Celebrating Go to an Art Museum Day

Alternate title: On grief, and listening to Radiohead and R.E.M.

In the summer I realized I had some time left I still needed to take off work so I’ve had a few random days off. At the time I decided to look at a calendar of national holidays to select my day off. My last one was October 28, National Chocolate Day, even though ironically I didn’t have any chocolate that day.

This Tuesday, Nov. 9, according to the website National Today, is Go to an Art Museum Day, and it is one of the days I chose to have off. Initially, I thought about going to the Corning Museum of Glass, which is about an hour away from where I live. But this past week some unforeseen vehicle repair expenses came up, so now I won’t be going. Instead, I’m going on a virtual tour of some museums around the world that I bookmarked yesterday.

That will be in the afternoon. In the morning, I want to catch up on some meditation podcasts with Niall Breslin on Spotify and journaling.

Last Tuesday, my wife Kim took a creative writing workshop so she could do something special on the birthday of both her mother and her best friend from high school, who passed away within four days of each other in April. This Tuesday, I’m doing something similar as with the meditation podcasts and journaling, I’m remembering not only their passing – and the passing of hundreds of thousands in our country and millions around the world in the last year and half from COVID-19 – but also the passing of a few patrons who have died as well in the last couple of months.

Even though I didn’t know those patrons well, I was used to seeing – and hearing – them at the library, a couple for many of the last 11 years I’ve worked at the library. And their deaths have hit me harder than I thought they would. So I want to acknowledge that grief – and the continuing grief that both Kim (moreso, understandably, her) and I are having for Kim’s mom and best friend – on Tuesday.

If I had gone to Corning, I wanted to listen to music on the way. Since I’m not going, while I am on my virtual museum tour, I’m going to listen to a couple of albums that were released last week by Radiohead and R.E.M., remastered editions of earlier albums. The albums are New Adventures in Hi-fi by R. E.M. and Kid A and Amnesiac by Radiohead.

I plan on ending the day by watching a movie with Kim that I’ve wanted to see for a while, but just haven’t gotten to. It also fits with the art theme. It’s called Loving Vincent and is about Vincent Van Gogh. Kim already has seen it, but she said she loved it so I don’t think she’ll mind watching again.

Our Week With Wine – and Family

This past week, my wife Kim and I visited seven wineries in upstate Pennsylvania and upstate New York – and more importantly, with my parents, my sister, nephew and niece last weekend. Below are photos from each of the seven wineries plus the bed and breakfast where we stayed. The wineries we visited were: Antler Ridge Winery, Grovedale Winery, Pleasant Valley Wine Company (I’m holding up the bottle), Bully Hill Vineyards, Ventosa Vineyards, Three Brothers Wineries & Estates, and Rasta Ranch Vineyards. The bed and breakfast was Ginger Cat Bed and Breakfast. (I’m not providing links as y’all have the power of the Interwebs since y’all are reading this.)

We hadn’t visited with my parents since last year so it was really good to see them. Saturday night, we played Aggravation with Kim dethroning my dad, who, according to my sister, always wins, and then on Sunday, my sister, nephew and niece visited and we had lunch together.

It was a very good week. As for this weekend, we have no plans as Kim went back to work last night. However, I don’t work this weekend so I plan to catch up a little on reading, continuing with The Age of Doubt, the 14th in the Inspector Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri, and maybe the next in the Murderbot Diaries, Network Effect, by Martha Wells. I finished Exit Strategy earlier in the week.

How about you? How you doin’? Reading, watching, listening to anything good? Share in the comments.

Going on vacation

At 2:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, I’m going on vacation until next Thursday morning at 10 a.m. when I return to work. Initially, I decided to take the time off, just because I don’t like my vacation hours to build up at the end of the year when I have to “use them or lose them.”

AND THEN…

Last month, I got an appointment for my first covid vaccination shot on Saturday in a nearby town (about an hour away), then a couple of weeks ago, another appointment for my first covid vaccination shot last night, which I took because it was in my hometown. My second is scheduled for Thursday, April 1. No fooling 😉.

SO NOW…

I am celebrating that, of course, which just happened also to be on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the world was in a pandemic.

AND THIS…

It is almost exactly one year from when the pandemic began for me too as the last day the library where I work was open was Saturday, March 14, and we closed Sunday, March 15, for several months before reopening.

My vacation begins appropriately right around the same time, as on March 14, I’ll already be into my vacation since Saturday afternoon. It will be almost a year to the day of when I went into isolation and have been slowly remerging since, both personally and professionally.

Now that you know the why, what is my plan for those 4 days and 19 hours?

THE ITINERARY

Over the first four nights, we’re going to northern England, Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Boston. First through the lens of The Trip, the British TV/film series with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, that started in 2010 and ended last year. The duo first toured the north of England in the TV series that was then made into a feature film, then went to Italy, Spain, and Greece in subsequent series that also were made into feature films.

So, we’ll be going with them and adding Ireland, but of course, with a concert with Flogging Molly and then Boston with another concert, Dropkick Murphys, on the tail end of our tour. Along the way, we’ll eat meals, drink drinks (well, I will be every day but as Kim has to work Saturday and Sunday nights, she won’t be imbibing on those days) and watch other movies too (at least semi) representative of each country:

Saturday, March 13, The Trip (northern England),followed by movie to be determined, fish and chips, Pimm’s.
Sunday, March 14, The Trip to Italy, followed by Godfather: Part 3, Coda, ziti, amaretto, sambuca.
Monday, March 15: The Trip to Spain, followed by a movie to be determined, paella, Sangria.
Tuesday, March 16: The Trip to Greece, followed by My Big Fat Greek Wedding – during day sometime, Staged Season 2, spanakopita, ouzo.
Wednesday, March 17: Two virtual concerts, Flogging Molly at 3 p.m. and Dropkick Murphys at 7 p.m., food to be determined, whiskey.

Oops, I almost forgot that naturally I plan on reading during my vacation, but I’m staying in one country: Italy with Inspector Montalbano and Andrea Camilleri as next up is The Wings of The Sphinx, the 11th in the series.

Sunday morning update: For my second English movie, I watched the first Paddington movie, although the second one is my favorite. I started the second one, but didn’t finish it. Maybe later today. Also I realized last night that I might be painting “this picture” as all sunshine and unicorns (with rainbows coming out of their butts?), and I wanted to add that this vacation is also a time for reflection me personally. Let’s face it, this has been one hell of a year for all of us, but I’m trying to find hope wherever I can and hopefully, can help you find some too, even if it’s just a sliver of sunshine in what can be a dark world.