5 days in D.C.

I recently chaperoned my 8th grader's class trip to Washington, D.C. When Omicron started to surge right after the New Year, I worried the trip would be canceled as it had been the two years prior. But I think we just managed to squeeze in between the Omicron surge and whatever BA2 is going to do. Sort of. But more about that in a follow-up post.

I should preface this by saying that when the school started discussing this trip, and the need for chaperones, in the fall, I knew I'd probably want to step forward. I love traveling, increasingly longing for anything to interrupt the tedium of the past two years, and I genuinely enjoy chaperoning school field trips. I haven't chaperoned any middle school field trips, mainly because there haven't been many (none since the first half of 6th grade), so I decided that if my 8th grader didn't object, I'd volunteer. I think he may have been motivated by the false hope that I'd be able to smuggle his cell phone to him in spite of a no cell phone policy, but either way, he said he wouldn't mind so I filled out the form. 

We saw so much over the course of our nearly five days in D.C. I already posted a list on my newsletter, which you can check out here. For this blog post, I thought I'd flesh out that itinerary with some images and reflections.

Day 0: redeye flight from SFO to IAD

Neal and Daphne drove us to the airport on Tuesday evening to meet up with the other families, in particular the other students in our chaperone group. I was partnered with a teacher, which was great, not only because he was great, but because it was nice to have a parent-teacher combo. The kids were overall really well-behaved, engaged, respectful, etc., but sometimes it takes a teacher to get their attention and cooperation. Together we were responsible for 8 students, including Elias. The only challenge here was that chaperone groups didn't necessarily match friend and/or room groups. The kids got along well enough but they got really tired of my repeated attempts to get chaperone group pictures to text to their parents. 

Anyway, we made it through security to the gate without incident and had plenty of time for everyone to get dinner, fill up water bottles, etc. The kids were pretty quiet on the flight so I assume most got at least some sleep. Elias and I were prepared with neck pillows, eye masks, and ear plugs, but it wasn't exactly a great night of sleep. I was so tired when the plane landed in D.C.

Day 1: National Museum of the US Army, Monuments & Memorials on the National Mall, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The redeye flight was just a little over four hours from takeoff to landing, so no matter how you slept on the plane, you were operating on a sleep deficit for the first packed day. From the airport, after freshening up a bit, we met our tour guides and bus drivers (2 of each for the duration of the trip). Our Bus, Bus B, was cursed, as we'll discover why a little later on. From the airport we drove to our first stop—the National Museum of the US Army—by way of a cluster of fast food joints for breakfast and, most importantly, caffeine. We had a couple of hours at the museum before lunch at the Pentagon City Mall and on to the National Mall to walk around the monuments and memorials. 

From there we moved on to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History plus dinner at a restaurant on the way to our hotel. 

I lucked out and got upgraded to a single, private room, and honestly, that was a total game-changer. If my daughter goes to the same school and I chaperone her trip (or any other like it), I will pay extra to have a private room. That said, our first night at the hotel was a late one, since we got checked in relatively late and still had to debrief as a chaperone group, something we did every night after the kids were all tucked in in their rooms. I slept so soundly those first couple of nights (but still woke up tired!). My strategy was to get up and be partially ready before I had to wake up the students in the room I was responsible for (different than my chaperone group). That first morning I snuck down to the hotel breakfast before the kids did and, not to be a food snob, but let's just say I walked across the street to Starbucks every subsequent morning. The waffle maker, however, was a big hit with the kids. Later that second day I bought a giant blueberry muffin that served as my breakfast for the following two mornings, alongside a soy latte and a banana. I'd also brought some vegan granola/cereal bars. After the first breakfast, I smuggled a banana to Elias each morning (what hotel doesn't at least have bananas?).

Day 2: US Capitol Building, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Inner Harbor for a Dinner Cruise

The night before, upon discovering that the tour company had not in fact secured us group tickets to the Museum of African American History and Culture, as requested, we decided we'd try as a group to get enough individual tickets for everyone when that day's tickets were released in the morning at 8:15 a.m. And we were successful! But first, we drove to the US Capitol Building for a photo op in our matching red t-shirts.

