Traveling at Christmas

Remember when traveling by plane used to be fun, elegant, exciting? No? Well….. those of us who are REALLY old do. And now traveling during a holiday is even more of a challenge. Like this holiday when the Mid Atlantic area was socked with snow and all those travelers that couldn’t travel at the beginning of the week were FORCED to travel today when I am trying to get to the East coast for a nice family Christmas. First, it is the news story on the radio when it goes off at 3:45am about the “near misses” experienced by planes due to a lack of enough air traffic controllers. Then, it’s the 4:30am taxi who arrives at 4:10AM when I have barely dried off from the shower. And while waiting in a rather long line to check in – even at 4:32 (which is when we got to the airport for our 6:15am departure) – I notice a rather rambunctious boy of about 6 who is running up and down the escalator. That’s running up the down and down the up escalator. And then LYING at the bottom of the up escalator squealing like a little pig as the steps fold up under his back and disappear into …… wherever elevator steps go. And I’m trying to pay attention to the ticket agent who is asking about my bag and where’s my ID and all those important questions. But I’m THINKING this kid is going to get his shirt sucked into elevator step HELL and THEN  there will be blood and gore and I WILL MISS MY OVERBOOKED FLIGHT!! But luckily the wild and wiggly small person jumps up and runs back to Mom and Dad who look very tired. As they wait in line, the child is talking NON STOP! I whisper to Mark, “Aren’t you glad we aren’t traveling with HIM!” So we get through security and get totally redressed and repacked (and in front of ALL those other people frantically trying to get recombobulated). And we find our gate. AND, best of all, Mark (who IS a saint) even finds GOOD coffee. And all is well. We will get on board – No, we will NOT volunteer to take another flight. Do we look crazy? – and we will eat the little meal I have packed (no promises on food provided) and all will be well. So we are one of the first to squish into our little seats and settle in because we are almost at the very back. And then it happens….. remember that little boy?....who almost DIED on the escalator? YES! He is sitting RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Of course. And as soon as he sits down, he starts shouting, “When are we going to get going? When are we going to get going?” over and over. Now this plane is oversold and everyone has packed extra full bags. So nothing fits in the overhead and no one can get into their seats and it is taking a VERY long time to get us GOING. But finally, the doors shut and we begin to taxi….. Then he begins to shout, “WE ARE GOING TO DIE! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!” And I am thinking…. No….. not WE….. And his mother keeps leaning over and whispering to him to keep quiet. And he won’t, of course. And then she sees me watching (through the space between the seats) and says through  the crack, “I hope you like children….?” Good question. And THEN she asks him if he wants a chocolate brownie with chocolate icing…… HELP! Wait – there’s more. So we are still climbing with the seat belt sign on and it starts to get bumpy….. like we are driving a bus over boulders very fast. And my little friend HAS to pee. NO he can’t wait. HE HAS TO GO NOW! So up pops Mom AND Dad as my friend is, of course, by the window. And Dad runs him back to the bathroom while the flight attendant is saying (in a slightly pissed off way which they must practice in flight attendant training school) PLEASE remain seated while the captain has the fasten-seatbelt-sign on. And I agree as the Dad and son are bouncing from one side of the aisle to the other like an arcade game….. AND THEY WILL NOT GET THE HIGH SCORE. While they are gone, the flight attendant announces that there will be a bad children’s movie shown and headsets are $3 each and they don’t take cash. Now this is a movie FOR children that has BAD-AS-IN-STUPID content. And the Mom isn’t sure she has a credit card to get head sets. And I’m about to dig in my wallet or take up a collection to get her a set. And the boy and Dad return unscathed. The headsets are attached. The movie starts. And my little friend is…… quiet! And…… not wiggling! And his parents IMMEDIATELY fall asleep. Do you blame them?

