FGS Wrap up and coming home

Last time we talked I was heading over to the extended research hours at the ACPL on Friday.  My boys were crashing at that time and so were my parents.  Since they were all on their last legs of energy they abandoned me at the library and headed back to the hotel for takeout pizza, movies, and bed times.  Grandparents can be awesome.

I however stayed until 11:45 pm that night. The only regret was that I intended to go down for the lecture but instead I had my head buried in a book while sitting on the floor in the stacks. C’est la vie!  My entire goal for the evening was Indiana research and nothing but Indiana research.  This would be one of the few times I will be at a library where all the books on Indiana counties I needed would be there at the same time.  County by county I went and I searched.  Boy did I luck out with quite a few books which I have never seen before.

Of course the fact that I remembered to pack multiple thumb drives was pure inspiration.  No papers to drag back home as the copy machine would scan the images to the drive.  I was giddy, giddy I tell you about this fact.  On occasion a kind person would let me know that my paper wasn’t printing and after I thanked them I told them I wouldn’t have any since it was going directly to the drive. A couple people said they were coming back the next day with their own after a trip to the local store.

Dancers at the ACPL

At one point in the evening I heard the Virginia Reel playing.  I don’t think I have actually heard it since the 4^th grade when we were all forced to learn colonial dances to go along with Maryland state history.  I went to check it out, you do need to take a break every so often after all, and saw the most amazing civil war dresses! They were all decked out.

Finds for the evening were will books (not abstracted), land records, plats, maps, and histories.  I was very pleased with my take home.  That is right up to the point when I found out that several of the last copy sessions I did actually didn’t save more than the first couple pages to my drive. I could have cried. Quickly I looked over the lecture listing for the morning and decided that there was two that I REALLY wanted to take but I could come back over to the library and re-scan those pages.

At 8am I was up for Harold Henderson’s Three Ways to Improve Your Speaking Ideas. He focused mainly on ways to come up with topics, to refine the text, and synthesize ideas.   I wanted to take it as I decided over the weekend (with a little push from others) that I really do want to lecture and teach more.  When I am in front of a group of people who want to learn it reminds me of why I loved teaching and why I was working on my certificate in college.

99 year old letter found
in back of book at the ACPL

After that I meet up with my copy monkey, um, I mean my mom and dad and we all went over to the library together. We copied the needed information from the night before and then, to be fair, I began copying information on my husband’s side of the family.  I should have looked at records for his Indiana families (I forgot, okay) but I really wanted to work on a couple New England mysteries for him. 

Needless to say I didn’t make it back to the afternoon session I wanted.  However, I did order several of the lectures from the conference as MP3s, including that one.  That way if I want to relive the experience, or pick up something the second time around, I will be able to do that.

Oh, and before someone asks, the boys were with my husband on Saturday.  They had the day off for good behavior.  He took them to see the replica Fort and then the zoo.  We were all regaled with musket and animal stories through the evening.  After being so good (with the exception of one melt down from the youngest) they deserved to do something fun for kids.

So needless to say I am home.  Laundry is going, research is being filled away, and my brain is slowly returning back to normal from information overload.  There will be research based posts and other tidbits I am sure over the next few months.  Just keep an eye out.

You know what, I can’t wait to do it again!