Undefeated!

So, I've been gone for awhile but I had a really good reason. I just returned from a monthlong trial in Houston...my first jury trial. And we won. I can't really post about the trial itself, as much as I might want to, but I can say that I learned a great deal.

One of the most important things I learned is what really matters, based on what you can and cannot live without for an extended period of time. I've read or watched almost zero news or sports over the last few months, and I haven't missed it. I haven't watched a single moment of television except for the Indy 500 since sometime in March. I slept very little. I felt at times completely out of touch with what was going on in the world. And it was very disorienting, but I could live without those things if I needed to, because it was important.

What I could not live without, even though I had to try, was the love and support of my friends and family, the people who really matter to me. Being out of touch from them was nearly physically painful, so much so that I jumped at an opportunity to run home for a quick weekend to spend with those I really care about. It was glorious, and it kept me sane. And now that I'm back, I still haven't gone grocery shopping, done laundry, restocked my fridge or my bathroom cabinets, or anything essential like that. Instead I've spent 2 days being around the people I missed so much, and will continue to do so for much of this week. I am home, in every sense of the word, and it's what I craved and felt so deprived of for the past month of trial and even the weeks leading up to it.

The greatest lesson I learned is to appreciate and revel in that wonderful feeling of being home with those I love, because it's the one thing that I will desperately long for when I don't have it. I'm looking forward to not knowing that feeling again for a good long while.

Oh hey

So I went on that crazy trip to New Zealand, and it was amazing, and then I came back to the single busiest period at work that I have ever experienced. I seriously will bill 180 hours in 2.5 weeks this month, putting me on pace for a 270 hour month if I hadn't been on vacation until March 13th. NUTSO!

But because I've posted it everywhere else, I should post here my Flickr set of the photos I took. I'd also link to link to the photos taken by my traveling companion if he will make them publicly available. His are MUCH better than mine because I spent most of the 4 day 33.5 mile hike through the Milford Track trying not to die. He was a little more relaxed, having only to work hard at trying not to kill me. (Perhaps this explains why there were actually bets at our local bar as to whether we would still be speaking post-17 days together in New Zealand and hiking over a f*cking mountain. For the record: the answer is yes, you suckers.) The picture above is one of his that I have shamelessly stolen, and hopefully he won't mind.

Also, this Flickr set is from some guys who were on the hike with us, and they also took amazing photographs. That should give you a great sense of just what the hike was like...and someday I will find the time and energy to relive the whole trip here in great detail. But not today.

Also, I have videos on a YouTube page but I won't link them until I find the time to edit all together into one long video. Right now it has a serious case of the shakeycams, and some clips are just a few seconds. But I will get it done sometime this year, even if it has to be in July.

So this is crazy, right?

My 2011 is off to a crazy start, and has the potential to be a truly whirlwind year before all is said and done. I have two trials set this year already, with two more cases to be set for trial at some point and others that could find their way onto trial calendars before too long. One of those cases is not set until May, but we have a ton of expert depositions still to be taken in the meantime, and major motions to be drafted. All of that needs to be completed by sometime in March, which will be here much sooner than we think.

I tell you this only to set up the sheer insanity of what I am about to say.

For awhile now, I have been lamenting my lack of travel partners to the many places on my travel wish list. It is sad that at 35 years old, I've only just recently acquired a passport and taken my first trip outside the U.S., and that was to Vancouver. Not exactly a stretch. Well, last year I met someone who is as down with international travel as I am, and who has traveled yearly to New Zealand for several years now. A few months ago, on a whim because of low airfares, we gave serious thought to setting a trip there in February or March of this year (the tail end of their summer, given the change in hemisphere.) Ultimately, fiscal responsibility concerns for both of us made us elect not to book...but we made a deal that if my year-end bonus was over amount X, we'd go.

Well, my year end bonus was paid out on Friday and to my complete and total shock, it was not only over amount X but almost twice that much. We talked about it over the weekend and starting planning where and when we would go. I have a settlement conference in New Jersey on February 22nd, so I cannot go before then, but I thought we could find a way to squeeze in two weeks there at the end of February and beginning of March. All I had to do was get permission from my boss.

