100 dates

In dating, planning flexibility is a virtue.

For example, earlier this week I emailed littlestar a message that said, "Want to go out? How 'bout A, B, or C?" to which she wrote back, "D!"

In this case, "D" was a host of museum shows she's been meaning to go to. That sounded great, so I picked the place neither of us had been to, and planned a trip for today to the curiously named Oakland Museum of California, now holding a show titled "California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews".

We hit the road in late mid-morning so we'd make it to Oakland in time for brunch together. After adventures with slow "Californians in the rain" roads and trying to find parking in Oakland Chinatown, we hit the sidewalk in search of food. Despite an inclement forecast, I didn't bring an umbrella -- littlestar did. littlestar's policy of "go where people are going" worked really well. We ate at Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant, ordering dumplings, spicy soy milk, wonton noodle soup and "pie with meat" -- which is a kind of sesame bread with hoisin-painted meat in the middle.

It ended up being too much food for one sitting -- which was fine. We just took the leftovers with us. We'd like to go back, too. The man I think was the owner noticed we hadn't finished everything, then regaled us with stories of their Northern Chinese customers who can knock down a plate of dumplings and a whole bowl of noodle soup (he said the record was forty dumplings in a sitting).

After a pleasing topping off at Shan Dong, we went to the Oakland Museum of California. My pre-brunch "no umbrella" decision paid off, as the sky opened up (as predicted) and I had to take shelter under littlestar's umbrella. When she pointed out that my arm was still getting wet, I told her that my arm's a team player, willing to get a litlte wet when it has to.

It took a little searching to figure out how and where to pay admission (second floor, near the nominal front -- just nowhere near where the parking garage lets you into the building). After that, we made our way to the Mathews exhibit.

Inside the exhibit, I mainly tagged along behind littlestar. There wasn't a lot of note-taking today, just a bunch of oohing and aahing at the amazing qualities of the Mathews' frames -- and at the giant, stained-glass window on display in the back center of the exhibit.

Outside this special exhibit, we both spent a lot of time in a room dedicated to the photos of Dorothea Lange. You may not recognize her name, but you've almost certainly seen her pictures.

We made it maybe halfway through the museum's general art collection before we got just plain tuckered out ("my brain's broken" said littlestar).

On the way home, littlestar was off in her own world. I asked her to talk to me because I was kind of tired and didn't want to accidentally not brake when the car in front of me decided to. She initially demurred, because she was thinking about her school plans and "didn't want to bore me." It took me several tries to convince her that I was on a date with her, and that things about her were actually really interesting to me.

Then we talked educational plans, and it was interesting. Of course. :)

Perhaps because I've always liked museums, I really enjoy museum dates. It's fun to look at the same things and then trade notes on what you thought and how you felt about them. It's especially fun going with littlestar, because she knows so much that touches on what we're looking it, whether it's about the people who made the work or which things are actually hard -- or just the pure coolness of being with someone who can recognize so many artists by their work, then confirm it by checking the description.