I woke up Sunday morning to find out that my roommate and suitemates had stayed for the pageant. They got home around 2:30. Honestly, I was so tired by the time we got back that I was glad we skipped it.
I finished packing and loaded the rental car. It was parked near the dining hall. I went in to have a bite and to say goodbye to everyone. It was such a fun time. I enjoyed meeting everyone and hope to be able to go to the next one in 2012. I hope my vacation time will work out. I heard about the Anne of Green Gables seminar on PEI that was the month before and is in 2012. They should stagger those so they aren't the same year.
I stopped to get a Mt. Dew at a gas station. I know I've said it before, but I blame the many teenagers I've hung around for this. Either that or I don't like hot drinks or brown soft drinks, which rules out a lot of other choices for caffeine. I'd lost the satellite radio so I spent a lot of time scanning the radio and missing my SYNC. I exited at the Mall of America to fill up the car before I returned it. There are no gas stations near the mall! Seriously, why would that be? I started looking out for them, but with little luck. I took the airport exit. The only choice from there is the airport. I had to circle through the airport, then go back to another exit. Finally, I was able to fill up the car. I drove back to the airport and dropped off the car. I grabbed my luggage. It's quite a bit heavier after the three new sets of towels, a set of sheets, and three different times at the Walnut Grove table/bookstore. I get to the check-in - Minneapolis doesn't have curbside check-in, sigh. Joyfully, the flight is overbooked, but my luggage is within the weight requirements! I again walked to the terminal. This involved two trams, several escalators to go through four terminals. I checked in and found that they would give me $300 if I was willing to be bumped. What did I have to get home to do? I accepted because I found that they'd give me dinner as well. I started reading one of my new books since I couldn't get online. After four days, I was going into withdrawal! The two people didn't make the flight, so no money, no dinner, but I did get a free drink ticket. I got a dry white wine, so I have something for recipes. Since any wine we buy is sweet. The flight was uneventful, and I arrived home.
To wrap this up, I thought I might add some comments and suggestions.
1. Roger Lea MacBride's daughter - invite her to speak. She controls the rights, and I don't know if we have ever heard from her. She must have some thoughts about it that to me would be interesting to hear.
2. Stephen Hines - Again someone who has devoted a lot of time to digging through old records and published some books about Laura.
3. I have ideas but no idea where to start. Some of the business aspect of the marketing of the books, the effect of the tourism dollars on the towns as well as the larger community. In other words, Brookings and Mitchell, SD have visitors stay there. How much of their tourism is driven by visitors to De Smet. I'm sure this is true for other towms as well.
4. A few more breaks. I wouldn't want to cut anything out, but a little more time to grab a drink or go to the restroom and not miss anything would be nice.
5. Better to-pack lists. I forgot hangers aren't provided in dorms. I think the towel issue was a surprise to the committess, and won't be a problem because it will be mentioned next time.
6. Internet access in the dorms. I think going along with that the college needs to know that those coming in are different from those coming for orientation. I had a discussion with the guy at the bell desk because they weren't going to alter their check out hourse just because people needed to leave earlier. For one day, they can open earlier rather than me missing a plane.
7. I liked the make & take crafts. I know there were quite a bit of leftovers. I'm wondering if the crafts could have been in the bags we got at check-in. Have a place to complete them, but this way everyone does get one.
Just a few tweaks. I want to stress this really was the most fun I had over the summer.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Laurapolooza - Saturday
I bet you thought I was going to leave you hanging. It's been over a month. No, it's just that I keep trying to get different things accomplished during the day (say find a job) that this gets pushed off. Here it is - the last day of Laurapolooza. Now there will be one more post after this talking about going home and wrapping up my impressions.
The first speaker of the day was Wendy Corsi Staub. Evidently, she's a best selling author. Unfortunately, I've never read any of her books, so maybe I've missed something. Her talk was about how the Little House books affected her writing. Except, I wasn't sure how they did that. It felt like she was a fan, but that there wasn't much she added that any one of us in attendance couldn't have given the same talk.
Next up was a second talk by Ann Weller Dahl. I don't remember much. Something about her tone or her take on the topic just struck me as very dry. I, also, had the impression that she believes that since she is a teacher, her job is more important to the world than any other job and she's not shy about letting us know that.
The last item was a panel discussion, "Loving Laura in a Lindsay Lohan World." Lindsay had obliged to make that reference very, very current. It was great. Everyone sharing how the books affected their lives. I found out the woman who had a book coming out, who recognized me from Twitter, was actually Twittering as Halfpint Ingalls. This is going to sound wierd, but I like the LiveJournal community, 1Bruce1, that mocks the Sweet Valley series. The publisher of the new book is courting them for publicity. I mainly lurk. But the authors excitedly follow Halfpint Ingalls who may follow me. Small world and kinda fun. Does any of that previous paragraph make sense to you?
It was time for the spelling bee and tin pail lunch. Mom and I had made a period costume for me, after the blog suggested we dress up for this and the ice cream social (but I was to late for that) I dressed in the morning since I doubted I would have time to go back. Waiting for my suitemates to go to breakfast, I heard one of the attendees say to her husband, "I'll never understand the compulsion to dress like Laura." First, if you knew me, you'd know that dressing up like that isn't something I do. Or that the new outfit may have doubled the number of dresses in my closet. Second, read the blog. You were asked to dress up. I managed to spell apropos correctly after four people missed it. Go Me!!! But I lost my place on the second word, grammactical. Oh well. We started the meal. The buffet was quite good. However the meal was marred by the attack of the helicopter parent next to our table. I'm not going to dish on the details, but suffice to say it was Exhibit A on the problems with helicopter parenting: failure to realize your adult child exists apart from you. I, also, found out that Laura and her husband Jim wouldn't be going on to Walnut Grove. I so enjoyed meeting them and having an official photographer when any of us wanted our picture taken. ;)
I changed into modern clothing and met down in the lobby to see if anyone wanted ot car pool with me to Walnut Grove. It's over a two hour drive. We'd be returning late, and we might as well save on the gas. I ended up riding with Melanie. She's from New Hampshire and is developing a first person portrayal of Laura. She was dressed in a very authentic costume all week. We had fun driving. She found a notepad, in a thrift shop, from the 1915 PanPacific World's Fair in San Francisco that Laura attended (See West from Home and tell me if you don't wish that 1. the tower of jewels was still standing and 2. if you don't want a scone.) I am soo jealous. We arrived and toured the gift shop. Yes, I had personally assured that they could pay the staff for that day. Then I hurried down to meet the bus. I stopped to hear the end of Dean Butler's talk. Things learned 1. I'm not sure one of the attendees understood the difference between the real people and actors. I sort of think she thought he had dated Laura Ingalls. Evidently, he married the actress that played Donna's mother on 90210 in real life. Never knew that. 2. The kiss at the end of Sweet Sixteen was Melissa's first kiss. Her Mom's crying ruined the first two takes. I guess it's good she wasn't Danica McKeller's mother on the Wonder Years when Winnie and Kevin had their first kiss at 12. So many people were waiting in line for autographs. I walked onto the bus with another conference attendee, and we commented on the access we had all week. There was never 250 waiting in line in front of us. She was Australia. This is the power of Laura - would Walnut Grove and Mankato be your first choice of vacation locations? Would you fly for twenty-four hours to reach there? She was excited to find out the tour was on school buses as they don't have those in Australia. Those of us who are Americans were shocked that this could be a good adventure to someone. The tour was good. Pretty much the same as the one we took in 1986. It was a little off in that the tour guide pointed out some things that are conventional wisdom, like Laura simply didn't remember that it was Nellie Owens not Nellie Oleson. When most agree that it was a conscious choice to have the less favorable characters with disguised names (ie. Bouchie become Brewster, Powers became Pryor) and that Nellie was actually a combination of three girls. We saw the pageant site and other highlights of the town. We went out to Plum Creek where most people went wading. I did that a couple years ago. I knew I was going to be doing a lot of walking, so I had worn gym shoes and socks. Since I didn't want to walk around with wet socks, I skipped it.
