Nashville Confidential

fan-fugu-tastic

Okay, only one thing -- well, maybe three -- can persuade me to post tonight [I am about 27 seconds from falling asleep -- I was up at the crack of dawn for this week's festivities.]

1. We had an earthquake last night. Oh, I slept through it.
2. I got my five-year pin today at our big meeting at work -- a huge surprise, since my anniversary is actually next month. Is it really five years since I became a corporate drone (and happily so)?
3. One of my favorite "Simpsons," the one where Homer tries sushi and thinks he's eaten the poison from a blowfish (fugu), is on right now. I really needed a good laugh tonight so it is serendipity. Even more fortuitous is that KNS and I talked about this very episode during her visit this past weekend. I was trying to convince her that she should try sushi. She was not convinced; in fact, she seemed more impressed when I said I can probably recite the whole episode.

where's my straw?

This week is our big meeting at work and I'll be so, so, so happy when it's over. I won't be posting for the next couple of days due to time constraints. The minute the meeting is over I'm getting on a plane for vacation and ordering a trough of margaritas. As I told someone today, "I'm not a big drinker. But I can learn ..." I'll be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Tucson. Arriba!

catching up

You can say it: the log has been lame lately. Okay, so what have I been up to? Well, I did visit the Frist as mentioned in my last post, and two rather Jungian things happened. First was that one of the exhibition pictures referred to war correspondent Ernie Pyle, and that is the third time in recent weeks he's come up. I heard his biographer interviewed on Fresh Air, and secondly Pyle was mentioned on the exterior of the Indiana State Museum. As you know, I'm a big fan of just about any museum, and this one looks very cool inside and out. We walked by it last weekend on the Race for the Cure route, and I was very impressed. I'm sure a lot of people hate it because it has a rather modern exterior. It's made out of slabs of Indiana limestone and is almost Mondrian in appearance. I love it because each county was asked to place an exhibit in the exterior of the museum, so it has all kinds of airplanes and towers and trees and Ball jars with Garfield dolls inside (seriously!) sticking out of the building. Again, not for all tastes, but when you read about the exhibits and see them, they are symbolic and extremely cool. Ernie Pyle's county chose a stone sculpture of a typewriter as its exhibit.

Indianapolis has it going ON. There is a canal / state park running through downtown, and they have placed a lot of cool stuff along this public walkway. (Click here for a photo tour I found on the Internet.) The state museum and historical society are along it, as are the NCAA Hall of Champions (yawn) and their minor-league baseball stadium. Their war memorial is along the canal. Their zoo and botanical garden and art museum are also part of the cavalcade of public space. You can rent a bike or a paddleboat. You can just hang out. There were all kinds of folks out enjoying the canal and associated sites this past weekend (I'm sure the gorgeous weather didn't hurt.) This is interesting to me because Nashville is contemplating its future and what should be done with development, particularly downtown.

my kind of town

Just before noon my brother left me an AUDIX from the Art Institute of Chicago, one of my favorite places on the planet. Apparently he is up there with a group of high school students (can you imagine?). He was pressed into service as their chauffeur by the school -- he sees this as the advantage of having a Commercial Driver's License. He is such a scammer. Some say, "Oh, he's a sales type." Scammer.

He said he isn't sure he likes the museum all that well. "I never stop [walking]. I'm more interested in how the room's laid out and the lighting than the art." Hmm. I confess, I do look at that too when I'm in a museum - I like seeing how they've conceived the exhibition and plotted it out, how they pace it and what they highlight.

My brother said he's glad he brought a radio so he can listen to the Sox game ... also said he wished I was there. Me too. I would like his funny narration and just to be with him. I am already regretting my decision not to go home for Easter, but there is too much to take care of here just now. I will have other family time in May ...

I'm definitely going to the Frist after work.

cancer sucks

This weekend I was at Race for the Cure in Indianapolis, where we gathered for a family walk to remember and celebrate my cousin Marti. Everyone at the walk wears a shirt or sign that reflects their motivation or feeling about the event. One that stood out was a college-age girl wearing a T-shirt that said, "Cancer sucks." Ineloquent but true nevertheless.

apparently it takes 25 seconds for my head to explode

Today I volunteered at the Frist for its second anniversary open house and I really enjoyed it. It was great to see such a wide mix of people partaking of the festivities, and I just love the whole place. I was a greeter, which is wonderful for about four hours (fortunately, four hours = one shift). We had a lot of first-time visitors, and I believe many of them will return. The crowd contained a very wide range of ages and races. The main exhibit is photography from the Smithsonian chronicling the African-American experience. It's called "Reflections in Black" and it's quite powerful.

The Racial Sensitivity Award goes to the very Southernly matron (estimated age: 105) who asked me, "Is it all pictures of black people?" and then, after I confirmed that was so, replied, "Well, I certainly don't want to see that."

But the most bizarre incident happened about 10 minutes before my shift ended -- so very close! A gentleman wearing a little hat and carrying a cane made a bee-line for my information desk. His wife was with him and he had the disturbing habit of calling her "Mommy." These folks were 70 if they were a day, and they said they just got back from Manila (after six months - I'm not sure why) and they were both talking to me at once and he was ordering Mommy to go stand over there and then he ordered me to look at her and then he whipped out a sketch pad and marker and started to DRAW MY PICTURE like we were at a carnival or something. And he told me to count 1 one-thousand, 2 one-thousand, and so on.

Let me mention that I am supposed to be watching incoming gallery patrons, greeting them and making sure they aren't bringing food / drink / umbrellas / bombs into our beloved museum. But I'm trapped between these two, sitting stock-still, counting and feeling very foolish. Mommy told me (as I'm counting) that her husband tried to draw another volunteer, but the man declined by explaining he was working. Wish I'd thought of that! I'll be more prepared next time.

I got to stop counting at 24 one-thousand because he was done. Longest 24 seconds of my LIFE.

You could see that Mommy had pretty much lost the will to live. She has learned, through harsh and bitter years, to just go stand over there and engage the subject in conversation. Most important, she knows when to hand over her tube of lipstick so the husband can use it to place color on the line drawing's cheeks and lips.

Thank goodness for the woman who came up to ask me a question; she engaged me in conversation -- a real, art-related conversation -- so Mommy & her husband departed. My savior? Black. Wish the matron would have been around to see it.

happy birthday sophia

You arrived in the world and in our lives two years ago today and we are forever thankful. Your mom and dad are having a giant party for you tomorrow and I wish I could be there. Enjoy your big day! Love, your godmother. P.S. Keep listening to Springsteen, my child.

combat, for reel

My friend Monte Reel is an embedded correspondent in Iraq. I'm very proud of him and also more than a little scared about the whole thing. Whenever I think I've had a bad day at work, I think of what his days have been like.