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Saturday, January 10, 2015

What I Read in 2014

Okay, I know it's taken me a little bit longer, but I've finally put together my list of books that I read in 2014! This is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition for me, and I really enjoy the opportunity to look back and reflect on what I've read over the last year.

Some of these are going to look a bit familiar to you. After all, I wrote about 6 of them for my Librarian's Corner series, they're highlighted so that you can find them, and if you click on the (**) symbol next to them, it'll take you straight to the post!

I kind of wanted to do a big break-down of what I read, like I did last year, but it seems a bit too overwhelming with this many books, plus, I kind of want to move on with my life. So instead, let me take just 1 minute (ok, maybe 2) to tell you about some of my favorites this year.

Favorite GN (graphic novel) series I finished this year: Preacher by Garth Ennis, and you can read all about why I loved it in my Librarian's Corner post about it.

Favorite "new" series I started this year: The Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs. You probably know Dr. Brennan from the TV show Bones, but this Tempe is a completly different woman, and the series has almost nothing to do with the show. Very enjoyable though. I'm on book 9 right now, and I can't put it down long enough to write...

Favorite book by new author: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (and other lessons from the crematory) by Caitlin Doughty, AKA Ask a Mortician on YouTube. Her channel is awesome, and not for the faint-of-heart, or those not into talking about dead bodies. Her book was everything I had hoped it was going to be, filled with gory details and touching stories. Just like the show.

Favorite book that made me cry: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. There's so much I could write about this book, that I'm not even going to try. Just go read it, seriously (if you haven't already), and bring a tissue, or 20. And then see the movie, trust me.

Okay, you're bored. On with the list:

My husband and I are both doing a reading challenge for 2015, so expect to see a post about that at some point in the near future. And of course, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Librarian's Corner on the 21st of Jan, see you then!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

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!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Reference Observations Regarding the “Problem Patron”

Every librarian you talk to will have a story about a “problem patron” or two, or seven. These are the patrons who, for whatever reason, want to argue with you, act inappropriately or generally cause trouble. They are present in every library, and every librarian will have a different strategy for dealing with them. Just as we employ different tactics for answering the reference questions of children, “problem patrons” often require special treatment as well.

To clarify, when we refer to a “problem patron”, we do not generally mean someone who is physically threatening to other patrons or staff. Those types (and they are out there, believe me), are actually fairly easy to deal with. As Georgia Ann Clark tells us in her piece in the Law Library Journal “There is only one way to cope with a violent, dangerous, psychotic person: call the police” (52).

She goes on to explain that: “More difficult to handle is the demanding, overbearing, unreasonable user who can wreak havoc among staff with his only weapon - a sharp, vicious tongue and extremely troublesome manner” (52). This is what we generally mean when we talk about “problem patrons”. Now the next question is what to do with them? As I said, every library will have their own strategy, and during my 8 hours of observation at my chosen library, I saw quite a few in action.

While “problem patrons” are in issue in every department of a library, my focus was on the reference desk, and the particular challenges that they face. Over my hours of observation, I saw several different “problem patrons” approach the reference desk with a large variety of questions and complaints. One specific issue that arises when dealing with a “problem patron” is that you don’t know that they’re a “problem patron” right away. The best strategy for this is simply to treat every patron who approaches the desk with respect and courtesy.

A librarian might not know at first that someone is going to be a “problem patron”, but when treating a person with respect and courtesy only draws anger from them, you might have a difficult case on your hands. One of the most common interactions I observed at the reference desk (with regard to “problem patrons”) was a librarian having to deal with a patron wanting to complain about something.

Now, we all complain about things in our lives, but the people that we refer to as “problem patrons” tend to have irrational, illogical or just plain absurd complains. A few that I witnessed at the reference desk include: “the guy next to me is typing too loudly”, “I don’t like something that this website is telling me”, and “I can’t remember my e-mail password, why don’t you know it?” Clearly, these are not issues that the reference librarian can actually do anything about, but the patron still needs to be dealt with in a polite and respectful manner.

