Welcome to your college frat party

Last night I hung out with Damien and some of his friends. Among them was a girl named Courtney (I think). She was a medical school student from Tampa and seemed nice enough. Somewhere in the middle of dinner she started talking politics and about how bad Obama has been. "Why," I asked her, "has Obama been so bad? He sure isn't perfect, but he passed financial reform, health care reform..." That's when the lights and buzzers went off, I said the magic words. She started tearing into health care reform, talking about how insurance companies are increasing their premiums and hospitals will cherry-pick patients. Honestly, I do not have the requisite knowledge to debate her on this, and I do not know the finer points of health care reform. I do, however, know that insurance companies and hospitals acting against patient interests is nothing new nor is it the fault of the Obama administration. I also know that when she told me "Every doctor in Florida thinks it is terrible," she is probably incorrect. Doctors cannot agree whether its a virus or food poisoning, so it would be miraculous to get every doctor in the very populous state of Florida to agree on a political opinion. Alright, she doesn't like health care reform. We'll see if it works or not, I guess.
Then she got worse.
This girl said she does not understand why anyone votes on social issues ("I mean, I love gay people, but it just isn't that important"). When pushed a bit on it, she responded that politicians don't make decisions on social issues, it's all the judicial system. "What about that Civil Rights Act? That was legislative. And DOMA?" I asked her. She had no response. I wonder why she did not have a proper retort? Could it be that she is entirely incorrect, does not know history, and has no idea about how American government works? Yes, many decisions on "social issues" come from the courts (Prop 8 ruling, just to think of one off the front page). But legislators and even executives have a huge impact and are constitutionally empowered to act on the issues. Also, to say that social issues do not matter sounds pretty flimsy coming from a privileged, white, Christian medical school student.
Another bright spot of the conversation was her statement, "I don't understand why so many Jews vote Democrat. It isn't in their interest." When asked to clarify she advanced the position that Jews are well-off to rich. It would be wholly unnecessary to dismantle her statements premise by premise. They are ignorant, incorrect, and borderline offensive, to be generous. In the midst of this discussion (which, by the way, included four or five people, not only Courtney and me), Damien's friend Sam tried to mention that many Jews have altruistic instincts because Jews have themselves been the victims of poor circumstances on a few occasions. Courtney's eyes glazed over and she simply could not understand the idea that someone could not always act in their own economic interest.
Other topics of conversation which betrayed her ignorance included why rebuilding is necessary and we can't just up and leave Afghanistan at the drop of a hat, why President Obama did not create the federal deficit, and why we live in a welfare state (because there are...welfare programs?). A lot went on in a short period of time. I laughed; I cried; I stopped talking and let other people handle it.

Then we went to a party thrown by some law school people. A house-warming party of sorts. It did get very warm in the house, perhaps due to the heat given off by the 200 or so people inside. It was every frat party I ever went to in college, but 80s-themed despite not playing 80s music. Not my favorite. Maybe 80s music would have helped. The big difference between this and a frat party was that when the cops came I was not worried in the slightest. We had 200 law students there, surely someone would be able to talk the police into leaving us alone. As it turns out, that was my friend Pat, who did so in a belly shirt and green spandex shorts.

No Money, Mo' Problems

Today was the first day I can remember where I spent literally no money. I didn't have time during the work day to take my usual break to Dunkin Donuts in the morning. Or the afternoon. I didn't go out for dinner. I didn't buy something crazy online, or see a movie, or go out for a drink. Nothing. I need to start having more days like this. Or surrender all my worldly possessions and head out on my own into nature, Siddhartha-style. That sounds terrible, though I wouldn't have to worry about spending money. These days Siddhartha would be mistaken for just some other crazy homeless guy. And you know what, I'm not sure that the people mistaking him would be entirely incorrect.

There was a story on abovethelaw.com about all the summer associates at Akin Gump (a big law firm, for those of you who are lucky enough not to have just gone through OCI or just don't know) icing a bunch of full-time associates (actual lawyers). If you don't know what icing is yet, you might be better off. Though it is a wholly amusing idea. But summer associates getting ballsy enough to ice people who hold future job opportunities in their hands? That takes true bro-ish courage. My pre-ripped American Eagle baseball cap is off to them. Apparently all the summers called a meeting with the associates under the cover of saying they were unhappy with the way work was going. The summers all had matching "Ice Storm" (or something) t-shirts and iced all the associates. Coming up next: none of these summers get offers.

