Huh.....

Lyceum

This weekend Eric, Deannie, Dean, Holly, Brodie, and I all went to the beach house for some R&R. We drank wine, sat in front of the fire, googled over the baby, and ate some damn good food. Deannie brought March Of The penguins (Penguino en Espanol) and we sat together and watched it together after Brodie went to bed.

I was sucked in to wanting to see it long ago when the adorable previews came out months ago. Then Cory did a post about it that left me slightly uninterested....however Deannie comes to me and says, "You have to see this movie. There is this part - that reminds me of you -- it's when one of the momma penguins looses it's baby and so it goes and trys to steal one from one of the other momma penquins...." Huh...

I'm not sure what she was getting at.....but....

SO I got the red streaks in my hair on Monday. They are very subtle but my boss did notice them. I have 10 red streaks although some are under neath -- so they are not all that visible. It took Erin all of 20 minutes to put them in. They are attached to my hair with a sort of plastic stuff that is melted on. Eric said it best when describing it much like the end of a shoe lace. Once I'm over the red extensions I will go back to Erin and she will put a gel on them that breaks down the compound and leaves me streak free. For now I feel secretly punkish.

I have a history extra credit paper to do. We were told we could write a paper on a historical exhibit dealing with anything from 1865 to the present and relating to US History. I chose to go to the Alexandria, Lyceum.

I've been seeing this building on Washington Street for years. It's called the Lyceum and damn if I knew what the hell a Lyceum was. Even the smartest people I know had no clue what a Lyceum was. Hear ye Here ye -- a Lyceum is aLatinn word and means 1) a hall for public lectures or discussions 2) an association providing public lectures, concerts, and entertainments. And our Alexandria Lyceum is just that with an museum as an added feature.

The Alexandria History museum, or Lyceum, is a mighty interesting place. It was mega fun learning about the history of Alexandria and seeing pictures of what it used to look like back in the days before cars and pavement.

Interesting facts learned (not in any order):

1. Precivil war Alexandria was the main seaport carrying tobacco, slaves, flour and fish to Britainn and then receiving slaves and finished goods
2. Alexandria had one of the biggest slave trading firms in the east at that time. The firm was Franklin and Arnold and was located at 1315 Duke Street (next door to an office I used to work at)
3. Post civil war we weren't the main seaport anymore but with the expansion of the railroads we became the the gateway to the south via locomotive
4. In 1892 an electric trolly (The Washington Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway) began providing transportation between Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon -- cutting the once 1 hour long trek, via boat, to Mount Vernon in half by 30 minutes.
5. In 1888 the Electric street car encouraged new land development (the suburbs) and in 1908-1914 84 acres of land were developed in to a suburb called "Rosemont" (Deannie and Dean live here) The area was advertised as having only a 20 minute commute for federal workers in to DC.
6. 1881 Southern Bell began erecting telephone poles & lines. There were 100 Subscribers by 1891
7. On September 16th (my birthday) of 1889 the mayor of Alexandria turned on the first electric power in the city.

#7 is my favorite fact.

posted by Jessiedc28 @ 7:36 AM