I lost myself today. I decided to wander around Washington DC. I wanted to amble from the Smithsonian mall to Dupont circle. I wanted to explore to get the feel of the city. I started with an exhibition at the African art museum, Yinka Shonibare MBE It was energizing. I enjoyed the looking. When I emerged the sun was shining and I wasn't yet ready to return home. So I started walking through some of my favourite spaces the Enid Haupt garden in its winter state, then the NGA sculpture garden. They removed one of my favourite sculptures next to the cafe. Four silver cubes that rotated freely yet were attached to a vertical support. Replacing it is a metal tree. It's OK. Less interesting.
I thought I would use the Archives metro to move me some distance. There were problems on the yellow line; smoke at Gallery place. So I re-emerged above ground. Started walking up 7th. Looked for another station as I was starting to tire and the weather was changing to cold and looked like rain. The next station was also green/yellow line. So changed direction. Ended up following Mass ave ( not the kind of walk I had in mind) to Dupont circle and it was there I got a brain freeze. I knew where I was, Dupont circle, yet it didn't make sense, didn't connect with anything else I recognized. I could just give up and get back on the train. I could see the metro entrance. But I wasn't done yet. I needed to rest. Ducked into Books-a-million. It isn't the kind of bookstore that encourages reading and sitting. Left. Crossed the road to the grassy area of Dupont circle. Found a bench. Sat. This must be what it feels like to be homeless. My back hurt. I was tired. I didn't know what to do with myself. But it wasn't raining, I wasn't too cold and I had found a place of reasonable comfort where I could just sit and pull myself together. I had a piece of technology with me that was supposed to enable me to find myself, to make a phone call, get a direction. It was giving me mis-answers. It supplied information that didn't help my dilemma. I was still lost. No one home when I phoned. I continued to sit. There was a guy under the statue with a bunch of vinyl LP's for sale. The Doors. He wasn't making any sales. I thought about using my new technology to make a photograph of the statue, or the salesman but I knew I couldn't do it. So I sat some more and checked my phone. Finally a text message to an earlier query. I was welcome to visit at my daughter's place of work, Studio gallery. I thought it was 2 blocks away from Dupont circle. But nothing looked familiar. I struggled to access my biological technology, my random access memory, my brain. Nothing was computing. I had rested enough that I could walk again so I got up and changed the location of my body in space hoping to reboot my brain. Phoned again still no answer. I was slightly relieved. I wasn't eager to confess how confused I was. It would only invite exasperation. And then; oh joy; the world came into focus, the little cylinders shifted and rotated and clicked and suddenly I knew! If I exited the circle at Connecticut avenue I could find my way to the gallery.
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