I guess. My 30th birthday was Friday. My lovely friends treated me to dinner at Musashino and then drinks at de Ville which was fun. Thank you friends. I also drove down to the San Antonio neck of the woods to visit my family. We had a picnic at the Guadalupe River State Park which is one of the old stand by, day out locations from when I was a kid. It’s largely unchanged and it was uncrowded which is apparently due to the school year having started. It was good to see everyone there too and the weather was great. The icon watch I mentioned previously was bestowed upon me as a gift by my sister. Thank you Eileen. I also got a card describing the world as it was in 1978 (and some candy) from Evelyn. From Caroline, Aunt Helen’s set of dominoes my sister and I played with at her house which are still in surprisingly good condition. A nice shirt from Dad and a water-sprinkler tractor from Mom and Bill to round out the material goods. Of course, I also got a lot of nice cards and Mom wrote all over hers as usual.
The other gift I got from Mom was a membership to the also previously mentioned Museum of Modern Art in New York. This means that I now have a year in which to get back up there. I’d really like to go there now though affording the time, tickets, etc. will be tight with the fab closure project coming to a head. The exhibit that opens today is “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night.” It follows Van Gogh’s life from 1880 when he began his career as an artist to Arles, France in 1888 and the progression of his painting of sunset and twilight scenes and interior night scenes and finally his paintings of the starry night sky. The exhibit includes both The Starry Night over the Rhône and The Starry Night both of which are beautiful and significant in art history. I’ve been told I should just take a day or two off at the end of the week in a few weeks and fly up there to visit the exhibit and the rest of the museum. I may do that. It would certainly be worth it. I could leave on Thursday, get there in the evening, have dinner and sleep early, get up early, spend the day at MoMA and then maybe Saturday at the Met and then come back Sunday morning. Three nights wouldn’t break the bank and if I bought tickets now I could probably still get an ok deal. Regardless of my potential travel plans this year, next spring or summer I’m going to try to take a longer trip up there with Mom and we’ll have more time to go to the museums. Update: Too expensive. I will stay here and cry about it instead.
My gift to myself was having two of the prints I bought at Flatstock in the spring framed. Michael’s sent me a 60% off framing coupon in the mail this week and that’s too good a deal to pass up. Framing is fantastically expensive so really what 60% off means is not cheap framing but rather that you can get what you actually want done for an acceptable price. The framing department at the Michael’s at 1325 and I-35 is good and quick and I’ve been happy with the work they did for me earlier this year. They should be done before the impending dinner party on October 4th though the target display location is my bedroom so if I want to show them off I’ll have to actually clean the entire house, not just the living room.
Now is a dangerous time of year. The East Austin Studio Tour is coming November 22nd and 23rd and then the Blue Genie Art Bazaar starts Deceber 3rd. The shows are still fun even if you aren’t loading up on pretty things though so I will just have to go and have a little self control. I’ve been on vacation for a week and I’ve been making progress on my projects. The weight loss is going well despite the birthday feasting. The air is getting cooler. We’re coming into my favorite time of year. So, I may be old now but I’m pretty optimistic about the near future.