National Book Festival

Today was the National Book Festival, put on by the Library of Congress and a bunch of sponsors. Held on the Mall, the festival draws many famous authors and huge crowds. They had a great line-up this year of both children's and adult authors, and so I carefully planned my day to see these men and women speak and read from their books.

My first author was Lois Lowry. She wrote Number the Stars, The Giver, and Anastasia Krupnik. Using a trick I learned last year, I squeezed into the side of the tent, and sat on the ground to the side of the stage. After a minute, I realized that I was sitting behind Mrs. Lowry as she waited to go onstage.

She spoke about her first picture book, which is based on a true story. She told us about the time when she learned that sometimes bending the truth made a better story. This account involved her six-year-old self pouring glue on her baby brother's hand, and a stranger asking her if he had been burned. "The helpful girl pushed the badly burned baby down the street" had a better ring to it, so she did not correct the stranger. She also answered questions, claiming before she called on anyone, "In case you were going to ask, Jonas is alive! I never thought that people would read him as dying at the end when I wrote it. That's why I wrote The Messenger." Many people clapped at that.
After that I made my way to the History and Biography tent to hear Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter, Anne Kidd Taylor, speak about their new memoir. Sue Monk Kidd wrote The Secret Life of Bees, a favorite of the Mother Daughter Bookclub. Today the two discussed the travel that inspired the memoir, and much about their relationship. Sue Monk Kidd read a quote by Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter) that made us all laugh: “Sometimes when I look at all my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.'” Although you can see Sue Monk Kidd in short black hair and her daughter in the red sweater, I wanted to show the size of the crowd in the tent. Every seat was filled, and this was the case for every author in every tent. Great turn-out this year.

I had a bit of time before the next author I wanted to see, so I strolled through some other tents. Some of the sponsors had tents set up just for kids. Here they could meet the Very Hungry Catepillar.
I headed for one of my favorite parts of the Festival: The Pavillion of the States. Each state choses a kids' or YA book to feature, and has a booth providing info about that book and their state. Some states have maps of the state and tourist info; others have bookmarks featuring the winners of their state book awards. You can obtain a special map of the US, and take it to each state for a stamp or a sticker. I did this both years and I was not the only adult to do so! The tent is organized by region of the US, so you have some idea of where you are. Among other things, I picked up a pin from Idaho in the shape of a potato, a poster of Emmylou Harris reading, and many great book ideas.
Mo Willems came next. He writes interactive and slightly irreverant pictures books like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. He used to be a stand-up comedian, and his performance attested to that. He had adults and kids alike laughing heartily. One the books he read to us is called Pigs Make Me Sneeze. He commented that it was a controversial title in light of recent news. Any reference to H1N1 flu automatically wins my favor! He also did a great reading of "Naked Mole Rat."
Here is a view of the festival from the steps of the Freer. You can see the tents, the Natural History Museum, and many, many umbrellas. It rained on and off (but increasingly on) throughout the afternoon.
The day ended with two authors dear to me. The first was Tim O'Brian. A Vietnam vet, he writes about the war in a style that blends truth and fiction, fantasy and fact, poetry and prose. Every time I hear his name, I think about Mr. Fox, my ninth grade English teacher, who taught us how to write. He too was a Vietnam vet, and he read us many passages from Tim O'Brian outloud. Every time he read, we got the feeling that Mr. Fox was sharing a little bit of his own experience with us. I have no idea if Mr. Fox and Tim O'Brian knew eachother, but it felt like they did. At the festival Tim O'Brian (on the right; the ASL interpreter is on the left) read a newly written letter to his first son, who is now six. The author is 62, and the letter was about not being around for all of his son's life. It was an emotional reading, both for us and him.
And to end the day, I went to see Judy Blume. She spent a few minutes talking about her childhood, but mostly wanted to answer our questions. Many, many of the questions were from children, and they didn't just reference her newer books, but all of the old favorites that so many people my age have read! It made me so happy that these dear books are still being discovered by young readers. There were many questions about Fudge, who it turns out was based off of her son Larry, who used to eat under the table like a dog and threw a lot of fits. When asked if she would ever write books about Fudge or Margaret (as in, Are You There G-d It's Me) as adults, she recoiled in horror, insisting that each will forever be 5 and 12, respectively.

