In Retrospect

So JP (fiancé and all around awesome dude) and I went to lunch and to the William Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum today.

I guess I should back up and say first that I got up this morning got ready and went to work, only to find out that if I had just looked at my cell phone I could have stayed in bed because they called me and told me I didn't need to come in.

So when I got home from thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of my boss and coworkers, JP said, “Hey, since you’re already dressed, let’s go to lunch!” At lunch we decided to go the Breman Museum and check out the Dr. Seuss Goes to War...and More! exhibit since we were so close. I was super excited! “Yay! I love Dr, Seuss! This is going to awesome!” I thought to myself. Having been to the Jim Henson exhibit, the Norman Rockwell exhibit and the like, I felt I had a good idea what this exhibit was going to be like.

I was wrong.

The William Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum is locked down tight, like a military base at war time.

We had to get buzzed through the front gate, buzzed into the building, sign in, show two forms of ID, get patted down and have our vehicle searched. (OK, only true up until the two forms of ID.) And that kind of security at a museum just gives you a hinky feeling. We then had to shell out twenty bucks, and listen to an almost ten minute diatribe about the layout and current exhibits of a building roughly half the size of a DSW shoe store. The explanation was murderously long. As the (I’m sure) nice lady went on and on about where stuff was, the dialog in my brain went like this: “Yay Dr. Seuss! There will be Dr. Seuss stuff I’ve never seen! Yay new cool stuff! The fish and chips at lunch were delicious. Is the lady still talking? Why is the lady still talking? When do I get to look at the Dr. Seuss stuff? I really liked One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish when I was a kid. Why is she still talking?!?! Hhmm, JP is wearing a low-top shoe today, that’s unusual. Did the talk-y lady say something about Horton? I like Horton Hears a Who, that was a cool book. Maybe that will be in there too.” And just when I thought I was going to explode with frustration, the talk-y lady finally stopped and we got to go in. Finally!!!

I was so right! The Dr. Seuss exhibit was really great. It included a Seuss-ian play area where JP and I played. No I do not care that it was made for kids and we are both grown adults. There were things to throw and places to climb into and a xylophone and gongs made out of trash can lids and it was an ADHD paradise.

Then we toured the rest of the museum because although JP has been there before, I have not. The last leg of the tour was the holocaust exhibit which is, I suppose, somewhat expected in a Jewish history museum. I really felt that we needed to see it since A) we paid twenty dollars to be there B) it would seem super crass gentile-y of us to just walk out without looking at the holocaust part and C) I was unprepared for how depressing it would be. I know what you’re thinking, “Rikki, it’s the freaking holocaust what were you expecting???” and yes, I realize that. But somewhere around reading about people being forced to pull out the gold teeth of their dead friends so the Nazi’s could have them, I crashed from my dizzying high of Dr. Seuss awesomeness to the dark low of people are awful and there is no hope for humanity.

So the moral of the story is this: Do the holocaust part first, save Dr. Seuss for last or you’ll end going home and curling up in the fetal position on your couch with a bag of popcorn and the bitter taste of defeat and Coke Zero in your mouth.

Do not go from this

To this

Or it will make you