The first downside of using the gift cards is that you won’t get the credit card points bonus for Southwest purchases. Presumably there is a subset of Southwest fans chasing Companion Pass and maybe spending more money with Southwest is worth it to them, but saving $350 was a no-brainer for me. Maybe this will change when I get A-list preferred for the first time next year. I will update if so.

Second downside: they are annoying to use! Costco sends you an email with the card number and PIN, and you have to use these every time you book. There is no way to save the gift card in your account. This was ok for me, since I used them to book several months of flights in one sitting. But, if you don’t fly often, you might want to print out the email. (If you lost it, Southwest forums indicate that you can recover it via memberedelivery.com — click ‘Digital Order Portal’ and enter your Costco order number. Costco customer service may be able to retrieve it for you.)

Southwest assures me that if you cancel a flight booked with a gift card, it will be returned as a flight credit to your account. No idea what happens if you book credit for others that don’t have a Southwest account. If you tell me in the comments, I’ll update.

I think the scholarship covered something like 70% of my expenses, I didn’t really pay attention. Because it was during COVID, I had a private room, which I certainly would never have been able to afford otherwise. It was amazing.

Private cabins.

There were no obvious signals that I was there on a scholarship, and there were obviously other people there who had some sorts of creative financing deals going on. It was a great experience. The food was good, it seemed possible to accommodate allergies and other dietary needs there, and the only issue was getting transportation to and from the airport if you cannot afford a car rental. Another person at the retreat told me that it is possible to make arrangements for a car, but there was staff turnover so the only thing I heard about was a Google sheet of people who volunteer to drive people to and from Esalen, which I did not feel comfortable with.

I bought two books related to this trip. The first was a book of a conference proceedings from a workshop about Esalen’s role in American spirituality. The second I found after wondering whether Thomas Merton ever visited: Woods, Shore, Desert, a journal of his journey up the Pacific Coast, which is apparently out of print and now expensive.

Readers of the blog may enjoy this photo I found from Merton’s travels, from the an article where I learned about Woods, Shore, Desert:

I wish next to visit the Monastery of the Redwoods, where Merton took a series of extended retreats detailed in this charming book. I was so surprised by the return of my curiosity and most of all, that I returned with a more relaxed countenance. My default facial position seems to have changed. While occasionally I can slip back into my usual grimace, sometimes now I find myself with a look of peace that D calls my Esalen face.

Watching the moon rise above the mountains from a cliff side hot tub (and from a heated pool) was among the single most pleasant experiences of my life. There were several days full of a series of unrivaled perfect moments. I hope everyone has the opportunity someday to rest somewhere so beautiful.

The baths at Esalen.

I had nearly forgotten about my application a few weeks after I submitted it, when I was telling a friend about my issues at church, and he told me out of the blue that he’d known my friend Katie (he’d read the post linked above). I had an odd feeling that I’ve only had a few times – the phrase that comes to mind is “somebody walked over my grave” – and sure enough, the next morning, I woke up to an email from the Unitarian Universalist Association informing me that I’d received a scholarship making it possible for me to go to General Assembly. If this wasn’t enough of a sign to stay put at All Souls, the day following, I heard from my colleague, L, in Columbus: she was coming to DC and wanted to meet, so, I didn’t even have to contact her first to ask her about staying at her place!

I was so happy to be able to meet L for the first time in person. Working with her as a client was such a thrill – I could always sense that a person of immense curiosity and intellect, who shared my passion for libraries, was on the other end of the line when we used to have our weekly client phone call, but she is even kinder and more generous and funny than I could have imagined. Here are my favorite pictures from the first time we met IRL, when we did the cocktail flight at BarMini.

I’m glad that I have put in the time at the church. I don’t know if Unitarian Universalism figures into my spiritual path long-term, but in the meantime, it has brought me some wonderful things. I’ve attended IAF community organizing training for a second time, met some very nice people, and have been able to observe different leadership styles and group dynamics than I am used to. Navigating small conflicts within the young adult group has made me a better listener, less inclined to gossip, and more inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I had a nice time at the Service of the Living Tradition, and loved seeing my friends from All Souls on stage singing under the direction of our church’s musical director.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to spend some time in L’s apartment, too. Being around a new friend who has been so kind has made it clear who in my life isn’t reciprocating the good vibes I try to put forth in all my interpersonal relations.

I am so lucky to have a friend like L. Girl makes me want to raise the bar on hospitality to guests.

I was disappointed to miss two attractions in Columbus that weren’t on my radar until it was too late to visit: first, the significant collection of Dale Chihuly glass at the Franklin Park Conservatory (I really love the Chihuly chandelier in the Renwick), and second, the Lustron House that is permanently in the Ohio Historical Society after a three-year visit to MOMA. Getting to Columbus is pretty cheap, so I’m hoping to make one more trip back there before L moves.

I loved going to see the Columbus Clippers with L’s brother and his wife, and their friends Toast and Stove.

I only go to minor league baseball when it’s PGCMLS/Summer Reading night at the Bowie Baysox, so it was really a treat to go to a game smack in the middle of downtown! Here are some pictures of the stadium, and Toast and Stove’s family and friends.

