it's hard to be truly present on 5 hours of sleep...

also known as Sarah and mka's Excellent Adventure

Last Saturday night Sarah and I had a grand adventure in honor of her birthday on the following Monday (yes, she shares her day with MLK, Jr - how cool is that?). We had a lovely dinner at Boba House in Greensboro. (Who knew you could get eternal bliss on a plate with a side of brown rice?) We visited some friends in Durham (hi L and C or is it K?) who treated us to coffee, treats for the road, Dar Williams, and lovely, lively conversation.

We headed to the $1.50 theatre in Raleigh to see Stranger than Fiction. We were 15 minutes late because I got turned around in Raleigh and the ticket girl didn't want to let us in. It was the last showing of the night and we had hours to kill before our 2:30 main event so Sarah, quite beautifully, convinced the ticket girl that we didn't care that we'd missed the first 15 minutes and that we were fine with the fact that the concessions were closed (that food is icky and overpriced and we wouldn't have bought any if it had been open - but we didn't tell the ticket girl that) and we got in. The movie was great! I love Emma Thompson and I thought she was especially good in this - quite hilarious actually. Dustin Hoffman's coffee obsession was too funny. And I have a new respect for Will Farrell - I usually don't care for his films - I believed him this time.

The movie was over about midnight and we headed to the North Carolina Museum of Art for our 2:30 am viewing of Monet in Normandy. The exhibit was way popular so the museum extended the last day to be 24 hours. Boy was I glad because I had tried to go over Christmas break and it was completely sold out. Anyway, Sarah and I grabbed our tickets at the will-call window and headed for the coffee shop to caffeine up on lattes. We had a hilarious time trying to do a crossword puzzle. (Did you know that yodass means 3 or more yodas. I tried to convince Sarah of this for the "wise one" clue but she wasn't buying it.)

About 1:30 we decided to see if we could get into the gift shop before going through the exhibit because there was a particular postcard that I was looking for to send a friend in Kentucky who love, love, loves Monet. When we asked one of the ticket-taker dudes about the shop he asked when our reservation was. I told him and he said go on in. I was so excited that I started saying things like really, we can, an hour early and he indicated to me, in a subtle and nice way, that if I didn't shut up I was going to get him into trouble so we should just move along into the exhibit. I took the hint.

Wow! I always knew Monets were beautiful - but damn - prints , books, and postcards do not do them justice. I sooooo wanted to touch them. The textures are amazing. I 'm still reeling from all that gorgeousness all in one place. Being a sucker for trees, I must admit that the ones with trees were my favorite - Poplars, Pink Effect, 1891; The Seine at Giverny, Morning Mists, 1897; Wheat Field, 1881; and Road at La Cavee, Pourville, 1882. Sarah liked Wisteria (my Monet book has no date for this one) best. It is very cool, I agree.

There were a bazillion people there and I'm not a crowd person so I didn't spend as much time with the art as I wanted to. I would have preferred an empty museum with just me and Sarah being hyper-excited about what we were seeing. Alas, I am not in charge of the world so I'm happy to be grateful that I saw these paintings in person. :)

Sarah and I got separated in the exhibit and when we found each other at the end of it we were both smiling and tired. We headed back to the Meredith the Mazda (my car) and Sarah took the driver's seat this time since I'd driven the to part of the trip. I put Christine Kane's orange cd in the cd player and we sang along (we both know all the words). After the orange one was over I put in the green one (my favorite Christine cd) and before it was over we were back at Sarah's sweet little cottage in Greensboro. It was 4:00 am and we crashed.

I was wide awake the next morning at 9. Sarah and I had a pleasant morning having breakfast and visiting with her kitty friend, Calvin. I went into work at 1:00. When I left work that evening to pick a friend up at the train station who was going to crash at my place I hit the play button on my cd player and there was no Christine. Huh, I thought, that's weird the cd player is on the fritz. The entire following week I would hit the eject button every time that I got into the car to see if the cd player had worked out its kinks. Nope! By Friday I was pretty bummed that I was going to have to take my car in somewhere to get my cd player fixed because a girl who commutes can't be without her cd player. I'd gotten through the week with the classical station out of Roanoke, VA but it fades when I get close to GSO and I need my tunes to get me through the 10 pm commute. So I talked to my dad about it. He told me that as soon as he had some free time he'd look at the cd player for me. What about my cd Dad? He told me that we might have to use pliers to get it out. Oh man not only is that my favorite cd it's the first Christine Kane cd that I purchased. There's sentimental value there. But I figured, I can get another one, no big deal, I guess. (mopey face)

Yesterday morning I was gathering up my things to go to work and my cd case that goes in the car with me fell open and there 'lo and behold was the green cd. (chimey miracle music, please) It was not stuck in my cd player. I had taken it out the Sunday after the Monet adventure and had totally forgotten. Hip hip hurray. I have my cd and my cd player is perfectly fine. I feel kinda like a goof ball but hey it's hard to be truly present on 5 hours of sleep.

I love postcards!