As I write this right now I am sitting at Starbucks in Triangle, Virginia waiting on Sambo, Whit, Aunt Sally and Grand to arrive at the airport in D.C. and then head a little south to see me! They are coming in for a quick weekend visit to see what I've been doing all summer and see some other Northern Virginia sites (lots of battlefields and Mount Vernon!) Since I've last written I've house sat with my roommate for a Park Ranger who was out of town, leaving us with two precious dogs, a stocked pantry, and phone service, tv, and internet for a week! Then last weekend I went home with my roommate for some more of the same, plus a little pool time, so needless to say I've definitely been spoiled since I made it back from Tulsa. Yesterday the entire office when to King's Dominion (an amusement park like Six Flags) as our end of the summer celebration. They made me ride roller coasters. I hate roller coasters. Well, I guess I don't hate them anymore, but I wore a blindfold on all of them so that I couldn't see what was coming. My roommate, my boss (and fellow Texan), another one of the SCAs from Pittsburg, and another one of the "cave pasties" (that's what us Cultural Resource folks get called since we don't go outside as much) left last night after we got back and I'm definitely sad to see them go and break up our PRWI seasonal group. I still have four more days of work next week before I head back home and fortunately another SCA and a seasonal worker are staying on so I won't be all alone! I'm so so excited to be back close to everyone in TX/OK but I've had a great summer here and am not really looking forward to have to end the great routine of super relaxing week/crazy weekend that I've created here! Somehow I'm sure I'll manage in Tulsa!

Tulsa for a wedding!

A week from Thursday, I flew from Dulles just outside of D.C. to head home to Tulsa for the weekend to go to a Chi O sister’s wedding! I got to Tulsa with just a minor delay in the DFW airport, got picked up by two of my favorites (DP and Laura) and then hit the sack for the night (it was way past my NPS bedtime). On Friday I was reunited with some Tulsa friends during the day—we ate some snowcones and did some shopping. That night we headed to McNellie’s for an everyone-who-is-in-town-for-the-wedding reunion, where I was also reunited with none other than Cassie Beth herself who flew in at 10:30 pm and is now back in Tulsa for good. Saturday was filled with getting stuff out of our warehouse, moving stuff into my new house and Cassie’s new loft, and lunch on the rooftop of El Guapo’s for a friend’s birthday. Saturday night was reserved for wedding activities and it was so fun for everyone to be back together again—it was the first time since graduation! Sunday I packed up and headed back to the airport to go to DFW and Dulles (thank the Lord I got at least a little bit of Texas time to tide me over until I’m back for a few days) and then drive back to the park. This past Tuesday was the all employee meeting and tonight was the volunteer recognition luau—both of which indicate that the summer is coming to a close. Three from our office will leave the 21st, and then a couple will stay on with me until my last day on the 27th. Monday we’ll plan where we take our group work trip, which will probably be next Friday during the day. And tomorrow I get to go with another seasonal and our park superintendent to Glen Echo National Park in Maryland for another appreciation event for all the parks in the National Capitol Region! This weekend and the next will be low key—getting in my last bit of hiking, exploring, and shopping at the outlet mall before the fam gets here to visit! (Also trying to study for the GRE and hoping that Panera’s internet will run fast enough to actually get anything accomplished, i.e. looking for a job!)

Work

So I keep being told that I never speak of what I actually came to Virginia for—to work! Although my blogs might not indicate it, yes, I am still interning for the park, just with some eventful weekends here and there! Last week I just got done with a project I had been working on for about a month. A bunch of old historic architectural drawings and park maps had been left in the basement of headquarters, so I just got finished sorting them, dividing them into groups, and then going through the formal accessioning process of cataloguing and labeling them before they could be put in our museum database and then stored in our collections building. I’ve also been working on transcribing some oral histories of previous park employees, park families, and summer camp counselors to add to the collection. Sometimes we get relatives of park families who want to see old family cemeteries so we take them to those and other times we go search out locations of supposed cemeteries to see if we need to add them to our database with the other 40+ cemetery locations in the park. We’ve also been working on GPSing some of the ruins of a pyrite mine that was here so that maintenance can come along and clear vegetation and better maintain the historic sites. Two weeks ago we went out with the regional archaeologists from headquarters again and found (in addition to a new cemetery) a civil war cannonball (it was this day that I also got my first and hopefully last tick, but don’t even worry because it wasn’t a deer tick so I won’t get lyme disease or anything)! We try to get out in the field a couple or three times a week and other than that we’re doing work around the office. I am still really liking it and am learning a lot—I can’t believe I’m already 2/3 of the way done with my time here! This weekend I was very excited to just relax and lay around (well yesterday I went shopping all day) after three very busy weekends. On Thursday I fly back to Tulsa for a long weekend to go to a Chi O sister’s wedding!!!! After that only a few weekends left before Aunt Sally, Grand, Sam, and Whit visit and then JohnnyBoy heads out here for a cross-country road trip with his favorite daughter!!

