sometimes crazy. November 13, 2011

H&M opened its first store in Utah thus last Friday. Lindsay and I had talked about trying to go to the grand opening, and had heard that there would be gift card giveaways for the first 500 people in line. We kind of expected to get maybe a $5 gift card and absolutely no sleep…but we wanted to do it for the fun.

We got up to the mall at about 9 pm on Thursday. We didn’t see anyone in line so went and got Cafe Rio (of course), then got back around 10. By then there were about 20 people in line. After about an hour the mall security guards came out and told us we couldn’t actually be on the property until 4 am. There was a serious lack of communication all around. We went to Walmart for something to do (and got the new Harry Potter!!) then napped in the car for a couple of hours.

We finally got inside the mall at 4. And then sat in line until 9:30 am. And then stood in line til noon. At least we made friends with the people around us! They finally passed out the scratch card gift cards and let us into the store, which was crazy packed and bumping ridiculously loud hip hop music. Or maybe we were just tired after 30 hours of no sleep…

Anyway, the end result was this:

So in the end…totally worth it! Thanks for doing all kinds of crazy things with me, Lindsay!!

this is halloween October 27, 2011

I’m going to start blogging again. Promise.

Tonight we carved pumpkins with Shannon and Sam. Eric’s is a lot more elaborate (he’s trying to win a pumpkin carving contest at his work) so he didn’t finish tonight.

Sam did the grim reaper, Shannon’s is a creepy face (as usual…), and mine is a Neanderthal skull. Hah – you’re jealous right?

Happy Halloween!

end of the line, sonny jim July 9, 2011

So I’ve been out here in DC for about 6 weeks now. Everything is going pretty well, except for the weather, which I could never get used to. It’s so hot and humid. But I love my internship a lot and (besides the fact that I wish I was getting paid…) I could do it for a lot longer than 9 weeks. The first couple weeks out here were kind of boring, mainly because I don’t know anybody and didn’t have anything to do. But the last three weekends, I had visitors! First my parents came and we did all kinds of sightseeing. I didn’t take any pictures with them because my mom and dad did an awesome job with that (mom posted her pictures on her Facebook).

The weekend after that Shannon came! We had a fun time. She got to DC at like 11 pm and we left the next morning around 8 am to go get on a super cool double decker bus that would take us to New York City.  It was about a 4.5-5 hour ride and when we got there we were sort of lost. We at lunch at Pret a Manger (YUM) and then found a Borders where we bought a map of the city. And then we wandered around until we realized we weren’t going to just magically know how to take the subway or where we needed to go (even with the map), so Shannon called Sam (expert on all things about The City) and he told us how to use the subway. Somehow it seemed a lot harder there than here. We made our way down to the WTC area because we wanted to see the 9/11 memorial but apparently it isn’t finished yet? I don’t know how we didn’t know that…so we wandered some more and found the Irish Hunger Memorial which was actually pretty cool.

And then we walked. And we walked. And we walked. All the way to Grand Central Station.  GoogleMaps tells me this is almost 4 miles. No wonder we were exhausted.  We ate delicious pizza with Sam and his sister and friends (?) then slept like little babies at Sam’s parent’s house. At least I did anyway.  The next morning we set out for the purpose of our little jaunt to NYC: to see the Harry Potter exhibit at Times Square!

Sadly we couldn’t take pictures in the exhibit, but it was really cool.  It was fully of props and costumes and other set pieces from all of the Harry Potter movies, which were so neat to see up close.  They had certain areas set up so you felt like you were actually there (i.e. Hagrid’s hut…you could sit in a really big Hagrid-sized chair) and some interactives that were fun to play with (like pulling screeching baby mandrakes out of their pots…it was awesome).  Overall I’d say it was worth the $25 we paid for each ticket – especially if you’re as big of a HP fan as we are.

After the exhibit we walked to Central Park where we got hot dogs and soft pretzels that weren’t very good. Oh well. We watched some guys do parkour and some people sing and play guitars and generally enjoyed the park, which was really pretty. Then we went to the American Museum of Natural History, which I have to say – after being in so many mega-museums like that one, it just didn’t seem all that impressive.  They did have a really great dinosaur section, which we probably spent the most time in.

And we saw some other things, like a really big meteor…(I kept making Shannon pose with things – I’m going to be the most annoying parent, haha)

And then we left because we were hungry for dinner and our bus back to DC was leaving soonish. Overall it was a pretty fun time. Shannon stayed in DC with me for another day before heading back up to Connecticut. We went down to the Mall and went to the American History and Natural History Museums (along with seeing the Capitoline Venus at the National Gallery). Fun times had by all. We thought about trying to get some tourist to buy us ice cream, but it didn’t work out.

Anyway. I’m glad Shannon (and my parents, even though I didn’t write about their trip really) came to visit! Thank you guys!!

