2014 Wrap-Up

Okay here it is, my year-in-review post for 2014. Just a few days late, no biggie. I had a lot of fun sitting down last year (err, 2 years ago? err, Dec 2013) and thinking about all of the wonderful things that had happened to me, and that I had done over the year. I got married in 2013, so I figured that was going to be the highlight of my year, but when I sat down, I got a chance to review all of the other amazing things about the year.

So of course, I couldn't wait to do it again for 2014. I didn't get married this year, but it was still pretty damned fun. Let me tell you all about it.

In January, my husband and I got to go to Washington D.C. for a conference. We turned the whole thing into a mini-vacation that we both badly needed. We got to see the National Zoo, and more Smithsonians than you can shake a stick at. (Seriously, all of the Smithsonian museums have free admission, you're welcome). We also got to spend time with my aunt & uncle who the train up from Baltimore to spend an afternoon with us at the National Air & Space Museum.

The National Air & Space Museum, and yes, it was free!

In March I celebrated my 26th birthday (and my 1st as a married lady), and got my brand new Asus laptop (it has a touch-screen & a back-lit keyboard), that I love so so so much!

In May we went to New York to dance at my niece's wedding! It was so much fun, and so beautiful, and it was a wonderful chance to get to celebrate a happy occasion with my husband's side of the family. I also got to meet my sister-in-law (who lives in Israel) for the first time. It was a wonderful time, and I know that the "new" couple is happy because.... baby is on the way! She's due this March, and I've already got plans for a baby-blanket for her!

Of course we visited the New York Public Library!

May was also the month that I started graduate school. I'm working towards getting my Master's in Library and Information Science (yes, I want to be a librarian... shocking). This is by far the single biggest thing that happened to me in 2014. Graduate school was a big decision for me (historically, school and I have not gotten along all that well), and it took the rest of the year for me to figure out whether or not it was the right decision.
Even though it's still sucking up all of my free time, I'm 4 classes in (1/3 of the way through), and I finally know that I made the right choice. (Remind me of that in about 3.5 months when finals roll around again, will ya?)

In July we went to the 43rd Pennsic War, my second one ever. We had a blast, and got to spend time with some friends who I hadn't seen in over 5 years. I'm already making lots of plans for next Pennsic, and we'll have a lot of SCA-related projects coming up over the next few months, so keep an eye out for those.

The field battle

In August we celebrated our first anniversary. It was a very special day, and of course, we spent it at the zoo.

October brought a promotion at work. I went from being a page to being a Library Assistant. I'm working in the same department, with the same people, but more hours, more money and benefits! It's an amazing job, and I love it every single day. Even when I'm dealing with "Problem Patrons".

In November my mother and I made our own Thanksgiving for the second time ever! It was a little stressful since my in-laws were coming over, but it was a lot of fun and everything came out delicious, if I do say so myself.

These are just the leftovers!

And I think that's about for big events this year. I did a lot of crafting this year, and of course, made a lot of delicious food (I'm looking at you turkey), played some amazing video games, and over-all had a blast. I don't want to talk about every single awesome thing, 'cause that's what the last year of blogging was for! Go browse, take a look. I'll wait.

In the mean time, I'm going to go ahead and get started on making 2015 just as amazing (if not more so) than 2014 was! Bye!

Libraries without Books and Books without Libraries

When I was a kid my favorite place to be was the library, and my favorite thing to do there was to simply walk up and down the aisles and aisles of books and stare. Sometimes I would pull out an interesting book, sit down in the middle of the row and read it. This is still one of my favorite things to do in a library, and since I work in one, I often get the chance to wander among the stacks. Having said that, you will probably think that I am irreparably biased toward onsite collections, and honestly, I am. There is something magical and wonderful about being surrounded by endless rows of books, and there always will be, but that doesn’t mean that offsite collections don’t have their merits as well.

            In January of this year my husband and I took a trip to DC, and of course, since I’m a bit of a geek one of our stops had to be to the Library of Congress (where I got a library card, of course). The building was beautiful, and the main reading room was one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen, but one thing that was rather conspicuously absent were the rows and rows of books that I have come to associate with libraries. Now, that’s not to say that the LoC doesn’t have an onsite collection, of course they do. Rather, their onsite collection is carefully preserved, archived and catalogued, most of it away from the public eye. The LoC’s main job is the 9^th step in the ‘Life Cycle of Information’, that is, preservation. Yes, they do strive to make important pieces of their collection (like their Gutenberg Bible) available for the public to see, but most of their job entails preserving documents and artifacts from our country’s past.

