Monday, March 23, 2009

Monday Adventures

Busy, Busy day. This might barely qualify as a Nonfiction Monday entry -- because everything you read in this message is true. No? You actually want a book review?
Sorry. No Can Do. I was busy, busy.
If you are interested in more book reviews, the other Nonfiction Monday Book Reviews are collected here at MotherReader.

First I went to my library to help set things up, complete a report, and 'man' the info desk for an hour.
Then rushed to another library, over a half hour North/West of mine, to give a program.

I had been invited to talk to the Harford Pen Women about doing research. (Correction -- the true name of the group is the Gunpowder Pen Women -- named after a nearby river.)
What a great group!
I did have a prepared speech, but the questions came fast and furious. Since I prefer to actually answer questions and give the listeners exactly what they feel they need to know, this was fine with me. We talked and talked about research, with side trips into setting up a BLOG and how to use the Library's online databases -- and how to cite them.

The wonderful organizer had promised me a Chinese meal for lunch. Easy-peezy. There's a Chinese place near the library. Ooops, wrong. it's closed. The lovely lady rushed halfway across the county to an open one in order to be able to present me with a huge batch of pork fried rice. (my favorite)

I simply kept talking as long as people asked questions. The library had set up a laptop and projector, which helped me to demonstrate most everything I was talking about by showing them examples on the WEB. Gradually my audience disappeared -- they had to rush home to meet school buses.

It turned out to be my last trip on my old 1999 Saturn sedan. Monday evening we traded it in for a brand new Saturn Vue. What's a Vue? -- it's a minature SUV. Years ago we bought one of the very first Dodge Caravans, which I loved. When I sat in the Vue, I had the very same feeling.

It had gotten so that I didn't trust the old car to survive any more of the long trips we used to take. But now that I have a VUE, FieldTrip, here I come! (The 9-year-old gave a high approval rating of the back seat area and can't wait for tomorrow when she can ride in it to her bus stop.)

-wendieO

1 comment:

laurasalas said...

Sounds like a great talk, Wendie. Prepared presentations can be so wonderful and inspiring, but, often, people really just want a chance to be heard and to have their specific questions answered. What a lovely opportunity for them!