Overheard

When I was in DC there was a series of miscommunications that resulted in me having to wait for FastSigns to, well, make a sign. While waiting I got to spend about 20 minutes walking through The National Gallery of Art.

As I arrived, a group of high school kids was gathered in the lobby getting their assignment, which involved walking around, finding examples of various styles of art, and recording their thoughts.

I spent my sliver of time viewing an exhibition entitled “Crosscurrents: American and European Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection.”

At one point I heard one of the teachers explaining, “any painting that contains only one person is a portrait.”

Later, I heard a student who was standing in front of The Emperor exclaim, “man, every one of the paintings hanging in here is great!”

Uh, yeah.

Spotted

I may have mentioned that due to my trip to the District of Columbia, I missed some sleep. The truth is that I stayed up past 11:00 on Tuesday to watch Dickey on Letterman, because the last time I saw him on Letterman, it ended badly. (I didn’t know they patched things up a year ago.) I then slept very restlessly until 3:30, when I got up to get ready to head to the airport to catch the 7:00 am to DC. The long and short of it is that all day Wednesday I was operating on maybe 3 hours of sleep.

One of the curious side effects of this lack of sleep is that everywhere I went I thought I spotted famous people. At one airport, I thought I saw the first Mrs. Michael Jackson (not completely out of the realm of possibility). At the next airport, I thought I saw a man named Eli who lead a student group I was a part of in college (it was uncanny; I was a tad unnerved). On the Metro, I thought I saw Al Roker (OK, this one wasn’t that close). And at a hotel where I attended a meeting (but not where I’m staying), I thought I saw the mayor of New Orleans (actually, I’m pretty sure I actually did see him climbing into a black SUV outside of the Hyatt. Really. I’m not kidding.)

I didn’t remember until later that I had spent some time Tuesday on a favorite blog that had a couple of “recently spotted” posts (you know who you are, bird tare dog bone).

Lack of sleep does some funny things to my brain.

How MrG Spent His Summer – July

In July MrG flew on four different airlines, through six different airports in four days. Lesson: you can save a lot by purchasing one way tickets, taking advantage of airline code share flights, and MARC. Of course you may will pay for it with your time and sanity.

MrG stayed at Hotel Helix in between two of those flights/airports. Hotel Helix is a themed boutique hotel, whose theme is . . . Austin Powers' version of the late 1960s. The room included a leopard print robe and a faux bear skin blanket for the bed. Thanks Capt’n. At least a few people who have stayed there have found it fascinating enough to take and post pictures.

July also saw MrG get the worst sunburn of his life (while under an umbrella) at the beach. Finally in July, and actually spilling over into August, was the Curious Incident of the Dog Biscuit, which nearly resulted in PoMonkey blowing up the new condo. But that's another post for another day.

UPDATED: How Mister Ginger Spent His Summer

Fall is here, and with it an accounting of how Mister Ginger spent his summer.

June – In June MrG traveled to Washington DC and Kansas City. The DC trip included staying at the hotel where President Reagan was shot in 1981. Interestingly (at least to MrG), the KC trip did not include actually entering Kansas. It turns out that Kansas City, MO is much larger than Kansas City, KS. MrG has somehow visited all of the states that border Kansas, but never Kansas. This is just the kind of odd fact that he not only keeps track of, but likes to share. Aren't you glad he finally posted something?!?

Late in June—actually on the first full day of summer—MrG and PoMonkey moved to downtown Chicago. They now live in a 75 year old warehouse that has been converted to condos. Their unit overlooks a rail yard, and from their deck one can occasionally see hobos gathering around campfires, eating from their bindles, and swapping stories.




Coming soon: July (planes, trains, and hotels), August (no travel for MrG), and September so far (automobiles).