Art and the City

For those of you who know us, you know that the last year has been filled with Robin working overtime on the weekends finishing up his condos. In all honesty, he had the grandiose idea of working ALL weekend only to actually work a few hours. But this was just enough to ruin any Saturday afternoon plans I had for both of us. Well, the condos are all sold now and this Saturday was mine. So, I planned a little adventure in the city for us.

We started off at the Nasher Sculpture Center, for the Matisse, Painter as Sculptor exhibit, the dual exhibit that is taking place concomitantly at the Nasher and the DMA. Although the center is only blocks away from my condo and I was invited to the opening gala, I had never been. So, it was definitely time to check this place out. The Matisse works comprised the majority of the interior works, most notably his pieces Madeleine and The Backs. We strolled the galleries, taking in the fabulous natural lighting of the place as well as the intricate ceiling of the building, while we eyed the masterpieces.

We walked throughout the garden and enjoyed this beautiful, albeit chilly, day in Dallas and talked about we could incorporate many of the fountains and landscaped tiers into our own backyard someday. I love how Robin has already planned his dream home (I know he has the bathroom plans all drawn out) and is already designing his backyard landscaping but still sees himself ending up on a sailboat in the future. Why is it that I always find guys whose lives just don't make any sense to me?

We then walked over to the Dallas Museum of Art to check out the "artist" portion of the exhibit. I used to walk the galleries alone all the time, spending time among the artistic greats while I contemplated the direction of my life. But, it sure is much better to enjoy the space with someone else. We walked into the Horchow auditorium to find ourselves in the middle of a UT-Dallas student film series, where they were screening their semester short film, The Last Reunion. On a whim, we listened to the professor make remarks then stayed for the screening. I am not sure it will be screened this year at Cannes (hahaha!), but it was entertaining and kept our attention for the hour. It sure is nice not having a set schedule for the day and making spontaneous stops along the way.

We then made our way to Dallas Public Library to tour the most underutilized public system in the nation according to Robin, the public library. Little did he know that I was a frequent visitor over the past few years, going there to study among the books in the rare book room where I knew none of the homeless folks instead of the library at the medical school. It was my little escape, where I could get hours and hours of work done, before treating myself to a little something down the street at Neiman Marcus. It is amazing how shopping works as a studying incentive! We discovered that they have many of our favorite television series on DVD, and that we could just check them out instead of buying all of them and watching them one time. We ended up getting season 1 of The Shield, a series I kept seeing advertise on FX. Let's just say this....after 8 hrs I have been hooked!

After that, we headed over to Urban Market to enjoy some coffee and crossword puzzles. We seem to always strike out on the Saturday NY Times puzzle, but can complete most of the Sunday NY Times puzzle. Anyway, after multiple cups of coffee, we finally gave up. It ended up being a great day in the city, going to places that were new for both of us and enjoying all the Dallas has to offer. The night was to continue downtown at Clear and Petrus Lounge to meet Ms. Fabulous and Co. who were out on the town celebrating. We contemplated going, got dressed to go out, and then found ourselves instead on the sofa at midnight asleep. All I have to say to Ms. Fabulous is come July 1, the going out days are over!