Ho Ho NoCal Style

I am sitting in my sunny office/studio/spare room/.... in the sun listening to Christmas music and thinking about the season. It is very different having Christmas without boots and gloves and hats and parkas and shovels and.... well, you get the picture. Here in NoCal, we celebrate the season a bit differently. I live in a neighborhood of Buddhists and Muslims. So there are very few Christmas lights on the houses - see above. And most everybody is elderly and may not be able to PUT lights up. And then there is our house...... with wreath and Maine window candles and lights - of course the tasteful small white ones to show culture and good breeding. Also note - green grass freshly mowed and wet sidewalk from winter rain. Yes, we are still mowing and weeding and fertilizing the lawn which we can still see. And with the winter rain, the brown hills to the east are now the -slightly-less-brown-turning-a-bit-green hills. But back to Christmas. We weren't going to get a tree and do much decorating inside as we will be away for Christmas. But when shopping, we found a little "tree" that we just HAD to buy. So we have a ...... well..... it's a Christmas bush-cut-to-look-like-a-tree. AND it is rosemary. AND we can plant it in the gorilla hair after Christmas. So how environmentally friendly is that! AND it has a string of LED lights that look blue not tasteful white..... oh well. We still have LOADS of traffic at any place that sells anything and LONG lines at any post office. So we aren't all that different. But Mark and I walked down to the Farmers' Market to get fresh citrus - samsuta tangerines, 3 kinds of grapefruits, pumelos, grapes, apples, broccoli sold by the cutest girls and their mom who had a blanket tied around her head because she had to stand out in the cold for hours. We were informed that the market closes for 2 weeks during the holidays. We bought extra sourdough bread for our little freezer. And Japantown has very few Christmas decorations up. Just a LARGE shark wrapped up in rice and seaweed to look like sushi.... is that Christmas? We have been receiving Christmas cards and have even sent some out this year. But, just like in Maine, we have collected the goodies to take to the nephews and neices and sibs and in-laws. We have mailed all the stuff that had to go far away. And we are ready to enjoy the time with family and friends. Because.... after all.... isn't that what the season is REALLY about? Like the Whos down in Whoville - the tall and the small. The Whos who had nothing at all. They all joined hands and started singing........
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" 

And maybe it doesn't really matter where you are for Christmas. 
So to all of you both near and far
When you look up and see a star
Know that I am thinking of you
And wishing for peace the whole year through!

