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Last Christmas, my brother gifted me a membership to the CMA. I had mixed feelings about it; on the one hand, we weren't supposed to be exchanging gifts and this was a pretty significant gift. Plus I rarely go downtown--or in this case, down to University Circle which is about a 15 minute drive east of downtown Cleveland but in a SUPER busy area in its own right--unless I'm with someone and they're willing to drive. But OTOH, see my subject heading <g>.

I was off today (I'm often off on Friday) and was in the mood to do something but was debating what to do. I decided to go to the CMA for the first time since getting my membership. Before going further, I should mention that our world class art museum is absolutely FREE, but they always have special exhibits that you need tickets for. A CMA membership gets you into those exhibits for free, plus it gets you discounts on parking in their garage and merch from the gift shop (and maybe the museum's restaurant? Which is mostly a glorified cafeteria with booze?). So if you're ever in the Cleveland area and looking for something cultural to do that won't break the bank, I cannot recommend the CMA enough.

Around 2:00, after a ridiculous amount of self-debate--should I go? Should I not go?--I gave myself the same advice Dad gave me on occasion: just start off and remember you can turn around and come home at any point. On my way to the CMA, I stopped at Cleveland Rocks and Beads to see if they had a charm my good church friend wanted (they didn't have her first choice but they had her second choice). I also got some beads for myself of course. They're a small business, and I overheard one of the help tell a customer business hasn't been that great lately. I would HATE to see them go under. Also along the way, just past CR&B, I stopped at Koko Bakery for a Hong Kong cloud tea (iced) and a sesame ball with red bean paste. It's a good thing I don't have a bakery very near me that makes sesame balls with red bean paste because they would be getting a significant portion of my paycheck.

At this point in the story, I should mention that I somehow managed to lose my CMA membership card. So before I continued on to the CMA, I called and asked if they could issue some kind of temporary pass or something. The woman that answered the phone was kind and super helpful and assured me that yes indeed, they could do that at the front desk. She also told me she'd send me an email with card info that I could download (upload?) to my Apple Wallet...which I don't have because I have a Google Pixel 6a. I'm assuming I have Google Wallet but I've never used it. At the end, she read off my membership ID # and told me to give it to the folks at the front desk of the CMA.

Anyways, I drove on down to the CMA, arriving around 4:15 PM, and lucked into a metered space just a bit down the street from the CMA (almost at the Cleveland Natural History Museum's door). Now it's been a looooooong time since I parked somewhere with a working parking meter. Country mouse that I am, I rarely go anywhere that has parking meters, and the few places I go to that have them have largely deactivated them, making parking free. So I only had the vaguest notion that you no longer drop quarters into a slot. I told Dad when I got home that he would no longer be able to park in downtown Cleveland because his phone isn't smart; he wouldn't be able to scan a QR code and fill out a bunch of info on the parking app. It took me almost 5 minutes to navigate the site and fill out all the forms. Wording on the meter itself was also vague...I thought I could only park there till 6:00, and the app seemed to verify this when it told me I could only have the spot for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Eh, wouldn't be the first time I'd run through a museum...and really, I was mostly there to see the new exhibits and the members-only exhibits. And it was a significant savings compared to the parking garage.

At the front desk, I gave the two people working a good laugh. There was an older man helping an older couple and a younger man helping me. When he asked for my membership ID #, I slid over the piece of paper I'd written it down on. He recited the number as he typed it in and I praised him for being able to read my handwriting, saying it was only a teeny bit better than a doctor's handwriting. At that point, the couple next to me moved on and the older man who'd been helping them looked at me, grinned broadly and said "The man who just left is a doctor". Um...oops? We all had a good laugh, though the two guys behind the desk laughed the hardest.

