A Quote for the Day

But there is nothing like work for toning down excessive fear or joy.

-From the essay Stickeen by John Muir. You can read it all here.

Stickeen tells the story of the survival of Muir and a small dog companion, Stickeen on an unexplored Alaskan glacier in the midst of a fierce ice storm. Great reading. I like to remind myself of Muir's above observation whenever I start to worry.

My Day Off

With all the moving stuff, I got behind on work and had a miserably dull but important project that seemed to grind on FOREVER. I finally told myself that if I got it done I could reward myself with a day off. Well Monday night around 1130 I finished it up so Tuesday was my day off!

I decided I would go downtown. I dressed Reuben in a breezy summer outfit, pulled on some capris and headed into the city. It was chilly but it's always chilly in the morning.

Reuben saying hi to a "meow-meow" aka a Red Panda

We were at the zoo more than an hour before it opened which was great because the grounds open at 6 am. So we wandered the mostly empty park and got to see a lot of the animals without the crowds. Reuben described most of the animals - the mongoose, meerkats, the red panda, etc - as being meow meows which means he was a fan.

Around 10 the wind picked up, it started to sprinkle and I started to kick myself for not checking the weather more closely. We had rain coats but it was COLD! I gave Reuben my jacket so he could layer up and hoped a brisk pace and the stroller pushing would help me stay warm until the storm blew over. The storm didn't blow over. It rained ALL day accompanied by a cold wind. So Reuben and I now own souvenier Smithsonian sweatshirts. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Reuben in the Hall of Birds

After the zoo we took the metro in to the Smithsonian and spent the next couple hours at the Natural History museum. It was a good time but I sure hate school groups. And it turns out Reuben hates butterflies. Well, he likes them, he simply wants to kill any that come near him. Th video at the very end of this blog looks laid back but the balance of life and death is tipping every time that little mindless bug swoops close to Reuben.

Reuben sleeping at the National Gallery

Somewhere in the ancient mammal hall Reuben fell asleep so I headed over to the National Gallery for a wonderfully peaceful hour and a half of art appreciation among french and japanese tourists. I even got a chance to sketch a really bored security guard. I love doing that.

And I found myself a couch and sat for a while in front of this portrait Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children by Joshua Reynolds. Lady Elizabeth Dulme's depiction intrigued me. Though the mother she is decidedly childlike. Her arm surrounds her children indicating appropriate Maternal care but she is not overwhelmed or overly attached to her children. She is domestic but aloof from the domesticity. She like her setting is pristine, an untouched Eden. Anyway, I found it a well synthesized visualization of the conflicting ideal of an 18th century wife. Basically, a traditional version of the perfect wife - a good mother to a man's children who is immune to any signs (physical, emotional, etc) of maternity.

So if you ever wonder what I think/talk about at the museum, there's a taste. I think a lot of other things about loud middle schoolers and people who wear sharp clicking high heels that wake up sleeping babies but I try to keep this blog free from obscenities so I will not repeat those thoughts.

Reuben waving to the LL Cool J (um..I think?) at the Portrait gallery

Around 4:45 Reuben woke up and became decidedly unimpressed with our surroundings which was fine because it was just about then that the security guards kicked us out for closing time. So we headed to the American Art and Portrait Gallery which is one of my favorite museums. We played in its wonderful courtyard disturbing the collection of first meetings among the internet daters who seem to congregate there.

Then I dragged Reuben through an awesome Community Portrait show which I LOVED. The idea was three artists capturing a whole community through series of individual portraits. The paintings were wonderfully well done. I really want to go back and see it again. You can check out the website here.

Then Reuben found a pho-velvet round couch which he could climb circles around making it his likely highlight of our whole excursion.

Around 630 we fought the crowds and met Aaron in Dupont circle. After a quick stop at Kramer Books (which was fun) to warm up, we snuggled into a cozy booth for dinner at a place by Aaron's office and watched the crowds wander in the rain and wind. Reuben alerted us and the other patrons anytime a bus "BUS!! BUS!!" passed by. Then we commuted home as a family.

It was a great day off.

The Butterfly Movie

Reuben's Little Friend

Reuben has a new friend. We call him Gnome because he is a gnome. He appears to originally be from China but came via our local supermarket. For some unknown reason, Reuben has decided he likes picking Gnome up and carrying him around the yard so he can be close to wherever I am. Once Reuben deposits Gnome close beside me, he wanders off to pursue other interests.

You can tell Reuben is concentrating very hard on his gnome moving in this picture because he's sticking his tongue out, just like Michael Jordan.

Reuben is surprisingly quiet while making these moves. As a consequence, several times I've turned around and been startled to find our little gnome friend staring up at me alone, a good twenty feet from where I saw him last. It's a little unnerving - I almost feel like I'm stuck in some silent and bizarre game of red light green light. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's Reuben that's moving him but maybe not, gnomes are magical folk. Even the plastic ones from China.

Ewok Adventure

Coming up to Maryland felt a lot like traveling back in time. I was so happy that Spring had arrived in South Carolina. Arriving in MD was like being sent back to Start. It was cold and wet and everything still looked dead. As an example of the contrast here are two pictures of what Reuben was doing right before we moved North - playing barefoot in our backyard stream's sand bed.

It was fun to see him play in the sand. Since it wasn't a playground I figured there wasn't any harm in him throwing it. I was kind of curious to see what a kid would do when allowed to throw sand since they always start and if you're stuck in a civilized area you have to immediately stop them. Turns out if you let Reuben throw sand he will simply continue throwing it for the next quarter of an hour.

Once we got up to MD we had to find our coats and bundle up. Despite the cold, Reuben reveled in the glory of having a small yard and has cultivated a devotion to large sticks which he uses to hit and stab the ground. With his short stature, brown coat and weaponry he looks just like a little Ewok.

Thankfully, the cold abated and Reuben and I are loving the arrival of spring to our neighborhood.

We're Home!

The unpacking continues but we made it to our new home and are happily settling in.

On the Road Again

Aaron and I have had this weekend circled on our calendars for what feels like FOREVER. This is our moving weekend. With some amazing help from our ward, we loaded the moving truck on Friday. After a lot of cleaning, Aaron drove the truck up on Saturday. Today Reuben and I will be joining him in Kensington Maryland.

Snake Killer Day

There's some debate going on in our family about whether we've got any Irish in us. If we do it's pretty small. Still I like St Patrick's day. I like green, and little people, and trickery, and potatoes and the start of spring. Still, I don't feel like I know how to celebrate. Wearing green and pinching people is only so exciting. But I don't think I'm up for taking Reuben out for some drunken revelry in the streets.

*

The one story I can remember being told about St Patrick is that Ireland was infested with terrible poisonous serpents until he came. Taking pity on the people, St Patrick got to work and single handedly killed or drove all the snakes away. I know now this was a symbolic tale about driving out paganism and bringing in Christianity, but as a kid St Patrick always conjured up images of a lone man herding hords of snakes over precipitous cliffs to drown in the sea like lemmings. I kind of like that image. So maybe Reuben and I can go to the reptile house for St Patricks day. That's my best idea. Anybody else want to share alternatives?