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Sunday Routines: Susan Sharpless Smith

In this series, inspired by the New York Times’ Sunday Routines, we gain a glimpse into the lives of the people behind LITA. This post focuses on Susan Sharpless Smith, who was recently elected 2015-2018 Director-at-Large.

smith-headshotSusan Sharpless Smith is an Associate Dean at Wake Forest University’s Z. Smith Reynolds Library. She’s been in that role since 2011, but has worked in a range of positions at that library since 1996. Her current job provides a wide variety of responsibilities and opportunities, and fills her week with interesting, meaningful professional work.

Sunday is the day Susan reserves to enjoy her family and her interests. It normally unfolds slowly. Susan is an early riser, often heading for the first cup of coffee and the Sunday newspaper before 6 am. In the summer, the first hour of the day is spent watching the day emerge from her screen porch in Winston-Salem, NC. She is not a big TV watcher but always tunes into the Today Show on Sunday mornings.

Bicycling is one of Susan’s passions, so a typical Sunday will include a 15-40 mile bike ride, either around town or out into the surrounding countryside. It’s her belief that bicycling is good for the soul. It also is one of the best ways to get acquainted with new places, so a bike ride is always on her agenda when traveling. Plans are already underway for a San Francisco bike excursion during ALA!

Susan’s second passion is photography, so whatever she is up to on any given Sunday, a camera accompanies her. (The best camera is the one you have with you!). She has been archiving her photographs on Flickr since 2006 and has almost 10,500 of them. Her most relaxing Sunday evening activity is settling in on her MacBook Air to process photos from that day in Photoshop.

photography

Her son and daughter are grown, so often the day is planned around a family gathering of some sort. This can involve a road trip to Durham, an in-town Sunday brunch, a drive to North Carolina wine country or an hike at nearby Hanging Rock.

family

Her best Sunday would be spent in her favorite place in the world, at her family’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Susan’s family has been going there for vacations since she was a child. It’s where she heads whenever she has a long weekend and wants to recharge. Her perfect Sunday is spent there (either for real, or in her imagination when she can’t get away). This day includes a sunrise walk on the beach, a morning bike ride on the boardwalk stopping for a breakfast while people-watching, reading a book on the beach, eating crab cakes for every meal (there’s no good ones in Piedmont North Carolina), a photo-shoot at the state park, a kayak trip on the bay and an evening at Funland riding bumper cars and playing skeeball. It doesn’t get any better than that!

hiking-hanging-rock

One comment

  1. Michael Rodriguez

    This is an awesome new series! I’m really excited to see how it unfolds.

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