L and I stayed in on Friday and layed low. I knew I had to be up at 7:20 on Saturday morning because I was volunteering at the National Book Festival via JLW. Apparently at some point on Friday night, L mentioned that he had to go in to work on Saturday morning. I have no recollection of this. This is just the latest in a series of events where he tells me something when I am completely awake and having a conversation with him and I end up with absolutely no memory of that entire part of the discussion. We are currently in an ongoing debate about whether I am becoming incredibly forgetful (which seems unlikely from my vantage point because have you met me? I have a memory that tends to stun some people) or if he's having a one-sided conversation in his head. So far, neither of us is budging on our stances. This could all be a horridly clever joke in which L makes me believe over a span of several years that I am beginning to lose my mind at the mild age of 30. Except that is so mean and unkind. I'm all for jokes and cleverness and building to a punchline, but this would be excessive. Thoughts? Anyone out there know that maybe I really am only amazing at remembering some things and horribly forgetful with others? Seriously, I'd like to know. Right now I'm hearing crickets from the lack of responses. (Seriously, as I type this, the neighborhood crickets are gathering on my front porch and chirping away. Apparently it's high cricket mating season in these parts.)
BACK TO THE POINT. So yeah, I was up and at it at the early out of 7:20 on Saturday morning. I debated about whether to shower, so as to be so fresh and so clean, clean, but then I did a quick weather check and opened the front door and realized that 100% humidity = not awesome for the hair, even if it was going to be under a JL hat. Also, I'm smart enough to know that this situation would only create an extreme hat hair sitch that would require a post-volunteering shower, so instead I just dolled myself up as best as possible, threw on my NBF staff t-shirt and sassiest khaki pants (is there such a thing?), and off I went to the Metro. I'm thrilled to say I definitely saw a girl in the midst of a ride of shame. So far, the one great thing about having to get up early on weekends for JL activities is that EVERY TIME, I've seen someone shame riding home on the Metro. Hilarious. The juxtaposition of all the volunteers in our staff shirts and all the families with their small children heading off to a wholesome family event and this lovely young lady with her hair pulled back in a messy pony tail and wearing a black, lacy dress with a man's jacket of sorts over it just makes onlookers bite their lips in an attempt to not smile/laugh at the poor girl. Yes, I was one of the onlookers. I wanted to take a pic but I just couldn't do it. Going home at 8:30 a.m. wearing a dress from the night before with a dude's long-sleeved shirt/jacket and messy hair and make up while you sit next to families who are just starting their days has to be mortifying.
I was excited for the National Book Festival because I missed it last year. (If you have to miss an event you really want to go to, I highly recommend going with 3 of your closest friends to Las Vegas. Totally worth it.) A little background info for you: NBF was started by Laura Bush during #43's first year in office. She also started the Texas Book Festival and NBF is based off the success of TBF. Having never attended TBF or NBF before, I had no idea what to expect, but based on the info shared in our volunteer training last Wednesday night, I knew it was going to be a pretty sizable event. It's held on the Mall and spans seven blocks.
I rolled in on Saturday and checked in and went to my assigned tent, the Pavilion of States. Each state and territory sent representatives to the festival to promote literacy and reading. Because I had the first shift of the day, I was able to choose which state's table I wanted to work at. I chose Texas. Obvi. The Texas table:
Sorry you can't actually see the table. We were very popular because we were giving out a lot of free stuff, and people freak out about free stuff. To the parents who wanted the bulk packages of bookmarks (100 in each package): what exactly does your one seven-year-old need 100 identical bookmarks for? Those are going to get thrown in the trash. Stop being quite so greedy and just take a handful of the single ones and let the teachers and librarians take the bulk packages. Seriously. Because one or two bookmarks might be cool to your child or nephew or grandchild. One hundred of the exact same one over and over again is overwhelming and boring. Our nextdoor neighbor was Guam. They were pretty cool.
