DC Botanical Gardens
DC Botanical Gardens
Spent last weekend in Philly, PA! I have never been, and I thought it was a fantastic city.
Some highlights:
Mutter Museum: Museum of medical oddities (no pictures allowed). Really interesting and a great size if you don’t have a whole lot of time. I started at the Rocky steps (Art Museum) and walked there, which was a beautiful walk. Some of my favorite exhibits included a skeleton of a woman after wearing corsets for her whole life (eek!), an exhibit on skin diseases (so cray), and an exhibit on siamese twins!
City Hall: Awesome building.
Street Art: I loved how there was so much public art everywhere. Supposedly graffitiing started in Philly, and one way to stop it was to paint large murals on the sides of buildings. There was also a bunch of tile art. I thought it gave the city a lot of personality and spunk.
Reading Terminal Market: So insane! Completely crowded, more food stands and markets than you can imagine. I thought it was vibrant and exciting, although not the best place for a three year old.
Love park: small, but cute and a great place to eat lunch and see a view of the city!
Independence Hall: history is cool, yo. Liberty bell, the old colonial houses, Benjamin Franklin museum and grave, Betty Ford house, etc etc.
Eastern State Penitentiary: I just love this shit. I loved how the audio tour was narrated by Steve Buscemi. Al Capone stayed there. It started the original solitary confinement system and was fascinating to see. Apparently they turn it into a haunted house at Halloween, I’d love to go!
A really fun weekend overall! I left thinking “I have to come back sometimes, there is just so much more to see.”
I went to see Aziz Ansari at DAR Constitution Hall (because this is DC and venues are named such things) on Friday. I am not actually a Parks and Recs fan, or maybe I am, I don’t know, because I’ve never watched it, but this guy just seems funny. And he was. It was a great show. Those heads you see at the bottom of the screen were a bunch of white dudes who Aziz was constantly indirectly mocking (you know, jokes about the backwards baseball wearing dude at a bar that’s all “back up bro, or we got a problem” and jokes about being in da club) but of course they didn’t get it and only cheered more loudly at those jokes as if to say “Yeah! Bros in da club are da best! Yeah!” but I digress.
The opener was hilarious and I can not for the life of me remember his name or find it on the internet and I am thus far too lazy to do more than a 15 second search.
But the real star of the night was the BUD-LIME-A-RITA I discovered and instantly fell in love with. How I have missed this is (almost) beyond me. I mean, I drink Bud Light. I drink Bud Light PLATINUM. I drink Bud Light LIME. Or I did drink all of those things over the summer when I had a handful of free hours and friend’s had roofs in which to do so and I was super poor (that’s a constant). But Bud-Lime-A-Rita? Where have you been all my life? An overdose of sugar and empty calories and you taste like a fizzy margarita with that trashy Bud Light finish? I want you all the time, forever and ever and ever and I don’t even care how many extra workouts I’ll have to do or the amount of IV fluid I’ll need to rehydrate myself. I love you, I love you, I love you.
Also, I’d definitely marry Aziz and probably his gay opening act, too.
I got to see this film and meet the directors last night.
It is very well done. It made me laugh, tear up, and think. It’s about environmentalism, the realities of climate change, civil disobedience, and activism. But really, I think it’s mostly about following your heart and doing what you think is right.
Throughout much of the film and after I thought a lot about choices. Choices I have to make as a consumer, choices I will have to make as a privileged adult, choices as a lawyer (which still makes me LOL because I dunno when I’ll ever feel like anything other than a law student).
I think it is important to always try and piece out your choices and think about your motivations. Something law school has shown me is there is just too much. Too much to care about, too many things to fix, too many domestic and global problems and ills. (Ok probably didn’t need law school to show me that but it has illustrated the point well). We can’t all do everything. But I am sure that there are choices we can make as privileged individuals to try and live responsibly. Responsibly to each other and to, ya know, the planet. I know that I need to pay more attention to that, become more informed. And I’m sure we could all try just a bit harder.
March 14, 2013.
It took me almost the entire three years of law school to be fully, 100% excited and committed to pursuing this career.
