A Surprise Lunch Date

Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise -- lunch with my husband. He had come downtown for some job interviews as part of the Presidential Management Fellows program and had some unexpected free time. My husband is a finalist in this year's program and is currently looking for an interesting position to begin his two-year fellowship. When one interview ended earlier than he had expected, he gave me a call to see if I was free. I suggested we go to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) for lunch since he had never been there before and the food is good despite the cafeteria set-up.

The NMAI is a very distinctive building because all the outer walls are curved rather than straight, and sandy-beige rather than cement-gray. The building is also bordered by an interconnected series of pools, large rocks and plants. Inside, the museum is equally eye-catching, with a high, circular foyer filled with large pieces of artwork and prisms down one long window that cast rainbows throughout the building on sunny days. Whoever designed the building paid great attention to detail; even the elevators and doors are decorated with native symbols, and the shelves in the stores are lined with bits of purple and white shell.

Yesterday for lunch I had two slices of maple-brined turkey breast with cranberry relish, "three-sisters" salad (corn, squash, beans, and chunks of tomato), and a chunk of cornbread. My husband was not as adventurous food-wise; he had a cheeseburger with a side of potato chips and a bottle of tea. The cheeseburger was made from buffalo rather than beef, though. The lunch was fairly expensive -- roughly $25 for the two of us -- but that is normal for D.C. tourist areas so we didn't mind that much. After lunch we took a quick tour of the building. I pointed out the two stores, the theatre, the resource center, and a permanent display of beadwork. We also saw a temporary exhibit about Chilkat Indians and reminisced about our honeymoon trip to Alaska years ago, when we saw a dance performance by members of that tribe and bought a blanket with a design similar to one in the museum's display case.

It was nice having lunch with my husband yesterday. Having regular lunches together started our relationship 16 years ago, when I was a summer intern with the United States Information Agency (USIA) and he was a co-op with the Office of Personnel Management's investigations division (privatized in 1996). Now I'm still working in the same building -- although USIA became part of the State Department in 1999 -- and he is looking for a job in the federal government again. If he does manage to secure a good job downtown, I expect we'll be having regular lunches together again. How curious fate can be.