2L Summer in DC

I spent my 2L summer back in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.  I conveniently lived very close to the Capitol itself, which was a great spot to start and finish a run around the National Mall.  It was nice to be back in the city, and much more enjoyable to be living directly in the city, without having to worry about traffic or a long commute everyday, and having the ability to see great views of D.C.'s iconic buildings every day.

I stayed in a dorm/apartment at Georgetown Law, which was conveniently located just a few blocks from my work.  It was a nice, short five to ten minute walk in every morning, and I was able to enjoy the nice, although small, campus that Georgetown Law provides.  My building is the one on the right in this shot, and I also was able to use the fantastic sport and recreation facilities that Georgetown provides, in the large glass building behind the clock.

I was working at the SEC this summer, where I was back when I applied to law school and ended up at IU.  This time, I was making a return as a summer intern.  It was great being back and working with everyone again, and I learned a lot. It would definitely be a great place to end up after law school, but we will have to wait and see how the cards fall.

After a brief 4th of July celebration in the nation's capital, it was off to New York to see the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium.  It was a brutally hot day, falling during the only hot week of the summer, but the Yankees managed to defeat the Orioles, closed off by the number one closer in the game, Mariano Rivera.  Afterwards, we enjoyed some of the fun New York spots, including a bar on a boat.

Back to D.C. and a late-night stroll to some of the monuments.  I think late at night is the best time to experience D.C.'s monuments, because the tourists are sleeping, so everything is much quieter and more serene.  I have a newfound respect for the WWII Memorial after visiting at night, and my favorite, the Lincoln Memorial, is even more hallowed after the sun sets.

One of the secret spots in D.C., I would have to say, is the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.  I always enjoy heading to the fountain to sit and read a new book.  This summer I read the Great Gatsby, after seeing the movie in the beginning of the summer.  The book was great, and the Sculpture Garden served as a relaxing spot to enjoy it, particularly sitting by the water on a warm sunny day.

Another added bonus of the Sculpture Garden is that you can occasionally find your own rainbows late in the evening when the sun is setting at the right angle.  On my final venture into the city this summer, I finished off my kickball season on the National Mall, a D.C. staple.  The game was fantastic and we ended with a resounding victory. I think it is a perfect way to close out my summer experience, and has me ready to get back to Bloomington for the fall kickball season.  Our last game ended in perfect time to catch the sun setting on the west side of the Mall.

Day 365: May 31, 2013

As the sun sets on this long 365 Project that I embarked upon exactly one year ago, we close with a beautiful view of the sunset over the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. This project took place over a lengthy 365 days, each commemorated by one photo (well, sometimes there were a few bonus photos). The World War II Memorial is an apt recognition for the final photo in this project, as many of the states that were transversed in the making of this set of photos are represented on the monuments. From Virginia and D.C., before the project began, to Indiana, traveling to Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and others in between, and then finishing back in Washington, D.C., this project has made it through quite a bit. But now we must finally come to an end, as the goal has been accomplished and we have seen one photo a day, or one dot to be connected. I will formally conclude tomorrow with one final epilogue, Connecting all the Dots, before it is determined what direction this project should take moving forward. For now however, the sun sets on this project and we come to rest remembering that, to paraphrase Steve Jobs, although we cannot connect the dots looking forward, we certainly can looking backward, and this project has provided me with many dots to take a look back on as the new ones continue to pop up. Thank you to all of my loyal (albeit few) followers out there who have (hopefully) enjoyed the journey!

Days 362-364: May 28-30, 2013

Tuesday was the first day of work for the summer, which consisted mostly of a day-long orientation, followed by meeting some of the interns and the staff. It was good to see some familiar faces, and I am sure this summer will be a great one. After work, I took advantage of my Northern Virginia location to have some Paisano's Pizza again, as it is one of my all-time favorite pizza places, and I rarely have the opportunity to enjoy it anymore. It was delicious, as always, and a great way to close off a good start to the new internship!

On Wednesday, the National Mall was filled with kickball and softball teams playing some evening league games. While I am not sure softball on the mall is the safest idea (but a tort lawyer's dream), especially if you have any hitters that can even remotely hit a ball in the air, seeing so much kickball was very exciting. I signed up for a free agent team that begins in July, so I am looking forward to freshening up my Maurer Kickball League skills, as well as preparing to defend our I-Jiggles Inter-Journal Kickball Tournament Championship next fall!

After another busy day in this first week of work, it was back to Union Station to take the short metro ride back to Pentagon City. At the end of work today we had an intern welcome event on the ninth floor patio, followed by a Happy Hour at The 201 Bar just down the road. It was a fun evening, and the view of Union Station on the walk back was fantastic!

