Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Working Downtown:

So I'm working downtown this summer in the federal courthouse. It's an awesome job and I get to do lots of interesting things but there are definitely perks and downfalls to working in the center of Cincinnati. Here are a few of them:


  • Good: it is close to just about everything and that means if I ever need anything it is just a quick walk away


  • Bad: it is not close to my house


  • Good:I can go have lunch with people from UC, etc without anyone having to travel.


  • Good: Fountain Square is literally right outside the courthouse so Andrea (the other extern) and I can have lunch outside everyday


  • Bad: Fountain Square is literally right outside the courthouse so I hear a lot of street noise


  • Bad: along with street noise a person drums on a plastic bucket everyday outside of my window for a couple of hours a day and another person plays a saxophone on the corner


  • Ugly: the saxophonist apparently only knows 12 bars of music which he plays over and over and over again


  • Good: the courthouse is very pretty


  • Bad: the courthouse has security so I have to walk through a metal detector and have my bag x-rayed everyday


  • Bad: parking downtown is a pain and the cheapest lot is 3/4s of a mile away from my office


  • Ugly: so I walk over a mile and a half everyday in heels

Friday, June 10, 2011

Sometimes I Get to Do Cool Stuff at Work

So for anyone who doesn't know, I am working as an extern for Judge Weber this summer. He's a senior federal district court judge and so far I am loving my summer work. I do a lot of research and writing, but I also get to sit in on pleas, meetings in chamber, basically anything that happens in our courtroom. Well today I got to sit in on something especially cool: a naturalization hearing. A naturalization hearing is essentially the ceremony where people become American citizens. There were 70 people from 39 different countries at the ceremony today and each of them stood up and said their name and where they were from - it was absolutely amazing how many different places were represented. The ceremony felt like a graduation with speakers and congratulations and then everyone's loved ones taking pictures as they said their oath. It was actually a very moving experience and a wonderful way to finish up the week.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Summer so Far

Since getting back from Italy we've gotten into the swing of the summer and are enjoying both our summer work and our more relaxed schedules. This summer I'm working for Judge Weber, a senior federal district judge, and Jed is getting started on research for his PhD and is studying for the boards. Other than that we have been going out to dinner with friends, planting new flowers, and watching movies ... in short all of those things that we weren't able to do under the crunch of finals.