Today, I charged up the iPhone/GPS and headed up Lakeshore Drive, all the way to Evanston. I had signed up for a Copyright for Archivists workshop at Northwestern University. Downtown Evanston and Northwestern University are so quaint. The university is integrated with a residential neighborhood. Plus, it was welcome week, so all these freshman were walking around with purple shirts that read Class of 2015 on the back. When I was in college there was no mandatory welcome week programs and my orientation at U of A felt more like a herd of buffalo melting under the sun than the small groups of students gathering on benches and on the green lawns around Northwestern. I assume it has something to do with the relationship between cost of attendance and level of personal attention. I walked to the library, and made my way to the forum room. I listened to a professor from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign talk about copyright, deeds of gift and how the digital era has impacted our processes. The professor's name was Bill Maher (I chuckled too) and he was very engaging and gave alot of examples. The content was familiar from my ethics courses at UA, but I did take away a few resources that will help me identify what to do in certain situations. I had to leave 45 minutes early in order to make it downtown for my next "appointment".
I had planned to attend the informational session for the University of Chicago's Artifact Care Certificate, in the Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago. I was so turned around. For those who may not know, there are two levels of streets in downtown area. So, for a handful of streets, you have an upper and a lower version. For a novice like me, its like bumping Mario's head on a brick trying to find a mushroom, to find the street that will let you access the lower, and vice versa. Plus, the lower versions are dark and scary, additionally Mapquest cannot pick up a signal when you are underground. I am driving around in circles, trying not to hit shoppers and tourists that clog the crosswalks. I am navigating one way streets and itty bitty street signs, I can't even get an idea of where this place is. I am going to be late, so I think that I should just go home, it's just not worth it. Then, through the urban canyon, I see University of Chicago Gleacher Center on a building just over yonder! I make as much of a beeline as possible to the building, and the space is so calm and spread out, I can't believe that I didn't see it earlier. There is a parking garage nearby, I park and hustle over to my meeting, just under 15 minutes late. There are only 2 of us there to listen to this woman talk, so it went by pretty quick. I don't know if this would be a substitute for Dominican University, but if I got that job at U of C, it would be a smoking deal. I want to ask the archivist at DuSable and see what she thinks of the credential.
Since I was already downtown and stressed out from driving, I decided to wander for a little bit. Lo and behold, there is a movie theatre showing the new Kevin Hart film, Laugh at my Pain, in 20 minutes! I got my ticket and a snack and prepared for a laugh riot. The film met my expectation, if you like The Kings of Comedy, Chris Rock or Eddie Murphy comedy specials, you will not be disappointed. After the movie I saw a missed call from Lauren, her and Rachna were going to have dinner. I assumed that they would have ate by the time I was finished, and my phone was dying so I declined the invitation. I made it home and was about to get into my solitary groove when Lauren comes back and tells me all about the dinner, and how she is bored. She mentions Zumba on the Wii and I said that I would do it with her. There we are, two thick girls doing Latin dances and trying not to stomp on the floor at 10:30 at night. I haven't done Zumba since last year so some of it came back to me, but it definitely wore me out, I hope that I am not sore tomorrow.
