In which I am about to leave
My plane to Heathrow takes off at 6:00 tonight, so I suppose now is an appropriate time to update before the world gets turned on its head.
I’ve spent much of the past few weeks helping my mom get ready for the opening of the Chihuly exhibit at the KIA. At the beginning, I spent a lot of time doing general catch-up work that she didn’t have time to do, things like correcting the many errors in the permanent collection database and writing extended labels. When the team of Chihuly installers came to actually set up the show, though, I got to help unpack and clean all the glass, which was pretty sweet. The weirdest part of the experience was how laid back the installers were, especially about the possibility of breaking glass. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” they would say. “There are extras of most things anyway.”
For the past several days I’ve been in Boston, a little pit stop before I go to Exeter. As is always the case, I’ve had a wonderful time here. The Ansel Adams show at the MFA was excellent, and David and I buzzed through a few of the Harvard museums as well. The Sackler had a special Degas exhibit, an unexpected treat. The Natural History Museum was pretty creepy though, with cases and cases of stuffed animals, beady glass eyes focused on nothing in particular, posed in fixed motion. There was the flying squirrel in mid-leap, the tiger caught in stride, and rows and rows of hummingbirds, wings spread and beaks all pointing forward, like a miniature army with bayonets ready. It was memorable, but as David pointed out, it seemed like an appropriate setting for the climax of a horror film.
Yesterday was the Harvard State Fair, which David and Rocky and Kevin enjoyed criticizing, and I appreciated because they weren’t checking Harvard IDs when handing out the food. They had some quintessential fair things - a mechanical bull, a cow milking contest, one of those hammer things where you try to hit the bell at the top, a dunk tank. Only at Harvard do you get to try to dunk the guy who discovered the universe is accelerating. Afterwards, David took me to Finale, which was amazing. I got the Manjari Mousse: dark chocolate mousse layered with chocolate cake and ganache, surrounded by a vanilla/chocolate swirled pastry, served with a napoleon of sweet phyllo dough crisps and blackberry cabernet sorbet. And I had several cups of Illy coffee. Um…yeah. It was fabulous.
So here I am. It’s Saturday, and I’m leaving in a few hours, alternating between feeling numb and feeling slightly overwhelmed.
I’ve spent much of the past few weeks helping my mom get ready for the opening of the Chihuly exhibit at the KIA. At the beginning, I spent a lot of time doing general catch-up work that she didn’t have time to do, things like correcting the many errors in the permanent collection database and writing extended labels. When the team of Chihuly installers came to actually set up the show, though, I got to help unpack and clean all the glass, which was pretty sweet. The weirdest part of the experience was how laid back the installers were, especially about the possibility of breaking glass. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” they would say. “There are extras of most things anyway.”
For the past several days I’ve been in Boston, a little pit stop before I go to Exeter. As is always the case, I’ve had a wonderful time here. The Ansel Adams show at the MFA was excellent, and David and I buzzed through a few of the Harvard museums as well. The Sackler had a special Degas exhibit, an unexpected treat. The Natural History Museum was pretty creepy though, with cases and cases of stuffed animals, beady glass eyes focused on nothing in particular, posed in fixed motion. There was the flying squirrel in mid-leap, the tiger caught in stride, and rows and rows of hummingbirds, wings spread and beaks all pointing forward, like a miniature army with bayonets ready. It was memorable, but as David pointed out, it seemed like an appropriate setting for the climax of a horror film.
Yesterday was the Harvard State Fair, which David and Rocky and Kevin enjoyed criticizing, and I appreciated because they weren’t checking Harvard IDs when handing out the food. They had some quintessential fair things - a mechanical bull, a cow milking contest, one of those hammer things where you try to hit the bell at the top, a dunk tank. Only at Harvard do you get to try to dunk the guy who discovered the universe is accelerating. Afterwards, David took me to Finale, which was amazing. I got the Manjari Mousse: dark chocolate mousse layered with chocolate cake and ganache, surrounded by a vanilla/chocolate swirled pastry, served with a napoleon of sweet phyllo dough crisps and blackberry cabernet sorbet. And I had several cups of Illy coffee. Um…yeah. It was fabulous.
So here I am. It’s Saturday, and I’m leaving in a few hours, alternating between feeling numb and feeling slightly overwhelmed.