Trippin’

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Growing up, my Mom would sometimes say… “You kids go outside… right this minute….. and get the stink blown off ya’.”

So, the whole tribe of us would tromp outdoors… and play our little hearts out….. until the street lights came on.  Now, I am not sure how much better we smelled when we came back in… as we all got baths at night.  But it was the principle of the thing, really.

Fast forward. Today we jumped on a plane and headed to NYC with the oldest grandkids… Haylee and Levi.  Our favorite oldest grandkids, I might add.

And we romped around the city a bit.  Most of the day, we spent in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, to be exact. Oh the things we saw.

To walk in the expansiveness of THAT museum and see the centuries upon centuries of artwork was astounding.  Amazing.  Exhilarating.  To contemplate the ancient statues which were fashioned in 2400 BC.  That is 24 centuries before the birth of Christ BC.  Holy Smokerolies.

Then on to the paintings of the greats, from Van Gogh to O’Keefe and back again.  To see those brush strokes, up close, filling canvas after canvas.

Tonight, dinner at the Carlyle, where we are staying.  Our Captain’s name was Charles.  He was originally from South Bend, Indiana. There is not one drop of Indiana left in THAT man….  I’ll tell you that much right now.

And then we took a trip down to Rockefeller Plaza to see the lights.  The coolest part was Sax Fifth Avenue. They had a massive light show and music on the front of their building.  Magic.  Today was sensory overload.

So.  Back to the beginning.  What my Mom used to say.

Sometimes…. a LOT of times…..we do the same thing.  Day in and  day out. Over and over.  And as fate would have it… a little “stink” settles in on us.  Sometimes it sticks a little bit in our hearts, or in our minds, or in our souls.  It just happens that way.  Like potato salad that has been in the refrigerator too long.

It is a good thing for us to get out every once in a while and get a little stimulus.  You know… we get all that stink blown off of us.

And. Today I saw a million things and a million people…. I explored, and tasted and sang, and admired.  It wore all of us out… in a good way.   Nothing that a nice hot shower didn’t fix.

So now….I am pretty sure I smell much better.  In so very many different ways.