From there we moved on to the museum. It was packed. We spent so much time waiting in line first to get in, then to get to the bottom half of the museum, and again for lunch at the cafe. I mean, what else can I say, it's heavy stuff. And a few hours is not enough time. One also needs time to take in the building, both from outside and within. The cafe is excellent. I recommend spending a full day there, with a lunch break at the cafe in the middle.

We stopped at a general gift shop on our way back to the hotel, where we had an hour or so to freshen up for the Inner Harbor dinner cruise. Not gonna lie, this was not my favorite part of the trip—especially given we didn't leave the harbor due to choppy water—but the kids had a blast. A thunder storm was moving north of us so that provided a cool, if slightly concerning, backdrop to some upper deck outdoor photos before they sent us inside again. 

The party was extended for Bus B when it was discovered that Bus B had a flat. Another late night settling in to the hotel. Mind you, we chaperones also had to fit in phone calls to parents once or twice a day for each of our 8 "chapees," as we affectionately called them. We took advantage of the extra time on the boat that night to do just that.

Day 3: George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, The White House, and National Harbor

I was really looking forward to Mt. Vernon since this was one of the stops on the itinerary that I hadn't visited before (I lived in two D.C. suburbs—Springfield and Manassas— for 2nd and 3rd grades, and we returned as a family in 2019). As with almost every place we visited, I wished we'd had more time to explore. We spent way too long waiting in line to use our lunch vouchers provided by the tour company, and apparently if you order a veggie burger with a meal voucher they refuse to "dress it" with lettuce or tomato. Worst meal of the trip. The gift shops are nice but they were so crowded. And one thing I learned on this trip is that I am not ready for crowds! I may never be.

From Mt. Vernon we drove to Arlington National Cemetery. We walked around with our tour guide, observed one of 31 funeral processions scheduled for that day, and spent about ten minutes (too long) watching the guard pace back and forth before the changing of the guard ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We observed him interrupt his pacing to firmly request silence and respect from another school group chatting and giggling as they sat down on the steps, so that was exciting. Our group of students was collectively quiet as a mouse after that!

After Arlington National Cemetery we took a quick detour to the sadly fenced and barricaded White House for a few photos (hard to see the janky barricade from the photo above but let me tell you it is sad and janky and totally blocks the view of the bottom half of the building and grounds). When we got back to Bus B, we discovered that cursed Bus B wouldn't start. Bus A had already departed so the plan became this: get Bus A to the National Harbor—a 30-minute drive—before returning to the White House area to pick up the occupants of Bus B, the battery woes of which would be remedied while we too ate dinner and explored The Awakening statue in the very cold wind. 

It was a relatively early night back at the hotel where kids who wanted to could fill out postcards to send back home and to their fundraising donors. I was delighted by the size of the stack produced that evening in the breakfast area of the hotel.

Day 4: Thomas Jefferson Memorial (and cherry blossoms!), Arts + Industries Building, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

First stop of day 4 was the Jefferson Memorial and a short walk around part of the lake to check out the last of the cherry blossoms (wish I'd known about the bloom cam before...although, it would have been about 6 a.m. west coast time when we were there!).

From there, we'd decided the night before to check out the Arts & Industries Building. 

This was probably the only place we visited where I felt like we had enough time to look around. It was fun to see the kids engage and interact with so much cool stuff. The other thing I liked about this day from this point on was the walking to and from destinations compared to hopping on and off the cursed Bus B (the only downside to this is that middle schoolers are apparently not very good at staying to the right half of a busy city sidewalk; they're like liquid, filling whatever form they collectively occupy!). From the A+I building we walked to L'Enfant Plaza for lunch. After lunch we walked to the Holocaust Museum. Apparently there was another mixup with tickets, with only about half of the tickets provided by the tour company for the afternoon slot we all wanted. So earlier that day a group of chaperones had again snagged some individual tickets online (most D.C. museums are free but you still need advance tickets and total number of tickets at each location are limited each day). But this meant some groups, including mine, had to wait a bit. Perfect opportunity for my kid to call the other half of our family back here in Oakland; with all my energy focused on making sure the other kids in our group called their parents each day, I'd completely blanked on having Elias call home the previous two days! 