I haven't asked her yet, but as I've spent this week trying to plan out everything that must be done for my approaching trial and to set depositions in this case and in another case in which discovery closes in February, I've realized that it is truly insane of me to try to take a two week out of pocket vacation during this time period. And yet, the more I realize that my first six months of 2011 are going to be batshit insane of the working all night and never sleeping variety, I am more convinced than ever that my sanity DEMANDS that I do this.

I should go, right? I should demand from my boss that she give me permission, and show that I can do this and still get everything done. I should go. Even though airfare is $3000 (premium economy is the only way to go when the flight is 17 hours and your legs are 47" hip to heel, dontchaknow), and even though my parents find it nutso that I will travel to a foreign country with someone they have never even met -- they're very quaint about this -- I should totally make this work.

Right?

I have only taken two real vacations in my entire adult post-graduation life, and both were only a week long. I also worked some during both trips, and stayed within the U.S. in places where I could be regularly connected if necessary. New Zealand for two weeks demands that I just accept I will be out of contact for most of the time, and if people need me they have to friggin' wait. Or figure it out on their own. I love this idea, but I know the people I work with will hate it. But instead of thinking this is why this idea is dumb and crazy and irresponsible, I'm thinking this is why I have to do it.

I just pray she says yes.

Quick and Dirty

I have no time or enthusiasm for blogging anymore, obviously. But I just can't bring myself to shut this place down. So, we do a quick and dirty update since the last post pre-vacation:

* I played in one poker tournament in Biloxi. Finished somewhere in the high 40's, and top 27 got paid. I had terrible cards for most of the day so even lasting that long was really surprising, and actually made me feel pretty good about my effort. I had nothing to work with, but I made it work well enough to outlast some really good players.

* The sexism in poker still gets to me, but I'm finally used to it now. I actually had a guy lay down pocket queens to my bet, and it was an older guy who had been super-flirty with me to that point. (He saw me on my cell phone at the break and asked if I was "texting with my boyfriend," kept calling me "hot stuff," etc.) Now he said he was laying them down because he had gotten burned with them several times already, and I think that was at least partially true. But I also think he was trying to do me a favor, which is fairly condescending. Of course, I had pocket jacks so I was happy for the fold, but I didn't tell him that. He had been very chatty with the whole table, trying to play the "I'm just a dumb first timer, you must be really good at this" role...meanwhile before the tournament started he was bitching about how lousy the comps were for poker players when he had gambled over $2mil. in MGM owned casinos in the last year. So, notsomuch.

* It was raining when I got to Pensacola the first day of my vacation, so I decided not to play in the Tuesday poker tournament and instead stayed all morning in Fla. to get a nice long walk on the beach in before I had to leave. It was wonderful. Despite normally not being a big Hampton Inn fan, I have to give it up for the Hampton Inn on Pensacola Beach--it is way nicer than most of the chain and I would totally stay there again. Although their "heated pool" was so cold I nearly died.

* I ate at a restaurant on the beach called Peg Leg Pete's--also highly recommended. The food was delicious and the company was good too. However, I did have an older retired couple from GA there start talking to me about why they moved to Pensacola, and at one point the guy did a quick look around the bar and then just launched into an incredibly racist statement. (Something about how the locals all call this one beach "chicken wing beach" because "that kind" hang out there.) I hate it when things like this happen, because I realize it would do no good to chide him for saying it, but I also don't want to be complicit in his racism and act like it doesn't bother me. So, inevitably, I end up sitting there with an uncomfortable look on my face, hoping he will realize he shouldn't have said it but that I am too polite or weak or whatever to flat out call him out for it. And then I wrapped up my drinking and left soon thereafter.

* In Biloxi, I lost a lot of money and ate a wonderful meal at Mary Mahoney's, as is my annual tradition. Still the best seafood gumbo I have EVER had. However, they cannot make a gimlet to save their damn lives. Here's a hint: it should not be over ice, and it should not be fizzy.

* After Biloxi, I drove back to attend a friend's show at Smith's, and the next morning on little sleep and much hangover, I flew to Vegas. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay this time, and I much preferred it to the MGM Grand where I stayed in May. I again lost money, but had a couple big slot machine wins ($350 oncer, $200 at the airport) and some good blackjack play. However, overall the trip was pricey because my gambling would swing hard in both directions. Not as bad as T., who was with us, and who lost $800 in about 20 minutes on 8 $100 hands of blackjack! LIVING THE DREAM.

