First day in Nashville and the day before.

I am here in Nashville. It looks like a pleasant day out there, not too hot and not too muggy, not so far, anyway. Not that I have spent much time outdoors yet, I've been busy changing rooms.

I had about half a day yesterday in Toronto so I decided to go back and see Picasso one more time. After breakfast, I walked back to the AGO and got there about 10 minutes before opening but as the doors to the building were already open, I went inside and waited at the members' desk to get a free ticket. A few minutes before 10, one of the staff came to the desk and served the person ahead of me and then it was my turn. I could tell the fellow was in a good mood so when I gave him my membership card, I told him that I became a member on Sunday and that this was my third time coming to see Picasso before I leave town that afternoon. I had to show photo id along with the membership card so I handed him my passport. He took it, looked at it, looked at me and said "Lovely." I said "But it is just a horrible passport picture." He laughed and said something like "You transcend the medium!" I laughed and said "Can I quote you on that?" and he laughed and said "Yes, and you have it on good authority because I work at the Art Gallery!" I told him that he had made my day and went off in a good mood to the coat check to unload the two jackets I had with me, one of which was a jacket for indoors and, the other, a light rain jacket.

At the coat check, I showed the lady working there that I was a member, since members don't have to pay the one dollar fee, and I handed her my two coats. I said they could probably go on the same hanger. She looked at me dubiously, looked at the two jackets, put them on the same hanger, thought about it some more and then said I had to pay a dollar for the second coat. I was surprised and thought it was funny that my membership only covered one free item. It seemed a bit petty but I gave her the money. The woman had a kind of a sour look on her face throughout this whole encounter and I felt like I'd just been given an antidote to the wonderful feeling I'd experienced a few minutes earlier. I gathered up my possessions and turned to walk away in the direction of the exhibit. Next thing I know, the attendant is running after me and asking me if both of those items were mine. Surprised, I turned around and said yes, they were both mine. She explained that she thought that the woman who had been standing near me at the coat check was with me and that the second coat was hers, the implication being that we didn't want to pay the dollar to have my friend's coat checked separately. She realized her mistake when the other woman and I walked away from the desk in opposite directions which is why she ran after me, explained, apologized and gave me my dollar back.

The exhibit was worth it even for the third time. I seemed to get more out of it each time I went. The first time I felt overwhelmed, the second time I paid more attention to the second half of the exhibit and the third time I was able to absorb more of the whole experience and was starting to see some influences on Picasso's work that I had not clued into the first two times, mainly that his later work was influenced by Mattise, the only artist that Picasso considered to be his equal. With each room, I found it difficult to leave to go on to the next one, I wanted to spend more time looking, I wanted to spend more time with the art.

Now back to the trip to Nashville. I got in yesterday around 7 in the evening. The hotel provides a shuttle which I managed to catch almost immediately. The shuttle driver was pleasant, asked me where I was from because I had said "please" to something he had said to me. He wanted to know where such polite people lived. He was kidding around of course. In the shuttle there were also a couple of other people, one of them an airline employee who started talking about the differences between experienced and inexperienced travellers. The inexperienced travel with up to three carry ons, I was clutching three, as well as a big checked bag, mine was in the back, heaved in there by the nice driver.

I checked into the hotel and got a nice room, but after staying in it overnight I realized that the freeway traffic noise was more than I wanted to listen to for a week so this morning I asked for a different room, one that faced the courtyard. The very pleasant and helpful woman at the desk gave me another room but when I walked in the quality of the air didn't appeal to me and it would have been difficult to let fresh air in as there was no window just a door to the courtyard. I was reluctant to ask for another room so I thought I would tough it out but when I came back from breakfast I decided that I had to at least ask. I did and now I have a room on the second floor that I am happy with.