Judy Blume is 72, but you would never know it to look at her. I've attached this press photo, taken in April or May, to show how amazing she looks.
I cannot even begin to describe the warmth and energy in the very full room, as it poured outside and the sky began to darken. This generation of women who had grown up with Judy Blume books and the younger generation currently loving her work sat glued to her every word, laughing and clapping when she encouraged us all to read banned books. We all left smiling.

Weekend with Im! (A London-Sized Post)

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend with Im, my roommate from Smith (for 2 years and a summer). We hadn't seen eachother since we graduated, and we had some fun adventures over the few days.

Saturday, September 5: Im and I spent the evening at a get-together hosted by 2 Smithies from Morris House: Rowan, my friend, and Kelsey, who I know from lunches on Tyler lawn. We found Kelsey's apartment in Shaw, and it was just lovely. Shaped like an isosceloes trapezoid, the apartment had basically 3 corner windows that allowed a great breeze, as well as a modern open kitchen. The above photo shows Rowan sauteing veggie burgers (although there was a good amount of smoke, she did not burn the hell out of them) in the evening light.
It was so wonderful to be around Smithies all night. Even though not everyone knew eachother, and many of us were mere acquaintances, there was a base level of comfort from the beginning, just from being Smithies. The vibe in the room was so happy and comfortable all night, with many simulataneous conversations that switched participants frequently. There was laughter, talk of self-depricating women, and discussion of Julie and Julia and Commencement. There was even a read-aloud of a picture book about following dreams (a graduation gift with awesome pictures). It was called The Awesome Book, and was, indeed, awesome. Im and I left feeling really happy.

Sunday, September 6: For breakfast, I decided to try to make omlets for the first time. This resulted in Im having to recall a rule she learned at my house in Rochester: When the smoke alarm goes off, grab the nearest magazine and fan it vigorously.
Amazingly, the omlets also turned out beautifully. Actually, just one. The other one looked lovely in the pan, but had an unfortunate accident in the half-inch between the pan and the plate. Nothing quite as pretty as eggs shining in morning light.

Thus satiated, we walked down to the Central Bethesda Farmer's Market. There are 2 seemingly unaffiliated farmers' markets in Bethesda. The one we went to has lots of cheese, meat, veggies, and some prepared foods. And some beautiful tomatoes. I don't even like tomotoes, but they looked so cheery. Im doesn't have a farmer's market in Jersey, so she was really smiley about ours, and it rubbed off, increasing my already good mood.
We headed downtown to the National Gallery of Art. We visited our favorite impressionist paintings, and admired the architecture of both buildings. This one here is the East Building, which houses contemporary art.
We were feeling peckish, so we decided to go to Jaleo. Im had been there once 3 years ago, and couldn't wait to return, and I was not deterred by having eaten there 4 days earlier. We went to the branch in DC. Now you can see pictures of the foods I ordered the other night! These are the onions. At this branch, they also had sage on top, which nicely complimented the cheese.
These are the shrimp I described in great detail. These ones were spicier. Once again, we cleaned up every drop of garlickly olive oil with their crusty bread.
This dish was new: scallops with raspberries and pistachios, with a beet sauce. This was gorgeous and well-made, but just paled in comparison to the other dishes. The scallops were, however, perfectly seared, and the raspberries were a surprisingly tasty pairing with the mollusks.
And this is a very happy Im after lunch.
We waddled over to the Botanical Gardens, and poked around the cacti, orchids, and primordial plants. These fiddleheads really caught my eye. They were all over the primordial room, in different states of unfurling (the process is called circinate vernation), and some were quite large. Each leaf of the fern unfurls too, after the stem.
After we had spent about 15 minutes sitting in the jungle room on a bench, looking at basically nothing, we decided we were tired and it was time to be horizontal. So were called it a day and spent the evening reading, cooking the farmer's market kale we had toted to the museums, and watching Pirates of the Carribean 2.

Monday, September 7: Labor Day. Kim spent the night last night (she had spent the rest of the time with her friends), and we all went to the Tastee Diner for breakfast. Here Im is pouring Kim's milkshake into a glass, chemist-style. Notice how the liquid pours down the spoon and doesn't splash or spill. We spent the rest of breakfast singing "My Milkshake Brings All the Girls to the Yard." I have frequently been informed that it is, in fact, the boys who are brought, but whatever.
We returned to the apartment for some caffeinated tea before Kim and Im hit the road. Look at the hip white couch my roommate bought. Im and Kim decided to drink their tea on the floor, and the couch is still white. Sidenote: I do have other furniture that can be eaten upon, but there is no accounting for preference ;)
And a nice roommate picture.

