Librarians on a field trip

What a day yesterday was! It started out with an introduction and lesson on how to navigate the Virginia General Assembly Website. Lots of good tips if anyone needs help on trying to find a bill or interpret one, hit yours truly up. Then a group of about 11 librarians proceeded from the Library of Virginia to the Virginia State Capital. We had a catered lunch with Senator Henry L. Marsh II and Senator Walter Stosch. Following the lunch the "Librarians", received a tour of the newly renovated Captial and I learned more bits and pieces of Virginia history. The best part was viewing the life size marble statue of George Washington. The Carrara marble statue is probably the best authentic portrayal of what George Washington looked like considering the artist, "made a plaster mask of Washington's face, took detailed measurements of his body, and modeled a terra cotta bust". Following the tour we had a mock senate session on voting for a bill. I sat in Senator William C. Wampler Jr.'s chair and voted "nay" in voting for the bill which would allow an armed person to buy an alcoholic beverage in a public place. The last part was having 2 news reporters talk to us about reporting about the legislators and the meetings. Columnist Jeff Schapiro of the RTD and Bob Lewis of the Associated Press. These two guys were highly informative and witty. I think I was more impressed with Jeff Schapiro's dapper pocket square, sports coat, and round eyeglasses....I think I have a new crush.

Weirdest part of the whole trip was meeting a "librarian" who directs the Suffolk 5th district circuit court library. She doesn't have her MLS, is deferring her law school admission, runs a 42 acre farm full of soybeans of something else, has 3 kids, a single mom, has to let the air out of her big mac truck to park in parking decks in Richmond (ie: LVA parking garage), and just show a coyote last week who was about to get her chickens. She ended up showing me pictures of a bobcat and a black mama bear with it's cub from her blackberry (she has surveillance camera's to capture shots of anyone and anything on her property). She ended up in her position as a "librarian" b/c the law librarian quit after 2 months and the circuit court board members decided to let her run the small library since she was an assistant. You never know what type of librarian you will meet in this world...