Play Day

In this current era of toddler raising, The Don and I don't get out as much as we used to. Days off were once for sleeping, lunches out, movies, and playing in the city of our dwelling. Now these days are not as frequent and much more treasured.

Today we visited the newly remodeled Indianapolis Art Museum that is shaping up to be quite a nice art museum for a city of this size. They have opened the Contemporary Art floor since I was there a few months ago, and I really found it to be a surprising delight. Its down right fun in some areas, even something I'm eager to take Ella back to who has proven herself to be surprisingly well behaved and entertained by art museums thus far. There is even a totally padded room with soft fabrics on the walls and a plastic balls everywhere that is an actual exhibit/installation but is open for kids/adults to play in. McDonalds' Playlands may be equally as infectious, but certainly not as cool.

The real delight is how my husband comes alive in an art museum in a way that can be duplicated by few other places. Our usual museum behavior is to enter an exhibit together, but since we view exhibits at such varied speeds (mine being normal, his being ULTRA slow because he has to read EVERY little plaque on the wall) we separate and meet up at the end of each area. Today he was practically running to meet me, "Did you, did you see all of that POTTERY Julia? It was so cool! Its from INDIANA! JULIA! From Cambridge City -- we have to take a trip there. Can we? Can we?" He duplicated this enthusiasm in nearly every area we entered. Even getting so excited about some of the furniture exhibits that he tripped alarms protecting the exhibits because he was leaning too close to them. Like a kid in a candy store, my boy loves a good art museum and it certainly makes it even more enjoyable for me when I can see the art through his fervor for it.

The rest of our day was spent wandering the streets of downtown trying to find an Arts and Antique Mall that we've seen from the interstate 100x but have never visited. We did eventually stumble into it, salivated over sexy furniture that we're not likely to buy any time soon, and wound up on Massachusetts Avenue for some window shopping along with some beer and pizza to round out the day.

When most days are absorbed in the mundane with little that stimulates those parts of you that love art, good food, conversation, and just wandering around aimlessly, its nice to be reminded that its still there. Nice to think that this time of raising your children, albeit rewarding, is truly just for a time. And maybe someday there will be time again to sleep late, eat lunch out, see movies, and play in the city of your dwelling.