For K. ...

My friend K. entered my limerick contest 10 days late. Normally, I might tell her she should read my blog and follow my rules. But, as she reminded me, she was out of the country at the time of the deadline. And since she was in Scotland, which is practically Ireland (unless you are Scottish or Irish, in which case they are not at all the same) I am granting her request. Sort of. Except this: K., you must buy your own Shamrock Shake. By the time I send you a card in the mail it would not be March and thus you would not be able to buy one anyway. So, just buy one yourself, and alternate between thinking about the delicious green flavors, your favorite friend in D.C., and your favorite Scottish lad. So, everyone, here you go, a lovely limerick from K., recently returned from the U.K. ...

One day a girl went to work
Her duties that day she did shirk
She spent all her time
Coming up with a rhyme
In hopes of a Shamrock Shake perk.

Butterflies ...

Things that make me nervous this week:

• A phone interview with four people who I really, really, really want to impress.
  
• Oral arguments in front of fake judges who plan to make 15 minutes of my life completely uncomfortable. And they will be grading me while doing so. Lovely.
• Finals start in less than one month ...

Things that make me happy this week:

• Knowing what shows up on caller ID when my dream internship calls. (Only for the interview. Believe me, if I have exciting news, I will share it.)
  
• Eating at Cosi with M.
• Spring ...
  

Quote Of The Day ...

Read this one in my Property book, in a dissent from Judge Arabian:

"As judicial architects of the rules of life, we better serve when we construct halls of harmony rather than walls of wrath."

Now, I like the sentiment and all, but coupled with the rest of his a-bit-much opinion about the rights of pet-lovers everywhere, it really made for quite a finale ...

News Flash ...

Real headlines I read this week:

On Time online: "Is Our Happiness Pre-Ordained?"
In the Washington Post Express: "Scientists Link Joy to Giving: New Study Finds that Giving Increases Happiness"

I am so glad scientists can now discover what we learned 2,000 years ago. Good work, guys. Research money well spent ...

P.S. I now get the Washington Post on Sundays. I love it. The article from the Travel section our first day as newspaper subscriber really welcomed me, too: "Salt Lake City: Mild-Mannered City by Day, Party Town by Night." Seriously ...

Five Years Ago ...

No, this post will not talk about the state of the war in Iraq. But it will reminisce about five years ago today, when I listened live to Tony Blair in Parliament. Seriously, the man can talk. And he can answer questions, quite brilliantly, might I add ...

My Lucky Day ...

So this morning before class, instead of looking at cases, I looked at your limericks. I loved them all. Then I got to class, where the professor (who wrote our casebook) announced that we would be discussing the most difficult case in the book. And then he called on me to explain it. I did not think it would be fortuitous to say that I enjoyed reading your limericks more than reading his casebook, so I muddled through his questions. But I loved your limericks less after that. Still, you all deserve a prize for humoring me and and writing such fine poetry. In the pursuit of justice and courage and decisiveness and assorted other virtues, however, I will not be one of those people who invents a contest and then cannot decide the winner so just randomly chooses. I hate that. And I cannot send you all a prize, anyway, because I am a poor law student with no summer internship. But since I did have more entries than expected, I am choosing winners in different categories. So now, without further ado ... the winners of the inaugural Capital C limerick contest:

Best Content (or, best appeal to my inner desires):

She only likes poems with rhymin'
And dreams of wedding Josh Lyman
Then her sister will marry my bro
When he gets some sense and some dough.
We just gotta work on the timin'!
{By K.}

Best Rhyme and Word Choice (or, best use of a word I had to look up on dictionary.com and am definitely now going to use for more than just describing vegetable dip):

There was once an old lady called Lilly
Who thought limericks were quite silly
But she sat down to write
To her granddaughter's delight
And came up with one that was a dilly.
{By J.L., otherwise known as N.}

Best Use of Life Experiences (or, best at forcing me to choose between the travails of my friends): E. in the married category, and L. in the single category because her usage of 'breed' made me laugh out loud. N., the runner up in using life experiences, will also win a prize for being first to submit. UNFORTUNATE UPDATE: Due to some unforeseen complications, this category of winners will now receive a different (but still green, delicious and highly desirable) prize.

I moved with two kids and a man
We packed up our big moving van
To my current holding cell
That seems like pure hell
But I picked up a wonderful tan!
{By E.}

By profession I teach kids to read
But instead I would rather breed
Kids of my own
Until they're full grown
But alas, this has led me to greed!
{By L.}

There once was a mom of two kids
In afternoons, noise she forbids
but nap they would not
and peace can't be bought
They might as well bang on pot lids.
{By N.}

And now, a final word about the Shamrock Shakes. I discovered them almost exactly five years ago, when my friends and I took a jaunt to the Emerald Isle during our London study abroad. Yes, I first experienced all the green flavors in Ireland during the week of St. Patrick's Day! Which makes this prize more valuable than a pot of gold! Now, evidently only the Irish McDonald's locations and some "select" others still offer Shamrock Shakes. Luckily for K. and J.L., the one by Cottonwood Mall IS one of the "select." E., L., and N., your slightly varied prize will be redeemable at any McDonald's ...

P.S. WINNERS: You must e-mail me your mailing address immediately so you can receive your certificate before the end of March!
P.P.S. EVERYONE: Thanks for entering!

Last Call ...

OK everyone, this will be my final reminder about the Limerick Contest before the DEADLINE TOMORROW. So, write away right away! If I can spend my entire Friday and Saturday writing a 5,000-word appellate brief, you can spend ten minutes writing five lines. Thus far, only people with N. names have submitted their entries, so they might win special awards for not procrastinating. But speaking of awards, I investigated the availability of the Shamrock Shakes, and even CALLED McDonald's to guarantee that the winner will have a prize. So now you have no excuse ...