We came back and went into the community center for dinner. It was a nice barbeque dinner. I highly recommend it if you are going to Walnut Grove for the pageant. I was lucky enough to be sitting near some Wilder insiders. It was interesting. I found it interesting that at least one said they would be a lot more comfortable if Alison Angrim's book was titled "Confessions of a Prairie Brat" instead of "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch." I made sure my ride was going to wait for me to head out to the pageant site, and I went SHOPPING. There's an antique store that had some fantastic Little House on the Prairie scrapbooking supplies. Then I went to the Oleson's Merchantile to buy an Italian link bracelet for my aunt's birthday. I may have picked up a charm for myself to go with the bracelet I bought two years ago. I then wandered around town for awhile taking photos of Main Street, Highway 14 (the Wilder Memorial Highway) and myself by the Ingalls St. sign (the flash reflected so you can't tell why I'm standing by a street sign :( ). The forecasted rain was starting while we headed out to the pageant site. We got there to the news that we should wait in the car for half an hour. Melanie and I proceeded to watch one of the scarier thunderstoms I've ever seen. We watched it move in. We watched lightening go over 180 degrees around us. After two hours, they started letting us in. It was 10:30 pm and still lightening. We decided to start the two and a half hour drive back to Mankato. It went, well, the ligtening was still happening, in fact it stayed with us all the way back to Mankato. I don't know if it's because it's the flat prairie, but I've never seen a storm last for four hours! One cloud kept lighting up and in the flashing light looked like a funnel cloud. Luckily, it wasn't. We stopped in a Sleepy Eye gas station to pick up drinks. Remember how they were always hauling things to Sleepy Eye? We pulled out talking about how quiet the Prius was which was wierd. We had went about a block when we saw flashing lights, lights flashing at us. Turns out we didn't have the headlights on, but we got off with a warning. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the dorm. I started packing up what I could so that I wouldn't have to get up quite so early in the morning. I was going to type up this blog after that, however I was just so tired that I fell asleep.
The first speaker of the day was Wendy Corsi Staub. Evidently, she's a best selling author. Unfortunately, I've never read any of her books, so maybe I've missed something. Her talk was about how the Little House books affected her writing. Except, I wasn't sure how they did that. It felt like she was a fan, but that there wasn't much she added that any one of us in attendance couldn't have given the same talk.
Next up was a second talk by Ann Weller Dahl. I don't remember much. Something about her tone or her take on the topic just struck me as very dry. I, also, had the impression that she believes that since she is a teacher, her job is more important to the world than any other job and she's not shy about letting us know that.
The last item was a panel discussion, "Loving Laura in a Lindsay Lohan World." Lindsay had obliged to make that reference very, very current. It was great. Everyone sharing how the books affected their lives. I found out the woman who had a book coming out, who recognized me from Twitter, was actually Twittering as Halfpint Ingalls. This is going to sound wierd, but I like the LiveJournal community, 1Bruce1, that mocks the Sweet Valley series. The publisher of the new book is courting them for publicity. I mainly lurk. But the authors excitedly follow Halfpint Ingalls who may follow me. Small world and kinda fun. Does any of that previous paragraph make sense to you?
It was time for the spelling bee and tin pail lunch. Mom and I had made a period costume for me, after the blog suggested we dress up for this and the ice cream social (but I was to late for that) I dressed in the morning since I doubted I would have time to go back. Waiting for my suitemates to go to breakfast, I heard one of the attendees say to her husband, "I'll never understand the compulsion to dress like Laura." First, if you knew me, you'd know that dressing up like that isn't something I do. Or that the new outfit may have doubled the number of dresses in my closet. Second, read the blog. You were asked to dress up. I managed to spell apropos correctly after four people missed it. Go Me!!! But I lost my place on the second word, grammactical. Oh well. We started the meal. The buffet was quite good. However the meal was marred by the attack of the helicopter parent next to our table. I'm not going to dish on the details, but suffice to say it was Exhibit A on the problems with helicopter parenting: failure to realize your adult child exists apart from you. I, also, found out that Laura and her husband Jim wouldn't be going on to Walnut Grove. I so enjoyed meeting them and having an official photographer when any of us wanted our picture taken. ;)
I changed into modern clothing and met down in the lobby to see if anyone wanted ot car pool with me to Walnut Grove. It's over a two hour drive. We'd be returning late, and we might as well save on the gas. I ended up riding with Melanie. She's from New Hampshire and is developing a first person portrayal of Laura. She was dressed in a very authentic costume all week. We had fun driving. She found a notepad, in a thrift shop, from the 1915 PanPacific World's Fair in San Francisco that Laura attended (See West from Home and tell me if you don't wish that 1. the tower of jewels was still standing and 2. if you don't want a scone.) I am soo jealous. We arrived and toured the gift shop. Yes, I had personally assured that they could pay the staff for that day. Then I hurried down to meet the bus. I stopped to hear the end of Dean Butler's talk. Things learned 1. I'm not sure one of the attendees understood the difference between the real people and actors. I sort of think she thought he had dated Laura Ingalls. Evidently, he married the actress that played Donna's mother on 90210 in real life. Never knew that. 2. The kiss at the end of Sweet Sixteen was Melissa's first kiss. Her Mom's crying ruined the first two takes. I guess it's good she wasn't Danica McKeller's mother on the Wonder Years when Winnie and Kevin had their first kiss at 12. So many people were waiting in line for autographs. I walked onto the bus with another conference attendee, and we commented on the access we had all week. There was never 250 waiting in line in front of us. She was Australia. This is the power of Laura - would Walnut Grove and Mankato be your first choice of vacation locations? Would you fly for twenty-four hours to reach there? She was excited to find out the tour was on school buses as they don't have those in Australia. Those of us who are Americans were shocked that this could be a good adventure to someone. The tour was good. Pretty much the same as the one we took in 1986. It was a little off in that the tour guide pointed out some things that are conventional wisdom, like Laura simply didn't remember that it was Nellie Owens not Nellie Oleson. When most agree that it was a conscious choice to have the less favorable characters with disguised names (ie. Bouchie become Brewster, Powers became Pryor) and that Nellie was actually a combination of three girls. We saw the pageant site and other highlights of the town. We went out to Plum Creek where most people went wading. I did that a couple years ago. I knew I was going to be doing a lot of walking, so I had worn gym shoes and socks. Since I didn't want to walk around with wet socks, I skipped it.