I represented my first client by myself. It was a hearing for parole. In DC, parole is an odd monster. Basically, if you’re on probation for an offense (or supervised release as they now call it), and you get into any trouble (not reporting to your CSO, dirty urines, getting re-arrested) you get a warrant out for your arrest issued by the US Parole Commission. You are picked up on this warrant (which lasts indefinitely, basically) and brought to jail. You get a probable cause hearing with a hearing examiner (someone who is not a judge but has judge-like capabilities and is a part of the USPC). In DC, the Public Defender Service and a few other organizations offer a lawyer at this stage. This is not a constitutional right and in many other places these individuals are not given lawyers. At the same time, the system is a bit more fair in other areas.
At the probable cause hearing the examiner decides if there is…you guessed it, probable cause…that you committed the alleged parole violation. They almost always find probable cause. By now you’ve probably been in jail for a few days and many times have no idea why. Your CSO does not have to tell you they issued a warrant for your arrest and most commonly people are picked up by the marshalls at their CSO’s offices.
So then a few things can happen. You can go to a drug program if it is your first violation. This program is run in the jail and counts as jail time. (so like drug program, i mean, really?) You may be eligible for SIS, which is a program where you admit all the charges against you, promise to try harder, and you are given 0-8 months in jail. Or you can get a revocation hearing, which is set usually 6-8 weeks out (and you’re held in jail during that time) and that is a mini-trial. Witnesses are called against you, you are able to call witnesses, and you can admit or deny charges. You have a salient factor score (how many previous charges you have, how old you are, etc.) and a category (how bad are the charges you’re facing now?) that give you a guideline. So if you have a score of 5 and you’re in a category 5 (like my client was!) you face 46-60 months in jail. Basically, four-six years. It can be a very wide range. Technical violations (dirty urines, loss of contact, etc) are lower, law violations (assaults, drug possession, intent to distribute, murder, etc) are higher.
But the interesting thing is that if you have a law violation, this is all completely separate from your criminal case. So in effect you’re hit twice. Once by the court like all criminal stuff, and once by the US Parole Commission for violating parole. Your sentences can run together concurrently or consecutively, just depending on the situation and how it plays out.
ALSO, if your criminal case is completely dismissed (lack of evidence, no indictment, etc.), you can be released from your criminal charge but STILL FACE YOUR PAROLE CHARGE. For example, if you are charged with assault, the case is dismissed, the parole commission can still go after you for assault. Similarly, if you were charged with raping a minor, but you somehow were able to get a plea deal to simple assault, a MISDEMEANOR, the parole commission could still go after your original charge of raping a minor (a category 8 charge) and try to get you on that. Why? Because the parole commission has a lower standard of proof for proving crimes. The criminal court must prove your crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the parole commission must prove your crime by a preponderance of the evidence only. Much lower.
This is all so fascinating to me but maybe I’m crazy.
So my client was facing a serious assault charge and was looking at 4+ years. He had not been indicted and the alleged victim was not showing up to his hearing. I did an opening statement, cross examined the police officer who wrote up the charges in the first place, and did a closing. The hearing examiner did not want to reinstate (which is when they say, just kidding! these two months in jail, just a silly misunderstanding, go on your way now! but then have 21 days before they have to actually release you from jail. oy.) my client. At all. But there wasn’t enough evidence. He was reinstated.
Ok that sounds like a boring story. It was much more exciting for me because I was there. Cross examining a police officer was terrifying. I impeached him based on his former testimony several times. And I won!
It was great. It was really, really great.
Willamette Valley, OR:
Stayed at: Black Walnut Inn in Dundee. Very nice, had a great complimentary breakfast (see above). Probably nicer than we needed.
Wine tasting #1: Eyrie Winery. Very simple tasting room, very very good wine. Loved the 2010 Pinot Noir the most. They were so friendly and took the time to explain a lot about the wine process. They’re “main thing” seemed to be that they really don’t do ANY manipulation to their grapes, so they like each vintage to be a thumbprint of the season that year. We ended up getting a great deal on a case of half bottles of gris being sold at wholesale price. We got two cases and I can’t wait to give them out as gifts, etc.
Scott Paul Wines: They were featuring a French wine tasting. We tried several French pinot-varietals from the Burgundy area. They were good but just seemed so much more flavorful and not necessarily in a way that I liked. The Oregon wines seemed crisper, simpler. We ended up buying a 2010 (I think?) bottle of Pinot Noir that was so delicious. A simple and fun tasting!