So Cal Museums

Last week we drove to LA. Actually I drove as Mark's driving makes me nervous....especially as he hasn't BEEN driving anything but his bike. While Mark attended VERY important meetings at ABC/Disney (where they have Mickey Mouse heads artistically done in wrought iron on the tops of the fences), I went to museums..... LOTS of museums. This will be a Mainer-who-now-lives-in-NoCal's review of the museums. So, here we go.... First day: It is POURING rain (Really!) and I went to MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in downtown LA. And, yes, there IS a real downtown. The downtown location is one of several and is kitty-corner to Gehry's Disney Concert Hall which is very cool - at least from the outside. The website gave directions to the parking garage which costs $10 and entry was $9. I drove around the museum's block FOUR TIMES and could never find the parking. So I parked in what I thought MIGHT be the parking for the museum and found that it was $18 - UP FRONT. But the museum was worth it. I walk in the door looking like a drowned rat and making a big puddle on the floor as I pay my fee. They take the soggy sponge I call a coat from me and I slosh my way to the ladies' room to try to dry off a bit. After LOTS of paper towels, I am ready to wander happily looking at stuff from the 1920's and later. When I reclaim my coat, the guy says, "So, did you see anything you liked?" I paused (HE thought it was because I was in deep thought - but I was deciding if I should make the first wise-ass comment I thought of or be nice. I chose nice). I replied (in an educated elitist intellectual way, "It was like meeting old friends." The gum-chewing young woman behind the counter said, "Oh that's so sweet." Hmmm....... Second Day: No rain - Thank God! So off to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) and the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. Now the Tar Pit visit wasn't really planned. But they are right next to each other and so I thought Why Not? As you walk around the Tar Pits (which are fenced off holes in the ground filled with water and leaves and don't look very dangerous or pitty), you SMELL the tar. One of the pits is being excavated and you can look into the excavation and see..... well, water and leaves and holes and wooden braces and tools..... The museum has a wooly mammoth that moves and moans VERY LOUDLY as if it was.... well, whatever wooly mammoths moan about. And there is a skeleton of a saber toothed tiger that goes dark and then when the lights come back on, it has fur and eyes and looks hungry. I overheard one young guy say to the young lady he was escorting around that the tiger used to be his favorite part of the museum and he would watch it change for HOURS. I tried to picture the patient parents standing around waiting..... When I got tired of the tar smell, I went to LACMA to check out more art. The collection was great and the space is very modern. The parking is easy to find and only $7. And on Tuesday (which it was) the museum is FREE. Day Three: Went to the Huntington Museum in Pasadena. It was the home of some VERY wealthy people who liked collecting 18th C. art and furniture. Now most of the stuff in the house is French as Arabella Huntington wanted a house just like Marie Antoinette's. Hmmm....... I am not a fan of the Rococo, so I admired the beautiful rooms and architecture and skimmed over the art and furniture. It was all that gilded stuff that seems so fragile that if you sat on it, it would shatter. And all the portraits are of soft slightly pink slightly chubby women who are over dressed in ruffles and frills. See my bias? The gardens are really amazing - acres of space devoted to different types of plants - desert, Japanese Tea garden, rose garden, lily ponds..... At least that is what the map said. The museum is only open from 12 noon to 4:30pm. And I got there at 1:30 and spent WAY too much time with the chubby people. So by the time I got outside, it was getting dark-ish and I HAD to save time for the gift shop. If you go to the Huntington, you MUST do the gift shop. It was listed as one of the best museum gift shops and IT IS!! I got GREAT stocking stuffers and gifts there. So I guess I'll just have to go back to see the gardens. Day Four: I only had a half day as we were driving to San Diego in the afternoon. So I went to the Museum of Natural History. Again, parking was easy to find and $8. Entry fee was $9. But as I walked up to the massive building which was built in the 30's, I notice HORDES of children arriving and going in. When I got to the entrance desk, I asked if they allowed adults in who didn't have any children with them. They assured me that they did and told me that it was school field trip day...... Lucky me! This museum is like the one in the movie about the guard in the Smithsonian. Lots of dioramas of critters in their "natural" habitat with dim lighting and big echoey spaces and ancient bathrooms with antique plumbing and WIDE marble stairs. And, best of all, in the entrance rotunda is a HUGE tyrannosaurus and triceratops FIGHTING. Well.... the BONES are fighting. Although I'm not sure why the T-Rex would WANT to chew on a triceratops that was THAT boney. But, besides the dead animals, I saw live insects like a black widow spider.... COOL! Day Five: Finally, the Getty. Now, the Getty has been the the art news alot lately for problems with ownership of the art they have. So the museum is free - I'm not really sure that is why it is free, but I like to think that they dropped the entrance fee to improve their image. And parking is $15 - that includes the tram ride to the top of the hill and the museum which Natalie and I saw.... IN THE RAIN. The Getty has some amazing art - I LOVE the manuscripts that they have. And they have some of the classic paintings like Van Gogh's Irises. But this was Day Five of museums and Natalie had just finished a week of hard finals, so we were both a bit tired. And when we saw the Degas painting "After the Bath" (see image on side), well..... we got to giggling. The poor girl looks like she just fell getting out of the tub and the lady just caught her by the hair. It reminded me of some of the wonderful cards of Renaissance art with great captions..... like Raphael's "Love's Arrows" which shows a young maiden about to be shot with arrows held by a gaggle of baby cherubs and the caption says "Lucretia is soon to discover that sometimes, love hurts." Now Natalie and I are VERY sophisticated intellectual ladies and we weren't guffawing or rolling around on the floor or bumping into people. We were just standing in front of the painting and giggling. And a Getty guard comes over and says, in a dark and smarmy voice "Can I help you find something?" (Implied addition - like your decorum??). So, if you do go to the Getty, DON'T LAUGH AT ANY OF THE ART. That is NOT OK in a really sophisticated museum.