We came back and went into the community center for dinner. It was a nice barbeque dinner. I highly recommend it if you are going to Walnut Grove for the pageant. I was lucky enough to be sitting near some Wilder insiders. It was interesting. I found it interesting that at least one said they would be a lot more comfortable if Alison Angrim's book was titled "Confessions of a Prairie Brat" instead of "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch." I made sure my ride was going to wait for me to head out to the pageant site, and I went SHOPPING. There's an antique store that had some fantastic Little House on the Prairie scrapbooking supplies. Then I went to the Oleson's Merchantile to buy an Italian link bracelet for my aunt's birthday. I may have picked up a charm for myself to go with the bracelet I bought two years ago. I then wandered around town for awhile taking photos of Main Street, Highway 14 (the Wilder Memorial Highway) and myself by the Ingalls St. sign (the flash reflected so you can't tell why I'm standing by a street sign :( ). The forecasted rain was starting while we headed out to the pageant site. We got there to the news that we should wait in the car for half an hour. Melanie and I proceeded to watch one of the scarier thunderstoms I've ever seen. We watched it move in. We watched lightening go over 180 degrees around us. After two hours, they started letting us in. It was 10:30 pm and still lightening. We decided to start the two and a half hour drive back to Mankato. It went, well, the ligtening was still happening, in fact it stayed with us all the way back to Mankato. I don't know if it's because it's the flat prairie, but I've never seen a storm last for four hours! One cloud kept lighting up and in the flashing light looked like a funnel cloud. Luckily, it wasn't. We stopped in a Sleepy Eye gas station to pick up drinks. Remember how they were always hauling things to Sleepy Eye? We pulled out talking about how quiet the Prius was which was wierd. We had went about a block when we saw flashing lights, lights flashing at us. Turns out we didn't have the headlights on, but we got off with a warning. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the dorm. I started packing up what I could so that I wouldn't have to get up quite so early in the morning. I was going to type up this blog after that, however I was just so tired that I fell asleep.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Justice for Bear-Bear
Recopied from Meeshka's world - http://meeshkaworld.blogspot.com
Justice for Bear-Bear
Everypup, kitty, hamsterrier... I have something very serious that I want all of you to do.
On Monday, 2 August 2010, in my community, a wonderful husky named Bear-Bear was shot and killed in a local community dog park.
Bear-Bear was adopted from Tails of the Tundra Siberian Husky Rescue, which is where Sam the Spineless Bionic Hip/Knee pup, and Loki came from.
On Monday, while Bear was playing in the fenced in dog park, like he did most nights at the same time, an off duty DoD officer arrived with his wife, and his German Shepherd, Asia, on leash. According to Bear's caretaker, the dogs were playing, when the Officer felt they were playing too rough, demanded the caretaker get Bear, then stepped back, pulled a 9mm handgun and shot Bear.
Anne Arundel County Police and Animal Control arrived and proceeded to stand outside the fenced area questioning the officer and Bear's guardian, while Bear lay on the dirt dying. Witness accounts say that they treated the officer like an old friend, while they held a taser on the guardian and wouldn't let him enter the pen and help Bear. Eventually he was allowed in, Bear was loaded on a stretcher and taken to the Annapolis Emergency Vet. Nothing could be done to save Bear, as the bullet (a hollow point) had pierced several of Bear's internal organs. He was put to sleep.
The Officer stated that Bear had jumped on his dog and bit him, then when the Officer tried to get Bear off his dog, Bear lunged and tried to bite him then bit his dog a second time. Witnesses, who the police did not interview say otherwise. Animal Control did not file a report because they found no bite marks or injuries to either dog, except for Bear's lethal gunshot wound.
County police closed the case and stated that there was no criminal charges.
We need your help! A massive social network movement is underway to get justice for Bear-Bear! We have succeeded in informing the County Executive to re-open this case. We want you to keep the pressure on the county, the county police, and the Federal Officer's workplace. His employer currently states that no charges will be filed and he will be returning to work tomorrow (5 August 2010).
It doesn't matter if you live in Anne Arundel County Maryland, please call and demand justice for Bear:
John Leopold, Anne Arundel County Executive
(410) 222-1821
jleopold@aacounty.org
Anne Arundel County Police Western District
(410) 222-6155
P02438@aacounty.org
Fort Myer Public Relations (Officer's workplace)
(703) 696-0596
Director of Public Affairs
(703) 696-4979
John the facebook support page:
and the Justice for Bear-Bear support page on Facebook
Justice for Bear-Bear
Everypup, kitty, hamsterrier... I have something very serious that I want all of you to do.
On Monday, 2 August 2010, in my community, a wonderful husky named Bear-Bear was shot and killed in a local community dog park.
Bear-Bear was adopted from Tails of the Tundra Siberian Husky Rescue, which is where Sam the Spineless Bionic Hip/Knee pup, and Loki came from.
On Monday, while Bear was playing in the fenced in dog park, like he did most nights at the same time, an off duty DoD officer arrived with his wife, and his German Shepherd, Asia, on leash. According to Bear's caretaker, the dogs were playing, when the Officer felt they were playing too rough, demanded the caretaker get Bear, then stepped back, pulled a 9mm handgun and shot Bear.
Anne Arundel County Police and Animal Control arrived and proceeded to stand outside the fenced area questioning the officer and Bear's guardian, while Bear lay on the dirt dying. Witness accounts say that they treated the officer like an old friend, while they held a taser on the guardian and wouldn't let him enter the pen and help Bear. Eventually he was allowed in, Bear was loaded on a stretcher and taken to the Annapolis Emergency Vet. Nothing could be done to save Bear, as the bullet (a hollow point) had pierced several of Bear's internal organs. He was put to sleep.
The Officer stated that Bear had jumped on his dog and bit him, then when the Officer tried to get Bear off his dog, Bear lunged and tried to bite him then bit his dog a second time. Witnesses, who the police did not interview say otherwise. Animal Control did not file a report because they found no bite marks or injuries to either dog, except for Bear's lethal gunshot wound.
County police closed the case and stated that there was no criminal charges.
We need your help! A massive social network movement is underway to get justice for Bear-Bear! We have succeeded in informing the County Executive to re-open this case. We want you to keep the pressure on the county, the county police, and the Federal Officer's workplace. His employer currently states that no charges will be filed and he will be returning to work tomorrow (5 August 2010).
