National Library Week Exhibit - FL

My pictures are now up for National Library Week at the University of West Florida Fort Walton Beach campus library. The exhibit includes the following Librarians: Nadine M. Flores, Tiffeni Fonino, Jenna Freedman, Ayanna Gaines, Christine Godin, Diane Goldstein, Desiree Goodwin, Mary Hammer, Randy Hertzler, Francis Howard, Theo Jones-Quartey, Molly Knapp, Joey Nicholson, Michael J. McGrorty, Anne Pemberton, Rebecca Raszewski, Virginia Sanchez, Lisa Shiota, Michael Stephens, and Jason Strauss. For the press release please click here.

The trip to Florida was quite an adventure. I met many interesting people along the way. My flight to Pensacola on Friday night was cancelled at boarding time due to plane maintenance and so I had to spend the night in North Carolina. It was a bit unfortunate that I did not get to explore further that night. Many people were quite angry. I tried to keep a good outlook on it though. I got a free hotel room and $10 for dinner courtesy of US Air for the inconvenience. One woman put it in a nice way, she said, "I would rather have problems on the ground than in the air." I tried to keep telling people that everything happens for a reason...the trick is to find it. For me, I think it was saving a little money and helping a guy get something to eat. He was on both my flights to FL, but he was way behind me in the special services line. When I finished eating at the hotel the waitor told me of some leftovers that they had from the buffet dinner earlier in case I was still hungry...since I just had a salad. I was not very hungry, but when this guy came in and the kitchen was no longer serving food I was able to tell him what the waitor told me and then he got something to eat.

I had decided to ship the frames in advance and take the pictures with me. Red stickers stating Fragile Handle with Care apparently do not matter with the Postal System. 5 frames arrived in FL with shattered glass. I don't mean just cracked. I mean absolutely shattered. So I had to buy more frames once I got there. I hung the exhibit and after I hung the last picture I realized it was a bit too high. I have some perfectionist tendencies and when I went to fix it I dropped the frames and shattered more glass. Luckily, I bought and extra frame and was able to easily switch it.

I did not make it to the Jazz festival, since the flight was delayed everything was pushed back a little. But I did get to take some pictures on the beach and of the sunset from McGuire's restaurant in Destin. I think they should have called the town Destiny. A highway called Miracle Strip leads to/through it. It was interesting for me to see the aftermath of hurricane Ivan. The after effects of the hurricane and the effects on the people are still very much alive. There was much damage to the area and there was a lot of rebuilding still going on. It was sad to see and even worse to realize that when things that do not effect you leave the news it becomes like it never happened...because it didn't happen to you.

If you have any questions about the trip just let me know.

-Cynthia