Art + Friends +Train trip

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

You know how you feel when you get off a train — still chugging even when you stop. That’s the way I feel, several hours after getting home from a day with two friends at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Zing and I had a little trouble getting up at 5 a.m., but after our walk we knocked on Darrius’s door and she was happy to see us (especially Zing). She welcomes him like a tonic. 

So I was on my own and on the train, then on the bus, then at the SF station, then at a coffee shop to kill a little time (90 minutes!). It seemed like all the young adults in the city were passing by — jogging or dog walking in sneakers with sparkles and tights ripped up the thighs and taut muscles and spiky hair like a prince’s crown, and even a Bengal cat on a leash (“She’s just like a dog,” her owner told me, but then her cat cowered under a chair when a poodle passed by.) This was all around the corner from the bus station, which is usually a shabby neighborhood, isn’t it? 

After awhile I meandered the 3/4 mile to the SFMOMA, where we met when it opened at 10 a.m. to see the Monet/Diebenkorn show. Until recently I got Monet and Matisse confused. Oops — I did it again — it was the Matisse/Diebenkorn show. Monet is waterlilies and Matisse is those enchanting cutouts and all the paintings that led to them. Diebenkorn is a famous California artist who was deeply inspired by Matisse. They make an overwhelming show. We couldn’t look at another painting for awhile, so we had lunch. The food was more congenial than that dinner I didn’t have with Christy and Judy a couple weeks ago at the museum’s other restaurant, In Situ.

I like taking the bus/train Capitol Corridor connection, and I’m getting to know a tiny pocket of the big city. 

Love, especially to you mothers and to all who support and love them!

k

Amtrak: first it's flat

Then you see mountains (above)

Then you’re in San Francisco (below), where on a Saturday morning
you can see bicycles
leaning against the windows of high-rise office buildings