Greetings from Washington (briefly)!
Hello from Reagan Washington National Airport!
Yes, I’m posting from the airport while waiting for a flight home 
Life the past week has been crazy and taken its toll. Backtracking to the previous law:/dev/null entry, the TYLA quarterfinals at Memphis Law last week came to an ignominious end. The UGA team went in on Shutterbug with some thoroughly bizarre objections during our case in chief, and the (bankruptcy lawyer) judge actually sustained them 
 And since I’m a smidge overprotective of people, I was pissed they hounded her and was determined to get our evidence in come hell or high water — which I eventually did on cross-examination of their expert witness, but only after giving the (bankruptcy lawyer) judge five (5!) separate rules allowing it in and still having to go through three separate sets of questions the (bankruptcy lawyer) judge felt I needed to ask as foundation. 
Soooo I lost points for my demeanor…1
Bear in mind this was the same (bankruptcy lawyer) judge who decided to publicly berate Shutterbug for questioning the Defendant about a prior DUI… after the Defense opened the door on direct examination.2 Needless to say we lost that round, and EIC was less-than-pleased with me. But at least NCCU Law set the stage for an even better performance next year!
The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out with 雅雅, then afterwards I joined the team for drinks and relaxation. What happens in Memphis stays in Memphis of course; I’ll just say I had a blast and didn’t fall asleep until 4am3 
Group photo of NCCU Law's Howard Moot Court Teams: Me, Diane Carter '13, Nnenna Olu '13, and Kelvin Jacobs '13
Once we were back in NC my focus shifted to moot court and the competition at Howard Law this weekend in Washington DC. Enduring two weeks of averaging 4.5 hours of sleep a night finally caught up to me, and by the time we got into Washington this past Thursday I had come down with a full-fledged cold. I was chugging Theraflu like it was Kool-Aid and popping Halls cough drops like Skittles. That in turn affected my oral argument performance, which I thought was utterly disastrous despite my coach and El Presidente (who’s getting his LLM at American Law) both insisting it went well. I’m proud one of our two teams made it to the quarter-finals there, my team just wasn’t one of them and I feel responsible for it 
The highlight to the trip was getting a chance to catch up with two friends from my NC State days. On Friday I got food and a drink with Shirley, someone I first met all the way back in 2005 when I came back to NC State and became the Treasurer of my Hall Council. I’ve always been guaranteed to have an abnormally insightful discussion with that one, and Friday was no different. Then Saturday I joined a former SG colleague Mr. QC for a couple hours to learn about all the big-time stuff he’s doing in the nation’s capital.4 He’s currently with a federal agency and actively dabbling in city politics, and I fully expect him to be running something major by the time I’ve gotten my law license.
Cool+random mural on the side of a DC building Shirley and I passed, with Presidents going back to Eisenhower
It was truly awesome talking with them both, and really helped put me in a better mental frame of mind after my competition 
 I can’t tell you how truly blessed I feel having crossed paths with all these really amazing folks. It gives me the cliché warm fuzzies inside… 
Which brings me to today, sitting here about to board a flight back to the Bull City. I’m way behind on academic work — and made the mistake of signing up for 3 separate classes that have weekly assignments, so my grades are pretty much shot for the semester already — but fortunately will not be traveling anymore until after the bar exam, so I can go back to a somewhat normal life. Obviously I’m ready to be home and get things back the way they should be!
And, God willing, including a few more blog entries too 
That’s it from me, about to go board — have a great day y’all, and a great week ahead!
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From the law:/dev/null travel-related archives:
- Washington DC: Greetings from Washington (briefly)! (02/26/12) [this post]
- Memphis TN x2: TOP 8!!! (02/18/12)
- New Orleans LA: Greetings from New Orleans! (02/02/12)
- Charleston SC: Greetings from Charleston! (10/15/11)
- Toronto CN: Back in the USA! (08/07/11)
- Atlanta GA: Getting caught up (03/12/11)
- Williamsburg VA: Greetings from Williamsburg! (02/25/11)
- Orlando FL: Greetings from Orlando! (12/27/10)
- Virginia Beach VA: Snowmageddon 2010 (12/26/10)
- Memphis TN: Back in the Bull City (10/03/10)
- Wilmington NC x2: Greetings from Wilmington! (Again) (08/27/10)
- Outer Banks NC: Spontaneity FTW (07/05/10)
- Northeast NC: Enjoying a slow roll down NC186 (12/27/09)
- Boone NC: “Tendencies” (11/21/09)
- Asheville NC: Greetings from the Blue Ridge Parkway! (10/29/09)
- Wilmington NC: Greetings from Wilmington! (08/29/09)
- Even though one of the jurors (who actually does litigation) described the cross-x and closing arguments as the “highlight” of my performance. [↩]
- Our coach went up to the (bankruptcy lawyer) judge after the competition to ask wtf she was thinking, and she claimed to have never heard of the phrase “opening the door” or understanding what it meant
[↩] - Before having to wake up at 6am to get to the airport [↩]
- His nickname for him here comes from the very first day we met, when he walked into my office when I was Student Senate President and told me “Charlotte does this, you need to get Raleigh to do it too” — a poor strategic choice, for those law:/dev/null readers who aren’t familiar with the hostility between North Carolina’s two largest cities [↩]
