Midwest Maren in Manhattan: Birthdays, Internships, and a Much Needed Break...

Unfortunately, I'm a little behind on my blogging, but now that Spring Break is almost over (back to class on Tuesday!) I'm going to try and bring my blog up to speed! So here we go...

I turned 23 last week.

I have an internship.

I am on Spring Break right now. Thank goodness.

There you have it! Consider yourself updated! Ok, ok, maybe I should elaborate a bit...

My birthday was March 11th and I am now 23 years old. Wow, how did that happen? I did a little searching online and discovered that, as of my birthday, I had lived for 8401 days. Interesting, right? It sounds so strange to measure a lifetime by an uncommon standard of measure--but it did prompt to view each day from a new perspective....to value each day as significant and worth enjoying to its fullest. The day before my birthday was the 23rd birthday of my good friend Peter who is currently serving with Lutheran Young Adults in Global Mission in Cuernavaca, Mexico. We were thrilled to be able to talk on the phone to wish each other a happy birthday after not having spoken for months. Here's a wonderful picture of us as babies along with our friend Siri who was born a few weeks later. Peter will probably kill me for posting these:

Mom and I are on right, Peter and his dad are on the left, and Siri and her dad are in the center. Such cute Scandinavian Lutheran babies (as if our names didn't give that away already!) And here we are, years later, in 2005:

In other news:

In February I began interning at the Rubin Museum of Art in the programming department! It's very part-time right now--only 8-15 hours a week--but I have decided to stay there this summer to complete my required for-credit internship. The RMA is a museum of Himalayan art (a subject I know little about) that is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It is a young institution founded just over 5 years ago by a pair of NY art collectors (Don & Shelley Rubin) who wanted to share their collection with the public and give it a permanent home in the city. Here's a wonderful video clip about the long process of founding the RMA:

So far I am really enjoying my time there. The RMA has a wonderful programming department with many great events happening every week--they focus on adult education type of events like lectures, discussions, lunch talks, concerts, and film screenings. I'm finding that museum programming, adult education, and event planning are all areas I am interested in pursuing so I feel very fortunate to be interning at such an innovative institution. I will write more about my RMA experience later when I have more to report...

Finally, here's a recent picture of Oscar and Dorian enjoying a brotherly nap together: