Rain, rain, go away, come again in June or May

As you might guess from the title, today was a rainy day. And by that, I mean it rained...aaaaallll....day. But did I once take the Metro, in the four times that I was out walking today, for periods of about 30 min each? (Loud voice) NO!!!!!!!!!!! And did I spend that money in other ways, such as purchasing a dinner of clearance Teriyaki Stix and grapes (I am seriously addicted to grapes now!) from Trader Joe’s? (Tiny voice) Yeeeeeessss....

Now, I really have nothing against the rain. If I were at home and didn’t have to walk anywhere and could snuggle up on the couch with a good book, the rain would be absolutely wonderful. But when I have to walk in it, and get my ears and nose frozen, and my map soaked (I had to print another one this morning because the one I used yesterday apparently wilted into illegible mush), and my pants wet, and with a puny umbrella on top of that (it turns itself inside-out on like, every gust of wind), I get pretty frustrated. But not frustrated enough to take the Metro, apparently :)

Well, aside from the rain, today was a pretty good day. I woke up early and did my exercise downstairs to Fox News and Redwall (I brought my second half of Redwall that I got for Christmas—it’s so cute!) after figuring out how to work the DVD player. Tomorrow I will probably do more of the same, but on Friday I want to go to the gym. Apparently all we have to do is show our BYU i.d. and they’ll give us a free pass.

Good news—I wore my boots today and my blister didn’t bother me! Perhaps I have found the solution to my woes! Except I don’t know if I can get along in every situation in D.C. with just my boots and my sneakers. Drat. If only I had some comfy walking shoes...

Work was more involved and exciting today. I got there early and hung around until my supervisors came, then Vivian set me up at my office downstairs and got me started on Art News (I have to make lists of relevant things happening in the art world in D.C., in the country, and the world, along with any mentions of NMWA by the press, and send it out to all our staff) and on mailing the latest magazine issue to people who had contributed. It turned out to be quite the gigantic process, and I didn’t finish it all today. Our printer broke down two or three times; once a guy actually had to come and fix it, which took about an hour or so; the other time I was able to fix the problem on my own (which made me quite proud of myself, I must say!).

I also got to help Michelle with a small project—she needed an interview by the founder of the museum to be transcribed, and asked me to do it. I was happy, of course, to oblige, and really had an enjoyable time writing down and figuring out how to format the interview (writing down speech and filling in all the punctuation is more difficult than it sounds, and is also great practice for editors!). Michelle was happy with the result, and I had fun doing it, so I asked her to give me any more things to transcribe that she came across. I hope she’ll take me up on the offer :)

Although I ate lunch late and by myself (in contrast with the 6th floor lunch room, the lunch room on the 4th floor is...um...a desk with stuff on it and an extra chair), I did meet a few more nice ladies today, including Susan, our administrative head (although I didn’t know it at the time I met her! Eek—scary! I wonder what kind of impression I made), Deborah, the very nice lady in charge of Education, and Rafael, who I think—but am not positive—is an intern like myself. I also met Marc, who helps us out with computer stuff (I’m not sure what his official job is yet), and Jason in charge of the Library and Research Center (he’s really friendly!).

At noon I got to attend a Gallery Talk, which they hold every so often. It’s basically a tour of the biggest exhibit they have going on upstairs. It gave me a good excuse to wander around and look around for a bit at their main exhibits, which I have wanted to do since getting here, and it was also fun to hear Deborah discuss the life and works of Mary Cassatt. I’ve always sort of liked—in a detached way—her work, especially the iconic mother-child pictures which she draws (although it’s kind of strange that almost ALL the children are these chubby, absolutely naked toddlers...), but after seeing this exhibit I became really impressed with the level of detail and the labor she put into the process of making her art. She not only drew the sketches and engraved them for printing, but actually did the line and color printing for many of them! And she drew in many different styles, too. Some are simple, some are complex, some are clear and sharp, and some are vague and fuzzy. It was interesting.

