Chock-a-block full
So, this weekend was very interesting. For once.
Friday: I called off work (Don't worry: I gave them plenty of advance notice) to go to the Fall Festival of Books at the Children's Museum, which incidentally is out in Outer Juthmahia. (If you've never heard me use the phrase "Outer Juthmahia", firstly, I'm rather surprised, and secondly, it refers to a place being a lot farther away than is convienient. To get to the Children's Museum, I had to take a bus into Oakland, and then take the 54C to the last stop. Trip Advisor places the total travel time at 70 minutes. That does not include waiting for fifteen minutes on the wrong side of the street, and twenty minutes on the right.) Despite being late, I still managed to snag of cup of free coffee and get a good seat for the speakers. The Information School was one of the event sponsers, so even though the Friday conference was $15, I got to waltz in for free. The unfortunate thing is that I only spotted one other LIS'er from Pitt during the day, and the crowd wasn't that big. Still, I got to hear three fantastic speakers! Pat Cummings, who illustrates and writes children's books, was by far one of the best speakers I've ever heard. She was very funny, and told all these great stories about her childhood (when she was young, her family moved to Germany and she once got on a bus thatwas taking small girls her age to a ballet school. She was sent home with a note pinned to her requesting that she not be sent back.) She was so engaging, I went to her workshop session, even though it was all about illustrating, and I can;t draw worth beans. Leonard Marcu probably flies under everyone elses radar, as he writes books about children's books. I bought his book "A Caldecott Celebration" where he interviews seven artists/authors about their Caldecott Medal winners (he even interviews Maurice Sendak about "Where the Wild Things Are'). He was a bit on the dry side, especially appearing after Pat Cummings, but very informative and very nice. The coup de grace, however, was T.A. Barron, children's hero and nature nut (in the good way). He was also a good speaker, if not alittle repetative, but his books are fantastic. I got to play "good sister" later in the day by getting one of Em's "The Lost Years of Merlin" books signed. He was incredibly nice about signing, and definitely personable. So, it was an excellent day, full of subtle networking with libraries and teachers in the area, and lots and lots of coffee and books. :)
Then, in the evening, Em came up for the weekend. I managed to get a totally kick-ass parking space across the street (note: parking is crazy. The angry Russian guy who owns the Eastern European food store across the street has people towed from in front of his shop regularly. I managed to miss the two-hour parking zone AND the meters to get a fabulous spot) so Em could park in my driveway. We supped on mini-pizzas and laughed and watched plenty of Youtube videos and the new "Twilight" trailer. My sister rocks.
Saturday: Got up around 9 and was out of the house shortly thereafter with bagels in hand to drive over to Oakland (Em drove) and park behind the museums. (Note: There is all day parking there for $5. You can't beat that.) We walked around the campus, although it was freezing, and then caught the 54C to the Strip District, where we bought lovely hats, gloves, Pocky, weird Japanese throat sweets, Kinder Chocolate, and pomegranates. We even got to ogle the cute coffee guy who very possibly upgraded our order. He was adorable. Then, back to Oakland for more touring. We spent to rest of the day in the Carnegie Museums, especially the Art portion. I always worry about taking Em to an art musuem because she's in art school and sees this kind of thing ALL THE TIME, but she was really happy in the Scaife gallery. She said it gave her the inspiration she needed. Yay! We took a break at Khiva Han for some good tea and amazing Mac and Cheese (which Shaffer would not like as they put Cajun seasoning on it) for lunch. After the museum, we headed home to eat pomegranates (very messy) and watch some of "Some Like It Hot" because Em is going as Marylin Monroe for Halloween. Then, we went next door and spent the rest of the night watching "Sense and Sensibility" and "Love Actually" and noshing away with Madalina, Lynn, Tracy, and Deborah. It was great fun.
Sunday: Got up around 9 and finished "Some Like It Hot" with bagels. Em packed up and, at 12:30, we met up with Amanda, Tory, and Madalina to head downtown to Pamati's Brothers for some terrific sandwiches. They put french fries and coleslaw right on the sandwich, and it's a beautiful, messy, delicious piece of culinary art. Deborah met us there, and Em told the best worst first date story (the one where she got mugged). Back around 2, and Em was off into the sunset to head on home before going back to MICA tomorrow to actually do some work on her fall break. I kinda loafed around all afternoon. It's very cold in our house, and I don't like to turn on the heat because it's all through old radiators, and I don't know if Hannah or Young have things around the radiator that might be a fire hazard. I had to pin up my curtains to turn it on a little this morning. So, I've taken to spending my time all huddled up under my comforter, which makes me sleep a lot. I spent part of the afternoon in a self-made cave, and then slept way too much. So now, I'm wide awake and I should go to bed so I can function tomorrow at work, but I'm not sleepy. Hoo boy.
