As much as I adore Hawkeye football, I always enjoy the bye weekend (except when its at the end of the regular season because then it doesn’t really count), as its a chance to remember what life is like the rest of the year. When you aren’t up at 6am to go tailgate and then have the life sucked out of you by the sun all afternoon, rendering you worthless for the rest of Saturday, and possibly into Sunday, depending on how bad the sunburn is. (And the Hawks are still undefeated at home when I’m in Kinnick.)
I had an enjoyable bye weekend. On Saturday, my mom and Aunt Beverly came over to Iowa City way. We had lunch at Atlas and then went to Cedar Rapids to visit the Grant Wood exhibit at the Cedar Rapids Art Museum. I had not been to the CR art museum before, but I suspect they have not before seen the size of crowds that this very well-done exhibit attracted. There were probably 100 people in the gallery when we were viewing the pieces, as well as another ten to twenty patrons in line for tickets and thirty or more so in the gift shop, viewing a video presentation, or just milling around. It was busy. A lot of people were taking advantage of the nice weather and football-free weekend.
The exhibit was well-done and educational to anyone who hadn’t grown up in Eastern Iowa in the CR-area. I had no idea Grant Wood had been a teacher in the local schools and many aspects of his life. Honestly, I don’t think I knew he was actually from Iowa until I was in college. Up until that point, I thought he had visited Iowa and painted American Gothic here in the way Dvorak completed his “New World Symphony” in Spillville, IA.
While American Gothic was obviously the big draw (on loan from the Chicago Art Museum - possibly the first time they have ever loaned it out for any period of time), I had already seen it in Chicago several times. I was interested to see how many different mediums Wood had worked in or designed for, including metalworking, furniture, and stained glass. My favorite piece was one that Wood had done as a child. A small oil painting of a grey cat startled/attacking a fox fur rug. It was whimsical and delightful.
On our return to Iowa City, we stopped at Village Inn for some afternoon pie. mmMMMMmmm french silk.
Saturday night, I watched The Mummy Returns, did some knitting, and actually went to bed by 9:30pm. With the Daylight Savings Time fall back, I got nearly 10 hours of sleep that night. Delightful.
Sunday, I went to church with Adrienne and then came home and attempted to be productive, but not too productive. *chuckle* I alternated doing laundry, knitting, and working on captioning all the photos I am very far behind on getting online. The newest set is from the family lunch after the memorial service for my cousin Susan. Please feel free to leave a caption if you know people’s names. Some are left blank because I didn’t know names of everyone in the photo. There are other random additions/rearrangements in the gallery as well, as it remains a work in progress.
I went to bed early again last night. When it gets dark so early now, it makes me want to go to bed. But the nice thing is that its easier for me to wake up early/on time when there is a hint of light outside in the morning.
Posted in Family, General Thoughts |