I’ve never been a drinks-by-the-pool or book-on-the-beach kinda guy. If I’m travelling for vacation or business (or, like this trip, a combination), I prefer to keep busy. Since I didn’t want to spend much money over and above what the university was reimbursing, I tried to keep my entertainment simple this trip. Which meant a lot of sitting on the beach with a book or lounging by the pool with a fruity drink of some kind. I’m sold.

Not much more to say about Miami Beach, so on with the photos.

On my way to a sunrise jog on the beach

Bobby and I have a Lambda summer interns reunion

I don't know why there are so many Fordham gays on this bed (and why they're all still dressed)

This guy came and sat right next to me. I promptly put my t-shirt back on.

Yes, I wore sunscreen. Yes, my Mormon genes left me with a nasty sunburn anyway.

I did occasionally go inside the hotel to the conference areas.

My tuition money at work on flip-flops that leave the words "Fordham" (right foot) and "Law" (left foot) in the sand. I'm so glad that they only raised tuition 3% this year, I'd hate to see them cut back on perks like this.

Anyway…

First day back at school was okay. Lotsa meetings related to extracurricular activities. Almost made my only class of the day seem like an afterthought. Tomorrow is the first day of the internship in Newark.

Ended the day at a karaoke fundraiser for my friend Sirrah, who is raising money in connection with her participation in the New York Marathon this fall. Sirrah and I did a duet of “Suddenly Seymour” then I sang Heart’s “Alone” and “Stray Cat Strut” (a karaoke song I have loved since David showed off with it at the Puntabulous Karaoke gathering of 2009). Then I came home and read about theories of efficiency in corporation and agency law.

Anyway, so I finished out the summer internship at the beginning of the month. It was a really good experience and made me feel like I’ve finally found the right direction for my career. The work was challenging, the people I worked with were driven and intelligent, and I felt like I was truly contributing to something. I also really enjoyed getting to know my co-interns.

After finishing at Lambda, I started working on campus with the Academic Enrichment Program, a sort of law school boot camp for incoming students. If y’all remember last summer when I very abruptly moved to New York 3 weeks sooner than I had planned, it was to take part in AEP. This summer I returned as a mentor/teaching assistant. My assigned workshop was on time management, where my goal was to impress upon the students how much time would be required of them and the wisdom of keeping a schedule (read as: scare the sh*t out of them). I also ended up playing the role of mean judge in the oral argument preview and proctor during their final exam. In other words, I was always the mean guy.

I did get to take a small group on a field trip to the Met. We spent most of our time enjoying the Picasso exhibit, then the Egyptian wing. We were going to finish our night in the Greek statutes, but a guard encouraged us to head to the roof and watch the Sunset in the Big Bambu exhibit.

The following week, I got the group to come out to a gay club in Hell’s Kitchen, Posh Lounge, where they were having karaoke night with a live band. After blowing out my vocal chords leading a group round of “Don’t Stop Believin’” I mostly watched the rest of the night, but everyone was having a good time.

Since AEP ended, I’ve been trying to get ready for school. We hit the ground running next week. I’ve already been through two rounds of journal assignments and the fall competition for the trial advocacy team is the second weekend of September. I have a paper due on Wednesday, my first day of my fall internship on Tuesday, and I’m a mentor to 5 first year students who I need to meet with.

Good thing I’ll be spending the next 4 days in Miami Beach. I’m heading down for the Lavender Law conference with about a dozen other members of our OUTLaws student group. I spent today making sure all my financial aid stuff was completely done because when I get back from Miami I’m going to be pitifully broke until the loan check clears. Even though I’m technically going down for a conference, I plan to relax as much as I can before school starts.

