On Friday we had our second significant snow storm of the year. Somewhere between 3-4 inches of snow fell overnight, but unlike the last storm it cleared away pretty quickly. Outside of having to go out around midnight and shore up the roof of the shavings bin (it was flattened by the snow load of the last storm) there was little inconvenience.

Which was nice, since on Saturday I had been invited to go to the Nasher Museum on Duke’s campus to see a collection of Warhol polaroids, as well as a display of political cartoons over the ages.

Joyce Young, a classmate of mine from my NCSSM days who I had lost touch with until last year’s reunion, and Richard Ziglar (another classmate) met up with Andrea and I early in the afternoon.

Doing something like this was very unusual for us, and we are pretty much set in our ways. Between working on the farm and just plain working there isn’t much time for anything else. Our usual Saturday night is to go visit our friends Kathy and Bob, go out to eat, and then play board games and/or watch a movie.

Now, I don’t like most people, but the people I do like, I like a lot. It’s surprising how many of those people in the latter group that I met at S&M, and I would definitely count Joyce and Richard in that bunch (even if Richard didn’t see fit to invite me to his wedding – yes, I’m still bitter). We had a great time.

Joyce, Andrea and I ran outside first to check out an exhibition of extra large pots by a local potter named Mark Hewitt. I love his work and this year we finally broke down and bought two of his pieces, although not nearly on the scale as the ones at the Nasher. I found one piece I especially liked:

but it may be awhile before we decide we can afford one this size.

When we went back into the museum we found Richard and set off to look at the Warhol exhibit.

Most of the art on display were collections of Polaroid pictures that Warhol took over the years. Many were done in the style of his paintings – consisting of several portraits of the same person in slightly different poses displayed side by side.

I always feel a little creeped out looking at Warhol’s work and I’m not sure why. Probably because he was obsessed with celebrity and in some cases manufactured it. Many of these pictures were of very rich and famous people but Warhol seemed to capture something about them that made me see people playing pretend, as if the fragile nature of their celebrity was caught in the flash of a camera. Most of the men had their hands in funny positions, often to seem like they were lost in thought like a classical Greek statue but it came across to me as posed. Most of the woman had exchanged their blouses for a wrap of fabric, and Warhol used a lot of powder and makeup to accentuate their features, but to me it looked like some sort of masque. Many shots were powerful, but in a slightly disturbing way.

I liked the political cartoons better, but much of them focused on the Bush II years which is a period of time I think would be better forgotten. Maybe it just comes with age, but I think that the administrations of George W. did tremendous harm to our country, and I don’t think it will heal any time soon. And while I think Obama is doing less harm, I don’t think he is making things better, and so the whole thing is less funny than depressing.

My favorite part of the afternoon was the conversations we had after we left. Joyce ran home to get her camera to take a picture of a particular snow covered tree, and Richard and I spent so much time talking in the parking lot we were there when she returned. The four of us headed over to the Broad Street Cafe for beer, pizza and dessert. By the way, the pizza there was some of the best I’ve had outside of Italy.

After we said goodbye and Andrea and I finally made it back home, we had enough time to watch the movie (500) Days of Summer. I thought it was really good, although Andrea was so tired she slept through most of it.

The story follows the relationship of Tom Hansen and Summer Finn over, you guessed it, 500 days. It is not in chronological order, and the story skips around in time quite a bit.It starts out with the warning that “this is not a love story” but outside of that I won’t talk about the plot. Just see the movie.

But there are two scenes I’ll talk about in general terms.

In the first, the screen is split. One side is labeled “Expectation” and the other “Reality”. I happen to believe that most unhappiness in this world comes, not from bad things happening to people, but from missed expectations. This scene drives that point home.

In the second, one of the characters is reminiscing about the past and another states “I think you’re just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I, uh, I really think you should look again.” It’s both the wonder and the curse of nostalgia – remembering the past is often much better or much worse than it really was.

Which is why I’m really glad I was finally able to reconnect with Joyce and Richard. While my memories of the good times at S&M outweigh the bad, they were so long ago that time has colored them beyond recognition. Which is why I’m happy to have the opportunity to make new memories, like this last one of being with Andrea and friends on a wintry Saturday.