Readers for life - #RWA11

Magnet #1222 - Public Library of Los Angeles

A friend sent me this supercool magnet of the art deco Central Library built in 1926 in downtown Los Angeles. It's supposedly the 3rd largest library collection in the US.

Pretty neat seeing it without any major buildings around it. Because this is what it looks like now. Crazy, right, seeing it dwarfed by its glass and steel surroundings?

The library is definitely going on my ever-growing LA to-do list, they give docent tours of the building, which is apparently filled with cool details out the wazoo.

Using it for today because I'm sad I'm not in New York this week for RWA 2011. Tonight's Readers for Life autographing event usually the only night I attend when the Romance Writers of America are in town. It's their big event to benefit literacy, where they fill a giant ballroom of 400 authors and their books, and everyone gets in long lines to get their books signed.

Even if you don't want the autographs, it's always fun to meet your favorite authors and see the latest book they have to offer.

So, someone needs to go for me, and enjoy. Please and thank you.

Safer. Smarter. More Secure.

Magnet #1034 - BEP/UST $20 Note

Took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing this week. If you knew me back in the early 2000s, you'd realize how freakin' funny it is that I never took a tour before.

Can I just say? I really did not enjoy it...and this time, because of the tour guide. And her fake game commentator, tour guide speech pattern. Nice enough lady, but I seriously never wanted off a tour so bad, even if it was free. It was almost like I was taking a tour with Dick Vitale.

But, I will say, it was really cool seeing the printing machines of the BEP, watching them make money the old-fashioned way. By printing it.

And yes, I had a whole much longer post written up about the New Color of Money, but then thought the better of posting it.

If you want to learn more, take the tour. It's free. No. Really. It's Washington, remember? Where else can you see a million dollars...for free.

Out of many...move quickly

Magnet #1033 - U.S. Capitol

I know, I'm about a week late, worse than during my Italy trip last year. But, we'll rip through these rather quick.

In between checking job boards on an otherwise quiet Christmas week in DC, I ended up signing up for the Capitol Tour.

They have a shiny new visitors center, which is just gorgeously designed, complete with a giant restaurant and fairly good food, a capacity for giant queues (not so many people there, the Tuesday before Christmas), and a million statues in the lobby. Oh! And some good magnets in the not one, but two, gift shops! (Note: I bought only one magnet. I'm practicing this word called restraint.)

The giant auditorium (which I'm sure is full up during peak season) was nicely done, and of course, I liked the movie about Democracy and Our Nation's Capitol. I totally felt like I was back in Mrs. Bradley's 7th grade civics class, one of my faves. The tour, however, really was not.

It wasn't the tour guide's fault, not really. His job was just to shepherd us from room to room and give us some factual information for us tourists to take away. The trouble was, the point of the tour became, walk through the superhistoric room and get out. No milling about. Any questions? No. Good. Onward.

Ya'll know I love my drive-by tours, but dang, that's in a car! When you get literally a 5-second walk through the superhistoric rooms - NO, WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO FORM ANY QUESTIONS FOR YOU, SO DON'T LOOK SO DISAPPOINTED IN US! I did feel bad, the tour guide wanted us to have a real tour, but it was just too quick.

He tried, though. In places where we could linger, he told us about the Capitol Rotunda paintings, and the stories behind each of them. Very, very impressive, though my only takeaway was that Pocahontas was Baptized a Christian, and took the name Rebecca. And, we saw the original placement of John Q. Adams' and Millard Fillmore's desks. And tons of statues - all the states were allowed to send two statues to reside at the Capitol...but they could do a whole separate tour for just the statues. And where the Amistad case was tried (though, I think I fairly ran through that room).

All in all, hurried (harried? Both.) tour aside, I was more blown away by standing in the place where so much of our history has taken place. A truly cool experience. And one highly recommended.

Take the tour. Like half the things in this lucky, lucky city, it's free. And people died so we'd be able to walk through those rooms really quickly.

Walk. Freeze. Eat. Repeat.

Magnet #1020 - Disney, New York City

Fact: I paid way too much for this magnet. But. It was opening day at Disney's new Flagship store in Times Square a few weeks ago, and so, was totally worth it.

Plus, look at it! So darn cute! If they had a second one, with a complementary set of Disney ones (they could so do one with just the princesses!), I would totally have gotten it.

Spent the day playing tourist again in my city - one of my favorite things to do here. One of my former clients from Italy is here this week with her boyfriend, so we went wandering around Queens and midtown.

Yes, Queens. They wanted to go, so I brought them all the way out to Corona Park and the Queens Museum of Art, to see all the World's Fair stuff. You know I love it there.

Her BF is an architect, so he was totally interested in the architecture out there, and in midtown. So I picked up a copy of Francis Morrone's Architectural Guidebook to the City for him - remember him? The dude who gave the Plaza tour?

I firmly believe that all visiting architects should have that book in hand while wandering around town. We wandered through Grand Central, up Park Avenue to visit the Seagram Building, Lever House and the Frank Lloyd Wright showroom, over to Madison for the AT&T/SONY Building - such a pleasure to wander around with someone who appreciates the buildings themselves! We followed that by a quick trip into Cartier, St. Patrick's, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square for Disney, M&Ms and Hershey's, and Toys R Us.

Yep. All day. Loved it. Walking, freezing and eating. My kind of day.

Well, without the freezing, maybe.

Capeside and Tree Hill

Magnet #1011 - Wilmington, NC

If there's anything you should know, it's that I love cheesy television, and frankly, I don't care who judges me for it. Whether it was Dawson's Creek in the early 2000s or One Tree Hill now, they're some of my guiltiest pleasures and I make no excuses for it.