* We ate our way through Vegas, and that seriously has to be the best foodie town in the universe. First night we had Border Grill mexican food that was delicious, the next day we had Burger Bar for lunch (it says a lot that this very tasty meal ended up being the least impressive of the trip but was still good), then Nobu for dinner where SOME PEOPLE ordered kobe beef steaks cooked over hot rocks at $32 an ounce, then the next day for lunch I had a lamb burger and fried dill pickles at BLT Burger that was TO DIE FOR, and finally we finished it off with an excellent Russian fusion tasting menu at Red Square. All of it was yummy.

* Good thing I went on that "crash vegas" diet...I lost 7 pounds in 17 days, and I wasn't even trying that hard for the last week or so. But I gained 4 right back in Vegas! (I've taken off 2 of those in the last week since I've been back and hitting the treadmill again.) This really inspired me to rededicate, because I do feel so much better when I am working out 4 days a week at least. Also, with the cooler weather, I am going to try walking outside on weekends more often. I still hope to get myself half-marathon ready by January...

* The craziest moment of the entire Vegas experience was when I realized while eating lunch at BLT Burger in the Mirage that my wallet was gone. I didn't know if I had dropped it, been pickpocketed, or left it in the cab I had arrived in 45 minutes earlier. I have to give major, major props to the staff of the Mirage, who got the security folks to find the cab number of the cab I got out of through their security camera footage, called the cab company and fought their way through the labyrynthic maze to reach the driver, and discovered that he had my wallet and made arrangements for him to bring it back to me. It completely saved my vacation, and then I tipped the entire world for their help. I will also probably stay at the Mirage next time I am in town, because I feel like I owe them for going over the top for me when I was not even a guest on their property.

* Speaking of next time, there is already a movement afoot to go back for Thanksgiving. I don't think I can afford it!

* This was only my second "real vacation" (i.e. not a long weekend or Christmas/Thanksgiving holiday trips home to family) since I graduated from law school. Twice I have managed to take an entire week off from work, in 10 years. This is sad. This needs to be remedied.

Gone fishin'

I'm headed today to Pensacola Beach, FL for one night, then tomorrow for Biloxi for my third year playing in the Gulf Coast Poker Championship. I'll be back briefly on Thursday night to see a friend's bluegrass band play at Smith's Olde Bar (come join us!) and then on Friday morning I head to Vegas.

I hope to have interesting tales to tell next week. And to not be completely broke ass.

The Crash Vegas Diet

Having planned my vacation for the last week of August, I am faced with needing to wear a swimsuit in public in two weeks for my one night on a Florida beach, and then 5 days later while in Vegas lazing about the pool at the Mandalay Bay. But I've been a bad Sara, and do not currently feel swimsuit-worthy. The answer? A challenge to myself to see if I can drop 5 pounds by the time I leave for Vegas on Sept. 3rd.

Luckily, being tall and weighing more generally means that stringing together several pounds lost in 2.5 weeks is not as hard for me as it is for some. The bad part of that is, it takes more to make a noticeable difference. So, how am I going to do it?

1. I'm eating under 1400 calories a day. This is not that hard to do for me, but I'm going to accomplish it by eating as many fruits and vegetables as I can, and cutting meat out of my diet as much as I can for the next 17 days. I will still eat seafood, however, because it's just too hard for me to go full vegetarian. The usual breakdown of a day will look like this:

Breakfast: fruit and a diet coke, possibly with greek yogurt
Lunch: Salad or sandwich of some sort from takeout, or a frozen Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice/etc. meal
Afternoon snack: 100 calorie popcorn bag, fruit, carrots
Dinner: takeout sushi, margherita pizza, or if I'm really good a homecooked meal of mostly vegetables with possibly some seafood.
Dessert: Sorbet du jour (I am currently obsessed with sorbet)

2. I'm spending an hour a day, EVERY DAY, on the treadmill. No ifs ands or buts. However, over the next 17 days I am giving myself 2 days off as needed for work purposes.