So how do we deal with these patrons? In The Customer is Always Right, author Rebecca Jackson tells us that “Sometimes a thank-you is enough. Sometimes just having a listening ear helps dissipate the frustration” (213). Her piece uses the world of business to provide valuable insights into customer service for librarians. I found that many of the librarians I observed used these techniques, sometimes to great effect. A patron who came in upset that his home computer didn’t work found a sympathetic librarian to talk to, and even though she was unable to help him with his problem, just having someone to talk to calmed him down.

There are always grey areas when we talk about “problem patrons”. There are patrons who are not necessarily rude or demanding, but simply take up a disproportionate amount of the staff’s time. While I was at the library, I observed one particular patron coming up to the desk time and time again to have conversations with the staff on a wide variety of topics. He seemed like a nice gentleman, and was always polite, but never actually had any reference-related questions. Instead, he wanted to tell jokes and stories about anything and everything.

This type of patron can be difficult to deal with, as we don’t want to be rude, but might actually need that down-time between reference questions to get other work done. Our job is to be there for our patrons, but a 20 minute conversation about Buddhism and Godzilla (a conversation I actually overheard) might be stretching that ideal a bit. Most of the time, the librarians just humored this patron, and went along with his rambling conversations. Once in a while though, the librarian on duty would politely explain that he/she actually needed to work on a project and he/she would be happy to chat with the patron next time.

I thought this was a great strategy for dealing with this particular type of patron. He was polite and courteous, and responded well to honesty. Many librarians will have to deal with a patron like this gentleman at one point or another. The best strategy here? I think David Issacson puts it best in his article No Problem with Problem Patrons, “The reference librarians were simply treating a lonely man with dignity” (68). Respect is always the best approach, even if you think that, as Issacson also puts it “some very weird people are found in libraries” (68).

Another type of “problem patron” that many public librarians have a lot of experience with is the young adult “problem patron”. In her paper The “Problem Patron” Libraries Created, Mary K. Chelton argues that libraries contribute to this problem by insisting on treating young adults like children (25). She argues that many reference librarians assume that all questions young adults ask are homework related (28), and thus do not always take the same time with the young adults that they would with their adult patrons. I did not witness this at the library I was observing, but I have witnessed it many times throughout my life, and especially my own adolescence.

When teenagers (and other young adults) are treated with respect by adults, they are more likely to respect adults in turn. The library I sat-in at is across the street from a middle-school, so young adults make up a significant number of their afternoon patrons. The reference librarians under my observation took the young adults seriously, and treated their questions with the same respect and courtesy that they showed toward the adults.

As a result, I did not see many young adult “problem patrons” while I was observing. This shows us that one of the best reference strategies in this case is to be preemptive, and help prevent a problem before it starts, just by treating a 13 year old the same way you would treat a 30 year old. Chelton concludes that “viewing teenagers as problems does not need to continue (30-31)” and I agree with her completely. We adults tend to treat young adults and teenagers very dismissively, and then wonder why they treat us with so little respect in return.

There’s one other type of “problem patron” that I observed at the reference desk, and those are the patrons who could be called ‘chronically unhappy’. Nothing you can do will please these patrons, and not only that, but they delight in making you unhappy as well. There really isn’t a simple way to deal with this type of person, as almost anything you say or do will be wrong.

The strategy I have seen employed most often in this situation is for the librarian to simply give the patron whatever they want to make them happy and calm them down.This might be tempting in the short-run, but won’t solve any problems and is in fact setting a bad precedent. For example, let’s say a patron wants to argue about fines on their account. This type of patron will argue with you endlessly over a very small fine, and eventually, most staff members will simply waive the fine. The problem with this is that then the patron learns that the easiest way to get what they want is yell and scream at the staff until they give into the patron’s demands.

In her essay Who Says There’s a Problem? A New Way to Approach the Issue of “Problem Patrons” Shelley Ferrell suggests that “staff might effectively de-escalate the situation through the use of skills such as listening, awareness of nonverbal cues, seeing the issue from the patron's perspective, displaying empathy, and focusing on the library-specific issues” (149) and certainly, this is the best possible approach in this situation. Realistically though, there are some patrons who are never going to be satisfied, no matter how empathetically we listen to their problems.

