On a more cheerful note....

.....Robin and I came in first in our stratified section at bridge again on Friday, and second overall in the room (of about 50 tables).  We were hugely chuffed!

And Saturday was my long anticipated outing to Pasadena, to the Norton Simon museum.  This was also through the Osher Institute (which sponsors my infamous classes).  There were 40 of us in total, and the bus to Pasadena was less than 2 hours.  It seemed shorter, what with a preparatory lecture by one of our instructors, and, of course, the obligatory video.

,,and that was only till we got to the front door...

For those of you who don't know the Norton Simon (I had been before, but it was three decades ago, and it had received an upgrade or two since then), it houses the collection of - surprise - Norton Simon, an industrialist who bought the Pasadena Museum in 1974 as a home for his collection.  There are some 12,000 pieces of which only 1,000 are exhibited at any one time.  It has not been added to since his death in 1993, so it truly is his collection..

Our tour started before the museum opened, so there were not the usual hordes of people who always seem to fill museums these days (it is, of course, great that more people are going to museums, but raise your hands out there, those of you who liked it better when you could actually stand and look at something without having to listen to someone else's audio tour....)

So, there is our guide.  She does not seem to have gotten the message that we were there in support of a specific course on Picasso and Matisse, so she showed us her favourites from the museum instead.  (Luckily, there was a scheduled two hours for "on your own" visiting, so we did our "homework" later.)

There were three visiting Rembrandt self portraits (of which, below, are two)...

....a large Asian collection (which I gave pretty short shrift, since, between the Asian Museum in San Francisco and our collections in Vancouver, I get enough of that at home)..

...and a visiting Degas collection....

While we were there, there was a ten-year old little ballerina trying out the poses.  It was adorable, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera.

I liked the outdoor sculpture garden the best, as you can tell from the number of pictures...

A lunch was provided, which we ate in the outdoor eating area (it being February in California, don't you know, warm and sunny...)

Then, back indoors for the art that we missed...

 This is my kind of modern art, not quite representational but not unrecognizable either (above), or something that you can identify from across the room as a Modigliani (below).

..... and. I very much liked their sculpture, Picasso and others...

Oops - I see that I didn't take any pictures of the Matisse works that I was supposed to be looking for... (I did see them, though)

The trip ended with the obligatory visit to the museum store (I do love museum stores...).  I did buy one thing, a book called Seeing Slowly, by Michael Findlay.  It is about looking at modern art.  I have just started, but I am already fascinated.  To start with, he confirms friend Peter's view that reading the wall plaques, much less an audio tour guide, are out until you have spent some time just looking, finding (or not) your own emotional or intellectual connection to the piece.  This book has moved ahead of a number of other things in the pile.  (Luckily, the library has automatically renewed some of these...)

I did just finish The Ninth Grave, by Stefan Anheim, a Swedish mystery writer.  It is official, I don't like the Swedish authors.  They are so, so dark - there were body parts and torture everywhere. It must be the cold and the lack of light. I think I will stick to the Brits, thank you very much.

I am almost finished Frankopan's The Silk Roads, history from the Eastern rather than the Western point of view.  It was actually a page-turner, even though I knew how badly it has ended - or at least, so far.  I highly recommend the book.

Finally, I am also reading (doesn't everyone have two or three books on the go at once?) something called The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt.  He also wrote Will in the World, a book about Shakespeare which I have also read.  This is about - as you can imagine - our own creation myth, where it came from - it does have antecedents - and how it has influenced us.

So much to know, so little time...

Too little time for wallowing in self pity.  I apologize for the outburst of a few days ago.  I nearly had another meltdown this morning (finding out that a colleague, visiting in Palm Spriings, didn't bother to call, and that, once again, I was not included in neighbors social activities when I had been so careful to include them...).  But really, one of my points of pride is not worrying about things I can't do anything about, so, well, I am just trying to let it go. (Or, perhaps, making myself more congenial does fall within the realm of things I can do something about...)

I had a lovely day - sunny and warm, just me and the Sunday New York Times (in paper, of course), and am looking forward to another lovely week, full of sunshine and books and classes and bridge, and whatever else comes along.  As always, I will keep you posted.