There isn’t a whole lot else to report. After a few months away, it was nice to start running into my friends on campus again today. It made me excited to start the semester, even if it is going to be a busy one.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
A touch of ink	Medium coverage	Full body canvas

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Katy Perry. Far and away my favorite of the three.
Fuck: Ke$ha. I could only handle one night with her and I’m pretty sure neither of us would really remember it afterward, anyway.
Kill: Miley. It’s Miley. (Apologies to my niece, who adores Hannah Montana)

Now, I realize that I’m not an elected official sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution or anything, but I would guess that what the drafters of the 14th amendment had in mind was something along the lines of, “we should probably put it in the constitution that people born here can’t be denied citizenship because of the color of their skin.”

They might have been thinking about all those individual states who were ignoring federal authority in passing laws that denied people, based on their race, the right to enter into employment contracts, the right to protection from abuses of the police power of the states, the right to be heard in a court of law, and the right to not be bought and sold as slaves. It’s a crazy theory, but I think a lot of academics and historians would probably agree.

But what do I know? It’s not like I’m the minority party’s ranking member on the judiciary committee, tasked with reviewing and confirming federal judges with lifetime appointments to interpret and enforce the Constitution. If I were that guy, I’d probably want to spend some time developing some theories about what the framers of the 14th amendment were intending. Especially as it relates to passing laws that target brown people for special exclusion from the rights, benefits, and obligations of United States citizenship.

On the other hand, maybe Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and his buddies, Tweedleracist and Tweedleracister from Arizona, have a point. If the advancements of modern society were unfathomable to the people who wrote a part of the Constitution, we should think about changing it, and in the meantime, allow states to figure out a way to pass laws seemingly inconsistent with the spirit of the document while staying within the exact letter of the language.

Like that second amendment with the thing about bearing arms. No way the framers were thinking about petty criminal carrying concealed handguns and semi-automatic weapons. I demand Congressional hearings! And until that happens, the federal government and the courts should let the states pass laws that they think fit within what the framers could have contemplated.

Then I realized that I had no idea when I started thinking of myself as a New Yorker and started to think of this place a bit as home. Probably sometime after I moved into my current place in Harlem. But the subways no longer intimidate me, I’m mispronouncing fewer place names, I feel relatively comfortable giving tourists directions… yesterday I was told that I’m losing my Nevada/Utah accent.

Anyway, I wouldn’t go so far as to claim I’m a “true New Yorker” yet – I think one has to spend a little more time outside Manhattan than I have – but I’m certainly starting to settle in.

The upper west side skyline near Fordham Law School during the spring.

So, I’ve got one week left at Lambda. I’ve really enjoyed working there this summer and hope I get to work with them again in the future. I’m definitely planning to stay in touch with the staff I’ve worked with.

I got offered a fall semester internship working with the EEOC in Newark. I accepted the position and look forward to figuring out how to make all the pieces of my fall semester schedule work together. That’s four classes, a journal, a competition team, an internship, a board position for a networking group, and a handful of volunteer commitments. I’m already looking forward to the winter holiday. I’d been talking about putting some volunteer time in on one of the political campaigns this season (you may have heard that my congressman has been in the news this week, guy by the name of Charlie Rangel), but I think that’s not going to happen now.

Yesterday’s pool party and the house of Puntabulous was a lot of fun. I got to meet some people in the flesh for the first time, catch up with other friends, and generally spend a relaxing day out on Long Island. I took exactly 0 pictures because everyone else had their cameras going all the time, so I imagine the documentation will arrive soon.

Today I’m on my way back to school for training in how the Journal will function this year.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Katy Perry will melt my popsicle	Ke$ha likes my beard	Miley Cyrus isn’t telling me to go to hell, she’s not a brat like that

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Let’s just go ahead and pretend that Miley Cyrus is 22 years old so no one has to have the (legally incorrect in most states) “but she’s not legal” comment. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Charlie. Smart, kind and sexy.
Fuck: Josh. Behind all that cocky ego is an insecure little boy who probably tries really, really hard to impress you between the sheets. Also, I like his brand of snark.
Kill: Sam. And not just because I think it’s funny that this is the second week in a row I have someone with an embarrassing threesome sex tape leak (NSFW), but because I find him terribly boring.

