February 6, 2011

A much needed trip to Our Nation's Capitol

I just got back from the best trip to visit my dear friend Kathryn who makes me laugh until I cry and then I cry for real when we say goodbye. She lives in Washington DC. It's quite unusual for me to take a trip to visit a friend during the school year. I'm usually way too busy and stressed out to go anywhere not family or school related. But Kathryn is getting ready to leave DC and I haven't seen her in about a year, so I made an exception and went on vacation. It was awesome.

 At times, I felt like a country mouse in the city.  Most of you know I live in Kansas City, but Kansas City feels small and cozy to me compared to DC. There were so many people everywhere. Even the grocery store on rainy Saturday morning.  I flew into Baltimore, then took a train to Union Station - the ceiling is shown above. The patterns in the architecture were truly inspiring.

 We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and met the little guy above. He is a pink fairy armadillo. Really. I'm not kidding. It's real. It looks like my guinea pig (may she rest in peace) wearing alligator feet and a pink shell. It was also quite small - actually not much larger than guinea pig size.

And I also got to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. It was huge and awesome. There were different parts of it to show how coral reefs die - like from bleaching and pollution. Very interesting. Since I suck at reading signs in museums I can't tell you many specifics, but their website will.

Most of all this trip made me step back and breathe for a few days. I get so wrapped up in Getting Sh*t Done and trying to Keep Up that I forget about what is important and what truly fuels my art practice. More than anything, I am inspired by life. How can I expect to create something great if I forget about the things that make living worthwhile? Like friendship, and pie, and possibly made up creatures, and walking in a strange city, and taking a breath once in a while. Right, yo?