"Draw Me Ishmael"

30 June 2025: I hadn't realized this exhibit was still at the Peabody Essex Museum and was thrilled to get a chance to see it. What a gem this museum is, too. I will think about Anila Quayyum Agha's beautiful "All the Flowers Are for Me" for a long time, too.

Field trip...

8 October 2024: If I weren't so very tired, I would write something eloquent about the trip our GWST class took to DC today, visiting the White House, meeting with two young women who work there, and then getting a tour of the Museum of Women in the Arts. But I am very tired at the end of what has been a heck of an eleven-day endurance trial. 

The short version: it was a great day. 

"The Fashions of Fiction from Pamela to Gatsby"

13 August 2018: In a nice follow-up to/extension of my birthday fun, Hannah and I checked out this fun exhibit at Shippensburg University. It had been on my list of things to do this summer so now I can check it off that list and--sigh--really settle in for that last push towards the opening of the semester.

More Pittsburgh...

2 June 2018:

[Catch-up Post]

A great day in Pittsburgh. Some silly photo highlights...

With Cory at the Warhol Museum.

Tim and Kevin stealing the show at the Warhol.

Being ridiculous in front of the Willie Stargell statue at PNC Park.

Art with friends...

19 November 2017: "Guys, we had a day!" --my good buddy, Hannah, towards the end of a very satisfying trip to DC.

Sylvia Plath at the National Portrait Gallery, Vermeer at the National Gallery of Art, and Ai Weiwei at the Hirshhorn. A fun day with these two lovely people!

Collecting the world

16 September 2016: Check out this delightful short video about the Smithsonian's Natural History collections. So fun and interesting!

Road Trip: Downton costumes and Hamlet!

19 July 2014: Saturday was a nearly perfect summer day. My friends Anna, Hannah, and I took a mini-road trip to Delaware to see the Downton Abbey costume exhibit at Winterthur. In planning the trip, I realized that the Delaware Shakespeare Festival was putting on Hamlet that evening--outdoors, picnicking encouraged. What more could three English-minded folks ask for?

The trip up was fun and traffic-free. The exhibit was fun and interesting. The play was great. The weather was perfect. I mean, picnicking outdoors in July sounds like a risky proposition, but it was pleasant and breezy and lovely. Before the show started, the stage manager came out and made some general announcements. He mentioned that although the forecast called for a 0% chance of rain, if it did rain, the policy is to continue in light rain and, if it gets heavy, stop for twenty minutes and reassess. But again...0% chance of rain, right?

...Until Act 4, Scene 7 (really close to the end). And a light rain started. And the actor playing Laertes, in the really dramatic and sad scene where he learns of his sister's drowning, says the line" Too much of water has thou, poor Ophelia." And the whole crowd cracked up. The actor, God bless him, broke just a bit, briefly smiling and suppressing a chuckle before recovering quite well. It was a terrific moment. You could feel everyone--the actors, the crew, the audience--just hoping and pulling for the show to finish before the rain picked up. It actually ended (more or less) by the sword fight in the final scene. Anyway, a great night and a great day!

Oh--and I won the drawing for a free t-shirt!

Some pictures:

Cora's outfit from Baby Sybil's christening. 

Mary and Matthew's outfits from the cricket match.

Daisy and Mrs. Patmore's dresses.

Sigh! Mary and Matthew's outfits from their engagement scene. The scene itself was playing on a large scene in the background, with snowfall projected all along the wall. Very emotional!

One of Matthew's suits.

Sybil's shocking pants!

Sybil and Mary's dresses from Edith's (canceled) wedding. Edith's dress was there, too, but my picture didn't come out.

The exhibit had memorable lines of dialogue on the walls. This one made me laugh.

 

 Anna and Hannah picnicking before the show.

D.C. with Erin and Kelsie

After Christian and Aidan left on Monday morning, Kelsie and I headed to DC to meet up with Erin and hit some museums.


It was Kelsie's first ever subway ride (well, Metro, technically), so we marked the occasion. Oh and that black stuff on her hands came from her sunglasses case, we think. Cute but cheap sunglasses case combined with sweaty hands (it was HOT out!) made for a mess.

Kelsie on the Metro, making a silly if cute face.

On the National Mall.

Facing the Capitol. See how thick and unpleasant the air looks? That's the heat, not just usual Washington noxiousness.

Our first stop was the American History Museum. Kelsie really enjoyed this one because she's a bit of a history nerd. (I say this as a bit of a history nerd myself.) This shot is of her placing her own hand on plaster casts of Lincoln's hand. Abraham, as she calls him, is her favorite president.

This book in the bookstore made us laugh. Can you see the part Kelsie is pointing to?

After lunch in the American History Museum's cafeteria, we headed over to the Museum of Natural History, which is right next to the History Museum.

Remember what I said in the previous post about my brother's kids and their silly faces? Here's Kelsie posing in front of a display on the skeletons of frogs and toads. Turns out frogs are her favorite animals, closely followed by monkeys.

That's better!

After the museums, we decided to walk over to the Lincoln Memorial, since Abraham, after all, is Kelsie's favorite. It is a bit of a walk, but Erin and I were up to the challenge. Kelsie, though, pooped out on us halfway there. "It's too hot," she said. Since Erin and I were all about the kid having fun, we didn't push her. Plus, did I mention that it was freakin' hot? So we headed back to Erin's place to cool down and wait for Eric to get home from work. Then he took us to Faccia Luna for dinner. Fortunately, they had what Kelsie said she had been craving all day...

...spaghetti and meatballs, which she proudly documented. The grown-ups had some delicious pizza. After dinner, it was back to Virginia for Kelsie and I. It was a good but exhausting day!