Tuesday, January 8, 2002

a giant tourist threatens the Chrysler building

"He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how."

Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing

It's sunny. Of course, we have to check out of the hotel and fly home. We agree to do this, store our luggage, grab a bite, see the MOMA and meet our car at one.

As we are looking for a place to eat, I notice the Palladium where we ate yesterday. The generous portions of bacon and the $1 coffee sounds good.

We just go to MOMA. We don't know what's going on. It turns out they are having a Giacometti exhibit and that they are building so that lots of familiar works are closed. The place is packed. I was amused and surprised to see what Giacometti went through before settling on being famous for tall, skinny sculptures. It seems in all these museums I've gone to around the world, there would be the Giacometti. It would be a tall, skinny sculpture and you recognize it right away. It turns out that he did turns through lots of things before landing on that motif. This was the last day of this exhibit. It would be so cool to live in New York and get to all the special exhibits. We also looked at some works from the regular collections.

And it was time to go. We took a turn around the Design Store across the street. And we headed back to the hotel and met our car service.

I thought our flight was at 4pm. Originally it was. They'd sent us a change in flight number. Apparently there was also a change in time. It's not until six o'clock. We find this out after getting our luggage checked. I'm a zombie. I don't realize we have two center seats. We amuse ourselves drinking soda and reading the New York Times (compliments of Four Seasons). I try to work the puzzle.

Then we wander to our gate. I sit and read and SuRu goes off to find us something to eat. I haven't much appetite. She returns with some mac and cheese from somewhere and it is hot and comforting.

We board and I do what makes sense when you have a center seat. Cross your arms, refuse food and drink and sleep, sleep, sleep. They serve hamburgers and the cabin fills with the smell. Since the cold and drugs and flying have robbed me of my hearing and my vision is fuzzy and my peripheral seems to be shutting down, my sense of smell seems enhanced. In spite of the stuffiness.

I sleep and sleep.

We get there early. FFP meets us and takes us home. And I have some tea and bed.

The New York trip has been great and fun. And surreal in a way, wandering the streets bundled up, seeing a couple of people for the first time in a while, wandering New York knowing it has forever changed, too. I love travel especially shopping and museums. Musuems more than the shows even. I usually love the food but my appetite has taken a vacation. My focus seems to have been narrowed and what I appreciated on this trip, I appreciated all the more somehow.

JUST TYPING
Reading about museums.
Can't reveal.
The experience of you.
And the painting or the shape.
I step into another place, guided by the artists and the curators.
To be. Otherwise.