Fish Wharf and National Cathedral

Thursday, August 27: Fish Wharf: Down by the Potomac River, in an area picturesquely framed by interstate 395, lies a hidden fish market. These permanent stalls stand on floating barges, and have every imaginable shellfish (at least on this coast), and dozens of male fishmongers who want to know "if you ladies need anything." I got a great deal on crab legs from a man I didn't even know I was bargaining with! For lunch, we followed the crowds to Jimmy's, where you order from what literally looks like a hole at ground level. I had to squat down to yell out my order. We followed what other people were ordering and ended up with giant shrimp stuffed with crab meat and baked with lots of butter (yum!), a crab cake, yeast rolls, and an Arnold Palmer (mix of iced tea and lemonade). This last item was essential, as the heat coming up from the parking lot we were standing in was doing us in. We ate standing at a railing over looking the boats, fending off very assertive pigeons and unknown seabirds.
Wednesday, August 26: National Cathedral. Sarah and I drove to the National Cathedral, where we took a tour. It looks a lot like an English cathedral. I am not really moved by the gothic style, but it was cool to finally see up close what I have viewed many times from Miriam's rooftop.

Bethesda and the Zoo

In a shop window while walking to the zoo. At least it wasn't "Kosher."

Monday, August 24: National Zoo. As the weather promised to be below 90F for a day, Sarah and I headed to the zoo. We were there at lunch time for the pandas, so we got to see them consume mass quantities of bamboo leaves. They are much bigger than I would expect. We also saw a baby gorilla who started patting on the glass in response to the human children doing the same. But my favorite, of course, were the capybaras. They were hanging out in the water with their well-positioned noses, eyes and ears above it. I know some people think they are just giant rats, but really capybaras are very friendly.


Sunday, August 23: In downtown Bethesda, by the Barnes and Noble, there is a fountain and some benches. When the weather is nice, lots of people hang out there, listening to teenage street musicians and eating shaved ice from this cart. For $2, this man will freshly shave you an overflowing cup of ice and cover it with any of his syrups. I love watching people eat this--it's impossible to be sad when eating shaved ice. On days when I don't want to get on the metro or do anything big, I walk or take the trolley here and people watch.

My version of Project 365

So there is this thing in blogland called Project 365, where you take a picture every day for a year and post it on your blog. I thought I'd do something similar, but probably won't do it every day. I want to document my few weeks of vacation with Sarah before I start my job and all memory of free time vanishes.



Wed August 19: Montgomery County Fair. We enjoyed lots of goats, bunnies, ducklings, and pet a bison. He wanted us to. We also ate funnel cake (Sarah's first!) and very soft serve twists dipped in peanut butter or chocolate shell. I will spare you these photos, as they basically show me covered from wrist to elbow in ice cream.

Tuesday August 18: Ben's Chili Bowl with Rosalie. We feasted on vegetarian chili, cheese fries, and Rosie had chili-cheese fries and a milkshake. We were fortunate enough to be in a back room with about 25 Japanese tourists who were on a large group plan. We were treated to a history of Ben's, which was really cool! A great snapshot of DC history around the time of the race riots. Ben's was the only business on U Street that stayed open the whole time. Then Rosalie was recruited to take a photo of the group.


Monday August 17: A tour of the Capitol was short, but allowed us a great view of the inside of the dome. One of the murals on the dome features Posiden and assorted underwater people in togas laying the transatlantic cable. We also got to see the tomb where George Washington was supposed to be buried (he isn't). I mean, he is buried, but not there.

Library of Congress 8/15

Sarah and I took a trip to the Library of Congress. We saw a Gutenberg bible, and an exhibit about Bob Hope and Vaudeville. We enjoyed admiring the lovely architecture of the LOC. Then we shared a picnic on the lawn of the Capitol, which is across the street. We started under a tree, where we were relentlessly pursued by a squirrel that may or may not have been rabid. When he started edging closer and closer to our carrots and would not be dissuaded by Sarah's shoe, we moved to another tree. There, we met another picnicking family who agreed to take our photo in front of the Capitol. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to include the Capitol in the photo, so I bring you this picture we took ourselves.