Fun in Dayton AGAIN!!

Well, our Dayton weekend excursion was fabulous!

SATURDAY: We met Lisa at our hotel around 4:30 PM. I love staying at Drury Inns. The rooms are always comfortable. But it’s the extras that make this guest the most happy. They have happy hour from 5:30 to 7 PM every night with FREE cocktails and other beverages along with fresh popcorn and other snacks. So of course, we headed to happy hour soon after getting settled in our suite. And from there, we headed to O’Charley’s for dinner. It was great, and we had lots of laughs! Lisa and Barbara even had a sword fight at our table. (AHEM!) Our waitress was like the best ever! She put up with our giggles and odd requests. Hee hee!

Saturday evening, we just relaxed in our hotel room watching some TV and snacking even though we swore we’d never eat again after our big dinner! HA!

SUNDAY: We got ready for out big day and then headed down for the Drury Inn’s hot breakfast which really makes a person’s day start off great! We filled up on eggs and sausage, French toast and Belgian waffles, muffins and bagels and toast, etc. YUM! After breakfast, we packed our cars back up and headed downtown to the Dayton Art Institute.

We arrived at the museum and Barbara and Lisa headed into the gift shop while I got in the ticket line. No sighting of Mr. Smells Good at first, but a few minutes later I turned around in line and spotted him over talking to another security guard. Forgive me for my silly ramblings here, but I confess that my heart skipped a beat. I swear it really did.

I was desperate to get Barbara and Lisa’s attention, but I didn’t want to leave my place in line. Finally, I could sort of tell that Barbara had spotted him on her own. She was looking at me and trying to gesture behind me, and I was trying to agree and point his direction. I’m sure I was far from subtle. I motioned that he was behind me on the other side of the room, and I could tell that she had picked up on him and was trying to get Lisa’s attention. So there they were in the gift shop checking him out, and I watched as the clerks in the gift shop started talking to Barbara and Lisa. I wasn’t sure what was going on. So I got my ticket and then cruised on into the gift shop myself. Of course, we were all giggling at this point, and I was sure that I was turning 5 shades of pink and red. I could feel myself getting flushed, and I just needed to calm down.

To make things funnier, apparently as soon as Barbara realized that Mr. Smells Good was in the lobby, and that she has spotted the right guy, she blurted out, “He’s here.” So of course naturally this brought the attention of the clerks in the store, which is why she was talking to them. Barbara told the clerks that it was a long story, and the one clerk said that they didn’t have anything else to do and had time for a long story. But Barbara said she was going to have to ask permission before sharing the story because it wasn’t her story to tell. I didn’t really want my story shared, and so I was glad she said that. I was already feeling embarrassed enough at this point. It was time to head into the galleries.

The Princess Diana Exhibit was just as nice the 2nd time through. We didn’t have any run-ins with Mr. Smells Good in the exhibit. We toured through without incident and then went to the basement galleries to see the rest of the museum. They have some nice pieces from all over the world. We wandered all around the basement galleries – seeing all there was to see and getting slightly lost in the process. We found ourselves at a large staircase and decided to go back upstairs. We emerged into the grand hall just outside the Princess Diana Exhibit again, and guess who was there. Yep, Mr. Smells Good was there talking to a guard at the entrance. So we hung out there in the grand hall taking pictures of the columns, and then I decide to visit the cloisters at each end of the hall. So we walked his direction to get to the first cloister, and I was just bold enough to make eye contact with him and slip into the cloister and head outdoors to the Italian courtyard.

The Italian Courtyard was incredible. It’s also the only place in the museum that smoking is allowed, and so of course, Barbara and Lisa joked that now he’ll think I’m a smoker. But the truth is that I just wanted to see everything, and this outdoor courtyard was impressive with ornate columns, unique trees, a small fountain in the center, etc. I loved it all! I walked all the way around it and took plenty of pictures before we headed back indoors. By this point, he was no longer there. So we walked over to the other cloister, and from there we walked back into the great hall, and he was back again!! (sigh!)

At some point while we were in the great hall, one of the ladies working the exhibit offered to take our picture, and so we posed with the Princess Diana sign. And then I took some more pictures of the columns, etc. while Lisa played around with her camera, too and then oblivious-me realized what she was doing. She and my sister were trying to nonchalantly take HIS picture. [GASP!] Well, that was just too funny, and so I had to walk away before I died on the spot. So I headed into the verey small gallery at the end of the room. It was a 1-room collection of Grecian pieces—some marble busts, pottery, etc. So I checked it all out and then went out and rejoined Barbara and Lisa.

Well, they proceeded to tell me that they did get a picture of him. Of course it was his of back side since they got a shot of him walking away. Apparently, he had walked down to our end of the gallery and had entered the small room where I was for a minute and then had walked back down to the other end. Now, I never spotted him, but then I was intently looking over the Grecian pieces, but they had watched him the whole time. They weren’t sure where I had wandered off to, and that was how they knew where I was because they were watching him and had spotted me in the same room. I didn’t quite believe them at first, but that’s what they told me. I’m sure there was some legitimate reason for Mr. Smell Good to walk the hall and come into that gallery, but it made me slightly giddy to imagine something else. (BIG SIGH!)

After that we toured the rest of the European section without incident and then walked back through the gift shop and out to the car. My sister and Lisa reconfirmed the hotness of the man on our drive back to the hotel. Barbara said she couldn’t say too much because she was a married woman after all, but that he was pretty cute and so tall. (sigh!)

So, we had lunch at Panera Bread before Lisa headed back to Cincinnati, and Barbara and I headed home to Indiana. It had been a great weekend.

IN RETROSPECT: As I look back over those few short hours at the museum, I can’t help but laughing. We were all behaving like some silly school girls after all. Hopefully Mr. Smells Good was oblivious to our antics. At least I’d like to think he was.

I’m a bit embarrassed at how silly this whole crush is, but at the same time, it somehow makes me feel alive inside, too. I’m not dead. I might be 32, live alone and be obsessed with keeping my apartment spider free. To others, I might appear rather dull. I don’t get out as much as I used to. I don’t have people over all the time or need to entertain much. I’m content to stay home more often than not, and I do actually enjoy my solitude.

But at the same time, I know that I’m craving more. I’m hoping for that OTHER in my life. (Not necessarily Mr. Smells Good since I don’t know anything about him really!) But that one OTHER person I can share my life with. I want my own story about how we met, and where we went on our first date. I want to be greeted when I get home once in a while by someone who actually wants to hear how my weekend was and tells me that I was missed.

And while I may walk and talk the happy single life tightrope pretty well…there is still a part of me—that romantic dreamer side in me that aches for something more. And it’s at these times, where my heart cries out to GOD and reminds HIM (as though HE could have possibly forgotten) that one of HIS children is still wishing for something more. I remind HIM that I need to feel HIS presence and that I need to know that as HE promised I am never really alone.

HE doesn’t take the desire of the OTHER away. I’ve tried to pray that away and still it lives on. But somehow as my CREATOR and my FATHER, HE does find ever-creative ways to remind me that HE loves me. I just have to open up my eyes and look at the world all around me. Evidence of HIS love is all around me. I just have to be willing to see it…