Another library with a rather large onsite collection is the main branch of the New York Public library. There are 8 floors of stacks below 42^nd street containing who knows how many books (there are 53 million items stored over its many braches), though these stacks are again, not available to be browsed by the public. The NYPL is a research library, and these items are available to the public (you don’t even have to be a resident of the City of New York), but they are not there to be browsed. You submit an item request, and if you have the proper credentials, a librarian will fetch your book for you.

Now, having said all of that, you’re probably wondering what exactly my point is. My point (and I do have one) is that onsite and offsite can have much broader meanings than simply having a book inside the physical walls of the library. Working in a browsing library, and having pretty much grown up in one, I tend to think of an onsite collection as books that are available for me to browse through, look at, touch and even smell. I love being surrounded by books, but as you can see from the examples of two very well-known reference libraries, sometimes an offsite collection can be much more beneficial to the public.

Both of the libraries that I mentioned have extensive digital collections, and I’m not just talking about eBooks. They have both taken the time to digitize large portions of their collections, and especially items that are very old, very rare and very valuable. These are pieces of history that the public has every right to have access to; but many of the items are much too fragile even to be displayed, let alone interacted with. The only way that these items can be made available to the public is by putting them online, an offsite collection that can be accessed anywhere in the world. One such object is the $5 Confederate bill that was in Lincoln’s pocket the night he was assassinated (if you’re interested, click here to check it out).

As you can see, onsite collections can be extensive, but unavailable. While offsite collections can sometimes be accessed anywhere around the world. There are merits to both sides, and neither option is perfect for every occasion, or every collection. Any library that wants to really make a name for itself (and the Library of Congress has certainly done that) needs to employee both on and offsite collections. Even our small little local library has stacks that can be browsed, as well as eBooks that can be checked-out and read anywhere.

DC Day 4

We're finally back home in Detroit, and while I'll miss D.C., I'm actually really glad to be home. It's been a long and crazy vacation, but I've loved every minute of it.

Since Wednesday was our last day in D.C., we tried to really make the most of it. For our first stop of the day, we had arraigned a tour of the Talking Books Library (part of the Library of Congress). My husband and his brother have been patrons of the Talking Books Library for many many years, so he was beyond excited to go.

Talking Books players throughout the ages

 
We had an amazing tour and got to see all of the behind the scenes stuff that makes the Talking Books Library run smoothly. We learned about the process for taking a print book and turning it into a talking book, and even got to see the studios where local actors read and record the books! It was all a real treat, and I could tell that my husband loved every minute of it!

Now the Talking Books Library isn't really in the heart of downtown D.C., so we had to hop back on the Metro and head to the mall. Our next stop was the James Madison building of the Library of Congress where I filled out an application and got a library card! Yeah, it's okay to be jealous.
The Library likes to stress that library cards (or "reader" cards) are not souvenirs, they are for researchers only, but I really do plan to use my card when we go to D.C. next year (I hope!).

Our next stop was yet another Smithsonian, this time The Natural History Museum, where we saw lots of amazing exhibits, like the Hope Diamond. They also had mummies, which are my personal favorite!

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing the Natural History Museum was, it really blew my mind. We wandered through the Oceans exhibit, saw about a bazillion different animal skeletons, saw the taxidermied mammals in their hall, and so much more. I got to hold a live Lubber Grasshopper in the Insect Zoo (he tickled my fingers). We also saw a new exhibit on the human genome, which was cool and interactive, but nothing I didn't know.

We didn't see the dinosaurs (we just didn't have time), but we did stop to see the exhibit on early human life, which included this amazing wall of skulls:

The 2nd coolest wall of skulls I've ever seen

The entire museum was amazing, and I highly recommend it if you're ever in the D.C. area. It's well worth spending several hours at. Unfortunately, by that point in the day (in the week really) we were reaching our breaking point. We had been going non-stop for four days, and we were both exhausted. So we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel to get some much needed sleep before our early-morning flight back home.

And that's it. That's our trip to D.C. in a nutshell. Right now, I'm very glad to be home and getting back to my routine, but at the same time, I can't wait to go back to D.C.

