I think I'm in love..

If you've been reading along, you'll recall that yesterday I visited Mt. Vernon - the home of our first president. Well, today, I visited the home of our third president - Thomas Jefferson. Very much like Washington's estate, Monticello (TJ's abode) was vast and impressive. Monticello sits atop a mountain, consequently overlooking breathtaking views from all angles of the house. The rooms are numerous; the decoration, opulent. In fact, so extravagant that...drum roll please..............

The walls of Thomas Jefferson's dining room are macaroni and cheese yellow! WHAT?!?! You may be saying to yourself, "That does not sound very fancy", and you would be right. (It was honestly kinda ugly.) So, why was this color on the walls? Well, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, bright paint colors acted as a sign of wealth! Hmmmm. The brighter the paint color, the more pigment was used, and therefore, the more expensive it was to make. For you math geeks out there, while a bucket of white paint may have cost 15 cents, Jefferson's yummy yellow would have cost you a whopping $5.00!!! Crazy business! Despite the horrifically bright walls, something about Monticello, and in turn its owner, grabbed a hold of me and would not let go.

I began falling love (surprise surprise!) in Thomas Jefferson's library. I walked into that room and thought I'd gone to heaven. Each wall was covered by stacks of bookshelves, filled with small books, big books, thick books, skinny books, books written in English, written in French, and many more languages that I cannot understand. Basically, the man loved books! Actually, I should correct myself. He did not simply love them; he was OBSESSED! The very bookshelves that lined the walls were made specifically so that Jefferson could remove them at any point in time to take them as traveling shelves in his carriage when he had to go on a journey. God-forbid he leave his reading material behind! *Sigh* A man after my own heart. As I followed our guide through the rest of the house, it became more and more clear that this man truly thought about and gave attention to all aspects of his life. Think about it...

You are Thomas Jefferson. You've read and studied Roman architecture. You've taught yourself how to create architectural drawings. You've outlined, to the 1/100,000 digit, every measurement of every room and its every detail. You've overseen construction. You've watched it be completed, and you're still not done, because you never let yourself be finished. You always strive for something more, some other way to contribute. Come on ladies...that's just plain sexy. If you still don't believe me, go look at pictures of Monticello - it's gorgeous! So gorgeous, in fact, that I broke my spending limit today and put down $40 on a book so I could look at the building even after I'd left the property! There is no doubt the man had vision. Ok, ok, I know he owned slaves and did not want to see the institution leave Virginia. Dumb. Completely inexcusable! We would have had big issues had we dated back in the day, but damnnnnnn....a passionately dedicated dork who did big things. Now, that's hot.