Fursday is Awesome!

Fursday is what I dub the Thursdays preceding Federal holiday Fridays. Today was a very happy Fursday!

It began with my first gallery check, which turned out to not mean leisurely walking around the museum before hours, ensuring that everything looks lovely and is accounted for. I was handed a Swiffer (tm), a rag and Brillianize and was instructed to 1. Check the galleries and 2. Dust the artwork / wipe down the plexiglass cases.

Yes, it is pathetic that I was instantly excited about this. But I like art, and I like to play house, and I like the fact that I was allowed to (sort of) touch priceless and incredible works of real, real art. By touch, I guess I mean Swiffer (tm). I swiffered Marcel Duchamp's face! I swiffered Bob Hope! Through plexiglass!!!

Next I joined a tour (which I coordinated) of the Lunder Conservation Center. Conservation is amazing. This center is absolutely beautiful, and it was very exciting to see x-rays of John McQueen basketry and marble statues whose appendages had broken off during unloading (foot re-attached, hand still disembodied). Our guide was excellent, too, and I know I learned more about museum collections and conservation in one hour at LCC than I have all year at UO. Sorry, school, but sometimes practice defeats theory.

I tried to attend the famed Penn Quarter farmer's market, but -- I have learned that a "farmer's market" in DC actually translates as "one block's worth of fresh produce, but mostly stupid flowers and Buffalo steaks."

Saddened, I visited Georgetown, because Zara and Anthropologie usually cheer me up. They did. I topped off the lovely day with a visit to Five Guys and ohmygoditwasreallysogood. The beef melted in my mouth like delicious, buttery animal flesh, topped with grilled onions and grilled mushrooms.

And now it's evening, and I must get a bit of research done so that when I meet the Education Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts tomorrow morning, their take on public programming will be fresh in my mind.

Happy 4th of July!