The last type of “problem patron” is the rare patron who verbally or physically threatens and abuses others. In this situation, there is actually nothing for the librarian to do except to call in local law enforcement, and let them handle it. This (luckily) did not happen during my observation period, but I did hear about an incident from more than one librarian on staff. A few months ago the police were called to escort a patron from the premises. He had verbally threatened and then physically assaulted another patron. His mental condition, and the fact that he didn’t actually hurt the other patron were taken into account in this case, and he would be allowed to come back to the library, after meeting with the director. He had however, not chosen to return at this time.

It is important for us as librarians (and people) to remember that public libraries are open to the public. As Calmer Chattoo suggests in his piece The Problem Patron we might see patrons who “talk to themselves, gesture non-threateningly at other patrons or staff, hum, wear bizarre clothes or speak in tongues” (16). Anyone who has worked with the public in any capacity will recognize a lot of these “types” of patrons, as most of them aren’t specific to libraries. But how they are dealt with can be.

Librarians occupy a unique position as both customer service agents, and keepers of the library’s resources and knowledge. When a patron chooses not to use our library because of something that we have said or done, everyone loses. It is our job to make sure that this does not happen, while balancing our own safety and sanity. I watched the staff at this library interact with a wide variety of patrons, in a wide variety of situations, and I think I’ve learned a few good tricks and strategies to handle (almost) any situation.

First, remain calm, courteous and respectful. You do not know if someone is going to be a “problem patron” and we can often prevent issue before they happen just by being polite. Treat everyone with respect, even if they are “speaking in tongues”, or happen to be younger than you. All of our patrons deserve respect, and if you show it to them, they will show you respect in return. And finally, know when to step away from the situation and get help. You are not going to help anyone by getting involved with a violent patron. Just as you wouldn’t expect the police to answer reference questions, so too they do not want you doing their job. Know when the situation is out of your hands, and act accordingly.

There are always going to be “problem patrons”, and they will always be a part of our lives as librarians. There is nothing we can ultimately do except learn to except these people the way they are, and try our best to accommodate them. It is our job, after all, to provide services to all those who seek them, without judgment and with respect.

References:

Calmer D. Chattoo (2002) The Problem Patron, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 11-22.

Chelton, Mary K. (2002) The “Problem Patron” Public Libraries Created, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 23-32.

Clark, Georgia (1979). The Problem Patron. Law Library Journal, 72, 52-52.

Ferrell, S. (2010). Who says there's a problem? A new way to approach the issue of "problem patrons". Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50(2), 141-151.

Isaacson, D. (2006). No problem with problem patrons. Library Journal, 131(1), 68.

Jackson, Rebecca (2002) The Customer Is Always Right, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 205-216.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Librarian's Corner: Unmarketable

Unmarketable

by: Anne Elizabeth Moore

I first heard about Unmarketable on the feminist podcast: Popaganda, produced by Bitch Media. This is the first non-fiction book that I've written about for Librarian's Corner, and I couldn't think of a better book to start with.

Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity is about just that, marketing and how it manages to creep its way into not only our everyday lives, but our underground, DIY and punk communities, that we normally try to keep so carefully anti-consumerist.

The book takes the question of selling-out to a whole new level by showing us that people don't always realize that they've sold out to companies like Nike, LucasFilm, or even Big Pharma. Whole genuinely underground art movements have sprung up (seemingly 'organically') to promote Tylenol or the release of the last (up until then) Star Wars movie. I picked this book up because I was interested in how it was possible for artists to sell-out without even realizing that they were being bought.

Living in the culture that we live in, we are constantly being marketed to. Just driving to work I'm bombarded by ads, on billboards and on the radio (seriously, doesn't anyone play music on the radio anymore?). You can't turn on a TV at home without seeing endless hours of commercials, even YouTube has been over-run by ads. And don't even get me started on corporate sponsorships. "This sunset brought to you by... Taco Bell, live mas!" Ugh. But this is all of stuff that we're aware of, what Unmarketable touches on is some of the marketing we experience on a daily basis that we might not have noticed.

The book is full of stories of marketing in unusual places and in odd campaigns. My favorite (or rather, the one I found most interesting) was the story of how Sony (of PlayStation fame) used graffiti, and yes, you read that correctly, to market its newest gaming console to the public. They took over an underground art form in order to sell a product, and to be honest, that kind of makes my skin crawl.

