Politics at the Bus Stop

When I was going to school one day and arrived at the bus stop (right outside my door!) to find this political statement. I laughed about it all day!

(Sorry about the picture size. I took it on my camera and it is a little small/fuzzy)

Museum Day 2008

Apparently you can get into some museums across the country on Saturday for free. Visit this website if you are interested. There aren't really too many in Utah...which applies to most of you I guess. Sorry. But promoting museums is always a good idea!!

http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/about.html

(The Smithsonians in DC are free...just another reason to come visit! So much to do here is free! All of the time.)

I Guess I Live In DC

One thing that I really do not like about DC is that it is so big. More specifically, I never run into anyone I know. This makes me feel quite lonely. But in all seriousness, this morning I got on the metro and I saw a guy from my ward! I was kind of excited and proceeded to tell him he was the first person (outside of classmates I ride home from class with) I had seen on the metro that I knew. I am pretty sure he thought I was strange and that will not help me find new friends, but I was very happy. Anyway, I liked running into random people I knew while in Logan. But there are a few more people here so I don't imagine it is going to happen that much.

And this made me really laugh... I have a new roommate moving in and she had a moving truck move all of her stuff from Arizona here to DC. The guys moving her stuff in commented on how humid it was. Ha. I said these same things when I first moved here. And today I got to say exactly what everyone told me when I moved here, "It's actually not that humid. It feels really good today." And apparently I have not experienced the worst of the humidity since August and September have been really nice. That is why I will leave next summer when I have to do an internship!

I Think I Will Like Not Being In Charge!

I have been training for my new job at the National Building Museum and I have to say, I think I am going to like not being in charge for a small little bit of time. I get to come, do the program I am assigned (I don't have to dress in 1917 or pioneer clothing, start fires, or make cookies! Yeah!!), talk/teach/play with kids, and go home. Oh, and get paid. Granted, it is just a part time job, and believe me, part time jobs don't really cut it here in the land of costing a million dollars to live. But I think it will be a good job and I am excited to be working with kids again.

But it has been funny to go through the trainings, on the other end of things! Helpful hints--people really try to give helpful hints, you know, the small things such as "Don't dump the whole box of tiles out, just dump out half" and then someone else saying "I make two small piles with the tiles." I know I probably did this for the people I trained for my job, and I see that it really just takes doing the program to learn what works best for me (or whoever). The employee (I would add volunteer) who knows more than the supervisor--this also was manifest at our training. A lady had to continually add her two cents in about everything in the program. "You aren't going to take out the marble are you? You can't do that. It is the best part." I remember what I thought when staff/volunteers told me that. The nice version of what I usually though: "Well, you don't have the entire picture. You are just seeing one small aspect of this." But these people will be everywhere.

I am sure I will have more to come. But my supervisor told me one thing that made me very happy. She told us that we may have kids recognize us when we are out in DC or on the metro from doing these school programs and it made me excited! Why, you may ask. Well, I don't particularly like being recognized, but if that does happen, it is that stamp of ownership, the evidence that yes, I do indeed live here and my sphere goes outside of the campus/my neighborhood. DC is monumentally huge. But if someone recognized me from my job, it would almost feel like Logan again. Oh, how I miss the manageable city of Logan.

For now, that is it... I am sure I will have more to say about my job later, but for now, things are moving along quite nicely.

Calling All Collectors!

I thought I would just throw this out there... For my material culture class I will need to interview a collector later in the semester and find out about their collection. SO, if any of you are collectors of anything fun, let me know. (Material Culture is basically the study of objects. The things that people leave behind after they are gone. Just in case there was a question about that. I am one step ahead of you!)

Am I Really Going to Class?

I have to ask myself this question frequently, because to be honest, I don't feel like I am going to class...I feel like I'm on vacation. The feeling of homework and reading doesn't feel like a vacation (it is actually quite hard getting used to this again), but seeing things like the US Capitol and the Washington Monument as I head to and from my class at the Smithsonian make me think that I am really on vacation. Even when I'm on "campus" I feel like I'm in an alternate or parallel universe, because it doesn't follow my conventional thinking of what a campus is like. I mean, street lights and crossing busy city streets? That's not school! My point in all this rambling is that I am just trying to find the ordinary, the things that make up a life, in a world where I am riding the metro, going to class at the Smithsonian, and where people do things like translate Arabic for their job, work for the FBI, work for the government, or any other such random, crazy things. I am liking it, don't get me wrong. I like school. I like where I live. People have been surprisingly nice. But I am still just trying to find that place where I feel like I am living in my life. Because I don't feel like that right now. This feeling may never wear off because the Washington Monument isn't going anywhere. And that might be okay too...I am a tourist discovering something new each day!

Of Birds and Such...

I always thought the Heritage Center was really unique. And it is. But as I was interviewing for a museum teacher job (basically school groups) at the National Building Museum for a part time job, I realized that I may not necessarily have to leave all of that uniqueness behind. This was the moment I had to hold back my laughter during the interview.

Interviewer: “You may have noticed the birds we have in the gallery. Well, sometimes they fly around during our school programs and are disruptive. The Kindergartners stop listening and start watching the birds. What would you do in this situation?”

Jenette: “Blah, blah, blah… (very smart, intelligent, and witty of course).” What was going on in her head [Ha. Those tiny birds? Try peacocks (Have you ever heard one? Have you seen their feathers?), or ducks, especially when they are mating. Try explaining that to school kids. Yeah, I can handle the small, common type chirping bird.]

But it does go to show me: Even though I thought issues at the Heritage Center were so unique and one of a kind, I can see that they weren’t all that unique after all. Luckily I have learned to deal with distracting birds. (And you thought discussions of fowl was over! Not so my friends!)

What's a Woman to Do?

Well, it was inevitable. I am in DC, so it is only fitting that I start blogging about politics. I mean, everyone has an opinion around this town about everything political, so I guess I can too. And the air is buzzing about Sarah Palin. I don't really want to weigh in quite yet on the whole election ordeal, but the media coverage has been out of control and I do have something to say about what they are saying. We have come so far in this country as far as women go--better pay, education, etc., etc. But then we have Palin. Mother of 5 (Who has 5 kids in this day and age? note: read with sarcastic tone) and running for VP. I have to say that I have been highly disappointed in what people say. They say that it is irresponsible for her to have 5 kids and be running for VP. But really, what are women supposed to do? Many women want high powered positions in politics, etc. (not me...whew!) but they want to be mothers too. And the world is constantly telling women that they can have it all. So, I think the media has been very unfair in their coverage (Of course, who ever thought the media was fair? Ha). Men run for office and are fathers. Men are attorneys and are fathers. Etc. Does that make them bad fathers? Sometimes it does. But sometimes they are great fathers. In a world that is ever exploring and pushing the boundaries of the roles of men and women, fathers and mothers, I would have expected much more. Then the media tries to defend themselves and their coverage and attacks of Palin. But there is no question about it, if she were running on the Democratic ticket she would not get the attacks she is now. If she were from the East, she would not get getting the attacks. If she had come from a more "elitist" background...education...liberal ideas, she would not be getting the attacks she is. The more they attack, the more I like Palin, because in Palin there is something that I can relate to. I mean she went to the University of Idaho! How much closer to home can you get in a national election? Not much. There are issues that I still would like have explained, but ultimately I say, enough is enough. Coverage is biased. It always will be, and always has been. But whatever comes, it sure has made things even more interesting!

Note: This blogging thing will only be one more thing to keep me from my homework. I am remembering all too vividly how I put homework off then (and probably will now!).