NYC Culture, part 1

I spent a couple days in NYC a few weeks ago and committed myself to two cultural experiences. I hate to admit this, as it makes me sound rather uncultured, but I'm not a big art museum person. I like history museums and thing museums. Art museums I like, but in small doses. After that my eyes kind of glaze over. And my NYC art experience wasn't very successful. I decided to go to MOMA. My first mistake was going right at opening. I figured I'd get there early, and no one would be there. Uhm, no. You get there early and wait in a really long line of every tourist in New York who wants to get to MOMA right as it opens.

So, I waited in line and right as I got to the front of the line my phone rang. It was Otto's dog boarding place. I came close to just ignoring the call, but that seemed rather irresponsible. First, they wanted to know when I was going to drop off Otto. I explained I was in New York and a friend was dropping him off and I had no idea what time(and isn't it really early in Seattle?). About a minute later, they called back. It seems I hadn't signed the contract. Now mind you Otto has stayed there 3 times with this same unsigned contract. But suddenly they know it's not signed and they won't take Otto without it - literally my friend cannot drop him off. So my next hour was spent wandering NY looking for a fax place,waiting for a fax, sending fax etc.

Now, some how it has gotten to be 11.30 and some how I haven't eaten any food and maybe had had a drink or two the night before, so I'm verging on grouchy (verging might be an understatement).

So after dealing with the crisis, my ticket and I head back to MOMA. That's when I realize that if you show up at 11.30 rather than at opening there is NO LINE.

So, I went into my MOMA cultural experience tired, hungry and grouchy. It's probably not a huge surprise I didn't fully appreciate it. There was a very cool photography exhibit - though while I really liked the older pictures, I'm not sure I got the more modern, less realistic photos. I saw a bunch of Monet water lilies (not as good as the water lilies the next day - stay tuned). And I saw a drawing exhibit. And at that point, tired of fighting tourists, I ended my cultural growth for the day. I found out when I got back that there was another museum with Madeline Albright's pins. Had I known......

Stay tuned for cultural blog entry #2.