The other exhibit I saw was a bit more disturbing. Lots of nude photography and strange, ambiguous photos. One in particular I remember being very disturbing was of two girls in identical outfits, where one is above the other, plugging the other’s nose with her fingers and looking down in an ambiguously excited way. The one on the bottom’s eyes are closed and her mouth is a little open, but you can’t tell if she’s unconscious or not. The description says you can read it either as a saving act (the girl on top is performing resuscitation) or...not. It was weird. I wanted to take a photo, but no photos allowed. Sorry, Hannah.

I didn’t leave work until almost 5:30, but came straight to the Barlow Center after I did. H street was still closed, but I did feel pretty safe walking along I street as long as there were all the policeman hanging out on every corner. I guess security isn’t going to be taken by surprise, even as far as two weeks (minus one day) before the inauguration! We haven’t discussed as a group what we’re going to do for the inauguration, but I know no one has to go to work that day, so we probably will be doing something.

After I got to the Barlow Center (oops—I lied, I did take a quick detour to Trader Joe’s to get food), I ate really quick, then headed over to the Kennedy Center to see Legally Blonde: The Musical. It was quite fun, and I made the most of the experience, arriving early, checking out the vendors and all the floors of the spacious Opera Theater, and even taking a picture of the cool Poseidon statue they had on the box level (after that picture, unfortunately, my camera gave out. The curse of Poseidon, perhaps? I am charging the battery now, and hoping that it will work next morning!). I can’t get over the humongous head-bust sculpture they have of John F. Kennedy in the middle of the Center. It’s SO big, you wonder how people can stop looking at it when they’re in the room! And it’s kind of weirdly layered, as if it were put together out of many individual slabs of copper. Too bad we don’t have the jelly-bean portrait of Ronald Reagan to go with it, that’s what I say.

Legally Blonde was pretty good, and very funny. The choreography was quite impressive, and I liked all the actors (and actresses). I had a front-row seat on the highest balcony (there’s about three balconies), and the lady usher on my floor (who sounded just like an older version of Doris Rathbone!) had to remind me NOT to put my program on the red velvet barrier in front of me. I’m not exactly sure what the danger was (perhaps the program would fall into a light and catch on fire, thus burning the house down?) but I quickly removed the offending program (and later replaced it with my elbows to see if she would care; she didn’t). The bad part about sitting on the aisle was that I had to move for about 10 people (and I swear they all came in one...at...a...time...). But it was worth it to have the privacy and security from an end-of-the-row seat. I used to always try to get them at BYU, too, but then I discovered that this was a poor technique for meeting people and for getting the professor's attention when you had a question.

Halfway through the first act, I was wishing that I had brought binoculars (how did I NOT put that on my packing list?) and perhaps an ear trumpet. I did like the songs, but it was definitely impossible to catch all the lyrics in the songs or details of the set. I did like that my vantage spot gave me a great view of all the patterns and synchronized choreography. The special effects were all very well done, and by far the highlight of the show was in the perfect performance of its two smallest actors—dogs! They were so cute and both of them got great rounds of applause at the end. I will also add that I was impressed with the costumes, scenery, and smooth transitions between all scenes. A very neat and professional performance, and solid acting on the part of everyone. The plot was a little predictable, but still interesting for the most part and entertaining. I just wish that I could have had a better grasp on the lyrics—BYU was definitely on to something when they posted the lyrics above the DeJong theater curtain so that audiences could follow along during the music numbers!

After I got home, I tried to make myself some pasta with cheese sauce (read: macaroni) but it turned out pretty hard and tasteless. I ate it anyway, being hungry, along with my grapes, but decided I would go for something easier tomorrow, like soup. Speaking of tomorrow, it’s like midnight here, and I have to read scriptures and get to bed quick so I’ll be ready for another day.

Keep commenting, please! I love to read what you have to say, and they give me motivation to write more :)