Yesterday, on a whim, I took the metro in to Washington, DC, and browsed the National Gallery of Art for a couple hours.
It was a symbolic thing to do for me. Partly, it came from having read Madame Martine – a book where a lady lives in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, but never visits it because that’s for tourists. Then a little dog she adopts runs away onto the elevator of the Eiffel Tower — and she discovers what she’s missing.
I only go into DC when I have visitors from out of town. But why is that?
Also, when I lived in Germany, I did lots of Castling — visiting castles. However, I only did it at the times when my husband was home to do it with me. He traveled often with his job in the Air Force Band, so I figured if he was away, that gave me a break from Castling. That worked out well — but it got me in the habit of not going to do cool things when I’m by myself.
Now I’m divorced; my kids are adults; I’m on my own and so far unsuccessful at finding a man to share my life with.
However, I got to thinking that I don’t want to wait to do things I think would be fun until I have a man in my life. And, just maybe, that man wouldn’t think that browsing the National Gallery of Art was a super cool thing to do anyway! This is my chance!
What’s more, the Smithsonian is free — It’s a national treasure, and it’s not that far away.
I want to be the kind of person who does cool things.
So I am happy with myself that yesterday I went to the National Gallery of Art!