The Last Day of the Parental Visit

It was my last day playing tour guide today. My, it's exhausting! The day started early when Mom drove to my place so that she could pick up some books and clothes from me that she's taking back to donate. Hooray for the parents having a car!

Then we met Dad and made our way back down to the Mall. Today's cultural immersion was all things Asian...via the collections at the Sackler-Freer Galleries. I agree with MCB cuz now I think these are my favorites of all the Smithsonian. I really loved the Buddhist and Hindu art. I was discussing with my Mom my theory on why I love those religious sculptures so much. Even though I was a religion major in college, I know *very* little about Buddhism and Hinduism, so the art is still very mysterious and exotic to me. I know that there is exceptionally rich history and mythology associated with both religions, but I know so little of it so I think that's why I'm drawn to them. And I loved the courtyard in the middle of the Freer. I want to figure out a way that I can have a courtyard with a fountain in the middle of my house when I grow up. It's so cool! The only real excitement in the museum was that I got stuck right in hte middle of a total family meltdown in the "Gold in China" gallery. This woman and her 3 kids got into a screaming match - the oldest girl shouting "Don't touch me! You're embarrassing yourself!" and running to hide behind display cases, and the younger son just squaling at the top of his lungs. Ah, Americans.

After lunch at Teaism (again) we decided to nix the original plan of checking out the new American Indian museum. I've heard so many bad things about it, and we were all admittedly museumed-out and not in the mood to read more labels, so we improvised. I led the way down the street to the E Street Cinema. Mom and Dad both love movies and I thought they'd like to check out a place that shows more than just the usual shoot-'em-up that they get in Bloomington.

We had perfect timing, cuz we made it right as Good Night, and Good Luck was starting. This is George Clooney's 2nd directorial effort, and I've gotta say he's pretty good. It's the story of Edward R. Murrow's crusade against Sen. Joe McCarthy. If you are:
1. Angry about the decline of civil liberties in America post-9/11, or
2. Angry about the media's declining role as watchdog and the increase in infotainment, or
3. Wishing that Robert Downey Jr. would get some more good charismatic roles, or
4. A fan of jazz singer Diane Reeves, then
You should see this movie! Seriously, it's really good and very timely. All of the issues it covers about government overstepping its bounds in the 1950's in the name of "national security" are just as relevant today. There's a great clip of President Eisenhower at the end that I want to find the text of to share. You can certainly tell Clooney's politics, and he ain't no fan of the W.

Following the movie we made our way to Barnes & Noble, where Mom was kind enough to pick up the tab on 2 books I've wanted for a while. (Hooray for parents paying!) But things were winding down. Sitting there in the cafe at about 4:15, struggling to come up with yet another new topic of conversation, my Mom and I sorta realized there wasn't much else to do. I said I couldn't possibly eat again for hours, cuz I'm still full from yesterday. I'm not used to eating Dad-style. And we didn't really want to rush to another museum for just an hour. So we decided that the visit had been a good one and we could part ways - my job as tour guide was done and they'd walk around some more and get dinner on their own. Mom said "Yeah, we know, it's been 3 days. Fish and relatives, right?" ;-)

So now I'm back on my own settling down into normal life, which feels good. But it was a great visit and I hope they had a good time. And I kept my promise and bought some Powerball tickets when I got home, so by tomorrow night we'll see if this was a lucky trip, too!