We’re in Washington DC as part of a school trip. It’s great. After a very short tour of the Capitol Building today, we had lunch at the Library of Congress and then went to its Visitor’s Center. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. Every surface is covered with decoration, including gold leaf, decorative painting, and, oh yes, mosaic! The mosaic floors and ceilings are breath-taking. Hope I can find something out about it–could be made by Italian mosaicist. Pictures in a week or so.
It may have been beautiful, but Eva was mad. “I want to see the books. When can we see the books? You don’t go to the Library of Congress to see the architecture, you go to see books,” she ranted. So the dream will have to be postponed.
Did I say pictures in a week or so? Why is that? Because we have been forced to fall back on film for this trip. Can you fathom it? I foolishly put down our digital camera to pay for something at one of the Smithsonian museums. I guess I forgot to pick it up. When we went back to look for it, the clerk said, “Was it on this corner?” Yes, it was. “I think a gentleman picked it up,” she said. Another clerk standing nearby said, “He must not have been a gentleman.”
I felt bad enough about it, but my daughter had so enjoyed snapping pictures of all the interesting sights, that I felt even worse knowing that she couldn’t do that anymore 0n this trip. Ah well. The thief will undoubtedly suffer karma. My current understanding of karma is that it is all bad, so apparently, “bad karma” is redundant.
But here is something funny to close with: at the National Zoo, a man walked up to the information booth. He said, “Do you have any kangaroos?” The woman at the booth, a National Zoo employee, said, “No, I don’t think so. We have emus. That’s the closest thing we have to kangaroos.”
That is a true story. I heard it with my own ears.