The Holocaust Museum, like the Museum of African American History and Culture and some of the monuments and memorials we saw earlier, is extremely somber. And we did not have enough time, despite allowing an extra hour or so beyond what was originally allocated on the itinerary. I like how both museums kind of move you through the space according to the narrative arcs of those histories. After the museum, we sat on the grass near the Washington Monument to decompress and debrief in reflection circles. We had dinner at Uno Pizzeria and checked out the MLK Memorial a little after sunset before returning to the hotel for our final night in D.C.

Day 5: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center + flight home to SFO!

The cherry blossom 10-miler happening in D.C. on Sunday meant we had to omit an item or two from our itinerary, but honestly, I'm so glad we did. I think everyone was feeling the effects of our whirlwind pace by that point. We had about an hour and a half to wander around the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on our own (everywhere we went, depending on the location, we were either "tight" with our chaperone groups or "loose" and free to wander around until a specific time to return to a meet-up point), with a check-in break at lunch (Firehouse Subs lunch boxes on the benches outside the Museum), and just enough time after lunch to watch one of the IMAX movies. We all thought we'd have a ton of time at the airport, leaving the museum around 2:30 for a 5:55 pm flight, but it was nonstop until it was time to board. Sorting 100+ boarding passes takes time, as does getting that many kids and adults through security. To add to the chaos, once my group got to the gate, excited that we were finally not the last group to arrive somewhere, we discovered our gate had changed and, this being IAD, had to take one of those weird, wide buses over to an entirely different area of the airport. Which was a real bummer because our original gate was in what appeared to be a much nicer, newer part of the airport with better dining options. But wait, there's more! On top of all this, when we got to the correct gate, one of the students in my group announced that he'd left his backpack on the bus thing. Fortunately, we were able to retrieve it but let's just say I clocked a lot of airport steps that day. I had just enough time to hit the bathrooms, refill my water bottle, and grab a veggie sandwich from a deli chain I can't recall the name of now. I also bought some chocolate I intended to enjoy with some red wine on the plane as a little reward to myself, but United's "contactless" method of payment is way too fussy. I watched Spider-Man: No Way Home, slept for about an hour, and we were home. I've yet to have that glass of wine, but again, more about that in a follow-up post.

Overall, I had so much fun. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by how generally pretty great the kids were. They were well-behaved, quiet and respectful when they needed to be, polite and friendly when they were separated from their friend groups for one reason or another, a little goofy as this in-between age tends to be, which I love, never complained about all the walking, and thoughtful and reflective in ways I think they'll carry with them for a long time.

pandemic diaries: weeks 28-31

So, yeeeeaaaaaahhh, I'm kinda behind. To recap, as briefly as possible, here are the highlights of the past four weeks:

Air quality continued to be poor during much of the past four weeks but it's been pretty decent the past week or so, so it's like it never happened! Just like the months of insane fireworks around here. How effortlessly we forget and move on once they end. Sigh.

Neighborhood cat who usually ignores us graced us with their attention on a recent morning walk.

Love cats and art as much as I do? Watch this short film made in 1983 about the history of cats in art at the Met (I even learned something new!). "The Favorite Cat" is the cat on my address book, which I bought at the Met gift shop in 2001.

7yo mesmerized by AI.

Jenny O'Dell is working on a new book that I think will fit nicely in my Artists in Offices bibliography. I finished How To Do Nothing some time ago, but I keep thinking about it, especially when I watched The Social Dilemma recently and then saw the AI show at the recently reopened de Young Museum. More thoughts on all three to follow.

12yo made this for me for my birthday.

I have a new website! I haven't figured out what to do with it just yet, but I will. Soon! If you have ideas, leave them in the comments.

Vegan pepperoni! Vegan calamari!

Speaking of birthday, yes, I've joined the pandemic birthday club, the result of which was not too different from non-pandemic birthday celebrations. I enjoyed a couple of hours in the studio, a solo walk, and a vegan birthday spread from Butcher's Son and Love at First Bite, both in Berkeley.

