind that pay and therefore allow me to eat food that isn't Ramen and maybe one day pay of my debt. You know dream big.)

But now, after two unusual natural events if God is telling anyone anything it "Kate, write a blog post."* 

I was fine, survived both events with minimal impact or costs and generally feel like it wasn't that big of a deal. The East Coast seems to disagree with me, given that, on my vacation I have seen "I survived" t-shirts and it seems to still be a dominant topic of conversation with my classmates. I have come to the conclusion that east-coasters like to be able to plan their natural disasters, some of my fellow west coasters may disagree with me but I prefer not to know ahead of time.  As someone who was used to earthquakes I felt the shaking, braced myself, checked my surroundings, made sure there wasn't damage or bleeding and got back to work. The rest of the are didn't school (which is in a modern building) was evacuated for hours, metro operated at 15mph. 

Now I understand that the area doesn't get earth quakes so buildings aren't up to the same codes, but I like being prepared. (Also I lived in a "historic" read old and retrofitted building and we never evacuated during an earth quake. Which granted also has something to do with having an innate sense of what is a big deal quake and what isn't.) And I feel like in an area where most of your natural disasters happen with little or no warning people live like boy scouts. They are always prepared, I brought that with me, I have a first aid kit, a battery powered radio and enough food and supplies for a week plus. Going out prior to Irene hitting you would have thought that DC inhabitants lived with bare cupboards most of the time give the number and type of supplies they were buying. (Honestly, I could make some comparison to the Hill and people waiting till the last minute to do what needs to be done)

Mostly what struck me was the way people talked about and experienced these events. There was a level of discussion and frenzy about them stretching on either end that I just am not used to. For most of us living in DC these were relatively minor events, there was some damage to older buildings and we lost power, but not anything different than what you get with a rough winter storm. Mostly I just want to tell people to roll with the punches.

*If you didn't get the sarcasm and political reference, I am kidding god doesn't communicate with me through the weather. And if you want to be prepared here is a good place to start http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/.