Anderson Family Vineyards in Newberg: This was my absolute favorite place. The vineyard itself was so gorgeous (the view is the one above with the row of barrels in the front). Ben really hit it off with the owner as they both have strong Microsoft connections. We ended up being invited down to the cellar to taste a 2011 Chardonnay in the second stage of fermentation and a 2012 noir and gris that were both still in the barrel. Very very cool and made the experience super special. He told us a lot about the beginnings of the Valley in general which was interesting, the area is so young and in his opinion, the wine country is already rather saturated. We got a pinot gris (‘10), two chardonnays (the ‘09 and ‘10), and the ‘09 Pinot Noir which I just thought was the best ever. Each wine was so good and I already want to go back here.
Vidon winery in Newberg: So so pretty, a small operation. The view is the other landscape photo above. Here we got to taste several Pinot Noirs (their ‘09/’10/and ‘11) and then got to taste the three ‘10 clones that made up the Noir blend individually. I liked how this tasting was broken down. The Pinot Noirs were good, but I liked Anderson much better. We ended up buying a bottle of one of the individual grape varietals, the 115, just because it was so different and interesting.
Arborbrook Vineyard: This was a great vineyard and tasting room. The owners were super nice. They also put out cheese and had a cat and a St. Bernard dog, which I of course looooved. I fell in love with the first Gris I tasted, I believe it was a 2010. The rest of the tasting was very good but at this point I was feeling quite drunk. At the end we had a dessert wine that Ben loved. We ended up buying a bottle of the Gris that I loved and Ben got three bottles of the dessert wine for himself.
This was a fantastic trip!
I read this book on my new Kindle (eee!). Apparently all this author’s books have some sort of husband/wife/murder plot. I did not know that. This book was super creepy but also really addicting and interesting.
“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.
Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)”
― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
Went on the Theo Chocolate tour with some friends. My favorite fact was that they can’t clean out the machines with water because chocolate and water “don’t really mix” and they can’t use any cleaning chemicals because they’re organic, so they clean out the machines with more chocolate! LOVE IT. Theo is delicious. The combo of a lot of chocolate tastings, a heavy IPA beer and falafel fries at Brouwers, and then a fancy Rum drink (something something Swizzle drink) at Rumba made me have a weird chocolate-rum drunk, and I had quite the stomach ache later. Still fun. Above you can see the $60 worth of Theo chocolate I bought Ben. WORTH IT.
Cirque Du Soleil: Amaluna, Marymoor Park, Redmond, WA.
This was my fifth Cirque du Soleil show. One other I saw at this same place probably about 5 years ago, and the other three I’ve seen in Vegas. This one was just as French as the others. Ben and I went and he was a good sport considering he’s “not that into the French circus” (whatever that means). There were people who could bend in unbelievable ways, twin unicyclists, people flying from above, flippy people (I just don’t know how else to say that), boys jumping from a seesaw (hubba hubba). It was very very fun and cool. It’s amazing what people can do with their bodies. I love the crazy costumes and makeup. And I love that carnival life still exists in a way. Learning the history of carnivals would be very interesting I bet.
Silver Linings Playbook
It’s not exactly on par with the MoMA culture and experience-wise, but I did go see Silver Linings Playbook this weekend.
It was pretty hilarious. Definitely changed my entire opinion of Bradley Cooper. I thought he was excellent. Jennifer Lawrence was very good in it, too, although my roommate made an excellent point on how she played a female character that has most certainly been “done” in the past. Still, she made the role her own and did a very good job with it.
The movie as a whole centered around relationships and mental health issues. I did enjoy the fact that the movie made these characters relatable while also portraying them as having serious mental problems. They were not stupid, incompetent people who were unable to be insightful of others. They were not completely unaware of their surroundings and of their own illnesses. While the ending was beyond unrealistic, it was nevertheless a great movie and who doesn’t love an ending tied up in a bow? I like bows.
Oscars with the ladies tonight! I hope J. Lawrence wins if only because she is a young actress with a brain who seems genuine and like she actually eats real food. She’s gorgeous but unique looking and while she got her breakout role in a young cultish teen book series turned movie as many young actresses do, this movie shows that she is certainly not willing to get pigeon-hold. And she’s not only SAYING that she’s not willing to get pigeon-holed, but she is merely not allowing that to happen by just simply being good in other things.
I’m such a sucker for the dresses and stupid skits and people thanking their moms. Plus, friends and wine! CAN’T WAIT!
