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geminigirlMy ankle is an unhappy and angry purple color. I should have put an ice pack on it hours ago, but it was wobbly in the Spy Museum and I turned it, so I should have expected this. It's not going to be happy with me for at least the next few days. Hopefully, I can manage to not have to wear heels on Monday to this conference I'm going to.
My electricity cut out several times this morning, so I actually ended up not knowing what time it was...course I could have probably retrieved my watch and/or cell phone (both of which could have told me what time it was) but I called![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aquariumgirl and asked her what time it was. To stick to our original plan, I'd have had to leave 15 or 30 minutes earlier than it was, and I'd just gotten out of the shower. So, I got going a bit late, but made it up to the appointed meeting place, about an hour later than planned. Upon arrival, we decided to alter our plans for the day...to skip the exhibits at the Smithsonian and to have lunch and check out the Spy Museum. We metro downtown, have lunch and walk to the Spy Museum and look at the ridiculously long line. It's mutually agreed upon that we should skip the Spy Museum and head over to the Smithsonian where we had planned to see the Julia Child exhibit, which had just opened on Monday, and the Invention at Play exhibit. Invention at Play is on the first floor, right near the Constitution Avenue entrance to the Museum. And the three of us spent probably close to two hours in this one room, going through the different activities and exhibits. We played with spinny things in the wind, and I played with the maze-where you had to design a path using magnetized kitchen gadgets to make the ball roll from the top to the hole at the bottom, but the best part had to be the blocks...it was a sort of tilt-table, and you were supposed to build a tower of blocks on it. I sat there and giggled the whole time, as we tried to balance and counterbalance everything we did. Then we wandered through to the Julia Child exhibit. Too many people in too small a space (probably because it just opened) but the most surprising thing about it was the number of people just standing around watching the videos of her that were showing-several of her cooking shows on a monitor. I'll have to go back and see it when it's less crowded, so I can really get a feel for it; her kitchen is much greener in person than it appeared on television though. We finished with Julia Child and we were thirsty, so we got some drinks, and decided to skip the Math exhibit (which I'm going to have to go back and see at some point) in favor of walking towards the Spy Museum and a possible ice cream stop on the way. Ice cream was nixed, the Spy Museum line was significantly shorter, so we waited. I was disappointed at the Spy Museum...I'm not sure if that's because the things that I really would have wanted to see extensive stuff about (cryptography and disguise) there just wasn't a whole lot devoted to, or if it was just the "too many people, too small a space" thing. We didn't see nearly enough of the museum, but I bought the annual pass, ($25 for the pass, or $11 for a one time admission-hello people, get a clue) so I'll be able to go back when I feel like it, when it's less crowded, and without having to wait in the ticket line. The last part we passed through, where they talked about spies that had been caught looked really interesting, but at that point I'd had enough of the crowd, and had no patience to really take in the information. I didn't see anything on women and spying either, but that may not be something they've got an exhibit on yet, or I might have missed it, or maybe it's just not in their collection. Interesting note about the Spy Museum-most museum collections attribute sources of the items. The Spy Museum does that whenever possible, but well, not everything is a known source. I think I need to really get through and check everything out more thoroughly before I decide if it's worth the admission price....but I suspect I'll get my moneys worth out of the pass.
Interesting thoughts for the night...
(and before you read it, in the following ramble, married in this case means in a traditional sense-like legally...because I think when I tell people that my girlfriend is married, that's what they think of)
People have asked me how I "deal with" the fact that my girlfriends are married. But as I wandered around today, what crossed my mind is that it's not something to "deal with" it's like, just kind of there...part of the whole package. You get whatever comes with the person you're dating...usually that means baggage-in my case, that means spouse. But see, I got to geek about football with John tonight, and that's fun. Most or all of my friends don't do the sports thing, and it's nice to have someone to share that with. John's a fantastic cook, and if I had a question about where to get x or y cooking stuff that I needed, I'd ask him. (He makes really great grilled cheese sandwiches.) When I mentioned thinking about getting hockey tickets for next season,aquariumgirl mentioned that John had talked about that at times too. John's just a part of her life, so he's around...and when there are things that all three of us will enjoy, sometimes we do them together...and it's fun. It's not something I think of as "dealing with," and maybe it is a complicating factor, but I don't think that I'd reject potential sweeties on the sole basis of "married or single."
(I'm not sure however that a few years ago I would have said the same thing in response to the idea of "dealing with.")