It was a good mail day when this arrived. From my friend Jesse Kelsey, aka Neat Beats, who provided the intro/outro music for my podcast, his first album! So impressed (pandemic, new job, new house, two kids) and I daresay a little proud. You can listen to the album for free, here.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have landed a somewhat pandemic-proof job right before the pandemic. Even so, after a decade of trial and error (mostly error), I feel this very real possibility always lingering at the edges of my daily juggling act. I hope this conversation about the essential nature of childcare for working parents continues after the pandemic is over.

Lots of businesses in Oakland (and around the country) have closed permanently since the pandemic unfolded last spring. I was really sad to learn of the MADE's fate. Letting go of their space (where we celebrated my son's 9th birthday) is a done deal, but you can donate (here or here) to help them with storage and moving forward in a pandemic/post-pandemic world.

The children are still doing distance learning full-time, at home. It's a weird time, wrapping up week 10 of the school year, as we simultaneously settle into a somewhat sustainable routine (we could do this forever!) that is also somehow mildly torturous. And the very people who keep reminding parents that this is an unprecedented crisis situation turn around and dismiss, whether intentionally or not, how incredibly challenging this has been and continues to be for kids, parents, families, relationships, etc. I can feel deep gratitude for jobs we can do from home, space and technology for school work to happen, and our continued health while also refusing to sugar-coat how far from ideal distance learning has been and continues to be. 

On a lighter note (unless we're talking about calories, that is) the pandemic baking continues. Pictured above is vegan pumpkin pecan pie bread from Rabbit & Wolves, one of my newer go-tos for vegan recipes. 

At the Great Peter Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma earlier this week.

How are you celebrating Halloween this year? So far, we've done all the usual stuff: decorate the house and front yard, hit up a local pumpkin patch, buy costumes, throw out the old candy to make room for the new, etc. After trying all week, I finally snagged tickets for Boo at the Zoo for Halloween day. But no trick or treating for us this year (I'm thinking of doing something a little like an Easter egg hunt). 

Finally, if you live in California, please vote yes on Proposition 15. It's a flimsy bandaid for the gaping wound created by Prop 13 over 40 years ago. Our public education system needs all the support it can get as we collectively recover from the mess we find ourselves in.

Otherwise, we're binge-watching Killing Eve season 3 and I'm loving how over the top this season is. Highly recommended for your viewing pleasure.

pandemic diaries: weeks 25 & 26

Yes, I realize we're almost halfway into week 27. The bad air quality that was just starting to improve when I wrote my last update got a lot worse with more wildfires up and down the entire west coast. 

This picture does not do justice to the ORANGE skies we experienced last week, my iPhone trying awfully hard to auto-balance the apocalypse.

On September 6th, virtually all of California was under an excessive heat warning or heat advisory. We've had a solid month of Spare the Air days here in the Bay Area. It's a sobering realization that even if we weren't in the middle of a global pandemic, the kids would most likely still be out of school due to the smoke and lingering air quality issues. How depressing is that thought? I wonder how California artists, famously inspired by the muse that is the California light, will depict this moment for future generations. How long will this "moment" last?

Color of the year? Some other art world comparisons in this thread.

Today, however, we've experienced some relief, the first day in almost a week that the Air Quality Index (AQI) has dipped back down into the yellow/moderate range. With the AQI being so unhealthy we've been trying to stay mostly indoors and it's been tough. Still very grateful for our health, jobs we can do from home, and the ability to facilitate distance learning, but this has easily been the most challenging stretch of the six-month pandemic so far. 

Last night we found a hummingbird's nest in one of our backyard trees. Hope, via nature.

But things are looking up. For now at least. So how did the past couple of weeks go otherwise? Let's start with a distance learning update. The middle schooler's mini-mester is going well, with Friday this week already the end of the first marking period. His grades are good and he seems to be fairly engaged with his classes, only two of which give consistent "homework" which is, frankly, pretty nice. By about 2-3 p.m. I really don't want to have to deal with schoolwork of any kind. The 2nd grader, meanwhile, is in week 2 of her revised schedule and loving the extra time with her teacher and the return of the weekly "specials" (art, music, garden, PE). The workload is very manageable, she's making progress in the basics (reading, writing, math), and there hasn't been too much complaining about it all. I still look forward to the day when they can return to their school buildings, but it feels like we've settled into a sustainable routine and I'll roll with this rhythm as long as it lasts.