3. I'm doing 100 sit-ups every single morning or night. Gotta get some ab muscles back in evidence.

4. Drinking no more than twice a week, light beer or wine only. I bet you were thinking that sample menu up there looked mighty light, right? Well, I have to save the calories for an adult beverage now and then. Also the occasional inescapable chocolate craving.

I'll let you know on September 2nd how I've done...

Vacation Plans Update

So, things changed a little bit in the last couple weeks as I planned my vacation for the last week of August. I am probably NOT going to the Florida gulf coast because cost has become somewhat prohibitive. (Beach house rentals in FL are EXPENSIVE despite the whole oil spill thingee!) Instead, I will probably drive or fly straight to Biloxi on Monday for 3 days of poker tournament goodness and fun with my friend Susan (and technically it's on a beach so that should fulfill my beach-fix) thanks to free airfare and hotel deals from the Beau Rivage. I'll come back on Thursday, in time to see an awesome bluegrass band, Whoa Nelly, play at Smith's. (You should come if you're here in the ATL. Seriously. They are great.) And then early the next morning, I'll fly to Vegas for Labor Day weekend with some friends. I have free hotel offers there, too, so the only question is whether the airfare will become semi-reasonable before I give up and book a ticket. I may not even gamble all that much this time out...I probably will just hang by the pool during the days so that I resist the urge to give MGM/Mirage Corp. my hard-earned dollars. (Yeah, right.)

Woot! I'm looking forward to an entire week off. I just told my boss about it today, and she didn't balk. So it's as good as set in stone.

Help Me Plan My Vacation

I have decided to take the week leading up to Labor Day weekend off, for some sort of vacation. My friend Susan is going with some family to Biloxi in the middle of that week and has invited me to come along, and since a) there is a poker tournament that week and b) I have a million free hotel and airfare offers for the Beau Rivage anyhow, I've decided I will probably spend at least a few days down there. I also want to go visit a friend who moved to New Orleans a few months ago. And I need to satisfy my beach craving with a couple days on a beach somewhere. Can all of these things be combined into one 10 day journey? Also, a part of me just wants to fly to Vegas for Labor Day weekend. And my parents have been begging me to come up and spend a long weekend with them in the mountains.

Suggestions welcome, in particular as to beaches along the gulf coast that aren't befouled with oil and that have nice beachfront hotels.

NY, NY a wonderful town

I'm leaving tonight for three days in New York for a conference, and it couldn't come at a better time. Just yesterday I was lamenting on the phone to someone that I really didn't want to go, because I hate the networkingfest that these conferences inevitably turn into. We spend all day in presentations that we don't pay attention to, and then all night drinking and eating with potential clients. I come home more exhausted than when I left, with fewer billable hours and a few extra pounds.

BUT, since others have chosen today as a good day to blow up the Georgia GOP, and since I have serious reservations about the methodology being utilized, I'm quite happy to have an excuse to be off the grid until this mess blows over. Why do I have reservations, you ask? Because I have always been bothered by the media utilizing the reporting of rumors on blogs or the internet as sufficient basis to run with a story they otherwise couldn't run with because they lack sufficient independent verification and sourcing. No sooner did Erick Erickson put up his post telling all the tales that everyone wanted to hear about various Georgia Republican lawmakers, and he was saying on Twitter that a reporter told him that was giving the media the cover to run with the stories they'd been holding back. I'm willing to bet a shiny nickle those stories won't be about the underlying allegations themselves but will instead be couched in terms of "there are rumors on the internets that..." This sort of backdooring of otherwise unpublishable rumors without independent verification makes me sick. It's not even the story itself that bothers me, it's the way in which it is being brought to light suddenly now, after months of people holding back because nobody could nail down first-hand verification.

But, I have already lost the battle on that one, so I might as well head out of town for a few days to let the brouhaha blow over. Since my friend Samantha has brought me back burritos from Anna's Taqueria that I will get from her when I see her tonight, I can't complain too much. That is already guaranteed to make for a wonderful week. Maybe it will even snow a little, just so I can really get into the Christmas spirit. A girl can hope.

That game sucked

Really, there isn't much more that I can say than that. I was shamefully relieved that we weren't shut out at home, something that has not happened in so long that nobody believes it is even still possible. I was angry early and ready to give up before the half, because I could tell we just didn't have it in us to win that game and there seemed no point to staying to watch the carnage.

