I Make Grandma Cool

The Moorings is a retirement community in Grandma's town, and Grandma has several friends living there.  Grandma has had multiple opportunities to live there herself but has always opted to live at home.  She's lived in this house for 58 years and it's very important to her.

Tonight we were the guests of Jerry and Phyllis, residents at The Moorings, for a lecture by a man named Jeff.  He's an art historian and tonight he was lecturing about the new modern wing at the Art Institute,  a lecture that I had considerable interest in hearing.  While I was excited about the lecture itself, I mostly wanted to meet Grandma's friends.  Sadly, she knew fewer people than she expected.  She attributed this to the rising death rate of her friends.  I'm just hoping her memory is failing her.

My expectations about the lecture were, admittedly, quite low, but I was surprised.  It was fascinating.  The new wing was designed by Renzo Piano, the floors (made of white pine) are designed for the comfort of patrons, the ceiling is called "the magic carpet."  These are details that I wouldn't otherwise learn, especially at orientation on wednesday.  The lecture went on for roughly forty-five minutes and I could have listened for another few hours, however, the attention span of the rest of the attendants was significantly shorter.  Jeff was full of details, most of which served to orient the present company to the recent developments in a city so familiar to them years ago. He also described where, in the new addition, to find specific galleries and how the lighting works, how the ceiling works, how expensive the new restaurant is and how much the whole project cost.

Grandma was especially interested in that figure ($300,000,000, plus or minus) and asked, at the question/answer session, where it came from, exactly.  Feeling bolstered by the fact that none of the funds were federal (and, as a result, none of them HERS) she was emboldened to ask another question: "What can you tell us about the SCHOOL at the Art Institute?" Sassy, sneaky Grandma! I almost elbowed her into the next room.  Thankfully for me Jeff knew little to nothing about SAIC.  He did say, in front of the entire room of several dozen of Grandma's closest (if not remembered) friends, that "SAIC is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country, especially in the arts community, and certainly in the mid-west." 

Hearing that Grandma absolutely puffed up with sheer pride.  I caught her glancing around at everybody else in the room, like SHE was the one going to SAIC!  Not only is she a grandmother with a granddaughter in the house, that granddaughter is going to a prestigious school and Grandma is cashing in on the points.  Grandma is using MY education to boost HER cool!

Go figure.  At least my nerdiness is paying off for SOMEBODY!  Sheesh!