NYC!!

The good news is: 1) I am alive and well writing this right now, meaning that I survived a weekend in NYC with Billea and Cassie and 2) I did not loose any shoes! So I Friday morning I got up and drove to the Franconia-Springfield metro station, left my car there, and headed into the city to catch my bus to NYC . After a long (and ugly!) bus ride through several states, I made it to the city where the bus dropped me off a few blocks from our hotel where Cassie and Billea had just checked in. I got there and we immediately went to Junior’s (a Brooklyn restaurant famous for their cheesecake) where we got dinner and carrot cake cheesecake and devil’s food cheesecake. Best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten in my life! After that we walked around Times Square for a little while then headed to see what tickets were available for 9 to 5 that night. Turns out there were three seats together in the center of the fourth row and we decided to splurge because who knows when we’ll ever be back there again! The show was hilarious and it was the original cast since it just opened in April—Dad, I definitely recommend we go see it if it ever goes on tour.

Saturday morning we got up and prepared for a day of shopping—we hit up Chinatown, Century 21, 5th Avenue, and some stores around Grand Central Station too before we headed in to rest for a while. We decided we wanted to see another show, so this time we got in the tkts line since it was shorter than on Friday and got half price tickets to see Mary Poppins that night. We got hot dogs and pretzels from a street vendor then changed and headed to the show, which was also really great. As far as Broadway spectacle goes with big dance numbers, fancy costumes and set pieces, and good special effects, Mary Poppins had it all, so we were really glad we decided to see both shows and get a taste of two different types of musicals. We headed to get food and dessert after the show and then went to a place called the Mad Fiddler where we met a group of charming Irishmen who we danced with into the wee hours of the morning, especially considering that Cassie and Billea had to get up at 7 to share a cab to the airport/back to St. John’s University where Cassie is staying. They got up and headed out while I got to sleep in a little while longer before getting up and wandering around Times Square for a little while and then heading to catch my bus back to D.C. Another fast and furious weekend, but so much fun! Did I mention that we went the whole weekend without a map or guidebook? We wanted to see if we could do it, so we just used our Southern charm and Texas twang to make friends wherever we went (which we were very surprised about since we thought everyone in NY was supposed to be very unfriendly!) and were very successful and never got lost!

Momo Does D.C.!

So on Thursday evening after work I went to the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station to pick Molly up! We made it back to Dumfries/Triangle where I showed her “my” Panera and Starbucks and took her to Five Guys for dinner. Then we got some baking supplies and baked some cookies in the woods—I was going through baking withdrawals! On Friday morning we got up and went hiking for a little while in the woods by my cabin and then showered and got ready and went by my office before we headed to Franconia-Springfield again to leave my car there for the weekend. We took the train in to D.C., checked in to our hotel and then went shopping and to dinner for the evening! Then we headed towards the White House and did all the monuments/memorials behind the Washington Monument (Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, and Korean War) because we knew we’d probably be too tired to get there on Saturday (which was true). Saturday we got up and took the metro to Eastern Market (a flea/food market in Capitol Hill) and got breakfast and shopped around before we spent the rest of the day hopping between all of the museums on the Mall. Sunday we had to get up and get on the metro after breakfast so Mo could get to the airport in time to catch her flight, but I got to ride with her there since Franconia-Springfield is just about 15 minutes on the train past the airport! It was a fast and busy weekend and we both thought our feet were going to fall off on multiple occasions, but it was well worth it and so fun! Also—great news—I did not loose any shoes. Let’s hope this stays the same after next weekend: NYC with Cassie and Billea (one of our sorority sisters from Tulsa!). Love and miss y’all!!

Independence Day!

