As ready as we thought we were, we still had some difficulty. It started off decently enough. We hopped on the Tech Trolley and followed it to the MARTA station after asking the wonderful bus driver where it would be. As we drove by she yelled back to us that we were there and before we got off the bus she gave us plenty of information and an information hotline for MARTA which ended up coming quite in handy during the day.
As we stepped into the station, we tried going through the gates, only to realize that they wouldn't open without a Breeze Ticket, so we spent about 15 more minutes trying to figure out how the ticket machines worked. After I was able to purchase my ticket, Taylor turned out to be one nickel short. We both searched our pockets and wallets and purses and neither of us could find a nickel, though both of us had $20 bills. Finally, I found a $1 bill and handed it to her so that she could pay for her ticket. She now owes me one dollar.
As we descended into the bowels of the train station, we were mystified and terrified at the same time. It was dark, dingy, smelly, and ridiculously hot to be underground. We waited for about 5 minutes, constantly checking the map to make sure we would be getting on the correct train. When we finally did get on the train, Taylor was also terrified that we wouldn't be able to get off in time, seeing as the doors were only opened for about 30 seconds before the train would zip away. We made it to the Arts Center and nothing ended up going wrong.
When we left the MARTA station, I wanted to go one way, but Taylor insisted that we go out the opposite side, which put us on the wrong side of the station. We had to rely on my superior skills of direction to find the museum, but they did not let us down.
We entered the museum and were stunned by the first room. It had different lounges, chairs, and bookcases made from the most unconventional of materials and made into strange shapes. We were intrigued and were dying to sit on at least one of the chairs. One was made of glass and metal pipe pieces. Another was made of nothing but scrap metal. There was a lounge that was just a tube of metal, and another that was honestly indescribable. As we moved up to the next floor, the pieces became more playful. My favorites included a chair made in Mickey Mouse's image, as well as a screen of algae to hang from the ceiling. There were beautiful lamps made from feathers and a lamp that was a floating cloud that really moved and shifted form. They were beautiful and, dare I say it, heavenly. Many of the works had me smiling and looking in awe, such as the lamp that would inflate when the bulb was turned on, and deflate when off. However, there were some things that were in the exhibit that were hard to understand as art, such as a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, two bottles of water, and an oil can. While their designs were unique, they were hard to classify as artwork.
When we had spent our time in the exhibit, we made our way to the gift shop to see if we could actually purchase the things that we had seen. While they didn't have any vacuum cleaners or alarm clocks for sale, the did have miniatures of some of the chairs that we had seen. As much as I loved them, I wasn't going to pay $700 for something that could be Barbie dollhouse furniture.