Who would I recommend this book to? Anyone who wants to read more about artistic integrity, and this insidious ways that corporations will try to pay for it. Anyone who's interested in marketing, and the ways in which we are all vulnerable to it. Anyone who wonders how the puck movement, of all things, could be co-opted by Big Pharma. Do you fit any of these descriptions? Than pick up a copy of Unmarketable today! You can't afford NOT to! (See what I did there? Marketing.)

So that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this month's Librarian's Corner. We'll meet here again on September 21st! Pick up a copy of Unmarketable if you'd like, and if you guys do read it, I would love to hear what you thought! Leave a comment here and share your thoughts about the book (or any book for that matter, I'm always looking for recommendations for what to read next!). Stay tuned for more of what I'm doing (there may be a cloths-making post coming in the near future).

Happy Reading!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

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.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Access is Not Enough - Closing the Digital Divide

If you can't tell, I'm double-dipping here. I've been writing papers and responses for my grad school classes, and I'm just not having enough time to work on the blog as well. So I thought ya'll might like to take a peak at what I've been working on for school...

Current research states that if you want to be able to speak a second langue fluently you need to be exposed to it as a child. We often talk about basic computer skills as a language, describing ourselves as computer literate or illiterate. This suggests that in order to be fluent in the language of computers, we need to be exposed to be exposed to them as children. But now that most school-aged children are being exposed to computers, why aren’t we all equally successful?

Because the Digital Divide is no longer about the ‘haves’ vs. the ‘have-nots’. Most children have access to a computer at school, but there is a world of difference between a school that can give each of its students a personal laptop and a school that has a lab with maybe 10 old desktops for a student body of 500+. This new Divide runs on socioeconomic lines.

“Socioeconomic status for many individuals ultimately determines what type of technology (if any) they will have access to and, just as importantly, how often they get to use it” (Morrone, Witt 2013). Being in a classroom with a computer is no longer enough to make our students competitive. They need to not only have the computer, but to know how to use it, and how to use it well. Libraries can make a difference here, but I believe that the real solution to this gap will have to be provided by the schools.

Speaking from my own experience, I believe that I greatly benefited from having access (both at school and at home) to a personal laptop. The high school that I attended was one of the first in the area to provide its students with access to laptops, able to be checked-out and used for both academic and personal pursuits. These laptops helped me to be more inter-active with my studies, and built the foundations of research skills that served me well in college. I went to a private school, and I know that the public schools in the area (though very good) did not have this program.

Libraries can do and have done a lot to decrease the gap between the old ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, but often lack the resources to do more than simply provide access to the internet. In his article in the Public Library Quarterly, Bo Kinney tells us that “…provision of Internet access alone is only one part of bridging the divide, which is a function of broader social and technological inequities” (Kinney, 2010). The Divide, like so many in others in our country, can only be closed by education.

This education has to come from schools, and at an early age. In their research into the Ohio school system, Lawrence Wood and Aimee Howley discovered that students attending schools in poor urban or rural areas had much less access to computers than students from wealthier school districts. Moreover, they also had older software and slower Internet speeds (Wood, Howley 2012). This needs to change.

We can tell ourselves that we’re doing everything we can for our children, trying to give them a leg-up by providing them with access to a computer. But access alone is no longer enough. Just because you put a set of encyclopedias in your child’s bedroom doesn’t mean that they are able to access the information contained in them. Our children need to be taught how to use the latest technologies to further their educations and succeed in life.

All students deserve this chance, and the only way to make that happen is to ensure that children from all socioeconomic have access to the same current technology, and are taught the same important skills. We’re working on one of those, let’s work on the other.

Kinney, B. The Internet, Public Libraries, and the Digital Divide. Public Library Quarterly, 29, 104-161. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01616841003779718

Morrone, M., & Witt, S. Digital Inclusion, Learning, and Access at the Public Library. Urban Library Journal, 19. Retrieved 5-17-14, from http://ojs.gc.cuny.edu/index.php/urbanlibrary/article/view/1399/pdf_9

Wood, L., & Howley, A. Dividing at an early age: the hidden digital divide in Ohio elementary schools. Learning, Media and Technology, 37, 37-41. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17439884.2011.567991

Friday, January 17, 2014

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!

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