A long and nearly unforgivable hiatus in posting. In the meantime, I have been to Memphis and Mississippi and then to Inverness, California. I've sewn one and a half quilts. Days scoot by, favorite parts and not so favorite (going to bed and getting up, respectively). Intermittently, I've been obsessed with our upcoming trip to New York, London, and Paris. I have switched hotel reservations to rental apartments in London and Paris. I've consulted with a travel agent about Eurostar reservations through the Chunnel. I've bought a new carry-on bag, two pairs of jeans, and an expensive scarf in a museum shop. Not to mention internet-ordered sweaters, panties, and tickets to Buckingham Palace. I step back and realize that much of this obsession with detail is anxiety about going so far for so long. Then I obsess some more.
On Thursday, I went to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco with Annika, my 19 year-old next-door neighbor, who's home from Vassar for the summer. I first took her to a museum when she was nine years old, to SFMOMA, where she soaked up the art so thoroughly she was exhausted, really drained, a dark-haired, pale-skinned little girl with big eyes and round-lensed spectacles. I've spent years explaining history and nuance in art, little bubbles of information I whisper as we make our rounds of galleries and museums. Not that I know that much, but I took art history classes in college. Now, she whispers to me. As usual, she sees things I don't, details of paintings or sculptures, but now she KNOWS things I don't. She's majoring in art, taking art history classes. At the moment, she's particularly taken with how artists depict hands and feet, studies them closely.
How did this happen? And did I have anything to do with getting her from there to here? She credits me with being a mentor, but I'm not so sure as I listen to this petite young woman who knows so much, who had chic small rectangular glasses now, who knows what to do with scarves. Which is probably why I bought at beautiful and totally budget-blowing shibori scarf in the museum shop. Annika approved.