Days 358-361: May 24-27, 2013

Took a drive around this afternoon to check out some old sights, and made a stop by Krispy Kreme to get some hot and fresh glazed donuts. You know they are going to taste amazing when you see that the Hot Sign is on. This is also the sight of the Krispy Kreme where I once ate one full dozen hot glazed donuts in forty-two minutes. The trick: drink water, not chocolate milk. I believe, however, that I am beyond the days of rising to such challenges. It is unfortunate.

Saturday afternoon I went for my longest run in Virginia ever, a full eight miles. I took the long route through Austin Ridge that I once tried but had to give up on and head back before reaching the end. It is a mentally tough route, because you have to commit to going at least six miles to make your way all the way to the end and back, since there is no "circle" or "loop" to keep you close to your starting point. It is much easier to run now that they put in more sidewalks, but it still has a treacherous hill right before the six mile mark. I managed to make it through and add another two miles to the end. Afterwards, I caught up with some old friends from high school, and took a walk through the old neighborhood basketball courts. Apparently our neighborhood has "roughened up" since the good old days, as they now tore the rims off so you are not allowed to play basketball anymore. These were the original courts where my first basketball nickname, "Apokalipse" (intentionally misspelled) was designed, due to the fact that whenever I happened to make a fantastic basketball play (usually a game winning three (I wasn't that good back then)), we encountered some strange weather event. Generally in the winter, it would either immediately start snowing, or we would have a snow storm in the next couple days. Once, when I earned a thirteen-stitch scar on my right elbow playing football in the field next to the courts, the entire state was hit by a hurricane two days later that cut out power for 1-2 weeks depending on where you lived. And this is a true story—it was Hurricane Isabel, the costliest and deadliest hurricane of the 2003 season, look it up. The scarier thing, is that although the occasions became much rarer when I got decent at basketball, this year when I had my best outing since 2010 at the HPER, I walked out to find a surprising 1-2 inches of snow on a day no one had predicted an actual snowstorm (merely a mix). Winter is coming...

North Stafford now has new painted rocks out in front of the school that a lot of the schools have. We never used to have these when I went to school, but some of the newer schools started to put them out (i.e., Colonial Forge). I am not sure how I feel about having the rocks there. When I was in school, certain groups of individuals whose names shall remain shrouded in mystery (i.e., it was different people each year) would splash Colonial Forge's rocks with bright colored paints annually (we and Colonial Forge were not the biggest fans of one another). While I will not publicly condone the vandalism, and it was much more fulfilling to simply eliminate the Eagles from playoff contention on their home field in the Class of 2006's last road game, it does seem a bit of a cop-out to just put up our own rocks. We never needed them before, why now? On the other hand though, they do look pretty cool. And they do show much better in the blue and orange than Colonial Forge's drab colors, or Mountain View's "we are trying our best to copy Virginia Tech" colors. While visiting the school, the back gates were open so I had a chance to walk around the practice fields and see old gravel paths I used to walk every day to start the long two-a-days and after-school practices. Those are the fields where I was run, hit, and hollered at, but, most importantly, where I learned the game of football. And though it has been eight years since I last stepped foot on that turf, those fields still smell like football.

On Monday I moved into my temporary residence for the week in Pentagon City just before my first day of work tomorrow. I will be staying at the Residence Inn until I can move into my permanent summer residence at Georgetown University Law Center. The rooms at this place are amazing, it is basically a full studio apartment with kitchen, couch, desk area, and king bed. And it is a much closer location to the SEC than good old Staff-Town. Hopefully it will be a good first week of work, and I should be much more well rested without the multiple hours of commuting to do each week! It will be great practice for the rest of the summer, when all I have to do is walk across the street from GULC to Union Station.

Day 219: January 5, 2013

This afternoon we took a trip up to Dulles to check out the new Air and Space Museum, which had moved a while back from D.C. I had never made it to the new museum even though I lived in Fairfax just a short drive from Dulles. It was cool to see some of the old aircraft, especially the space shuttle Discovery, which made its cross-country trip following retirement and finally settled down in Virginia.

After the museum, we made a trip into the city to have dinner at CoCo Sala. The food was fantastic, and the dessert even better. CoCo Sala is one place, like Founding Farmers, that never disappoints. I had a delicious beef tenderloin for my main course, with sides of seasonal vegetables and a garlic and goat cheese potato puree. My drink was a "Wild Winter" cocktail, and was quite good as well. For dessert, I had their "Some More CoCo" with a french press coffee. The dessert was amazing, and the coffee was quite good, after I had to frantically Google how to work a french press, not realizing that they actually bring you a full french press and do not just pour the coffee for you. Oh the things you learn in a big city. I think it is safe to say we all enjoyed our delicious meals and desserts, and will be happy to return to CoCo Sala this summer when I am back in the nation's capital!