I wrote a little bit in my last update about parent artists. Along some of those same lines, Vulture/NY Magazine reporter Alex Jung wrote a profile of Miranda July in advance of the release of her latest film Kajillionaire. July is an artist I really, truly, unapologetically admire, ever since Learning to Love You More, a collaborative project with her ex, Harrell Fletcher. Jung and July are clearly fond of one another so perhaps that helps explain why all the Miranda July haters were out in full force after the profile was published. I won't go into details because frankly it's not worth your time, but there is some really odd criticism floating around out there that says a lot more about the critics than it does about her or her work. As we like to say in art crits, I think they might be projecting. But perhaps that can be said of all haters? All that negativity aside, my favorite part of the profile was learning that July has kept her 2-bedroom rental even though she and spouse Mike Mills have a different home together with their child. She escapes to that rental one day/night a week and that's when she gets most of her creative work done. Can you imagine? A room house of one's own! Even if for just one day a week!! And before you poo-poo the extravagant expense of renting a second home, most artists spend a decent chunk of change each month on a studio. With rent control figured in, I can't imagine her rent is much more than a large, well-appointed art studio.

Speaking of haters, see also some of the online response to the new Dune trailer. I haven't read the book - yet - but I, for one, am looking forward to this film adaptation.

Speaking of studios, what have I been up to in mine (other than work, that is)? I continue to make good progress on the "100 Days in the Dollhouse" project, and little progress on the screenplay. 

Speaking of "projecting."

It's just so hard to write right now. So much easier to just make shit. 

I'm also giving away - for FREE - the craft kits I put together around the holiday season of 2018 to sell in my now-defunct Etsy shop. 

So far I've sent out about half of what I had left. If you'd like a kit, or two, or six (if you want more than 6, reach out directly), fill out this form. I promise not to use your info for absolutely anything else, unless you want to receive a possible, future newsletter, in which case you can provide an email address. Totally optional.

Oh yes I did.

Hair salons reopened, but playgrounds are still closed. Also reopening later this month is the de Young museum in San Francisco! I can't wait to go.

Killer BLAT from The Buther's Son in Berkeley. ZOMG.

Vegan bacon. What more do you need to make the transition? Personally, although I'm still eating eggs, I'm trying to be more consistent about avoiding dairy. It's hard. Cheese is so damn delicious.

In movie night news, I finally finished reading The Secret Garden to the 7yo (mostly; the 12yo would also occasionally listen in). The plan was to watch the most recent film adaptation but after reading reviews and watching the trailer again, we went with the 1993 version instead. I want to see the 2020 version (and maybe the 1987 version again, too, which also features Colin Firth, the father in the newest movie, in a very small role at the end....but wait, there's more! You can watch the 1949 version for $3 on Amazon Prime but the 1919 silent film adaptation is sadly "lost"). We're reading Alice in Wonderland now.

Finally, another post that ends with the yet another cultural loss. RIP David Graeber. Not sure I ever wrote about it here, but his ideas about "bullshit jobs" really resonated when I heard him on the Hidden Brain podcast, about a year after I quit my last job. 2020 is simply relentless.

to all the art I saw last year

My "top nine" Instagram images last year were, as usual, mostly other artists' work.

It'd be cool to flip that some year (although, isn't Instagram doing away with likes?), but in the meantime, it made me realize I/we (since I usually drag my kids along) see a lot of great art each year!

In fact, we've already been to SFMOMA once this year, since my membership was renewed as a Christmas gift. Before I get into 2020 shows, however, I thought I'd do a 2019 round-up of art I saw (implying there will at some point be a post about art I made).

First up, Masako Miki at BAMPFA:

Next: Making (It) Work - a show about juggling art and parenthood, one of my favorite topics and theoretically the subject matter of an eventual second season of my podcast - at one of CCA's galleries on the Oakland campus.

Althea Murphy-Price, Goody Girl no.2, 2018

Then we saw Altered States at Bedford Gallery (they put on four fantastic, family-friendly shows each year - we make a point to go to every one).

