In the news

So, I was lucky enough to appear in two issues of the Gazette, the LOC newsletter. It was kinda weird being stopped in the hall by Library employees saying "Hey, you're the one on the front of the Gazette." I'm not used to that kind of attention :)

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to upload the whole newsletter :(

Hot Wheels and paint

Had a group of day campers in the YRC who had been leaning about transportation throughout history. We read a few stories with transportation themes. I read a selection from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The part about the other schools arriving in the giant carriage and ship. Then we had crafts. I had convinced my supervisor to do two activities and let the kids choose, one which she had found including paint. I was so excited! This was such a fun project! We dipped hot wheels cars in paint, then drove them over the paper, the tracks creating an abstract art piece. IT was awesome! A word of warning: if you ever do this activity, don't use any cars that are the ones that go automatically when you rev them up by rolling them back. We learned that the hard way when one kid loaded his car wheels with paint, picked it up, and the wheels quickly spun a lovely green splatter pattern all over the table and the girl standing next to him :)

The other activity was making flying saucers out of paper plates. Then they had to get them to fly to the landing pad. We had a blast and all went well (except the splatter incident of course). Then we had to spend forever cleaning up, and before I knew it the day was over. We were exhausted!Did not get any of the work done I had planned on. Oh well.

DC fun again

- FHE dinner groups at Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill. Great burgers and owned by Spike, a Top Chef competitor
- Navy Band concert at Navy memorial - Bluegrass group called Country Currents. I think bluegrass is the most fun type of music
- National Portrait Gallery and American Art museum
- ate at Nando Peri Peri - (brother-in-law would be jealous!) bummed because they didn't have the delicious spicy chocolate ice cream I still remember from a few years ago
- ran into the gigantic crowd there to see the Dalai Lama while trying to get Josh Groban tickets
- Had picture taken with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at her constituent coffee- thought I would actually get to talk to her, but only got to say where I was from, snap the picture and move on. Oh well, it was great to see the Texas flag again!
- Harry Potter!!!! Went with a group to see the double feature midnight showing of Deathly Hallows pt. 1 & 2 - We dressed up, I was Hermione. But, we went to a theater in Maryland where apparently no one dresses up, so we attracted a lot of attention, especially my 6'8" friend dressed as Hagrid.
- Tour of the Capitol and Capitol Visitor Center
- Tour of the White House - amazing!!! The rooms are much smaller than you think. I loved all the bold colors and furnishings and decor dripping with history. Only saw the first 2 floors of the East wing, but impressed by the Stately elegance, though humbleness of the President's home. The gardens are spectacular!
- Ate at historic Old Ebbit's Grill, oldest restaurant in DC. Should have ordered the crab cakes. Super blackberry pie.
- Walked Lafayette Park - Marquis de Lafayette was such a fascinating and wonderfully patriotic person. He doesn't get enough attention in American history. I'm glad I read the book about him for my children's lit class last semester!
- Visited the Renwick Gallery - crafty part of American Art museum. Saw the most amazing bureau which included a replica of the Library of Congress main reading room and lots of hidden drawers. I wish I was rich so I could buy that piece! Also saw a piece called the Ghost Clock which appeared to be a grandfather clock covered by a large canvas cloth, but the whole thing was actually carved out of a solid piece of mahogany. Even looking really close, its nearly impossible to tell it is not fabric but wood.

Coolest shoes ever!!!!

These are the most amazing heels in the world! They're from Anthropologie and I will have to figure out how to afford them. The heels are book spines! AWESOME!

Running out of time!

A few interesting experiences at the LOC this week. Monday I had my meeting with IPO (interpretive programs office) to prepare my items for the Junior Fellow exhibit day display. These are the people who prepare exhibits and displays in the LOC. It was fascinating! They had shelves and shelves of pieces of all kinds of material. I just showed them a book and in about 10 seconds they grabbed pieces and a drill and had a perfectly sized display piece done. It's like they play with blocks and erector sets as their job. So cool! They were also all very entertained by one of the books I brought, What the Presidents are Made Of. A fun book which has little known facts about several of the presidents and what they like. Each president is illustrated by the artist using found objects, many relating to the facts. For example, George W Bush used to own part of the Texas Rangers, so they used a baseball, hot dog, mitt, etc. to create his picture. It's amazing how much they really look like them!

Finding more and more amazing picture books in the donation collection I'm working on. I'm worrying now if I'll be able to finish this project. Things keep getting added to take care which take me away from the project itself. I was asked by the outreach department to conduct a storytime with a group of zoo campers, since they said I did a good job at the Princess reading. I've also been asked to write an article about my experience at the YRC for the Center for the Book newsletter. Not to mention getting my media presentation ready for my display. All great things that are fun to work on, but eating into my rapidly shrinking time left. We'll see how it goes!

Getting Ready for Show and Tell

I spent a good bit of time this week planning my display table for the Junior Fellow exhibit day which will be at the end of the month. I decided to make the focus an educational and advocacy display for the YRC. So, I had to pick a few books to represent the whole program. I picked a few from the Roback donation I've been working on, one I read to the Princess, and two popular novels from our older reader collection. I'm also going to have a photo of me reading to the Princess and embassy kids, and a laptop with a video I'm going to create about the YRC. It was so hard to pick so few books to represent the program! Hopefully the ones I chose will show the scope of the YRC collection and pique the interest of the congressmen and others who will be there on exhibit day. I'm meeting with IPO, the preservation and exhibits department to work on the logistic of the display table. I also had to submit the text for the labels which will be printed with the LOC logo for the items on display. Its exciting to be putting together an official display!

On Friday we were able to take a short tour of the conservation department, where they work on restoring and repairing materials in the LOC collection, mostly rare books and manuscripts. It was pretty interesting, but a little disappointing because all the staff was out to lunch and we didn't see anything in action. Oh well, maybe next time.

We also had a follow up meeting with Dr. Marcum earlier in the week. She spent an hour with us answering questions, mostly about the Twitter archives, future plans, and career advice. Its such a great opportunity to have people with so much insight and experience share their time and advice with us.

The week went by very fast! I was so busy with preparing my display and continuing inventory work, the four day week just flew by. I still can;t believe how little time I left here. I'm not ready to be finished yet!

DC fun cont.

I've been exhausted this week after the 4th, so took it somewhat easy :)

- concert at Wolf Trap, national park for the arts: National Symphony Orchestra, Tcheers for Tchaikovsky! - picnic on the lawn while listening to violin concerto, Nutcracker suite, and 1812 Overture...amazing!

- LDS Midsingles conference in DC:
      Fri - Luau;
      Sat. - Folklife Festival on the Mall (Columbia culture and Rhythm and BLues music, so fun!), catered lunch, Potomac river boat (The Cherry Blossom) cruise including Alexandria fireworks show;
      Sun - special sacrament meeting with stake president and area seventy, lunch and mingling, musical patriotic fireside