Monet Exhibit & Shopping

I had a little excursion with some new friends from work. Melissa, is a former graduate student at Oxford. I really admire her funky sense of style. Her insight into Diabetes (the livelihood at the company I work for) makes me think she would be excellent as our team's marketing manager. Instead, she is highly underemployed in Artwork and Packaging. Hila, is an electrical engineer who also work on the product I am working on. She has a really gentle demeanor. Nevertheless, she is quite adventurous, having travelled a lot and even spending half a year in India. I have really enjoyed our chats when we have gone out on walks.

When I walked by Melissa's desk one day, I noticed her art posters. It was then I realized that we shared a common interest in art. From the way she talked about museums and artists, I knew that her knowledge was deep, and that she was someone I could talk to when it came to art appreciation. Perhaps that was the reason why she invited me for a art and shopping excursion yesterday. There was a "Monet in Normandie" exhibition at the Legion of Honor. I decided to invite Hila along for the shopping bit, since she didn't seem as interested in the museum.

At the art exhibit, it was uncanny how much Melissa and I connected when it came to art appreciation. We had different perspectives on the works of art, but we could both understand each other's perspectives. We followed Monet in his art career from his early days in Le Havre, to his later days painting the rock archways at Entretat. Finally, his artwork became the recognizable works everyone knows. I revisited the painting of two women striding a top a hill full of poppies that usually resides at the Art Institute. It was one of the crowning glories, if not the crowning glory, in the whole exhibit, and it was the sole artwork on loan from the Chicago museum. Perhaps coming quite close to the effect of that work was the amazing painting of Poplars. A work that Monet was so dedicated to that he purchased the group of poplars from being demolished in order to finish the work. I also loved the aforementioned rock archways of Entretat.

There was no time to appreciate the beautiful hill top setting of the museum overlooking the entrance to the Bay, before we were off to meet Hila at Union Square for an afternoon of shopping. Our first stop was the Ann Taylor, Post St. where we had adjacent changing rooms, so that we could admire or offer suggestions with regards to our clothing choices. Melissa really came out on top with her purchases. She got a versatile black wrap dress with which she intended to impress a former crush in England, where she intended to spend her vacation. She also got a nice pair of black suit pants. Hila got a beige corduroy fishtail backed skirt, and a red wrap blouse. I got a purple wrapped sleeveless shirt and a gold/beige t-shirt for $19.99.

Our next stop was Lush, an all natural beauty supply store where Melissa used to work. She convinced us to try the charcoal soap, and the sea salt shampoo that has the most bizarre consistency I've ever encountered. It feels like some condiment that has formed a hard crust over top.

Our last stop was through Macy's, the highest end Macy's I've ever been to. Macy's is usually considered a lower tier department store, but this particular location was full of "7 for all Mankind", Marc Jacobs and more obscure finds. I punctuated the tour through the precious clothes racks with ... "I can get that from Forever 21 for $2.00!" and delighted in contrasting it with the actual price tags which usually amounted in the several hundreds of dollars.

We reached the shoe floor, where we found out that many brand names were on clearance sale for around $20.00. When we fionally got out of there, we had only each purchased one pair of $20.00 shoes because the harried employees couldn't find anything.

All in all a memorable evening. I'm sure we will repeat it soon.