there's always a gift shop

There were severe thunderstorms in the forecast today, so hiking was off the table. R.M. remained safely ensconced in the hotel room. For the rest of us, Mom had an idea: We could tour a college!

This is peak Mom, but the rest of us had no better ideas. It did sound better than most colleges. Berea College requires its students to make arts and crafts as part of the curriculum (and in lieu of tuition), and the town is generally known as an arts-and-crafts center. So we were basically in for a day of browsing curio gift shops. Ok sure. I was reminded of the Portland trip, where I wanted to check out the Pearl District (art galleries! restaurants! it sounded like fun), and R.M. refused to go.

Anyway, that was our day, moseying around various art installations. It was a lowkey (and low-step) day. There was a huge variety of crafts: multicolored pottery, quilts, chairs, wooden animal carvings, toy trains, felt plushies, scented sugar cubes for baths (??), scrap metal sculptures, ritual knives, barbeque sauces, novels, etc. I spent a while looking through prints of watercolor paintings. Lineless art has always struck me as a specially arcane school of magic, particularly watercolor, for all I haven't picked up a watercolor brush since I was like eight years old.

The thunderstorms hit hard in the afternoon—my phone kept bleating severe weather alerts at me—so we ended up marooned in the Berea art center longer than we anticipated. Then I started reading a book off the shelf (American Pain, a true-crime(?) book about the oxy business) and then we had to leave. That's just how it goes. I might buy the book later if it's available on Kindle.