Today was a Fabulous Day

I took Allie to the new de Young. She decided that she would like to go there before returning to Duke tomorrow. I hope she had a good time, because I loved my day.

It was super being able to walk around in an art museum with a student who has chosen art history as her specialty. We enjoyed talking about various works that we saw, or at least I enjoyed it.

The traveling exhibit that opened last Saturday is “International Arts & Crafts”, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are many fabulous pieces in this particular exhibit. I had been looking forward to attending when the exhibit opened. Of course, I truly like the American Arts & Crafts Period, but I especially enjoyed seeing the beautiful work from Great Britain and Europe. The Scandinavian pieces were of interest, as were the Russian objects.

I am not certain which items in the whole of the museum that Allie liked the best, but she definitely seemed to show interest in many things. I was afraid that she was not able to “visit” the exhibits for as long a period as she would have liked, and I also feel that she would have wanted to see things that perhaps she did not see. It is always difficult to do a large museum justice in a few hours, and it is also not easy to ascertain which period appeals to a person other than oneself.

All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed spending the hours with Allie, the little lunch we enjoyed in the café, our discussions of individual works and certain periods, and I even enjoyed her critique of the architecture of the building. She thinks it is ugly.

The huge flower arrangements in “Bouquets to Art” which were scattered throughout the museum were of interest to me. It was also an exhibit that I had wanted to see. Some pieces were very weird, some beautiful. Tomorrow is the last day for that exhibit, so I lucked out.

The weather was icky, rather dismal and rainy, therefore it was a good day for museum going. The only bad thing was that it was difficult to see much from the top floor of the tower. On a good day, the view is incredible – the old buildings scrambling over the hills of San Francisco, the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean peeking through an area in the distance.

Allie, I will miss you when you return to North Carolina, but at least I will see you again in May when you graduate. I can’t wait to visit you and see Duke. I’ll be one proud grandmother when you receive your diploma. I am already a proud grandmother – you made Phi Beta Kappa.

Surprise!

Surprise! Chris called me yesterday afternoon and asked what I was doing last night. He wanted to take me out to dinner, so planned to pick me up at 7:30 and we would go to a local restaurant. When he got here and got out of his truck, he said "I brought a date." It was dark, so I didn't immediately see who it was and when she got closer to the porch, I exclaimed "What are YOU doing here?"

It was my ALLIE! Straight from North Carolina! She is here for a job interview next week. She told her mother not to tell me because she wanted to surprise me. All through dinner I kept looking at her and saying "I can't believe you are here! I can't think of anything to say." I managed to ask her all kinds of questions, though.

Photos

I took the magnolia photos two years ago at FILOLI GARDENS, Woodside, California with my SONY Mavica FD73. Filoli is a Magical Place!

Magnolia

Never Prejudge

The weekend was great. I made fantastic purchases, had great sales, and it was great fun. Perhaps I'll elaborate at some point.

Catching Up

I certainly have not contributed to the blog world lately. I spend so much time writing witty words to describe items I am listing on ebay, that my brain is totally fried by the time I think about doing anything on here. I have had ideas at times, but just didn’t get around to writing.

In January, my next door neighbors moved out. I really liked them, and I miss them. They are a young Mexican couple, and she was expecting a baby to be born shortly after they moved. They were very pleasant and friendly. She works at a restaurant where I eat Mexican food sometimes, and I always enjoyed going there when she was working. She told me she would bring the baby here so I can see her sometime.

Right after they moved out, neighbors from a few doors away came knocking on my door to tell me that they were going to be my new neighbors in the place the Mexican couple vacated. They are from the Fiji Islands – of Indian extraction. They are also very friendly people. The only problem is that they take care of people’s kids, so it can get rather noisy next door. At this point, they have already moved in.

My neighbor on the other side, Katy, suffered a mild stroke a couple of weeks ago. She is such an active woman, swimming and going to the gym everyday – going on cruises two or three times a year. She is definitely an older lady. I can not believe the stamina she usually has.

My grandchildren are doing marvelous things right now. I am very proud of all of them. Grace is going to Atlanta to sing at the end of the month. She is in a few groups. Allie just made Phi Beta Kappa. That is really great. I can’t wait to go to her graduation at Duke.

I should write everyday, and then I wouldn’t have to search for things to talk about. I am uptight right now, kind of at loose ends, because I have to go set up for a show tomorrow, and it will be a new deal to me. The promoter has combined the antique show with a doll show, and took my large space to give it to a doll dealer. I had a wonderful space, because it was large, and I could set up many tables, with room for customers to walk all the way around them. They were able to see in the cases very easily that way. Now I’ll have a tiny space that will be difficult for display, and it costs the same amount. I may never do this show again after this weekend. I have been doing the show four times a year for many years now. Nothing ever stays the same.

I feel very ready to retire. That is why I am really blowing out a good share of my signed jewelry on ebay. The prices on some items have been satisfactory, but many things have basically just been there as a way to get my money back that I spent in the first place.

Time to cook. The blueberry pie is out of the oven, so now I’ll think up the rest of the supper.