It doesn't matter if you live in Anne Arundel County Maryland, please call and demand justice for Bear:
John Leopold, Anne Arundel County Executive
(410) 222-1821
jleopold@aacounty.org
Anne Arundel County Police Western District
(410) 222-6155
P02438@aacounty.org
Fort Myer Public Relations (Officer's workplace)
(703) 696-0596
Director of Public Affairs
(703) 696-4979
John the facebook support page:
and the Justice for Bear-Bear support page on Facebook
Sunday, July 18, 2010
I will be reading from my Master's thesis and doctorial dissertation
First things first I have walked between 10,500-13,800 steps each of the past three days. Go Me!
Second things second, the sheets did not pop off! And I didn’t sleep well, but I was shocked when the alarm went off.
At breakfast, I asked about the linens without a good answer. I was with some Board member and gave some comments as they were discussing things for next year. I wasn’t criticizing, but we were talking about things that can only be learned by doing something once to see what happens and where the holes are.
The first speaker was Bill Anderson. He had a slide presentation of the home sites in the 70s and color photos of Laura. He mentioned that in his interview with Rose’s friend Helen Boyleston, she said that Almanzo was a world class cusser. She thought she knew all the swear words and he taught her some. I found it interesting during the authors panel, on some questions the authors would just pass the mic down to him as he was their source. Rebecca, Jonni and I were wishing to spend an afternoon reading scribbled notes and seeing never published photos that are in his basement. He did mention in October – December UM Dearborn is going to be having a display – I will get there. Some people may not know it yet, but we will be going.
There were simultaneous sessions next. Big surprise I went to the crafting one. Those women were just way more talented than I could hope to be. I loved seeing it.
At lunch, I ate with the woman from supper last night who still claimed she had never heard of Dean Butler before and is not on Facebook. OK, I believe she’s not on FB, but having never seen the tv show I find highly doubtful. The other two at the table were born in Japan and moved to Toronto in 1985. They had questions about current US politics, and it was an interesting discussion.
I went to the make and take crafts. Yesterday I had picked up the stuff to make a tin pail with candy, button string, and flour sack embroidery. Today I made 4 namecards and a corn husk doll. However, I was running late and missed most of Pamela Smith Hill. Bummer. It was announced that they were cutting the dinner to half an hour so that we could see both of Butler’s documentaries.
Sarah Uthoff was next talking about book design and the publishing industry. A little nerdy. I would have loved it to focus more on the graphical design and marketing, but again I’m a marketing major with librarians. I feel like I’m saying that a bunch, but it’s just that I know my perspective is different because of that background.
Kay Weisman discussed illustrating the books and the change from the Helen Sewell illustrations to the Garth Williams illustrations and the later small chapter books. It’s an interesting change how it goes from the adults and yeah there’s a child there as well to focusing on Laura and that the family looks like they are waiting to wait on her.
Gayle Abrahamson and Jane Palmer discussed temperaments and Sensing versus Judging and Thinking versus Feeling and classifying Laura and Rose. It was a little dry and I think they ignored how bull headed and stubborn both women were.
Emily Wooster presented and Gender and the books by comparing the description in Little House on the Prairie to women’s diaries from the Oregon trail. Interesting to an extent, but it included a lot of reading from her doctorial dissertation.
Next was a panel about Indians and the books. They first played a video of an Osage historian, who is 1/8 Osage. He thinks the books are factual and from a white little girl’s perspective influenced by said little girl looking back 60 years later. I did like his comment about “Did the Osage wear fresh skunk skins as Laura said?” His response was to think of fresh skunk skins as breech cloths? My goodness, they were human and no one in their right mind would do such a thing. That got a big laugh. Next was a guy who talked about the Minnesota Indian Wars. It would be nice if he had connected that to the books. Finally, the speaker was a woman who talked about the American Indian Movement occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972, and the press coverage. She did saying “I will be reading from my Master’s thesis and Doctorial Dissertation” at the beginning. This to me announces that we could take a nap. Then she talks and talks, as we watch dinner time creep up. She says “In Conclusion” and keeps talking and then says “Finally” a minute or two later she ended after cutting into our dinner time. We rushed to dinner.
I ran back to my room for my camera and newly charged batteries. The Almanzo DVD is really good. I may have cried when Father gave him Starlight. It was all filmed in New York and had a Morgan horse expert. The comments about the food are interesting. Then Dean Butler took questions. I’ll say he has a different perspective than most about the lawsuit between Friendly Productions and the Little House on the Prairie, of course consider he knows the Friendlies. Michael Landon did not have a beard because he didn’t want you to not fully be able to see his face. That the play may permanently go to Branson, and if it does there’s a good chance he will be playing Pa (Opposite Melissa Gilbert’s Ma?) These Happy Golden Years is his favorite for obvious reasons, though he does like the Long Winter as a book the best. I took several pictures because on the screen they looked so dark, but Rebecca was next to me doing the same thing. The next was the Laura DVD. I cried during it as well, when she died. The 15 year old that plays her in the De Smet pageant played her in it, and was so good. Many of the illustrations were done by the woman who did the coloring books, and were so good. I want a copy so bad!!! But it’s not on sale yet. He’s looking for a distribution channel. He financed the Almanzo DVD himself, and it’s only sold through the home sites in small quantities. He thinks this one may be of interest to the Hallmark Channel or History Channel or something that would repay him the $200K it costs to make. And of course he can’t sell it to us before those things happen. I really hope it happens quickly!!! One thing, I knew but I never heard the comment stated like this. After 4 years of grasshoppers, the Minnesota governor declared a day of prayer. It was very shortly afterwards that the grasshoppers took to the air and left. The show received a standing ovation and choked the director up. I will say this as well. He got rid of the bad 70s haircut, but he has put on some weight in the past 30 years. I know people want to know details, and I will, but I’ll add, I’d like to meet the person who hasn’t put on weight in the last 30 years.
I called home and took a walk afterwards, because it was only 9. I’ve downloaded my pictures, and typed this out, and it’s now 11:50, so I think I’ll sign off to make sure I’m ready for the Walnut Grove field trip and pageant tomorrow!!!
Does anyone have questions that I haven’t covered?
Second things second, the sheets did not pop off! And I didn’t sleep well, but I was shocked when the alarm went off.
At breakfast, I asked about the linens without a good answer. I was with some Board member and gave some comments as they were discussing things for next year. I wasn’t criticizing, but we were talking about things that can only be learned by doing something once to see what happens and where the holes are.
The first speaker was Bill Anderson. He had a slide presentation of the home sites in the 70s and color photos of Laura. He mentioned that in his interview with Rose’s friend Helen Boyleston, she said that Almanzo was a world class cusser. She thought she knew all the swear words and he taught her some. I found it interesting during the authors panel, on some questions the authors would just pass the mic down to him as he was their source. Rebecca, Jonni and I were wishing to spend an afternoon reading scribbled notes and seeing never published photos that are in his basement. He did mention in October – December UM Dearborn is going to be having a display – I will get there. Some people may not know it yet, but we will be going.