I would very much like Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Bowden to both go find something else to do with their time.

This is about as nice as I can be on the subject.

Ready for some football!

Headed to Tallahassee this weekend for a little of this:



It should be interesting, because the fans have been asked to attempt one of these:



I am generally an opponent of "White-out" or "Black-out" games that seem designed to sell extra fan gear and don't do much to make the fans cheer louder or the team play harder, but I will still be heading down with white T-shirts in tow.

Really, since this is probably my only game this season, I just want a win.

If I needed encouragement...

I spent this past weekend in an undisclosed location that involved hurricanes, beignets, and hangovers that made me want to die and believe that this wish had an excellent chance of being granted. During this trip, I was brought back from the near-brink of death by perhaps the best massage I have ever had. For 75 glorious minutes this woman rubbed my tired muscles with massage oil while I listened to new age music. The silence was only penetrated very briefly, when my masseuse asked me what I do to work out.

I am still adjusting to the concept of being someone who works out regularly, since in 33 years of life I have never particularly enjoyed to exercise. I would take up a new regimen of Pilates, or swimming, or walking, or aerobics, or salsa videos, or what have you, but I would never stick with it beyond a few weeks. Laziness always took over. When I moved into my house in 2006, I bought a treadmill determined to start working out in a climate controlled environment, but I would only manage to use the machine long enough to finish a season-long box set of some TV show before I'd go back to using it as very expensive and bulky decorative furniture.

But back in March after watching the number on the scale slowly creep until it hit a number that I never though I would see, I decided I had to actully accept the fact that I needed to go on a diet. I started doing Weight Watchers online and quickly learned that as part of my daily points allotment, I can earn extra points by working out. An hour on the treadmill gets me 4 points, whereas each light beer is 2 points, so basically working out 5 nights a week means I can have 10 beers on the weekends. It's strange now to think about how that simple little act of reward and tradeoff convinced me to stick to something that I'd never been able to stick to before, but here I am nearly five months later and I'm still working out regularly. In fact, I have managed to up my endurance to the point that on several weekends I have done 7 or 8 miles on the treadmill while watching a movie, and I only feel like my legs are going to fall off for about the last mile or so!

As I have suddenly become "one of those people who work out," I've started to adjust my schedule to fit regular workouts rather than fitting my workout schedule to my crazy life. I've gone home to work out on a Friday night rather than going out, or I've worked out on a Sunday rather than going shopping. I learned very quickly that taking more than 2 days off resulted in a rapid backslide of deconditioning, so I have a strong physical incentive to keep going with it. I've also started toying with the idea of trying to do a half marathon this winter, though I still have some knee and ankle issues to contend with if I start training for something like that. But still, sort of like how shocking it would be to see a chef with a steak house suddenly become a vegetarian, my transformation from lazy ass who likes to say she only runs when chased to regular workout girl who is actually thinking about marathons and such...well, let's just say I understand your gape-mouthed surprise, because nobody could be more surprised than I am.

So, anyway, back to the massage. I had noticed recently that my calves were not only looking a bit larger (a drawback of using incline on the treadmill to make the workouts harder) but extremely firm. When the masseuse asked me what I do to work out, it was as she had just finished one leg's workout from buttock muscle all the way down to the foot. I was extremely proud to say that I walked 3.5-4mph on a treadmill 5 nights a week. I really didn't realize until that moment how accomplished that sentence would make me feel. (The losing nearly 20 pounds in the last 4 months certainly has not hurt, either.) The masseuse chuckled and said "well, keep it up because the only other time I've felt calves that firm was on a football player client." And then she told me that I most certainly do not have a "jello butt," either.

Maybe that is what made me feel like a million bucks for the rest of the day and melted my hangover. Maybe it's what made me feel no fear as I put on a bikini and wore it in public for the first time in several years. But it was exactly the encouragement I needed to hear that what I am doing is working, and that I should keep it up and keep pushing myself harder.

I returned home with renewed dedication to get back on and stay on the treadmill.

I'm back

Vancouver was fun, exhausting, grey, chilly, beautiful, and a complete whirlwind. I returned after an agonizing 11 hour layover in Chicago to find my house's air conditioning had crapped out while I was gone, so upon my arrival at home at 5:30 a.m. it was 88 degrees in my house. Let's just say that life did everything in its power to make my return...eventful. I *still* do not have my luggage thanks to Delta and United refusing to talk to each other, but I hope to rectify that tonight.

