Chris and I went to the SMB formal on Saturday night. I wore the dress that I am wearing in one of my best friend's wedding in May to the dance and it looked lovely. The dance was pretty boring, but it was still nice to get dressed up. Here's Chris and I with Sparty:
Since there was a major snow storm Saturday I spent the night in EL and got up and drove back to AA in the morning. I picked up the 5 other people that were riding with me and we headed to DC in a blue mini-van with Texas plates. The trip wasn't that bad, and we seemed to have a lot of fun as we drove through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland to get here. We arrived safely and found the hotel with few problems. Here's a picture as we drove through Pennsylvania:
This morning a group of us took the metro to the LOC where we had a brief meeting and meet our supervisors for the week. Jay is pretty cool, he's been there for about 20 years now. I'm working in the Main Reading Room (the sweet circular room with the gazillion desks that was in National Treasure 2, be jealous) in the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences division. Today was amazing. I was able to take a tour of the building and go in a lot of "behind the scenes" areas, like the stacks and into the Congressional Meeting Room which is for Congressmen only. It is also where the hosted a lunch for the Queen when she came for a visit. I then got to sit at the reference desk and see the type of questions that are asked. I also noticed that there seem to be a lot of regular researchers that use the LOC and are friendly with the librarians that work the desk and come to chat with them. It was very interesting and very cool .Then after successfully making my way back into the tunnels that connect all 3 buildings of the LOC without having to go outside I headed back to work. Jay went over my schedule for the week in depth and talked about how much they want me to see as much as they can show me and to have me learn as much as possible while I'm there. So awesome. Then I spent the remainder of the afternoon doing digital reference through the e-mail "Ask a Librarian" system that the LOC developed with OCLC. It was awesome to be able to apply skills that I learned in my reference class last semester to actual questions that people answer. The one I worked on this afternoon was finding the origin of the saying "monkey on [one's] back." In case you're currious it appears to be related to drug dependence starting in the 1930's. Here is what my desk area looks like:
I also have an offical "temporary worker" badge that pretty much lets me go anywhere within the library. :-D I know I'm a nerd, but this is truely an amazing experince. After I got done I meet up with Rachel and Beth and one other person and we headed back to the hotel. We were going to go to the meet and greet event tonight, but when we got there it was so expensive and so crowded that we left. We did some silly tourist things (in the dark) on our way back. Like take pictures of buidings in China Town and the outside of the Smithsonian Art Museum. It's okay though, it's the only time we really have to do those things. Rachel, Amy, Beth, one other girl and I went to this sweet diner for dinner. I had a great burger and awesome milkshake. Rachel bought me a piece of cake to pay me back for getting her lunch today. It took was excellent. Rachel and Beth taught me to play "Settlers of Catan" which was actually a really fun game and I didn't do to poorly considering it was my first time playing.I should porbably get to bed since I have to be back at work at 8:30 ready to go on a project they have for me! I will try to update every night, but I was stupid and forgot to pack my power cord. So only when the battery isn't dead or I can borrow a friend's cord will I be on. I hope everyone has a great week!
Currently Reading: Dewy and The Host (I can't make up my mind)
Currently Listening: Boy Meets Boy (not sure how I feel about it, and I'm half way through) (also this won't change this week since I am not doing any driving and didn't bring any books on tape with me)
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Love Notes