Well, needless to say this weekend was an eventful one! On Thursday after I got off of work I drove to the Franconia-Springfield Metro station (about 25 minutes away from the park), left my car there, and took the Metro into D.C. to meet my friends Colton, Tim, and John from TU who were all there for their fraternity national convention. When I got in Thursday, we headed towards U-Street where we stopped and ate some Salvadoran/Mexican food and then went to a bar to meet some other KAs from around the Oklahoma area. Friday morning we got up and got breakfast and then the guys went to convention stuff. I wandered around downtown shopping until they got done after lunch and then we went to the mall and to some museums for a while. That night while the guys were at their closing banquet, I walked a few blocks and met up with Cassie where her bus from NYC had dropped her off! Then we headed out to a place called McFadden’s near George Washington where we danced the night away—me with just one shoe. In the rush to get on the Metro to while we were leaving, a young KA gentleman stepped on the back of my favorite pair of flip flops and when he went to grab it, knocked it into the gap between the train and the platform—sadly, it was my beloved leather Rainbows that cost too much for flip flops and only get better with age as they mold to your feet. In actuality I was just glad it was not me or my phone or my camera that had fallen off the platform so I got over it quickly because obviously this would make an awesome story to tell later. No stores were open to buy a replacement pair so yes, I did spend the whole night with only one shoe and sustained no injuries, just a very dirty right foot! Worse has happened, ya know?!
Saturday we got up and had a very American lunch close to our hotel/the White House, then headed towards the mall where we bought ice cream and American flag bandanas and went to the see the Star Spangled Banner at the American History Museum. It was pretty crowded, but definitely not unbearable. After an obligatory bandana wearing group picture in front of the Capitol, we signed a piece of the 9/11 memorial that will be a part of a new museum within the next few years. Then we headed back to the hotel, got dinner, and rested up before we ventured back into the crowds for the firework show from the Lincoln Memorial. We made it through the throngs of people all the way to the Washington Monument where we watched the amazing firework show and when we finally made it back to the hotel through all the people we waited for the crowds to die down and then went to a late night bar and grill close by before heading in for the night. This morning our friends had to leave at 4:30 am to get to the airport and they were nice enough to let Cass and me sleep there for the rest of the morning. We got up and got breakfast and then went our separate ways and now I am back in the park, where there are nowhere near as many people! It’s funny to think that last summer we were in Paris, France for the Fourth and this year we were in an almost polar opposite place to celebrate! It was probably my most memorable Independence as of yet and it was great to be able to be reunited with Tulsa friends and Cassie! Next post: MOMO DOES WASHINGTON D.C.!

Friday, June 26, 2009

I’m about to head up I-95 to go do some shopping and look around Ikea for the afternoon! Today is our Friday off and yesterday we got to leave after lunch! Jim (a biologist who was here for a 6-week detail) had his last day at PRWI yesterday, so we went to Panera for his farewell lunch and then he sent us home for the afternoon! On Thursday he took all us interns out for ice cream and then gave us gift bags to get us through the summer—including a MACHETE!!, work gloves, a first aid kit, and a camp saw. All I need now is a belt so that I can wear my machete on my waist! This is my last free weekend for a while (meeting friends in D.C. for the 4th, Momo visits, going to meet Laura Hermann and Co. on the beach, back to Tulsa for a Chi O wedding, then up here for a couple more weeks) so I’m trying to take advantage of it by hiking and reading and laying around a lot! Miss y’all!

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

As I’m writing this Kaitlyn and I are watching As Good As It Gets on our super old TV. She went to a used bookstore and bought us a bunch of vhs tapes for .97 cents each! This weekend was a good, lazy one involving a lot of hiking, reading, and Panera/Starbucks. This morning at work we went out searching for a cemetery that we didn’t have on our records and also to find a terra cotta well that needed to be capped. After being given the wrong GPS coordinates we finally found the two sites after wandering around the woods for a while and I even got to use the GPS unit to navigate back to our car! Oh and I saw a fox today while I was hiking behind our cabin!

First Daughters Sighting!

This weekend I went home with my roommate Kaitlyn, who is from just outside of D.C. After we got off of work Friday, we packed the car with laundry and empty grocery bags and headed towards Fairfax County. It takes about 50 minutes to get there, so once we got in we had dinner and then figured out what we wanted to do in D.C. for the day on Saturday. Kaitlyn’s dad’s company got us free parking in a garage in the city, so we drove down on Saturday morning and stayed until around 4 pm. We hit up all the major monuments, went by the back of the White House (where we could not even get semi-close because we could see Sasha and Malia playing in their bathing suits in the backyard) and went to Eastern Market, this really awesome food/flea market behind the Capitol (it reminded me so much of my Saturdays spent at the markets in London!) The rest of the weekend we just spent relaxing, watching movies, and shopping at Kaitlyn’s house. We got our groceries at Wegman’s which is a store just like Central Market back home, so obviously I was obsessed and will be going to the one near the park every weekend to get my groceries! Tomorrow we start our new schedule at work so that we can get every other Friday off, but that means we have to get up earlier, so I’m off to read and go to bed!

Also, please patronize Panera in my honor as a thank you for all the free internet they are giving me! And, if you think about it send me pictures because I didn't remember to bring any to put up in my room!

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Today my boss was in Maryland for a meeting so I spent pretty much the whole day reading up on the accession and cataloguing processes for the National Park Service and then got to look at all kinds of stuff in the curatorial building. Today our first group arrived to use the rest of the Cabin Camp*, and from what we can gather it might be a family reunion? Of hippies? We aren’t really sure but they’ve been nice and quiet so far, but I’m going home with my roommate for the weekend and we’re going to DC on Saturday so we probably won’t see much of these people! Tonight I went hiking on a little (it is actually 18 miles in total but I didn’t go that far!) trail that leads right off of our area and it was beautiful, I’m going to go out and take some pictures to post soon!