My first stop once inside was the bathroom, since the iced tea was a pretty large one and I'd guzzled it all down <g>. Then I wandered through the first floor exhibits, then the second floor exhibits, trying to figure out where the special exhibits were. I finally resorted to grabbing a map (the museum is awesome but the layout can be a bit confusing, even to me, who's been going there since I was an elementary school student). I still couldn't figure out where the special exhibits were but at least I figured out how to get to the permanent displays that featured art less than 200 years old <g>. I'm discovering as I age that I STILL don't like the most modern of art, but I've learned to appreciate an artist attempting to convey a feeling, an emotion, the general sense of a person, place or thing without recreating it exactly. Yeah, I still best appreciate the masters whose paintings practically look like photographs but I'm making space for the newer stuff. Up till about the mid 20th century, that is <g>.

Thinking I only had about 20 minutes left, I decided I wanted to go see the sculpture garden around the back of the museum. There's a beautiful manmade pond back there you can walk around and a handful of statues to admire (Rodin's "The Thinker" is on the steps just out the back door of the museum). As I was trying to figure out a way out the back of the museum--I kept coming across "emergency exit only" doors--I stumbled upon signage that said the special exhibits were on the ground floor. Um...I thought I'd ENTERED on the ground floor. As I started down the stairs, a gentleman behind a desk asked if I had a ticket for the special exhibits (one on Manet and his SIL Morisot--the two often painted similar objects in a similar style--and one on Martin Puryear's modern sculptures), so I waved my ticket-shaped temporary pass at him, thinking it was adequate. Only it wasn't adequate for the two older women at the desk downstairs. One kept asking for my ticket, and I kept showing her my temporary pass and she kept telling me that wasn't a ticket and I told her nobody gave me any "tickets", just a temporary pass--remember, this is my first CMA membership pass so I have NO clue how anything works--and she finally said OK, she'd just use my temporary pass as a ticket (while probably thinking ugh, Karen). I was facing in the direction of the Manet and Morisot exhibit when she asked if I wanted "tickets" for both special exhibits. I told her no, I only had about 10 minutes at that point before having to get back to my car. She asked where I parked, I told her, and she and the other woman snorted (I really amused the help today <g>) and said parking is free after 6:00. I mean, C'MON, Karen! I still opted out of the Puryear exhibit--modern sculpture is just big ol' meaningless blobs to me--but I *really* enjoyed the Manet and Morisot collection.

Around 6:15, I went outside and walked around to the back of the building to the sculpture garden. I'm guessing there's a way to get to it from INSIDE the museum but darned if I could find it. I'd noticed inside the atrium, there were two couples in formal wear. Since they didn't match one another, I was thinking "prom". When I finally circled around to the back of the museum, I saw what must've been 100 young couples in formal wear. And a few in graduation gowns. All were being photographed by proud parents, grandparents, and occasionally a professional. Man, I wish I'd gotten to the CMA a couple hours earlier. Right before I left, I ducked inside for one last potty stop (I was pretty sure it'd be a long ride home due to the hour) and asked is there a prom tonight at CMA? Another helpful museum employee told me no, but everyone loves to come down and take pictures because, you know, vibe. She said there had been a prom there a couple weeks ago...I'm wondering if maybe prom was at the Natural History Museum tonight, or maybe the Botanical Gardens, which is also in University Circle. Or maybe even one of the nearby hotels?

It's a good thing I peed before I left the CMA...I was debating returning home via I-90, which would probably be clogged with downtown workers going home, or taking 322/Monticello/Wilson Mills all the way back to my town, which would have more lights but less traffic. Or so I thought. 322 crosses Euclid Avenue and goes through Little Italy. Little Italy is almost ALWAYS packed, and there's precious little parking. I got behind a string of cars looking for (main)street parking (hah--good luck) and a bus picking up and dropping off passengers at what felt like every other building. And then there was some road construction and a cop directing traffic who seemed more concerned about letting cars out from the side streets than letting cars proceed down 322. Little Italy is only .19 square miles TOTAL, and I don't think the stretch of 322 through it is even a quarter mile long, but it took me 20 minutes to drive through Little Italy. I would've been better off going I-90.

I'm glad I went today. As I age, I have to push myself out of my comfort zone more and more, even if I really want to do something outside of my comfort zone (like drive to University Circle). Dad calls it the "effort vs. reward" conflict of old (and apparently middle) age. I will definitely be going back to the CMA (especially after reading how much a yearly membership costs) but maybe not on a Friday night again <g>.