Kids watching Klea McKenna's ALMA

That was followed by the much-anticipated Vija Celmins show at SFMOMA. I was familiar with her work from grad school but really pleasantly surprised by her replicas of natural objects from specific sites (I have a thing for copies/replicas and duplicates, specifically).

Hans Hoffman is another artist I thought I knew pretty well but discovered a lot of pieces I'd never seen before at The Nature of Abstraction exhibition at BAMPFA.

For Spring Break we traveled to Joshua Tree, spending a day that week in Palm Springs, including time at the Palm Springs Art Museum, where I discovered several artists' work I wasn't previously familiar with, including Sonia Falcone:

Sonia Falcone, Campo de Color (Color Field), 2017.

Justin Favela:

Josiah McElhany:

and Federico Herrero:

Later in the spring we finally hiked the portion of San Francisco's Presidio that's home to several Andy Goldsworthy pieces:

Also around this time I attended a reading by Austin Kleon at a local bookstore and got ALL the books signed. This counts as "art I saw," right?

During the first week of the kids' summer break, we visited the Cartoon Art Museum for the first time.

Looking through A Fire Story by Brian Fies was incredibly powerful.

Next up, another show at the Bedford Gallery - Tradition Interrupted. I was especially intrigued by the work of Ramekon O'Arwisters.

In June we traveled to Washington, DC, where we visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.

We also, of course, saw Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans' Memorial:

Later that same trip we traveled slightly south to Virginia for my niece's high school graduation. While there, we visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. By far the highlight of that museum trip was seeing Theaster Gates' Glass Lantern Slide Pavilion, created in 2011, in person:

Man, do I love his work. In June, I went to the retrospective of another one of my favorite artists, Suzanne Lacy, first to the portion at SFMOMA, sans kids:

And later to We Are Here, the portion at YBCA, with kids. This part of the retrospective was all about Lacy's Oakland-based project The Roof Is On Fire, which I wrote about, briefly, here.

Around 4th of July I took the kids back to SFMOMA for two shows in particular: the mail art show (snap+share: transmitting photographs from mail art to social networks), which made me desperately want to update and teach my 2007-09 class - Art from Ephemera: Mail Art to the Internet. Sigh.

So much good work in that show. From there we went on to the Andy Warhol exhibition, which the kids thoroughly dug.

Later in July we took a day trip to Sacramento, visiting the Crocker Art Museum for the first time, primarily to see the work of painter Richard Jackson.

I also had my first actual Artomat experience there (I learned about the "Artists in Cellophane" when I was in grad school. My dream job is to open a cafe/gallery/reading room and get an Artomat for the space).

Right before the school year started, it was back to the Bedford Gallery for BlowUP II: Inflatable Contemporary Art. The kids were big fans of this show, as you might expect (even if slightly disappointed that they couldn't actually hug the art this time).

Shortly after school started, I visited the gallery at Kala Art Institute for the first time in ages (last time was when I worked as an administrator for the Achenbach Graphic Arts Council, pre grad school) for their show of 2018-19 residency projects. My favorite was Dahn Gim's Untitled (Peace of You).

In September, on my final day of unemployment-by-choice before I began my current paid gig, I went to the Richmond Art Center (another first!) to see the work of fellow art podcaster Nicole Mueller.

In November, we made it to the final Bedford Gallery show of the year, Off Menu: Contemporary Art About Food. My favorite piece was this one, The Processed Twenty, by Ruth Santee.

It's a nice piece to end with, don't you think (as we begin the 20s)? 

But wait, there's more! It's not exactly something I saw, but rather a little thing I made (which provides a nice segue to my next post about art I made in 2019, assuming I get around to writing that at some point soon) in response to the decade zine challenge proposed to the world by Malaka Gharib (a challenge that was also accepted by Austin Kleon, mentioned above, which is how I saw it). Here's mine:

I've really enjoyed following her (mostly on Instagram) over the past week. Check out her latest effort - a podcast episode and zine YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AND PRINT about how to create an art habit. If indeed making art is good for your mental health, this will be a good habit to develop this year, don't you think?