Eric came out to visit the next weekend (July 4th), but that’s the next post…

thoughts? April 26, 2011

I was reading this article and wanted to get anyone’s opinions on it (especially museum friends). I’ve been thinking recently about what the future of museums might be and what role I personally will be able to play in it. With the way things are shifting (or at least with the attitudes about how many people want them to shift), I’m clearly in the wrong demographic. Or am I? I believe that there should be more diversity in the museum world, but at the same time – it’s sometimes hard to embrace it because I’d basically be excluding myself.  I have other thoughts as well, that’s just the one I’m thinking about currently.

So. Your thoughts?

basically i love this April 19, 2011

and you should too.

nothing really April 16, 2011

I can’t say anything too interesting has really been happening lately, which is the reason for the lack of blog posts for the last…4 months. We’ve been busy, and things have pretty much been the same for the last little while.

But now it’s almost the end of the semester! BYU has finals this week (I need to turn in papers and help finish the exhibit) and UVU’s finals are next week (Eric has a couple of projects to finish for his classes and I have to give and grade a final for my class) and then we are done with the semester! We are both sooo ready for the summer.

Oh, in case any of the 4 people who might read my blog don’t know, I’m going to be here during June and July:

I have a collections internship at the Smithsonian American History museum, which I am super excited about. Eric won’t be coming out with me because he has a real job, but he’s going to come visit me for the 4th of July. Shannon is also going to come visit me while I’m out there and we’re going to go to New York to see the Harry Potter exhibit and hopefully see “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” on Broadway.

I don’t think Eric’s too broken up about not coming out with me, because he’ll probably spend his 9 weeks at home golfing and hiking and playing video games to his heart’s content.

Anyway, a week and a half til relative freedom!

hundreds of books! thousands of books! millions and billions and trillions of books! December 30, 2010

I wish.

As I mentioned in January, I had a goal to read 30 books recreationally this year. I didn’t quite make it – I only managed 20. I think that’s ok though, considering everything that went on this year school- and work-wise. Without further ado, here’s the list as well as how I felt about it (R= I’d recommend it, N= I felt neutral about it. Fortunately this year I didn’t read any books that I absolutely wouldn’t recommend):

1. The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova (R)
2. The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde (R)
3. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (R)
4. Interred With Their Bones, Jennifer Lee Carrell (R)
5. Dear John, Nicholas Sparks (N)
6. Skeleton Dance, Aaron Elkins (R)
7. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer (N)
8. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis (R)
9. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (R)
10. The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (N)
11. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown (R)
12. Chocolat, Joanne Harris (R)
13. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (R)
14. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen (R)
15. Stardust, Neil Gaiman (N)
16. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (R)
17. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (N)
18. The Maltese Goddess, Lyn Hamilton (N)
19. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (R)
20. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks (R)
    

For 2011, I’m going to keep the same goal of reading 30 books by the end of the year. I think it will be more doable this year because I’m done with the bulk of my classes and won’t have to be doing 3 classes per semester anymore. I also have several books lined up to read so I won’t have any problem figuring out what to read next. The only problem is…in what order do I read them?

(If you’d like to recommend an order or another book, here’s my to-read list courtesy of Goodreads)

this is what winter looks like November 28, 2010

It snowed last night and we went down to Utah Lake early this evening to go check it out. It was freezing. And windy. But actually kind of beautiful.

Happy late Thanksgiving!

things are getting crazy September 9, 2010

The semester started. So naturally things are really really busy again. Super busy this time actually. Eric’s working full time and taking two classes at night and is doing awesome. Like usual. He has to work a lot on the weekends coming up though, which isn’t my favorite. He’s going to Orlando for work in October and I thought about going with him just so I could go to Harry Potter world. But no…I’ll be patient.

I’m taking three classes this semester which I’m pretty sure I really like. One is an Egyptian Archaeology class, which will probably be really interesting and have a really steep learning curve – I know basically nothing about Egypt except for that they have pyramids and King Tut and Osiris and the Nile. So yeah. But I’m excited about it. We’re taking a class trip to Denver in October to see the Tut exhibit at one of the museums there. Should be fun.  I’m also taking a museum class which I’ve actually taken before as an undergrad. I really liked the class the first time around (I guess I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to museums and museum theory…ok, everybody already knew that) so I’m excited to go more in-depth this time. The third class I’m taking is a museum project class – this and an internship are sort of the capstone of the museum certificate I guess, if you can call it that. The project I’ll be working on is writing content for and designing an exhibit for a small museum in Guatemala. It mostly deals with Mayan pottery. It has to be done for installation by the end of October. Oh boy…that’s soon.

In addition to taking those three classes, I’m also teaching two biological anthropology classes at UVU. I have been (and let’s be honest…still am) really nervous/stressed out about teaching since it’s the first time I’ve ever taught anything. It’s been 2 weeks though and things seem to be going pretty well.

What else…some of the other grad students and I are going to start learning how to flintknap. Awesome. Except some really fantastic projectile points or something from me soon. Because I’ll be an expert, I can just feel it.

So yeah, an update on us. Lots of reading and lots of business.

Oh, and the cats are busy as ever too.

fluffy kitty August 31, 2010

Every now and then I just feel the need to remind people that my cats are basically my children.