There were simultaneous sessions next. Big surprise I went to the crafting one. Those women were just way more talented than I could hope to be. I loved seeing it.
At lunch, I ate with the woman from supper last night who still claimed she had never heard of Dean Butler before and is not on Facebook. OK, I believe she’s not on FB, but having never seen the tv show I find highly doubtful. The other two at the table were born in Japan and moved to Toronto in 1985. They had questions about current US politics, and it was an interesting discussion.
I went to the make and take crafts. Yesterday I had picked up the stuff to make a tin pail with candy, button string, and flour sack embroidery. Today I made 4 namecards and a corn husk doll. However, I was running late and missed most of Pamela Smith Hill. Bummer. It was announced that they were cutting the dinner to half an hour so that we could see both of Butler’s documentaries.
Sarah Uthoff was next talking about book design and the publishing industry. A little nerdy. I would have loved it to focus more on the graphical design and marketing, but again I’m a marketing major with librarians. I feel like I’m saying that a bunch, but it’s just that I know my perspective is different because of that background.
Kay Weisman discussed illustrating the books and the change from the Helen Sewell illustrations to the Garth Williams illustrations and the later small chapter books. It’s an interesting change how it goes from the adults and yeah there’s a child there as well to focusing on Laura and that the family looks like they are waiting to wait on her.
Gayle Abrahamson and Jane Palmer discussed temperaments and Sensing versus Judging and Thinking versus Feeling and classifying Laura and Rose. It was a little dry and I think they ignored how bull headed and stubborn both women were.
Emily Wooster presented and Gender and the books by comparing the description in Little House on the Prairie to women’s diaries from the Oregon trail. Interesting to an extent, but it included a lot of reading from her doctorial dissertation.
Next was a panel about Indians and the books. They first played a video of an Osage historian, who is 1/8 Osage. He thinks the books are factual and from a white little girl’s perspective influenced by said little girl looking back 60 years later. I did like his comment about “Did the Osage wear fresh skunk skins as Laura said?” His response was to think of fresh skunk skins as breech cloths? My goodness, they were human and no one in their right mind would do such a thing. That got a big laugh. Next was a guy who talked about the Minnesota Indian Wars. It would be nice if he had connected that to the books. Finally, the speaker was a woman who talked about the American Indian Movement occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972, and the press coverage. She did saying “I will be reading from my Master’s thesis and Doctorial Dissertation” at the beginning. This to me announces that we could take a nap. Then she talks and talks, as we watch dinner time creep up. She says “In Conclusion” and keeps talking and then says “Finally” a minute or two later she ended after cutting into our dinner time. We rushed to dinner.
I ran back to my room for my camera and newly charged batteries. The Almanzo DVD is really good. I may have cried when Father gave him Starlight. It was all filmed in New York and had a Morgan horse expert. The comments about the food are interesting. Then Dean Butler took questions. I’ll say he has a different perspective than most about the lawsuit between Friendly Productions and the Little House on the Prairie, of course consider he knows the Friendlies. Michael Landon did not have a beard because he didn’t want you to not fully be able to see his face. That the play may permanently go to Branson, and if it does there’s a good chance he will be playing Pa (Opposite Melissa Gilbert’s Ma?) These Happy Golden Years is his favorite for obvious reasons, though he does like the Long Winter as a book the best. I took several pictures because on the screen they looked so dark, but Rebecca was next to me doing the same thing. The next was the Laura DVD. I cried during it as well, when she died. The 15 year old that plays her in the De Smet pageant played her in it, and was so good. Many of the illustrations were done by the woman who did the coloring books, and were so good. I want a copy so bad!!! But it’s not on sale yet. He’s looking for a distribution channel. He financed the Almanzo DVD himself, and it’s only sold through the home sites in small quantities. He thinks this one may be of interest to the Hallmark Channel or History Channel or something that would repay him the $200K it costs to make. And of course he can’t sell it to us before those things happen. I really hope it happens quickly!!! One thing, I knew but I never heard the comment stated like this. After 4 years of grasshoppers, the Minnesota governor declared a day of prayer. It was very shortly afterwards that the grasshoppers took to the air and left. The show received a standing ovation and choked the director up. I will say this as well. He got rid of the bad 70s haircut, but he has put on some weight in the past 30 years. I know people want to know details, and I will, but I’ll add, I’d like to meet the person who hasn’t put on weight in the last 30 years.
I called home and took a walk afterwards, because it was only 9. I’ve downloaded my pictures, and typed this out, and it’s now 11:50, so I think I’ll sign off to make sure I’m ready for the Walnut Grove field trip and pageant tomorrow!!!
Does anyone have questions that I haven’t covered?
Crazy Obsessive Stalker Fan Girl
One of these nights when I crash, I am going to really crash. I’ve barely slept the past two nights. Right now I feel fine though. Last night, my fitted sheet came off my bed. I ended up sleeping on the plastic mattress cover. I think the sheets aren’t extra long. Remember that. I got up/got breakfast. We made our way over to the student center. Amy Lauter’s welcomed us. I realized that I was surrounded by people who were crazy fan girls, like me. Okay some boys, but John Miller even said during his talk that Cap Garland sounds like the frontier hunk. (I might have a small thing for Cap. It’s really too bad that he died in his 20s) Then Amy mentioned being OMG, OMG that Dean Butler came to the ice cream social and talked to her. He and John Schneider were the crushes of her childhood. I was too young I think for that, and most of you know that I was NEVER a fan of the show. But she was talking in the same manner I was last night. I did meet the woman sitting behind me who is an Ingalls and a cousin of Laura’s. “Squeal” in fan girl pitch.
The first speaker, Kelly Ferguson, talked about her upcoming book about traveling to the home sites wearing a pioneer dress. She announced she would be reading from the book. BO – Ooring, but it was hysterical. I think she should do something with Allison Angrim; they would be so funny together.
The second speaker was Ann Weller Dahl about “The Other Laura Ingalls Wilder: Journalist, Philosopher, and Poet. Don’t remember much, but she’s written some curriculums and had lots of questions. However, and I may not win fans here. She struck me as the type who asks questions in a tone that says she’s a teacher which gives her insight that the rest of us mortals can’t have.
The next speaker, Michelle McClellan, was talking about “Place” and how what was at the location was important. I see her point, but I understand in some ways why the locations present themselves the way they do. It is their history not just Laura’s.
Dale Cockerell, a musicologist was next. Interesting. Laura’s memories are so good because they were set to music. I so feel that’s true. In fact, I think I belong to a Facebook group called, “I wish important moments in my life were set to music like in movies.” He mentioned how unusual it was, especially out on the prairie, to be able to here live music daily.
I missed the beginning of the next speaker, Jenna Hunnef. She was speaking about risk in the books. At times, it was a little too angry about white males. I don’t think many of you would be surprised by my stand that yes, bad things have happened in the past, but as they don’t know, move on and focus on the future and making it the best possible one for yourself.