Hopefully, sometime this week I will have photos for you from my 12 km walk to, around, and back from Stanley Park's seawall. That was the definite highlight of the trip.

In the meantime, I wrote about today's un-landmark Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act's preclearance requirment over at Blog for Democracy/law. Check it out.

Blame Canada

...for my disappearing act this coming week. I have to go to a conference for the rest of the week in Vancouver, leaving very early tomorrow morning and returning Friday night. I'll be staying here:



And I'm hoping to get at least a little bit of tourist time here while I'm in town:



So, perhaps you will have pretty pictures from me when I return. If not, enjoy the blogroll in my absence.

Poker comes closer to Atlanta

While Atlanta waits with baited breath to find out if we'll be building the world's dumbest video lottery casino at what is now Underground, real casino poker has come much closer to the gambling hordes who live here.

For years, the only legal poker rooms available to Atlantans have been at least a six hour drive away in Florida, Mississippi, or Louisiana. While the closest casino to Atlanta is in Cherokee, NC approximately 2.5 hours away, North Carolina law forbade card games anywhere in the casino, so Cherokee only had slot machines, video poker, and electronic table games. The casino broke ground on a poker room in 2006, but its opening had been held up for years by unsuccessful efforts to change North Carolina's law to allow for poker in the casino.

In the meantime, technology caught up to the casino and made a change in the law unnecessary. PokerTek has been manufacturing electronic poker tables, which bridge the gap between live play and online by giving each seat an electronically dealt hand and the ability to bet on an individual computer screen. Reviews I have seen from professional players say that the tables are fairly easy to use, and have the added incentive of bringing more novices to the table because they can figure out the interface more quickly than if they had to know all the rules and customs of actual live play. Novices = ripe for the taking!

Harrah's Cherokee has now installed five such poker tables in their poker room, bringing live casino poker for the first time to within 3 hours of Atlanta. The poker room just opened last month, and is presently offering cash games with the hopes of adding tournaments in the near future. One big downside so far, though, is that Harrah's Cherokee does not serve alcohol. So far, the reviews at Two Plus Two are fairly positive.

This means that for the first time, if you can get over the discomfort of an electronic dealerless table and playing beer-free, a day trip to play legal casino poker is finally possible for us Atlantans who need a fix. I think I will try it out next weekend when I'm at my parents' house just an hour's drive from Cherokee. I will let you know my impressions then. In the meantime, if you've tried Cherokee's poker room in the last month, give us your thoughts in the comments.

NOLA (updated with a couple pictures)

I wrote a post about my trip, but Blogger eated it. No, seriously, it was almost done and then it went poof.

So, here's the highlights:

Drank too much, stumbled and twisted my ankle so I walked gimpy for the rest of the weekend, yes those things might be related.

Ate wonderful food: boiled shrimp and red beans & rice at Desire, shrimp po boy and gumbo at a restaurant on Jackson Sq. that I forget, beignets and frozen cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, wonderful dinner at Brennan's (shrimp remoulade, gumbo, veal with lemons and artichokes, chocolate cake that I thought was too rich), beignets at the airport that were actually better than CDM!

The power was out to the first 4 blocks of Bourbon St. from Friday about 6pm until Saturday at 8pm. This killed most of our eating plans as the restaurants we inteded to patronize were all within this radius. Sorry, Arnaud's, I will try you next trip.



Hurricanes are the devil's drink.

When I of all people am the voice of reason that convinces you to keep your clothes on, it is time to call it a night. It was pretty funny to look up on a balcony of beaded men begging women to flash and see one guy who looked directly at me, raised his camera in one hand, and gave me a nodding thumbs up with the other hand. But my goodies stayed covered.

Strangely enough, all of the women that I saw flashing, and there were several, were over 40. Some were WELL over 40. What is up with that? And I felt truly sorry for one woman old enough to be my mother who flashed a balcony and got no beads thrown at her. Perhaps that should have been a sign?