I spent the morning passing out bookmarks, posters, maps, brochures, encouraging teachers and librarians (of which there were hundreds) to enter a drawing for children's books, and stamping maps for kids as part of a game sponsored by the festival where each participant got a blank map of all the states and territories and was supposed to visit each state/territory's table and receive a stamp or sticker in the state's shape on the map. Once the map was filled in, the child received some sort of prize. No idea what it was, but it was fun stamping the maps. We had 3 Texas stamps: a mockingbird, a bluebonnet, and I can't remember what the other one was because we misplaced it. Or someone stole it off the table. Either one. Honestly it's a toss up. Anyway, for you Texans out there, you might notice a theme with the two stamps I can remember: state symbols (mockingbird = Texas state bird, bluebonnet = Texas state flower). I opted to use the mockingbird stamp because it was bigger, the ink was darker, and it was just more fun. What I learned from this is that most people are idiots when it comes to birds. These same people think they are brilliant. 99% of the people whose maps I stamped thought it was a roadrunner. I found this annoying. New Mexico's bird is the roadrunner. Yes, we have roadrunners in Texas. We also have a gazillion other species. It doesn't mean the stamp is a roadrunner. That would be so random. I may or may not have almost gotten in an argument with a lady about this. I don't even know why she was getting the map stamped in the first place; it was an activity for children. Regardless, this otherwise nice-looking lady insisted I was incorrect, despite my explanation that I was from Texas; the state bird is a mockingbird; mockingbirds have feet, just like roadrunners (the bird on the stamp was standing, not in flight); and that the stamps were symbols of Texas. We seriously went back and forth for a full minute, which was a long time given the number of people that visited our table. Most people stayed for 20 seconds or less. FYI, this is a roadrunner:
And this is a mockingbird:
via Flickr
I suppose it's the long tails, feathers, beaks, heads, and dual feet and wings that got her. We eventually agreed to disagree. That was my doing. It was time for her to move on and be an expert about some other unlucky state or territory's stamps or stickers.
A word to the wise: do not argue with me about a state stamp. Particularly if it's a state where I lived for 28 years and you have only visited, even if your dad did own an RV that he took to Big Bend and named "The Roadrunner." (And if you're going to be such an expert on Texas, "that area by the river... you know, the Rio Grande" is called Big Bend.) I will not back down. I will not be mean or rude, but I will refuse to let you win. Because you will be wrong. Very, very wrong. IT'S. A. MOCKINGBIRD! After that lady left, my annoyance with every parent saying, "Oh, it's a roadrunner!" when their child proudly showed their giant Texas stamp to them only grew. Obviously the only response to this was to beat them to the punch. For the remaining 3 1/2 hours of my 4-hour shift, I would stamp each map and loudly say something to the effect of, "There's a MOCKINGBIRD for you!!" It worked about 70% of the time after that. I effectively got a child who was about 4 to correct his parents when they told him it was a roadrunner. That was satisfying.
You might be wondering at this point if I actually enjoyed myself or if I was just angry and contradicting patrons the entire time. I actually had a fantastic time and met a lot of fun people. I'm pretty sure I'll never see any of them again, but nevertheless, it was fun. I was exhausted by the time my shift was over, though. It's funny how just being on your feet and being "on" and bending down to talk to children will just take all your energy right out of you. It's also un-funny how those same things will make your hamstrings tighten way up later in the day.
If you're wondering what the big draw of the festival was, it was everything. There were 105 authors present and all participated in book signings and readings/presentations. Among them were Toni Morrison, Julianne Moore (yes, the actress; she has 3 children's books under her belt), Amy Chua, Tomie dePaola, Garrison Keilor, and Dave Eggers, along with all kinds of characters from kids' books, e.g., the Magic School Bus:
I didn't see any of the aforementioned authors, to my dismay, but there were TONS of people at the festival. This was the line to buy books at the merch tent:
You can't really tell, but there's about 6 lines of roping that stretched most of the width of an incredibly wide tent. Insanity.
