Power and Pathos

A week ago I finally had the opportunity to see the new Getty Museum exhibition Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World. I was eager to see the exhibition in part because I was assigned to write a blog post for Art Muse LA on it, but also because Hellenistic bronzes are some of the most expressive and interesting works of art surviving from the ancient world. So I packed up the boys for the hour-long drive to the Getty Center, loaded them up in their double stroller, and trekked up the hill to see this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of Hellenistic bronzes. The boys were amazingly well behaved for most of my time in the galleries, allowing me to jot notes for my article in a palm-sized notebook, but by the last gallery I was juggling Connor on one hip and trying to take some final notes. A trip to the Getty Center is always worthwhile and it was a gorgeous day. Once my business with the bronzes was concluded, I took the boys out to the gardens where they walked around, finding snails and in general being little boys.

In a way, the field trip to the museum and taking notes on the exhibition was the easy part. The hard part was synthesizing all of the information in my head and that I had collected into a coherent, written form for my Art Muse LA article--all while a toddler whined and/or hung on me as I typed and someone was constantly yelling, "Mooommmyyyy!" Let's just say it was a challenge. Despite the typical motherhood obstacles--or perhaps because of them--I am particularly proud and pleased with the resulting article. You can read it here.

August Adventures

Since his earliest days Liam has been an occasional visitor to the museum, making friends and basking in all of the attention from the ladies around the office. In the beginning when he was immobile, it was not only fun but easy to have Liam around--I could lay him on a blanket by my desk, and he could play with toys and amuse himself. Now, however, his visits are another kind of experience entirely. Compared to our home the office is a no fences, spacious playground, and--to the delight of my friends at work--Liam loves to explore. No doubt he will be a seasoned museum-goer by the time he's a year old.

Getting around at the office.

Hanging out with Mommy at the Villa is a hit with Liam.

The fun wasn't limited to the office this month. My sister and her husband came out to California to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, spending some time with friends in the Napa Valley area, and then stopping by L.A. to visit us on their way back to St. Louis. It's always nice to have visitors, and Eric and I enjoy hanging out with Erin and Ethan, so we did our best to make the most of our time together. Eric and Ethan enjoy the chance to engage in some guy-talk and commiserate on what similar experiences they've had (in some ways) being married to Myers girls, and Erin and I have fun reminiscing and laughing about how we married each other. (Let me explain that. What we laugh about is that, personality-wise, Eric is more like Erin, and Ethan is more like me--ergo, we married each other.) As always, I appreciated the time we had to visit and I wish that we lived closer so we could spend more time together. Since Erin and Ethan had already had a busy vacation week up in Napa, we kept things low-key, but we did spend a day at Disneyland and make a trip up to the Getty Center because those are two places Ethan hadn't visited before.

With Daddy on the lawn at the Getty Center.

A smile for Uncle Ethan.

Liam and Aunt Erin at the entrance to Disneyland.

Sisters.

Liam looks like he's getting tired of having his picture taken...

In line with Daddy for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Erin and Ethan in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Everything's all fun and games until
 someone gets a poopy diaper...

As you can see from the pictures, a good time was had by all!

Rainy Days & Earthquakes

That long line of lights disappearing off into the distance is a southbound view of the 405 I captured while at the Getty Center this week. Fortunately the 405 isn't a part of my commute, so I didn't have to join that string of lights on my way home. From time to time I end up at the Center for meetings, and as you can see the view from the top of that travertine tower is pretty spectacular. It's been a rainy week. I enjoy rainy days at the Villa. We have so few of them, they feel more like a novelty than an inconvenience. Because ancient Roman villas were designed as summer homes, rain really effects our operations at the museum. When it rains school groups can't have lunch at the picnic tables, so they have to crowd back onto the buses to eat, and walking across the marble becomes treacherous. The Getty kindly provides umbrellas (mostly used for shielding visitors from the California sunshine), so that helps people keep dry in the gardens. As you can see from the images below, I spent some time walking around in the rain.

The school group lunch area was abandoned because of the rain.

I've heard from some of the local natives that changes in weather often happen before earthquakes. I have no idea if there's any truth to that idea, but we did have an earthquake Friday night--the second in a matter of weeks. In my time out here I've felt different kinds of earthquakes, but Friday night's event was different. When it first happened, I honestly thought the building had taken some kind of direct hit. Neither Eric nor I were completely sure of what we had felt until I consulted the website on recent earthquakes in Los Angeles (a website I'm visiting way too often these days). According to the USGS, it was a 3.4 earthquake centered in Marina del Rey, which is the closest we've been to an epicenter in the last couple of earthquakes. Disturbingly, several of my friends out here who remember the 1994 Northridge earthquake have commented that they don't remember having so many quakes this close together since that time.

I guess my time is up. Going on seven years now I've lived in southern California and not had any real experiences or concern with earthquakes. This week's quake makes the third significant one I've felt since last June. Maybe it will help if I stop sitting on my couch. Each time it's happened, I've been reclining on the couch, watching t.v. At this point I'm beginning to think of my couch as a kind of Richter scale. It's an older couch and the legs are a bit loosened on it, so any kind of movement sets it shuffling and swaying--sometimes I feel the shaking before Eric does, because my couch is more sensitive than his. Three times now I've felt nice and relaxed, resting on the couch after a busy day at work, when the earth has started to shake. You'd think one event would have knocked the sense of complacency in my safety right out of me, but no. We're not nearly as prepared as we should be for such an emergency. But I'll tell you what: The third time around you start to pay attention. As a former girl scout, I think it's time to implement the old motto, "Be prepared."