Well, my employer has seen fit to block access to myspace.com. So I've decided to occasionally waste time at work by posting here, and then I'll just copy and paste to myspace later. :-)
Just goes to show you, the root of the problem isn't a particular website, it's a generation that finds internet-based solutions to taking an occasional break from work or way to regroup before moving to the next assignment.
Last week was Court Week, which means that we were in Richmond because the Court was "in session" hearing oral arguments on 30-40 cases.
For the law clerks to out-of-town justices, this is our primary opportunity to gather with our colleagues on the Court in person. Traditionally, the clerks and outher court personnel have gathered in the evenings for dinner or karaoke or quiz nights and the like.
This time around, however, a group of clerks organized an evening of "field day" type events, with indoor and outdoor activities hearkening back to our elementary school days. Never ones to do things half-heartedly, one organizer designed t-shirts for us to wear as well! Individuals were randomly assigned to one of two teams and the team that won each event was tallied throughout the evening for an overall night winner.
By all accounts, the evening was a success, with about 40 people (including current and past Court staff personnel, spouses, and kids) taking over the clubhouse of a local apartment complex.
Mark and Carrie organized outdoor events, including a Smores relay, frisbee relay, egg toss, crabwalk race, and soda/mentos explosion. Indoor events included a cookie eating contest, a blind peanut butter taste and identification test, a blind soda tasting contest, a Family Feud-style trivia game, and lots of food.
It was a lot of fun to see folks I normally see only in business attire racing around on the ground in a crabwalk race or stuffing their faces with smores ingredients. Such times of bonding and comraderie became all-too-rare as the busy-ness and pressures of the "real world" make time sparse and familial pressures greater.
Having been brought on later in the planning stages, two of my favorite memories surrounding the Games will be the hilarious e-mails during the planning of the night, and the game of pool a core group of clerks played after the Games had disbanded.
After a wonderful phone call with my friend Emily, I am even more excited about our upcoming trip to Boston for the 4th of July. Because, really, Boston is one of those cities most integral to the actual events we celebrate on the 4th of July (even though we officially announced Independence on the 2nd, and Britain did not officially learn of it until much later).
Of course, I would not have done well back then because I'm such an Anglophile and truly enjoy a good cup o' tea every morning (and afternoon, and evening . . . is there ever a bad time for tea?). Nonetheless, I like to think I would have supported the proper side had I lived in that day. And for the proper reasons, too.
As much as I enjoy the comic treatment of our Founding Fathers in the musical 1776 (I know, I know, they didn't really sing, did they?), something that's always irked me about it was the song "Molasses to Rum to Slaves" sung by the Edward Rutledge character (delegate from the great state of South Carolina). If you know me, you'll know why I particularly don't like that song. But I digress. . . .
What's your favorite tea? Mine's Earl Grey, followed by any natural orange-flavored black tea. Here's to those who prefer tea to coffee, and independence to tyranny.
