Wasted Time and Time Well Spent

       Yesterday morning was horrible. I decided to drive to church. It was drizzling ice pellets outside, and the Sunday metro would have been miserable. Why not just stay home-- you may be asking. Well, because I hadn't been to church in two weeks. I was determined to make it to church and to make it there early (I've never been on time). I put the address in my GPS and hit the road. A.T. at 35 minutes.

Postal Museum

       It was when I passed Dulles airport that I began to question whether or not I was driving in the right direction. Well, I wasn't. I hadn't changed my GPS setting from Virginia to District of Columbia. 30 minutes in the wrong direction- falling snow, slick roads, salt trucks. I was pissed, and having to pay road tolls didn't help. This was similar to last week when I walked for hours looking for the Sewell-Belmont House (in vain), and settled for the National Postal Museum. Two hours of driving later, I made it to church, and of course I had missed most of the service. I was so upset that I just sat outside in the hallway eating a donut. This made me feel even worse about myself.
       As awful as the morning was, Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day. I was treated to an authentic Chinese meal for lunch by a member of the church, and I spent the afternoon with Craig and Stephanie Brock (my adopted parents for the semester). I also got in a 5 mile jog! I guess I could afford that donut after all.

DACA paperwork (& coffee!)

       On Saturday, I volunteered at a DACA clinic hosted by the non-profit organization, Casa. DACA stands for "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" so it's for people (children) who were brought to the US before 2007. If you qualify for DACA, you're basically cleared for employment.
There has been an expansion of DACA to qualify children who came to the US before 2010 so these clinics help people fill out paperwork to apply for the first time and to renew their DACA. There may be an expansion of DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Arrivals) in May, but you can do some research to see what's going on with that... It involves a very strong-willed Texas judge.
       Most of us volunteers were matched with a youth, and we walked them through the forms and necessary documents. The first person I worked with was a 19-year-old from Mexico. He's enrolled in community college and wants to be a restaurant manager. The second person was a 21-year-old from Chile. This was the best way I have ever spent a Saturday. After taking notes during working group conference calls about notario fraud and about DACA, I needed to see the people who are affected by these things. Playing a part and getting in the mix helped everything I've been listening to make sense. I have a great respect for what non-profit organizations, like Casa, are doing to help immigrants and also for the working groups and attorneys who serve these organizations pro bono.

Portrait Gallery

Portrait Gallery

       On Friday, I checked out the National Portrait Gallery. It was pretty cool-- there's nothing like looking at paintings and sculptures of naked bodies everywhere. I got reprimanded by a guard for sitting on the window sill (guards were everywhere). It was the biggest "window sill" I'd ever seen. I actually told the guard, "It looks like a seat." She didn't seem to care what I thought about it. After leaving the very exciting gallery of portraits, I hit up China Town for some boba tea. I realized after the woman had made my tea, however, that I was missing my debit card (I later discovered that the card had been in my wallet the whole time). She very kindly let me take the tea anyway.

       The Supreme Court was having oral arguments last week, and it's kind of my dream to see one of these in person. Wednesday morning I let my boss know that I would be trying to get a seat, and I spent 4 hours (6:30 am to about 10:30 am) standing in a line outside in the freezing cold. I knew by about 7:30 that I wouldn't get a seat for the whole argument, but I held out to see 5 minutes of the thing. I still don't know if that whole morning was worth it. I had never been so miserably cold in my life for such a long period of time. One day I'll get there early enough to see a whole argument. Or maybe I'll bring a case to the Court as an attorney! Or maybe, just maybe, I'll be behind the bench. Anything is possible, right?