But yesterday, let's briefly focus on that. The day started well, the breakfast in the hotel was very good actually, I had an english muffin sandwich with eggs, cheese and bacon, along with sausage links, yogurt parfait, a blueberry muffin, cranberry juice, and orange juice. Also grabbed an apple for later. The room was filled with all kinds of people.
After killing a couple hours in the room, we walked to the Denver Museum of Art, a bit of a hike but doable, cutting through the 16th street Mall, which was not as nice as I had remembered. Eventually we found ourselves there, looked at the exhibitions on all floors of the new building (which in and of itself was one of the best things there), and went to the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition. This is the third fashion exhibition I see this summer, not sure why they are so prominent these days, but they do attract huge crowds. This was my least favorite of them, not because of the designs, but because of the staging (though the swatch room was superb). My favorite still was Gaultier at the DeYoung in San Francisco, followed by a second close by the Schiaparelli&Prada at the MET in New York City.
We left the museum around 1:30 or so and walked back towards the hotel, through the Civic Center Plaza where they seemed to be setting up stage for something, probably a 4th celebration. We took the free shuttle bus towards the restaurants. We hopped in one and I saw, through the windows, a restaurant I had eaten before, Earl's, and I remember it being good. We went in, ordered our meals, and as they arrived I enjoyed mine and unfortunately Mike did not his. There was a major flaw with his meal, and of course the waitresses all disappeared. Eventually I fetched one, and by then he did not want to eat there anymore, so I quickly ate my food and off we went to find a new place. His bad mood turned mine into a bad one as well, sometimes negativity brings out negativity. We ended up going to some brewery, which actually made me feel a bit sick in the stomach, because of the smell in the air, that smell of beer being brewed that I associate with drunk people. We were there for quite some time, at least an hour, if not more, which is not a fun experience, when you watch someone eat and drink, while you only have water (was actually full from the salad I had, which was very good - I only wished he had calmed down and ordered something else at the other restaurant). We walked back to the hotel, and Mike fell asleep right away, for a couple hours. I got bored and decided to go to the Contemporary museum, which closed at 9 pm (it was almost 6 pm by then). Mike woke up and wanted to come along, so I waited till he changed, and off we went. But first we stopped at the lounge at the hotel for the happy hour, which included free (and cheap) drinks. I could barely stomach my wine, so we soon left and tracked down to the museum.
For some reason the shuttle busses were not working in that direction, so we walked all the way there. On the way there seemed to be slightly better restaurants than on the other direction. We finally got to the museum, I remembered being there for a conference reception the last time I was in town, in 2008 or 2009. The building is pretty cool, but unfortunately only one exhibition was up, a solo by an artist called Frohawk Twofeather, who coincidentally enough, had graduated from SIU in 2000 (I began teaching there in 2001). The work was pretty interesting, and I need to read the tri-fold better, but the main blurb has very confusing text, stating three recent solo shows in LA, NYC and South Africa, and then stating that the Denver show is his first solo exhibition. We went to the roofdeck, took pictures, and walked back towards the hotel, taking a different route by Laramie Square (I think it i what it's called). We sat in the room for a few, and then I decided that, being past 8 pm, I should either go to the gym, go downstairs and get some cookies, or go eat dinner somewhere. I decided to go for the cookies and see if there was a crowd there, the walls in the room becoming terribly confining. Again Mike decided to come along, so I waited for him to get ready. There were three people there, which was more depressing than the room, so I grabbed two cookies, returned to the room to grab my wallet and met Mike at the lobby to look for a restaurant for me to eat (he was still full from his 3 o'clock lunch, I had not eaten a thing since 1:30). We wondered around and most places were closed, with the exception of fast food. Mike saw a Jamba Juice, and wanted to get one for himself, and so I waited for him to get one outside. It took at least 15 minutes, and by then I realized it was close to 9 pm, too late for me to eat anything substantial, so we walked back to the hotel, and I ate the two cookies I had grabbed earlier. I was going to bed around 10:30 but Mike decided to call back his friend Louis, whom I know through stories heard and have actually talked a few times over the phone. I thought about waiting till he was done talking but when I realized it was gonna be a long conversation, I decided to get ready for bed. As I slipped under the covers Mike hands the phone to me to talk to Louis, which I said I did not want to but he (he being one of them, I'm not sure), insisted. So I talked for a few minutes with a drunk Louis, who made no sense and said nothing memorable, but acted as if we have had great phone exchanges in the past - perhaps it's that Facebook phenomenon where people think they know one another even though they have never met - said my good byes and tried to go to sleep.
From the beginning of this post you know how well that went. Throughout the day, even from the day before, Mike went on about staying in Denver for a couple more days, and I really did not see the point, as I want to get home and sleep on my bed as soon as possible. I am sure Denver is a nice place, but I have had a pretty miserable time here. Still not sure what will happen today, I am tired of arguing and explaining that I want to go home, so today I am just gonna wait for Mike to make the decisions. If he wants to stay, we can stay, he can make hotel arrangements and decide how we will spend the day. I am fine with that. If we go he will decide if we go through Kansas or Nebraska. My only plans for today is to eat breakfast and take a shower after I am done writing this.
- posted via iPad
Location:Stout St,Denver,United States
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