Baseball, Art, and The Magic of Saltines and Coke

Went to a Durham Bulls game Friday night. The company I work for bought a sky box for five games to entertain clients and friends. (Nice!) The Bulls won AND there were fireworks after the game!

I ate too much popcorn or crack cheese, (what we call the jalapeno pimento cheese concoction made by Susan's husband), or M&Ms or quite possibly all of the above, because I did not feel well when I got home. (only drank water, so couldn't blame on alcohol)

That feeling lingered all night and into morning, so much so that I drove to the store at 7:30 AM to get saltines and a co-cola to settle my stomach; I did not want to miss the Saturday plans.

Steffi and I were driving up to Richmond, VA, Steffi being on her way to Maryland for the month of May for Baby Watch 2013, which will hopefully turn into Helping with Baby in very early May.
With the coke and saltines working their magic (what is that?!), we dropped off Solo (sniff, sniff) and headed up to Virginia.

We met Diane and Susan who drove up separately (they were my ride home) at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and proceeded to have a fine day. We were there to see the Ted Wesselmann "Pop Art" exhibit, but first things first - lunch. Of the two cafes in the museum, we chose Amuse.

Needless to say, I was feeling much better.

There's a burger and blue cheese under the egg.

You say creme caramel, I say flan. Either way, delicious.

From the balcony of the restaurant we could see the Chihuly water garden.
More of that later.

Clandestine photo (name withheld to protect the guilty)

The exhibit was great; enjoyed seeing the evolution of his work.

Another guilty photo (my favorite)

Then we had to send Steffi on her way (more sniff, sniff) - for a whole month!

We wandered through the rest of the museum. They had one of Kehinde Wiley's paintings (discovered him at the 30 Americans exhibit at the NC Museum of Art). This is not the one they had, but this is why I love him.

Another photo by she who shall remain nameless

My favorite gallery in the museum: Art Deco. The jewelry! The pottery! The furniture! 

Brooches of opals the size of baby fists dangling giant gleaming pearls. Chokers with diamonds (meh), garnets, enamel. Buckles in the shape of peacock feathers or dragonflys; horned beetle mirrors. The most glorious swirly drawer pulls; pottery teapots in the shape of sea urchins. Chests and chairs and dressers and desks made from deliciously grained walnut and cherry wood. The Tiffany window (this is not a good representation), lamps, vases, necklaces. Bronze ink wells in the shape of a crab or a woman wrestling with an octopus (okay, that one was a little weird). Diane and Susan left me in there enraptured while they looked at the Impressionists, then we headed outside for a closer look at the Chihuly garden.

Reflection in museum window

Last photo of the day

You know the kind of tired you get after being at the beach all day and you're a little wind/sunburned? That's the kind of tired I was. The grateful-for-good-friends kinda tired. The laughed-so-hard-I-cried kinda tired.

The happy-but-can't-wait-to-get-home kind of tired.