A Day at the Met

Our first full day in New York was spent at the wonderful Metropolitan Museum of Art, affectionately known as "the Met". Our last visit here was spent in the Egypt and Roman section of the museum with only cursory glances at the other galleries which make up the expansive Met. Justin could recite to me the things I was actually trying to read on the glass cases, as he knew what they were after studying that in school. We got our money's worth from St. Johns that year, that class, anyway.

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A brand-new exhibit opened featuring Greek and Italian architecture and art...right up our alley. It takes me a long time to get through a museum as I like to read about what I'm seeing, but Justin hurried me along from hall to hall, claiming we'd seen this stuff already in the "old" area...it was new to me, that's all I can say! My memory is short when it comes to this, but my appreciation is great. Finally we arrived at the new exhibit, greeted by an enormous column centered in the hallway.

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Justin and I simply marveled at what it took to transport and establish the enormous displays. There were many funeraries and frescoes, actual rooms reproduced from Italian villas, stories painted on their walls to enjoy while dining. Amazing, I can't even tell how much we enjoyed it. I can tell you that it certainly makes me want to book a trip to Italy and Greece post haste! For those not traveling overseas, this is a wonderful taste of the antiquity seen in those foreign lands.

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I was concerned earlier in the week that my tired back would be a problem for me but so far, so good. If there was a bench to rest on in a gallery, I took advantage of it, but didn't let it hold us up. I even climbed up and down staircases to get to the other galleries. My boy, on the other hand......his feet hurt, his back ached, he had sinus pressure, a real mess! If he was a horse, we'd have to shoot him!!! I had some cold tablets and ibuprofen in my purse to give him and we pressed on, after a cold drink in the cafeteria.

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We managed to last the day but ran out of gas about 5:30 or so. Our cabbie dropped us at the door and we were back upstairs by 6:oo pm, not quite ready to have dinner. I was prepared to go out for dinner somewhere but Justin was just as happy to dine in. We shared a Cowboy steak and mashed pototoes and he enjoyed a pizza for one. Since he wanted to make sure all the food was eaten, he tried to eat the zuccini squash that came with the steak, but just couldn't choke it down, even with Grey Poupon mustard on it! It was after 8:00 when we had dinner and I was ready for bed after finishing my posting. Oh, by the way, that steak was absolutely delicious, tender and flavorful, quite a delight.

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I read some e-mails last night before climbing under the covers. One was from Judy R., with whom I am reading a book, 1200 miles apart! The book, brought to my attention by Christine, is written by Francis Mayes, who also wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun". Judy said she's skipping around in it, "A Year in the World", telling me she tends to get hung up in the Greek Isles portion. A girl after my own heart! Judy paid me a very, very generous, heart-building compliment, however. She said that my writing is like Mayes, using 'bolding' words. My, oh my, the gauntlet has been dropped!

We were no where near the falling crane

New York City always has some sort of newsworthy event taking place when we are here, this time being no exception. Today a 19 story high crane fell into an apartment building about 4 blocks from our hotel. It looks just terrible, from what we've seen on the local news, with some fatalities, but don't know if they are residents or passers-by.

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As we drove in from the airport yesterday, our very, very nice cab driver commented that he hoped we didn't run into any of the traffic mess involved with having the President in town....cool! It turns out President Bush was addressing an economic conference from the Waldorf Astoria, where we have stayed a couple times in the past. Justin and I listened to the speech in our hotel room at the Omni, instead of at the Waldorf! And no traffic tie ups either. Our driver was listening to WABC, the flagship station of Rush and Hannity, etc. as we drove in from La Guardia, so we did, too.

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Our room was ready when we arrived, which was much appreciated. Justin and I were quite tired after getting up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport. We sort of vegged out in the room the balance of the day. This is such a nice hotel, with an extremely comfortable room, not like that room from last summer at the Paramount, which was the size of a postage stamp! Our room has a love seat, desk, chair, side chair with ottoman, armoire with TV and closet space.....the foyer area has a credenza with the mini-bar and the top covered with purchasable items. Too costly to devour but tempting nonetheless.

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We weren't in the room 20 minutes when company started coming over--the doorman brought up our luggage, a man came to change the shower curtains, housekeeping came to make up the room (it was already done!), another man came to check the mini-bar after the previous residents checked out, and then room service brought our lunch. A bit later the housekeeper came by to turn down the bed which we didn't need but got her to remove the food cart remaining from our lunch. I commented to Justin, "I get as much company here as I do at home!" It was getting comical already, not wanting to get too comfy in case someone came to the door again!

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Justin fell so fast asleep that I didn't even try to wake him to go out anywhere. I rested on and off, read my book awhile and tried to get warm. It's cold here in the Big Apple! Glad I have my fancy red leather coat with me, earning its keep!

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For dinner we went to the dining room and had a nice meal, expensive of course, as hotel restaurants often are. The diet Cokes are served here in the tiny glass bottles with the metal caps, requiring the old fashioned bottle openers to get at the soda. The price we paid for glasses of soda in Florence is closer to being fair than $5.00 each for the 8 ounce bottle! The housekeeper told us about a bodega a couple blocks away so after dinner we walked to Smilers to score some soda. (I can't believe that we didn't bring some with us...we usually do). Once there we found this place was part deli/part grocery store, with a long buffet of hot and cold foods to scoop into to-go containers. Everything looked and smelled wonderful, wishing we hadn't just eaten...They did have 20 oz. sodas so we stocked up and headed back to the hotel. It didn't take long to get settled in and I got under the covers to get warm. My sleep was good, the afternoon nap not causing a problem at all. Justin did have a bit of trouble at first, but eventually had a reasonable night's sleep.

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Justin and I had breakfast in the same restaurant as dinner, this morning having eggs, toast, and breakfast potatoes. Justin was coaxing me to eat every bit of food on my plate but I just could not finish it all. I rarely eat all my food anyway and today was no exception. He felt like it was too expensive to leave anything plus we'd not have to eat lunch early if we had a big breakfast. We like to eat at the Cafe in the Met, so planned to do that later in the day so we'd be less hungry come dinner time. It's wonderful to have some sort of delicacy while gazing across at Central Park! Tomorrow, more about the Met and events of today....