Pennsic 43 - Recap

Whew, what a week we've had. Or really, what an intense last 3 weeks it's been! I wanted to throw together a quick post to let you all know what I've been up to all this time, and well, here it is.

Let's start with the last week in July. It was the last week of my first semester of Graduate School, and I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But with a final due on Wednesday and a final due on Thursday (both reflective papers), it was a busy week indeed. I finally got everything turned in on time, and I was done. Nothing left to do except wait for the grades to come in. Oh, and start packing for the week-long insance camping event that we were leaving for on Sunday. Finals = done, packing, not so much.

I went to a party that Thursday night that one of my co-workers threw at her (beautiful little) house, and we all played a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity. Let's just say I heard a few things I never thought I would hear coming our of my coworkers mouths! (It's a fun game, for terrible people)

Friday I worked, and then we took the day on Saturday to get ready for our week-long camping trip. I know, packing for a week's vacation in one day is really smart... Anyway, we got everything packed up and ready to go for an early departure on Sunday morning.

Okay so, before we continue, I should take a minute to tell you where we went. Remember like a million years ago, when I posted about going to some crazy event called Pennsic? Yup, we did it again! Actually, my husband's only missed 1 year in the last 10, but this was only my second time going. And we both had an absolute blast!

We got to spend time with old friends and (to me at least) new friends. I got to meet a lot of the people that I've been hearing my husband talk about for years, and they were all exactly as I had imagined them. Wonderful, fun, funny and charming people.

I could go through a day-by-day re-cap of everything that we did at Pennsic, but I don't want to bore you. I've already put my family and friends through that kind of torture, and I don't want you nice folks to have to suffer through it as well. So let me give you the condensed version.

Sunday: Un-packing, setting up the tent (which leaked the whole time, greeting people, then a night of amazing performances.

Monday: Field battle, then our first classes of the week (including one by a teacher who I remembered well from 5 years ago). Then we actually got up to the archery range to shoot our War-Points.

Tuesday: It was a fast day, so we planned ourselves a long schedule of classes, which we more or less stuck to.

Wednesday: We went to a bit of East Kingdom Court (it ended up lasting 4 hours) and then: two words, Midnight Madness! Shopping at all of the merchants! We had a blast wandering around all of the different stalls and buying way more stuff than we needed.

Thursday: More classes, then cooking all the things back in camp (including Creme Brulee on the open fire). We ended up staying up until 2 in the morning learning how to make a bow-string.

Friday: Our last day in camp. We went to a class, then packed up and helped take down the camp site. Drove home, and that was all she wrote.

We had an amazing time, hung out with friends, attended some very interesting classes (Like: Historical Uses of Poisons, for one), and made some cool things.

Not to mention got some cool things. Check it out:

A bunny fur and some beautiful hand-spun yarn

All these leather scraps for only $2!

And some lovely linen to make a few nice projects out of!

Pennsic was a blast (I think I've said that before!), and I honestly can't wait to go back next year. But in the mean time, life moves on. Back to the grind!



I'll be back next week with another Librarian's Corner, so stay tuned!

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.

Travel Plans for 2014

It's only March, but I'm already feeling overwhelmed about everything that's going to be going on this coming year. So I thought I'd take a moment and share our travel plans for the year, and then maybe I won't feel so overwhelmed? Maybe? Please?

Now the funny thing is, I always say that I don't particularly like to travel, and that I don't do it very often. Now don't get me wrong, it's not a fear of flying or anything like that. I actually love to fly. It's airports that I hate. Long lines for security, body-scans, rushing to get to your gate seconds before the plane takes off, only to discover that the $5.99 coffee you just purchased in the terminal can't be taken on the plane... Ugh, and don't get me started on the fees associated with flying these days.

Anyway, despite my claims to not be a big traveler, my husband and I have already made three big trips in the 7 months we've been married.

• In August we went on our honeymoon, driving first the the Toledo Zoo, then to the Mutter Museum in Philly, then to New York to celebrate with family and relax in the country.
• Then in November, we drove 10 hours down to Baltimore to celebrate Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle and cousins.
• In January, as you might have noticed, we went to Washington D.C. (which is the best trip of 2014... so far)
• In May we'll be flying up to New York again to celebrate our niece's wedding (and hopefully meeting her fiance at some point before the ceremony).
• In July, we're off to fight in the Pennsic War, or at least to watch the fighting. And don't worry, I'll be posting about the prep for this trip, as it promises to be interesting.
• We'll probably head back down to Baltimore in November, as Thanksgiving tends to happen once a year, and celebrating with my aunt and uncle has sort of become a family tradition over the last few decades.
• And finally, in December, my husband and I are hoping to take a trip to Israel, as I haven't been there in about 8 years, and that's a sad thing.

So uh, yeah. I think that's it. 7 major trips in a year and a half. That's not crazy, right? Right?
Okay, maybe it's a little insane, but what can we do? We've got wandering feet, I guess. Or, just a lot of family celebrations all over the country!

See why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed? I swear, I'm such a homebody... Oh well.

Stay tuned for more madness, and I promise to blog about all of these amazing trips as they happen!

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 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!