So yeah, I admit to being a little giddy as my dad pulled into historic Downtown Wilmington, and there was perhaps a little inside squee. Or, it could have been aloud, and under my breath, acutely aware that there were others around me. But, I couldn't help it - these familiar streets, storefronts, and the Riverwalk (on this magnet) have been such a big part of my WB/CW television-viewing history - from the Capeside regatta that Pacey totally won, or to Nathan and Haley and their little friendship bracelet, studying by the water.

Doesn't matter that I've been down there several times before, that I've touched Pacey's locker, been to the Potter B&B, drove down the bend where Pacey first kissed Joey, on both friend tours and the EUE Screen Gems tour several years ago.

I was still silly, walking around town, with various scenes playing in my head this afternoon. Truly, the town's basically become a backlot for both shows.

It was fun, hanging out with my dad, roaming around town. He'd never been to Riverwalk, and was truly surprised to see the USS North Carolina moored on the opposite bank. As for me, I was surprised the ship was blue...but I was even more surprised to find out that the River Court actually exists! For years, I've thought that One Tree Hill was green-screening the court with the riverfront background! Weird.

I'll tell you what, after walking the three square blocks of Capeside and Tree Hill, just looking for someone who would have fried fish for my dad, I was desperate for Leery's Fresh Fish, right around the corner on the water. Instead, we ended up at a restaurant endorsed by both Food Network magazine & OTH cast as one of the best places to eat in town. My dad would have been happier at Captain D's.

I'd have been happier at Pacey's locker.

What?

Small Business Saturday in Salisbury, aka #smallbizsat

Magnet #1009 - Historic Salisbury Bell Tower

Some friends from Chapel Hill come visit me while I was at home in Salisbury, NC. I was excited for them to come visit, because it's been a few months, but also, because it's Small Business Saturday, promoted on Twitter and Facebook as such by American Express. And ya'll know I love participating in stuff like this.

We met up at Spanky's for sandwiches and ice cream (made 40 feet away from the spot you order it!). The guy who owns it, used to own the same fish market my parents loved going to in the 80s. The summer of 92, I worked in "downtown" Salisbury and even back then, Spanky's had the best roast beef sandwiches in the world. You know what? They totally still do.

Then, my friends asked for an impromptu "joy tour" of Salisbury. Totally unprepared! We really should have dropped by the tourist information center, because we missed so very much.

And ya'll should know by now that any joy tour provided, is usually riddled with half-a-facts and odd anecdotes, and this time around, they got none of the actual history and quite possibly the most boring-ist tour ever!

To wit:

We drove around Salisbury, past the courthouse and jail, Hap's Grill, the pretty historic houses, the old Earle's office supplies store (one of my faves), the Salisbury Post building, the Confederate Angel, the town's historic mural, my parents' old office, the library, my old church, the old YMCA, Salisbury High School, the hospital, and WAKE UP!

Yeah, that took about 30 minutes.

The next hour was a drive down to Catawba College, Jake Alexander Blvd, my BFF's dad's mechanics shop, my BFF's grandfather's old house, Granite Lake, Granite Quarry, my parents old office, Granite Quarry Elementary School (and playground), the house on Jack St. I grew up in, Granite Knitwear, East Rowan High School, the band room, the football stadium, Erwin Jr. High, and WAKE UP!

Finally, we ended it with a quick jaunt up and down Main and Innes streets, supporting Small Businesses like nobody's business, shopping at the (what have they got against romances, anyway) independent bookstore, having orangeades (best in the world, I swear) at the soda fountain in Innes Street Drug Store and picking up some Cheerwine cakes, buying magnets at Critters (no kidding, that's the name), and browsing through (not O.O. Rufty's, but close) a general store. (Not at all done with #smallbizsat, I ended the day with a quick drive-thru for superyummy Hendrix BBQ, where they meet you at your car to take and hand-off your order.)

It was pretty fun pretending we were tourists in my adopted hometown. (Adopted only because even if I moved when I was 5, I was still the Yankee when I graduated.)

It was definitely a little embarrassing the amount of information I didn't know about Salisbury, even living there for nigh on 20 years. Like, who knew the bell tower shown here was the First Presbyterian Church Bell Tower? Ok, likely every Salisbury native knows that. But I'll admit, I sure didn't.

And, up until just now, I didn't even know til this photography blogpost, that the tower was originally attached to the giant, original First Presbyterian Church, a place of worship that was razed in 1971!

I can't believe they razed the church to rebuild down the street! Good grief, it's Penn Station all over again.

The other London

Magnet #989 - London, Ontario

One of my roadtripping friends took a mostly for work roadtrip with another friend up to London, Ontario, and brought this back for me.

Settled by Europeans in the 1800s, London, Ontario, Canada, it's definitely taken its cue from its namesake in England, with both a Thames River and a Covent Garden Market.

And, as it turns out, the town of more than 350,000 inhabitants has a lot to see and do.

I'm not a beer person at all, but would so do the Labatt Brewery tour, it looks like fun! I don't have kids, but I would love to visit Storybook Gardens, cuz it just looks like a great place to hang. They have a few museums as well, and we all know how I love those.

Also, I'm not like a huge tree fan, but how cool does this London Tree Trunk Tour look? The public art project's done by some amazing artists, with the tourism board and STIHL Canada. The artists have taken more than a dozen tree trunks scattered throughout the town, and have created some gorgeous carvings out of the trunks. Seriously cool stuff!

Definitely helps them earn that Forest City nickname!