My electricity cut out several times this morning, so I actually ended up not knowing what time it was...course I could have probably retrieved my watch and/or cell phone (both of which could have told me what time it was) but I called
aquariumgirl and asked her what time it was. To stick to our original plan, I'd have had to leave 15 or 30 minutes earlier than it was, and I'd just gotten out of the shower. So, I got going a bit late, but made it up to the appointed meeting place, about an hour later than planned. Upon arrival, we decided to alter our plans for the day...to skip the exhibits at the Smithsonian and to have lunch and check out the Spy Museum. We metro downtown, have lunch and walk to the Spy Museum and look at the ridiculously long line. It's mutually agreed upon that we should skip the Spy Museum and head over to the Smithsonian where we had planned to see the Julia Child exhibit, which had just opened on Monday, and the Invention at Play exhibit. Invention at Play is on the first floor, right near the Constitution Avenue entrance to the Museum. And the three of us spent probably close to two hours in this one room, going through the different activities and exhibits. We played with spinny things in the wind, and I played with the maze-where you had to design a path using magnetized kitchen gadgets to make the ball roll from the top to the hole at the bottom, but the best part had to be the blocks...it was a sort of tilt-table, and you were supposed to build a tower of blocks on it. I sat there and giggled the whole time, as we tried to balance and counterbalance everything we did. Then we wandered through to the Julia Child exhibit. Too many people in too small a space (probably because it just opened) but the most surprising thing about it was the number of people just standing around watching the videos of her that were showing-several of her cooking shows on a monitor. I'll have to go back and see it when it's less crowded, so I can really get a feel for it; her kitchen is much greener in person than it appeared on television though. We finished with Julia Child and we were thirsty, so we got some drinks, and decided to skip the Math exhibit (which I'm going to have to go back and see at some point) in favor of walking towards the Spy Museum and a possible ice cream stop on the way. Ice cream was nixed, the Spy Museum line was significantly shorter, so we waited. I was disappointed at the Spy Museum...I'm not sure if that's because the things that I really would have wanted to see extensive stuff about (cryptography and disguise) there just wasn't a whole lot devoted to, or if it was just the "too many people, too small a space" thing. We didn't see nearly enough of the museum, but I bought the annual pass, ($25 for the pass, or $11 for a one time admission-hello people, get a clue) so I'll be able to go back when I feel like it, when it's less crowded, and without having to wait in the ticket line. The last part we passed through, where they talked about spies that had been caught looked really interesting, but at that point I'd had enough of the crowd, and had no patience to really take in the information. I didn't see anything on women and spying either, but that may not be something they've got an exhibit on yet, or I might have missed it, or maybe it's just not in their collection. Interesting note about the Spy Museum-most museum collections attribute sources of the items. The Spy Museum does that whenever possible, but well, not everything is a known source. I think I need to really get through and check everything out more thoroughly before I decide if it's worth the admission price....but I suspect I'll get my moneys worth out of the pass.Interesting thoughts for the night...
(and before you read it, in the following ramble, married in this case means in a traditional sense-like legally...because I think when I tell people that my girlfriend is married, that's what they think of)
People have asked me how I "deal with" the fact that my girlfriends are married. But as I wandered around today, what crossed my mind is that it's not something to "deal with" it's like, just kind of there...part of the whole package. You get whatever comes with the person you're dating...usually that means baggage-in my case, that means spouse. But see, I got to geek about football with John tonight, and that's fun. Most or all of my friends don't do the sports thing, and it's nice to have someone to share that with. John's a fantastic cook, and if I had a question about where to get x or y cooking stuff that I needed, I'd ask him. (He makes really great grilled cheese sandwiches.) When I mentioned thinking about getting hockey tickets for next season,
aquariumgirl mentioned that John had talked about that at times too. John's just a part of her life, so he's around...and when there are things that all three of us will enjoy, sometimes we do them together...and it's fun. It's not something I think of as "dealing with," and maybe it is a complicating factor, but I don't think that I'd reject potential sweeties on the sole basis of "married or single."(I'm not sure however that a few years ago I would have said the same thing in response to the idea of "dealing with.")
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Ankle
Date: 2002-08-25 04:45 am (UTC)I think some of the "gadget" exhibits at the spy museum could have been improved with a little more information about how the gadgets were actually used. For example, they sometimes said that a particular kind of item had been used in particular circumstances, but mostly they just told you where it was from and when it would have been used. Being able to imagine the spy who actually used the stuff would have been really interesting.
I think one thing that really helped me to appreciate the spy museum was having read The Spy Wore Red: My Adventures as an Undercover Agent in World War II by Aline, Countess of Romanones. In this autobiographical book, a young woman goes from being a fashion model in New York City to being a spy, and she writes about the training and the kinds of things she actually did on her missions. As I walked around and looked at all the spy gear, I frequently thought about the things she'd written about in her book.
I definitely look forward to going back sometime when it's not so crowded!
Re: Ankle
Date: 2002-08-25 07:10 am (UTC)I think you're right-that the displays didn't talk much about how things were used. Part of it too for me was that there just didn't seem to be a logical progression from one place to another-despite the fact that it's mapped that way. I wonder if that's just that the size of the crowd made it difficult to follow from one to the next.
One thing I did like...the integration of technology and computer based learning. But there were too few terminals for the number of people in the space at any particular time.
I think it really does need a trip back on a less crowded day.
Re: Ankle
Date: 2002-08-25 07:27 am (UTC)Incidentally, I think there was a section on women and spying -- one of the ones we walked through when we decided we didn't have enough time to see the whole museum and I really wanted to see zone 6.
Re: Ankle
Date: 2002-08-25 08:16 am (UTC)I hope that just when we were trying to get to the end we missed the exhbit on women and spying...I want to see more stuff about that.
Maybe, since the museum is open til 8 in the evenings right now, I'll take a trip into the city one evening to see some things after work. Metro is close enough that I could leave my car.
no subject
Date: 2002-08-25 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-08-25 01:31 pm (UTC)You have to send me your address.
Sorry I missed you before-I was napping. Trying to get rid of the cold I seem to have caught.
*sigh*
Date: 2002-08-25 01:45 pm (UTC)Re: *sigh*
Date: 2002-08-25 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-08-26 12:06 am (UTC)I'll go back and re-read your post about the museums to see what I missed later as well.
Feel better!