All the bars in New Orleans with live bands play the same 10 songs on an endless loop. I know this because in the world's longest walk back to the hotel with drunk people who wanted to go in every bar, I heard all of them at least 4 times. Did you know that everyone in New Orleans (other than me) knows the Cupid Shuffle? And loves to do it over and over again?



In the end, I got to do most of the things I wanted to do with the exceptions of riding the streetcar and eating raw gulf oysters. I lost the $200 I intended to lose in the casino, though it took me a lot longer than I expected. I met some great people and had a lot of fun. I neither removed my clothing nor made out with a random boy, and I had opportunities to do both. I think my ankle will heal, eventually.

New Orleans, I want to be back to see you in the fall. I hope I can make that happen.

Mood Music

Good morning America, how are you?

This video was inspired by my impending travel to a certain southern city this Friday. I bet you can guess which one.

So now I'm back

Sorry for the silence, but I spent most of this week at a conference in New York, where I drank too much and slept too little.

Now that I'm back here and trying not to neglect this here blog, I wanted to point you to some excellent analysis of Georgia Senate Bill 13, which is intended to make life in prison without parole (LWOP) available to DA's even where the defendant is not charged with capital murder. Presently in GA, unless the defendant is charged with capital murder the only option for a sentence is life in prison, which means a convicted person would be eligible for parole after 30 years. For crimes in which the DA wishes to seek a harsher sentence, such as drug dealer on drug dealer murders, the DA has to seek the death penalty to make LWOP available to the jury.

Overall, the hope is that this bill would reduce instances of district attorneys deliberately over-charging cases, and would also reduce indigent defense costs by allowing defendants to plea to LWOP to avoid a death sentence. These seem like sensible goals, and I trust the analysis of a criminal defense attorney more than my own. Having said all that, if it's sensible and it involves the death penalty, it probably won't ever become law. This IS Georgia, after all.

Inauguration Day Photos

I promised these a few days ago but just finally am getting around to posting them...blame the illness I contracted from my roommate on this trip, which is making me want to do nothing more than lay in bed and sniffle.

Anyhow, here are my pictures from our very cold but wonderful day witnessing history. Enjoy.

Our view of the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony, which we could hear but not really see:




A look backwards at the million or so people behind us on the Mall:



The crowds in every direction were HUGE:






We were so so very cold, but so happy it didn't matter:



Afterwards, some fool people were walking across the ice of the frozen reflecting pool (and a few fell):

The rest of the story

Before the inauguration itself, there was the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday the 18th. We arrived just before it began due to brunch running a little long, but secured a decent spot just behind the WWII Memorial near a Jumbotron. It wasn't terribly cold, and the pushing and shoving was mostly down to a minimum (though we did have a near altercation with a tall nasty man who cut right in front of a few of us and stood there, splitting apart our group, and then refused to move or even be civil about it. We nicknamed him "Bitter Sasquatch.")

By now you have probably seen the HBO airing of the concert, so you know who all performed and what they sang. I started crying when the gospel choir sang the first words of "The Rising" before Bruce began strumming, and cried through most of the concert. It was such a wonderful outpouring of joy that so many dreams were finally being realized. Soon thereafter, Jon Bon Jovi and Betty LaVette performed Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." I would never have expected JBV to pour the soul on like he did on that song, but it was really amazing. That is perhaps my favorite song epitomizing the civil rights struggle. My other two favorite moments were U2 performing "Pride (In the Name of Love)," and Pete Seeger, Bruce and a gospel choir performing "This Land Is Your Land," as the entire choir sang along. To see old hippie Pete Seeger's joy in the culmination of his hopes and hard work...it was spectacular. Everyone cried at that one.

Here are my pictures from the day:













The best part may have been after the concert, when we inched forward with the throngs for over an hour trying to get off the Mall. We ended up finally darting down a side street, where we were screamed at by a police officer when we tried to cross the street. With tails between our legs, we walked along the sidewalk until we came to a point where the sidewalk was closed, and another police officer told us that we had to wait there because the President-Elect's motorcade was about to come through. Suddenly, there it was! And because we were so close to the vehicle, you could actually see Obama wave at us from inside the back of the limousine. I was trying to snap a picture and failed somewhat, since what you see here is really the back of his limo and the front of the SUV behind it. But was still very very cool to have been that close and to have been acknowledged by Obama as he rode to his destination.