Day 216: January 2, 2013

Went up to D.C. for the afternoon to meet some friends and old work colleagues for happy hour. Took the traditional commute into Union Station, but this time via the blue line instead of the orange line. The outside of Union Station is still sporting some of its festive holiday decorations. This time, however, I had to wait in the SEC lobby as a visitor. But this summer, I will be passing through the security gates again.

We ended up going to Art and Soul, a nice and fashionable restaurant just up the street from the Capitol, which is owned by Oprah's personal chef. The appetizers and dessert was good, and I had one of the Virginia cocktails, which was also very well made. Perhaps I have found a candidate for the Summer in D.C. version of The Rail!

Day 200: December 17, 2012

Got on the shuttle early this morning to head up to Indianapolis Airport, which is already decorated and ready for Christmas. I love traveling out of Indianapolis because it takes about five minutes to get through security, you could walk the length of the terminal in just as much time, and I'm not sure it's even possible to be late getting to a flight as long as you show up by the time they start boarding. After a slightly bumpy ride, we made it into DC just over an hour after leaving from gate B6.

After getting off the plane, I figured I would give my mom a nice introduction to the candystripes by throwing them on over my jeans before walking out of the airport. I'm not sure she likes them any better in person, but maybe in time. Before leaving DC, we stopped by the sushi bar at Union Station to grab lunch. I had some delicious rolls and some tuna nigiri. I love these conveyor belt sushi places, and feel like I will be visiting this place much more often this summer while at the SEC. After sushi, we took a walk by CoCo Sala to grab some chocolate from the boutique, and then made our way back to Virginia.

Day 141: October 19, 2012

We went up into the city again for my last day in Virginia over fall break. Had a great lunch at Founding Farmers to start off the day. The beef short ribs are always a fantastic selection. The meat is so tender it slides right off the bone and you can cut it with just your fork. FF has always been one of my DC favorites, and it used to be right down the street from the first office I worked. If you ever go, I strongly recommend the corn bread skillet, and trying out one of the in-house freshly made drinks or cocktails.

Following lunch, we took a walk down to the mall to enjoy some of the DC parks. The one advantage of the parks in this section of DC is that they are so quiet and secluded, being so separated from everything else. The downside is that due to this distance, it tends to be difficult to get there, and you at least need to make a concerted effort to do so. There is no walking through the mall on your way somewhere else. The second disadvantage, especially as you make your way towards the monuments, is tourists. But we had some great weather for our initial stroll through the mall. Note the use of the word "initial."

On our stroll through the mall we had a chance to stop by one of my favorite monuments, the Lincoln Memorial. I love walking up the steps and seeing the reflecting pool in the background. I wish it was closer to the rest of the city so that it was easier to get to on a regular walk through the city, but I still enjoy when I have the opportunity to take a walk by. After leaving Lincoln, however, we got caught in a huge downpour from an unexpected storm. We finally made it back to Union Station and camped out there for a while until it was time to head towards the airport for me to catch my flight back to Indy. Overall, had a great fall break back in Virginia seeing friends and family and catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation!

Day 138: October 16, 2012

A trip back to Union Station brings up the story of how a bottle of Mash led me to Indiana. One afternoon, after I had gotten my first round of acceptances to law school, including from IU, I went to lunch at Potbelly while working at the SEC. I had the usual Mash to drink with my sandwich, and sat down at one of these tables in the outside seating area. The bottle must have been shaken up, so it started to fizz and overflow as I opened it. Fortunately, I caught it quickly and closed the top. Unfortunately, plenty of it leaked out before I could seal it. Double unfortunately, this table is filled with holes (as you can see). Triple unfortunately, this was one of the rare days I was wearing khaki pants at work. So the red drink spilled through the table and onto my pants, and I had to run back to the office to clean it up so it didn't stain before I ate my lunch. Quadruple-unfortunately (is that a thing?) the bathroom on our side of the floor was closed for cleaning when I got there. But I ran into an attorney with our office on the way who was also heading to the restroom, and he said he knew where the other one on our floor was. So while following him, he asked me about how my law school applications were going, and I mentioned the schools I was considering so far (George Washington, William and Mary, Indiana). Upon mentioning Indiana, he started talking about how his old college roommate went to law school and loved it, and about how great Bloomington was. We talked for a while, and while there were plenty of good reasons to go to IU, and although I spent much more time debating the decision, I probably would not have really started seriously thinking about Indiana had this whole complicated incident not unfolded when it did. And so far, it seems to have been a great decision. Not sure if Mash does commercials or anything, but I'm pretty sure they should pick me up for a documentary or something. Go Mash!