But it was indeed a fantastic weekend.
Friday: I called off work (Don't worry: I gave them plenty of advance notice) to go to the Fall Festival of Books at the Children's Museum, which incidentally is out in Outer Juthmahia. (If you've never heard me use the phrase "Outer Juthmahia", firstly, I'm rather surprised, and secondly, it refers to a place being a lot farther away than is convienient. To get to the Children's Museum, I had to take a bus into Oakland, and then take the 54C to the last stop. Trip Advisor places the total travel time at 70 minutes. That does not include waiting for fifteen minutes on the wrong side of the street, and twenty minutes on the right.) Despite being late, I still managed to snag of cup of free coffee and get a good seat for the speakers. The Information School was one of the event sponsers, so even though the Friday conference was $15, I got to waltz in for free. The unfortunate thing is that I only spotted one other LIS'er from Pitt during the day, and the crowd wasn't that big. Still, I got to hear three fantastic speakers! Pat Cummings, who illustrates and writes children's books, was by far one of the best speakers I've ever heard. She was very funny, and told all these great stories about her childhood (when she was young, her family moved to Germany and she once got on a bus thatwas taking small girls her age to a ballet school. She was sent home with a note pinned to her requesting that she not be sent back.) She was so engaging, I went to her workshop session, even though it was all about illustrating, and I can;t draw worth beans. Leonard Marcu probably flies under everyone elses radar, as he writes books about children's books. I bought his book "A Caldecott Celebration" where he interviews seven artists/authors about their Caldecott Medal winners (he even interviews Maurice Sendak about "Where the Wild Things Are'). He was a bit on the dry side, especially appearing after Pat Cummings, but very informative and very nice. The coup de grace, however, was T.A. Barron, children's hero and nature nut (in the good way). He was also a good speaker, if not alittle repetative, but his books are fantastic. I got to play "good sister" later in the day by getting one of Em's "The Lost Years of Merlin" books signed. He was incredibly nice about signing, and definitely personable. So, it was an excellent day, full of subtle networking with libraries and teachers in the area, and lots and lots of coffee and books. :)
Then, in the evening, Em came up for the weekend. I managed to get a totally kick-ass parking space across the street (note: parking is crazy. The angry Russian guy who owns the Eastern European food store across the street has people towed from in front of his shop regularly. I managed to miss the two-hour parking zone AND the meters to get a fabulous spot) so Em could park in my driveway. We supped on mini-pizzas and laughed and watched plenty of Youtube videos and the new "Twilight" trailer. My sister rocks.
Saturday: Got up around 9 and was out of the house shortly thereafter with bagels in hand to drive over to Oakland (Em drove) and park behind the museums. (Note: There is all day parking there for $5. You can't beat that.) We walked around the campus, although it was freezing, and then caught the 54C to the Strip District, where we bought lovely hats, gloves, Pocky, weird Japanese throat sweets, Kinder Chocolate, and pomegranates. We even got to ogle the cute coffee guy who very possibly upgraded our order. He was adorable. Then, back to Oakland for more touring. We spent to rest of the day in the Carnegie Museums, especially the Art portion. I always worry about taking Em to an art musuem because she's in art school and sees this kind of thing ALL THE TIME, but she was really happy in the Scaife gallery. She said it gave her the inspiration she needed. Yay! We took a break at Khiva Han for some good tea and amazing Mac and Cheese (which Shaffer would not like as they put Cajun seasoning on it) for lunch. After the museum, we headed home to eat pomegranates (very messy) and watch some of "Some Like It Hot" because Em is going as Marylin Monroe for Halloween. Then, we went next door and spent the rest of the night watching "Sense and Sensibility" and "Love Actually" and noshing away with Madalina, Lynn, Tracy, and Deborah. It was great fun.
Sunday: Got up around 9 and finished "Some Like It Hot" with bagels. Em packed up and, at 12:30, we met up with Amanda, Tory, and Madalina to head downtown to Pamati's Brothers for some terrific sandwiches. They put french fries and coleslaw right on the sandwich, and it's a beautiful, messy, delicious piece of culinary art. Deborah met us there, and Em told the best worst first date story (the one where she got mugged). Back around 2, and Em was off into the sunset to head on home before going back to MICA tomorrow to actually do some work on her fall break. I kinda loafed around all afternoon. It's very cold in our house, and I don't like to turn on the heat because it's all through old radiators, and I don't know if Hannah or Young have things around the radiator that might be a fire hazard. I had to pin up my curtains to turn it on a little this morning. So, I've taken to spending my time all huddled up under my comforter, which makes me sleep a lot. I spent part of the afternoon in a self-made cave, and then slept way too much. So now, I'm wide awake and I should go to bed so I can function tomorrow at work, but I'm not sleepy. Hoo boy.
But it was indeed a fantastic weekend.