I know that this is a bit condescending, but as (if) you read this (which you are clearly under no obligation to do, in fact I'm not sure I recommend) please remember that I did not actually do anything, even though I would have liked to. The woman running trivia last night pronounced some things in ways which...were incorrect (read: pissed me off, made me consider correcting her to her face, and certainly prompted me to have small fits of rage in my seat). I'll try to type what she said phonetically. First, in answering a question about houses at Hogwarts, she pronounced two of the houses Sly-therin (as in sly, like a fox), and Gry-findor (again, with the 'y' sound rather than sounding like an 'i'). Come on, Harry Potter references have permeated the culture pretty deeply. I don't think it is unheard of to be able to pronounce those names correctly.
Then she asked the question: "The Cure's first hit song, 'Killing an Arab' is based on what novella by Albert Camus" - pronounced "Cam-Us." Wowza. That's pretty atrocious. And I haven't even read "The Stranger." To reiterate, I understand that it is condescending to want to correct her. But she has to learn some time! Arggggg. So bad. It's not nice of me, I know. But I want to help her learn!
Anyways, none of this is as bad as "subsequently." Or sub-see-quently, depending on who you are talking to.

I spent a good 3 hours today searching for an attorney to ask him a question about whether we were proceeding with a case or not. A question which he asked me to ask him earlier in the day. Then poof, he disappeared for the entire afternoon. Frustration. Or magic attorney, you decide.

That's not a monkey

The zoo is a great place to see things. Like hippos and elephants. And awful parenting and fat people. Erika came to visit this weekend (which was fantastic!) and we observed all of these things at the National Zoo. I know this probably is not news, but America is obese. And you certainly get to see a slice of America on Labor Day weekend at a major tourist pull. If not for the fence separating them I might have had a hard time differentiating some of the zoo patrons from the elephants. On second thought maybe not, the elephants were more adorable and didn't walk around with a camera in front of their face the entire time. The range of bad parenting was vast. It included putting kids on leashes, letting kids run buck wild without any modicum of supervision, and telling children blatantly false information. Mr. Boucher, my high school biology teacher, would have pulled out all of his hair if he heard some of the ignorant answers that parents gave about elementary (or sometimes common-sense) parts of biology.

There were two redeeming familial interactions, however. The first was a child who, in a desperate attempt to gain the attention of a komodo dragon, started banging on the glass cage with all his might. His father pulled him back, away from the glass, and said sternly "Don't ever do that!" The kid was far more respectful after that. The second went something like this:
Brother 1: Look at the monkey!
Brother 2: That's not a monkey.
Brother 1: Sarah said it was a monkey.
Brother 2: Well, Sarah was wrong.
Way to go Brother 2. He wins my prize for showing no remorse in dispatching ignorance while slightly mocking his family. For the record they were looking at something along the lines of a gopher. Clearly not a monkey.

Parents who are bad at their job are a little more jarring than other people who are bad at theirs. Later that night we experienced a couple of waitresses and a bartender who were at best sub-par at the jobs. Literally tossing menus onto a table is not a way to endear yourself to your customers. Neither is having a bad attitude and clearly being on drugs. That would be Waitresses 1 and 2. With the bartender I may be being judgmental, but when you think peach sangria, you think...I don't know...something with fruit in it that tastes good. Apparently this bartender decided that peach sangria should consist mostly of juice and peach schnapps. Unfortunate. Good think it was not me who ordered or drank it. That was taken care of by Rachel, Rebecca, and Erika. This all occured at a restaurant one of my college professors recommended to me. I'm beginning to question her judgment and perhaps her teachings. I thought she was legit, but now I'm not so sure. But it's ok, we ended up at a bar that had decently priced nachos and played Alice In Chains. I couldn't complain about that.

The highlight of Sunday was this oatmeal that Erika and I had at brunch. Brunch isn't typically the largest meal, and I usually have a big boy appetite. But this oatmeal dominated me. It was came with raisins, pecans, cinammon milk, and caramelized bananas. Delicious, but I probably ate half of it and wanted to puke I was so full. At least I wasn't like Erika, who stuffed herself, same as me, and then ate a little more because that's always a good idea. Probably the first time I have ever been shown who is boss by oatmeal. With bloated stomachs we walked around Georgetown and then back home. Of course then we made dinner (burritos) and stuffed ourselves again. And what's better after a day of being uncomfortably full than going out and getting a brownie sundae for dessert? Ugh.

Mondays suck. Apparently going back to school on Monday is not the issue. I definitely have a case of the Mondays every week.