The main library branch in downtown Columbus reopened just in time for my trip, too. That deserves its own blog post over at the library-specific blog I’m trying to force myself to update. First, though, I want to rave about Columbus’s coffee scene. The city (which has an adorable downtown visitor’s center) distributes little passports for participating coffee shops and craft breweries, and gives you freebies if you bring your completed book back downtown. (Unfortunately, they don’t let you keep the book as a souvenir, but the t-shirt they give out is pretty nice!)

How cute is this, though?

The coffee shop that stood out most for me was the Roosevelt, which plugs back into some social causes and serves Destination Doughnuts, which were SO GOOD.

Something that really struck me was how much SPACE a lot of these businesses had. It was wild having the places go on and on once you got inside. Can’t recall the names of everywhere I went, but man, all the places on that coffee passport were great!

I also enjoyed going to Columbus Fest in the awesome park near the convention center.

Jenni’s ice cream was kind of overrated, but the central market in Columbus was nice. I rode the bike share a lot and loved it.

Thank you to everyone who made this such a great trip, especially to the new friends I met from All Souls and to the loveliest of hostesses, and the loveliest of lemurs.

First, though, Mr. M and I are going to Amsterdam (and other undisclosed locations, TBD) for 10 days! Here is my working list of things I want to see:

– the Escher Museum in The Hague

– the public library

(I think there is a mouse dollhouse here, but it may also be at the Hermitage Museum)

and the houseboat cat sanctuary:

Netherlands, Amsterdam, Poezenboot, Famous Boathouse For Cats. (Photo by Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)

Biblical Museum/Bijbels museum

Anne Frank House

Miro exhibit at the Rijksmuseum gardens

We are slowly getting our bearings in Rome. It helps that we are in a terrific location. I wanted to share with you all 2 bars in Rome’s Monti neighborhood, both on Via Zingari (rhymes with Hungary – the Romans seemingly have no phoenetic imagination – I had a great time today asking for “Fontana Trevi” and getting blank looks because I said the “e” in Trevi like an American. I just kept repeating it until they said, “ah, Fontana Trevi,” now I understand why people just repeat things over and over in English when faced with a foreign language speaker!).

First, Cafe Bohemien. Cocktails are €7. I like this exchange rate, and also traveling from DC makes everything seem cheap. I think the books on the shelves must be for sale – not sure I saw any in English, though. This bar has wifi which is something of a rarity, and the reason we keep coming back – the internet at the dormitory is rather unreliable.

Next, Libro Divino, right next door. You can tell from the logo that this is a bar a librarian would like:

Libro Divino’s logo

Photos of the interior:

Like I said, pretty much all the fun stuff I did at Midwinter was thanks to the Internet. I posted in ALATT looking for advice on finding money to get to Midwinter, and found a really cool librarian to share a room with for super cheap (thanks VK, you are the coolest!). This same post led me to my ALA Bestie, Tiff, who was just as excited as I was to be in Emerging Leaders and who promptly made a Facebook group for all of us and got at least half our cohort to join before Midwinter. Found out through our Facebook group that another woman from our group, Allie, was going to be in town early, too, so we made tentative plans to hang out and adjusted them when this stroke of luck came along:

My (old? new?) friend Amanda, who I haven’t heard from in years, figured out from Instagram that I was in Chicago for librarian shenanigans. We were on a message board together several years ago, and I had no idea she’d 1) left Austin 2) moved to Chicago 3) become a librarian. She was kind enough to offer to give me and another person from the Internet I’d never met a tour of the Newberry Library. (Allie, thanks for being such a great sport about meeting 2 Internet randos on the same day!)

I’ve been promising to share these pictures forever, so here they are. I’ve worked in some pretty cool libraries, but this one was really special (GET IT?).

This lady knows how to give a tour. She lined us up for the obvious photo op right away:

A real Oscar! It was heavy.

There were some seriously cool maps up in there, but they were tricky to photograph, so this is the only one you’ll see. There were also the cool tiny globes that sailors could refer to.

expert-level cardigan-collection coordination

Next, some super-deluxe Milton:

Paradise Lost

I think those are emeralds and rubies.

This is DEFINITELY a snakeskin.

RIP, Kaa.

the lovely lady in action.

I don’t even understand how this is possible.

A few other highlights:

A witch’s spell book (miss lady was not even trying to hide her activities, no decoder ring to be found)

What may be the oldest existing copy of Francisco Ximénez’s transcription of the Popul Vuh…

Popul Vuh.

How do you take books in a covered wagon? Make the books ITTY BITTY. Tiny books (not to be confused with tiny hats)! Everyone’s favorite!

tiny books!

I wonder if people used magnifying glasses for these….

Thanks Amanda and the Newberry for a fantastic day!

cuties

My Emerging Leaders group is great (and adorable). We’re working for the Association for Library Services to Children to extend last year’s EL team’s research on valuation of library services.

2015 ALSC Emerging Leaders

Oh, and I met Cornell West. There were pictures on Courtney Young’s phone, but she probably deleted them because I was some rando who photo-bombed her. Still! Cornell West! He was just as awesome at speaking as you would imagine. Thanks for the photo, Mac!