I’m was in Chicago for the day yesterday, and Greg-the-husband had given me a wondrous gift of time. And so I found myself at 10 am on a rainy, cold morning huddled in the doorway of what I think is the best art museum I’ve ever seen — the Art Institute in Chicago.

When Greg let me out of the car, we didn’t know that it didn’t open till 10:30. Who would have thought a person would have to wait so long to get an eyeful of pure culture? I’m sure the gallery powers know best, but it did mean that I was holed up in the big stone doorway with other hapless souls, looking at the back of one of the magnificent stone lions that look out over the Michigan Avenue traffic. I’m a real aficionado of stone lions, and these two are some of my favorites. (This postcard from the gift shop shows one getting a wash.) Still, the view left something to be desired, and …

… along with other art-lovers, I was hoping that the pitiless people inside would cut us a break. Those of us standing in the doorway came to a pact that we would tell them that if they let us in, we wouldn’t look at anything for fifteen minutes.

“Even better,” said the grandma who brought her three-year-old grandson, “They should just open the gift shop at 9:30, and open the gallery at 10:30.”

All of us — the rainy, sodden souls of the north-most doorway — solemnly agreed that that was a stroke of marketing genius that they would’ve been well-advised to consider.

But it was the actions of the three-year-old pressing his face against the glass that finally melted their cold hearts and made the guards open the door for us four minutes ahead of time. We filed in and honorably abstained from looking for four minutes. Or at least I did — I’m not my brother’s keeper after all.

It was just a wonderful day. If I can find some time, I hope to write about it as an article, because it’ll take too much space for an entry. At the end of the day, back out in the rain and waiting at the curbside for Greg, I was able to get a better view of the lion and do it a little more justice. I’m sure I looked like a doof standing out in the rain staring up at the lion’s face (though apparently I had a magic ability to summon cabs by so doing, because quite a few pulled over for me at that time). But it’s the closest I’ll probably ever come to suffering for art, so I’m really getting off pretty lightly.