I'm hoping that my husband's job will send him back to the conference next year, and we'll get an opportunity to see all of the amazing things that we missed this time around!

So long D.C., I miss you already!

DC Day 3

D.C. just keeps getting better and better, I don't know how we'll top day 3! 

Yesterday we got in contact with my aunt and uncle who live in Baltimore to see if they'd be able to take a day-trip to D.C. and spend some time with us. Luckily they were both avilible and agreed to meet us down-town at about noon. That left us the whole morning to wander around and see what there was to see. 

So we took the Metro to the Mall and decided to just wander around for a while. And then about 3 seconds later, we decided that we should go to the Library of Congress. It was a nice long walk (about 40 minutes) from the Metro station to the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. It was a longer walk than we were planning on, but it was well worth it.

The Main Reading Room

We wandered into the building and went to the information desk. 

"We've never been here before." we said, "What should we see?"

"You're in luck," they said, "there's a tour starting in a few minutes!"

So we watched a short video about the library, and then took a guided tour of the Library of Congress. We saw all sorts of beautiful things. The architecture is stunning and the sculptures and artwork are all beautiful and full of symbolism.

And lets not forget the books! It's a library after all, literally full of books. Absolutely stunning, I was almost literally drooling the entire time.




We got to see one of three complete velum copies of The Gutenberg Bible as well as Thomas Jefferson's personal library. Not to mention the amazingly beautiful main reading room (which isn't open to tourists, you need a Library of Congress library card in order to even get into the room).

We took a quick pit-stop at the Library's gift shop, and then when we tried to leave the way we came, we discovered that all of the doors were closed. We were told to leave by a different route but found that D.C. Police had closed off the exits (still don't know why). So then, and I'm not at all kidding you here, a guy from the pentagon showed us a tunnel that lead out of the building and into the Madison building across the street. Library escape tunnel!

There didn't seem to be any possible way to top the Library of Congress, but when we met up with my aunt and uncle and decided to go to the National Air and Space Museum, it certainly gave our day so far a good run for its money.

I had actually been to the Air and Space Museum before (about 14 years ago), but I didn't remember much of my previous trip, so I'm very glad that we all got a chance to hang out and explore it again.

We took another guided tour and saw the The Spirit of St. Louis, the Lunar Lander and everything in between. It was an amazing tour and an amazing museum, and I only wish that we had had the time (and the energy) to see more of it. We spent about 3 hours at the museum and still only saw a fraction of what was on display.

The museum was humungous and a little bit overwhelming (like all of the Smithsonian museums) and I spent a lot of time just trying to take everything in. One cool thing that the museum has (besides all of the planes and flying machines and rockets and satellites), is a piece of the moon. And it's available to be touched by museum patrons. So yeah, I touched the moon, no big deal.

Sputnik!

But honestly, the best part was getting to see my aunt and uncle who live in Baltimore. We've actually seen them a lot over the last year (what with the wedding and all), but we usually never get to see them, so this was a real treat!

And that was pretty much Day 3 of our D.C. trip. It's been the most amazing vacation so far, and I just can't wait to tell you guys all about Day 4!

Stay tuned!

DC Day 2

Yesterday I had my very own wild and crazy D.C. adventure! My husband was stuck attending meetings and such all day (we're technically here for him to attend a conference), so I was on my own.

The first thing I had to do was finally figure out how the Metro works. I bought one of those SmarTrip cards I was telling you guys about at a drug store, and took it down to the closest Metro station to put some extra cash on it. Now I had $18 worth of Metro fares and all of DC to explore!

I wanted to get myself downtown as quickly as possible, and I was lucky that the train I wanted happened to be at the platform just as I arrived, I hopped on, and my adventure started.

My first stop was the American History Museum, which again is run by the Smithsonian, and as such is 100% free to visit! I saw so many amazing exhibits that I'll admit, I was more than a little overwhelmed. Usually when I go to a museum I like to learn as much as I can about the different exhibits, but I was so overwhelmed, I just tried to take it all in as best I could.

I saw an exhibit full of boats and planes and cars called American on the Move. Next up was something called FOOD, which was, surprisingly enough, about food. Specifically, about how food has changed in American in the last 50 years, and how that in turn has changed our country. But the absolute coolest thing about that exhibit was this:

Isn't it beautiful?