Limerick Contest ...

Hooray for N., the first reader to enter my limerick contest. I thought about using her fabulous entries as an example to encourage the rest of you readers to enter, but I decided that would be unfair somehow. (Not sure how, but I have learned enough in law school to know that judges make whatever decisions they want and then decide their reasons later. So, I am going to be that kind of judge today.) Anyway, as promised, a sample to get all y'all started. Certainly you can ALL come up with something better than this ...

All day long I read cases and books
About property, contracts and crooks
But it makes little sense
And I fear I'm too dense
Should I give up and aim for good looks?

Now preferably, your limericks, unlike my pathetic attempt, will actually make sense and/or be funny ...

Shamrock Shakes And Rhyming Poems ...

At my former place of employment, we had an annual limerick contest to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. My friend J. has informed me that this contest has begun. I imagine that since I am no longer a blue-checkered-shirt-wearing, video-script-writing banker girl, I am ineligible to compete. So, I am hosting my own competition. Anyone (and everyone, since my readership has dwindled) can post a limerick on the comments list of this page by no later than March 16. (Or, if you know my e-mail address, send it to me. But I am not posting that address here. Highly classified information should not be out and about on the World Wide Web.) On St. Patrick's Day, I will post the winning entries on my blog for all to read. AND there will be a fabulous prize: Shamrock Shakes. Now, I am aware that many (most) blog readers do not live near me. This will actually be beneficial, because I have not yet located these most delightful of green delicacies here. (Not for lack of trying. I went to two different places one day last week.) Anyway, those who live far away will receive coupons for Shamrock Shakes. So, enter my contest. Please!

Now, if you finished the seventh grade a long, long time ago and no longer remember how to write a limerick, you can relearn this skill on Wikipedia, or you can keep checking my blog for the next few days until I post a sample entry. The most important quality to remember (which you really should if you want to win) is that I only like poetry that rhymes. And since I am judging this little competition, my opinion is the law here ...

A Jonah Day ...

Last night the power in my apartment building went out. Then this afternoon my parents went away. The power came back on late this morning, but not until I had already decided to be pathetic about it. So to enjoy said electricity and to combat said mood, I am doing what I do in these situations ... when living 2,000 miles from home and reading endless cases and writing convoluted papers to earn a degree I have no intention of using seems like a ridiculous life plan ... I am watching Anne of Avonlea and wearing the striped shirt and the star pajama pants and remembering how much I really love that movie, and how I really, really love Anne, and how I really, really, really hope that one day I will find Gilbert Blythe waiting for me on a bridge somewhere ...

My Wild Weekend ...

I never thought I would use the above title to describe a weekend with my parents. Actually, I might be the first person in the world to do this. Then again, I do have abnormally fun parents, so I guess the title could be quite easily imagined. But I definitely never thought I would take 20-plus photos of frogs in the span of two days. So there you go. But both strange occurrences did happen, so here I am.

My parents flew into town for my spring break. (Not Spring Break. Different kind of wild here people. Think animal kingdom wild.) We went to a frog exhibit at the National Geographic Museum, a butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum, and then to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium. Pretty wild stuff ...

Mom, outside the National Geographic Museum. She really loves frogs. And if you ask nicely, she will tell you about catching tadpoles as a girl. And yes, we saw tadpoles too. I think seeing her long-lost daughter and a whole case full of squirming tadpoles at the same time brought a tear to her eye. OK, maybe not. But it made for an interesting caption. OK, maybe not ...

Not the clearest of the many, many frog photos. But this one has personality. If you want a clear photo of a frog, you really chose the completely wrong blog. (Yes, I am rhyming. That makes this caption a poem. Which makes me think of the annual limerick contest at the bank. K., I predict you will win again ...)

Again, I go for character, not clarity. Evidently a theme for me lately, just ask my writing teacher. But that depressing story belongs in another post. This photo made me think of the bank, too. A., I do not think you read this, but K. and J. sometimes do, so maybe they will tell you (for me) to have fun with the butterflies and the museum ...

If I ever win a prize for greatest photo, which of course I will not, it will be for this photo. And I will call it Alligator Eye. I am not sure if this eye and its reflection belong to an alligator or a crocodile, but alligator sounds better for the title of a prize-winning photo.

Finally. The end. And a normal photo with my fabulous parents ...

Oops. Almost the end. I could not photograph (seriously, federal agents would have arrested me) the most interesting part of the weekend: Seeing millions of dollars (no exaggeration here, I promise) at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where we took a tour and where you can buy a sheet of 32 uncut one-dollar bills for $55 ...

No Words ...

I am again sorry, dear blog readers (the few who remain) about my recent lack of posts. As it turns out, the second semester of law school causes stress. For example, this weekend, I had the cheery task of reading (well, skimming mostly) 350ish pages of cases and statutes and such and then writing about them. (In the process, I decided that some of our amendments are overrated. Who needs freedom from government intrusion, for example? Not me. I think the feds would be quite bored while searching through my stuff.) Anyway, I finally finished this afternoon. HOORAY! And I did not realize I could be out of words, but I think I am now, and I must conserve them for the paper I need to work on tomorrow. So the rest of this post will be the last week in pictures.

Pre-journal competition snack, provided by my fabulous roommate, C.

The stuff I pored over for my entire weekend.

My Saturday night movie break ... which led to my Sunday morning bang cut. I really love Anne Hathaway's bangs. But don't worry, I did not go that drastic. And I am saving the book for later in the week, maybe as a reward for the next paper.

Finally, for J. and L., a flashback. Hooray for summer vacation ...