A Child Of Atom

Last night I went to bed in the warm humidity of a Texas night. This morning I woke up in the arctic. Yesterday's high was 80. When I checked the weather to prep for this trip the high today was supposed to be 55. In actuality it never got above 35. Needless to say I didn't pack for this.

I had most of the morning to myself so I decided to try on my outfit for tomorrow. No, I hadn't done it before. Yes, I understand that I should have. I saw immediately that parts of it weren't going to work. The tux jacket primarily was a problem. It was double breasted, which I hadn't realized, so the all important vest would have been covered. So I set out to find a new jacket. My quest took me to several places, but the best choice was at the Gap, so that's what i ended up with. It's cute, a textured wool with epaulets, it will look great with the vest.


Afterwards I went to the gallery and put together the hanging rigs for the enlargements, which was quite a feat. Eric, one of the curators, is an architect so the plans for the hangers was a complex series of foam core strips glued in layers. After completing that assembly I went to the printers to retrieve the prints. They look great at scale, and I think I picked some good pieces for enlargement. I hope so at least.

The rest of the evening was spent doing the final hang, sorting through the pieces and confirming the prices, which ones get rotated and which don't, making sure that they were hanging in the same order they are listed on the price sheets, etc. With 115 pieces it took quite a while and Jessica and I calling the titles back and forth quickly started to sound like a code of some sort: "A 5, 27 6:15 and D 5, 27 8:30 double sided." Anyone listening in was surely mystified by the whole process.


Around 11 Jessica and I called it a night. Tomorrow she will finish hanging the enlargements (we were short a tape measure which caused some issues) and arrange to tables for the reception. I feel a bit guilty leaving her alone to finish it but I will have a full day myself simply driving back and forth between the airports. I have 4 people to collect on 3 flights. My mom arrives at 9:30 at Bush Airport, Kid Flash and Mark at 11:30 at Hobby, and then it's back to Bush to retrieve BFE Michelle at 2:30. Whew!!

By the way, thanks to everyone who has sent me well wishes and who has been checking these updates. My regular hit count has more than tripled in the last few days and I have fielded 40+ emails from members of three different on-line groups that I belong to, and various friends and family members wishing me well or asking for directions or any number of other things. Thanks to you all!

Tomorrow night look for photos from the opening!