Calendar flip

Time continues to march on, and I am another year older. We celebrated yesterday with an afternoon of museum meandering, including the members' preview of the new Pompeii exhibit at the MFAH. I was a bit disappointed, but I don't know exactly why, or just what I expected the exhibit to include. It mainly included multiple cases of jewelry and small household items recovered from the site, along with several of the poignant and unsettling plaster casts made of the people--and even a dog, poor creature--who were unable to escape the volcano's eruption. At Pompeii there are so many of these casts that one can see them tucked away in storage areas next to random bits of pottery. Their pathos provides reminders that these were mothers, fathers, children, people not so different from us. A more amusing example of our common humanity was a mosaic from the wall of a tavern, with patrons yelling to the barmaid, "Here," "No, it's mine," and the weary barmaid's rejoinder, "Whoever wants it should come get it!"

Later we walked down the street to the crafts museum and enjoyed a traveling exhibit with everything from glass (our favorite) to handcrafted chairs to mid-twentieth-century silver teapots. We topped off the afternoon with an early dinner at a fabulous restaurant where locally-produced foods are emphasized. Barack Obama's local headquarters is across the street from the restaurant, and as we relaxed on the patio before dinner, we watched young staffers standing on the corner nearby, waving placards and cheering for their candidate as many passing motorists honked in appreciation (or so it appeared).

Two more days until the primary! I'm looking forward to seeing the results, and I will be so glad when the political phone calls stop!