That is Julia Child's kitchen. As in, her actual kitchen, which she donated to the Smithsonian in 2001. How awesome is that? I couldn't stop starring!

Next up I went to visit the Star Spangled Banner (the flag that inspired the song), which I had seen on my last visit to DC, almost 14 years ago. I saw another exhibit on the lives of the Presidents and First Ladies, and then I took a trip through time in an exhibit called American Stories. This exhibit was full of classic icons of American culture, like Dorothy's ruby slippers and...

My favorite frog!

There was actually an entire little display on puppetry in America, but I'll be honest, it kind of creeped me out...

I spent a few hours at the museum, and even though there was a lot left to see, I knew I had to head out to the zoo! I told you I'd go back to the National Zoo. There was just so much that we didn't see on Sunday, and I knew that at least one more trip was going to be in order!

I tired to spend my time visiting the animals that I didn't see on Sunday. And even though I spent another 2 hours at the zoo, there's still a lot I haven't seen!

Although I did visit the Asian Trail, and see this adorable Red Panda. I also spent some time with the Elephants, which we hadn't really gotten a good look at on Sunday. I made stops at the Ape House and the Reptile House, which were both lots of fun. Apparently, there's a sort of sky-line that connects the Ape House with a research building called the Think Tank. The line (which the zoo calls the O Line) is for the apes to swing across back and forth between buildings. How cool is that?

Also, while I didn't exactly go into the Bird House, I did wander around the outside of it, where lots of beautiful birds were exhibited. I saw Greater Rheas and Kuri Bustards and these lovely but very very loud flamingos. I had no idea that flamingos could be so loud!

And that was about it for my wild and crazy D.C. adventure. I had a wonderful time exploring the city on my own, and I would love to do it again some day, but for the remainder of this trip at least, I'll have some company. My husband is done attending the required meetings and such and will be joining me in my future explorations. We're actually meeting up with some relatives of mine who live in the area, and the plan for today is to hit up yet another museum or two!

Stay tuned!

DC Day 1

Hello everyone! My husband and I are in Washington D.C.! Isn't that exciting? Well, it's exciting for us, maybe not so much for you.

Anyway, my husband is here to attend a conference, and I decided to take a few days off of work so that we could make a little vacation out of it. (Also, I didn't want to be in a different state than him)

And because I'm excited/happy, I wanted to share some details with you guys. So here's a summary of our little trip so far.


We flew in to BWI this morning,

took a taxi to the hotel, and since it wasn't yet check-in time, we decided to wander around for a little while.

We tried to take the Metro, but uh... didn't work out so well. We were planning on picking up two $35 "1 Week" passes. But we couldn't figure out how to work any of the machines in the Metro station... So we asked someone to help us out. We were told that in order to get a 1 week pass, we had to buy a $10 SmarTrip card (with $8 worth of fares on it) and then we could put the $35 pass on it...
But uh, the only machine that sold SmarTrip cards was cash only... and didn't give change. So uh, no.

Sorry Metro, maybe we'll use you tomorrow.

But luckily, our cab driver told us that our hotel is only "a few blocks" away from a zoo. A zoo you say? Sounds cool! Turns out that "a few blocks" was more like a mile and a half (though it was a very pleasant walk in the 50 degree weather!), but on the other side it turned out that the zoo was The National Zoo! Which was easily the best way I can think of to spend a few hours.

Dama Gazelle

The National Zoo is run by the Smithsonian, which means that it's absolutely 100% free! So there's no reason not to go. When we got to the hotel there were about half a dozen people hanging out in the lobby waiting for check-in time. Why would they sit there and wait for 2 hours when there's a free zoo a short 20 minute walk away?

Baffling, really.

Cheetah

The zoo has elephants, and lions and reptiles and even a Giant Panda (though we didn't get to see it). There's so much to see, no one could possibly cover it all in the short time that we had.





We wandered around the zoo for about 2 hours, and only saw about half of it. At that point we were starting to get a bit tired (after a morning of travel), and we had a mile and a half walk back, so we decided to call it a day. But we saw so many amazing animals and such cool educational tools, I can't wait to go back!

And go back I will. Tomorrow my husband has to spend all day at his conference, so I'm on my own. I'm planning on swinging back to the zoo and then maybe checking out a museum or two!


Stay tuned!