Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Thursday is National Walk To A Park Day. I know these celebratory days are mostly made up, but some are fun to think about. Do you live close enough to a park to walk to one on Thursday? Will you? The most famous park in the world is Central Park located in NYC. Have you ever been to Central Park? What did you think? If you haven't been is this a place you'd like to see? 

I do not live close enough to a park to walk to one from my house, but I do love walking in the local parks!

I have been to Central Park in a couple different seasons. My husband actually proposed to me in Central Park in February on my first visit to the city in 2015. There were so few people around at that time of the year, that it made it really intimate. My best friend scouted locations in the city for the engagement and it was fun to have someone who spends a lot of time in Central Park choose the location for that moment.

2. Something you've done recently that turned out to be a 'walk in the park'? 

Our NCSLMA library conference had the theme "a walk in the park," playing off of a dinosaur park last week. It was such a great conference and was so beneficial hearing about different initiatives and programs libraries are running around the state. 

3. Can you parallel park? Do you have to do this often where you live? 

I can parallel park, and I can do so much easier in my current car, than in my first car. That back-up camera makes such a difference in my parallel parking skills. 

I don't have to parallel park very often in our current town, but when we lived in the mountains, and before that in New York state, it was a necessary skill.

4. The colors of fall...red, brown, russet, golden bronze, golden yellow, purplish red, light tan, crimson, orange red, and scarlet. Are these colors you like to wear? Is this your season in terms of color? What about your home? Would we see these tones in your home decorating?

I adore an autumnal color palette - its why our wedding was celebrated in October. 

I am an autumn in regards to my own color palette of shades that look best with my coloring.

While I love these colors, and bring them out in small doses in the autumn season, I do not decorate year round in these shades. My home is full of blues and greens primarily as I like the "neutral" color palette they provide to the different seasons I bring in throughout the year, while looking clean and fresh in the summer months when the home is less decorated.

5. What part of history do you find most interesting? Elaborate. 

This is easily the most challenging question! I love history and minored in it in undergrad. I read history books for fun and credit American Girl, My Dear America and many Caldecott winners for inspiring this love as a young reader. I also went on so many amazing field trips growing up that related to American history in the various states we lived in.

One of my favorite classes I took in undergrad was about Chinese history. I also took a great class about the Holocaust. One of the first history classes I took in undergrad was about The Great Powers and The Paris Peace Treaty.

I guess with that information in mind, I prefer more "modern" history to ancient history. I tend to read most voraciously about the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and try to read pretty globally. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm exhausted. October is full of so much good mixed with the weight of what is happening locally, across our country, and globally. I have hard things happening in our home (an ear infection), in our school (testing - ugh!), in our community (hurricane aftermath), and it just goes on. I'm an empath and so I carry the weight around under normal circumstances, but it all just feels like a lot right now. I am grateful for my anti-anxiety medicine making this all a bit easier for me to hold, but just know, we're all going through it right now.