Don't get me started on that. We'll be here all night.

I've been a single girl all week. Paul went to Mexico for business and I've been flexing my independence. I slept with the tv on and right down the middle of the bed. I turned the temperature up in the house to a toasty 72 degrees. I ate cereal for dinner. I cleaned the house like a fiend. And I hung out with my gal pals a lot.

Dani came to visit for the weekend. Friday we went to a really bad Asian restaurant and just kind of hung around all night.

On Saturday, my sister Karen came over and we went to the Reading Public Museum. For the next few weeks, the museum is showing an exhibit from the Post Secret site. I love this website and check it just about every Sunday when it updates. In case you don't know, people design post cards that contain their secrets and thoughts and send them in anonymously. I've even gone so far as to contribute with my own deep dark secret.

The exhibit displayed a lot of the secrets that are featured in the Post Secret book, which I own. I forgot about some of them. But there was a lot of repetition. There was even a mailbox sculpted out of packing tape and post cards available for anyone who felt inspired enough to leave their own secrets. I didn't participate in this, however. If I'm going to spill, I'm going to be creative.

Upstairs, there was a Keith Haring exhibit. I love Keith Haring. I like the whole squiggly graffiti type stuff. It never ceased to amaze me how the man could deliver a complex message in a simple drawing, many with bright happy colors.

The first piece that we saw was a very detailed map of Berks county that Haring drew when he was in high school. Many people don't realize that he's a native of Kutztown (known mostly for it's artsy state party school and being just on the edge of PA Dutch and Amish/Mennonite country). Keith eventually migrated to New York. And it's a good thing because there isn't a subway in Kutztown. The subway is where he did some of his best work. On display were big chalk murals on the black paper that would cover out-of-date advertisements on the subway. There were videos showing Keith, young and lively, before he was diagnosed with AIDS. There were pieces of large murals, one of which was a collaborative project with high school students in Chicago. Keith created the outer framework of the mural and the students filled it in with their own creativity, some of which was very intricate and creative.

At the landing at the top of the steps was another mural of a city. Inside the windows of the buildings were hundreds of little mirrors at varying angles. These mirrors showed the reflections of little cards that were attached perpendicular to the mural, giving it the effect that when you looked into the mirrored windows, you were actually peeping in on a little scene that was on the card. I'm not sure if that makes much sense, but it was really cool. On the wall across from this mural was a bunch of dry erase boards so that people could create their own art on the walls, too. Dani drew a dancing cat.

In the next room, there was nursery furniture that Keith painted. Ironically, this display was right next to a portion of the exhibit that "might be offensive to some" or "might be inappropriate for children." This was Keith's darker stuff. Right in the corner was a picture of Keith with William S. Burroughs. Aside of it were two very disturbing pictures featuring a photograph of a child with bird like feet drawn at the bottom and another one with a photograph that had 50's style mother with an infant and dark and disturbing images around it. There was also a large painting of two very pregnant women hugging. Oooh! Yeah! Real offensive, there! It's funny how you can see a billion naked people in a museum and it's art, but when you put two pregnant almost stick figures of the same sex hugging each other, it's offensive. And apparently William S. Burroughs will make you dark. There was also a picture in this section that was shot by Andy Warhol of Keith with Brooke Shields. That was offensive, too, I guess. Maybe for the Scientologists?

There was another piece that Keith collaborated on with Jean Michel Basquiat (see now THAT is a disturbing movie...but with a kick ass soundtrack). This lead me to ask what a lively guy like Keith was doing hanging around with all those junkies. Some other points of interest were an Easter egg that Keith drew on that was from the White House Easter egg hunt. The owner was at first pissed that he drew on it and thought that he ruined it. Now it is a prized possession (and probably worth a pretty penny to boot). There was also a funny photograph of Keith and a bunch of other hip New York artists. "I wonder if any of them are gay," my sister pondered aloud just to be funny since most of them very obviously were. "Planet Clair" also played non-stop in one room for no apparent reason as well.

We left there and had a nice Mexican lunch and ice cream at Cold Stone. Dani and Karen were both Cold Stone virgins, but I think they liked it. Then we went back to my house and lounged around watching movies.

Paul is home now. I have to share my house again...and the blankets, and the remote. I've already started cleaning up after him (I didn't bust my ass cleaning all night Thursday just for him to mess it up). But at least now I have someone to talk to besides the cat. I'm sure the independent woman routine would get old sooner or later. And somebody has to mow the grass. Just kidding. Welcome back, Paul. Glad to have you home.