This is how I learn family news now, apparently.

Anyway, that’s my baby sister getting engaged. That means the balance has officially tipped and we’re about to about to reach the first time where a majority of my siblings are married.

I’m very happy for her and I actually met this guy a few years ago when I was living in San Francisco. I hope. If she’s engaged to someone else, I’m going to be really embarrassed to have said that. Because right now, all I officially know is what you see in that FaceBook update. That and apparently they’ve decided on December 30 just to make sure I’m stuck spending another shitty New Year’s Eve in Utah even though I live in New York City so I can definitely be there.

Does anyone think flying into NYC on Dec 31 is a bad idea?

ETA: In fairness to my sister, she did send me a text message last night. It could have arrived before the FB message, but I didn’t see it until after I’d written this post and scheduled it to publish in the morning.

Unfortunately, the pictures I took didn’t turn out great – and you should never try to edit photos on your phone while intoxicated – but I like how this one of me came out:

Anyway, keeping busy otherwise. I start training for my TA/mentoring end-of-summer job this week. I accepted a position on the staff of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. I have my flight and hotel booked for Lavender Law, so I have 6 weeks to get down to my birth weight for Miami Beach (I also need a new swimsuit, my current one is about 6 years out of style). It’s also, apparently, time to start updating my resume and beginning the job hunt for next summer.

Choice 1	Choice 2	Choice 3
Charlie Young as played by Dulé Hill	Josh Lyman as played by Bradley Whitford	Sam Seaborn as played by Rob Lowe

To review the rules… You must choose one who you would spend the rest of your life with, one you would have a freaky-monkey one-night stand with, and one who you would put to death*. You tell me who you choose and why.

*standard disclaimer: we are anti-death penalty, we play this game as a thought exercise, not an endorsement of murder. Also, we are sex-positive and believe that two people can have crazy one-time sex without shame or emotional baggage. Finally, for the purposes of this game, we all live in marriage equality jurisdictions.

My picks from last time:
Marry: Ryan Reynolds. I even tried to use a less-than-flattering photo of him to avoid skewing the results, but it’s official, he’s too hot.
Fuck: John Legend. I bet he has moves.
Kill: Eric Dane. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s hot, but I’ve seen the NSFW video (seriously, click on that link and you’re gonna see bits and stuff) and I’m not impressed with his bedside manner.

So I’m working on this big project taking a look at state lobbying laws, and the more I work on it, the more I think this entire area of law is a fucking mess. In some states, if a nonprofit group writes an open letter about a proposed law, they suddenly have an obligation to register as lobbyists and make huge financial disclosures. Other problems I’m running into are poorly defined terms (for example: when a governor vetoes a bill, is this an executive official engaged in legislative action? or an executive official engaged in executive action? If the latter, in what context does a law that applies to “attempts to influence executive officials in legislative action” apply?), contradictory information (I’m not kidding when I tell you there’s a state that lists different registration fees in the statutes passed by the legislature, the administrative code written by the governing agency, and on the website of that same agency), overly harsh penalties (really, a possibility of a $10,000 fine and ten years in jail for filing a financial disclosure form late?), and generally a lot of poorly considered, poorly executed rules. At any rate, I was joking with my supervising attorney that the general lack of scholarship on this subject means I have some fertile ground for journal notes this year.

Speaking of journals, I was accepted to three of the school’s journals this year (I applied to four) and I have to make a decision by Friday about which, if any, I sign on for. We have a meet-and-greet with the journals tomorrow night.

Yesterday I got to go to a cool cocktail reception with the lead attorneys from the ACLU on the Constance McMillen prom case. It’s kind of a neat story from the lawyer’s perspective. It started as a routine demand-letter situation and escalated into the center of a national media circus.

Not much else to report on. I’m falling into a The West Wing marathon, which is sure to destroy my concern for a social life for the next few days, even as I force myself to get out of the apartment.