and the day was GLORIOUS

My adventure with Colleen yesterday in DC was fabulous. I slept in till 9:45 (consider that i normally get up at 5:30 on weekdays) and had cold pizza and Diet Mt Dew for breakfast (the Breakfast of Champions). We set out for the National Museum of African Art by 11:00. The weather was still a bit nippy, but very sunny and bright. It was the kind of day where you needed a sweater or a jacket, but not both. The only word to describe it would GLORIOUS. Strolling through the Enid Haupt Gardens (behind the Castle on the Mall) everything was in bloom, including the Easter Trees.

I've always wondered why the International Museum, the Sackler and African Art are so teeny. It turns out that the museums are underground. That's right, underground. Enid's garden is called the Rooftop Garden and i never understood why. Now i do. In fact, the three aforementioned museums are actually linked underground by a series of corridors - kinda cool and creepy at the same time. African Art was awesome. It is hard to image trying to curate a museum to cover hundreds of different countries and tribes over the last 600 years, but it was done well. They had a nice mix of traditional tribal pieces and modern pieces made by African artists. And a big thumbs up on the traditional music playing throughout the galleries. Here is a beaded male figure of the Bamum peoples of Cameroon (late 19th century) and a huge portrait of Ethiopian women by Aidu Muluneh called "The Spirit of Sisterhood" that includes the reflection of a pasty, white sister in it. I love museums, love being exposed to things i've never seen or experienced before. My brain tingles when i learn new things. Colleen is a great person to go museuming with, as she gets how i like to experience it: i want to move through the gallery at my own pace, absorbing and thinking alone, hook up at the end of the gallery to discuss what we saw, and then move together to the next gallery. We may have to go back to African Art this summer as there is an exhibit opening in May about African graphics and written language and I loves me some written language! We wound our way through the underground maze of hallways and offices and were suddenly in the International Center where there were two exhibits: Vietnamese-Americans and the French and Indian War. Wow, talk about 2 totally different topics to be in one space. They were both well done, though. Next was a quest for R2-D2. I'm sure by now you have heard that last Thursday USPS wrapped blue mailboxes in 200 cities to look like our favorite astro-mech droid in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. I read about them on the Geeks List and was bound and determined to find one. There was much searching and asking around and we finally found one in Union Station in DC. It is adorable, as is the lovely Colleen along side. We ended up at her house, after yummy dinner burritos, watching music videos from OnDemand (gosh i like music in any form, but especially in video form - i was a member of the first MTV generation ya know) and then Food Network. I finally got home around 12:15. And to think that i could have been at work instead...