Honestly, I actually didn't know which authors were going to be there until the training session on Wednesday night and even then, I realized I was only familiar with a small handful of them. However, I was super excited to see the name of Joe Hayes on the list. Joe Hayes is somewhat of a legend in my family. I have no idea how my dad found him (and rest assured it was absolutely, 100% my dad that discovered him), but we spent many an hour with Joe Hayes's stories. If you don't know Joe Hayes (and I'd be shocked if you did), he's a children's author and storyteller. And he's fantastic. Mr. Hayes is from New Mexico and tells "bilingual" stories (in quotes because he interjects a line or word here and there in Spanish and immediately interprets it) about the Southwest, Hispanic, and Native American heritages and folklore. The stories are very clever and some have a fable aspect to them in that they may have a moral to them. My family saw him live at least twice when I was a kid and we stocked up on cassette tapes at each performance. (Is it a performance if it's a storyteller? I have no idea. Just go with it.) Joe Hayes (along with Garrison Keilor and his A Prairie Home Companion) then became the entertainment of choice on family road trips. You can imagine my delight when, upon reviewing the list of authors and seeing that both Mr. Hayes AND Mr. Keilor would be attending, I realized the sub-theme of the 2011 NBF was A Road Trip with TeamLC's Family: 1983-1988. I went back to the festival on Sunday specifically to see Mr. Hayes and I'm so glad I did.
In an ironic twist for me, he presented at the same time as good ol' Garrison Keilor. Since he doesn't seem to have quite the national fame that GK holds, the crowd in the children's tent* was much more intimate. I liked it that way. Mr. Hayes told 3 stories and each was as entertaining as I remembered them being. Made me feel 5-ish again. His voice still sounds exactly the same and he still does the same funny voices. I kind of geeked out about the whole thing. At the end of his performance, he invited all the children to come up and shake his hand. I hung back and waited for the kids to do their thing and then I went up and introduced myself and told him I grew up listening to his stories and that I was excited to see him again, etc. He was so cute and nice and he hugged me and thanked me for coming. I kind of wish I'd gotten a picture with him, but I'm okay with a handshake, a hug, 3 stories, and the pics I posted here.
If you want to check out one of his stories, watch him here:
http://youtu.be/ZOJ2588D4oI
Other weekend activities of note: watching the A&M and Baylor games. We met the FBIs at Rhodeside for the A&M game which could only be summed up as disappointing. Because Rhodeside hosts the official watch parties for UT, they get all Fox Sports channels and therefore they had the Baylor game showing once the A&M game concluded. We stayed until halftime and then L decided a change of venue was a necessity because Baylor managed to blow a small portion of their massive lead over Rice, so off we went to Crystal City Sports Pub to meet up with the official Baylor watch party crew. (In case you're wondering, L's friend date guy was there. Things are going well and he seems nice, although he did try and trash talk A&M again.** But I was nice and gave him back his very dirty Snuggie Sutra book.)
Off topic: a game Champagne and Sprinkles and I frequently play is, "Guess what horrible name I just stumbled across." Basically, we text, email, or gchat each other any time we encounter an unfortunate name. A name is considered unfortunate when the spelling is intentionally messed up or when the name is just ridiculous, and it can be ridiculous for countless reasons. Tonight's find, courtesy of the credits of Gossip Girl's season opener: Zuzanna. People, please don't punish your children by making up a weird name to make yourself appear unique. You know Zuzanna has lived a lifetime of saying, "Hi, I'm Zuzanna.... Like Susanna, but with a Z." Don't make your child clarify spelling for life, and if you must, at least keep it simple, like Sarah versus Sara (I still prefer the h - all the best Sarahs in my life have the h).
*Side note: yes, this was in the children's tent and it was attended mostly by families. I felt slightly creepy about being the one random adult there by herself, because I totes rolled solo to this event. (L had plans to go see Wilco with a friend.)
**For as much as people want to say all Aggies can focus on is screwing Texas by leaving the Big 12 instead of on the fact that we're having a good season, I have to say I see the same thing from many Baylor grads. They focus on the fact that A&M lost their game instead of on the fact that Baylor pulled out another win. CAN'T WE ALL JUST BE EXCITED FOR OUR TEAMS TO BE WINNING AND THAT WE'RE HIGHLY RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS??
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