This brought us to lunch. We sat down a table away from the “Reserved” table. Guess who was there? Everyone was talking about how they didn’t expect him to come to anything but the premier of his documentary and the fan girl feeling. The LIWRA gave out its first life time achievement award to William Anderson. I had heard he wasn’t as old as people expected. I, also, knew his first book was published around the time I was born. And that I have at least a dozen of his books, some in more than one edition. (Are you getting the Crazy Obsessive Fan girl thing yet?) They asked Rebecca to pose handing him the award afterwards. I went to get a picture and an autograph on a book I had brought. I sort of managed to make sense when speaking.
After lunch, John Miller spoke. His biographies are probably my favorite, though I’ve not read the latest, though I did buy it. There were many references to the St. Louis Cardinals in his talk. He had strong thoughts about the Ghost in the Little House and Holtz’s suggestion that Rose wrote the books and put her mother’s name on them. And the recent “New Yorker” article that loved the Holtz book, ignored his latest, and called his other one pedestrian. I don’t think he agrees with Laura and Rose on politics, but I think he must know enough people that agree with her. To me, he comes across saying that because of “X and Y they believed Z, rather than look at those bitter people who cling to their guns and their religion” as I read other historians say when deconstructing the past. He does laugh about the fact that Rose if she was alive would be leading the Tea Party, and that Laura probably would appreciate them.
The next two were right up my alley. I think several of you know that I find the apologetics of the Bible fascinating. These two speakers basically talked about the apologetics of the Long Winter. The first was Jim Hicks, a physics teacher who found the settler who sold Cap and Almanzo the wheat. He’s pinpointed the date as 2/14/81-2/16/81, as there was a full moon at the time. He measured the speed of horses, angles, weights, co-efficient, friction and decided that the settler was probably 6-10 miles away, rather than the 15-20 in the book. However, we know Laura was way off on the distance of the Prairie house to Independence. She gave the name of the settler as Anderson, that he might sow oats the following year, and some nearby ridges. When he looked that distance from town, he found a settler named Neils Anderson, who filed the claim in the beginning of 1880, planted 10 acres, the following year planted oats AND he bought out the claim and filed on the next section, like he came into some money, by I don’t know selling some wheat, he was working in the Great Lakes the next summer (didn’t have time to get seed?) The next was Barbara Mays Boustead from the National Weather Service, who studied all the data to see if the winter was the snow Armageddon that Laura describes. From Minneapolis, SD army forts, Omaha, Des Moines, and El Paso all say it was one of if not the coldest & wettest winters. And that blizzard before meant a torrent of something, but after 1881 was used almost exclusively for snow. She pinpoints the date of the seed wheat trip to probably 2/16/81-2/18/81, but the comment was that look how close those dates are. I think it’s the accountant in me, but I wanted copies of their talks.
Next was a homesites panel. They need more money, they have plans, nothing earth shattering to me. Some details about past lawsuits. I think some people don’t understand and it reminds me of some Miami Alumni stuff, that these are businesses. Yes, they can apply for grants, but that money has to come from somewhere. There’s part of me that would love to have a Laws Hall & Associates type class develop a plan for them. I think a lot of the fans and volunteers are librarians and teachers, who haven’t learned about public relations/accounting. This starts to get on the authors panel. I understand how Laura left Rose the rights. Rose left them to Roger Lee MacBride, her adopted/honorary grandson. He left them to his daughter. This outrages some people, but I understand that it was their property to do as they wish. It might be nice if they would do some things, but I don’t really see that they have a moral obligation to do so. As well, some people seemed to think that the Iowa School for the Blind is sitting on records about Mary. Why would they have kept them? The off chance in 50 years her sister would be famous? There was a suggestion by the author’s that Holtz’s conclusions in Ghost shocked MacBride into being tighter with the source documents.
I followed Rebecca and Jonni out after it. They were talking about dinner. I was going to tag along to the dining hall. They had a special dinner to go to for board members. I’m not a board member (whine, not that I’ve done anything to be invited) I went to dinner with some people I had talked to before. Fun, but I did find out that the Dean Butler who is my Facebook friend? That’s not a professional page, it is his page. This means it is possible that he has read us joking about me getting my picture taken with him. Not crazy obsessive stalker fan girl at all. And long story to digress from here, but some can tell you that I greatly fear appearing as crazy obsessive stalker girl about a variety of things at times. I did find out the woman sitting next to me had never seen “Who’s the Boss?” (Seriously how has one never seen it? Classic 80’s tv), so she didn’t remember him playing Mona’s much younger boyfriend.
Next we had a reception to meet the authors. I bought a book about Pepin that is autographed, and a Little House coloring book autographed. I had two authors autograph the program. Two authors were autographing and giving away the pamphlet. I bought two CDs from the musicologist and had them autographed. I had John Miller autograph a book I had brought from home. I mentioned that we follow the Cardinals, but to make sure that they stay behind the Reds. We talked for a few minutes about baseball and the similarities between St. Louis & Cinti. I liked that because I think he’ll remember me as not just someone who liked LIW. Then I went to get in the long line for Dean Butler, everyone all day was talking about it. It just seems weird that this Hollywood celebrity would want to hang out with us in Mankato, but he was at all the sessions. And yes, I have a picture!!!! Then I found out the Board dinner was with him! Jonnie was talking about how she was good during dinner, but hyper aware that he was sitting next to her. But she saved the fan girl behavior until this time, I figure at least it’s got to be good for his ego.
We came back, and I went to get new towels as the website said we wouldn’t be brought new towels, but that we could go get them. I went because I had showered with the washcloth so using it to wash my face just grosses me out. The guy at the desk told me that we weren’t entitled to them. I may tell Amy about that tomorrow. Anyway, I decided to go buy towels (yes literally this is how much it would gross me out) Target closes at 10, I was there at 9:50 buying three sets of towels and an extra long set of sheets. It looks like it fits the bed better, let’s hope they don’t pop off.
I think that’s everything. I’m still looking for a way to get online, but I’ll post this as soon as I can.
The first speaker, Kelly Ferguson, talked about her upcoming book about traveling to the home sites wearing a pioneer dress. She announced she would be reading from the book. BO – Ooring, but it was hysterical. I think she should do something with Allison Angrim; they would be so funny together.
The second speaker was Ann Weller Dahl about “The Other Laura Ingalls Wilder: Journalist, Philosopher, and Poet. Don’t remember much, but she’s written some curriculums and had lots of questions. However, and I may not win fans here. She struck me as the type who asks questions in a tone that says she’s a teacher which gives her insight that the rest of us mortals can’t have.
The next speaker, Michelle McClellan, was talking about “Place” and how what was at the location was important. I see her point, but I understand in some ways why the locations present themselves the way they do. It is their history not just Laura’s.
Dale Cockerell, a musicologist was next. Interesting. Laura’s memories are so good because they were set to music. I so feel that’s true. In fact, I think I belong to a Facebook group called, “I wish important moments in my life were set to music like in movies.” He mentioned how unusual it was, especially out on the prairie, to be able to here live music daily.
