...Just got home from a short visit to our nation's capital where instead of joining any kind of protest, I had a wonderful time visiting Matt and Yvette. We mostly hung out at their place which is really neat. Pete is still in Ghana.
One bit of excitement happened at The Octagon. I'd asked to go to this museum because an article I'd read about the contributions of the Freemasons. As I understand it, many of our founding fathers were part of this society. This is one place in DC that I'd never visited before ... and there was a big write up about the exhibit in the hotel tour guide.
I thought it might be interesting to see the exhibit: "The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry and the Architecture of Washington, DC. We got there in time for the last tour of the day. I eagerly anticipated learning something new. Unfortunately, we found ourselves with a particularly uninspiring docent who proceeded to drone on in a manner that tested one's ability to stay awake.
While I struggled to pay polite attention to the boring monotone, Matt and Yvette hung back in a corner of the room and quietly talked to one another. One of them made the mistake of letting out a little chuckle.
This caused the docent to stop her monolog mid-sentence, and proceed to loudly scold the pair. Matt and Yvette apologized to diffuse the situation, but this did not stop her harange.
Slowly, I started backing up until I was standing with them as if to say: "I'm with them." We waited until she finally led the small group to another room. At that point, the three of us turned in the other direction. Unfortunately, the docent soon brought the tour into the room we were in. Would you believe she started her scold all over again?
We quickly walked through the other parts of the place. On the way to our next stop, we imagined this woman going home and her telling her family that night; "You wouldn't believe the RUDE people who came to the Octagon today!"
We made one more stop before we headed back to their place and that was at The Renwick, where a friendly security man liked us enough to give us a private tour of his favorite American glass exhibits. He spoke with much knowledge and animation, his language was filled with zest and color as he showed us around. This talented man was not a tour guide. He was one of the many security guards. You never can tell.
Posted by Judi at August 15, 2005 7:46 PM | TrackBack