Ordinary

For those of you following along, yes, this is the third post I've written today. Overachiever. Not. I missed last week's Five Minute Friday and thus, I'm checking it off the to-do list so I can have a clean slate facing the weekend. October 11's word prompt was ordinary.

I spent October 11 in anything but an ordinary way. I woke on a boat in a foreign country. (The only thing ordinary about the morning was my husband by my side. Always a good thing.) After bagging and tagging our luggage, we set out on a bus (usually my morning mode of transportation is my feet as I walk to my home office or walk the dogs around the neighborhood). Then we pulled up at a most extraordinary house, certainly not the 40-something house I live in. No, this one has seen more than 300 birthdays (I think I have the math right), is painted green and houses a lot of valuable artwork. A lot. From watercolors to oil paintings to sculptures to gold discovered a thousand years ago, the contents of this house were pretty amazing. (In comparison, my house is decorated with family photos and prints from the likes of Pier One and Kirklands.)

We were at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, once the winter palace of the czars and czarinas of Russia. It hasn't been a home for people for nearly 100 years, but home it is to one of the world's most valuable art collections.

The other out of the ordinary aspect of the Hermitage (and I realize there are hundreds) compared to my humble abode is that there is a bored (or sleeping! yes, I think I saw one snoozing!) middle aged or older lady sitting in every room. Many of them were clutching their purses primly in their laps as they sat guard in the corner. I'm not sure what powers these art-sitters have or what they would do should there be an incident, but they wield enough power that no one  tries find out very often. My brother gave me a video that includes a behind-the-scenes look at the people who work at the Hermitage, so I'm interested to learn the back story.

The Hermitage is big, bright, extraordinary. But now I'm back in my comparatively small, somber, ordinary house. Just the way I like it.