I missed the beginning of the next speaker, Jenna Hunnef. She was speaking about risk in the books. At times, it was a little too angry about white males. I don’t think many of you would be surprised by my stand that yes, bad things have happened in the past, but as they don’t know, move on and focus on the future and making it the best possible one for yourself.
This brought us to lunch. We sat down a table away from the “Reserved” table. Guess who was there? Everyone was talking about how they didn’t expect him to come to anything but the premier of his documentary and the fan girl feeling. The LIWRA gave out its first life time achievement award to William Anderson. I had heard he wasn’t as old as people expected. I, also, knew his first book was published around the time I was born. And that I have at least a dozen of his books, some in more than one edition. (Are you getting the Crazy Obsessive Fan girl thing yet?) They asked Rebecca to pose handing him the award afterwards. I went to get a picture and an autograph on a book I had brought. I sort of managed to make sense when speaking.
After lunch, John Miller spoke. His biographies are probably my favorite, though I’ve not read the latest, though I did buy it. There were many references to the St. Louis Cardinals in his talk. He had strong thoughts about the Ghost in the Little House and Holtz’s suggestion that Rose wrote the books and put her mother’s name on them. And the recent “New Yorker” article that loved the Holtz book, ignored his latest, and called his other one pedestrian. I don’t think he agrees with Laura and Rose on politics, but I think he must know enough people that agree with her. To me, he comes across saying that because of “X and Y they believed Z, rather than look at those bitter people who cling to their guns and their religion” as I read other historians say when deconstructing the past. He does laugh about the fact that Rose if she was alive would be leading the Tea Party, and that Laura probably would appreciate them.
The next two were right up my alley. I think several of you know that I find the apologetics of the Bible fascinating. These two speakers basically talked about the apologetics of the Long Winter. The first was Jim Hicks, a physics teacher who found the settler who sold Cap and Almanzo the wheat. He’s pinpointed the date as 2/14/81-2/16/81, as there was a full moon at the time. He measured the speed of horses, angles, weights, co-efficient, friction and decided that the settler was probably 6-10 miles away, rather than the 15-20 in the book. However, we know Laura was way off on the distance of the Prairie house to Independence. She gave the name of the settler as Anderson, that he might sow oats the following year, and some nearby ridges. When he looked that distance from town, he found a settler named Neils Anderson, who filed the claim in the beginning of 1880, planted 10 acres, the following year planted oats AND he bought out the claim and filed on the next section, like he came into some money, by I don’t know selling some wheat, he was working in the Great Lakes the next summer (didn’t have time to get seed?) The next was Barbara Mays Boustead from the National Weather Service, who studied all the data to see if the winter was the snow Armageddon that Laura describes. From Minneapolis, SD army forts, Omaha, Des Moines, and El Paso all say it was one of if not the coldest & wettest winters. And that blizzard before meant a torrent of something, but after 1881 was used almost exclusively for snow. She pinpoints the date of the seed wheat trip to probably 2/16/81-2/18/81, but the comment was that look how close those dates are. I think it’s the accountant in me, but I wanted copies of their talks.
Next was a homesites panel. They need more money, they have plans, nothing earth shattering to me. Some details about past lawsuits. I think some people don’t understand and it reminds me of some Miami Alumni stuff, that these are businesses. Yes, they can apply for grants, but that money has to come from somewhere. There’s part of me that would love to have a Laws Hall & Associates type class develop a plan for them. I think a lot of the fans and volunteers are librarians and teachers, who haven’t learned about public relations/accounting. This starts to get on the authors panel. I understand how Laura left Rose the rights. Rose left them to Roger Lee MacBride, her adopted/honorary grandson. He left them to his daughter. This outrages some people, but I understand that it was their property to do as they wish. It might be nice if they would do some things, but I don’t really see that they have a moral obligation to do so. As well, some people seemed to think that the Iowa School for the Blind is sitting on records about Mary. Why would they have kept them? The off chance in 50 years her sister would be famous? There was a suggestion by the author’s that Holtz’s conclusions in Ghost shocked MacBride into being tighter with the source documents.
I followed Rebecca and Jonni out after it. They were talking about dinner. I was going to tag along to the dining hall. They had a special dinner to go to for board members. I’m not a board member (whine, not that I’ve done anything to be invited) I went to dinner with some people I had talked to before. Fun, but I did find out that the Dean Butler who is my Facebook friend? That’s not a professional page, it is his page. This means it is possible that he has read us joking about me getting my picture taken with him. Not crazy obsessive stalker fan girl at all. And long story to digress from here, but some can tell you that I greatly fear appearing as crazy obsessive stalker girl about a variety of things at times. I did find out the woman sitting next to me had never seen “Who’s the Boss?” (Seriously how has one never seen it? Classic 80’s tv), so she didn’t remember him playing Mona’s much younger boyfriend.
Next we had a reception to meet the authors. I bought a book about Pepin that is autographed, and a Little House coloring book autographed. I had two authors autograph the program. Two authors were autographing and giving away the pamphlet. I bought two CDs from the musicologist and had them autographed. I had John Miller autograph a book I had brought from home. I mentioned that we follow the Cardinals, but to make sure that they stay behind the Reds. We talked for a few minutes about baseball and the similarities between St. Louis & Cinti. I liked that because I think he’ll remember me as not just someone who liked LIW. Then I went to get in the long line for Dean Butler, everyone all day was talking about it. It just seems weird that this Hollywood celebrity would want to hang out with us in Mankato, but he was at all the sessions. And yes, I have a picture!!!! Then I found out the Board dinner was with him! Jonnie was talking about how she was good during dinner, but hyper aware that he was sitting next to her. But she saved the fan girl behavior until this time, I figure at least it’s got to be good for his ego.
We came back, and I went to get new towels as the website said we wouldn’t be brought new towels, but that we could go get them. I went because I had showered with the washcloth so using it to wash my face just grosses me out. The guy at the desk told me that we weren’t entitled to them. I may tell Amy about that tomorrow. Anyway, I decided to go buy towels (yes literally this is how much it would gross me out) Target closes at 10, I was there at 9:50 buying three sets of towels and an extra long set of sheets. It looks like it fits the bed better, let’s hope they don’t pop off.
I think that’s everything. I’m still looking for a way to get online, but I’ll post this as soon as I can.
Getting There
I am typing this out in Word tonight until I can figure out in the morning how to get online. I left for the airport straight from my tennis lesson (where I hit some really good volleys, BTW). After missing a flight a few years ago, I’m always nervous about getting to the airport. I was doing 60 down the highway and have often commuted through there doing 20 mph, but it felt like I was crawling. I parked at Airport Fastpark, since experience has taught me that they are much, much better than long term parking (as in I probably wouldn’t have missed the previously mentioned flight). When I checked the bags, the guy told me I had plenty of time. Since I was a little hungry and a lot thirsty I got a strawberry kiwi smoothie at Smoothie King. Highly recommend. I drank it, read some of People. We boarded the plane I felt it was a little late, but not too bad UNTIL the pilot said that a battery charger wasn’t working in the cockpit, which wasn’t a big deal but since we were still connected to the jet way, it had to be fixed before we could leave. I will give them credit they did give out water, let us use the restrooms and our cell phones. We finally left about 70 minutes late, for a 90 minute flight. I was not happy, but knew my issues were nothing like the people who had connections. I finished the “On the Way Home” portion of “Little House Traveler” and started “West from Home.” I really wish we could still go see the Tower of Jewels from the 1915 World’s Fair.