*So the park has five “Cabin Camps” which house up to 250 people each, I think. Four of the five are on the national registry of historic sites because the CCC built them in the 1930’s and they remain true to their original form, even in renovations for the most part (they are VERY rustic—the guy interns live in one). My Cabin Camp is the only one not on the registry because of how much work they have done to all the buildings here. Each Cabin Camp has a mess hall, kitchen, community bathrooms, craft house, and then buildings for sleeping, so groups can rent the camps out during the summer, normally over the weekends. Our cabin however is not included in the rental and has three bedrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, so we don’t have to share anything! Except for the coke machine that is outside the mess hall that has been tempting me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was a great birthday, very different from last year (when us and our flatmates stayed out past when the tube was running and tried for two hours to navigate the bus system home), but good nonetheless. My boss and I were out in the field all morning with some regional archaeologists for the park service who were checking on some prehistoric and historic sites to make sure that people/roads/weather/etc. were not harming them. They were hilarious and so knowledgeable and cursed like sailors and tried to convince me to move to D.C. to manage nonprofits after I go to grad school—all I know is that whatever I end up doing I want to be as enthusiastic about it as they are about their jobs! At lunch Paul surprised me with a delicious cake and ice cream that was shared by not only our office but also the archaeologists and GIS specialist that we went out with and the four researchers who were with natural resources today! Needless to say it was a big NPS party. We then headed back out to hike the rest of the sites with the archaeologists for the rest of the afternoon and then it was time to head home! Got home, took a little birthday run, showered and then Kaitlyn and I went to a celebratory dinner and then to use internet at Panera for the night. Caught up on my emails and talked to a lot of people wishing me happy birthday and now I’m home for the night, about to watch a movie and head to bed, it was a long day! Also, NEWS FLASH: the interns just changed around our schedule and we are now going to come in a little early every day so that we can have every other Friday off…aka I have plenty of time for weekend visitors and/or trips if anyone is interested. And if you’re not, then mail us some VHS tapes and DVDs to watch…we’ve been craving a little Mamma Mia! if anyone wants to lend it out for a few months!

Pally Out!

Tuesday, June 9th (posted today because I have internet)

So today was my second day on the job. This morning my boss showed me the curatorial building, where we try not to spend too much time because it has to be kept so cold! After lunch we were supposed to watch what they call a Tel (I think), which can be broadcasted live from the offices of all the different National Park Regions to the actual parks. And the Tel for today was about Bigfoot in National Parks! I may have happened to mention my extreme interest in cryptozoology, which may have earned me the name of Sasquatch Sally when we were naming everyone in my office. Unfortunately our system was down because of a big storm last night, so we couldn’t watch it live and ask questions, but we did get a recording of it and will probably watch it tomorrow. Instead we watched a video about saving streams (did I mention we drink spring water that we collect ourselves and bring back to the office in big jugs? It is delicious!)--then comes the highlight of the day. The four interns and a volunteer all got dropped off by Paul (our main boss) with a GPS backpack unit, four compasses (I didn’t get issued one because I won’t really need it and the other four will since they will be out in the field a lot), a map of the park and a task: to find one of the many family cemeteries* in the park and find our way back to our building with the names of the five people buried there. We were given 2 hours and we made it back in 1 and half! I volunteered to be the intern to lay on one of the graves for picture purposes which I think in combination with the Sasquatch stuff has already established me as the office wildcard. But let’s be real I’ve never been bothered by that before, so I don’t mind it here either. Tomorrow I am going out in the field with my boss and the park archaeologist (if we have power tomorrow**)! Sorry this is really long!

P.S. My tick count is zero! Even after I laid on top of a grave in the woods. I really shouldn’t have a problem except that my roommate is a natural resource intern and will be bringing them into our cabin and our cars that we carpool in.

*More to come on the history of Prince William Forest Park but it was established in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps with FDR’s New Deal and was focused on providing recreation opportunities to people, especially poor people, in the DC area.

**Also, the power just went out here after a woman came and knocked on our door to let us know there was a FIRE on the entrance road to our camp from a tree that had fallen on a powerline. Me and Kaitlyn and Maggie (another intern who is about to leave) just drove down to look at it and called my boss who then called LE (law enforcement) to let them know what is happening! Now we are going to cook over a Coleman camping stove and then go hang out at some more park housing where staff lives down the road. We could go in to Panera, but we decided we are too legit for that. Also, we just got back from getting ice to keep our food good and the power is back on.