Deep breaths

Well, so my lecture last night was not quite what I imagined. Poor Donald Miller seemed to be a little surprised he was giving a lecture. he said he hadn't really studied Chicago (he does A TON of stuff, TONS) in awhile, since the book and he seemed to be cruising on genetic book memory.

There were probably about 80 people there and our host was saying that all of the docents use this book so widely, she asked how many of us were docents and I would say 90% of the people raised their hands. The CAF docents really are amazing and they know A LOT and they study religiously and await anxiously the new information that comes in the form of continuing education. And I think unfortunately for us, we didn't learn anything we didn't already know about Mr. Burnham. I learned a little more about his partner, John Root (he designed Monadnock, the Rookery and the Reliance - which is my favorite) who I guess was just a master of all things, philosophy and music and language and design.

One of my favorite John Root stories is that he was playing the organ for his church and it turned out he was playing "shoo fly"....just really slowly. That's pretty funny stuff for the 1880's.

And Donald Miller also reminded me of the quote that to see Daniel Burnham and John Root together was like watching lightening dance around an oak tree.

They were so much more poetic then.

I also had a guy in front of me who couldn't sit still, couldn't decide which way to lean his head, couldn't decide if he wanted his leg up or down. I almost leaned forward and stuck my fingers in his nose to hold him in one place, but that's not very docent-like.

Anyway, it was fun to go and do something new and great to ride home on the lakefront path which I almost never do because it's a death trap.

Tonight I have lady dinner!