We arrived at terminal C and had to wait for awhile to pull up to the gate. I got my carryon that was gate checked and started out the concourse, then took a tram, and went down an escalator then past 8 baggage carousels. Got my bag, went down the elevator, around the corner, down the hall, to another tram, up two escalators to the long car rental line. I ended up doing self check-in. I said one person, 2 bags. I had reserves a Focus size car, as that’s what got me to the airport. It suggested the perfect fit would be a Suburban. I’m not sure why except they wanted to make an extra $55/day. I received an Impala. I dug out the GPS and tried to put the car in gear. Chevy (with yes, uncomfortable headrests) has the gearshift between the seats, but no letters those are by the speedometer. Whose freakingly stupid idea was that?
I entered rush hour traffic to find that the power point wouldn’t always feed out a charge. This renders the GPS useless. Luckily, I had Yahoo directions. Except the car took away the odometer replacing it with “Calibration Complete” I have no idea what the hell that means, except that it makes it difficult to judge how far you have gone. So as you can tell, you should by a Ford. I picked up dinner at McDonalds while driving. I do have XM stereo and was encouraged when Tobymac’s “Get back up again” started playing. I’ve wanted to adopt it as a theme song, so good sign!
I passed the KOA we stayed at in 2008, but fairly uneventful drive. I checked in and dropped my computer bag in the room. I wanted to go talk to Rebecca and meet Laura (and everyone else). I could tell my roommate had checked in, but didn’t know who she was. I went down to the ice cream social. After getting my ice cream, I sat down with Laura, her husband, Rebecca, and Rebecca’s friend Jonni. Another man came up to sit down and talk to “the other man” there. Found out he’s John Miller. Who? He wrote “Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder”, “Along Highway 14”, and “Laura’s Little Town on the Prairie” (which I have brought with the hopes of getting it autographed). Everyone chitchatted. I was noticing a man talking to one of the nearby women. I thought it looked like, but no, he’s a celebrity surely he’s not coming to the whole conference, but it was – Dean Butler!!!, Almanzo from the TV show. Even those of you who think my interest is weird, know who he is.
After a while, I went to move the car, get my suitcases, and call home to tell my Mom to quit worrying that I had died in a plane/car crash. On my way back in, I had one hand holding the phone and the other pulling the two suitcases that were latched together. The man coming out held the door for me. I tried (and I think was successful) at not giggling like a 14 year old girl because Almanzo had held the door for me!!!
I put my suitcases in the room. It’s nice, but I’d forgotten the things that hotels provide that dorms don’t. It has A/C which I’m grateful – the car told me at 6pm it was 94 degrees. There are a few other things it has that are nice, but a few things that Miami had that this doesn’t. I went back down to the social to talk to those lingering. I met some nice ladies. One woman’s son and her friend had already gone up to the room. It turns out that the friend is my roommate! They seem nice, and they got to know each other when they were adopting two boys who were friends in Calcutta, but didn’t meet for 18 years, while one was visiting Burr Oak. Stories like that are really interesting to me.
It’s now 11:30 and everyone’s asleep as I type by the light of ye olde laptop, so I think I’ll sign off for now. I’m getting up at 5:45.
Good Nite!!
We arrived at terminal C and had to wait for awhile to pull up to the gate. I got my carryon that was gate checked and started out the concourse, then took a tram, and went down an escalator then past 8 baggage carousels. Got my bag, went down the elevator, around the corner, down the hall, to another tram, up two escalators to the long car rental line. I ended up doing self check-in. I said one person, 2 bags. I had reserves a Focus size car, as that’s what got me to the airport. It suggested the perfect fit would be a Suburban. I’m not sure why except they wanted to make an extra $55/day. I received an Impala. I dug out the GPS and tried to put the car in gear. Chevy (with yes, uncomfortable headrests) has the gearshift between the seats, but no letters those are by the speedometer. Whose freakingly stupid idea was that?
I entered rush hour traffic to find that the power point wouldn’t always feed out a charge. This renders the GPS useless. Luckily, I had Yahoo directions. Except the car took away the odometer replacing it with “Calibration Complete” I have no idea what the hell that means, except that it makes it difficult to judge how far you have gone. So as you can tell, you should by a Ford. I picked up dinner at McDonalds while driving. I do have XM stereo and was encouraged when Tobymac’s “Get back up again” started playing. I’ve wanted to adopt it as a theme song, so good sign!
I passed the KOA we stayed at in 2008, but fairly uneventful drive. I checked in and dropped my computer bag in the room. I wanted to go talk to Rebecca and meet Laura (and everyone else). I could tell my roommate had checked in, but didn’t know who she was. I went down to the ice cream social. After getting my ice cream, I sat down with Laura, her husband, Rebecca, and Rebecca’s friend Jonni. Another man came up to sit down and talk to “the other man” there. Found out he’s John Miller. Who? He wrote “Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder”, “Along Highway 14”, and “Laura’s Little Town on the Prairie” (which I have brought with the hopes of getting it autographed). Everyone chitchatted. I was noticing a man talking to one of the nearby women. I thought it looked like, but no, he’s a celebrity surely he’s not coming to the whole conference, but it was – Dean Butler!!!, Almanzo from the TV show. Even those of you who think my interest is weird, know who he is.
After a while, I went to move the car, get my suitcases, and call home to tell my Mom to quit worrying that I had died in a plane/car crash. On my way back in, I had one hand holding the phone and the other pulling the two suitcases that were latched together. The man coming out held the door for me. I tried (and I think was successful) at not giggling like a 14 year old girl because Almanzo had held the door for me!!!
I put my suitcases in the room. It’s nice, but I’d forgotten the things that hotels provide that dorms don’t. It has A/C which I’m grateful – the car told me at 6pm it was 94 degrees. There are a few other things it has that are nice, but a few things that Miami had that this doesn’t. I went back down to the social to talk to those lingering. I met some nice ladies. One woman’s son and her friend had already gone up to the room. It turns out that the friend is my roommate! They seem nice, and they got to know each other when they were adopting two boys who were friends in Calcutta, but didn’t meet for 18 years, while one was visiting Burr Oak. Stories like that are really interesting to me.
It’s now 11:30 and everyone’s asleep as I type by the light of ye olde laptop, so I think I’ll sign off for now. I’m getting up at 5:45.
Good Nite!!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
What I am reading
Hopefully this works to show you what I am reading. Does anyone know how to add widgets to blogger?
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