Miscellaneous

This has been a hard week.  It was demanding, work-wise (in more than the most obvious ways), and demanding childcare-wise (Peach's new independence is a beautiful thing, except when it involves screaming), and heartbreaking personally (trip to Finland called off).  I haven't wanted to write about it, and for most of it, can't.  Hence the lack of posting.

In any event, life is otherwise going along just fine.  Child "proofing" continues throughout the house as Peach's problem-solving skills improve.  We reorganized the loft to allow for a substantial baby gate at the top of the stairs, which means we can mostly let Peach run around, willy-nilly, upstairs.   Peach has become attached to a soft, knitted cap that is designed like a crown, and she now screams whenever it is not on her head.  This includes when sleeping - she can't lie down without it falling off of her head when she rolls over, so most bedtime screaming now involves the hat, rather than her being upset that she has to go to sleep.  I think this is improvement, but I'm not sure. 

And since I don't want to talk about personal things any more than I have, I'll talk about the way I spent Thursday and Friday:

I was at a CLE celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Federal Judicial Center.  This is funny, because I didn't have a clue what the FJC was until several hours into the presentation the first day.  All I knew was that it was a chance to hear Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy speak, and that there were some interesting panelists, including Erwin Chemerinsky.  I am a little bit of a Con Law geek, and I got kind of giddy during his presentation, even though it was essentially about how completely screwed we all are based on recent jurisprudence.   

I did expect to walk away from the CLE feeling inspired or having learned a lot.  But...no.  I did a lot of people watching - it seemed as though most of the audience was made up of judges, professors, and higher-powered individuals than I'll ever aspire to be, plus a few L&C alumni I recognized.  I noticed that nearly everyone who spoke as a panelist graduated from Harvard Law School (pretty much all before I turned 5) and was white.

And yet despite their credentials, most of the audience and speakers didn't realize that all three catered tables had exactly the same food and drink available on them, and that instead of going to Tables 2 and 3 where there was little or no waiting, they all queued up behind Table No. 1.   (As a minister's daughter, no one knows better than I how to scope out buffet/pot-luck tables.  And there is something satisfying about beating judges to the croissants and coffee.) 

It was interesting.  I'd say more, but although I was sleep-deprived (by virtue of a newborn) at the time I was sworn into the US Disctrict Court for the District of Oregon, I do seem to remember one of the things I swore to was not dishing dirt on federal judges.  So I'll just leave it there.